by T. M. Catron
Live to Die
A Star Streaker Story
T.M. Catron
Antimatter Books
Live to Die is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
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2017 Antimatter Books ebook
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Copyright © 2017 T.M. Catron
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the author.
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www.tmcatron.com
Book/Cover design by T.M. Catron
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Phoenix Prime Logo used with permission.
License Note:
Thank you for downloading this ebook. This book remains the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be redistributed to others for commercial or non-commercial purposes.
Contents
Live to Die
Author Note
Acknowledgments
Also by T.M. Catron
About the Author
About Phoenix Prime
Live to Die
“Repeat the code, Solaris.”
“I am a Galaxy Wizard. Our code is simple. Live to die. Die to live. In us will the universe be saved.”
“You have passed the test,” the recorded voice said. “Now, eat.”
A slot in Solaris’ cell wall opened, and a brown ration as hard as a rock fell out. It clattered down on the metal floor and rolled to a stop at his bare feet. He picked it up and sniffed, but it didn’t smell like anything at all. The Order had outdone itself. The ration was purely for sustenance, and he would not be allowed any pleasure in eating it.
He stuffed the ration into a cup of water to let it soften. Then, he waited, sitting on a rattan mat in his tiny metal cell. It smelled earthy and woody, masking the scent of metal and magic that ran throughout the space station. A satchel hung on the wall next to his shoes.
Tonight, Solaris didn’t care what he ate. Because he was breaking out.
Every night after supper, the space station went into a night cycle. And each night, he noted the people who walked by his meditation cell, their voices, the sound of their feet on the floor.
Friends, colleagues—men and women he had known his whole life. Most of them were friends. All had been allies. Solaris had lived his entire life by the Galaxy Wizard Code. But he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was missing something important. Like he’d outgrown them. Or rather, they had become twisted. No longer protecting innocent lives, but using those innocents as a means to an end. The Wizards were his family, but Solaris wanted no part in their recent activities.
As his discomfort grew, his terrifying, fiery dreams had become more urgent and vivid. Visions of horror and malice and power, without any details about the how or why.
After the latest incident, involving the torture of a woman smuggler protecting her son, Solaris knew his time with the Wizards was ending. For weeks, the gray walls and single light had been his home. They were always his home when he returned to the Temple. This time he was awaiting punishment for defying his mentor, Orion, regarding the woman. He didn’t regret trying to help her, but he regretted that in the end, his effort had been useless.
Although Solaris was awaiting punishment, he was free to move about as he pleased. No one had ever tried to leave the Temple space station without permission, so why confine anyone to his cell?
But Solaris wasn’t just anyone. He was tired of living the lonely life of the Galaxy Wizard. Tired of chasing after people who hadn’t done anything wrong. And tired of not having control over his destiny.
Solaris took the soggy ration out of his cup of water and shoved it into his mouth. It was slimy and expanded on his tongue. Disgusted, he spat it out into the cup. He was hungry, but not that hungry.
After tonight, he’d never have to eat Wizard rations again.
An image flashed across his mind, one of fire and pain. He paused and closed his eyes. At first, he had tried to fight the visions. But now, he searched for the reason the dreams haunted him.
Tonight was no different from any of the others—a flash of fire, a burning city, a burning planet. Then, as if he were looking through a zoomed-out lens, each planet next to it caught fire, spreading to all solar systems, and then finally spreading throughout the galaxy.
Beads of sweat dripped down his face and stung his eyes. Solaris wiped his face with his sleeve and opened them, afraid. Fear wasn’t encouraged in Galaxy Wizards. It meant one was weak. But Solaris had been afraid of these dreams.
Who wouldn’t be afraid of seeing the universe burn?
When he first started having the visions, he thought they were latent images left over from watching his planet burn as a child, of being caught in the fire that took the lives of his family. But as the fires persisted and grew stronger, ultimately spreading to the entire galaxy, he knew there was something more.
Solaris’ stomach rumbled again, but food would have to wait. The lights went out, plunging him into semi-darkness. A soft light in the corner of his cell cast a warm glow on the door.
He crawled over his mat, and it creaked softly. Solaris reached up and pressed the button to turn off the light.
Then he was in total darkness. He lay awake, listening to each sound as it passed by his cell. He couldn’t see down the hall without opening his door, but if he meditated and listened he could hear all of them. Everything going on in each cell around him. The force of his meditation often wore him out, but tonight it brought a new energy that coursed through his body, preparing him for his departure.
One last person walked barefoot down the hall, feet padding softly on the metal floor. When the last footsteps died away, the corridor grew silent. The white noise from machinery, ventilation shafts, and gravity stabilizers almost pulled him into sleep. But as he heard the last door click shut, he sat up and grabbed his staff from the corner.
As Solaris put on his shoes, he concentrated on the growing bundle of anxiety in his stomach. He tried to meditate it away, but what he was about to do was monumental. So, he didn’t try to ignore it and instead channeled it into energy he felt all the way to his fingertips.
When he stood, he grabbed his satchel and pressed the button to open the door.
