Space Dragon Allepexxis

by C. K. Pershing

  “Okay, hold on,” he said, as he took the hand in his and started to gently pull the bodies aside with his free hand. Absently he thought about how he would have been able to do this even without his enhanced strength because the bodies were those of small children. Finally, he pulled on the arm attached to the hand he was holding and Iona emerged from the darkness.

  “Paress?” she asked. “What are you doing here?”

  “Where’s Jane?” he asked.

  “She was back with the older girls,” Iona said.

  Paress sighed. “Of course she was.” He stood up, “Okay, listen, I need for your to go up toward the front of the ship. To where the hole from the door is. Me and Casten are gonna meet there. You go there and wait okay?”

  Paress thought that Iona would surely argue and want to stay with him out of fear of being alone again in this mess, but she simply nodded her head and said, “Okay.”

  He kissed her forehead and said, “Good. You’re very brave. I’m gonna get Jane. Get going and I’ll see you soon.”

  “Okay,” she repeated and started off on her way. Paress watched her go and then turned back to his task at hand. He started to despair, but tried his best to stay hopeful. After all, he’d found Iona, hadn’t he? If only the damn suppressor wasn’t taking away his telekinesis and all other aspects of psychic perception— he would have had no problem making his way through and finding his sisters. He was just about to make his way farther into the ship when the floor lurched under him. Oh no, the ship’s coming loose from the support it’s wedged against. I gotta hurry!

  Just as he took one step forward a hand grabbed him from behind and spun him around. This time, he did jump from surprise.

  “It’s me!” Casten said as Paress’ eyes focused on his Companion. “You gotta come help me. The door to the cockpit’s wedged shut and we can’t get it open to shut the engines down.”

  “What do you mean ‘we’?” Paress asked.

  “There’s a couple of adults. Liner employees up there. The three of us tried to open the door, but it’s wedged shut. We need your help.”

  “But I haven’t found Jane,” Paress said. “Did you see Iona?”

  “Yeah, I just passed her. Good work.” Just then the floor lurched again and they both almost fell over. “Come on,” Casten said. “If we don’t shut that engine down, this whole things’ gonna explode before you can find Jane. I’m sorry, but we gotta go.”

  “Dammit!” Paress yelled and he punched the side of the ship, making some of the nearby children who were in stunned silence suddenly cry out in fear. “Oh, I’m sorry!” Paress called out to them. Dammit, he repeated to himself. Now he couldn’t even get angry about this lousy situation without scaring little kids.

  With one last look over his shoulder into the inner bowels of the ship and wherever Jane was, he turned back to Casten. “Alright, let’s go.”

  Casten led Paress back toward the front of the ship and it was all Paress could do not stop every few feet and try to help someone. Now that he was heading back toward the light, he could see in better detail the amount of suffering all around him.

  “God, Casten, this is…” He was at a loss for words.

  “I know,” Casten said stiffly. “But we’ve gotta get this ship under control before we do anything else.” As if to punctuate his words, the ship shifted again and a horrible wrenching could be heard.

  When they got to the open door, Paress found Iona dutifully waiting there as he’d instructed. Some other children had started to gather around, taking solace in the light and fresh air streaming through the open door overhead.

  “We’re gonna get someone to help you all out,” Paress said as they walked by the children. “Wait here.” And then to Casten, “You said there were some crew ahead, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Okay.”

  The two boys soon reached the forward bulkhead that led into the cockpit. The small group of crew that Casten had described were there, still trying to pry open the door.

  “Excuse me,” Paress said. “Please go back and help the children out of the open door. It’s too high up for them so you’ll have to lift them.”

  A lanky man barely in his twenties glared at him. “Listen kid, we have to get this door open…”

  “So we can shut down the engines,” Paress said. “I know. Please do as I say, we’ll handle this.”

  As Paress went to step past and get his hands on the door, the man scoffed. “What? You’re a kid and we don’t have time for this!”

