From Last Time:
She grabbed the lapel of his vest and pulled him down, kissing him fiercely. "I love you," she said in a harsh whisper.
"I love you," he replied immediately, almost as a reflex. He looked down at her. She fought tears, but her mouth was set in a defiant line. She didn't say a word, but he knew exactly what she was telling him. 'Don't tell me it'll be all right. Don't say we're going to make it. Don't tell me Thia will be fine. Don't make me cry because I won't be able to do my job.'
She was saying goodbye to him. Just in case…he couldn't even bring himself to consider the thought.
If she needed quiet strength from him, he would give it. If she needed him to pretend he wasn't terrified, that the thought that he might never be with his wife again wasn't turning his insides to ashes, he could pretend. But he'd be damned if the last time he kissed her was going to be a frantic, confused kiss that caught him off guard. He pushed her back against the locker wall, framing her face with his hands, and covered her lips with his. Lok Sim pressed the length of his body against hers, kissing her with every bit of passion within him.
"I love you," he said breathlessly as he backed away.
She looked up at him, gasping for air. It took her only a moment to regain her composure. "We have to get to Thia." The desperation was clear in her voice.
He nodded grimly. "First, we need to get to a network station and try to figure out what's happened. If we go in blind, we won't be able to protect her." He picked up the rifle and wrenched open the heavy door, certain that at any moment, his heart was going to explode from pounding so hard in his chest.
********
New Stuff:
The sound of the co-pilot calling her on the intercom startled her from her meditative state. She stood up and walked to the craft's cockpit. "What is it?" she asked, standing behind the co-pilot's seat.
He glanced over his shoulder at her. "Distress call, from the main colony," he said, his tone grim.
"Do we have a situation report?"
"No, ma'am," he replied. "It's the automated message, designed to go off when security systems have been breached and aren't restored with the proper recognition codes."
"Change course," she commanded.
"We're hours away and we don't have enough fuel," the co-pilot replied.
Her mind raced. How could this be happening? She shook herself mentally before she could spiral down into the depths of metaphysical questions that had no answers and would do nothing to address their current crisis. "Radio the base commander at Jer Lom. We'll refuel, arm, and pick up forces there."
"Aye, ma'am," the pilot and co-pilot replied in unison as the craft banked and changed headings.
********
"Sergeant, what's happening?" the lieutenant commander demanded as he stepped into the small control room.
"Automated distress call," Faral replied. He glanced at the monitors, where the message suddenly disappeared.
"False alarm?" the officer asked eagerly.
Faral shook his head. "No. We'd get confirmation if it were a false alarm."
The lieutenant commander stared hard at him through narrowed eyes. "So why did the message disappear?"
"Probably because the system sending it was destroyed," the old sergeant replied.
"Sergeant, get your men, get ready to deploy," his commanding officer said, his voice suddenly growing loud and agitated.
"Right away, sir," Faral agreed before the lieutenant commander stalked out of the control room. He grabbed the communicator and began barking orders to the men in their barracks and the ready rooms, and the garrison posts around the base. He let the commanding persona of the old soldier take over so that Faral, the ordinary man, could retreat somewhere else, somewhere safe and tranquil and quiet.
********
In the darkness, her guard started rushing her toward the doorway. "Ma'am, we need to get you to safety," Lieutenant Parth said calmly as he put his arm around her.
"What was that explosion?" Zara demanded anxiously. "What happened?"
"We don't know yet," Lieutenant Rul called from the other side of the doorway. The door had been jarred open a crack. There were still lights on in the hall, but they flickered intermittently. Rul pushed open the door and made her way into the room.
"Is the hallway clear?" Parth asked.
"All clear," Rul confirmed.
"Good, let's move," he replied.
The two young officers hurried her out of the conference room. The lights in the hallway dimmed and then died, the backup lights not coming on the way they were supposed to. Parth and Rul each held onto one of her arms as they rushed down the corridor. A shower of sparks fell from a broken wall panel. Sirens and strobes blasted, nearly blinding and deafening them.
"I need to get in contact with General Command," Zara managed to yell over the sound of the alarm. "And my communicator isn't working."
