Jarred looked from Ethan to Mac. This wasn’t happening. Things finally looked as though they might be turning back his way. He might actually be able to turn Mac over to Taliss, and escape the crime lord’s wrath for having
borrowed
his ship. It was looking as though his life could actually return to normal, the lynchpin being this kid pulling a guilt trip on him, because he and Jarred’s bounty had suddenly become best friends? He didn’t have time for this.
“We can talk about this later,” he answered Ethan. “Right now, we really do need to get you out of here.” He was about to reach out to take hold of the boy’s arm when he noticed that both his and Mac’s attention were fixed on something past him, down the corridor. He turned to see the mech that had been patrolling the corridor earlier, curiously frozen in position, as though confused as to what they were all doing. Finally, it began rolling towards them.
“Laborers,” it began, in an authoritative, though polite sounding voice. “Return to you cells for-”
Jarred cut the mech short, gripping the rifle slung at his side and turning only slightly to fire a round of energy directly into its head, blasting it to pieces. Alarms started to wail immediately after.
“Alright,” he said. “Now we
really
have to go.” He took hold of Ethan and lifted him up towards the opening in the ceiling where Tarik waited.
“Whoa,” Ethan said, in surprise.
“That’s Tarik,” Jarred assured him. “He’s with us.”
“Wait,” Ethan hesitated, before Tarik could pull him through the grate. “We
can’t
go.”
“Why not?” Jarred and Elora both asked together.
Ethan raised his arm to display the metallic wrist band attached to it, the familiar tone from before sounding out as it had with the passing group of slaves. Jarred had barely heard it in all of the commotion. “If we leave, these things will fry us.”
“
Vaporize
,” Mac seconded.
Jarred brought Ethan back down, taking hold of his arm to examine the flashing, beeping wrist band, the tones seeming more frequent now than when he had heard them before. He was by no means an explosives expert, at least when it came to disarmament.
“They’ll do the same if we don’t get back to our cells,” Mac added. “And soon.”
Jarred cursed inwardly, considering the options, or the lack there of. He didn’t like it, but there was only one thing they could do right now. “Alright,” he said, finally. “Get back to your cells.”
“What?” Elora cried.
“We can’t get them out with those things attached to them,” he explained. “And we don’t have time to figure it out right now. They need to get to their cell and we need to clean up that mech so no one else finds it. Then we’ll hide back up in the ceiling until I can come up with a way to disarm those things.”
“Hold on,” Ethan interrupted, running off down the corridor towards the remains of the mech.
Jarred followed. “We don’t have time. You need to go.”
“No,” Ethan protested, crouching down at the mech and lifting one of its arms, examining it. “I saw one of the mechs turn a bracelet off with this thing on its arm.”
“How?” Jarred asked, suddenly interested.
Ethan shrugged. “I don’t know. It just . . . ran it over the bracelet like this.” He simulated the movement as he spoke, receiving a single chime from the wrist band in response. It then clicked open and fell free from his arm. He and Jarred looked to one another, surprised.
Jarred’s grin quickly transformed into a grimace as, over Ethan’s shoulder, he glimpsed a set of doors open down the bisecting corridor, a half dozen bulky security mechs storming through the opening. His movements were fluid as he used one hand to push Ethan out of their line of sight, while raising his rifle to fire off two quick rounds, both finding their marks in the face plates of two of the security mechs.
Jarred reached down to take hold of the downed mech’s arm and tore free the device Ethan had used to release his bracelet. “Get down the corridor,” he then ordered the boy, sternly, handing the device to him. Ethan did as he was told and ran off towards his sister, Jarred dodging back out into the corridor to fire off another sequence of precise shots at the oncoming security mechs, dropping the remainder of them. He then turned and moved back down the corridor where Elora met him. “More will be coming. We need to move.”
Ethan was just using the device to remove Mac’s wrist band and Jarred took hold of him. “It’s time to go,” he said, as he lifted the boy up to Tarik, who pulled him into the ceiling crawlspace. He then turned to Mac. “
You’re
next.”
Mac hesitated. “I’m not sure I wouldn’t be better off staying.”
Jarred pulled him towards the opening. “You don’t have a choice in the matter.” Letting out a breath, Mac reached up towards Tarik’s outstretched hands and was lifted to where he could climb through the opening.
Jarred looked to Tarik. “If he tries anything . . . you can eat him.”
Mac glanced nervously at the Toguai, who growled at him in return.
Jarred gave Elora a humorous look, and was about to help her up to Tarik, when he felt a burst of white fire shoot through the rear of his shoulder, the sharp scream of the blast reaching him a split second later. The shot sent him spinning to the floor and as he came around he attempted to simultaneously switch hands with his rifle while bringing it up to fire on his attacker.
Elora beat him to it, taking aim and firing an energy round into one of the handful of security mechs just rounding the two corners of the corridor cross junction. Coming up to one knee, Jarred loosed his own volley of rapid shots, glimpsing another group of security mechs passing through a set of doors at the far end of their own corridor. Even if he survived a firefight with so many armed mechanicals, Elora probably wouldn’t, and if they both made a move for the ceiling crawl space, they would all be headed off and captured. There was only one option for the moment. Jarred looked up through the grate at Tarik and Ethan who were staring back down at him, the Toguai looking as though he was preparing to leap back down to join in the fight.
“Close it,” he called up to them both, tossing his supply satchel up to Ethan.
“What?” Elora asked, incredulously, between shots down the corridor.
