Chapter 36
Lalia turned the corner with her gun raised, a soldier grunted in effort to reach for his before Lalia shot at his knees dropping him to the floor. Garth slid past her to check down the corridor the opposite direction;
“Clear.” He called.
Garth then diverted his attention to the keypad in front of the steel door, his fingers flew over the keys; the door slid open as the keypad beeped. A dark room lit up immediately as they stepped in with guns raised; the laboratory was empty.
“Your ID authentication code still works?” Lalia asked as she scanned the room.
“No. But I know that my father’s was never retired.” Garth answered as he opened a door to an adjacent room, and reentered on the other end of the lab. Both stopped at a mist filled tube against the wall, a faint thumping sound came from inside.
“Miles!” Garth shouted, “We are here to save you!” He typed at the keypad, but the beep signaled that different pass code would be needed.
“I don’t know the code.” Garth muttered to Lalia.
“Three, two, three, one, three, six, nine.” A voice whispered from inside the tube.
Garth typed in the code as it had been said, the tube hissed loudly, Garth and Lalia both jumped back. The glass face of the tube fell to the floor and shattered.
Miles lay in a restraint strapped to the back of the tube; he closed his eyes and breathed in deeply. Light emanated around his body, the restraints snapped off of him with a flash of light.
“Miles.” Lalia beamed.
Miles continued to breathe in deeply, “Thank you, thanks.” He said with a tear.
“How did you know the passcode?” Garth asked.
“I could hear the different beeps the pad made as Melric typed.” Miles answered.
“Where is Melric?” Lalia asked.
Miles caught his breath and stood straight; confident:
“Melric is on his way to the bridge. He is planning on doing something to Admiral Latarr and his brother,” he paused, “and Phlasia.”
“Are you good to come with us? Did they do anything to you?” Lalia asked as she surveyed Miles.
“Other than a blood sample and an oxygen suppression tank, no they didn’t do anything to me.” Miles answered.
At that moment the door to the laboratory hissed open, three armed soldiers raised their rifles and began to fire. Garth, Lalia, and Miles dove behind a table for cover; Lalia slid slightly and fired a shot from the ground connecting with a soldier’s throat sending him into fits of gasping on the ground. Miles stood with both arms raised and fired two pulses of light slamming the two remaining soldiers out of the lab, across the corridor and into the wall. Neither one got back up.
“Saving that one up?” Garth joked.
“No. I’m saving that one for the Doctor.” Miles answered with his teeth gritted; he led the three into the hall. Down the hall a squad of four soldiers ran towards them, with a guttural yell Miles shot a pulse wave scattering the squad across the floor in an unconscious heap.
They came into the large corridor where the soldiers were fighting, guards and soldiers held cover behind crates and barrels left in the hall. Miles confidently strode into the hall slamming the crates into the Callos that hid behind him; Lalia and Garth followed behind with their guns prepared. A Callos soldier began to reach for his gun; Garth shot the weapon further out of his reach:
“I wouldn’t do that.” He warned.
The Callos soldier continued to crawl for his gun, Miles fired a pulse knocking the soldier through the metal wall into an adjacent room where he collapsed.
The whole ship began to shake, the groaning of metal creaked and echoed through the corridor, a loud vibrating sound could be heard.
“What is that?” Garth asked.
“I don’t know!” Lalia shouted over the din.
“Which way is the bridge?” Miles asked Lalia, she directed forward and down the hall.
“Are you going to be able to keep this up?” She asked him, worried.
“Oh yeah. I haven’t felt like this before.” Mile responded with a crooked grin.
The groaning continued, but not nearly as loud, the shaking was much more subtle; rattling guns against the floor tell-tell of something powerful at work.
“Miles. Don’t do anything stupid out of revenge or anger.” Lalia cautioned.
“No. I want to stop Melric before he does something drastic.” Miles explained,
“He said something about Phlasia being in danger; I think he might try to sabotage it.”
“I think he may already have.” Garth told them, he looked through a window across the room; a bright blue stripe cut a swathe through the clouds of Phlasia hiding the damage of the freeze.
“He is attacking Phlasia!” Lalia exclaimed.
“He tricked the Admiral into doing it, to ruin his reputation. Melric wants to be the new Admiral.” Miles explained sadly.
“We need to stop him!” Garth responded, his brow furrowed with deep hatred.
“Captain Barras should have been there by now. Why hasn’t he stopped him?” Lalia asked.
“I don’t know. But we need to do something.” Miles said, staring out of the window at the vast planet of swirling colors.
She called into her communication device:
“Barras. What is the status?”
“That is Phlasia, huh?” Miles sighed.
“Yes. It is beautiful isn’t it?” Garth asked, appreciating the variety of colors each blending into the next.
“It is.” Miles answered. The enormous planet was a deity to the Callos and he could see why; he had never seen something as extraordinarily beautiful as the planet Phlasia. The planet stood majestically unopposed against the starry backdrop of space; the fast moving clouds and fantastical colors reminded Miles of a surrealist painting.
“Let’s go.” Miles decided, breaking his gaze from the planet and the ice spreading from the continuing impact of the attack.
Lalia and Garth followed, they didn’t need Phlasia, Phlasia needed them.
A voice scratched on the communication device:
“Council Chamber.”