Sudden Attack
Eoryn slowly turned
over in his bed. Sunlight streamed into his room from one of the large windows,
and he knew it was time to get up, but he was not ready to do so. He was weary
from his fitful sleep and long dreams, and he would like nothing better than to
sleep in.
He saw that the two
beds beside him were unoccupied, meaning that Finiah and Lucas were already up.
A rustling in the corner caught his attention, and he turned to see Lucas
pulling a shirt on by the door. “Good morning, Lucas.”
Lucas mumbled a
salutation in return, and as his head popped out of his shirt, Eoryn saw that
he looked disheveled and tired. “I saw that your bed was empty for a time last
night. Did you have trouble sleeping too?” Eoryn asked, swinging his legs over
the edge of his bed.
Lucas shook his
head. “I was just using the bathroom.” Without another word, he stepped out of
the room.
Eoryn dressed
slowly and splashed some cold water in his face, trying to rouse himself. He too
stepped out of the room several minutes later, not sure if he was ready for the
day but determined to at least get away from the temptation of curling back up
in his bed.
He stretched and
looked around at the lobby adjoining the Kinrin’s rooms. It looked to be empty.
“Is anyone else here?” he asked out loud, not expecting an answer. He knew that
the Kinrin were probably already eating breakfast in the dining hall.
“I’m here.” The
voice that answered the question Eoryn thought would be rhetorical was timid.
Turning, he saw a girl, book in hand, rise to her feet. Alena. She was wearing
a long green dress that made her light eyes stand out even more from her pretty
face. Eoryn felt his stomach flutter.
“Oh, hi,” he said,
shifting his weight from one foot to the other. “Sorry to disturb you. Are the
others down in the dining hall already?”
“I think so.” Alena
hesitated, and an awkward silence filled the room. “Did you sleep well?”
Eoryn ran a hand
through his hair. Anything but that
question. What do I tell her, that I was dreaming of her? “I slept pretty
well,” Eoryn said out loud, dead panning. “Are you studying?” he asked after
another pause, nodding down at Alena’s book.
“Yes, I come of age
this next full moon, so I am trying to stay caught up with my studies.”
“Well, I hope we
are back in Srinmoor by the next full moon so you can celebrate the rites
there. I am sorry if calling you to the Crystal City will ruin what at any
other time would be a happy season for you.”
Alena’s face
suddenly became solemn, and she stepped away from Eoryn and walked to the
window. For a long time she looked out across the Divide, and her back still
turned to him, she said, “I will not be upset if I miss the coming of age
rites. In fact, I hope I never have to set foot in that Inrelion again.”
“Why?” Eoryn asked,
remaining where he stood some fifteen feet from her.
Alena turned back
to Eoryn, and her eyes flicked up to his. “I was mistreated there, for I
refused to conform to most of their teaching.”
Eoryn searched
Alena’s face. She was serious. “They tried to make you abandon the Creator?” Eoryn
said this as more of a statement, for he knew the answer.
Alena nodded and
pulled back the sleeve of her dress past her elbow. “They gave me this after I
refused.”
Eoryn stepped
towards her and stared at a slender scar that ran some three inches across the
underside of her forearm. “They cut you,” he said out loud, surprising even
himself with the anger in his voice.
Alena looked up at him,
her face showing surprise at the anger in his voice. “The others in our group were
wounded too after they refused to follow through with some of the teachings. It
was hard.”
“Why did you do it,
Alena? Why did you stay in the Inrelion even after you were abused? You could
have been trained at home, like I was.”
Alena smiled sadly.
“Our Creator calls us to follow our parents, does he not? I told my parents of my
abuse; I showed them the wounds I received; I even begged them to remove me
from the Inrelion; but they shrugged my pleas away. They thought it important
that I learn the Higher Principles, and they believed that I could only learn
them at the Inrelion.”
“But surely a girl
like you need not understand the Higher Principles!” Eoryn exclaimed. “I mean,”
he quickly added, “only those who are heirs to leadership positions need the
Higher Principles.”
“I am an heir to a
leadership position. My parents reside in prominent positions in the Assembly
of Srinmoor.”
“You’re . . .
you’re a princess?” Eoryn stumbled, shocked.
