17
Kat turns to see her in the grip of the robot, who is now three times the size of the warrior they fought earlier, and even looks like one if it were made of braided steel.
Jinx is getting squeezed between the braided fingers of the behemoth. Kat flips her blaster around and pulls it up to her shoulder. Mark grabs the barrel before she can line up a shot.
He says, “What are you stupid? You can’t fire a weapon like that in here next to a starcore.”
Kat says, “I have to do something.”
“Are you a mage like your other compatriot?”
Kat had already considered it, but was afraid to try and use her powers. King might have taught her everything that she needed to know for a beginner, but this was real combat. She didn’t think she was ready to use it. She was ready right after leaving King but that feeling faded quickly. All that pent up eagerness was wasted when her first attempt didn’t work.
Mark says, “Well are you or aren’t you?”
Kat glances to Mark before returning her focus back to her husband. She could feel the storm gathering inside her, just like King had told her about. Her emotions would be what controls her magic. What gives it power. Focus would be an ally and being scatter brained an enemy.
King had explained imagining a bottle inside and use it to contain the storm, to be able to focus it’s power out of the tip. She imagines shoving the storm into a bottle. She holds her hands near her chest with her palms facing one another. A white swirling mist forms between them.
Kat wills the mist to swirl fast and faster until its a spinning sphere. Grabbing it with her right hand she can feel it vibrate. She throws it at the hand holding Jinx. It leaves her hand with more velocity than she gave it.
It splatters across the arm, freezing everything it touches. Jinx yells at Kat to stay away. Kat spreads her arms out and swirls them in front of herself. A small mist in each hand leaves trials in the air as they spin around.
Sweeping her right hand upward forms an ice spike from the floor beneath the robot’s arm and shatters it. Jinx falls to the ground before opening the hand and freeing herself.
The robot grabs at Jinx with its other hand. Kat’s arms bringing them into a clap forms an arch of slanted ice spikes, catching the robot’s arm before it can get to Jinx.
Kat can feel her whole body vibrate as she gathers her will together. Shoving a giant ice spike into the head of the robot.
Jinx grabs Kat’s arm as she runs by. They both head for the door that Mark is holding open.
Mark looks at Kat with a smile as she passes. “So you are a mage.”
The shattering and crashing of ice is behind Kat. She turns around to see the robot turning back into it separate parts, the stick people. Mark grabs her shoulder, and pulls her back into the stairway that was waiting for the on the other side of the door. He shoves her into Jinx, and pushes the door closed. Mark’s gloved hands search the door.
He says, “I was afraid that’s what broke. The latch. Freeze the door, quickly.”
Kat nods. Covering the door in a thick layer of frost.
“Good, now we need to run up two flights of stairs in a hurry. This is only going to delay not stop them.”
Mark reaches into his pants, and digs around. He pulls out a small tube and snaps it like a glow stick. He hurries to the edge and throws the stick over the railing to some other level.
He says, “I hope this works. That was a heat stick meant to keep Foremid warm in fridge conditions. It will provide a pretty good heat signature, but I only had one. Those robots track heat and only heat. Jinx and I will run up the stairs and Kat you freeze the stairway on your way up. They won’t go but a floor away from the generator room. Until they do that, no alarms will sound. I just hope before it does the power goes out.”
Kat and Jinx follow out the instructions. Kat was starting to feel tired from all of the spell casting. She did at least feel more self confident about herself and her new abilities. King did tell her she was a great student, not quite his best, but taking into account she was human and didn’t know anything about magic. She did amazingly well. Which she considered nothing but meaningless praise.
With two flights of stairs frozen over Kat finally reaches where Jinx and Mark were waiting for her. The entire last flight there had been a banging noise, which was now louder than ever.
Mark searches the door finding the lever that was broken on the other, and uses it. As the door opens it reveals another gun metal gray hallway with no visible doors. Kat was expecting it this time, and believed it to be rather boring. She was halfway hoping for a giant five lion headed robot to be waiting on the other side.
Kat must have been more tired than she thought, danger wasn’t normally a goal for her. That or her eagerness to test her limits was creeping back in, which sounded a lot more like herself. This just wasn’t the time for it. She gestures for Mark to lead the way, since he was the only one that could lead them to the main security room. He nods closing the door behind them and starts to walk slowly into the hallway. Kat places her hand against the wall as they walk, curious if she could feel the panel or whatever it is that would open a door.
Mark turns to see her running her hand down the wall. He says, “Katrice, don’t do that.”
He sounded like her father when she was younger, telling her no.
She says with a defiant tone, “Why not?”
“Because the walls are active surfaces. You can touch anywhere and it will open a door. Doors are only useful when you need them and a liability when you don’t. Foremid technology at its finest.”
“So it can put a door anywhere it wants?”
“Nanotechnology. The walls are built with them, making the surface an active connection. You can get any non-restricted information you want from any wall. For restricted information, you have to go to where the information is. Like changing security clearance.”
“How do you know all of this?”
“When Foremid feel safe and aren’t trying to kill or conquer, they are quite talkative.”
