She burst through the door, and this time the light didn’t burn so much. Oliver stood at the far end, his fish eyes wide as he watched her bring me in.
“What happened?” he asked as Chloe strode across the room toward a huge tank-looking thing that was eerily similar to the ones they’d been trapped inside on the Planet Breaker.
“I got her to teleport the ship out of the battle zone,” Chloe said.
Panic flashed across Oliver’s face, and as he opened his mouth to say something, she waved him off. While holding me upright with one hand, she reached out to the tube. Her fingers left a bloody scrawl across the keypad as she tried to input something into it while cursing like a sailor.
“You don’t know what you’re doing, Chloe. Let me do it,” Oliver snapped, shoving her out of the way. His hands flew over the keypad, and the lid of the tank opened like the shutter on an old SLR camera. Then the contents turned a deep burgundy color and began to bubble.
“Is it ready for me to put her in?” Chloe asked, already moving up the metal steps along the side of the tank.
“Yeah, just fit the air mask. I got it down here.” He gestured one hand toward what looked like a scuba regulator with a huge hose attached to the front.
“Did she tell you what she did?” Niko asked, and this time, as I turned toward her, I saw her perched on Morg’s arm.
“Yes,” Oliver growled as Chloe dumped me into the tank like a sack of dirty dishes. The liquid was strange because at first it sort of hardened, resisting my movement as it surged around me like thick mud. The next thing I noticed was the feel of it, almost because there wasn’t one.
I wasn’t sure how it was possible, but there was absolutely no temperature, no resistance, even as I sank up to my shoulders in the goop.
“I cannot believe you told her to do that without the pulsar crystals. She could have died,” Niko said, fluttering over as Chloe fit the mask over my face, and unlike the mud, it hurt so much, I screamed.
Only because I couldn’t really scream, all I succeeded doing was tearing my throat apart before I erupted into a fit of coughing. Then oxygen was flooding into my lungs, and I sucked in a breath that was like the first springtime kiss. Calm washed over me, and as Chloe released me and I sank below the surface of the liquid, I realized she was drenched in blood.
Was that all mine? It didn’t seem possible because there was so, so much of it. More than I thought I could ever have inside me, and that’s when it hit me. They were all mad at her because I’d teleported us, only that didn’t make any sense. She’d said I had all the power I’d needed, that the ship was just a focus.
“Mallory Quinn, are you okay?” Morg said, and as I turned toward the sound of his voice, I saw one of his huge hands pressed against the glass. I tried to nod, failed, and settled for trying to blink my eyelids.
That didn’t work either.
My response must have failed to properly convey the state of my being because the next thing I knew, he’d whirled on his feet and decked Chloe. The force of the blow threw her backward into one of the beds in the medical bay. It ripped from the floor in a shriek of steel as she toppled over it and hit the ground in a heap.
“Morg!” I tried to cry, but my voice was a muffled burst of bubbles, and as I tried to move, I felt Oliver’s voice enter my brain.
It hurt like a son of a bitch, but at the same time, I felt comfort radiating out from me.
“Thanks, Mallory,” Oliver said as Chloe launched herself to her feet, things writhing beneath her flesh as she settled her amber eyes on the big orc. “What you did… is impossible and incredibly brave.”
“What do you mean?” I tried to say, and even though I hadn’t spoken the words, he must have understood because I saw him smile beyond the glass while Morg made a “bring it” gesture.
“Moving the ship without the aid of the pulsar crystals requires so much power… it should have killed you. Doing that… making that sacrifice. It was noble.”
Was that why they were all so pissed? Because I’d done it? No… it wasn’t even that. They were mad because Chloe shouldn’t have asked me to— why?
The realization that she’d betrayed me, hit me hard. Rage welled up inside me as I watched Chloe visibly shake herself, hard. Then she turned and walked out the door without a word.
“I didn’t know,” I whispered, and as I said the words, I felt hot, tears slip down my face to fog the lenses of the mask I wore. “She didn’t tell me.”