It didn’t open. That was new. Solaris pressed again and then tapped it with his staff. Nothing happened. He muttered a curse. They had locked him in.
Apparently, that business with the pirates was unfinished.
Now Solaris had to make a decision. Sneaking out was one thing, but breaking out quite another. He wasn’t concerned about punishment. It was expected. But he had not expected them to lock him in his cell. He didn’t know how to break out without using his power and making a lot of noise.
With a sigh, Solaris placed the end of his staff on the floor, gripping it with both hands, one over the top of the other. Then he closed his eyes and concentrated.
The staff glowed, radiating blue warmth that spread throughout the cell. The light cast strange shadows over everything—on the walls but not in corners, behind Solaris but not in front of him. The smell of magic, sweet and spicy and metallic all at the same time, invaded his nostrils. He ignored it, concentrating further.
Again, fire flashed across his mind. Fear seized him, but he clamped down on it. Using his power always magnified emotional responses. He concentrated harder, trying to shut out the pain that washed over him.
Magic gathered and swirled around Solaris. Sweeping through the cell, expanding, and gaining power. It surged up through his legs, his torso, run
ning along his arms and into his staff. Fear ran alongside it, so intense Solaris thought he would faint. Then, he pushed it outward, projecting all his power onto the cell door. With a great thundering boom that shook the entire space station, the door blew off its hinges in a shower of sparks.
The force of the blast threw Solaris backward against the far wall of his cell. He slammed his head on the cold metal and lost his concentration as pain seared through his skull. As he sank to the floor, he scrambled to get a hold of his staff again. But his eyes teared up, and his vision went blurry.
When he was finally able to focus, he realized just how much he had overdone it.
The cell walls had cracked, split from ceiling to floor. The hallway floor outside now contained a giant crevice, so deep Solaris worried he had damaged the outer hull of the ship. But they still had an atmosphere, so he hadn’t gone that far.
Then, with a slow, gut-wrenching build, the alarms on the space station sounded, and the emergency lights begin to flash. As Solaris stood to his feet, splitting pain shot up the back of his head and made him dizzy. The blaring in his ears added to it until he reeled backward again. He propped himself up against the wall and took deep breaths. When the pain subsided, he stood again.
Slinging his satchel over his shoulder, he left his cell and turned right down the hall. The magical energy running throughout the space station must have provided some resistance against his own magic. It was punishing him. His body was already drained.
Solaris ran along the maze of hallways, ignoring anybody he passed. Stirred by the alarms, the Wizards came out of doorways shouting to one another. No one tried to stop him. Solaris’ route followed the crack he had created in the floor. He hadn’t meant for that to happen. What had happened?
The blaring continued, and as he rounded a bend at the end of the dormitory, a door behind him closed. Were they trying to cut off his exit? The door ahead was still open. He sprinted down the hall. Just a little farther, a little faster…
When the first force field blazed into place behind Solaris, it singed the hair on the back of his neck. His headache pounded with each stomp of his feet, but he couldn’t slow down. Why had they closed that door? Another force field, a wall of magic, slammed down behind him, this time catching the edge of his heel. He winced at the searing pain and pushed forward.
The door ahead was still open. Calling to him, encouraging him to keep running as wall after wall tried to catch, to cut him in half.
The Order was trying to kill him.
As the realization washed over Solaris, his sweat turned cold. The family he had cared about and defended had turned on him. He shivered, horrified.
The pain in his head tripled, the exertion exacerbating his injury. Solaris became disoriented. But he was almost to the end of the corridor. Once he stepped through that door, he had an infinite number of ways to get down to the hangar and find a ship. And the thought that they were trying to kill him filled him with righteous anger.
It surged through Solaris, fueling his sprint. Somehow it recharged him. Usually, rest was the only thing that restored his magic. But he didn’t stop to think about it now as he ran flat out for the door.
Just as he tasted victory, a light blazed down the hall, and a large hulking figure stepped up into the doorway.
A guard—enormous and armored for battle. Galaxy Wizards rarely wore armor, so this one was prepared to win. This would not be a simple sparring match. They weren’t going to just trap Solaris.
They were going to let him fight.
Gripping his staff, Solaris halted. Between him and the guard was a great chasm, opened in the space station by Solaris’ explosion. It tunneled down through corridor after corridor. Sparks flew from damaged machinery and circuits. As he examined the damage, he realized he was lucky he hadn’t killed everyone on board, including himself. Because the chasm didn’t just end at the hull of the space station.
The blast had created a gaping hole in the side. Starlight shone through, accusing him, amazing him. But they had oxygen. Something was preventing the atmosphere from escaping.
Everything clicked into place. Of course, the station would use magic to protect everyone in the event of a catastrophe.
“You can turn away, Solaris,” the guard said, causing Solaris to jerk his head toward the door. “You can drop your staff, turn around, and walk back to the cell you destroyed.”
Solaris recognized the voice—his friend, Reynold. They had known each other since childhood. “Stand aside, Reynold. I can’t stay here any longer. I can’t be part of this.”
