Aurora Saga 2 Immortality for Life (22 page)

‘Come in!’

Supora was now dressed in a grey gown. The doctor was checking the skin where the wound had been. The large burnt hole where the plasma round had entered Supora was no longer there, and all that was visible was a pinkish tone to the skin, in that area, and a uniform matrix of red dots, a centimetre apart, covering the whole of Supora’s torso.

‘I’m glad to say, she’s going to be fine,’ he said to Kalrea. ‘She’s lost the use of her left heart and lung, but she should still be able to have an active life. She’ll just need to rest a lot more.’

Kalrea sighed with relief and then with urgency said, ‘We need to go.’

‘Hold on a minute!’ the doctor replied. ‘
I said
, she would be fine, but she needs to rest first.’

‘Doctor, if we stay here much longer, I’m sure the people who shot her will arrive. Your life will be in danger. Do you understand me? For your and her sake, I need to get back to my ship.’

The doctor appeared frightened.

‘I’m sorry to put you in danger. I’m very grateful for your help. Now we should go. Once we’re gone, they’ll no longer be interested in this place.’

Kalrea stepped into the medi-pod.

Docking bay 34-F.

A door slid open in a wall and the medi-pod accelerated from the room.

*****

Onboard the
Aurora
, Gulco asked Kalrea, ‘How did Supora’s operation go?’

‘Better than expected. I’ve placed her back inside the seatra onboard the Antrolo transport.’

‘You mean, back in suspended animation?’ Gulco asked.

‘No, she needs to heel. Putting her in suspended animation would stop the process,’ Kalrea replied. ‘Don’t worry. I’ll keep a close eye on her.’

Hearing that Supora was stable, Zoren felt a great sense of relief, but he was still worried about what would happen when they got to Trafth, so asked,

‘How far is the Antrolo transport behind us?’

‘I’ve just cleared the docking pier. We’ll take eight days to get to Trafth, so you’ll be there four days before us.’

Zoren put his hand to his head and thought,
What do we do when we get to Trafth? Kalrea’s drone won’t be here.

‘I have a problem!’ Kalrea said with concern.

‘What are you talking about?’ Zoren said.

‘When I say I, I mean my drone on the Antrolo transport has a problem.’

‘Kalrea, you’re not making any sense.’ Zoren said.

‘A large ship has left Onliv. It’s tracking the transport.’

‘Can the transport out run it?’ Gulco asked.

‘No. The Antrolo transport is fast, but not that fast. They’ll catch it in twelve-point-six minutes.’

‘Do you have any weapons to defend yourself?’ Gulco asked.

‘The transport has one laser pulse cannon, but it’s no match for a Frindul destroyer,’ Kalrea replied. ‘Zoren, it’s the
Ringal
, the same ship that attacked the Polnozoo.’

‘But you killed the captain of the
Ringal
,’ Zoren said.

‘Yes, and crew may want revenge for their captain’s death. They’ve just scanned the transport. Well at least they won’t destroy it. If they do, then Supora will die, so they’ll want to take us alive. That means they will have to dock with us to take her. I’m sorry Zoren, but I’ll have no choice.’

‘Zoren, what does she mean, she will have no choice?’ Gulco asked.

‘She’s going to kill them,’ Zoren replied, ‘aren’t you, Kalrea?’

‘What all of them?’ Gulco replied in disbelief.

‘I’m sorry,’ Kalrea said, ‘I cannot allow them to capture us.’

*****

The
Ringal
closed on the transport. It fired a laser across the path of Kalrea’s ship.

‘Power down your engine, or we’ll be forced to destroy it,’ an authoritative voice came over the Antrolo transport’s communication system.

‘How predictable,’ Kalrea commented.

She slowed the transport.

‘I want to see her?’ the captain ordered.

In the background, behind him, someone shouted, ‘Destroy her! Before she looks at you. She’s evil!’

Kalrea recognised the voice as one of the Frinduls who had been in the bar on Xim’gu.

