Several explosions of various sizes could be heard in the distance in the few moments it took for Feld and Sondra to take action.
As Feld and Sondra stuffed clothes and sundries into his worn traveling bag, he said to her, “Any idea what’s happening out there? Is there any way we can stop this?”
“Stop it? No. I think we’re past that,” she replied, the frustration evident in her voice. “We need to spiritwalk soon. Maybe if you can see what I’ve seen you can find something I’ve missed. There was just so much to see, too much.”
Feld stopped packing then and grabbed her hands, gaining her attention. “We’ll be ok. Really. I just know it.”
“Really? You think so?” she asked hopefully.
“Heck, no. We’re frelled.” Flashing a smile that didn’t touch his eyes, Feld then said, “At least we’ll be frelled together.”
Sondra removed her right hand from Feld’s grasp and cradled his cheek, her thumb on his chin, her fingers sliding through his whiskers. “Like old times,” she said wistfully.
Their brief reverie was broken by yet another explosion and the cacophony of sirens in the distance. The building shook as a large aircar passed close by overhead, its siren blaring.
“Let’s go!” Feld yelled. Sondra ran to the door, while Feld ran to the security console in the closet. Tapping a few keys, he rejoined Sondra by the door.
“What was that?” Sondra asked.
Feld crypto-keyed the door and opened it. “Sweeper process,” he said as pulled Sondra through the doorway. “Data scrambler and power-surge initiator for the devices.” As they turned the corner toward the elevator, a loud pop was heard from the door behind them.
The scene on the street outside was complete chaos. Humans and aliens alike were milling around and looking down toward the center of the city. Feld and Sondra allowed themselves a quick look just as a bright blue energy bolt shot up from the city’s center and destroyed a law enforcement aircar that was speeding away from it. The burning hulk passed over them and crashed into an apartment building two blocks away; the shock wave and flash from the resulting explosion enveloped them. Looking back toward the center, they could see numerous fires burning out of control and more energy bolts slashing out at the law enforcement vehicles in the airspace above.
Feld looked around and spotted two airbikes. Getting Sondra’s attention and nodding over to them, he asked, “Know how to ride?”
“No. Not at all.”
“Know how to hang on?” Taking her hand, they ran over to the airbikes. After a quick check of the closest bike, Feld took out his FeldComm and punched in some data. Placing the device in near proximity to the ignition system, Feld tapped a button and the airbike started up.
Sondra’s raised eyebrow spoke volumes. “Handy tool that.”
“Quite. Hop on.”
After securing their gear with bungie cord, Feld and Sondra hopped onto the bike and flew toward the city center at low altitude. As they got closer in, the bemused milling of the people below turned to panic. Blaster fire could now be heard in among the chaos that steadily set the scene around them.
Feld took the airbike in lower to avoid the growing congestion above. Sondra, gave him a squeeze and yelled in his ear, “Look over there to the left. The aircars seem to be circling that particular area. We may want to go that way.”
Nodding, Feld turned the vehicle down a side street in the direction she noted. After going about three blocks or so, the circling aircars began firing concentrated laser blasts into the city well ahead of them. Just as Feld slowed to avoid rushing into the destruction ahead, a cylindrical blue energy beam erupted straight up from somewhere ahead. It approached the heavens, condensed into a disc and shot outward, radiating in an ever widening circle.
The aircars never had a chance to take evasive action. The energy disc sliced it way through twenty or so of them, half of which exploded outright. Flaming debris shot down and outward from the disc’s path raining more destruction upon the hapless city.
Feld was stunned by what he just witnessed. Even his time on Nova Terran and Askaran battlefields had not made him so immune to such casual destruction. Unfortunately, this caused him to fly without the defensive instincts required in such a situation. A blaster bolt from below struck one of the forward control surfaces of the airbike which caused it to pitch upward then spiral down.
Sondra instinctively locked her arms and thighs around Feld as he fought to get the mechanical beast under control. “Hang on!!” he yelled uselessly. Grimacing under the strain, he tried every trick he knew to keep the airbike out of harm’s way and regain control, but it was a hopeless effort.
The landing wasn’t that bad as airbike crashes go. Feld was able to control the spiral just long enough to spot a vacant lot to land in. As they approached it at a speed quite a bit north of comfortable, he closed his eyes and, at just the right moment, forced all the engine thrust forward to slow them down. It worked, kinda, but it wasn’t pretty. His last conscious thought before blacking out was flipping over the handle bars when the bike’s damaged control surfaces dug into the ground.
When he regained consciousness some time later, he found himself staring down the business end of a blaster. Sondra was nowhere in sight.