Chapter 22

Chapter 22

Ronan hurried through the building with a new sense of purpose and urgency. Not only did he have a female to protect, but he would be a father, only if he could keep his little mate safe. He’d meant what he’d said. Lilly was his life now, and he would do whatever it took to keep her safe, and if he had to rip that blue-skinned freak’s heart out of his chest with his bare hands to stop him, he’d do it.

Ronan took the steps to Perrion’s floor two at a time, only pausing when he grabbed the handle to the door leading to the floor. He paused for a moment to listen and let his senses reach out for danger before he opened the door. When he felt nothing, he ripped it open and charged down the wide corridor towards Perrion’s chambers, not sure what to expect.

Ronan came to an abrupt stop, almost sliding on the smooth, polished floor as he gawked at what he saw ahead. Laoni was thrashing about on the floor while Zach and another guard were on their knees trying to restrain him while surrounding them were three bots bearing brooms and mops who would randomly smack him in the legs. A few feet away, Lars was checking a communications pad while Tyrell was hovering nearby with a pair of rope manacles. Cahir, who’d been standing behind Lars, slipped past him to leap on top of Laoni and grab his two flailing upper arms and wrench them behind his back. “Now do it now,” Cahir shouted.

Rugger abruptly appeared to slip a pain collar about Laoni’s neck while Tyrell quickly snapped the cuffs around his restrained wrists, trying to avoid Laoni’s still free hand that had escaped Zach’s hold.

Ronan lunged forward to grab Laoni’s free arm and, with a growl, wrenched it backwards hard, making Laoni cry out in pain as the elbow snapped loudly. Tyrell gave him a nod and looped two lengths of the rope about it, holding it tight, though from the looks of Laoni’s arm, his elbow was now out of the socket, and he would probably be unable to move his arm again without medical help.

“Get off me; get off me you’ll all pay for this even you Tyrell I’ll see you and all your men sent to the pits for this, you’ll end your days digging ore with your bare hands.” Laoni snarled, bucking one last time before finally giving up.

“I don’t think so, we know what you have done and are prepared for Zardo’s attack. “ Tyrell replied motioning for everyone to move back off Laoni.

“You’re mad, I’ve done nothing.” Laoni sputtered as he was dragged from the floor by Zach and the other guard.

“You killed Cheng. We found his body hidden in the utility shed, and I saw the security video of you speaking with Zardo. While I couldn’t make out everything you said, I know you, and he planned today’s attack. I know that you sent Ronan and I out to be killed and for Lilly to be taken.” Tyrel shook his head ruefully.

Laoni’s face changed from anger to something so cold and feral that Tyrell and the others took a step back. “So you know, I curse you and the others, curse you all to the plains of fire. If not for you, everything I dreamed would have come to pass, I would have the Dome, and I would have Sora back in my arms.” Laoni’s face twisted up and he spat at Tyrell, who barely jumped back in time.

“Now you will have the inside of a cell,” Tyrell replied. “Take him below and lock him in the detention cell and leave the manacle on.”

“Now what?” Ronan demanded as he rubbed his hands clean on his pants.

“Check on Perrion, then figure out how to keep Zardo’s men out of the Dome and the women safe. I’m keeping escaping as the last resort,” Tyrell replied.

“Sounds good,” Ronan replied, looking at his men, who nodded in agreement. “Lars, would you honor me by taking the bots down to the med unit and protecting Lilly, see that no harm comes to me.”

Lars smiled, his lips pulling back to reveal a long row of razor-sharp teeth. “I would be happy too. What of the other slaves, Captain, you have Laoni’s passcode now, should we free them, too?”

Ronan blinked, realizing that Lar’s shock collar was missing; he turned his gaze to Tyrell, who nodded. “Aye, we shall take them all off. Perion no longer rules here.” Tyrell pulled a thin metal device the size of his thumb from his tunic and stepped around Rugger as Eacha jogged down the corridor towards them pausing only a moment to stare at Laoni who was being dragged away cursing and promising they would all pay.

“Ronan, what is going on? Rugger said you wished to see me and to come here.” Eacha said.

Before Ronan could respond, Tyrell’s comm unit crackled loudly. “Captain, we’re about to be attacked. There are several males heading this way carrying what looks like some sort of mounted laser gun, what should we do?”

Tyrell mumbled a curse. “Hold the gate as long as you can; are the bots there to help?”

“Yes, sir, they are.” The comm crackled loudly.

“Move back from the gate and let the bots take the front, do what you can. I will be there as soon as I can.” Tyrell replied, mumbling more curses as he looked at Lars. “Take this and free the others in the dining hall then go to the med center, the code you will need is eight five six when you apply the device.”

Tyrell held the thin metal device he’d used to remove the other’s collars out to Lars, who took it with a nod.

“I’ll do it, and then I shall keep Lilly safe at all costs.” Lars slipped the device into his tunic before tapping several commands on his pas that sent the bots whirring away down the corridor towards the elevator.