  “Move!” Paress shouted. “I told you we’ve got this.”

  “Why should I—“

  “Because I’m a Space Knight candidate and this is my Companion,” Paress said, suddenly feeling like himself for the first time in months. In the middle of the cacophony of noise, it seemed oddly quiet as the adults all turned to appraise him. “I’m Blessed with superior strength and he’s built to be strong.”

  “The one kid is a Companion,” another adult said. “Look at his eyes. And we got the door to budge when he helped before…”

  Just then a loud crash reverberated through the hull. “The gate’s coming down on top of the ship!” another adult yelled. “Fine whatever, I’m getting outta here! The door’s all yours.” He stepped out of the way and let Paress and Casten by. After that, the other adults also moved and they all ran back toward the open door.

  As Paress grabbed the cockpit hatch, he yelled over his shoulder to the retreating adults, “Help those kids!” He didn’t know if they heard him or cared, but he didn’t have time to think about it. As Casten grabbed the other side of the hatch, Paress said, “Like before. One…two…three!”

  They both pulled and despite a lot of screeching noise of metal pushing against metal, the hatch barely budged. Paress took a deep breath and nodded to Casten. Another countdown and they pulled again. Nothing.

  “Casten, this damn thing…” was all Paress could say before settling into another countdown and pulling. As they both pulled, Paress could see his feet and Casten’s actually pushing down into the floor beneath them from the amount of force they were exerting against the stuck door.

  He could hear his own heartbeat over the noise and he saw Casten’s arm muscles bulging unnaturally as the synthetic muscles in the Companion’s arms strained beyond their normal limits. Suddenly, both of Casten’s arms seemed to explode in a shower of synthetic fluids as his arm muscles went beyond their integrity and shattered. He screamed and fell backwards as Paress looked on helplessly.

  Casten’s screams stopped suddenly and he swallowed before saying, “Don’t worry about me. I’m alright. I think my body shut off my pain receptors automatically.”

  “That’s good but now I don’t think we’ll ever get this damn door open!” Paress said.

  “I know, I’m sorry.”

  “Nah, it’s not your fault. It’s just…” Paress stood for a moment and in a split second of clarity, knew that he had to use his telekinesis. He glanced at the suppressor on his arm and yet knew without absolute certainty that he was stronger than it was if he could just focus. That was easier said than done considering the noise and the ship seemingly ready to shake itself apart before being crushed by the collapsing gate.

  “Get outta here,” Paress said. “I’m gonna try something.”

  Casten’s expression changed from worry to understanding. He nodded and stood up, his ruined arms dangling helplessly at his side. “I’m staying here.” One look at the intensity in Casten’s eyes told Paress all he needed to know.

  “Alright,” he said turning back to the hatch.

  “The Companion stands with the Space Knight and wishes him victory,” Casten said.

  “Thanks for staying,” Paress said as he closed his eyes. The cacophony around him died away as he began to concentrate.

  He tried to reach out and feel the door like he would have normally done before the suppressor was attached. When he found himself duly blocked, he cursed himself. Yo
u know that’s not gonna work. You have to work around it…

  He extended his mind again, but this time, instead of trying to reach out for the door, he instead focused on the suppressor itself. He tried to visualize his telekinesis as water flowing around the device. The suppressor was there, like a bright red rock in the water, and as he tried to get around it, the rock grew bigger.

  So then he made his thoughts into countless tiny streams of water all flowing around and away from the rock. And when he realized the rock, the suppressor, wasn’t able to keep up with all the streams of his thoughts, he knew he’d found the way.

  There was no doubt that the rock could make itself rather large and block a lot of the streams. But it didn’t matter because Paress felt as if he was a mighty river and it was only a matter of time before that damn rock got submerged and washed away. As soon as that thought occurred to him, the streams of his mind suddenly crashed together and sure enough, the rock chipped away as it began to sink under the waters.

