MindSighted: BlackWing Pirates, Book 1

by Connie Suttle

  Cord'ilus was now just a memory, because it had been crawling with the enemy, most of whom were affected by the strange, growing obsession we'd discovered on Pyrik. The rest had been literally raised from the dead and rigged to explode, spreading green mist and the encroaching tendrils of an obsession to anyone who physically came in contact with it. We'd been shielded against it, or we'd be in even more trouble.

  I couldn't shake the feeling that someone, somewhere, had a terrible motive in all this, and that we'd barely touched on any part of it—as if creeping obsession wasn't bad enough.

  "Are we still going down there tomorrow?" Jayna asked.

  "I want to," I spoke immediately.

  "We'll take Randl down. Anyone else who wants to go will be allowed. We won't stay long, bro," Travis nodded in my direction. "Get what you want and get out, all right?"

  "I'll be done quickly, I think."

  "Good. Anything else, send mindspeech or comp-vid messages. Dismissed."

  Once inside my cabin, I pulled out my comp-vid to do more research. Specifically, I wanted to know which logging concerns had marked Cord'ilus and Bornelus as possible locations for their logging efforts.

  I found what I wanted after employing the ASD key, as it was called. It could get past security walls to enable agents to cull certain information from a company's main comp without detection.

  Bornelus was chosen by Burche Industries, Cord'ilus by WildTree Industries. In all, there were six major logging concerns, with many smaller ones connected to those six. Like the previous information I'd found, Cord'ilus was scheduled for a visit in a month, Bornelus in six months.

  Neither of those things should happen, now—Cord'ilus because it was impossible, and Bornelus due to the creatures inhabiting the underground. A scouting party sent there would be destroyed quickly by those enormous worms.

  I was now back to the concrete behemoth and what it actually was. It had a purpose—likely a sinister one, because it disappeared after our arrival. Somehow, I was convinced that the same person—or someone similarly talented on Pyrik, had removed the block before we could examine it closely.

  That sent me back to the information gathered by Kooper's micro-drones. Those tiny bots were limited in the type of information they could gather, so a sample of the concrete block wasn't a possibility. A scan of its makeup revealed nothing out of the ordinary—the bots had been more interested in the amount of radiation surrounding the block.

  Darkness covered the location of the hole on Bornelus, or I may have asked Travis to take me immediately. Something troubled me greatly about this, and I wondered why someone had removed the block now, instead of doing it before we arrived.

  Something precipitated its removal immediately—of that much I was certain. The why of it kept digging its way to the surface of my thinking, much like the creatures on Bornelus had dug their way to the surface of the planet to attack us.

  Tomorrow morning, I reminded myself. It was past time for sleep, so I switched off my comp-vid and pulled covers back on my bed. I doubted sleep would come easy, but I had to make the attempt anyway or I'd be fog-brained when I woke.

  Avii Castle, Le-Ath Veronis

  Quin

  "What can you tell me about this person?" Kooper arrived to have breakfast with Justis and me. He handed me a comp-vid with a man's image displayed.

  "Phorde Gaster," I said immediately. "Works for WildTree Industries. Kooper, there's something odd about him. I think I need to see him in person," I said, handing the comp-vid back.

  "You can do that very thing next week, because he's the supervisor of a scouting party sent by WildTree to Harifa Edus. Amlis, in his previously impaired condition, invited WildTree in to evaluate New Fyris' forests."

  "Oh, no," I closed my eyes with a sigh. This meant I'd be forced to deal with Amlis and Rodrik again. "I'll go," I said. "Although I'd prefer not to speak with Amlis or Rodrik, if that's possible."

  "I'll do what I can, but I can't promise anything. Lukas and Winkler will be there, as will Halimel."

  I knew Halimel—he was a vampire spy in Rigo's network of vampire spies. He could also become mist, walk in daylight and consume normal food, to hide what he was and what he was capable of doing.

