And if the jail field cut her connection it would have cut her crew’s connection meaning they had no way to contact Kaur even if they wanted to. She thought of one way to find out. The new prisoners would want to contact Kaur and if they did there would be another attack. That it hadn’t seemed to prove her theory.
Merafuentes smiled. They’d left the last system. Their link to Kaur had been severed. All they needed to do now was repair Fonzatain’s ship, and then she’d be done with the Colonial Fleet.
“I can vouch for my crew,” said Merafuentes. She explained her thought process. Fonzatain agreed in principle.
“They can’t, and won’t, contact Admiral Kaur,” said Merafuentes.
Part Seven
Merafuentes stood and stared at the scene in front of her. Fonzatain stood near. Neither said a word.
On the other side of the cell barrier one of the new prisoners laughed. She was covered in blood, soaked from head to toe. Her laughter grated on Merafuentes. It didn’t sound right, but she couldn’t place why it was off.
The other lay on the ground, cut open, limbs splayed out. His organs were placed around his body. Blood pooled underneath. The woman had used some of it to draw symbols on the walls and floor. Merafuentes thought they looked vaguely like the ones carved into the woman’s skin.
“What’s going on?” said Fonzatain, breaking the silence.
Merafuentes shook her head. She felt sick to her stomach. She’d seen dead people before. She’d seen people who were nothing more than chunks because of an explosion, but this made her almost physically ill. This had been up close, personal. There was no sign of a struggle. It looked as if the man had done his part willingly.
“I don’t know,” said Merafuentes. “I have no idea. We were trying to escape because of mass killings.” She shook her head. “I thought it was to consolidate power, execute the unwilling, but this,” she motioned to the scene as the woman continued to laugh, “this is beyond…” She didn’t know how to finish.
“They’ve been summoned,” said the woman. Her head was thrown back, and she looked at the ceiling, arms out, palms up. “Our link has been cut but now the veil is lifted and once more I am found.” Her unsettling laughter started once again.
Fonzatain shivered and turned to go. Merafuentes followed.
“I’ll send someone to clean this up and dispose of the body according to your customs,” said Fonzatain. “I’ll be happy when she’s off the ship and this is over.”
“We’re almost done,” said Merafuentes. “I’ve been told engines are acceptable. Life support is nominal. Weapons are online again and the ship’s support structure is almost complete.”
The ship shuddered and pitched. Merafuentes stumbled to the side and banged into the wall. The lights flickered. An alarm went off. It whined like a dying crow.
Fonzatain braced itself against a bulkhead. “What’s happening?” it said.
“We’re being attacked,” said someone. Merafuentes only heard the flat monotone of Fonzatain’s translator. She figured it was picking up the radio response.
“Ships just came out of nowhere. More than before,” said the responder. The ship shuddered and pitched back the other way. Merafuentes stumbled across the hall but this time better braced herself now that she was more prepared. “They’re ramming us.”
“What?” said Fonzatain. It started to move down the hall holding onto anything available as it went.
“Shuttles are slamming into the hull. Stuck. We’re being boarded.”
Merafuentes sidled down the hall. Her heart pounded. The sacrifice must have been some kind of signal to Kaur.
Her people weren’t armed. Fonzatain didn’t even have a skeleton crew. Kaur had come back in greater numbers. There was no way they could fight.
“We have to run,” said Merafuentes. A new tremor through the hull set her teeth rattling. Whatever had caused it was close. The vibrations through the ship material hummed.
Fonzatain looked back at her. Its face scrunched. Merafuentes had no idea what it was thinking. “The ship isn’t ready. It’ll tear itself apart.”
“Better spaced than the alternative,” said Merafuentes. She had no desire to end up sacrificed.
Another quake went through the ship strong enough to send Merafuentes and Fonzatain to their knees. A great rush of atmosphere began hurtling past them. Merafuentes dug her fingers into the floor grating. She felt her body being pulled in the same direction the atmosphere went.
She held on tighter as her feet left the ground and her legs were pulled straight behind her. Warning lights flashed and a bulkhead door crashed closed behind Merafuentes. She fell to the floor in a painful heap as the air went still again.
“We have to run,” said Merafuentes. “We have to go.”
She unlaced her fingers from the grating. Blood seeped from cuts caused by the metal. She ignored the stinging pain and pushed herself up into a standing position.
“Get us out of here,” said Fonzatain.
“Where?”
“Anywhere. Just go,” said Fonzatain and grabbed Merafuentes as the ship shuddered and the lights flashed off.
Part Eight
Merafuentes and Fonzatain rushed through the door onto the bridge. The crew turned to look at them then went back to their work. The glow of their screens on their faces contrasted with the red emergency lights illuminating the rest of the room.
“Where are we?” said Fonzatain.
“Unknown,” said the helmsman. It wore a black box around its neck like the rest of Fonzatain’s crew after they started working with Merafuentes. “We started Protocol Final. Random jump as planned.”
“Are we still under attack?” said Merafuentes.
No one answered.
“Are we?” said Fonzatain.
“There are no ships within detectable distance,” said one of the crewmembers at a console off to the side. “However, we have hostile forces aboard.”
