Mourning Ember

by Odin Oxthorn

  “Oh, nothing special.” Bellanar checked the map he’d slyly coaxed out from the security system. “Just act like I own the place.”

  “I see.”

  Garrett watched the camera view as Bellanar passed the intersection. A glimmer of the man’s reflection danced on the wall. The carefree bounce of the man’s normal gait had disappeared, a blend of an officer’s stiffened gait and a relaxed stroll replacing his movement. Soldiers passed him without alarm, a casual nod here, a salute there. Bellanar displayed his knowledge of human formalities, a perfect chameleon of espionage.

  “Now.” Bellanar paused and leaned against a wall, flipping through the map. “If I were holding a high-priority prisoner, where would I put them?”

  “Somewhere with either constant surveillance,” Garrett answered the rhetorical question, “Or something away from other prisoners.”

  “You guessed it!” A multitude of conversations popped into Bellanar’s helmet, various security officers exchanging shifts and ordering resupplies. Several layers of treacherous signals tempted his prodding digits, a high-level administrator account required for access. With careful extraction, the barriers dissolved, revealing a particularly important notice from the Chief of Security to a select three senior officers:

  >> NOTICE OF HIGH PRIORITY. IMMEDIATE ACTION REQUIRED.

  >> To: Senior Officers W. Truce, M. Acklar, V. Mesrin:

  >>High-Profile Terrorist is en route to this station. Identity is on a need-to-know basis. You are to attend to them personally and rendezvous to the drop-off point.

  >> Once secured, you and you alone are to put them in Special Containment Quadrant 3893B. Assume Code 67 to ensure no unauthorized personnel contacts prisoner. Failure to comply with these orders will result in immediate demotion and court martial.

  >> X. Thorat, CoS

  Bellanar hummed a pensive tune and tapped a finger at a void of space in the aft of the ship. A few strokes of tinkering later and leads from the encrypted messages procured, he acquired the proper credentials to reveal the containment center. “Let us go the back way, shall we?”

  He made his way to the nearest service elevator and stepped inside. Another individual clad in similar armor quickly followed behind, sliding in before he could reach the call buttons. They exchanged a nod, and the guest looked at him expectantly. “Foundry.”

  The guard pressed the command along with their own destination, and the doors silently sealed them together. Uncertainty of protocol directed the conversation, the silence interrupted by soft shuffles of fabric as the two shifted in their steps.

  “Uhh…” Garrett vocalized his nervousness, the proximity to an enemy person a foreign concept to him.

  “Don’t fret over it.” Bellanar turned to meet the guard’s inquisitive scrutiny. “It is very rude to stare, my friend.”

  “How much did those lifts run you?” they blurted, unmoved by his remark.

  “Beg pardon?”

  “Those bio-lifts.” They pointed a finger at his legs. “I bet you can reach the top valves with those.”

  “If I had a credit…” His tone salted with a sigh. “I was hired because of them. Back when I had insurance.”

  “That a fact?” They let out a chortle. “Like hell I would have expected GaPFed to pay for ‘em. I’ve been on calls back and forth between twenty providers to replace my debunked kidneys. But there’s always something, isn’t there?”

  “For sure.” Bellanar shook his head empathetically. “I wish you a swift solution to your health problems.”

  The elevator slid open, the same sterile white walls as the floor above presented before them. “Ha! Here’s hoping. You have a good one.” They waved and exited, leaving his comrade behind.

  “That could have gone a lot worse,” Garrett said.

  “All you need is a little faith in Fate.” Bellanar smirked. “If you don’t start anything, there won’t be anything.”

  His journey came to a gliding halt as the elevator hurled out a chime. A gust of humid air curled inside the chamber as the elevator doors peeled open. Inside was an inferno of bustling machines, their mechanical chants illuminated by an ominous red glow. The environment of the entire ship depended on the clanging chorus, the hollow drone of the boiling engines adding their voice in the symphony of astrophysics.

  “There has to be some sort of access line,” Bellanar chimed as he began to walk a perimeter around the room. He passed his fingertips over piping and insulated electrical lines, digging through a key of symbols draped over the map. “Ah!”

