Charming Charly (English Edition) (Lords of Arr'Carthian 3) (13 page)

“Damn it, what are you doing?” shouted Lory behind her.

Charly stopped and turned round.

“Get on with it! Come on! Just trust me, OK?”

Lory muttered indignantly but got moving and followed her through the corridors. Having arrived at the destination, Charly stopped. She looked round, to the right and to the left, and then opened the door to a small closet. Lory hesitated, but Charly grabbed her by the hand and pulled her inside the dark room. She quickly closed the door and it became very dark.

“Where the hell are we?” snarled Lory, not happy.

“It’s a kind of broom cupboard. But it’s got …”

“Broom cupboard? I get us out of our cabin because we were sitting in a trap there and you bring us into a broom cupboard?”

“Wait till I’ve explained,” replied Charly, offended.

“Hmpf.”

“This room has two doors,” she explained. “The first door is the one we came in by. The other door is behind me here and it leads onto another corridor. This room is, so to speak, a connection between the two corridors. So if danger comes from your side then we’ll disappear through the door behind me. If danger …”

“Yes, yes! I get it! OK! Maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea.” Lory admitted.

“Not
such
a bad idea?” she murmured, annoyed. “I might have just saved our hides with my
not such bad idea
!”

“Quiet!” hissed Lory. “If anyone goes past out there, they’ll definitely hear us.”

“OK, you’re right. Let’s sit it out and hope for the best.”

They waited in the darkness in silence.

***

Amano was moving anxiously back and forth. He hoped that nothing had happened to Charly. With everything that she had already been through, this would be yet another traumatic experience for her. If this son-of-a-bitch of a pirate has harmed just one hair, then he would …

“We’ve shattered their protective shields. Their eight engines are damaged. Five of them irreparably. Shall we go on board?” Palic spoke.
 

“Yes,” said Kordan. “Man the fighters.” He turned to Amano. “We’ll both go with the first fighter.”

“With the greatest of pleasure,” Amano snarled grimly. He could not wait to get his hands on Ellyod.

“Good, then let’s lose no time,” Kordan urged. The giant was cool, as always, but Amano, who knew his cousin best, saw the fear in his eyes. Fear of what they might see. Amano felt this fear, too. He had seen what the loss of a mate had done to his father and he was sure that the same would happen to him in such a situation. He would rather die himself than lose Charly.
 

They hurried to the docking station where technicians were clearing the fighters for take-off. These small, agile space ships were built for a maximum of six people. Amano and Kordan took the first fighter, along with four more men. Kordan immediately sat behind the controls. The seat belts locked automatically as soon as the men took their seats. Take-off in the fighter was always very powerful and without seat belts there could be fatal injuries. Amano closed his eyes. He heard the blood rush through his ears.

Kordan counted down from ten: “… three … two … we’re off!”

The fighter shot forwards with such acceleration that the men were forced back into their seats and their bodies shook. Kordan’s hands clutched the armrests. The high-speed mini space ship was catapulted out into the depths of space. Once the extreme acceleration reduced to normal flying speed the men relaxed and Amano opened his eyes. Kordan made a frontal attack on the pirate ship’s main laser weapons. He maneuvered the fighter skillfully, avoiding a series of shots. With ice-cold precision he fired at the laser cannon until it broke into pieces. Debris was flung everywhere, but Kordan dodged it expertly. It would possibly bring about their demise if one of the large pieces were to hit them. Through the impact of the explosion the pieces had reached a high speed and could cause damage to the fighter
,
which, at worst, could be fatal.
 

In the meantime, the other fighters were also flying alongside them. Three of them were firing on the entrance to the docking station.

“The docking station is passable. All systems go for boarding,” ordered Kordan over the radio.

“At last,” murmured Amano, clenching his fists.

***

Charly listened out. Apart from the sirens, everything had gone quiet.

“It sounds as if the shooting has stopped. Do you think the attackers have been defeated?” she asked.
 

“Either that or they’re now boarding,” replied Lory. “We should stay here for a while and wait.”

The sirens fell silent. Charly was breathing heavily. The two women were listening hard but it was deathly quiet on the ship. They were a long way from the bridge and the docking station. If fighting was happening there, they probably would not be aware of it.
 

 
“Fuck!” murmured Lory.

“What is it?” asked Charly.

“Nothing. I just hate this waiting and doing nothing.”

Charly could hear Lory feeling around in the dark.

 
“Whatever are you doing?” she asked.

“I’m looking for the light.”

“Are you crazy? Do you want them to find us here?”

“Of course not. I just want to quickly see what’s in here. Perhaps there’s something we can use as a weapon. And anyway, I don’t think anyone can see anything from outside. There’s no gap under the door for light to shine through and there’s no key hole either, of course.”

“Bingo!” Lory cheered quietly as a lamp in the ceiling flickered into life.
 

They both looked around on the shelves.
 

Charly found a spray can.

“I’ve got a spray,” she said. “It might be useful if we spray it into their eyes.”

“Yes, that’s something. But still keep on looking.”

 
“Scalpels!” Lory suddenly cried joyfully.

“Wow!” said Charly. “What are they doing with scalpels here? Be careful! They look damn sharp.”

Lory grinned.

“And so they should. Don’t panic, I know how to use things like this.”
 

Charly looked around uncertainly.

“We should put the light out again. Don’t you think?”

“OK,” Lory agreed, putting the case in her belt. She pressed the switch and they sat in darkness again.
 

