“Yeah. You spoke earlier about witchcraft. Can you tell me how it works? I’m wondering if there is something that we can use against Alloprize.” I nodded at the red dots on the map.
“Hmmm. I do not know if I can help much, but I will explain how they work.”
“Oh shit, I’m kind of excited,” Z said as she flopped into one of the gunner chairs beside the holographic map platform.
“You know I can read surface thoughts,” Eve began.
“How deep can you go? How does it work?” I pressed.
“It depends on the individual and their mental fortitude. I cannot enter their brain and know everything about them and every thought they have ever had. But minds wander, and I can follow the paths they take. For example, I could not immediately know someone’s middle name, or where they were from, but if I asked them, they’d likely think of the true answer before speaking, even if they chose to lie, so I could read that thought. One could thwart my powers by consciously focusing their thoughts on something else, but since most do not understand that I even possess this power, let alone how it works, this does not happen.”
“Did you read the thoughts of the prisoners?” I asked.
“Yes, but I learned nothing we do not already know. They are low ranking members of the corporation’s army.” Eve shrugged.
“Alright. What other powers do you have?” I asked.
“You know about this,” she said as she let go of her water glass. It didn’t fall to the ground though. Instead, it floated in the air in front of the woman, and she lowered her arm.
“Shit,” Z whistled.
“I have fed recently. This feels easy,” Eve said as the glass spun in the air. The water poured out and formed a bubble as if there was no gravity on the bridge. “Although it is easier when the object is solid. Liquid is somewhat taxing because I have to move all sides of it.” As the woman spoke, the glass lowered to scoop up the water, then it turned right side up, and she reached her hand out to hold it.
“How much can you lift like that?” Z asked.
“The more mass, the harder. The velocity of the object also matters,” Eve answered, and a small smiled came to her lips.
“Whoa!” Z gasped as she floated out of her seat. The blonde woman waved her hands through the air and then let out a laugh. I laughed a bit at the look on her face, but then I felt my own feet leave the ground.
“I can also prevent someone from moving and speaking.” I felt every muscle in my body seize, and I recalled when she had paralyzed me in the alleyway after I had killed the pimp on Trappist - 1e.
“That felt crazy. I couldn’t move,” Z gasped after we both floated to the ground.
“It is taxing to initiate, and I can’t do much else but focus on holding someone like that. Perhaps I will grow in power and be able to do it easier.” The vampire shrugged.
“Fuck. Eve, whatever you just did to me was all sorts of scary. I am really glad we are friends. Have I told you today you are my friend? I’m actually upgrading you to ‘best friend’ status. Sorry, Adam.” Z smiled uncharacteristically large and nodded at Eve and wiggled her eyebrows.
“I understand your feelings, Z. I love our friendship as well.” Eve returned the blonde woman’s smile.
“What about the fire?” I asked.
“This?” Eve asked as she held out the palm of her hand. A swirl of magical red fire appeared there, and the entire bridge was lit with a dark red glow.
“That,” I said as I raised a hand to shield some of the glare from my eyes.
“On the shuttle, I told you it wasn’t real,” she said.
“It feels real enough to me. How are you holding it?” I asked. The air around her felt like it was fifty degrees Celsius, and sweat was beginning to drip down my forehead.
“It is an illusion,” Eve said as she held her hand out. The fire dripped from her hand like lava and then began to spread across the floor.
“What are you doing?” Z gasped. “You are burning--”
“No, you just imagine it,” Eve said as she turned her hands back upward to hold the flame.
“Then Cynthia’s men on the shuttle earlier weren’t burned,” I stated.
“No.” Eve smiled and then looked at Z. “Much as you hack computers, I have hacked your minds. You see fire and feel the heat. If I were to throw this at you, your mind would even believe you are burning, but it is not real.”
“I don’t believe you. I can feel the heat coming from--”
“Do you trust me?” Eve asked Z. “You said that we are best friends. Do you believe I would hurt you?”