  With one final surge of crashing water, the rock exploded into pebbles that were washed away and Paress opened his eyes just in time to see the suppressor shatter and fall from his arm just before the hatch flew off its hinges and blew out of the side of the liner’s body. It was as if a giant invisible hand had smashed through the ship, reached inside, and tore the hatch off and pulled it back outside.

  Paress actually found himself laughing as Casten shot past him and into the cockpit. Moments later, the deafening sounds of the engine died away as the power was shut down. Paress quickly pulled himself together and went in the cockpit. What were originally the four members of the cockpit crew had been smashed into broken body parts impaled on pieces of the ruined control room. Paress could see that the co-pilot had been reaching for the emergency shut-off but had been pinned just out of reach by wreckage, dying only inches away from saving the ship.

  He shook his head sadly and tried keep his eyes focused on Casten. He’d never seen a dead body before, and especially none in such horrible disfigurement as the poor crushed people around him. Casten was leaning against the console where he’d used the stumps of one of his arms to hit the shut-off.

  “You did it,” Paress said. “You turned it off.”

  Casten shook his head, “No, you did it. I don’t know what you did but you got the door open. You actually beat the suppressor. Destroyed it!” Casten almost looked afraid. “I didn’t think that was possible.”

  “Heh, I’m glad that somehow it was,” Paress said.

  “Well, yeah, me too,” Casten said and he smiled wearily before jumping to his feet when the ship lurched and a loud crashing like an avalanche fell around them.

  “The gate’s coming down!” Paress yelled and he grabbed Casten and held him tight as he put up a telekinetic barrier around them. He watched in horror as the cockpit crushed in all around, pushing the bloody and broken corpses up against the barrier and grinding them into paste.

  “Oh Lord Jesus, take their souls,” Casten said, and despite the craziness all around them, Paress was struck at witnessing first-hand an artificial being praying. He’d heard that Mechanisms often had a deeply concealed religious streak in them that sometimes surfaced in times of extreme duress, and now he was actually witnessing it.

  “Amen,” was all Paress could say as the weight pushed in. I hope somebody will say a prayer for us.

  He was amazed he was able to keep the barrier up this long considering how out of practice his abilities were. It was as if a person who had their leg removed suddenly had it reattached and was expected to run a marathon.

  He hoped that the rest of the ship was safe and that the collapse could be contained just at the cockpit.

  “Paress, I don’t want to die,” Casten said.

  “I know. Me either.”

  “Especially with what we’ve done here. We’re a good team.”

  “Yeah. We are.” Paress couldn’t decide what he was more afraid of: dying itself or knowing that he and Casten’s excellent teamwork had shown itself just in time to come to a premature end. He turned to Casten. “The Space Knight thanks the Companion for his service and looks forward to seeing him in the Afterlife.”

  Casten made a small bow in their cramped confines and said, “The Companion as well.”

  The force of the pressure around them pushed in more and Casten hugged close to Paress. A small whimper came out of Casten, and Paress couldn’t help but cry in terror as he felt the barrier push up against them and press in, ready to smash the two boys to bits.

  As he closed his eyes, his mind raced trying to find a way out, and he found himself once again reaching out with his telekinesis. He tried to visualize the effect as the bubble of the barrier he was putting up spreading out into water that seeped through all of the cracks between the debris. As the water flowed into the cracks, he felt like he could make the water expand and push the bits of debris apart.

  Paress gritted his teeth as the pressure continued to bear down and he could feel his barrier starting to push up against him. He tried to focus…more water into the gaps, and he could feel the tiniest bit of force starting to push back against the crushing wreckage. But it’s just too much! he thought. If only I had more time… and he suddenly could feel the water getting choked off. I’m just not strong enough…

  And then he and Casten were surrounded by blinding light as the debris was suddenly being vaporized around them. Paress could feel the pressure subsisting as the wreckage burned away in a torrent of flame. He opened his eyes and blinked as he saw through the smoke and fire a group of rescue workers with high intensity lasers clearing away the debris. One of them was holding a device and directing the others where to fire their guns: apparently a sensor pack that showed Paress and Casten’s vital signs.

