When the time came to leave, Conner had mixed emotions. He loved travelling on ships like all boys his age but was rather reluctant about meeting with the striking parties. The Vanguard Class Cruiser H.M.S Hotspur was assigned as our official transport to Challenger. Travel time was around a day as there was no stargate available at the colony. It came as no surprise to me that Conner asked the ship's captain a dreaded question. He wanted to try his hand at the controls of the ship. I could understand the captain's reluctance. The last time Conner was at the helm of a ship he managed to take out one of three communication arrays of the starbase at Avalon and disrupted ship traffic for a good part of the morning (illegally since he was not old enough for a Pilot's permit but the Department of Space Vehicles kindly overlooked the affair). I still owed the director of the department a dinner! An agreement was struck. Conner could take control of the ship once in deep space away from any "ramable" objects and once the ship's crew had been warned and strapped in; just in case. That made his day and for the rest of the journey he was as happy as a lark and driving the crew members nuts with loud booming music emanating from his room. He calls it "classic rock from the 21st century". I call it noise.
08:35 hours. Time to wake him up as we would be touching down at Ziggurat in twenty minutes. I found him already awake and looking through his room's porthole at the passing orange clouds of the planet's upper atmosphere. When the ground could be finally seen through he orange haze, he ran to the bridge to witness the landing procedures; with me trying to catch up. Once there, I could see the true desolation of the planet. There was nothing but orange sky, orange mountains, orange ground, orange everything. No plants, just bare rock. The only thing out of place was a strobing beacon that marked the underground colony's landing pad barely visible in the swirling sandstorm. Once landing, the pad became a giant elevator moving the cruiser below ground as a larger spiral cover closed on top of us. 500 meters, 1000, meters, 1500 meters. We came to a stop and the cruiser powered up its engines and hovered over to its docking bay with the help of a tug-ship in the cavernous underground port facility. There were two large freighters and a privateer already docked as a gigantic Maxi-Miner waited in position to use the elevator for its journey up. With a little nudge, the Hotspur made contact with the docking clamp which now pulled the ship towards the gate for the final berthing procedures. In five minutes, it was all over as the pressurized ship and gate door opened.
It was a pleasant surprise to find a large number of miners (or cave rats as they prefer to call themselves), who took time off from their shifts to greet their prince. The last time a stuffy high ranking official from Avalon arrived to try to end the strike, he was booed and cursed at all the way. As he was trained, Conner shook hands with the colony's governor and other officials before moving down to the dirty miners. As a sign of respectful greeting and making him an honourly member of one of their own, the miners shook hands and then smeared their dirt covered palms on his cheeks. The governor tried to cut in but I stopped him. Conner was doing his magic and defusing the tense situation found only minutes before. By the end of the official greeting, Conner's face, neck and shirt were dark orange. To tell you the truth, I think he enjoyed that. After all the miners were doing something he himself was fond off; digging in the dirt. He was winning the hearts of the striking miners with his openness and willingness to try out everything the miners did. He went into the caves, worked some machinery, drilled out raw chunks of minerals, poured molten Ironium into moulds and generally fooled around with them. When it came to lunch time, he refused to eat in the dining room reserved only for management and insisted on eating at the worker's cafeteria. That worried me a bit. I was afraid that he might be making it too obvious that he had sided with the miners and their fight. However, I let my faith in him take the better of me and let things run its course.
When the time came for another closed door negotiation between the governor and union officials, the tough stance management had put up started to show cracks. The governor knew that he could not do much if the miners had the full support of the prince. However, at the meeting, Conner did not order the colony's management to accept the union's demands which he had full authority to do so. Instead, he persuaded the governor through sneeky wording of his talk. With the argument that this was the mining colony where work was the hardest and most dangerous yet most profitable, management should give a little extra for that extra the miners put in. By now even some members of governor's advisors were actively supporting the new reforms knowing full well they cannot win on their side. In the end, the governor agreed to approve most of the demands and at the same time he got the union to reduced the amount of its demands. A middle ground was found and the strike was over. This was the typical Conner reasoning. Never going fully to the left or right but instead finding middle ground from where he could coax both squabbling parties to come to an understanding. As he says "We can't have everything so lets agree to something so we both don't go home empty handed". I know, because he always uses this argument against me when he wants to do something and I don't allow it.
Having a full day, Conner fell asleep early and I had the night to myself. I couldn't be prouder of him. In a day he had resolved a problem that the best negotiators had failed for three months. Most people were happy and the colony was finally back to maximum production. The arrogant governor and his advisors had been humbled and are now required to go into the working areas once a week to check on the miners' and their surrounding conditions. Looks like we won't have trouble here for sometime. Most important of all, Conner had made new friends here and utterly had a terrific time which in turn made me happy.