"Neither are ours, but we should be able to get a link from the safe room," Parth assured her. In the darkness, he somehow managed to find the cover to the stairwell leading down into the underground level. He lifted the panel and threw it aside so they could descend into the compound's basement.
Her guards, normally so deferential of her, hustled her unceremoniously into the safe room, pulling the heavy door shut behind them. The moment they were inside, Rul frantically began trying to establish contact with General Command.
"What's wrong, Lieutenant?" Zara asked.
Rul shook her head agitatedly. "There's no response from General Command. It's like they're not there."
"Send messages to commanders Goren and Flad," Zara ordered. "Prepare a communication to all members of the general staff. If General Command can't coordinate the response, we have to."
********
Ching shouted his name, rank, and recognition code into the communicator again as he pleaded and implored with anyone at all to answer. Standard operating procedures required the general staff to report immediately to General Command in case of a military emergency to receive orders and organize the response, but Ching was met with nothing but silence on the other end. The damn thing must not have been working. He climbed over and around debris in the badly damaged hallway, toward the smell of smoke and the confused sounds of shouting.
'Damn it all,' he thought to himself. He would get an assessment of the damage in the administrative compound, try to coordinate the civilian emergency response and then go to General Command himself. He stuck the earbud in place in hopes that the emergency communications lines would start working again, and tucked away his communicator. Following the path of destruction, he was unsurprised to find himself near the transit center – it would be the most crowded point in the administrative compound, and one of the most vulnerable to attack. He pushed passed terror-stricken survivors, moving in the opposite direction, shouting instructions over the pandemonium. Calmly, but loudly, he ordered everyone to continue moving away from the transit center in an orderly fashion. He stopped a few times to lift the injured to their feet and enlisted others to help them away from danger. His progress was maddeningly slow – trying to move against the tide of panicked and confused civilians was almost futile. He pushed back as hard as he could against the wall of people without risking injury to anyone. A person falling in this madness could easily be trampled to death.
Finally, he made it to the center of the chaos, already deserted by most of the fleeing survivors, and much less crowded. Here, the rescue workers and volunteers had begun dragging those too injured to walk from the site of the explosion. The place assaulted each of his senses, ghastly and sickening. There was blood everywhere. The closed-in air reeked of smoke and death. The ghostly beams of flashlights, illuminating the soot and dust filled air, provided the only light in the darkness.
"Commander!" he turned to see a woman in the uniform of a fire chief, calling out for him. Ching eased his way past the rescue workers carrying a man – unconscious or dead, he couldn't tell – from the blast site.
"What do you need?" Ching asked the fire chief calmly.
"Medical triage so we can get the wounded to care, and a clear path out of here so my teams can continue the evacuation. And we can use more hands," she replied.
He frowned as he realized for the first time that a message was being broadcast. It cut in and out and he could scarcely hear anything over the static. He covered the earpiece with his hand, hoping to drown out the background chaos so he could hear the message.
<<This is First Minister Zara, all members of the general staff should report in on this frequency with their location and status and await orders…>>
Ching looked back at the harried fire chief. "I'll try to alert the hospitals and Engineering and do what I can. Excuse me," he said hastily before fumbling for his communicator to reply to Zara's message. He recorded his response and queued it to be sent, not knowing how long it would take to be transmitted over the barely functioning communications system. He then sent word to the hospitals as he'd promised, with the location of the blast site and the best routes for medial teams to use to avoid the exodus of survivors and the worst of the damage.
He took a deep breath and regretted it, the smoky, stale air stinging his lungs. Until he received further information, the only thing he could do to be useful was be another pair of hands for the fire chief.
********
"What happened?" Clark demanded. He'd been on his way back from meeting with the Chief Jurist when suddenly, everything around him went dark.
"I…I don't know, sir," Ensign Shryke, his guard stammered.
Clark tried the door again, but it was pointless. The reinforced metal was in no mood to negotiate with him or his now sore shoulder. He ran his hand through his hair, willing it not to tremble. "The lights are out, the doors are stuck, we're trapped in a hallway, and the communications system is down. So what would cause all of this?"
