Page 35 of Enslaved by Anubis

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Neb-en-khata

Okay,you’ve got Zanika. That’s good, but what the hell do you do now?

We could maybeblast off up into space. No, the only place we could possibly fly to would be Dhaarria, and I can’t just waltz into Qikhe with a human at my side. Anyhow, the more likely eventuality would be that we would not even make it that far, since the battery is no longer fully charged, and end up stranded in the dark until we starve to death. We can’t stay in Ebkherun; there is no place where the general would not find us.

So, we can’t stay here but we can’t leave Yoria. It really only leaves us one option, and I don’t like it very much. We will have to plead for asylum with either the Folkmaer or the Qhins. Based on what I know about the Folkmaer, which isn’t too much, they are a savage, violence-loving race who would rather slit your throat than offer you a chair. Besides, the Folkmaer are way up in the north of Yoria, and if the Dhaarrir ships chasing us figure out that we are going to try and defect, they will not hesitate to shoot us down. Right now, they are just biding their time. They know that we have nowhere to go, but they underestimate my motivation and my growing hatred for my own planet.

It seems I have decided; we will be flying to the border of Ebkherun and Tripassus about fifty miles north of here and then praying that the Qhins let us enter. I don’t even know what they look like, but I know that unlike their brothers the Folkmaer, they are a scientific people. They were the first ones to colonize Yoria, after all, so maybe they will have more favorable views on the humans after being among them for so long. I know that a defector from Dhaarria would be of great interest to them, if only we can get in contact with them as soon as possible—before it’s too late.

I make this decision in less than ten seconds; my mind is working on overdrive as I veer our ship to the north. My best bet is holding the ship as close to ground as possible; in the open air I won’t be able to compete with two professional pilots on my tail.

“Zanika, I need you to twist that little dial, one notch at a time until a green light turns on in this little bulb here,” I say pointing at the light.

She does as she’s told and starts slowly turning the dial of the radio, one click at a time. After about a dozen clicks, a green light comes on. I am just about to open my mouth to speak into the receiver when I hear the general’s voice. “If you turn yourself in now, Neb-en-khata, we will let the girl live. I can’t speak for you, but she will not—”

“Keep going, keep going!” I say, and Zanika obediently begins to try to find another frequency. I know that the Qhins will be using radios, at the very least to monitor our transmissions.

Another green light but no voice on the other side. I start talking frantically into the receiver. “This is Neb-en-khata of the third operational regiment of the Dhaarrir mission to Ebkherun. I honorably request asylum in Tripassus in exchange for total information offload.”

The silence continues until it’s broken by a female voice speaking in a tongue I cannot understand. I don’t know what else to do, so I repeat my phrase over and over again, hoping that someone there will understand what I am saying. I speak no other languages except Dhaarrir and Ebkher. If this is indeed even the Qhins I am talking to—at this point, I would even take the Folkmaer. I didn’t think of the language barrier issue in the ten seconds I had to come up with a plan.

I check the gauge and notice that we are only twenty miles from the border and closing. The Dhaarrir won’t hold off much longer. According to the treaty with Tripassus, we are not allowed within five miles of each other’s borders on Yoria. There is an empty space between our borders that is uninhabited by anyone and anything. Once that is reached, the Dhaarrir ships will have no choice but to turn back or risk an interplanetary incident.

“Hello, this is Pheidon Mnester, admiral of the Qhinian defense force. You are converging on Qhinian airspace and need to turn around immediately or you will be neutralized.” The accent is thick, but he is speaking Dhaarrir.

“I repeat, I request asylum in Tripassus. I am being followed by two warships of the Dhaarrir military.”

“Yes, we can see that, and we can also see that you are Dhaarrir yourself. Turn back around immediately. There is no asylum for you here.”

My heart sinks and I turn to look around at Zanika, who can’t understand a word of what is going on. I look at her big, suffering eyes and know that I can’t fail her.

“Please, admiral! I have a human on board. They will kill us if we turn back. I’m begging you.”

A short silence followed by, “Why in the name of all that is holy do you have a fucking human on board your vessel!?”

I pause for a moment, wondering what the best answer is. I can’t think of any good reason, so I tell them the truth. “Because I’m in love with her!”

An explosion on the rocky terrain in front of me, followed by a deafening blast behind us. The force of the explosion tries to push us through the windshield, but our seatbelts keep us seated. A little dazed, I look back and see a hole in the back of the ship and one of the thrusters on fire. Another shot flies past us and I veer hard to the right to avoid it. We’re five miles from no man’s land, and they have clearly decided that they would rather lose a ship than risk all the possible eventualities that would result in a breach.

“Please, admiral! They’re going to shoot us down. If you don’t let us in, we’re dead.”

I pull down a mere fifty yards from the ground. No man’s land is three miles away, and the Dhaarrir aren’t giving up. They are following my every maneuver but unable to get shots away due to my activity.

I hear words spoken by the admiral in his own tongue followed by, “For fuck’s sake, we will disable the protective field. If you can make it this far, we’ll protect you. Good luck.”

A blast strikes us in the same spot, taking the starboard thruster out of operation. I can feel our speed falling, but we are only a mile from no man’s land. I veer left to avoid a rocky elevation in the terrain and pull the ship up so that we are going directly toward the sky. I see the look of horror on Zanika’s face and can only imagine what she must be feeling right now. She has never even seen a plane, let alone a high-tech spaceship. It took me years of training to get used to the G-forces we are experiencing.

I know that we have only one shot. After rising half a mile into the air, I engage the long-distance thrusters. I turn to Zanika and, through the roar of the broken thruster, scream, “Hold on!”

I level out the ship and flick the switch. A barrage of shots fly past us; some may have even hit us, I’m not sure, but we’re still here. We accelerate to a whopping 1,000 miles an hour, but the speed can’t be maintained due to the damage to the ship. I essentially sling shot us into Tripassus. I see no man’s land fall far behind us as our speed slowly decreases along with our altitude. I have very little control of the ship at this point, but I should be able to bring us to ground.

I can see a small field in the distance and decide that we will need to crash land there or risk hitting one of these mountains. I take Zanika by the hand. I feel it shaking and sweaty in my palm. I force the ship down and it hits the ground with a loud crash. We slide on the field at an alarming speed, and I can feel the ship being destroyed around us. The horrifying environment of crunching metal and showers of bright orange sparks surrounds us. The ship smashes into a boulder in the middle of the field, and all I can feel is us flying back up into the air before crashing into something, hard. After that I lose consciousness.

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