The bridge was quiet. The crewmen of the Emporium went about their stations as usual; all but Captain Leira, as she gazed out at the spacious void filled with tiny twinkles.
The navigations officer was chatting lively with a few others at his post; probably just mundane subjects, like another day at the office or a night filled with love and incense.
Leira turned again towards the great nothingness, and to her surprise a rather unusual speck caught her attention. Such a speck wouldn’t normally stand out as unusual out here in space, but it still left an unsettling sensation in her chest.
“Flight lieutenant,” she directed to the pilot in the chair in front of her, “steer clear of that flicker. Between the green gas giant and the minefield, do you see it?”
The pilot acknowledged and plotted in an alternate route.
“What’s wrong about that flicker, ma’am? Looks like an ordinary star to me.” Cadet Sanatora, young and inexperienced in space travel as she was, had always had a keen eye and sharp ear to detail, ever since Leira had known her. She looked up from her monitor, and the Captain looked away from her piercing gaze.
“Not to worry, Commander. We’ll take a brief detour to our destination. Hopefully, it’ll all go--“
“Oh, no...”
The Captain whirled around to find the pilot nearly tossed off his chair. He had stopped dead in his tracks.
Leira grabbed his shoulder and shook him sternly. “Lieutenant, what are y--“
The entire crew jumped and immediately started murmuring as the bridge grew dark.
Leira sent several crewmen to defend the ship, having to scream over the blaring alarms, and turned to the pilot. “How did they get here so fast?!”
The poor man seemed at a loss for words. “I-I don’t know, they must have used a light-razor or something, it came as a total shock, I didn’t think we were even in their scan range!”
“There’s no way they would use up an entire batch on such a short distance--“
“Which means they’ve got more in the tank, supposedly, and more in store in case of trouble.”
“Which also means that if we try to run, they’ll catch up to us instantly.”
“If they’re not on the ship already,” commented the pilot. “I know cargo ships like the Emporium have thick armour on the outside, but pirates don’t stay on top by following regular customs, you know.”
The captain’s bright eyes grew large as her breath drew a single word: “Rain.”
She rushed across the bridge, heading for the elevator where a crewman had hurriedly pushed the button as he saw her coming.
“Ma’am, I’ll make sure these scoundrels don’t get to you,” he assured as they both rode the shaft down the crew quarters.
“Thank you, Jenkins, but I want your priority to be assuring my daughter’s safety.”
The young crewman, a human, stared directly at his superior, not a flicker of uncertainty in his eyes. “Acknowledged, ma’am, I will see to it, but until we find Rain, I will not let you out of my sight.”
***
The two ran along the sharply cornered corridors towards the living quarters. Guns raised around every bend, they had eventually reached an obstruction in the way; a long tube that seemed to originate from outside the ship.
Jenkins identified it as a short umbilical from a jet fighter, which meant that the boarding party had entered the ship forcibly and possibly in several areas of the ship.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
“Come on, Jenkins, we have to find them before they can hurt her.”
They continued through hallways of bodies and blood and broken doors; past several trashed rooms and shot-up facilities.
Leira, who knew most of her crew well, recognized most of the bodies as her crew, mostly from the crimson and crystalline blood lathered across the walls.
With gritting teeth, she picked up the speed - could already feel her lungs tearing at her chest - until standing before a set of doors that were slightly bigger than the others. These doors seemed to be in pristine condition, and looking back, Leira realized that the carnage had stopped several meters up the hall.
She had a rising feeling in her chest. It wasn’t a common one - rather it was one of those that let her try to figure it out for herself how to proceed.
She approached the door as Jenkins loyally sighted back up the hall. Swiping in the code, the door clicked open and hissed as it slid to the side. Raising her side-arm, Leira peeped inside a dark room, and after reassuring herself that it was empty, snuck inside.
It took two seconds before her eyesight had adjusted to the nearly pitch-black room, but the contour of a lump on top of an enormous bed near the far wall confirmed her hopes.
