Kat asks, “So they’re harmless?”
“Yes. Just give them a command, and they will follow it until you give a new one.”
“Why would they follow what I tell them to do?”
“Because you’re the living human that released them from the cage. They are taught to only take orders from the cage opener.”
Kat turns to the man saying, “Open this door.”
He struggles to say, “Open…Door…”
The husk man walks up to Kat as she steps aside from the door. He grabs handle with more care than Kat believed he would and tried to open the door, receiving the same result. His head turns to the panel on the right side of the door, where he proceeds to hit a few buttons. The door clicks, and he opens it for her, turning his head back in her direction but not looking directly into her eyes.
He says, “Job?” In the same way he did before, struggling to make the sounds.
Twenty or thirty others had reached the door by the time it opened, and they all looked the same way, their heads with a slight tilt toward the ground and awaiting an order.
Whisper says, “Well are you going to give them another order or aren’t you?”
Kat still hadn’t come up with an escape plan, but it might have just been made for her.
She says, “I want anyone other than me and anyone that I am with to be put into cells. Clear all of the floors for me, then patrol around waiting for my order.”
The only affirmation she got was the sound and echo of over a hundred husks turning and shuffling out of the room. Kat still can’t believe the truth of this. How could the Guild do things like this to people? Living or dead a person is still a person. This felt like just another reason to hate the Guild, the Earth Empire isn’t perfect but she’s reasonably sure they would never do anything like this to the dead. Probably.
She shakes the idea from her head, she didn’t have time to contemplate the morality of the Empire right now. Hanna was supposed to be behind this door, and then they could get out of there. There was a small desk with a single chair in a rectangle room. The desk had a display screen scrolling through the guard’s daily duties. Behind the desk was another hallway but this one had a purple glow. Steel guardrails line the walkway with the only light coming from the cages. Instead of bars or walls or doors, the prisoners were in cages of light.
Men and women of all shapes and sizes behind purple light. There is a metal floor for each, holding the toilet and bed, but that was it. As Kat enters everyone turns toward her. There is almost a feeling of deja-vu but sees a few of them are trying to say something. The only thing she hears the soft hum of the cages.
Kat asks, “Whisper where’s Hanna?”
“Last row, three up. There should be a lift at the end of each row.”
She runs to the last row and finds the controls for the lift which she takes three up. Hanna was a tall woman, standing almost a head taller than Kat. Her eyes were a bright brown with a hint of copper, matching her hair, which framed her face in curls. She was a beautiful woman even while wearing the same white jumpsuit Kat had gotten rid of. Her pictures didn’t do her justice. She was standing at the edge of the cage, almost as if she was waiting for Kat to get their. Kat hits the cage release button on the controls and as Hanna steps onto the lift she hugs Kat.
She says, “I wasn’t expecting to meet you like this Katrice, but thank God you're here.”
“I was hoping for somewhere a little cooler than Ragnarok myself. You know with less skin blistering heat.”
Hanna laughs, “Isn’t that all too true.” She pauses and makes a serious face before asking, “How’s Jack?”
“Alive, barely. He was given mage root but we had enough antidote for him to live.”
Hanna lets out a sigh of relief. “What about the spheres?”
“We got them, but it almost cost us getting off that planet alive. What are they anyway and why were they so important you would like yourself get captured?”
“Right now isn’t the time. Lets get out of here to somewhere safe and then we can talk about who those sphere’s are.”
Who? Kat thought, which got her imagination up and running, but Hanna was right. Now isn’t the best time to have a full blown conversation about some glass trinkets, or what she thought those glass trinkets were. It was now time for the difficult part.
Hanna asks, “Is Graven bring the ship, or is he already here?”
“I hope he’s close, but I don’t know.”
“Then why did you rescue me?”
“There was some kind of earthquake, and then a few explosions. There some people in lit up jumpsuits tearing the place apart. It looks like they came to steal something, and they killed everyone that got in their way before they got it.”
Hanna’s face went white, “They’re here?”
“If you’re talking about the guys in the flashy orange and blue jumpsuits, then yes.”
“Where’s Terra?”
Kat wasn’t expecting to hear her name. How did Hanna know who she was? “Do you mean the little girl?”
“Yes, where is she?”
“I only met her for a second and then the Warden Celeste told her to come down here. That was like a day ago.”
Hanna starts to bite at her the tip of her thumb and Kat can tell that the gears in her head are cranking hard. What was going through those gears that she stopped wanting to be rescued?
Kat asks, “We need to get out of here don’t we?”
Hanna shakes off her blank stare and looks at Kat with worry in her eyes. “We need to find Terra and get her out of here. I just hope they didn’t come here for her.”
Whisper says, “She’s no longer in the facility.”
Hanna jumps back and looks around, “Who’s there?”
Kat says, “It’s ok Hanna, it’s just Whisper. One of the AI’s that Graven and I told you about.”
“Oh, right. Then what do you mean she isn’t in the facility any more?”
Whisper says, “She isn’t here, as in gone, left, vanished. I’m pretty sure the intruders took her and her stasis chamber with her.”
