The Sac'a'rith

by Vincent Trigili

  “This one will work,” he said, interrupting my thoughts.

  “Seems a bit cramped in there,” I said.

  “Yeah, we should go one at a time,” he replied.

  “I’ll go first in case there is trouble.” I was not at all confident of his ability to survive if there were walking dead or wraiths waiting for us.

  Using my headlamp to illuminate the airlock through the window, I was able to teleport in without any problems. Then repeating the process, I was able to get into the station proper. Once Crivreen was also aboard I asked, “What would happen if we tried to teleport into a place too small to fit?”

  As we went down the corridor he said, “I am not sure. I don’t know anyone who has tried. It is generally assumed to be a bad idea, and no one is willing to risk their life to find out.”

  That made perfect sense, but magic had been around for a while now. “Surely someone has done it by mistake?”

  “I don’t know; maybe. I have not met many magi,” he said.

  “I have heard magi were rare, but it seems like I keep running into them out here,” I said.

  “Well, to be fair, you have only run into the ones who were sent here to deal with a problem that requires magical help,” he said. “So I think your perspective is a bit skewed.”

  That was a valid point. We drifted on in silence for a while longer. I kept my headlight on for him, but I had my visor darkened. In the poor lighting it was easier to see using Sight than my natural eyes. It also lessened the chance that we could be jumped by wraiths unawares. The station looked eerie by Sight. Crivreen was sharply defined in color, but rest of the station was indistinct and colorless.

  When we reached Engineering we discovered that the blast doors were closed. Crivreen floated over to them and said, “This is not good, but I did expect it.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Engineering is designed to be the place where defenders can rally if an attack on the station is going poorly. Unlike most of the rest of the station, Engineering is designed to withstand an extended siege.” He floated over and tapped on the door with his armored fist. “Even your great strength won’t get us through that.”

  “Then what do we do?” I asked.

  “You’ll watch my back and I’ll get the door open.” He pulled a large box out of his bag and attached it to the wall. “With this battery I will restore power to the motor and open the door. I just need to bypass its safety protocols, which will be fairly easy since there is no power.”

  He sat in the air, floating perfectly still at a comfortable distance from the panel. As he took it apart he placed tools and parts in the air around him. In this zero-gravity environment they stayed arranged around him in easy reach. It was obvious he was far more comfortable with this environment than I was.

  “What if gravity were to come back suddenly?” I asked.

  “What? Oh, would I fall? No, gravity never comes back suddenly. It takes time for the gravitational field to build and align with the station. Besides, we are in no danger of that happening unless I can get main power back online.”

  I was amazed that even though he was moving around working on the panel, he seemed to stay put. I could not figure out how he was doing it. I had a hard time just floating in one place, never mind engaging in the level of activity he was doing.

  I was going to ask him about it, but then he said, “There!” and the doors to Engineering slid open. “Let’s go.”

  “Won’t that slam back shut?” I asked.

  “Not as long as that battery is connected. We have plenty of time, at least a day if we need it, and we can always go back to the ship and get another battery should it come to that.” He gathered everything that was floating around him, all the tools and even the parts he had removed from the door, stuck them in his bag and then floated into Engineering.

  The scene inside Engineering was very different to the rest of the station. The walls were scorched with blaster fire and there were dead bodies everywhere. Not all of the bodies were fully intact, and most had an expression of pure terror etched on their faces. “They must have tried to make a stand here.”

  Crivreen did not respond at first, and then weakly said, “Yeah.”

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “Sorry, I’ll be fine in a minute. Let’s just figure this out,” he said.

  I watched him head for one of the terminals and then realized he had probably never seen a massacre on this scale. As a slave, I saw many killed and left to rot; I had even had to spend many nights sleeping with rotting bodies. Seeing Crivreen’s reaction made me ashamed that I had grown so cold to this level of killing. “Crivreen? All this blaster fire, could that have taken out the power?”

  “No, it would take far more power than hand-held blasters could produce to harm these stations,” he said.

  I watched him rip open console after console. “What are you looking for?”

  “There should be a line here somewhere that still has power. You don’t just shut down something like this. If I can find that, I can trace it back to wherever the problem is and fix it,” he said.

  “Shut it down? Are you saying this was deliberate?” I asked.

  “That’s my conclusion. There is no sign of any reason for the power generators to have failed, so it must have been shut down intentionally.” As he worked he did his best to keep his eyes averted from the bodies around us. It seemed that as long as he focused on his work he would be fine.

  I began pushing the bodies out of Engineering and out of sight. I needed something to do, and I figured that would help him out more than trying to assist with the repairs. I had got about halfway through when he finally found what he was looking for.

  “Here! It looks like a manual cut-off. There does not appear to be any damage. I believe we can just turn everything back on,” he said.

  “Hold on for a moment,” I told him, then over the communication system I said, “Narcion, it looks as if we can restore power. Engineering is filled with corpses, but there is no damage; the system was shut down intentionally.”

