Chapter 21: Retribution

William

I stood there in anger as Sarla hit the floor. Her body was shaking, as Valin stood there laughing at me. My bullet had bounced off a force field that was several feet in front of him. I started walking towards him as Nancy and Sandi dropped to the floor beside Sarla to help her.

"You're fucking dead when I get my hands on you," I snarled.

Valin stood there laughing and then replied, "You degenerate fool. Do you really think I didn't know you were onboard? Didn't you think I would protect myself from your archaic weapons? How pathetic, now watch as I kill your loved one..." Valin stopped talking and screamed in agony as Nancy had reached up and grabbed him in his groin.

"YOU FUCKING BASTARD! YOU KILLED HER!" Nancy screamed as she stood up and Valin literally was lifted up, until he was on the tips of his boot toes. She then pulled back her other hand, and smashed her fist into his nose. Blood went flying as he staggered back from her, and then Sandi was there, punching him also.

I stood on the other side of the force field as Sandi and Nancy fought him. Then in a blink of an eye, Sinara, and Lisel appeared. They looked around, saw Sarla on the floor with blood pooling around her head and attacked Valin with hate in their voices, as they screamed their displeasure. Then Walian, Kili, and Majour appeared and instantly attacked Valin.

Valin was fighting back, his martial arts training taking over, and knocking the girls away. But, there were too many of them. Nadil, Shannon and Sharon appeared. Sharon and Shannon dropped to their knees to help Sarla. When they realized what was going on, Nadil whipped out her fourteen-inch bowie knife, and attacked Valin from behind.

"Kill him girls, get revenge for Sarla," I shouted out as the girls attacked him again.

Valin turned and ran as Nadil stabbed him in the back. I could see the blood staining his shirt as he hit the controls for the door and they opened. I was pounding on the shimmering field as it went down and then I was running for the door as it closed.

"NO!" I shouted as I hit the door and bounced off it. My right hand reached for the door control and as it cycled open, I squeezed through the narrow opening. Looking left and right, I didn't see him, but when I looked down at the floor, I saw a blood trail going to my right so I started that way. I walked thirty feet and the trail went around the corner. I was about to step around, but something stopped me so I knelt and peeked around the corner and saw three more of the silver skinned aliens with strange rifles in their hands. They didn't look like the glue guns that Soria had shown me.

Before I could duck back, the men raised their weapons. They fired at me as I ducked back, and balls of molten flames shot down the hallway. The heat drove me back from the corner and I noticed the floor was bright red from whatever they had fired. Stepping back to the corner, I swung my right arm around and fired all ten shots in the forty-four as fast as I could pull the trigger. Jerking back, I ejected the clip and slapped a new one in as Nadil and Nancy joined me.

"Go back to Sarla and take her body down to the cargo hatch, cross to the station and find a place to hole up," I said as I was about to reach around the corner to fire once more and then pulled the girls away from the corner as the flames flew past the opening again.

"No! We're staying with you William. Nadil remembers everything, she will be useful," Nancy replied as she pulled a Glock from behind her back.

"I'm glad you remember everything, Nadil ... but please, both of you, do as I ask. I won't be able to concentrate on what I need to do if I have to worry about protecting you," I said as I stepped to the corner, stuck my arm and head around and fired. The six rounds I fired at the man in the center of the three men hit him in the chest and flung him backwards. The big rounds had torn his chest apart and he was dead before he hit the deck.

"Surrender and I won't kill you!" I shouted as I ducked back behind cover.

"Suck environmental waste you degenerate!" came the reply along with more of the flames.

"Fuck! What the hell is this shit?" I said as I noticed it was eating the deck plates.

"Liquid plasma. If you don't kill them, fast, they will cripple this ship, and possibly make it explode right here in the hanger," Nadil replied.

"What I would do for some good old hand grenades," I said as I waited for the flames to dissipate.

"What are grenades?" Nadil asked.

"A hand grenade is an anti-personnel weapon, that explodes a short time after release. The French military term for a grenade came from the shape of the pomegranate fruit, which is also called grenade in French," I replied as I noticed the flames dissipating.

"I understand. I will be right back. Don't go anywhere," Nadil said and took off running back the way we had come.

Stepping to the corner, I started to put my hand back around to fire when I noticed the hallway getting brighter so I stepped back from the corner as the flames burst around it again.

