by Kal Spriggs
“Not even Anubus?” Mike asked.
Ariadne hesitated, then she gave a nod and because Mike seemed focused on his controls, she answered him out loud, “Yeah, even him. It’s not his fault he’s a Wrethe, and I think if I work with him long enough he might—”
“Not be an alien killing machine?” Mike finished for her. “I won’t hold my breath. Not because I don’t think you’ll try your hardest, but because I’ve seen his type, alien or human, before. Anubus cares about his own survival above anything else. He might open up a little bit, but when the chips are down, he’ll choose himself over anyone else.” Mike let her stew on that for a moment, “And how about Crowe, you think he’s a swell guy underneath it all?”
Ariadne kept quiet at that. Anubus had his upbringing and his alien nature as an excuse for his attitude. Eric, she had seen the pain in his eyes, someone or something had hurt him. She didn’t know what lay at the cause of it, but she could feel his emotional wounds. Crowe… he was just an asshole. Useful, but Ariadne had come to believe that he hurt other people because he liked to… and that he might be a true sociopath.
Mike did not speak further; he seemed to understand her silence.
They sat quietly for long minutes while Ariadne stared at the freighter and tried not to worry. She wished she could do something… “I’m an idiot.”
“Yeah, but what does that have to do with the price of tea in China?” Mike asked.
“I can help, I can scout out what’s happening there with my mental powers,” Ariadne said. Why had she not thought to do so? Granted, it held risk, but her friends had already put themselves at risk, why should she not follow suit?”
“Uh, you can do that?” Mike asked
“Yes, I can try to focus on the other ship. It’s difficult, not my strong point at all. But maybe I can see where their crew is and what they’re doing,” Ariadne said. “I just have to be careful not to join with one of the Chxor or if I do… well I need to avoid any kind of backlash from what they might feel or do. Oh and I don’t want to overstress myself, especially because this is something I haven’t really experimented with.”
“What happens if you do that?” Mike asked.
“Um, well, If I overstress myself I could pass out, or if I really push too much I suppose I could fry my brain,” Ariadne said, “Or if I get some kind of feedback, well, I’m not sure. Once I… had a connection with someone I killed and it nearly killed me.”
“I don’t think this is such a good idea,” Mike cautioned.
“Well, they might need my help,” Ariadne took a deep breath, “But don’t tell anyone I risked myself, please, I still don’t want them to know about my telepathic abilities.”
“Right, so if you keel over dead I should just tell them you had an aneurism?” Mike asked
“Yep,” Ariadne said. “Oh, and please don’t let Run cut my brain up, that would be gross.”
“Yeah, it would be a real mess,” Mike said. “When are you starting?”
Ariadne didn’t answer. She closed her eyes and focused. When she really felt calm, she opened her mind to the world around her. It felt similar to when she used her abilities to navigate, except she could actually see things, and she consciously noticed things. It seemed more difficult, and she could only sense a small area around her. She could sense everything around her, the bloodstains in the seat, the small insect that had made some sort of nest under the console. She could count Mike’s heart beats, which seemed to happen in slow motion. She could vaguely feel movement throughout the rest of the ship, but could feel no details. Slowly, she tried to expand that area of sensation, but it refused stubbornly.
Then she tried to move it. It shifted, almost without resistance and she slid it up out of the ship towards the other vessel. Darkness and silence immediately surrounded her. For a moment she panicked as she lost even the sound of her own heartbeat. The world simply vanished into complete darkness of the void.
Yet in that moment of panic, she felt something else. She could feel the energy of the void, the slight hum of vacuum’s energy, and beneath the surface of reality itself, she could taste something else. Without the interference of everything else… she could feel the fabric of Shadow Space.
Ariadne felt a moment of awe as she touched that boundary with her mind. She had never approached her sense of Shadow Space from this method before. It had always seemed a thing of intuition; something she unconsciously processed. To feel it like she did now, it seemed so much more than the realm of shadows that most considered it. She felt a sudden urge to dive deeper, to open her mind to that barrier and to taste the alien energy of that other universe.
