by Gini Koch
The cage disappeared and Christopher collapsed. Fortunately I was still going at the super speeds he usually used, so I was able to grab him before he hit the floor. Dug around in my purse and pulled out a couple of waterfruit. His Poof, Toby, came out with the fruit. “Eat these,” I said softly, as Toby jumped onto his shoulder and nuzzled him.
Somehow, no one had heard us. Possibly because they were still busy shouting at each other and searching for me. Well, at least that meant they weren’t hurting Jeff for the moment.
Christopher ate at hyperspeed so he was done quickly. “Thanks, for the save and the waterfruit. I feel a lot better.”
The shouting sounded far less chaotic. We peeked around the corner. There were a lot of angry Rapacians all doing the same thing—swinging their weapons around themselves. They were placed so that each one was just at the edge of the other’s weapon range, so they were covering all the available space. There were two Rapacians guarding the door in the same fashion. The likelihood of one of them hitting us, fastest hyperspeed around or not, went up dramatically. The likelihood that one of them would ask where the guy guarding their special prisoner was went off the charts.
“What we need is a distraction,” I said softly to Christopher. “Something to focus them while we take them out.” But Fancy wasn’t on this ship, and neither was anyone else, and, frankly, I didn’t want either one of us to be the distraction because the likelihood of us getting hurt was high and getting higher. Basically, I was at a loss unless I asked the Poofs to do something. However, them eating the Rapacians was out, at least for the moment, and if they couldn’t devour, then they’d just be big targets for people already in a killing mood.
“I’m out of ideas,” he whispered back. “All I want to do is kill everyone in this room that isn’t from Earth.”
“I feel your pain, believe me. But we have to do something, and fast. Not only do we need to get them all under control but we need to also destroy all the circlets on their heads. We’ve kept a few, but the majority need to go sooner than soon.” Before they drained Chuckie’s brain.
“Ah. I see everything you just went through and what you and Serene are trying to do. And, God, is that really what they’re doing to Chuck? I thought what they were doing to Jeff was bad enough. Yeah, we need to get the others free and take over this ship.”
“Nice to see our mind-reading abilities remain intact up here. And, I guess I could see if I have another self-contained nuke in my purse.”
“I don’t even want to know. That will just kill Jeff and the others, so no, even if you have one.”
“I could try the Return of the Jedi gambit.”
“Good grief. I can see what you’re thinking, and no, that won’t work in this situation. No one’s going to believe you’re willing to blow yourself and everyone else up.”
“I’m seriously open to ideas. My husband and best friend are both about to die, and in ugly ways I am not willing to allow. We need a distraction and we need it now.”
And, proving that sometimes you really did get what you asked for, a distraction presented itself. Loudly.
CHAPTER 88
HEARD A CACOPHONOUS shrieking I recognized—Bruno was here and on the case.
“That’s our distraction.”
Christopher nodded, grabbed the mace from the Rapacian I’d knocked out, and ran into the main room at his Flash level. I was right behind him.
Bruno was flying at the top of the ceiling, shrieking very nasty things in Peregrine. Realized they’d missed him because he’d gone chameleon when they’d all been captured. He’d been waiting for someone to come so he could help effect the rescue.
However, the men in this room all had wings, so Bruno being up high wasn’t going to keep him safe for long. Meaning Christopher and I had to work fast. Not a problem.
Decided I could live with killing anyone in this room since this was the Torture and Force Them To Do Terrible Things Against Their Will room. Activated the battle staff, got in between several of the Rapacians who were trying to get Bruno, stuck the staff out, holding it with both hands, and spun.
The less said about the screams the better. Most of these had been up in the air, but the staff was scary effective and it sliced through their legs. On the plus side, it cauterized the wounds at the same time, so there was minimal bloodshed. Made sure I killed all of them as they fell to the ground, some out of anger, mostly out of necessity, and some out of kindness, since I wasn’t going to do anything to help them or relieve their pain.
Christopher, meanwhile was braining everyone near him, and he was an A-C and, like me, enraged. He was killing them with one blow.
Now that we were engaged, Bruno stopped being the distraction and flew into the faces of the nearest Rapacians, clawed, and went on to the next, all at hyperspeed. It wasn’t as effective as when he did this to beings without beaks on half their faces, but the screams shared that he’d hurt and probably blinded most of them. I followed behind him and delivered the death blows.
Working this way, we had the room cut down by half, literally, within two minutes.
Some of the Rapacians caught on that, despite their greater numbers, they were on the losing side. These tossed their weapons down and flung themselves on their knees, hands out, wings widespread.
But not all of the remaining Rapacians did this. Meaning Christopher and I, and the Rapacians, too, had to jump over the prostrate Hawkpeople in order to fight. Fortunately we were both athletic because the leaping was a lot easier to do if you had wings. I’d been a hurdler all through high school and college, though, and my sadistic track coaches had always wanted everyone on the team to be able to do every sport, so I was decent with both high and long jump.
Shockingly, none of the prostrate Rapacians were faking it, or used us jumping over them as a way of catching us off guard. Apparently surrender meant surrender if you were a Rapacian.
