“…Dez. Dez, you there?” whispered Kaelis, hunched over, pressing her face against the bridge’s intercom console. “How we lookin’?”

  A few seconds later, Dez’s voice puttered through the radio. “Hey Kaelis, glad to hear ya. We lookin’ decent. Them guards pulled a few cables. Glad they didn’t bring no engineers, otherwise they might actually done some damage. Engine’s fine, but if we want headlights it'll take a shake to get 'em back up and runnin’.”

  “How long ya need?” asked Kaelis.

  “Gimme ninety seconds.”

  “Got it.” Kaelis took her finger off the intercom button and zipped over to a set of shallow storage cubbies laid out against the wall of the bridge. Pulling the journal from her dress pocket, she stuffed it into an available slot. No matter what happened, at least she knew it would be safe there for the time being.

  “Stowin’ the journal,” she announced.

  “Yes, very good,” Sheah grunted as she finished strapping herself into the driver’s seat. Once settled, she hovered her hands over the dashboard, carefully refamiliarizing herself with the various controls.

  “…You do know how to drive this thing, right?” asked Kaelis, studying Sheah’s subtly bemused expression.

  “Of course I know how to pilot my own ship,” Sheah loudly asserted, clearly lying.

  Kaelis nervously rubbed her neck. “Maybe we should wait for Captain Sirroza—”

  “No. We are already running behind.” Sheah extracted her pocket watch from her coat and duly studied its face. “If today’s sunset forecast is correct, then the drawbridge will be raised in… approximately twelve minutes.”

  Kaelis grimaced. “Yeah, cuttin’ it kinda close.”

  Dez’s voice crackled through the radio. “Uh, hey, bit of a snag. Looks like the lights are in more of a state than I thought. Better make that a couple minutes.”

  Sheah shook her head. “There is no time for that. We will have to reconnect the lights on the move. Alert Dez—tell him to fire up the engines now.”

  “Got it.” Kaelis hopped over to the console and positioned herself in front of the mic, her hand hovering over the switch. This was it—they were about to go loud. She felt her heartbeat thrumming in her throat as a rush of energy surged through her. “Once he starts the ship, there’s no going back,” she said. “You ready?”

  Sheah gripped the wheel and floated her foot above the gas, preparing to take off at any second. “I am ready. Let’s go.”

  Kaelis threw Sheah an affirmative nod. Suddenly, a curious sight caught her eye. Past Sheah’s shoulder, just off the bow of the ship, she noticed a slender Verloren private being shoved down the platform by a pair of guards, his hands bound behind him. Kaelis hesitated, overcome with curiosity. Why would Verloren arrest one of their own? Unless…

  Kaelis’s stomach dropped. She disengaged from the intercom and dashed over to the windscreen for a better look.

  “What are you doing?” asked Sheah.

  Kaelis peered through the glass. “That’s not… Is it…?” she mumbled. Slowly, her eyes swelled wide.

  It was.

  Sheer dread punched Kaelis in the chest. “Th—that’s Tycho!” she cried, pointing towards the guards on the platform. “He’s been caught!”

  “Caught?!” Sheah exclaimed. She threw off her harness, rising to see for herself. “How?”

  “It doesn’t matter how,” said Kaelis, making her way straight for the door. “We gotta help him!” She came to a sudden stop. In the doorway stood Jira, looking serious as ever, blocking Kaelis’s path. “Oh, Captain, glad you’re here,” she breathed.

  “We ready?” Jira asked.

  “Tycho got nabbed!” Kaelis cried, flailing her arms around wildly. “We need to rescue him!”

  “What?”

  “Over there!”

  Jira followed Kaelis’s finger towards the platform. As her sights landed on the captured thief and two guards in the distance, she folded her arms and frowned grimly.

  Kaelis swiftly moved to one of the storage cabinets low on the ground. She withdrew her bolt-action rifle and handed it to Jira. “Here, you can borrow my rifle,” she said before rushing towards the door. “C’mon, let’s go!”

  “…No,” said Jira.

  Kaelis staggered. It took a few seconds for the Captain’s answer to properly enter her brain. “…What?!” she finally shouted, aghast. “But—but we can’t leave him! He helped us out, he’s a friend!”

