Terra lets out a huff. “I thought I did a good thing. Why am I being punished.”
Celeste hugs Terra and says softly, “You did, but I have to enforce the rules around here. Since you broke the rule, you have to go back, but since it was for something good it will only be for one day.”
“Ok.” Terra says in a soft tone, and looks up to Kat, “It was nice to meet you.”
Celeste stands and guides Terra to a guard who takes her over to the elevator. She turns back to Kat, her death glare back at full power.
She says, “I’m not sure why Terra just did that for you, but you don’t deserve it. Prisoner 1215, If you cause that little girl any more trouble than you just did, you’re going to have me to deal with. Something I am sure you don’t want. Now get out of my face before I find a reason to throw you in solitary.”
9
With a little bit of luck, the rest of the day went by without anything else exciting happening. Which was great, besides the fact Kat was hoping she would have found someone who knew Hanna. But she didn’t. After what happened with Terra no one would talk to her. It was actually worse than that, not only would they not talk to her, they wouldn’t even let Kat get close enough to them to talk at any normal distance to ask questions like that. Everyone seemed to be frightened by Terra, and Kat could understand that. She did just take apart two men with a single finger each and it didn’t even seem to phase her. Which means she’s done it before, or she was so confident in her magic powers that it was nothing to her.
It was something Kat didn’t want to test one way or the other. Then there was the whole Terra knowing about Whisper thing that unsettled her too. All things to worry about later, right now she needed to find Hanna. It was almost time for exercise, which couldn’t get here any sooner. Prison was boring. Kat was about to go stir crazy and it had only been one day. It didn’t help that the rooms were designed so that the occupants can’t talk to each other. There are no windows, and only the one door. A toilet folds up into the wall, as does the bed, a table, and a chair. The only thing that kept her aware of what was going on, was a small single display inside the door. It never told what time it was, just what was coming up next and how long that activity was.
Luckily for Kat, Whisper was keeping her sane. Whisper had downloaded a few hundred novels since she’s been in existence and started to read them to Kat in order from worse to best. Normally these romance novels were something she wouldn’t ever consider listen too. Since they were the really graphic romance novels, almost too much so. But with the limited options of letting her mind race about what to do next while being trapped in a tiny space or listen to a romance novel. It wasn’t much of a choice. All she had to do was hold on till she found Hanna, then she can let Whisper do her thing inside the computer system and Gravan will be there to pick them up, hopefully within a short amount of time. It was hell not having Gravan around. She never realized just how much she had gotten used to having him around. The missing weight of her necklace draws her hand to where it usually rests, and she wonders if she will ever get it back.
A large boom sound echoes from all sides. The lights switch off, and the monitor on the door switches to a faint red x. The faint sounds of alarms comes from her door.
Whisper? Kat asks, What was that?
“I’m not sure, but it looks like the main power is off.”
Another boom echoes even louder than before and this time the monitor shuts off completely, as does the air that was blowing into the room. Kat stands up out of the chair that she was in to go lean up against the door. She takes a step toward the door when an earthquake shakes her to the ground.
She says, “Ow.” Falling into the door face first.
Rubbing her face she leans up against the door waiting for the earth to stop shaking. It doesn’t take long, and she presses herself back to standing. Placing her ear to the door she doesn’t hear anything from the other side. It could be that the door was padded or it could mean that there was no sounds coming from the other side of the door. With it being a prison, there was always the chance that someone would try to escape. This was a prison filled with mages, so earthquakes and loud booms though soundproof doors couldn’t be too far from possible. It was magic after all. Right?
Kat says, “Whisper, lets bust out of here and see if we can find Hanna. If someone is trying to break out of here, now would be a good time to look.”
“If you say so. I’ll come back out onto your wrist.”
Kat watches as Whisper forms back into her old self. The bangle on her wrist was something she missed and didn’t know it. There was a familiar weight to it, and it comforted her. She felt like there was a small weight lifted from her body, as if she took off a weighted suit. Kat realizes it has to be her not being in pain anymore from having Whisper inside her.
Kat says with a relaxed breath, “Alright Whisper, lets open the door.”
She shoves her wrist toward the door. Nothing happens.
Looking at the bangle she says, “Uhh, Whisper. Door.”
Whisper replies sarcastically, “How do you expect me to open it? The power is out, so I can connect up with any computers. I am also fairly certain that I can’t cut though it either. It would burn up too much of my nanites, and take too much of a toll on me when we still need to find Hanna and get a message to that ape of yours in space.”
“Right. Didn’t think about that. Do you have any ideas?”
“…I do, but I’m not quite sure how you’er going to react.”
Whisper goes through a plan on how to use a very very small portion of the explosive that is still in Kat’s arms to blow the door open. Kat is beside herself as to why that was left inside her in the first place. Whisper tries to explain it was nothing to worry about, and she never asked to have it taken out.
Kat says, “I still can believe that you didn’t remove those.”
“They were inert, so much so that the scanners they put you though on the space station above Ragnarok didn’t pick up anything.”
“It’s just the idea of it.” Kat shivers, “I could have taken out everything I loved and never known it was my fault.”
