Starship Magic 4: Extraction

by Mark Brandon Powell

  “So the engine overload is still the best plan.”

  “Affirmative.”

  “Do it.”

  “Information transfer paused, recalibration of safety protocols started. Estimated time before stage one meltdown and ship evacuation fifteen minutes.”

  “Lets get down to the Felicity before heading to the engine room. We either need to help or regroup. What do you say Tia?”

  “I don’t have a problem with that. We might need more than just the two of us to get the cores anyway.”

  32

  Graven Three

  Graven screams “No!”

  He feels raw energy streaming through his veins as he flashes into his violet form.

  All of his senses are heightened and feels the world moving slower mixed with every last cell in his body vibrating. The smell of burning metal mixes with the blood of Jack and Hanna and Knox’s sweat. He sees the golden helmet turn slowly toward him.

  Graven’s fist flies in as fast as he can throw it. Blue lightning wraps around his fist shattering like glass. He feels his skin rub against the golden helmet as it shifts out of the way. Grabbing the shoulder Graven throws the man toward the ground using the momentum to pivot into another attack.

  Graven hears the sonic boom sound of his first punch. Leaving one minute and fifty eight seconds to kill the guy in front of him or his physical body burns out. Each fist and kick shatters past the shield as each is dodged echoing a few seconds later.

  Graven pulls back from his assault. Not a single hit reached it's mark. He needs a better option. With one minute and three seconds left he can't prolong the fight.

  The man in the armor says, “You know, he told me Eydulan’s could be tough but those are the cores want. I wonder what your core will power.”

  Graven grins, “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.”

  The man holds out both hands, palms facing Graven, releasing white beams of energy. With Gale and the others directly behind him he can't dodge. Graven turns back and makes one last charge. He can see himself glowing violet as he shortens his timer by pushing everything he has left into one last attack.

  His holds out his left hand meeting the beam directly in the middle splitting it in two as he runs at full speed. The closer he gets to the armor the pressure increases. As his hand touches the barrier, blue lightning encircles his fingers and expands as he applies pressure. Ripples turn to waves before the shield shatters into a thousand tiny blue sparks.

  Graven throws his punch upward into the chest and out the back of the golden armor. A giant burst of air domes out as the force in the punch makes a thirty foot wide dent in the ceiling that is fifty feet above their heads.

  The man in the armor collapses around Graven’s arm and Graven collapses to the ground. Opening his eyes to Knox and Gale standing over him. He can feel cold metal on his back and something warm and sticky on his arm.

  Gale’s sweet and comforting voice hits his ears, “Hold on there dear. Don’t try to sit up just yet.”

  “Is everyone ok?”

  Knox says, “Thanks to you, yes. Hanna and Jack will be ok once Whisper gets back and can operate on them. They’ll live till then.”

  “Any word from Kat or Mark?”

  Knox shakes his head.

  Graven tries to sit up and every fiber of his body screams in intense pain, as if he grabbed onto an exposed power cable, telling him to lay his ass back down. Which he does. Kat, Tia, Mark, and Terra are all still out there and they still need to figure out how to get off this ship.

  Graven calls out, “Hanna can you still use your magic?”

  “I can. Why do you want to know Graven?”

  “Hit me with the biggest bolt you got.”

  “What!? No, I’m not going to do that.”

  “Trust me, its going to help me. Remember?”

  “I know that you can absorb it but you’re really beat up already. I don’t want it to hurt you.”

  “Just do it. I need to get up and go get Terra, Mark, Kat and Tia.”

  A few seconds later Hanna is standing over him as Knox props her up. In her free hand, a bright yellow ball pulses above his body a few feet in the air. Graven turns his head toward Hanna and nods.

  She closes her eyes as she brings her arm down. He doesn’t feel anything but can swear he smells raspberries. Not a moment later he starts to jerk around uncontrollably. Closing his eyes he focuses the rampaging energy through his veins. Telling his body to absorb the magical energy.

  The jerking turns into a full on seizure. His eye roll back in his head and he can’t stop himself from shaking.

  Hanna screams, “Just let it out!”

  Graven couldn’t, even if he wanted to at this point. He feels strong hands turn him on his side.

  “Just hold on now. I know you can do this. My son-in-law is one tough S.O.B. and I’m proud to have him in my family.”

  Knox’s voice nearly brings tears to his eyes as the tremors stop he can feel energy start to flow from his veins into his muscles. Blinking his eyes they come back into focus and he spits out a mouth full of froth.

  Putting his hand on Knox he says, “Thanks for that.”

  “I didn’t do anything special. I just told you the truth. You did all the heavy lifting.”

  Graven sits himself up with a strong complaint from his muscles and skin that they weren’t ready. Wincing, he ignores them and stands. Knox cradles Graven’s elbow as he finds footing. Hanna and Jack have been taken care of by Gale. A health dose of medi-gel stops their bleeding but they both need surgical attention as soon as possible.

  Graven looks up at Knox, “Do you think you’re going to be safe while I go looking for Mark and Terra?”

  Hanna says, “We will be fine. I still got my lightning, Jack still has his fire. I’m pretty sure that stealth shield Mark made just needs time to reset and Knox still has a few toys in the armory he can use.”

