Adalee
An Errant Adventures: Tarquin prequel story
Adalee woke a split second before colliding with the bulkhead on the far side of her quarters. Struggling to her feet, she tried to muster her senses, but another explosion rocked the ship, tipping her back toward her bed.
As Adalee struggled to maintain her footing in the tumult, her attention turned to a hammering on the door. A voice shouted something from the other side, but she couldn’t distinguish the words over the wailing alarm.
Stumbling to the door, she waved a hand over the release, but nothing happened. Frantic, she repeated the gesture once more before slamming her hand into it. The door remained sealed.
The voice started shouting again, so Adalee pressed her ear to the door and strained to listen. She made out only a few words: power failing, out of here, and Ironhawks. The last sent a shiver through her.
Adalee yelled, “The door won’t open!”
The hammering stopped for a moment, then there was a creaking groan as the door split open. Through the gap, Adalee could see her minder, Valta, pulling on a piece of metal wedged in the seam. The other woman strained as the door opened bit by bit. Adalee reached into the gap and braced, forcing the door open enough for her to escape. Once through the opening, Adalee wrapped her arms around Valta and gasped out a thanks, but her minder lost no time checking her over for injuries.
“Val, I’m fine,” she said. “What’s happening?”
Valta held her steady as the ship shuddered again and said, “Ironhawk cruiser found us. We’ve taken heavy damage. You and I are going to the shuttle bay.”
Adalee’s eyes widened. “We’re not leaving, are we?”
Grim faced, Valta nodded. “The ship won’t last much longer. Let’s go.” She led Adalee down the corridor.
They passed a pair of mechanics working on a sparking conduit, and both men paused long enough to give Adalee a pleading glance. Valta kept moving past them, almost dragging Adalee with her.
“What about everyone else?” Adalee asked.
“They are not my concern. You are. We are all here in service to your mission.”
It’s not my mission, Adalee thought, but such an argument was meaningless. Demetrius had given her this mission. That made it hers to carry out.
They turned another corner and Valta opened a service hatch, revealing a ladder. Without a word, she started to descend. Adalee followed. The shuttle bay sat two decks below the living quarters, and this access ladder was the most direct route. With the power fluctuating, it might be the only route. Adalee heard Valta shout at someone to get out of the way, and they must have because Valta never stopped climbing. Adalee didn’t blame whoever it was for obeying. If Valta wasn’t sworn to protect her, Adalee would fear her as well.
They exited the maintenance shaft and raced down the corridor to the shuttle bay, but when they reached it, that door was also sealed. Unlike Adalee’s compartment, the access door to the shuttle bay was reinforced, leaving little chance of prying it open.
Turning away from the door, Valta grabbed Adalee and said, “Use your powers, paragon. You can force the door open!”
Adalee swallowed and looked at the iron hatch. She had never exerted that much pressure on iron before. What if she pushed too much and further damaged the ship? What if...
Valta grabbed her face and forced their eyes to meet. She murmured, “You are our paragon. This is what you were trained for. This is why Demetrius entrusted this mission to you. Open the door.”
Taking a deep breath, Adalee braced both hands against the door, closed her eyes, and started to chant words learned from the order's artifact, an ancient piece of Ascendancy technology that spoke to her with wondrous words. Demetrius called them magic, but that word never felt like it fit. She thought of it more like programming. The Ascendancy had unlocked parts of the base code of the universe, and the right tweak to that code here and there produced amazing results.
Focusing on the words, Adalee felt the iron humming beneath her fingers, and she willed its structure to change ever so slightly. It became lighter, more malleable, and with another application of pressure, the door started to slide open.
Adalee felt the door giving way, and then she was sprawling across the floor, Valta on top of her. “What are you doing?” she shouted. “It was working.”
Valta rose and dragged Adalee to her feet. “Listen.”
Adalee heard a hissing of air and her eyes widened. “The shuttle bay…”
“Is decompressed. It must have taken a hit.” Valta glared at the door. “We have to get moving.”
“What are we going to do?” Adalee asked. “The shuttles are gone.”
“Come on,” Valta said, dragging her down the corridor. The ship shuddered again, and for a brief moment, they floated in zero gravity before the emergency power blipped back on. Somehow, Valta maintained her feet and kept Adalee from face planting into the deck.
Down the corridor, they came to a bank of oval hatches. Valta stopped at the first one and started entering commands into the interface. An acolyte, a young man, ran toward one of the hatches, but Valta snarled and told him to go find others and bring them at once. Pale and panting, he ran off.
Adalee said, “At least now we have no choice but to evacuate everyone.”
Valta remained focused on inputting commands until the acolyte returned with seven others.
“Where are the rest?” Adalee asked.
“These were all I could find,” the acolyte responded. “The rest were at stations. Should I go get them?”
Before Adalee could answer, Valta said, “No, this is enough. Everyone into a pod.” The acolyte headed for the first pod, but she grabbed him and said, “Not that one.” He moved to the next one over.
“Aren’t we going to get everyone else?” Adalee asked.
Valta finally looked at her and brushed her cheek. “Dear girl, there is no one else but you.” And she shoved Adalee into the first pod, sealing the door behind her.
Adalee shrieked and grabbed for the controls, but she was locked out. Pressing against the viewport, Adalee shouted, “Valta, get in here!”
Valta’s voice came over the comms. “With the supplies in there, you’ll have a better chance of surviving by yourself. Remember your training. You must complete your mission. Nothing else matters.”
The pod released from the ship and the engines fired a single burst before cutting off. Adalee watched as the other pods launched and changed course, flying on a different trajectory from her own. Horror dawned on her as she watched the Ironhawk cruiser fire on the other pods, obliterating them with ease before returning its attention to the larger ship.
She watched the ship take a hit, then another, and finally, ingloriously, the hull buckled and the drive core imploded, and they were gone.
Adalee held herself and wept until the computer system chimed. Looking at the display, she saw a new contact emerge from e-drive, and a quick scan revealed no registry connected to Clan Itebren or the Ironhawks. Maybe there was a chance. Checking the computer, she realized she now had control over the drive system. Firing up the pod’s engines could reveal her presence to the cruiser, but if she didn’t make it to that other ship in time, they might leave the system.
This was her chance. The chance Valta and the others bought for her. She had to take it.
END
