Page 24 of Advance and Retreat (Dark Empire #6)

Mereta drew a shuddering breath and forced his gaze to Lokmi’s tense face. The engineer was looking around, his attitude that of a hunted animal.

Mereta forced calm onto himself. He could help no one, his Dark included, if he were captured. “I’m fine. Let’s continue quickly.”

“I’ll go ahead and get a peek at the zip, make sure it’s at least a two-man vessel.” Lokmi disappeared again. The containment holding the flailing Dark did as well.

Just the present exists. The future is never here. Only the now. Mereta set aside the events of seconds ago from his head and resumed his trek to the docking pad on the other side of the wooded parcel. Loss throbbed through him.

As the trees thinned, he slowed to approach cautiously. He could hear activity beyond the foliage, see movement beyond the purplish trunks of his cover. “Chief Engineer? Are they Darks?” He waited for an answer. None came. “Imdiko Lokmi?”

Nothing. Had the man abandoned him?

Shouts erupted. “Kalquorian!” several voices bellowed. Then came the blaster shots.

Mereta eased closer to the tree line, staying close to the ground. He worried it was a foolish move, but he was determined to see what was happening.

He reached a tree at the edge and peered around it.

Several entities ran and fired at a bearded man who appeared, then disappeared, then reappeared.

The man shot at the various Dark-ridden species trying to kill him several feet from his last position.

Mereta recognized the Nobek grinning fiercely as he wove between the shuttles doing more to deflect the blaster shots than his intermittent phasing.

Why did Captain Kila not stay phased, where the percussive blasts couldn’t harm him?

The answer became clear when an engine hummed to life.

As one, the assailants turned to gape in surprise as a bullet-shaped zip flyer rose in the air at the opposite side of the pad.

While Kila, whom Mereta hadn’t known was accompanying them, had been distracting his pursuers, Lokmi had boarded the zip unseen.

The vessel shot toward the trees where Mereta hid. It was so fast, it vanished for a second, materializing mere yards from his position. The hatch opened. He ran for it.

He reached it to find no one was sitting in it.

For a moment, Mereta was stunned, then he realized Lokmi must have phased the instant he’d landed.

Mereta had no idea how the engineer was to pilot the zip in such a state, but he clambered in the seat behind the cockpit.

No sooner had he settled in when Kila clambered onboard too. He claimed the pilot’s seat.

“Your Imdiko,” Mereta started.

“If he’s done as he was supposed to, he’s now in the cargo bin. Hold on.”

They took off while the hatch was still closing. The g-forces smashed Mereta to his seat until the hatch sealed and the onboard gravity asserted itself.

“Secretary-General, confirm your seat’s physical and containment restraints are locked in,” Kila barked.

Mereta did so unquestioningly. The zip was insanely fast. They’d been flying for a few seconds, but they were probably two or three miles from their starting point already. “Confirmed. What—”

The top of the zip abruptly blew off. Alarms sounded. Kila’s seat flew into the air. Before Mereta could scream, his own seat shot high. Again, he was pressed against it.

Blue heavens stretched all around him, only the dark dot of the zip dwindling in the distance to mar the perfection. Mereta gazed all about him, taking it in. The adrenaline coursing through him gave way to wonder.

It’s so beautiful! So infinite, like the Eternal.

His awe eased as he wondered where Kila was. And what of Lokmi, in the zip’s cargo hold?

Concern increased as his upward flight slowed, as he turned weightless in his seat. Then he was falling, falling, falling. Jedver’s gravity grasped to crash him to its embrace. His long hair flew up, the vertical banner of graying black betraying the speed at which he plunged

But the view, the incredible view...Mereta couldn’t fully escape the marvel of infinity. If he were to die in such a venue, he would be perfectly content to do so. It was better than the public execution the All had planned for him.

Then a rumble of noise rose beneath and behind him.

It quieted to admit the soft hiss of jets.

His descent slowed, and his hair tumbled over his face and shoulders.

He shook it back with a laugh. In the rush of the events, it hadn’t occurred to him that the zip’s seats would be built for emergency ejection and landing.

No doubt Nobek Kila’s chair had done the same. Mereta was still worried about Lokmi, but he hoped for the best from the intelligent Imdiko. Elite spies were notoriously hard to kill, and Clan Piras had proven themselves the pinnacle of success where thwarting death was concerned.