  Knox agrees, “Don’t worry my boy. We’re fine but what about you?”

  “I’m drained. My forms are going to be out for awhile. I’m going to need a side arm… or two.”

  Nodding, Knox walks up the ramp and toward the armory. It doesn’t take long before he is back with a handful.

  “Here, it’s going to be dangerous out there.”

  Graven takes Kat’s plasma blade which Mark had modified. Now it can be used almost indefinitely. A bracer and an automatic blaster rifle.

  “What’s this?” Graven asks holding up the bracer.

  “That is a shield. It doesn’t have the stealth like Gale’s because Mark hasn’t finished it yet, but the energy shield works.”

  “I’ll try to be back as quick as I can.”

  “Be safe.”

  33

  Graven Four

  Graven glances back toward the Felicity. He still hasn't seen any more security so they should be fine. All he need to concentrate on is finding Mark and Terra. Who should still hopefully be near the lab waiting for himself and Kat to come along. Unless they all got tagged as being from the same ship when the alarms went off.

  Shaking those bad thoughts from his head, he makes his way to the hyper lift that leads to the center of the ship. All of the booths and people are gone. He still feels as if he’s being watched but thats probably because he is. Passing each of the ships in the dock are filled with people looking out of the port holes at him.

  He figures all the guards on this level must have been around the Felicity. Which is good news for once. Reaching the lift he can see the panel is still active. More good news. The elevators near by are not working which Graven can only guess is because the size of the ship. If they shutdown the hyper lifts guards can’t get around and with the limited amount of hyper lifts its easy to guard them. Which means he needs to be ready once this lift gets to the other side.

  He steps inside of the lift and this time straps himself in the chair. Without his form active trying to keep his balance in the lift would toss him to the floor. H
e rubs his hand up and down the bracer. There are purple looking diamonds on it, one in the middle with two elongated ones to either side of the center one. Holding his forearm out in front of him he tries the shield out. Mark had told him how to use the other one, which was make a tight fist and hold it for as long as he wanted the shield to be up. So he does that. A light blue energy shield emerges in front of his forearm in the shape of a plus. Releasing his fist it vanishes as quickly as it deployed.

  Graven hangs his head as Kat come into his mind. Neither Whisper nor Kat had contacted him yet which is making him worry. Tia is there with her and with her power they should be fine, even if they do run up against someone like the guy in the golden armor. He should have told her he loved her before he sprinted off. Why didn’t he do that?

  The lift dings bringing him back out of the mental box he was in. He unstraps himself and holds on with one arm while holding the blaster in the other. If he is right about why the lifts are still working, then there should be at least a few guards on the other side.

  A ding signals the lift coming to a full stop as the doors open with a wave of heat. Fire is everywhere. Explosions are going off near a golden building. A tall building behind the golden one falls to the right before jerking back to the left. A cloud of black smoke follow shortly after as the building falls.

  Graven jumps back inside of the lift, up against the inside wall. Smoke and debris flying inside the lift. Unable to hold his breath he sucks in a lungs worth of dust and coughs uncontrollably. As the dust settles the smoke still lingers, its smell laced with burning metal, cloth, and flesh. Making him wish he brought a mask. Leaning out around the corner of the door, the buildings which are on fire he can see. The smoke blocks everything up close. If he had to guess Mark and Terra will be in the middle of whatever is going on.

  As he steps out of the hyper lift, the two beside him ding. He lets out a sigh wondering why this always happens. The doors of the two lifts open as two groups of four guards in white armor come out.

  Graven holds up the blaster and fires at the group to his right while holding up the shield to his left. His first shot hits its mark right in the head of the lead guard. The other scramble looking for cover. He then turns facing the shield toward the group he just shot at and fires off a few rounds toward the other group.

  Turning off the shield he runs into the thick black smoke toward the golden building. Hoping the two groups will fire into each other while he gets away. Finding Terra and Mark is higher up his priority list that taking care of a few guards. If he has to deal with them on the way back, so be it.

  He hears blaster fire going off behind him but doesn’t see any coming in his direction. Graven gives himself a little mental fist bump and keeps making his way through the smoke.

  Upon reaching the golden building another explosion goes off right at the entrance. Terra has Mark’s arm around her neck and is pulling him away from the building.

  She yells, “We have to get out of here now!”

  Graven runs up to Terra grabbing Mark’s other arm. “What happened?”

  “Mark’s brother is insane and trying to kill us.”

  “You couldn’t take the fight to him?”

  “No. Between the two of us we just got out alive. He said something about going to tell father. He’s about to disconnect the building here from the ship.”

  Alarms and lights start to flash as Graven helps Terra carry Mark into the Starbucks across the street. Once inside he closed the glass doors.

  The golden building suddenly drops as the smoke slowly changes it direction toward the building. The sidewalks open up and begin sucking everything into space. All of the smoke, fire, and air rush out from around the sides of the golden building as it makes a slow decent away from the ship.

  The pressure inside the shop builds moments before the glass doors rip off their hinges. Graven watches the two groups of guards get pulled out into space as he tries to hold onto. Above his head the roof rattles, shakes and rips off. With the tip of the golden building now out of sight the entrance wall gives no more than a small lip of cover.

