The Sac'a'rith

by Vincent Trigili

  Well, that answered my questions, at least.

  “We sent Sergeant Sunto back to you. Has he arrived safely?” asked Narcion.

  “No, sir. We have not heard from him or his partner since they went to check on a landing, sir,” said Private Milstone. “But, sir, there is no way they could make it back. We are completely surrounded.”

  “How many magi do you have left?” asked Narcion.

  “Three, sir, but they are all tied up with the shields. I do not know how much longer they can hold out,” said Private Milstone.

  “Do you have sufficient firepower to handle the walking dead if the other creatures were taken care of?” asked Narcion.

  “More than enough, sir,” said Private Milstone.

  “Excellent. We will be there soon. We can handle the leaders, but we will need you to take care of the others. I will contact you again on this channel when we are ready to attack, assuming we have time. When we take out the leaders, make your move on their troops. Understood?” asked Narcion.

  “Yes, sir!” he said with no small amount of excitement in his voice.

  “Engineering out,” said Narcion.

  “Narcion, isn’t odd that he never asked who you were?” I asked when the channel was closed.

  Narcion chuckled and said, “No, he is a private. He got a call on the proper channels from Engineering and it never occurred to him to question the source.”

  “Seems foolish to me,” I said.

  “Good, because I expect you to know better,” he said with a smile. “Now, let’s move. We need to get there before their shields fail.”

  “How do we know this is not a trap, though?” I asked.

  “We don’t,” he said as he took off down the corridor.

  I was sure he was not telling me everything, and that was starting to annoy me more and more. By now he should be able to trust me, but he was not behaving as if he did. It did not take a strategic genius to realize we had been told multiple different stories about the computer core, none of which matched up, which left me wondering why we were rushing that way.

  As we moved through the base heading towards Central Computing I began to think that the base must be bigger on the inside than the outside, as it seemed that we had been running forever by the time we came upon Sergeants Sunto and Sam, who were pinned down under fire from a group of three humans further down the hall. We quickly joined them and Narcion asked, “Who are they?”

  “We don’t know. They just attacked us without warning,” said Sergeant Sunto.

  Narcion called out, “Hold your fire and identify yourselves!” A fresh wave of blaster fire was the only reply he got. “Zah’rak, toss one of the stun grenades.”

  A stun grenade emits a blast of electricity, which temporarily renders most life forms defenseless. It would only buy us a few seconds, but that would be plenty of time in this case. I tossed the grenade, waited for the flash indicating that the grenade had gone off, and charged in. Narcion and I reached the enemy position at the same time and we quickly disarmed them before they had a chance to recover.

  Something seemed odd about them, something I could not place. I did not get much time to think about it as Sergeant Sam came up and said, “We should kill them. It is too dangerous to leave them behind.”

  “I’ll worry about them; you head towards the core. It sounds like they are in real trouble down there and need help. We will catch up with you when we can,” said Narcion.

  “With all due respect, sir … ” started Sergeant Sam.

  “Enough. Go,” said Narcion. They hesitated a bit more, but Narcion commanded, “Now!”

  There was something in Narcion’s eyes that seemed to drain them of any urge to stay, and they quickly ran off. Once they were gone he turned to me and said, “We need to get these men out of here before those two come back with help.”

  The surprise on the face of our prisoners probably matched my own, but I moved quickly to comply, “Can you walk yet?” I asked the one closest to me. Narcion obviously had some plan that he was not sharing with me, yet again.

  “Yes, sir,” he said.

  “Good, help your buddy and let’s move it,” I said. It got on my nerves that I could not figure out what was different about them. I knew I should recognize it, but it eluded me.

  We took a very erratic path through the station for about half an hour; then Narcion stopped us and said, “Okay, now we talk.”

  They all looked at each other and seemed to have a conversation completely with their eyes. It was odd; I could almost feel them talking, but there was no sound at all. Long minutes passed until one of them said, “We do not think it would be wise to talk to invaders.”

  “I agree entirely; however, of all the people we have spoken with today, I suspect you might be the only ones who are not invaders,” said Narcion.

  Something clicked in my head at that moment and I suddenly realized what was different about them. “They are the magi!” I called out involuntarily.

  Narcion grinned and said, “Yes, but could you have your revelation a little more discreetly next time?”

  “What are you getting at?” said the same one who had spoken before.

  “Here,” said Narcion, showing him his security pass. “We were hired to assist in taking back this station from the wraiths. We were told that some magi were sent before us and had failed, but we did not find out about the more mundane attackers until we arrived.”

  The magus did not even look at the security card. Instead, he looked deep into Narcion’s eyes. “How do we know you’re telling us the truth?”

  “You are not dead, for one thing,” said Narcion with a grin, matching the man’s gaze.

  “I am going to need more than that,” said the magus.

  “I think you and I both know you are not going to get much more. Let me fill you in on our adventures here so far.”

