Hostage of Time (Beacons of Time Book 1)

by E. D. Cask

  After years of quick and bloody Mortbatalos, this was turning out to be an interesting one. Ab felt her insides knot up and wished she were on the other side with the other team.

  Breathing heavily, Josh stood up shakily. Putting up his hands in a defensive posture, he started circling Galaknovo who watched him warily. He feinted a few times, but the crowd didn’t like that and started taunting him.

  Ab had never seen this type of fighting and was torn. Josh seemed to be more evenly matched with this killer of men than she had thought. She began hoping that Josh would win, not just lose with honor. She shouted at Josh to finish it.

  Somehow, Josh heard her and it startled him. He looked at her in amazement, but it was bad timing. Galaknovo saw his distraction and rushed in for the kill. He kicked Josh in the kneecap and jabbed him in the groin. Josh fell heavily and Galaknovo jumped on him. Grabbing Josh around the neck, he began squeezing.

  Ab held her breath. Josh’s face turned red and his eyes were wide—he was terrified. Then, in a quick move, reached behind him and found Galaknovo’s head with his hand. He poked a thumb in his eye socket and started to squeeze. Galaknovo grabbed Josh’s arm to pull it away and Josh rolled and got away. They both stood up to cheers and groans from both sides.

  This was more exciting than Ab had thought it would be. She looked quickly around at her people. They seemed to think so too, as they were on the edges of their benches, screaming and yelling.

  Both men were looking ragged. Josh had blood on his shoulders and face and Galaknovo had welts and smeared blood on his body. Josh feinted a few times, but Galaknovo didn’t flinch. There were cries of protest from the Natix side. Josh feinted with his left again and swung wildly with his right and Galaknovo blocked and ducked, but Josh was already kicking and caught him in the groin. Galaknovo grinned; Ab grimaced. Josh hadn’t been told about the Natix fighters’ gonads. They had them surgically inserted into their body. Too many knife and sword fights had ended with a swift kick to the groin and then a stab through the heart. The surgical modification was common practice now.

  Josh stood there for a moment, puzzled. Galaknovo took the opportunity to try the same thing, but Josh flinched and blocked and started back on the attack. He tried a flurry of feints combined with a few kicks, but Galaknovo blocked them all. They circled each other warily. Galaknovo rushed in and tried a leg sweep, but Josh stepped back and leaned forward. He grabbed Galaknovo by the arms and pushed him off balance. Slamming Galaknovo to the floor, he jumped on him. Galaknovo tried to twist away, turning onto his stomach, but couldn’t escape. Josh moved up his body and got an arm around Galaknovo’s neck. He worked his knee up onto the man’s back and began pulling with all his might. Galaknovo began to flail and twist, trying to get away.

  The Natix side was shouting at Galaknovo to get up, but Ab was silently cheering for Josh. The smaller man was writhing and trying to reach back and grab Josh’s head, but Josh dug his face into the man’s back. The other side was loudly cheering for Josh. Galaknovo went limp and Josh immediately released him and rolled away. He stood up shakily and raised his arms. There was puzzlement on the Natix side. Didn’t he know that this was to death? Ab was torn. She was pretty sure that Josh had never killed and didn’t want to do it. But she also wanted him to finish it. Josh’s side of the arena was going wild with glee. They were shouting and stomping. They didn’t seem to care that Josh hadn’t finished and was dishonoring the Stelokap.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  Shock

  Josh was confused. He understood that the Natix side was disappointed he had won, but they seemed to be shouting at him to finish it. Did they want him to kill Galaknovo? That was crazy. He twisted his neck. Ton yelled at him from the sideline. He went over to hear what he was saying.

  “Josh, you must finish it. You must not dishonor the Stelokap.”

  “But I won. He is unconscious. Those were the rules.”

  “But you must finish the fight.”

  “I did finish it.”

  “No, you are dishonoring him by leaving him here to be killed.”

  “What do you mean, killed? He is only unconscious.”

  “He must be killed to spare him from the shame of defeat.”

  “That’s wrong.”

  “It is our way.”

  Another Natix rushed over, “Why is he not finishing the fight?” He looked distraught. “The Stelokap is dishonored. We are dishonored.” He pulled out a knife and held it to his throat. “If he is dishonored, then I must die in shame also.”

  Josh held up his hands, “Wait, stop, don’t do this. Why are you going to kill yourself? There is no reason.”

  The man looked at Josh with disgust, “You are a dishonorable man and have dishonored our team.” He looked over at the side and nodded. There were dozens of men standing there with knives held at their throats. Ab was looking at him with wide eyes and shaking her head in…disgust?

  Josh looked back at Galaknovo. There had to be a better way, but he couldn’t let these other people commit suicide, could he? He walked over and stood over the man. Tears came to his eyes. What if he… He shook his head and dropped to his knees. Galaknovo lay quietly breathing. Josh’s ragged breath matched that of his opponent. Gently, he placed his hands on the man’s head and said a quiet prayer. He could feel the man’s pulse under his chin. The hangar was deathly silent. Then, with a heavy heart, he wrenched Galaknovo’s neck hard. He grimaced as he felt and heard the cartilage pop and bones crack. When it was done, he dropped his head in shame. He had killed a man in cold blood. Silent tears began running down his cheeks. He would never forget. Placing his hand on Galaknovo’s back, he breathed another prayer. He had never prayed this earnestly before, but this shook him to his core. He had noticed a change—the spirit leaving the man or innocence leaving his own body. He was exhausted in body and spirit.

