Starship Magic 3: Abducted

by Mark Brandon Powell

  He says, “Thank you for finally coming in here. I had thought that my powers were gone for a second. Now that you are here, let me return your memories.”

  Everything flooded back into Kat’s brain at once. As if she was reliving her life in super fast forward. She saw her parents, which she had thought she’d forgotten what they look like. When she was four her mother had a miscarriage, at five her father lost his job and stayed at home. Then they died all over again. She got tossed into the foster care system on Earth, again, reliving each horrible home. Not nearly as horrible as she originally remembered, but it wasn’t her family. She might have like each of the families she was placed with if she gave them a chance. Then came the day she stowed away on the ship for Bexar Omega. The six months on wondering around the space station scrapping for food before finding Knox and Gale. The next few year go by too quick but are filled with good memories of Knox and Gale as her second family.

  Then she’s back in the Earth Empire’s army training. She can almost feel her skin covered in sweat. From there she goes on all of her communication training, saves the General, gets undercover training, gets introduced to Omar which knows a guy that knows a guy that knows Ryker Malory. A year later she’s meeting Ryker for the first time. Then another year after that she’s doing rounds looking for the new guy she hired. She sees the new guy stun her and Ryker come out of the shadows. He injects something in her side and can feel the needle and liquid enter her body, something she doesn’t remember from the first time. She watches as she complies with all of his wishes, every last one, and can’t believe the things she was forced to do or how depraved Ryker really was.

  Then she’s back on the surface of the tiny moon that’s so close to the sun her heat resistant spacesuit is on the verge of melting. Breaking into the lab that’s holding the plans for Whisper and Fury with a near working model of the Felicity. There is an A.I. there named Jeeves asking her a million questions about what she was doing there and where all the scientist went. He was lonely and it felt like years had passed inside the Crucible all alone. It took a year for him to learn to hack and get into the camera and speaker system of the space station.

  He then lead her to the labs with the plans, and even copied them for her. She gets aboard the ship and sails back to Ryker. Ryker is there, greeting her as she gets back triumphant. He tells her and her crew to go have a celebration in the adjoining hanger and he’d be there soon. Ryker’s people hurriedly board the ship, and he tells them to lock down the A.I. onboard and get to work making the next two. Kat and her crew are around the table filled with treats, cakes, wine and punch under a welcome home sign when the bomb goes off.

  Her next few memories are only flashes. Ryker’s face, too close for comfort, a few times. A man in a lab coat talking to Ryker, telling him her DNA isn’t completely human. Gwen standing over her asking Ryker and the man in the lab coat where did they get this data, and it being a closely guarded Guild secret. Then she just wakes up in the laboratory bed, with no one around. She didn’t remember this room being so clean or the pain in her groin. The sensation of pulling the needles and sensors off her body felt the same as it did then, if not more vivid now. Removing the catheter was a far more painful process than she remembered. Stumbling out of the room, trying to get her legs working again, leads her into Whisper’s torture chamber. Her bracelet was hooked up to almost as many sensors as Kat was. Her voice comes out of the bracelet weak and scared. Asking for her not to turn it on again, that she would do anything to not go back in. Kat asks her if she would help her blow this place up. Kat and Whisper board the Crucible and fly away from the space station they were on, watching it blowup into space dust as they fly off to rescue Fury. Then she meets Fury, Graven, takes her revenge on Ryker, meets Gizmo, Jack, get incarcerated, flies into a Dyson Sphere, crash-lands her ship, and is given an Eydulan core to hold.

  The man is blue says, “Breath.”

  She takes a deep breath, feeling woozy like she might fall over. Thankfully she was already sitting down. Kat tries to speak but words won’t come out of her mouth. She looks at her hands and flexes them a few times blinking her eyes.

  The first words to finally leave her lips are, “What was that?”

  He answers, “I’m apologize about that. It was a kind of hypnosis to ensure you find me. If you did not then we would be incompatible, and to be honest, I would have ceased to exist in any form.”

  Kat’s brain was still trying to come to grips with what just happened to her. She wanted to ask how she got there, where everyone else was, and how to get back to them.

  All that came out was, “How?”

  He says, “Right. It has been some time since I’ve shared memories with another. You haven’t actually left the coliseum, you are inside your mind. I am going to give you knowledge and then I’m going to die. There will be a small piece of me left inside of you, but it will only be a shadow of a shadow. That is also why when you memories returned everything felt so real and vivid.”

  Kat asks, finally grasping words together she wants to use, “Who are you?”

  “Where are my manners. I was once known by my people as the Ice King. You may call me King.”

  “Alright King, what’s next?”

  “I need to place myself within your mind and body. Since this is my last gift I will give you everything that I know about our magic. I have sworn that everything else goes with me once I die. It was my Queen’s last request. Give me your hand and we can start.”

  Kat reaches out for King’s hand. His skin was oddly warm and inviting. She was expecting his hands to be freezing. A golden light traces around her from his hand. A whirling storm builds up inside of her and she can feel herself starting to shake. She fears it will rip her apart at any moment and take down the cabin, King and the little forest around them. There is a tremor in her body that just vanishes, sealed away, growing in intensity. It was still there only now controlled. King sit up in his bed looking more alive than she’s seen him.