  He looked above to find a service hatch situated above his head. The walls offered him a convenient set of footholds, and he climbed up to investigate the porthole. He clasped his fingers around the crank wheel, giving it a good yank. Nothing except the metallic clicks of the locking mechanism bashing against its confinement.

  “Oh, dear.” He examined the circumference of the hats, passing a finger around the seams. “No access here. That’s inconvenient.”

  “There’s a command station behind you,” Garret pointed out, sending a signal to his map.

  Bellanar turned to glance at the flickering beacon, tracing his eyes over a grid of catwalks above him. They led to an observation deck coated in reinforced glass, technicians dutifully watching the settings of the boiler room through a set of glowing green monitors.

  “Excellent!” Bellanar praised. “Let’s go say hello!”

  “I don’t think—” Before Garrett could finish his protest, Bellanar had already patched through the communication line.

  “Unit 56A to station.” Bellanar perked up. “Need access to pressure valve 0794.”

  One of the techs raised their head to look over the facility, spotting Bellanar waving enthusiastically at them.

  “We haven’t had any reports of an interruption there,” the technician replied.

  “Are you sure about that?” Bellanar folded his arms, tapping a foot impatiently. “Foreman’s been on my ass about sealants here and asked me to check it out. But if you want to explain that to him, be my guest.”

  The technician rolled their eyes, shaking their head as they pressed a command into their computer. “All right, all right. Give me a second.”

  Bellanar beamed and turned away. “I appreciate you!”

  “Shove it.”

  “Have you done this before?” Garrett asked, the conversation shrouding him in disbelief.

  “I have warned you about incriminating questions.” Bellanar climbed to the hatch and turned the crank. “Besides, it’s a prison ship. Who would be aboard that shouldn’t be?”

  “I suppose you have a point there.”

  The hatch opened and burped a gust of hot air. Unphased by the temperature shift, Bellanar pulled himself through the portal, clambering into an uncomfortably narrow shaft of wires and fuel lines. “Ooh, toasty!”

  “Will you be all right?” The bars of the temperature monitor flickered deviously in Garrett’s view.

  “Perfectly!” Power lines vibrated beneath him as he traversed on hands and knees, the lifeforce of the ship coursing through the channel. He verified his location on the map, selecting a quiet place to emerge. Pausing in front of an exit hatch, he switched filters on his view, summoning a collective of cone-shaped beams waving back and forth along the hallway above. “Well, that simply won’t do.”

  With a tap of a finger, he highlighted the security camera shining down on his position. A few strands of commands later, and the beacon stopped moving, giving him the opportunity to sneak through. “Much better.”

  Delicate fingers traced the seams of the panel, and with a tiny shove, the sheet of metal popped out, sliding on the floor with a modest rattle. Bellanar rolled out of the opening, standing up to stretch out his limbs. He yawned softly and headed for a heavy reinforced door at the end of the hall. A sharp ting rippled through the air as he rapped a knuckle on the material, analyzing the thickness of the barrier.

  “All right, that was the easy pa
rt,” he hummed, pawing through his computer. “Now I just need to break through—"

  CLANG!

  A heavy thump whapped in front of him, the noise dampened by the bulkhead obstructing his path. Muffled shouts of distress bounced over paneling and panicked orders barked through the discharge of weaponry. A moment later, there was nothing but silence.

  “What was that?” Garrett locked his eyes to the monitor.

  “If I were to guess…” Bellanar deserted the thought, furiously unlatching the seals of the barrier through his interface. A familiar sickly sweetness tickled his nostrils as the panes slowly slid apart.

  “Oh, shit.” Garrett caught a glimpse of the source, the slumped body of a security guard lying on the floor. Blood saturated their clothes, splatters streaking down the walls where they fell. Their distant glassy eyes were frozen in an expression of sheer horror, mouth slackened after releasing their final cries to the world. A smoking gun rested in their lap, fingers tightly wound around the handle.

  Taking a cautious step back, he slid a hand to his helmet, feeling for a setting in his communicator. They don’t need to see this.

  “Hey!” Garrett protested. “What are you—" With a click, the human’s presence evaporated.

