The Ill-mannered Door (humorous sci-fi)

42.1: On the Run

"Not this time, lady," Derek said under his breath as I watched him raise his weapon to take aim at the queen as she and the king fled across the deck.

The king and I had promised Muriel that we would stop her daughter from getting back to the empire, but killing her to do it would be to miss her point completely. She ultimately wanted her daughter protected, and at that moment, I knew that is what she had really asked us to do. The king was trying to do that in his own way, but it wasn't going to be enough. So, without another thought, I jumped on Derek and we fell to the deck, struggling for his rifle.

Before, when I had crashed into Derek in the mall, he assumed it was just an accident. Me being clumsy and not looking where I was running. But there would be no doubt that it was on purpose this time. I honestly didn't know what he would do to me, but there are times in life where doing the right thing will cost you.

We rolled over a few times and I ended up on the bottom but managed to wrest the rifle from his grasp. I felt a huge sense of triumph, that is until I felt the blade of his knife pressed against my throat.

Derek ripped the rifle out of my hands, then leaned his face in close to mine and quietly said, "Look, I don't know what's gotten into you, Thomas, but is there some good reason I shouldn't just gut you right now?"

Before I could respond, a sailor kicked Derek hard in the ribs and he rolled off of me with a grunt. I looked up to see the humpbacked sailor that had stolen Derek's weapon earlier. Only, something was off. As I looked at the sailor's face, I was stunned speechless. The sailor who stood above me in some sort of karate-looking stance was really Isabella!

She was dressed like a common sailor, had her long hair pinned up, and seemed to have a rather pronounced hump on her back, but despite all of that, I would recognize her anywhere. She flashed a quick smile before leaping over me to go after Derek, who got quickly to his feet, and said, "You again? Wait, aren't you the maid?"

When she just moved quietly toward him, he sheathed his knife, took a fighting stance of his own, and said, "Suit yourself, let's see what you've got."

What Isabella had was really quite impressive, and I had never seen her move that quickly before, especially while cleaning. Well, what little of that there had been. In any case, she danced about him throwing a blindingly fast array of kicks and punches, but Derek seemed to be holding back, simply blocking her blows without throwing any of his own. That is until she danced too close and Derek's fist suddenly lashed out and caught her in the side of the face.

I watched her topple to the deck, as if in slow motion, while I regained my feet and charged headlong at Derek. His back was turned to me as he stood over her, and I screamed, "No!" just before I crashed into him. The anger at seeing Isabella hurt, mixed with a new surge of adrenaline, gave me a newfound strength and I knocked him to the deck while I managed to stay upright. Unfortunately, I had no idea what to do next. I really hadn't thought that far ahead. I knew very well by this point that I was no match for him physically, but I feared he might kill Isabella.

Derek rolled and quickly popped back up on his feet, drawing his knife.

"I told you what I would do if you tried that again, Thomas," Derek said menacingly as he started toward me.

I yelled at him, "I know what you said, but we're men, Derek!"

That stopped his slow advance, a look of confusion on his face. I pointed at Isabella's unconscious form and shouted, "And as men, we're meant to protect women, not beat them, or gun them down! I swore to Muriel that I would stop her daughter from reaching the empire, and I will if I can, but I won't stand by and watch you kill her, or Isabella."

"Oh, you won't, eh?"

"No, I won't," I said. "I've had my fill of women dying in my life."

If I was going to die now, then let it be doing what I knew to be right. "I made that promise to Muriel, not because she was the former empress, but because I saw fear in a mother's eyes when she said the empire would kill her daughter if she got any closer than Earth."

"The queen can't be allowed to return to the empire, Thomas, there's too much at stake."

I don't know why I hadn't seen it before, but I hadn't. I did now.