“Uhhh, no?” Z asked as she stood. “But I have a feeling you are about to ask me to--”
“Hold out your hand.”
“Oh, fuck no.”
“It won’t damage you.” Eve shrugged. “I don’t want to hurt you. This will be the best way for you to believe.”
“I feel like I’m going to be really sorry about this,” Z said as she held out her hand with her palm up.
“Hold it,” Eve said as she turned her fist over and poured the burning flame into the hacker’s hand.
Even though I knew that the fire hadn’t burned the inside of the shuttle, and I trusted Eve with my life, I still felt my heart jump into my chest when the fire engulfed Z.
And I panicked when the young woman started to scream.
“Nooooo!” Z’s voice was a piercing cry that shot through my skull and tore through my heart. The woman fell to her knees and her mouth opened with an anguished horror. I jumped to her side and moved to try to bat the flame away from her, but as soon as my hands moved to her arms, the angry red flame vanished.
“Fucking shit. Holy crap,” Z gasped, and I ran the tips of my fingers over her forearm. There was no damage to her skin or the suit she wore, and I would have sworn that I saw the flame peel the flesh from her bones.
“It isn’t real,” Eve said.
“You said it wouldn’t hurt!” Z shot an angry glance at the vampire woman.
“No, I said I won’t damage you. The pain was real because your mind was convinced.” The vampire woman shrugged.
“Damn. I ahh, I can’t tell you how good it feels to have the pain gone. Wow. I can’t believe it wasn’t real. It felt horrible. I couldn’t think of anything besides the pain. How does it work?” Z asked as she stared at her arm again and wiggled her fingers.
“I can only make a few feel the agony of the fire. The rest around me see, hear, and feel the flames but don’t have pain. This is only the third time I have used the ability. I actually thought about it when I was in the shuttle with Cynthia’s men. I wanted to distract all of them, so this was the illusion I came up with. Some of my powers are still in their infancy, so I cannot target them that well.”
“Still in their infancy? You mean you’ll get more powerful?” Z asked, and I could hear the twinge of fear in her question.
“Yes. If I continue to drink blood, but don’t worry. You are safe from me. I want to help people. You know that I do.”
“Yeah, okay. Just, shit. This is fucking crazy. You’re like a vampire-psychic-sorceress-witch. What else can you do?” Z asked.
“I can attack minds directly and destroy them, but it takes all of my energy.”
“What do you mean by ‘attacking minds directly’? Like mind bullets or something?” Z chuckled.
“Hmmm, yes. I suppose it is kind of like that. I have only done it once though, and it was right before Adam arrived to save me.”
“It was?” I asked.
“Yes. I felt you from the atmosphere. I knew you were coming for me and my soul rejoiced. As soon as you and your fellow prisoners landed on the building that was my prison, my jailers came to move me. I used almost all of my strength to kill them. I fell unconscious afterward, but then I awoke when you made it to the door of my vault. I had almost nothing left to give you, but I freed you from your collar and bounced back the grenade so that we could live. You did the rest of the work to
free us.”
“I don’t remember seeing any bodies in the room where you were. It was just destroyed computer equipment and tubes.”
“I believe you were distracted.” Eve smiled at me, and I laughed a bit.
“Yeah. You were rather naked.”
“You could feel Adam coming toward the building?” Z asked. “How does that work?”
“That is the other power I have. I can sense life around us. I did not feel anything coming from the crates we were supposed to deliver, so I thought they were safe. I did not consider robots.”
“Is there a range or something on that power?” Z asked.
“I feel as if it is about eighty meters, but I have not measured it. Also seems to relate to the person or life force. If it burns brightly, then I will feel them easier.”
“Is that why you felt Adam from so far away?” the blonde hacker asked.
“Yes, it was also why I know where you are all the time in Persephone. You are a kindred spirit.” Eve smiled at the other woman.
“Is that also why you talk about Persephone as if she is alive?” I asked. It was common practice to refer to a ship as a woman and refer to her as if she was alive, but Eve seemed to have taken that a step farther.
