“Now that was teamwork,” Raven said.
Achilles chuckled and nodded its head.
The brief moment of levity was broken by a series of heavy blows to the hangar doors. Each strike was announced with a deep thump, followed by a cratering of the metal. After several attempts by the Elephim to break through, the attacks mysteriously ceased and the only sound that was heard throughout the hangar was the rush of air as it began to re-pressurize.
Satisfied they were safe for the moment, they turned to survey the scout ship. It was a disheveled mess with ripped and crumpled metal across the surface of the craft, along with hydraulic fluid spilling onto the floor and hissing from ruptured pneumatic lines. The gangplank began to extend automatically amidst the sound of grinding from its damaged gears.
Raven motioned toward the ship. “Let’s check on the young ones.”
Achilles rushed up the gangplank and into the cabin where it found Sally and Breeze safely buckled in their seats. It scanned their pulses and confirmed their vital signs were still positive, then dashed to the pilothouse and into the cockpit where it found Ray still slumped back in his seat. After scanning his vital signs and finding them satisfactory, Achilles looked through the forward cockpit window and spotted a computer terminal mounted on a wall next to a set of elevator doors.
Raven was gliding into the cockpit and followed Achilles’ gaze to the computer terminal.
“I know what you are contemplating. Let us plug into the terminal and ascertain our situation,” he said, and then merged back into Achilles.
Bram stared at the vid-screens and smiled. “Enoch has failed to retrieve your students and destroy the robot, but no matter. I’m very impressed by it. Tell me Oslo, where does a robot go to get telekinetic power?”
Oslo squirmed in his restraints as he looked over at the astral forms of Sally and Breeze. He was surprised Bram managed to restrain them even though they were projecting. Both teens were on their knees and trapped within a glowing circle that pulsated on their floor. “The robot is…one of my special cases,” he replied.
Bram roared with laughter. “You always were a bad liar. Anyone can call your bluff. No,” he said soberly, “this one is different, that much is obvious. Your little project here, your actions of late, has stirred something. And this one,” he stabbed a finger at the image of Achilles on the vid-screen, “is one of the reasons.”
“And these two,” he pointed at Sally and Breeze, “have no idea what’s in store for them. And you, my young flier,” he inched closer to Breeze who was in a daze, “are truly ignorant of your past, are you not? Your family-, oh, we have company.” He smiled as an Elephim stepped into the chamber. The pinpoints of light across his face flashed quickly, conveying a message to Bram.
Bram placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “It’s quite all right, Enoch, you did well. We will instead employ a different tactic by making them come to us. After all, we have all the bait that we need right here.”
He glided over to Sally and squatted before her. “They will come to us and save ourselves the trouble of hunting them down.”
He raised a hand and let it hang over her head. “Though it will require just a little persuasion.”
Achilles glided across the hangar bay and landed with a clang in front of the computer terminal next to the elevators. It ripped off a panel below the terminal that exposed an array of inputs, and then held out a hand as mechanical tendrils snaked out of the fingers and plugged themselves in. With eyes shining brilliantly, it interfaced with the computer.
It easily neutralized the sentry programs that rushed in to attack, then immediately went to the central core where it scanned through a multiverse of files as it tried to glean more information about the platform, but found nothing but gibberish and deliberately deleted information.
It began to rewrite the central core’s programming and jam the sensors throughout the platform when it was interrupted by a lone sentry program that suddenly rushed in. Achilles grabbed it and hurled it away, then casually continued scanning files while simultaneously accessing security vids that displayed live feeds from cameras placed at all levels of the platform, though it noted none were to be found on the detention level, or were being deliberately hidden so they couldn’t be hacked. It redoubled its efforts to discover and break into the detention level.
One of the vids clearly showed the mangled scout ship docked in the hangar, but nowhere throughout the platform did Achilles see or sense any other presence.
“No personnel, no security guards, no outside traffic entering or leaving the platform,” Raven announced from within Achilles’ neural matrix. “This is peculiar considering the size of this platform. And why no live feeds from the detention level?”
“I am running into extreme resistance from another wave of sentry programs mounting an assault against me as we speak. Please be patient.” Achilles swiveled its head briefly. “I have neutralized them. Accessing the detention level... now.”
Scanning the live feed, Raven saw an image that made him recoil.
“I detect that you are witness to something that has disturbed you,” Achilles said. “May I query as to what it could be?”
Raven pointed. “There, on the detention level. That is not good.”
Achilles nodded as they both saw Oslo in restraints, along with an Elephim and a man that shimmered and glowed.
“Do you know this man?” Achilles asked.
“Look closely. Don’t you recognize him from the time you served with Oslo? It’s Bram. You worked alongside him with Raza. He is the one who took away what is rightfully mine and forced me to seek refuge within you.”
They both watched as Bram stood before two glowing circles on the floor, and holding his hand above one of them. Achilles adjusted the live feed to a spectrum view where it found two energy signatures it was quite familiar with: Sally and Breeze.
Bram’s head snapped towards the camera as a smile crept over his face.
“He senses us,” Achilles announced.
