Starship Magic 4: Extraction

by Mark Brandon Powell

  Graven asks, “What is going on up here?”

  Jeeves moans.

  Whisper says, “We’ve just inherited a new crew member who took over the ship. Then Foremid ships showed up and shot us because Captain Amazing here wanted to not miss her shot. So now we are defenseless, motionless, and weaponless with six Foremid ships arriving any moment now.”

  Graven takes a second to answer before looking at Kat. “Anything else?”

  Kat shakes her head, “No that about sums it up.”

  Mark says, “Then I need to get back to the engine room, again, to get them back online.”

  Graven shrugs, “Looks like I’m going back to help you do that.”

  Kat gives an awkward smile and says, “Thanks, love you.”

  Graven just shakes his head, “Yeah, love you too.” Turns around and follows Mark down the hallway.

  Kat looks back out the window to watch as six large Foremid ship blink in from faster than light speeds.

  Jeeves starts to repeat in a low voice, “I’m not going to die. I’m not going to die. I’m not going to die.”

  Kat says, “Jeeves, can you not chant that. It’s a little creepy.”

  Jeeves keeps repeating those words.

  Whisper says, “Kat, they are charging their weapons. Shields are at fifty percent and I’m not even sure if that matters.”

  The Foremid ships fire. Kat closes her eyes and turns her head away, not wanting to know when the blast is about to hit.

  Jeeves yells, “Saritor!”

  Kat opens her eyes as red circuit like lines appear cross the console down to the floor. It continues to the walls and flows up to the ceiling. They expand until the walls, floor, and ceiling are nothing but red. Red is all Kat can see until a bright white flash.

  9

  She blinks a few times trying to clear her blurry vision, waiting for the impact of the Foremid barrage to hit. As her eyes clear she stares out the display screen into space. Illusion space station is within view. Which it couldn’t be. That is more than a day away by FTL travel, so there couldn’t be anyway they could be near it. So how the hell is it right in front of them?

  Looking around the room, everything is normal, no red circuitry. The console told a different story. It is blinking something she has never seen it do before, low power.

  Jeeves says, “I was told never to use my powers. It could attract them but if the Foremid are here they won and it doesn’t matter anymore. I… I have to rest now and pray to the Creator that this is all a bad dream.”

  Kat quickly gets out, “Jeeves wait, what did you do?”

  Whisper answers, “She seems to already be shut off and we seem to be back near Illusion. I guess I’ll call Gizmo to tow us in.”

  Kat agrees, “Yea, you do that.”

  Unbuckling herself she crawls out of her seat. They just moved light years of distance in space in less than a second. There is no way the engineers that built the Felicity could have known the Eydulan core they used could do this, right?

  Graven walks in and asks, “Kat what just happened? Everything went red then flashed white. It felt familiar.”

  Kat rubs her face, “Jeeves teleported us back to Illusion space.”

  “Jeeves is the new crew member I take it?”

  “Yup.”

  “Sounds like we don’t need to rush anymore. Jeeves… I don’t remember any Eydulan named Jeeves.”

  “She said something like sorry tore. It all happened so fast.”

  “Saritor?”

  “That’s it.”

  “Oh. That isn’t good. Sister is going to be mad.”

  “Tia can be angry for all I care, what I want to know is why?”

  Tia voice carries into the bridge from behind Graven, “That is none of your concern right now.”

  Kat watches Graven turn and bow his head, which almost brings out an angry barrage of words from her mouth. She holds them in, for now. Tia steps past Graven and up to Kat.

  Tia asks, “How is Saritor doing?”

  “She prefers to be called Jeeves now but I think she’s fine. She’s sleeping.”

  “Of course she is. She just used her powers to blink us a few hundred light years. My question is why?”

  “That is what I would like to know.” Kat gives Tia the run down of everything that happened in the last few minutes, being as sarcastic as possible. “So you tell me, how is she?”