  “Filled with corpses?” he asked.

  “Yeah; I think they tried to make a stand here,” I replied.

  “Listen, quickly; blow off their heads!” he said.

  “Do what?” I asked, startled.

  “Brother! Think about it! What will the wraiths do once you restore gravity?” he asked.

  “Animate the dead,” said Crivreen coldly.

  “Yes, and if you destroy their heads they cannot be reanimated. Now, do it! Quickly!” said Narcion.

  I looked around and realized that if they came back to life we would be completely outnumbered and surrounded. “Very well,” I said.

  I looked over at Crivreen, who was a bit pale, and he shook his head. “Okay, watch my back while I work, then. It is better this way, so they can rest in peace.” I added that last part in the hope that it would help Crivreen to cope with what I was about to do. He did his best not to watch what I was doing while keeping a look out, but in the end it was impossible to avoid the gruesome sight.

  I started with the group that I had moved into the hall already, and using my assault rifle I made quick work of all their heads. Then I went into Engineering and finished the job, moving the bodies into the hall as I completed the work. When I was finished there was blood floating around everywhere, but at least the bodies were gone.

  “Narcion, all the bodies have been taken care of. We are ready to turn the power back on,” I told him.

  “Good work, brother. Go ahead and power up the station,” he said.

  Crivreen went to work. I was not sure what exactly he was doing, and I wasn’t free to watch. I figured without the small army in here to attack us, the wraiths were sure to make their move soon. I kept up my Sight, constantly scanning the room.

  “Here we go. Oh, you might want to get closer to the floor,” said Crivreen as the lights came
up and I started to feel myself gaining weight.

  I straightened out my legs as gravity slowly took hold of me. Everything that had been floating slowly drifted down. I could see Crivreen cringe as the floating blood splattered on the floor. Around us was the sound of the station coming to life, of equipment firing up and air handlers coming on.

  “In about twenty to thirty minutes the air handlers will have recycled the atmosphere and it will be safe to take our helmets off,” said Crivreen to everyone.

  “Great work, Crivreen! Don’t take off your helmets, but do make sure you top up your air and battery supplies while you can,” responded Narcion.

  “So, Crivreen, what did you do before you got arrested?” I asked.

  “I had a decent job as chief engineer on a trade hauler in a respectable fleet. All of that is gone now. With a criminal record they will never re-employ me,” he said.

  “If Narcion had not hired you, what was your plan?” I asked. I was trying to keep him talking and distract him from the carnage in the hallway. I could tell he was still uneasy about it.

  “Oh, I don’t know. I was thinking I might try to make my way out to where the wizards are. I might be able to trade my skills for a ride along one of the trade routes, assuming I could find a fleet that did not know me.”

  “And then what?” I asked.

  “Try to find a wizard to teach me how to use my powers,” he said.

  “Seems like a good plan,” I said.

  “Yeah, it would never have worked, though,” he said.

  “Why not?” I asked.

  “Well, I have no money. Everything I owned was taken when I was arrested. I could not afford to travel far enough away to find a trade caravan and apply for passage,” he said.

  “After a few years working for Narcion, you will have plenty of money to make that trip,” I said.

  “I … ” he started, but then was cut off by an alarm. He rushed over to a terminal and then said into the intercom, “Well, I know now why they shut it down.”

  “What’s wrong?” asked Narcion.

  “The core is unstable. The temperature is continuing to rise. If it does not stop, we risk losing containment, and that could be catastrophic,” he said.

  “Can you stop it?” asked Narcion.

  “If I had enough time to diagnose the problem and repair it, yes. But there isn’t enough time,” he said.

  “How much time do we have?” asked Narcion.

  “At best two hours, but I would not feel comfortable going much beyond thirty minutes,” said Crivreen.

  “That will have to do. In thirty minutes shut down the system and head back to the cruiser. We will meet there and re-evaluate our situation. Until then try your best to figure out what is causing the problem,” said Narcion.

  The next thirty minutes passed slowly for me. Crivreen was working as fast as he could around me, trying to diagnose the problem with the core, while I just sat there and watched for wraiths. It bothered me that they were not attacking yet. They needed living creatures to feed on to survive. The sight of us just sitting here like this must have been like leaving out gourmet food in front of a man who is starving.

  “All right, I’m shutting it down,” said Crivreen.

  The lights went out quickly and the various other machines shut down, but I was still standing on the floor. “How come we aren’t floating?”

  “It will take a little while for the field to dissipate. Come on, let’s get out of here,” he said as he headed out of the room. After we were both out he disconnected his battery, which caused the door to slam shut behind us.

  It did not take us long to retrace our steps the way we had come. As before, we teleported one at a time through the airlock and then drifted back to the ship across open space. I was relieved to be back on the cruiser, where gravity and air functioned correctly.

  Chapter Twenty

  “Zah’rak, come with me to the bridge. Felix, Crivreen, keep a look out. As we pull away we may draw some attention,” said Narcion.