She laid down on a mat under a monitor and opened an audio-visual link with the
Ringal
, before saying calmly, ‘Are you looking for me? You must be the new captain. At least you got something from the death of your old captain. You got promotion!’

Searching for network.

Kalrea could hear the engines of the
Ringal
now directly overhead. She moved her head slightly to the side to look up past the spherical terminal and out of the window at the belly of the sandy-coloured ship, now only ninety metres away.

That’s it, just a little closer.

‘Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t blast that little ship of yours into pieces?’ the Frindul captain of the
Ringal
said.

Network detected.

Searching for access point.

Breaking encryption.

‘That’s easy. Firstly, I have an Agonian onboard, and secondly, I imagine you see a profit in finding out more about my defence shield. Think of all the money you could make if you had powers like me. Only one problem with that… You would have to be alive to find out.’

Accessing computer system.

The Frindul captain laughed. ‘You can’t use that fancy shield on us from there.’

‘Maybe I don’t need to.’

‘Captain! The automated weapons have gone off-line. Wait… Now we’re losing power,’ the Frindul commander reported.

‘What the hell’s going on!’ the captain said, turning to him.

The
Ringal’s
engines quietened.

‘Now I’m locked out from the computer,’ the Frindul commander said in frustration.

The captain now appeared troubled. ‘It has to be something to do with that woman. Get the crew to man the cannons manually. I want that ship destroyed, now!’

‘Captain, the automated guns are back on-line,’ the Frindul commander said.

‘Good, take out that ship.’

‘But Captain, they’re… they’re targeting the other guns.’

There was the sound like thunder overhead, followed by flashes of bright yellow light and explosions, as the guns of the
Ringal
fired at each other. Then there was silence.

‘Captain, we’ve just lost life-support.’

The Frindul captain looked to Kalrea, in his monitor, and banged his fist against a console in front of him, before saying, ‘What have you done?’

‘Like I said, maybe I don’t need that fancy shield.’

The Frindul captain looked around at a male Xangol who was standing out of view of the monitor, and said, ‘Do something!’

The Xangol laughed at him, before moving in front of the monitor and said, ‘Hello, Kalrea.’

Kalrea recognised him immediately. It was the man she had dropped down the lift shaft back on Onliv.

‘The air! I can’t breathe,’ the Frindul captain said. He grabbed the Xangol’s shirt. ‘Help me!’

‘How dare you touch me!’ the Xangol said, pushing him away. ‘Go away and die somewhere else.’ He turned back to Kalrea. ‘We have some unfinished business. Why don’t you come over, so we can conclude the fight that we started on Onliv?’

‘I don’t think so!’ Kalrea replied. ‘You’re immortal, so you know I can’t harm you.’

‘My name’s Hifmo. Remember my name, Kalrea. It’s the one that’s going to kill you.’

‘Not today,’ Kalrea replied.

‘No, but soon!’ Hifmo said. ‘Every day we’re learning more about you and your tricks. It won’t be long before we catch up with you. Oh! And thank you for leaving me your shuttle back on Onliv. It has some very interesting technology within it. I’ve never seen anything like it before and I’m sure it will be of great use to us.’

‘Then I’m sure you will also come to understand that I possess technology far more advanced than anything you have. Don’t make me use it! We have to go now. I’m sure another ship will arrive soon. Until then, I think you have a reactor overload to deal with. I think your ship’s about to go bang. So until the next time we meet. Goodbye!’

Kalrea severed the link with Hifmo.

*****

On the bridge of the
Aurora
there was a stunned silence.

‘It’s over,’ Kalrea said. ‘We’re now continuing towards Trafth.’

Gulco shook his head. ‘I can’t believe you did that.’

Kalrea replied, ‘Gulco, I had no choice. They would have tried anything to get Supora.’

‘No, that’s not what I meant. I can’t believe you managed to disable their ship so easily.’

‘The computer systems onboard the
Ringal
were very basic and easy for me to hack into, the only issue was getting close enough to access them. They allowed me to do that. I don’t feel very proud of what I just did. There were sixty-eight people on that ship.’

