Kat says, “Foremid? I thought you didn’t want to talk about them.”
“On my dock I don’t, but in here.” She says raising her arms into the air, pointing toward Felicity’s hull, “It’s only you guys and me. So to answer your question, the only thing I know is what I already told you. I’ve fixed my fair share of Guild warships after Foremid attacks, and there is only ever minimal hull damage. The internals are always in need of heavy service. Something you couldn’t just do a quick fix on. They’re dangerous scavengers, and if you could help it, stay away from them.”
“That’s the plan. The only reason I’m asking is because what does it matter the name you call them by.”
“It matters because they aren’t human. Humans might not be ready to share the universe with anyone else. We’re about to rip into each other, what do you think would happen if there was another group that came around staking claim to planets and solar systems. From what I hear its real touch and go with them right now, and they want to keep it contained.”
“We want to stay as far as humanly possible from them if we can. I’ll tell you this, but we don’t want it getting around. We’re heading to Raspiel, to live their, but our friend that was setting everything up there might be in danger. At least that is what I was guessing that commander was talking about.”
Gizmo nods, “I figured that as we were loading up your supplies. I take it you're going to use the ship as your home?”
“Yea, that’s the plan. If everything works out.”
Gizmo shakes her head, “I would hate to see this magnificent ship grounded like that, but there’s no convincing you otherwise, is there?”
“Sorry Mo, but if we need anything we’ll come to you first. You are the closest after all.”
“Enough of this blabbering then. You needed to be off like two hours ago. You’re going to want to hurry. Commander Dillinger is readying another sortie to your new planet.”
10
Felicity’s FTL drive disengage once they hit Raspiel’s solar system. Kat was nervous, she wasn’t quite sure what was going to happen but she had a gut feeling something was wrong. The last time she had a feeling like this one she was in an explosion that took over half her body from her. Since then she’s listened to those feelings a bit more.
Whisper says, “Kat, I have a low power distress signal coming off Raspiel. Do you want to listen to it.”
Kat feels the lump in her stomach grow into a rock. “Go ahead Whisper.”
There was a man’s voice that she thinks sounds like Jack. She’s only heard the man’s voice maybe twice and she wasn’t even listening to the message it was on. The man sounds in pain. “Coordinates thirty-six degrees north by twenty-four degrees west. I have been attacked by Guild enforcers and they may still be in the area. Please take caution but I am in need of help. I’m bleeding but have it a tourniquet. Then there’s the mage root I was forced to take. I’ve treated myself but I don’t have enough to make it through. Please… hurry.” A robotic voice then says it will repeat. The number, five thousand seven hundred and sixty-one, is said and then the messages repeats. “My name is Jack Locke, and To anyone listening, this is a distress call from the planet Raspiel…”
Kat says, “Whisper, shut it off.”
The message turns off, and Kat looks back at Graven. His eyes tell her everything, there is a sadness there but not hopelessness. He doesn’t says a word, and Kat can tell his gears are cranking inside his head.
Whisper says, “If I’m correct about this, the message has been playing on a loop for two days.”
Graven lets out a sigh. “If we would have been here instead of taking that job we could have done something.”
That was true, Kat thinks, but there was no way to know that something like this was going to happen. It might have been a good thing that their registration came out so they didn’t have to be here for whatever happened down there. She feels guilty for feeling that way, but can’t fight her feelings.
She says, “We don’t know if us being there would have changed the outcome at all. They might have gotten us too and then there wouldn’t see anyone to help Jack. Let’s get down there and help your friend.”
He looks down and away, “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
Kat takes the controls turning the ship for Raspiel. From the other side of the planet comes a single Guild warship. It was a titan class vessel, the newest model for the Guild. They were made to hold a crew of twenty-thousand, and be self sustaining for longer trips into the Frontier. The weapon systems on them were top of the line, equal to that of the Felicity, which included the shields. Something Kat was glad she waited for to get fixed now that she is staring down at a titan class warship.
She says, “Fury get the weapons online, now. Whisper, try to disable them and put shields to maximum. If you need to divert any available power to them.”
Whisper and Fury say, “Acknowledged.”
Kat turns to Graven, “Honey I need you here right now.”
He smiles, but she can tell its fake from the look in his eyes. “I know. I’ll be fine. We need to get out of this to rescue Jack.”
Kat nods, and turns back to the screens. A message comes though on the main screen, it wasn’t voice or video, only text.
Lower your weapons and shields, and be prepared to be boarded. This is your first and last warning. Any attempts to do anything else will be met with extreme force.
Kat feels the adrenaline pump though her veins. This would be the first time they had gone up against a ship in the same league as Felicity in terms of firepower. It was going to happen eventually, she thought, but it was bad timing.
She says, “Alright everyone, lets do this.”
11
Felicity’s engines rev to full and Fury takes aim across the hull of the massive vessel before them. Fury lets loose the blasters while the main cannon charges and physical ammunition gets converted into bullets. Felicity’s main weapon systems work just like Fury. Making its own ammunition though nanites breaking down and rebuilding matter.
