The Forgotten Way (Champions of the Crystal Book 6)

Chapter 11.3

"But you do get Haaron to the infirmary. You save his life," Stecklan reminded her.

Ford said, "There are two ruined androids in the hallway. Look at them again."

"I have to hurry," Sabrina protested. "They're so ugly and they smell terrible. I wish they'd never existed at all! Scotty and I can't find the anti-gravity lift. I grab a sheet off a bed and tell Scotty to clear the hallway. I can tell he's been hurt. He looks pale. I don't know how much longer he'll stay on his feet, and I can't do this by myself. We kick debris out of our way as we go back to Haaron. He doesn't look alive at all. I don't dare take his suit off. Oh God. How are we going to do this?"

"What's the stuff on the floor?" Ford asked, frowning.

"I don't know. Some kind of lubricant maybe. Their equivalent of blood? There's Haaron's blood too. It makes the floor slippery. I have to be careful. But it makes it easier to slide Haaron along on the sheet. Scotty figures out how to lower one of the beds almost to the floor, and we lift Haaron onto it. I put him in stasis. I remember that control. Still no English—Khediva's still not answering. Scotty looks like he's going to faint any minute. I make him lie down. He's got some bad burns—I think he's going into shock. The bed starts working. I hope it knows what to do for him! He falls asleep—that's good. I hope. But now I'm by myself. I have no idea what to do. I think I'm going to be sick."

"You're all right," Ford soothed. "You're going to get through this. What happens next?"

"There's a noise. I just barely hear it. It—it sounds like people talking. It sounds like Tirqwin!" Sabrina's voice rose. "I run to the control deck, and there they are, both of them! Oh my God. Thank God. We walk back to the infirmary. I hope Mara can heal Haaron. But I don't get to find out. Tirqwin makes me go with him back to the control deck. I don't want to. Mara does, but he won't let her. He's harsh with both of us. But I can't start crying. I mustn't. It won't help anything." She sounded on the verge of tears. "We have to go back past those things. I don't want to. Tirqwin barely notices them, but he's angry. I think he's frightened. He doesn't like to be without Khediva. He's angry at the damage. There's a lot of it. Those androids had some powerful weapons. They destroyed a photon launcher in the hallway. Tirqwin says we have to run the Ship from the brain core. His way is a lot easier than Khediva's. I'm so tired I can hardly walk, but Tirqwin won't let me stop. When we get there, there's an alarm. They've launched their ship. They're coming after us. The shields won't hold long. We have no engines. No weapons. Khediva's offline, so no jumping into a Way. Tirqwin tells me to watch the sensors, but I keep peeking at the screen. I can understand that at least. Then he finds the auxiliary relays to the normal space engines and gets us to move. It's a crazy ride. It's making me sick. Then suddenly it's over."

"What happened?" Stecklan asked.

"Mara blew up the androids' ship with her mind. She made their engines overload. Tirqwin wasn't happy about it, but he was proud of her. She was the reason they escaped. He got into her dreams and told her to lower the power to the stasis capsule, but put up an illusion so it wouldn't appear to be decreasing. Then she teleported them up to Khediva as soon as she woke up. She's getting powerful," Sabrina said. "It makes me sad, in a way."

"Why?" Ford asked.

"How can somebody so powerful ever need me around? And I don't want to leave her. I want to help her and Tirqwin out of this mess."

"And you do," Ford smiled. "Everyone lives."

Sabrina let out a long sigh. Stecklan suggested, "Go back and look one more time at those androids."

"Please don't make me. I'm so tired," Sabrina murmured, wincing.

"It's not necessary," Ford said.

"All right." Stecklan seemed to relax. "You may stop, then." His voice returned to its normal tone. "We're finished. Open your eyes."