Luke and Henri had reached the end of the hall. Henri reached over and pressed the stud to open the door. Looking cautiously around they slowly made their way toward the hall that would lead them to the next landing pad.
They arrived at a point where another hall met the one they were on and stopped for a minute to make sure no one was coming before they crossed.
Peeking around, Henri found himself nearly face to face with a squad of guards.
Startled, the guards hesitated. This was enough time for two veteran gunslingers. They drew their blasters and fired into the group of soldiers, the blasters' lethal red rays creating havoc. After dropping five they dashed down the hall, the sharp smell of ozone following them.
It took a few seconds for the squad to recover from their surprise and then they ran after Luke and Henri, their pounding boots echoing in the smoky hall.
Ahead, Luke and Henri had taken cover behind some barrels and fired. The soldiers hit the floor and returned fire but their poorly aimed laser bolts flew harmlessly past the retreating trader-turned-mercenaries. But then one of the laser beams hit a barrel, which exploded and ignited the rest.
Luke looked back at the ensuing inferno; "They just bought us some extra time to escape." He was breathing hard from the fight.
"Let's walk for a minute and catch our breaths," suggested Henri, turning toward the direction of the landing pad.
Arriving at the door to it, he pressed the opening stud. The door slid open revealing a medium sized transport.
"The ramp is down! Come on." Henri started running again.
Luke followed. Glancing back, he saw that the soldiers had arrived and were starting to fire. Crouching down he ran harder. He charged up the ramp as Henri hit the stud to close it. The ship was a type they knew so they wasted no time getting to the cockpit. The controls were also standard and they started the engines warming up.
"Luke, energize the shields so those jokers outside don't hit something vital."
When the engine warm-up light went out Henri slapped the main drive control. The large transport surged and groaned as Henri guided it as fast as he could away from the moon base.
"Hope they don't have a picket ship waiting to stop us." he remarked to Luke in the seat next to him.
A few minutes later they heard a sound and the door behind them slid open. Luke and Henri drew their blasters and pointed them at the blond figure in the doorway.
"What's going on here?!" the young man demanded.
"We are commandeering your ship." Henri stated bluntly.
"What?! Nobody commandeers Luke Owens ship!"
"What did you say your name was?" asked Wyllam lowering his blaster.
"Luke Owens," the boy replied a little confused.
"Not Uncle Owens 'The Time-Traveler', that disappeared at the end of the twentieth century?" Luke asked incredulously.
"I'm famous?" Luke Owens asked startled.
"No... Not really. The only reason I know you is because you are the relative I was named after."
"Really?!" exclaimed Luke Owens, "Wow!!"
By this time Anthony had arrived and they had to tell the story again.
"Do the history books say what ever happened to us?" wondered Anthony.
"Not that I remember," replied Wyllam.
"Wow!" Luke Owens said again, "So how did you guys get on this ship?"
"We were doing a job for some guy and it all went in a black hole." Henri explained, "So we had to 'liberate' someone's ship to escape the angry soldiers." He reached into his pocket, "Huh, we still have that chip with the plans for that product. Well, maybe they'll come in handy some day."
Copyright (c) 2000 by Jakim Friant. All rights reserved. No part of this document may be produced in full or in part without written permission.