"Total security system lockdown," Shryke replied.
Clark started to pace. Somehow a total security system lockdown didn't sound very good. "How do we get out?"
The young ensign sighed. "We don't," he said.
"What?" Clark practically exploded with disbelief.
The hapless guard took a step back. "The system is designed to isolate threats and protect the rest of the colony."
"What threats, though? We have no idea what's going on out there," Clark replied in agitation. "What about the emergency doors?"
"We can get out, but we won't be able to get back in anywhere. We'll be stuck outside."
"Then let's go," Clark said firmly.
Shryke shook his head in protest. "Sir, I'm supposed to protect you. If there's an emergency, the last thing we should do is go out in the open. This is probably the safest place we can be. We should wait here until help arrives."
"I haven't abdicated just yet. Am I not still the Commander of the Forces of New Krypton?" Clark demanded. "If there's an emergency, I need to do my job and protect the people of this colony and I can't do that locked in this hallway. I'm going to take a look outside, see if I can figure out what's going on, and then decide what to do. I strongly suggest you keep the door open for me," Clark said gravely as he strode toward the emergency door at the other end of the hallway.
********
It seemed like they had traveled through miles of hallways before finally finding a functioning network station in a tiny workroom off one of the corridors. Even after they'd found the terminal, it took Lok Sim nearly an hour to get through to Engineering. All the while, Enza waited anxiously, her stomach twisting itself into knots. He spoke quietly but tersely into his communicator. She didn't have the time or the presence of mind to consider how unlike her soft-spoken husband he now seemed, giving clear, direct orders to the person on the other end of the line. Instead, she waited, facing the doorway, her eyes fixed in a hard stare on the metal panel, her weapon gripped tightly in bloodless hands. She hoped fervently that the hallway would remain calm, that no one would try to pry open that door.
"I need a situation report on North Housing Compound Four," Lok Sim said. Enza turned to face her husband, her heart beating so fast it hurt. That compound was where Thia's school was. If only they hadn't arranged for her to stay late that evening. They would have all been at home together. They would have been able to keep her safe, she thought to herself. But she knew that wasn't true. As soon as the sirens had gone off, she and Lok Sim would have been expected to report and await orders. They would have been expected to leave their little girl in a civilian shelter, frightened and confused, while they responded to the threat.
"Update me immediately on any changes there," Lok Sim ordered. She wished desperately that she could hear the other end of the conversation. He looked at her, his tense expression softening. "There are some problems with the communications systems there, but life support is working fine, no reports of any attacks, and the civilians have been evacuated to the shelters. The children at the school have all been accounted for."
Her breath escaped her as a sob of relief. "She'll be safe there," her husband soothed gently. Enza nodded, but didn't trust her voice to speak. She could see the muscles in his neck tense as he swallowed roughly. "But systems are failing in Engineering and they can't bring them back on-line. I need to try to restore them remotely."
"Can you do that from here?"
"I can get started, but eventually, we'll have to reset the terminals manually," he replied. "And we'll need help to do that. But first, I need to repair the emergency communications lines so the rescuers can coordinate with each other."
********
Hearts pounding, they raced for the hangar amidst the wailing sirens and pulsing strobe lights. Crews were finishing up final flight preparations, fueling the aircraft and running the very last tests. The pilots scattered. Dek Ra ran to his Interceptor and up the waiting ladder to the ship's cockpit. He could feel a stone settle deep in the pit of his stomach and took a deep breath to fight off the queasiness. Swallowing hard, he tried to find his voice. "This is Ensign Dek Ra, seeking priority clearance for takeoff," he managed in a somewhat squeaky voice.
"Ensign Dek Ra, you are cleared for takeoff. May fortune be with you, sir," came the reply.
He felt himself thrown back against the seat as the ship launched itself into the air. Dek Ra leveled the craft as the rest of his squadron joined him in formation. Screaming through the night sky, they headed toward the main colony.
