A Brother's Debt (14 page)

As well as the whine she could hear shouted voices from the crew. The voices were indistinct and she couldn’t make out what was being shouted, the urgency in the voices was unmistakeable however, even to a young girl like herself.

Zialla began to worry.

No sooner did she step outside the cabin than she was almost knocked down by one of the crew. “Out of the way girl!” he said sharply as he hurried past, not even looking back to see if she was alright.

“What’s going on?” Zialla called after him, glad she had fallen against the doorframe, and not all the way back into the cabin. To her ears she sounded younger than her twelve years; though she did her best to keep the fear and worry that was growing in her from her voice.

“Pirates!” Was the answer she received, the word almost drowned by an explosion that rocked the freighter, and sent the crewman stumbling into the wall next to him. Zialla would have fallen herself if she hadn’t been propped up by the doorframe. “You’d best get yourself somewhere safe.” The man was gone then, disappearing round a corner.

‘Pirates!’ The word started a filmstrip of scenes from all the pirate films she had ever seen to run through her mind. In the films, pirates were rude, and violent, but they almost always had a good heart, and did the right thing in the end. The pirate captains in the films were usually handsome men with rugged physiques, and roguish smiles that made her stomach flutter and her heart race, though she didn’t understand why.

Her stomach was fluttering then, and her heart was racing, but it didn’t feel the same as when she watched the movies and sighed over the men on the screen. Her heart felt as though it was going to beat its way out of her chest, and the fluttering in her stomach made her worry she was going to shame herself.

The ship was rocked by a second explosion, closer and larger than the first, and Zialla lost her grip on the doorframe. She hit the floor with a thump and stayed there, fighting the urge to cry like a baby as the noises of a ship under attack whirled around her.

“ZIALLA! ZIALLA! WHERE ARE YOU?”

Her mother’s shout steadied the almost-teen; she didn’t wish to be thought of as a child, not even by her parents. With a sniff Zialla wiped the moisture from the corners of her eyes and pushed herself up. On unsteady legs the young girl left the cabin, and was spotted by her mother almost the moment she appeared in the corridor.

“Thank the Gods!” Her mother cried in relief when she saw Zialla. Hurrying up to her she threw her arms around her, squeezing her so tight breathing was difficult. “Where’s your brother? Isn’t he in there with you?” she asked, looking past her daughter and into the cabin.

“No. He left when you did, I thought he was with you,” Zialla said, though in truth she hadn’t actually thought of her brother until then, the emergency had driven almost everything, including her family, from her mind.  “What’s going on? He said there’s pirates.” She couldn’t quite keep a sob from her voice as she spoke, hoping the crewman had been wrong. “Where’s daddy?”

“I-I don’t know what’s going on,” her mother said, doing her best to keep the fear and uncertainty she was feeling from her voice. “Your father is most likely helping the crew; you know he’s paying part of our passage by working in the engine room. Oh where is your brother!” She looked all around her, as if she expected him to suddenly appear, when he didn’t she released Zialla. “You stay here,” she pushed her daughter back into the cabin. “Don’t leave this cabin no matter what, I’ll be back as soon as I’ve found your brother.”

Zialla nodded solemnly and stepped back so the door would slide shut. For a moment she stood there, just looking at the blank plas of the door, and then she turned away and crossed to her bed. Sitting on the edge she tried to ignore the way the ship kept rocking, and the sounds of explosions, and the emergency siren which continued to sound. It wasn’t easy however.

How long she sat there she didn’t know, but just when she had come to the conclusion the noises were never going to end, there was another explosion, louder and more violent than the others.

The ship lurched, tipping Zialla off the bed and onto the floor, where she rolled until the far wall stopped her. When she struggled to her feet she realised the ship was still tilted, and she had to lean to keep herself upright. She noticed that straight away, but it took her a few moments longer to realise the alarm had stopped sounding, and the hull had ceased to thrum to the sound of the engine.

Zialla was still trying to work out what it meant that the noises had stopped when a figure appeared in the doorway of the cabin. She gave a small scream of fright at the sudden appearance, but calmed when she saw it was father and ran to him, wanting him to hold her in his arms and tell her everything was going to be alright.

It was only when she got closer that she saw it wasn’t her father, just one of the other crewmen who looked a little like him. She thought it was one of the ones who worked in the engine room with her father, but couldn’t be sure, he was dirty and blood ran down the side of his face obscuring his features. “Where’s my daddy?” she asked, stopping abruptly, her arms, which she had been about to throw around his waist, falling to her sides.

“I don’t know, girl, but you’d best get out of here, the pirates will be here soon, and now the engines are gone we’ve no hope of getting away.”

“What about my family? Mummy said to stay here till she found my brother.”

“Forget about your family, if you stay here and wait for them you’ll die, or worse,” the big man told her. “Me, I’m getting out of here, I’m not waiting around like some fool to try and protect the ship, like the Captain.” He was muttering almost to himself and Zialla could barely make out what he was saying. “There’s escape pods one level down, run and get in one, it’ll get you safely away. It’s what your family will be doing, if they’ve got any sense.

“If you’re lucky you’ll get picked up by someone who’ll look after you. And if not, well, you’ll still be better than getting caught here. Forget about your stuff,” he said sharply when Zialla looked over her shoulder at the cabin behind her, “it’ll only weigh you down, now’s the time for speed. Run, that’s what I’m doing.” With that he turned and lumbered off down the corridor.