  Zaria knew him better than I—she'd worked with him before. "All right," I agreed. "Let's have breakfast, shall we?" It was the polite thing to say, although my appetite had deserted me the moment Amlis' and Rodrik's names had come up.

  "Dearest, I believe you should consider a disguise—we wouldn't want them to see the Queen of the Avii on Harifa Edus, I think," Daragar appeared, made himself smaller and pulled out a chair at the breakfast table.

  "Good idea," Kooper agreed. "Can you get Bel Erland to do it for you? If not, I can find someone."

  "No, Bel Erland will do it, I'm sure," I said. "How early next week?"

  "Third day, and be ready at dawn. I'll have Winkler transport you in."

  "All right. Dena, will you put that on my private calendar?" I turned to Dena, who nodded and pulled a comp-vid from her pocket.

  BlackWing X, Bornelus Orbit

  Travis

  Bro, the hole is gone, Trent informed me.

  I'd just gotten out of the shower when Trent's mindspeech came, and I froze for a moment.

  What do you mean, it's gone?

  Like it was never there gone. Grass and vines growing over it gone.

  Fucking, mind-blasting, bloody hell, I cursed. Where's Randl?

  Staring at the new bot images from the bridge, Trent replied. Get your clothes on. He still wants to go down there.

  So do I, I snapped and grabbed my uniform.

  Randl

  My dreams from the night before had connected eerily with my reality as I studied the micro-drone images sent live from the planet's surface.

  At first, I'd considered how much I'd wanted to visit the site before going to sleep the night before, and I'd had strange dreams about being there as a result.

  I'd stood on one side of the square hole left from the absence of the concrete block. It was dark in my dream, as it should have been in reality. A sliver of moon played hide-and-seek with clouds sliding across the sky, although I didn't need the light to see.

  My mindsight had supplied the images for me.

  Terror had gripped me early on in the dream, when a robed and hooded figure appeared on the opposite side of the hole. For whatever reason, I was afraid he'd see me or sense my presence.

  He acted as if I weren't there, raising his arms while red light bloomed about him. In horrified fascination, I'd watched the hole fill quickly with dirt and detritus, pulled from elsewhere, I suppose.

  Then, when the ground was even with its surroundings, a layer of grass and creepers appeared, as if they belonged there.

  The figure disappeared and I'd awakened with a start—only to learn the reality of my dream in images from the micro-drone Trent sent to the surface.

  Had I seen the truth in my dreams, or was it merely the imaginings of my mind as it played its dream tricks?

  It worried me now, as I'd never seen the face of the man in my dreams. In fact, I wasn't sure it was a man, although that felt right to me, somehow.

  Had the necro-sorcerer visited us twice, and we'd been unaware both times?

  "What's going on in that mind of yours, bro?" Trent's hand dropped on my shoulder, startling me.

  "Just—trying to reconcile this in my mind," I said after regaining my composure.

  "Trav says we're still going down to get a look, but I've already advised Kooper and sent him the first micro-drone images. He's not happy, as you've probably guessed."

  I considered telling Trent about my dream, but decided that could wait. What credence could I give it, other than the end result being the same? I saw no reliable image of the perpetrator in my dream, which was a significant drawback.

  Nevertheless, I resolved to record my dream later in a personal journal, in case something similar happened again.

&n
bsp; "I'm ready," Travis appeared on the bridge while straightening the collar of his uniform and tossing his long, black braid over a shoulder once the collar was in place.

  "I'm ready, too," I said, although I felt nervous about going, now that the time was at hand. Would I find anything helpful, or was this a useless trip to satisfy my curiosity?

  With a nod, Travis folded me to the planet's surface.

  Travis

  "The grass and creeping vines are wilting," Randl pointed out as we walked the perimeter of the space. So far, Randl hadn't ventured onto the soil covering the filled-in hole. He'd reported early on that he didn't feel the creatures near us, as he had before.

  "What's your initial assessment?" I asked.

  "That the grass and vines were removed from another spot and dropped on top of the covered hole," Randl replied. "The roots were disconnected at their original place, without being reconnected here."

