Kat can hear bullets hitting all around her as they stay still waiting for the bullets run out. It only takes a minute before the only noise is gears turning.
Graven walks out first. No bullets flying in his direction is a good start. He signals for the rest to follow. The doors that lead further inside of the engine room are open. Tools and heavy leather bags lay around on the ground as they enter. More of what everyone dropped on their way out.
Staircase after metal staircase leads them further into the ship and the true engine room. As they end Kat sees why they had to go so deep down. The room is filled with small magi-tech engines linked together, each with their own core. The ceiling is at least forty stories tall and at least double that wide. There is no way they can get all of the cores out before anything goes wrong. They couldn’t even get twenty out before then because if they are anything like the Felicity, they are sealed inside.
Fury tells Kat, “The reactors are reaching 500% capacity and it’s still climbing too quickly. We need to stop it or get out.”
“Can’t you stop it from here?”
“Not any more. Once the power capacity hit 400% interference is too bad and it's getting worse.”
“What do we do?”
“Try to turn it off from this side. But I don’t know where.”
Tia taps Kat’s shoulder and points toward the far wall. A suit of golden armor about halfway down is making its way to them. Kat can see there is a glowing white double sided blade with blue lightning running down the center. She doesn’t even want to think about its size to where she can see that much detail from that far off.
Jets along its back light up as it hovers off the ground before accelerating toward the group. The blade drops to the ground, still in the grip of the golden armor, leaving a trail of red-hot melted flooring and blue sparks.
Kat keeps her eyes trained on the incoming bogie and turns her head to her group behind her.
“Get ready everyone. This is going to be bad.”
Terra and Mark step forward in front of Kat.
Mark looks to Terra. “You ready for this?”
“I saved your ass the last time, this won’t be any different.” She says with a smile.
Four large arms come out of his back nearly invisible to the eye. Two interlacing their fingers a few yards in front of himself the other two balling up themselves into fists.
Terra takes a step beside Mark as the air around her body starts to have heatwaves. Her body vanishes inside of a small black ball. Kat isn’t sure what just happened and calls her name.
Tia places a hand on Kat’s shoulder, “I didn’t think this was a possibility for her anymore.”
Kat turns to Tia who’s eyes are locked onto the small black ball. “What’s happening to her?”
“She’s transforming into her Eydulan form.”
Kat turns back around as a curled stinger comes out, followed by smaller connected pieces forming what looks like a scorpion’s tail. Terra’s head pops back out with long flowing blond hair that floats in the air. One white scaled wing comes out on her right, one black feathered on the left. A brown haired hoofed right leg comes down alongside a green scaled and clawed left. Her body forms with a dragon’s claw and a lion’s paw with fur covered scales.
Her head turns to look at Tia with a white and sharp horn forming on the right side of her head and a black crescent hovers over her head. The feature of her face haven’t changed but her eyes are different. A yellow cat like eye on her right and a star shaped purple iris for her left. Both look at Tia with longing behind them.
Tia nods her head, “You’re beautiful.”
Kat sees a tear run down Terra’s face and a teethy smile mixed with fangs and human like teeth as she mouths thank you.
The golden armor crashes into Mark’s extra hands holding it in place. It swipes upward with the mammoth of a blade as Mark brings down his second set of ghostly hands. They connect with the blade as a blue sphere of lightning is released breaking apart his ghostly grip.
Lighting surges out from the center of the dual plasma blade striking Mark in the chest laying him out on the ground. Terra’s roar is like a dragon mixed with a lion. The streaks of lightning around the golden armor fluctuate in an unusual manor.
The helmet turns and focuses on Terra. It shifts it’s stance, grabbing the hilt with both hands and thrusts. Terra grabs the blade of molten plasma with her lion’s paw. Not showing any signs of distress. Lighting flows off the middle part of the blade and around Terra’s arm.
She lets loose another roar and the lighting shield surrounding the armor opens up as Terra shoves her dragon’s claws through the opening and into chest of the armor. Her claws sinking in. As she pulls them out, red blood covers them and pours out of the newly made holes.
The sound of gears whirling up hum in the air. The plasma blade turns off, leaving Terra’s hand. It turns back on just as quick in a downward swipe. Then another on her left and on her right.
Terra blocks each attack but doesn’t look like she can attack back or counter. Kat draws out Fury telling him to load as many bullets as quick as he can. She takes aim and pulls the trigger.
Bullets hit the shield turning the focus of the helmet toward Kat. A long and thin rectangle of gold and black pops out of the back of the armor and rests over its right shoulder pointed at Kat. Blaster fire starts spewing out of it.
Graven fires his blaster as it begins to alternate between the two. Kat runs for nearby cover behind some kind of control panel and Graven does the same. She catches a glimpse of Tia, who had grown taller and her arms longer with fingers now shaped like giant claws. She hides behind Terra as Terra blocks each incoming swipe of the blade.
Tia places her forehead gently against Terra’s back. Terra roars. Tia strikes with her claws while Kat and Graven shoot through the disrupted shield. The golden armor jumps back as all of the attacks miss.
