Chapter 4
Before I had myself any form of respite, I determined my strategy for the following morning, laying out my planned course of action. I only had one shot at this, and I wanted it to count.
The key lay in a small discovery I had made only moments before. I had tried to contact Mark on my communicator, knowing that I had to make the attempt, despite the likely outcome that such a transmission would not get through to its intended destination. Yet when I had tried to initiate a broadcast, a strange, high-pitched hum had emanated from my wrist. Curiously, I had examined the device, and my resulting discovery had been most illuminating.
My communicator had been reset.
A reset was common enough: it was something that was required whenever our wristlets were damaged, so that the self-repair cycle could be initiated. Since our communicators were linked to our cerebonics, activation of the reset was simply a thought, the message passed through our neurons to our implants and then to the device on our arms. Yet in this case, I hadn't authorized a reset. This function had been performed by something else.
The only thing I knew of that could reset the communicator without my involvement was a high frequency broadcast in the Gamma Lurian Range. Such frequencies were rare, having only been discovered a few decades before in a remote portion of the galaxy. There was no known technology that used such frequencies, as they were considered to be unstable and easily interruptible, under certain circumstances.
Was it possible that the energy restraints that had been placed around me were based on Lurian frequencies? How like the Spectrans to use such untried scientific methods! They had done as much before, testing new technologies in battle rather than in a laboratory. Such safety procedures were considered too time-consuming for Zoltar.
Yet I could take advantage of the Spectran Leader's impatience. I set my cosmic communicator to emit an ionized flandon pulse every sixty seconds. The pulse would disrupt Lurian frequencies, and I hoped that this would be sufficient to interfere with the energy restraints as well. Ideally I could set it to emit an ongoing pulse, but I feared that if the restraints did not immediately function as the Spectrans expected, they would be suspicious of my actions. It would be better to wait and take them by surprise.
In case this maneuver didn't work, I placed my two remaining Astro Bombs in one of my bootheels, leaving the plastique in the other. With an appropriate flick of my foot, I could toss out the Astro Bombs, hopefully buying myself some time to escape, even if the energy field hadn't completely dissipated.
My timer was relegated to a hidden pocket inside of my wings, leaving only my yo-yo out in the open. I knew that if the guards had the foresight to disarm me, their suspicions would rise if my primary weapon could not be found.
It was only after all of these preparations had been made that I permitted myself to succumb to my intense fatigue. Despite my uncomfortable circumstances and my active thoughts, the physical exhaustion I felt forced my body to sleep.
I was awoken by a loud bang. My eyes opened to see a large group of green-uniformed Spectran guards, along with Captain Lion's Mane. Fortunately, being a part of the G-Force Team meant that I was used to waking instantly, and I was able to immediately stand to meet my captors. I glared at them, yet purposely injected a measure of exhaustion into my expression in an attempt to appear as if I was exhibiting a false bravado. Two soldiers leered at me, roughly pulling me forward and reaching behind my back. I hung my head, placing my hands behind me, assuming a posture of defeated acceptance. Another guard stepped in front of me and began roughly going through my belt compartments. His hands roamed too freely for my liking, yet I did my best to ignore his actions. I had to wait for the right moment.
Sure enough, he found my yo-yo, and seemed disappointed to come up empty-handed otherwise.
"Now I've got myself a little trophy." he chortled, placing my weapon into his pocket. I refused to acknowledge his statement. I was so involved in suppressing my anger that I almost missed a small sensation on my back. A tiny device had been placed on my wings. But no sooner had I determined this then I found my body once again encased in the energy field. I smiled inwardly. So that was how it worked!
I kept my head down, refusing to speak, shuffling along as best I could with everything between my neck and my knees held in place by the energy restraints. As had happened the previous day, I was surrounded by a dozen guards, a full squadron, and we proceeded in Keystone Cop fashion to the elevator at the end of the hall.
Approximately ten meters from the elevator, I felt the energy restraints dissipate.
With my hands behind my back, it was easy to surreptitiously snatch the device from my back, then hold my hands over the spot on my wings to which it had been attached. Using one hand to cover the other, my fingers pressed together, crushing the device until I was certain that it could not be repaired. I breathed an inward sigh of relief.
By this time we were entering the elevator. The guards crowded in around me, the thirteen of us taking up all available floor space in the small box. I felt the chamber begin to rise.
I kept my eye on the depth display, waiting until I judged that we had ascended approximately two thirds of the way to the surface. The time had come.
I raised my right leg between two guards in a drop kick, flicking my foot as the kick reached its peak. The soldiers barely had time to evince their surprise at my action before my Astro Bombs hit the control panel. I ducked down to the floor, taking cover behind the guards in front of me. Their bodies acted as human shields, protecting me from the full brunt of the resulting explosion.
