Page 74 of Captured
Chapter Thirty-Four
Rakir
We left Colonel Hicks and Governor Taylor back in the meeting room despite their protestations. We can’t trust them inside the Pearl not knowing which one - if any - of them is the traitor.
We finally enter the Command Room, Darhk and Harko just behind me. There, displayed on wide screens roll one image after the other of the Pearl being boarded, its hull breached. Men clad in battle uniforms pour inside the hallways, their figures going in and out of a thick cover of smoke.
The few enemies that have tried to fight the Pearl before have all paid for their folly with their lives, but none has ever been so foolish as to try invading it.
“How many?” I turn to the high-ranking officer waiting next to the screens.
“So far, only a handful, Prince Rakir. Three dozen, maybe less,” the officer answers.
I frown. A handful to take on a warship the size of the Pearl? “The women and children?”
“All vulnerable populations are being relocated to the sealed pods. They’ll be evacuated as soon as you give the order,” the officer answers. He’s a good soldier and he has followed protocol perfectly. The sealed pods are fully autonomous and will be on their way back to Draka before any harm can happen to the precious lives inside.
“And the Lady Juliet and Sara?”
“My best men are on their way to escort them to the sealed pods as we speak.”
“No.” I shake my head. I don’t want Juliet anywhere else but at my side. “Have them brought here. The Command Room has as many if not more safety protocols than the sealed pods.”
The officer raises his brows, but inclines his head in deference. He doesn’t understand my need to see to Juliet’s safety personally, but he won’t argue with me.
“Any casualties?”
“No casualties on our side, but we have a few wounded.”
“Good.” Our men are well trained, but the humans have weapons capable of piercing our exoskeletons and we have lost many warriors lately. “Search the ship and take as many of them alive as you can for interrogation.”
“Yes, Prince Rakir.”
I nod, dismissing him to his duties. The officer leaves the room, his pace hurried, his expression one of extreme concentration.
“It makes no sense,” Harko comments as he goes over the reports from his own team of scientists. “The Black Star shouldn’t have been able to evade my scanners at this close range.”
“Never mind your scanners,” Darhk snaps over his shoulder as he takes the captain’s seat of the Pearl. “The Black Star Command should never have tried to attack the Pearl at all. This is a battle they have no hope of winning.”
As Darhk turns to his controls, giving orders to maneuver the Pearl into battle position, my mind reels with all that has happened over the last few minutes.
The Freedom, blown into oblivion along with all the Rebellion leaders on board. The Black Star Command, standing its ground against the Pearl, sending an invasion team into the largest Drakian vessel in the Galaxy.
This is a battle they have no hope of winning.
This is a battle they have no hope of winning. The thought swirls in my skull like the wind of a hurricane. Everything becomes clear as I turn to Darhk. I open my mouth to speak, but my brother beats me to it.
“Where is it?” Darhk’s tone is urgent and his brows furrow so deep his eyes are lost in the shadows. “Where is the Black Star Command?”
“It’s gone!” Harko shouts, still bent over his own screens, looking at information that makes no sense. “I don’t see it anywhere.”
“They never intended to win a battle against the Pearl,” I say.
I rush to the camera, quickly switching between scenes of empty hallways filled with smoke. Here and there, Black Star soldiers lay on the ground, dead. When I finally find what I’m looking for, a chill goes up my spine.
This is no battle. The Black Star soldiers are backed into a corner, shouting and firing with the kind of desperate energy of men knowing they have no chance at winning.
“This was a sacrifice.” Darhk speaks from behind, no longer in his seat. He leans next to me and the next screen shows exactly what I feared.