********
Anarchy was the only word Trey could think of to describe the scene unfolding around him. Armed thugs had descended on the prison, tearing through its wards in search of someone—it had to be Nor. His own cell door having been unlocked in the chaos, Trey slipped out silently, hoping not to be noticed. His pulse thundered in his ears, but he tried to remind himself that no one could hear it. He had just one chance and he could not lose it. There had been only one thing on his mind these last few years and it was finally within his reach.
Moving slowly and quietly, he made his way through the darkened corridors to the warden's office. He pushed open a door that should have been locked, unsurprised but still disgusted to see the dead bodies of the warden and his deputy. Like all of its other systems, the communications lines in the prison were down, but perhaps the warden's personal communicator was still working.
Fortune was certainly with him, he thought, as he turned the communicator on. He sent out a message on all open channels.
"This is Trey, former Chief of Staff to the First Ministers, inmate in the prison. Approximately one hour ago, prison defenses were overwhelmed by at least sixty heavily armed men, operating in several teams. The breach occurred at the eastern wall. I believe it is the gunmen's intention to free Nor. The warden and deputy warden are dead, the security systems have all been disabled. Please respond immediately. I repeat…"
He looked up at the sound of the door opening behind him. His eyes grew wide at the sight of the gun pointed at him, but he set his mouth in a defiant line. With a courage he never knew he'd possessed, Trey stared down the man who would soon be his murderer.
It didn't matter. None of it did. His life or his death, they were insignificant now. All that mattered was what he'd done. He hoped that it was enough.
********
"We need to get to General Command," Zara said definitively.
"Ma'am, we're supposed to keep you safe," Parth replied with a quick glance in her direction. He crouched facing the door, his weapon drawn.
"There's no one coordinating our response, we could be vulnerable to further attacks and there is nothing we can do about that from in here," she countered impatiently.
"And General Command is an information black hole," Lieutenant Rul responded, her tone more curt than usual. "We have no way of knowing if it's safe. The entire general staff could have been killed…"
"All the more reason why we need to take control of the situation," Zara said as she started for the door. The two young guards could come with her, or they could stay behind. It made no difference to her.
But, of course, they were going to go with her. They would have followed her anywhere. The junior officers caught up to her even before she was out the door. In the hallway, they flanked her, their weapons drawn, as the group rushed toward General Command.
********
The restoration of the emergency communications lines struck Ching as a mixed blessing. He was finally able to get through to Engineering and request a damage control team, but he was still unable to get in contact with General Command. And the near total lack of a response to Zara's message from the general staff was dismaying. Of course, most of them would have been in General Command or away from the main colony, and Ching had not yet had any luck contacting the outer settlements. Sufficient rescue workers and volunteers had arrived that he could leave the administrative compound without being overwhelmed by a sense of guilt for abandoning this place. He was a member of the general staff, the most important thing he could do was to help coordinate their response and limit the chaos that was doubtlessly spreading throughout the main colony.
He found the fire chief talking to the head of the medical team and informed them that he would be making his way to General Command. They thanked him for his help before he rushed off away from the blast site.
********
"Dammit, where is he?" Jen Mai shouted from the causeway over the sounds of an all out rampage. The holding floors below them gave new meaning to the expression 'pit of hell.' Prisoners fought with each other and the remaining guards as they scrambled to escape.
"He wasn't in his holding cell," Theris, replied. The craggy-faced assassin scowled as he ran a hand through his hair.
"He must have been moved to another part of the prison awaiting transfer," Jen Mai mused. His eyes darted frantically from one end of the walkway to the other.
"What do we do?" his lieutenant asked anxiously.
"Have your men tear this place apart and find him!" Jen Mai snapped.
Theris looked at him incredulously. "You want us to find one man in a riot?"
"Not any one man. Nor. If we don't find him, we're all dead."
"Our time window is closing," the assassin replied unhelpfully.
"Then get moving!" Jen Mai spat.
********
For at least the seventh time, Clark peered outside, the wind howling loudly in the hallway where he held the door open. "Time to go, Ensign," Clark announced.
"What's happening, sir?" the young man asked.
"Backup is here," Clark replied. Just beyond the colony, transports were hovering and landing. Their doors opened and troops poured out. Shryke followed his First Minister outside, where they flagged down the friendly forces. Their commander approached, shouting to be heard over the gusting wind.