  Tia's face molds into a stern look. Kat could see a fierce leader in those eyes and wonders if hers look like that when someone questions her about her crew. She wants to be a great leader for them and feels like she doesn’t always live up to the title.

  Tia says, “She will wake up in about a day. The time lost is also no concern. I have no other plans for the rest of the month. You are still taking me to June I assume?”

  Kat hesitates at first then answers, “Yea, we always make our deliveries.”

  “Excellent. I’ll be in my quarters if you need me.”

  Tia walks away as quickly and as quietly as she showed. Graven keeps his gaze on her until she is out of sight.

  Kat asks, “So are you going to tell me what happened?”

  He looks Kat in the eyes and she sees the conflict raging behind them. It is obviously something that would be going against Jinx’s better judgment which makes her want to know that much more.

  Graven motions with his head, “Lets go to our room.”

  Kat nods and follows. He grabs the chair from the corner, turning it around so he can rest his arms on the back as he sits. Kat crawls up into bed and against the headboard.

  There is a minute of silence as he gathers himself. “It’s like this. Saritor can’t use her powers because they can find us when she does. We don’t know how they can but they can.”

  Kat asks, “Who are they?”

  Graven averts his gaze. “I’ve already said too much.”

  “Saritor, I mean Jeeves, already said that much. Who are they?”

  “Let me tell you this story I was told when I was a young Eydulan. Before the universe was made there was a being all alone. It didn’t know what it was or why it was there and it was desperate to have something else there. It decided to split itself into three pieces. When it did, the universe was formed and it became known as the Creator.

  The Creator now was three. It’s body, spirit, and voice. But they all still shared the same mind. The Creator was happy there was three of her but she was still alone. They came up with an idea, to separately go as far away from each other as possible to test their link to the others. And low and behold they could get away from each other and have individual thoughts. It was then they decided to Create something else. Something they could show each other. It was there the Foremid, Eydulans, and the Unspeakable were created.

  Time passed as each new race became established before the Creator reunited and spoke with her other selves. They showed off their work. The proud Foremids wanted to show off their superiority but the Unspeakables wanted to do the same. The Eydulans did not. They just wanted to befriend the other two. It was there the war started.

  The Creator was very sad with how their creations were acting and took the Eydulans away. Helping them build Etchten to protect them from the both the Foremid and the Unspeakables. The Creator then went to a new planet to work together and create another race, one with the lessons learned from the past. More years past before the Creator returned and told the Eydulans to help watch over the new creation. Humans. That was the last time the Eydulans saw the Creator.”

  Kat slouches back into the bed. Graven was talking about God. Like God God, as in God is a real tangible thing. Sure she’s been told that God is real but she always thought about it being on a different plane of existence. Like when she died God would be there but not while she’s alive.

  Kat asks, “So the Eydulan that was there with the Creator?”

  “Her name was Etchten, Tia's mate.”

  “Etchten as in the planet?”

&nb
sp; “Yes. Etchten is the most powerful Eydulan and the first. Tia is the second.”

  “You’re trying to tell me Tia knew God. As in the God. Wait, did you know God?”

  “No I didn’t but Tia told me many times growing up about the Creator and how magnificent she is. I know it might seem crazy from a human point of view and how the Creator was shown and taught to you. From an Eydulan perspective it makes complete sense.”

  Kat leans her head against the headboard and stares at the ceiling. She just wanted to know who the Unspeakables were and now she has even more questions. Which is always the way it worked with her. She could never just get the answer she’s looking for without a few more questions to go with it.

  Whisper says, “Kat were docked, and Gizmo wants to talk with you.”

  Graven says, “Don’t worry. I’m not going anywhere. Deal with the ship and the repairs, I’ll deal with everyone else.”

  Kat gets up and heads to the door. Graven gets in her way with a hug and kisses her forehead.

  He says, “I love you.”

  She says, “I love you too.”

