Will was still lying down when he felt the ship start moving side to side. That told him that the ship which had been following them was back. He smiled as the ship shook from a blaster hit. He got to his feet and yanked the sheet off his bed as the shuttle suffered several more impacts.

He hurried over to the side of the door and waited, holding the edges of the sheet. Suddenly, the swerving and shaking stopped. Will had no idea what was going on. Had the shuttle surrendered or had the other ship been driven off? Regardless, he remained where he was ready to pounce on whoever came through the door.

That’s when he felt the shuttle deaccelerating and the bump of the shuttle’s landing gear hitting a hard surface. His heart sank as those were the telltale signs of a shuttle bay landing. He looked down at the sheet and tossed it back on the bed before sitting down. He was on his own and if he was going to get out of this he needed as much information as possible.

It wasn’t long before the door opened and Henry stepped inside holding his blaster. “Get up,” he ordered. Will couldn’t help but smile as the young soldier seemed to have forced himself not to say sir. He did as he was told and started walking to the door after Henry had stepped out of the way and gestured. Will stepped through the door with Henry right behind him.

The other soldier was waiting outside, but he didn’t see Gwen. Both shuttle airlock doors were open. “Outside,” she commanded harshly. From the look on her face, Will could tell she was hoping he’d put up a fight. However, he had no desire to give her the satisfaction of shooting him again.

He exited the shuttle and walked down the few steps to the deck of the shuttle bay. He quickly scanned the area around him, searching for anything that might help him escape. There were two other shuttles and there was a window looking down on the bay where the controls to open the bay doors were likely located. Of particular interest were several escape pods near the shuttle bay doors.

Gwen stood smiling, a short distance away with a woman wearing a captain’s uniform and two more soldiers. Will immediately recognized Captain Wendle who’d attempted to capture him and Debra at Omega-245. It’d been a number of years since he’d seen her, but her appearance hadn’t changed much.

“Welcome aboard, Captain Power,” she said stepping forward and giving a salute. “It’s good to see you again.”

He didn’t bother returning the salute and looked at the soldiers standing behind her. “Unfortunately, I can’t say the same.”

She smiled. “I suppose not.” She looked over at Gwen. “I need to get us underway so Miss Fulbright will escort you to the brig.” She started to walk away.

“If I might ask?” called Will. “Where are we going?”

Captain Wendle paused and turned around. “Earth, of course,” she answered. “Where else would a traitor be tried?” She then continued on her way.

“Let’s go,” ordered Gwen. The two soldiers with her went over and stood to either side of Will while the two soldiers from the shuttle remained behind him, blasters drawn. The group began walking across the shuttle bay with Gwen following.

Will kept track of their journey, taking special note of any escape pods or armories they passed. They finally came to a door and one of the soldiers pressed a button. “Delivering prisoner,” she said. The door slid open.

Inside was a large room with eight partitions along three of its walls. Each had a bed mounted to the wall and a small alcove which contained a bathroom. All were empty. Near the wall on which the door was located sat a long console where two officers sat. Will was marched to one of the partitions and pushed inside.

“Close number five,” called one of the soldiers. One of the officers at the console pressed a button and a shimmering red force field sealed Will inside.

After dismissing the soldiers, Gwen remained behind. She looked at Will and shook her head. “Even if you don’t believe me, I am sorry things turned out this way.”

“Actually I do believe you,” answered Will. “Think how many more weapons you could’ve stolen if I’d kept blindly following the President’s orders.”

Gwen’s eyes narrowed and she walked away without saying another word.

When she was gone, Will tested the force field by gently touching it. There was a spark as a painful jolt of electricity shot up his arm leaving it tingling. He shook his arm until the tingling subsided.

Seeing the two officers at the console smiling, he called over to them. “You should turn this thing down. Someone might get hurt.” One of the officers, leaned to the other one and said something and they both began laughing.

Knowing there was no nothing he could do for the moment, Will went over to the bed and lay down.

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The smoke in the cabin had finally started to dissipate once the fire suppression system kicked in. They’d moved away from the cruiser until they were at the edge of their sensor range and continued following it.