“What about the crew?”
“You’re looking at it. The humans had returned to their sleeping quarters just before the attack. Those of us not here were captured and taken off-ship.”
Merafuentes gripped the back of the chair she stood behind. Her legs felt weak, but she didn’t know if that was from the exertion trying to get to the bridge or from nervousness. “How are my people?”
“Fine,” said the crewmember. The lack of inflection from the translator box annoyed Merafuentes. It was impossible to tell the crews’ emotion.
“All of them?”
“Every last one.”
Merafuentes wanted to breathe a sigh of relief. She knew her people would barricade themselves and fight. It was just a matter of getting to them.
“Space any intruders,” said Fonzatain. “Preserve atmosphere on the bridge and the sleeping quarters. Expose the rest.”
A crewmember nodded. The ship shuttered, and Merafuentes gave an involuntary shudder. The thought of dying in the vacuum wasn’t a pleasant thought. Feeling yourself freeze, knowing that death is coming and being aware that there is nothing you can do wasn’t her idea of a good death. She didn’t know if the Kaur supporters felt the same way or if they had the mental capacity to even care.
Fonzatain looked around the bridge as the supports and walls creaked. Their metal moans rippled through the materials. It motioned to one crewmember who stood and came over. Merafuentes recognized it as the lead engineer Requime.
“What’s the status of the ship?” said Fonzatain in a low voice.
“I can’t believe we’re alive,” said Requime. “We have embedded shuttles that should have ripped us to shreds when we jumped. The engines weren’t ready for the jump, and they’re shot. Weapons are exhausted. Structure is as sound as a crushed can. Exposing most of the ship to vacuum took stress off life support, but it’s not doing great either.
“We’re dead in the water.”
Fonzatain turned to Merafuentes. “What are they going to do to my people?”
“I don’t know,” said Merafuentes.
“You gave me assurances that your Admiral couldn’t be contacted,” it said.
Merafuentes shrugged. “It wasn’t my people. If they were going to contact Kaur it would have happened already. She would have been contacted as soon as I said anything about deserting.”
“We have to save my people,” said Fonzatain. “I saw what happened to yours and I won’t let mine be subjected to that.”
“We can’t go back there,” she said. “Kaur has some kind of protector. She’s one with it. We’d be destroyed before we even knew what happened.” The thought of returning to the other dimension made Merafuentes’ heart pound. She’d tried so hard to get away from Kaur and now she might be going back. “Besides we wouldn’t be physical. There’s no up or down or any kind of reference point.”
She wrapped her arms around herself and avoided looking at Fonzatain and Requime. The pain and suffering in the other dimension had felt like a cast wrapped around her, like oil seeping into her very being. She didn’t want to face it again.
“Kaur and her benefactor are one,” whispered Merafuentes.
“What about the security field around the cells?” said Fonzatain. “You told me it cut off the connection you had with Kaur. We extend that to the entire ship, and we can think straight. Keep Kaur from connecting, or reconnecting, with anyone.”
“That’d take more power than we have,” said Requime. “Those fields are strong for a reason. In small spaces it isn’t a problem, but even if the ship’s engines were running optimally we’d have to divert a lot of energy from core processes.”
“What about the shuttles?” said Fonzatain. “Tap into those. They’ve got engines. We don’t have weapons. We keep life-support minimal and contained to a select few rooms.”
Requime shrugged. “It’s possible, I guess. I don’t know what kind of interference we’re going to get in this other dimension. The power fluctuations could shut us down as soon as we get there. We might lose any sort of physical body we have as soon as we get there barrier or not.”
“We take the chance,” said the captain. “I’m not leaving anyone behind. I’d rather die trying to save them than run away again.”
Merafuentes tried to control the nervous waver in her voice. She didn’t know if she was successful, but she spoke anyway. “How are we going to get to the other dimension?”
“How did they know where to show up again?” said Fonzatain. “We weren’t in the same system.”
“Someone was still in contact,” said Requime.
Merafuentes’ first thought was the prisoners and the sacrifice. The woman had something about piercing the veil and being summoned.
“The sacrifice,” said Fonzatain. “The sacrifice notified Kaur or her benefactor. I don’t know how, but it’s too much of a coincidence.”
Merafuentes shook remembering the scene.
Requime puffed out its cheeks. “Then we figure out how to sacrifice.”
“No,” said Merafuentes. She wanted to scream and tremble in horror, to back away and grab her crew and leave, but there was no way off Fonzatain’s ship. That Fonzatain would even consider such an action set her stomach roiling.
“None of us,” it said. “The prisoner. She must know how to do it on herself. It can’t only work with two.”
“No,” said Merafuentes. “We can’t do that.”
“Then how do we get back to the other dimension?” said Fonzatain.
Merafuentes didn’t want to go back. She didn’t want to have anything else to do with Kaur. She and her crew were free of the other dimension now.
“I won’t go back,” said Merafuentes.
“I want your help,” said Fonzatain, “but I don’t require it. I’ll lock you and your crew in their quarters for the duration. You won’t help and you won’t know what’s going on.”
