Sac'a'rith

by Vincent Trigili

  “Purwryn, are you ready?” asked Zah’rak over the comm.

  I opened the airlock, made sure our tether was secured and looked at Marcus, who nodded. “Yes, we’re ready.”

  “Okay. We’ll be under communications blackout as we exit the jump, so telepathic communication only,” he said.

  “Understood.” That posed a problem, since Marcus wasn’t a magus.

  “Jumping in three, two, one,” came Crivreen’s voice over the comm. before the azure of jump space wrapped around us. It always had a comforting feel to it. I didn’t know why, but other magi said the same. It felt safe, like being home in a warm, soft bed that wrapped around you and held you tight.

  “We’re on,” I said as I came out of the post-jump hangover. Our suits were programmed to put us on course the moment we cleared the jump, so we were already en route when we came to. The tether between us made sure we wouldn’t get separated and allowed for communications that should not be detectable.

  “Yeah,” he said.

  There was a slightly different tone to his voice which I couldn’t quite place. I didn’t have time to give it much thought, as just then the station opened fire on the three Phareon cruisers.

  They quickly jumped out of the region long before weapon fire could reach them, and there was no sign of the Night Wisp. The jump suits didn’t have much in the way of passive scanners, so I couldn’t tell if the station was still looking for them or not. I just had to assume all was going according to plan.

  “We should be entering the sensor shadow of the station shortly,” I said.

  “What’s the plan for actually getting on the station?” he asked.

  “I can teleport into any airlock with a window and open it to let you in.”

  “I suggest we head to the far right corner of the station. The power signatures there are the lowest; hopefully that means it’s sparsely populated,” he said.

  “Good idea,” I replied. We didn’t dare engage our jump jets until we were in the shadow, but when we could we directed our flight over to the area he pointed out.

  “It might be better if I open the airlock,” he said, pointing to the access panel. “If you do, it might alert someone. I should be able to bypass any alarms.”

  “You’re probably right,” I said. Normally I wouldn’t bother opening any doors, as I could just teleport through any place where I had a good line of sight.

  He worked on the panel for a minute or so and then the airlock door slid open.

  “That was fast,” I commented.

  “Let’s just say I have some experience of bypassing government security.”

  “At a guess, I’d say that’s probably connected to your bar fights?” I suggested.

  “Maybe,” he replied.

  I shook my head and slipped inside, knowing well what that tone meant. We were more alike than not. Inside the airlock, we disconnected the tether. We could communicate verbally once we were in the air-filled station.

  The jump suit engines and fuel tanks were bulky, so we elected to leave them magnetically attached outside the station near the airlock. If the mission was successful, we could collect them on the way out. If it failed, we wouldn’t need them.

  “Let’s find a terminal and pull up a map,” suggested Marcus.

  In the clear air, I could clearly hear the quiver in his voice. He was nervous. I placed my hand on his shoulder and said, “Good thinking.”

  The station was dark, with only minimal bioluminescence lighting the corridors. That meant the power was off, and that could destroy our hope of finding a working panel. The air was fresh and the temperature was comfortable. “Environmental controls seem to be working, but everything else is off.”

  “That’s odd. You’d think they would’ve cut those too,” he said.

  I agreed with him, especially since environmental control used a lot more power than lights did, but I put it down to the current owners of the station not being very frugal with their resources. It sure made things easier on us, so I wasn’t going to complain about the conditions.

  We worked our way through the dark corridors, heading in the direction that Marcus believed had a higher power signature than the rest of the station. The hope was that as we got closer we’d find a working access terminal.

  “Alert!” he said in a hushed but urgent tone. “Maintenance bot coming.”

  I didn’t know where the bot was, but followed Marcus as he ducked around a corner. He paused there as the bot sailed past our position with the single-mindedness that only a robot can achieve. It never looked to left or right and plowed right past us.

  “That was close,” he said.

  “Might be on its way to check the airlock,” I mused.

  “It won’t find anything. I cleaned up after myself,” he said, sounding indignant at the assumption that he’d failed to cover his trail.

  I hoped he was right, but anyway there was nothing to do now but press on. We eventually came to a better-lit section of the station and found a working access terminal in a secluded area.

  “Okay, here’s a map,” said Marcus.

  “Can you pull up current crew members? Not the crew who were here before it was taken over, but those running it now.”

  “Sure. They’d have had to add themselves to the system in order to operate the station. Who do you want to look up?” he asked.

  “A security officer, specifically one who’s off-duty, asleep, out sick or something of that sort. Somewhat close to me in mass would be good, too,” I said.

  “Here’s one that might fit.”

  “Perfect,” I said. I concentrated hard on the image on the screen and chanted a memory verse under my breath. My features melted and changed until I looked just like the picture. I wasn’t sure how I did it; I just chanted that verse and focused, and the rest just happened on its own.

  “Whoa,” said Marcus.

  “I need biometrics data and voice samples,” I said.