“There is trouble to come,” Raven said. “I must hide within the deepest recesses of your neural matrix to mask my presence. It is best if he cannot detect me.”
Bram knew he was being watched. The same energy signature he sensed when he scanned the scout ship now seemed to be observing him. It felt like a part of him that he had lost long ago was close by. He reached out with his senses but it was gone, as if it went into deep hiding.
Now, to wrap this up, he thought and turned his attention back to Sally as she whimpered.
“My dear,” he said, “it’s time to become the lure that will reel in the bigger prize.”
Sally couldn’t even scream as she was hit by a wave of energy from his hands. Her astral form writhed in pain while her body back on the scout ship mirrored her movements.
Achilles heard Sally screaming from inside the scout ship. It immediately unplugged from the terminal and rushed back inside, where it found Ray leaning over Sally and cradling her face.
Ray looked up at Achilles as it stomped down the aisle towards them.
“She’s in a lot of pain,” he said.
Achilles saw the strained look on her face as she writhed in agony.
“What do we do? We can’t just sit here,” Ray said.
Achilles shook its head. “We do nothing. Sally’s astral form must break free from whatever is attacking her and —”
Her eyes suddenly opened wide with a glaring brilliance as she gasped for air. “It’s a trap! He’s trying to lure you in!” she shouted before collapsing back into her seat.
“Who is she talking about? What’s happening?!” Ray shouted.
Breeze’s body began to convulse and gasp for air.
“This is evolving into a grim situation,” Achilles replied.
Bram loomed over Sally and dou
sed her with psychic energy, then began to absorb her astral form. His plan was to follow her light trail that linked to her body and assume control of it, and like a Trojan horse, he would have the element of surprise which would allow him to subdue the robot, Breeze and Ray and bring them all back to the detention level. That is, if his torturing of Sally was not enough to goad them to come and rescue her.
Seeing that she was incapable of handling his withering attack and protecting Breeze simultaneously, it didn’t surprise him that Breeze’s astral form was also writhing in pain as her connection to him was slipping away.
“Sooner or later, your friends will have to come to your rescue,” Bram whispered to her malevolently.
Her astral form flickered wildly as he began to feel resistance from her.
“Damn it, Bram! Stop it already!” Oslo shouted.
The last thing Breeze heard was Sally screaming as he was ripped away from the detention level and sent slamming back into his body.
“Sally!” he shouted as he fumbled with the harness and tumbled out of his seat. He shoved Ray aside and leaned over to cradle her face. “She’s getting cold,” he said.
“Like I don’t know!” Ray snarled.
Breeze grabbed her hand and shouted at her hoping to receive a response, then pulled back her sleeve to feel her pulse. What he saw next chilled him to the bone as letters appeared one by one scrawled out across her arm.
“Achilles, look!” Breeze said.
Slowly and deliberately the letters formed a message.
“We’re waiting,” it read.
Bram ceased his assault on Sally, and then turned to face Oslo with a shrug of his shoulders.
Oslo groaned. “What did you do?”
“I had planned on assuming control of her, but she managed to thwart my attempts, so I had to satisfy myself by sending a message instead. The girl is quite extraordinary. She was able to protect the boy, even cut him loose and send him back to the ship despite my best efforts. And I sense she may be in love with him! Ah, to be young again.” He shook his head ruefully as he stared at the empty space that Breeze’s astral form had occupied.
Sally meanwhile, was slumped over onto the floor as she didn’t have the strength to retract to her body. The hold that Bram had over her was just too powerful and she was exhausted.
Bram glided over to Oslo. “Well, old friend, it’s just a waiting game now.”
Standing in a darkened corner of the chamber, Enoch’s face began to glow as pinpoints of light danced across his face.
“We have to go back in there,” Breeze said as Achilles nodded its head in agreement.
Ray sat next to Sally. Her face was becoming paler and her breathing was labored. He gently took her hand and it felt cold to the touch as he looked down at her arm and saw the message hideously scrawled onto it. He gripped her hand tightly as he read it and his face turned red with pent up rage. Through a scarlet fog, he watched with contempt as Achilles and Breeze hashed out a rescue plan.
He stood up and roared at them. “Can’t you see that she’s dying?”
Achilles turned to him. “And what do you propose we do, Master Verhesen? Rush in with great haste but no logical plan of action? We would only succeed in our capture and incarceration. Would that help Sally? I don’t believe so.”
Ray growled. “I said earlier this was a trap and I was right. Now you want to lecture me?”
“Achilles is right. We can’t do her any good if we just rush in there and get ambushed. We need to think this through,” Breeze said. “Even though it seems to be Oslo’s friend Bram who captured us, the voice sounded just like Lacifel back at the farm. I don’t know what’s going on, but nothing is going according to plan.
Ray was incensed. “She should’ve taken me with her! I could have protected her!”
Achilles cocked its head to one side as Raven spoke from within. “Enough! The two of them must work together if we’re going to save her. Now more than ever, they must set aside their differences and petty infighting. Yes, we may have come here to rescue Oslo, but now we need to save ourselves. So be it. Relay this plan I have just formulated to them.”
