Starship Magic 4: Extraction

by Mark Brandon Powell

  Bob visibly swallows. He tilts his head down and back up before saying, “Yes my queen.”

  “Well I am glad that you still recognize me as that. I need the location of Genbu. She’s going by Gen and I take it that you know where she is. Since you two were thick as thieves.”

  Kat glances over to Graven who seems to be in shock. Which is comforting. She’s glad she isn’t the only person out of the loop.

  Graven says, “Falak, as in big sister Fal Fal?”

  Bob looks over at Graven and has a shocked look on his face as well. “Jinx?”

  Graven squeals, “Fal Fal!”

  14

  Kat watches as Graven and Bob or Falak or Fal Fal or whatever the heck her name is quickly catch up about the past. Bob never knew that Jinx got cored during the harvest. Which Kat is starting to piece together that the Guild captured and killed a lot of Eydulans. It sounds about as tragic as what she went through with her parents.

  Tia waits patiently as the two talk. Which if it was Kat doing the talking she’s pretty sure Tia would be laying into her about now.

  Graven finally turns around and gets this oh right look on his face as he looks at both Kat and Tia, “Fal Fal, this is great that we found each other but we can catch-up later. Do you know where Gen is?”

  Bob nods, “You bet I do. Gen and I are still pretty close. She trades information with me for goods I need and vise versa. Right now she’s been traversing the Earth Empire looking for cores. The humans there have no idea what they are so they sell them for cheap. The Guild is still really hush hush about them coming from Guild territory and are trying to get them back as well.” Bob turns his gaze to Kat, “Since you have that ship you’re on I can guess you understand why.”

  Tia says, “Please Falak, stop looking at her like your next conquest. She’s Jasper’s daughter and you’ve been forbade from touching other Eydulans.”

  Bob looks at Tia and back to Kat, “She’s Jasper’s. I didn’t know. Wow, alright, I guess I’ll lay off. Too bad though.”

  Graven adds, “She is also my mate.”

  “I thought Tink was your mate Jinx?”

  “I’m not Jinx anymore, I’m Graven.”

  “Then that is double the reason. Looks like we don’t get to play anymore beautiful.”

  Kat has a tiny fireworks display in her mind going off while she’s dancing a jig. If nothing else, this will be the best thing that has come from this whole trip. Even if its super weird to know that Bob is not a man or human.

  Which brings a question to mind, how does a natural born Eydulan procreate. Her and Graven have been intimate over the last year but less so than the year before. But he was human to start with.

  She shakes her head free of that thought. It isn’t something she needs to think about right now and waste mental energy on. She can always ask Graven later.

  Kat asks, “Thanks for the information Bob… Or is it Falak now?”

  “Call me Bob. I have grown fond of my new moniker. Plus I would prefer not to spread around the fact I’m not human. A lot of women and stewardesses would have ‘ah ha’ moments but I would have the Guild at my heels. Not the kind of attention I like, which is normally five eight with curves.”

  Tia rolls her eyes, “I will be sure to spread word around of your preferences to the stewardess. You are still just as much a snake in the grass as ever aren’t you Falak.”

  Bob nods, “Ooo, bringing up the old years. Giving knowledge is better than pretending to be deities. There are lots of statues in the Earth Empire with your likeness in them.”

  “Your statues are very close to mine.”

  “Yes but I never posed for them.”

  Graven breaks in, “Yes this is a great debate that we’ve had how many times now. Fal Fal, we need to get to the Earth Empire and you have something you need to get back to don’t you?”

  Bob says, “I do actually.”

  “We can all now keep in touch and continue this when we aren’t trying to track Gen down.”

  “I’ll send you her homing beacon and code. Once you get into Empire space you should be able to pick it up and it will take you right to her.”

  Kat says, “Thanks Bob.”

  Bob says, “Of course. I owe Jasper more than a few favors. How is that winged angel of an Eydulan doing these days?”

  Kat has thought more about her parents in the last few days than she had in years but the sting of their loss doesn’t seem to be any better. She looks toward the ground and shakes her head.