Suddenly the air was filled with smoke. I leapt upward in the confusion, clinging to the ceiling even as the guards who had not been injured by the explosion pulled their guns and began firing into the darkness. I remained above them, smirking to myself as their laser blasts only hit each other and disabled the elevator still further. Only a few seconds had passed since I had begun my escape, yet they had been deadly for the Spectrans. From what I could see through the smoke, eight of them had either been killed by the explosion or the following laser fire, leaving only four remaining. I kicked out with my feet, crushing skulls and smashing my bootheels into their throats as I flipped and turned. It was only another few seconds before the remaining men were dead.
Wasting little time, I bent down, reaching into the pocket of a soldier with laser burns on his face, retrieving my yo-yo.
"I hope you enjoyed your trophy." I muttered, stepping on his head as I leapt back up to the ceiling. With the smoke from the explosion, it was becoming difficult to breathe, yet I managed to hold on until I found the maintenance hatch I had espied on my first journey in this elevator. I yanked the door open, allowing damp, cool air to flood the chamber, then scrambled through the small opening.
"Stop!" a voice called, and I understood that in my haste I had been careless. Someone had been left alive inside the elevator. I looked around, realizing that I was standing on top of the elevator chamber, inside a long, dark shaft. Before I could further assess the situation, a green-masked head popped through the hatch.
In a flash my yo-yo was out of my hand and wrapped around the man's neck. I tugged sharply, garroting him before he could even emerge through the small door. I retracted the cord, then kicked him back inside of the elevator for good measure. I didn't need anyone alive to alert Zoltar as to what had happened.
Naturally, I understood that my escape would not remain undetected for long. Once the elevator failed to arrive at its intended destination, the Spectrans would be suspicious. But I had to keep them guessing, unaware of exactly what had happened, and unable to predict my movements.
Above me the elevator shaft rose, a series of cables all that occupied the dark space. Eagerly I stretched my wings, flying upward, leaping from the cable to the walls of the shaft and back to the cable, using my surroundings to pull myself ever upward. The distance was longer than I expected, yet I persevered, doing my best to maintain a momentum and burn as little energy as possible.
I would need everything I had once I reached the top.
The ceiling of the shaft finally came into view, and to my dismay, it was as I had expected: there was no way out save the elevator doors. I had to presume that Zoltar would already have learned that the elevator had not arrived as scheduled, and posted additional guards.
They would be ready for me.
The only advantage I had was that they didn't know when I would get there, or how I would exit. They had chosen the battleground, but I had the advantage of timing.
Silently I shimmied up the cable, leaning out until my helmet was nearly touching the elevator door, listening for anything that might give away the Spectrans' intentions. Sure enough, I heard the voices of men milling around on the other side. I was unable to catch any specific words, yet it was clear that they had to be waiting for me. As quietly as I could, I pulled the plastique from my other bootheel, lining it carefully along the crack where the elevator doors met in the middle of the panel, shaping the material such that the force of the blast would burst into the corridor beyond, and away from the elevator shaft. When I was done I pulled back, surveying my handiwork.
It would have to do. It was now, or never.
I threw out my yo-yo, sticking it into the plastique, then used my weapon to detonate the explosive material. I took cover behind my wings as the door blew apart, then plunged straight ahead through the flaming debris of the panels that had covered the exit only a second before.
The corridor was a blackened mess of twisted metal and shouting men in scorched green uniforms. I paid no attention to the pandemonium as I tore through the area, noting the large numbers of downed soldiers at my feet. Clearly the explosive had been as effective as I had hoped. Most guards were too caught up in attempting to locate assistance for their downed comrades, but a few men noticed my passage. Their reward for their keen eyes was the impact of my yo-yo smacking their heads. Without exception, they crumpled to the floor, just a few more unconscious bodies to join the chaotic mess surrounding them.
Within moments I was sprinting down the corridor, unhindered by guards. Yet a shrill ringing resounded in my ears: an alarm had been activated. It was too much to hope that the bell tolled only to notify others of a medical emergency; I had to assume that the harsh screeching was meant to bring down the wrath of the Spectran military upon my head.
I put on a burst of speed, my destination clear in my mind. As I ran, I sped by men in uniform, all of whom appeared startled to find me in their midst, yet didn't hesitate long before giving chase. I was ahead of them, yet only barely.
Ahead of me loomed my destination: the hangar in which I had disembarked the previous day. My best chance was to find a spaceworthy vessel and hightail it out of the area while the Spectrans were still reeling in confusion at my escape. I raised my communicator, attempting to contact Mark, yet all I heard was a burst of static.
