Fic: Altered Trajectory (cont.)
“Shoot her!” Blake shouted.
“Stun us both, sure,” Hazel snarled at the guards as they raised their pistols. “Care to take bets on whether my fingers spasm or not when we fall over?” She pulled Blake to her feet. It was an awkward position, given that the human was a half a head taller then she was, but Hazel wanted as much as Blake's body mass between her and those stunners as possible.
“Thank you, gentlemen. I'll be taking those now,” Rufus said with some of his old sang froid, taking the pistols from the hands of both guards, stuffing one into his belt and handing the other to her. He pulled out the one pistol again and waved the guards into the cell, sealing them in. Then he let out a sigh. “How long do you think we have, Hazel?”
“Not long at all, I'm guessing.”
“This cell block is monitored,” Blake said, her anger barely contained. “Security is already outside, no doubt waiting for you to poke your head out.”
Hazel pressed the muzzle of her pistol, a plasma/stunner weapon, right under Blake's chin, shutting her up. “Well, it's a good thing they're going to see yours first, eh?” She pushed Blake forward with a none too gentle shove, as Rufus borrowed her security card to open the entrance to the cell block.
It was no real surprise to see the squad of marines pointing their rifles at them as the door slid back. “Back off!” Hazel snarled, keeping Blake in front of them both.
“Release Commander Blake!” the squad commander shouted back, aiming his weapon.
“Safety your weapons,” Blake ordered, as Hazel poked her chin with the pistol. “They won't get off the ship anyway.”
All hands, Red Alert! the corridor speakers blared. All personnel to action stations!
“Let us pass,” Hazel ordered. At a careful nod from Blake the marines back down the corridor, as they slipped into a lift and Rufus punched the bottom for the hanger deck.
“You won't get away with this,” Blake growled.
“You're going to have bigger things to worry about than me in a minute, I figure,” she replied. Hazel glanced at Rufus, who was leaning against the wall of the lift, looking like he was trying not to slide down to the deck plating. “You all right, Ru?” she asked in worry.
“Not for the past seven years or so,” he replied. “I'll make it though. We're going to grab the White Knight I take it?”
“That's the plan, such as it is. We can stuff you and Blake in the rear seat and blast the launch doors open.”
“That's insane,” Blake said. “Release me and I'll promise you that you'll be returned to Vulpine Prime shortly.”
“In boxes perhaps,” Rufus noted. “You can't let either of leave this ship alive, Commander. What you did to me is unforgivable in the eyes of the Council of Farmer Lords.”
“I did what was necessary for the security of...”
Rufus let out a low growl, his ears flicking back in a rare expression of anger. “You didn't do what was necessary, you did what was expedient. I cannot count the number of times through history people like you have tortured and murdered and then reassured yourselves that whatever horrors you perpetuated, it was for the greater good. For the security of The People. For the sanctity of The Race. Because whatever lives you destroy, you live in the assurance that they were not worth as much as the ones you are supposedly protecting. For that I damn you, Commander. I damn you to the Cold and Dark, not for what you did to me, but for why you did it.”
“Enough, Ru,” Hazel said. The both flattened against the walls of the lift as it opened out onto the corridor leading to the hanger bay. She stuck her head out cautiously. It had been cleared of all personnel, no doubt on the orders from the bridge, which was having to deal with the double crisis of this hostage situation and the ships bearing down on the attack. “Okay, forward now.” They made their way down the corridor, and Ru keyed open the airlock leading to the hanger deck. Rows of sleek fighters lined either side of the deck, leading up to the launch/recovery accelerators. The White Knight was parked at against the aft bulkhead, looking intact aside from some tool scratches along the storage compartment door.
“Okay Ru, you think you can keep an eye on Blake while I start the power up sequence?” Hazel asked. Rufus nodded, and she forced Blake down on her knees, as he steadied his pistol as best he could, aiming right at her forehead. Hazel clambered up the White Knight's retractable boarding ladder, leaning into the forward cockpit. “Just give me a few sec-”
Hazel's next sentence was cut off as she felt a superheated lance strike her in the back. She saw a beam of red light emerge from her stomach, to splash off the nimble fighter's cockpit armor. Ru shouted something, then turned and fired at the sniper that had been hidden in the upper catwalks, as Hazel dropped down hard onto the deck.
TBC