  He says, “Thank you. You aren’t fully human but have far more compassion than any human that I have ever met. Jinx told me as much. To think we were saved by her of all the Eydulans.”

  Kat asks, “What do you mean?”

  He waves the question off dismissively, “Internal matters that matter not any longer. She is here, and brought you to me. Now that I am borrowing your strength I can begin to teach you.”

  King leads stands leading her out of the cabin and into the surrounding woods. The sky overhead is no longer black but a clear blue. They spend what feels like days together, the sky never changing, neither one of them getting tired. He teaches her how to find the storm inside herself and harness, focus, and redirect it.

  Their final lesson complete, she hugs King. He returns her affection, telling her they are one. That he will always be there for her. Just for her to think back on her training if she ever needed any guidance. He then kisses her forehead, as a father kisses a daughter, and fades into her.

  9

  Kat opens her eyes to see Jinx place a core in Jack’s hand, and then one in Hanna’s. It was only moments after she received King’s core, his kiss still lingering on her forehead. It had felt like a lifetime ago she was here in this coliseum but that was all a mental illusion to aid the mental transfer of knowledge. Blue fire encircles Jack’s iris’ while orange lighting encircles Hanna’s heart.

  She looks down at the core that is in her hands. King’s crest at it center. Tears well up behind her eyes only held back by the phantom of a warm embrace. Her teacher’s. King. It disintegrates in her hands, absorbing into her skin.

  Jack and Hanna both gasp redirecting Kat’s gaze from King’s now missing core to watch as the ones they are holding disintegrate with the ash left behind falling through their fingers onto the ground. Each look at the other not saying a word but confirming to Kat they shared a similar experience.

  Jinx breaks the silence, “In my day there would have been far more cheers
and a feast would have been waiting for you that would have lasted three whole days. Unfortunately we do not have that time. But hey on the brighter side of things, you’re all magicians now.”

  Kat takes another moment before she stands, steadying her breath.

  She says, “Alright Jinx, your turn.”

  Jinx smiles, “This will be a much happier one than what you three just went though. I promise.”

  Jack stands before helping Hanna get off the ground.

  He says, “What do we need to do?”

  Jinx talks quickly though the simple steps. All that was required is for Katrice to stand near the center with Jinx, place her hand over where her core is and say the magic words. Jinx then will pour some of Graven’s energy into her core which will extract it out of his body. The whole process takes about ten minutes.

  Kat lays her hand over the right side of Graven’s chest, as directed by Jinx.

  She says, “Sparare una luce, mi rimodellare.”

  A yellowish light grows from where Kat’s hand was touching Graven. The light brightens enough to see her core through his shoulder on both sides of his body.

  Jinx says, “The next time you hear my voice, I’ll be in my own body.”

  A shadow appears below Kat’s feet and Jinx tackles her to the ground. A heavy thud his the ground where Kat was standing. Her head hits the ground causing a headache. Jinx is still on top of her but she can raise her head to look over her shoulder. An eight foot tall humanoid in a white armored suit is what just crashed in. Orange stripes down each arm and leg connect around where a collar bone would be on a human, and orange digital eyes sweep the area. It reaches behind it’s back pulling out what looks like the same oversized blaster she saw them carry on the Ragnarok security cameras. Twisting the butt of the gun extends it out and turns it into an oversized hammer.

  Kat pushes Jinx off of her and yells, “Run!”

  Dust and dirt fly everywhere. Kat looks around to see where her friends are. Theres just too much dust. She can see exactly where the Foremid is thanks to the glowing lights on it’s suit. It’s not facing her right now because it’s light blue light, which she remembers were on their spines, is in front of her right now. She wants to freeze the bastard where it stands. Thinking back to what King showed her, preparing what she wanted with her mind then grabbing the bottle of her power and taking a deep swig. She make a circle motion with her hands pushing them toward the armored foe.

  A cool breeze blows in. It takes away all of the dust, showing that everyone is ok. The armored Foremid turns to Kat, twisting the hilt of it’s hammer turning it back into a gun. It bares down on her saying something she doesn’t understand. She can see a light growing inside of the barrel and her pulse quickens. The spell should have worked, she spent what felt like days getting that one down just right with King.

  Jinx appears like a flash of light in front of the Foremid, her fist planted firmly through the gun. The beam leaves the chamber mid strike and Kat can feel the wind and heat of it as it passes over her shoulder.

  Jinx says, “You still need time for the connection to become stable. The time spent in your mind was to train your mind, but your body hasn’t yet caught up.”

  The Foremid looks at it’s broken gun hammer, trying to make it fire or transform. Kat looks at her friends and she gestures toward the archway out. They all make a run for it. Kat can hear the sound of the gun hammer transforming. Jack, Hanna and Jinx are already through the first arch. Kat stops to see if the Foremid is going to chase. It does.

  As she passes through the arch way the hammer comes down with the sound of crushing stone. Kat doesn’t look back to confirm her ears. A roar behind her makes her head turn, and the Foremid isn’t behind her. She turns back and sees the exit right in front of her. Her friends are already out and still running.

