Chapter 16:
From the access port of his shuttle, Lantern observed their progress with intense curiosity, as a team of Black Talon soldiers clamped the anti-grav units onto the limbs of the suspended H'rukai creature and slowly elevated it to the waiting Thanagarian shuttle for its transport back to their base camp. It was breathing laboriously from the anesthesia that was administered to it, to help prevent any additional damage to its wounds, which were still causing it great pain with each of its movements. Once the creature was secured upon the shuttle, it turned and jetted northwest across the horizon.
"What will happen to it?" Lantern asked, as Corporal Karos came onto the gangplank.
"Its wounds will be treated and once it has healed, it will wait to serve the Thanagarian Empire once again." Karos explained thoughtfully.
"For you to hunt for sport, you mean…"
"No… to teach another young thanagarian the art of survival, as you have demonstrated here today…" Karos corrected.
"So what happened here today is considered normal?"
Karos laughed lightly, as he began to stow away his gear, "Not even close… What you did, would be considered 'extraordinary'. Most would not have survived against the first of the H'rukai that you faced. However, you… my friend, survived against two, and you did this without any prior training, and with only primitive weapons."
"Weren't I supposed to face the two of them?"
"No, Green Lantern… you were to face only one H'rukai. There must have been a miscommunication of some kind."
Right… John thought, his face reflecting improbability.
He looked down at the camouflaged chest armor that he'd worn, inspecting the lacerated fissures on its left side, when a thought hit him.
"Tell me something…"
"All right…"
"Is the H'rukai's vision thermic in nature?"
"Why… yes… how did you know?"
"When I was covered in mud, it couldn't see or smell me, but after the rain washed the mud away, it became very clear that it could see me just fine. Just seemed logical that it used its prey's body heat to see."
"It was very clever of you to get into the mud, that tactic has been proven very useful when facing these creatures." Karos commented.
Cleverness had nothing to do with it… Luck is more like it… Lantern smiled inwardly.
Karos examined the area of the dented armor, pointing to the center of the chest plate. " I see that your tracking device was destroyed. That, my friend, made it very difficult to find you."
Another coincidence? Looks to me like someone was trying to set me up… John smirked.
"So what happens now?"
"The lieutenant is waiting for your return… she will debrief you…"
"Thanks…"
"Anytime… 'Citizen'…" Karos smiled broadly, walking towards the cockpit, as the shuttle began its liftoff.
Lieutenant Pilar P'thal had a feeling of elation as she gaited through the semi-darkened hallways toward the shuttle bay. She realized that her friend had been given a chance to live, thanks to the actions of the human called John Stewart. Shayera Hol would have a voice at the judgment that would have been used to take her life, but now, no one would be able to silence her. The Elders would have no choice but to hear from a source that had witnessed the entire incident and truly believed in her actions.
After rounding a corner, P'thal slowed her pace when she noticed that the corridor was suddenly engulfed within stygian blackness. Spotting a flash of metal, she walked slowly up to the glow torch that was attached to the left side of the corridor, and lightly tapped it with her knuckles. The torch rocked loosely upon the wall, and glowed weakly from her tapping as she realized that this was not something that was occurring naturally. No. The device had been tampered with, but why?
Out of the corner of her eye, her vision began to distinguish the shifting of a dark figure standing deep within the shadows. She reached for her weapon, knowing that it was too late. The particle beam slammed into her right side, raising her body, completely off the ground, colliding her into the unyielding wall of stone. She fell limply into a heap onto the cold surface of the floor, her armor clanging hollowly within the empty corridor.
The figure listened intently for sounds of any passersby that may have heard the disturbance, and decided to investigate; hearing nothing, he bounded to the fallen officer, rummaging through the folds of her tunic. The figure stood up slowly, lifting his hands toward the faulting torch, tapping it lightly, studying the purpose of his assault. The emerald hue from the power ring gleamed brightly within the dull glow of the torchlight as he smiled with satisfaction. Looking down at his fallen victim, his smile quickly turned to distaste, as he lifted his weapon, pointing its barrel at the helmeted head of the unconscious P'thal.