"SHIT!" I screamed,

"What's the matter, you degenerate? To hot for you?" came the taunting voice and then laughter.

With a grin, a saying came to mind and I shouted back, "Laugh it up, fuzzball."

"What is a fuzzball?" came the reply from the two men.

"Put down the weapons, and we will talk about it, Fuckface!" I shouted.

Nancy started laughing beside me, but I held my finger to my lips to shush her.

"FUCK YOU, TOO, ASSHOLE!" came the reply along with more flames.

"Guess they know what a fuckface is," I said as I stepped to the other wall and raised my pistol. I fired all ten rounds and watched as they went through the flames and hit the wall of the burning corridor at an angle. I was hoping they would bounce off and head down the hallway, but the flames continued to come down the hall. I assumed that they either melted in the intense heat, went through the weakened wall, or missed.

"William, is this what you wanted?" Nadil asked as she ran up to us, a bag clutched in her hands.

"What do you have?" I asked.

"These. I found them in the historical database and replicated some for you," she replied and held out the bag.

I looked in the bag and shook my head in surprise. She had replicated some Model 24 Stielhandgranate of the German army of World War One and Two. Pulling out the potato masher, I noticed it had a fragmentation cover on it. I unscrewed the bottom, to let the cord hang out. I then waited for the flames in the corridor to die down, and then I yanked the cord.

With a quick toss I shouted, "CATCH!"

"What the hell is that?" one of the men shouted, and then the grenade detonated.

Taking a second grenade from Nadil who had watched what I had done with the end cap. I pulled the cord and hurled it after the first to be on the safe side as screaming came from the hall. The second grenade exploded and I peeked around the corner and saw the bodies of the three men lying scattered. Reloading a new clip, I started walking down the hall with Nadil and Nancy behind me.

Standing there, I looked down at the three corpses and shock my head, "Fools, you should have surrendered," I said and started walking again.

"William, war is foolish, it's the one thing my people learned," Nadil replied as she knelt by one of the bodies and closed his eyes, "Goodbye cousin," she said and then stood up.

"You're right, now let's end this civil war. I want to go home to my loved ones," I said and started walking. We walked along following the blood drops until we reached a transport tube. I was about to summon it when all of a sudden we were floating.

"Shit! He's disabled the ships environmental gravity. We have to find a replicator fast before the air is gone!" Nadil blurted out in surprise.

"What?" I asked as I started rolling and tried to get myself organized.

"The next step in stopping an insurrection on one of our ships is removing all the air from the decks. After that, it will be thirty minutes until its restored, so the crew can gain control again," Nadil shouted as she pushed off the wall, and went flying down the hall.

I was rolling and bouncing off the walls trying to get straightened out, when Nancy collided with me. We went rolling again as she grabbed me like an eight tentacle octopus. My head cracked against the roof, and I felt tears start forming at the corner of my eyes. The good thing about Nancy hitting me, was that I was able to stop both of our tumbling by sliding my hands against the roof until my feet hit the wall. Then I was able to get us set in the right position against the wall. Using wall and roof, I pushed Nancy after Nadil, and then did the same by pushing off from the wall, myself.

We were coasting down the passageway, when Nadil came around the corner, and moved towards us. She had some belts hanging from her left hand. Over her mouth was a clear mask that looked like plastic. The mask had two stubs on each side below her nose. As we reached her, she passed each of us one of the belts and masks.

"Quick, put these on. When you put the mask on, breathe in through your mouth, and exhale through your nose," Nadil said, her voice muffled by the mask.

Taking the mask and belt, I slipped them on, and slowly drifted to the floor. When I put the mask on, I felt a soft substance touch my face just above my mouth, separating the mask into two sections. I realized the mask was recycling our air as we breathed.

"What are these?" I asked.

"The mask was developed a few hundred years ago for deep sea diving, the belt is an antigravity belt. We should be safe from anymore of his tricks like this. Now we have to hurry and find Valin, before he does any damage or kills anymore innocents," she said as she pulled out her pistol.

"I agree, but when we find him. Leave him to me, he owes me big time," I replied as we turned and headed back to the elevator.

We summoned the elevator, stepped inside, and stood there as we tried to figure out where he was. I reached up and touched the earpiece that Soria gave me and said, "Soria, where is he?"