“Rain, it’s me, honey. We have to go, now.”
The lump moved ever so slightly, and a weak sob sounded. As Leira approached the bed, two fearful eyes gleamed at her from under the covers.
“There were voices; screaming. So many dead...” the girl muttered, and Leira wrapped her in her arms as Rain crawled out of cover.
“It’s okay now, I’m here, sweetie, I won’t let them hurt you.”
“Uh, Captain, I think we got company soon,” Jenkins hesitated as he poked his head through the door.
“Right, come on, honey, we’re leaving right now.” The captain took Rain by the hand and hurried over to the door. “Ready for this, Jenkins?”
The half-baked guard smiled toughly. “Just give the word, ma’am, and you won’t have to look at their ugly faces for very long.”
She snickered once. “That’s what I’d like to hear. Move out and fire at will.”
***
The three had gone uninterrupted for a while, but to Leira’s concern it had sounded like they had constantly drawn nearer to gunfire. She gritted her teeth; these were her people, her crew, and she could not do a thing for fear of Rain being exposed.
Jenkins jumped in the way of her trail of thought. “Madam, I know you gave me an order in the elevator about protecting the Captain’s daughter, and I don’t wish to disobey--“
“That’s okay, Jenkins, I was debating whether to let you go. Now help your crew mates - that’s your new order. We’ll be fine.”
The man broke off from their little group by the intersection and headed left towards the gunfire and shouting. Leira took Rain right towards the pod bay. If they were going down, she thought to herself, then at least one would survive.
Coming up on the pod bay, Leira nearly threw her daughter into one and set the coordinates for the Rozalis system. She turned to Rain, “When you get home, be sure to tell the viceroy to send help, okay?”
It pained her intolerably to see her only child in tears such as now, but she knew she had to protect her, even if it meant sending her on her way with so little. “Don’t cry, little one. Here’s food for a week. It shouldn’t take that long for the pod to reach Samantra...”
“Momma, don’t go,” the girl sulked through watery eyes and quivering lips, reaching for the woman that had for so long been her caring protector.
Leira cracked under the immense pressure of seeing her daughter in this state and fell on the floor as they embraced each other.
“I love you so much, Rain, but momma has to go now. I love you!” She shouted the last three words as the thick pod blast doors shut tight.
Leira rose and turned her back to the girl thumping tiny fists on the glass, her soundless lips forming words that were neither heard nor seen, as the pod ejected from the ship. The thrusters took charge of the small probe and sent the life pod on its way.
***
Leira drew her breath deeply as the last tear fell from her jaw. Steeling herself, she strode back to the hallway, but stopped as a small battalion of troopers confronted her. Not her own. Except for one.
“Ma’am, I’m sorry, they were just too strong.” Jenkins bit his lip in shame. He was being held next to a Cantarion with an impressive armour, which Leira took to be the leader of the company.
“Where did you send the girl?” the Cantarion demanded in a deep voice.
Leira mustered all of her strength to stand with dignity as the captain of a ship and, most of all, the mother of a child. A child who would be their salvation. If these barbarians noticed her as much as twitching an eyelid, they’d won.
“Speak! Where did you send her?!”
“Don’t tell him a thing, ma’am!”
The commander snarled and gestured at the boy. The guard holding him suddenly leaned forward and took a big chuck of his neck. Jenkins made a contorted shriek as he fell down on the cold metal floor. Again, Leira had to control herself not to fly at him and likely get herself killed.
The body of Jenkins convulsed twice before it fell silent, and the blood coloured the immediate areas crimson red. Next to his mangled neck lay the part of flesh that was missing.
“We’ve got more upstairs. Shall we go say hi?” the commander grinned, flashing big, pale green fangs.
Leira was panting from the sudden shock, but catching her breath, she scowled at the intruder. “You’re a monster.”
The Cantarion flashed his ugly grin once more. “We shall see. Take her upstairs! And hurry - this place is starting to reek.”