Chapter 14p2 – It’s Them

The force of the explosions knocked Milly off her feet. Her ears rang and she felt like she’d been run over by a truck. Blood trickled down into her eyes. She wiped it away. The police officers were scattered across the floor in front of her. Through the smoke, she could see the two white ships hovering outside. There was no mistaking it now: the pilots were clearly Liberati.

Glancing around in panic, Milly saw a way to at least buy some time: on the wall to her left, only 15 or 20 strides away, was the control panel for the loading bay doors. If she could only make it there…

Milly carefully rose to her feet, picking up the bottle of Gortinawa seeds. They might come in handy now. Then she spun quickly to her left and dashed towards the control panel on shaking legs. Ten more steps, five, three…

The floor beneath her exploded into dust as the lasers sent her flying. She hit the wall with her shoulder and crumpled, but through the pain she heard the heavy whirring of the bay doors closing. The Liberati were shut outside. For now. She felt the bombardment immediately as they tried to force passage, but the doors held.

Making sure none of the seeds had spilled, Milly limped back to the Pelican.

Overard helped her inside. “What’s going on?”

“It’s them,” groaned Milly, “from Crux. We have to get out of here!”

Overard swore. “But the Jitterdrive isn’t ready yet!”

Haglyn whirred into the hold. “If Bolter was awake, he could fly us out of here!”

Milly rushed into the passenger cabin, where Tic and Dr. Fester were both unconscious. Rummaging through the drawers, she found a single dose of Instawake.

About Tim Sevenhuysen

Tim Sevenhuysen writes sci-fi and other genre fiction. He is a microfiction expert, having written over 600 fifty-word stories. He is also a noncertifiable lunatic.

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