***

Amano was fighting two pirates. One of them, a hairy beast with horrible breath, pulled out a laser gun, but Amano managed to kick the weapon out of his hand before he could shoot. His sword pierced the thick hide and he was not able to pull it out again before the second pirate’s axe was about to split his skull. All he could do was roll to the side. Whilst his opponent struck out again, he tried, with gritted teeth, to pull his weapon out of the dead pirate’s thick hide.

“Fuck it, you miserable beast. Let go of my sword!” he snarled angrily.

Literally at the last moment he managed to free the blade and he struck upwards into his attacker’s chest. The male with the blue skin and the yellow Nuruan eyes uttered a cry of rage then fell forwards
,
burying Amano
,
who was still kneeling on the ground beneath him.
 

“Oufff!” said Amano as the air left his rib cage. He pushed the heavy weight off himself, shaking his head.
 

“Damn it,” he swore. “What have you been eating, mate? Stones?”

He looked round for a new opponent and saw his cousin fighting with a revolting jelly-like creature. As Kordan stuck his sword into the wobbling figure before him, his opponent splashed him with sticky green jelly.

“You really are revolting, brother!” his cousin shouted in disgust. “It’s time to put an end to your sad existence.”

He struck out and cut the creature’s head from his wobbly body.
 
Yet more jelly splashed about and Kordan swore loudly.

Amano saw a lizard-like creature coming towards Kordan.

“Watch out!” he shouted. “Behind you!”

As he turned round Kordan pulled out his laser pistol and shot the attacker between the eyes. The beast uttered an enraged grunt and charged towards him. He was clearly not going to be easy to deal with and his cousin had to come up with a plan.

Kordan lowered his weapon and shot into lizard male’s stomach. The beast cried out as grey-green blood shot from the deep wound.

 
“Spare at least one of them,” Kordan shouted to his males.

Amano turned away, raising his sword to behead another Nuruan, then he helped one of the males with a six-armed creature that was thrashing about wildly with his three swords.
 

It did not take long for the males to have the ship and the rest of its crew under control. Kordan had the survivors gathered together in a corner. Two were very seriously injured and would not last much longer. The other three were only slightly injured. Expressionless, he walked up to the cowering men. Amano followed directly behind him.

“Where is Ellyod?” asked Kordan.
 

“We don’t know any Ellyod,” said one of the males. “We don’t even know why you’ve attacked us.”

Kordan took his sword and pushed it into the man’s stomach in such a way that he would not die straight away but had time to think about his stupidity. And the other men would now know that he did not tolerate any lies.

“I’ll ask
once
more and I want a correct answer. Where is Ellyod Allegrass.”

“He’s fled,” responded another prisoner.

“Fled?” asked Kordan in an ominously calm voice. “When and how?”

“During the attack,” answered the man. “He took his stealth fighter.”

“Stealth fighter?” asked Kordan. “You mean he’s invisible with this
stealth fighter
?”
 

“Yes,” said the prisoner. “It’s only visible during take-off, but as soon as take-off is completed he can activate the camouflage screen.”

“How come,” asked Kordan, “a fighter that does not have large energy reserves can maintain the use of a stealth fighter?”

“The camouflage screen was developed by the Regans,” replied the male. “Allegrass only recently acquired a camouflage screen. He was planning to equip the mother ship with one, too.”

Amano clenched his fists in frustration. He had wanted to finish off
that son-of-a-bitch – slowly and painfully. He could not believe that the bastard really had escaped from them.

“Shit!” he swore. “Marruk will kill us when he finds out that this son-of-a-bitch has slipped through our fingers.”

“I’ll get the bastard still. Sooner or later!” Kordan promised, furious.

“I hope you do,” snarled Amano. “But now we should look for our mates. I miss Charly.”

 
“Where are the females?” asked Kordan.

“They’re in their cabin,” responded another prisoner.

Kordan pointed his pistol at the male.

“You will lead us to them. But I tell you – if you as much as blink out of turn you will have taken your last breath. Is that clear?”

The man nodded.

Amano and Kordan were led through the ship to the cabin where Charly and Lory were imprisoned. When they reached the cabin they saw that the door was open. Amano suppressed the impulse to thump the damn wall. He heard Kordan swear quietly. His cousin was clearly very angry.
 

“Maron,” he said into the radio on his wrist.

“General,” came the officer’s response.

“See to it that the prisoners are bound and taken to the
Cordelia
under guard. All other available males are to systematically comb the ship in search of Lady Lory and Lady Charly. The females may be afraid and might try to defend themselves. Use force, if necessary. But don’t injure them for me. In case of emergency you can use the laser on the lowest setting. When you’ve found the females I want to be informed immediately. Captain Amano and I will search Deck C where the females had their quarters.”

“
Had,
General?”

“They’ve evidently fled from their quarters and are wandering around here somewhere,” groaned Kordan. “I’d like them to be found as quickly as possible.”

“Aye, General. We’ll begin immediately.”

“Good. Over and out.”

“Understood. Over and out.”

“Come on, let’s get started,” said Kordan. “First we’ll search this room and the bathroom.”

“Why?” asked the male who had led them here. “They’ve clearly fled, so why are you looking for them here?”

“Because it could be a trick,” explained Kordan indignantly. “It’s possible that they just wanted to give the impression that they’ve fled so that no one searches here.”

“What are we going to do with our friend here?” asked Amano with a sideways glance at the prisoner.
 

Kordan scrutinized the male, squinting.