“Quit being so melodramatic. You monkeys and your emotions. Just place your hand on the wall near where the lock should be and I will do the rest.”
“Alright,” Kat follows Whispers orders, placing her hand on the right side of the door.
Whisper says, “Good. Now don’t move. This might take me some time.”
She stands there for a good five minutes as hundreds of little pin pricks shoot out of her palm and fingers. Her hand was numb with pain. There was never any one point that hurt more than another, it was just the overall ache and shooting pain that made it horrible. It was a new kind of torture that she didn’t want to repeat ever again. She was going to call it Whisper demolition torture when she gets to tell Gravan about the trip. Laughing to herself her mind drifts back to the negative, thinking if she gets to tell him.
Whisper finally says, “Alright we’re done.”
Kat lets out a sigh of relief and pulls back her hand flexing it a few times into a fist. There was a dull burning where the thousand needles were. It vaguely feels like when her foot would go to sleep, only way more painful.
Whisper says, “Step back Kat, I’m going to set it off.”
“Should I get behind something?”
Before Whisper could answer the door explodes. Kat was looking at the door when it went off, and can’t see or hear. Everything was ringing. Her sight was nothing but bright white with vibrating lines of gray horizontally across her vision. The lines were slowly traveling upward with new ones replacing the old.
Whisper’s voice sounds crisp and clear in contrast to the ringing as she asks, “Kat are you ok?”
Kat couldn’t answer, she was still too disoriented from the blast. She blinks a few times trying to get her mind to form a thought but her mind wouldn’t answer her.
Whisper cuts through the fog in he
r mind again as she says, “Kat I know you can hear me, that wasn’t our explosive, it was someone else’s. You need to get up and run.”
She stumbles to her feet, using the wall as a crutch while rubbing her eyes hoping that it would take away the blinding whiteness. Her cybernetic eye switches though different fields of vision; x-ray, ultraviolet, gamma, thermal. All of which she didn’t know she had. It finally settles on night vision.
Whisper says, “Ok that should help with your vision. Lets move. Now.”
The first few steps were wobbly. Her inner ear was still out of balance from the blast, and looking at everything through a night vision filter was disorienting. Her other eye was slowly recovering from the flash, but still nothing she could work with. Poking her head out of the room, there was no one around. Up, down, left and right. No one. The floors were some type of clear material, allowing her to see though them. There was a total of five floors see could see. Two above her and two below. The other rooms on her level were also opened and they all seem to have had explosives in them. The immediate floor above and below her she couldn’t really tell, and chooses just to focus on what she can get to.
Peaking into the room on her right, there is a dead man on the ground. It was no surprise that he was wearing the white suit. It was numbered 215. He looked young, no older that his early twenties. His blond hair was covered in his own blood, and his eyes were closed. There was nothing different from her own room. What surprised her was the large white triangle piece embedded in the middle of his face. It was sharp around the edges, and when Kat looked back at the door, there was a triangle piece missing.
It was the same scene in the room to left as well, only it was a woman and her triangle piece was in the side of her head. Her number was 414, and she was an older woman, her hair was thin, brown, and wavy. Again the triangle came from the door. Kat goes back to her room and finds the triangle piece embedded in the ceiling. If Whisper didn’t place that explosive when they did, she might be like all the rest on this floor. Still more fuel for her nightmares, she thinks, if she’s lucky enough to live through this.
She leaves her room again, heading toward the elevator. They may not be on but they do connect the whole facility together. If there was some way to get the door open they could go find Hanna and get the hell out.
Kat asks, “Whisper, did you know about the explosive and shrapnel in the door?”
“No I didn’t.”
“Then we’re both really lucky.”
“I would have been attached to a corpse for the rest of my electronic existence. It would have been dreadful.”
“No concern or care for the corpse?”
“Why would I, you’d be a corpse? Now yes I would have missed teasing you, but beyond that not much.”
Trying to ignore the obvious snideness, she turns her focus back to the search and rescue. Everything was still near pitch black by the time they reach the elevator. The only light coming from splotches of oddly spaced faint orange emergency lights. It was enough that she could see with her cybernetic eye but the one she was born with didn’t offer much in this low light setting.
Running her hands over the door and edges showed there was no way to open the door easily. She might be able to get Whisper to cut it, but that might use up too much power and with all the tasks that Whisper still had to do it would be best to save her for those. The buttons for the elevator are on the wall next to the door. As far as she can see, there aren’t any stairwells. Out of frustration she presses the down button a few times to call for the elevator, knowing it wasn’t going to answer.
Kat paces back and forth trying to figure out what to do. She has to find out where Hanna is, and send a signal to Felicity so Gravan knows to come get them. With the power out, there really isn’t much she can do. Her best chance just went down the drain, and it’s looking like she’s going to get stuck in this prison. The dread of that thought begins to sink and Kat slumps to the ground. This was never supposed to be her ending. She curses the whole idea of ever coming to this forsaken planet in search of someone she barely knew. There was always the chance that it would fail, but she never really thought it would happen. Kat lets her grief and fear take over, curling her knees up to her chin, wrapping her arms around her legs.
Then the elevator opens.