“What?” Oliver said, suddenly confused.
“I’m not a hero. I wasn’t noble.” I tried to take a deep breath, coughed instead, and felt three inches small. “She told me I could do it. That I didn’t need the pulsar crystals. She lied to me, and that’s why I tried. If I’d known…”
“Jesus,” Oliver said, and this time it was weird because I heard him with my ears. Stranger still, was how Morg and Niko turned to look at him.
“What?” Niko asked, fluttering over to the tank and looking at a screen beside it with a bunch of symbols I couldn’t decipher.
“Chloe didn’t tell her she could die,” Oliver said, gesturing lamely at me. “She didn’t even bring it up. Said she could do it without the crystals…”
“It doesn’t matter,” Morg said, moving forward and pushing Oliver out of his way. “Mallory Quinn is brave. She’d have made the sacrifice, anyway.”
I wanted to object, to tell him he was wrong, that I was a broken, selfish thing, but before I could, Morg pressed something on the control panel, and everything turned to static.
17
I awoke to find Morg sitting in a cheap folding chair in front of my tank. His eyes were closed. His chin lay against his chest as a thin trail of drool leaked from the corner of his mouth and onto his armor, leaving a glistening smear.
Had he been there the whole time? What’s more, how long had I been in the tank? I wasn’t sure since I wasn’t wearing a watch or anything, nor could I exactly see sunlight streaming through the windows because, you know, I was in a starship.
Amazingly, I felt better than I had in a long time. As I sucked a breath through the apparatus attached to my face like an alien face hugger, I marveled at how easy it was to breathe. Normally, when I woke up, I was all sorts of gross what with the phlegm and whatnot at the back of my throat.
I felt none of those things, and what’s more, as I reached up to touch the glass, I realized I didn’t hurt. At all. Now, okay, this might not sound like much since I’d literally been coughing up the inside of my lungs, but let me just say that I was old. As such, I had aches and pains I’d grown accustomed to over the years. I hurt in places I didn’t even know I could hurt, and my left knee was prone to popping if I sat still too long.
Only none of that bothered me. It was amazing. And crazy, and sort of scary. What the hell was this goop, and where could I get some?
As my fingers touched the glass, the little display to my left beeped, and a light over my tank flashed from pink to green.
Instinctively, I cringed away from the light and sound, and as I did, Morg yawned, his eyes fluttering open. He wiped his mouth with the back of one hand before stretching his arms upward into the air while straightening his legs.
He made a weird slurping sound like he was sucking on his tusks before turning his eyes on me. I tried to smile back at him, realized I was wearing a contraption that hid my face, and blushed.
“I am glad you have awakened,” Morg said, getting to his feet and coming toward the tank. “It would displease me if you died in such a manner.” He pressed something on the control panel, and a drain opened in the ground beneath my feet. “You are a great warrior, and as such, deserve to die thrashing on the field of battle.” He snorted as the goop drained away, leaving me cold in the naked air. “Not like this.” He gestured at the surroundings.
“Thanks for your concern,” I muttered, only it came out more like, “Mmph, mmmph, mmph,” thanks to the doohickey in my mouth.
He grinned at
me. “I’m glad you agree.” The tank’s lid opened, revealing the fluorescent glow of the ship’s interior light, and I realized that without the goop, how harsh of a glow it was. Instinctively, I raised my hand to cover my eyes, but as I did, the mask on my face began to whir.
“What the fuck?” I cried, reaching up to grab it right before the whole thing retracted from my face like some kind of mechanical spider and slid into the ceiling. I stood there, barely able to process what happened as Morg climbed the stairs to the left of the tank and offered me a hand.
“I’m guessing you’ve never been in a regeneration tank before,” Morg said, taking my hand and hauling me effortlessly out of the tank. It probably would have hurt if he’d barehanded me, but instead, the ground beneath me moved along with his effort like one of those self-assisting dip bars.
