Energize (From the Logs of Daniel Quinn Book 1)

by Thomas R. Manning

  I didn’t so much turn my head as I just let it fall to one side then to the other so I could assess my situation. Everyone was on the ground. Chorta seemed to be breathing, but I looked at Horku for a moment and detected no movement whatsoever. Damn.

  Something grabbed at my leg. I tried lifting my head to see what it was but couldn’t. It slowly inched its way up towards my chest and each time it climbed higher, I felt five distinct joints. Fingers. Someone was pulling their way up to me.

  Jason. He lived, though I didn’t know how he could move.

  His face was slashed in multiple places, assumingly from the debris of rifle parts that flew at him when it blew up. The cybernetic implants on the side of his face and leading down to his shoulder were sparking, and I guessed offline. He couldn’t move his left hand which was mostly machine. Our eyes met, mine full of sorrow and his full of hatred.

  “Danny,” he spoke, but his tone of voice didn’t match with the look in his eyes. He sounded like he was reaching out to me, the real Jason.

  “Jason? Flux, can you hear me?”

  He didn’t answer me at first. His mouth looked like it was forcing itself shut, but he was still trying to talk. His face turned red as if he was putting intense pressure on his own head. When his mouth parted, it let out a gust of air as well as two words which weren’t articulated, but easily understood.

  “Kill me,” he begged.

  “What? You were trying to kill . . . Wait no. No! I won’t! Not a chance in hell!”

  “Danny” he groaned, his voice sounding more distance with every word. “I can’t control it. I’ll kill you. Please stop me. Kill me.”

  Flux. The EMP blast knocked him back to his old self, at least a part of him. His eyes kept that same look of hatred and his hand was close to wrapping around my throat for a third time. He was literally unable to control his own body. I couldn’t even imagine, couldn’t begin to process what a nightmare that would be. If I killed him, I would be ending his suffering and by his word saving my own life.

  But I couldn’t. I would die before murdering my best friend. I told him that or tried to through the tears and sobs.

  “I’m so sorry Danny,” he whispered to me. He tried to speak again but his mouth closed and his face simply . . . relaxed. The cyborg persona was taking back control. His hand rose, closed, and hammered down into my chest. The pain was intense. I coughed out violently, tasting blood in my mouth. He raised his hand again to throw down the final blow. I knew there was no way I’d survive another hit like that. A small part of me was okay with this being the end. All that my friend had been through on my account, I felt like I deserved it, but how would he feel? There was definitely a part of Jason still alive inside the monstrosity in front of me. I guess he would feel somewhat similar to how I felt now for what was done to him.

  A staff, Chorta’s staff, swiftly flew over top us, striking Jason in the head and knocking him off me. I breathed deep, my heart hammering against my chest. I really thought that was the end, but someone else changed my fate. A lavender colored hand reached out above me and I grasped it. I thought it was Chorta because of his weapon, but I looked up at the Dawnian that saved me and despite the immense pain I felt, I smiled and let out a small chuckle.

  “Laraar. That’s at least three times you saved my life. Thank you.”

  “No need,” he said returning the smile.

  “Is the ship okay? Where are Erebos and King? I saw her moments ago.”

  “Relax . . . a moment. Ship safe,” he said as he pointed into the forest behind me. “Humans in mountain . . . your status?”

  I was happy to be alive for the most part, but had a hard time bringing myself to look down at the mutated man I called my closest friend. Everything hurt and my two worst enemies were still alive. I shut my eyes hard, trying to push past the pain and despair.

  With my eyes shut I never saw her. I didn’t even hear her. Before I realized what was happening, Cessa had leapt behind Laraar, grabbed her sword from his back, and plunged it straight through his chest.

  “NO!” I heard myself screeching.

  I caught Laraar as he fell to the ground. There was no time for us to have a heart to heart. There was no time for me to thank him for everything he did for me. Laraar saved me from the mechanicals dogs, stood up for me during the blood price match, and saved me twice during the battle for Dawn. I owed him my life, but now I would never be able to repay him for all he did. Laraar looked frightened, but at the last moment his face relaxed and he breathed out one word.

