by Sam Coulson
I bit my cheek, the pain helped me to fight off my rage.
“So Eli, is she something you admire? Or is she something you cherish?”
I was silent, searching for a response as I fought back my fear.
“I admire her for her fire,” Alume said slowly. “But she means nothing to me next to the things I cherish. My people. My culture. If I must, I will destroy her. Slowly, and completely. So, Eli, tell me what I want to know. I think you will, because I think she may be a thing you cherish.”
My mind whirled. Alume had ordered the colony to be bombed, I had no doubt that he was capable of torture. Though I was fairly certain that, whether I cooperated or not, torture would be the inevitable end. Perhaps if I shared at least some of what I knew, I could get a passing glimpse at the truth.
“Circles,” I said at last.
“So easy to break,” Alume clicked his tongue. “So like your Earthborn kin. What kind of circles?”
“Two circles,” I answered. “They were full of symbols and patterns.”
“They were full of symbols?” he asked. “As in the symbols were on the inside of the circle, rather than the exterior? You are certain?”
I nodded in assent. He was surprised. It meant something.
He pulled a tablet from his desk and hastily typed a message. When he was done he tossed it back across the desk. Alume turned once again to look out the window. After several minutes of silence, he said something in his native tongue. It was flowing, rhythmic, and beautiful.
“What was that?” I asked.
“As the dying light flashed, and the fire filled the void with death, a sliver of the darkness fled and lived,” Alume replied without turning. “It’s an old poem. The translation from my tongue to yours is poor I’m afraid.”
“The sliver of darkness?” I asked.
“The remnants of the Thar’esh. The darkness that once haunted my people and destroyed Vasudeva,” he answered. “Fifteen billion souls died at the hands of the Thar’esh. They destroyed the star, but the Thar’esh endured. It is the Collegiate’s duty to find the last remnants of the shadow, and cleanse it with the light of fire so that their terrible power can never be wielded again.”
As he finished speaking there was a low rumble somewhere deep below us. Alume quickly turned and picked his tablet up off of the desk. As he accessed it a second rumble shook the room, this one was closer. The artifacts lining the walls rattled in their cases, and the lamp wobbled side to side.
“What is that?” I asked.
Alume tapped a control panel on his desk and spoke quickly, within seconds, the guards reappeared at the door. There was a third explosion, this one closer still. The lights blinked out for several seconds before the backup power activated.
“Our conversation is over,” Alume nodded to the guards. “It’s a shame we couldn’t speak more, Eli. It’s just as well, you have given me all I need. Draugari raiders are attacking the station. Don’t worry though, because you’ve been cooperative, I won’t leave you to their mercy. I’ll have my men show you to the nearest airlock instead. I hear that the death, though unpleasant, is a quick one. The girl will meet the same fate, don’t fret. It’s a better than you would get from them.”
The guards jabbed their weapons into my back and Alume turned to leave.
Chapter 24.
The halls were empty as I walked back and forth. My boots scuffed against the floor. At the far end of the passageway a light flickered, casting shadows. I focused on the flickering light as I paced. There must be a pattern I thought. I counted to three to three, it flickered twice. I counted to eight, it flickered once.
I was in the hall for an hour. The flickering light never formed an identifiable pattern. It was always random. Unreasoned. Unpredictable.
At last the hatch swung open. It was a young warrior, one of the chief’s sons. He nodded to me, he nodded to me as he took in a breath. He started to speak but instead made a low growling sound.
I kept my gaze on him, his eyes were a cloudy grey.
“Take your ship,” his cloudy grey eyes were intense, seething. “Take your cadre’ as crew, and two Slires. Patrol these systems.”
He handed me a datacard.
“A system patrol? Patrols are for the world dwellers. A warrior does not sit and wait for his prey. What are we looking for?” I asked.
“That’s your orders, does it matter?” he grunted as he turned and left.
I tried to struggle, but it was useless. Even if my hands hadn’t been bound, the guards were several inches taller, and much too strong for me. The lead Celestrial held my bindings, half-dragging me down the hall. The other followed behind me, his gun leveled at my back. They took me down a hall and shoved me into the back corner of the lift. After all three of us were in, one of them jammed the controls and the lift sped downward.
They spoke back and forth to each other in brief, tense tones. So far, the Celestrials I had met had held a calm and even demeanor. But these two had to throw me out of an airlock before they could evacuate, and their tension was beginning to show. From what I gathered, the second seemed intent on killing me where I stood. The other argued back, gesturing up toward the upper decks. The first seemed to stand down. Apparently their loyalty to, or fear of Alume was stronger than their fear of the Draugari raiders.
There was another booming explosion, followed by a swift change in pressure that caused my ears to pop. That one was close. The lights blinked out for several seconds and the lift grinded to a halt.
One of my captors worked the control panel while the other used the butt of his rifle to try to wedge open the door to the lift. Both had their backs to me. The one working the door had set his rifle down in the corner. It would be difficult, but it was possible I could grab it and turn. But with my hands bound there was little chance that I would be able to kill one, let alone both of them. Still, I thought grimly, they are about to throw me out of an airlock.