  “He knew the risks,” said Jira. “He’s slippery. He’ll be fine.”

  “But this is Verloren we’re talkin’ about. We don’t know that for sure!”

  “No choice.” Jira moved into the bridge behind Sheah. “We’re running out of time. We need to go.”

  “We can’t!” shouted Kaelis. “This is crazy! Sheah, back me up on this.” She shot her teammate a desperate look.

  Sheah hesitated a moment, chewing on her lip. “…What the Captain says isn’t without merit," she finally muttered. “Time is short, and he is rather wily. I am sure he’ll be able to elude his captors at some point…”

  Kaelis shook her head in utter disbelief. “You’re kiddin’ me, right? We’re just… gonna abandon him?”

  “I… I understand it is not ideal…” said Sheah, looking visibly troubled. “But we are in a most precarious situation. If we take the risk to rescue him, it may very well put all of our lives in jeopardy.”

  Jira nodded with militant rationale. “It’s him or us.”

  “I… I don’t believe this…” Kaelis sputtered.

  “In battle, sometimes that’s what it takes.”

  Kaelis clenched her trembling fists. “Just… abandoned…” she whispered. A familiar sting swelled through her body, the taste of bile lapping at her throat. This team—were they really any different than the others? When the chips were down, would they just leave her too?

  Her mind made up then and there, Kaelis defiantly glared into her teammate’s eyes.

  “Fuck this.”

  No one was being left behind, not on her watch! Without another thought, Kaelis ripped her revolver from the holster under her skirt and burst out of the bridge.

  Sheah threw her hand after her. “Kaelis, wait!”

  “Vintra!” Jira angrily called.

  Kaelis dismissed their cries. Racing across the deck, she vaulted over the railing, leaping onto a stack of steel drums arranged on the platform beside the ship. She bounded down the barrels and jumped onto the dock. Picking up speed, she charged at full force towards the pair of guards escorting Tycho.

  “Ya know, I betcha we’ll get big promotions for this—” Kaelis heard the skinny private muse right before she crashed into him like a freight hauler.

  Wham!—Taken by complete surprise, the private flew off his feet and smacked down onto the concrete. Kaelis lunged in, swiping the keyring hanging from his belt. Grabbing Tycho by the arm, she tore him away from the guards.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  “What? H—hey!” exclaimed the portly corporal. Shocked and rattled, she fumbled for her shortsword.

  Kaelis stuck her revolver in the corporal’s face before she could draw her weapon. “Back up!” she shouted.

  The corporal threw her hands in the air. She stiffly picked her comrade off the ground, and together the pair cautiously backed away.

  “Ah, wonderful timing, my dear,” said Tycho as Kaelis hurriedly led him back towards the Redland Runner, her aim vigilantly bouncing between the two guards.

  “Don’t shoot us, lady!” cried the private, his hands thrust high above his head. His voice carried across the platform, falling on the ears of a solitary guard on Kaelis’s periphery. That guard, assessing the situation at a glance, immediately shouted to a nearby group of workers, who in turn passed the word onto a cluster of armed officers. Before Kaelis knew it, a horde of Verloren personnel were descending in on her from both sides.

  The half-dozen officers signaled to the guards and workers to stand back. Clad in armor accents and wielding pistols, they took defensive positions, surrounding Kaelis and Tycho in a wide crescent. Kaelis glanced around nervously, the notion dawning on her that maybe, just maybe, she'd gone and bitten off a bit more than she could chew.

  “S—stay back!” she cried, swinging her pistol around frantically. The band of officers planted their feet and raised their firearms, taking aim right back at her. Kaelis watched them warily, studying their faces and postures, trying to determine just how much mortal peril she was currently in. If she had to guess… a lot.

  More and more people began to gather—not just officers, but curious onlookers, Verloren personnel and public alike. A silver-clad Verloren commander soon appeared, stepping out from the pack. She ordered her troops to keep the crowd at bay before marching to the head of the assembly and pointing a severe finger at Kaelis.

  “You there! Concede!” she shouted.

  Kaelis and Tycho continued to back up towards the ship, their eyes fixed on the officers and their guns. Suddenly her heels bumped against metal. Kaelis carefully turned her eyes to see they had come upon a short row of steel drums laid out just in front of the Redland Runner’s bow.