Alena laughed
lightly. “I don’t think a ‘princess’ would be the right word, for my parents
can hardly be called a king or queen. Nevertheless, they deemed it essential
for me to receive higher learning.”
“You will have an
arranged marriage then,” Eoryn said slowly, his heart sinking. It was then he
realized that he had done a poor job of guarding all his emotions towards the
girl before him.
Alena blushed and
looked down at the ground. “They are not always arranged, Eoryn, even for
successors to higher positions, but in my case, yes. I will be betrothed to
Lucas when I come of age.”
“Lucas, he is an
heir too?”
Alena shook her
head. “He is not of noble birth, but his family is one of the richest in my
town. His father was also a friend of my father; the two of them arranged the
marriage when I was ten years old.”
A desperate feeling
swept over Eoryn. He did not want to believe what he had just heard. His mind
searched for any hope that Alena was not closed to him. Did she love Lucas? Did
Lucas love her? Perhaps if the answer to either of these questions was no, then
he still might seek to win her hand. He opened his mouth to speak, but suddenly
there was a loud explosion.
Eoryn was thrown
off his feet by the force of the blast and tumbled roughly to the ground. The
last thing he saw as he fell was Alena stumbling and then falling with a scream
as the ground below her gave way. “Alena!”
Eoryn yelled, scrambling to his feet. Before him the front third of the lobby Alena
had been standing on had disappeared, nothing showing now but a jagged hole
gaping out into the Divide. Eoryn called Alena’s name again and ran towards the
gaping hole.
“I’m here, Eoryn. Please
help me!” The feminine voice was clearly distressed.
Eoryn reached the
edge of the hole and looked to where the voice had come from. Alena hung suspended
over the Divide, barely grasping the edge of the floor. Her fingers were
slipping. Eoryn sprang towards her and grabbed her wrists, and with all his
strength he pulled her up and onto the floor of the lobby.
Alena rolled onto
her back and then sat up beside Eoryn. She was breathing heavily. “Thank you,”
she said, turning her begrimed face to Eoryn.
“You’re bleeding!”
Eoryn exclaimed when she turned to him, seeing blood trickling down her
forehead. He quickly tore a strip off his shirt and pressed it to the wound.
Alena raised her
hand to her forehead, and for a minute her slender fingers touched Eoryn’s hand
as she took the strip from him. “I will be fine. You need to—” but another
explosion shook the ship and Eoryn grabbed Alena’s arm and pulled her away from
the edge.
“What is going on?”
Eoryn looked out of the gaping hole, searching for the cause of the explosion.
The space past the hole was no longer empty. Several small, almost round
vehicles zipped along in the open air, shooting long bursts of red flame into
the side of the 2B Alena and Eoryn were in. To the back of the 2B another ship
appeared. It was about a third of the size of the 2B, but it was fierce looking.
“We’re being
attacked!” Eoryn exclaimed, backing away from the gaping hole.
Alena rose to her
feet, still pressing the bloody strip of shirt to her forehead. “Go! I will be
fine. See what you can do to help!”
“Are you sure?”
Eoryn asked. He hated to leave her alone.
Alena nodded, and
Eoryn turned and ran down the hall leading away from their rooms. A voice
boomed above the sound of the explosions as he ran. “To the captain of this ship
we say, do not make to defend against our attack, or we will destroy you!
Surrender!”
Eoryn ran harder.
Though he dreaded it, he felt pretty sure he knew who they were being attacked
by, and if his guess was correct, the attackers would take no prisoners. It
would be a fight to the death.
After weaving his
way through several hallways, Eoryn burst into the dining hall. He searched for
his friends, hoping to join with them. He saw two young Kinrin heading through
a doorway on the opposite end of the hall, and he again started off in a fast
pace to catch up with these two. All around him the passengers who until a few
minutes ago were eating their breakfast peacefully were now running in every
direction, tipping over chairs and tables in their panicked flight. Eoryn
managed to navigate the chaos and ran through the doorway he had seen the two
Kinrin enter. The doorway opened out into another long hall, and Eoryn saw the
two Kinrin ahead.
“Hey, wait up!” The
two Kinrin turned, and he saw that they were Finiah and Lucas. They stopped to
let Eoryn catch up, who said as he approached, “Where are you going?”
