Back again! I got a little distracted by a friend's 21st, so this chapter is a little later than I promised. Anyway, enjoy!
As they hurried as fast as they could along the corridors of the Gongadu base, D'ron's worry grew. Though they had started to recover and were moving faster and faster, the air gauges on their suits read forty minutes, meaning that the dragons had already been without air for five minutes. If they couldn't get out of here and back to Pern in the next ten minutes, they were all dead, and that was being optimistic.
You worry for the life of your beasts and your companions? a voice almost hissed. How foolish. You would do better to abandon them and flee, preserving your own miserable hide.
D'ron stopped dead. "Where are you?" he challenged, stepping out ahead of the others.
Here, came the answer, and a Gongadu slid into view in front of them, tentacles flexing in a way that reminded D'ron of a man cracking his knuckles in preparation for a fight.
"They've found us," Elena breathed, her face paling behind the helmet's glass.
"Elena, you and Riasa take J'nin," D'ron said quietly, his gaze never leaving the being in front of them.
Riasa came forward and took the weight of her unconscious weyrmate from D'ron's shoulder, but Elena stood her ground. "What are you going to do?" she demanded.
"Get going. I'll give you time to escape," D'ron said as his hands curled into fists.
Elena let out a cry that went unheard as D'ron launched himself at the Gongadu. Tackling around the middle, he brought it crashing to the floor. "Get out of here!" he roared.
"Elena, let's go!" B'kennor said urgently, catching her arm as she started forward.
"But D'ron…" she said, her eyes filling with tears. "We can't just leave him!"
"If we don't, then the sacrifice he is making is all for nothing," Drianne said gently, grabbing her other arm and pulling her after the fleeing Riasa and T'car. Elena gave in and followed them, but not without a backward glance at the struggling pair on the floor.
So you fight to give your companions time to flee, the Gongadu said contemptuously as they rolled over and hit the wall. Your species is weak and foolish to value the individual so. You are many more on the planet below us, yet you wish to save these few. Even at the cost of your own life.
"That's because they are all important to me, and I won't see anyone else I care about die!" D'ron snarled. With a massive effort, he pushed the Gongadu off him, sending it reeling backwards through a doorway with him in hot pursuit.
x
"We've made it!" Riasa cried in relief. Directly ahead of them, a tall rectangular panel set with a window marked the end of the corridor, and through the window they could clearly see the Red Star's surface.
Elena stepped forward and hit a square plate next to the door. "Quickly!" she shouted as a clear shield began to drop. "It's preparing to depressurise, and we need to be ready to get out!"
Within moments, the shield was down and the pressure sensors in their suits registered a steady drop. When it had reached the same reading as it had given outside, the door in front of them hissed open and they stumbled back out onto the surface.
"I can hear Dioanth!" B'kennor said, his face breaking into a wide grin.
The other riders cheered as they made contact with their own dragons and for a moment Elena envied them. Her flash of jealousy was short-lived as their faces froze in horror. "Talleth," T'car said, tears brimming in his eyes to run down his cheeks.
"What is it?" Elena asked.
"The Gongadu were blocking all contact with the dragons," Drianne said in a whisper. "So Talleth didn't know V'lan was dead."
"Won't he just choose another rider when we get back?" Elena asked, confused. "It's awful that V'lan's gone, but…"
She trailed off at the look on T'car's face, whose was the only one she could see clearly. "No one told you?" he asked, almost pityingly. "When a rider dies, their dragon suicides."
"No!" she gasped, and whirled to face the direction the others were looking in time to see Talleth take off and disappear.
"At home, the dragons will be keening, and the entire world will know that a dragon has died."
Suddenly the ground beneath their feet began to shake. Elena regained her feet and stared at the base behind them in horror. Its surface had started to glow a deep sullen red and it was trembling.
"What's happening?" she cried. "D'ron!"
x
D'ron threw another punch at the Gongadu, which ducked under it and rammed him into a bank of controls behind him. Black spots danced in front of his vision as ribs cracked and he slid down the console.
Your species is weak, it sneered. Your reliance on your endoskeleton for physical support is debilitating, and the chemical imbalances you call 'feelings' cause you to make hasty and unwise decisions.
D'ron pushed himself to his feet, despite the pain it caused him. "Shows what you know," he said grimly, and lashed out with his foot, bringing the Gongadu crashing down. He nearly blacked out as pain flared throughout his chest, and his next kick went wide as the Gongadu easily slithered beneath it and grabbed hold of his leg. Twisting, it sent him flying across the bridge to smash into a display screen and drop onto the controls beneath.
D'ron let out a cry of agony and slumped across the levers, barely conscious. The Gongadu slid over to him and its cone tilted as though it were looking at him. Weakness, it hissed. Your pathetic attacks have not harmed me, yet you lie close to death from a simple throw.
It reached out with several tentacles and lifted him off the desk, then suddenly dropped him on the floor. D'ron groaned with the impact, but his attention was diverted by the agitated waving of tentacles above him.
Foolish creature! it spat, rounding on him. Do you have any concept of the damage you have wrought?
Damage? D'ron thought weakly as a siren began to blare in his mind.
You have activated the self-destruct sequence! Now we will all perish! it screamed, tentacles waving frantically.
"Good," D'ron coughed. A red light began blinking inside his helmet, and he smiled a little. "I'm dying anyway. At least I'll take you with me, and avenge my brother!"
Your brother? it asked, staring down at him. Do you refer to Anaku's test subject?
"That's him," D'ron said with a satisfied smile.
The Gongadu's tentacles rippled, and after a few moments, D'ron realised it was laughing. "What's so funny?" he snapped.
Your vengeance shall go unfulfilled, it laughed. Anaku and her team are still on the planet below.
"What?!" D'ron gasped, his peace broken. "Then…"
Then you have failed! Instead of avenging your kin, you have sacrificed the rest of your people, it said. I have already informed Anaku that her team is to gather the remaining test subjects from the area and experiment on them as she will.
Rage surged throughout D'ron, and he leapt at the Gongadu, his injuries forgotten. It caught him, and examined him thoughtfully. It appears you have more strength than first thought, it said. Perhaps I should kill you now, instead of waiting to see how long you will survive your injuries.
x
"Elena, come on!" B'kennor shouted.
"But we can't leave without him!" she cried, still staring in horror at the glowing dome.
"You said yourself that the base is going to destroy itself," Drianne said, catching hold of her arm. "D'ron is my friend too, but there's nothing we can do for him now. His sacrifice is allowing us to escape; don't let it go to waste!"
Elena whirled to scream at her, but stopped as she saw the tears streaming down Drianne's face. Instead, she swallowed hard and nodded. As Drianne pulled her after the others, Elena glanced back at the dome, willing D'ron to appear in the doorway and follow them.
"Please… You can make it! Come on!" she chanted quietly, barely aware she was doing it. "There are so many people waiting for you… Come on!"
The glow of the dome grew even brighter, and Elena could feel a buzzing through her teeth that she knew was an agonised mechanical scream lost in the soundlessness of space. The pressure built up and up until a scream broke from her lips and her eyes screwed shut against the pain invading her head.
Then came a flash of light so bright it blinded her even through closed eyes, and when she opened them, blinking to clear her sight, the base was gone.
I think I know where I'm heading, but suggestions would be good!