Ch. 12
Disclaimer: TP characters belong to Disney. All others belong to me. All your base are belong to us.
Amelia was disheartened for a moment—when she saw the smaller ship that had blocked the path to her liberators, she had begun to worry that her plan had begun to fail and that, once the her weapons carried no charge, she would be good as dead. The only thing that gave her comfort at that time was that the majority of her fleet seemed to have succeeded in crippling or utterly destroying the Procyon Armada's vessels. She had steeled herself against the oppressing fear of death that began to wash over her as the Llao's Captain exploded onto the deck, mad as hell, with weapon firing. He held a saber over his head in one hand and a large hand cannon in the other, and any Terran solider that crossed his path would admit that it was a truly terrifying sight to behold—at least up until the moment his life was ended by the very same crazed man's weapon. Amelia knew that her best chance was to get the maniac from behind—one shot with the hand cannon would mean a sure death—and so she quietly made her way behind him, stood, and took aim…
The sound was THUNDEROUS as the R.M.S. Cassandra slammed into the side of the Llao. The crash toppled structure and person, and suddenly, one whole side of the ship began to smolder. The ram knocked Amelia of her feet and into her would-be prey, and while she had had her weapon torn from her hand in the shock, she was lucky to see that Maltor had suffered the same loss. They blinked at each other a moment before the two of them grabbed their sabers, thrusting them at one another until the met in a mighty 'clang.' They pushed back, each getting to their feet before charging at one another.
"Amelia!" Raymond called out from their former hiding spot.
"Go to the enemy ship next to us! Find a way to disable it! We need to get it away from my ship!"
Raymond wasn't about to argue with such an order, what with the situation critical now that the Llao was aflame. He threw a glance at Amelia before darting off toward the smaller Procyon vessel.
Stay safe my dear, he thought as he ran, Come back to me so that I may help you fill out those divorce papers.
Amelia observed Raymond's escape only long enough to confirm that he had made it aboard the other ship before throwing everything she had into the grandest swordfight of her career. Maltor was a formidable opponent when he WASN'T crazed as hell, so Amelia found herself moving faster and thinking quicker than she had for many years. She thrusted, she parried, she darted and dashed. He drew blood from her left arm twice, and she he managed to take a finger or two off his hand before the smoke from the small blazes on the ship's side began to interfere with her view.
She could hear crewman jumping into the fray from the damaged but still functional Cassandra, and from what she could tell, they were doing well. Still, she has a dangerous opponent right in front of her and blast-it-all she couldn't SEE him!
It was his angry growl that tipped her off, allowing her to dodge his blow before he could reach her. The two locked weapons again and this time, Amelia resolved herself to staying close enough to Maltor so that he would not leave her sight again. As she fought in the black smoke with her larger opponent, she heard her men being ordered to the safety of the Cassandra so that they could limp away from the flaming ship before it set their own ablaze. The smoke began to choke Amelia and she knew that she needed to finish the job soon.
She got in close, trying for the Procyon Captain's neck, but failed, and received another blow to her arm as punishment. Amelia stumbled a moment, leaving her side wide open for a moment. Maltor took that opportunity to lunge forward on his right foot and spear her through, but that part of the smoldering deck gave way under his foot and he fell, crashing to the floor, the boards creaking and spitting sparks at him. Amelia took the opportunity afforded her and attacked, running Maltor through with her sword, assuring his quick but assured death. She left him there, pinned to the deck with her saber, left to burn with the remains of the ship he once commanded.
She took a brief moment to search the deck at her feet and was fortunate enough to stumble across not only her own lost weapon, but Maltor's hand cannon as well. Though she was ill versed in their use (they were illegal weapons in the Empire), she brandished it anyway, hoping that if it didn't come of any use to her, at least it wouldn't fall into the hands of the enemy again. Amelia then made her way through the smoke, away from the safe harbor of the Cassandra to assist Raymond in freeing her ship from the Llao's neighbor.
Fortune, it would seem, was on Delbert Doppler's side for the umpteenth time that fortnight, for it was only the stumble he took upon hearing Kolor's words that had saved his insides from the likes of a blaster wound.
"Delbert! Are you alright?" Kolor breathed as Doppler hit the deck face-first.
The frazzled astrophysicist peeled himself from the wood deck and turned to Kolor with a wild look in his eyes. "That was a little far."
"What?"
"To get me to stop. That story you conjured up—that was going a little far."
