Alutia Rising, Anniversary Edition (Alutia Rising Series, Book 1) (27 page)

How could she have missed this? How could
she have placed everyone she cared about in danger?
She was the
one at fault...and she knew it.

“Knight Captain Seb'Losh was appointed by His
Royal Majesty, Alutia Guard Lieutenant Lia'Sil and Alutia Guard
Private Usa'Pol were recruited from Planet Don'Alutia, Capital of
the Alutia Duchy, by Knight Captain Seb'Losh. The remainder of the
Alutia Guard were recommended by Duke Zehman Hulk’Zif and were
appointed by the Marquis Rostil,” she buried her head in her hands
as Vin delivered the names of her allies. One she'd banished on a
fool’s errand, another was lying on the floor in the process of
dying, and the third was more than likely dead or soon would
be.

She collapsed into her seat, all eyes turning
to her, waiting for her next order. But she didn't look up,
she
just couldn’t.
Instead, she stared at the floor, blank faced,
tumbling further and further into her grief and despair.

A palm struck her cheek with such force she
almost tumbled from the chair, being totally unprepared.

“What are you doing, Sasha,” she looked up
into the teary eyes of her lady-in-waiting and best friend while
moving a trembling hand to her throbbing cheek, “Lia'Sil is dying
and all...all you can do is stare at the floor!” Tiana shouted, the
words piercing her heart.

It may be my fault, but this isn't the
time to fall into despair,
she scolded herself, realizing
everyone was counting on her. Before she could respond, a horrible
screech from one of her servants erupted from the outer corridor,
but was cut off by a loud thump.

“Grand Duchess Sasha Alutia,” Vin cut in,
“the crew as well as Alutia Guard Private Usa'Pol, have been
informed of the current situation. Alutia Guard Private Usa'Pol is
within Grand Duchess Sasha Alutia’s apartment’s main corridor and
requires assistance,” Sasha’s eyes lit up, having almost forgotten
her initial order for Vin to warn the crew in her despair. Luckily,
it had taken the initiative to warn Usa'Pol as well, though she
quickly realized luck wasn’t on their side, his pronouncement
sealing what they feared most; all the guards were traitors.

Knight Admiral Bhool rushed to the door at a
near sprint. Sasha took a deep breath, knowing she needed to fix
her mistake, and after smoothing her crimson gown, rushed after
her, scooping up Lia'Sil's laser arc while ignoring the screams to
stop from those she left behind.

The corridor was a scene out of nightmares.
Laser arc bolts sizzled through the air, leaving an intense aroma
of ozone that couldn’t begin to mask the stench of burning flesh.
Hiding in the doorway that led into her bathchamber, just across
the hall, stood Alutia Guard Private Usa'Pol, blood trickling down
her olive cheeks, her expression one of utter bewilderment. On the
floor between them were the burnt bodies of Sasha's young servants,
so charred that it was impossible to tell who was who. Sasha turned
away from the horrid sight as she felt her dinner rise within her
gullet. Knight Admiral Bhool, unfazed, leaned out of the doorway,
fired a laser bolt, then quickly twisted back into cover as laser
bolts crashed against the doorframe in response.

“One in the first doorway to the left, two in
the first doorway to the right, and at least four in the entrance
to the guard barracks,” she shouted across to Usa’Pol, before
turning back to Sasha. “Is there any other way out of your
apartment besides the way we came in?” Sasha swallowed down the
rising bile and closed her eyes, trying to recall the starship
schematic she’d been presented by Flight Supply Officer
Xin’Eir.

“No, it was designed so the only way in would
be through the guard barracks,” Knight Admiral Bhool cursed, leaned
out and shot another laser bolt down the hallway, a muffled shout
rising in response.

“One less in the barracks,” Lady Bhool
snarled, a frightening smirk crossing her lips.

Sasha glanced over her shoulder, back to her
ladies, finding them attempting to break apart the dining
furniture, apparently in an effort to build a makeshift stretcher
to carry the now silent Lia'Sil.

“Where is Lieutenant Lia'Sil?” Usa'Pol asked,
her voice hoarse, as a laser bolt smashed into the wall just behind
Sasha, blasting searing debris into her hastily covered face.