The armor jumps forward with it’s jetpack flaring up. The plasma blade lands in Terra’s stomach going down to the hilt. Terra grabs the armor’s hands and squeezes down crushing the hands as the blade is still inside Terra.
Tia hurries around Terra grabbing the hilt and pulls it out of her. Terra’s body quickly shifts back to her normal human looking self and curls up in a ball on the ground. No blood or wounds.
Kat is relieved to see that and will have to ask later what just happened. Reaching to her side she finds a Meteor shell and loads it into Fury. The golden armor reaches out it arms as a panel on each of its forearms rises up. A long and thick plasma blade extends from each.
It begins swiping at Tia. Her movements are beautiful and elegant as if the two are in the middle of a choreographed dance. She strikes every few movements, her claws scraping against the armor with deep indents.
The hum of gears gets louder as the armor’s speed increases. Tia keeps pace, never getting touched while still getting in her attacks. More panels open up alongside the sides of it’s arms and legs.
With each movement bursts of jet flames come out increasing its movement speed even further. Tia starts to block but stops attacking.
Kat can tell the tide just turned again and yells, “Meteor!”
As she pulls the trigger she watches Tia jump back. Each tiny rock slams into the shield, covering it completely and start to vibrate. The shield shatters and Tia goes in for a strike. It motions too fast for Kat to see Tia now has a plasma blade sticking out of her back.
It shuts off temporarily and she slumps to the ground. A man’s laugh comes out of the armor. His helmet recedes away from his face while still wrapped around the back of his head.
“I never thought I would get the chance to fight you Eydulan’s but Master Archer is going to be pleased.” His hands start to flex their fingers. Another panel along his right leg opens revealing a large pistol. “I’ve got a special surprise here for the two Eydulan bitches. I wonder how fast their cores will be exposed.”
Kat jumps on top of Tia as the m
an pulls the trigger. The bullet passes through Kat and hits the ground next to Tia. Kat feels a burning sensation as she looks at her wound.
Its hard for her to breath as bight yellow like circuit tracks appear on her skin, extending out from the bullet exit point. It extends over all of her skin and her veins feel like battery acid got poured into them.
Kat’s hand lands on the hilt of the man’s plasma blade as she slumps to the ground on top of Tia. Graven yells something in the background. Kat wraps her hands around the grip and takes in an incredibly painful step.
She stands up and the man is turned facing Graven. She shoves the hilt at the back of the armor. It clangs against the back.
The man’s head turns to stare at Kat. “What in bloody hell do you think you’re trying to do you alien bitch?”
“This.”
Kat activates the blade and erupts in golden flames. As the blade pierces the armor fire pours forth around it. Golden flames burst out around the man’s head as he screams in pain falling to the ground.
Kat falls to her knees, gold fire still surrounding her and the blade. The circuit like track marks slowly fade away along with the fire. Graven appears behind her holding her head.
“You’re going to be ok, just hold on.”
“What about your sister?”
“She’s stronger than she looks. I’m more worried about you.”
“The meltdown, we have…” She coughs up frothy blood. Looking down at the hole in her chest there are bubbles coming out. She got hit in the lung, great.
Graven asks, “We can figure it out. Right Fury, we can figure this out can’t we?”
“I estimate we have about five minutes before the whole room goes boom. I don’t have the hacking knowledge Whisper does. So unless they just leave the off button not behind a login or user id then I think we’re about to be formatted.”
Kat says, “Graven pick me up and lets go to the middle console.”
“What? No, you need medical attention.”
Kat coughs as blood spurts out of the hole in her chest and mouth. “What I need to do is get to the console. You or I might be able to log in and turn this thing off. You were a replacement head of security weren’t you?”
“I was but that would have been turned off a long time ago.”
“It’s worth a shot.” She says with another cough and more blood.
Kat wraps her arm around Graven’s neck as he pulls her off the ground. They walk past Mark who shoots up like a light switch is just turned back on.
Graven asks, “You ok?”
He nods, not saying a word looking around very confused. Kat’s vision is growing dimmer as they reach the console and she feels tired enough to sleep for a month. Graven lines her up and she can barely hear him tell her to give it a try.
She puts her hand on the panel and the display lights up. Pulling her hand away feels sticky and looks down at her blood covered hand. How did so much blood get on her hand? Her chest is covered in frothy blood and she is so tired. All she wants to do right now is go to sleep. Graven tells her to hit the shutdown button which sounds like he’s a million miles away. Squinting the button looks to be the same distance away that Graven is but manages to hit it anyway.
The alarms turn off and lights quit flashing. A phrase spans across the screen.
Time to die bitch! - Love, Ryker
A timer lights up on the screen starting at ten. Nine. Eight…
Kat can’t keep her eyes open any longer and goes to sleep.
37
Katrice open’s her eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling. On her right is a beeping machine with what looks like her vitals. On her left are more empty hospital looking beds. Taking in a deep breath hurts and it reminds her that she got shot. As she sits up she gets stopped by a restraint across her arms and chest. Pulling up her hands are wrapped around her wrists as well. She starts to struggle as the machine next to her bed beeps become more frequent.
