Scar stretched, pulling the black, armoured void suit taught across his shoulders and trying to shift it into a more comfortable position, feeling unpleasantly constricted. He was searching the lockers of the Chameleon for a void suit and breathing gear small enough to fit Spyrro. All the time, he was trying to resolutely turn his thoughts away from the horrifying scenarios that his imagination threw up at unguarded moments; Spyrro being beaten and tortured, Spyrro being carved up by some Rough Skull's blades, Spyrro being atomised, blown up along with the Dragonfly.
"No." He snarled to himself, using all the willpower he possessed to push the awful visions down and shut them away, "I will not allow myself to think like this: she is alive."
Selim stood behind him, watching dubiously, "Mei'Savir, are you sure it is a good idea for you to open the airlock on the yautja ship? Will that not alert guards to see what has caused it to open?"
"Maybe, eventually," Scar shrugged, "Our command craft are so huge you cannot imagine it. They are sometimes subject to power surges and sometimes they get hit by asteroids or debris. A small anomaly will not be enough to trigger a big response right away."
"But how will you find Spyrro, in such a large ship?"
"That will not be a problem." Scar said this with more confidence than he felt, "I imagine they will take her to the juvenile quarter deck."
Isaac lifted his chin in challenge "I thought you said she would be exterminated as a half breed?"
Scar pulled out Selim's old void suit and helmet and turned to look at his sons, "Not immediately. With her looks, Spyrro can pass as yautja… for a time anyway. Her … behaviour will seem odd but… her appearance will not give her away… though her quick tongue might. Let us just hope… she keeps quiet."
Selim raised his brows,"That would indeed be unusual!" He said.
Scar looked at his eldest son in surprise and Isaac had to stifle a shocked laugh. His twin brother rarely said a bad word about anyone. Even though his easy-going disposition had been tried by Spyrro's temper in the past, it seemed to him that Selim was trying to cover up how afraid he was for their little sister.
Scar let the remark pass and continued his preparations, loading up a small case with a series of small, silvery darts.
"What are those?" Isaac squinted at the weapons - their shape reminded him of little shimmery fish.
"It is the Thei-De Nanth'e."
"You're going to poison them?!"
"If they have … harmed my daughter ... I shall do worse!" Their father pulled on the helmet that went with the void suit. Unlike the Rough Skull's normal design - which was shaped to mimic the elongated head and razor toothed grimace of the hard meat - this was less elaborate. It was actually a modified version of the Rough Skull hunting masks. It had all the useful functions the masks did, such as heat vision, EMI impulse and a scan function that could be operated via the wristcom, as well as allowing the wearer to breathe and not freeze to death in space. The modification had taken Scar and his sons some time, but it was much less cumbersome and more suitable for plundering enemy ships.
"Isaac, you will pilot the Chameleon," Scar said, his voice echoing strangely inside the mask, "Get us alongside the cargo hold, here. It is directly below the quarter deck. Once I am on board, you must fall back. follow the ship but not too close, and remain cloaked. It is most crucial that you avoid detection. If I need you, I will hail you, so be ready to bring the Chameleon alongside the vessel. Until then keep your distance."
He turned to his first son "Selim, you must be our lookout. Your chief safety lies in staying hidden, do you understand? Watch for defenders from the vessel trying to target-lock you. Your camouflage should keep you hidden but if it does not, you cannot hope to defeat a warship of this size in open conflict. Their weapons capabilities will easily outstrip yours - but you are smaller and more manoeuvrable. If you are discovered, you must flee at once. I will find alternative means of escape."
He picked up the grapple gun, a giant projectile weapon which allowed yautja to board each other's ships in space. He had used it countless times in his regular acts of piracy against other clans and counted it amongst his favourite toys. It had saved his life several times in the past. He had always enjoyed using it, but now, the thrill that usually ran through his veins at the prospect of a fight was dampened by anxiety.
"Mei'Savir?"
The hunter paused at the airlock and turned back to look at Selim. His first son was still at the controls but he was watching Scar, his eyes luminous. For a moment, he thought the boy might be about to give way to tears or even beg him not to go, as he had sometimes used to do when he was little. Instead, Selim just held his gaze. "We will be ready." He said.
Scar nodded and pressed the button to open the inner lock.