Then she remembered her friends. Her desire to help them overrode her curiosity. She slid her consciousness further outward and then she felt the steel of a container at the edge of her senses. As she moved further, she found that her sphere of senses had contracted over the distance. More, she found that the details had faded.
Ariadne continued along the container until she reached where she felt the hull of the ship. Her mind sank through the steel, and then through the insulation, conduits, and wiring. They proved no barrier as she sank her mind deeper into the freighter. Finally, she came to what felt like a galley. She could sense a stove top and a meal heater. She also felt several Chxor. She could hear their conversation, and she could sense the edges of their minds, fuzzy with distance, but open and inviting.
A moment later, she felt a familiar mind sweep into the room.
She sensed Rastar enter, and then the reaction of the Chxor crew. Most went still, their minds frozen by the impossible intruder. One reacted quickly enough, however, to dive to the side.
She could hear and feel Rastar fire. The shots seemed muffled, as did the Chxor’s scream of agony. Ariadne sensed the other Chxor freeze, either frightened or aware that they would die if they challenged their attacker.
The situation seemed well in hand, so Ariadne sent her mind towards the aft of the ship. She could sense the hum and energy of the ship’s fusion reactor. As she approached it, she could feel the footsteps of two others. Her mind caught up to them, unfettered by the speed at which they ran. Her senses had grown less detailed, but the black shadow that raced down the corridor could only be Anubus. The other seemed to be another Chxor. She could feel both their hearts race as Anubus continued his pursuit.
The Chxor heartbeat picked up as he reached a closed hatch. Ariadne could hear his hands as they scrabbled to open the hatch. They rose to a crescendo as Anubus closed the gap. Ariadne felt Anubus’s lunge, and his mind seemed to blaze for a moment as his jaws closed on the back of the Chxor’s neck.
Ariadne tore her mind away, terrified that Anubus’s mind would draw her in. She went forward instead. Her awareness seemed to move slower now though, and she felt the details fade even more. Her bubble had contracted still further, she sensed details only a few meters in radius now.
Her mind found Eric and Simon as they pushed towards the bridge of the ship. They stopped outside a hatch, and Ariadne pushed her mind through. She sensed only one Chxor, his mind a still thing of order, like some clockwork machine.
Simon opened the hatch and Eric swept in, riot gun at the ready. The captain stood still, motionless and calm as Eric and Simon approached. Yet something was wrong. Ariadne could feel it, something about the Chxor captain’s calm put her on edge.
Even as she realized that, she felt her awareness start to fade entirely. She could taste the edges of his mind, though, and in a last push of effort, she dove into it.
She almost recoiled from what she found there. Inside the layers of angular logic and hard, emotionless decisions, she sensed a creature devoted to hate. The Chxor captain might not even realize it, but he built his life on that hate. A hate devoid of any kind of pity and long buried so deep that he could not know he held it. Hate drove every action in his life, however, a burning hate for those who gave into the emotions that he had long denied himself. A hate that fed on pain an
d cruelty to whatever other races came within his reach… and on whatever Chxor he found lacked a proper pattern of behavior.
Yet as she recoiled, she could sense his thoughts. She could taste his satisfaction, that even in his demise he would manage eliminate his killers. They will have time to see their death and give into emotions such as despair before they die, the pathetic lesser creatures they are, he thought.
His hand darted for the switch on the console. The switch which would initiate the program he had activated when he heard the first gunshot. The switch that would drop the radiation containment on the reactor and flood the ship with lethal radiation. It was the logical solution to the pirates who threatened him and the ship. The ship would continue to its rendezvous in orbit over Logan Two, the pirates would die from the radiation surge, and the majority of cargo would remain intact, along with the ship after a cleaning procedure.
“No!” Ariadne shouted. Her mind wrestled with that of the captain and for a moment, just a second, she had the strength, even over the distance, to hold his hand still.
