Each hitting it’s target. Purple blood splatters on the walls and floor. A bone shaking scream is let out by the warrior as it whips it head around. The sound is like nails across a caulk board with the added vibration that makes it feel like it was your nails.
Kat’s skin crawls before the warrior gives her an intense stare, which she was going to interpret as a death stare. She stands resolute, pulling the trigger again. Another round of blaster fire pelts it’s chest.
It screams at her again, flinging blood out of its mouth. Kat wants to squirm, but controls herself. It felt like there was something beneath her skin, making her want to check if there really was. Aiming for head, she takes another breath readying herself.
The warrior clearly had different plans, closing the distance between them quicker than Kat could compensate. She squeezes the trigger, and misses as it shifts itself out of the way, dropping it shoulder. The blasts land between Jinx’s legs, as she spreads them and dodges.
A fist is planted in Kat’s stomach, but she gets clear shot, and takes it. Each round hits its mark, as she slams into the wall behind her. Sliding down the wall to her knees she tries to breath but can’t.
The warrior lands on a knee and an invisible hand. It’s breathing is heavy, but the determination hasn’t dulled. Half of it’s face is badly injured, bubbling violet blood out like a fountain. It’s one eye focuses on Kat, full of rage, and stands.
19
Kat feels a concussive wave of force, followed by a blue glow, knocking her head into the wall. Jinx is then standing next to her within the blink of an eye, her back pointed at Kat. The warrior’s head is now pointed in the wrong direction as it body flops to the ground.
Jinx says without turning around, “You ok?”
Kat still can’t take a full breath, and nods.
Jinx takes her attention away from the warrior’s body and looks back at Kat. Kat nods again waving her hand dismissively. Jinx takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. As the breath leaves her body Kat watches the rainbow of colors fade back to black.
Jinx says, “Nice job covering your mid-section with ice right before that warrior hit you. If he would have connected without that, you would be dead right now.”
Kat didn’t do anything like that. But it was there when she looked down. She was able to do a reflexive defense spell without thinking about it. One of the few things she had trouble with during her training.
Mark pokes his head around the corner and says, “Good job you two. Now all we need to do is hide the body.”
Kat asks, “Why are we stuffing the body in the closet again?”
Jinx lifts the limp body of the naked warrior and places it into the security closet. She kicks an arm inside, trying to close the door but is having trouble.
Mark says, “This will misdirect them. Blood in the hallway leading back to a dead body in the security room. They will spend a few minutes here just trying to organize making sure everyone is suited up. If you took down a warrior without a suit, then there’s no doubt your a formidable foe. So they won’t go easy after this.”
After finally getting the door to slide shut Jinx says, “They sure didn’t seem like they were going easy. The one with the suit outside nearly took out all of us.”
“You already ran into another warrior?”
Kat says, “Yup, on the way here. That’s why Jack went after his wife Hanna. She was, hopefully, finishing it off or already did.”
Mark asks, “What color was the light on the back of the suit the last time you saw it?”
“I don’t know. Things were kind of moving fast at that point.”
“Just tell me it wasn’t blinking purple or red.”
“It might have been why.”
Mark mumbles to himself, “It wasn’t red, because I would have known by now, the explosion alone would have shaken the tower. So that means purple. Which means they already got the notification, and are headed this way. Ok, its ok. I just have to add this in and I can still get out of here.”
Kat asks, “Everything ok?”
“Yes. No. Maybe. I wish you would have told me you faced an armored warrior. That would have changed things. If it’s suit was blinking then reinforcements were called. Or the tower would have been destroyed in the explosion, so since I am still standing in it, I’m going with reinforcements.”
Jinx says, “Which means?”
“Which means they are on their way. All of the warriors that are stationed on this planet will be heading back here, the headquarters, since there was an emergency beacon set off. We’ve already lost a lot of time if thats the case. With the power shutting off the drop in communication will make them undeterred in getting back here and taking care of the problem. Us.”
Kat says, “So we need to hurry. More than we already are.”
“Yes, now we got that body stuffed away, lets move it.”
They move down the hallway where their last fight just took place headed for the second set of stairs. With the next power outage set, Mark wasn’t exactly sure how much time they had till the next went off. Then they also didn’t want to go down the staircase possibly still filled with stick robots.
He also talks about how all of the droids and robots should be reset with a double power outage like this. They will be on a higher alert for a few minutes after, but then go back to their holes. This tower has had a lot of power issues and with each one the robots and droids went crazy. Mark was brought in to help fix the issues.
He goes on to say how the Foremid found this planet by accident looking for a way through Guild space so they could launch an offensive from both sides. Once they got into this dead zone it was clear that The Guild had their borders secure enough they couldn’t sneak any of their big ships in. Then they almost collided with the invisible Dyson Sphere.
The whole conversation took them halfway down the stairs. Kat didn’t really want to know more about the Foremid. She knew they were the bad guys, trying to kill her and her friends, and kidnap people. That was more than enough to list them squarely in her evil category. Which was something she has been updating a lot recently.
