CHAPTER FOUR - THE CRASH
Angel thumped the control panel of her ship before her and cursed as something began to bleep in annoyance. She ran a hand through her blonde hair as a screen flashed up a damage report.
“Come on!” she said as she hit the panel again, as if she could somehow make the damage disappear or repair itself.
She had thought that Zenok’s assassins had hardly landed a blow on her ship, but she had been wrong. Before she managed to escape from them, one of them had hit her starboard engine. For a while it had responded to commands but now it seemed to have frozen up entirely so that she was stuck with only half power.
“At this rate it will take me a few weeks before I can get home,” she muttered. And that wouldn’t be good. No doubt the assassins were still after her.
Sometimes being AC Free wasn’t as glorious or as spectacular as people imagined. It was dangerous work, but Angel didn’t care about this. She was willing to do anything to help other people, especially if also irritated Zenok. He had been the cause of her parents’ death when she was just a child. She did not even remember them.
She tried to coax the sluggish ship forward but her speed was slow and then another panel began to bleep angrily as it demanded attention. “Don’t do this to me,” she whispered. “Please.”
If she remained here then they would find her again, she did not doubt it. Zenok really had it in for her now. He had obviously not been pleased with her work at liberating all of the slave camps that he owned.
She frantically tapped at the controls before her to bring up a map of the local region. She was still pretty close to Saturn and the planet’s rings of ice and rock should be able to hide the ship, especially if she used the cloaking mechanism.
She sighed, knowing that her friends and Tarkansay would be worried about her. She wouldn’t be home for a few days and it was bound to cause speculations. She did not want any of them knowing about her secret life as AC Free. It might put them in danger and she needed to keep her head down as much as possible so that Zenok didn’t find her. It would be much easier for him to find Angel Cantrell than AC Free.
“I don’t have a choice,” she said grimly as she turned the ship around and plotted a course to Saturn. She knew how to repair the engine, or at least how to get it to work long enough for her to get home. She would have to make up a story of how it all happened on the way back.
She stared at her map again, wondering what would be the best place to set the ship down. If she was going to use one of the rocks in the rings then she would need an environmental suit.
She shook her head and sighed again as she examined a few likely candidates and then another panel began to emit a slow beep.
“What now?” She snapped to herself, angry with everything that appeared to eb going wrong. However this time it was not another depressing report of the damage her ship had sustained but an incoming transmission.
Her heart lurched slightly. ‘They’ve found me,’ she thought anxiously. She pulled up another screen and swore as she saw it was blank. It appeared that her scanners were out as well. She was a sitting duck in the fox’s den.
She reached over and touched a button that would allow her to hear the transmission, dreading what she might hear.
“Angel? Are you all right?” a calm voice asked in concern.
Angel’s eyes snapped open and she gasped in surprise. “Tarkansay?” she asked, smiling in joy at the sound of her best friend’s voice. She hit another button and Tarkansay’s blue, alien face flashed up. “Tarkansay, thank god it’s you!” she cried.
“Angel, what’s going on? I saw you sneak off yesterday and when you weren’t back this morning I decided to come looking for you. What happened? You’ve been attacked!”
“Tarkansay, it’s a long story but I got attacked by Zenok’s men. I don’t know why,” she lied. “I need help. Can you help me out with some repairs?”
His blue eyes narrowed slightly and Angel continued to stare at him levelly with as much innocence as she could manage. Eventually he nodded. “ I can dock with your ship. Slow down and I’ll come aboard.”
Angel nodded and smiled, knowing that there was more relief in her face than there should be. “I’ll see you in a moment Tarks,” she said as she closed the transmission and slowed her ship so that he would be able to dock with her.
He always seemed to follow her around. She had known him for as long as she could remember and he was always there. He seemed to have designated himself as her loyal watcher or something.
He was bound to suspect something and she would have to be good to convince him that nothing was happening. Zenok’s men had unnerved her slightly. She was used to outrunning his men, she did it all the time after she had liberated a slave camp or destroyed his outposts, but she had never had this much trouble before. He had sent the serious men after her now which meant that she had well and truly pissed him off. Despite the danger, she could not help but smile slightly. Zenok had always held women in low regard and Angel could not help but be a little smug about the fact that she, a woman, was able to cause him so much trouble.
‘Makes you wonder how the hell he got that son of his,’ she mused. She couldn’t imagine Zenok ever being nice enough to a woman to get that far. Unless she had been raped… The smile faded from her face. It was common knowledge that the emperor had a son, but nothing was known about him at all and there had never been a mention of a mother at all. Maybe she had died…
As hard as Angel tried, she couldn’t actually feel that sorry for Zenok or his son. The brat was probably spoilt rotten and just as malicious as his father. Everyone was always talking about how when he grew up he would probably be helping his father out.