  “Just know I tell you all that I can. Anymore would bring danger to everyone.”

  Kat smiles and nods. She wasn’t done with the questions yet but she could be for now. There are things that need to get done and she will have a talk later about all of it.

  10

  Gizmo was furious. Kat could tell by the short sniped sentences she used when they talked. Tia paid for the repairs, saying they were on her. Kat isn’t sure if she likes that but it was given and not loaned. At this point she’s pretty sure that Tia had something to do with it or knows more than she is telling.

  Kat checked in with Knox and Gale but they didn’t seem affected by the attack, Jeeves, or the fact they magically showed up back at Illusion. Which bothers her. There are still a ton of questions about their past she’s never had the chance to ask. If they seem fine about all of this it must be from experience or things have just become that crazy.

  After talking with Jack, Hanna, and Terra its clear. Craziness finds them and everyone expects it. After having all of the things they’ve done in recent years, teleporting or blinking or whatever they are going to call it is pretty low on the holy-shit meter. Graven and Mark are also on the same page as everyone else. Kat guesses she must still have a low threshold for amazement somehow.

  The repairs take about a day, which is prefect because the Felicity took about eighteen hours to recharge. Normally they have no problem with power because Jeeve’s core never really depletes. After a long firefight it may get down to 50% or so but goes back up quickly. Jeeves was also quiet until her core was charged. Kat asked Whisper and Fury to help Jeeves out. That way she can manage her new digital consciousness without freaking out again.

  As the repairs too place, Kat has tried to avoid Tia like a case of space-mites. Just walking up to the spare room she’s in already is giving her chills of little bugs crawling all over her. There are a couple of things she needs straight. All of which she can’t let Tia know that she got from Graven. She mostly wanted to know about Jeeves or Saritor as Tia probably knows her.

  So she gathers up her strength and marches over to Tia’s room.

  Kat presses the call button on the panel, “Tia, are you in there?”

  A few moments later the door slides opens. Tia is wearing a thin silk gown that leaves nothing to the imagination. She is in the middle of brushing her white hair with a wooden handled brush. Something almost too plain looking for her. Tia's yellowish hazel eyes have a near diamond shaped iris to them as she looks Kat up and down.

  Tia asks, “Will we be on our way soon?”

  There are so many sarcastic things running through Kat’s mind at that point. Sarcasm may be her favorite tool but isn’t the correct tool right now.

  Taking a short breath through her nose Kat replies, “Should be another couple of hours. Thanks for paying of the repairs.”

  “If I didn’t then who would have? I know you don’t have any credits right now, seeing as I am your first job after paying back Gizmo. Think of it as an advance to a successful delivery.”

  Kat closes her eyes with a slight tilt of her head letting out her breath slowly.

  She barely calms herself before continuing, “Still thanks. I do have a couple of questions for you.”

  “Do you now.”

  “Who is Saritor? Why is she afraid to use her powers? Who are they?”

  Tia's eyes flash at the last question but only for a second. If Kat hadn’t been looking directly at her, or blinked, she could have missed it. So there is something there she should be concerned with. Now she just has to get out what.

  Tia turns and glides gracefully to the dresser mirror, placing her brush on the counter. As she faces Kat again her gaze is steeled and sharp.

  Tia questions, “Who told you about all of this?”

  “Jeeves, when she was going all crazy.” Then gives her short explanation again of what happened the day before. “So again, who, why, and who?”

  Tia stares at Kat, each not breaking away from the other’s gaze in silence. Tia breaks away and sighs. Score one for Kat

  Tia paces the room not looking directly at Kat, “Saritor, or Jeeves, is one of the exceptionally blessed Eydulans. Her power causes ripples which attract attention. They are not something we talk about, especially with humans. Just saying their name could bring their attention.”

  “So you’ve known about humans for awhile?”

  “Longer than you can imagine.”

  “I think you’re not giving my imagination any credit.”

