by Martha Carr
Laura nodded, working hard to keep her mouth shut. When is she going to get to the point already? I know this stuff.
“But capturing a creature as powerful as a Gorafrex and keeping it aboard with all the other passengers—a good portion of whom it wanted to kill, dissect, and consume, mind you…” Ratilda chuckled and shook her head. “That does not leave good marks on the history of a vessel’s maiden voyage. And it makes people very tense.”
Laura smirked. No kidding.
“So we devised a secondary purpose for the prison. A default plan, if you will.” The Engineer lifted her great, gnarled hands and stared at the space between them. “The prison would contain the Gorafrex. And all around it, we built…” She took a deep, excited breath. “Another ship.” The woman’s aged lips peeled back into a grin, and she studied Laura with those bug-like eyes behind the goggles. She waited for the young witch to share her enthusiasm.
“Another…ship?”
“Yes. It was rather clever. I designed it myself, which I’m sure you’ve already guessed. And we built it with your ancestors to use when this ship crossed the empty wastes between the galaxy of our former home, Arenya V, and the quite distant sector of our destination. The thing was beautiful. A true testament to—”
“Why would you build a ship around a prison?” Laura frowned at the Engineer then realized her mistake. Whoops. She’s still in story mode.
The Engineer’s brow descended and folded over the tops of her goggles.
“I’m sorry. I—”
“To get the Gorafrex off this ship! To eject it into the barren wastelands of space between galaxies and let it live out its days alone, unfed, undying, unsatisfied. To eliminate the threat.” The woman overly annunciated the ‘t’ sounds with her last sentence.
Kinda sounds like she’s threatening me. “Like an escape pod.”
Rutilda blinked slowly. “That is very rudimentary, Laura Hadstrom, but yes. If that allows you to better comprehend the complexities of this impromptu creation, it was something like…an escape pod.”
“Built around the prison?”
“Yes.”
“Here in Austin, Texas?”
The old Engineer glanced around the cavernous expanse underground. “Unless some idiot has uprooted the entire city above the surface and placed it somewhere else, then yes. Right here in what you quaintly call ‘Austin.’”
Laura squinted. “Okay…so why didn’t you…eject it? It’s still here. The first Hadstrom witches locked the Gorafrex away in the prison, and…then what? Everybody thought they’d just keep it around a little longer? See what happens?”
Rutilda slid her hands down her thighs toward her knees and leaned toward the young witch. “Child, I realize it is difficult for you to understand the passage of time in the same way us long-lived races experience it. You get a century and a half and call it a lifetime. Maybe two centuries, if you’re lucky. Everything must always be done so quickly with your species.”
“A few billion years is a really long time to push the red button and shoot the Gorafrex off this ship, though. I mean, seriously.” Laura tossed her thumb sideways in a crude miming of the only way she’d seen escape pods work, which was in sci-fi movies.
“Again, very rudimentary.” The Engineer sighed. “The ship we built around that prison, like everything that keeps this ship running despite its never-ending orbital repetition”—Rutilda jerked her finger around in quick, exaggerated circles, rolling her eyes—“requires a highly sophisticated, advanced technological magic to power it in any way. And this smaller vessel, because it was not of the larger ship’s original design, required a significant amount of magic. Yes, we could have brought together all the passengers and invited them to power the Gorafrex’s escape pod with us. And then what would have been left for us to deal with? A ship full of panicked, enraged, resentful travelers who would spend more time sussing out tiny details like how the Gorafrex snuck on board in the first place rather than focusing on powering the energy cores—” A fit of dry, hacking coughs overwhelmed the old woman, and it took her a moment to stop first so she could catch her breath.
“Are you okay?” Laura asked. “Do you have a…giant vat of water around here or something?”