“We were headed for
the cargo deck, where we hoped to meet up with the rest of the group,” Finiah
said quickly. “We need to form some sort of plan to fight our attackers!”
“But why aren’t we
meeting back at our rooms? Alena is still there, and she won’t know we are
meeting in the cargo hold! And where are Jalen, Kiran, and Nayele? We need to
stick together!” Eoryn exclaimed, exasperated. Naturally, he considered himself
the leader of the group, and to have someone else give orders that seemed
completely illogical to him made him fume.
“Jalen and Kiran
had already finished breakfast and were headed back to our rooms when the
attack began. We sent Nayele back to the rooms to tell them and hopefully you
and Alena to leave the rooms at once and meet us by our ACVOTs in the cargo
hold. We should meet the rest of the group there,” Lucas said calmly, almost
coldly.
“But why? Meeting
at our rooms was the most logical idea!” Eoryn retorted, still upset.
Lucas didn’t answer
but turned his back to Eoryn and started down the hallway. Finiah and Eoryn
followed him. As they ran, they passed many gray-cloaked men, the sailors of
the ship, who ran to their battle stations. Many of the sailors looked confused
and alarmed, their faces grim. “What are we attacked by?” one of the sailors
shouted to no one in particular as he ran past.
“Heirum!” another
sailor called back. “They came out of nowhere and caught us sleeping! We must fight!”
“Heirum,” Finiah
said quietly from Eoryn’s side.
Eoryn nodded. There
was no need to communicate more.
The three Kinrin
reached a flight of stairs and climbed down into the cargo hold. Many more of
the sailors scurried to and fro here, opening a port at the far side of the
ship and firing up aircraft that were studded with guns. These aircraft were
the main defense the ship had, other than the arms the sailors carried. Thud
after thud testified to the destruction their enemy was reaping to the outside
of the ship.
The Kinrin reached
their ACVOTs, but the rest of the group was not there. Anxiety fluttered in
Eoryn’s stomach, but he forced the feeling down. They will be coming soon. Several minutes passed, and a steady
stream of the aircraft began pouring out the open port, attacking the circular
vehicles of the Heirum, but there was still no sign of the rest of the Kinrin.
Eoryn slammed his
hand against the hood of his ACVOT and turned to Lucas, who had begun pacing.
“They are not coming.” He spit these words out as if it was Lucas’s fault for
their absent friends.
“Give them a little
time; they will come,” Finiah, who appeared to be the calmest of the three,
replied.
Lucas stopped his
pacing and looked at Eoryn. As their eyes met, Eoryn saw an almost desperate
look cloaking Lucas’s usually calm composure. “Alena, did you see her before
the attack. Is she safe?”
Eoryn set his jaw
firmly, feeling almost reluctant to tell Lucas of Alena. So we are worried the most for the same person, he thought as he
finally opened his mouth. “Yes, she was headed back to her room the last I saw
her.”
This answer didn’t
seem to please Lucas, and he resumed his pacing. “They needed to leave their
rooms!” he exclaimed fiercely after a moment. “They need to get down here! Why
aren’t they here!”
Suddenly a voice
called through speakers in the ceiling above them. “Men, this is your captain
speaking. Abandon the assault craft and close the port. We are outnumbered and
surprised; we must surrender. Report to the upper deck when you have followed
my orders.”
A collective gasp
rose from the sailors, and one of them yelled, “We are surrendering without a
fight? We will all be killed! Heirum take no prisoners!”
Finiah grabbed
Eoryn’s arm. “Eoryn, we need to do something. We must fight the Heirum, for we
cannot just let ourselves be killed.”
“What do we suggest
we do? The rest of our group is who knows where, and there are only three of
us!”
“Let’s take your
ACVOT and get out that port before they close it. Maybe we can think of
something once we are out there.”
Eoryn nodded, and
he and Finiah quickly boarded the ACVOT. “Lucas, are you coming?” Finiah asked
the Kinrin who still paced before the ACVOT, which roared to life as Eoryn
started it.
Lucas hesitated.
“But what about the others? We need to protect them!”
“That’s what we are
doing! If we stay here, we will all die. If we go, we might have a chance to
save ourselves!”
