[Prologue]    [Chapter 1]   [Chapter 2]    [Chapter 3]    [Chapter 4]    [Chapter 5]    [Chapter 6]    [Chapter 7]    [Chapter 8]    [Chapter 9]    [Chapter 10]    [Chapter 11]    [Chapter 12]    [Chapter 13]    [Chapter 14]    [Chapter 15]    [Chapter 16]    [Chapter 17]    [Chapter 18]    [Chapter 19]    [Chapter 20]    [Chapter 21]    [Chapter 22]    [Chapter 23]    [Chapter 24]    [Chapter 25]    [Chapter 26]    [Chapter 28]    [Chapter 29]    [Chapter 30]    [Epilogue]
   

Chapter 27

The Catlan guards looked over the Doglans. They were all mining. One of them saw a gap in the wall. Doglans had moved away from it.
    “AY! SLAVES!” he shouted. “MOVE BACK TO THE WALL!!” The Doglans started working on other walls, a Doglan boy had stopped working and just  sat down. “WANT THIS WHIP BOY?!” the guard shouted. The boy looked at him, then looked down.
    The guard talked angrily and walked to the Doglans, some guards followed him. The wall blew up.
    A whole load of Tyrons ran in and held guns at any guard. About 6 Tyrons quickly flew to the exit and blocked it before any Catlan could get there.
    “One security cam! Over there!” a Tyron shouted.
    Another Tyron flew to it and put a flashy thing on the wall under it. “Transmitting jamming signal!”
    Jaron walked around the small mine. “Lock all the guards in that booth! Base yourselves here until the order is given!”
    He walked through the exit and looked down his left corridor. That was where the other Doglan holds were. (Jaron didn’t know it but the door on his right was the entrance to the secret tunnel that Balka-Rae used 7 years ago.) In front of him was a heavy door with no window. Loria walked out of the 3rd door some distance away. Jaron flew to her.
    “Didn’t you have a clue as to what was in front of you?” asked Loria in her husband’s head.
    “I could smell sulphur,” thought Jaron.
    “Must be a lab down there then,” thought Loria. “Good thing you didn’t check, you might’ve been spotted by guards or cams.”
    “What d’you take me for? Dumb?” he asked.
    Jaron and Loria walked further along as the others appeared. They came to the end of the long corridor, Balka-Rae talked to them quietly.
    “There are hardly any guards along these halls, but they come at times for the prisoners along here,” he told them.
    They walked along and passed prisons. The prisons with no one inside had doors wide open. When they passed one open prison cell, Zana looked inside and saw Corina and Yanthro chained up. He stopped.
    Jaron looked behind him and pulled Zana along. “What are you doing standing there?”
    “Corina and Yanthro were in that cell,” he said.
    They were getting close to the torture chambers. They could hear some screams and electricity.
    “There are plenty of guards here,” said Kuni quickly and quietly. “Keep low to not get caught and keep moving.”
    They quickly walked along, bent low. In one empty chamber, Zana saw Yanthro chained to the ceiling, held by 2 guards, grabbing his neck. A guard stood in front of Yanthro with an electricutor. Zana shook his head and moved on.
    When they got to the last door, it suddenly opened.
    They quickly ran to the bottom of the stairs and bunched up in the dark corner. The Catlan guards were laughing and walking about. Loria was reading each of their minds, one by one. One guard looked at the bottom of the stairs.
    “Oh no, Rida’s wings,” thought Loria.
    “Are those...wings?” thought the guard. He walked slowly to them. “What’s going on here?” He very slowly took out his gun.
    “ZIK!” another guard shouted. “COMING FOR CAKE OR WHAT?!”
    “I THINK I’VE FOUND SOMETHING MORE IMPORTANT!” shouted Zik.
    “WHAT IS IT?!”
    “SOME WINGS!”
    ... “ARE THEY MOVING?!”
    ... “NO!”
    “PROBABLY JUST A DEAD BODY! COME ON!”
    The guard backed away very slowly. He put his gun away, then he walked off. The Taklans crept out of their hiding place.
    “There’s a lift,” said Rida.
    “The lift goes straight to the building above,” Balka told them. “The squads can use it, we want to go up these stairs, to the security control room.”
    “What do we do there?” asked Jaron.
    “It’s where the security cameras and ciphers are controlled,” Balka answered.