Took a moment out of the mayhem to grab the circlets off of every head I could—dead, prostrate, and even those still up and fighting. Destroyed them all, which wasn’t me taking time out from the fight in that sense, since stopping the mental drain on Chuckie’s mind was part of our overall goal.
Spotted a big Rapacian who was still fighting and who also had a large set of what certainly looked like keys. “Bruno, my bird, we need to unlock the prisoners!”
Bruno headed right for the Keymaster, with me in hot pursuit. The Keymaster heard me, of course, and he tried to block the Peregrine, but that just left him open for me to slam my battle staff into his stomach. I didn’t shove the glowing end through him, though, in case we needed his help with the keys.
Bruno had to fly off so he wouldn’t take a hit, leaving me to fight the Keymaster alone. Well, sort of. Unlike how it had been in the air, these Rapacians weren’t following the polite one-on-one method. I was surrounded shortly.
Meaning Christopher had some sitting ducks, pun totally intended, which he rather gleefully brained by running around them with the mace at head height. Some of them were taller than he was, but he seemed to enjoy the jumping he had to do in order to knock these out, so I didn’t comment.
However, the remaining Rapacians came up with a new strategy—threatening the other prisoners. Christopher was a good fighter and the fastest man alive, but there were still plenty of them and enough of our guys trapped that Christopher was being kept busy defending as opposed to attacking. Bruno went to help the person who was totally outnumbered. Meaning I was on my own with the Keymaster.
The Keymaster was a good fighter, better than most of the Rapacians I’d faced so far. He’d forced me to slow down and I wasn’t even sure how he’d done it. Which made me question why he wasn’t in charge of more than prisoner containment and torture.
“You can surrender and we won’t kill you,” I shared as he and I slammed our weapons into each other.
“Thank you
for the offer, but no. I cannot offer the same in return. All of you must die.” He tried to sweep my legs.
I jumped. “How bloodthirsty of you.”
“War is what it is. In order for my people to survive in the new world that is coming, we must win here, and that means all who are not like us must perish.” He slammed his mace at my head.
Took the leap—literally to get out of the way, and figuratively by assuming the Z’porrah had infiltrated Beta Sixteen. Probably some time ago, maybe during Operation Destruction when they were on their way out to Earth to try to destroy our planet. Everyone in this solar system had been watching the fleet—if the Z’porrah had sent in a small ship that was sneaky in how it arrived, it would have been fairly simple to drop in spies, dissidents, and instigators.
“Sorry.” Managed to slam the battle staff down on his arm and pull it back before he could grab it or parry. “Many of the people on my planet are considered to be pretty damn bloodthirsty land stealers, but most of us frown on total genocide.”
“And we and our benefactors do not.” He tossed his mace to his other hand and swung at me.
I ducked and rolled. “Your benefactors aren’t who gave you space travel.”
He shrugged as he advanced. “True. But they gave with restrictions. Our new allies do not.”
Who he was dawned on me. Just because Lakin had been hanging out on his command deck didn’t mean that’s what the other ship’s commanders did. Lakin had had the hot women up there, so maybe he was trying to impress them. After all, Otari and Kares had flown out to engage us because they’d thought we were easy prey. We hadn’t been. Meaning this ship’s commander had decided to hang with his most valuable cargo—the prisoners his enemies would want back.
“You’re Trevik, aren’t you?” I was backed up against a wall.
This surprised him. “You know my name?”
“Oh yeah. Your unwillingness to respond to the others ships in your tiny fleet ensured I learned your name.”
He shrugged again as he stepped closer and raised his mace up. “A larger fleet is coming.”
“Longer boats are coming to win us. Yeah, I’ve heard it before. I’m not going to let that happen.” I crouched down.
He laughed, one of those nasty bad guy laughs, and I realized that he wasn’t wearing a mind control circlet. This was the real him, no outside influence one way or the other. “You’re going to die, little female so-called God.”
“Probably. No one gets out of here alive, you know. But you’re going to die first.”
Trevik brought the mace down, his feet nicely spread, just like every other Rapacian male. At the same time I slammed the glowing end of my battle staff up between his legs as hard as I possibly could.
The staff hit and Trevik screamed what I was pretty sure was going to be his last scream. But I wasn’t in a good position to block the mace. I winced and put my hand up.
But before the mace could hit me, someone else slammed it away.
CHAPTER 89
JEFF, HANDS STILL TIED, used both of them to knock the mace aside. Due to the combined force and trajectory changes, the mace slammed back into Trevik’s face.
Then Jeff collapsed on the ground.
Pulled my staff out of Trevik and slammed it right back into his middle. He hit the floor and, if he was alive, he needed to stop this war business and get a job in the movies immediately.
Pulled the staff out again and deactivated it so it couldn’t hurt Jeff, then dropped to the floor next to him. I already knew that my purse had been equipped with a lot of adrenaline and I dug it out.
“Hang on, Jeff.” Had to get the adrenaline in him before I had to defend against an attack. And before he died. I’d seen him close to death—far too many times, really—and I could tell this was one of those times.
“I . . . love you . . . baby,” he gasped out. “Help . . . Chuck. He’s going . . . to . . . go . . .”
