Living among the Stars (Sky Riders #2) (22 page)

              “We’re about to find out.”

              The blue light on the laser indicator lit up to inform him that the laser was at his desired setting. He flipped up the cover that covered the release button and positioned his thumb over it. He had hesitated for a few precious seconds before he pressed it. This time a blue ball of light hot out of the bottom of his ship. It covered the short distance between him and the shuttle in a millisecond then struck the tail end of the shuttle where the engines were the most vulnerable. The explosion’s shock wave shook his as it raced passed him in the opposite direction. As the brightness of the light faded, he could immediately see that the pulsar had caused more damage than he had expected it would. Smoke and flames poured out the back of the crippled shuttle as it plummeted to the surface of the moon.

              He had been wrong in thinking the pulsar would slow them down! Instead, he had doomed them all to a fiery death.  

              “Son of a bitch!” he exclaimed.

              There was nothing he could do at this, but watch in horror as the shuttle careened towards the surface of Napra. For the first time in his life, he prayed that his enemy would be able to steer the crippled ship enough to land it without it blowing into a million pieces.

Chapter 22

              Kelly screamed in horror when another, hard jolt hit the shuttle. Smoke poured into the cabin, choking all in it. She waited for the masks to drop down like on an airline, but none came forth. She covered her mouth and nose with her hand as she struggled to gain enough air to satisfy her lungs.

              “The mother fucker just killed us all!” the guard sitting next to Zol’tsa shouted above the noise of the alarms going off.

              “Oh my God! Oh my God!” Cheery chanted over and over again as she squeezed her eyes shut.

              Things didn’t look too good for them. These were most likely the last moments of her life, but she prayed that the impact would be quick and painless. While she had risked her life every time she went out on patrol, she never relished the thought of falling out of the sky to her death. Facing death on the ground on a daily basis had become a habit she basically had control over, but falling out of the sky was the one thing she had absolutely no control over.

              She glance over at Cheery to find her unconscious. The smoke was becoming too much to bear and was quickly overcoming her. It wouldn’t take much longer until she fell unconscious too as she fell to her death.

              “Can you pull her up some?” Zol’tsa’s voice drifted into her ears.

              “Help me pull back on the steering column and we just might stand a chance. Other than that we’re dead.”

              “Is there any way to get some of the some of the smoke out?” the guard shouted.

              “The exhaust system is on but it’s barely running. The son of a bitch hit us with a pulsar blast too powerful!” Zol’tsa shouted.

              Kelly tried to watch as the two men frantically tried to save them. The smoke was causing her eyes to water and burn, so she had to narrow her vision down to small slits with her eyelids.

              Zol’tsa turned to look at her at the same time she looked at him. “Hey, princess. Your mate has succeeded in killing all of us, including you! Now that’s ironic! While trying to save your ass, he sentenced you to death. At least I would have kept you alive!” He started to cackle as he choked on the same smoke filling her lungs.

              Outside the front window, she could see white clouds whip by at the shuttle sped towards the ground. Every so often a flame would appear in the window, indicating they were in a lot more trouble than she thought. If they were on fire, then their chance of surviving had dramatically reduced. The flames could ignite the fuel used in the tanks upon impact.

              Suddenly, there were tree tops filling the window. The shuttle skimmed along the tops of the trees causing the fiery shuttle to jolted and jump as it tried to find an opening in the foliage. Screeches and scratches came from the outside on all sides. The shuttle dropped several feet when the right side slammed into a huge tree blocking their path.

              Kelly’s body jerked to the side hard, making her cry out in pain. She wanted to cover her head with her hand and arms but was too afraid to let go of the seat handles she was currently had a death grip on.

              “This is it. Hang on,” Zol’tsa shouted a second before the shuttle hit the ground.

             
I love you, Kharis! Goodbye Parath!
She screamed inside her head. She didn’t think anyone would have heard, but her dragon’s familiar voice came shining through.

             
You will not die! Do you hear me? We are right behind you!

             
“I love..,” she never got the rest out.

              The shuttle hit the ground hard then twisted on its side. It continued to slide until a patch of smaller trees caught hold of the foreign object and stopped its forward momentum. Her head bounced back and slammed into the panel behind her. The last thing she remembered was a black mass moving past her. She let the blackness take over and draw her into blessed silence. Nothing hurt anymore and all she wanted to do was sleep.

******

              Kharis held his breath as he watch the doomed shuttle crash. There was no way possible any one on board could have survived, but he had to find out. He landed his plane in the opening that the crashed shuttle had created as it broke through the trees. Smoke filled the area surrounding the ship, so he had no idea if anyone had tried to escape from it.

              Opening the door to his fighter, the two dragons slipped out first and raced to the downed plane. He followed quickly behind them, but he wasn’t as fast as the great beasts were. By the time he slid to a stop next to the shuttle, Serelath and Parath had managed to put out the fire near the engine he had taken out. In all his years bonded to Serelath, he had never seen his dragon use his cold breath. It was always the fire he had seen and loved.