‘And they all deserved to die,’ Zoren said.

‘No, Zoren, they didn’t!’

‘Who was that Hifmo you blew up?’ Gulco asked.

‘He’s the Xangol I met back on Onliv, while I was in the Liyp building. He’d just taken the life of Valon, so he’s now immortal.’

‘So if he’s immortal, then that means-’

Zoren continued Gulco’s sentence. ‘He’s still alive!’

‘Very much so and I’m sure he will try and come after us once his people find him amongst the wreckage of the
Ringal,
’ Kalrea said.

Supora let out a loud scream as she woke.

What’s wrong?
Kalrea thought and then rushed over to the seatra.

Supora was feeling her forehead.

‘Are you all right?’ Kalrea asked her in an anxious voice.

Supora opened her eyes and focused on her. ‘Who the hell are you?’

‘Kalrea. My name’s Kalrea.’

Supora tried to move, but grimaced in pain. She felt her chest.

‘What happened to me?’

‘You were shot,’ Kalrea replied.

‘Shot!’ Supora said unbelieving, but then her eyes widened. ‘Oh my God! That’s right, I was shot.’

‘Please, try not to move,’ Kalrea said, afraid that Supora might try to get out.

Supora used her arms to pull herself clumsily up, so that she could sit upright with her back against the end of the seatra.

‘You need to rest,’ Kalrea said. ‘Please be careful. You were only operated on an hour ago.’

‘Did Doc Korye oper-’ She stopped abruptly and stared into space.

She’s remembering.

‘Doc Korye’s dead. I saw his body. No! No!’ Supora shouted.

Kalrea was now very concerned. Supora was shaking her head and getting very frantic.

‘Valon! My Valon! He was there on that bed. He… He… was dead.’

Kalrea climbed quickly into the seatra and sat alongside Supora. She put her arm around her shoulder to try to comfort her.

Supora grabbed hold of Kalrea’s collar. ‘My children!’ she said desperately. ‘Asnica and Doine were taken away from me. Where are they?’

‘They’re safe,’ Kalrea replied quickly. ‘They’re both safe.’

‘Are they here?’ Supora said, now trying to pull herself up to see over the side of the seatra, but Kalrea held her tightly to stop her.

‘They’re not here, Supora, but they’re safe on my ship, the
Aurora
. We’re heading there now. Please, try to calm down.’

Supora settled back down against the end of the seatra. She was in deep thought, staring up out the front window of the transport. Tears formed in her eyes.

What can I do for her?

‘Oh, Valon.’ She stared at Kalrea. ‘Why? Why is he dead?’

Do I tell her? But, what if she becomes agitated again?
Kalrea thought, and then said, ‘I’m not sure it’s a good idea talking about-’

‘Tell me why he’s dead!’ Supora shouted at her and then lowering her voice pleaded, ‘Please!’

Kalrea nodded slowly. ‘All right, I’ll tell you, but you’re going to find it hard to believe. Valon’s life was taken by a Xangol because an Agonian life-force enables them to become immortal...’ Kalrea told Supora about the Xangols and how her people had once been enslaved. Supora looked astounded.

‘Who? Who was this Xangol who took my Valon’s soul?’

‘His name’s Hifmo,’ Kalrea replied.

‘Hifmo,’ Supora repeated. ‘What gave him the right to do that? I hope he rots in hell.’

Kalrea knew that Supora was finding it hard to come to terms with what had happened. She looked pale and drained of energy.

‘Supora, maybe I should let you get some rest,’ Kalrea said, but as she went to get up Supora grabbed hold of her arm.

‘No please, don’t go! I... I couldn’t stand being alone at the moment.’

‘It’s all right, I’ll stay,’ Kalrea replied calmly. ‘I’m not going anywhere.’

‘Tell me… Tell me more about how this all happened,’ Supora said. ‘I… I have to make sense of why my life has been torn to pieces.’

Kalrea went on to tell Supora about the space station and the Polnozoo, until Supora eventually laid down and drifted off to sleep. Kalrea stayed in the seatra sitting alongside her.