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Scene #87
“I heard your thoughts when we left Educator WiEvsert's office,
Selaya Collins. You're upset that he was attracted to Zak. Is it
because he's a male equivalent?” “Why should it bother me?”
Selaya was irritated, at how her business partner could think such
nonsense. She fidgeted in the command chair, making her long legs
more comfortable. Fastening her hair back in a ponytail, she
proclaimed, “Let's get back to work,” and looked out the viewport
at the blackness of outer space. She never tired of that view.
“He's all you think about. The fact that WiEvsert is a male
equivalent bothers you, but you're more upset that anyone else is
attracted to Zak Joenns. You're jealous, Partner. Admit it, you
love the alien man with the pointed ears.” “I'll admit I'm
attracted to him physically. Any sane woman—human or
non-human—would be. He's beautiful.” She sneered at her best friend
and partner. “You'd even like to wrap your four blue arms around
him, Ordana Alldaff! I'm not jealous.” A smiling Ordana
laughed raucously and winked, her royal-blue hair waving around her
shoulders. “Unlike you, I'll admit it. But, how did a picture of
Zak, someone you haven't seen since elementary, get on someone's
desk so far from his home planet?” “I wonder if—” Selaya's
sentence went unfinished because something collided violently with
their ship, the Camelot, and threw both women from their seats.
“Same here.” As they
spoke, the attacking ship fired an old-style photon beam directly
at Camelot's engines, mildly jolting them. “Why would
someone fire on us?” Selaya asked. “The rumored war is three solar
systems away in the next quadrant and hasn't started.” “I'll
search the ship for thought-broadcasts.” “I'll check
our damage-control board.” Seconds later, Ordana
announced, “Getting nothing. Whoever they are, they're shielded.
Their minds' blackwalls are impenetrable.” “So far
we're undamaged. I'll try to raise them on the comscreen.” As she
reached for the screen, the ship fired at them, again with no
warning from the navicomp. Camelot's shields prevented more than a
minor jolting. “We have no weapons to defend ourselves.”
Ordana's expression turned grim. “I know.” Selaya got
neither visual nor voice response on the comscreen. “I'm switching
to manual control and enlarging the front viewport.” She punched
two buttons, and the viewport in front of them grew larger. Stars
came into view, and their attacker. It was silver, round, and flat,
with no markings. “It looks like those flying saucers Grandpa once
taught me about.” They watched the saucer fire on
them again. Camelot's shields held. “Ordana, did you
see the glow develop on the saucer's edge just before the last
shot?” “It built to bright blue milliseconds before. I'll
see it before you. We can evade their shots by watching for it.
Change course when I say.” They evaded the next five
shots. When the attacker began firing constantly,
Ordana took over maneuvering Camelot. She evaded every other shot.
After several minutes, Camelot's jump engine went
off-line, then shortly, the impulse engine. Ordana only
evaded two of the next six shots before the seventh took out their
shields and back-up engine. One shot ripped the
partners from their safety belts. Ordana crashed into a
chair's base across the spacious control room. Selaya
slammed hard into the bulkhead across the room. She got to her feet
seconds after her thoughts cleared, however long that was. She
could still breathe, and her legs were wobbly but working. An arm
hung at a sickening angle, though she wasn't sure whose it was. The
color was wrong. She thought-broadcasted to Ordana, who
didn't respond. Selaya immediately broadcasted to their
boss, Mr. Knight! We're under attack one lightday from planet
Shee'l. Help us! She wasn't sure how effective her broadcast would
be since she could only broadcast out to 400 lightyears. Ordana
handled longer-range broadcasting. Selaya would keep sending until
she couldn't think anymore. While getting into the command
chair, excruciating pain ripped through her arm. She screamed. The
mangled arm was hers, and she'd bumped it on the armrest. Selaya
moaned and almost lost consciousness while laying the arm in her
lap. Despite the growing bloodstains on her uniform blouse, it
would have to wait. A glance at the control console
demonstrated the worst situation possible: their navicomp,
life-support system, and engines were all destroyed. A red light
above an indicator warned that the engine room's hull was cracked
and heat and oxygen were leaking into the cold blackness of space.
She piped the oxygen out of the other compartments into the control
room. They'd be dead when the light went out that indicated
the control room's oxygen was used up. As she waited alone
and in pain, Selaya thought about who could want to destroy them.
Neither she nor Ordana had any enemies, and they hadn't been to any
of the planets that supposedly would be involved in the war. We
don't deserve to die without knowing why.
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