It was several more minutes before Tarkansay finally docked to her ship and she smiled as she waited by the hatch. When it finally opened to reveal her friend she grinned and ran into his arms, loving the way his tall frame always made her feel safe.
“Tarks!” she cried.
“Angel, are you all right?”
She nodded. “I’m fine, but unfortunately my ship isn’t.”
Tarkansay pulled away from her and slung a bag down onto the ground as he cast his eyes about the small vessel, his gaze lingering on a few smoking panels. “Why did Zenok’s men attack you? He doesn’t normally attack ships as small as yours.”
Angel shrugged. “I have no idea.” She picked up his bag and pulled it open, grinning as she saw a bunch of tools that she could use to help fix her ship. It would be much easier with Tarkansay’s help.
“Are you sure, AC Free?” Tarkansay asked quietly.
Angel froze and her mouth opened slightly. She gulped slightly and then laughed. “Why are you calling me that?” She held up hr head high.
Tarkansay sighed and ran a hand through his fluffy, blue hair. “I know,” he said quietly. “Like I said, I followed you yesterday and I saw you liberate that woman’s slave camp. I’ve suspected for a while. It couldn’t be a coincidence that you were never around whenever AC Free made an appearance anywhere.”
Angel folded her arms defiantly and raised her chin. “What makes you so sure?” she said, unwilling to give in just yet.
“Tarkansay’s blue eyes stared into her own and she knew in that second that she was foiled. Her shoulders sagged slightly. “I guess I’m not very good at keeping a secret identity, huh?”
Tarkansay smiled weakly, but there was a strange gleam within his eyes. “No one else knew, it was just me and that’s only because we’re best friends. Why didn’t you tell me?”
Angel fiddled with the strap of the bag. “I didn’t want you involved and I didn’t want you to get hurt. If Zenok thought you knew anything, then God knows what he would do to you.” She had never wanted any of her friend to be hurt, especially Tarkansay. He’d done so much for her in the past and she would never forgive herself if he died because of her.
Tarkansay slowly approached her and placed his hands on her shoulders his head looming a foot above hers. “Angel, I’m worried about you. I’ve always tried to keep an eye on you. Your adoptive parents always made me watch over you and this AC Free business is dangerous.”
“But I like to help people!” Angel cried. “Zenok should not be allowed to do the things he does! Someone has to help those who suffer! My parents died because of Zenok and I am going to stop it form happening to others!”
“Are you sure this isn’t about vengeance?” Tarkansay asked as he watched her eyes carefully.
Angel was appalled. Did Tarkansay really believe she had started this for revenge against Zenok? She had wanted to be AC Free because she wanted to help people. If Zenok got pissed off then that was an added bonus but the most important thing was that she helped people. “I can’t believe you’d say that,” she whispered. “This is about helping people!”
“Okay, calm down. I’m just worried about you. I was supposed to take care o you and”
Angel rolled her eyes. Tarkansay was usually very good-natured but she could see that he was both upset and angry about her not telling him about AC Free. She could understand in a way, he was supposed to be her best friend and he did try to look out for her. She had a strange suspicion that he had known her real parents but he had always waved that conversation aside.
“Tarks, we can fight this out later but first we have to fix my ship before Zenok’s geeks come back looking to finish what they started. Are you gonna help or what?”
He stared at her and again there was that glitter in his small blue eyes. He nodded and Angel turned away from him back to her control panel. “The best thing we can do is to set both ships down somewhere so that we can hide and keep out of the way. I was thinking of the rings.”
“I have a better idea. We disengage your ship from mine and I’ll set my auto pilot to hide my ship in the rings. We can land your ship on the planet. It’ll be easier than working in environmental suits.”
“Sounds good to me,” Angel replied. She slipped into her seat and prepared to disengage. “Do you have everything I need.”
“I won’t be needing anything anymore,” Tarkansay replied vacantly.
Angel turned to him in confusion. “What?” she asked curiously. Tarkansay suddenly looked almost sad and he was watching her very carefully. He smiled when he saw that she was watching him and shook his head. “Nothing.”
Angel skilfully steered away from Tarkansay’s ship while eh set up a remote link to instruct the computer to hide the vessel in the rings. Angel set a course for the surface of Saturn, grimacing as she saw the readout on the planet. “This place is a giant desert! Have you seen the chemicals in the atmosphere as well? No wonder people living here don’t have a good life span!” She shook her head sadly. Many people had actually fled to hostile planets like Saturn since Zenok had began to conquer various planets. It was safer to stay on planets which were of no value to anyone and therefore would not be attacked by his fleet.
