Humanity Endures

Part 7 - Last Stand | Chapter 10

Falmenec, alien detector in hand, strode uneasily through the maze of bodies and waded in the lake of blood that had flooded the chamber, as he scanned those few who still lived. Coming over to the girl last, scanning her, and, humming sadly upon receiving a negative result, Falmenec stated, "We have nothing to fear from these people — they are, in fact, people."

Shuddering, Falmenec went on, as a pair of tears streaked down his face, "That makes this even worse."

Standing and maintaining eye-contact with his old friend, Velan reassuringly patted him on his armored shoulder, "We'll make damn certain this doesn't happen again."

Falmenec stammered as he tried — and failed — to regain his composure, "And how will we do that?"

Velan answered by not answering; turning to Terxah instead, he commanded, "You have access to this station's systems, and from what I've seen you have a way with the Kalithiharian people. For the love of humanity, please use this combination of talents to prevent this"—Velan gestured around him, his eyes bloodshot and teary—"from happening again under my watch!"

Terxah nodded, and, a moment later, zoned out, as she began some unknowable task. Dentor, entering the room after having wept outside for some time, walked patiently and grimly towards Velan, taking care to tread on as few corpses as he could. When he reached Velan, he momentarily eyed the girl, before whispering, "I think I've found a way to get us out of the system."

Velan thought for a second. On one hand, getting away from the Cesspit was a boon; on the other, he had been summoned to Kalithihar for some unknowable task that he had yet to fulfill. Then again, Velan realized that by trying to talk to the Kalithiharian government, he had gotten his ship destroyed and most of his crew members killed: the further away he was from strange Kalithiharian tasks, politics, and plans, the better.

"Tell me," Velan replied.

Dentor sighed, looked around him, then continued, "There may be no ships aboard this shipyard, but there are remnant drives, and there is power—"

"Are you suggesting—"

"Yes," was Dentor's reply, "I'm suggesting we wire all the remnant drives we can find into the station's reactor, sever the space elevator with the station's weapons, breach the station into the Remnant, and then fly the station to the nearest major planet using its fairly powerful maneuvering thrusters."

Velan, cursing, ran his bloodied, gauntlet-encased hand through his now-bloodied head of hair, tearing out a few such hairs by accident while unintentionally painting many others with a mix of alien and human blood.

"Is there any other option?" Velan asked.

"Not that I know of."

"Fine; do whatever you need to do to get us out of this system — just be sure to do it quickly," Velan commanded, moving as if to exit the conversation, though Dentor turned to face him and pushed another matter.

"Even with our station-turned ship, captain," Dentor began, "I don't see what's stopping the Kalithiharian fleet above from atomizing us the moment we begin to breach like they did with the ships on this station. Even if we try to emergency breach and it, through some miracle, doesn't destroy the station, they could pursue us into the Remnant and finish us there!"

Velan met Dentor's stare, his intelligent eyes flaring with pride.

"Don't worry, my friend; we have something that all of the humans and aliens before us never possessed nor recognized the value of."

"And what might that be?"

"Terxah."

Dentor began to sputter, incredulous, "She's good, but no one can fly a space station evasively! You've overestimating how maneuverable this thing is!"