  “We are leaving?” asked Felix.

  “No, just putting some distance between us and the station while I work out our next move.”

  Once Narcion and I were on the bridge he asked me to pull out to two hundred kilometers from the station while he worked at something on the console.

  “Right, Zah’rak: we need to figure this out,” he said.

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “I copied the station’s entire database down to the ship’s computer during that brief window of power we had. This going from one station to another and removing the wraiths is not helping us to find out who is behind this. I am hoping there is something in these records that will help us,” he said.

  On the main screen data was flying by as he searched records. The speed at which he worked was beyond that which any human could normally achieve. A thought occurred to me. “Narcion, if this is the government’s database, won’t it have the real attack times and locations in there?”

  “Yes,” he said.

  “Then we should be able to see if there is a pattern to the attacks, shouldn’t we?” I asked.

  “Good idea. I have not found a pattern up to now, but I have had inadequate information to work from. They only call me after they’ve given up, and I think sometimes they just let the station go.” He worked at the terminal, and I saw images flash by too fast to read. I was trying to think of a way to help when he said, “Got it!”

  “Got what?” I asked.

  “You were right, there is a pattern. With the complete set of attacks and timings, the pattern is quite obvious,” he said.

  “Great! Let’s go to the next station in the pattern and wait for the attacker to show,” I said.

  “Good idea, but we won’t make it in time. It is too far,” he said.

  “We’ve got company,” said Crivreen over the intercom. “Two wraiths flying towards us.”

  “I expected as much. Felix, can you trap them in a shield?” asked Narcion.

  “Not unless I can get direct line-of-sight and they stay put long enough for me to cast,” he said.

  “Okay, then keep an eye on them and we’ll all move to the main cargo bay; that will give us room to fight,” said Narcion.

  While they were talking, I had leaned back and closed my eyes. Using my Sight, I looked back and saw them coming. I could feel emotions emanating from them. I got closer to see what else I could learn. Soon it was as if I was seeing through their eyes. Hunger pains racked my body. “So hungry. I must eat … ”

  “Careful, brother. You’re getting too deep,” said Narcion from somewhere far away.

  I shook myself free of the vision and said, “They are coming and are blinded by hunger. They will be desperate.”

  “Put your helmet on, and let’s move,” he said.

  We ran down and met Felix and Crivreen in the main cargo bay. Once there, we formed ourselves into a defensive position in the center of the room and waited. “Now, remember only your spells will work, and don’t let them touch you.”

  I don’t know how long we waited, but it seemed like years. When they finally came, they came in fast. The lead wraith flew right towards Crivreen, who was frozen with fear. I jumped in front of him and the wraith hit my armor with the claw swipe meant for Crivreen.

  As it contacted my armor green sparks went flying, and there was a pulse of green light where its hand connected that looked like power bleeding off into several streams away from the blow. The wraith pulled back in obvious surprise. I did not hesitate to take advantage of its confusion and quickly slashed out with my knives, killing it. Behind me I heard the other wraith scream and spun to see Narcion finishing it off.

  “That was easier than I expected,” I said.

  “Your armor seems to have worked well,” said Narcion.

  “Yes! It was the coolest thing. He jumped in front of me and its attack just bounced off his armor, t
hrowing sparks,” Crivreen said.

  “We will have to monitor the condition of your armor, at least until we know better how much damage it can take and still function,” said Narcion.

  “Sorry, Zah’rak; I don’t know what happened there! I just couldn’t move,” said Crivreen. He looked both embarrassed and annoyed.

  “It’s fine. It is the fear weapon I warned you about. It can be paralyzing if you’re not ready for it,” said Narcion. “We will work on that some more, but right now I need to get back to the bridge and figure out a better plan. You two, keep up the watch. We are too far from the station for me to tell if there are more wraiths on it or not.”

  Narcion and I returned to the bridge where he consulted the information again. “It looks like whoever is behind this is simply moving from station to station in positional order around the sector.”

  “And they never return to a station they have hit once,” I said.

  “Right; so that means they must get what they need right away, but what could that be?” he asked.

  I thought about it for a while and asked, “Can we see the initial attack on this station?”

  “No, that is the first thing I looked for. All records of that day are missing. We have data from the day before and the day after, so I suspect it was deliberately purged,” he said.

  “I would not have thought a wraith could do that,” I remarked.

  “It would be hard for an incorporeal being to type on a computer, I suspect,” he mused.

  “What about other stations? Any information on them?” I asked.

  “That is a good thought, brother, but this station only has aggregate information about other stations,” he said.

  While I was not quite sure what that meant, I took it to mean that he could not get the information on the attacks on any of the stations. “You know, when my less-than-respectable friends would hit a place, they would grab what they could and go as fast as possible. After that they would often leave some people behind to trash the place in order to cover up the theft, which had the added benefit of giving them someone to frame.”