“Get them back to the ship,” Jarred ordered Tarik, who looked hesitant, probably due to whatever duty he felt he had to him. “We’ll meet back up with you.” He fired another spread of shots that took out the remainder of oncoming group of mechs, though he could hear more nearing the corners of the other corridor, then looked back up towards the open grate. “Go!”
Tarik blinked once and then complied, sliding the grating into place, though Jarred could still hear Ethan’s protests. He took hold of Elora’s arm and began pulling her down the corridor, away from the mechs just rounding the corners of the cross junction, arming and throwing another pulse grenade as they went. At a run, they reached the end of the corridor and rounded its corner as the grenade detonated. It wouldn’t have gotten them all, but it would slow them down. He needed to buy them some time.
Keeping a firm grip on Elora, he pulled her off down the corridor, visualizing the path they had taken from the main air shaft. If they could make their way back to it, staying clear of any mechs, they might still be able to pull off this escape. Rounding the next corner, Jarred realized in a hurry that those hopes were fragged, as he found himself met with a line of raised rifle barrels. He let out a tired, aggravated breath, as it was not security mechs that held them.
He felt Elora grip his hand, and for the fourth time in as many days, he knew he had been ambushed. His blood ran cold with the realization, and left with few favorable options that wouldn’t end with himself and Elora being killed, he dropped his weapon, kicking it across the floor to the squad of Sect troopers.
* * *
Freedom was so close, Ethan felt as though he could almost reach out and touch it, though to do so would mean leaving the people he cared about most behind. Having scaled the large vertical air duct with the aid of the support cable left by Jarred for just that purpose, he stared through the revolving vent that would lead them out of this horrible place. It almost seemed to call out to him, beckoning him forward. Urging him to save himself.
Jarred had told him to go. To escape through the ducts to where Sierra and Kern were supposed to be waiting for them and that he and his sister would meet back up with them. The only problem was that had never happened. They had barely parted ways when Jarred and Elora had been ambushed and captured by a party of Sect troops. Ethan had been just overhead of them, safely hidden in the ceiling crawlspace, unable to do anything but watch as they were taken away.
The faint hope he had clung to in the face of his own enslavement, that Jarred and Elora would come for him, had actually been realized. They found him and had broken into this place to rescue him from the same fate they now faced for their effort. They came for him and he had no intention of leaving them here to rot.
“What’s the hold up?” Mac asked from just below him.
Ethan looked down at the man that had become his friend in his days here. A comrade in enslavement. He wanted his freedom just as badly as Ethan did, his eyes focused on the spinning blade of the air vent as though it was the very source of that freedom. But Ethan couldn’t leave yet. Not without his sister. Not without Jarred. Mac would understand that.
“We’re not leaving,” he proclaimed, confidently.
Mac’s face did not hide his surprise. “What? What do you mean we’re not leaving?”
“We can’t,” Ethan answered. “Not yet.”
“If not now, when?” Mac exclaimed.
“We have to go back. We have to help Jarred and my sister.”
Mac’s mouth opened to shoot out a quick reply, but he hesitated for a moment, as though collecting himself. “Listen, kid. I know how you’re feeling here. I’d like to help them too. But if we go back there, we won’t be able to help them. We’ll just wind up locked back up with them. I know you don’t want that.
I
sure don’t want that.”
“They didn’t leave me,” Ethan answered. “They came back for me. They’re in there
because
of me.”
“And they would want you to get yourself out of this place,” Mac finished. “They wouldn’t want you risking yourself going back for them.” He paused for a moment, giving Ethan a moment to take in his words, probably on purpose. “Sometimes, kid . . . you just need to know your limits. And sometimes you need to cut your losses and run. This is one of those times.”
Ethan’s feelings of concern turned quickly to anger. “You can’t just run away from everything, Mac! Sometimes you need to stand up and face things, even when it scares you to do it. Not because it’s the best thing for
you
. But because it the
right
thing to do.” Mac actually looked surprised, but Ethan continued, sternly. “I’m not running away. I’m going back for them. And I need your help to do it.”
“Whoa, kid,” Mac returned, raising his hands, defensively. “If what you really want is to head back in there on some impossible mission to rescue your sister and the guy who’s still planning on serving me up to Arden Taliss for a fistful of credits, be my guest. I won’t stand in your way. But don’t expect me to jump onboard to help you do it.”
Ethan’s heart sank a bit. He understood Mac’s reasoning. Jarred had been trying to turn him over to a crime boss that probably wanted to have him killed. But he had also hoped that the man, who had become his friend, would choose to put those things aside. Maybe not for Jarred, but for him. “I understand,” he resigned. “Good luck making your way off world.”
At that, Ethan turned away and began to make his way back down the air shaft, Tarik following, a bit eagerly. It seemed the grey creature was no more eager to abandon Jarred and Elora than he was. They had made it only meter or so when Mac called after them.
“Wait a minute. How am I supposed to get out of here?”
Ethan looked back up at him. “You’re a resourceful guy, Mac. I’m sure you’ll figure it out.” He grinned to himself as he descended another meter, Mac calling out to him again.
“Alright, alright. You win, kid. I’ll help you. But you’ve got to promise me, if we manage to make it out of here, that you’ll work some of those persuasive powers with your bounty hunter friend.”
Ethan smiled at the man. “I’ll put in a good word for you, Mac.”
The smile left his face, replaced by a look of determination, as they continued down the shaft. They would find Jarred and his sister and free them from this place. The only question, and a rather big one at that, was
how
. How to find where they had been taken in this place, if they were even still here. How to go about freeing them if and when they
did
find them. And finally, how to get them all out of here to rendezvous with Kern and Sierra and dust off from this rock once and for all.
Chapter 30