  Bob says, “No way, Jasper was the lead knight to big sister Tia behind you. Nothing on Earth should have been able to get close to her. What about her core?”

  Kat feels Graven place a hand on her shoulder and she places her hand on his. “I never knew I was Eydulan, so I don’t know.”

  Bob almost speaks but stutters for a second, “I’m sorry to hear that. Jasper was always a great friend. I’ll cut the call, tell Gen I said hi when you see her.”

  Everyone in the room stays silent. Kat is relieved she doesn’t have to answer anymore questions about her parents. With all this new information coming out every day it seems the wound on her heart from their lost has torn right back open. She really thought she was past all of this.

  Graven says, “That was great, right? We know where Gen is now.”

  Kat says, “We do.”

  Tia says, “We don’t have much time from what Jon was telling us. We need to make haste.”

  Kat asks, “Whisper, did you get everything from Bob?”

  Whisper says, “I did. She just sent it.”

  Kat thinks ‘she’ and Bob just don’t go together but ‘she’ is eydulan.

  Kat says, “Great, then set a course for Empire space. I need some time alone. Graven can you man the bridge for a while.”

  Fury says, “He doesn’t need to. I can get it.”

  “Thanks Fury. I’m going to head to the cargo hold to be alone.”

  15

  Pushing past Graven and Tia, Kat walks straight to the cargo hold. She keeps her head down and goes straight there. She hears her name called out to but doesn’t stop. There are too many things going through her head right now to add more.

  Why did her parents never tell her the truth? Why is all of this happening now? Did King know? What else is being hidden from her right now?

  She needs to know what is going on before getting any deeper. No more of this not knowing nonsense. With all of the secrets flying about it's like Ryker’s around again. She needs to confront Tia again but isn’t quite sure how. Because it went so well last time.

  A voice calls out to Kat but she doesn’t know who it’s from, and ignores it. If Tia really is as old as Kat thinks then she has to know the answers Kat wants.

  Hanna stops Kat, placing a hand on her shoulder, “Katrice, are you ok?”

  Kat turns around from the corner she found with boxes all around. “Yeah, I’m ok.”

  Hanna wipes Kat’s face with her hands. She didn’t even know she was crying and it was apparently a lot. Tears stream down her face making it hard to see or even talk. Hanna’s arms wrap around her. She didn’t even know how badly she needed to cry. It all came out and Hanna just waited there silently.

  Kat couldn’t tell how much time had passed but the crying had stopped and she felt better. What is it about crying that just lets all the emotion out, Kat wonders.

  Hanna asks, “You ok now?”

  Kat nods her head. “Its about my parents. And Graven. Well and everything that has happened recently. I just don’t understand why I didn’t know any of this until now.”

  “Parents can only do their best. Don’t blame them too much. It was probably something they would have told you about eventually but they thought you were too young.”

  “Trying to speak from experience?”

  Hanna laughs, “No. Definitely not. I’m trying to guide a teenager with more memories that a thousand human lifetimes in her brain. That is a whole different topic.
Ok maybe, my parents did the same things to me growing up. Like keeping just what the rite of passage was. All the blood tests they ran and surgeries I went through right after for ‘cosmetic’ reasons. Then on how humans have mastered magic. All of it lies, some of which they didn’t even know were lies. I hope.”

  Kat takes in a deep breath and pulls away from Hanna. There is a huge wet spot on Hanna’s shoulder they both look at. Kat scrunches her face, “Sorry about that and thanks.”

  Hanna smiles, “It’s all good. It’s just a shirt. You helped me out of a bad place, saved Jack, went out of your way to save Terra. I think I still owe you a few.”

  Kat laughs, “Lets just call it even.”

  They step outside of the corner they are in and see the cargo hold filled with frost all over the ground in a patter of tightly pressed together waves circling where they were. Kat sighs. Hanna starts to laugh. Kat can't stop herself and laughs.