    Kuni quietly went up the stairs. “But there’s more patrol guards and cams up there. I’m going to clear a path.”
    “I don’t trust this I’m going with you,” said Jaron and he followed her.

Jaron flattened himself against the wall. Further off, a camera was stuck to a wall and turned left and right. Quite far off, a man walked along. Jaron fired his phaser when the camera wasn’t looking, then the guard fell to the floor, K.O’d.
    Jaron ran to the other wall and moved along, still flattened. Another guard came along and Jaron shot him when the camera was turning back. He quickly ran along 2 corridors and turned back when a guard came along and ran towards him.
    “Hey! Who are you?”
    Jaron saw the guard run beside him and punched the back  of the head. The punch made the guard get  smashed on the wall (ouch) and flop to the floor. Jaron looked behind him, the coast was clear.
    Jaron ran along the corridor until he was in a cross-way. There was a rail on the ceiling, where a camera moved backwards and forwards. Far in front of him, there was the door to the security control room. There was a camera right on top of the door.
    “Better check for more guards,” he thought.
    He quietly walked along but then he backed away. A guard had walked in front of the door.
    “I can’t shoot him, not when the camera can see him,” thought Jaron. “I’ll wait till he gets a little closer.”
    “Anyone there?!” called the far-off guard. He couldn’t see Jaron properly.
    “Huh?” thought another guard. He walked into the middle of that corridor.
    Jaron rushed to his right  and flattened himself against the wall. Looking to his left, he saw the camera on the rail come towards him.
    “Oh no, I’m dead!” thought Jaron, panicking badly.
    He could hear running footsteps. Then there were footsteps coming closer to him. The camera was coming closer to him. Closer...and closer...and closer...and he heard 2 phaser shots, then sounds of men falling on the floor. Jaron quickly ran into the corridor. He smiled.
    “Kuni.”
    He walked to Kuni while the camera on the rail went behind him.
    “We have our path, follow me,” said Kuni calmly.
    Jaron and Kuni walked along 3 long corridors with rail-cameras on the ceiling, so they had to edge along the walls. On the last camera, they walked behind it and flattened against the wall on the right. But the camera turned right, so they had to quickly run behind it and walk away. They turned left and saw Rida waiting for them.
    “They’re back!” he called down the stairs.
    The rest of them came up the stairs. They went the way that Jaron used and got to the middle of the cross-way where Jaron had stood. They stared at the security door.
    “So how do we get in?” asked Loria.
    Balka looked down the right corridor. “There’s a way to make sure the camera doesn’t see us.”
    They walked along the corridor and ended up next to the door. The camera hadn’t seen them...yet.
    “It’s locked,” said Rida.
    “And only guards can get in,” said Jaron.
    “Why’s that?” asked Rida.
    “Can’t you see that biometric scanner?” Jaron pointed at a panel next to the door. “Your hand is scanned and only guards are let in.”
    “We could go back for detonators...” thought Balka.
    “We could just...” thought Zana.
    The door opened and the guard looked around. Zana ran.
    “Zana!” shouted some of the Taklans.
    Zana clotheslined the guard and ran into the room. Everyone else ran in behind him. Loria got the other guard and held her against the wall with her neck.
    Jaron looked around him. “How d’you control all of this?”
    Kuni laughed. Everyone else chuckled when they saw what was so funny.
    A camera on a cipher was looking in a Doglan hold. A Zamaki long-vehicle-made-as-a-hovercraft had come in. The roof was pulled back and the Bannons that had jumped out of the front had pulled up an inflated ramp. Zamaki fish climbed over the top and slid down the ramp. The Zamakis that stayed inside tossed medical stuff down the ramp.
    “Yeah, well, how d’you work this?” asked Jaron (again).
    “This girl knows,” said Loria, still holding the guard.
    “Yeah, so?” asked the guard.
    Loria read her mind and knew what every button did. She put the info in Jaron’s mind. He almost fell over.
    “Woah! Loria! Steady the info,” said Jaron.
    “Sorry,” apologised Loria. She pressed the guard’s neck to knock her out.
    Jaron walked to the load of buttons with a speaker. He sat down and pressed some buttons.
    “Each Hold, report your status,” Jaron said to the speaker.
    “Hold 1 reporting,” the Taklans heard over the speaker. “2 and a half squads ready to go, a full medical team has been based.”