  “Assaulting corporate security infantry and abetting a detainee is a severe offense,” declared the commander with belligerent precision. “Know that by decree of the Imperial Parliament, we are now granted the right to protect our assets with lethal force. You will throw down your firearm and submit for questioning, or we will be compelled to take action. This is your final warning.”

  Kaelis and Tycho exchanged an alarmed look. Without a word, they launched themselves over the barrels and ducked into cover.

  “Open fire!” the commander impatiently cried as she slunk behind her troops. A barrage of gunfire exploded from the line of officers.

  Kaelis and Tycho hunkered together behind the drums, flinching at the sounds of bullets panging against the steel and whizzing over their heads. Her hands shaking, Kaelis fumbled through the keys of the keyring. Finally finding the one that matched Tycho’s handcuffs, she jammed it into the lock and fiddled with it frantically until the mechanism gave up and sprang open.

  Tycho tenderly rubbed his wrists. “Thank you for the succor, darling,” he expressed. “I must confess, I was beginning to grow quite uneasy. In my circle, Verloren carries a nasty reputation for what they do to thieves.”

  Kaelis nodded a harried, silent ‘You’re welcome’ as the other half of her brain raced to catch up with the situation.

  “Tell me, what is your plan?” asked Tycho.

  “Uh, you’re kinda lookin’ at it,” she sheepishly answered.

  “Aha, I see. Very audacious, I do appreciate that.”

  Kaelis raised her gun to her chest. “Look, I’ll keep ‘em busy. You just get outta here,” she said, gesturing towards a loose length of rope tied to a nearby dock cleat.

  Tycho hesitated, a pained expression contorting his face.

  “I got this. Go!” She raised her pistol and began to blindly fire a handful of shots over the barrel, her rounds pinging against midground concrete. The voices of the Verloren officers shouted with alarm as they ducked behind nearby cargo, briefly pausing their barrage.

  Tycho solemnly nodded. “My deepest gratitude, darling. I have every faith in you.” He slipped over to the rope. Grabbing hold, he fearlessly swung himself over the lip of the dock and waved a theatrical hand across the air. “Just remember, this is not the last you’ve seen of Tycho Soelva: Master Thief!” With that, he swiftly vanished from view.

  The half-dozen officers emerged from cover and returned fire, their shots pummeling where the thief’s head had been only seconds prior. They were far too late. Tycho was gone, having already disappeared down the rope and off to who-knows-where. Kaelis eked out a slim smile—she’d done it, she’d rescued him. Mission accomplished. Unfortunately, any good feelings she had about it were vastly outweighed by the all-consuming dread of having to face the squad of armed officers completely alone.

  The hail of gunfire steadily settled. The officers shouted to one another with declarations of “Reloading!” and “Moving position!” Kaelis used the lull to breathe in and quiet her nerves. Lowering her gun, she emptied out her spent casings and fumbled her few spare bullets into the cylinder.

  Fear seeped in from the corners of her mind, fear she hadn’t felt since her earliest days in the field. She’d been in plenty of shootouts before, but never one like this—backed into a corner, targeted by trained marksmen. But she wasn’t about to let a little terror stop her. As her first captain used to say: ‘Fear heralds The Dream’.

  Kaelis snapped back her pistol and forced herself steady, swallowing her doubts. Looking around, she caught sight of a solid means of escape: down the dock, a dozen or so feet away, was the stack of steel drums lined against the Redland Runner’s hull. If she could somehow make it to the pile, she could duck behind it and slip into the ship via the portside door.

  Kaelis narrowed her eyes. She could do it. Sucking in one last deep breath, she sprang from cover.

  The officers were ready for her. A flurry of gunfire immediately rained down around her, kicking up sparks and chunks of concrete. Kaelis screamed and threw herself back behind the barrels. She held her head, her eyes grasped shut, as the officers kept up their explosive barrage.

  “CEASE!”

  A metallic voice rang over the crowd, casting a blanket of silence over the entirety of the scene. As slowly and carefully as she could, Kaelis raised her eyes above the lip of the barrels, searching for the owner of the shout.

  The gathered mob began to stir. Behind the officers and the piles of cargo, Kaelis could see the crowd of onlookers shift and part ways. A dark figure soon glided into view. They emerged from the assembly, striding past the guards and into the middleground. Kaelis stared out in starstruck shock.