  It was good to laugh after all of the crying. Kat wonders if things are ever going to get back to normal. The way it was before Etchten. Hanna leaves, having to get back to her duties and Kat still needs to think.

  She chooses her room this time to think and get in some game time. Gaming has been a great stress reliever for her. She gets to fight things alongside her dragon, that has taken her months to raise. For instance, she is proud of how well Graven and her have handled Evelyn. She is now not only able to give a punch but take one too.

  Evelyn is their first and only dragon. If she dies they can always revive her with real money or use in game money to use her code to start a new dragon but Kat would be devastated if that happened. She knows of a lot of players that do that on purpose to get stats quicker. The first ten or fifteen levels can go really quick so people just kill off or purposely have the dragon fight something it shouldn’t be able to for it to die and they take the code and make a new one.

  By the time Kat turns the game off the day has already passed by. Graven is asleep beside her in bed. She gets up and takes a shower, not wanting to go to sleep dirty, even if she’s been laying in her bed for the last few hours. She wants to talk to Tia but will have to wait till tomorrow.

  To reach the Earth Empire will be another day and a half from where they are, and another two days to the boarder where Gen is. Plenty of time to talk with Tia.

  The entire next day after Kat goes through her duties she looks for Tia. It was like she disappeared from the ship. The next day she has Whisper help her, which might have been a bad idea. Kat couldn’t tell if Whisper was helping or leading her in the wrong directions on purpose.

  After two days in Empire space there is only an hour left before they reach Gen’s location. Kat gave up on trying to find Tia. If she didn’t want to be found she must have had some practice because even on this ship, which isn’t arguably all that large, Kat should have been able to find her relatively quick.

  Kat goes to the armory to check on Graven, who isn’t there. She wants to know if the crew is ready to talk or fight back – if need be. Everything with the Eydulan’s so far has not been cut and dry. She suspects that this little exchange they are about to have is going to be more of the same.

  16

  “Hey Kat, looking for Graven?” A deep voice calls out.

  Kat nearly jumps out of her skin. After seeing an empty room she didn’t expect someone to be behind her. She turns around to face Mark while rubbing her arms to get the goosebumps off.

  She says, “Yeah I am. Do you know where he is?”

  “Sure do. He’s on the bridge. I just came from there and he is getting everything ready to meet with this Gen.”

  That’s her Graven. “Great. Thanks Mark.”

  “Hey Kat, can I ask you a couple of things?”

  “Sure. What’s up?”

  “Since we don’t know anything about this place we are about to head into to grab Eydulan cores, I would like to be there to ask Gen technical questions. I would also like to be there when we go inside. With my abilities I would be a great help.”

  He is right. Mark would be great to have on the infiltration and the talk about the ship they were about to have. Kat agrees and Mark walks back toward the engine room with a smile.

  Kat watches Mark walk away for a moment and wonders just how far they would have made it if he wasn’t around. Ever since he’s been onboard with them the ship has run better than they could hope for. Engine output, shields, weapons, even little things like the coffeemaker run better.

  As Kat turns to head to the bridge to check in with Graven, Tia is standing in the hallway. To which Kat thinks, of course she’s standing there now. The one moment where she is staring off at Mark in thought over the last two days is the time she magically appears.

  Tia says, “I believe you wanted to talk to me.”

  Duh, Kat thinks. She’s only been looking and asking for her for the last two days. “Yes. I have.”

  “Can we do it while we play that game of yours that Graven has been going on about?”

  “Are you talking about Dragon Tamer?”

  “Yes, that’s the one.”

  Kat is a bit confused as to why she would want to do that but didn’t have an objection to it.

  “Do you have immersion gear?”

  “I do. It is a requirement of being a stewardess that all of the latest and greatest gadgets are made available to us. Not that I ever really care about anything like this. On Etchten, technology was there sure but not the centerpiece like it is with humans.”

