Off in some remote distance I heard Saraphym scream at me to run, but I ignored her and stared down the sentries. For their part, they did not seem to care that I had stopped to face them; as soon as I was in sight they opened fire.
I felt my armor heat up as the blasts from their weapons surrounded me. I had raised my hands to catch the blasts, but not quickly enough. As my armor heated up, I sucked the power into my body and they continued to march toward me and fire. Pain ripped through me as I slowly adjusted to the speed at which the highly-focused energy was hitting me. In the past being hit with blaster fire had brought pain and damage to my body but the pain had always convinced me to find cover, not stand and deliberately expose myself to more. However, I had no choice this time: if I did not stop these sentries, Saraphym’s life would be in danger. Alone I was sure I could get away, but now I had someone to protect.
I felt that my bipedal form could not hold very much power, and I would be quickly overwhelmed unless I did something with it. Slowly I began to focus on reflecting the power back on them. It was so much easier in my native form, but it began to work.
There was a large explosion as I finally redirected enough power back at one of the sentries to destroy it, and then bolts of energy flew over my head and slammed into the second sentry, destroying it too. I collapsed against the wall, feeling as if my whole body were on fire. The world around me started to get darker and darker as I held on dearly to my life. I had to live to get Saraphym to safety.
“Here, quickly, drink,” I heard in the sweet voice of my Saraphym.
She poured something down my throat and I could feel strength return to my body. It was like drinking cold fire. It spread through me and slowly my vision cleared. Most of the corridor around me was destroyed by blaster fire, and Saraphym crouched over me with her staff drawn. “Can you walk?”
“Yeah,” I said and started to get up. “No,” I said as I fell back down.
“Here,” she said and put her arm under me. “We just have to get to an airlock, right? Then we can jump out into space and you will be fine?”
“Yeah,” I managed to get out. I did not know if it was true, but I needed to keep her moving.
She virtually dragged me through the station until armed guards cut off our path. They pinned us down around a corner. Once again she pulled her staff out of thin air and used it to hold them off, but it was only a matter of time before we were overrun.
“Can you walk yet?” she asked.
“Too weak. I need energy,” I said. “I sent too much of it back at those sentries. Now my body is starved.”
She fired a few more shots, then her eyes lit up with an idea. “Stay down.”
I certainly was not going to be standing up anytime soon, so that was easy to comply with. She tossed something around the corner and then stood and began to chant. I had no idea what she was doing, but I hoped it would be fast. I tried to draw my blasters to give her cover fire and realized that most of my armor had been destroyed, along with my blasters. “Great,” I mumbled to myself. A friend from a previous life had made the armor; it was marvelous, wonderful, irreplaceable and now completely destroyed.
As she finished chanting I heard screams coming from around the corner and sounds of outright panic of the kind I had not heard since dealing with the wraiths.
“Here, drink this!” she said.
“What is it?” I asked as I started to drink.
“Illuminescence! You’ll love it!” she said.
She was right; it felt like drinking the purest, cleanest energy I had ever found. “This is what that ghost back on Nemesis gave me!” I said, feeling my body begin to recover as the energy flowed through it.
“Yes, Nanny,” she said.
My mind slowly cleared and I grew concerned about Saraphym. She looked more exhausted and drained than I had ever seen her. “Are you all right?”
“I can’t hold up this spell for much longer. We need to move,” she said.
“Cancel it, then and let’s go,” I said as I got to my feet. I was still weak and needed the wall for support, but that drink had given me enough strength to move on my own.
She let out a slight sigh, and the screams died down. “Run!” she called out.
“Follow me,” I said and headed toward what I hoped were the docking bays. “We need to find an outside wall, airlock, docking bay or anything like that.”
Her staff operated much like a rifle and she was firing bolts of energy behind us as she ran, trying to slow down their pursuit. With no blasters and still fairly weak, I was not much help to her.
“Turn left at the next junction, maybe?” she asked. “I think I saw docking bays in that direction when we were drifting in.”
“Okay.” I had been so busy looking at her, I had not thought to scope out the station during our approach. After making the turn we found ourselves at a dead end.
“Now what?” she asked.
“Blast through the wall with your staff. Cut the straightest possible path to the outside,” I said.
She turned her staff on the wall and blasted through into another corridor, and then another. “This is too slow! They will catch us!”
“Quick, blast a hole into the next corridor,” I said. Once that was done I pulled her down the original corridor. “That might buy us a little time.”
We continued to move and dodge patrols as best we could until we finally found one of the docking arms. I collapsed against the wall and said, “Go. You can make it to the airlock from here. I will just slow you down.”
“That’s not gonna happen!” she said and turned her staff on the wall of the docking arm. Before I could say anything she had blasted right through to the hard vacuum of space. The force of the air flowing out of the station quickly sucked us both out.
Once in space I was able to stretch out my wings and just glide on the gravity currents. I slowly banked back toward the station. “Saraphym?”
