“Get down!” Celeste shouted, as she dove behind the bushes.
The air was filled with the stench of burnt flesh. She tried her best not to let the smell distract her. She caught sight of Harper diving behind some rocks as weapons fire continued to come in their direction.
Tara, who had been waiting behind the bushes, looked at her. “Is he dead?”
“I am afraid so,” Celeste said.
“I detected weapons fire down there,” Phog said over the comms link. “What happened?”
“Clark is dead,” Celeste sighed. “I think it must be the Rekvok.”
“My sensors don’t detect any other ships in the area,” Phog highlighted.
That could only mean they were on foot Rekvok patrols. She didn’t know if Clark had informed the Rekvok somehow that he was on the way to their base. Or whether a Rekvok patrol had been fortunate enough to recognize and kill him for whatever reason. It didn’t matter any longer as Clark was gone. The weapons fire continued.
“We need to fight our way through it,” Celeste said to Tara. “Are you ready?”
Celeste hoped Tara was fit to engage the Rekvok. Then, she and Tara both peered out of the bushes and began returning fire. Harper was also returning fire from her vantage point. The only problem was that they didn’t know how many Rekvok were actually out there. Even if there were only a few, it wouldn’t take long for reinforcements to appear. The Rekvok out there would have communicated back to their base that they were under attack.
“I spotted one,” Tara whispered. “Near the edge of the forest.”
Celeste turned her head in that direction. There were two Rekvok hiding amongst the trees. She aimed her phaser in that direction.
“I am over your area,” Phog reported. “But I cannot see them.”
“Fire along the edge of the forest,” Celeste instructed.
The Rekvok were clever enough to take cover behind the trees. That made it harder for Celeste to target them.
Then, there was a series of explosions as cannon fire disrupted the edge of the forest. Trees were cut down and collapsed over each other. One Rekvok body was thrown into the air and fell down on the ground.
“Hold your fire,” Celeste shouted at Harper and Tara.
The edge of the forest looked like a war zone. The remnants of the trees along the edge had survived, but just barely. It was as if someone had decided to carve out a new edge of the forest. There was still a lot of smoke rising up into the air. Celeste knew the Rekvok base would eventually spot the smoke. They needed to get out of here quickly.
Celeste then grabbed Tara and hugged her tightly. “The next time you wake up earlier than me, please wake me up too.”
It felt so good having Tara back with her. Celeste couldn’t believe how close she had come to losing Tara.
“Thank you for coming after me,” Tara whispered into her ears.
“I would have done everything and anything to get you back,” Celeste said, rubbing her eyes.
As she said those words, she got a sense of what Clark had felt and been trying to do to keep his younger sister alive and get her back. The blame for all this lay neither with Clark nor the Rekvok. It lay at the feet of the Zandrax.
“We need to go,” Tara said.
Celeste let go and spoke into her comms link. “Where can you pick us up?”
“I will land the ship a hundred meters behind you,” Phog replied.
A little while later, Celeste, Tara and Harper stepped into the ship. Phog turned to Tara. “It’s good to see you again.”
“Did you miss me?” Tara smirked.
Celeste was amused that Tara hadn’t lost any of her banter whilst she had been held hostage by Clark. Although she hadn’t processed everything behind Tara’s abduction, Celeste was glad to have her back.
“Where are the two men?” Phog asked.
“Dead,” Harper whispered.
Celeste shared with Phog what Clark had told them.
Phog must have sensed her thinking. “What do you want to do?”
“Clark died for his mistakes, but, in the end, he did tell me what I wanted to know,” Celeste said. “And, I want to honor what I told him. I want to rescue his younger sister and anyone else who is being held in that Rekvok prisoner base.”
Despite Clark’s grave mistakes, she didn’t want to say out aloud that he didn’t deserve to die. Not in the way it happened. No one deserved such a cruel death.
“We should first head back to the underground shelter,” Tara suggested.
“No, we should rescue the captives now,” Celeste countered.
“Isn’t it too soon?” Phog asked. “The Rekvok would be on their way over here soon to find out what exactly happened.”
“Precisely my point,” Celeste said. “They would be drawn out from their base to this area. We need to take advantage of that. The Rekvok would never expect us to attack their prisoner base at this time.”
“Although I have my concerns, I am with Celeste,” Harper said.
“We would have the element of surprise,” Phog mused. “The night is also approaching, which would help us.”
Tara gave up. “I am in. I know there is no chance of me convincing any one of you.”
Celeste smiled. “Phog, send a message to Sephim of our plans. Let him know we have rescued Tara and are heading to the Rekvok prisoner base.”
“He will be sad he isn’t with us,” Phog remarked.
It was night. Phog had landed the ship at the same position the last time they had been at the prisoner base. Celeste, Tara, Phog and Harper were looking at the perimeter of the Rekvok prisoner base.
“They have sensors around the perimeter,” Phog reminded them.
Celeste recalled how the sensors had easily detected Jeb. They needed a way to bypass those sensors without being detected.
“Can we bypass the sensors?” Harper asked.
Celeste hadn’t expected that question from Harper, who probably had no concept or even knowledge of sensors.
“I could figure out a way to jam the sensors,” Tara said.
“But that will alert the Rekvok,” Phog highlighted. “They would be out of their buildings before we could even make a move.”
Tara sighed. “Agreed. What we need is a security override access code, which we don’t have.”
There had to be another way to get to the prisoners. Any attempt to disable the sensors would alert the Rekvok. Celeste peered through the scope. There was one male Rekvok moving about in front of one of the buildings.
“Can we find out which building the humans are being held inside?” Celeste asked.
Tara snapped her fingers together. “Do you still have the DNA scanning device with you?”
Celeste pulled it out of her pocket and passed it to Tara, who pointed it ahead of them and, then, analyzed the findings.
“I am too far,” Tara said. “If I am able to get closer, I should be able to identify which building the humans are in.”