“Yes, she is alive. She is another kindred spirit. I can feel her emotions. She is happy that we are on her. She feels love for all of us, especially Adam.”
“Me?” I chuckled.
“Yes. She--”
“Have you always been like this?” Z interrupted Eve. “Have you had these powers since you were a child? Or was this something they did to you?”
“That is a long story. Perhaps better suited for another time. The short answer is ‘somewhat.’ I had always been good with animals. I could tell what they felt, and when I spoke to them, they listened to me. Then I started to hear a little of what others thought. Then I began to be able to move small things through the air.” Eve sighed and closed her eyes. “I was always considered a monster at school. No one wanted to be my friend, not even my family. I came to love books, and stories of great heroes. I wanted to be like them and help people even though none seemed to like me.”
Eve opened her eyes, and they were filled with pain. ”Then the men came for me, and I knew only the pain of their experiments, and of anger and loneliness. That time seemed to last forever, but one day I prayed for a chance to be a heroine to others. I asked for my freedom and promised I would serve. Perhaps I should have given up, but I had a hope that someone would answer my prayers. I feel that I have been put into existence, and given these powers, for a reason. They could be for evil or good. I do not know if there is a higher power in this universe, but I promised myself, and what creator there might be, that I would do good.”
Eve looked at me and smiled, then her red eyes settled on Z. “Here we are, and I am thankful every moment for my freedom. I will not go back on my promise, and I know neither of you will either.”
I thought about the young girl bullied at school because she was different, and I felt my anger radiate from my stomach. Eve probably could have hurt them all with her powers, and she had every reason to be the monster that they feared, but despite the world shitting on her, she still wanted to help as many people as she could.
“I’ve finished talking to the prisoners again, and I chatted with my men. I haven’t come up with a new idea,” Jatal said as he stepped back onto the bridge. He was a handsome man, but the lack of food and endless nights of worry made him seem thirty years older than he probably was.
“We need a secret weapon. Something that will fuck these assholes up enough for us to get to the missile launchers and disable them,” Z said. “I really need to finish reading Persephone's guide. I know she has some alien tech or something onboard.”
“Alien?” I asked her as I raised my eyebrow.
“Well, maybe not, but there are a lot of secrets onboard this ship, and I feel like we aren’t even close to figuring out what she was intended for.”
I looked at Eve, and our eyes met.
She read my thoughts, and her eyes widened with surprise.
“I am not sure if that will work, but I am willing to try. Ask Jatal,” Eve said.
“Huh?” The blue-eyed man looked puzzled.
“Oh, don’t worry. You didn’t miss anything. They do that all the time.” Z chuckled.
“Jatal, do you know this location?” I asked him as I gestured on the map. The image of the moon moved away from Alloprize’s location and centered on the spot where Z and my pod had crashed. “There is a ravine over here, and it looks as if there used to be mining operations. There is a platform, and a cave, but no real equipment.”
“Man, that’s an old area. My grandfather told me stories of some of the first settlers working there. They gave up the spot.”
“Why did they give it up?” I asked.
“Cave worms. Or so they said.”
“What are cave worms?” Z asked as she leaned over the back of the gunner chair.
“They are the native creatures of the planet. About two or three meters wide and maybe nine or ten meters long. They look like pictures of Earth caterpillars, only they have a bunch of claws on their sides, and a maw that is made for crushing rock. Seems they lived deep in the moon and survived on oxygen coming from the core.”
“Seriously? An alien? You’ve seen them?” Eve asked.
“Well, no. I don’t know anyone who has actually seen one alive. Grandfather said his uncle had seen one though. Swore it was one of the scariest things he could have imagined, and he lost sleep for years because of the nightmares.”
“So they never attack people?” I asked.
“Not that I’ve heard of. We’ve found scratches on walls, and fossilized remains, so I know they exist on the moon, but I’ve never seen one, and we find plenty of rhodium without going into that area, so we leave it alone.”
