snarls they make. Scythkin are supposed to be more advanced than us, but when it comes down it it, they’re just animals.
“Is there a mutiny or something?”
Warden
There’s no time to answer questions. There’s also no time to slow down for a human’s short stride length and relatively slow flight response. We have to get off this ship. Now.
I grab Silver, throw her over my shoulder, and run like hell toward the shuttle bay. I have a brief window of opportunity here, and I’m going to take it, no matter how cowardly it feels to be fleeing from my own flesh and blood.
I hit the shuttle bay door panel with my palm, expecting it to open, but it remains steadfastly closed.
“Warden to bridge. Open the bay door, Tusk,” I order, knowing that this is likely the last order I’ll ever give my second-hatched. I know he hasn’t left his post at the bridge. I know he’d never do that. As much madness is unfolding on this ship, and as much as he might even be a part of it, he knows his responsibilities. He has the helm. And he has the control which will either set me free, or force me to fight my own brood to protect Silver.
“Tusk!” I shout into my communicator.
At the far end of the hall, the doors open. My brood, led by Scizzor, pours out of the airlock, their blades extended, eyes glowing bright fusion red with the intensity of their bloodlust.
I put Silver down behind me and turn to face them. So this is what it comes to, a fight to the death. Very well. I will kill until there is nothing left if I have to in order to save my mate. That is blasphemy for a scythkin.
“Warden! It’s open!”
Silver tugs at my arm. I turn my head and see that she is right. Tusk has given me one last gesture of grace and opened the door for us. It shuts as quickly as it opened, sealing the others out of harm’s way, and mine.
There’s a shuttle already humming with life, likewise activated from the bridge. Tusk is either on my side, or wants to get rid of me. I bundle Silver into the ship, throw her into the co-pilot’s chair, and do the belts up over her body.
“Warden… what’s…”
“Quiet,” I growl. “Not a word out of you. Not a single word.”
“What’s happening? What’s…” she keeeps stammering out half-questions.
Humans can never follow instructions. Ever.
I take my seat in the captain’s chair and access the controls. I keep myself focused on the mission ahead, because that is all I can think about. I can’t think about the wider implications of what is happening, all I am losing. My brood, the kin I have spent my entire life protecting have now turned on me.
The ship hums to life as I initiate the launch protocol. Silver is still stammering questions, questions I have no intention of answering until we are far enough from this prison ship to be safe.
There’s still the chance we will be chased, or that the ship will fire on us as we leave. We could be blown into space dust, the same space dust from which we came.
The bay doors open to allow us to slingshot out of them at maximum speed. My fingers move swiftly across the dashboard. I want to go to warp, jump out of the immediate range and tracking capabilities of any of our other shuttles.
BOOM!
That’s the sound of the universe being unmade and remade all around us, of slipping through the cracks of existence and re-emerging so far away that we are strangers to the particles around us.
Only then do I relax and sit back, taking stock of everything that just happened.
It was all so fast. Only terrible things happen quickly. It took a lifetime to build the bonds my brood and I share. It has taken less than five minutes to tear them apart.
“Warden…” Silver’s voice is soft and husky. “What aren’t you telling me? Why did we just run away from your family?”
I can hear the fear in her voice. She could be thrilled at this escape, but of course she’s not. Guilt makes for fear, and she is as guilty as any organic life form in the universe.
“Not my family,” I grit out. “Greater than family. Brood.”
“Okay. Brood. Why are we running from your brood?”
“Some information came to light which made it necessary to remove you from the ship for your own safety.”
“What information?”
I have