In that moment, she shared his consciousness. She sensed him recoil from the emotions he felt from her, even as a part of him railed at what his society had denied him. She also saw through his eyes as Eric brought up his weapon. She and the Captain both stared down the barrel of the riot gun. “Eric, wait-” she spoke with the Chxor captain’s voice.
Eric squeezed the trigger.
Ariadne threw her mind away from the Chxor. She had become too deeply meshed with his mind though. She felt his mind vanish and the chaos of destruction nearly pulled her with it. Her thoughts shattered and she felt herself scream as thousands of metal darts screamed through the brain that she shared.
Then her world disappeared into blessed, painless darkness.
* * *
Ariadne came into awareness slowly. Her brain felt fuzzy, as if she had stuffed it with cotton. The inside of her head seemed to itch, as well. And she smelled something… it almost smelled like formaldehyde…
She sat up sharply, “Run, you will not put my brain in a jar!”
The little Chxor stood at the end of the table. He had a jar in hand and Ariadne could hear the liquid inside slosh. He peered at her, “I think that she is delusional. Clearly I could not fit her entire brain in this jar, only the pieces I find interesting after thorough investigation…”
Ariadne looked over at Mike, “I thought I asked you not to let him cut my head open?”
Mike shrugged, “He seemed pretty insistent. I told him to wait and see if you woke up. He has very patiently waited the entire time.”
“Well, except for when he offered to put you down like a wounded animal,” Eric said.
“Oh?” Ariadne looked down at Run. “Really?”
“Euthanasia is a viable method to reduce unnecessary pain, and would retain your brain for scientific research relatively intact,” Run informed her. “My personal preference for research has nothing to do with this matter.”
“Right…” Ariadne said. “I thought we agreed you would not conduct research on anyone without their permission.”
“When a being ceases to function it no longer has an identity or the ability to reason,” Run informed her. “Therefore it can neither give assent or deny the option-”
“Freaky mind reader chick woke up?” Crowe stuck his head in the galley for a moment. “Just as well, she has nothing worth stealing.”
Ariadne felt her heart stop. She looked over at Mike, “You told them.”
“Ah, here we go,” Mike said with a sigh. “I can honestly say I didn’t say a damned thing. You gave your secret away with the little trick with the Chxor Captain.”
“Which freaked me the hell out,” Eric said. “Especially after Mike docked and we figured out what you did. Thanks for that, by the way,” he said, “If he had finished his work, everyone aboard the ship would have died. You would have been safe enough, but you saved us.” Ariadne heard the discomfort in his voice as he spoke.
“I didn’t do anything you wouldn’t have done, if you had the chance,” Ariadne said.
Eric didn’t answer her, he looked away, almost as if he felt guilty or uncomfortable. Ariadne gave him a smile anyway, “Hey, don’t worry about it, okay?” She looked around, “Where’s everyone else?” She shifted her feet off the table and then stood. Her sense of balance felt off, and for a moment, the room spun around her.
“Rastar went to help transfer the refugees. Anubus has gone to oversee the transfer of ‘his’ gold,“Mike said. “I think Simon has started an inventory of the ship, and Pixel should have finished clearing out the remains of the trap that the Captain emplaced.” The pilot grimaced, “Though I understand he’s made a copy of it to study.”
“You never know when something like that will be useful,” Pixel said from the hatchway. “Hey there, Ariadne, glad to see you’re better. Neat trick there earlier, wish I could have seen it.”
“Thanks,” Ariadne said. “Honestly, I’ve never tried anything like that before, I’m just surprised it worked.”
“So, if you wanted to, could you push your mind out and set someone on fire from a distance?” Pixel asked. “You could be a great assassin, no one would ever figure it out.”
“Except for a policeman who happens to notice lots of smoldering corpses,” Simon said as he stepped into the galley. “Granted, it might be a little less suspicious than some other assassinations, but not much less.”
“I wouldn’t do something like that anyway,” Ariadne shuddered. “I could feel him die, and I think I very nearly went with him as he did. I’d prefer not to repeat that.” She looked over at Mike, eager to change the subject, “So what’s the news, did we get lucky and does the ship have a Shadow Space drive after all?”
