Confessions of the Magpie Wizard Book 1: Infiltration

by Fassbinder, D. Benjamin

  So, the most exciting things we had seized were a few crates of candy, which filled the sealed storage area. Access to the back was controlled by a hardened glass wall, interrupted by a security door that Treskan had left wide open. I couldn’t see from one end of the room to the other, due to the rows of shelves. If Treskan was anywhere in the room, it had to be back there.

  I stopped before following charging in. I could be walking right into a trap. Hell, it was a trap for Treskan, too. There were no large vents, side passages, or back doors to the impound room. What was it thinking?

  Treskan probably had no idea it had been followed. Polgar knew about the impounded sweets, which meant Treskan must have as well. It had gone straight for the tanks of compost before to rebuild its stock for its disgusting tricks. A crate of sugary candy would do the job just as well, and it could lick its wounds and digest for a while, chuckling to itself while I ran in circles hunting it. My options were to either leave it be or charge in to fight the powerful creature in a tight space.

  Which is why I decided I wasn’t going to play on Treskan’s terms. I closed the door to the back room as quietly as I could and set the lock. One nice feature of the overbuilt impound room was they had been prepared for a wide variety of contraband. One of the concerns was an out-of-control fire, since we were a few million klicks from the nearest fire department. Treskan was about to learn how we handled fire suppression around here.

  I found a control panel on a nearby wall. It declared that it was on emergency power and would only be able to last another twenty hours.

  “Shit, if Treskan’s still here in twenty hours, then I won’t be,” I said. My first command sealed all the air vents in the room shut, except one, There was a faint vibration in my feet as the air pump switched directions. I had not tested it myself, but if I remembered right, it would be a complete vacuum in just under two minutes.

  Treskan didn’t need that long to figure out that something was wrong. It rounded the corner in its natural form, its pale white skin turning green. Septivus’ guess had been wrong before. From the way its chest heaved, it had lungs, and it was struggling to fill them.

  I gave the invader a cheeky little wave as it banged uselessly against the hardened glass. It’s not like I was going to make it any madder. I couldn’t read Treskan’s expression, but I must have pissed it off; it started hammering the glass even harder.

  Treskan began to slow down. The console’s readout assured me it was a perfect vacuum in there. It wasn’t completely spent yet, though. It latched onto either side of the glass, exposing its curled, scythe shaped chest-arms. They lashed out over and over again, though with a little less force each time. “You’re wasting your breath, buddy,” I said. My taunt died in my mouth as the glass divider cracked. I felt a slight breeze after three more whacks, and its skin looked a little less green than it had a moment ago.

  “Aw, hell!” I hurriedly slammed a button on the console, shutting down the pump. It was too late, though. I could see where this was going, so I grabbed the nearest handhold.

  The window shattered, and I felt a hard jolt as all of the air on my side of the room sought to fill the vacuum. Spots danced in front of my eyes for a moment and the sudden change in pressure gave me a wicked sinus headache.

  I made out better than Treskan, though. Glass shards pelted it all over, denting its exoskeleton in a dozen places. One of its ruined eyespots leaked ichor down the side of its head, but it kept its feet.

  “You c-coward,” Treskan spat as it climbed through the jagged hole where the window had been.

  “What, ‘cause I didn’t follow you in and get ambushed? That isn’t cowardice, it’s having half a brain.” I leveled my impact pistol at it and mimed pulling the trigger. Treskan rolled out of the way, not seeming to notice the ruse. The same trick worked again, and it charged right at me, confident that I was out of ammo.

  I let it come closer; I wanted this to hit as hard as I could. I massaged the trigger of the impact pistol twice. Unlike Cindy, I’d fired at a moving target before, and both of my shots hit home. One caught Treskan on the right forearm with an audible crack, and the second snapped off its left scythe. That stopped it short. Treskan io Renjan’s cry of agony was a bass rumble that I felt through the floor more than I heard it.