Rutilda chuckled and shook her head. “Such a funny creature you are, Laura Hadstrom. Ha. Water…”
It wasn’t supposed to be funny, but okay. Again, the young witch fought the urge to look at her watch. It’s gotta be at least midnight by now. At least Nicki and Emily aren’t waiting up for me or anything. ‘Cause I didn’t actually tell my sisters I was coming down here…
3
“Now.” The Engineer took a deep, rattling breath, and paused. “Where was I?”
“Um…” Laura blinked. “It took a lot of magic to power the energy cores?”
“Yes, yes. This ship was meant as a sanctuary. A safe place to deliver lifeforms across the universe to a new life elsewhere. Adventurers, businessfolk, refugee witches and wizards. We could not tell everyone that one of the most powerful beings we’d seen on Arenya V, bent on hunting down your kind, was trapped aboard with the rest of us. So the Engineers, Mechanics, and your ancestors, Laura Hadstrom, decided to take our time. We endeavored to fill each of the energy cores with a bit of magic at a time, so as not to exhaust ourselves or draw undue attention to the prison. Time…ha. We thought we had so much more of it.”
Oh. Now I get it. “But the ship malfunctioned.” Laura puffed out a sigh. “And we barreled right for this solar system.”
“And here we remain.” Rutilda lifted her hands in exasperation and dropped them to her thighs again with a puff of more dust. “We could not unleash the Gorafrex within this galaxy. That would put too many other systems and planets and lives at risk, so we stopped powering the new vessel. We waited for the necessary repairs. Which, somehow, became impossible to complete…”
“And the Gorafrex just stayed where it was.”
“And it remained. Yes. But it knows, Laura Hadstrom. The creature knows what we planned, and it knows what the prison was made to do. Now that you have released it”—Laura grimaced—“it can, for the first time, access the energy cores it has spent the last few billion years coveting.”
“It wants witches and wizards…and it wants to shoot itself into space?”
“And why not? To free itself from its captors and find a new system with inhabited planets. More witches. More prey. In a place where absolutely no one yet knows it has come for them.”
“Boy.” Laura rubbed her face and closed her eyes. That makes things a little more complicated. “Do you know how to stop the Gorafrex? How to capture it again and put it back in the prison?”
“Hmm.” The Engineer tilted her head and stared into the darkness. “I heard pure iron was useful. And something about music…”
“Right. We already know about those. Just haven’t figured out how to use them the right way.”
“Well, I’m an Engineer, Laura Hadstrom. I know how to build and create and design these wondrous and infuriatingly unpredictable ships. And you are…well, you are a Hadstrom witch. I imagine you and your…sisters, did you say?” Laura nodded. “You are responsible for figuring out the witches’ work.” Rutilda spread her arms with a shrug.
“Yeah. I know that too.”
“Until you do figure it out, I suggest you and your sisters turn your focus to this abandoned escape pod of mine. And to be clear, I really do hate that term.”
Laura cocked her head. “What do you call it?”
“A ship.”
“Okay…but we don’t know anything about energy cores or powering ships—”
“No!” Rutilda’s shout echoed violently through the expansive cavern. “No, Laura Hadstrom. You are never to power that ship. No one should ever power it.”
I think this woman might’ve actually lost her mind. “But…you just said to turn our focus to the escape pod.”
“Not to turn it on. Oh, of all the idiotic…” The E
ngineer snorted and shook her head, her gray curls flying in all directions. “That ship has been there far too long. If anyone powers it, it will level the land all around for a great distance. Everything you know—everyone you know—poof. And if the Gorafrex activates it, forget about your city. Or the realm you call the United States. Or any so-called continents. That ship would blast a massive hole in this ship and take all of us with it. And not as prisoners, Laura Hadstrom. As corpses.”
Laura took a deep breath and folded her hands in her lap. “Oh.” Yeah. A lot more complicated.
“What you need is to dismantle the energy cores. You and your sisters must destroy the ship I built around that prison, so the Gorafrex may never use it to fully escape. Then, lock that creature away and be sure the Hadstroms of the future never have to find out about it the way you did, hmm?”
“Yeah. This is a learning opportunity for everybody.”