  Coming towards her, hands clasped and full of poise, was a shadowy woman in a fine frock coat and a frightful gas mask, the lingering remnants of the nearby blaze casting eerie reflections in her mirrored eyes.

  Director Lilith Vogel.

  For years Kaelis had heard the stories of ‘The Woman Who Does Not Sleep’. Anyone with even a basic interest in the histories of the old world was familiar with both her work and her self-built mask that let her carry on without rest. The woman had single-handedly advanced the modern world’s understanding of the First Exodus threefold during her time as Verloren’s Director of Operations. And while Kaelis found her published writings a bit dry, they had an insight best described as ‘alarmingly thorough’. For someone of her status to be there personally was, to put it lightly, less than encouraging.

  “Well, well. A little mouse,” Vogel uttered with some surprise, glaring at Kaelis through her emotionless visage. “Such chaos you’ve sown.” She prowled across the platform, dauntlessly advancing.

  “Don’t come any closer!” Kaelis warned, bringing up her pistol.

  Vogel promptly stopped. She gestured to her troops before bowing her head and splaying her arms out in a submissive manner. Following the director’s lead, the rest of the officers lowered their guns.

  Kaelis pressed her brows together—Was this a trap? It had to be. Well, whatever this was, it was her one chance to escape. Without a second thought, she flung herself out from behind cover and sprinted full speed towards the Redland Runner’s door.

  Schfft!

  “Gah!” Kaelis cried out as a spike of white-hot pain erupted from her thigh. A light clanging of metal pattered against the concrete ahead of her. She looked down to see a slim throwing knife bouncing onto the ground, dabbled in blood. Her blood.

  She’d been hit.

  Kaelis stumbled forward, knocked off balance. She collapsed to the ground and gripped her hand against her freshly-wounded thigh, holding back its searing sting. The cut didn’t look too deep, thank the Angels, though her blood-soaked leggings were now ruined forever. Of course, none of that mattered compared to the masked woman now charging straight for her.

  Panicking, Kaelis swung her revolver around, taking aim at Vogel. The Director reacted fast. Slipping another knife from her coat, she hurtled it at Kaelis like an arrow bolt.

  Blam!—The knife collided with Kaelis’s pistol just as she fired, knocking the gun from her grip. It tumbled away, falling to the concrete with a heavy clunk.

  Kaelis clenched her hand, her fingers stinging from the force of the impact. The Director flew towards her like lightning. Before Kaelis could react, Vogel was already upon her. The Director wrapped her hands around Kaelis’s throat and squeezed with unexpected strength, pinning her to the ground.

  “You are caught, thief,” Vogel hissed.

  Kaelis gagged, choking for air, digging her hands at the Director’s ferocious grip.

  “Did you think yourself clever?” Vogel tightened her grasp. “Did you think you could evade us? I have dealt with your type before. You are just another animal, clawing at the dirt, howling to the winds.”

  Kaelis thrashed violently, kicking her leg and squirming, fighting to break free. She battered her fists weakly against Vogel’s arm as her stamina slowly began to wane.

  Vogel cocked her head. “Such spirit,” she teased. “Commander!”

  “Um, yes, Director,” replied a muffled voice with a hint of discomfort. The hazy silver outline of the commander appeared behind Vogel. “What are your orders?”

  “Secure the ship, sweep the surrounding ports,” said Vogel. “This one’s cohorts are close by, and the map is surely with them.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” The commander whistled, summoning two of the officers. Together they moved in towards the Redland Runner’s door, their guns drawn, ready for violence.

  In one final fleeting effort, Kaelis fought to pry back Vogel’s fingers from around her neck. Her hands scratched at the Director fruitlessly before her strength finally gave way. Blackness crept in around the edges of her vision. Her arms and legs withered and fell limply to the ground.

  Vogel leaned in, staring into Kaelis’s fluttering eyes. “Shhh. Do not fear, little mouse,” she soothed. “Let yourself fade.” She whispered in her ear. “It will all be over soon…”

  Kaelis felt too weak to feel fear, to feel pain. She lay on the ground, her body sinking into a numbing void, the light slowly fading around her.