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“Let’s get going,” I said, bringing back the somber mood we needed to push through the next few minutes. “Leave her.”
“I can’t leave her.”
“We can't take her with us, she’s too frail.”
“Then I need to get her to safety!”
“Hey, guys,” Isa interrupted. “Do either of you smell that?”
Amber turned to me with eyes the size of saucers. “Smoke!”
She turned and ran, with me hot on her heels. This time, I didn't hold back. I put my full Vinduthi speed to work and sped down the hall towards the smell. Finally, we rounded a corner and saw the depths of Conii’s madness.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I yelled through the black fog. “Are you trying to kill everyone on this station?”
I looked up and saw her standing over a trash can fire. Her eyes were streaming red. The Nazok woman was little more than a foe to me, but her desperation stood out a mile as she huddled over her last stand.
“I don’t care!” she yelled. Amber looked over at me, as scared as I was. A fire left unattended on Thodos meant the end of Thodos. Every last soul would perish if we didn’t stop it, and soon.
Amber tried the calm approach. “Now, Conii. I’m sure we can talk about this.”
“There’s nothing to talk about,” she screamed. “Come any closer and I’ll douse this shit with the O2 line.”
Panic set in as I saw what she meant. Conii wasn't just getting rid of the data crystals and other evidence over a trash can fire. She’d hacked into the station mainframe and found an oxygen line. She held a rubber hose in one hand, ready to throw it into the flames. If she did, the blast from this station would be seen across the galaxy.
The data crystals popped and sparked as they burned. They were highly flammable and would burn even more brightly when given a supply of oxygen.
“Back up! I mean it. Don't come any closer!” she screamed as I tried to shuffle my way further into the scene.
“I’ll give you whatever you want,” I tried to offer her. This was a crisis, and it called for a level head. I could be one when I needed to. It was time to do what I knew best and chameleon us out of this mess. After all, I had just met the girl. The girl.
Mine.
I wasn't about to see her blown to smithereens.
“There has to be something you want, something I can get you,” I said, my arms out, trying to soothe her.
“The Vinduthi took everything from me. How can you replace what you have already destroyed?”
“Maybe we can find a way.” The intensity of the heat rose. We were running out of options.
“Can you bring him back to life, then? My only son?” She screamed, hurling more papers into the blaze. Well, hell.
Amber’s eyes filled with panic. I had a matter of minutes before the room would be consumed by the flames.
“Ryrik,” Amber yelled over the growing roar. “I hope you’ve got a plan for this.”
“He doesn't have a plan! He does not have anything. All these Vinduthi are hollow, heartless freaks!”
“The fuck they are,” Amber said with real anger in her voice.
“They killed my boy. My husband. Back in the war, you Vinduthi took him out, and slashed his throat like he was nothing.”
“You’re wrong!” Amber argued, cutting the madwoman off. “There’s a hell of a lot more to them than that. More than you’ll ever know.”
“Amber,” I said, trying to gain her attention away from the spar. “S.O.S.”
She ignored me. “And another thing. If he was in the war, how can you blame the Vinduthi for what happened? That’s what makes it war, you know.”