Rutilda let out another wheezing, dusty cackle. “You are funny.”
“Thanks…” Laura stood from the footlocker and nodded. “So how do we find these energy cores?”
“By looking for them, of course.”
The young witch blinked and held her tongue. Not helpful. At least I’ve had so much practice learning to ask questions in a million different ways. Wow. Never thought I’d be thanking Gilroy, of all magical artifacts… “Okay. And where do we look?”
“Ah. It’s very simple, really. The heart of the prison is also the heart of that ship. The very center.” The Engineer lifted her wrinkled fingers again to slowly draw in the air. “Twelve energy cores arranged in a very large circle. I believe most of your Austin, Texas falls within that perimeter—”
“Wait.” Laura whipped her phone out of her back pocket and pulled up the photo she’d taken a few days before. The sight of all the blood drawn upon the wall of that poor awakened peabrain’s house in South Austin—the blood of the first and only witch, so far, that the Gorafrex had killed—made her pause. She stepped toward the Engineer and held up her phone, which she realized was incredibly small for the giant, ancient woman. “Is this what the escape pod looks like?”
“Eh? What’s that?”
“It’s a picture—”
“In your hand. What is it?”
Laura blinked. “Oh. It’s a…cell phone. You know, for calling people. Yeah, and for taking pictures. It does a lot of stuff, actually. But that’s not really important. Can you see the symbol in this picture?”
Rutilda squinted through her magnifying goggles and craned her neck forward. “My eyes aren’t what they used to be, Laura Hadstrom.”
“Okay, here.” Laura spread her fingers across the screen and made it bigger. “How about now?”
“Eh? What?” The Engineer blinked quickly. “That’s a copy of my design! Where did you—oh. Oh, I see. Now that’s blood, isn’t it?”
“Yeah.” Laura sighed. “Like I said, the Gorafrex already took over two human hosts. Definitely woke up both their little peabrains, so there’s that. And we have no idea who it jumped into after it…well, after it killed one witch already.”
“This is the witch’s blood?”
“Yes. On the wall. Apparently in the shape of your escape pod.”
“Hmm. You must be very careful, Laura Hadstrom. This is old magic, yes? The Gorafrex is feeding on witches and using their magic to transmit power to the energy cores. By the looks of it, I’d say it already has one running.”
Laura glanced at the picture of the large circle on her phone, twelve smaller circles drawn around it in blood like the face of a gruesome clock. The circle where a clock’s number one would be was filled in with a white, opalescent substance. “Okay. So we go destroy that one—”
“That’s a terrible idea. Unleashing that much lifeforce magic will bring far too much attention to this. You need to dismantle as many of the energy cores as you can before that creature gets to them.”
Turning off her phone, Laura stuffed it into her back pocket and gazed up at the Engineer. “How many?”
“All of them, preferably. That’s impossible now. But as many as you can as quickly as you can, Laura Hadstrom. The ship can perform basic functions with only half of the energy cores online.”
“So…seven. We need to destroy at least seven of them.”
“As many as you can.” Rutilda straightened on the stack of crates, her head rising tall above the young witch and casting her imposing shadow over her visitor. “Each time the Gorafrex fills another core, it will be more difficult for you to find and destroy the others.”
Laura shook her head. “Why?”
“Blood magic powering a ship built millennia ago, now being awakened for the very first time? The havoc that would wreak on this larger ship’s systems…on magic itself…” The Engineer dipped her head. “Well, it could do anything, really.”
Yeah, that’s incredibly helpful. Why can’t we ever just get cut-and-dried warnings that say exactly what to expect? The young witch smiled grimly at the ancient giant living so far underground. “I guess we better start destroying energy cores. Is there a…way to go about doing that?”
“Ah. Yes, a good smashing should do the trick.” The woman pounded one huge fist into her other hand.
“Oh. Okay. That’s easy enough.”