After breakfast we proceeded to the docking gate saying goodbyes to everyone who had come to see us off. All other ships in the port had already loaded up and departed during the night. All except a tiny Robo- Surveyor Scout that was in for routine servicing. The return journey was to be a busy one. An itinere for the prince had already been drawn out for the next week by his planners. Looks like a full week for him. I also had to get him to do his homework. Tomorrow was a school day.
By the hour's end, we had already settled into our routines. Conner was busy doing his astrology homework and I was going through the laid out plans in the hope that I could somehow find a way to reduce them. The quiet of the room was broken by an alarm and a flashing light. Ship wide yellow alert! I rush over to the intercom for the bridge.
TH- "Captain! What's going on?"
"We're having trouble with communications and so far we are unable to contact Avalon or any other ships in the area. Could be nothing. A solar flare or hyperspace flux could cause communication blackouts. Still, these events are rare. We could be actively jammed by someone. Either way, I've increased speed to Warp 9 and we should reach Avalon regional space within four hours."
TH- "Keep me informed captain."
I turned off the intercom, turned around and saw Conner staring at me with worried eyes. I told him it was nothing to worry about but deep in my heart I was worried. Communication blackout caused by natural phenomena at this time and age was very rare. It would seem more likely that the ship was being jammed on purpose by persons unknown. Trying to relax myself, I ended up helping Conner with his homework. Suddenly the room went red as another alarm blared out loudly.
"General Quarters! General Quarters! All personnel man your battle stations. General Quarters! This is not a drill!"
That's it! I'm going out to find out what the hell's going on. "Conner, come with me". We maneuvered pass all the running ship's crew in the narrow corridors to the bridge where there were the same flurry of activity. "What's going on captain?"
"Six BloodStone Pirate Clan Galleons just decloaked seventeen kilometers off the ship's port bow. We have confirmation that they are actively jamming our communications and are heading this way on attack vector. Colonel, I'll be frank with you. The Hotspur is no match against six galleons. You better take the prince to an escape pod for preparations. These four marines will accompany you two. Now go!"
As we were running towards the hanger bay, the first torpedoes impacted throwing us off our feet. Getting up as fast as possible, I saw smoke slowly crept into the corridors as some sections of the ship were plunged into darkness. I could hear the intense battle raging outside the ship. The unmistakable high pitched whine of the Hotspur's Heavy Blasters and the deep roar of torpedoes. A series of multiple explosions sent us flying to the ground. No injuries but those explosions were directly against the armor plating. The Hotspur's shields must have fallen! We continued our run to the ship's stern where the escape pod was located. In a flash, I found the floor beneath my feet propelled upward. I remember hitting the corridor's ceiling, then bounced around like a ragdoll in a swirl of fire, smoke and sharpenal. I don't know how long I was stunned, but when I came out of it, the entire passage way was covered in thick smoke which I could barely see through. I moved and immediately saw the outline of a body next to me. It was one of the marines and there was nothing more I could do for him. Ahead of me the faint shadow of a small body came into view and I felt the worst had happened. As I got up and stumbled over, Conner stirred to life and jumped to his feet quickly looking around. He was uninjured except for a few scratches and scrapes. Behind him, the three remaining marines got up and quickly scanned the area. Everything was so quiet now. No more explosions and roars. However there was a faintly detectable rumble which vibrated the floor. One of the marines knew exactly what it meant.
"Docking Thrusters! We're being boarded!" Continuing our run to the escape pod, I soon found my energy being drained and before long collapsed to the ground. Conner bounded over and for the first time I saw a look of horror that turned his face white. I followed his gaze to my left arm. For the first time I realized that it wasn't there. It had been amputated by the explosion earlier. All that remained was a mangled bloody stub. Strange, I didn't feel any pain and wouldn't have even noticed it if it wasn't for Conner. From the amount of blood streaming down, I knew it was fruitless for me to go on. I would only slow the group down. Giving a direct order to the marines to get him out at all costs, I turned to Conner explaining he had to go on without me. Seeing a tear running down his cheek, I hugged him and said goodbye but he still insisted on staying with me.
TH- "Conner, please for once do as you are told and don't argue with me. This is not the time for such things. You have to go now. Don't worry about me, li'l be fine. Now go!"