Graven walks into the room and hurries over to her. “Oh shit, sorry Kitty Kat. Let me get those off you.”
She lays her head back down and the pulsing in her ears settles down to a slow drumming. “What the hell was I tied up for?”
“You were thrashing around a lot in your sleep. Talking to your father, Jasper.”
That didn’t sound right. “Was she here?”
“No, you were just talking to her. Asking if she was ok and why she left you or how your mother was. It was like you were having a real conversation and Whisper just told me it was the drugs but I don’t know. Jasper was something else. If you don’t know where her core is I have no doubt she would try to protect you. She was always protective of the little ones and I would hate to see someone try to take her little one away from her.”
It is still weird to think about her father as a she but with her being Eydulan that is the way it is. Until Graven at least.
“Where are we?”
“Still on the Aphexion. After the cores almost blew up Ryker put a failsafe in to stop you from accessing any console. So when you did a self-destruct was started. Luckily Knox took Whisper up to the bridge to turn the meltdown off. So she was already there to stop the explosives.”
“Wait we’re still on the Aphexion? Where are all of the other crew and people that were waiting around just outside of it?”
“Whisper gave them an order to return to Planet Cal-Tec. There wasn’t one objection. So we took the ship and we’re almost at Planet June now.”
“June. Where the other Eydulan’s are?”
“You got it. Tia got a great idea. The conglomerate can’t say the ship was stolen. This thing is armed to the teeth and it has greeneries and living quarters. So why not use it. Then there is the fact that all of the other cores are already here. Why shouldn’t we just bring them to the Eydulan’s instead of the other way around?”
“This isn’t just a ship, it’s a frigging moon. Not something to keep a low profile in.”
“Tia said they can stay in Frontier space. There shouldn’t be much they need once they get started and there is more than enough room. And they can at least feel protected.”
Kat couldn’t believe what she’s hearing but Graven wouldn’t lie to her like that. She asks about what happened to her and she passed out from the blood loss. Tia and Graven gave up some of their’s. Tia's wound healed quickly, as they always do for her.
Mark and Whisper were able to then switch over all of the controls for the guards that were left to their control. Which is nice to hear. Hanna and Jack were fine. Jack’s arm got reattached but is still going to need to be in a sling for the next few months with some physical therapy to get him back to near full mobility.
Graven kisses Kat gently on the lips after he finishes give her the updates. “Thank you for taking a bullet for my sister. But try not to do that again. I need you.”
“I know and I need you. I just wasn’t about to let her get shot after getting stabbed and being all helpless on the ground.”
Tia walks into the room.
“Were you ears on fire?” Kat asks.
Tia’s eyes narrow, “No, which means you were talking about me.”
“All good things.”
“I’m sure. Graven they need you on the bridge. Whisper and Fury are having an argument with Mark about what needs to be done with the automated defenses.”
“Thanks sis. Do you mind?” Graven looks back at Kat.
Kat shakes her head “No I don’t. Go make sure everything is ok. I'm fine.”
“I’ll be back honey. Stay down and rest a bit longer.”
“Thanks Graven, I will.”
He walks away from her and disappears to the left where Tia emerged.
Tia takes a step forward, “I want to thank you for taking that bullet. Whisper told me after that they destroy the eydulan body leaving behind only it’s core. If I would have been hit by it.”
“Don’t worry about it. You’re my sister-in-law and my client. If I actually let you ge
t shot it would be horrible for my reputation. That and you might be family or whatever.” Kat looks away not wanting to meet Tia's gaze.
“Then I Tiamat will be at your disposal should you ever need me.”
Kat waves her hands dismissively, “No, seriously. I don’t need anything like that.”
“It is our custom to offer our services for those who give theirs freely. You offered your protection to me and I will do the same for you.”
Kat did like the sound of that. Having the queen of the Eydulan’s in debt to her could be useful. More so because she’s a powerful stewardess and less so the actual eydulan part.
“I want to talk about my father with you sometime.”
Tia nodded. “I will tell you everything you want to know.”
Whisper’s voice comes through a speaker near the nightstand on the left side of the bed. “I hear you’re awake. How is my favorite meat slush?”
Kat rolls her eyes, “We can do this another time Tia. It seems my favorite pain in the ass A.I. wants to goat me.”
“Is that any way to talk to your best friend? I had been worried about your fleshy existence but Mark was able to put more beautiful pieces of synthetics in you. Replacing that inefficient flesh airbag you call a lung.”
“You know what Whisper, I’m going to download you into a fleshy body and see what you say then.”
“Don’t even joke about that. It will give me nightmares.”
Another day passes and Kat is now able to get out of bed and walk around. They had reached Planet June the night before and all of the Eydulans are loading onto the ship with the help of the Felicity and two cargo ships that Knox and Gale had found.
Kat watches as all of the Eydulans board the ship. It takes hours but between the three ships it never felt anything stopped moving. Tia is there greeting them all and giving layouts to everyone. The same handouts they used for new passengers about to commit to life there on Aphexion.
Starship Magic 4: Extraction Page 16