Page 109 of Shielded Heart 1
“He’d bettercome. He agreed, and I gave him a deadline. He’ll be late, because he always gets distracted, but I think he’ll get here eventually.”
“He’ll come,” she said.
Thargen laughed. “Oh, I’m sure he’ll becomingall right, but it won’t be here.”
Samantha blushed, ducking her head, but a faint smile tugged at her lips—because Thargen was likely right.
Though her gaze was averted, she swore she feltDrakkal glare at the vorgal.
“I think you’re the only reason he’s left that roomat all over the last week, Samantha,” Drakkal said. “He’ll come. Time just works a little different for him. I said ten minutes, so he’ll be at least half an hour.”
“It takes time to look this good,” Razi said in a voice startlingly similar to Arcanthus’s.
Samantha laughed. “That was pretty good, Razi.”
The cren shrugged and reached forward to reset the holographic game board, a shy smile touching his lips.
Despite his complaints, Koroq anted up at the start of the next round. Within a few turns, Razi and Samantha had clearly pulled ahead, the former wearing a look of intense concentration throughout. Drakkal remained beside the table, watching with a smirk.
When her turn came again, Samantha considered the board, making subtle calculations even she couldn’t fully understand. For her, a large part of the game was driven by instinct. She was reaching for one of her cards when the lights in the room changed abruptly.
Orange and yellow flashed overhead, and an alarm blared.
A chill ran down Samantha’s spine. “What’s going on?”
Everyone around the table leapt to their feet in unison, their features hardening. Drakkal quickly activated his holocom. Within a second, he’d pulled up what looked like surveillance feeds from outside. There was gunfire, and attackers advancing; the screens were too small for her to see what exactly was happening, but it clearly wasn’t good.
An explosion sounded in the hallway, loud enough to shake the walls and floor, occurring in time with several other explosions that terminated some of the surveillance feeds on Drakkal’s holocom.
“That was the main door,” Drakkal growled.
He and the others drew their blasters.
Arcanthus’s voice, tinged by a faint, electronic buzz, camethrough everyone’s holocoms simultaneously. “Everyone fall back to the workshop immediately! They’ve breached multiple entrances. Get to the damn workshop!”
Tremors of fear coursed through Samantha as she watched everyone but Drakkal rush out of the lounge. She looked at the azhera with wide eyes. “What’s happening?”
Drakkal rounded the table and clasped her upper arm with his free hand. “We’re under attack. We need to move, terran.”
Samantha nodded and stood up.
He led her into the hallway, where the others—Koroq, Kiloq, Razi, and Thargen—had spread out with weapons ready. There were shouts from around the nearby corner, and a haze of smoke in the air. Of everyone, only Thargen looked unconcerned; his lips were curled in an anticipatory grin, like he was eager for what would come.
Drakkal guided Samantha to flatten herself against the wall and positioned himself in front of her, blocking her view. Her heart thundered as, at his direction, she slowly retreated, backing away from the shouting.
Only a moment had passed before the whining thumps of firing blasters filled the hallway. Blue-white bolts of plasma darted past Samantha. Across the hall, Thargen returned fire, roaring with a gleeful light in his eyes as he squeezed the trigger of his blaster over and over.
“Fall back!” Drakkal roared.
Despite his half-crazed excitement, even Thargen slowly backed away.
Samantha looked in the direction they were heading; the next intersecting corridor was only a few meters away. She wasn’t sure which way to go—to her knowledge, there were at least four doors into Arcanthus’s workshop, but she’d only learned a few specific routes to traverse the compound despite her frequent wandering. Were any of those paths safe?
The blaster fire died down for a moment. In the lull, Drakkal sped their pace, practically shoving Samantha down the hall and around the corner.
To her relief, the others joined them, all seemingly unharmed.
“There’s more coming in,” Drakkal said. “Too many. We need to hurry.”