The stairway was identical to the other she was just in. This was the first time she’s had the chance to look around. There was no level indication on the walls, floor, or doors. Nothing she could tell anyway, like the paint on the service level. The doors barely visible only if you didn’t know what to look for. Everything was made of steel or something similar. It had the color and familiar ring of steel when she tapped something and with each foot step. But since this was an alien and this tower was build by them, it was only a guess.
Mark had told them it was a few floors down since it was between the power and service levels. If everything keeps going this smoothly they just might have time to get Graven out of Jinx on the way out. Which is to say they get out of this alive and in one piece. There could also be a way to cause a distraction around here to help them do that. If there was, she would want to make that a priority. Every chance she got to save Graven, she’s going to take. She knew he would do the same for her and there was no questions about that in her mind.
Mark stops and fiddles with the door. Kat gets a feeling of deja vu, and looks down the stairway. No homicidal stick robots or frost covered stairways. She’s glad it was only a feeling. This day has been weird enough already. If Whisper were here, she would have called Kat out on that little gesture she just did. Probably even say something about how easily the meat between her ears was confused. That she should just toss in this slab for some warm inviting metal and circuits. Kat unconsciously lets out a single chuckle under her breath.
Jinx and Mark turn in her direction. Kat’s face feels hot.
She says, “Are we in or what?”
Mark says, “We are. Everything ok over there?”
Jinx adds, “What he said.”
Kat snaps back enunciating each word, “I’m fine.”
Jinx says, “I know what that means. Girl code.”
“Seriously, I’m fine. Can we just get this over with. We are at rounding the corner and I can see the finish line. Lets go cross it.”
Mark opens the door and says, “Yes, lets cross it.” Waving her to go in first.
Everything on the other end of the door wasn’t what she was expecting to see. It looked very human. Glass windows lined the halls which showed into the rooms. The doors were clearly marked and visible as regular manual doors. The ones with knobs and hinges, just like any human would build.
Most of the rooms were filled with desks and chairs. Each desk had a terminal connection with a physical keyboard. Most keyboards that Kat sees are virtual or just displayed over a surface. These actually had individual keys to press. It was a novelty she had never seen in person. The desks and chairs also looked very human.
She goes to open one of the doors, and Mark stops her.
“You don’t want to do that.”
Kat says, “Why not?”
Mark replies, “These are just the subject rooms. Once you go in the door locks until you finish the testing. Which is two years long. I’m sure you don’t want to stay here for that, do you?”
“No, I don’t. What testing are they doing?”
“Not sure. I’ve only heard the rumors. Mental break points, overall species intelligence, ability to break out of the room. That last rumor I think was strength based. If they could break out of the reinforced room, how many did. At least those were the rumors. They haven’t brought anyone in yet though. Might be for later. The rooms we want are on the other side. It would have been faster to take the other stairs, but robots.”
“Lead the way.”
20
Mark leads them through the hallway with every room they pass like the unknown experiment rooms. They reach a cross point and there is a clear division there. On one side the walls look just like every other floor, the bland decor with the windowless and doorless blankness. The other are the experiment rooms. Mark takes a left and keeps walking, all the way till another cross point. At which he takes a right.
They are clearly on the Foremid side at this point. Hopefully getting closer to having this whole place behind them. Mark stops near the upcoming T section, and opens a door on his right.
He says, “The codes and the key should be in here.”
Kat asks, “I’m taking it we need both?”
“The Guild locked her behind a set of codes. There are two keypads, one on either side of her chamber. Before we can even think about getting that far, we need the key to get into the labs and her room.”
Jinx asks, “So what are we looking for exactly?”
Marks says, “The key should be a clear pyramid, the codes are just numbers so I would expect them to be on the terminal. So I’ll get the codes and you two look for that key.”
Kat says, “Then lets get looking.”
The room - once inside of it - was larger than Kat had imagined. When they were in the security room, it wasn’t that large of an area. This office was at least three times the size, shelves and drawers filled every wall from floor to ceiling. It alternated from shelves to drawers. The shelves were filled with all kinds of crazy things in small containment cubes, metal bits and pieces, spiral shapes out of just about every material she could think of and a few more she didn’t know what they were. Opening the closest drawer shows more of the same. Mostly all inside the clear cubes.
Kat picks up one to inspect it. There was no clear way to open it, just like every other thing she’s see the Foremid make. If she fiddled with it long enough she bets she could open it but didn’t want to. The particular cube she picked up had a fleshy sphere inside of it.
Which opens up, having a single eyeball stare at her. Kat lets out a small squeal, one she mostly contains, but it makes her drop the cube back into the drawer and she slams it shut. She can feel Jinx and Mark starring at her, and she doesn’t turn around just opens the next drawer up. Another filled with more cubes. More she doesn’t look through. They look more like collectables than a place where someone would place keys to their lab. Even if they were alien, convenience - she thinks - would still be a thing.