  “Your comprehension of time is different. You humans live such short lives, everything has to be right now. Not that there isn’t a time for brevity when it calls for it. Humans disregard everything given to you, like your special.”

  “Like we’re God’s favorite.”

  Tia snaps her head toward Kat with fire behind her eyes. “Why would you say that?”

  Kat might have let a little too much slip right there and chooses her words carefully, “Jeeves kept mentioning oh Creator this and oh Creator that. When I take that mixed with the angel statue in your temple and Jinx telling me your Creator and our God are the same I just put the two together.”

  Tia shifts her stance, giving Kat another look over. “I guess Jinx really did know what she was doing when choosing you as a mate.”

  “Thanks, I think.”

  “Do not think this changes things halfling. I still do not approve of what you have taken nor do I approve of Jinx’s actions. Even after all you know you still use Saritor in your engine. You blocked her from waking up and then frighten her enough to use her power. If this was on Etchten—”

  Kat stops her right there, “But this isn’t Etchten. I didn’t know she merged with Jeeves’ virtual intelligence program or the ship. I looked into changing out her core with a standard engine but it wouldn’t power the shields. Without the shields this tub is worthless and I can’t be out there helping other humans or eydulans. Last but not least I never knew that I am half human and half eydulan.

  I never knew that my father was an alien. All I knew is they loved me and sacrificed their lives for mine. I don’t know where you get off on looking down at me for choices that brought me into existence, but I’m here. I’m not going anywhere and this conversation has just made up my mind. I’m going to get you to June but your ass isn’t leaving that planet on my ship. So thank you for helping me make that decision your high and mightiness.”

  Kat stomps out of the room, slamming her fist on the control panel to close the door.

  11

  As Kat slams her fist into the panel it cracks from the strength of her punch. Ice flows out of her and all around her covering everything in a three-foot circle in a layer of ice. She lets out a frustrated grunt and heads out of the ship. Ice forming at her feet as she takes each step.

  Hanna comes running out of the ship and stops Kat as she is about
to leave the hanger. Kat already knew what it is going to be about and she didn’t care who saw. Magic is something already in this world and with this being a Guild space station people should be used to magic.

  Hanna asks, “What has you so riled up?”

  Kat didn’t want to talk, she wanted to stomp around and maybe throw back a few mugs worth of whatever they call beer on this station. But she couldn’t stop the words from coming out of her mouth.

  “It’s all about that diplomatic whore on my ship and I broke a door panel. Can you get Gizmo to fix that with everything else.”

  “I can do that sure, sure. What do you need?”

  “I need her out of my life. For her not to be Jinx’s sister or the mother flipping queen of spheres. I don’t want another A.I. or more eydulan drama or to learn about my past. I just want Graven back.”

  Hanna takes the back of Kat’s arm and leads her over to a set of chairs near Gizmo’s office. Kat sits while Hanna tells Gizmo about the broken panel. Kat looks at the trail of ice she’s left and it is already starting to crack and melt. She doesn’t feel quite as angry as she did a few minutes ago. Hanna comes back out of the office and sits next to Kat.

  Hanna says while moving her hair out of her face, “Gizmo has everything to fix the panel and will get on it in just a few minutes. I told her it was already broken and we just noticed it.”

  Kat sighs, “Thanks.”

  “Of course. You and I have become close over the last year and it’s what a friend is for, right?”

  Kat gives a brief smile.

  Hanna continues, “So something I haven’t really told you because I never really thought it would come up is some Guild policies.”

  “Guild policies, why would I need to know those?”

  “Because you’re a mage now. A member of the Guild witnessing what you just did would flip their lid and have you hauled in for misuse of power.”

  “So I’m guessing magic outbursts of rage aren’t a thing in the Guild.”

  “Oh, they are. Most just ended up in Ragnarok. Although I don’t know where they are sending them now. Look. Magic is a known quantity and anyone who uses it has to follow a few rules.”