by Jesse Wilson
Orma burst into the meeting room, out of breath and afraid.
“Rex just reported in. He says Mocra Corp is using Unicorn power to supply energy to most of the kingdom, if not all of it and a disaster is coming in twenty four hours. Rex says to warn everyone to get off the grid, cut your power, he says you need to warn the people. Get everyone to disconnect,” she said in the middle of the meeting. The King smiled at the district heads he was meeting with at the time. “Excuse me,” he said and turned around and stared at her.
“First off, knock first, second of all thanks for the warning. I'm going to warn the public however, I am going to shut off all non-essential power grids just to be sure. I will not allow unicorn energy in my kingdom,” Lexam said to her and dismissed her with a nod. Orma quickly closed the doors and left the people in the room.
“I don't know what is going on but I do trust Commander Rex, if he says it's true I am believing him. You're needed in your districts. Tell them to remain calm,” Lexam ordered and one by one they teleported out of the room. The king stood up and looked out the glass window from where he could see most of the surface side of the kingdom from here through the mist. Millions of glittering lights just under the eternal layer of fog.
“I have to prevent this,” he said to himself and walked out of the room into his throne room that wasn't far away. He picked up his phone he left on the arm of the coral throne and pushed a few buttons. “Hi, yeah. Listen. I need you to cut off all power to the kingdom. I was just informed that Unicorn energy was coming through the wires from Mocra, and not electricity. Yeah, we need to stop this as soon as we can,” Lexam said and continued. “Thanks, get it done as soon as you can, I know it's going to be tough be we need to keep power to emergency services by all means possible, do your best,” he said and hung up the phone.
“Damn you Mocra, how did you end up using such vile sources of energy, you should have just come to me first we could have avoided what comes next,” Lexam said as the lights around him went dark, but only for a few seconds as the generators switched on. Lexam made another phone call.
“I'm going to need a telepath up here in the throne room, I have a message to relay to the population and get Rence to the castle as soon as you can, we need to talk,” he said into it and hung up. “Elrox help us all, I hope it wasn't too late,” he said to himself and couldn't believe just how much he had trusted Rence and so blindly, too. It was not a time to get mad at himself, now was the time for action.
Rex watched as from the bridge of the ship as he saw most of the lights in the distance shut off in massive sections at a time one after another. “Good, he got the message and actually listened,” he said to himself when suddenly a voice came into his, and everyone's mind.
“This is an emergency telepathic message. The blackout you are experiencing is for your own safety. I was just informed that the energy you are all using is drawn from Unicorns, I will urge you not to panic. We believe we caught it before any damage could be done, please stand by for more details,” Lexam's voice faded from his mind. “Not much for explaining things, is he?” Rex commented to no one and hoped his people would discover something out before things got worse.
He took his phone out of his side pocket, but there was no service anymore. Now he could only hope for the best and put it back.
Nymie was reading the digital files on Albert's computer but it didn't have anything obviously useful. Albert Grayson didn't seem to have any connections to anyone. All of his stuff was here but the body was missing. She was sure Mocra had something to do with it, she didn't trust him at all.
He was surely hiding something from them despite showing them the unicorns being used as a source of power. Nymie was flipping through endless files, all numbered and mostly meaningless. Then one that didn't fit came on the list. She clicked on a file that read `birthday party' last opened four weeks ago.
She didn't get the feeling that Rence's team investigated this file so she opened it and it only had one message on it.
“The body is ready. The spirit is ready. The portal will be opened so the two can become one. I give my life for the true master of the world and everything on it. You will not be disappointed. We await the promised surge in our place of safety, we wait for the foretold sign and the end to begin,” she read out loud and didn't quite understand it.
“Sounds like someone's been drinking too much of the crazy aid,” Tayne replied as he heard it, but didn't take his eyes off of the papers he was looking at,”
Then Lexam's message came into her head the same time it did for the rest of them. She tried to block it out as she read the message again. Then it clicked.
“Wait, if they cut of all the power, where does the energy go?” Nymie wondered and then a terrifying idea came into her mind. “Oh hell,” she said and picked up the communicator.
“Rex, move the ship away from the tower, now,” she yelled into it.
Rex jumped due to the sudden nature of the call. “What, why?” he asked in response. “Lexam cut off all the power but it's not electricity. That energy in the building has nowhere to go, we don't want to be here,” Rex got the message, he was pretty sure Mocra would have prepared for a situation like that, but he trusted Nymie more than some rich CEO dumb enough to use Unicorn energy for anything in secret.
“Move the damn ship, clear us from the tower at least half a mile,” he ordered the helmsman and in a panic the man frantically began to push buttons. Voltarice began to move away from the tower.
Rence was sitting at the top office in his tower when suddenly he noticed the ship was moving away. His office blocked telepathic messages coming or going, so he didn't understand why this was happening. He stood up and walked to the window overlooking the surface dwellings and noticed that all the lights that should have been on under the layer of fog, were not.
“What did you do?” Mocra yelled in anger and picked up his cell phone, it rang before he could make a call.