Achilles raised a hand, its eyes glowing a brilliant white. Servos whirred as the robot’s head turned to face them. “Please devote your attention to me. I have a plan.”
Bram was furiously inputting commands into the console. Frustrated by his unsuccessful attempts to project into the scout ship and take control of Sally, he decided to rely on the security cameras to spy on his adversaries so he could better formulate his next plan of attack.
He knew that the ship was using light wave from the Phaerion. He had tangled with those mysterious interdimensional creatures in the past and was aware of their ships made of light. It was wise of the robot to go to them for help, he thought, but couldn’t comprehend how it knew of the Phaerion. He was determined to find out.
“Yes,” he said loudly as he was able to pick up a live feed into the hangar bay after cracking a security code Achilles had written and put into place. He was impressed at the robot’s ability to hack into and counter-program the platform’s computers. For an out of production model, there was something unique about it. No time to figure out that puzzle, he thought, I must get a better assessment of my adversaries.
He panned the hangar camera in a wide arc and saw the battered scout ship, but couldn’t detect any activity from it or anywhere throughout the hangar. All of the platform’s sensors had been jammed by Achilles, so scanning for motion or life signs, wasn’t possible.
Frustrated, he slammed his hands onto the console and stepped back. He couldn’t use his own natural abilities to scan for energy sources as he was becoming weaker by the moment. He needed to feed himself with the life-nourishing energy he absorbed from other living creatures, but there was only Oslo, and he was his prisoner and bargaining chip. For now. The exoskeleton he kept in the docking pod did provide enough energy to sustain him, but not enough for him to use his paranormal abilities.
This is why I need my body back. Damn Oslo and that fog!
His body shimmered as he trembled with anger, and then began to laugh ominously as he turned to Oslo. “Why should I be so concerned? There is no other way in or out but through the main hangar doors. The ship is a heap of scrap, they are not going anywhere.”
Oslo raised his head feebly. “Are you asking me, or telling me? There is a difference.”
Bram glared at him. “That’s what your strength was, being the wise one. How could I forget?”
Oslo shook his head. “You said it yourself that it was a waiting game. Is your legendary impatience getting the best of you now?”
Bram fumed with a rage, and then laughed as he wagged a finger at him. “A little psychological warfare? Now, now, Oslo, no time for that. After all, I’m in full control of the situation. I am merely mopping up the last bit of resistance.”
Oslo shrugged. “If you say so.”
Although Oslo gave the impression that his eyes were closed, he was actually looking out the window from the corner of his eye. From the depths of space, he could see three figures hurtling directly towards them.
Just have to keep Bram distracted, Oslo thought, then wondered what sort of a rescue his students were mounting.
Inside the hangar, the silence was shattered by the shrieking of twisting metal and the scout ship began to emanate with streaks of light, as shattered panels and broken engine nacelles mended themselves from Enoch’s attack. The ship’s metal body was soon rippling with energy and throbbed like a beating heart.
Inside the cockpit, a message pulsated on a console screen. Awaiting Commands, it read.
Breeze gripped Ray tightly to his chest. He had never flown in the vacuum of space and was struggling to maintain his shield as the air within was becoming thin and dank.
He almost dropped his shield when a powerful vision of the scout ship burst into his mind. Images of metal stretching itself smooth while the entire hull glowed with surges of energy dominated his senses. He gasped for air and focused his efforts, all the while grateful that Achilles was outside the shield and pushing them from behind.
As they hurtled toward the detention level, Breeze could see Oslo through the window. He was in restraints with a shimmering image of a man hovering before him and as they drew closer, Breeze realized it was Bram.
They crashed into the window and shattered it as decompression began immediately. Any and all objects not bolted to the floor were blown out into open space.
Achilles struggled to maintain its grip on Breeze’s shield while Raven held back the emergency force field with his telekinesis and waited for Bram to get pulled into the slipstream of escaping atmosphere.
Bram was being stretched like putty as he desperately clung to the console. A look of terror was stamped across his face as he lost his grip and was hurled out into space. Raven then relaxed his telekinetic hold and the force field snapped into place.
Oslo, still in his restraints, was gasping for air as recompression began immediately.
Breeze dropped his shield and he and Ray tumbled to the ground. Like Oslo, they found themselves struggling to breathe while waiting for the atmosphere to stabilize.
Achilles approached the console and tapped in a series of codes, and the restraints that bound Oslo released and he tumbled to the floor.
Oslo stood up shakily and stared at Achilles. “A RF? Your make and model seems awfully familiar to me. Did you serve at Perihelion?”
“Affirmative.”
“What department?”
“Special Research, sir, Military Science. Privately known within the bureaucracy as the Paranormal Division.”
“Oh,” Oslo said quietly. “Did you serve under me?”
“Correct.”
He arched an eyebrow. “5150? Is that you, after all these years?”
Achilles nodded. “Yes sir, it is I, your dutiful assistant. I am here once again to serve, as always.”
Breeze Corinth (Book 1): Sky Shatter Page 61