  Even so, Paress wasn’t so sure he trusted his and Casten’s well-being to a group of high-power lasers being aimed in their general vicinity, so he closed his eyes again and focused on expanding his protective barrier, pushing away the remaining debris until it was a safe distance. As the lasers receded, he slowly let the barrier drop, ready to bring it back up in a heartbeat if any more debris fell…or any lasers got close. Is this thing even able to stop lasers? he wondered.

  But Paress didn’t have time to think about the answer because he and Casten were suddenly being pulled away from what was left of the space liner’s wrecked body. He looked around to see a crowd of workers and rescue personnel standing close by. In the background, large medical mecha suits were helping people out of the wreckage. He instinctively looked up to see if the gate was going to start to fall again.

  “Paress, look!” Casten said, just as Paress noticed some mobile generators hooked up to portable repulsor arrays. The arrays were aimed up at the gate and were holding it up as hovering robots sprayed thick foam on to the cracked structures.

  “It’s safety foam,” said a voice said from close by. Paress looked over to see a smiling rescue worker. “It’s the same stuff they use to strengthen mine tunnels miles under the ground. More than enough to keep this place together for the time being.”

  Paress could only nod before saying, “We’re alive.”

  The man laughed. “You certainly are. Thanks to that bit of mind-power you were doing. Not only did it save you guys, but your life signs were so bright on our scanner that we couldn’t help but see you in the middle of all that. I wouldn’t have believed it, but those people over there said a Space Knight and a Companion were in the cockpit.”

  He jutted a thumb toward the adult crew members from before, looking on with concern. The lanky man that had given Paress so much trouble suddenly ran forward, the others following.

  “Thank God you’re alive! I’m so sorry I didn’t believe you. I’m so sorry.” And Paress was shocked when the man suddenly went into a very formal bow. The other crew members followed suit.

  “We beg your forgiveness, Space Knight,” the group chorused.

  “Uh, well, it’s okay,” Paress said. />
  “Are you really a Space Knight?” the rescue worker asked. “You look like a couple of kids.” He scratched his chin. “Although I know there are lots of people who kinda look like kids. Elves and such. But you guys look human.”

  “Well, actually, I’m not a Space Knight. Not yet,” Paress said.

  “But he will be soon,” Casten said. “I’m his Companion and believe it when I say this guy is gonna be the best Space Knight ever.”

  Some of the people assembled gave a cheer and clapped at Casten’s words.

  “Based on what what I’ve seen here, I do believe it,” the worker said and he clapped Paress and Casten on their shoulders.

  Just then, there was a small disturbance in the back of the crowd and Paress could here a little girl’s voice. “Let us through! We’re his sisters.”

  “Jane?” Paress called.

  “Paress, we’re here!” the voice returned.

  Paress ran forward into the crowd and as the adults parted, he saw Jane and Iona holding hands, rushing into his arms. He suddenly felt so tired as relief washed over him, and the two excited girls nearly knocked him over.

  Casten was at Paress’ side, smiling as the girls held their brother and kissed him through tears. Jane suddenly looked over at Casten’s ruined arms and put her hands over her mouth in shock.

  “Casten, are you okay?”

  Casten looked down, “Yeah, it looks worse than it feels.”

  “Is there a tech here who can help my friend?” Paress asked the gathered crowd.

  “We have a couple Mechanism techs helping the wounded artificial beings that were in the wreck,” somebody said. “I’ll get one up here after they’ve stabilized everyone if that’s okay.”

  “Yeah, yeah, it’s fine,” Casten said. “The pain receptors in my arms are shut down, so there’s no worry. Still, it’d be nice if could scratch an itch.”

  “Where were you?” Paress asked Jane.