  “Here,” he said, playing some clips of the officer’s voice. I carefully mimicked them and then pulled out my Assassin’s Guild-issued gloves which I programmed with biometrics Marcus had found in the system, completing the disguise. They automatically matched my skin tone and texture, making them invisible to the untrained eye. To all appearances I was now Sergeant Taylor.

  I sighed, realizing it was this skill which had got me into trouble with the Assassin’s Guild to begin with. My ability to get into places made me the perfect weapon; the only trouble was that I’d botched the one job they gave me. One tiny mistake was all it took to bring them down on me. Well, I wouldn’t let myself botch this mission.

  “Stay here and get all you can from that terminal. I’ll be back in one hour. If I don’t make it, get off the station with that datapad and head to the rendezvous. If I’m late, I’ll do the same.”

  “What are you going to do?” he asked.

  “Go in deeper,” I said. I slipped into the corridor and got going before he could complain. As I got further into the station I came across more bots working on various tasks, but there was a distinct lack of people. The bots ignored me, as I expected they would. I looked like a valid staff member, and they were too simple to wonder why I was out here. Even the more complex ones were programmed to ignore normal staff movements, other than to stay out of the way. No one liked the idea that a robot could be used to spy on them, so they were deliberately designed not to.

  I headed for the center of the station, hoping to find something out. I came to a secure door guarded by two robot defenders, but simply presented my gloved hand for a palm print and the door opened. My experience told me that everyone would expect this door to be impassable by anyone other than an authorized individual. It was that belief that made it so easy to get past. Had they had a more realistic sense of doubt, there would have been at least a second layer of checks.

  Through the door I found myself among people, and did my best to find route
s through the station that were lightly populated. I could pass myself off to a stranger easily enough, but if I bumped into one of Taylor’s buddies that would be a significant problem.

  A man yelling in pain drew my attention and I moved towards the sound. Two old men in dark robes were standing over a young human who was curled up on the ground in obvious pain.

  “Don’t fail us again,” said one of the old men. His voice was deep and slightly raspy. It had a quality that sent a chill down your spine. They walked off, leaving the human on the floor, and stepped into a side chamber.

  I slipped into a vacant chamber next to theirs and used one of my listening devices to eavesdrop on their conversation.

  “What’s the status of the fleet?” asked the first one.

  “Still sitting out there,” said a different voice.

  “And the cruisers?” asked the first voice.

  “They got away undamaged. Judging by their jump trajectory, they returned to the fleet.”

  One of them began to pace up and down. “They must be deciding whether they can take us or not; either way, our cover is blown. It’s time to leave.”

  “But our experiments are not yet finished. The newest batch is still growing.”

  “Bring whatever you can, but we leave within the hour. Set the station to self-destruct before we go.”

  If the station blew while the Night Wisp was attached, we’d all die. I had to get back to Marcus and get off the station. As fast as I could move without drawing attention, I hurried back to Marcus. I would have liked to activate the suit comm. and alert him, but it was too risky.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  I found Marcus where I’d left him. “We have to get out of here fast,” I said and told him what I’d heard. “Just give me a minute to change back.” I didn’t want to risk getting shot by Zah’rak or the others if I charged onto the Night Wisp looking like Sergeant Taylor.

  “That is seriously cool, Purwryn,” said Marcus.

  “I’m not so sure. I think more harm than good has come of that skill,” I said.

  “I might be able to stop the self-destruct – ”

  “No time to chance that. We have to move out,” I interrupted.

  “Back the way we came?” he asked.

  I started to say, “No,” but sounds from the hall cut me off.

  “This way!” a voice called out as the sound of running got louder. “Check all the rooms along this corridor!”

  “Run!” I whispered. We took off down the corridor with guards behind us, yelling at us to stop. I wondered how they’d found us, or if they were after us at all. It didn’t matter; if they were searching they’d find us here soon enough.

  “We have to lose them before they get enough help to trap us,” I said.

  Marcus stopped and turned towards the guards. As they ran at him, he pulled out a grenade and tossed it in their direction. There was a crack and smoke filled the air, moving quickly towards us. He had thrown it too close to us and we were about to be engulfed in the smoke. Marcus grabbed me, tossed me over his shoulder, and took off running faster than any human could ever achieve. He easily outpaced the expanding gas behind us and kept going until we’d left everyone well behind.

  I don’t know how far we ran, and I was slightly motion-sick from riding doubled over on his shoulder when he finally put me down. “You might have warned me you were going to do that. What was that you threw?”

  “A knock-out grenade. In an hour or so they’ll wake up, but until then they can’t report in or call for help,” he said.

  “We need to come up with an escape plan,” I said. My stomach hurt from where he had grabbed me, but I had to admit his ploy had worked perfectly.

  “Our best bet is to go back the way we came and pick up the jump suit engines,” he said.

  “I guess you’re right,” I replied. I still thought taking a different exit would be prudent, but we had a very real deadline and I didn’t want to waste time arguing. “Can you find the way?”

  “Yeah, I have the map memorized,” he said.