I had to make my move.
I was girding up my courage when the door began to open with grinding screech.
As the Celestrial at the door looked up into a dark hallway, there were three quick flashes of light. The guard flew backwards against the wall next to me, his face and chest smoldering. The second guard reached for his gun, but wasn’t quick enough. More laser fire streaked through the air and he stumbled backward, pinning me into the corner.
The lift was filled with the smell of charred flesh and plastic. The sound of running footsteps echoed down the dark hallway. They were coming. I looked around frantically for the second Celestrial’s gun until I saw it lying over on his right side. With my hands still bound I shoved his body aside and lunged for the weapon. The footsteps were getting closer; I didn’t dare to spare a moment to look. Finally, my bound hands found the hilt of the gun. I grabbed it and spun to face the open door, ready to fire.
“There, see, I told you I wouldn’t hit him,” Loid called over his shoulder, smiling. “He’s fine. Eli, seriously, lower the hand cannon.”
Ju-lin came in behind him and breathlessly pushed him aside. She grabbed my arms and helped me up. Her grip was stronger than I expected, and I stumbled.
I found myself face-to-face with Ju-lin. My eyes were drawn to her lips as she opened her mouth to say something, but then she leaned forward and kissed me instead. The kiss was brief, soft, simple, and made my head spin. She pushed me back gently and looked up at me with a quick smile.
“Are you okay?” She asked breathlessly.
I grunted in reply, as I smiled back at her stupidly.
“Seriously you two?” Loid interrupted. “It won’t be long before the station security realizes what’s going on, or rather, what’s not going on. When they do they will stop evacuating and start hunting us.”
“What is going on?” The smell of burnt flesh and an alarm sounding in the distance were bringing me back to reality. “The Draugari—”
“There are no Draugari,” Loid answered. “I placed a f
ew of the old warheads around this rock, disabled long range sensors and main power systems. Their sensors will recognize the explosives as Draugari, so their first guess will be that they are under attack. But they aren’t stupid. After they scramble security and their fighters they will figure out that it’s a distraction.”
“How long will that take?” I asked.
The siren suddenly stopped, it was quiet for a few seconds as we all exchanged glances, and then another, different siren started to sound.
“Not as long as I had hoped,” Loid answered. “They know they’ve been breached.”
“That alarm would be for us I guess?” Ju-lin said picking up the other guard’s gun.
“Safe bet,” Loid answered as he reached behind his back and pulled out my Draugari blade. “Saw this back in the Tons and figured this may come in handy.”
He slid the knife out of the scabbard and sliced my bindings.
“Thanks,” I said, taking the knife and slid it back in my belt. “Where to now?”
“Good question,” Loid answered. “Finding Twiggy was easy enough, but then your cell was empty, so we had to go wandering around a bit. Now we have to get back down to the lower decks to catch our ride out of here.”
“The lift is fried,” Ju-lin said, inspecting the controls.
“Looks like we’ll do it the old fashioned way,” Loid sighed, looking down at a small display on his wrist. “There are some access hatches nearby, hopefully they aren’t on lockdown. When the explosions hit they will have scrambled all of their fighters and most of their marines. We have three, maybe four minutes before their ships dock back in and they start sweeping the station. We need to be gone when they do. Hold tight, I’m going to take a look.”
“Right,” I said, taking the guard’s gun in in my right hand as Loid snuck down the dark hallway.
Ju-lin leaned toward me, her warmth and scent drew in my attention like a singularity.
“The Celestrial,” she nodded toward the guard whose body had pinned me into the corner. “Did you? Did his memories? You know the, what did you call it, Charon?”
“What?” startled out of my thought, I looked at the body. “Oh, no. I didn’t feel anything.”
“So it wasn’t like with the Draugari?”
“No, I think it has something to do with the knife,” I answered. “I have an old memory of it from, before, there was a knife then too.”
“So you have to stab them to death?” she sounded much more comfortable with the idea than I felt.
“I hope you don’t plan on stabbing me to death,” Loid said as he slipped back into the lift. “I’m sorry about the Matron. I didn’t know what she was planning. I probably should have. But I’m here now, hell I’m not even sure quite why I’m doing this. It made more sense to just take the money and run.”
“You did take the money though,” I said.
“Well, yes, and I did run,” he smiled. “Just not in the direction I thought I would. Let’s get moving. Down the hall about twenty yards on the right there is an open access panel in the wall that we can use to get to the ladder in a maintenance shaft. We need to go down six levels to the lower docks. A lot of traders come and go down there, so we should be able to make our way from there to the docking bay. Docking bay eighteen. Got it?”
Ju-lin and I nodded.
Loid tapped the display on his sleeve.
“We have three minutes. Eli, you go first, then Twiggy. I’ll cover the rear and seal the panel behind us. I don’t just want to get out of here.” Loid said. “I want to get out of here cleanly. Just because I was willing to come back for you guys doesn’t mean I want the Collegiate, or whoever it is to know it was me.”
“Loid,” I slipped the pistol into my belt. “Thank you for coming back.”