Kolor didn't know whether to scream in frustration or laugh out loud. The man thinks I'm joking with him! He sighed to himself, Still, he seems pretty shaken by the mere prospect. He's safe now—best to keep him focused.
"Well, desperate times call for desperate measures," Kolor laughed as he lied through his teeth, "It was the only thing I could think of."
Delbert ran a hand through his hair. "You near about killed me, you know that."
"On the contrary, I just saved your ass."
Doppler frowned. "We still have to defend the engines. Perhaps if we both go, we'll have a better chance of one of us making it?"
Kolor thought this over a minute. He hated the idea, but there would be no further compromise. With himself along, he could shield Doppler, at the very least.
"Alright, let's do that. On three."
The peered out of their hiding place to see that a few of the Procyons were already making their way down below deck.
"No time! Let's go!" Doppler barked as he darted straight at the Procyons standing between them and the ship's bowels. Kolor jumped to his feet and quickly followed, gun out and heart racing.
Time passed as slowly and as quickly as Kolor had ever experienced it and together it was such a blur that he hadn't really realized they had both made it alive past their opponents until he and Doppler were securing the bowel's door against further invasion. His mind caught up to him as Doppler turned to look at him.
"N-now what?" the older man asked nervously. Doppler was sweating and shaking from the incident, and Kolor was sure that only a portion of the reaction was due to the physical exertion.
"Well," the physician said, "We saw a few Procyons come below deck—meaning we've just locked them in the underbelly with us. We'd best be on guard as we head for the engine room."
"Right."
The two of them crept silently forward, guns held in front of them. Being that neither of them was a trained military man, the two hardly looked like a crack swat team. In fact, when a couple of shots rang out, the two of them jumped before heading toward the source.
In the engine room's doorway, a Procyon lay dead, a single shot burned into his temple. Next to him, Nali lay, clutching her own weapon and bleeding.
"Nali!" Doppler exclaimed. He rushed to her and tried to rouse her as he called her name.
Kolor approached, holding a green engineer's lantern he had found by the entrance in his hand. He used the eerie light to survey her wounds before holding it to her face.
"She still has color and she's still breathing," Kolor said, as he reached into his pocket and produced a vial, which he waved in front of her nose. She coughed, then groaned.
"Uggggh…green light…"
"She's not too terribly wounded, but if we don't get her out of here, she'll die," Kolor remarked grimly. He turned to Doppler. "Can you get to the sickbay from here and lock the two of you in?"
"W-why me…?"
"You know this ship better than I do, Delbert. If I get lost, then she dies. You need to take her to sickbay, lock the door and bandage her up immediately. And besides, I'm a Procyon. I can blend in with the invaders should they come, convince them I've already got the engine room rigged with explosives. If I play my cards right, they won't fire on me."
Delbert bit his lip. As much as he hated the idea, Nali was depending on care.
"Very well."
"Good," Kolor nodded. "I'm going to lock myself in the engine room and defend it. With any luck, our boys upstairs will take care of the rest."
Delbert nodded. "Please, Kolor. Be safe, my friend."
Kolor grinned. "Of course."
Delbert scooped Nali into his arms and gave the Procyon one last look before he started off.
"Oh--! And Delbert," Kolor called.
Delbert turned to face him.
"I really do think you'd make a fine father."
Delbert shot him a look. "You'd better live, doctor. I owe you for that."
Kolor shrugged as he grinned wider, "I call 'em like I see 'em."
Delbert shook his head at the man before taking off for the sickbay. The only other sound he heard as he left the engine room hallway was the sound of Kolor securing the door.
Kolor sighed to himself as he prepared himself for a long and boring guard duty. He leaned against the door and forced himself to relax as he rested his eyes for a moment.
"It would seem," a voice rang out from the back of the engine room, "that we have a traitor in our midst. And you do know how much the Armada hates traitors."
Kolor's eyes flew open to find Maltor's second's gun pointed straight at his face.
To be continued…
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY! I updated!
Let me take a moment to thank absolutely EVERYONE who has read and reviewed this story. I'm sorry the updates have been less frequent than everyone (including myself) might like, but I'm a college graduate enjoying my summer now, and that means doing some long overdue writing. Thank you guys so much for being patient with me and for supporting me and giving me encouragement. This is truly one of the best fandoms I've ever been a part of and I couldn't be happier with it.
I'll probably wrap this up in a couple of more chapters. A lot is in store, but I wanted to get this little bit out so, A) the ending chapters wouldn't be TOO long and B) to put something out there for you guys so that you know I didn't give up on this. Thanks for not giving up on me.