  As stealthily as possible we worked our way to the uninhabited section of the station. It wouldn’t be long before the sleeping guards were found, but there would be nothing to lead to us as long as we made no mistakes.

  As we crossed from the inhabited section of the station into the uninhabited part, the blast doors slammed shut behind us. Over the loudspeaker one of the old men said, “You must have been very clever to sneak onto the station, but I doubt you’ll be clever enough to survive in there.”

  “What do you think that means?” asked Marcus.

  I pulled out my wands and said, “It means we’ll have to fight our way out. Forget stealth: what’s the fastest way outside?”

  He unslung his rifle and said, “This way.”

  We started running, but it wasn’t long before he stopped. “You hear that?”

  “No? Hear what?” I asked. All I could hear was the sound of my own breathing.

  “Something is closing in on us,” he said quietly.

  “Whatever it is, we don’t want to wait for it.”

  “Too late,” he said and spun in place, bringing his gun around behind us.

  I turned to look as he opened fire on some bizarre creature. It looked as if it might once have been a person, but was now a twisted mixture of body parts, stone and metal. Marcus’ rifle blew parts of it away but it kept coming, undaunted. It was right out of a nightmare or a mad scientist’s lair.

  “Take off the legs!” I called out.

  He switched his aim and blew both legs off. The creature fell to the ground and starting crawling towards us. “Stubborn bugger,” said Marcus.

  “Can you hear any more coming?” I asked.

  “Lots,” he said.

  “Find us a way out of here, now!”

  He took off in a new direction and I ran hard trying to keep up. Several times he abruptly changed direction but eventually came to a stop.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “We’re surrounded now,” he said.

  “Which way is the shortest path to an exit?” I asked.

  “That way, but … ”

  “Then we fight our way out,” I said, pulling out more of Crivreen’s wands to make sure I’d have easy access to them, enabling me to exchange them as I drained their charges.

  He nodded. “I guess we don’t have a choice.”

  We did have a choice, but it was risky. I could contact Shira and have us gated off, but that would expose the location of the Night Wisp to anyone who was watching. I didn’t want to risk that just yet.

  Marcus moved forward with his rifle at the ready, heading down the corridor towards what I assumed was an exit.

  “They don’t seem to be easy to kill. It’ll be faster just to disable them,” I said.

  “That seems cruel.”

  He was right, and I didn’t like it much. “Yeah,” I said as the first creatures came into view. “But it won’t be long till the station is destroyed, freeing them from whatever foul mind did this.”

  I aimed my wand and called out the command word. A bolt of lightning arced from my wand to the lead creature and its whole body convulsed. It fell over as a burnt husk and was replaced by more, marching over its remains. I was glad of my helmet, as I was sure the smell of burnt flesh was filling the corridor.

  Marcus opened fire with his rifle, shooting faster than any mere human could hope to match. Between his rifle and my wands, we were cutting them down in great numbers, but they kept coming. They climbed over the remnants of those who came before them and kept coming, apparently with no concept of fear or disgust. Nothing seemed to faze them as they pressed their attack.

  “We’re heavily outnumbered,” said Marcus.

  “Time for our emergency escape plan,” I said. I activated the comm. on my armor and said, “Shira, we need an emergency evac!”

  “You’re outside my
range. We’re moving closer,” she replied.

  I tossed aside my last two wands and grabbed my rifle. I couldn’t fire as fast or as well as Marcus and the rifle wasn’t as effective as the wands, but it was all I had. “Hurry, Shira! We’ll soon be overwhelmed!”

  Time passed. After what seemed like an eternity, Shira sent, “Let me see the area around you.”

  “Sure,” I replied and hurriedly sent her what I was seeing.

  As soon as she received the images, she opened a gate behind our position.

  “Retreat!” I called out as Shira sent, “Go!”

  I was between Marcus and the gate so I grabbed the back of his amour and pulled him through. We tumbled out onto the bridge of the Night Wisp and Shira quickly closed the gate.

  “Crivreen!” I called out. “Overload the engines and get us out of here, now!”

  Crivreen hesitated briefly, then jumped in the pilot’s seat and did what I asked.

  “As soon as you can jump, do it! It doesn’t matter where, just jump!”

  “Right!” he said.

  There were a few tense moments as we flew away at high speed. Then Ragnar said, “The station is firing!” and the cool azure of jump space wrapped around us.

  After we came out of the post-jump hangover, Zah’rak asked, “What happened?”

  I described the plan for the station to self-destruct and the creatures we had fought.

  “Crivreen, send a message to the fleet warning them that the station is about to be destroyed, and then rendezvous with them,” said Zah’rak.

  “How could they have known about the fleet?” asked Raquel. “The ships were still at least half a day away from being detected by the station’s sensor array.”

  “Could they have used the jump space relays like the fleet did?” I asked.

  “Maybe, but even if they acquired access that way they wouldn’t know where to look,” she said. “The array would only be effective if they could target the area to scan.”

  “There must be a spy on the fleet,” said Marcus.