The blaster rounds land across the shield of the titan, and their shield ripples. Kat tells Fury to fire again, and watches as the ship turns to the side, tiny red lights getting brighter aiming at Felicity. Seeing the titan from that angle makes Kat realize that just because they have the same class of weapons doesn’t make them equal.
Kat asks, “Whisper, you in yet?”
“Almost, they were expecting a cyber attack. It will take me just a minute longer.”
The red lights pulsate before they unleash across Felicity, and everyone braces for the impact. The blasts rock the ship most of the beams miss the shields.
Whisper says, “Shields eighty percent. Five minutes before recharge.”
Kat breaths though her nose is slow steady breaths, trying to keep herself focused. Another barrage of blasters are already headed for the ship. Kat maneuvers through with only a slight grazing of the shields.
Whisper says, “Shields seventy-eight percent.”
Fury says, “Main and secondary magi-tech cannons ready to fire.”
Kat asks, “How much longer Whisper?”
“Another minute.”
“Once your in, take down everything you can.”
“You don’t have to tell me monkey. I’ve done this before.”
Kat rolls her shoulders trying to let some of the stress out. If Whisper was concerned she wouldn’t be joking around. It actually makes Kat feel better about the whole situation. She takes another quick breath right before the next barrage of shots come in.
Whisper shouts, “Shit. They got our ID and sent it out before I got in, but I’m in now. Give me another fifteen-seconds and they will be dead in the water.”
Kat watches the titan ship and it’s blasters. The large cannons front cannons, which hadn’t fired yet, are glowing red and getting brighter by the second. She grips the controls tightly and releases, stretching her fingers. A direct hit could take out the shie
lds, leaving them vulnerable to the smaller and quicker blasters. She had to be ready to dodge, and keeps Felicity is constant motion. Trying to keep them from getting a targeting lock.
The lights flicker along the top of the titan, and then throughout the ship. The cannons don’t falter. They readjust, and lock onto Felicity.
Kat says, “Uh, Whisper. You’re going to stop those cannons aren’t you?”
Red beams flare out in a delayed attack, and Kat takes the controls again. Sparks fly everywhere as the ship gets hit.
Whisper says through the sparks and alarms, “Got them, powering down now. Also shields at ten percent and will recharge to sixty percent in three minutes.”
Graven says, “Cutting that one a little close now aren’t we Whisper?”
“Not at all, the shields are still active and at ten percent. I had another nine percent before I would consider it close.”
Kat says, “Fury fire the main at their engines and auxiliary weapons on their shields. Let’s make sure we have time to get Jack to safety. Try not to hit the life support if you can.”
Fury replies, “Got it Kat. Targeting engines and shields. Firing in three.”
Felicity’s weapons were something that Kat knew about, but they had rarely used. It was something she and Graven tried to avoid ninety percent of the time. Fighting lead to investigations, which lead to people poking their nose in their business, and that was something no one wanted.
So Kat had never used them in real combat. She watches as the titan’s engine explodes in a gigantic ball of fire. Splitting the ship into two pieces. Then the second and third shots hits the forward and aft shields, causing more explosions. Now the ship is in three large floating chunks and debris is flying all around.
Not knowing what to say, Kat dips her head and hugs herself to stop her shaking. Tears flow from her eyes, this wasn’t what she was after at all.
“Fury, what were in those magi-tech rounds?”
“Explosive shells. It’s the standard load out. Anything else takes longer.”
“Whisper. How are the people over there?”
There are a few seconds of silence before Whisper answers. Which was torture. “There are about a thousand casualties, but that is all I can get from here. My connection to their ship was cut when Fury hit the engines. Everyone in the crew are soldiers, so no civilian casualties.”
Kat snaps back, “What do you mean no civilian casualties? They’re all still human and don’t deserve to die like that.” She takes a breath, trying to hold in the tears. “I didn’t mean to kill those people.”
Graven turns in his chair to face her. She looks away. She doesn’t want to see his face right now. All of those people are dead, and it’s her fault for having Fury fire at them. Whisper could have just shut everything down, or uploaded a virus. There wasn’t a need to fire on the ship. She just wanted to damage it, not split it in three.
Graven says, “This never gets any easier. We’ve both taken more than our far share of life from others. Most of it in the war. If you do feel bad about it, own up to it and make sure it doesn’t happen again. But, I don’t have any remorse for those people. They left Jack to die from mage root poison, and who knows what happened to Hanna. Then they wait around to see who might rescue him so they can blow them up. I say they got what they deserve.”
He was right. The Guild was never one to pull a punch, and most if not all of the members considered themselves above regular humans. Going so far as to say that magicians have every right to rule over humanity. It was part of the reason there was strained relations between them and every other group they had dealings with. If the situation were reversed, would the captain mourn the loss of her and Graven. Probably not, it would be more like a celebration.
Kat looks back at the monitor, and sees lifeboats starting to fire off the pieces of wreckage. She might agree with Graven that they deserve it, but she’s still glad to see those lifeboats shooting off.