  I pulled out the second pistol and leveled it right at its face. I kept my distance, though. It looked hurt, but Treskan was a damn good actor. “We didn’t get off to a good start. Let’s try this again. I’m Sargent Gene Murphy of the United Earth Federation Space Force. I’d read you your rights, but I don’t even know what species you are, so I know we don’t have a treaty with you. You’re under arrest for assault, impersonating an officer, and theft. Probably a bunch of other stuff I don’t know about yet, too. Will you go quietly?”

  Its fingers clenched and unclenched. “This won’t do you any good. My people will come once the signal goes out.”

  “Signal? What do you mean?”

  I think it must have absorbed some human body language along with Cindy’s memories, since its mouthparts curled into a pretty convincing smirk. “All of that SETI equipment goes two ways. With our present orbit, my distress call will beam to the nearest Battlenova in four hours. If I’m not here to be rescued when they show up, that will be considered an act of war.”

  “Who are we going to be at war with?”

  “Why should I tell you?”

  “Because I’d rather not be on the front lines if we’re going to have an interplanetary incident. Tell me what you want and we can try to be reasonable about this!”

  Treskan’s compound eyes studied me closely. “Negotiating with barbarians? I’d sooner throw myself out the airlock. Do as I say or suffer.”

  “I’m the one with the gun,” I said, not letting my pistol waver. “I still have two shots left. Start talking if you don’t want me to use them. Who are you? Why are you here?”

  It let out an annoyed sigh. “Fine. I am an advance scout for my people.”

  “Why not announce yourselves? We treat space aliens well. At least you’d be eating something better than garbage!”

  “My species has a rather broad taste.”

  “You’re dodging me. Why the act?”

  It fixed me with a glare. “Space is rather hostile, and there are no friends to be found out here. We Yarkites learned that long ago.”

  “I can’t always vouch for humanity, but Tralingans are decent people,” I said.

  It let out a chuffing sound that I took to be a laugh. “Then they will not last long. Neither will you. We learned long ago that when you let your guard down, you always get burned.”

  God damn, that thing was fast! Its mouth snapped open, its long proboscis shooting a glob of acid right into my chest. I could feel the intense heat, even as as my hands flew up to strip off my jumpsuit.

  Treskan took advantage of my distraction and bounded right at me, though more slowly than before. As much as it tried to project strength, it had taken one hell of a beating. I wasn’t much better off, but thanks to the wonders of modern medical technology, I was still numb to my accumulated injuries. Even as it knocked me to the ground, I kept a grip on my impact pistol. The weapon flashed, knocking it backwards.

  I didn’t get away unscathed, though. Even though my chemically induced numbness, I felt a fiery jab of pain in my chest as its remaining scythe stabbed into me. If I hadn’t shot it at the same time, Treskan might have ended me then and there.

  Through a fog of pain, I heard Treskan’s quavering voice. “I will make you pay for that limb.”

  My eyes refocused just in time to see a gob of hardened material flying right for my face.

  Chapter 8

  I woke up in stages. First was my head threatening to split itself open. That pain was joined by a bunch of other aches that wanted in on the action, with my rib being the loudest voice in the choir. I didn’t want to move, but I realized that Treskan was still out there somewhere. I tried to reach up to h
old my head. Emphasis on the tried.

  That’s what brought me reluctantly back to the land of the living. My arms were stuck behind my back, and my ankles were bound together.

  “It is to be waking,” said Septivus. He sat on an observation table while Cindy inspected his sealed eye.

  “Good,” said an oddly familiar voice from behind. “I knocked out the barbarian, but we need it alive.”

  “Not a good word during first contact with a new species, Sarge,” said Joseph.

  “What are you…” I trailed off. That was not my voice. “Septivus?” my altered voice croaked. “Joseph? Cindy? Where are we?”

  “Don’t you sound so familiar!” Cindy stomped over, anger burning in her eyes. “I don’t let my crew call me that, so I won’t put up with it from you, you monster!”

  “Monster? I’m not your favorite, but…” I craned my neck down to inspect my bindings, but stopped, my jaw dropping. I looked exactly like Treskan, down to the holes in Cindy’s jumpsuit.