“What do you mean, what is going on?” he asked. “Sir, the sudden blackout has caused the power to surge. It's got nowhere to go and you need to leave the building immediately,” the man on the other said in a panic. “What about the back up systems?” he asked in a hurry. “No good. The energy is screwing with everything, you need to leave, now,” the man replied and hung up.
“Damn it,” Mocra said and ran to his desk computer and quickly turned on the evacuation alarm. Then he walked to a body length mirror on his wall, waved his hand over it and it turned into a portal, he stepped into it and disappeared.
Chapter 15
Rex turned the ship around to face the tower, despite getting away in time, nothing seemed to be happening. He wondered for a moment if they had managed to contain the problem or if Nymie was just over reacting to it.
He and everyone near a viewing screen watched the tower, most of them wondering what was going on. For a few minutes nothing happened and Rex knew it had to be a false alarm.
Then the green tower exploded in a great, black and yellow mushroom shaped explosion of energy. “Oh, Taro,” Rex said as his mind came back to him, he made his way to the intercom and started to talk.
“Brace yourself for impact, everyone, stabilizers on full power, shields at maximum,” Rex ordered and clutched the sides of his chair. The whole ship rocked twenty seconds after the blast was seen and everyone held tight as the shields deflected the energy. Rex never closed his eyes despite how bright it was, he knew if he was seeing this in person he would have easily gone blind. Rex watched the smoke as it began to twist in the air.
“What?” Rex asked as he watched the whole explosion begin to spin.
He and everyone else could see that that this was turning into a massive portal. “So many unicorns were banished at once. I've never seen a reaction like this before,” Evie said as she watched it. “I don't think anyone has,” Boz replied and both of them were afraid.
The spinning came to an end and it looked as if a perfect circle of blac
k energy had been torn out of the sky.
From the center of the black hole came a black ray of energy that flew in the ship's direction. Rex tried to order them to move but the blast was so fast that surrounded their ship in a second. Every system on the ship shorted out and the Voltarice was powerless.
It began to fall into the sea below them as the black surge of energy vanished into the distance. Everyone in the ship was left in darkness. The ship listed to the starboard side and crashed into the ocean, sinking beneath the waves and none of them could even get a distress signal out before the impact. The crew and hunters of the Voltarice were alone.
Drask woke up in the dark, something was on top of her but she couldn't tell what it was besides it being heavy and made out of metal. “Anyone alive?” she asked into the dark but no one responded. There were flashes of sparks raining down in the distance from something.
“What in the hell hit us?” she asked as she tried to move the thing on her but it was solid. “Anyone? I can't be the only one alive,” she said to herself and lay there, it could have been hours after the attack or minutes. Time was impossible to measure in the dark and she didn't know how long she was out, either. Suddenly she heard footsteps coming in her direction.
“Hey, hey you, I need help can you see me?” she asked but there was no reply. “Come on now isn't the time for games,” Drask weakly said to whoever was coming in her direction. “I see you,” she said and seconds later Drask felt the extremely heavy thing holding her down be lifted up. The sudden movement sent waves of pain through her but she didn't cry out. The sparks revealed the outline of a woman.
“Who are you?” Drask asked as the being tossed the heavy object away with one arm. “I am Unie,” she said and didn't worry about the pain or potential damage it would do as the machine pulled her off the ground. Drask winced again but managed to keep ahead of the emotions.
“How long ago were we attacked?” she asked the machine as she was carried. “It has been two hours since impact. My repair pod was undamaged, but I was in stasis to, stay out of the way. I have not seen anyone else. We are going to sick bay,” the machine said and Drask widened her eyes. “No, I need to repair the engines, we can't leave,” she replied. Drask wasn't sure if she could work at all in the dark, and the amount of pain she was in.
“Do not talk, you are bleeding. Focus on breathing and staying awake. I will do my best to get you out of here,” the machine replied to her and they continued to move. Drask could see nothing and had to trust the machine completely. She could feel her blood running down her back, but since everything hurt she didn't know where the wound was. She wasn't too eager to look for it.
Tayne was in the middle flipping through a big thing of notes that meant nothing to him. Some kind of emergency going on but he didn't worry about it. A few minutes later, all of the sudden everything went black and shifted to the side. Tayne was smashed against the wall. The boxes weren't heavy but something sharp was inside one of them. It tore through the side and stabbed him in the stomach. “Oh, what the hell,” he said with a groan, there wasn't any pain but the damage was enough to make him take notice.
He felt weaker already and knew he needed blood to regenerate himself. As far as he knew there was only one source available near him. First he had to make sure to pull whatever was impaling him out.
##
Nymie was smashed against the wall with so much force that her weight cracked the metal. She woke up and was confused. Everything was black and she didn't know how long she was out for. The last thing she remembered was reading about Albert Grayson when something rocked the boat. She slowly pushed herself up to her feet but the floor was weird. It was only seconds before she realized that she was standing on the wall and everything was on its side.
“This is not going according to plan,” she said to herself and wondered why it was still dark, the emergency generators should have kicked in by now. If they weren't that meant the life support system was offline, too.