  Bellanar rested a hand on the wall, bracing himself, and slowly turned the corner, silence tapping the base of his spine. There he found Nara, covered in blood, unnervingly still. The manacles that had bound her wrists were severed, the sharp fragments chafing at her skin. Her clothing was torn with numerous gunshot holes, but the skin beneath them was immaculate, fresh, and youthful.

  At her feet lay the remains of two other humans, their uniforms covered in a warm blanket of their own viscera. The eye of one had been gouged out, their skull cracked open by what appeared to be furrows of claws.

  “Elam,” Bellanar softly called out to her. “Are you okay?”

  He caught her eyes, the light inside flickering flames. Her body was unearthly still, her lifeforce concealed from him. Only emptiness remained, her mind completely blank. Unreachable.

  He was alone with this predator, cut off from any help inside dangerous territory. The ubiquitous chill of the unknown washed over him in unrelenting waves.

  “Elam? Can you hear me?” No reaction, not even a breath. “I am going to approach you.”

  He crept forward and reached out a hand, ice consuming his arm as his trepidation surged.

  Nara snapped her head toward him, staring down at the quaking extremity. She tilted her head, perplexed by the gesture.

  “Come along,” he beckoned with deliberate waves. “I have a means of esc—”

  A storm of clacks interrupted his statement, and the lights extinguished. Sirens erupted through the hallway, screeches of warning sirens strobing with pulses of vicious red light. Behind him, Bellanar could hear a flood of boot stomps headed their way.

  SECURITY ALERT. ALL PERSONNEL REPORT TO ALL CELL FACILITIES. ALL STATIONS ON LOCKDOWN.

  “Hold it right there!” a voice shouted, the glint of a multitude of gun barrels pointed at him. “Who are you?”

  Before Bellanar could muster a response, Nara turned to the command, bared fangs shimmering behind a crooked smile. A low rumble reverberated across the chamber. Her threatening growl set the nerves of the assault squad on edge. Their guns lowered as they watched her unshakeable form begin to approach, her steady gait animated by machines, methodical, calculated.

  “Stop at once,” the squad commander warned. “We will use lethal force.”

  “Elam, wait.” Bellanar tried to usher her away, but his words fell on unresponsive ears.

  Clicks echoed across the corridor as the squad raised their weapons. Shrill cries of energy fueled up their charges. But before they could acknowledge the order to fire, Nara hurled out an earth-shattering bellow. Frozen by the outburst, the assault squad just stared as she rushed at them.

  Static blooms of laser fire burst through the darkness, a fragment of the team firing in reaction to the attack. Their wild shots illuminated the slaughter of their compatriots, the shrieks of their weaponry drowned out by terrified screams. The commander’s orders trailed off in a half-breath, their voice stolen from their throat.

  Amid the chaos, Bellanar stood stunned by the carnage. A flash of light jolted him back to reality and a searing warmth lashed across his skin. The sight clicked into his brain, and not knowing what else to do, he dove back around the corner to take cover. He dared a glance at the fight, his contingency plans slowly dissipating from his brain.

  Round upon round perforated Nara’s skin, but she was unmoved by the pain. Her mind was hyper-focused on the retreating beings, her arms coiling around any extremity within her reach. The last unit standing slipped on the blood-slickened flooring, crashing headfirst into the body of their fallen commander. They met the lifeless eyes and let out their terror in a nerve-rending screech. The sound was cut short, replaced with the sunder of flesh and pop of bone. After a moment, the carnage ceased, leaving only the sirens wailing in its wake.

  Bellanar stood immobile at the sight, watching Nara’s panting form normalize to slow, steady breaths. Her skin glistened, her exposed muscles binding and fusing back into place. She craned her neck from side to side, the bone crunching back into place. She turned to face him, the gashes across her checks melding back to their original state.

  “Elam…” he whispered. “Please come back.”

  CRACK

  Lightning consumed the corridor in vivacious pink tongues. The lights exploded with a POP, leaving him in darkness. The sirens dissolved with a winding moan and an eerie stillness filled the void. The ship no longer possessed a heartbeat.