Kat remembers there was a tube like thing that they were carrying out of the vault, but why would they want that little girl?
Kat asks, “Why would they want her, and who are They?”
Hanna answers, “They are the Foremid or you might have heard them called the Gluttons. The Guild is currently at war with them at the edge of their territory, and are barely fending them off. Any ship or piece of technology they get, they adapt for all of their fleet. So far its been a stand still because they keep using magic to hold them back. If they get Terra, then they lose that advantage and they win.”
The Foremid. This was something else she wasn’t expecting to hear. This whole trip has been filled with more than she wanted. Hanna seems to be holding back a lot more than she’s letting on. Kat keeps that in mind when they hopefully get back to the ship.
Kat changes her mind back to Terra and asks, “Why does that make Terra so special?”
“She would be their key to unlocking how to use magic. I’m certain they already have everything else they need, but just lack the knowledge to use it.”
“So she’s like a magic prodigy or something?”
“Something like that yes, but it would take too much time to explain and we have wasted far too much time talking as it is. We need to leave, now, and then we need to rescue Terra.”
“Alright, but there are somethings we need to talk about while we walk. Whisper have you been able to get a communication out?”
Whisper says, “No. As far as I can tell communications are blocked.”
“Can you get anything through?”
“Not until someone stops the block. Which looks like it’s coming from the ground level.”
“How did you… You know what, doesn’t matter. We need to get to the ground floor anyway so its on the way.”
27
Kat and Hanna talk as they mak
e their way back to the elevator. Hanna explains that Terra is her cousin from the House of Eagle. She was taken at an early age because she was compatible with all of the cybernetics needed for every type of magic. The Guild used her as a way test sound theories on making synthetic magic, which Kat didn’t even know magic was possible though cybernetics in the first place. They reach the lobby and nothing has changed since the last time that Kat was there. Hanna grabs a change of clothes for herself from one of the male guards. Whisper leads them to the working elevator that can take them to the ground level and Hanna continues explaining.
She talks about the Foremid and how they are so close to breaking through the Guild’s barricade it would just take one mess up. That if they got through they would take over humanity, and enslave them. The Earth Empire and the Conglomerate know of the Foremid and provide supplies and materials for the front line. They are the only thing keeping the three in balance with each other.
As the elevator leaves the lower levels, the glass wall shows the prison. The husks are fighting with the prisoners, throwing them into cages. Fire, ice, water and destruction are everywhere. The prisoners are trying to fight back, but the husks are as relentless as Whisper had told her. It didn’t matter if they were on fire, missing limbs, or were impaled. They kept going. Fourteen floors of this is what they watched before reaching the ground level.
The doors slide open, and the twin suns’ light shines through the missing wall flooding out everything else. Kat’s cybernetic eye rotates through a few settings and settles on adjusting the exposure, lowering the amount of in coming light. The heat of the suns wasn’t as bad as she remembered yesterday, but they looked to already be setting. It was good news, which meant they didn’t have to wait inside. In the distance, through the newly made hole, she sees a huge fiery mountain. She doesn’t remember the mountains being that close. The inside of the hallway looks like its seen a heavy firefight. Scorch marks next to bullet holes alongside crushed floors and walls. Rubble from the wall littered across the floor, and it wasn’t until Kat stepped in to the hallway that she saw the pieces embedded into the wall to the right of the elevator. No bodies or blood though, which she thought was odd.
Whisper tells them the signal blocking device is in the room just ahead. It was the room that Celeste had walked into when Kat first entered the building. Kat had a hunch that it was her office and there was probably some kind of console inside she could get a message out with. Once she stopped the signal blocker.
Hanna says, “I can’t see anything.”
Kat says, “It’s ok, I can. Just take my hand and follow me.”
Grabbing her hand Kat pulls Hanna along to reach the door to Celeste’s room. The handle was unlocked and it looked as though the door suffered little to no damage unlike the rest of the room behind them. Kat enters the room, and finds it’s much like the door. Everything is in its place and nothing is damaged at all. There is a desk in the corner of the room, with a heavily shielded window to the outside. A display lay on top of the desk with its screen cracked, which was the only thing that Kat could even tell was broken. Next to the screen was something she though she had lost for good, her necklace. Graven had given it to her as an anniversary present. It was going to be the best way for him to track her to her location. It was a magical homing beacon after all. She fastens it around her neck as her eyes move to the center of the room where a white metal pedestal was with a black egg floating atop it. The whole thing looked very out of place within the context of the room and Whisper confirmed it as Kat figured out. It was the signal blocker.
Kat asks, “Whisper can you turn it off?”
“Let me see if I can get into it. If there’s a signal there’s a way.”
Hanna says, “Well isn’t that helpful.”
Kat agrees, “It really is. Whisper is a great companion to have around. I’ve kind of gotten used to having her around.”
A high pitched sound of gears winding up can be heard from he other side of the door. Kat and Hanna’s attention turn toward the door. Stomping noises follow the gears. Stomp gears, stomp gears. Hanna takes a slow step behind Kat. They both crouch down just as something crashes through the wall.
