The Exiled

Ana thought of a man's desperate face reacting offensively as he watched the blast doors of a shelter give way to an intruding military force.

“My uncle was convinced that Aliens are coming…,” Re-echoed James' voice from the depths of Ana’s memory.

In the crater, there were the remains of the computer mainframe twisted, and its internal components burned to ashes.

“James? Are you okay?” Ana had said, concerned about the glow in his pocket, thinking that it was a burning wound from one of the Bothran weapons that glows a certain color burning you after you have been struck.

But James did not respond as he opened his pocket.

Ana is breathless as she pulls a box toward her out of the rubble. Inside lay an amulet with what looked like a faded gemstone.

As the amulet clinked against the sides of the metal box as she pulled it out, Ana was reminded of reacting to a clattering sound, how everyone turned and saw that James’ amulet interacted with his environment.

His own alien cuffs had fallen to the floor and the doors of their alien prison had clicked open.

She remembered the fight that ensued. She remembered how the jailbirds took out most of the guards, and worked their way through the rest of the ship. In a last stand the enemies fought hard, and the captain himself fought James. However, James had taken the energy-enhanced spear, and activating it with the amulet, impaled the captain with his own weapon.

“You can’t stop us. You won’t stop us!” Said the Captain as he drew his last breath. James gasped as he watched the life leave the alien’s dark eyes. There seemed to be slow tears that escaped them as they faded.

Little wisps of smoke spewed out of the ground around Ana as tears overfilled her eyes and fell.

Francine had gasped. “Guys! They sent out the signal. More of them are gonna be on their way. We have to get out of here!”

She was in a room in the rear of the craft that was well lit with windows on both sides and three round escape pods at the base of the walls on either side.

James and Ana, from the cockpit, looked with anxiety towards the windows and the alien ships ready to deploy fightercraft from their stations in the clouds.

A projectile fight ensued. Most of the aerial threats were defeated or outran, but some of the enemy managed to get on board their craft. They fought to knock them back off the craft, and just managed to reclose and lock the hatches. However, there were enemies aboard the craft already.

“Ana, here. Keep the Gemstone.” He said, gently. His blue eyes had taken on a solemn navy color under his brows. “I’ll go back to delay them. Fly us away! Turn to deep space.”

“James!” Ana furrowed her brows and squinted slightly, almost as though she would cry.

“Earth…What about… Earth?”

“We’re leaving it all. Don’t look back, Ana.”

James and the rest of the crew had fought back the remaining soldiers, but then they heard a beeping sound echoing through the chambers. A bomb was set in the middle of the chamber on the floor. The remaining Bothran warrior who had set it strode towards one of the escape pods.

However, in a split second reflexive motion, James lifted the bomb with both hands and dove into the escape pod with the Bothran, pushing him inside just before the door closed.

Francine gazed towards James in the pod. He gazed back towards her through the clear window, and reached back and pulled the red lever.

“James! No!”

A series of rapid clicks unlocked and the sound of the burst of a pressure valve released all within the two seconds before the pod disappeared beneath the floor.

She ran to the rear window, to watch the bronze dot of the rapidly receding pod disappear through the clouds below.

Boom!

The shockwave of a fiery explosion from beneath the cloud blew towards them, just before the ship's propulsors kicked in.

***

Ana ran back to them once they had cleared Earth’s atmosphere.

“Francine! We…escaped...We are away. Are they following us?”

As she ran back into the room, she gasped at the cloud of alien ships in orbit around the increasingly distant Earth.

“Harry? Fran, what’s wrong?”

The shadows in her crewmates' faces had turned dull as they passed behind asteroids and the burning beams of the naked solar light shifted out of view.

“Where’s James?”

Next in Astral Wanderers, Chapter 2: For a New Life