  “Honored.”

  The whole world was a blur. The only thing in focus was Cessa, who wore a grin. A fluxing grin.

  “I promised him Daniel,” she said to me. “I promised that I would kill him for locking me up and taking my sword. I think I made you a similar promise.”

  She raised her sword to me, but I didn’t even give her a second to consider throwing it down. The fire inside of me turned into the deepest, richest flames, from the levels of hell itself. My teeth were gritting together so hard I was shocked they didn’t break. Every single muscle in my body tensed itself and the rage intensified with the power of hatred and vengeance.

  I pushed up off the ground, my pain irrelevant as I rammed my shoulder into her abdomen, knocking her off her feet. She landed gracefully enough and thrust the sword toward my stomach. I threw my right arm under hers and heaved up, redirecting the aim from my stomach to my shoulder. The blade cut right into my armor and I felt an extreme burning sensation. I didn’t care about the wound and besides the burn there was no additional pain. My anger and hatred smothered it. Cessa quickly spun her blade so the sharp edge was level with my neck. She made an attempt to make me a headless corpse, but I managed to throw up my left forearm blocking her. My armor held that time and I saw a moment’s hesitation in her eyes. She didn’t expect me to block that one so I used the millisecond to throw a right hook across her jaw.

  Cessa recovered from the hit quicker than I expected and tried to kick me right between the legs. I managed to get my hand low enough to catch her foot, but she used the opening I inadvertently created to throw her own punch. It landed and my cheekbone flared with pulsating pain. I stumbled backwards and she grasped the hilt of her sword with both hands, winding it up like a baseball bat ready to swing. I could almost hear her blade cutting through the air. I simply allowed myself to fall to the ground, the sword missing me by less than an inch. I’m fairly certain some of my hairs were sheared off.

  I landed on my ass but thrust my legs forward. The bottom of my boots connected with Cessa’s knees. She hunched over, screaming out, and I took the opportunity to grab the wrist of her sword hand. She fell on me trying to stab me in the face, but I tilted my head and the blade pierced the ground. I folded my legs in and Cessa landed on my knees, but she wasn’t there for long. I grunted and threw my legs back, sending Cessa tumbling over me. When I stood up both of our hands were touching the sword, but I had the leverage I needed and wrestled it away from her.

  I stood over her using her own sword to pin her to the ground. The point of the blade rested against her throat, and I wanted nothing more than to simply push it into her.

  “Do . . . it . . .” she rasped, her breaths labored like mine.

  I raised the sword up to strike, to kill her. I wanted to do it so badly. She deserved it. How ironic would it be if she were killed by her own sword, the same one she used to kill others? I looked into her eyes and a moment before striking I saw how wide and afraid they were. That wasn’t why I stopped myself though. It was the blood that stained her sword, the blood of my friend. I mentally pushed with all my strength to lock the aggressive emotions behind a door. I felt the fatigue and injuries the more I closed it.

  “I’m not . . . like you . . .” I replied. Blood ran down from my shoulder and dripped from my chin. I spit blood toward the ground.

  From behind the two of us that damn slow clapping sound had returned. I moved my body slightly around Cess
a so I still had her in my sight and could see Sarah King and Raymond Erebos returning from the cave in the mountain. My legs went numb. I managed to back away from the three of them and dropped beside Laraar’s body. I rested one hand on his chest and the sword across my lap. My lungs hated me right now, trying their best to keep oxygen flowing through my blood. My eyes were stinging from the tears and sweat. Now that I had calmed my emotions down my heart just wasn’t in this fight anymore. Too many people had died.

  “I have to say, when you get angry you are quite impressive,” King said to me. “I wish I knew this back when I framed you. Maybe I would have just experimented on you instead of your friend.”

  I looked at Jason, who was still unconscious. Other cyborgs and Dawnians were too.

