Page 21 of Guardian’s Destiny (Space Guardian’s Mate #3)

VRAAX

I watched Sloane longer than it was sensible to do so. The third shudder going through the ship finally got my attention. With a curse, I brought the vessel up in a steep ascent, trying to shake the jets. They probably weren't meant to go into space, or at least not deep into it, but I was sure the Ohrurs would put up a forcefield that would stop me from returning, and I would never leave Sloane down there by herself.

Cloaking the ship would be useless; the Ohrurs had the same technologies as me, maybe even one more advanced, and would still pinpoint me, so I didn't try. Instead, I sent the jets on a mighty chase, deployed decoys for their missiles and beams, and took sharp left and right turns that left my vessel groaning. Their jets were definitely more maneuverable than my spaceship.

I reached majestic mountains, where again, the jets would hold the advantage of being smaller. But I had more experience in flying evasive maneuvers, and when we came upon a narrow canyon, I turned my ship sideways and watched two of the jets crash and burn as they hit the walls. I wasn't proud of it because they were Space Guardians, like me, but it couldn't be helped.

Coming out on the other side, I found a large overhang. I brought the ship up to it, and like with the transporter before, I had the vessel hug the overhang. This time, I activated the cloaking device. As I hoped, the other eleven jets brushed by without seeing me. But they would be back once they realized the ship's heat signature was still here, even if they couldn't see me.

It didn't matter. It bought me enough time to return through the canyon and get a good head start. Good enough that this was my chance to return to the hill and pick Sloane up. I only hoped that the stubborn female had listened to me and would be on top of the hill. Knowing better, I prepared myself to exit the ship and go in search of her.

It wouldn't be easy and would take time, but we could sneak away and hijack a freighter or ship and make it out of here and to Darlam.

I activated the self-implode sequence on my comm. Once initiated, it would blow the ship into so many tiny pieces the Ohrurs wouldn't be able to identify it. If they hadn't done so already, which I prayed they hadn't. The longer they believed I still worked for them, the better it would be for Sloane and me.

I did deactivate the location mapping on my comm just in case. I had a few ticks before the jets would be back on my tail and before we reached the hill. I used that time to arm myself quickly and returned to the bridge just in time to hear the alarm of the jets going through the canyon.

Below the hill came into view, the spectral grid showed me the presence of three life forms. She was there. I let out a relieved breath before I even acknowledged that she must have fulfilled her mission as the other two heat sources indicated.

I brought the ship to a stop and down, the jets overshot me in a timing that couldn't have been better had I planned this. They were more agile than my vessel, but they still had to make a complete turn before they would be back, giving us only moments.

The hatch was already open when a small explosion shook my ship. Damn, the open hatch was a prime invitation to send a blaster beam through my ship as more hostiles had started to show up. Alarms went off on the screens, and the stabilizer had been hit. There was no way I could outrun the jets with it not working, and there was no time to see if it could be fixed.

I rushed to the cargo hold, running faster than ever before in my life. I had to get to Solaana… what? Who? Sloane. I meant Sloane.

With no time to ponder where that thought had come from, what it meant, or who Solaana was, I reached the open cargo bay. Sloane was just about to enter it, pulling an Ohrur female and having a male draped over her shoulders.

"Back!" I yelled. "It's gonna blow."

By the seven suns, I loved this female. Frygging loved her. The thought was elating! She didn't hesitate, didn't ask any questions, only turned, pulling the Ohrur with her. Once I reached her, I plucked the unconscious Ohrur from her shoulder, recognizing Moddekdum and sparing a grin, before I pulled the female up against my chest, leaving Sloane to only worry about herself. The evilness spreading from Moddekdum was strong, even in his unconscious state.

The fire I had started at Moddekdum's was out, thanks to the drones. Several Space Guardians were searching the house and grounds for the cause. The arrival of my ship gave them an idea, and I saw five of them making their way to the foot of the hill.

"This way!" I yelled at Sloane, already making my way down on the other side of the smallish mountain. Sliding down, I tried to protect the female as much as I could, but here and there, she let out a whimper when she must have hit a rock or scraped along the ground.

This side led into a large forest. Filled with vegetation and fallen rocks that provided excellent cover. Tharaax and Nova's report about having been in a similar forest entered my mind, as well as their description of it having looked like the overgrown ruins of a large city. That was the first impression I got when we entered the overgrown foliage. The trees were so large and the canopies so dense, they didn't allow much light in.

I stopped for a moment and pulled my comm out. It was time to say goodbye to my ship.

"We better hurry," I advised Sloane as I entered the code for the initiation frequency.

Sloane didn't ask any questions but positioned herself so that we could both support the Ohrur female now while I carried Moddekdum over my shoulders. We went deeper and deeper into the forest. Some trees were so large that they built arches above us, and it took me a moment to realize that they weren't trees at all but arched ruins of a city that must have been gigantic.

A loud detonation shook the ground, and debris hailed down at us. Sloane pulled, and I followed to one of the towering arches to use as cover. I wasn't sure how sturdy these structures were, but if they were leftovers from the Ohrur's civil war twenty-thousand years ago and they still stood, I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt of holding up against the small parts of debris filtering through the trees.

"Did you destroy the ship?" Sloane asked.

"I didn't want to chance them finding anything on it," I confirmed. "You didn't leave anything of value behind, did you?"

She shook her head. I hadn't thought so; all she had were the clothes on her back and a few pieces of clothing we had scavenged from Luph's ship. "No, but some warning would have been nice."

I grinned; I couldn't help myself. "Hey, Sloane?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm going to blow the ship up."

She raised a middle finger at me, and I laughed.

"We need to keep going. There are a lot of Space Guardians after us."

"We shouldn't be here," the Ohrur female suddenly said, shuddering. She looked as spooked as someone walking after midnight through a graveyard.

"What do you mean?" Sloane asked.

"It's forbidden to come here," the female elaborated.

"Oh… " Sloane grinned at me. "That's good, right?"

I shrugged, doubting the Space Guardians would care. Once they were on our trail, there would be no deterring them.

As if they had heard my thoughts, the sound of several jets flying over us forced us to duck.

"With any luck, they'll think we blew up with the ship," I said.

"They'll soon figure out Moddekdum is gone and her," she nodded at the female who looked more frightened now than before, ogling our surroundings as if expecting ghosts to jump out at her.

"They might think Moddekdum got killed in his mansion." I voiced my hopes, but even as I said it, I knew neither the Ohrurs nor the Space Guardians would leave this to chance. They would investigate, and they would keep searching.

Just then, the forest around us exploded.

"Shit, they must have heat sensors," Sloane cursed.

"We need to get out of here," the Ohrur female cried.

"Ugh, ah," Moddekdum groaned, about to wake up from his naptime.

I spied a triangular piece of metal and shrugged Moddekdum off my shoulders, hoping I was right. I pulled on the metal and exposed a long, dark tunnel leading down into the bowels of what once must have been the city's sewer system.

Without fanfare, I pulled Moddekdum toward me by his ankles, shouldered him, and moved to climb the rungs attached to the wall of the triangular shaft.

"What are you doing?" Sloane demanded.

"If it can hold Moddekdum and me, it'll hold you and her." I filled her in on my half-assed plan. Another explosion, a lot closer this time, made Sloane huff before she put the hardly protesting Ohrur female on her back.

"Hold tight." She advised her.

I told my comm to light up and grabbed one rung after another as we descended into the dead city's bowels.