  Tia continued her talk, telling Kat about how she missed Etchten and how humans have nearly reached the same level as they had. All in a nice tone. This immediately set off every warning flag Kat’s gut could throw at her. She’s learned to listen to her gut and treads lightly as they head to Tia's room for her immersion gear.

  Once in Tia's room, she finds her gear and they sit down on the bed next to each other while they sync Tia’s gear to Kat’s cybernetics. Tia places a small disc shaped circle on each of her temples. A blue light flashes into a steady blink with both now in place. She then slips on a pair of bracelets and anklets which all start to flash blue until everything is on and connected.

  It is the same process Kat goes through but with her cybernetics she doesn’t need the gear. Kat then loads the game. It loads them into the same country city that Kat has set as her home. Hills in the background filled with tress. The sounds of a running river somewhere close by. Occasional chirping of birds in the distance. Its a peaceful place.

  Tia says, “So this is your city of choice?”

  Kat couldn’t tell if that was sarcastic or genuine but gives Tia the benefit of the doubt for now. “Yes it is. I like the country.”

  “This stable here, I can get my dragon out of it yes?”

  Which would mean that Tia has played this game before. More warning flags are starting to be drawn up. Kat wonders just what is going on here. “Yes, you’re right. Any stable gives you access to your dragon. So you’ve played before?”

  Tia nods, “Oh yes. I never really pay attention to any of the rules or how things work. As a stewardess I have to appeal to my clientele, which means owning immersion gear like I’m wearing and playing games like this one. It is the most wildly popular game out there at the moment isn’t it?”

  “It is.” Which made Kat slightly impressed that Tia knew that much, but even people who never play games have heard of it.

  “I shouldn't say I don’t know the rules. I need to rephrase what I meant, I should say I don’t play the game like most do. I do this for work.”

  Tia then goes into the large wooden stables like she’s taunting Kat. It is an old Earth looking barn with planks of wood and a red roof. Kat liked this place for multiple reasons. The main reasons is it reminds her of time she spent with her parents. She spent a lot of years in the open fields and air away from the city. The other reason is it’s peaceful. In the other areas of the game it is really crowded. This area is generally for mid-level characters to come for
about a level or two until they move to the next zone. Some even skip it entirely. It made it a great spot to just get away to.

  When Tia comes out of the barn Kat doesn’t believe her eyes. Tia is walking beside one of the most rare dragon types in the game. One she has only ever seen in pictures. It’s a thin and long body looks similar to Asian dragon art with luminescent golden scales. It’s emerald eyes are locked onto Tia until she points stops walking. It then curls up like a spring and hovers in the air next to her gazing at Kat. Kat could also tell just by looking at it without the menu it was max level. The couple of pieces of jewelry it has is only available then and you have to be in a group of forty to even have a chance of it dropping.

  This is going to be a problem for Kat and she can already tell. Sure Evelyn is already max level and that just hitting max level doesn’t mean a whole lot because of how many other ways there are to level your dragon. What Tia said about her dragon troubling, she plays this for work. Kat plays this for fun and an escape.

  She still follows Tia's lead and goes into the barn herself, pulling out Evelyn. Tia watches and her face is filled with surprise. Evelyn is like a panther with wings and scales. Only a very large panther. She is pitch black except for her golden eyes and white teeth.

  Tia says, “I’m impressed. I never imagined you would have that type. I was thinking you were about to pull out a large and slow one.”

  Kat says, “Thanks, I guess. Evelyn here is a great partner.” She reaches up with her arm above her head and Evelyn lowers her to get scratched behind her cat like ears. Evelyn then lays down and bumps Kat with her head, rubbing it up and down her.

  Tia says, “You have a connection with that thing?”

  “I do. Why, don’t you?”

  “Never. It isn’t real.”

  “It’s real to them.”

  Tia laughs, “To the one’s and zero’s we’re looking at. They aren’t alive.”

  “Whisper and Fury are nothing but one’s and zero’s and they are both very much alive. These dragons we are playing with have advanced virtual intelligence. Not quite full on A.I. but pretty close. So close in fact that I can’t tell.”