Kara King & The Beyonders: The Nightwind Glyder Heist

Chapter Fourteen:

Clash

Time to Supernova: 0m

Kara King

Kara felt the kick. Everything rocked for a brief moment as the electromagnetic pulse from the supernova met the Nightwind Glyder. The lights went out in a rush. Kara wasn’t worried though, her hands had been hovering over the glass for the last few minutes. She was committing the simple image to mind so that she wouldn’t grab the wrong object. Kara lifted the glass panel outward, reached under it, and grabbed onto what could only be explained as a lone handle of something.

Kara left the artifact room. It hadn’t been a main focus for emergency lighting brought up by the backup generators but the rest of the ship had been. From the emperor’s suite to the stairwell and the main thoroughfare of the mall, dim red lights bathed the ship. In a way, Kara felt it was almost honorific of the red dwarf sun that just gave its life for the party. She was certain, however, this was not a consideration when building the vessel.

A voice came over the intercom, It was Kara’s father. “Our backup generators have brought up some mood lighting for you! We have life support active and some minor systems up like this announcement system. If you would please find your way to primary fellowship zones, we have staff members with battery powered music stations, and more festivities to be had!” The comms broke out.

The large shopping thoroughfare was mostly abandoned. Patrons would have already head back this way if it weren’t for Zee working a trick on the doors. The PA system came back online, Kara assumed only in this part of the ship. It was Councilor King again, “Kara.” His voice was nearly burning with anger. “I am trusting in my intuition that the generators are not coming online properly because of you. I am also assuming my other security captains have not checked in because of your crew. I’m not sure what you’re up to but when we work out what’s wrong with these damn doors, were coming for you and that blasted crew of yours!” The comms cut out.

Kara looked around. While there weren’t many people there were still some around, largely confused at the message. She feigned her best surprise at these strangers too, almost like a child trying to ignore their parents speaking to them at a public function.

From where she was, Kara could head straight down the length of the ship to the main atrium, where a majority of the patrons were, or she could head down through the underbelly of the ship and their path to this area in the place. Those tunnels gave her a bad feeling. If security had figured out a work around, then she could be flooded with adversaries. She didn’t like the idea of the large crowd either, but it was far less lethal than the alternative.

Kara closed her eyes. She listened for that first ignored sensation when stepping onto a ship this size. The thrum and vibration of mass engines. Ships of this magnitude, and something like imperial capital ships, were equipped with mass engines. They are big enough sub-light drives to get you between star systems. It would still take a great deal of time, but if your dark drive systems failed, as they did in this case, then you could still drive to the next system over for help.

Kara didn’t hear or feel anything. She went over the plan in her head. They only had about ten minutes or so until dark drives came online, and they would have to get out of there. Kara shook her head, pushing away the thought of taking the lower route. The main atrium could have the most collateral damage if things went south but it was ultimately the fastest option.

There was no confrontation to the atrium doors. It was offputtingly quite. Kara tried to engage their comms system but there was something not working about it still, or her father’s technicians had finally started jamming communications. Either way, she couldn’t get in touch with the crew on the Ersatz. Kara hesitated at the door, feeling like it was a trap. She stood to the side and scanned her card at the reader to open the security blast doors with a woosh.

Instantly a barrage of people came flowing through the doorway. Blaring and thumping music battered Kara’s heart as patrons made a rush for the food and drink vendors. She didn’t dare looking like the odd man out fighting the flow of traffic. Instead, Kara waited it out until she could slip through quietly and skirt around the large room. She didn’t see any security, but she didn’t see the emperor either. Maybe they were prioritizing his safety? Now she was getting hopeful. The sinking sensation in her stomach grew as she neared the door to the hallway headed for her hanger. She felt like someone who had stolen from a casino and was just walking out the front door, unscathed. It wasn’t supposed to work out this easy, right?

The door to the hallway was already wide open. The sound of a conflict was in full force. I knew it, she thought. There was instant dread that they had sent their full security forces to lock down her ship. Nevertheless, Kara had to be there for her crew and she broke out into a sprint for her ship.

“I’m not your enemy,” one of the voices in the clash shouted.

Kara came around the corner just in time to see Throckmorton and the female security lieutenant in a clash. Throck, wielding a security baton, struggled against the lieutenant’s lazesword. Her longsword type weapon had two long blades with about an inch of space between them. One was made of a sharp metal while the other was dull but had tiny pin sized emitters along the edge to carry a cohesive heated plasma much like a lazeknife. It was heavy and unwieldy by the look of it to Kara but it would easily cleave through anything short of duranium.

Throck was quick and experienced with the heavily encumbered but lethal type. The lieutenant came down with the lazesword hard but narrowly missed. Throck had ducked and sidestepped so that she was on the security officer’s weak side. She gave a forceful kick downward at the officer’s knee, sending it inward with a crack and scream. The din didn’t last long though, ash she followed it up with a forceful blow to the head.

Their conflict had taken place right in front of the large doorway to the hangar her ship was in. Both women looked up sharply, feeling the vibration of the ship coming to life. Throck Morton tossed her baton aside for the sword on the ground. She swung it around in some basic drills as Kara carefully approached, then flicked a switch and turned off the emitters.

“You get out of jail?”

Throck groaned. “I guess that was a downside to the EM field, huh?”

“I don’t want to fight you Throck.”

“I can’t let you get away with whatever you’re getting away with.”

Kara gave a short laugh. She looked down at the handle in her possession. She flicked a switch and her wrist. A long blade unfolded itself. “I would really appreciate it if you didn’t make me use this.”

Throck closed the gap between them and swung her sword downward, letting the weight of the weapon add to the lethality of its cutting edge. Kara strafed and quickly swiped her sword sideways in what would have been a deathblow if Throck hadn’t stumbled back.

Kara had successfully changed positions in the hallway with Throck. She really didn’t want to fight her. Kara walked away or she tried to but she quickly heard Throck’s recovery. Kara spun around and performed a hanging parry, redirecting the force of Throck’s longsword to the side and opening her for a blow which Kara did not take. Throck was exhausted and worn from her previous fight.

“You weren’t expecting her were you?”

Throck caught her breath. “No. Suppose we both had the same idea. She figured out the doors. I followed your crew back here. When she saw me, she assumed.”

“Assumed you were with us somehow? Interesting.”

“How?”

“How did we do it?”

Throck nodded her head then pushed herself up. “And what makes you think they wont blast you out of space when you take off with that?”

Kara looked at her then looked out over the hangar bay and past its shield wall to the darkness of space. Almost perfectly, the lights returned on for a split second before the blast doors closed. The whole ship lurched slightly as they jumped into dark space. A sense of confusion washed over Throck’s face. Kara returned with a cocky grin.

Realization washed the confusion away from Throck’s eyes. “You’re stealing the whole ship?”