She walked towards where the door was supposed to be and grabbed the flashlight that was beside the door, turned it on. She looked around and saw that the place was a mess, but thankfully there wasn't any water leaking in.
“Nymie, are you over there?” Tayne asked as the light came on. “No, it's the Red Mirror. Who do you think it is?” she asked back and made her way over to him.
“I'm impaled by something. I could use your help,” he replied and Nymie shined the light on to him and saw the blood. She put her hands on the box and pulled it off. “Weird, looks like a piece of a desk or something,” she said and tossed the box into the dark.
“I hate to ask but, do you think I could get some blood from you, without it I'm, well, useless,” Tayne said and Nymie looked around. “Fine, but if you tell anyone I did this I'll ash you without thinking about it,” she replied and rolled up her sleeve and got to her knees. Tayne sunk his fangs into her green skin and closed his eyes. Nymie sighed, it felt like the warmth was being drained out of her at an alarming rate of speed.
“Okay, that's enough,” she said and Tayne let go. “Sorry, trolls taste really good,” he replied, already stronger than before. “Uh, thanks,” Nymie replied and they both stood up, she helped him. “Come on, let's get out of here and find the others,” she said and Tayne nodded in agreement.
Evie and Boz never made it to where they were supposed to go.
“Evie, are you alive?” Boz said into the darkness. They were going to the engine room, he wanted to check something but everything went to hell about halfway there.
They decided to walk and now they were in some hallway. Even with Boz's natural Elf eyesight, he couldn't see anything in here at all.
“I am alive, but something is wrong. All of the magic, the energy is gone,” she said and continued. “I can feel it. Whatever hit this ship sucked the life, energy, everything right out of it. We are only alive because we are inside,” she said weakly and coughed.
“Alright, we need to get you in some water because you won't last long without the star, there is an escape hatch a couple of junctions from here, we can get there,” Boz replied into the dark.
“I think my leg is broken, I can't get out of here on my own,” she replied through pain and Boz sighed. “Okay listen. You sound close, I am going to get a flashlight so we can see what we are doing and I'll try to get you out,” he said to her and very carefully tried to stand up, feeling around slowly for anything that he might run into on accident.
“Just be careful, it's starting to hurt worse now, this really sucks,” she said and Boz smiled because she wasn't panicking right now.
A few minutes later he found what he was looking for on the floor turned into a wall. He switched it on and swung around. Evie wasn't that far away from him and she was right, her leg was broken and a bone was sticking through the scales.
“I'm sorry, this is going to hurt. On the plus side you get to hold the flashlight,” he said to her and smiled. She wasn't in the mood to smile. Boz got on his knees and came to the injury. He handed her the flashlight and placed his hands on the scaled leg.
“Think of something happy,” Boz said and Evie barely registered the words as she took the light. With a swift snap the bone was set back into place.
Evie screamed in pain but Boz held her steady. “I know, it hurts, but you'll be okay,” Boz said to her and noticed her clothes were gone without any magic to sustain them.
“If you tell anyone what you saw I'll put your mind into a jellyfish and you'll never say anything again,” she said to him in a very clear, distinctive voice. “Don't worry. Doctor remember, anything I might see or touch I have to keep to myself, I'll find you something soon. Saving your life is my main worry right now,” he said and carefully put his hands under her and lifted her up off the ground. Elroxians were naturally light, despite their skin being a little abrasive.
“I need something to wear, let's go to the storeroom and find something,” she said to him and Boz rolled h
is eyes. “Yeah, wouldn't want anyone seeing you like this in a life and death situation, clearly this is the more important thing,” Boz said and didn't want to carry her that far away but he also didn't want to be a jellyfish either. So, he decided that he was going to the storeroom.
Rex was on the bridge, the arms of his chair kept him from falling to the far wall but everyone else on the bridge had fallen out of theirs. The room was full of sparks, wires and smoke. The sparks were minimal, as if they were the last the ship had to offer.
Rex didn't dare move, it was a long drop down from where he was from here. It was a strange thing hanging in the darkness like this because it was almost felt like he was dead already.
“Hey, is anyone alive down there?” he yelled out into the darkness, but if there was, no one was responding to him. “Damn,” he said and sitting here, all he could do was think about what it was that hit the ship and knocked it out of the sky with one hit. Nothing was coming to mind, he kept replaying the event over and over and he'd never seen anything like it.
A horrible feeling was coming up over and over again. All of this was his fault, he was the one who cut off the power and caused this overload. He couldn't even imagine how many people he was responsible for killing and should have known better.
A part of him knew that whatever came out of that portal had the potential to end the world as he knew it but wasn't sure why.
“Gods, if you're listening. I hope you don't hate me too much. I think I helped to unleash something that I don't quite understand. Maybe you can help me out a little bit, maybe you can show a little mercy on us so we can get it right or get the chance to make it right,” Rex said to anyone who was listening, but there was no reply. No gods, no divine intervention, nothing.
“Okay, I guess I deserve that, but I am sorry,” Rex said with a sigh. Suddenly from the wall above him a shower of sparks began to explode from the metal. Rex looked away as soon as he saw it. Within seconds a large, circular piece of metal sailed inches past his face.