28
Splinters of wood and concrete fly around Kat. She hears Hanna grunt, taking a piece of concrete debris in the stomach. Mechanical gears whirl and hum as metal feet shake the ground with a thud. White flood lights pierce through the smoke of debris into the room scanning around.
A familiar voice says, “Come out, come out, where ever you are.”
A red laser beam cuts the smoke landing on Kat’s chest. She freezes.
The voice says, “Prisoner 1215, what are you doing out of your cell?” The red beam goes over her shoulder to point at Hanna. “Ah, Hanna of the House of Eagles. This all makes a bit more sense now. Did she come here to rescue you and Terra, or did the Foremid show up as a coincidence?”
Hanna says in a defiant tone, “It doesn’t matter now does it Celeste. They have her, and if no one goes to get her back it will only be a matter of time till they wipe out everything.”
“You still have so little faith in the Guild. We are winning this war, and there is nothing those scavengers can do about it. Now, please go back to your cells, I would like to keep blood off of my things.”
Kat thinks, Hey Whisper, need a little help here?
“Can’t. Busy.” Whisper replies with snipped words.
What do you mean busy, the Warden is in a mech-suit about to tear into us. I need a weapon.
“Yellow. Chompper. Got. Me.”
The smoke clears just enough for Kat to see the huge white armor plated legs. Each foot has three flat metal flaps connected to legs that would look backwards on a person. Each was wrapped in some kind of white armor Kat couldn’t identify. There was however an opening between them large enough to fit a person through.
Kat turns her head to speak to Hanna softly, “Whisper isn’t going to be much help right now. We need to run.”
Hanna replies in the same hushed tone, “Run. Where, she’s blocking the only exit.”
“Through the legs, those mech-suits are slow enough. We can make it.” Kat says trying to have confidence in her voice. “Maybe.”
Hanna just keeps shaking her head as Kat drags her along into a running start. Kat throws Hanna through first and hurries behind her. As Kat follows, sliding under the legs, the mechanical arm slams her into the ground. The air rushes out of her body. The three grippers of the arm wrap around her waist and chest lifting her into the air before she get slammed into what is left of the concrete wall.
Kat tries to take a breath but her body won’t let her. Rainbow colored dots fill her vision as she opens her eyes. The white mech-suit comes into view as the smoke clears. Bulky arms filled with hoses, hydraulics, and gears connect to a cockpit where Celeste was operating the mech. Celeste was sitting in the middle of a half-glass dome with metal rings up each arm and skeletal gloves also made of metal. Even in the blue glow of the cockpit Kat could still see the sinister smile creeping up the left side of Celeste’s face. She pulls her arm back, and the mech follows her movements. She throws Kat into the pedestal knocking the egg on the ground, shattering it.
Celeste says, “Katrice Wylde, prisoner 1215. Did you really think you were going to get out of my prison?”
Kat takes in a deep breath. It burns like fire, sending her into a coughing fit. Blood splatters the ground. She looks from it to Celeste, wiping her mouth clean.
With defiance in her voice she says, “I am going to get out of this prison.”
Celeste laughs, “Please tell me how your are going to accomplish this task, because all I see is a woman that is about to spend the rest of her life in solitary.”
Kat picks up a rock on the ground and throws it at the mech-suit. About a foot from hitting it, a bluish white wave of light ripples off the space the rock hits.
“Sorry, but that isn’t going to be enough. I’m in a mage buster sui
t made special for this facility. It has the latest and greatest in magi-tech shielding and weaponry for dealing with all of the potential problems we have locked up in here. If the damn Foremid didn’t drop the damn space station on top of us they wouldn’t have stood a chance against my magi-tech knights.”
Hanna steps up to the legs of the mech-suit placing her hand on the machine and says, “This is why you have to get inside the shield range before you release a spell. Something the common mage they have locked up in here wouldn’t know.”
Celeste tries to turn to see Hanna saying in a panic, “What!?”
Hanna releases lightning from her hands. It arcs across the whole outside of the mech. The shield shatters around it, and lights flash within the cockpit. It drops down low to the ground, as if bending at its knees.
Hanna says, “We need to get out of here, now!”
Kat looks at the shattered egg and back to the mech-suit, “Yea we do.”
29
Gears start to spin and whirl as Kat squeezes out of the room. It was trying to stand back up.
Celeste yells, “I’m not done yet.”
The mech stands back up and turns toward the two girls. Celeste’s face was filled with rage. Kat grabs Hanna’s hand and runs out of the building. The first sun was now mostly behind the mountains, but it was still incredibly hot once they got outside. As Kat turns to look behind her for Celeste, she gets a good look at the fiery mountain, which wasn’t a mountain at all. It’s the remains of the space station she arrived at before being orbitally dropped to Ragnarok. The earthquake she felt must have been that hitting the surface. Celeste had just said they dropped the space station on them, but she didn’t think she meant it literally. There are pieces of broken metal all over the place, and streaming red debris still falling from space.
Sweat was already rolling down her face and back. The twin suns make the surface of the planet a dangerous place to escape to. If Kat didn’t already have Graven coming to get them — hopefully — they would die from the heat.
Starship Magic 2: Imprisoned Page 11
