[Dokchara]
“Get ready to move, I just got the location. We’re gonna steal a vehicle.”
“Already? I thought you said you couldn’t hack the station from down here?”
“Looks like Captain Brand was thinking a step ahead of us, sent help before I even had to ask. Long story short, we have an eye in the sky and it’s going to interrupt orbital surveillance on my mark. That’s when we move.”
This was a pleasing development, especially considering it meant that we could sidestep all of the ludicrous plans that Dominique had proposed earlier. Though, there were still a few holes that needed filling.
“How exactly do you plan on leaving? We are fully surrounded, they’re going to come rushing in as soon as you unlock the doors.”
“The hangars are connected to this building, I can open up just the path from here to there. Though, we only have a few minutes to move, the Grahts are cutting through faster than I expected.”
“And the prisoners? We don’t have time to take them with us, should we kill them off?”
The Grahtonians I’d tied up took on a panicked demeanor and started thrashing about in their bindings, unhappy with the prospect of being executed. Their futile flopping amused me more than it convinced me to spare them, but I was aware that he didn’t yet share the same hatred for them that I did. I’d asked that question knowing what answer I’d receive.
“...We made an agreement, Dok. I’m opening the path now, get moving and I’ll catch up in a few seconds.”
I wasn’t going to argue with him, at least not here when there were more pressing matters. I’d been running for about 20 seconds before a deafening explosion rang out, accompanied by a shockwave that sent me careening to the ground. I tumbled full circle before landing on my stomach, the bottom of my head slapping against the ground at full force and making me suddenly extremely drowsy. I was barely aware of Dominique running up to me and pulling me to my feet, but it took a few seconds before I could stand on my own. I could only speak in slurs.
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“Wha-... What the hell was th-that, Dom?”
“I shot one of the defense cannons at another. We gotta leave, now! I put the other cannon to overheat and it’s going to explode even harder soon!”
“Heh, I… don’t think I can run…”
“Alright, relax man. I’ll take it from here.”
“You got it…”
[...]
“Morning, Princess.”
I woke up to the jungle canopy scrolling above me. A rare strand of sunlight breaking through the dense leaves flashed across my eyes, prompting me to sit up. We were in an open-roofed military truck, Dominique was hunched in the driver’s seat while I had been laid across with my feet on the front passenger seat and head on the back seats. Grahtonians being smaller than us meant that there was no easy way to truly be comfortable, something was always just a bit too confining.
“How long was I out?”
“Couple hours, you fell pretty hard back there. I was thinking about getting you evacced, but just like everything else, you got over that concussion pretty quickly.”
“Something like that shouldn’t have even phased me, but two hours?!”
“...You’ve been going at it non-stop, Dok. When I scanned you, it wasn’t just the concussion, you know? Tons of fractures, even some organ ruptures that never got the chance to heal. You didn’t let yourself rest after we got shot out of the sky. It worried me, Dok… humans die from the injuries you had.”
He was telling me things I already knew but refused to admit to myself. My people were being held in a farm on this planet, treated like plants and harvested for their sap. How could I stop for a break when I was so close, when the majority of my life that I spent working towards saving them was finally about to have its first payoff? How could I be sure that every second passing isn’t the one where one of them gets killed off, and that they would have survived if I wasn’t so damn slow? And then the only person I had to compare myself to was Dominique, the super-cyborg that I hadn’t seen rest even once in the week that I’ve known him for. There’s no way I could make the conscious decision to slow him down even more when he was already limiting himself to match my best pace.
“Well, how do you feel now?”
“I’m fine after that nap. Hungry, though.”
“There’s rations in the side compartment, eat quick because we’re ditching the car and moving on foot soon.”
And I’d just started getting comfy.