“But you are part of it. Always have been. And you know I can’t allow you to leave.”
Reynold stepped through the doorway and placed the tip of his staff on the floor with a loud clang. The chasm lay between them, but all one of them had to do was leap over it.
Would they battle in the hallway behind, or at the door? Whoever made the first jump would open himself to the first attack. And so they watched each other, waiting, listening, and hoping the other would back down.
Solaris was afraid he would have to hurt his friend. But he wasn’t going to be stopped. Now that he knew they would kill him, he had no reason to surrender.
“Stand aside,” Solaris pleaded. “I don’t want to fight you.”
“But fight me you must.”
In answer, Solaris lifted his staff and backed away from the chasm, beckoning Reynold. Not only could Solaris deliver a powerful wallop, but also a jolt of magic that would disable his friend’s armor. All he had to do was shut down the armor and run away. Until Reynold could activate the failsafe, he would be trapped inside. And by then, Solaris would be in the hangar, getting into a ship.
Reynold sprang across the chasm so quickly that Solaris barely evaded him. Reynold’s heavy metal boots crashed down on the floor, and he swung at Solaris’ head.
Solaris ducked and landed a blow at a joint in his armor, at the elbow. It glanced off as Reynold slid to the side.
Solaris stepped back, out of the way of another armor-powered swing of Reynold’s staff.
They both spun around, Solaris with his back to the chasm. He stepped carefully, wary of falling into the abyss. Would the station’s magic hold him in, or would he drift out to die in space?
Then Reynold went on the offensive, and all of Solaris’ thoughts turned to the fight at hand. No matter how he swung, he couldn’t get the upper hand on his friend. They’d both fought armored soldiers before, but Solaris had never encountered an armored Galaxy Wizard intent on capturing him. Reynold was a good fighter. Solaris was better, even without armor. But he wasn’t thinking clearly. He hadn’t counted on a head injury. It was interfering with his ability to fight.
The only thing saving him from defeat was that Reynold was trying to capture him, not kill him.
They went around and around, trading blow for blow. In a quick move, Reynold’s staff caught Solaris on the shoulder, driving him into the wall and pinning him. Solaris pushed back, with a yell that sent the pain in his head into his ears.
Reynold threw his full armored weight against Solaris’ chest, his staff digging into Solaris’ ribs.
Solaris panted, struggling against the staff cutting off his air supply. Stars appeared in his vision, causing his focus to slip. With a monumental effort, he shoved Reynold back, using his magic to aid him against the armor. Then he struck out, whacking Reynold’s staff with his own. With a burst of light, Reynold was driven back, giving Solaris an opportunity to slide out of the way.
As his former friend advanced on him, pressing him back down the corridor, Solaris realized Reynold was trying to get him to stand between force fields. Once those went down, Solaris would be trapped unless he wanted to fry himself on the magical shields.
The cameras on the hall moved with the fighters, waiting to activate the force fields. But Solaris was desperate. He wouldn’t be caught and imprisoned like an animal. And if one lone guard stood between him and freedom, he would do
everything in his power to get past him.
With his resolve came a new burst of energy. Ignoring the fog in his vision, Solaris pushed back, landing quicker blows, putting dents in Reynold’s armor. Reynold fell back at Solaris’ onslaught. The force of Solaris’ blows was so staggering even Reynold’s powered armor couldn’t stabilize in time. He reeled back, trying to keep his balance.
Solaris hesitated, afraid of permanently injuring his friend. The fear had kept him focused. But now, knowing he could win, Solaris held back. He swung his staff, but instead of going for Reynold’s visor and shattering it like he knew he should, he moved lower. But it accidentally put his staff into perfect reaching distance for Reynold.
His opponent seized the opportunity, releasing his own staff with one hand to grab Solaris’.
At the contact, a bolt of magic shot through Reynold’s suit, down Solaris’ weapon, and into his arm. His head, already throbbing past endurance, felt like it had split open.
Solaris screamed and pushed back, desperate to get away from Reynold and the pain.
But Reynold held on with an iron grip. They fought over the staff as waves of pain rolled down Solaris’ spine. Whatever Reynold was doing, it would kill Solaris if he didn’t let go.
But he couldn’t. His weapon was his only key to getting out. Without it, he was powerless. Without it, he would certainly die.
Solaris panicked. And his power returned in full force. He pushed harder, forcing Reynold back. His vision narrowed, his eyes fixed on their hands grappling for control. Solaris’ body began to violently shake with the raw power flowing through it.
Reynold was still holding his own staff in one hand, Solaris’ in the other. The only reason he wasn’t laying on the floor was the magic was coursing through his armor, holding him upright. Not built to withstand such raw force, the armor creaked, snapped, and groaned. With the pain in Solaris’ body and the armor splitting before his eyes, he didn’t know how much longer either one of them could hold out.
Desperate to end the pain, Solaris gathered his strength one more time. It would be his final effort to free his staff. If Reynold didn’t release it, Solaris would have to give it up. He gave a final shove, channeling all his power into the arm that held his staff.
