Chariots of Heaven by R.T. Edwins
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Coming to several minutes later, Kira looked around dazed. The room was hot and the air was thick with smoke. She couldn’t make out any definitive sounds, as her ears were ringing so loudly that everything sounded like a dull roar. Trying to focus as her head swam, she was able to survey the damage of the hangar bay. Several of the guards nearest to the explosion were clearly wounded or dead, while the remaining people in the room were either unconscious or just now stirring. Kira searched for Aithos and was relieved to see that he appeared unscathed, despite being unconscious on the floor next to her.
Looking to her other side she noticed that Thanatos was also out cold, but looked no worse for the wear than Aithos did. Fighting a feeling of nausea, Kira tried to locate Velion, but regretted it instantly when she found him. He was conscious and was getting to his feet, but the fury in his eyes told her that he would not listen to her. He would not hear reason or believe what she had to tell him, even if it was true. Somehow the explosion just confirmed his suspicions of her, no matter how far off they were.
Kira stood up, trying not to topple over as she did so. Velion pointed at her and said something that she couldn’t make out, but it didn’t matter. She could tell by his expression that he fully intended to have her arrested and tried as a traitor, but she had no intention of letting that happen. Kaya was still at the mercy of Aeria, and there was no time to fix the mess here. Her only chance of getting to her sister in time was to escape.
Taking advantage of Velion’s shaken state, Kira pulled in as much energy as she could, and with a scream unleashed the largest shockwave she had ever managed straight at Velion. The attack caught him off guard and sent him flying back through the hangar entrance into the corridor of the palace. Not wasting any time Kira dashed towards the auxiliary corridor that led to the royal hangar, where her ship was parked.
To her dismay there were four palace guards running in the opposite direction, most likely to investigate the source of the explosion. Again she amassed a wave of energy and unleashed it on the unwitting guards, blowing them back through the passage the way they had come. She tried to hold back so she didn’t kill any of them, but there was no way to be certain she hadn’t.
Making her way out of the long corridor, she spotted her ship at the other end of the hangar. Somehow the vessel was aware of her approach and was rotating to allow her aboard. Dashing up the ramp and rushing to the pilot controls, Kira frantically worked at the consoles. Trying to remember everything Thanatos showed her was impossible in such a rush, but there was no time to waste if she hoped to escape the palace. Deciding it might be best to just use the autopilot, Kira engaged it, hoping it would save her time.
As the ship powered up and began the lift off sequence, Kira felt a pang of regret at having left Thanatos and Aithos behind. There had been no time to raise them and even if she had, it would have only made things worse for them. At least by abandoning them, they would appear more innocent than she did, which might save them from whatever hell there was to pay for this incident. Someone was going to great lengths to make her look like a traitor, and after she rescued her sister, she had every intention of finding out who they were and who her real father was.
The ship’s autopilot completed the lift off checks and was already guiding the vessel out of the hangar by the time anyone came after her. A few guards, followed by Velion, entered the bay just as the vessel engaged thrusters, propelling it up and into the atmosphere at blinding speed. She had managed to escape the palace, but her journey was far from over. She only hoped they didn’t have enough time to scramble fighters from the Trident before she could make the jump to sub-space.
Deciding it might be best to get the navigation computer ready, Kira searched for the planet Draco on the stellar map. Thanatos hadn’t lied when he said it was the furthest planet from the center of the galaxy. It was a small, dark planetoid about 25,000 light years away from her current position. The navigation computer estimated that it would take nearly two days to get there, even at full speed.
Kira input the jump coordinates just as the vessel broke through the upper atmosphere. By the looks of the scattered fighter formations around the Trident, Velion hadn’t had enough time to alert them to her escape. At least something was going Kira’s way. Breathing a sigh of relief, she initiated the jump sequence once the navigation computer finished plotting a safe course. In the blink of an eye, the silver ship disappeared from view, unnoticed by the fleet nearby.