Renegade

Renegade Chapter 16

"How clever, Aria. You can recognize someone you have been around your entire life," Nathan sneered.

He wasn't wearing an environment suit. Instead, he had on a long red coat, black pants, ivory shirt, a salmon scarf, and a pair of white gloves.

"How-Why are you even here?" Aria questioned, raising her voice. "I thought the R'Nari had captured you a couple days ago, and that you'd be in a similar situation as Rex!"

Nathan chuckled quietly to himself for a moment. "That wasn't an abduction, Aria. It was a defection. My defection," he said condescendingly.

"Why would you want to defect? Why would you want to do any of this? You're in line for the throne! You're my brother!"

"I am not your brother!" Nathan snapped. "And my claim to the throne was taken away the minute you were born."

"What do you mean?" Aria asked. Her voice was now quiet with shock.

By this time, Nils had moved to a protective position around Rex and Caleb had moved closer to Aria. She used sign language to communicate Nils was to take Rex to the hanger, steal a ship and get back to the Guiding Star. Caleb and Aria would keep distracting Nathan and his R'Nari companions.

Nathan kept rambling. "Well, 28 years ago, I was born to a mother I will never know because she died in childbirth. However, your parents who had been trying so hard to have a child, adopted me, but made it seem like I was their biological child. I was named heir, and had good life until you came along."

One of the R'Nari soldiers noticed Nils and Rex sneaking off and tapped Nathan on his shoulder.

"What is it now?" Nathan said angrily, then he noticed Nils and Rex. "They're escaping! After them!" he yelled.

Nils and Rex started moving as fast as they could towards the hanger with half a dozen R'Nari soldiers following them. Aria drew her katana and charged at Nathan while Caleb fired his shotgun and was able to take down a couple of R'Nari soldiers that had stayed with Nathan.

Nathan dodged Aria's first strike, but wasn't able to avoid getting his arm cut dodging her second, causing him to swear. Realizing he didn't have a competent enough weapon to deal with Aria's fury, he signaled to his soldiers to retreat. Aria started to follow after him, but Caleb held her back.

"Princess, we need to get back to the Guiding Star so you and Rex can live," he said.

Aria nodded, and they started back towards the hanger.

***

Rex and Nils were hiding in one of the barracks from the R'Nari soldiers that had followed them. Quickly and quietly, Nils was stripping the sheets from the beds because Rex had been shot in the side of the knee and the bleeding needed to be stopped.

"We need help," he said over the radio to the Guiding Star while wrapping the sheets around Rex's knee. "It really hit the fan. Nathan showed up with a bunch of alien soldiers, Rex and I got separated from Caleb and Aria, and Rex was shot. We need the Guiding Star over here ASAP."

"On our way," Kokona replied.

"I called in backup," Dacia chimed in.

"What do you mean 'backup'?" Nils exclaimed.

"There's been a fleet of R'Nari ships gathering on the far side of the planet. I called Aria's dad and he'll be here with his fleet in...right about now. Set a locator beacon and we'll come and get you and then find Aria and Caleb."

"Roger that. And tell Gabriel to prep the med bay." Under his breath, Nils muttered "God, I hope Rex pulls through."

***

Caleb and Aria were also taking shelter inside one of the barracks, but not because one of them was injured. They had been trying to escape the camp, but while dodging pockets of R'Nari soldiers, they had gotten lost. Seemingly out of nowhere, because they had been too busy running from a particular group of soldiers to contact the Guiding Star, R'Nari space fighters appeared and joined the party.

Just as Caleb was checking to see if the coast was clear, Dacia's voice came crackling over the radio.

"Aria, are you and Caleb still in the camp?" she asked.

"Yeah," Caleb replied. "Care to explain what the hell is going on?"

"Long story short, an alien fleet is on the other side of the planet trying to kill us, the First Fleet just got here and his engaging them, and we're bringing in the Guiding Star to pull you guys out."

"It took us a day and a half to get here. How did my dad get here in less than that?" Aria asked.

"Well, for one thing they didn't have to sneak here," Dacia explained.

"Dropping into the camp now!" Kokona yelled.

Aria and Caleb could hear the whine of the engines close by as the Guiding Star descended rapidly close by.

Caleb opened the door slowly and stepped out of the grey building they had taken shelter in. "The coast is clear," he whisper-yelled. "Let's run for it."

They ran as fast as possible in the direction of the engine noises. The Guiding Star had landed in the space in between the central tower and row of northern block of barracks which they had first approached from. From another direction, they could see Nils and Gabriel carrying an unconscious Rex on a bedsheet stretcher to the Guiding Star.

Aria stopped moving and froze. "What happened to him?," she burst out.

"Princess, we need to keep moving," Caleb insisted. A group of R'Nari fighters was coming back around to shoot at them again. "Now!"

Unintelligible mumbling was all that came out of her mouth.

"We're doing this the hard way then," Caleb grumbled under his breath and then grabbed Aria's arm and started dragging her.

Not a moment too soon, Caleb got Aria on the Guiding Star. The group of fighters that had been shooting started to fire their laser cannons where the two had just been. As soon as they were on board, and Aria was in a seat and strapped in, Kokona had the Guiding Star take off.

Aria could feel the vibrations of her own ship's guns being fired through her seat. Caleb had left her to go help defend the ship with the rest of the guards. Dacia was holding her now, making sure Aria didn't go into a completely catatonic state.

"He'll be alright, Ria. Gabriel is stabilizing Rex the best he can," she said in a soothing voice.

"Ships from home are starting to disengage with their FTL drives!" Kokona announced over the intercom.

"See, we're gonna make it," Dacia assured her cousin. "Come up and sit with Kokona and I. We may need you to talk to the radio people so they don't shoot us."