The glow from the LED lighting leaks out into the hallway. Kat wipes away tears from her face and stares into the open elevator. There was no one inside. She quickly gets to her feet, and takes a quick spin around, making sure there isn’t anyone coming for it. No one. The power was out on this level at least, but not the elevator. It was weird, but she just shrugs and gets in. This wasn’t the time to question a small piece of good fortune, she had a person to find. Celeste’s room was on the top floor, level one, but it might not be the best place to go. On the panel are labels for each floor and floor twenty is labeled; main control room / labs.
Whisper says, “Why are you gawking about, hit the button to the main control room and lets get going.”
“Whisper there are times I wish I could slap you.” Kat says in a flat tone. “We don’t know what is going to be on the other side of this door when we get there. There could be a frigging battalion on armed and armored guards. Sorry if I have a little bit of hesitation.”
“Now that you got that out of your system, hit the button.”
Kat imagines a face for Whisper, all silver with platinum hair and blue eyes. She then imagines that face is on the button to the twentieth level and proceeds to punch the button a few times. It might have been silly to do that, but it made her feel a little better all the same.
A single indicator at the top of the doors shows sixteen, counting slowly up to twenty before the doors open again. Stepping to one side, not wanting to be in full sight when the doors open, she gets her first look at the main control and lab level.
The emergency lights are on and more evenly spaced, which meant it wasn’t only her floor that the earthquake did damage. The elevator opened to a large open area, and she can see three other elevators leading to this lobby. There was the remnants of what used to be a desk in the center with pieces all around. White and gray marble tile floors fill the space with romanesque columns. Floor 19 was at least twenty feet above her head, which made the space feel grand. The elevator door across from where her is filled with blaster holes and blacked by fire from the top of the ceiling to the floor. Which she was guessing it was of the magical variety. There are also two distinct lines that mimicked drag marks in dirt but are in the tile flooring that lead to either side of her elevator.
Stepping out, there are fully armored bodies to either side, up against the walls. Two are embedded within it. They look like the same guards that met her on the surface. It could also just be the way they are all dressed. A flashing light to her right draws her attention. She crouches down hoping to hide herself amongst the bodies. A hallway at one corner of the large square room has a dome light on the ceiling, and a sign telling her the main control room was that direction. It had flashed on suddenly, before shorting out completely. Still crouched she grabs an automatic blaster from one of the dead guards, and looks though his belt and armor for extra battery clips. The armor didn’t really do anything for the thirty or so men piled up against the wall, so there wasn’t any reason to grab it, but the blaster might come in handy.
She was able to find more than enough clips laying around, and a quick change of clothes thanks to a couple of female guards, leaving their body armor to cover their naked bodies. It was the only thing she could think of to pay her respects to them for giving up their clothes. They didn’t quite fit right but the belt and gun holster kept the pants from falling off. She was thankful for that as she heads slowly toward the hallway.
The sign above her head is still humming with electricity as she peeks around the corner. Small office rooms line either side of the large hallway with an occasional body laying dead on floor. Most were either crushed or ripped apart, which sent
chills down Kat’s spine. Whatever did all of this was something she did not want to run into. She shifts the rifle in her arms not used to the weight or feel. Kat preferred pistols, but in this situation she didn’t really get to choose.
She checks each room as she walks by. Not really stopping for anything, just wanting to make sure there wasn’t going to be someone firing a blaster off at her back. She was a shoot first kind of girl right now. No reason to take extra risks when she’s already neck deep. Her hallway veers right. A sign on the wall has an arrow pointing labeled main control room. She could see there was a large pile of debris up ahead and pauses for a moment to make sure there isn’t any movement.
It takes a minute of strong personal persuading to get herself to move again. Whatever was happening here was bad, and she didn’t want to be anywhere near it if she could avoid it. When she reaches the pile she sees why it was so large. There was a hole large enough to fit a shuttle through in the wall where the door should have been to the main control room. The debris of the wall and door lay on the other side of the hallway. Bodies were all over the place. Some split in half, some crushed, just like all the other ones she’s seen before. The smell of blood was worse here. It was thick enough to where she can taste the twinge of iron in her mouth. It almost makes her gag but she composes herself by breathing through her mouth and trying not to focus on the carnage.
In the control room there is a large monitor on the far wall. There are smaller squares on both sides that flip through the different levels of the facility. The main screen however was one large view of what looked like a vault door. It was what Kat would imagine a cartoon villain setting explosives next to trying to get in. The door looked massive. I Kat guessed it was at least ten feet thick, which would place it as the third largest door she’s ever seen. There was a large crack across the screen partly covering the door, but she could still see there was movement on the monitor. People in full body armor with helmets. Each white suit has two vertical glowing orange stripes down the front connected to each arm and leg. There is also soft blue light down the spine and in the eyes of the helmets. Every person was carrying some kind of weapon that she hand never seen before. It was larger than any blaster but smaller than a rocket launcher. It was probably what made all of the cracks in the ground, walls, and what killed all of the other guards. Again something she would want to avoid if at all possible.
Nightmares & Dreams: A Science Fantasy Space Western: Eydulan Series Book 2 Page 9