"Sir, what's happening?" the commander yelled as he jogged toward Clark.
"I was hoping you could tell us that," Clark replied. "We got locked down inside."
The commander surveyed the area. "We're responding to a distress call, but we don't have any more details than you do. There's smoke rising from several parts of the colony."
"Well, we'd better get over there and help," Clark responded.
"Aye, sir," the commander replied with a salute. They rushed in the darkness back toward the waiting transports.
********
Rab Dun struggled to make her way to the transit center in the administrative compound, fighting against the tide of humanity rushing in the opposite direction. She almost fell under the rapidly moving mass twice, but managed to keep from getting trampled.
Having pushed past the crowds and finally found her way into the cordoned off area around the blast site, she drew in a deep breath. Around her, the scene was one of total chaos. Smoke and dust rose up from the blast site, which was now nothing more than an unidentifiable pile of rubble. One of her civil engineers rushed toward her. "Where's the damage control team?" she demanded.
"They've been delayed, ma'am," he said. "Corridors are totally blocked off."
Rab Dun frowned grimly. "So no one's shut off the fuel and power lines, then?"
"Not yet, ma'am," he confirmed. She turned toward the stairwell leading down to the lower platform. The engineer started after her. "Ma'am, that platform is completely unstable; it could collapse at any moment!"
She stopped and turned to face him and he nearly tripped to avoid bumping into her. "And what do you think will happen if it collapses and those lines haven't been shut off? There will be another explosion that will make this one look like a mere spark," she said harshly.
"Ma'am, please," the engineer beseeched her. They both knew that if she went down to that platform, she wasn't coming back up. But there was no choice. If those lines weren't shut off, the entire compound could go up in the next explosion.
"Stay here and help the fire chief," she replied before turning back toward the stairwell.
********
"Ma'am, we have access at North Hangar Bay Two," the co-pilot announced over the intercom. The ship suddenly banked sharply, jostling its passengers. She tightened her grip on the overhead handrail, struggling to keep her balance. "We have incoming fire!" the co-pilot shouted, his voice jumping up an octave.
"Get us on the ground!" Talan yelled. The craft landed hard, its doors opening immediately. "Let's go, let's go, let's go!"
Amid the rockets and fire lighting up the night sky, Talan's forces raced toward the waiting hangar bay. She rushed to the mechanic waiting at the bay doors. The ground shook with each exploding mortar shell. "Ma'am, we're taking heavy fire," he shouted.
"Keep these doors open as long as you can," she replied. "I won't leave my forces out there." The transports lifted off, retreating from the fire they were taking both from the ground and the rebel gunships in the air.
"Aye, ma'am!" he yelled as he nodded. Her forces reorganized inside the empty hangar. Outside, the last of the soldiers rushed from the transports toward the bay. An explosion threw rocks and dust in the air, dropping several soldiers to the ground. The mechanic took off running toward the wounded soldiers, Talan immediately on his heels. They dragged the injured soldiers into the hangar. In the hail of gunfire, the mechanic ran after the last wounded man. Talan shouted orders to her officers, preparing for the counteroffensive they were about to launch. Behind her, another explosion felled the mechanic, not far from the injured solider. Talan ran after him, covering the ground in long, rapid strides.
"Help him first!" the wounded mechanic yelled through gritted teeth.
She didn't waste time talking, helping the injured soldier to his feet. He leaned heavily on her as they ran toward the hangar. A pair of soldiers took the wounded man from her as she turned back toward the mechanic, alone on the battlefield, crawling back toward the hangar. The rebel gunships flew closer to the hangar bay, firing at the structure. "Start closing the doors," she shouted to the soldiers.
She ignored the laser fire scorching the air around her and blasting the rock and dust around her feet. Talan dragged the mechanic to his feet, wrapping her arm around his waist. They limped toward the hangar, a slow moving target in the middle of an open space. The doors were quickly descending in front of them. "Come on, we can make it!" she shouted, encouraging the injured mechanic to keep running. They stumbled, but she somehow managed to keep them both on their feet long enough to make it through the nearly shut hangar doors. They both fell to the ground just inside the structure.