“No, I haven’t had the pleasure, but I’m definitely going to try it more often. It makes mudding seem like a little bitch in comparison.” I let him help me onto the stairs, and he looked at me for a long moment before brushing the hair from my face. The gesture stunned me so much, I actually stood there and let him do it.
“I’m not familiar with mudding,” he said with a shrug before taking a step down the stairs, and waiting for me to move like he was afraid I might topple over. “But I have spent many moons inside a regeneration tank.” He touched a bare spot on his cheek. “I used to have more scars, but alas…”
“Wait, you mean it heals scars?” I asked, suddenly wanting to tear off my skintight bodysuit and check my old appendix scar because if that was gone hello bikini.
“Unfortunately, yes.” He waved his free hand. “I do not understand the technology exactly, so I couldn’t explain it to you.” He shrugged.
“That’s okay,” I said as we reached the bottom stair, and the orc stood there holding my hand. I wasn’t sure if he felt awkward, but as I gazed at his huge green hand engulfing my own, I felt ten kinds of awkward. It was silly since he was a fucking orc, but yeah, I really don’t have more than that.
“Come,” he said, turning toward the far door and taking a step forward. When I didn’t immediately move, he practically dragged me off my feet.
“Where are we going, and where are the others,” I asked, stumbling along behind him. With each step I took, I felt better than I had before, which seemed crazy because of how good I felt, but something was definitely off. Not with the crazy healing, but with the whole situation.
I mean, okay. I knew Chloe had tricked me into nearly splatting myself to get us out of there, so maybe that’s why she wasn’t here, but why was Morg the one?
“They are on the bridge deciding what to do.” Morg released me as he turned to stare hard at me. Then, very slowly, he smashed his fist into his palm. “It is annoying, so I left to keep you company.”
“That was awfully nice of you,” I said, nodding to him. “So are we going to the bridge?”
“It is the least I could do for my future mate.” I’m not sure what the look on my face was, exactly, but he started laughing at me and punched me on the shoulder. “I kid.”
“Okay…” I said, watching him stand there in his armor as he dropped his hand to his side. “That doesn’t answer my other question.”
“We can go to the bridge, but it is pointless. They wish to wait until the pulsar crystals recharge and have you jump to earth.” He waved a hand. “That is a stupid idea.”
“Why is it a stupid idea?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at him. “Because, I’ll be honest, I really like that idea.”
“And what will you do once you are on Earth, Mallory Quinn?” He released my hand and rubbed his chin with one stubby finger. “What exactly? Sure, your people will inform the Federation about Vah, but that will not save them. Vah is coming, and he will suck all the life from the universe. That cannot be stopped by the Earth.”
“Vah got stopped before,” I said, suddenly defensive. I crossed my arms over my chest.
“Well, unless you’re willing to absorb Vah into your body and teleport yourself into the sun, there’s literally no way you can stop Vah.” He shrugged. “I’m guessing they are going to go back to Earth to try to find someone to do it. They will or will not, but I doubt it will matter.”
“Ignoring how crazy that whole leaping into the sun thing sounds, why won’t it matter?” I asked, trying to do as I’d said. If what he said was true, the only reason they’d won was because whoever had fought Vah and let the body-snatching douchebag hitch a ride inside them before they’d leapt into a star. That was insane, and sort of sad when you thought about it because Vah had lived.
“It didn’t work the first time.” Morg mimicked me, crossing his arms over his chest. “It will work even less well the second time. Besides, we will never scramble a fleet in time.”
“In time for what?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at the orc. “I feel like I’ve missed a lot while I was in the tank.” I turned and gestured to the regeneration chamber.
“You have, and it is why I ask you to do something for me, Mallory Quinn.” He nodded to me.
“What’s that?” I asked, trying to ignore the urgency in his voice.
“You must trust me,” he touched his chest with one hand. “I know how to stop Vah, but only if we go now.”
“I do trust you,” I said, and as I said the words, I realized I did. I couldn’t have even explained why because I didn’t trust anyone, but Morg was decidedly simple. And he hadn’t tricked me into teleporting the ship and practically killing myself. “But I need you to explain yourself right now.”
