"Stop crying, you stupid tralk!" Chiana said. "I'm not going to kill you!"
The smoke dissipated from the corridor, and the only thing which remained was that strange, red haired girl which lied on the floor.
"Shut up!"
Chiana looked around the corner, hoping that the girl's screaming wouldn't attract any attention from Scarrans or other enemies that might be after them.
"My face..." she cried. "You hit me in the face..."
"You wouldn't stop screaming!" Chiana replied.
"You pointed a gun at me!"
"I did not!"
"Yes you did!"
"I wasn't aiming at you on purpose, you stupid tralk!"
"Stop calling me a tralk!" the girl shouted.
"Fine." Chiana said.
Chiana left the corridor, clutching D'Argo's Qualta Blade in her hands and looking for the way which lead to her Transport Pod.
To her annoyance, the girl followed her.
"Where am I?" she demanded to know. "Tell me now!"
"If you keep on screaming, I won't tell you a goddamn thing!"
Chiana pushed her back into the corridor they just left.
"You...you came out of a cryo-pod. Okay?" Chiana tried to explain.
"A what?" the girl asked.
"A cryo-pod. A freezing chamber. One of those things."
Chiana pointed at the machine which
stood against the wall.
A person was visible standing inside the
contraption, standing silently and frozen as the girl asked Chiana
more questions.
Chiana knew about the cryo-pods, because Grunchlik had told them about it as he showed them around the facility.
But she thought that the donors stored inside the
cryo-pods were as good as dead.
But this one was alive.
"I am a donor?" the girl said as Chiana told her about the use of the cryo-pod.
She started crying again, as she fell to the ground.
"Hey!" Chiana said as she pulled her up.
"You're not a donor anymore, aren't you? You're free to go!"
"Perhaps my cousins are here as well..." the girl went on.
"Maybe they're not...maybe they're at home, waiting for you...yeah, that's right...they're waiting for you..."
"I don't have a home." the girl cried.
"Get a grip, girl!" Chiana said.
"I have a name!" the girl shouted. " Joolushko Tunai Fenta Hovalis."
Chiana was confused.
"What?"
"Joolushko Tunai Fenta Hovalis!" the girl repeated. "That is my name!"
"Good for you." Chiana said.
She tried to leave again, but the girl caught up with her again.
"How many cycles have I been frozen?" Joolushko asked her.
"How should I know?"
"I could have been frozen for thousands of cycles in that thing!"
"Who knows..." Chiana softly said as she looked around yet another corner.
"My parents are dead. My cousins are dead. My brother is dead. Everybody I know will be dead!"
"And so will you IF YOU DON'T SHUT UP!" Chiana shouted.
D'Argo ran as fast as he could.
Snow and ice filled his senses.
He
tried to find another way inside the facility, but all the doors were
locked on the inside.
There was no way he could get back, and he
couldn't reach the door which he used to get outside, because of
the Scarran which pursued him into the freezing blizzard.
They could barely see each other because of the snowstorm, but D'Argo knew that, if the Scarran would came any closer, his death would be certain.
He had to keep moving.
Or else the Scarran would
fry his mind.
Or the blizzard would freeze his body.
D'Argo swiftly climbed down a small cliff, which lead him to a meadow of frozen trees.
The sun burned into his eyes, and D'Argo felt his toes go numb.
"This was a really bad idea." he thought to himself, thinking about what he said to Chiana.
D'Argo saw the Scarran enter the meadow, and he tried to hide from the creature.
Artokh's eyes however, pierced right through the
snow.
His heat vision could see straight through the cold exterior
and see the Luxan's warm heart pounding in his chest.
Joolushko
gasped for air as she saw the creature that was walking down the
corridor in front of him.
Quickly Chiana put her hand against her
mouth.
She knew that her scream would definitely alert the Scarran
to their presence.
"What was that?" Joolushko said as they
walked back into the other corridor to avoid being seen or heard by
the Scarran.
"Was that the Scarran you were talking
about?"
"No-no, different Scarran." Chiana said.
"There's more then one of them out there?" Joolushko said, fearing for her life.
"And you say there after yóu?"
"Yeah, kind of." Chiana said.
"But why?" she wondered. "Why did they still want to capture them?"
She figured Grunschlik betrayed them to the
Scarrans.
She knew from the beginning that he couldn't be
trusted.
"Oh, what am I getting myself into..." Joolushko muttered.