Talan stood up slowly. She looked at the nearest medic. "Stay with him," she instructed before making her way to the head of the column of soldiers. They stormed the corridor, heading toward the freight elevators that led up to the colony's main level. Packed onto one of the elevator platforms with her troops, she waited, her heart thundering in her chest. She looked back at the several dozen soldiers standing behind her on the platform, their expressions harsh and severe, their weapons gripped tightly. "Stay together, remember your training, and we will win this," she said calmly.
She turned back toward the doors as the elevator came to a stop. They rushed into the hallway that led to General Command. The soldiers immediately started to cough from the smoke. The darkness made it impossible for them to see where they were going. The silence was disconcerting. General Command, even in times of peace, was always bustling and crowded. In emergencies, it should have been barely constrained chaos. Instead, the halls were deserted. Even the emergency sirens and strobes were noticeably absent.
The soldiers broke up into squadrons to secure the area, forcing open doors and checking every corridor. "Ma'am, you should see this!" one of her officers shouted. She rushed toward the captain, waving frantically at her.
"Dammit," she cursed softly as she peered into briefing room. Inside were the bodies of a dozen members of the general staff, including General Commander Flad. Acrid smoke drifted out of the room. They'd no doubt suffocated. "Seal it off," she said harshly.
Ahead of her, a voice shouted in the darkness. "North end secure!"
"South end secure!" came the response from the other end of the hall.
She grabbed her communicator. "This is General Commander Talan. My forces have secured the Eastern Wing of General Command, requesting a situation report." She waited for a response but heard nothing. Talan turned back to the captain. "Let's get the communications systems back online," she said.
"Aye, ma'am," the captain replied.
"Talan, are you there? Talan?" She frowned as she grabbed her communicator again.
"Ching, is that you?" she asked.
"It is. We have total system failures in Western Wing. Heavy casualties, but most of the staff evacuated through the tunnels."
"How do we get the systems functioning again?"
"My communications engineer has been trying to debug the system from the network terminal in the south corridor of the barracks. But he needs assistance bringing the power stations back online. Can you spare the manpower?"
"We're on our way now," she replied. Talan glanced around, surprised to see her old sergeant stalking the hallways, shouting at his men.
"Faral!" she shouted.
He gave her a half smile as he jogged toward her, stopping to salute. "It's very good to see you, ma'am," he said.
"I'm glad you're here. Get your squadron and let's go."
"Aye, ma'am," he agreed. He turned back to his team. "Let's go!" he shouted.
She led the group of a dozen soldiers through the darkness and chaos and out of General Command. They ran, boots pounding on the hard metal floor, to the barracks. She found the control room where the network terminal was housed. Faral beat his thick fist against the solid door. "This is Sergeant Faral, Kryptonian forces, open the door!" he shouted.
The door slid open and a very relieved Captain Enza lowered her weapon, breathing a sigh of relief. She saluted her superior officer as Talan and Faral entered the room. The remaining soldiers waited in the hall, their weapons still drawn.
"What can we do to help you, Sergeant?" Talan asked the communications engineer.
"I can't get the power and security systems in General Command back online from here. The power stations have shut down and I need officers to override these two terminals," Lok Sim said as he pointed at two points on the schematics on his screen.
"Well, you now have two officers here, so that shouldn’t be a problem. Anything else?"
"I could use a higher security clearance so that once those terminals are functioning, I can override the programming."
Talan folded her arms across her chest as she frowned. "Well, I may be a glorified gardener these days, but I still have the necessary clearance. Use mine." Lok Sim moved aside to allow her to enter her access codes. She then quickly retrieved his personnel file. "And battlefield promotions are still within my purview. Congratulations, Lieutenant. Once the systems are back online you should have the clearance you need."
The young man stared silently at her for a moment before shaking himself out of a daze. "Right, ma'am," he rushed to agree.
"Faral, you and three of your men should stay here with the lieutenant. The rest will come with Captain Enza and me."
"Aye, ma'am," Faral replied.
Talan turned toward Enza. "Captain, let's go," she said tersely.