Lucas accepted
Finiah’s logic and climbed aboard the ACVOT, and Eoryn turned the vehicle so it
was facing the port on the far side of the cargo hold. He pressed the
accelerator to the floor, and the ACVOT sped above the deck towards the port.
Several of the sailors noticed the speeding vehicle, and they waved their arms
and shouted for Eoryn to stop, but he ignored them.
“Get the port
closed! Stop them!” one of the sailors shouted. The command was quickly obeyed,
and the port began to close. Eoryn did not let off the accelerator, though, and
kept the ACVOT pointed straight at the closing port. They zoomed through just
before the port closed.
Now outside the
huge ship, Eoryn slowed the ACVOT and stared at the battle before him. The
assault aircraft that had left the 2B before the captain ordered the surrender
were still fighting, but without aid, they had begun to fall back. The round
vehicles molesting the 2B seemed to have a sort of pattern to their attack.
They came from the Heirum’s master ship in waves, descending on the 2B with
overpowering force. While these waves added to the destruction of the
double-berthed ship, just as many of the small, round craft would return to the
master ship, only to join in the next wave heading back to the 2B. Already the
destruction these small aircraft had caused was great, and Eoryn could see why
the captain had called for the surrender.
“The Laser Pods of
the Heirum are doing their job well,” Finiah said grimly. “I never hoped to see
them in action; the stories are frightening enough. What are we going to do?”
“We need to assess
the weapons we have available to us,” Lucas said, “and we need to hurry! We
can’t be caught out here in the open. Double Blades are useless against the
Laser Pods, so I suggest we head for the master ship, where we might be able to
put our arms to use. As for any other weapons, this ACVOT might prove handy.”
“What do you have
in mind, a suicide mission? I don’t plan on crashing my ACVOT, if that is what you
are thinking,” Eoryn replied.
“No, not a suicide
mission, though that is what this might become. We might be able to use your
ACVOT in a way where we can abandon it before it crashes.”
Eoryn shook his
head firmly. “No.”
“Better your ACVOT
crashed than you and all of us dead,” Lucas retorted, stone-faced. “It might be
our only option.”
A Laser Pod flew
past them, its red flame barely missing the ACVOT as it sped past. Eoryn
steered out of the path of another of the pods and again pressed down hard on
the accelerator, heading for the master ship of the Heirum. “I don’t think we
will get all that far if we just drop onto the Heirum’s front porch. We can
land on the ship and use our Double Blades, but there are only three of us,
after all. Heirum may be small, but they know how to fight.”
“They will be
distracted in attacking the 2B. We might be able to fight our way to the
control room or something,” Finiah suggested, not sounding all that sure of his
plan.
“No, fly to the
back of the Heirum’s cruiser,” Lucas said calmly, pointing.
Eoryn nodded and
veered the ACVOT towards the back of the cruiser. They approached it, and the
fierce looking ship loomed above them.
Even though the ship appeared to be moving slowly, Eoryn had to gun the
ACVOT to almost its highest speed to gain on it. They drew near the back of the
Heirum’s cruiser, where four huge, fiery engines powered it forward. A steady
stream of Laser Pods cycled into a port between these engines.
“If you were
thinking we would have less unwanted company back here, I think you need to
think again,” Eoryn called back to Lucas, jerking his head towards the Laser
Pods.
“No, I knew there
would be Laser Pods back here. They only have so many combustibles they can
throw at the 2B before they need to recharge, and they enter that port to do
so.”
“Yes, but how does
this help us? Did you have a certain plan to go along with this knowledge?”
Finiah asked, almost exasperated.
Lucas nodded
slightly. “I don’t know if it will work, but I thought we could ram the ACVOT
into one of the engines.”
“And fry ourselves with
it?”
“No, that is where
the Laser Pods come in. They circle in a continual pattern into that port. If
we could grab onto the pods somehow, we could set the ACVOT on auto pilot,
point it towards one of the engines, and let fly while we travel into the
Heirum’s ship on the Laser Pods.”
“It would be very
dangerous,” Eoryn said, rubbing his jaw.
“Do you have a
better plan?”
Eoryn shook his
head. “What do we do once inside the Heirum’s ship, and how will we get back on
the 2B?”