“Neural Gas, she's bad...but she'll live if
we can get her to medical...quickly!” the Knight Admiral hurried as
she leaned into the hall and fired two laser bolts in quick
succession.

“Wily bastard,” Lady Bhool muttered, having
missed her target, as Usa'Pol leaned out and fired a laser bolt of
her own, but was forced to roll back with a muffled grunt as a
return bolt caught the edge of her doorway, sending debris into her
unprotected face.

“I'm sorry, Your Grace,” Usa’Pol shouted when
their eyes met, looking like a lost child as her voice trailed off,
“I...I had no idea what was going on...they...they never said
anything,” she said with honest disbelief, but Sasha could only nod
in response.

Again, she glanced back to her ladies,
huddled together and crying in each other’s arms, having given up
on their futile attempt at constructing a stretcher. She had to
save them, save the crew...
but how?
They were trapped in her
apartment by a design that was meant to protect them.

To her own surprise, she leaned out and fired
a laser bolt down the hallway, only to be pulled back by the knight
admiral as the response came in the form of a loud boom originating
from the opposite end of the corridor. Dense smoke bellowed past,
blinding them, making it difficult to see more than a meter in
either direction.

“Lady Sasha!” a shout rose from a silhouette
that appeared within the dense smoke. She raised her laser arc in
surprise, but Lady Bhool forced her wrist down with such force
Sasha bit her tongue.

It took her only a moment to register why
Lady Bhool had stopped her. The owner of the silhouette was none
other than an ABF Princess One crewman, obvious by the red and
black jumpsuit he adorned. He hurried past, through the doorway
into the dining hall, another four rushing behind, while a fifth
collapsed out of sight as a laser bolt struck her chest.

Without thought, Sasha dove forward, towards
the fallen crewman. But Lady Bhool kept her vice-like grip on
Sasha’s wrist, yanking her violently back and throwing her into the
dining hall.

“No!” Sasha screamed, thinking she could save
the wounded crewman.

“Lady Sasha, it’s too late,” another crewman
pleaded from her side.

“Get them out of here before the smoke
clears!” Lady Bhool bellowed, before firing another laser bolt down
the smoke filled hallway.

“You heard the admiral!” A masked crewman
with long, bone white hair tumbling down to his waist, kneeled
before her, providing her a mask.

“Thank You’s, Your Grace, Ter’Ria woulda’
been happy to know you cared enough’ to try’an save her, Your
Grace,” the older crewman explained as he helped her strap on the
mask, smudging the tears that streamed down her cheeks.

“We’re ready,” someone shouted from behind.
Sasha glanced up to find Tiana and Regalia clinging to her sides,
trembling with fear, and Lia’Sil cradled in the arms of another
crewman.

“It’s clearing! You have to go now!” Lady
Bhool urged, a laser bolt striking the door frame.

“Don’t stop, just run,” the white haired
crewman explained as he pulled her forward. She nodded, trying to
shake off the helplessness that clung to her, before grabbing her
ladies outstretched hands with such force they could never break
away.

The moment Lady Bhool, Usa’Pol, and three of
the crewman rolled into corridor, forming a human wall, they burst
out of the dining hall, sprinting wildly towards her bedchamber.
Laser bolts sizzled past and she almost tumbled to the floor when
one stuck the ceiling, scattering searing debris across her exposed
skin. Tiana screeched as a laser bolt sizzled between them, burning
a hole in both their gowns and sending a searing pain up her thigh
she knew meant it had burned more than just the fabric.

The door to her bedchamber sat closed, but
split open when they approached. They tumbled through together to
crash into her massive bed. The white haired crewman didn’t pause,
dragging them toward her closet, being held open by another
crewman, who pointed towards a hole in the back corner.

The auto-cleaning system!
Sasha
realized, recalling that the system used to automatically clean her
clothing, within moments of her placing them within her closet, was
a centralized system also used by the general crew.

“Them first,” Sasha wheezed as she removed
her mask, pointing to her ladies. Surprised, but raising no
objection, the white haired crewman grabbed Regalia, who vanished
down the chute, followed by a reluctant Tiana, and finally,
Lia’Sil, who the two crewmen carried in together, leaving just
Sasha and the white haired crewman behind.

“Your Grace?” he questioned.

“I shall wait,” she said in a tone that left
no room for argument. The white haired crewman nodded, seeming to
agree.