Kat takes her hand off the wall, and rubs her fingers together. She wondered if nanites felt like dirt if you could feel them at all.
It wasn’t long before they reached a T section in the hallway. Mark walks into the middle, giving Kat and Jinx an all clear gesture. Taking the left path, he lead them for only a few more feet. Mark pauses, and stares both directions. Or Kat believes he’s starring. She couldn’t really tell with the dark shades that he’s wearing. They are form fitted to his head and no matter what direction he faces, she can’t see his eyes. She’s seen apparatus like that before with blind people, but didn’t want to ask. Being physically blind wasn’t really true anymore. With a simple pair of glasses that connect to the temples of the brain anyone who couldn’t see was given their sight back. Asking a blind person if they were blind almost always turned out bad for the asking party.
Mark says, “We’re here, but the power is still on.”
Kat asks, “How much longer before it goes out?”
Mark places a hand on the wall. It displays some symbols that Kat doesn’t recognize.
He says, “About five minutes.”
“Were those Foremid numbers?”
“Yes. Its kind of a requirement to learn. I’ve been here for nearly ten years now. It took two of those to realize I wasn’t going to be allowed to return home anytime soon. Then it’s taken me eight years to work out this little plan we’re carrying out. Terra arriving changed it a bit, obviously, but since I was preparing every angle I could to make a clean escape, it was easy enough to add a second body to the escape. Having a human ship is also a bonus thanks to you. Foremid ships usually have a hard time docking at human colonies and space stations.”
Jinx says, “So why did you get captured in the first place? Foremid are usually known for keeping captives.”
“Long story short, I was doing work in the field on a downed Foremid ship when they came to get me. Th
ey watched me work on the ship for days, and right when I got it working, the closed in, and took me here. I don’t know why, and it doesn’t matter.”
Kat says, “That’s pretty impressive to get alien technology working in only a few days.”
Mark says, “All technology is just circuits and electricity in one form or another. Once you get that, it’s easy to see how things work. The wording and symbols on the other hand is all about trial and error.”
The power goes out all around them, leaving them in darkness.
Mark says, “Alright, just a few more seconds and it should be back up.”
Kat can’t see anything. Her pulse rises and her breaths get shallow. A familiar touch across her hand makes her feel like Graven is there. He takes her hand, giving it a quick double squeeze. She returns the gesture, which instantly calms her nerves. The lights come back on, and she’s holding his hand, looks into his eyes and feels relief.
Then her voice comes out of his mouth, “You ok?”
The illusion breaks, and she lets go of Jinx’s hand.
She says, “I’m good, thanks.”
Mark had already opened the door to the main security office and was waiting for them to finish their moment, gesturing with his head to come in. Kat’s face flushes with heat. Even thought there was no reason to, she felt embarrassed. It was her husband, he’s just not in control right now. He then waives them in, Kat going in first.
18
The security room was tiny, just like any other security room she’s ever seen. Just a couple of chairs and two terminals. Everything in the room looked like it hadn’t been used in some time. Like that one room of the house thats used for guests or storage. Mark sits down at one of the terminals and gets to typing and swiping.
Kat asks, “How often does this room get used?”
Mark replies, “Next to never. Once in awhile a warrior will come in here for what they store in that closet over there.” He points to a wall in the back. “Sometimes they just rest in here too. There are lots of patrols on the surface looking for useful technology, and any possible survivors. They all only have ground transportation. The ship at the dock under this facility will go pick up any who find something useful or find an Eydulan. Neither ever happens though. There are a few shuttle ships but again never used. Foremid warriors like the lone wolf jobs. They get rotated out every couple of years. That shuttle was coming in a couple of days, which is what I was originally waiting for. Anyway, there shouldn’t be anyone in this office. The one next to us gets used all the time though. Its the armory.”
Jinx says, “Armory. I’ve got to see that.”
Kat says, “I know, right.”
Mark says, “All of the Foremid weaponry is DNA encoded with nanites. You wouldn’t be able to use any of it.”
Jinx says, “Way to burst a girls bubble. Any melee weapons in there?”
“Not really. They are all combination weapons. They open into a gun or melee, but start in a non-usable collapsed form. Making them easier to carry.”
Kat asks, “What about universal blaster clips. Do you think there are any in there?”
“Maybe. Warriors like to scavenge after the battle, and engineers love the stuff they bring back to fiddle with. Foremid don’t use the same type of clips as humans do. There may be a grenade or two if you’d like to look. Now just give me another minute here of silence and I will have everything in place.”
Kat takes the forced moment and runs through an idea in her head while searching. Which she like to joke with herself about her ideas are normally dangerous. Almost every time she gets an idea it never turns out the way she plans. If the Armory is right here, she could freeze everything around it, just like the stairs, and it might give them a few moments extra once they grab Terra. Maybe. It wasn’t hot in the room she was in or the hallway, but it sure wasn’t cold either. It would only take a second to do.
She watches Mark open a few panels on the walls around him that turn out to be drawers. Following his lead, she places her hand on the walls and looks for more of them. After searching through a few of them she finds a pouch with a single grenade.