  I ran my recorder while Randl and I observed the site, for Kooper's benefit and for later study. "What else can you tell me?" I asked.

  "Let me see," Randl said and knelt on the perimeter to place his hand on the edge of the covered spot. His body stiffened. I called out before jerking my ranos pistol from its holster, but Randl held up his hand to stop me.

  "It's nothing you can shoot," he croaked. "Not now. Perhaps never."

  "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" I demanded.

  "Give me a few moments, Captain Travis. I'll tell you what I can afterward."

  I watched as he placed his hand on the freshly-covered space, as if it were a grave. I almost spoke again, before determining that Randl needed my silence. I jerked too, the moment Randl connected with me mentally.

  Few could send images to another, with or without mindspeech.

  This wasn't just images.

  Randl sent me visions.

  I think I forgot to breathe for a while.

  "Where is Randl now? I'd like to speak with him," Kooper said. I couldn't get the images Randl sent out of my head, and I'd gotten a filtered version of them.

  "In his cabin, meditating with Trent," I confessed. "We don't have the talent to lay a healing sleep, so that's the best we could do on short notice."

  Kooper had come the moment I sent mindspeech after bringing Randl back to BlackWing X. The ASD Director and I sat in the Captain's cubby, drinking tea and likely wishing for something stronger.

  I knew I wanted something stronger.

  "You'd better tell me what you know, then, so I can ask proper questions," Kooper gruffed.

  "I saw a crowd of people around the site. It felt like years ago, although I can't explain why I thought that," I began. "In the hole was freshly-poured concrete, more liquid than usual—enough to drown in if you walked into it," I added. "One side of the squared site remained open. I didn't know why that was until a new crowd of people—men, women and children, were herded toward that clear space."

  I forced nausea away before describing what came next. "What happened?" Kooper prompted.

  "The new arrivals reached the edge of the concrete and stopped. That turned out to be a mistake, as those people standing on the other sides crowded them, knocking the first few into the hole."

  I sipped tea and considered my next words.

  "They ah, sunk into the liquid immediately, while some of their companions screamed. As if that weren't horrible enough, the original crowd began shoving the prisoners—that's how I saw them—as prisoners, into the hole while they screamed and begged for their lives. Children were tossed in with their parents, and the crowd cheered as they all sank below the surface, choking on liquid concrete until they were asphyxiated."

  "How many?" Kooper whispered into my prolonged silence.

  "Hundreds," I shuddered. "They weren't even granted a merciful death before they were shoved into that muck."

  "That may explain why the fucking block disappeared, then," Kooper growled. "They were worried we'd discover it was a mass grave."

  "This wasn't from when the planet originally died, I swear it," I said. "Perhaps Randl can pinpoint a better time, but in my estimation, and from the way the victims were dressed, I'd say it was during the last twenty-five to thirty-five years."

  "There are no records of this planet being inhabited for centuries, and with the creatures you found the first time you went to the surface, I can't see that anyone could survive here for long," Kooper mused.

  "Unless someone can control those creatures," I said.

  "True enough," Kooper rumbled. "True enough."

  Chapter 16

  BlackWing X, Bornelus Orbit

  Randl

  I wanted to apologize to Travis, for putting him through the horror of what I was seeing when I touched the filled-in pit, but I desperately needed someone to be with me as the dreadfulness of it washed through my mind.

  Therefore, he'd witnessed it, too. It made us both ill. The why of it kept my mind confused and continuously working—those people were being sacrificed, although I couldn't imagine what their sacrifice would accomplish.

  That concrete block had held the bodies of hundreds, who'd decomposed inside their concrete prison until bones were all that was left.

  Kooper was aboard BlackWing X and wished to speak to me when I was able. Until then, he debated whether to send a digging bot to the site to collect data from the original space.

  Why was it important that the block be removed? We had no idea who'd placed it there—none of the people I'd seen drew my attention in any way, and no names surfaced in my mind.