Commander Stelia shook her head as she went over the ship’s system status. “Shields are down, life support is operating at minimal levels, and the engineering section’s lost pressure.”

“Can anything be repaired?” asked Debra.

“No. We’d have to get to the engineering section to perform any repairs.”

“So I guess we just continue to follow then,” suggested Debra in a disappointed tone.

“For as long as we can,” replied Commander Stelia. “They have to know we’re following them, but I guess they don’t consider us a threat since they’ve made no effort to chase us off. However, I’m sure at some point they’ll want to get rid of us.”

Debra leaned back and closed her eyes. As she sat there, Will’s words came back to her. “As long as you’re alive, there’s always a chance. You just have to find it.”

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

“Contact Admiral Zelen,” urged Debra. “It’s time to make them think we’re a threat.”

She flipped on the radio. “Commander Stelia to Admiral Zelen.”

“This is Admiral Zelen, go ahead.”

“Admiral, this is Debra. I know you said there were no Celentus ships close enough to help us. What about ships from other worlds?”

There was silence for several minutes, although the sounds of a discussion could be heard in the background. “I’ll see what I can do. Admiral Zelen out.”

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Will lay on the bed with his eyes closed, but opened them as he heard footsteps approaching. Two soldiers stopped outside his cell. “Open number five,” the older of the two soldiers called.”

The force field faded away. “Come with us,” the soldier ordered.

They headed out of the detention area with older soldier in front of Will and the other behind him with his blaster aimed at Will’s back. They hadn’t gone far before reaching a door which opened as they approached it. It was a small room with a table and a single chair. As they entered, Will noticed a camera and speaker mounted to the ceiling above the door. He immediately recognized it as an interrogation room.

The chair had metal clamps on its arms which the soldiers locked around Will wrists after he sat down. Will shifted slightly and smiled. “These things are much more comfortable since they added more padding,” he said to the soldiers. They didn’t answer and left the room.

Suddenly, the walls and ceiling of the room began to glow with a bright white light. Even with his eyes closed, Will could still sense it.

“What’s your name?” demanded a harsh male voice.

“Will Power.”

“What is your rank?”

“I’m not currently a member of the military so I have no rank,” answered Will in a firm voice.

“What’s your rank?” demanded the voice again.

“I’ve already answered that question,” Will replied in a calm voice.

There was silence for a moment.

“Did you disobey a direct order from President Grandle?”

Will was quiet for a moment. “President Grandle?” he muttered. “Isn’t he the one who ordered an illegal invasion of Celentus then threatened it with an alensium filled ship?”

“Answer the question,” roared the voice.

Will smiled to himself. “I’ve never disobeyed a legal order given by President Grandle.”

“Did you disobey a direct order from President Grandle?” repeated the voice.

“Could you be more specific?” asked Will. “He’s given me so many orders over the years. Most of which involved me saving Earth from destruction.”

“Did you disobey his order for you to destroy the Ormecran phase weapon?” growled the voice.

“What?” gasped Will sounding shocked. “The President gave an order to attack one of our closest allies thus breaking our treaty with them? Isn’t that an impeachable offense?”

Will knew what was coming and was actually surprised it hadn’t come sooner. He did his best to prepare himself. His body started shaking as the electrical current shot into his wrists and through his body. He clamped his mouth shut to keep from biting his tongue. It wasn’t easy and every nerve in his body was trying to force him to scream out in pain.

“Did you disobey a direct order from President Grandle?” said the voice again when the current had stopped.

“I’ve given my answer,” croaked Will as he tried to catch his breath. “I’ve never disobeyed a legal order from President Grandle.”

Again pain surged through his body. “Never … disobeyed … legal … order,” he cried out as his body shook and blisters broke out on his wrists. Finally, his head fell forward as he lost consciousness.

The soldiers returned to the room and after removing the restraints, carried Will back to his cell. They threw him down on the bed and once they were outside, the force field sprang back to life.