  While Narcion related our experiences, one of them turned to look at me. I turned and met his gaze and felt him boring into me. I could feel him digging, somehow working his way into my head, and all I could think of was the slave collar I had once worn. Never again would I allow anyone to take control of me. A fierce anger rose up in me. I stood to my full height, easily dwarfing the magus, and took him by the throat. I lifted him into the air with one hand while squeezing down on his windpipe. “Get out of my head!” I growled.

  He started to shake violently in my grasp and I felt him retreat from my mind. I dropped him and said, “If you ever try something like that again I will rip your head from your shoulders. Do I make myself clear?”

  “Yes, sir,” he said, coughing, trying to get his breath back.

  “Probing a Zalionian? You could have picked a less violent way to commit suicide,” said Narcion.

  “Let’s go, Narcion. Leave them to the wraiths,” I said.

  “Easy, Zah’rak. They have been running for their lives around this station for a while. I think you can understand that they might be a little suspicious,” said Narcion.

  “What now?” I asked, keeping my eye on them. I was not ready to trust them and would be more than willing to toss them to the wraiths.

  “That is up to them,” he said, then turned to the three magi. “You are free to strike out on your own again, or you can join us as we hunt the wraiths. There are too many unknowns here, and guides would be welcome at this stage.”

  They looked at each other and were silent again for a while. I was sure they were communicating in some manner, but I could not hear anything, nor did their lips move at all. Eventually the first magus said, “My name is Felix and we would be happy to join you.” Felix was obviously the leader of their little group, but he had a shifty look to him. He was shorter than Narcion, but fairly average for a human in height and build.

  “Good. Then tell us who we should try to save, and who are the attackers?” asked Narcion.

  “We were wondering the same thing. You two are the
first friendly faces we have seen in weeks. The two men you helped us overcome are new also, as far as we can tell.”

  “What happened with them?” I asked.

  “I’m not sure. We came around the corner and they yelled and started shooting; we fired back. That was only moments before you arrived. We were planning a retreat, but you cut that off before we had a chance,” said Felix.

  “We have spoken to three other groups of people since coming to the station, and all of them claimed that Central Computing was where everyone was holing up,” said Narcion.

  “Central Computing is on lockdown. We can’t get in. I think that whoever was here before us locked it securely so that it did not fall into enemy hands.”

  “Then whoever invaded this station is trying to get us to open it for them?” I asked.

  “Possibly. That would explain why we keep getting pushed in that direction,” said Narcion. “Let’s head back to Engineering and see what we can figure out from there.”

  “But the hangar was empty. How did you get here?” I asked.

  “Sir, we probably arrived the same way you did. We flew in, but shortly after we arrived we came under heavy fire and tried to return to our ship, only to find it had been stolen,” said Felix.

  I looked to Narcion in concern, and he said, “Relax, that ship won’t move without me knowing it. Let’s get a move on before someone else comes along.”

  As we approached Engineering, Narcion said quietly, “Careful. They are likely to have returned in our absence. Zah’rak and I will take the lead. You three follow five seconds behind and be ready. Remember, your guns are useless against the wraiths. If you have mage bolts, use them.”

  “Understood,” said Felix, who seemed to be very much afraid.

  Narcion moved down the hall slowly with his assault rifle at the ready. I stayed three seconds behind him, as was my place. As he entered Engineering I heard weapon fire. I charged in with a yell and executed a shoulder roll to the left where I remembered there being some cover. Narcion was behind some debris on the right, and animated corpses of the station’s crew were marching towards both of us.

  “Found the dead for you,” said Narcion as he continued his rapid fire into the approaching mass. “Concentrate your fire on their heads and spine. That is where the wraiths interface to them.”

  Just then the magi came into the room and found cover with Narcion, adding their blasters to the mix.

  “There are too many of them. We will just drain our guns and they will keep coming,” said Felix.

  “Is that what normally happens?” asked Narcion.

  “Yes,” said Felix.

  “Can’t you conjure up some kind of spell to finish them off?” I asked.

  “We have to save our magic for the wraiths. They seem to know the moment we get low and choose then and only then to attack,” said one of the other magi.

  “Do it,” said Narcion. “We can handle the wraiths.”

  They nodded and put away their blasters to free their hands for casting. Soon lightning, fire and stone flew at the line of approaching corpses, cutting them down far faster than we could have done even with ten times the number of guns. I stopped shooting and prepared for the wraiths to attack, but they never came.

  “Fall back!” called Narcion as the magi began to weary.

  I moved to cover the magi as they stumbled out of the room, barely able to walk from their exhaustion. They seemed to have destroyed hundreds of the enemy and yet others still came. Narcion and I slowly backed out of the room until we were in the hall. The magi had not made it very far when one of them collapsed.

  “I will slow them down. Get those magi out of here,” ordered Narcion.