“Whatever kid,” he turned to scan the hallway. “I figure my deal with Gramps is null and void if I don’t make it back at least with Twiggy. A good load of treated oak is hard to find.”
Ju-lin pushed forward and gave Loid a light kiss on the cheek, “Thanks.”
“God, you two get sappy when you’re about to die, don’t you?” he wiped off his cheek roughly, though the corners of his eyes betrayed a smile. “Okay, let’s move.”
We stood there awkwardly unmoving for a second before I realized that I was going first. Loid gave me a slight nudge, and I drew my pistol and started to walk as quickly and quietly as I could down the hallway.
It was dark except for a dim glow from a few dark green emergency lights that illuminated the floor. Though the hallway was quiet, we could hear activity in the distance, shouting voices, clanging metal echoing over the droning of the alarm.
Before long we reached the access panel. I leaned inside to look down, it was darker than the hallway and had a musty scent.
“Looks empty at least,” I said quietly as Ju-lin and Loid came up beside me.
“Grab the top there and swing in, feet first. There should be a ladder,” Loid said in whisper, he had a pistol in each hand and was peering into the dark hallway.
“Should?” I asked.
“This was not plan A,” Loid answered. “It’s all should, may, or could from here on out.”
I glanced over at Ju-lin, who was looking at me expectantly, so I slipped my pistol back in my belt, grabbed the top ledge across the top of the access hatch, and lowered myself through it feet first into the darkness. After kicking my legs around wildly for a few moments I found metal, ladder rungs. As I kicked, the laser pistol slipped out of my belt, and clattered as it tumbled down the seemingly bottomless access tunnel. Once my feet felt stable, I slipped my right hand out, groping in the darkness until I found a handhold, and began to lower myself down.
“You okay?” Ju-lin asked.
“Yeah, I’m good. The ladder is just a little further than you would expect,” my whispered words echoed back at me from somewhere in the darkness. I continued to climb down. My eyes were adjusting to the almost complete darkness of the maintenance shaft. I could make out a few shadows of pipes and wires along the wall.
The darkness intensified as Ju-lin hoisted herself up through the access hatch, eclipsing the light. I was looking up, doing my best to help guide her to finding the ladder when a series of bright flashes came through the access panel.
“Get a move on,” Loid called. “They’re coming.”
I heard another series of shots.
“I’m in, come on Loid!” Ju-lin called as she started to climb down the ladder.
“Get moving,” he answered. “I’m right behind you.”
I could hear shouting in the distance, but with Ju-lin above me and nowhere to go but down, I continued my descent. I kept climbing down, ten, twenty, thirty rungs of the ladder. Six levels down Loid had said. I squinted in the darkness trying to count the access panels. I think I had passed three floors.
Somewhere above I heard a wild yell, there was another wave of darkness as Loid’s body occluded the access hatch, and then a series of clangs and curses.
“You okay?” Ju-lin called.
“I’m, oh, dammit, I’m okay,” Loid grunted. “You weren’t kidding that this thing is wider than I thought. Hold on kids. This may be a little loud.”
“Why?” I asked.
There was a deafening explosion from above, the light all but faded as smoke billowed through the access panel.
“That,” Loid answered. “A concussion grenade. It should slow them down. Keep moving.”
I continued climbing as quickly as I could, another ten rungs, fifteen, I looked over my shoulder.
“I think this is six levels down,” I called. “But it’s too dark to be certain.”
I could hear voices far above as the smoke began to clear and the guards were working their way into the access tube.
“I don’t think we have a choice at this point,” Ju-lin answered.
“Right,” I said.
The access panel was on the far side of the tube, I could reach it with my hands,
but barely. I pulled myself up and kicked outward at the panel. It gave on my third kick, calling inward with a clatter. Light flooded the access tube.
I spun around, at least nobody was waiting on the other side with a gun.
“Go,” Loid said. “Hurry.”
I reached out as far as I could while still holding the ladder, and just caught the edge of the access hatch. I let go of the ladder and managed to pull myself up and through into what I hoped was the right level. I quickly turned around to catch Ju-lin’s hand and help pull her up, a few seconds later, Ju-lin and I pulled Loid out as well. I could hear the guards climbing down the stairs somewhere above.
I looked around, the hallway we were in was similar to the one we had left, and was luckily vacant.
“Alright, time to waste these bastards,” Loid drew one of his guns and moved toward the panel.
“What are you doing?” Ju-lin caught him and pulled him back. “You can’t just go blasting them.”
“In case you didn’t notice,” Loid replied. “They didn’t hesitate to open up at me, so yes, I can.”
“You said we had three minutes, how much time do we have left?” Ju-lin snapped back.
He looked back down at his screen on his sleeve.
“Not enough,” he answered. “Fine, throw that access panel back up there, yeah like that.”
He flipped the setting on his laser pistol and fired an extended beam across the top, melting the metal and fusing the panel back in place.
“Happy now?” he said over his shoulder to Ju-lin as he turned.
“Happier,” she answered. “Where to?”
“We’re one level off I think, down the hall there should be a way to get to the docking bays.”