Chapter 28

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The feeling of déjà vu was so strong that it even partially drowned out the pain of the wild cramps all over his body. He was lying on the floor again, face down, unable even to move his eyes. The only difference was in the field itself - it was milky this time, smooth, and slightly shiny, which was a palpable disadvantage looking at it was far less interesting than the carpet. And to look at anything else, Alex just couldn't:

"How long has it been?" He asked himself. "Five minutes? An hour?" His sense of time was clearly failing.

It started well, and the crowd, to Alex's surprise, took his message and erupted in righteous anger. In addition, one of the PVD guys showed inappropriate zeal - during the speech, he fired a heavy stun gun at the stage - slightly hitting Alex and a dozen of those around him - which only added fuel to the fire. Luckily Krain wasn't confused and, holding the half-stunned Atur Chermega in his arms, managed to turn things around simply by shouting: "Traitors!".

The crowd rushed to the transition area, where there was an unassembled bomb and most of the PVD fighters. Who fired first is no longer known, but a firefight ensued...

Then Alex, who had come to his senses, realized that he was losing the initiative and things could end very badly.

They failed to seize the transition zone at once, and then the PVD's advantage in armaments took its toll. The attackers retreated, leaving several dozen wounded and dead. The narrow corridor did not allow the numerical advantage to be exploited, and the situation was stalemated.

Alex felt that the elusive power he had over the crowd was fading by the second. The heat of battle and excitement would wear off, and people would start asking questions; all the PVD would have to do was show a modicum of reason to turn the situation in their favor. And he won't even be able to retreat to the ship as the new "leader" has been surrounded by a small crowd.

All in all, while he retained relative control of what was going on, things were about to get very, very bad in the future.

It is safe to say, however, that he didn't even have time to freak out. He had barely half an hour before one of the outer airlock doors burst open with a loud pop. Alex saw a figure in a bright red spacesuit, and then the lights went out, and there was the familiar sound of a giant whip hitting the water.

It looks like they've outflanked us somehow. Thought Alex, staring at the floor. And where did they get this squad in spacesuits from? There weren't any... Maybe it was the Imperials who started the assault. He thought with desperate hope.

The lights came on again after a few minutes, and again the waiting was prolonged, soaked in the pain of the cramps that shackled the body.

There was a buzzing sound from somewhere above and a quiet but solid thumping sound - as if something very heavy had been carefully placed next to it. Alex didn't feel the touch - he couldn't feel his body at all - but the image before his eyes flipped, and he was on his back. Above him, kneeling on one knee, leaned a massive figure in a bright red spacesuit. At the joints through the slightly curved plates of the armor was something like shiny black resin, and the same material covered the neck, partially covered by a wide collar, and long narrow segments of armor-like fringes hung from the helmet. The face was covered by a solid, flat plate without any sign of transparency. Only the right edge of it had a yellow glow from a sensor, or maybe just a lighter.

A figure in a red spacesuit held a device ending in a black tube up to Alex's face and a blue flickering light flickered in front of his eyes.

Are they allies? Hope for a better outcome peeked out from somewhere in the depths of consciousness and gingerly sniffed the air with its nose. During the assassination attempt on the hunt, the Fyron scouts shone the same thing in the eyes before evacuating...

When the scan was finished, the man in the suit quickly put the device somewhere behind his back and, with his left hand, pressed Alex firmly against his chest plate. There was another whirring sound, and the suit rose into the air and flew over the bodies of paralyzed rebels, almost touching them with its massive boots.

As they approached the massive airlock door carved out by the blast, they were joined by two more in spacesuits, and a small black "ball" the size of a grapefruit was curling in figures above their heads. They all flew quickly into the opening and immediately shifted to the side so they could not be seen from the hall.

On the other side was a small vestibule room with a huge yellow holographic blotch hanging in the air, exactly in the middle of it: Station Six! Our meeting place! Alex was placed on a semi-circular conveyor belt located against one of the walls, and people in scarlet suits immediately began a feverish activity.

He was injected with two injections into his neck, which he did not feel, and put on his chest something that looked like a huge rucksack or a case of white plastic. Then they rolled him onto his side and fastened the clasps of the 'rucksack' on his back. All this took a few seconds, the final chord being the handing into the little iron paws of the 'ball' flying nearby, a small device with a big green headlamp.

After a brief halt, the whole squad moved on with a bassy whirr.

Where they were flying to was not visible. In front, a few meters away, a massive figure in a red spacesuit was gliding, blocking the view. The sides were flashed by the same type of corridors and passages, and he could not get his bearings. One thing was clear: they were heading somewhere in the direction of the outer wall of the station, where there was a giant flight and reception field that protruded directly into space.

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At least we can hope they're saviors. Alex corrected himself mentally. Otherwise, why would they bring me back to normal? He felt the injections begin to spread through his body in a wave of heat, bringing mobility back one drop at a time. The black ball circled around him and a narrow cone of rich, even dense green 'light' shot out from the device clutched in its clutches. Where this "light" touched his body, a pleasant coolness spread, soothing the pain.

He was being carried by the scruff of the neck, on an outstretched arm, like a stray kitten, by the straps of a backpack on his back. He tried to turn his head slightly to look at whoever was carrying him, but he couldn't. His muscles wouldn't respond:

We should warn them about the bomb somehow. If those PVD crazies are still in one piece, they might think it's an imperial landing force and blow it. Who knows, maybe they've already assembled it? We gave them at least half an hour during the fight, though maybe they just weren't up to it.