"It has come to my attention that you too, are confused as to where your loyalty should lay, Lieutenant…" he whispered harshly, fingering the trigger.
Suddenly, voices and footfalls of booted feet rebounded off the walls of the corridor as Talon soldiers entered the darkened hallway. Looking up in their direction, the figure cursed silently under his breath as he ran briskly into the opposite direction, away from the sounds that unknowingly saved the unconscious officer's life.
Shayera sat within her cell, motionless, as she anticipated his return. The news had traveled back fast about the human's accomplishment, and the reception to his victory caused her to release a big sigh of relief. Even though he didn't kill the two H'rukai creatures, the number one objective for any participant of the T'jinn Jakat was to survive and to incapacitate the foe, which Lantern did impressively. Now she waited, patiently hoping that he would stop by to see her before preparing to stand before the High Council.
She didn't want to focus on the fact that he would speak to the High Council, and that there would be a chance that she could walk away from certain death. No… she decided that she would remain emotionless about the whole thing. The reason was clear to her, even though John succeeded, it didn't guarantee that the Elders would automatically grant her clemency, which meant that there was still a chance that her execution could still take place. That's why she didn't want John to needlessly put his life in jeopardy, to fight for something that seemed to be hopeless. However, she also knew that John wouldn't just sit back and let anything happen to her, not if there was an opportunity for him to turn the tables and improve her situation.
One question then surfaced from within Shayera's mind. Where was Kragger during all of this? With all of his gloating, surely he must have monitored Lantern's progress and most likely had heard the news. What was he up to?
Without warning, the cellblock was thrown into blackness with a sudden loss of power, including the familiar humming from the field generator that supplied the shielding around her cell. This was definitely questionable. Her instincts kicked in as she wondered if this was just inferred chance or some ploy to sabotage her ability to stand before the Tribunal? If she were to attempt to escape; then they would have the right to kill her on sight, which indicated that this was a setup, clearly designed to destroy her one chance at regaining her freedom.
Her keen eyes looked about in the darkness as the dim light from the outside hallway filtered in. There was total silence. Nothing moved. Then she picked up the soft glint of metal near the entranceway, just before the particle beam broke through the silence, slicing through the murkiness, exploding against the far back wall of the holding cell, causing her to jump and roll to her left, hitting the floor in a crouch. The weapon fired again, in her general direction, hitting nothing but the far back wall, showering sparks everywhere.
"Make your choice…Traitor!!" a voice called out roughly. "Escape, and …you may live… but I promise you… stay where you are, you will die!!"
The beam shot across the cell block again, this time striking her bunk, singeing the blanket on her mattress, white smoke rising slowly upward, causing her to crouch lower to the floor.
"How do I know that you won't kill me anyway?" Shayera retorted.
"You don't!"
The energy beam exploded out of the muzzle of the disruptor, towards her direction again, and careened off the metal post of the bunk bed, sending the blazing light downward towards Shayera's position. Shayera took to the air with one huge flap of her wings, went straight up towards the ceiling of the structure, then quickly changed directions, and shot downward toward the entrance of the cellblock. Tucking her wings inward, she reached out and grabbed onto the doorsill, kicking her feet forward, catching her assailant in the mid section, then somersaulted back onto her feet. The attacker crashed into the corridor wall, dazed by the unexpected counter of the intended victim, dropping the disruptor onto the floor.
Shayera reached for the disruptor when the masked assailant's right arm lashed out, armed with a small blade, directly at her forearm. Snapping herself backward, Shayera swept out her left foot, kicking the weapon further down the empty hallway, out of the reach of her attacker, all the while, taking a defensive stance, suddenly becoming irritated with the whole situation.