  Erebos looked at me with a mixture of disdain and disappointment. His hands were folded together in front of his stomach. I almost laughed. Everyone else surrounding us was dirty, beaten, and bloodied, but these two fluxers looked like they just got here. Neither of them had a scratch or even a hair out of place.

  “Mr. Quinn, I can admire your valiant attempt to stop us, but ultimately it was futile. Now that you’ve run out of options I think it best you surrender. I will rescind my statement of killing you and you can serve in my employ. How does that sound?”

  In response I spit blood at his feet. He dropped his hands.

  “We have the empyreus, Quinn, and now we have you,” King said. “Now all I need is the A.I. program. Make no mistake, my soldiers are searching for your precious ship. They’ll find it and take it apart piece by piece.”

  Al. Stars above, I still had one more fluxing card to play.

  I reached down to my communicator, and my heart sank when I realized that I had been wearing it when I set off the EMP explosion. The device was useless now and I was out of options. Unless . . .

  I turned to Laraar, who still wore his translator. Technically since all devices were powered by empyreus, they should all be connected. That’s what Laraar told me anyway. I wouldn’t have time to test it without the two of them suspecting something. Even Cessa was beginning to catch her breath. She would be up in moments and assumingly would want her sword back. Over my dead body. I would only have one chance to do this.

  “Erebos, go to hell . . . and commander . . . you still have a problem looking right under your nose.” I quickly turned my head and all but threw myself on top of Laraar, screaming into his translator.

  “AL! BOOM!”

  It’s unbelievable the number of thoughts that can pass through your mind in no time at all. I couldn’t help but feel that if I put this plan into action a lot sooner, then maybe so many people wouldn’t have died. As they say, nobody is perfect, me least of all. I tried to do everything I could to save the Dawnians and protect their way of life, but in the end if they couldn’t keep control of the empyreus then no one would have it. I could only hope I would be forgiven and didn’t condemn their race when I placed the explosive cargo boxes Cessa packed on my ship within the mountain. I literally added fuel to the fire when I enhanced every one of them with empyreus. Now whatever job they had been meant for, whether it was exterminating the Dawnian race or just blowing up my ship didn’t matter.

  Because I just blew up the entire fluxing mountain.

  TWENTY ONE

  My entire state of being felt disconnected from my physical body. When I opened my good eye the entire area was shifting and moving. When I tried lifting my arm I saw the blurry outline of it in my vision, but I didn’t really register that I had moved it at all. If anything it seemed like my brain had a two or three second delay before any messages reached my limbs. Was it just my imagination or did the explosion totally screw me up?

  As the time differential between my brain and limbs balanced itself out I got to my feet, though it took a couple of attempts. Most of the world was still a total blur. The only thing I could hear was a high pitch noise passing from ear to ear, hammering the inside of my head in the process. I smelled nothing but smoke and fire.

  Though my eye was still trying to piece together everything it was seeing, one thing stood out right away and that was the lack of a giant mountain in front of me. Instead I saw large piles of rubble, rock, and crystal. Smoke rose into the sky, reminiscent of a mushroom cloud. Other people, both human and alien, were on the ground, some face down, some up. I knew in the back of my mind that Erebos, King, and Cessa were all there somewhere, but the first thing I did when I saw the mountain or lack thereof, was turn the other way and run. Well, I tried to run, but couldn’t so I stumbled forward step by step.

  Something in my path caught my foot and I fell face forward to the ground. I didn’t even realize I still held Cessa’s sword in my hand until I let it go when I fell. I quickly rolled over thinking whatever had tripped me was alive and waiting for me. My paranoia was on full alert, but as I looked at the body on the ground I saw Sarah King, unconscious. I kicked away from her and reached to grab the sword. That’s when I noticed something just under her shoulder. My ring. I slowly reached out moving my eyes from the ring to her face every couple of seconds. I imagined grabbing the ring only for her to awaken and lunge at me. I moved as fast as I could and managed to grab it. The rope I used to tie it around my neck was gone, but I didn’t care. I kissed the ring and closed it in my fist. I stood back up with the ring and sword, moving away from the area before anyone conscious found me.