  Ton knelt down and pulled on his arm. Josh tried to shrug him off, but he was insistent.

  “You must stand and accept the accolades.”

  As Josh stood, Ton shouted, “The victor triumphs.”

  Shouts of acclaim rose from the Natix side. Josh stood there in shock.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  Awe

  Sergei and his side were stunned. Josh had killed a man in cold blood. He was glad Josh had won, but this was barbaric. Wim was shouting and cheering. He turned to celebrate with his team and seemed puzzled by their reaction.

  “Are you not pleased? Our champion has vanquished.”

  Sergei frowned. “But he killed the man in cold blood.”

  Wim laughed. “Yes, finally. I was worried that he would dishonor the Stelokap, but he finished the Mortbatalo. It is the only honorable outcome. If he had left the arena with an unconscious opponent, they would have killed the Stelokap and then killed themselves.”

  Sam blanched. “Who? His family?”

  Wim looked serious. “No, his whole team. They would be honor bound to do so. Even the Stargazer would have been encouraged to do so, though it would have been a heavy loss for us.”

  The guys around Wim stood there with their mouths open.

  Sergei asked, ”Can we get Josh out of here now?”

  Wim nodded. “There are no more ceremonies. We can leave.”

  They all went down to Josh and Ton and stood there awkwardly. Ton and Wim were grinning, but everyone else was looking at the ground.

  Sergei stuck out his hand. “Congratulations, Josh.”

  Josh ignored him. Ton clapped his hands and said, “Could you take him to be cleaned up? I must finish my duties here.”

  Sam put his hand on Josh, who flinched. “Josh, we need to go.”

  They shuffled out of the hangar and down to their dorm area. Josh was moved in a daze, barely able to place one foot in front of the other. Then he stopped, dropped to his knees and threw up.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  After

  After Josh cleaned up, he started wandering around and found himself in
the cafeteria. He remembered, what seemed like years ago, leaving his backpack here. Sliding his hand against the wall, he finally found it and pulled it out. It reminded him of his parents. His eyes began to glisten. He opened the bag and found his journal and then pulled out the family picture that he had kept all of those months on the road. They were all smiling. Josh smiled as tears started flowing down his cheeks. It was a good memory. He thought of all of the times that they sat together around the glowing embers and singing songs, telling stories or staring up at the stars. These memories brought a warm feeling. They helped push away the horror that he had been a part of, but that continued to threaten his sanity.

  “Oh, there you are.”

  Josh turned and glared at Nick. He didn’t even bother wiping his eyes. “Go away, Nick.”

  “Sergei had us looking for you.”

  “Tell him to mind his own business.”

  Nick shrugged, “Okay. Hey, is that your backpack from hitchhiking? Cool.” He shuffled his feet. “I wish I had been…bold enough to run away from home.”

  “I didn’t run away from…I just decided to take some time off. And look how that turned out.”

  “Yeah. The day I came here, I was sort of running away. I was playing hooky from school…well, cyber-school. My dad berated me for my language grades. I mean, it was such a joke, why did we need to learn anything when the computer did almost everything? My dad only worked two days a week and we still had plenty of food. The AIs did most of the drudge work…Sorry, didn’t mean to ramble.”

  Josh grunted. “I miss my parents, too.”

  “Yeah.”

  Josh held up the picture. “This reminds me of all of the happy times we had and makes me wonder why I left. I guess I just got frustrated with my mom pushing me to go to MIT. Wasn’t even sure I wanted to go to college.”

  “You were going to MIT? Wow.”

  Josh put the picture in a pocket in his clothes and shoved the backpack back into the locker. “Enough daydreaming. If there’s any chance of getting back home or contacting our parents, we need to stop this threat first.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  Gamify

  Sergei figured the best way to get Josh out of his funk was to get him involved again in the details of the invasion. They still to trying to figure out what these Svarmo were and how to fight them. Sergei had watched the holos and vids so many times that he was sick of them. But he had also been worried about Josh, too. He asked Duumai to pull them up from the beginning again. Josh was sitting in one of the chairs in the holodeck, just staring into space. The rest of the clan were scattered around the circle.

  “Okay, guys. Last time, I promise.” There were half-hearted groans, but the guys knew this might help Josh and they, too, were worried about the Svarmo. And anyway, Sergei thought to himself, this is easier than fighting. “Duumai, slow down to one frame per second.”

  I do not understand your use of the word frame.

  Sergei frowned, “What is your frame rate?” He looked around, “Comrades? Do you know what I mean?”

  They all nodded. They were gamers after all. Sam clarified, “Frame rate is frequency that the screen or display updates.”

  This is a continuous display. There is no frequency.

  Sergei’s head shot up, “That’s impossible. There has to be a limit to the amount of information you are showing.”

