Chapter 21:
Zarabeth ducked behind one of the larger support beams, narrowly escaping the pulse of purple laser that flashed just inches from her face. Swallowing hard in an attempt to catch her breath, it was difficult to keep her mind focused as the room rang loud with the clamor of unchecked fighting. She'd done her best to aim low with her pistol, wanting more to disable than to kill those who came at her, but she knew they were quickly running out of time.
Peeking cautiously around the corner, Zara was just in time to see a few of Nomie's warriors along with some of the Aberdeen's own all but completely destroy one of the boats about ready to be launched, the craft falling away into the atmosphere beneath, splintered wood, engine pieces, weapons and all.
Reacting instantly, Zarabeth managed to pull the trigger beneath her finger as one of the smugglers came at her from the left, the girl managing to catch him in the leg, forcing him to the ground just long enough for her to kick his gun far out of reach.
She wasn't entirely sure how she was still standing, her legs trembling terribly beneath her, the almost painful racing of her heart reminding her to keep moving for fear of the slightest distraction finishing her completely.
It wasn't difficult to tell that Ewen's men were far outmatched in skill, despite their numbers, their injured or critically wounded forms gradually littering the floor of the room one after another. Still they fought on, desperately urged forward by the demanding orders of their leader as he stayed uselessly cowering in the shadows.
Fighting her way across the room, Zarabeth did her best to stay light on her feet, attempting to avoid the hands which desperately fought to take hold of her from where the men lay injured all around. Clearing the living maze enough to get to her purposed destination, Zara's trembling hands clung to the wooden rail of the small boat, leaning in over the gap between floor and skiff only for as far as she could still keep her balance.
"William! William look at me! I need you to move as close to me as you can!" Looking hurriedly about her to confirm that no one had yet noticed her presence, Zara couldn't help how she held her breath in terrified anticipation, knowing how critical each moment was. "Come on, almost there. Just a little closer-"
Zarabeth's hand clenched tightly on the wood beneath her fingers, fighting back the urge to let go as her arm screamed at her in gradually heightening pain, her good arm extended as far as she could humanly reach in an attempt to grab hold of the cabin boy. She had to stay concentrated, nothing but the atmosphere alone to meet her feet if she lost her balance even a little. She knew her arms wouldn't be able to hold her.
The look in the boy's eyes was as equally frantic as Zara's, his efforts to move closer to her greatly impaired by his bound limbs, but he managed to move none the less, motivated only by the thought of what would happen if he couldn't reach her.
Zarabeth tried and tried again to bury the realization that she had no real way of getting him back onto solid ground while still keeping her own footing, not with the way the boat was already sporadically shifting and jerking beneath her hand. It wasn't until he'd finally gotten close enough that she surrendered herself to the reality of the situation. She had to do it.
The sharp breath Zara took in at the biting pain in her arm was quickly lost to her as she fell hard into the bottom of the skiff, only a small groan escaping her already parted lips as she fought to regain clarity. She had to act quickly.
The fearful eyes staring back up at her were filled with the same realization of how this was going to end one way or another, the boy hurriedly shaking his head as he tried to object.
Her trembling fingers made quick work of the boy's gag, her next course of action to free his arms and legs, though easier said than done without the aid of any sort of weapon to cut through his bonds.
"Zarabeth, no, we don't have time-"
"William, I'm getting you out of here."
"Mrs. Hawkins, please, listen to me! You need to-"
"Duck!" Pulling her head down with William's, the random shot fired in their direction hit the opposite wall with a loud 'crack' and the unmistakable smell of smoldering wood.
"Stop! Forget the ropes! If you're gonna try to save me, just throw me off the boat!"
"William, I can't! If I miss, I'll be tossing you clean off this ship. I can't throw you."
It was the gradual return of red which caught the boy's eye, the renewed bleeding of the girl's arm now painfully obvious through the frayed strips of cloth keeping it only somewhat in check.
"You have to leave me. They won't do anything to me if you go now."
"William, no. I can't do that."
