The Life, Death and Life of Amelia Hollow Page 7

  ***

  Donn was still exhausted when water splashed his face. As part of his usual morning routine; he opened his mouth to drink some of the water. The robots had warned him not to drink the regeneration chamber water, and he had chosen not to listen. It took him a moment to notice the red flashing light just beyond his chamber. The chambers were soundproof so the lights were his only way of knowing something was wrong.

  With a security breach; all regeneration chambers in the Starside Academy sector had been opened. The fish boy tensed. Was this a real situation or just a drill?

  Like firemen; the cadets had been informed by Alk to first put on their uniform in an emergency situation. That way the USM could keep track of them. Donn had very sensitive ears. He shrieked when he heard the alarm and dropped to his knees with his hands on head. After a few moments of recuperating he slowly reached into his drawer for the body glove. Despite the fact this was an ‘emergency’ situation; the fish boy almost took more time to get dressed. He could not think properly under the screaming siren. He was going to be furious if this was just a practise drill. Being so disoriented scared him.

  His second boot was just barely on when the door to his cubical opened abruptly. Under the flashing red light his large bulbous eyes caught the giant monster in the doorway. The creature was so big it could not even get fit through the doorway. Instead it just threw its fat hand in and grabbed Donn’s arm firmly. The fish boy screamed femininely as he was thrown out of his little safe haven. His brain rattled around in his head as he hit the floor. Beyond him were other disoriented cadets who had been forced out of their cubicles.

  The sadamont then noticed the decapitated head of one of the robots that managed the regeneration chambers. This was definitely not a simulation.

  After a failed attempt to fight back, a bloody-faced Veck approached a trembling Nis. One of the large beasts kept an eye on her at all times, but allowed her to go to the golden boy as he had other things to attend to.

  Nis was not dressed at all. The alarm had petrified him. Veck’s ears were immune to the noise. She quickly took off her jacket and draped it around the confused little boy. It was very large on his tiny frame. When he realized her presence; Nis’s big black doe eyes stared up at Veck in confusion. If they were not careful he could go into his grey stage and become irretrievable. The giant rhino-like creature disapproved of Veck helping the bhe marc, but hitting her for a second time would not achieve anything except self-satisfaction. Tamarax had made it clear what they were there for and beating up USM cadets was not on the agenda until Tamarax found what she was looking for.

  Like Veck, Kel had tried to make a stand. He ended up being hurdled against a wall, hurting a wrist and falling to the floor unconscious. Nobody went to his aid. They were all distracted by the giant beasts looking down upon them. The rusty and bulky armour they wore suggested they were certainly not from the USM. They were terrorists. As Alk had warned the cadets in tactics; enemies of the USM took pleasure in beating up USM personnel. Cadets were especially targeted due to their inexperience. Starside usually had top-notch security for cadets because they knew this. However, some of the smaller USM outposts in the more dangerous parts of the galaxy had a higher chance of cadets being harassed, tortured or killed.

  “That all of them?” One soldier grunted as they circled the little cadets like hungry beasts. “I only count eighteen.”

  The soldier next to him counted the cadets with his own eyes. The red flashing lights made it difficult to spot all the cadets, but he only counted eighteen as well. “I swear none of them escaped.” He said.

  “It doesn’t matter, then.” He yelled over the alarm before dialling into his chunky wrist computer. “Beam us. It’s time to go.” He said into his earpiece.

  The group of cadets panicked when beams of light started at their feet and worked their way up. Some of them were not even dressed properly. Nis was stark naked –until Veck gave him her jacket– while Zand only had one boot on. Certainly none of them were prepared to be teleported to the terrorist ship.

  Donn looked around the flashing red room in search of any help. No security members had come to help them. That was the problem with the main entrance to the academy being down an incredibly long hallway: help could not get there for at least twenty minutes.

  Most of the cadets had figured out that these weren’t hack terrorists. The USM had a very advanced security system that would not allow unauthorized people to teleport in and out of the USM. Whoever these people were, they had some serious technology experts that had a lot of money… or they just had Tamarax Deloro.

  Veck held Nis close as they were beamed to the rugged spaceship. The poor boy nearly fainted when he saw the spaceship they were in. He was terrified. The argon passé was afraid, nonetheless she was very good at acting strong.

  Merr meowed tragically when he turned around in the teleporter and saw Starside in the distance behind them. The ship was about to go into light speed and they would be across the galaxy before any USM personnel noticed they were gone.

  Everyone turned around when the door slid open. All the cadets were expecting another beast to walk in. It was surprising to see a smaller pale woman enter instead, yet the deranged look in her eyes scared them all. Also, her sharp black nails helped show that she was not friendly.

  Half the cadets recognized her from tactics class, but the cadets like Donn who had been distracted during history had no clue who she was. Either way; they knew to be afraid of her.

  Tamarax ran her eyes across the measly kids. “Where’s Amelia?” No answer. “Am? The obnoxious Earthling?”

  Donn looked around. Where was I? Chorst was missing too. He hoped we were together. He especially hoped we were not dead.

  The soldiers tensed. They had gone there to get me and not just kidnap cadets. Their leader smiled and laughed manically. “Relax boys. You got what you needed.”

  “I don’t understand ma’am.” The head soldier snarled. “You wanted Am.”

  “I do want Am.” She whispered so the cadets could not hear. “However, Amelia will come to us if we have her friends… and her father. It’s all going to plan, Gremmor, don’t worry your primitive brain.”

  He glared at her as she strolled away. He doubted Tamarax even had a plan. The woman was insane. Like most, he only worked for her because he had no choice. He was a third-class species and there was no work or resources on his spoiled planet. Rebelling against the witch-like woman would not accomplish anything. All the soldiers knew there was no ‘retirement’ under Tamarax. They would work until death to make a small living to support their family.

  “Stun ‘em.” Tamarax ordered.

  The cadets were like fish in a barrel when the soldiers stunned them. In less than five seconds all of them had collapsed on the cold grey surface. They did not know if they were going to live or die. All they knew was that a supreme terrorist was out looking for their fellow cadet, me, and that Tamarax probably was not well-intentioned. Man, what a horrible way to start the day.