  There is a limit at the atomic level, but this system captures every photon it receives. There may be atomic level flaws in the lenses, but other than that you may stop or focus on anything in the field of vision.

  The guys stared, mouths open. Even Josh looked up.

  Nick cheered. “Hey, Duumai, can you pull up World of Warcraft?”

  Josh frowned. “I’ve had enough war to even think about playing a fake war game anymore.”

  “But this will help us with research,” Sergei said quickly. “Duumai, zoom in on one enemy ship and freeze. Let us track it through a few minutes of flight and see if we can detect patterns.”

  The holo of one gray ship filled the room and they all jumped.

  “Whoa, Duumai, that's a little big, can you fit it into the middle here?” Sam asked.

  The image of an ugly, black ship showed in the middle of the room. It looked like a big rock. It was ovoid and bumpy.

  “That’s a ship?”

  “Ugh, what is it made of?”

  It has low silicon, potassium and aluminum, and extremely high magnesium content.

  They continued looking at it, none the wiser, trying to pick out its features. There was nothing they could see that they recognized.

  “Okay, Duumai, can you move forward in time at one tenth speed?”

  The ship remained in place, with no discernible changes.

  “Duumai, did you do it?”

  Yes, it is moving in space, but I locked the image in one place. Is that acceptable?

  “Sure. Can you fast forward through time at ten times the speed?”

  Again, the ship remained still with no changes.

  “How is this thing even moving? Duumai, what is propulsion system?”

  Unknown.

  “Duumai, can you detect any changes at all in this ship?”

  There was a pause of several seconds.

  I ran this ship through several spectrum filters and also a difference filter and notice one small area of change. Here it is and the change. There seems to be a lighter patch that changes in a pattern.

  Sergei jumped up, “Can you analyze other ships for same pattern?”

  Already calculating. All ships that I analyzed so far have the same pattern changes in the same areas. On the vid we have of ships from different angles, they are showing similar patterns on the other side of the ship.

  “Can you detect similar patterns and, if so, decipher meaning?” Sergei went to high five Josh, but Josh just looked at him. After a few seconds, he responded.

  “Good work, guys,” Josh said, looking around at them.

  Another piece of information from the spectrum filters that I ran might be useful. The ships are absorbing more light than normal. They aren’t reflecting as much light.

  “Well, of course not, black doesn’t reflect as much light,” Sam said.

  But there is not a consistent increase in temperature to the light absorbed. In fact, throughout the current vid cycle the ships get colder as they move. Analyzing.

  They looked at each other and shrugged.

  “Duumai, we are not rocket or whatever scientists. What does that mean?”

  The only explanation is that the ships are using light and heat for energy. That could be the reason for their quickness in battle, but slowness to catch up later. They are recharging slowly in the starlight, then using all of that energy in quick bursts.

  I now have preliminary data from the light patterns in this vid. After a statistical analysis of the patterns, it is evident that it is intelligent communication. There are 53 patterns so far I have identified as words. I cannot translate or decrypt these words yet. I need more data.

  Sergei started going around the room high-fiving everyone. He stopped, “Can you correlate any of the patterns to ship movements? Perhaps leaders giving orders and then a ship moving?”

  That will take extensive analysis. Fifteen hours to finish with my current processing capacity.

  Josh frowned. “Do you have more capacity available?”

  Yes, but it requires approval from the master to access.

  “Please explain what you have discovered and why we need more capacity.”

  There was a long pause. The guys studied the ship as if it would yield more clues.

  I have been granted access to the extra capacity. Please return in 3.14 hours.

  “Just enough time for some pie,” Sam quipped and looked around the room. Some of the guys got it and laughed. They all left the room and took a break.

  As they were lounging in the cafeteria, Sergei watched Josh. He was still moody and closed off. He res
ponded to pointed questions, but otherwise stared into the distance. Sergei tried to think of something that would take his mind off of what had happened. The other teams were milling around looking at Josh in awe or fear, but no one congratulated him for winning. They were just whispering together in separate groups.

  When three hours had passed they returned to the holodeck. Master Ku was there as well.

  “Duumai has informed me of your success. We are pleased.”

  Sergei waited for Josh to say something, but when he didn’t he jumped in. “It was team effort, Master Ku. We don’t know a lot yet, but there are still things to learn.”

  “The Natix will be pleased at this information. Shall we have them join us?”

  “No,” Josh said, forcefully. He sat down and stared at the ship that was still being displayed.

  Sergei called out, “Duumai, what have you found?”

  Still analyzing. I have identified 421 discrete words or patterns that correspond to movement or other changes.

  “Perfect,” Sergei shouted. “Does this help us predict their positions or vectors?”

  Yes, unless they change the encryption pattern. This was not part of the request, but I also noticed an anomaly in one of the movement patterns. One of the ships was ordered to move in a certain vector and started, but then deviated from that path slightly.

  “Why the change?”

  In most battles, the enemy ships shielded or even absorbed the energy beams that were deployed against them. But this ship reacted to one particular beam. I analyzed that beam and it appears to be a different energy beam from the others. We should investigate the source of that beam on the relevant ship.