  Were they being hidden, somehow? Were those perpetrators still alive? That thought troubled me more than many others. Had the same scenario happened before or since, in other places?

  Kooper would probably begin a search for evidence soon.

  The other question that plagued my mind was this—where had those perpetrators gone? I had the impression that the sacrifice had taken place in the past twenty-five years or so, as time was measured on Bornelus.

  Had they been devoured by the giant, worm-like creatures that threatened us? I'd found no evidence that anyone had lived on Bornelus for centuries, and Kooper's micro-drones confirmed that.

  My dream worried me, too. Everything I'd seen in it had been verified, except for the hooded figure. I hadn't found him anywhere in the crowd during the sacrifice.

  Why would someone with so much power involve himself now? Where was the concrete block after he took it—if he did take it?

  Why hadn't he filled in the hole right after taking the block?

  I had far too many questions and no answers.

  "Feel like talking?" Kooper walked into my cabin without knocking. Travis was at his heels, with Trent close behind his brother.

  "I suppose. It won't get any easier the longer I wait, so we may as well discuss it now," I agreed.

  Sabrina

  Trent wouldn't tell me anything, and that frustrated me. Travis and Randl had seen something horrible on the surface, and nobody was saying anything. Director Griff arrived, too, but that only tightened the secrecy surrounding the visit to the planet's surface.

  What I knew was this—somehow, the concrete block had disappeared, leaving a hole behind. Then, the following day, the hole was magically filled in, leaving little evidence behind.

  Randl's gift had enabled him to see something connected to all that, and Travis had somehow connected to Randl and saw it, too.

  Curiosity plagued my mind while everyone else went about their usual business, as if nothing had happened.

  I wanted to scream at them.

  "Screaming not help," Bekzi the cook warned and placed a cup of tea in my hands.

  Was everybody a fucking mind reader now?

  "Not," Bekzi turned slitted eyes on me. I blinked—I'd never seen that from him before.

  "Hmmph. You not see a lot," he commented and left me standing at a galley window, gazing at the stars surrounding Bornelus as the ship orbited the planet.

  "Suddenly I
feel like the most useless person on BlackWing X," I mumbled and sipped my tea.

  Bekzi had put plenty of honey in the cup, just the way I liked it. That made me feel like a spoiled brat on top of everything else. So far, I hadn't contributed one useful thing to the ship's crew, and that left me feeling anxious and superfluous.

  Maybe I ought to learn to cook and help out in the kitchen, I mused, before realizing I'd probably poison the crew accidentally, the way my luck was running.

  I still hadn't done what I'd said and produced weapons for the crew. Perhaps I should concentrate on that, rather than feeling sorry for myself for being left out of the secret stuff.

  "Back to the drawing board," I sighed and headed for the galley door. I had a comp-vid and draw-pad in my cabin, and could work out plans and schematics well enough with those. Go to work. Take your mind off this shit, I chastised myself.

  Travis

  Has Kooper given the word to get away from that place, yet? Mom's mindspeech came while I worked on reports to clear my head of what I'd seen. Randl and I had given our report directly to Kooper, who'd recorded audio of our briefing on his comp-vid. We'd get a printed version on our comp-vids later, so we could revise if we wanted.

  We're leaving in a few, I answered Mom's question. Kooper says to go back to Pyrik, although I don't know what good that will do. He's sending digging bots and bigger drones to the surface to collect soil and plant samples; the science ship is scheduled to arrive in the next two hours. Number Nine will stay here with it, in case anything weird happens.

  I think he wants Randl on Pyrik, Mom pointed out. The presidential race has turned nasty there, and Kooper wants Randl's take on both candidates.

  Yeah. I can understand that, all right, I agreed and tossed my comp-vid onto the desk in my cabin. Trent was taking care of Captain's duties today, so I wouldn't have to.

  Honey, I'm not going to ask you what you saw—I'll get a filtered version from Kooper, I think. Don't let it consume you. It happened in the past. Those people are long gone and feel no pain, now.