  “What the hell is going on here?” My outburst confirmed it; if I listened carefully, I was speaking in Treskan’s voice.

  “You know that better than anyone, monster.” Gene Murphy walked into view. That was startling, since I am Gene, but my panicked mind managed to put two and two together.

  I struggled uselessly. I couldn’t see my wrists, but my ankles were tied with duct tape. “Cindy, you gotta listen! Treskan’s using the same disguise trick it used to replace you!”

  Cindy rolled her eyes. “You were right, Sargent Murphy. He tried that trick. What kind of idiots do you think we are, after what you pulled?”

  “It is what I would do if I were him,” Treskan replied, clearly enjoying himself.

  I let out a frustrated grunt, but took a moment to think. Treskan was pretending to be me, and he was using one of his imagers to make me look like him. They didn’t believe me, and I couldn’t blame them. I needed a plan.

  I took in the room. I recognized it as Joseph’s main office for the SETI department. They had cleared off one of the worktables as a makeshift couch for Septivus. Cindy returned to her task, administering some sort of drug to the ashen looking Tralingan.

  Joseph himself was off to the side, studying me intently. He was the only one who wasn’t glaring daggers at me. I shouldn’t have been surprised; I looked like his dream come true.

  “Sort of a small welcoming party for a guest,” I said. It was just Cindy, Joseph, Septivus and Treskan.

  Treskan rubbed his knuckles proudly along the simulated jumpsuit. “As the head of security, I decided it was best to keep this from the rest of the crew. We would not want to start a panic.”

  “And that’s why you’re making poor Septivus wait for proper treatment?” I asked.

  “Is makings sense,” he whimpered. He let out a pained exhalation from his flaps as Cindy touched a tender spot. “Is to keep things secret.”

  “He needs to be in the med bay!” I said.

  “We cannot explain what sealed his eye,” Treskan replied. “That would raise too many questions. It can wait.”

  Septivus swayed where he lay. His skin had a greyish pallor that didn’t look healthy at all.

  “Septivus, buddy, you can’t really think that’s me! I’d never make you wait like that.”

  “Stop playing on our sympathies. You downloaded those from my head to use against us.” Cindy put a hand on her hip. Unlike Septivus, she looked to be in much better health than the last time I had seen her. “Don’t waste your breath on lies. We have a lot of questions for you.”

  “And the guy who can give you the answers is wearing my face,” I grunted. “All I know is he’s going to broadcast a distress signal to his buddies using the SETI equipment. That’s not going to be good for any of us!”

  Cindy looked up from Septivus. “Junior Scientist Sanchez, is that true?”

  Joseph fussed with a tablet, his face turning pale. “I think it’s right,” said Joseph, his face turning pale. “There’s nothing I can do here. It’s seized control over the whole comm array. I’m completely locked out. All I can confirm is that there is scheduled broadcast that I can’t touch.”

  Cindy turned to glare at me harder. If I thought she was annoyed with Gene Murphy sometimes, she hated my guts as Treskan io Renjan. “What were you here for?”

  “I can answer that,” said Treskan. “In approximately ten minutes, we will leave Jupiter’s shadow, and Treskan’s message will summon a fully armed Battlenova.” It leaned down and shook its head at me dismissively. “It told me everything, once I had it at gunpoint. What a coward.”

  “You think you’re so goddamn funny, but when I get out of here I’ll do more than hold you at gunpoint!”

  Cindy looked down at me darkly. “We’ve listened to you enough. Tell us how to shut off the transmission before I set Sargent Murphy loose on you.”

  “Please, don’t say anything,” it said, brandishing one of my wrenches. “I owe you for what you did to my comrades.”

  That chilled my blood. “So that’s why you did it,” I said. “Your little message is still going to go out. You just wanted my friends to watch you beat me to death while you waited. You sick son a bitch.”

  “There has to be another way,” said Joseph. “I didn’t want to discover a new alien just to torture it for information!”

  Treskan shook his head, doing a bad job of acting reluctant. “You are the expert on alien life, Joseph, but leave the security to me.”

