Debris was still falling down from the rickety ceiling above although neither the rubble nor the dust managed to pass through the shield.
The shield suddenly stopped moving, forcing me to stop before I walked into it. Footsteps behind me caused me to look back. I tensed up as a guard tackled my shield, but instead of sending me flying like an ordinary shield would have, the guard looked like he had hit a solid wall as the shield anchored itself to the floor. He slumped down with a groan while holding his shoulder.
The well-dressed men were shouting in alarm and bellowing commands as they desperately tried to regain control of the situation. Some of the guards were ignoring them as they left the room at a run.
The shield rippled slightly as it centered itself around me once more. I quickly closed the last of the distance between Ronan and me. Cynthia was huddling close to Ronan to stay inside his shield. She looked relieved but was still quite nervous about our predicament. Our shields rippled strangely as they started to overlap, and surprisingly, they merged to form a larger shield.
Ronan was watching the remaining guards unhappily as I walked up beside him. I commented, "Good timing."
He glanced at me with a disbelieving look. "I fail to see how you can count this as good timing."
I snorted slightly. "I try to remain optimistic when I can and you arrived before they shot at us. How about we leave this party before the police come and break it up?"
Ronan held up what looked like an odd phaser. "I am in full agreement with that idea. Let's go."
He started swiftly walking towards a different door than the one we had come through, and I walked beside him while Cynthia hid behind us. Another guard charged towards us, and Ronan leveled the weapon at the guard before firing. It didn't surprise me that Ronan's shot had no problems passing through our shield even though it protected us from their phaser strikes.
The guard dropped to the floor unconscious. Another rumble had more debris raining down onto our shields. Most of the guards didn't trust the building to remain standing at this point and were fleeing. A look back showed that the well-dressed men were also scattering to various exits as they realized the same thing.
Cynthia stumbled over some of the wreckage in our path, and I reached back to grab her elbow to support her. She quickly recovered, and we swiftly headed towards the next door. I debated about pulling out my Guide, but decided to leave the attacks to Ronan since his weapons were more precise.
We cautiously entered the next room, but the few guards or fighters that were present lost what little interest they had in us as yet another boom shook the building.
'Sheesh! At least leave the building standing until we are outside!'
"That one wasn't us. One of your gracious hosts set off a small bomb just outside. There is some fighting, but this group was clearly not prepared to face off against Starship technology."
Considering few people even knew what Starship technology was capable of, the outcome of this was pretty much a foregone conclusion... My steps hesitated as I realized that I had no idea how many people were around or where they all were. 'Are we safer inside or outside?'
"With your shields, that question is invalid. The hired fighters aren't putting up much of a resistance, and the backup forces are not encountering any real difficulty."
We were most of the way across the room at this point. 'What backup forces?'
"You will see them in about five seconds."
My eyes widened at that short notice. The door to the side was suddenly blown off of its hinges, and Cynthia tried to muffle her resulting scream. I tensed up, but immediately relaxed when I saw the Starship uniforms swiftly entering the room.
Two different colors of uniforms showed that crew members from both the Starsong and the Tobias formed the backup forces. Faint shimmers of numerous shields and the phasers in their hands showed they were ready for any potential trouble.
The cavalry had arrived.
I grinned when I saw David and went forward to greet him. It didn't overly surprise me to see the Starship Captain leading the way. I probably would have done the same thing considering the protection my shield gave me.
He headed straight for me, looking relieved to see me unharmed. I held out my hand as I greeted him. "You didn't tell me that you were coming to join the party as well."
He shook my hand with a warm welcome. "You really have to start telling us when you plan these events."
"It was a surprise party, and I didn't have any more warning than you did. Thanks for coming though."
He patted my shoulder companionably. "It is only fair since I know you would do the same for me. Let's vacate the premises before the docking station guards get brave enough to come blundering in."
Considering I didn't want attention from the locals, that suited me perfectly. "That sounds like a really good idea."
David nodded and turned around to walk out. I walked beside him as the others formed a loose group around us while watching for any trouble. Those from my crew were mostly off-duty Officers with a few others tagging along. Romeo towered over most in the group and was still earning a few glances from a couple of people in David's crew.
"There are three small passenger shuttles circling, and they will land when you get into an open area. Tobias rented them and is controlling them. David is aware of this."
I looked back at Cynthia, but most of her anxiety had disappeared now that she was surrounded by friends and allies. Ronan was close behind me and watching everything alertly, probably not taking any chances after having me disappear once on his watch already.
We exited the building into the fairly narrow streets. This was a different entrance than the one I had been escorted through the first time, and there wasn't enough room for a shuttle to land here. Dozens of unconscious men were sprawled on the ground, although none of them wore a Starship uniform. 'Did my interviewers escape?'
"One was already hit by a phaser and is unconscious. The others are running down the street and will shortly run right into the docking station guards who have circled this area. Gabriel managed to evade capture."
That old man was far too perceptive for my liking. 'Why did you get me to warn him?'