Mereta knew he had to remain on his mettle for what was to come next, but he took the opportunity to revel in his unexpected kinship with the heavens.

He estimated it was between five to ten minutes before his seat slowed to set him gently on the ground among a range of pastoral hills.

He recognized the landscape. He’d strolled it many times during contemplation since coming to Jedver.

The city he’d run from was in sight, an easy walk from his position.

His restraints released him. He stood as a furrowed-browed Kila raced up to him.

“All right, sir?”

“Amazing, Captain.” Mereta chuckled. “Some advance warning would have been nice prior to my being flung toward the cosmos, but given the circumstances, I realize it wasn’t possible.”

Kila grinned, then took his arm. “Let’s get under cover in case anyone saw us come down.”

They did so beneath a small stand of the purple-barked trees. Kila muttered into his com. Afterward, he told Mereta to put his hand on the silver chevron pinned to his armored formsuit. Mereta did so, and Kila activated the phase device. They were at least hidden from those who weren’t Dark-ridden.

A couple minutes later, a delivery shuttle, identical to the one that had delivered the bin the spy group had hidden in to reach Mereta at his home, touched down. Perhaps it was the same vessel. The hatch opened, and they went aboard.

“Hold this. Don’t deactivate it,” Kila told Mereta, removing the phase device from his chest. He appeared to the waiting Beonid twins in the cockpit and Piras, who was in the cargo area. “Our rescue is safely among us. Any word on Lokmi?”

The admiral breathed a sigh of relief. “He reported he’s a little banged up from the crash, but your programming it to land in the lake kept him from major injury.

He’s made it to an unpopulated area. We’ll pick him up now, then return to the safehouse.

” Piras turned to the twins, who watched him and Kila with what Mereta assumed to be avaricious curiosity. “You have the coordinates.”

“Yes, Admiral,” the female Beonid purred. Her gaze lingered on him before she turned to the controls her brother had already begun to tap.

Piras’ jaw tightened as he glanced at Kila. The Nobek shook his head slightly, his erstwhile smirk turning to a grimace.

No wonder Kila had been adamant Mereta remain phased. His rescuers’ allies were apparently a problem...or could become one.

He’d have to continue on the road to escape, though he had no idea how much of it remained to travel.

Mereta remained phased throughout the trip to pick up a battered but exhilarated Lokmi, who was welcomed by his clanmates’ great relief and joy. Mereta’s gaze went to the shimmering containment unit the Imdiko held. Its shadowy passenger was slumped motionless at the bottom.

With Lokmi safe in the shuttle, they headed toward the city. Piras phased to keep Mereta company.

“The bravery of you and your clanmates has no parallel,” the elder Dramok praised.

“Don’t sell yourself short, sir. Most rarely attribute courage in the face of tremendous physical danger to spiritual masters. You’ve proven them wrong on all counts.”

Mereta chuckled. “What’s the next step?”

“Getting a message to associates we hope will assist us in getting you off the planet.”

“And you as well?”

Piras shrugged. “If it’s possible. Don’t worry; I have every intention of my clan and I living long, full lives.”

“Good. How soon can we hope to leave Jedver?”

“Not for a week at least, and only if we’re lucky.

As you noted, the All will be desperate to recover you.

It’ll be terribly difficult to escape and not be detected.

Damned near impossible.” Piras considered.

“The longer we wait to attempt our getaway, the more likely the All will assume we’ve already gone. ”

“If nothing is heard from me, however, it could assume I’m laying low instead.”

“There’s that too. All we can do is try.”

They were silent until the shuttle reached its destination. “Home sweet home,” the Beonid male called. “No sign of anyone in sight, so make it quick.”

Lokmi held his phase unit in his hand, which Kila took so they shared its effects.

Mereta followed them through the hatch, which remained closed.

He noted the unpleasant strangeness of passing through solid matter, as if he were being dragged through a resisting force, then he was outside the door of a small, squat building.

He had no time to consider his surroundings as he rushed through a closed door to reach its interior.

He found himself in a loading area. His companions didn’t pause but continued at brisk trots toward a wall instead of the other three doors in the space. Lokmi and Kila disappeared through the metal partition. Piras waited for Mereta to go through before following.

They emerged and unphased in a storage room filled with bins of computer parts. A young Earther female Mereta recognized hurried to Piras first to hug him. “Thank goodness you’re safe. I was beginning to freak out.”

“A few twists and turns we hadn’t anticipated came up, but here we are.”