Free Star Runners 2: Revelation Protocol by L E Thomas Page A

tunnel's floor.
    "Stay close to me!" Delmar whispered in front of him.
    After whispering to the voice in the darkness, Josh looked at his only companion for the first time. Delmar’s head was shaved, his ripped, white robes covered in a gray muck. The smuggler’s tall, lanky body moved like a living skeleton. 
    "We work together, and we survive this," he hissed.
    The group snaked through the dark tunnels lit only by crude flashlights. The guards hit stragglers with the butts of their rifles. Those unfortunate enough to trip and fall seemed to receive the worst treatment. Trying to block out the sounds of suffering, Josh kept his eyes on the back of Delmar's head. The spider-like object attached to him, leaving streaks of blood on his temple and neck.
    The tunnel opened into a large cave illuminated by fluorescent lights hanging from the rocky ceiling. A metal floor littered with spacecraft and scrap metal stretched for hundreds of yards. At least a dozen stolen Trident fighters had been parked in no discernable pattern, each fighter a desecrated memorial to a fallen Star Runner. Josh glanced to his left, then to his right, and gasped.
    The cavern opened on both sides to reveal an asteroid-packed star field. A massive hunk of rock spun slowly in his view. Beyond, asteroids stretched into infinity. So the Tyral Pirates hide in an asteroid field? He saw no nearby planet or moon of any kind, just the blackness of deep space. At least he was certain the pirates hadn’t taken him to another planet. However, how far had they transported him? Was he on the other side of the galaxy?
    "Move it!" a guard yelled, smacking Josh in the back of the head.
    A battered merchant freighter took up the majority of the makeshift hangar. Laser blasts scorched the hull. The base of the cavern had been covered with steel grates; some pirates dumped tools down into the second level. Enough space had been cleared to fit the freighter. Jagged cracks covered the freighter's hull, the metal blackened and burnt. A hole opened into the freighter near the bridge.
    That must be how they took the freighter, Josh thought. Just like they had with the Sabre. 
    Tyral Pirates swarmed around the freighter like ants. Josh saw no control tower or crew quarters from his vantage point at the base of the hangar. If he could send a distress signal somehow, perhaps he could limit his stay.
    "These passengers should be sorted," Rodon's voice hissed in his earpiece. "All able-bodied men and women will be sent with Tatos on the left of the hangar. The sick, elderly or otherwise useless will follow Simex on the right and be led to the airlock for release."
    Josh gazed off to his right. The airlock door was the size of a two-car garage. Rodon planned to force the innocent passengers in there to die. He clenched his teeth. He had to do something.
    "You are brave," Delmar whispered without turning around, "but ultimately foolish. Do you really think you could take them all?"
    Josh surveyed the hangar. At least twenty heavily armed guards stood in multiple locations throughout the hangar, all focusing on the line of prisoners.
    He leaned closer to Delmar. "We have to do something."
    "We are,” Delmar said. “We are surviving. We will stand, but today is not the day."
    The freighter’s cargo bay doors slid open. The first two passengers rushed out with steel crowbars cocked back in attack position, ready for battle. They yelled, unleashing the battle cry of civilians who had never been in a fight. A flurry of laser blasts ended the rebellion before it began, the guards laughing as they murdered the innocent. Josh winced and wanted to turn away, but remained focused on the grisly scene before him. The two doomed passengers fell to the hangar floor with a dozen candle-size fires burning on their bodies. The closest guard stepped over to the men and fired a shot into each man's head.
    The following passengers had no fight in them, their feet dragging on the floor as they