Part 71

Theo scrunched up his face to receive the bullet. He was exhausted now, his leg, slick with blood twitched as the nerves inside his upper leg died and misfired to one and other. The Pirate smiled maliciously as he squeezed the trigger but was met with a click as his gun was empty. Shrugging, he smiled once more at the cowering boy in the puddle of blood. Slapping a new long clip of ammunition into his waiting pistol. "Uh-gah!" cried a voice from outside the blown doorway, the executioner lowered his weapon with a tensed brow. The voice came again, "Boss man is coming in hot! Looks like the idiot's done it again!" Uh-gah took his eyes off Theo for a second as he glanced back through the door to see the hidden man, "Done what again, exactly? He's done an awful lot, boy! Be more specific!" he spat before turning his gaze back to Theo who now was trying to move his leg to place some torn cloth around it as a make-shift tourniquet. "Rammed another ship." came an almost resigned but annoyed voice of somebody knowingly delivering bad news into a punching fist. Uh-gah shouted his annoyance and barked his orders, and the room had cleared of all but three. Theo, Uh-gah and the hidden man who had revealed himself to stand with Uh-gah, as his personal communicator strapped roughly to his back. "The boys upstairs want us all ready to receive him." muttered the other man, afraid of speaking out as he knew it usually ended with pain. Uh-gah nodded in acknowledgement and sent the radioman outside to join the others, "I'll deal with this filth." he smiled venomously.

Theo rolled his head, his vision was blurred and his body weak. It was easy for Uh-gah to bind his hands, throw the rope over something overhead and haul Theo's limp bleeding body up. Now suspended, arms stretched above his head, Theo was truly helpless.

The Evergreen's proximity alarm activated, forcing eyes upon the screens. Solomon gave the orders to disengage from the pirates and full thrust to avoid the collision with the planet, "But sir, we still have people over there!" cried out one of the tactical officers who monitored a squads shoulder cams. The atmosphere on the bridge had tension cutting through reality, everybody had been tense since the discovery of Doctor Fredericks. They had reports of five more missing people and Fredericks when they had found 'his' body.

Had they all defected to the pirates?

Had Fredericks killed them to cover his tracks?

He had always been such a kind man, always ready to help. He could not do enough for his patients. He was The Evergreen's chief medical officer, and now, now he was a blubbering muttering mess, seemingly insane. The crew had no idea of the experiments he had performed for the Pirates. What he had unleashed upon the planet below. What was now loose aboard the Pirate ship.

The deck plating shuddered with the tension created by the gravitational pull of Merriden IV and the duo of ships began to slowly spiral. And Solomon's problems didn't end there.

"Sir! I've lost three from Ten-Seven, no contact reports, the visuals are still good, they're stationary and on the floor. Sending medical and reinforcements to investigate to corridor fifteen-B Port side." Barked out another tactical officer. "Contact, contact! Man down! Squad Ten-Ten, proceed to room marked Six-Nine-Two. Ten-Two is in need of assistance!" called another tactical officer. Solomon rubbed the back of his head as his stress levels excelled beyond their highest deal-able level. "Get Kyril in here!" he ordered. The klaxton began blearing and the red warning lights flashed throughout the ship as the shuddering became more and more prominent. The bottles inside Solomon's chair clanked together, a spark flashed behind him somewhere with a crack and fizzle. "Get everybody back aboard, we need to disengage!" shouted Solomon over the warning sirens, but the tactical officers were already relaying the order before he gave it. They knew their job, they knew the situation. They had to disengage from the pirate ship, and to do that, they had to pull every soldier back. They couldn't leave anyone, it would be a death sentence. The Pirate ship had no functional engines left.

They entered the atmosphere. It was too late.

The Evergreen fell, fire and smoke billowing out from it's smouldering skin from its re-entry through the protective layer of the planet, The Pirate ship and The Evergreen still spiralling around one and other, eventually, the boarding passages that held the two together in an embrace snapped, breaking and splintering, sending both ships wild in opposite directions. The Evergreen shuddered and groaned as the heavily reinforced metal bent and became warped from the intense heat and pressure of the fall. All engines fired at full thrust to stabilise the ship first, and once it stopped spinning, all engines aimed at the ground fired as much as they could to slow the ships decent. Solomon watched the distance counter to the ground fall rapidly, shaking his head in disbelief, he stumbled from his chair, ran to the view screen and stared at the ground harshly, as if his very glare would strike fear into the planets surface and stop it colliding with the falling vessel. Kyril fell into the room, gasping for breath, "Everybody to the boats! Go, go!" Screamed the withered old Captain, "Eve, clear all routes to the emergency escape pods!" He grabbed Solomon by the scruff of the neck and forced him from the bridge. After the crew had cleared the room, Kyril sealed the door, with himself still inside. Solomon gasped for breath and heaved himself to his feet, only to realise what had just happened, erratically breathing again, Solomon ordered Eve to open the bridge door, "My apologies Lieutenant Commander, I have orders from the captain to keep the bridge sealed, at all costs. I do hope that you understand." Solomon swore and beat his fists against the door, tears streaming down his face. "Kyril, you bastard! Don't do it! Let me in!" he cried out, his voice shrill and broken. A small voice came through the door, only a whisper. "It's okay, lad. It's my choice. I never did like the idea of somebody or something else choosing my death. The cancer chose its time. So I chose one sooner. I'm going out on my terms. This is my final chance to make my truest choice." most of the bridge crew had cleared the corridor and made their ways frantically to the escape pods, the deck plating rumbled and groaned. The smell of acrid burning and melted metal, electronics and rubber perfumed the air. A small number of bridge crew remained with Solomon, trying to pull him away, he cried out louder, trying to claw his way through the metal door to try and save the man he looked up to so much. "Now, go, Sol." came Kyril's voice through the metal. Solomon's shattered mind, splintered by his broken heart gave in to the pulling. The shock took over the man's muscles and they were limp. Dead weight. It took five crew to carry him through the falling ship to the pod.