Chapter 21
OLLIE TO THE RESCUE
“Roger! Roger!”
Roger lay still. Laser beams crossed in the corridor above him; some flashed only inches above his body. Tom knelt by the door. He could not enter the corridor or else he would get blown apart from a blaster or zapped by a taser. Tom tried to crawl on hands and knees to reach Roger, but the electric zap of tasers made him jerk back. He tried again, stretching as far as he could. Roger was still beyond reach. He felt desperate. Seeing Roger laying there was too much.
Something shoved past him, a brown and black blur. Ollie was in the hall.
“Ollie! Get out of there!” Tom was screaming at the top of his lungs. The roar of space weapons buried his words. “Ollie! No boy! Come here!”
Ollie clamped his powerful jaws around Roger’s space suit collar and tugged with all his might, the sinewy muscles of his half-wolf half–dog neck and shoulders straining against the man’s weight. The fallen cadet moved a few inches. Ollie tugged again, all four paws skidding on the slick polished floor.
A fury of laser and taser fire crossed back and forth in the corridor, filling it with blue and white streaks. Ollie ignored the danger and the noise as he tugged again and again at Roger’s limp body. Tom reached out, He could feel Ollie’s coarse fur, but he could not reach Roger. Tommy could almost feel Ollie's heart pounding. Ollie's effort brought up foam around his mouth- he was not a dog to quit. Another tug and Ollie was half way across the hall to the sick-bay. Tom could finally reach Roger. He grabbed Roger’s space suit and pulled as hard as he could. Roger was almost to the door.
“Come on Boy! Come on Ollie!"
Another arm reached beside Tom’s. The man with the burnt face blindly groped to find a hold. Tom could smell burnt hair. The man grabbed Roger's collar, and together they gave one more tug sliding Roger through the door. Lasers flashed on the floor where he was. Tom looked at Roger, he lay so still.
“Roger, please, don't be dead.” Tom couldn't lose the only real friend he had, he felt alone and helpless. Ollie licked Roger’s face. He knew something was wrong.
“Look.” A nurse pointed to Roger’s boots. The bottoms had holes burned in them. “Several tasers must have hit him at once.”
They lifted Roger onto a table. The Doctor tried for what seemed like hours to save him. Tom felt helpless, as his only friend might be dying.
Shouting and wild yelling came from the corridor. Pirates were charging up the hallway firing their weapons as they ran. They passed by the door like a foot race of black armored monsters. There seemed to be hundreds of them, they just keep running past. Ollie crouched, his fur was up, his head was low, he was ready.
Something filled the door, a man in black armor. Tom was shocked at his size; he was not just big he was wide. He had a blaster gun in one hand and a taser gun in the other
. “So this is the sick bay?” The thick voice was a rumble.
Doctor Johnson looked up from the table where Roger lay. We are non-combatants here.” He said. “We are unarmed. If you are wounded sit down and we’ll help you in turn.”
“No. Not wounded. Least not yet."
Ollie was crouching, his wolf nature was alert. His canine senses told him this human was a bad one. Ollie watched him closely, waiting. The pirate fired at the medical robots. They began to spark and smoke, wildly jerking as they crashed over. Smoke drifting up from holes burned in their torsos by the taser.
He pointed the blaster weapon at Tom.
(c) Adron
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