Andromeda's Gates: The story of Yseult Brenneaux

Chapter 31: Unpredictable events

The sense of finality was overwhelming... Big Sal was dead, his body left to rot deep in some crumbling abandoned facility. Food for whatever local fauna scavenged deep enough into the installation to find him.

The walk back to the platform had been as equally long and convoluted as on the way in, the dark corridors illuminating only the section they were walking in, the metal walls giving an eerie echo to the occasional drip, clank, creak and the gentle sob of a young girl facing a future of horrifying uncertainty... I brought her into this... I shouldn't have... This is my fault. The mind of the red-haired pilot raced with regrets and doubts but her face remained stern, for there was a pool of anger beneath the surface. She could not see Ellie for the SPIDER guard between them but every tear and cry she heard with painful clarity... This is my fault. Everything you suffer now will be my fault... I did it to myself and now I've done it to you too... This is my fault.

They eventually emerged back onto the platform, the rain had subsided but the dull overcast cloud and intermittent fog seemed a permanent feature of the valley. Yseult glanced over to where the Speedy Owl was. Another ship lost. She thought before a painful elbow in the back pushed her to the entry hatch at the back of the SPIDER transport. It was a multi-purpose craft, the main cabin having no seats so as to allow for cargo as well as, or instead of passengers. The scorch marks and welded brackets showed that SPIDER clearly weren't buying off the production line. This ship was two, maybe three different ones, salvaged or stolen and rebuilt into one. Sal and Riddaeon moved on through a door which closed behind them. The two Women having been man-handled to where the guards wanted them to stand. Side by side, facing the front, a guard behind each of them, weapons still to hand. Yseult glanced sideways towards Ellie but stopped short of looking round far enough to make eye contact. Her eyes closed, her teeth gritted... She exhaled deeply. Could she not even face to look the girl in the eye? She knew Ellie was upset and scared... What comfort have I to give? she asked herself scornfully.

With an electric hiss, the rear hatch closed and the hum of engines echoed through the poorly insulated cabin. A jolt and a shudder signified that they had taken off and the inclement weather made for a turbulent ascent. Yseult naturally repositioned her feet to give her stability, the distraught Ellie had not thought to do so and a sudden shudder stumbled her back into the guard behind her. His instinct was to wrap an arm around and catch her but instead of putting her back to her feet, he held her tight. She tried to free herself but the attempt only made him hold her tighter. A metallic glove reached around her throat, and clamped her jaw, turning her face towards the eye slits of his metal mask.

"Pretty." the deep electronically altered voice said. The guard pushed Ellie back to her feet with a low malicious laugh. "I'll enjoy interrogating this one." he said; whether to himself of his comrade was not clear.

"Supposed to be an engineer that one." the guard behind Yseult commented. "Might know something useful."

"Won't be information I get out of her." The first guard replied, a sickly smile behind the metallic tone of his voice.

"Just make sure she can still talk when you're done." His comrade advised in a tone laced with hindsight.

"Hmmm." The guard behind Ellie answered, a clear indication that his friend's advice would be considered but not necessarily followed. Yseult didn't realised she had now turned her head to look Ellie fully in the eyes until she finally looked back. The upset and distress was gone, now it was... Horror, fear... a plea for help; desperate, hopeless. Adrenaline: Yseult's heart pounded, she felt the muscles in her arms tense. She was getting angry... Not angry; she was getting mad. She closed her eyes and tried to breath deeply. The chain. Her mind went back. The cage. She thought of the chain around her neck... It was so heavy. Her skin sore, red from where it pulled. When they dragged me out. She felt the scratches down her arms and legs from sleeping on the metal mesh. The ache from the cramp. She could only stretch when they took her out. I didn't want them to take me out. Sometimes she would put her fingers through the gaps in the mesh and grip the thin metal, tighter and tighter until she felt the pain of the wire cutting through her skin...

She opened her eyes... She wasn't mad anymore, now it was rage.