Chiana still held D'Argo's Qualta Blade tightly in her arms.
"You don't have to you know..." Chiana said. "You can easily go back. You don't need to follow me. I don't need your help."
"But I do need your help!" Joolushko said.
"Well then shut up and keep close," Chiana said. "...because I'm going for the doors."
"What?"
Before Joolushko could say anything else, Chiana stepped into the other corridor and headed for the doors which lead to her Transport Pod.
Joolushko followed the Nebari through the icy corridor, fearing for her life.
"Damn, it's locked." Chiana said as she tried to open the large metal doors.
"The Scarran is coming back!" Joolushko said as she noticed a large shadow in the corridor to their right, coming to their position.
Quickly Chiana and Joolushko returned to their original corridor.
Gyrshna sniffed and heaved his head into the air.
He smelled something.
"I have to get to my ship!" Chiana said. "But that frelling Scarran locked the doors!"
"That's easily fixed." Joolushko said. "With locks like those it isn't hard to crack the codes."
"Well, can you?" Chiana asked.
"I can." Joolushko answered. "And I will. But only if you will tell me something."
"Yeah..."
"Can you help me find my own species? Can you help me get home?"
"I can't help you without my ship!"
"Then let's go!" Joolushko said, noticing the Scarran was gone.
They walked carefully towards
the large doors which lead to their escape for the second time.
They
looked around, hoping that the Scarran had left for good, or wasn't
coming back any time soon.
"Wow...I mean...wow..." Joolushko muttered.
"What?" Chiana asked.
"This mechanism...this doorpad, it's magnificent! I've never seen such a modern device before!"
"This crappy thing?" Chiana said. "This could well be over 100 cycles old!"
Joolushko was shocked to hear that, but stopped herself from bursting out in tears.
"Then, how old am I?" she thought to herself.
Despite Jool's unfamiliarity with the console, she managed to open it very quickly.
"Happy?" she said as she turned towards Chiana.
But Chiana did not look upon her.
The large, metal doors opened revealing Gyrshna, who had been waiting for them on the other side.
As he stretched his arm to unleash his heat upon the duo, Joolushko screamed.
Her piercing scream made even the Scarran reach for his ears.
Chiana realised this
was their chance to escape.
She grabbed Joolushko's arm and
pushed the Scarran out of their way.
She told Joolushko to keep
screaming, but she didn't hear her anyway.
As Chiana pulled the Interion inside the craft and closed the doors, Joolushko slowly calmed down.
Gyrshna pounded the doors of the Transport Pod, but to no avail.
The Pod flew away.
Chiana noticed that
the supplies they needed stood in the Pod's cargo-hold.
Suddenly
she doubted Grunschlik's treason.
"Is this your ship?" Joolushko said.
"No. This is just a Transport Pod." Chiana
said as she navigated her way across the sky.
"That's my
ship."
She pointed at the front viewscreen.
As she did
it, the blue sky faded away into the darkness of outer space,
revealing a large Leviathan which orbited the planet Chiana and Jool
were leaving.
Joolushko was speechless by it's beauty.
"Hello, Moya." Chiana whispered.
She
contacted Pilot.
He did not respond.
As her eyes wandered
towards the medical supplies which stood in their Pod, she began to
hope they were not too late to save Moya.
The Scarran
walked straight towards the D'Argo, who was hiding behind some
frozen bushes, slamming away the frozen trees which stood in his way,
as if they were made out of cardboard.
The trees shattered into
thousands of pieces of ice.
D'Argo almost died in his final
attempt to escape Artokh's grasp, as he jumped away, rolling into
tons of snow before tumbling down on solid rock, as he fell from
another high cliff.
But he was alive.
The Scarran watched him from above, looking for a way down, but he couldn't find any.
D'Argo ran in the opposite direction, away from the cliffs and towards a large stretch of land, which stretched out in front of him to the horizon.
D'Argo knew this was a stupid move, but he had no other choice, if he were to escape the Scarran.
Artokh stared at the Luxan as he ran away into the
distance.
"The Luxan has escaped." Artokh said over his
comms.
"So has the Nebari." his brother Gyrshna answered.
Gyrshna stood in a secluded part of the
facility.
Grunschlik stood next to him, as his obedient
slave.
"No matter," Gyrshna went on. "We still have óne prisoner."
Rygel gasped for air as Gyrshna approached him. His chains almost stopped his blood from flowing into his tiny hands.
"The Hynerian." Artokh said.