Lex ran through the frozen woods. The sun was beaming through the treetops as it climbed into the sky. Slowing down so as not to trip and fall, she decloaked and looked at the wristcom: "About half an hour since I left Hobbes's place, I don't hear anyone close behind me. I need to consider my next move..."
She could probably carry on like this for the rest of the day but she knew she couldn't keep it up indefinitely. Even inside her heavy boots, her feet would start to go numb and, though the movement was keeping her from feeling the cold yet, she knew it would come creeping in eventually. She had plenty of experience trekking and camping in freezing temperatures, but not without the right gear, plus the snow was a problem. She had done her best to disguise her trail, but there wasn't a lot she could do with the limited resources and time she had.
"The best thing would be if I could find somewhere to hole up for a few days until… until what? I've got no way of getting off this planet!" She shook her head, "Even if Scar got my message he won't be coming here, he'll be going after Spyrro! At least I hope to God he does…"
She squinted at her wristcom, scanning the nearby landscape, she could see a largish settlement nearby, "I need to get out of this area quickly - that means getting some kind of transport. I haven't got any money … but I can turn invisible and if all else fails, I have my weapons," She bit her lip. "I don't want to hurt innocent people… but I really need a vehicle. So that probably means getting to the town or at least to the road. I'll figure it out from there."
She reactivated her stealth generator and flipped the wristcom shut. She was about to strike out towards civilisation when she heard a soft whirring sound. At first she thought it might be the wind getting up but as it got louder she realised what it was and looked up to see a helicopter roar overhead, shaking the treetops.
She stared after it in dismay, "I have to assume that helicopter is looking for me - or looking for whoever came off the Dragonfly. If they've got a chopper out looking, that means they're probably following my trail. And this snow will make it even easier to see it!" She breathed in deep and tried to stay calm, "OK, just think. They might be able to see my prints, but they won't see me - my camouflage will protect me - "
At that moment she heard another sound, faint and far off but carrying on the crisp winter's air: the sound of dogs. Not just one dog, but several, barking excitedly.
Lex stiffened for a moment, then she leapt up. Pushing her way through snow laden branches, she began to run again, muscles burning despite the cold "Camouflage might fool the humans, but it won't fool dogs!"
As she pelted through the trees, she tried to map out the landscape in her mind, using what she could remember from studying the wristcom. "I have to do something to shake them off my trail - go somewhere they can't follow!"
Uphill led to the mountains, downhill was a river and beyond that, the road, "I'd rather take my chances in the mountains than get trapped on this side of the river or end up freezing to death in the water," She thought "At least there might be places where I can get up high, out of the reach of those damn dogs!"
She ran up the slope, feet crunching on the snow and the sound of distant barking in her ears.
All Spyrro could hear was the drone of a huge engine, very loud and deep. It was much louder than the noise of the engines on the Dragonfly and it seemed to be going on forever and ever. She had no idea how long she had been locked up. There was no way to know how much time had passed here - no windows, no day or night or lighting of any kind - and Spyrro only had a child's shaky grasp of time anyway.
She had sometimes pictured meeting other members of her Father's species, but in her daydreams she never imagined it would be like this, "I always thought they would welcome me as a long lost… oh, something, anyway!"
The place they had put her in was dark. Hot and dark. So dark, she wanted to scream. Spyrro was not normally afraid of darkness. Her night vision was as good as her brothers', so she could see into the shadows well enough. Usually, the night was an exciting and magical time, but this was not the darkness of night. This was the blackness of being shut away and buried under the ground, locked up and forgotten by everyone. "Maybe they'll leave me here forever," She thought, "Until I become just like the dead prey beasts do when you leave them in the jungle - just a pile of slimy, old bones!"
The thought scared her so much she had to choke back a sob and she hugged herself, curling into a ball. She had always had absolute confidence that she would always be able to stay one step ahead of danger, that everything would be alright and that , if all else failed, her parents would protect her. Now she was beginning to wonder if she had gotten herself into serious trouble this time, "If only I had listened to Mei'Varsi," She sniffled "Why does she not come after me, like she usually does?"
In her panic and fright, Spyrro didn't remember that it was she herself who had taken her mother's only means of following her. All she could think was that she needed her parents.
"Mei'Varsi! Mei'Savir! Please come! Please, help me!"