“The Pulsar crystals have enough power to get us to Conqueror’s Wharf,” he paused, looking at me, and when I didn’t respond, he sighed before continuing. “It is my home planet, and third in line to the center of the orcish cluster.” As I blinked dumbly at him, he waved a hand. “Firstly, if we go there, it will give the Federation more time to scramble a fleet because they will get the message earlier. Secondly, and more importantly, is that there is something on my home world which can defeat Vah.”
“How is that even remotely fucking possible?” I snapped, glaring at him because I could hardly believe this. It seemed incredibly convenient that he had a weapon to stop Vah, and after what Chloe had done, I wasn’t sure I was ready to trust him. Then again, he hadn’t done anything to make me not trust him…
“My race is an old people. We have many things we do not reveal to the outside world,” Morg said, shrugging his shoulders. “One of those things can help us.”
“I get what you want. You want me to take you home while Vah heads to Earth so he can suck the life off it or whatever. Only, I’m guessing you proposed this to the crew, and they told you to fuck off.”
“They refused because they do not see as I do,” the orc said, nodding at me. “But you are smarter than them. You will see.”
“If your people could stop Vah, they would have done it already.” I gestured all around me. “He isn’t dead. Don’t know if you noticed.”
“You make an excellent point,” he said, but as I moved to take a step past him, he grabbed my arm. There was so much strength in it, I knew he could hold me there with ease. “But you are not listening. Let me explain, and if at the end of my tale, you do not agree, I will let you go to your death on your home world.”
I stared at him for a long time. Too long probably, but in the end, I believed him. If I listened and thought he was insane, well, he would let me go. Besides, the pulsar crystals weren’t charged enough to go home, and after last time, there was no way I was doing shit without them. I had time.
“Okay,” I said, nodding to Morg. “Tell me everything. From the beginning.”
18
“Very well, Mallory Quinn.” Morg nodded to me. “I shall reveal all.”
“That would be fan-fucking-tastic,” I said, staring at the orc as he shifted uncomfortably.
“This is not easy for me to speak of,” he added before clearing his throat and looking down the corridor to his le
ft like he expected to see someone there. When he was satisfied the coast was clear, he reached out and touched my forehead with his thumb.
There was a shard pop, and my feet wobbled beneath me. I reached out instinctively for something to catch my balance, and as I did, Morg seized my wrist. His grip was calm and comforting, and as he held onto me, the scenery vanished in a swirl of color before reforming like a jigsaw puzzle spread out before me.
In seconds we were standing on a plateau overlooking a dense jungle. The twin suns overhead burned, and the smell of wet mud and insects was thick in my nostrils.
“What the fuck is going on?” I cried, whirling on the orc and raising my fists to beat him to a pulp.
“This is not real. I am merely showing you one of my clan’s memories in the same way it was passed down to me.” He pointed past me off into the jungle. “Those are the Jungles of the Bloodgulch where the dark arts were practiced some thousands of years ago.”
As he spoke, time seemed to rewind itself as the sun and moon whirled backward through the sky at incredible speed. As it happened, the jungle before me grew ever more decayed and broken until we were staring at a charred wasteland.
Animal bones littered the scorched earth and lightning leapt from the blackened sky. Amidst the brewing chaos, rivers of molten magma poured from the earth like cankerous sores, turning the air sulfurous and ashen.
“What happened?” I murmured, taking the orc at his word that this was some weird memory share, and instead deciding to go with it. He had promised, after all.
“What you saw is how it looks now after many generations of sacrifice and care. It was not always this way.” He moved forward, stepping off the edge of the cliff and moving forward through the air like it was solid, and it was only then that I noticed a golden tether linking my forehead to his own.
It stretched like an elastic band as he moved away, and for a second, I worried it would snap, but he stopped before too long and looked back at me.
Planet Breaker: A Supernatural Space Opera (Witching on a Starship Book 2) Page 9