  Graven quickly pulls out the plasma blade and cuts an indention into the ground. He puts the blade away and activates the the shield. Slamming down the bottom of the plus into the hole.

  Graven wraps his arm around Terra’s waist, “Hold on!”

  She wraps her arms and legs Mark’s limp body. He can hear the street doors closing as the energy shield starts to crack. Graven really wants to use any of his forms right now to stop from being sucked into space. But he knows he can’t. It would kill him.

  Terra says, “I can’t hold on any longer.”

  “Just a few more seconds Terra. You can do it.”

  “No, no I can’t. I don’t want to lose Mark, Graven.”

  “That’s not going to happen.”

  Mark slips through Terra’s hold. Turning off the shield he uses some of his borrowed energy to jump in front of Mark. Not enough to change into his red form but enough to get him in front. He turns the shield back on and tries to jam it into the ground.

  He coughs, spewing blood onto the inside of the shield. Damn. He didn’t think that would have done anything. Then again he did use violet form and is lucky enough to still be alive. Coughing up blood is still the least of his worries but his strength is fading fast as he slowly slides toward the slowly closing hole to space.

  Graven is only inches away from where the hole is. The final flap closes as the floor hisses shut. He releases his fist and flops to the ground as another coughing fit and more blood comes up.

  Terra asks, “Are you alright?”

  Graven waves dismissively, “Me? Yea, I’ll be fine. Now we have to get Kat, Tia, and find a way out that doesn’t involve getting blasted into space dust.”

  34

  Kat is beside herself. Relieved that Graven and everyone else is alive but is worried about everyone. Graven looks absolutely exhausted. Kat can’t remember a time he’s ever looked like that. Even when they fought Gwen the first time around he was just beat up. Now his eyes are sunken in and face looks gaunt. As if he is on deaths doorstep. Jack is still passed out but Gale was able to stop the bleeding with medi-gel. Not the best solution, making it harder to reattach later, but it might have saved his life. Hanna is alright but more concerned for Jack than anything. Her bone is still protruding through her skin with medi-gel around it as well. Terra seems ok just tired and Mark has a shocked look on his face as he sits on the floor of the cargo bay looking out.

  Knox puts a hand on Kat’s shoulder. His eyes are filled with concern but he doesn’t say a word. He kisses her on her forehead then pats her shoulder a couple of times before walking up into the ship toward the medical bay. Kat follows and heads to the bridge. Whisper is going to have to stay back and get Jack and Hanna fixed up. Hopefully.

  Gale and Knox have already loaded up Hanna on the stretcher by the time that she returns from hooking up Whisper to the ship. Everyone is still silent. Tia is keeping a watchful eye out for anything headed in their direction but with the lockdown there shouldn’t be too many people wondering around.

  Kat sits down next to Graven. He just stares in front of him. “Are you alright babe?”

  He startles as if he was somewhere else and looks to her. His eyes are distant and tired. “Yeah. I’ll be fine.”

  “No you won’t. You need more energy.” Says Tia keeping her eyes on the lookout.

  Kat asks, “What do you mean he needs energy?”

  “He went into violet form. Your crew saw him do it. He can only use that power for a couple of minutes before his physical body dies.”

  Kat can feel her heart jump to her throat. “He’s going to die!?”

  “I don’t think so. He wasn’t in the form for longer than a minute. He did however use up a lot of magical and physical energy. He needs to hibernate for a month but since we don't have that luxury, another jolt of magic will keep him awake. And soon or he’s going to hiber
nating with or without the extra energy.”

  “How do I do it?”

  “Just hit him with a spell. The stronger the better.”

  Kat can feel her ears pulsing. She knew this place was going to be trouble and questioned even coming. Damn herself for being right. “Is this going to be ok Graven?”

  He looks up to her as if a great distance away and nods. Grabbing his arms she puts as much power as she can muster into her hands. Ice forms around her hands and his skin. Graven shivers and his teeth rattle.

  “It’s not working. Why isn’t it working?”

  Tia says, “It is harder for his body to absorb magic right now. So he is going to feel it a lot more than he normally would but it is the only way for him to live right now. Unless you want to care for his core while he regenerates. His is the only core that regenerates on its own, but takes about five years.”

  “But he’s freezing to death.”

  “No he isn’t, he needs more energy.”

  Swallowing hard Kat listens to Tia. She had seen Graven absorb crazy amounts of magic before he even knew about Jinx and even more after. Just looking down at him hurts her heart, twisting it into a knot. A Layer of ice forms along his arms slowly making its way down his shoulders and up his neck.

  “Ja… Just keep… going Kitty Kat. I’m ok.” He rattles out the words.

  The ice covers his body and Kat lets go. Her eyes sting with tears as they well up. She still needs him and she still loves him more than anything even with Jinx inside of him all mixed together. This can’t be their last time and those his last words to her. Mark still needs his coin back and she still needs to say she’s sorry and how much she loves him. Tia places a hand on Kat’s shoulder.

  “Just give it time.”

  “Time is something we don’t have a lot of right now.”