  Cindy bit her lip nervously and turned away. She was a taskmaster, but she had never been a monster. “I don’t like it either, Junior Scientist Sanchez, but we don’t have time. If it’s Treskan or the station, I choose the station. Do it, Sargent.”

  Leave it to Cindy Polgar to address everyone by rank when she was clearly distressed.

  “With pleasure.” Its disguise tech did a fantastic job of reading emotions; that sadistic grin was one I recognized from my old mugshots from worse times.

  Or better times, arguably. I hadn’t been trapped back then. I didn’t have long before the ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ began.

  My mind went into overdrive, devising and discarding a dozen plans. What could I say that would prove my identity?

  I wasn’t sure how much the smile translated on my projected face. “Hey, Joseph. I guess you get to be Camilo Freixa after all. I hope they name something after you.”

  The younger man stared at me blankly for a moment before his eyes went wide. “Chief, that’s Murphy!”

  “What is?” Septivus twisted himself and set on his third eyelid into place, peering at me with that horrifying eye of his. “I think is the truth! Their skin temperatures is not correctly!”

  Treskan hesitated just long enough for Septivus to let out a horrifying shriek and leap across the room onto his back. I couldn’t see Septivus’ beak from my angle, but the way the Yarkite whimpered, I knew he was biting deep. Good.

  Treskan dropped the wrench to try and claw at Septivus, digging furrows in the Tralingan’s soft skin. He held on, though.

  Cindy drew a fresh impact pistol from a holster and leveled it at Treskan. “Septivus, get off! Joseph, cut Gene free!”

  “Huh, she does know my first name,” I muttered.

  Septivus obeyed her order, but not the way any of us wanted. He bit into something hard and let out another piercing squeal of agony. Septivus dropped to the ground, his exposed beak smoking as it returned to its folds.

  Treskan’s disguise faded away, revealing that the Yarkite was in awful shape. It had sealed its ruined eye and stump with its natural healing salve, but it couldn’t reach behind itself to heal its new wounds. Its foot lashed out, sending Septivus tumbling into a nearby console.

  Unfortunately for Cindy, it wasn’t about to let a little thing like bleeding ichor slow it down. Her impact pistol shot went wide, and he swatted the mistreated woman aside without much effort.

  “Cut faster, Joseph!” I resisted the urge to wriggle
against the duct tape. The Junior Scientist’s hands trembled, and I’d had enough wounds for one day.

  “Got the hands,” he said, his voice trembling. “Just need to get the feet.”

  Treskan didn’t give him the chance, spewing acid at us. I shoved Joesph aside, twisted and brought my feet up to block the attack. It would take the acid a lot longer to work through the thick soles of my steel toed boots than the duct tape around my ankles. I wouldn’t want to leave it there much longer, but I had to win the first before I could worry about the acid.

  With a flex, I snapped the dissolving tape and rolled to my feet. My rib didn’t care for that at all, but a fresh wave of adrenaline kept me from passing out.

  “You troublesome little barbarian!” Treskan bellowed.

  “Barbarian? I’m not the one spitting up on everything,” I said.

  I quickly sized up the situation. Joseph sat trembling off to the side, his knuckles white from the death grip on the utility knife. Useless. Septivus lay unconscious, as did Cindy. Also useless. I had about five minutes until Treskan’s broadcast went out, no weapons, a body full of aches and pains, and no backup.

  It was time to get creative.

  “Joseph,” I barked, drawing a blade screwdriver from my toolbelt. “Get it together and shut down the transmission!”

  “I can’t,” he said numbly. “I’m still locked out.”

  I didn’t get a chance to reply as Treskan charged at me. I noticed it didn’t go for an aerial leap like he had the other times. I prayed that that meant it was as tired as I was. I pivoted out of the way and it crashed into the steel plated wall with a pained huff.

  I stepped back, impressed with how much room I had to work in. The walls were lined with computers displaying radio and subspace signals across every spectrum, all feeding back to a large computer tower near Joseph’s desk. I was a little annoyed as I realized that the SETI office was larger than my armory. Did Joseph really need all of those consoles and readouts? Everything was run off the one PC, after all.