              The cold breath was something entirely different, but he would have to wait ask about it later. As the smoke cleared away from the shuttle, he noticed that the door was popped open. Could it have opened upon impact and they were all dead inside? Wasting no more time, he slipped past the broke door.

              The inside was still filled with smoke, but enough light came through the front to allow him to see two bodies slumped over in their seats.

              “Kelly!” he screamed as he went to the first body. He gently lifted the female’s head and saw it wasn’t Kelly. Putting two fingers against the female’s throat to check for a pulse, he found she was dead. He turned his attention to the only other female who was on board the shuttle, Kelly.

              His hands were shaking as he lifted her head with one hand while using his other to brush back the hair that had fallen over her face.

              “Kelly? Baby?” He patted her pale cheek. “Wake up, sweetheart.” He repeated the motions of finding a pulse in the side of his mate’s neck. At first his didn’t feel anything which sent his heart crashing. “No! Not possible!” He shifted her head more to the side so that he could find a better spot. Pressing more firmly on her tender skin, he waited several seconds to feel the pulse of life.

              He was losing hope when he felt a feathered lit beat touch his fingertips. It was the sign he was looking and nearly busted a gut in joy at it. She was alive! She had survived the horrible crash he had caused!

              He swiftly unbuckled her from the seat then lifted her gently up out of it. The smoke inside was becoming too much for even to tolerate, so he quickly reached the door of the shuttle and sucked in some much needed fresh air. He could only imagine how much damage may have been done to Kelly’s lungs after being in a smoke filled cabin for so long of a time. She was still in grave danger from smoke inhalation, so he didn’t have much time to lose in getting her back to his ship.

             
Serelath! Go check the front of the shuttle for any other survivors! Hurry, we haven’t much time. 

             
His dragon and Kelly’s sped by in their smaller forms and into the shuttle. A minute or more passed before they emerged again with their report.

             
There are two bodies inside. One is female and the other is a male in a guard uniform. They are both deceased. How is your mate?
Serelath flittered around in the air near his head as he carried Kelly back to his ship.

              “Not good at the moment, but she’s alive. We need to get her up to the medical unit now!”

              Reaching his ship, he gently placed Kelly in the seat where the two dragons had sat during the flight down. He was strapping her in when he thought about how the hell two dragons were going inside with Kelly. He was about to turn around and tell them he would send for another fighter to come get them when he noticed that the dragons had shifted down to a size he had never seen them shift into.

              He smiled at Serelath and Parath. “Thank you, my friends.”

              Both dragons were now about half the size of an infant. Each one flew into the seat where Kelly was and settled down on her lap with ease.

             
We will monitor as you fly. We will inform you if she makes a turn for the worse,
Serelath said.

              “Thank you,” he said then climbed into the front seat.

              The ride up to the main ship seemed to take a lifetime. Kelly began to cough and hack until he thought her lungs were going to pop out. Serelath had placed an oxygen mask over her mouth and nose, but it was doing little good.

             
You need to hurry
, Parath chimed into his head.

             
I am pushing the fighter a hard as I can
, he replied to the request. It took several minutes to leave the surface of Napra far behind. The darkness of space closed in around the ship as it raced towards the bigger ship. He had to dodge debris from the exploded fighters must have engaged his fighters when he had gone after Zol’tsa’s shuttle. Several of his own fighters flew up alongside him to protect him as he travelled to his ship.

              “Vulmar?” He waited for a response from his brother.

              “Did you find her?”

              “Yes! Have a medical stretcher waiting for us when we arrive and alert the doc,” he said. “Her breathing is unstable but she is alive.”

              “You got it!”

              The trek to the ship took forever by his standards. He could landed his fighter soon enough and get Kelly out and onto a stretcher. He lifted her limb body out of the back seat and transferred her gently to stretcher that was waiting. The medics secured her to the medical equipment then lead her out of the docking bay. He followed alongside Kelly and held her hand. He didn’t want her to think she was still alone and afraid if she suddenly woke up.

              The doctor was standing by as directed when they arrived in the medical unit. The man immediately jumped into action by assessing the damage to Kelly’s outward appearance.

              “I need a full body scan pronto!”

              Kharis reluctantly let go of her hand and took a step back. The last thing he wanted to be was a nuisance to the staff as they worked to save his mate. He gave them as much room as they needed to work.

              He leaned against the wall in time for the body scanner to float into the room and position itself over Kelly’s prone body. A medic pushed one simple button to get the test up and running. It wasn’t long before results started to spew on the computer screen.

              The doctor stood with his index finger pressed to his lips as he read the results.

              “How is she,” Kharis asked no longer content to stand back and wait for answers.

              “First and for most, she has a lot of smoke in her lungs that needs to be dispelled. After that, I will be able to determine the amount of damage to her lungs. Next, she had four fractures ribs which will be easy to heal. The concussion to the head is rather nasty, but nothing she won’t pull through either. My primary concern is her air passages. Humans are different than us in that aspect.” The doctor looked at Kharis after reading the final results.

              “In what respect?” he asked.

              “Well, from what I have been studying of the human body, their bronchial tubes in the lungs are much thinner than ours. About half the size to be exact. How long do you suppose she was submerged in the smoke,” the doctor asked.