“Perrion first, then we need to hold the defenses, I just wish we had more weapons,” Tyrell said, turning towards Perrion’s door.

“Could we not extend the force dome down past the front gate and wall? It would buy us time.” Ronan said, turning to Tyrell.

“That is clever, very clever, but we will need Perrion’s code to do it,” Tyrell said as he pushed open Perrion’s door. “Let us hope he is able to help us.”

“Aye, Rugger, Cahir, go help the others. What I would give for a weapon,” Ronan said.

“You mean like these?” Cahir pulled two pistols from out of his inner tunic, showing them to Ronan before flipping one to Rugger.”

“Where did you get those?” Ronan looked at him in disbelief.

“Your mate, she found them and a communication array at the dump this morning,” Cahir replied with a grin. “Come, Rugger, let’s see if we can find a spot on the top of the wall and have some fun.”

“I like your plan,” Rugger replied before heading off down the corridor at a jog followed by Cahir.

“Do you want me to go with them?” Eacha asked, jerking his head after the others.

“In a moment, first I would know what you said to Lilly to make her doubt my feelings for her?” Ronan rounded on Eacha so fast he stumbled backwards.

“What did she say, what did she accuse me of?” Eacha stammered.

“Nothing but then she never would, for she is too kind and humble, Cahir told me some of what you said. How your words hurt her.” Ronan stepped forward and, resisting the urge to punch his friend in the face, instead shoved him hard with both hands, sending him into the wall with a hard thunk.

“Forgive me; I did not know she meant so much to you. It’s just I thought you could do better, find a better female. When I learned she was pregnant I knew you would never leave her behind, that you were too honorable.” Eacha held up his hands to ward off a strike.

Ronan felt his anger surge and fought the urge again to punch Eacha in the face. “There is no better female; to me, she is beautiful and clever. She is brave beyond words and cares so much for me she would lay down her life.”

“I’m sorry,” Eacha replied, his head dropping to his chest.

“We will not discuss this again; go help the others protect the dome. If the gate is breached, take Rugger and Cahir and get all the females in the dining hall out to safety. Lilly knows of a secret passage that is near her hut that leads outside the walls. Don’t fail me.” Ronan ordered.

“It shall be done,” Eacha said, easing away from Ronan, ran off down the corridor, leaving Ronan alone to compose himself.

Ronan took a deep breath, forcing his mind onto the situation at hand, protect the Dome, and keep Lilly and the females safe. He stepped into Perrion’s room to see Tyrell standing over the lizard man who was lying on his bed, his scaly skin a sickly shade of grey.

“He’s alive, I’m trying to wake him up. If we can’t get his codes, I don’t think I can hack the computer on my own, at least not in time.” As if to accentuate his words, there was a muffled explosion.

“Master, master wake up, we are under attack.” Tyrell gave Perrion a hard shake as there was another muffled boom.

“What, what is it? I’m sick ask go get Cheng and leave me alone.” Perrion protested waving Tyrell away weakly.

“We can’t, he’s dead,” Ronan growled impatiently. There was no time for this, no time to coddle this hateful male. Ronan pushed Tyrell aside and grabbed the front of his shirt to lift him off the bed. “We need you to get us into the computer; we need to alter the shields before we are breached by the males about to attack us.”

Perrion’s eyes slowly focused on Ronan, then he nodded. “My tablet, bring it to me.”

Tyrell snatched the tablet from Perrion’s desk and thrust it into Perrion’s hands as Ronan released him, letting him flop back on the bed. Perrion placed his palm over, the screen then a moment later tapped a code into the screen before dropping back onto the bed again.

Tyrell spun to the console on Perrion’s desk as the screen flashed to life.

“Do you know what to do?” Ronan demanded as there was another muffled explosion.

“I think so, now let me work,” Tyrell replied, turning his attention to the console screen.

There was the sound of running feet, and Ronan looked up to see Arnal and Lilly coming down the corridor. Lilly gave Ronan a weak smile as she stepped into the room, looking pale and out of breath.

“We figured out the antidote thanks to Lilly.” Arnal went straight to Perrion’s side and pressed a hypo to Perrion’s arm as Ronan stepped up to pull Lilly into his arms.

“You should be resting, you were just injured,” Ronan said, brushing Lilly’s hair back from her face.

“I had to be here in case I was needed. Did you get the code, are you in yet?” Lilly asked, pulling out of Ronan’s arms.

“Aye, I’m in. Ronan suggested we alter the shields to protect the gate and the wall, but I’m not sure I have entered the correct commands. I was a ship’s commander before this not an engineer.” Tyrell protested, nodding to the screen while he continued to type.

Lilly looked for Tyrell’s shoulder, checking his work. “That’s it, just change that sequence there so the emitters will point down and not up.”

Tyrell did what Lilly suggested, and a heartbeat later, there was a boom followed by a deafening electronic whine and the lights and console flickered.