  The emergency power cycled on, radiating a warm yellow glow to illuminate the area. Now he was alone. Nara was nowhere to be seen.

  He frantically switched back his communications feed. “Garrett, are you still there?”

  “Are you all right? What happened!?”

  “You tell me.”

  “Tosk is here with a fleet. They disabled the prison ship.” The sounds of flustered pounding of control panels were heard in the background as Garrett spoke. “And us with it. I can’t seem to get the ship’s controls to work.”

  “Find the shield settings. You should be able to disengage from its influence through there.”

  Outside, Garrett and the scouter ship were cocooned by a swirling pink glow, the web stretching around the GaPFed ship. The Armored Wake exhaled its breath weapon, the beam of light swallowing its hapless prey, edging closer to feast.

  Behind the battleship, a battalion of cruisers emerged. Whorls of blues and greens bled into the void, tearing apart reality through flashes of hyperspace.

  “Where’s Nara?” Garrett demanded, keeping his eyes glued to the viewscreen.

  “I don’t—” Bellanar’s reply was cut off by shouts in the distance. “Damn it. I’ve got to go. Try to hail Tosk.”

  “Don’t leave—”

  Bellanar bolted down the corridor, following a trail of bodies. He halted when he met Nara around a corner, a gasping victim in her grasp.

  “Elam, please,” he implored, reaching out to her. “I have you now. We can leave.”

  She hesitated, staring through the human as she considered the words. The guard’s eyes bugged out of their sockets as they futilely clawed at her hand, the grip of stone cinching their throat. Her arm slid down to her side, releasing her quarry in a whimpering mass. As they scrambled away, Nara sank to her knees. Fired faded from her eyes, leaving cold embers behind.

  “Hell!” Bellanar dove to her aid, catching her as she slumped to one side. With a grunt, he slung her over his shoulder, pulling himself up to his feet. He braced himself along the wall as he dragged her out of the fight. The scent of death overwhelmed his nostrils, and he did not dare to look back.

  “Come along. I’ve got you now.” His attention moved to the beacon of the scouter ship inside his HUD, hovering to their position. Ah! Perfect!

&
nbsp; A spark of light ignited on the adjacent wall, the sizzle of metal burning against the ship’s hull. The glow traced a perfectly round circle into the material, the white light cooling into an inviting orange warmth. With a clatter, the chunk of metal popped onto the floor, revealing the inside of the scouter ship.

  “Inside, now!” Garrett shouted from the cockpit.

  Bellanar did not hesitate, pushing the unresponsive body of Nara into the ship. A small cheer trailed him as he rolled in behind, flopping onto the main hold.

  Magma began to leech out of the scouter. A bubbling mess of liquid metal poured out of the laser cutter. A blast of cooled air cured the material, fusing with the hull of the prison ship. When the hole was fully sealed, the scouter disengaged, shooting off into the vacuum of space.

  “You figured it out!” Bellanar praised. “Great work!”

  Garrett shrugged then input tasks for the navigation system. “Not really. There’s a lot of computer brains available to tell me what to do.”

  “Well, it was a good show, regardless.” He slid over to Garrett’s side. “I can take over if you like.”

  “I….sure.” He stepped out of the pilot seat and regarded Nara’s unconscious form. There was blood everywhere, caked and dried over her shredded clothing. “What happened in there?”

  Bellanar hesitated, busying himself in the controls of the ship. “I don’t really know. It was difficult to see with the emergency lighting.”

  Even Garrett could tell he was lying. His evasive tone and nervousness percolated with each button press. He was about to address the matter when Bellanar charged the acceleration, forcing him back as the craft zipped over the disabling beam weapon to reach the battlecruiser. When he was fully braced, Bellanar opened a channel of communication

  “Scribe 1 to Armored Wake,” he hailed. “I have Savant in custody.”

  “You have clearance to land. All hands at Cargo hold 1 ready to assist.”

  The scouter eased into the gravity shield, making a gentle landing onto the first open platform. Chaos erupted as crewmembers stormed in. They snatched Nara and placed her on a medical carrier, placing instruments and metal plates all over her body.