********
Clark found himself in the familiar confusion of a catastrophe. This may not have been a natural disaster, but between this war and his years as Superman, he'd seen just about everything imaginable. He shouted orders to the soldiers and rescue workers, slipping into a role he knew and understood. This was no accident, but what anyone would gain from striking this civilian compound escaped him. The carnage surrounding him hit him hard in the gut, leaving him dizzy and nauseated. He tried to take a deep breath, reminding himself that he needed to stay in control. The people around him needed him to be calm and composed.
"Any luck getting a hold of General Command?" he asked his guard.
"Not yet, sir," Shryke replied.
"Keep trying," Clark responded.
********
He watched the screen and waited for the second of the two power stations to be reactivated. Lok Sim held his breath unconsciously as he stared hard at the monitor. "They did it. We're back on line, I just need to restore the link to Engineering so that Damage Control can take over the security systems again," Lok Sim said through gritted teeth. "There, it's done." He tapped a few keys and established the connection. "This is Comm. Chief Lok Sim. Get me Gare Len immediately."
<<Sir, Gare Len isn't here,>> came the reply.
Lok Sim frowned. "But he's the Damage Control Chief on duty tonight," he replied into the communicator.
<<No sir, Sur Ahn is.>>
Lok Sim's heart plummeted like a stone, the breath escaping him in a 'whoosh.' "Say again," he demanded.
<<Sur Ahn is the Damage Control Chief on duty.>>
Sur Ahn. The engineer who'd first roused his suspicion weeks ago. He should have known. He should have figured it out. Lok Sim swallowed hard as he tried to find his voice. "Listen to me very carefully. I need you to place Sur Ahn under arrest."
<<Could you repeat that, sir?">>
"Arrest the Damage Control Chief. This is a military emergency and that is a direct order," he said harshly.
Lok Sim looked up at Faral, standing behind him. "We have to move," he explained, his tone grave.
********
"Infernal piece of junk," Ching muttered darkly as he stared at the screen in front of him, unhelpfully stating that he still couldn't unlock the doors that had trapped two battalions of soldiers in their barracks. His head snapped up at the sound of the door opening. He sighed, relieved when Zara and her two guards entered the room. "You're here," he breathed.
"What's our status?" she asked anxiously.
"Three massive explosions. A riot in the prison. And the systems aren't fully under our control yet."
"Nor?" she asked.
"It has to be," he agreed. "Two divisions are working to retake the prison. Rescue crews are at all three blast sites, but everything is moving slowly."
A blaring siren startled them. "Dammit!" Ching cursed loudly as he looked at the flashing monitor.
Zara stepped toward him. "What is it?"
"Fuel leak. We have to evacuate, it isn't safe," he said tersely.
"This way, sir." Parth gestured toward one of the exits. "We can get out through the tunnels."
Ching nodded as he shepherded Zara toward the door. The four raced into the hall leading away from the command center. Ching and Parth followed not far behind Zara and Rul. A sudden force knocked Ching to the ground, like he'd run head first into a wall. A wave of light and heat washed over him as the hallway shuddered violently. He watched in horror as the ceiling ahead of him collapsed. The metal groaned and twisted from the extreme temperature and a shower of sparks fell to the ground.
"Zara!" he cried out scanning the darkness ahead of him. He leapt to his feet and rushed toward the fiery metal blocking his path, receiving nothing but burns for his troubles. "Zara!" he yelled again, the smoke and the heat singeing his lungs. He coughed uncontrollably as Parth pulled him back down to the ground and toward the cleaner air. He looked frantically from side to side as he waited for the smoke to clear, but there was nothing in front of him except melted and deformed metal and broken debris. Tears stung his eyes as he struggled to breathe. His heart shattered before it was ripped from his chest, his entire body hollowed out in one fast, violent swipe. He buried his head in his arms as he sobbed, his hands fisting in his short hair.
"Come on, sir!" Parth yelled. "That fire is going to burn up all the oxygen in this corridor." The young lieutenant dragged his superior officer out of the hallway. The other man was too numb to move, too shocked to resist, too broken to put up a fight.