Whisper says, “See there, they’re fine. Now back to the rescuing the new male ape I’m going to have to be introduced to.”
Kat watched Graven rub at his forehead. Whisper does always have a way with words. Wrapping her fingers around the controls Kat flies for Raspiel down to the coordinates from the message. As they get close to the coordinates, they fly over the hill from her picture and the destruction is obvious. There are parts of buildings in every direction in a three hundred meter radius. A general store sign is laying in the middle of it all, Jack & Hanna’s General Goods and Supplies. They had build up a whole town there in the couple of years they were there. Kat imagined it looked like something out of an old nineteenth century wild west movie. Another thing that Graven forced upon Kat a few times. Jack and Hanna must have been fond of the same things as Graven.
With the Guild now knowing where this location was, this would never be a place where they could stay. This is now going to have to be just another stop along the space highway. Tears start to sting Kat’s eyes as her dream breaks down in front of her.
She wipes away her tears, and looks for a place to land.
12
Who knows where Jack is hiding or if he is even still alive. Since that message has been playing and he had been poisoned with mage root. It was an inventively nasty concoction that the Guild made for the war. There is no cure, only an inhibitor. Once you are poisoned with it, you have to let it run its corse. Which is four days. They were supplying it to the rebels, and anyone that was poisoned with it would start to exhibit magical powers, and as they got more and more uncontrollable, the essence of the person would begin to wither away. If left untreated, it would take only a day, maybe a day and a half for someone to die. If Jack had anything to treat it, then he would have been suffering for them all, burning his insides with magic that wasn’t his.
Flying back over to the hill, she lands. It was only about a hundred yards away from the town that was now in shambles. It would have been a great place for a house. The view of the town, the river that is off in the distance, and the suns setting. Kat files the thoughts away for later, still trying to cling onto the hope there may still be somewhere out there for her and Graven to make a home.
They load up with weapons and supplies. Since there was no telling what was waiting out there, and they both hoped that Jack was still alive, and still able to be saved. Kat was carrying a large injection box the size of her hand. If Jack was ok, then she could jam this into the thick part of his thigh and press the button. Which would hopefully subdue the poison while the mage root burned itself out of his system.
Kat tells Whisper to use the ship to search for Jack. Whisper makes her usual comment about being told what to do when she’s already doing it. Something Kat was finally getting used to. If Whisper didn’t backtalk like she does, Kat might actually be worried something is wrong.
Graven asks, “Whisper, you found anything yet?”
“No I haven’t, and why would I hold that back if I did?”
“I mean, anything. Even if it isn’t a life sign, it could just be a hole in the ground or something that doesn’t seem to fit.”
“Oh. Well, yes, I found one of those. It’s under the sign in the middle of the debris over there.”
Graven rushes over to the sign. Kat tries to match his pace, but she is having more trouble than he is running through the broken wood, nails, and random bits of whatever was inside of the store. She watches as he bends down to try and move the sign. He wraps his hands around it and pulls. He swings the sign upward, almost hitting Kat I’m the face as she was getting near, and he falls on his butt. Underneath the sign is a staircase leading down.
Kat says, “Geez babe, didn’t know you brought the Titan Mitt with you.”
Graven laughs, “All that needs to happen now is for Whisper to say ‘Hey… Listen’ in a high pitched voice and point at the hole in the ground.”
Whisper says, “I don’t get it.”
Kat and Graven have a laugh together. The laugh helped
break the tension but this still wasn’t the time for it. Their classic gaming references were something they’ve bonded with over the last few months. It was the only thing they did do together. They had spent an entire month looking for something called a television so they could wire it up to Graven’s classic consoles he had in storage. She still thinks they paid way too much for it, but it was a fun time for the two of them. It spawned many a debate on which games were the best.
Kat says, “I’ll explain it later Whisper, for now lets get down these stairs.”
Taking the first few steps down turns on the overhead lights. The town might have been built with wood, but this was nothing but dull metal. She can see a wide hallway at the bottom filled with scorch marks on the floor and what little of the walls are in view. A few steps later, there are two doors on either side but only the left one is open. The entire end of the hallway and door is a pitch black scorch mark.
From the open door she hears a man’s voice pleading, “No… no, no, no, no. Please not again…”
Light floods out of the open door. Kat takes a few steps toward the door but is stopped by Graven. She turns to him and he shakes his head. Oops, she thinks, mage root. She crosses her arms and taps her foot waiting for the episode to pass. The man’s voice sounds weak, and he keeps repeating no. Kat’s foot taps faster.
Graven says in a low voice, “Settle down Kat. If we go in there now we’re as good as toast. Just look at those scorch marks.”
“But what if that’s Jack? He’s in pain and we got the medicine to help.”
“We’re here now, and we don’t know just yet. I could walk though it, but I don’t know if the injector would survive the heat. Plus I don’t feel like being naked right now.”
Kat gives him a look, “Aww, why not?”
Graven smiles. “Later, promise.”
Starship Magic 2: Imprisoned Page 5