“Hmmm,” I said as I looked to Eve.
“Let us try. Perhaps we will not find one, but if we do, and they are as large as Jatal says they are, they could be of help.”
“What are you saying? You are going to find cave worms to help take out Alloprize?” Jatal was trying his best to be polite, but his face showed his emotions clearly enough. The guy thought we were all sorts of crazy.
We probably were.
“That’s the plan,” I said, “but first we have to find one.” I moved the map around so it focused on Persephone's landing location. Then I made a few gestures that told me the distance. It was about nine hundred kilometers away, and two hundred from Alloprize’s camp. We would have to move Persephone closer or take one of the shuttles.
“Do you have specs on their missile launchers?” I asked Z.
“Yep. I messed around with their satellites, so they can only use manual onboard targeting. Their effective range is three kilometers. We should be okay,” she answered.
“Alright. Let’s take Persephone back to this cave and see if we can meet some cave worms.”
“Ugh, Captain,” Z said with a sour face.
“What?
“Oh nothing, I’m just making a list of all the times I’ve almost died because you are borderline insane and seem to think you have nine lives.” The pretty blonde woman got up from her chair, stuck her tongue out at me, and then sauntered toward the pilot seat.
“You don’t have to come,” I said to her.
“I don’t?” She actually looked surprised.
“Nope.”
“Thank all the stars in the universe. Let me tell you, I’m not really… interested… in… alien…” The woman was looking at me, and her blue eyes focused on the smile I wore. “Uh-oh. What’s the catch?”
“You mentioned a manual that you needed to get started on? I also need the security recordings of the bridge from earlier. I also need you to tell me where the folding drive is. I also need an inventory of all the armor pieces we have in storage as well as the various drone parts. We’ve also picked up a bunch of weapons,
so I’ll need an inventory of those and the ammo counts.”
“Or aliens?” she winced.
“Sure, you can come with us if you want to. I dunno though, counting bullets sounds pretty damn fun, maybe not as fun as reading the ship’s extensive manual, but whichever you prefer.”
The woman muttered something under her breath as she turned toward the pilot controls.
“What was that?”
“Nothing captain. I’d love to go hunt some aliens. Count me in,” she growled.
Eve’s laughter sounded like wind chimes.
Chapter 17
“That wasn’t what I had in mind when I asked you to come with us,” I sighed.
“This is perfect! I get to go alien hunting with you, but also stay on Persephone in case any Alloprize fucks decide to attack us. I can also work on that video you wanted. Oh, and I won’t get eaten by an alien. It is a good plan.” Z’s voice came through my transponder, and I shook my head at the small aerial drone she was piloting.
We had landed Persephone next to the escape pod that Z and I rode down to the moon. Jatal and five of his bravest men volunteered to come with us in case Eve wasn’t able to “speak” with the cave worm, and Z had told us she’d meet us shortly.
Then the small, floating manta ray looking drone showed up. It was only about forty centimeters across and had small fans which enabled it to float silently. Z started laughing as soon as it hovered next to us, and Eve let out a small chuckle when we realized the blonde hacker was at the controls.
“We might need the extra gun. This doesn’t even look like it has weapons on it,” I said as I inspected the drone floating in front of my face.
“Nope, but it has thermal, UV, and subsonic speakers. I can hear the blood pumping through your heart. If there is anything alive in that cave, I’ll be able to hear it from a good two hundred meters away. Isn’t that worth more than an extra rifle?”
“I think this is a good plan,” Eve said before I could reply. “Z should stay on Persephone in case Alloprize does attack.”
“See? I’m just thinking about the team here. I’ve got our backs.” The hacker snickered.
“Okay. Let’s get going,” I said as I walked to the edge of the cliff. We had anchored rope into the ground above, and I flipped over the edge as soon as my left hand closed around the cord.
Space Witch: A Paranormal Space Opera Adventure (Star Justice Book 2) Page 16