Shayera noted the movement of the other thanagarian, and was shocked to realize that something was wrong. The aggressor lunged forward with the blade extended; Shayera answered the move by stepping to the left, then sweeping her right arm out and upward, followed by grabbing the attacker's wrist with both hands, then twisting herself into a quick circle, applying pressure onto the assailant's arm, causing the would-be attacker to flip mid air, causing the figure's back to land with a loud thud onto the cold cemented floor. Before the masked thanagarian could recover, Shayera slammed a fisted right hand into the jaw of her assailant.
"That was careless… more like an amateur…" She said absently, reaching down at the masked figure's helmet. "Let's see who you are…"
Her suspicions were confirmed. The shadowed face belonged to a young female soldier, one that she'd never seen before, and one she felt that didn't have much experience at this sort of thing. This is getting outta hand… looks like Kragger may have recruited some help...
"Don't move, Lieutenant…"
The voice came out of the far end of the darkened corridor. The figure approached cautiously, eyeing the downed soldier, keeping the disruptor fixed at her position. As the darkened figure came closer, he kicked the disruptor that she'd disarmed from the unconscious soldier, closer to where Shayera knelt.
"Pick up the weapon…"
"Why should I…?" Shayera challenged, retrieving the small blade as she stood up, cupping it into her right hand, before turning to face the one that she knew was the cause of the attack. "So you can say that I was trying to shoot you in order to escape?"
"Pick it up…" the voice instructed, clearly irritated now.
"No."
"Alright, have it your way…" the figure said, aiming the disruptor's barrel at her, just a few meters away. The glow of the weapon flashed the corridor with its brightness as it fired.
Green Lantern wearily strolled out onto the gangplank as he disembarked from the shuttle towards the darkened corridors that led away from the shuttle bay. Where the devil is P'thal… he thought impatiently. I need to see Shayera…
Looking around the docking port, he realized that there was no sign of the thanagarian officer. Deciding to go see Shayera, John started towards the corridor that he believed would lead him to the holding cells.
"John Stewart! Wait!!"
John turned to see a running Corporal Karos bounding towards him, away from the docked shuttle.
"Come with me! Quickly!!" Karos commanded, as he ran past him, motioning him to follow.
Both men raced down the darkened corridors, until finally approaching one that was well lit with activity. A group of Talon soldiers was lifting the body of Pilar P'thal onto a floating gurney that was hovering about a meter off the floor. John noticed that a medic was wrapping a compressing cloth tightly around the thanagarian officer's mid-section.
"What happened, sir?!" Karos exclaimed as he approached.
"Someone shot me…" P'thal replied weakly. "Ambushed-d…"
"Are you alright?" John asked with concern.
"I will be fine… however, I have bad news for you, John Stewart…"
"What is it… is it Shayera?"
"No… it's your ring… w-whoever attacked me… took your ring…" P'thal stammered.
A Talon soldier approached rapidly. "Sir!"
"What is it?" P'thal responded slowly.
"Sir, there was a disturbance in the cell block…"
"Have you informed the Commander?"
"We tried, sir, but we can't seem to find him…"
"What!! Take me to detention… now!!" P'thal ordered.
"No… belay that. Sir… your place is in the infirmary." The medic reprimanded.
"He's right…" John agreed, as he took off running down the corridor, "I'll check on Shayera!!"
"Corporal… go with him…" P'thal ordered, lying back onto the gurney.
"Yes, sir!!" Karos exclaimed, rising into the air with a sudden beating of his wings, speeding towards the direction of the departing human.
It took them only five minutes to reach the detention area. The hallway to the holding cell was nebulous, and devoid of sound, as the two men entered into it cautiously. John's heart began to race, fearing the worst, realizing that the cellblock was in utter blackness. There was no sign of life. Nothing. However, something did come to his senses.
"What is that smell?"
"Weapon's fire…" Karos replied.
"Are you sure…?"
"There's no mistaking it… especially in close quarters…" Karos looked closely at the floor close to the entrance of the cellblock. "Umm… look… at this…"
"What is it…?"
"Blood…"