“Nope,” Mike said. “But what little we’ve managed to translate suggests it has a scheduled cargo run to the industrial hub for the star system, and that we can expect enough shipping in the area that we can probably find a good one to hijack.”
“Well, I’m sure this will work out,” Ariadne said.
Eric shot her a glare, and she saw his face flush, “What’s wrong with you? You nearly died only a few hours ago, and now you’re certain we’ll all be okay? Well, things don’t always turn out that way.”
Ariadne gave him a smile, “Well, I didn’t die, and that’s reason enough for me to be happy. On top of that I managed to save the lives of my friends, which includes you.”
Eric scowled at her, “Right, whatever.” He looked over at Pixel, “Hey, you want to help me out with that project I mentioned earlier?”
Pixel shot a glance over at Simon, then chewed his lip, “Uh, sure.”
Ariadne looked between the pair of them. She wondered what project the former soldier and the engineer might have planned together. She figured she would drop in on them later, when she felt more certain she could walk without falling over. “Seems like there’s a bit more room on this ship, at least.”
“Until everyone else is aboard,” Mike grunted. “There’s a single crew bay, with bunks for about fifteen, and a small storage area we cleaned out where we’ll put the rest of the others. Our little team gets to share the officer’s quarters. Two sets of bunks and we’ll throw some padding in there so the rest of us can sleep on the floor.”
“What are we doing with the old boat?” Ariadne asked.
“Oh, I wondered if you could plot me a course,” Mike said. “It’s a bit tighter than the other ones, but I noticed something off the ship’s data logs, and I think that we can get a little bit of use out of the old girl.” He seemed inordinately happy about whatever he had planned.
Ariadne wondered at that, but she gave him a nod, “Sure, I’ll take a look at it. She took a step and the room swung slightly, “Later, though, I think. I should probably lie down.”
“You may suffer from brain damage. Euthanasia is still an option,” Run said. “This would prevent you from living a pain filled life as a mentally deficien
t. Also it would allow me to study your brain for science.”
“Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind,” Ariadne gave him a polite smile. “But right now I think I just need some rest.” She looked over at Mike, “I believe you mentioned some bunks?”
“I’ll show you the way,” Simon said. “It’s on the way to the bridge, and I wanted to look over the cargo manifests again.”
“Thanks,” Ariadne gave him a smile. She followed him out of the room, careful to take small steps. She had to pause when she reached the corridor. She felt exhausted, mentally and physically. “Who carried me over?” she asked.
“Oh, I did,” Simon said. He seemed suddenly uncomfortable. “I was going to put you in the captain’s quarters, but the others wanted you out where they could see you and make sure you were alright. Also, no one trusted Run with you somewhere out of sight.”
“I’m sure he wouldn’t do anything to me,” Ariadne said. She started walking again, though she kept one arm on the bulkhead to support her.
“If you say so,” Simon answered. He led the way past two other hatchways, “These two are both equipment and support machinery. Life support on the right and sensors and communications on the left.”
“Port and starboard,” Ariadne corrected.
“Right, shipboard terminology, I’ll have to pick that up,” Simon nodded. “Technical terms are pretty useful to know. You spend much time aboard ships?”
“Not really,” Ariadne said. “I sort of stumbled upon my navigation abilities after I got my pilot training…” she shot him a quick glance, “Well, I got my pilot training working for a smuggler from Tannis. He needed a shuttle pilot and he offered to pay me for it, which seemed better than remaining a penniless drifter at that point.”
Simon raised an eyebrow at that, but refrained from comment.
“I noticed that if I concentrated, I could, well… feel a course, so I tried it, did a little experimentation. Got a job on another smuggler ship as their navigator. That paid well enough that I got a nice savings put together. Then I a spacer I knew mentioned meeting a psychic who matched my brother’s description in the Cortona system. So I took my severance, bought a ticket, and rode as a passenger on the only cargo ship headed that way out of the Vega system.