“Any way you can, Laura Hadstrom. By whatever means necessary. Mostly, you must disconnect the conduction valves from the operations drive and—”
“I’m sorry.” Laura spread her arms. “I have no idea what any of that means.”
Rutilda chuckled. “No, I supposed not. Disconnect it, if you can. Destructive magic and physical force combined will give you the best odds. A good smashing, yes?”
“Right. Well…” Laura turned away from the woman and took a few steps across the platform toward the long catwalk. “I should get going. There’s a lot to tell my sisters, and there’s not a lotta time to lose, is there?”
“Yes. In this, I think, it’s good that you are a hasty witch. Wait.” The woman heaved herself to her feet, sending the remaining dust-covered tarps slipping to the cement platform, and shuffled toward another incomprehensible pile of junk. She bent down with a groan to rifle through the mess there, tossing whatever she didn’t want behind her with no concern for her guest. Laura dodged a wad of coiled cables and a giant boot the size of a laundry basket before Rutilda finally stood upright. “This! Take this with you.” The woman turned and took one huge step toward the young witch. “Useful for building and smashing.”
Laura reached out with both hands to accept the huge, two-foot-long socket wrench. When the giant woman dropped it into her hand, Laura almost dropped it too. She grunted and clenched her fingers around the cold, worn metal. “Um…any special use for this?”
“Just do what feels right. It’s never steered me wrong.”
“Okay.” Laura chuckled, then looked up to meet the Velikan Engineer’s huge, round eyes. “Thank you, Rutilda. For the story and your knowledge of the…the ship.” Better not call it an escape pod again. Just in case I need to come back down here for another chat. “And for this.” She lifted the socket wrench in both hands and smiled.
“Just use what you can to do what you must, Laura Hadstrom.” The giant woman bowed her head. “And if you manage to succeed relatively quickly, come back down to tell me all about it. Who knows how much longer I’ll be here.”
“I will. Promise.” With another nod, the young witch turned away from the Velikan and made her way toward the long catwalk stretching across the gaping chasm. Now I just gotta figure out how to carry this thing up the ladder…
4
Emily Hadstrom pulled the baking tin from the oven and grinned. “Oh, yeah. This is the best quiche I’ve ever made.”
Nickie smirked at her little sister from the small kitchen table while warming her hands on a mug of fresh coffee. “You say that about everything you make.”
Emily took a deep sniff of perfectly set eggs and tender asparagus, creamy brie and perf
ectly buttery, flaky crust, and sighed. “That’s totally untrue. Remember those waffles?”
“The accidentally minty waffles?”
Emily shot her sister a warning glance. “That’s my point. Not the best waffles I’ve ever made.”
“Well I liked ‘em.”
“That literally means nothing, Nickie.”
“Hey! What’s that supposed to mean?”
Emily pulled three plates from the cabinet, then opened her knife drawer and found the serving knife exactly where she’d put it. I’m so glad nobody else in this house cooks and messes with my stuff. “It means that you have the least discerning palate of anyone I’ve ever met.”
Nickie snorted. “What?”
“Come on.” Emily leaned back against the counter. “You’re twenty-four, and you still eat Pop-Tarts.”
“I don’t see anything wrong with that.”
“Like I said. Least discerning palate. And that’s why I’m the chef.” Emily turned back toward the quiche to start slicing it.
“Not yet,” Nickie muttered.
The youngest Hadstrom sister lifted her serving knife without turning around. “I heard that.”
The stairs creaked with descending footsteps, and Laura rounded the corner from the dining room into the kitchen. “Smells amazing, Em.”
“It’s gonna taste even better.” Emily served a sixth of the quiche onto each of their plates and popped a stray piece of asparagus into her mouth.
“Whoa.” Nickie stared at their older sister shuffling into the kitchen. “Late night?”
Laura yawned and ran her fingers through her mess of uncombed hair. “Why?”
“If you sleep any less than seven hours, you get those bags under your eyes.” Nickie gestured to her own eyes and grimaced.