Behind me, the number of pursuers had grown to a sizeable group: enough men that I would have to address the situation. Yet I didn't have the time to stop for a pitched battle. Every second I wasted getting to the hangar and commandeering a spacecraft significantly decreased my chances of escape.
But as I passed through the corridor approaching the hangar, my eyes fell on exactly what I needed. Ahead of me, workmen were welding new metal plates onto the walls, their equipment scattered about them. As I leapt over the mess of materials, I snatched up a tool, activating it the moment it touched my fingertips. Quickly, I tossed the burning blowtorch into a nearby pile of compressed gas cells, of the sort that provided fuel to tools such as these.
The few seconds it took for the blowtorch to do its work were just enough for my pursuers to catch up to the scene. The cells overheated, exploding one after the other in a domino effect, effectively creating a barrier across the corridor past which the Spectran guards could not follow.
I grinned widely as I entered the hangar, almost enjoying myself now that the tension was beginning to leave my body. The few personnel in the area appeared to be workmen, who quickly ducked out of the way when they saw me coming. My eyes lit upon exactly what I had been looking for: a fleet of Spectran Space Fighters. Such spacecraft were relatively simply to pilot, were equipped with a fair amount of weaponry, and capable of Time Warp.
Just what I needed.
I practically flew across the hangar, making for the vessel at the forefront of the group. Only fifty meters away. Thirty meters. Twenty meters…
A black shape dropped down in front of me. I moved to dodge the unexpected obstacle, yet another dark form appeared to block my way. Whirling, I found that in my eagerness to escape, I had let down my guard and run right into another Spectran trap.
I was surrounded by Blackbirds.
My time had run out, yet after everything I had been through, I refused to surrender peacefully. If the Spectrans wanted me, they would have to pay the price.
Immediately, I lashed out with my weapon, twirling my yo-yo about my body in an attempt to take out as many opponents as possible. The black shapes approached me, and I unleashed a fury of attacks: fists, feet, arms, legs all attacking in unison, dealing death blows to anyone who approached. Yet the assault continued, pushing forth upon me until my limbs were aching and my body felt ready to drop from exhaustion. Still, it seemed that I was making progress. The sea of black in front of me had begun to clear.
I could still make it!
Just as the thought went through my head, a searing pain engulfed my body, and a malevolent darkness reached forth to claim my consciousness.
I had failed myself, and my Commander.
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"You insolent fool! How could you have let such a thing happen?"
The sound of Zoltar's enraged voice pulled me out of the darkness. I opened my eyes slightly: mere slits, but enough to witness what was going on in front of me.
I was lying on the floor of the hangar. My arms and legs appeared to be shackled together. What was more, those shackles appeared to be bolted to the floor itself. In front of me, Zoltar's red boots paced back and forth, around familiar blue legs. I smirked inwardly to realize that Captain Lion's Mane was taking the brunt of Zoltar's disapproval, on my behalf.
"I saw her safely onto the elevator with my best squadron." Captain Lion's Mane insisted. "The data relays inside the control panel were destroyed. We have no way of knowing what happened in there. Perhaps one of the guards was careless…"
"She escaped from her energy restraints!" Zoltar raged. "You assured me that wasn't possible!"
"I told you that it shouldn't be possible, my Lord." Captain Lion's Mane rushed to defend himself. "But the technology is still in the experimental stages…"
"And why is that, Mandakar?" Zoltar sneered. "I gave you personnel, resources! It should have been finished!"
"What I needed was time, my Lord." Mandakar replied. "We needed time to experiment with the device, and that time was not given. Now, our only prototype has been destroyed." It was clearly an effort for the Captain to maintain a polite tone.
"You knew how important this was!" Zoltar cried, his hands waving sharply in the air. "I warned you! She was not to show any signs of ill treatment! Now I have to parade her around in those things!" He gestured toward me, and I realized that he was speaking about my restraints.
"She has not been ill-treated." Mandakar insisted. "We even fed her."
"But when the people see her in those chains, they will think otherwise!" Zoltar screeched. "And there's been all this delay. We were scheduled to begin this morning, and now it's well after noon!"
"I regret the delay, my Lord." Mandakar shifted nervously from foot to foot.
"You'll regret it when I take it out of your hide!" Zoltar hissed. "It is my reputation on the line. Mine! Now get her into that courtroom! Immediately!" The Spectran Leader stomped angrily from the room, reminding me of an infuriated toddler.
"Imagine the trouble we would have had if that idiot had actually managed to capture the G-Force Commander, instead of this little girl." Mandakar muttered to himself.
Captain Lion's Mane must have seen me bristling at his comment, as Mandakar smirked at me in a superior fashion before gesturing to his men.
"You heard Lord Zoltar! Get this one to the courtroom. Immediately!"