"Bo-bo." His tongue felt leaden and barely moved in his mouth, unable to make any meaningful sound. But that didn't seem to be necessary, Alexa was turned around to face him, and a suave male voice came from the mask:

"Has something happened, Your Lordship?" His mooing must have caught the "savior's" attention.

"B-i-m-b." His lordship spelled it out, turning his eyes frantically.

To the "savior's" credit, he didn't ask meaningless questions like, "Are you sure?" or "What kind of bimb?" Instead, he pressed one of the buttons on the front of Alex's backpack, causing the air around him to shiver and ripple, and confined himself to a single word: "Where?"

Which put Alex in a quandary. It was impossible to explain exactly where the bomb was with his current communication skills.

"Th-ere." After a few moments, he gave out and tried to wave his hand towards the hall, where he was paralyzed. Instead of swinging, his arm dangled helplessly in the overhang. It was the best he could think of.

"Is that where we found you?" The 'rescuer' clarified, and seeing 'his lordship' trying to make a desperate grimace, he asked again. "The place you attacked?"

"Y-e-a." Alex exhaled in relief and, gathering his strength, added. "Li-s-s-s..."

The man was silent for a few seconds and then continued in a polite, calm tone:

"Don't worry, Your Lordship. His Lordship Lord Lister has already been detected by another group and is being evacuated. I've relayed to the Sword your warning about the bomb."

Good. His lordship, thought excitedly, sagging like a sack on the outstretched arm of the "rescuer". Hopefully, the "rescuers," whoever they are, will be able to deal with the PVDs around the bomb, and Lord Lister will be found, apparently alive. That leaves only Krain, but if those rescuers are imperial commandos, we'd better leave him where he is. We'll both be safer that way, or God forbid, they'll dig something up...

While Alex was figuring out how to determine exactly who his rescuers were working for, their short flight ended in the vast white field of the flight zone near a pair of aggressive-looking ships.

The long, elongated hulls, dark grey cobblestone in color, began with a chisel-like prow and then turned into a fifty-meter-long "neck" studded with some kind of hulk. From there protruded something strongly resembling large-caliber barrels. The "neck" ended at a massive central part sandwiched between vertical plates of "wings" that protruded ten meters above and below the hull. The ships hovered above the landing field, the straight edges of their 'wings' not reaching the surface by about half a meter. Because of their length, they clearly could not 'land'.

Beneath the ships, a few centimeters above the snow-white surface of the airfield, large flat platforms with low sides stood still. Judging by the size of the hatch in the bottom of the ships, these were the platforms used for loading and unloading.

There were three more men in suits standing by the platforms, and a few bodies of PVDs lying around:

Most likely paralyzed. Decided Alex, as he couldn't see the wounds.

The "rescuer" from the group that had found Alex flew ahead, flying towards the ships, while the one carrying "his lordship" flew on, towards the platform.

As Alex was carried past the fighters, they synchronously, as if on cue, raised their right hands to their heads and touched the helmets at the temple with two fingers, causing the visors to rise up with unexpected speed, turning into a 'visor':

"Hail to your Lordship." The men shouted in unison, eyeing the "lordship" as it passed by.

"Thank you." Alex let it out, trying to keep his head straight and sincerely hoping that it sounded more like a 'thank you' than an attempt by 'lordship' to get rid of his stomach contents.

And not a single familiar face. He noted to himself with slight regret. Could it be intelligence again? Countess Durlurl might well have known through some channel of her own that I had been taken to Tallana. Though how would they know I was on the station?

The platform shuddered faintly as the "savior", with Alex in his arms, landed on it and began to rise with a rhythmic, throbbing buzz towards the opening hatch in the bowels of the ship.

Inside it was clean, empty, and smelled new. When the platform came to a stop, and the low sides surrounding it dropped to the floor, they found themselves in a spacious elongated room, finished with steel-grey smooth metal panels interspersed with narrow glowing strips. Running along the walls and ceiling, they ruled everything in a large glowing cage. The floor was paved with slabs made of a very fine network of metal strips. About three meters from the platform, one of the plates had been removed from the floor, and from the resulting hole, bundles of colorful wires and some kind of glowing translucent bundle were sticking out.

The whole interior of the room consisted of huge double sliding doors. The strong smell of plastic and chemicals permeated the whole place, and for some reason, Alex associated it with a new car.

As soon as his lordship's carrier stepped off the platform, the double doors parted to the sides, letting in two men in light green overalls with large plastic suitcases in their hands. They appeared to be medics, at least as they took the lord in their arms and immediately began to examine him, groping and scanning him:

"Are you experiencing a severe migraine, Your Lordship?" One of the doctors asked, shining a small torch into Alex's right eye.

"Nt," He tried to shake his head, but instead it snapped to the side. "I cn't tak." He shared his distress.

"Don't worry," the doctor reassured him, "the necessary injections have already been given and the muscles and nervous system will be functional in a few minutes."

While he was being examined, the platform went down with the "rescuer" and the opening was closed with a double hatch painted in a bright yellow stripe and a giant sign that read DO NOT STOP.

And soon, it was up again, along with its passenger. A soldier in a red spacesuit stepped down onto the ringing slabs of the floor and stopped beside Alex and the medics, saluting by placing two fingers on his helmet near his temple. The visor instantly fell away, revealing the face of the rising one: "I'm sorry, I can't help it:

"Taer, you hve no ida how pleased I am." Alex muttered when he saw that under the visor of the suit was his "personal safety specialist'. He tried to smile, but it was only halfway; the right side of his face was still paralyzed. "How did yu fin me?"

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