Starsong replied quietly, "It took a lot of effort to find all of the clues and piece them together. I destroyed most of the details that I did manage to find. Over the years, he has made a couple of rather nasty enemies who managed to find and kill almost all of his family. They missed his granddaughter though, and she is all he has left. She is actually one of the assistants in our Medical Bay. The Deviant group somehow learned of her and partially used that to make Gabriel help them. He heard many rumors of the rogue AIs, mostly from the Deviant group, and wanted to make sure she was safe."
Now I felt bad for the old man. I couldn't imagine losing all of my family to lawless ruffians. 'Does she know?'
"She knows she has a relative who loves her, and she is also aware that he keeps his distance for fear for her safety. I took a peek into her journal, and she really wants to meet him."
I thought for a moment. 'I really don't think we have seen the last of Gabriel...'
"Considering we know about his granddaughter, I can almost guarantee he will be back, even if only to find out how we discovered that knowledge."
Heavily armed men rounded the corner in front of us and aimed their weapons at us before lowering them. The docking station and city fighters had finally decided to put in an appearance. And they happened to be a few minutes too early for me to quietly sneak away...
The faint shimmer of our shields disappeared from sight. One man came forward, and the crew members in front of us moved to the sides to let him pass. The man was somewhat confused to see us here. "Our forces have circled the building and are starting to close in. Why are you here? Did they move the hostages?"
David walked forward a bit. "We are heading back because we are done. The two they had kidnapped actually met us on their way out."
The man was more than a bit skeptical. "They just let them go?"
At Starsong's prompting, I walked forward. "Hardly. It is really difficult to force a Starship Captain to do something they don't want to do, especially when the crew is ready to offer their full support."
The light above was blotted out and the very air rumbled faintly as a large spaceship appeared overhead, barely high enough to clear the buildings as it blocked the view of the sky. I recognized Astra and wasn't worried about her proximity.
Many of the non-Starship people were quite apprehensive though. Spaceships rarely came close to the ground since they were usually somewhat clumsy as they fought against gravity. No regular Captain would ever dare to bring their ship so close to a building either...
The man swore quietly under his breath before muttering, "That blasted ship is going to crash at this rate if it doesn't get to a higher altitude. When I get a hold of whatever maniac of a Captain is in charge of that ship, he or she is going to regret pulling such dangerous stunts."
A deep and drawn-out bass tone originated from the ship above as a warning. Astra was clearly not impressed with the threat. I wasn't even sure if she had a Captain yet...
"Not yet, but she will not put up with a potential threat to any future Captain."
I sighed slightly before tapping my communication device, intervening before the man unknowingly offended the Starships more. "Rachel to Starsong, can you please ask Astra to increase her altitude? She is scaring the locals..."
The deep hum increased slightly as the hovering Starship went somewhat higher into the sky. She doubled the distance between her and the ground before stopping her ascent.
Starsong mildly observed, "She is concerned for you and wants to make sure that anyone will think twice about attempting to harm you with her there. She would like nothing better than to use her tractor beam to lift all of you on board where she can guarantee your safety."
I found her concern touching, although the way she was showing it was a bit overboard in this scenario. David subtly rebuked the man, "That spaceship is a Starship. If I were in your shoes, I would skip your lecture this time since it is only happening due to the current situation. We have shuttles waiting on the main street, and the sooner we leave this area, the sooner the ship will return to orbit."
The man made a face but took a closer look at me. "Do you need any medical attention?"
I shook my head. "No, I am unharmed."
"What about the other person who was kidnapped?"
Cynthia stepped sideways to hide behind Ronan, and I understood her silent signal. "She was unharmed."
He sighed heavily. "That is good." He glanced uneasily skyward at the Starship that was somehow managing to hover in the exact same spot. "Continue on, then. We will complete a thorough check of the building, but I will need an official report from you by nightfall."
I detested such paperwork, but I wanted to leave this area more. "Very well."
He nodded and moved to the side as our group started moving forward once more. His men parted to let us pass before they continued to head in the direction we had come from. We rounded the corner to see a couple of small shuttles waiting for us.
"I have completed the paperwork for you already."
I smiled in relief, and my response was heartfelt. 'Thank you!'
I could feel his amusement across the mindlink as I headed towards the nearest shuttle. It was highly unusual for the authorities to just let someone go on their way when they had been kidnapped, but I suspected that he wanted the ship above to return to orbit. Perhaps he didn't want to argue with those around me. Either way, this was an adventure that I really didn't want to repeat.
"With the safeguards I will be putting in place for the other crew members, no one will ever be able to use their safety to force you to cooperate. There should never be a repeat of this scene."
I climbed into the shuttle. 'I am very glad to hear that.'
People crowded into the shuttles with no real organization that I could see. David sat beside me, while the rest of the crew members sat side-by-side regardless of which Starship they were from.
The shuttle's door closed, and it lifted into the air. I could see the other shuttles nearby through the windows as they angled to head straight towards the docking station. Tobias was breaking a few regulations by taking us that high, but I somehow doubted he overly cared. That was assuming Tobias wasn't tweaking the readings so the rental company was completely unaware of the broken rules.
Astra flew right above us as a rather unconventional escort. One that no one in their right mind would challenge...
* * * * *
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