“I don’t know.
We’ll form a plan as we go.”
“Okay.” Eoryn
gently raised his ACVOT closer to the stream of Laser Pods heading into their
master ship. The Heirum piloting the Laser Pods, most of them out of ammunition
anyway, did not seem to pay any attention to the ACVOT and Kinrin. Eoryn raised
the ACVOT till the Laser Pods whooshed past just above their heads, and he
stared up at the underside of the round aircraft. Two metal bars ran lengthwise
across the underside of most of them. Perfect.
“All right, it
looks like we can do this. Who wants to go first?” Eoryn said, half sarcastically.
“I will go last, setting my ACVOT on autopilot and pointing it so that it
destroys one of the engines.”
“I will go first
and clear anything or anyone that might want to keep us out,” Lucas said. “You
will need to stay fairly caught up with the Laser Pod so my arms are not ripped
out when I grab onto it.”
Eoryn nodded and
sped the ACVOT up till it was keeping close to the speed of the Laser Pod above
them. Lucas stood up in the ACVOT and began to count out loud. When he reached
five, he jumped up and grabbed onto the bar running across the Laser Pod. Eoryn
and Finiah watched as the hitchhiked Laser Pod disappeared into the open port
of the Heirum’s ship.
“He seemed to do
fine,” Finiah said. “I guess it is my turn.”
Eoryn circled the
ACVOT back around so he could get the necessary acceleration to catch up to one
of the pods filing past. “Are you ready?” he asked to his friend as he began to
accelerate the ACVOT.
Finiah stood up and
steadied himself. “Yes. Are you sure you can do this, Eoryn? Getting out the
ACVOT and onto a Laser Pod when it is set on auto pilot will be hard.”
“It is definitely
the most dangerous scheme we have come up with to date,” Eoryn said, smiling a
little, “and that is saying something. Don’t worry, friend, I will be fine.”
Finiah clasped
Eoryn’s shoulder and then looked up at the nearest Laser Pod. After a few
seconds, he leaped forward out of the ACVOT and was whisked away by the
unsuspecting pod.
Eoryn watched as
his friend disappeared into the ship and then imediantly began making ready to
turn his ACVOT into a missile. He set it in auto pilot but paused for a moment,
remembering all the long hours he had worked to save enough money to buy this
vehicle, his first. He ran his hand over the dashboard. “Goodbye, old friend,
you served me well.” In one deft motion Eoryn pointed it towards the engine to
the far left of the Laser Pod’s port and jumped up, grabbing hold of the
underside of the nearest Laser Pod. He was jerked forward, but he did not lose
his hold, and wind rushed through his hair as he approached the enemy ship. To
his left the now empty ACVOT slowly angled away from him as it headed for its
target. Just as Eoryn reached the edge of the port, there was a deafening
explosion. His ACVOT had done its last task well.
Seeing the floor of
the port some eight feet below him, Eoryn closed his eyes and let himself drop.
He smashed into the floor and rolled several times along it before he could get
to his feet. As he did so, he unsheathed his Double Blade, anticipating being
attacked. A loud, piercing alarm started going off, no doubt the result of the
far left engine malfunctioning after the crash.
Eoryn was not
imediantly attacked, so he looked around, still holding his Double Blade ready.
Lucas and Finiah stood some twenty feet away, also holding their weapons ready,
but nothing was attacking them. Or at least nothing was currently attacking
them, for as Eoryn drew near, he could see several bodies lying at their feet.
As far as he could tell, the port was deserted of living Heirum.
“Well, we made it.
Now our only problem is that because of our actions, the ship we are on is failing,”
Finiah said, only half joking.
Lucas shook his
head. “There are four engines; one of them being knocked out will probably not be enough
to send this ship spiraling into the Divide. Let’s get out of this open space
before we are spotted by Heirum who have enough sense to raise the alarm before
they attack us.
“Where are we going
to go?” Eoryn asked quietly as they began running.
“The control room.”
Above them a loud
voice boomed out again. “I see that you have wisely surrendered your ship,
captain, and to acknowledge this, we will call off our Laser Pods. In a few
minutes we will send a boarding party onto your ship. Do not try to fight them,
or we will send you into the Divide. We have a cargo to pick up.”
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