"They'll kill you! Think of Captain!"
"And I'm thinking of your mother! Now hold still."
Her efforts to undo the knots confining the boy's hands and feet were getting her nowhere. The harder she tried, the less her fingers were able to keep a steady hold on the ropes. It wasn't going to work. Not like this.
"Hang tight, William. We're going out another way."
"W-Wait, what?"
This was crazy. This would be disastrous if it didn't work. This had better work. Just think of Jim.
The thoughts running unchecked through Zarabeth's mind were the only things to cheer her onward, the desperation of the moment driving her to the only logical plan of action she could think up.
Looking about the room once more, she was relieved to see that the majority of the fighting was revolving around the third skiff on the far side of the room. This was her only chance to attempt this.
Situating herself in the back of the small boat, Zara was instantly wracking her brain to remember and accurately emulate what she'd watched Jim do time and time again. Her trembling fingers somehow found the proper buttons to press and settings to adjust, the sound of the engine beginning its revival to full power almost too loud for comfort as she waited for the levels to get high enough to act upon.
Zarabeth took a deep breath to calm herself as her hands carefully took hold of the steering handles on either side of her, swallowing down her fear as she pulled hard in order to force them out of the release hatch. She was going to fly them out herself.
'Click'. The entire boat jolted up as the cable supporting the skiff refused to give way.
Her heart skipping a beat in renewed frantic adrenaline, Zarabeth tried and tried again to forcibly pull the boat off of the cable, but the skiff wasn't willing to budge. Those controls were all the way at the back of the room. There was no way to reach them.
Leaving only one of her hands to remain on the steering, Zara raised her pistol once more in desperation, carefully taking a few seconds to aim at the suspension cable in order to be certain that she'd hit her target. For in the moment she would succeed, she and William would instantly drop away from the Aberdeen and into the stardust below. She needed to be ready for that.
"Look out!"
William's words of warning seemed so distant, the smack of wood and Zarabeth's sharp gasp in pain the loudest sounds in her ears, her body tossed aside like a useless doll against the skiff's far rail. Her vision flashed white with the shooting pain radiating through her shoulder as she caught it hard against the planking. Hardly able to feel her wrist, she frantically tried to force herself upright, her efforts met with another firm blow to her good arm, leaving her lying helplessly stunned between two of the benches in the bottom of the boat.
"Get a move on, ya scum! No, leave them! They're as good as dead! Just pick a boat and let's go!"
Ignoring the pulsing in her arm, Zara desperately reached for the gun that had been knocked from her hands, her fingers just barely wrapping about the cold metal of the barrel before a booted foot forced her to stop, the weight of Ewen's step on her bad wrist forcing a sharp cry from her already parted lips. She instinctively tried to pull her arm out from under his boot, but couldn't deny how much more it hurt to do so, her attempts subdued within moments before the man's violent grasp found her throat.
No manner of kicking or clawing was seeing fit to help free her, Zarabeth's body already too weak and exhausted to do much, his hand pulling her to her knees in front of the smuggler before it threw her back towards the front of the skiff with almost no effort.
Zara instantly braced herself to hit the wooden bench behind her, but instead landed in a heap with the other brigands, the men wholly unsure of what to do with her as they looked up in confusion at their leader.
"Don't just stand there like a pack of daft bots! Tie her up! She's good for anyone that tries following. We're late as it is, so get! Any more stowaways, you blow off the edge!"
Anything Zara had been prepared to say in defiance was suddenly lost to her mind as the rush of air came back to her with the single moment of breaking away from the ship, her hope of getting her and William back into safety fading away as the Aberdeen quickly grew smaller and smaller above them.
She didn't fight back when they bound her hands behind her, Zarabeth's only reaction being a few silent winces whenever her arm was pulled or pushed where she didn't want it to go.
Within seconds, the other remaining skiff made its departure after them, both boats filled with close to a dozen of the smugglers, alien and human alike, the possibility of civil war carried with them as they sped their way down toward Rhitan.
They'd failed.