“Greymere?” she responded. “What are all these colors?”
“Colors?” I asked.
“All around me; it’s like I’m drifting in a sea of multicolored water,” she sent.
“Oh, those are gravity waves and other energy currents. We float on them to get around,” I sent. I finally located her some distance from me. “My, you are even more beautiful than I imagined.”
I watched her turn and twist in her native form, looking for me, “Where are you?”
“I am quite far from you but flying over. Just stay put. You are still wearing your armor, so Nemesis will be able to find you, but not me,” I sent back. While I worked my way toward her I slowly coached her on how to read the currents and move through them.
“Why haven’t they called me yet?” she asked.
“They might have, but you have no ears,” I sent.
“Master Spectra? Can you hear me?” she asked.
“I don’t know if that will work,” I started.
“I think it will,” sent Spectra.
“Master Spectra! We are adrift in space, and it’s so pretty out here,” sent Saraphym.
“We have your signal, but not Greymere’s,” sent Spectra.
“My armor was destroyed in a firefight on the station, but I am working my way toward Saraphym,” I sent.
“Sounds like you have a lot to report. We are closing in on Saraphym’s location now,” she sent.
Soon we were both back aboard the Nemesis, and with some coaching I was able to help Saraphym return to her bipedal form. Nanny fussed over me and I could not get her to leave me be until she was certain I was resting comfortably in a chair, out of the remains of my armor, into something a bit more modest, and had eaten something. In some ways, I was sure she ran the ship rather than Dusty.
“Now, what happened over there?” asked Dusty.
I started to explain, but Saraphym interrupted me. “No, Greymere. Not like that.”
“What do you mean?” I aske
d.
She knelt down in front of me, placed her hand on mine and said, “In the airlock you helped me return to this shape through visualization. I want you to try that same thing. In your mind, picture all the events from the time we boarded the station until they picked us up. Envision them as a video or book, whichever is easier.”
“Okay, but …” I began to say.
“Hush,” she interrupted. “Then look at Master Spectra and, in your mind, see yourself reaching out to her and putting those memories in her hand.”
I was lost as to what that would accomplish, but it seemed like a minor thing to do for her so I tried it. In my mind I bundled up the events I wanted to report, just as Saraphym suggested, and saw myself handing them to Spectra. To my amazement I felt her reach out to take them, and could see her open them up to view them. I could also see her pass the book around to the others.
“What just happened?” I asked.
“You gave us a copy of your memories,” said Dusty. “We now know everything that you remember happening on the station. Since when have you been able to do this?”
“Always, I suppose,” I deduced.
“Masters,” interrupted Saraphym. “Apparently his … no, our race uses telepathy to communicate in the vacuum of space. He never tried it with us because he did not know it was the same thing.”
Spectra smiled at Saraphym. “I had guessed you two might be more compatible than it first appeared.”
Saraphym turned to me with a look of sadness on her face. “So then I must have been adopted and never knew my real parents.”
Chapter Twenty-One
“Master Dusty, please report to the bridge,” came Jade’s voice over the intercom.
“On my way,” I replied. “Greymere, as soon as we get a chance, I will call home and get you a new set of armor, a proper set for a member of our team.”
“Thanks. If you don’t mind, I think I am going to go lie down for a while,” he said.
“Certainly. Saraphym, make sure he reaches his quarters and then get some rest yourself,” I said.
“Don’t worry about a thing,” said Nanny. “I’ll make sure they both get to their respective quarters.”
I chuckled at the way she said that. I couldn’t see Saraphym’s face, but I imagine it might have been a little crestfallen.
Once Spectra and I had reached the bridge, I asked, “Status?”
“Looks like our friends are pressing the attack on the station,” he said.
I looked over at the tactical display. The unknown ships that had launched the attack on the station while Greymere and Saraphym were still aboard had increased their number and were slowly breaking through the defenses of the station.
“Any idea yet of who they are or where they came from?” I asked.
“Nothing yet, Master. They have no identifiable markings,” he said.
“Greymere’s report indicates that they may already have boarders on the station who will be killed if they are successful in destroying it,” I said.
“Something very strange is going on here,” said Spectra.
“If the station is destroyed, we will lose whatever lead Henrick wanted us to find,” I said.
“Unless this attack was the lead,” said Spectra.
I looked again at the tactical displays. They were not even looking for us. After picking up Saraphym and Greymere we had moved out of range of the fight and reengaged our cloak. We did not know who was on the station nor who was attacking, so we had not yet interfered.
“It looks like the attackers will be successful if we do nothing,” I said.
“Agreed, but I still think we need to stay out of it,” said Spectra.
“Nemesis, can you spot the command ship for the attackers?” I asked.
“Yes, all communications channels converge on this one,” he said and outlined a ship that lay toward the back of the attacking fleet.
