Emerald Flight: “Star Wing” (continued)

Within the chamber beyond, she found two Humans. Their life was clearly gone. They had managed to cling to handholds prudently built into the hull. While that had prevented them from being sucked into space, it had not preserved their lives. Seeing their lifeless forms, Ilisee reflected once more on the fragility of these beings.

They are either particularly brave or particularly foolish. They are not designed for this existence.

She left the Human corpses behind her, giving them no further consideration. The shells that remained were the concern of the other Humans now. Their souls, if indeed Humans had them at all, were gone. There was nothing more she could do for them.

Drawn to the ragged gash in the hull, Ilisee stared out into space. She remembered a time of flying freely through its expanses. Standing there, she could feel the wash of faint radiation across her flesh like the light breeze upon the surface of a world. This was the environment in which the Creators had designed her to survive and thrive.

In the darkness beyond, she could make out the black hull of an enemy vessel. The second one, she knew, held position on the other side of the ship in which she stood, and slightly below it. Their enemy would allow them no escape. It had already inflicted critical damage to this one and Ilisee did not understand why it had not yet simple destroyed it.

The Revered One.

Even their enemy valued the Furies, for reasons no one on Aeria knew.

They will not destroy this vessel until they have claimed her.

Ilisee felt a restored sense of purpose. A flood of anger washed over her, filling her with renewed energy.

I must protect her. I must protect all of them.

It took her a moment to recognize it, but these Humans had become important to her as well. Uttering a phrase that was both a vow and a prayer, she launched herself toward the enemy vessel.

#

“Captain,” Hawkes reported. “Port side aft torpedoes launchers are back online. All forward beam emitters have been restored.”

Well, that’s something, Devereux considered sourly.

There weapons had proven to be little more than a distraction to the pair of the massive battleships that now blockaded them.

A distraction is all we’re supposed to provide, she reminded herself. And at least we can try to defend ourselves.

She wondered, outgunning them as they did, why the enemy destroyers had yet finished the job they had started. By all rights, she, her ship and her crew should all now be a drifting cloud of debris and atomic particles.