Chapter Three-"We're Going Out Fighting!"

Psalm 3:1- "O Lord, how many are my foes! How many rise up against me!"

"What about the escape pods? Can we use them?" Tielle asked, her voice sounding desperate in her own ears. This couldn't be happening!

A bodyguard shook his head. "The tractive-pull's beam is large enough to stop the pod from going anywhere. It would just pull the pods in along with the shuttle."

Then they were stuck. Tielle spun around and staggered back to the room where Arilana was waiting. "What's happening, Tielle?"

Tielle was already packing a bag. "We're being captured by somebody and there's no way out. They've got us in a tractive-pull." She threw some nice clothes into the bag. Even as a prisoner, she was going to look like the princess she was. "I'd advise you to start packing." Tielle added her religious books, the Prophets, the Proverbs, the Writings, and the Pentateuch to the bag, and threw in her datapad for good measure, although she had no doubt that it would be confiscated by her captors. Next she added her basic hygienic materials, and lastly she took her photo-bank of photos that she carried with her everywhere.

Arilana was packing a similar bag beside her, but Tielle knew that there was something that they'd both need. She reached under her seat and located the button, pressed it, and opened the compartment that contained four lasers, all fully charged and ready to go. "They won't take us without a fight," Tielle whispered as she hid one laser in a holster on her arm and put the other in the holster on her waist.

Saos Ritane was sworn to protect and guard the Crown Princess with his life. He was instructed to die rather than let Princess Tielle fall into enemy hands, no matter whether the enemy had plans to kill her or not. And now that the enemy would have both the Crown Princess, and Princess Arilana, who would become the Queen if anything happened to Tielle, making sure that at least one of them escaped alive was crucial. If both perished, the royal Satine birthright would be passed on to Klane Satine, which was something that made every Hidonian pray for the safety of the Princesses every night.

Hopefully their prayers would not be in vain. Saos checked his laser and barked, "We won't go down without a fight! We must get at least one of the Princesses safely to Fareari, no matter what the cost!"

The rest of the bodyguards checked their lasers, then looked at the ship that was gradually coming closer and closer. Saos thought he saw something close to fire burning in their eyes.

Arilana moaned, "What are we going to do? What will they do with us? Will we die?" Her voice broke and she started to sob.

Tielle rushed over to her distraught sister. "They won't kill us," she declared, hoping what she said was true. "If they wanted us dead, they would have already blasted us."

Arilana stopped her weeping. "You're right. We'd already be dead." The though cheered her up considerably, so Tielle didn't mention that their captors might want to torture them, or use them to make their father do what they wanted him to, or just to kill them while billions of beings watched…

Tielle shook away such thoughts. They weren't going to kill her, not if she still had breath in her lungs and strength in her limbs. "Here Arilana, take this." She tossed the laser to her younger sister. "We're going out fighting."

"We're going out fighting," the head bodyguard, Saos interrupted Tielle from the door, "but you two are going to be behind us, trying to make a break for it."

Tielle stalked up to the bodyguard. "I'm as good a shot as any one of your bodyguards, and I intended to use that advantage, not cower behind any bodyguards. They won't kill us. If they wanted to kill us, they already would have."

Saos looked over her, and Tielle drew herself up and mustered as much royal dignity as she could under the circumstances. "You start shooting only after the bodyguards are down and you aren't being protected by them anymore."

"Very well," Tielle agreed, then was struck by an idea. "My datapad! Where is it?" She ran to her bag and rummaged through it.

"Princess, they've already cloaked all of our frequencies. We can't get any messages through."

"They've cloaked all of our international frequencies. But unless they're Hidonian, they can't cloak our Hidonian frequencies. They don't know them." Tielle triumphantly grabbed the datapad and began furiously keying in a message to her mother. SOS. Extremely urgent, life or death matter, she typed as the subject, then continued for the body, prematurely pulled out of light-space, caught in tractile-pull, will be boarded by unknown enemy, try to fight our way off and to Fareari, doesn't look good, too late to help, but start search teams, help us! love you all, tell Kall that I would have chosen him and do if I return to Hidon.

T and A

Tielle hit the send button.

"Very clever, Your Highness," Saos praised her coolly. "Of course, it won't help anything, but at least they will know that we didn't have an accident in light-space."

Commander Falkes Thash had relished this assignment. Capturing the Crown Princess of those arrogant Hidonians was a personal pleasure, and if he pulled it off well, with both Princesses alive and relatively unharmed, he had been promised a promotion.

However, a promotion wouldn't be as good as being allowed the pleasure of torturing the two girls. And if he satisfied his superior, perhaps he would be allowed that delight.

With a bang the small shuttle was drawn up into the large ship. Tielle desperately prayed, Oh God, gracious Lord, please be with us and protect us. And let at least one of us, either Arilana or I escape so that the Satine line can continue through us.

Please help us. Oh God, I'm so scared. Help me. And Arilana. She can't hardly shoot or protect herself. Be with her.

Arilana was whimpering beside Tielle, silent tears streaking down her cheeks. "Tielle," she gasped, her hands holding her bag so tightly that her knuckles were white, "I'm scared…"

"Pray."

And Tielle continued her own praying. Oh God, I don't want to die. Not yet…

The regiments of troops were in place, all ready for their guests. They all stood at attention as their instructions were repeated over the speakers: "Do not harm the girls. Repeat, do not shoot or harm the girls in anyway. They must be relatively unharmed. Anyone else on the shuttle may be shot at and immediately killed. If they surrender, accept and restrain everyone. Repeat, do not harm the girls. They must be relatively unharmed. Anyone else on the shuttle may be shot at…"

The shuttle settled in its place on the landing dock and the door opened with a hiss of pressurized gases…

Tielle stood behind the mass of bodyguards and waited. She knew that fighting was just a wasted effort and that they were all going to be captured anyway, but at least this way they would take down some of the enemy with them.

The door opened and they ran out. The bodyguards in front of Tielle fell immediately, and Tielle dove and rolled to avoid getting hit herself. She came up firing, taking a perverse satisfaction when the enemy soldier began to fall.

They weren't firing at either her or Arilana, which was a good thing. It meant that they could only be taken by human force, and hopefully they could fire at anyone who tried to reach them.

"Arilana!" Tielle yelled over the din of laser fire. "Press your back to mine!"

They stood together, back to back, as the enemy soldiers began to surround them.

In Chapter Four- Imprisoned, Tielle and Arilana are the lone survivors from their shuttle and are taken prisoner aboard the ship that they find belongs to Fareari…