  Exiting the final archway she hears the roar again, only this time from above. She jumps back into the hallway as the Foremid comes crashing down. The hammer is already in mid-swing at her with no time to dodge she throws herself backward to the ground. Stone and rubble fall on top of her. Something broke her fall in a bad way, stabbing into her.

  She reaches back and grabs her assault blaster. It hadn’t even crossed her mind that she still had this. The time spent with King training it was the last thing she would have thought about.

  A hand wraps around her ankle and she’s yanked into the air. Taking aim as best she could, she lets loose a few rounds. Each hit their mark. The Foremid laughs like a chain smoker. Kat fires another round, and watches as a tiny shimmer of light absorbs the blast. With the blood rushing to her head thinks of course they have personal shields on top of everything else.

  The Foremid rams the hammer into the ground and leaves it there. It starts to shake it’s wrist and flexes it’s fingers. Kat watches the all too human gesture and knows its getting ready to hit her as hard as it can. She fires off another few rounds at it’s head, but it just laughs again. It squeezes its hand and winds up for the punch.

  10

  The next sound she hears is a snap.

  Lightning flashes down shattering it’s shield. Kat turns to see Hanna standing a few feet away, arm still extended. She snaps again. Another roar of lightning leaves her fingers. The Foremid holds up it’s arm as a round shield deploys, taking the lighting hit.

  Kat takes the chance and aims her blaster at it’s head. This time it connects with force. It loosens its grip on Kat and she falls to the ground on her upper shoulders. Wincing as she hits harder than she would have liked, she was free and still alive.

  She pulls on the trigger aiming at the knees and legs. It falls to the ground on its face. The blue light on the back no longer spans the full spine as a chunk at the top is missing.

  Jinx appears next to her and helps her up. The Foremid looks at them, and Kat fires another round at its helmet. It lets out a moan slumping to the ground. She lets out a momentary sigh of relief.

  Kat now knows there are patrols, but was it because they alerted them or was it the explosion knocking out their electronics as well. At this point it didn’t matter, they were out there now and they need to get to Mark. She wanted to finish getting Jinx out of Graven, but they would have to come back and hope there aren’t any patrols then.

  She says, “Alright lets make a run for the meet up.”

  Jack asks, “What about that? Are we just going to let it live?”

  “I guess. It can’t fight back right now, and I don’t kill if I don’t have to. Right now I don’t have to.”

  “It’s going to come after us.”

  “I know but that’s what makes us better.”

  Jinx says, “No that would make you unknowingly wise. If you kill a warrior, their suit will start to broadcast an alert and in some cases explode.”

  Kat looks over to Jinx confused. “You know what its called?”

  She responds, “I told you that we built this planet to protect ourselves. We aren’t a war like people. Everything about our species is about cooperation. We need other species to breed, and carry our cores so that we may be reborn anew. The Foremid have always been all war and separation.”

  Jack says, “Thats great and all, but is there something we can do to make this thing not come after us?”

  Jinx says, “I can disable it’s suits legs, but it will only be temporary. The last time I saw a Foremid warrior was a almost a thousand years ago. I would imagine they might have improved some since then.”

  Jinx bends down finding a panel on the side of the leg. She pulls out what looks like a blue crystal surrounded by a circuit board with wires attached.

  She says, “Just like I said, improvements. Their nanite technology has advanced. I will say this again, I’m no scientist, so I don’t know how to disable the legs anymore. If I break this…”

  Hanna snaps her fingers letting an electrical charge surge through the chip in Jinx’s hand. Jinx lets go of it on reflex. The crystal chip falls to the ground. Its blue hue
changes to a light grey.

  Jinx says, “What are you doing?”

  Hanna says, “If its an electronic device, then static electricity can overload it or just blow a few fuses. Which is all that I did. Which should slow it down if nanites have to repair all of the fuses that I just blew.”

  Kat says, “Well if that’s that, let’s book it.”

  Jack says, “Let’s book it huh?”

  “It was the first thing that came to mind. I was just being held upside down just a few moments ago, cut me some slack.”

  Jinx says, “Less razzing, more running.”

  Kat lead the group toward the copper tower. As the trees thinned they could see it growing larger. From the sky it had just looked like a tower. From the ground it looked much more menacing. Spikes protruded out of each corner by at least twenty feet. The tower itself looked at least a hundred stories tall. Looking up at it was intimidating, which made her grateful that she was about to have a guide through the place.

  Which got her thinking about her future guide, Mark. Who was he and how did he end up a Foremid capture. Every Foremid attack she’s heard of, everyone lived or everyone died. The only kidnapping was Terra but she was unique because of the number of core’s inside her body. What was it that made Mark worth capturing?

  Back where they came from is a faint yet distinct roar.

  Kat says while still leading the group forward, “That was fast.”

  Jinx says, “Their nanotechnology seems to have improved.”

  “Anyone got a game plan? We’re still a good distance from the tower.”

  Hanna says, “What if we just take it out? I know it might call more in but it might be a good distraction.”