“Let’s move. That won’t hold for long,” said Ragnar.
We ran down the hall as the end of the corridor came into sight. Ragnar threw two more of those stones, and before I could warn him, he called out in that strange language again. The moment the stones hit the wall, a massive explosion cut through the exterior hull and right into space. This caused an explosive decompression of the corridor, which knocked us right off our feet and threw us out into space. Once outside the station I was tumbling wildly until my armor’s stabilizing jets could get me under control. It took a moment for the dizziness to pass, and by the time it did I could see the station receding from me.
“Crivreen? Ragnar? Are you all right?” I asked. I could not see them, but they would be two tiny black specks against a sea of stars. No telling how far or in what direction they had been thrown.
“Yeah, I have Ragnar. I managed to get a tether on him before we were sucked out. He is unconscious, I think just from the sudden movement associated with our exit,” he said.
“Great. Stay there; I’ll call the Night Wisp,” I said. I used my wrist terminal, activated our cruiser and had it home in on my position. I was too far from the station for my tiny jet-pack to do much, but that would not matter. “What about Byron?” I asked.
“He must be on the station still,” said Crivreen. “I lost his signal when we were sucked out, and now we are too far out to read him.”
“All right, once we are back on board we can contact him,” I said. The transmitters on the Night Wisp would be strong enough to reach him anywhere on the station, but the ones in our suits were meant for much smaller areas. The force of the decompression had sent us flying fairly quickly from the station, and the lack of atmosphere in space meant we would not slow down until we hit something, which in the vastness of outer space could be a very long time.
While I waited I used my Sight to search the station. The walking dead and skeletons had all fallen over, and I could not find any wraiths. It seemed that the enemy had given up and the station was secured. I did not envy the clean-up job that faced them and was glad to be off that station.
I looked at the human female that I was carrying. She was still asleep from Ragnar’s spell, and seemed so fragile and tiny in my arms. It was amazing that something so small and frail had wiped out dozens of stations. I wondered what we would do with her. Once we removed her implant, she would be free to help us, but she might still run. It might be hard for her to give up her slave lifestyle, as it was likely all she knew. She might even want to run back to her master, no matter how badly he had treated her.
It was not long before the Night Wisp arrived and matched my speed. I boarded and put the magus in a hyberpod; then it was a simple matter to track Crivreen’s communication signal and pick them up.
“How is Ragnar?” I asked when they were aboard.
“He will come around in a minute or two, I expect,” said Crivreen.
“Okay, stay with him. I will try to find Byron,” I said.
I ran up to the bridge and tried to call Byron on the comm, but I got nothing. What if he has transformed into that butterfly? Can shadow people talk? I wondered to myself.
While I was searching for him, a call came in from Narcion’s old contact with the government. Agent Byron had warned me not to share anything with this man; he had never explained why, but I decided not to answer. Shortly after that call, our tactical display lit up as an entire battle fleet jumped into the region. I quickly put the Night Wisp into low-power mode and got in close to the station. Crivreen had taught me that we could successfully hide like this, and I hoped he was right.
I drifted in between two docking arms and hoped the profile of the Night Wisp would not protrude. While I was wondering what to do next, Crivreen called over the intercom, “We got Byron. He wants you to hold us here till he can make it up to the bridge.”
“But how?” I asked.
“He can fly through space, remember?” asked Crivreen.
A few minutes later, Agent Byron arrived on the bridge and said with a grin, “Hey, you weren’t planning on leaving me behind, were you?”
“No, but you turned off your communicator, so I was not sure how to find you,” I said.
“Yes, I didn’t want to be tracked. I see the fleet has arrived,” he said.
“What are they doing here?” I asked.
“I called them in to make sure that she couldn’t escape by stealing a military craft or any other means,” he said. “Speaking of which, do we have her?”
“Yes, safely in a hyberpod; but I refuse to turn her over to them,” I said. I shuddered at the thought of what might happen to her in the hands of the Phareon government.
“No, I have no intention of doing that. Can we align for a small jump?” he asked.
“No, the fleet’s gravity well is too big. We have to fly clear first,” I said.
He cursed. “Then we will have to do this the hard way,” he said.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Well, if you want to get her to the hospital station to have that implant removed, we need to get past that fleet first. Since we cannot just jump clear, I will have to contact them and pull rank. That will cause political problems for me,” he said.
“There is another option,” said Ragnar, who had come onto the bridge while we were talking. He was using the wall for balance and still appeared a bit disorientated.
“And that would be?” I asked.
“I can make us invisible for a short period of time. Will that be enough for you to fly clear?” he asked.
“Crivreen,” I called over the intercom. “How long do we need to fly clear of the fleet and jump?”
“At full speed? Twenty minutes tops, but they have enough firepower to destroy us a hundred times over before we could get clear,” replied Crivreen.
“I can get you fifteen minutes,” said Ragnar.
“Crivreen, what if we had fifteen minutes while they were blind?” I asked.
“Maybe. I would say let’s drift as far as we can before we attempt the run. Give me a few minutes to work out the shortest path,” he said.
“If we cut all power to the ship the moment before we become visible, our inertia should carry us the rest of the way without any need for propulsion. That should buy us a bit more time where we are very hard to spot,” said Agent Byron.
“All right, then, we will try it; anything so that she does not end up with them,” I said.
It took Crivreen almost ten minutes, but he eventually had a course worked out. “Okay, we should be able to fly for about two minutes under low power unnoticed, then once we are invisible burn for the fifteen minutes and jump clear,” he said.
“Okay, work with Ragnar and make it happen,” I said. “I am going to check on our guest.”
Agent Byron followed me down to sick bay where the magus lay. I looked in on her and said, “She still looks troubled.”
“I imagine she will be for a long time,” he said.