Listening to their conversations had not been helpful, as everything communicated related to the fight. “Jade, bring us close to that command ship.”
“Are you thinking of boarding it?” sent Spectra privately.
“Yes,” I replied.
“You’re the commander. Your place is here. I will go,” she sent back.
“No. You are the only one who can gate. If I go and need help, you can use your gate to fetch me. If you go, there is no one who can get to you,” I replied and then once we were in position said, “I am going to drop in on our friends. Spectra has command until I return.”
With that I cast Night Form and flew over to the command ship. It did not take me long to find the bridge, and I was shocked by what I saw there. It was filled with cyborgs, disgusting half-living, half-robotic creatures that had no love for anything organic.
Night Form rendered me completely invisible and completely unable to interact with the physical world. This meant I was safe from discovery, but my options for spying were limited to only what I could see and hear.
The control panels appeared to be labeled in the same language that Greymere had seen on the station, and the language they spoke also sounded the same. I could not cast any of my spells that would allow me to understand this language without breaking Night Form, so I held off.
I flew throughout the ship looking for clues, but there was nothing at all that stuck out. After a while I returned to Nemesis and said, “The best we can do is follow them after the fight and see where they go.”
“You were that successful?” asked Spectra.
“They appear to speak and write the same language as those on the station, but that’s about all I found out,” I said. “That and the fact that they are cyborgs.”
“Cyborgs? On the station they seemed like normal humans, at least everyone did that Greymere saw,” said Spectra. “I’ll place a tag on that ship …” she began but was interrupted by Nemesis, who reported, “The station is destroyed.”
“But how? They hadn’t broken through the shields yet,” I queried.
“Master,” said Kymberly. “It looks as if they activated the self-destruct mechanism and took a large section of the attacking fleet with them.”
“Stay with that command ship,” I ordered. “Spectra, can you get a tag on it?” A tag would mark the ship so that not only could she find it later but she could also use the tag as a gate point.
“I have one. If they jump we should be able to follow them and come out with them unnoticed,” she said.
“Be ready, Jade. I doubt they will stick around long with the station gone,” I said.
“Yes, Master,” he said. “Looks like they are gathering to leave now.”
“Stay with them,” I said.
It was not long until we were following them into jump space. The fleet was large enough for us to mix in as if we were another ship coming out of jump with them and we were able to engage our cloak without raising their suspicions. At least, it appeared that they did not spot us.
“So the first question is: are the cyborgs connected to the Imperial Humans? And if so, are they for or against them?” I asked.
“Assuming they are connected at all, I would think ‘against’,” said Spectra. “I imagine anyone trying to form a pure race would hate the very idea of a cyborg.”
For the rest of the day and overnight we followed them as they coasted through space to recharge their jump drives and fly past a neutron star whose gravity well was too large for the fleet’s jump drives to overcome. When I returned to the bridge after breakfast, Jade reported that the fleet would probably be able to jump again around midday.
“Stay with them through the jump,” I said and went to see how Greymere was doing. I found him in the mess hall with Saraphym, silently eating together. “Good morning. How are you feeling?”
“Much better. Nothing like a good night’s sleep and a big breakfast to help a man bounce back,” said Greymere.
“Excellent!” I said. “Saraphym, I not
iced in Greymere’s memories that he asked you to record a view of their command screens. Did you get that?”
“No, Master. My armor was damaged in the firefight and I lost the recording,” she said.
“How much do you remember of it?” I asked.
“Sorry, Master, I did not focus on the screens. I was depending on the video recording,” she said.
“That’s okay,” I said.
“I got a good look at all the screens. What do you want to know?” asked Greymere.
“It’s just that I think the language used by those on the ships we are following is the same, and if I can get a good sample of the language I can translate it.”
“That should be easy enough to do with Nemesis’ help,” he said.
“Really?” I said.
He pulled out a datapad and cleared the screen, then used a stylus and began to write on the datapad. After a few minutes he said, “Nemesis, I am sure this is the star chart that was displayed on the screens there. I have labeled the systems I recognize. Can you extrapolate from this and turn my scribbles into a real map?”
“Sure, Greymere. It will just take a few minutes,” he said.
“You remember all that from just that short look?” I asked.
“Our species has near-perfect recollection. It is required if you are going to remember your way around out there,” he said, waving his hand generally toward the ceiling.
“Okay, I have it. Do you want me to update your display on the datapad?” asked Nemesis.
“Yes, that would be great,” said Greymere. “Now that we have a star chart, I will attempt to draw all the symbols that were on it. We might be able to correlate them to known entries on our star maps and start building their language.”
I watched him work in amazement. I recognized the image he was creating from the memory he had given me, but there was no way I could have reconstructed it as he did. My own race had an almost perfect memory of travels, but I had to actually travel somewhere to remember it. His memory seemed to work more like a video recorder. “Yes, some of those symbols are the same, definitely.”
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