  My sight and hearing slowly returned back to normal as I stumbled through the forest, though normal was sort of an exaggeration. My head pounded and my shoulder burned with pain. The cut still bled, though not as bad as before. My chest hurt, probably from the literal pounding that Jason gave me.

  I stopped for a moment, cursing myself that I didn’t look for him in the aftermath of the explosion. I almost turned to go back, but stopped myself. He wasn’t really Jason anymore, at least on the surface. If I went back and he regained consciousness, he could kill me and the enemy would still win despite the loss of the empyreus processing machine. I had to find my way back to the village. I hoped someone there was still alive to help me.

  Numerous times I tried to activate my bionic eye, but it was still offline. I wondered if it would ever come back online or if the power of the EMP was great enough that it damaged the circuitry beyond repair. I passed by a number of trees and large shrub-like plants, and took sight of something beautiful, something mesmerizing.

  The Kestrel Belle stood right in front of me.

  The bay door was open, and while I remembered that Laraar didn’t have full knowledge of the ship’s systems, I also remembered Sarah King had people out looking for it. For all I knew soldiers were onboard now. I proceeded slowly and as quietly as I could, though I grunted with each step I took.

  The bay itself was empty. I stopped and found myself looking at the area where Cessa’s damn boxes were previously placed. That’s when I heard a noise come from the corridor up the ladder. There was definitely someone here and they didn’t care to be quiet about it. I gripped the sword hard and moved forward, climbed the ladder, and peaked over the scaffold. I could hear voices, but I was too far away to discern what they were saying. Judging by the direction of the sound and the number of differentiating tones I guessed two of them were on my bridge.

  I walked through the corridor and saw nothing out of place. It seemed like they went straight for the bridge, presumably to look for Al’s mainframe. The door was closed but not latched, a small sliver of light showing through the gap. I proceeded with caution trying to be as quiet as I could. I peeked through the small opening and saw one guard on his knee, bending over to look at the circuitry and computer components under my navigational console. The panel had been broken and wires were dangling from the inside. The other guard sat in my chair, looking over my configuration for any signs of Al. The bastards were gutting my ship at its brain.

  Without thinking I smashed the door in, leapt forward, and grabbed the kneeling soldier from behind. Before he could say a
word, I placed the sword against his throat. The second soldier turned to find us locked together. His eyes widened. He opened his mouth to say something, but stopped as his eyes met mine.

  I could only imagine what I looked like right now. I assumed the sight the guard got was one of a beaten man, bruised and cut with blood on his suit. There was still blood on Cessa’s sword as well.

  “Do you have weapons?” I heard myself ask. Neither of them replied, so I applied a little more pressure to the soldier’s neck.

  “Do . . . you . . . have . . . weapons?” This time my voice sounded like an enraged animal. The soldier in my seat shuddered and he slowly drew his gun, a small plasma gun, standard weapon of the ESA infantry.

  “Drop it to the floor . . . now!” I screamed, and watched as he followed my order. The soldier acting as my hostage drew his weapon as well and quickly threw it on the floor. I tightened my hold on him and he cried out.

  “No! Please! I don’t want to die!”

  “Right then,” I said, not recognizing my voice, the force and anger mixed with fatigue. “This is how it’s going to work. The two of you will leave this ship without your weapons. You will not disobey me or put up a fight. If I sense deception in either of you, I will kill you both.”

  I’m pretty sure I meant it at the time, which is why I was slightly relieved when they ran out of the ship. I shut the door to the bridge and took a moment to breathe. I was alone. There was no Al. With my communicator deactivated I couldn’t contact him . . . unless I did so through the Belle itself!

  I jumped over to the communication console, cursing myself for moving too fast, which only made my body hurt worse and flood my mind with dizziness. I turned a couple of knobs and searched for Al’s signal. It took me less than a minute to find it.