Angel steered them towards a deserted plain that was relatively close to a town in case they needed any spare parts and urged the damaged ship forwards. Tarkansay watched from behind and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Angel…” he said as they began their descent. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?” Angel asked blankly as she turned her head to stare at her friend.
Suddenly Tarkansay’s fist hit her face hard and she cried out in pain as she was flung from her seat to the floor. She gasped and touched her hand to hr bleeding lip. She stared up at her friend and her eyes widened as she began to tremble. “T-Tarkansay?” she stammered.
Tarkansay sighed as he slipped into her seat and the glittering look in his eyes was suddenly showing her that he wasn’t the friend she had thought he was. “AC Free,” he said as he shook his head. “You’re such a meddlesome woman for the emperor.”
“You work for Zenok?” Angel cried. Her heart was lurching inside of her chest like a lopsided and dying animal as it limped over the lump terrain. She felt sick and dizzy, but above that was the pain. Tears stung her eyes at the betrayal. “Why?” she whispered. “You’ve known me for years! I’m your friend. You can’t turn me over now!”
“Angel, I’ve known you since you were adopted by your parents. We are good friends but…” he turned towards her. “The emperor is paying me a great deal of money to destroy AC free. I’ve tracked her for too long and now I find it’s you…” He shook his head. “How could you do this?” eh snapped viciously in a tone that Angel had never heard before. “Why? I never wanted you to get hurt and now you do this!”
Hot tears streamed down Angel’s cheeks and then she gave another cry as the floor of the ship suddenly tilted as Tarkansay tilted the ship into a nose dive heading towards the planet’s surface.
“Tarks, what are you doing?” Angel gasped as the g force pressed her to the floor of the ship.
Taers were still falling. She had always prided herself on being strong but this… ‘Tarkansay? Why?’ Why had he done this? He was in the pay of Zenok? He had probably been looking for AC Free ever since she appeared and of course, working for the fleet gave him the perfect opportunity so he was Zenok’s ideal spy.
Didn’t he care that AC free was his best friend? Didn’t he care at all?
“Tarks,” she said as the ship began to accelerate towards the surface. “Tarks, what are you doing?”
“Zenok wants you dead, AC. He wasn’t it guaranteed your dead and so I’m being paid to go on this little suicide mission. He didn’t trust any other method of getting rid of you.”
“How can you be paid to go on a suicide mission!” Angel screamed, desperate to make Tarkansay see sense.
“The money will go to my family. You know how poor they are AC, it will help them a lot… and it means you will be out of the emperor’s hair.”
Angel pushed herself to her fete and then sprang at Tarkansay with a scream of rage, but he turned and flung out one arm which easily cast her back to the ground. She gave a cry of pain as her head hit a console and she pressed her fingers to her face to feel an oozing cut. “Tarkansay! Don’t do this! How can you work for Zenok?”
“He has good ideas, Angel. You should listen to them. He could be a powerful ruler.” Tarkansay was so calm, even though the speed of the shuttle was accelerating and the cockpit was growing hotter with each moment. They were going to die…
“A dictator more like it!” Angel said. Her eyes frantically steered about the shuttle until she spotted Tarkansay’s bag full of tools. She stretched out her hand and wrapped her fingers about the handle. “Tarkansay, stop this now or I will make you!”
Tarkansay tutted. “I’m sorry Angel. I did warn you that Zenok wanted AC Free dead but you didn’t take the hint. I’m sorry but this is how it has to be! I work for Zenok!”
“I thought we were friends!” she felt like sobbing. Tarkansay had been her friend and yet that had all been a lie…
“We were, until I found out what an irritating and interfering little bitch you were. You just couldn’t keep out of Zenok’s business could you? You had to try and ruin it!”
Angel was gasping in the heat as they began to burn up and she could see the sandy planet through the windows of the ship. She screamed and then flung the bag of tools at Tarkansay’s head. He gave a grunt of pain and his hands flew to his head. Angel leapt to her feet and then slapped his face hard. He tried to reach out with his long arms to stop her but she kicked her knee up into his groin.
“Sorry Tarks, but I’m not ready to die today,” she said as he slumped to the floor. She leant over the controls but it was too late to pull the ship up.
Her eyes were blurred with tears and her head was aching from where she had hit the console. She thumped the buttons in front of her, trying to slow their suicidal descent. She watched as the speedometer showed the ship’s speed as they slowed, but they were still going so fast. She could see the mountains below her and the sandy desert rushing up to greet them.
She screamed and flung herself to the ground, covering her face as she prepared for the inevitable impact.