Zialla stayed where she was for a short while longer, torn by indecision, until the ship gave a fresh shudder in time with a loud thump. A new explosion followed soon after, and that made up her mind for her. Forgetting what her mother had told her, and abandoning all of her meagre possessions, she took off down the corridor. As quickly as she could manage on the tilted floor she headed in the direction taken by the crewman, doing her best to remember the quickest route to the level below.

She reached the elevator soon enough and stepped in, giving no thought to the doors being already open as she commanded it to take her down one level. Only when she had tried half a dozen times, without success, to get the doors to close and the elevator to move did she give up and return to the corridor; she didn’t know what the problem was, only that the elevator wasn’t doing what it was supposed to.

“GIRL!” The call drew Zialla’s attention as she was looking around for some indication of the emergency access shaft she knew had to be somewhere nearby. The crewman who had told her to run was standing in a doorway further down the corridor. “This way, come on, the power’s out, you won’t get the elevator working.” He waved a hand urgently, gesturing for her to come to him.

With no other choice that she could see, Zialla hurried to where the man was urging her on. Reaching him she found he was in the companionway, one foot on the ladder leading down to the level below. She descended after him, moving so quickly she trod on his fingers several times, though he made no complaint, not even when she almost lost her balance getting off the ladder and grabbed his top to keep herself upright. He just waited a moment until she had steadied herself and then set off again.

A third of the way along the corridor Zialla collided with the crewman when he stopped abruptly. “In here,” he told her, reaching down he lifted her to her feet before pushing her through the doorway they were next to.

Zialla found herself in a small pod. There was space around her, but not much and she could only imagine how cramped it would be for an adult, especially someone like the crewman helping her. She only had a moment to think about how small the pod was however, after that she was more concerned with the crewman.

Before she knew what he was doing he’d spun her round, pushed her backwards into the couch, and with quick movements secured her in place. She hadn’t even noticed the safety straps before then.

“Just relax, the pod will give you something to sleep, when you wake up you’ll be safe.” He checked the safety straps were tight enough, gave them a quick jerk to tighten them a little more, and stepped back out of the pod’s entrance.

Not having any idea what to expect Zialla was surprised when the pod suddenly closed and she felt herself thrown against the straps as it launched itself away from the ship. The pod accelerated with such force she was sure the straps were going to leave a cross shaped pattern of bruises over her chest. That worry didn’t last long however; no more than ten seconds passed before she found her eyes closing.

“It sounds like that crewman saved your life,” Step said when Zialla finished relating what had happened prior to her waking in the escape pod on the cargo deck.

“Uh-uh.” Zialla nodded, her eyes on the food being prepared, which was almost ready. “Do you think mummy and daddy managed to get to the escape pods with Gary?” she asked, the tone of her voice begging for reassurance.

For a few moments Step was silent while he began dishing up. “It’s possible,” he said finally. He wanted to reassure the young girl, but knew there was no way to be certain, unless her parents were found.

Chapter Twenty-Six

A barely perceptible shudder ran through Gambler’s Luck as Step docked with the larger ship. So skilful was his completion of the manoeuvre that neither Jay nor Zialla were aware the ships were connected until he announced it.

“You ready, Jay?” Step asked over the coms. Though it was a bit late for him to do so he made a final check of the short range sensor, just in case there was any trouble lurking. All that was visible on the sensor was The Green Star, to the left of Gambler’s Luck, nothing else was in range. Not that that meant much, given how short the range of the sensor was.

“There in a minute,” came the reply from the engine room.

Spinning the chair away from the controls Step stood. “Keep your eyes on the sensor screen, Zi,” he told the young girl, who had spent the majority of the final approach to the freighter’s location in the co-pilot’s seat beside him. “Use the coms and warn us if anything appears on the screen.”

Zialla nodded, her focus already centred on the screen. Her eyes had barely left it during the flight, as she searched for some sign of escape pods that might hold her parents, or her brother.

Step left the girl in front of the screen and made his way off the bridge and along the corridor. Soon enough he reached the door, where he waited for Jay to join him. “Here,” he handed a laser pistol to the engineer when he arrived. The other pistol taken from Grange Dollier’s men he kept for himself.

Jay took the weapon and stuffed it into the waistband of his trousers, leaving his hands free for the toolkit he’d brought with him from Barth, the only possession of value he had. Like his friend, he hoped he wouldn’t need the pistol, but knew it was better to have the weapon and not need it, than to need it and not have it.

Together they made their way across to the larger ship, where Jay gained them access. Once inside they split up, the ship was too big for them to complete the search quickly if they stayed together.

“Did you find anything?” Jay asked, entering the bridge, where Step was seated at the only console that appeared to still be usable.

“A couple of dead bodies, five escape pods missing and a lot of mess,” Step answered. “One of the bodies is a crewmember, I found him in the crew roster, and the other is one of the pirates. I’ve downloaded the logs to Gambler’s Luck, I figure the owners will want to know what’s happened to their ship, now I’m just having a read of them for myself.

“What did you find?”

“Pretty much the same as you. Mess everywhere, and bodies, three for me. I’d say two were crew, and the third was a pirate. What do the logs say?” Jay dropped himself into the pilot’s chair and spun it round so he was facing his friend, placing his toolkit on the floor next to him.

“Nothing that helps us all that much,” was the reply. “According to this the ship had twenty crewmembers, including the captain, and there is supposed to be twenty escape pods, five of which are missing, so we can be reasonably certain five people got away. The trouble is the logs make no mention of Zialla, or her family.

“If I had to make a guess, I would say the Captain decided to earn a bit of extra money on the side by taking on a few passengers, and he kept their names off the books to avoid getting in trouble with the owners.”