She asks, “Hey Mark is this what I think it is?”
Mark says, “You found an EMP grenade, all you have to do is hit that little blue button on the top… And I’m done. Time to go get the prize.”
Kat briefly goes over her idea with the two while strapping on the pouch.
Jinx says, “Not a bad idea.”
Mark says, “It would waste time and energy. Not to mention it would melt before we got Terra out and not cause the stall you want it to.”
Kat says, “Do you think you can lower the temperature from here?”
“No. Thats on a whole different level. That would be environmental, which is on the top floor. We need to go down.”
Jinx asks, “So only your ideas are the good ones?”
Mark says, “Generally, yes. That isn’t why I said no to this. We are going to need her and you to conserve as much stamina as possible. There will be unforeseens on this leg of the breakout plan. If you or her exert energy you really don’t need to, it lowers our odds of getting out. I’m really being selfish here wanting to make sure I get out alive is all. If I thought the numbers worked right in my head, I would tell you to go for it, but they don’t.”
The door slides open. A tall grey alien stands there. Its eyes focus on Kat. The same neon box like eyes that the warrior had. Its shoulders were broad, arms as large as both her legs put together. The grey skin is stretched tight across its ribs, down to its thin waist. Its legs are as thick as two of her put together. The head is like an upside-down pyramid, it’s mouth a plus symbol with four wet flesh flaps.
It takes a deep breath but before anything else, Jinx lands a punch right under its ribcage sending it into the nearby wall in the hallway.
Mark says, “See, this is what I was talking about.”
The naked warrior’s eyes fill with emotion. Kat wasn’t sure which emotion, or if they even had the same ones that humans do. What she was sure of, is they needed to take this one out, here and now.
Jinx is already laying another volley of punches into it. Kat gathers her will. Jinx takes a hit and flies back into her, knocking them both down.
The warrior pushes itself off the wall without using its hands. Then it does something all too human. It rolls it shoulders, stretches its head to one side then the other, and balls up it’s fists cracking it’s knuckles. It was a perfectly understood gesture, it was warming up.
Kat feels a small impact against her as Jinx’s hair turns red, then a gust of air as she hurls herself back to the warrior. She watches as she refocuses her will. Something was different.
Jinx was getting hit by punches, but they didn’t look like the warrior was doing it. That’s when Kat saw it. A haze in and around Jinx’s clothing connecting to the warrior’s mid section right below the arms.
Kat yells, “Jinx, there’s something almost invisible hitting you coming from the warrior.”
Jinx turns orange. She gets a few hits in before not being able to connect anything. Each punch and kick is blocked a few inches from its target. The long reach from the warrior starts to connect.
Kat yells, “Jinx.”
She rolls out into the hallway. Kat waves her hand with her arm outstretched from her waist to her head twirling her index and middle finger. With each twirl a spear of ice floats in mid-air. Swiping her arm back down flings them at the warrior.
They get swiped down by one of the near invisible arms. The other connects with Kat’s face.
The next thing she sees is Mark’s face over hers. She can hear there is still a fight going on in the background, and her whole head is pounding.
Mark says, “Are you ok?”
“How long was I out?”
“About a minute.”
“How’s Jinx?”
“She’s green right now. If that means anything. The fight is still pretty even with the warri
or having four arms, two of which are hard to see.”
Kat forces herself from the ground. Which makes her head hurt even worse than it already did.
Mark says, “Hold on now. Just let Jinx take care of it. You might have a concussion. She or He or whatever it is, seems very capable of handling that warrior on their own.”
Kat forcefully rubs the heel of her palm into her forehead hoping it would help some.
She says, “Can’t. He’s my husband, and I kind of want him as un-injured as possible.”
“Wouldn’t he then say the same about you?”
“Yes, but we do this for each other. Do you have anyone you love?”
“No. I’ve never felt that emotion before for anyone.”
“When you do, lets have this conversation again. For now just point me toward them.”
Mark points her in the direction that Jinx had taken the warrior. They were in the hallway, which wasn’t more than twelve feet across, about twenty or thirty feet away. It didn’t make for good fighting conditions if things weren’t already in your favor. Your opponent didn’t have anywhere to go, but neither did you.
Jinx’s hair was green as was a small area around her body. Like she was glowing green. Kat could feel a pressure against her chest just standing this close. She remembered a similar feeling when King was showing her some of his more elaborate spells.
The Foremid warrior was between them, but Jinx still saw Kat without giving away she had. Jinx goes in for another attack. Kat takes the opportunity to ready a spell.
She wasn’t ready for the intense pain that came after. It was like someone was continually jabbing an ice pick between her eyes. She let go of her magic which eased the pain almost instantly. When she hit her head it must have done something to her magic. Again she remembered something King told her about how everything is in her head.
Pulling her blaster up from her side, she pulls it close in to her shoulder. Taking in a deep breath, she aims before letting it out slowly. She pulls the trigger for only a second. Releasing a short burst of lasers.
Starship Magic 3: Abducted Page 9