There are a lot of drawers that she can’t reach, and doesn’t even try. She shifts to shelving for now rummaging through everything there. Some of these things were in cubes, others that could fit in cubes but weren’t inside one. The more she was looking at the items on the shelf the more she got the feeling that everything there was Eydulan. Everything but the cubes anyway. She was starting to see how they all looked like the symbols in the cores back on the ship rather than just random artifacts from other possible alien worlds. The curvature, the carefully etched markings, and in most cases the craftsmanship were all amazing.
Realizing that Jinx might be having a hard time rummaging through bunch of Eydulan stuff, Kat turns around to see how she’s doing. She catches a glimpse of Mark hard at work on the terminal, although she couldn’t tell where his eyes were looking. Jinx was holding a small spirally thing in her hands, almost in tears. It’s an emerald green with all the spirals from each of the seven points converging on its center. Kat walks over to Jinx and places a hand on her arm.
She asks, “Are you ok?”
Jinx nods wiping a single tear from her cheek.
Jinx says, “When I was little, my older sister gave this to me. Or something just like this. It’s a magic memory holder, similar to taking a picture but you copy it from your memories. My sister had already put a few memories of herself in there for me, so I could see her whenever I wanted. She was always so busy. I know she was the queen, and our people needed her. But I needed her too. I still need her now.”
She makes a circle gesture over the object which lights up from the center. A video starts playing with an unnaturally beautiful woman is standing in the now sphere shaped object. Her skin was jet black under the skin tight white dress she wore. Her waist was thinner that humanly possible, a full buxom for such a small body, and broad shoulders with fleshy wings that have talon like claws on them. The dress swayed and flowed as she walked as if it knew where to move to give its wearer the fullest stride. It shimmered with diamonds covering it from top to bottom. Her had platinum blonde almost white hair tightly braided in the back of her head which was brought over her left shoulder. When she looked at the camera her eyes were a yellow reptile like shape with pointed ovals as the irises. They seemed as unnatural as the rest of her with a bioluminescent glow.
Jinx’s mouth opens wide, with nothing coming out. Kat looks back at the video, watching to see if anything was going to happen. The winged woman walks down a corridor toward the camera. She squats down with a smile on from ear to ear. Her mouth moves but Kat can’t hear anything. The woman reaches out to the camera and shakes it. Her eyes look away and she points at something behind the camera. The camera turns, looking down a huge corridor. The ceiling is almost out of view, the walls are a brownish color with a decorative pillar every so often.
The camera watches the winged woman stand back up with the smile on her face. She turns the camera to a mirrored surface that was behind it. A small girl is now in front of the winged woman. Her hair was completely black with a small streak of pink down the left side of one of her two horns that went the length of her head, curving up toward the back. Her eyes were different colors, the left red and right purple, and her skin was as white as a sheet of paper. The girls eyes were filled with doubt on the verge of tears. The winged woman squats back down again, hugging the girl and kissing the side of her head. She points at the mirror then back to the girls chest. Turning the girls head, only the woman’s face is now in view, and her forehead touches the girl’s for a moment before she kisses the top of it.
The Sphere of light recedes back into the spirals object. Jinx wipes away the tears running down her face and pulls the object close in to her chest.
Turning toward Mark she asks, “When did they raid the castle?”
Mark looks up from the screen moment
arily, and then gets back to typing.
He says, “Right after they found this place. They went to the largest building on this planet and started there. Assuming it would be the palace, which it was. Everything on the shelves is from there, the drawers are filled mostly with trinkets from other planets the researcher has already finished with.”
“That’s where you found the starcore isn’t it?”
“I think so. I wasn’t here yet, but I hear the gossip. Like I said before, they are an overly talkative bunch. Almost like they love to hear their own voices.”
“Did they find the sword?”
“They found lots of swords.”
“No, I think you know what I mean.” Jinx steps a few feet closer, then enunciates each word. “The sword.”
Mark slowly turns his attention back to Jinx. “No. What do you know about it?”
“More than I’m going to tell anyone.”
“So did you find that pyramid yet?”
Kat saw through the change in topic but didn’t mind it. She was lost on the whole topic, and if she got the luxury she would ask about it later.
She says, “No we haven’t, but I’m sure it isn’t in a drawer along the walls or the shelves.”
Mark says, “You might be right about that. I guess I could try this drawer here in the desk.” Mark leans over to the right, sliding open a drawer. He sits back up with a pyramid in his hands. “Well what do you know. It was right here.”
Jinx crosses her arms, and shifts her body to one side. Her word ooze with sarcasm as she says, “Well wasn’t that convenient.”
Mark replies, “I would say lucky. I mean on the first place I look, thats awesome right?”
Kat says, “Yes awesome. Now lets go get Terra and get out of here. I would really like that.”
Mark and Jinx both nod. Mark leads them out of the room, and toward the staircase with potential robots. He tells them that by now they should have reset back into the power room, and he’s going to peek his head in to check. It wold make things faster if they were gone because the lab is right below them, and the service level below that.
Starship Magic 3: Abducted Page 10