Merafuentes shook. She didn’t doubt Fonzatain would do it. The drive to save its crew glinted in its eye. If they were going back to the other dimension she wanted to be at the forefront. She felt stuck, forced into making a choice where she didn’t want any option, but knowing was better than wondering.
“What now then?” said Merafuentes in a small voice.
“We get the ship back online. Then we see if the prisoner will perform a sacrifice,” said Fonzatain.
Even without knowing its intonation Merafuentes knew the conversation was over.
Part Nine
Everybody worked round the clock to fix the ship, including the captains. It had been years since Merafuentes had picked up a tool let alone worked on something. She knew the jobs they gave her were easy because it was basically point and do. Go here. Pick up this. Move this. Tighten that. Either way when it came time for her allotted two-hour rest she collapsed in a heap on the ground out of the way of the others.
During the days of repair she thought about how they’d get back to the other dimension. She’d worked through potential possibilities, but kept coming back to the sacrificing. Her crew had captured two more of Kaur’s indoctrinated humans. Without firearms they’d taken down the intruders with anything they could get ahold of at the time. This, to the pleasure of Fonzatain, meant there were more potential sacrifice participants.
Merafuentes didn’t see any other way to locate Kaur. Their connection, to her relief, had been cut. There were the beacons but she didn’t know where they had been placed. The most recent had been on her ship. From being around spacecraft her entire adult life Merafuentes knew that Fonzatain’s had one, maybe two trips left. It was being held together with the equivalent of duct tape and wishes. They couldn’t risk going back to her initial arrival point.
All that was left were the sacrifices. She knew it was abhorrent and barbaric. There would be no way she would participate in them. Someone would die in the process, but if that person was willing was there a problem? She knew the harm came from letting mentally unfit individuals perform the ritual, but there was also harm in letting scores of people be tortured or killed on the order of Kaur’s benefactor.
After thinking about it for days Merafuentes came to her conclusion. Letting one more die, and die willingly, instead of letting potentially thousands die unwillingly was something she could support. She didn’t like it, and if there was another way she would have taken it, but it was the logic she needed to justify what Fonzatain was prepared to do.
Merafuentes felt a gentle shake. “Captain,” said Fonzatain. “It’s time to wake up.”
She turned over and squinted. The weak light, to save power, still stung her eyes. Requime stood besides its captain.
“Are we ready?” said Merafuentes.
“The shield is up and running,” said Requime. “We have barely enough power to navigate and continue life support. The bridge crew is working in suits as we’ve pumped the atmosphere out. We’ve got two rooms ready for those who won’t be able to survive the vacuum.”
Merafuentes stuck her hand out and Fonzatain grabbed it, pulling her up without as much as a grunt. The three began walking down the hall towards the prisoners’ cells in silence. Merafuentes kept running her justification through her mind to try and settle her nerves. Her brain didn’t seem to have a problem but her conscious wouldn’t shut up.
“As soon as the portal opens, we’re going through,” said Fonzatain. “There won’t be any fighting or defensive measures. It’ll be straight ahead.”
They stopped at the cells and looked at the three prisoners.
“One good shot will destroy us,” said Requime. “We have no defensive shields or weapons. Our only chance will be getting through as quickly as possible while Kaur’s ships try to find out why they were summoned.”
Merafuentes stepped up to the cell shields. All three prisoners looked sick. They had new carvings in their skin and looked even gaunter. Being disconnected from Kaur didn’t seem to have improved their physical conditions. Merafuentes couldn’t help but feel like she watched zoo animals hurt themselves
.
“What do we do now?” she said.
Fonzatain puffed out its cheeks and nodded. The shield between the woman and one of the other prisoners, a man, blinked out of existence.
Each one of the prisoners looked at the other for a split second before running towards one another. The woman tackled the man, and they went to the floor in a flailing ball of limbs. The third prisoner screamed and pounded on the shield separating it from the other two despite the shocks Merafuentes knew it gave him. The smell of singeing skin filled the room.
After wrestling on the ground the woman ended up on top. Her knees held down the man’s arms. He stopped moving and spread his legs and when she released her hold his arms spread so that he was in a spread eagle position on the floor. The woman moved and knelt by his side. They each began to chant in a language Merafuentes didn’t recognize, but the words, whatever they were, made her skin crawl.
Merafuentes knew she should stop watching, but she couldn’t help herself. Her feet were rooted to the floor. Morbid fascination filled her because despite her earlier protests, she felt she needed to know how it worked. It wasn’t for any academic reasons. She wasn’t going to report it back to her university. The need to know, to see it first hand, was all that kept her from leaving.
The woman raised her hands to the ceiling before bringing them down to her side. She laid her head on the man’s stomach. Her words were muffled, but his had stopped. She continued to speak as he began to scream. Blood started to bubble and flow off his abdomen. The woman straightened and spit out a piece of the man’s skin before taking one of her hands and punching through the newly created abscess. The man screamed louder.
The need to know for Merafuentes evaporated. She turned to the side and vomited onto the floor. The room spun as she stumbled away, barely registering that Fonzatain and Requime followed her.
The Terran Escape Page 3