Her muscles tensed. The chain of the cuffs on her wrists tensed. Her mind raced: A bare cabin, wrists bound, heavy boots, metal helmets... The thought was barely formed when when reached her cuffed arms back over her head and that of the guard behind her. Her arms around his neck, she let her weight pull his head down. The other guard was raising his pistol in response as the first straightened up. Yseult used his reaction to assist launching her feet up, the second as a heavy kick to the other guard's chin. The force was such that it took his helmet clean off his head and as he stumbled back, Yseult used the down-swing of her feet to lurch the guard she was attached do back down with her. Her hands had gripped the base of his helmet and as she landed, she crunched her body, yanking his heavy metal helmet off in the process. A weapon. The guard straightened, finally free of his anchor as Yseult swung round, the helmet connecting with his face, spinning him dazed and face first into the cabin wall.

The guard that had been behind Ellie was disarmed but only momentarily stunned by the kick. Shoving into his back, Yseult pushed him face-first against the bulkhead and, spun round, discarding the helmet she held to wrap he arms around his neck as she had with the other. Facing the other way and with no helmet on, the guard's throat was Yseult's new fixing upon which she could lean. The guard she had just hit with the helmet was now also without his pistol but his determination to retaliate was premature and as he bore down upon Yseult, she leant her full weight upon the windpipe of the guard she was now attached to, kicked both feet off the floor, knees to her chest and with all of the force that she could, extended both boots into the face of the approaching attacker. The three of them fell into a pile, a painful stressed attempt to breath the only sound. Yseult twisted round and got to her knees, unwrapping the chain from the throat of the guard that had caused her friend such fear... He was looking at her... unable to move and barely able to breath. She looked back for a moment, her face a picture of hatred and revenge.

The door opened and RIddaeon stepped through, reaching for his weapon at the sight of the fallen guards. Yseult grabbed a nearby helmet, flinging it in his direction. He deflected it with his arms but it was a moment during which he wasn't watching Yseult, who had charged him running into his body and sending them both to the floor. Riddaeon's confusion in the moment was Yseult's advantage. He had fallen face down and soon, the chain of Yseult's shackles were around his neck, dragging him to his feet. He tried to grab at the chain but Yseult was pulling him back towards the fallen guards where she stopped and positioned herself behind Riddaeon.

"SAAAAAAAAAAL!" The enraged pilot shouted from behind her slowly choking shield. In the chaos, the distraught Ellie had covered her face with her arms and tried to shrink out of the way of the melee but had now recovered one of the pistols and aimed it at the door.

The clone casually entered the cabin, assessing what lay before him with calculating eyes.

"Well... Quite." He said dispassionately. "I am curious." He continued, turning to Ellie. "Once you've shot me, what do you intend to do in a ship whose controls are locked to my voice commands?" There was a moment of silence as Yseult considered if he might be bluffing. "Telsa." The clone announced. "Deactivate the guards' weapons." The pistol in Ellie's hand immediately went dead. Ellie looked to Yseult for guidance; she had got them this far but Yseult's gaze was squarely upon the clone and her grip still tight around the neck of her captive. "Not a very good choice of shield I think." The clone proposed as he revealed his own plasma pistol and aimed it straight at Riddaeon. "He's served his purpose now and besides, I can't exactly trust him. Can I? After all... He's already betrayed one Big Sal today." With a malicious grin, the clone straightened his arm, ready to fire, the pistol whirred as the chamber primed and with a jolt, the weapon leapt from the clone's hand, bounced off the cabin wall and tumbled across the floor. A haze of light emerged before the clone, resolving into a messy pixelated mesh of colours. Before the clone's face, the pixels resolved further into different colours and further into the shape of a pistol pointing straight at his head, a lime green glove, a black arm, the body of an old flight suit, khaki trousers, a beard, a big beard, a lot of hair, and finally the glasses and crazy, yet knowing eyes of Big Sal.

"You're right." he said to the clone. "He has."

Big Sal straightened his arm, ready to fire, the pistol whirred as the chamber primed and with a jolt, he pulled the trigger. The plasma bolt hit his clone in the middle of his forehead, the even hairier scientist falling backwards, a plume of smoke trailing from where the bolt had burnt a tunnel of hair on its way to his brain. Big Sal turned round to face the women, a look of shock upon both of their faces.