‘Without hope, life cannot exist…’

-The Wisdom of Zug Twill

XALLI

Well, if it was adventure she wanted, she was getting it, Alathor admitted bitterly to herself.

She’d never been able to get used to the being scared for her life part, even when she’d trained with Alta.

Princess Alathor was crouched down near a ground level pad beside an old communication tower in one of the deep forests of Xalli.

Regol were still hunting her, but she’d manage to lose them again. Her Hanbok was in ribbons, her face was smudged. Her hands were cut and bruised, stained with blood, and so were her knees.

She gripped tightly, in one hand, the sword that Alta had given her before they’d parted.

Alathor hoped and prayed Alta had gotten away from Xalli with Hart.

Alathor’s dark eyes were locked on a large transport ship that was landed on the pad next to the tower. The communication towers were from a bygone era, but they had been built to last. Most were overgrown and abandoned, but Alathor knew that sometimes Pirates, Bounty Hunters, and Smugglers set up in them, using them as hideouts for their nefarious schemes.

Alathor had to admit she was grateful for them now.

She couldn’t tell for sure what group owned the round fronted transport she coveted. It had a long body and a large, square, engine block at the rear. The ship was painted in red and grey, and there was a one-eyed toad emblazoned on the side.

In truth, Alathor didn’t care who owned the ship, she just needed it.

She needed to get off of Xalli, leave the Regol behind, and make for the Emahra fleet.

She hoped all of her family got out alive.

She took a deep breath.

She crouched lower behind the underbrush that separated her from the clearing where the tower and landing pad, and the ship were. The clearing was quite overgrown with tall grass, but it was still open enough that when Alathor made a run for the ship, she was going to be easily seen.

She didn’t want to be seen prematurely.

She was still figuring out her plan.

Screeching sounded in the forest behind her. With wide eyes, Alathor twisted her head to look over her shoulder and watched smoky orbs of shadow hurtling toward her. The red points she’d come to decide were Regol eyes were alight with fury.

‘Blast!’ the Princess growled, and she leapt up from her crouch and darted into the meadow.

She heard shouts up in the tower. Then powerful pulsar weapons shot down toward her, blowing smoking craters into the ground. Alathor twisted, tumbled, rolled, but kept moving forward, straight on toward the transport ship.

When she was under its cover she twisted, Hanul-Kal weapon up, ready to face the Regol.

Three of the smoky orbs were streaking toward her, screaming and screeching as they went.

‘Come on!’ Alathor snarled. With a button tap, the blade of her Hanul-Kal ignited with flame.

The Regol were on her in a moment, sending smoky tentacles out from their bodies. Alathor leapt through the lashing appendages, treating them like an obstacle course Alta would have dreamed up for her. She tucked and rolled, was on her feet again in a moment, and struck out with her blade at the Regol nearest her.

The monster howled in agony as the flaming blade cut deep into the smoky, formless body. There was a growl of energy and Alathor ducked as the orb exploded. Then she was twisting, jumping, rolling again. Every tentacle that flew at her she sliced away, and whenever she was close to a Regol, she struck out at it.

She was able to kill another one before she heard shouting around the landing legs of the round-fronted transport. Her eyes flicked to the side. She saw Pirates with pulsar guns. They fired under the ship toward her.

Alathor growled in her throat and batted blasts back with her sword. Tentacles from the Regol slithered around her waist and threw her up into the air.

Alathor let feathery white wings burst out of her back, and she swooped down at the Regol slicing it in two. She landed on the ground, skidding to a stop, and turned to the transport. She leapt high, flew over the ship and then dropped so she landed behind the small group of Pirates. They twisted and raised their guns, pointing them at the Princess. She held her sword in front of her, and lowered her brow.

‘It’s an Emahra!’ one of the Pirates yelped; an ugly purple guy, with a long trunk. His belly was round. He had a black patch over one of three eyes.

‘I need your ship,’ Alathor growled.

The Pirates threw down their guns.

‘Sure lady,’ the man with the trunk said, speaking out of a wide, tusked mouth behind it. ‘Whatever you need.’

Suddenly two Regol swooped down from the sky and raked tentacles across the Pirates, cutting them to shreds. They turned their attack on Alathor, and she moved quickly, slicing stabbing, and dispatching the two monsters in very short order.

When they’d exploded and fell as ashes to the ground, Alathor looked at the dead Pirates.

They didn’t deserve that, she thought to herself.

Screaming sounded in the sky.

Alathor looked up, and her eyes widened as she saw a veritable cloud of Regol swooping through the heavens, toward the clearing.

She knew she couldn’t take them all.

She hurried up the landing ramp of the transport and closed it. She raced through the hallways, making it to the cockpit as quickly as she could. The ship had already started to rock, as Regol threw themselves against the armoured hull, when Alathor reached the bridge and fired up the engines.

She pulled back on the helm, firing the thrusters and lifted off from the landing pad, rocketing for open sky.

The ship shook more as the Regol continued their relentless attack.

Alathor put up the shields.

The Regol didn’t relent.

The ship shook violently. ‘Come on!’ the Princess growled, egging more power out of the engines as she streaked up, up, up toward open space.

Alarms were sounding, declaring damage across the ship as Alathor reached space, but the Regol did fall back. It gave her the chance she needed to plot her Hyperion-space jump, and when it was programmed in, she grabbed the jump lever and stared out at the stars that spread out before her.

‘I sure hope,’ she said to herself, ‘Hart and Alta are having a better time than I am.’

With that she pulled back the jump lever, and her stolen Pirate ship streaked off into Hyperion-space, leaving Xalli behind.