“Senior Deck Engineer Tho’Mos, Your Grace.
Wish I could’a met you under better circumstances,” he introduced
himself while handing her a laser arc, before hurrying back towards
the door. A moment later, it split open.

Sasha dove for cover beside her bed, aiming
her trembling laser arc at the possible intruders. Usa’Pol and
three of the crewman rushed through, laser bolts on their heels,
Sasha lowering her weapon with sigh of relief. But the relief
didn’t last long, turning to apprehension when the door slammed
shut behind them, minus one.

“Lady Bhool, is sh-,” Sasha started to ask,
but was interrupted when the door slid open again, Lady Bhool
diving through in a hail of laser bolts, her shoulder and thigh
charred, but still whole.

“They’re right behind me,” Lady Bhool grunted
as she ripped off her mask.

“This way!” Tho’Mos shouted as he dragged the
knight admiral to her feet, before rushing towards the closet.

“What are you-,” the knight admiral started
when she noticed Sasha by the bed, “It doesn’t matter, we have to
get out of here,” she pulled free of Tho’Mos, grasping Sasha’s arm
and throwing her towards the closet first.

Sasha didn’t argue, squeezing into the dark
hole, unable to contain an unladylike squeak as she slid into
darkness. A bright light appeared the moment she exited the chute,
shining directly into her eyes.

“Your Grace? Thank the star god, this way,”
another crewman, who had been waiting within what must be the
centralized portion of the auto-cleaning system, a spherical room
with hundreds of actuated arms retracted against the wall with many
different “chutes”, like the one she had just descended, exiting
around its interior. Sasha followed the crewman through one of the
“chutes”, hopeful that it would lead her to safety.

“Lady Sasha,” Sasha jumped as a voice rose
from just behind, “we will be having words about prudence when
you’re safe,” Lady Bhool hissed.

But I just couldn’t leave you and the
others behind,
she wanted to shout in response, but thought
better of it, knowing she was in the wrong.

They exited through the back of another
closet, this one within the general crew quarters, obvious by the
bunks lining the walls.

“Sasha!” Tiana and Regalia cried, diving into
her arms as one, tears streaming forth.

“I’m so glad your both safe,” Sasha replied,
but found her gaze pulled towards another, who sat bawling
sorrowfully in the corner, a crewman cradling and cooing into the
woman’s ear.

“Xin’Eir?” she asked, the young supply
officer looking in her directions, cheeks swollen, and eyes of
utter grief.

“They killed the captain...we lost the
bridge...”

A swirling luminescence of pure radiance
crept between the tendrils of darkness that suppressed Trent's
thoughts, gradually unlocking memories of pain, sorrow, and loss.
He panicked, grasping desperately onto the dark nothingness, total
euphoria bereft of feeling and emotion.
It is alright,
the
radiance whispered,
nothing will hurt you,
it
continued
,
the words unlocking the fiery emotions that lay
hidden deep within his heart,
just accept the light,
it
urged.

His doubt began to grow...
should I listen
to the radiance and forsake the darkness?
His uncertainty
provided an opening, allowing the radiance to envelope his
existence and dissect it from the clutches of darkness, of the
place of peace.
It is alright, Trent,
a gentle voice
continued whispering from the radiance as it began to take the
shape of a beautiful woman.
Come, Trent, and become one with
me,
the soothing voice told, promising love unquestionable if
he left the peaceful darkness behind.

He cried out as the radiance sliced the last
sliver of darkness free. The image of the woman, along with her
memory, vanishing as he began to swirl through a funnel the
radiance had created.

He blinked, like he was born anew into the
universe, the sensation of flesh encasing his consciousness so
foreign he had forgotten its existence. A shiver spread across his
skin, originating from an icy metal surface on which he lay, naked
and pure, born anew.

Why do I feel so refreshed?
He
breathed; the pain that his mind cried should exist within his
every pore, not materializing. Instead, his muscles ached,
throbbing with excitement, begging to be used, they having been
neglected for so very long. But even beyond the peculiar yearning
of his muscles, another sensation tickled his mind, like a fuzzy
speaker existed within, projecting words in an unknown tongue. When
he concentrated on its source, in the back of his mind, it faded to
nothing like it had never existed in the first place.