“You first.” Found the case, pulled out the needle, and then did my ritual. I kissed his forehead. “I love you, Jeff.” Then I slammed the needle into his hearts.
Normally he’d bellow and start thrashing. Not this time. He looked a little better, but that was now the current Damning With Faint Praise Champion. Well, Algar had given me a lot of adrenaline. Pulled out another needle and did the ritual all over again.
A little better, but not enough. Another needle, another ritual, another slam. His chest was one big bruise in the area of his hearts.
“Kitty,” Tito called. “Stop! You have to stop the emotional onslaught!”
Duh. That was what Jeff had been trying to tell me. Chuckie was headed for whatever mind explosion they were doing to him, and that meant Jeff was feeling all of it. That much agony in someone he cared about would be impossible for him to block against, even if he felt perfectly fine.
Kissed his forehead. “Don’t die.” Grabbed my staff, Trevik’s mace, and all of the keys on his ring, and ran to the metal sarcophagus Chuckie was trapped inside.
Yeah, he looked awful, but we were still connected. When Jeff was massively close to death during Operation Fugly I’d sent him loving emotions and they’d helped him to hold on. Emotion wasn’t what Chuckie needed, though. He needed a mental shield.
It dawned on me what the real reason was for how ACE had spoken to me. I could access ACE, but I’d have to open my mind like his was, and Chuckie’s was, in order to do so. Meaning my mind could be destroyed. And if that happened, the bad guys were probably going to win. What was one man compared to billions?
I didn’t hesitate.
Leaned my head against the window portion of Chuckie’s chamber, closed my eyes, and opened my mind.
The result was immediate, but it wasn’t the same shock it had been. The massive number of minds was overwhelming, but I could feel someone helping me sort through them. Make that many someones.
The Ancient Katyhopper Kung Fu Masters were working as one, sending their minds to join with mine, because of the link I had with Boz. And they were channeling my mind toward its goal—the mind that was currently at the center of everything.
The Matriarchs were helping me to see the minds as energy fields, not just a wild blur of thoughts and feelings. Energy fields were somehow far easier to focus on and ignore at the same time. Decided now was not the time to ask why.
Chuckie’s energy field was a brilliant green, but it was flickering. I knew without asking that a flickering field wasn’t good.
Felt another mind, a familiar one. Jamie’s.
She might have been in a forced slumber, but that just meant that her mind was free to wander. And it had wandered to her Uncle Charles’ mind, the man who was her father in a variety of alternate universes. One of the men in this universe that she knew would die to protect her. The widower of the woman who had died to protect her. One of the people she loved best in the world.
There was a shield around the energy source that was Chuckie’s mind. Jamie’s shield. Hers was golden and it was strong and bright, but there were little flickers here and there. She was holding on, but she was a little girl, and the onslaught was tremendous. And ACE had said that even a mind as advanced as hers couldn’t hold out forever.
I moved faster, sending my mind to both of them. I had an energy field, too. Mine was bright white, and I sent it around theirs, blocking the onslaught, letting it hit me instead. Concentrated and fended off the other energy fields that were coming at us. Realized that the jewel they’d stuck onto Chuckie’s head was an attractor and was pulling all the minds into itself.
Saw everything and nothing at the same time. Billions of lives, billions of years. Saw a flash of something that seemed to be all of us from Earth who’d been dragged out here, other than Gower and Jamie, standing around under the giant telescope on the All Seeing Mountain, talking to a bunch of Beta Eight natives I’d never seen before. But b
efore I could tell what was going on and if that was something that had happened before or would happen later, the general onslaught slammed into my energy field, because I’d lost my concentration.
Had no idea how to stop the onslaught, stop everyone’s mind from trying to get into Chuckie’s, and therefore get through my shield and Jamie’s. I just knew I couldn’t let anyone else get past me, or else they’d kill my daughter and my best friend, and those deaths would kill my husband.
My kung fu instructors had always wanted me to meditate, under the idea that clearing my mind would be helpful. I’d never managed it because I couldn’t settle my mind in that way and it seemed like a waste of relaxation time to just go “Ommmm” or similar over and over again when I could, instead, think about all the things.
However, the idea behind it was sound—only let one thing in, and you can shove everything else out. But what one thing?
Love, maybe. But I loved a lot of people, all differently, but still, all loved. Love alone wasn’t going to be enough, because I didn’t know what love to focus on.
Heard the sound of something, something that didn’t fit. But I recognized it. The sounds of The Black Eyed Peas singing “Just Can’t Get Enough” swirled into my ears.
This wouldn’t have been the song I’d have thought would be anybody’s idea of a great song to meditate to or focus on, but as it played I found it relaxing me in a positive way for the situation. Felt stronger and calm at the same time. Noted that my energy shield was also kind of ebbing and flowing to the beat.
This was also a great song for mega repeat, which it was definitely on, because, as with “Electric Worry,” the ending led nicely into the start so the repetition felt seamless.
Hoped Jamie wasn’t hearing this, because this was definitely a song that made me think about Jeff in the total sexy times way. But apparently what was going to keep the rest of the solar system at bay was my sex drive and a tempo-changing rocking beat.
