Dauphine of Tsyu
Chapter 1
*#*#*The recent explosion of the planet Tsyu has ultimately ended the war. All of their royal family is said to be dead, but the body of Dauphine Kiyomi Katagwa has not been found. Many escape pods are said to have left the planet prior to its destruction, but human bounty hunters have intercepted most of the pods. Celebrations will commence…*#*#*
"Turn that darn thing off Cody. I can't stand flying with that radio on. Drives me crazy and you know that," Davis complained. Cody turned it off.
"They were talking about us on the radio! We're practically the only human bounty hunters around here, and we really have gotten a lot of the Tsyu refugees," Cody said excitedly.
"It's a good thing too. They fetch a pretty high price no matter where we take them in," Kari said as she walked into the cabin. T.K. followed behind her a little out of breath.
"Davis," he panted. "There's another cluster of escape pods flying about 70 kilometers east of us. Yolei says there are definitely more Tsyu refugees in them. Oh, and Ken says the engines are safe to use now."
"Alright! Let's go get some refugee scum," Davis cried out. He veered the ship east and revved up the engines. Within moments, they had the pods in their sight. Davis casually blasted all their engines and used a giant robotic arm to grab the pods two by two. Cody left to go help Ken open the cargo bay doors. Within an hour, all of the pods had been captured.
"You've done it again Davis. We really got a good haul," Ken said as he walked in the room.
"So how many did we get, Ken?" Kari asked.
"We got 18 pods, but I am guessing we got about 9-11 of the Tsyu. You tend to kill some of them when their engines get blasted out," he explained. Ken turned to leave. Davis decided he would like to take a look at their catch, and got up to leave also.
"T.K., could you mind the controls for a while? I want to go below to see what we got."
"Yeah sure Davis." T.K. shook his head sympathetically. Davis was very interested in the Tsyu, even though he sold them to other planets. He also had the constant hope of capturing the Tsyu dauphine. She was said to be the most beautiful and intelligent of all her siblings. Now she was the only one left.
Davis walked with Ken down to the cargo area. Yolei was hard at work trying to open the door of one of the pods. When she saw Ken, she looked to him in defeat. Ken smiled and patted his wife on the shoulder. Then he took the handle and pushed with all his might. Davis saw he wasn't having any luck, so he came up beside him and pushed the handle down as well. Yolei knew it was hopeless without some special tools but was too lazy to go and find them
"Guys, how about we try the other pods. This one can be opened later," she said. Davis and Ken both fell back from the door with their sides heaving.
"Yeah. That door is welled shut. Ken and I will have it opened later," Davis said. Together they unlocked all the remaining pods. Ken held the doors open while Yolei entered and brought the Tsyu outside. Davis was beside her with a stun ray just in case the refugees had a weapon of some sort. The Tsyu didn't look terrified or sad. They looked…defeated. They didn't even look up when Yolei injected a drug to knock them out into their arms. This process took hours. They had to get them cleaned, give them medical attention, identify them, and then secure them in a room.
"Do you want to give another whack at that last pod, Davis?" Ken asked.
"You bet." Together they used a tiny laser to free up the handle. As they did this, they heard sounds coming from inside.
"Something's in there…" Yolei said.
"There better be after all we've done to open this thing," Davis said. Soon the door was unlocked. Inside, someone was trying to power up the dead engines. Smoke and sparks flew everywhere.
"Whoever's in there really doesn't want us to find them," Ken noted.
"Well too bad for them. Yolei, see if T.K. and Kari and get some fire extinguishers down here. There is too much smoke to see anything," Davis coughed.
"We're already way ahead of you Davis," Kari said. She and T.K. blasted the smoking engine with fire extinguishers until the smoke and sparks died off.
"We could smell the smoke and thought you might need a little help," T.K. told them when the smoke stopped.
"Could you open the door already?" Yolei said impatiently.
"Alright, alright. Just keep your glasses on," Davis replied. He slowly eased the door open. Loads of smoke poured out. Davis tried to waft away some of it with his hands, but it was useless. The smoke began to clear and he could make out one figure. He then found himself staring into two mysterious green eyes. They stared back in anger. Something came down on his head, and everything went black…
*~**~*
I saw the human before he saw me. I quickly grabbed the nearest thing to me, a piece of the railing that had once been by the pod door. I kept my stance and gripped the railing firmly. Soon the human was able to see me through the smoke. We made eye contact for a moment. He was a fool. Before he had a chance to react, I slammed the railing hard down on his skull. He collapsed immediately. I grabbed the human with one arm and brought a knife to his neck with the other. Another human, this one dark haired, entered the pod. He had a laser pointed at my head.
"Put the weapon down or I'll slit his throat."
"You do that, and I'll have all my friends shoot the pulp out of the other Tsyu we caught." Oh I how I wished I could have rammed my knife down his neck. I slowly let go of the unconscious human and let my hand fall behind my back. I secretly grabbed hold of the railing I had left on the control panel. The human called for some help and kept his laser pointed in my direction. He too was a fool. He blinked for one moment, and I deftly brought the railing from behind my back. By the time he saw this, I struck him squarely across the head. He staggered back toward the doorway and shot his laser wildly.
"Ken stop! We mustn't hurt them," a woman said.
"It's only one, and she's really tricky," the dark-haired one managed to say.
"Use this," someone else instructed. I backed away from the doorway, expecting a weapon of some sort. Instead I heard a something roll across the metal floor. The humans then rushed to close the pod's doors. The other human was still inside, so whatever it was, it wasn't dangerous. Suddenly there was a hissing sound, the sound of…gas.
*~**~*