  I holstered my weapon, scooped up the fallen magus, and pushed the others down the corridor which began to fill with a foul, thick, black smoke. Narcion came up beside me and picked up one of the other magi. I lifted the final one and tossed him over the opposite shoulder from his companion.

  Narcion and I jogged away from the smoke for about an hour before we finally stopped and put the magi down. He convinced them to eat and then turned to say something, but at that moment six wraiths appeared, three on either side of us. He turned so that his back was against mine and said, “It’s about time.”

  I drew my knives and attempted to calm my nerves as I faced them. For a moment we stood there, frozen, staring each other down. I struggled mightily not to look away as I had done the last time, but I did not have to struggle for long: with a soul-chilling scream they attacked.

  I could not dive towards them, as that would expose Narcion’s back and the magi, so I stood my ground and waited for them to close in. As they did I swung my tail hard at the one on the left while making a wide, sweeping slice at the other two. It worked perfectly as my tail contacted its target solidly and sent it flying backwards. Meanwhile, the other two pulled up from their charge to avoid the knife swing, which gave me a moment to twist my body back towards them and lunge a second time with the knives, this time slicing through the chest of the middle wraith.

  The wounded wraith retreated behind the other two as they regrouped for another attack. I could not risk looking back to see how Narcion was doing; I just had to trust he had my back. I crouched, ready for their next run, but as they started it a lightning bolt arced over my shoulder and hit the wounded wraith, destroying it in a brilliant flash of light that left me briefly blinded.

  Instinct took over as I felt a coldness approach me, which I knew indicated a wraith was closing in. Although I could not yet see, I lunged forward blindly with both knives and had the satisfaction of feeling them penetrate deep into the body of the wraith.

  My vision returned in time to see the third wraith swinging its claw towards me. I dropped my weight backwards, which pulled the wraith impaled on my knives over on top of me. Using the struggling wraith as a shield I planted both of my feet on its chest and pushed hard. The wounded wraith flew right into the path of the third wraith, effectively blocking its attack.

  I sprang back to my feet, just in time to witness the remaining wraith cast away the body of the injured wraith who had now died. Free from that entanglement, it charged. I jumped forward directly into its path with my knives extended in front of me. As my knives made contact with its chest, I separated my hands quickly, ripping the wraith in half.

  As soon as I had extricated myself from the body, I turned to see Narcion finish off the last wraith on his side. “Clear,” I called.

  “Clear,” he responded as he turned to check on the magi.

  Two of them were out cold but Felix was standing, using the wall to hold himself upright. He said, “You guys are incredible,” in a very weak voice.

  “Yes, we are. Now we have to get you somewhere safe to rest. Know a good place?” he asked.

  “We have a safe room. It’s shielded due to its proximity to a central power junction. Let me send you the directions telepathically. I don’t think I can make it to guide you,” said Felix.

  Narcion nodded, and a moment later Felix collapsed.

  “Let’s go. I got the directions,” he said, picking up Felix.

  I did not begin to understand how he had got the directions, but I dutifully hoisted the other two and we set off to find Felix’s safe room.

  Chapter Six

  Felix’s safe room was a small power closet far from Engineering. We laid the three magi down and took turns standing watch. Narcion explained that they would need rest before they could use their powers again, and we would need their support on account of the number of enemies we were encountering here.

  Hours ticked by as we sat there. Eventually I could not take the silence any longer. “Are you sure we are safe here?”

  “No,” said Narcion. “We definitely are not. The power conduits are packed with energy that will prevent the wraiths from finding us, and might even keep them out, but that will not stop the various other enemies we have come across so
far.”

  “What was that bug thing?” I asked.

  “I am not sure; I have not seen its like before. Much easier to kill than the wraiths, though,” he said.

  “What is going on here? We have already killed eight wraiths, and I feel that there are more around.”

  “You’re right. I can feel them searching for us. They are getting worried. They know we are here to take them down and they are not used to that.”

  “But why are there so many?” I asked.

  “I suspect that something in that computer core is more important than our employer let on. The big question right now is: who controls the core?”

  He seemed unusually talkative, so I decided to keep asking questions. “Are these knives special, or does it have something to do with who we are?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “If I were to lose this knife, would any random blade work? Or if any random person picked up this blade, would it work for them?” I asked.

  “Yes, any non-energy-based weapon that you use would work. They work because they pick up some of your essence, not because of anything special about them. The energy bolts from a blaster never come directly into contact with you, so cannot pick up anything from you.”

  “But their magic works?” I asked.

  “They are magi. They have their own tools to fight with, different from yours but still very effective. You see, they channel the energy for their spells through their bodies, and that has the same effect as you picking up a knife. They were born with a gift, just as you were.”

  “Are there others like us?” I asked.

  “You're the first I have found, but I hold out hope of rebuilding our noble order.”

  Before I could continue the conversation I saw the magi beginning to stir.

  “Help them up, and get them some water,” said Narcion.

  As I helped Felix up, he said, “Thanks. There is some food under that conduit there.”