    “Hold 2 here. 1 and a half squads ready to go, a medi-squad based and a medi-squad ready to go outside.”
    “Hold 3 over. 1 squad only...a really big one.”
    “Hold 4. 1 full squad and 3 full medical teams.”
    “Hold 6. 4 full teams, half of them medical.”
    “Hold 5 over. Armed and ready to go. But uh…we have 5 men who seem to be separated from their squad.” Jaron and Zana looked at each other.
    “Hold 7, status report,” ordered Jaron. “Hold 7 report your status!”
    “Hold 7, do you copy?” asked Zana.
    “I copy, I copy. I just can’t figure out these damn controls!” Loria and Kuni laughed. “Anyway, 1 soldier and medi-squad ready to burst. 1 medi-squad based.”
    “Hold 8, report status,” ordered Jaron.
    “Hold 8, 1 based medi-squad and 1 squad missing 5 men.”
    “There’s the answer for Hold 5,” said Jaron.
    “Report Hold 9,” said Zana.
    “Hold 9 reporting, 3 medical teams and 4 squads.”
    “Hold 10 reporting. 2 medi-squads, 3 squads, another on the way. Explosives are in place and ready.”
    “This soon?” asked Jaron.
    “Well...we were getting bored Your Majesty,” said the voice in the speaker.
    Zana shook his head. “Final report Hold 11.”
    “Kane here.” Jaron grinned. “6 medical squads ready, another on their way and a gigantic force ready to attack Catlan Imperial. Oh and Jaron, launch the attack soon. It’s a mess down here,” told Kane.
    Jaron smiled. “Send a medical team to Hold 3. All squads, standby for signal.”
    He sat down and moved his swivel chair to another panel. He pressed a few buttons and one screen was seeing a moving desert.
    “What’re you doing?” asked Rida.
    “I’m moving a cipher to see a wall of Catlan Imperial,” answered Jaron.
    The Taklans could then see on the screen a small Catlan ship backing off as a big Wayan ship was slowly moving forward.
    “That’s a good ship,” Loria quietly said.
    Another screen showed a Tellen Fighter Ship, surrounded by shuttles, moving forwards while being followed by a Catlan Guard Ship.
    “I have a bad feeling about this,” thought Balka.
    “There it is,” said Jaron.
    One screen was looking at a wall of Catlan Imperial. You could see another attack ship come into view. Different screens showed different things. Some switched views. Some screens looking at corridors and Doglan Holds switched views. Some screens  stayed still while looking at halls, stations, hospitals and schools. Other screens looked at places and things while moving about. No one in the city expected an attack.
    “See that big screen in the city centre,” pointed out Kuni. The big screen was just talking about ‘the King’s trial of the Renegade Doglan and Tellen Princess’. “Jaron can make that screen see a camera view.”
    “That would be Corina and Yanthro, wouldn’t it?” pointed out Loria. The Taklans looked at her. “On the big screen.”
    “Where would Ingree do trials?” asked Jaron.
    “In the Throne Room,” said Balka-Rae. “There it is.” He pointed to a screen.
    The screen was spinning slowly round and round in a corridor. The Taklans could see double doors with 2 guards standing outside them.
    “Once you get there, I’ll be celebrating,” said Jaron.
    “Now’s the perfect time to attack,” said Zana.
    Jaron moved the swivel chair back to the speaker. He pressed some buttons. “Hold 11, launch attack.” One screen looking at a corridor showed loads of soldiers running along. One soldier was opening all the prison doors. “Hold 10, set off explosives and attack.” Several screens shook. One screen showed a load of soldiers going in a lift and another load running up the stairs.
    “Time for us to leave,” said Balka. “Jaron, the ships have permission to destroy as much of the wall as possible.”
    “You’ll be fine here on your own, right Jaron?” asked Loria.
    Jaron smiled. “I hope so.” The Tyron King and Queen kissed. The 5 Taklans left Jaron in the room. “Holds 8 and 9, launch attack.”
    A screen seeing the inside of the Security Building showed a load of soldiers coming out of the lift and a door on the side. The scared Catlans either started to fight or ran around screaming.
    “Hold 7, launch attack. Hold 6, you are ordered to make your way to a nearby residential area and place a curfew.”
    More soldiers went into the building.

©Ruth Amy Louise Hüneke 2008