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Debra looked at the ships chronometer. “The Lentlian cruisers should be twenty minutes out.”

Commander Stelia shook her head. “I’m still surprised the Admiral was able to get them to assist.”

Debra smiled. “Will’s helped a lot of worlds over the years. I was pretty sure one of them would be willing to return the favor.”

“Time for a distraction,” declared Commander Stelia.

She activated the radio jammer and accelerated towards the cruiser. “That should do it,” she reported as she slowed the ship to match the cruiser’s speed just outside of its weapons range. “Now we wait.”

Debra kept a close watch on the sensor display. “They’re sending out fighters. Four of them.” she reported.

Commander Stelia swung the ship around and set course towards what she hoped was the approaching Lentlian ships. The fighters were quickly gaining on them and she began evasive maneuvers as they neared weapons range.

“Sensors show two ships approaching. Bearing 20 degrees port,” cried Debra.

Commander Stelia adjusted the ship’s heading as a plasma pulse just missed hitting them. She shut down the radio jammer. “Commander Stelia to Lentlian vessels. Please assist.”

“Captain Krentl to Commander Stelia. On our way.”

One of the fighters lined itself up behind the ship, but before it could fire, one of the Lentlian cruisers swooped in and blasted it into oblivion. The other fighters turned around and headed back towards their ship. However, with three ships now pursuing them, only one of the fighters was able to reach the ship safely.

“Captain Krentl,” radioed Commander Stelia. “Our shields are down. We’ll follow you in.”

“Acknowledged.”

The three ships converged on the cruiser and began firing as soon as they were in weapons range. Commander Stelia kept behind Captain Krentl’s ship and poked out just enough to fire on the cruiser before moving back behind his shields. The Lentlian ships were taking heavy fire, but their shields were holding.

The cruiser got the worst of it as it couldn’t dodge three sets of incoming fire. The three ships shot past the cruiser and swung around for another pass.

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The sounds of blaster fire and the shaking of the ship woke Will up. “Way to go Debra,” he muttered to himself as he got to his feet. Although he was still groggy, he knew this might be his only chance to escape. He kept his eye on the force field and the two officers controlling it.

“Captain Wendle to detention,” blared the intercom.

“This is detention,” answered one of the officers.

“Bring Captain Powers to the command deck immediately.”

“Yes, Captain.”

Will knew this was his chance as one of the officers drew a blaster and walked towards his cell. His muscles tensed as he waited for the force field to drop. The officer stopped a short distance away as the force field went down. “Come on,” he ordered.

Will took a slow step towards him, before falling to one knee. He made an effort to get up, but couldn’t. “Guess they overdid it with the interrogation,” said the officer as he walked over and grabbed Will by the arm to lift him up.

Will shot up driving his head into the officer’s chest while grabbing the arm holding the blaster. Forcing the arm back, Will pressed the trigger and the officer fell to the floor. By now an alarm was sounding and the other officer had grabbed a blaster and crouched down behind the console. Will dove out of the way as he began firing.

Will flipped the blaster control to its highest setting and fired at the console. It exploded in a flurry of sparks and the officer was thrown back against the wall, unconscious. Rushing over, he grabbed the officer’s blaster and headed for the door. However, it didn’t open. He could still feel the ship taking blaster hits, and hoped that would buy him some time.

Even so, there was no time to cut through the door. Will looked around frantically for any other way out. Then he noticed the force fields. Each had their own power unit so the force fields would stay up if ship’s power went down. He set both blasters to incinerate and after crouching down behind what remained of the console, fired at the power unit closest to the door.

The unit began to glow red until it exploded tearing out the wall behind it and sending shrapnel throughout the detention area. As soon as it was clear, Will ran for the opening in the wall. He knew there was an escape pod about twenty feet down the corridor and planned to use it to get off the ship.

Peering through the opening, he saw several soldiers lying in the corridor near where the wall had exploded. He stuck his head out enough to look towards the escape pod, but immediately drew it back in as several blasters fired at him. From what he could see, there were at least five soldiers standing between him and freedom.