“Captain, captain, that was close, but whatever you did worked; they fired at the gate, and the force shield stopped the blast. But they are about to fire again, and there are now about twenty males outside the gate. Cahir and Rugger and some of the men are on the wall trying to give cover fire but I don’t think he can hold them off for long.” Zach’s voice sounded loud as it crackled over Tyrell’s comm.

“We need more power according to these readings.” Tyrell tapped the screen with his forefinger.

“Turn off all the lights to the Dome, divert the power from everywhere except the dining hall and the med bay to the force field emitters,” Lilly said as there was another boom followed by a power surge.

“Good idea, help me,” Tyrell said as he leaned over the console and began typing.

Lilly stepped beside Tyrell and began typing codes into the console as Ronan watched, feeling useless at the moment. He had been trained to fight either with his hands or in the cockpit of a ship; just standing back and letting others do all the work was not his style.

The lights flickered, then went out, and a low hum filled the room as Tyrell and Lilly stepped back from the console. “We increased the force field, but the power units won’t be able to take the strain for too long.”

“We should consider evacuating the Dome,” Tyrell said, never taking his eyes off the screen.

“Aye, I was just going to go to the gate to be there when they breached. Do you have any other weapons?” Ronan asked, weighing their options.

“I have an idea but it’s crazy.” Lilly began typing on the console and a moment later one of the screens flickered to life showing twenty odd blue-skinned men outside the gate firing at it while the force shield flickered and hissed like water poured on a hot stove.

“At this moment we could use crazy, what is it?” Ronan demanded weighing their options of success if the gate was breached.

“They are all standing just before the gate and focusing on the gate and ignoring the rest of the wall. I could concentrate the force field in just the area before the gate and then have it surge; it would send out a shock wave away from the gate.” Lilly pointed to the screen. “But, it could destroy the shield generators in that area.”

Ronan gave Tyrell a twisted grin, liking what he’d heard. “Do it.”

“I agree it’s worth the risk, you get started and I’ll tell everyone to pull back.” Tyrell directed, lifting his arm to open his comm unit.

Lilly took a deep breath, fighting down her nerves and her spinning head, forcing herself to concentrate on what she had to do. Lilly shut everything but the task at hand as she quickly began typing in the commands to shut down all the emitters except those before the gate and then set the force field to surge in twenty seconds. If she’d done everything correctly, there would be a massive explosion of power that would radiate away from the gate with the force of an explosion. “Warn everyone to take cover.”

Tyrell gave the order, and Lilly held her hand out to Ronan as behind them Arnal rose from leaning over Perrion. Ronan pulled Lilly hard against his chest, wrapping his arms around her as numbers counted down on the screen. The countdown hit zero, there was a deep electric hum followed by a loud wheezing noise and a boom. On the screen showing the gate, there was a blinding flash of light so bright the screen blinked out for a moment. Silence followed for several heartbeats as the power to the entire Dome went out.

“Captain, Captain it worked the pulse took them all out, they are lying scattered about the ground. It even took out the laser cannon. What should we do?” Zach demanded his voice loud in the silence.

“We need to see if they are either dead or injured. if just injured we need to relieve them of their weapons and bind them,” Ronan said releasing Lilly then sparing a look for Perrion for the first time in several minutes. “And him?”

“Weak, but I think he will live, but I need to get him on the healing bed to reverse the damage the poison has done,” Arnal said.

“Have some of the males from the dining hall carry him down to the med center. We need to get to the gate.” Tyrell replied, stepping back from the console to give Lilly a rueful smile. “I would kiss you Lilly of Earth but I don’t think Ronan would appreciate it. Tyrell clapped Lilly on the shoulder then slipped past her to run out the door while barking orders into his comm.

“Go back to the med center, I will come to you there, and Lilly, you are a genius.” Ronan kissed Lilly on the forehead before racing away after Tyrell.

Lilly allowed herself a quick smile at Ronan’s praise before turning to the vid screen to see Zach, Cahir, Rugger, and several of the other guards begin pulling barrels and boxes from in front of the gate door, while outside, before the gate, there was no movement. Lilly felt a momentary twinge of guilt at what she’d done; she hoped she hadn’t killed all the men. True if they had gotten in they would have likely raped and kidnapped all the females, but that didn’t mean she wanted them dead.

“Stay here with him while I go get help to move him and Lilly,” Arnal said his dark grey breaking into the first true smile Lilly had ever seen on him. “Well done.”

Lilly smiled at Arnal’s praise as the reality that she, Ronan, and the others were actually free sank in for the first time. Perrion was incapacitated, Laoni was locked up, and Cheng was dead. She didn’t know what the rules of the settlement were about escaped or freed slaves, but it didn’t take a genius for her to realize that with all the devastation Zardo and his men had caused, the other owners would be too involved with their own problems to care what a few free slaves did. They were free now, whatever came next, she and Ronan would face it together as long as she had Ronan beside her, there wasn’t anything in the galaxy she couldn’t face.