Supernal

Chapter 31

4:30 pm Sunday, 8th July 2029

Tunnels on 'The Blimp'

Summers and Toby were making their way cautiously along the long curving tunnel when they heard a cry of pain from ahead. Like Rob, they had found it impossible to release the electrolasers from their mounting brackets and had given up.

"That was Rob!" Summers barked and began moving as fast as he could, heedless of any danger Velan might pose. Toby followed, trying to keep up.

"There he is," Summers grunted, and Toby saw Rob's inert body floating helplessly ahead.

"You go after Velan. Try and slow him down. We can't let him get to the communicator," Summers ordered. "I'll see if I can do anything for Rob and catch you up."

The sight of Rob's lifeless body filled Toby with rage and he didn't think twice as he propelled himself down the tunnel in pursuit of his quarry.

To his surprise, he soon caught sight of Velan. Carrying the bulky weapon in one hand had slowed him down. Toby glanced behind. No sign of Summers. He needed to play for time.

"Velan!" he yelled. "Stop right there or I'll shoot!"

Velan turned to face him and laughed. He aimed the electrolaser and Toby saw a dot of bright red light appear. He kicked against the side of the tunnel, slamming his back into the opposite side, as a crackle of electrical charge flashed past him.

When he'd recovered his wits, Toby saw Velan disappear around the curve of the tunnel. He set off, determined to somehow stop Velan before he reached the flight deck.

"Velan! I'm right behind you!" he shouted as loudly as possible and was answered with a red dot of laser light playing on the tunnel sidewall a few feet in front of him.

Only the slight curvature of the walls protected him and he daren't proceed further into the path of the beam.

"Here I come!" he called, running out of ideas to distract his enemy.

The red dot vanished and Toby judged it safe to continue. He rounded the curve and to his dismay, he saw that the tunnel ended ahead and Velan was almost there. He knew from Jayal's plan that it must be the flight deck. They had failed. Velan would be able to send a warning message. Velan turned as he entered the flight deck and glared at him.

Velan lifted the electrolaser to his shoulder and took careful aim. Toby glanced around desperately for any cover. There was none, and he didn't have time to backtrack around the curve. He fervently wished he'd kissed Jayal one last time before he'd left her in the pod compartment.

Toby felt impotent fury as he anticipated the bolt of white-hot electricity crashing into his body, and then, inexplicably, the weapon in Velan's hands abruptly jerked upwards. He was silhouetted by a flash of pale blue light. Velan let out a single agonized yelp and his body twitched like a marionette before he stiffened in an upright position and began a macabre weightless pirouette.

Jayal's worried face appeared at the end of the tunnel and, at the same moment, Summers approached from behind, towing a dazed and disorientated comms tech. Toby almost fainted with relief.

#

Summers guided Rob onto the flight deck and pushed him into one of the seats. Jayal fastened the seat belt to keep him in place while they checked his injuries.

Jayal was amazed that Rob was alive. She insisted that the electrolasers were always fatal and Velan's inert body, strapped into another chair, seemed to prove her point.

Rob's eyes rolled like a drunk and he complained bitterly that every part of his body hurt. He kept asking where he was, but couldn't understand the answer.

They found a small burn mark on Rob's right shoulder but Jayal said it didn't matter where the electrolaser charge hit, the shock was enough to stop a human heart. She held onto Rob's seat and kept her fingers on his pulse for twenty minutes as he drifted in and out of consciousness.

At last, Rob showed signs of recovery, and Jayal announced that his heartbeat felt stronger. When Toby asked how he was feeling Rob said like he'd been hit by a ten-ton truck.

"Let's get him back to the OCF," Summers suggested. "We can put him to bed to sleep it off."

"Don't worry," Toby reassured Rob. "I'll give you a shot of Midazolam. That'll take the pain away and help you sleep."

"You're not coming near me with that stuff, "Rob mumbled weakly. "Look what it did to Mutu."

"What did it do to Mutu?" Jayal asked sharply.

#

Jayal was unusually silent on the trip back to the OCF. Toby had told her how they had found Mutu earlier that afternoon. He had tried to blame himself for the overdose but Summers had butted in and mentioned that the doses of nasal spray probably contributed.

Jayal had listened without comment and as soon as they passed through the airlock she said she was going to see the children.

"I'll never understand women," Summers sighed after she had left them. "She blasts one of them to hell and then gets all upset about another one."

They helped Rob to his cabin where he slumped gratefully on his bunk and asked for water and a couple of paracetamol. Summers jokingly told him to take the rest of the afternoon off as they left him to sleep and went to the crew room.

Toby was making coffee for them both when Charlie came in.

"Jayal said Rob's been injured, is he okay?" she asked.

"We think he'll be fine. Strong as an ox that boy," Summers reassured her.

"Jayal said she wanted to be left alone with the kids for a while," she told them. "I'll take her some tea then come and join you."

#

Charlie wanted to know everything that had happened, so they related the whole episode, leaving nothing out.

"So, if Jayal had followed your orders and stayed with the pod, you'd probably all be dead by now," Charlie observed.

"Damn!" Summers swore. "I didn't think of that. We owe our lives to that girl."

"Yes," Toby agreed. "She was the only one of us who could release an electrolaser. Let's face it, we were lucky to survive. We were totally unprepared."

"At least we've got some valuable intel. We'll be better prepared next time."

"Next time?" Charlie queried.

"Sure," Summers said. "From what Jayal's told us, if the Presidium doesn't receive a courier in a few days they'll know that something's gone wrong. Then we can expect to receive some very unfriendly visitors."