I hugged him with my right hand for the last time and whispered that I loved him into his ear. He looked back at me with those big green eyes and tried bravely to put up a smile to his tears. In a flash he was gone; almost being dragged along by the three marines. I checked my handgun and prepared myself for the inevitable. Alright you fucking bastards. Any one of you comes this way, and I give you a one way ticket to hell! I waited and waited. Listening to the sparks from damaged panels and distant sounds of laser rifles being fired at different sections of the ship. The sound of debris being pushed aside on the left tingled my ears as I tensed up and pointed my gun at the corner. I quickly lowered it as I heard my name being called. Conner poked his head out of the corner and proceeded to sit down by my side.
TH- "Damn it! What are you doing back here? Where are the other three?"
He rested his head on my shoulders and with a barely audible voice on the verge of breaking up, told me they were dead. The group hade come into contact with a heavily armed boarding party. Outnumbered and outgunned, the three marines fell back and managed to hold of the advancing boarders while they ordered Conner to run back. Not knowing where to go, he decided to return to me. Access to all escape pods were now blocked and enemy storm troopers were quickly advancing on our position. I knew I could no longer protect the prince. I was steadily getting weaker and armed will only a small hand gun against god knows how many troops armed with assault rifles. I decided not to put up resistance, especially with Conner by my side. There was a good chance he would be caught in any crossfire. There was only one thing to do, surrender and hope for the best at the mercy of our enemies.
Throwing my gun to one side, we cuddled together and waited. I told Conner not to make any sudden movements when the soldiers came and to do everything they ordered. Multiple footsteps told us we didn't have long to wait. Eight troopers rounded the corner and I shouted to then we were surrendering. In a tense moment, they didn't reply but simply aimed their weapons at us. I held my breath waiting for the fire that would kill us. It never came. While their comrades kept their guns trained on me, two of them came over, grabbed Conner and tried to drag him away. He screamed and put up so much resistance that I was afraid they would simply shoot him. When two other soldiers came over and partially carried me up, he finally quieted down. We were brought to the Hotspur's shuttle bay. On the way we witnessed the true extent of the battle. The ship's outnumbered crew put up a brave resistance but were simply overwhelmed. Their bodies littered the ship's corridors and we had to be careful not to trip over them. I didn't want Conner to see all the death and destruction but for the first time in my life, I had no control over his surroundings and his safety.
Once at the hanger, I was dumped on the floor in the corner and by this point, nearly unconscious but still coherent enough to know what's going on. A large number of troopers were assembled at the bay in formation. Seems they were waiting for the arrival of someone important. It was here that I saw who were really our attackers. They were AFF Regular Infantry. Who would have guess the AFF Terrorist group in alliance with the secretive BloodStone Pirate clan. I was now really worried for Conner's safety because the AFF were determined to destroy Avalon's monarchy. More troopers poured out of the hole cut into the ship's hull and among them was a blond haired woman dressed in black uniform. Once in full view, the troopers snapped to attention. She surveyed the area and walked past her troopers, inspecting them like in a parade. Then, she turned her attention to Conner who was now being nudged forward by the two troopers guarding him. Once in front of her, one of the troopers whacked his left kneecap which sent him sprawling to the ground in a kneeling position. The woman now towered over him like a cat watching over its subdued prey.
However, she surprised everyone by reaching out her hand and touching Conner's cheek. She then put her hand through his hair and ruffled it, almost with affection. I thought I heard her say that its been such a long time since she last saw him and that how much he had grown; but I couldn't be sure. She knew Conner in a personal manner yet I knew everyone that Conner had ever had contact with. I didn't recognized her. Now the woman smiled, bent down and gave him a hug. Conner's facial expression told me all I needed to know about his feelings. He was scared and confused, like I was. With the hug over, she positioned Conner a few inches away from her body and looked directly into his eyes. The next few moments seemed to pass in slow motion. I saw his chest suddenly swelled outward and his back seem to explode in a red spray. His body jerked, went limp and collapsed to the ground face up. Only now I noticed the glint of light reflecting off the barrel of the gun she held half hidden in her uniform. I think I shouted. I'm not sure. I didn't hear anything but everyone in the shuttle bay turned their attention at me. My world, my life was shattered. I looked at his body, his fingers still twitching. A tiny red dot was moving across the floor towards me. When I looked back up, she had already pointed her gun at me. Its strange. I've fired and trained with so many different types of weapons, yet never had faced one directly. The flash it put out was a beautiful blue yet so bright, it partially blinded me. An instant later, all was black. But for a few fast milliseconds, I swore a little window of light entered my eyes and I made out the image of someone's shoe standing beside me.
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