“You know that her master can track us now, don’t you?” I asked.
“Once we are clear, I will see if I can deactivate the implant. If not, we’ll have to deal with that problem later,” he said.
Chapter Forty
Ragnar managed to make us invisible long enough for us to clear the fleet and jump. As far as we could tell, the fleet did not know we had left until Agent Byron reported in and told them the station was secure and to reclaim it. He refused to tell them much and closed the channel abruptly when the commander pressed him for more information.
Ragnar was wiped out by his casting and slept for much of the next few days. Once he was sufficiently rested he worked again with Crivreen, trying to help him learn to craft wands. I spent the time continuing to teach Agent Byron what I knew about the Sac’a’rith, and trying to work out how to enchant weapons.
It took two weeks for us to reach the hospital station. Once there, I put in
a call for nonemergency medical assistance. When the attendant answered he said, “Welcome back. What can we do for you?”
“We have a crew member with a malfunctioning implant that we would like removed,” I said.
“Please send your medical reports,” he said.
“All I can send is the hyberpod report. We don’t have any medical staff on board,” I said.
“That will do,” he said. “Send it, and someone will get back to you.”
I sent the report and waited. Hours went by with no word from the station. I was beginning to think about calling in for an update when we received orders to dock and wait for a representative to meet with us.
“Is that a good sign or a bad one?” I asked.
“Relax, Zah’rak. They are a hospital, not an enemy encampment,” said Agent Byron.
“I did not survive in the slave pits all those years by relaxing,” I said. I was worried about the girl. She seemed so frail, and I doubted that she had been fed well. Is she even strong enough to survive surgery? I wondered to myself.
When we had docked a doctor requested permission to board. Once aboard he said, “Hello, I am Doctor Hawthorne, and I have some questions for you about your patient.”
“Do you want to see her?” I asked.
“No, not yet. Do you have a place where we can sit and talk?” he asked.
“Sure, come this way,” I said and led him to the mess hall.
“We are honored that we warrant a visit from the head of the hospital,” said Agent Byron dryly when we were seated.
“What’s that you say?” I asked.
“Well, the problem is that we have a policy against freeing slaves in the manner in which you request. It would jeopardize our relationships with the consortiums out here,” he said.
“It must be more complicated, or you would have just said no and sent us on our way,” said Agent Byron.
“The last time this vessel was at this station, a rather large donation was made in the name of one of the crew members. That donation was made by the Phareon government,” he said.
“With whom you have had fairly poor relations till now,” said Agent Byron.
“Yes. That donation was a surprise, to say the least,” he said.
“Well, this ship is a mercenary vessel and its crew has been a favored contractor of the Phareon government for some time now. That payment was part of the contract which they negotiated at that time,” said Agent Byron.
“They?” asked the doctor. “You are not a member of this crew, then?”
“I am Special Agent Byron. I have been assigned to this crew to help execute the current assignment,” he said.
“I take it that you’re the one who disabled the implant?” asked Doctor Hawthorne.
“Yes. We rescued her and do not dare awaken her until she is free from the control of her former master,” said Agent Byron.
“I want to help you out. I hate slavery, but I cannot jeopardize our neutral status,” he said.
Agent Byron leaned back in his seat and seemed to be collecting his thoughts. “I’ll tell you what, Doc: I’ll make it worth your while. Take care of this for us, and we won’t tell anyone you freed a slave. The official record will say that you treated someone wounded in combat. If you do that, I can talk to my superiors about how you have been helpful to us in a critical situation. It may not change much, but hopefully it will improve relations a little,” said Agent Byron.
“Sounds like a long shot,” said Doctor Hawthorne.
“Sure, but with very little risk. We will cover up all your activities, and you can stay on record as refusing to help escaped slaves. If I fail, nothing changes. If I succeed, even to a small extent, you will be better off than you were,” said Agent Byron.
“Removing the implant is going to be tricky, and she is malnourished; I cannot promise she will survive,” said Doctor Hawthorne.
“I trust you. If it can be done, you will find a way,” said Agent Byron.
“What else are you not telling me?” he asked.
“She is a magus, so we do not want to wake her from stasis until we are far away from your station. If she decides to turn on us, we wouldn’t want that fight to take place here,” said Agent Byron.
They talked for a bit more and worked out the details. Doctor Hawthorne would do the work himself, and Crivreen would assist as a nurse. I offered to help, but he said my hands were too big. The surgery took a couple of hours, but Agent Byron insisted that was nothing to be concerned about.
Eventually the doctor came out and said, “I think the operation was a success, but she is very weak and will take a long time to recover. I set your hyberpod to start accelerating her healing through nutrient infusion and electro-stimulus. In two days she should be ready to come out, but it will probably be at least a week or two before she is back on her feet again.”
“Thank you very much!” I said.
“No, thank you for letting me take a stab against slavery, even if no one will ever know,” he said. “I have instructed Crivreen how to work the equipment and what care she will need. It would be better if you could have a doctor on board, but he will do well enough.”
After saying that he left. I transferred a large donation to the station, and then we left to find a place to hide until we could wake her up. While we waited, I asked for news of Felix.
“He went to ground,” said Agent Byron.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“He appeared in a bar almost two weeks ago, but didn’t order anything to drink. Shortly after that, he left the bar and hasn’t been seen since. We are watching all his known IDs and regular haunts,” said Agent Byron.
“He must have suspected something,” said Crivreen.
“More than likely, he figured out that using his ID would alert us to his location and decided to make a clean break,” said Agent Byron.
“He won’t be back,” said Crivreen. “He never really wanted to be part of this team and was only tagging along because he felt he owed it to me.”
“Let him go, then,” I said.
“He could have information on Narcion,” started Agent Byron.
“No, he won’t. Narcion did not trust Felix completely, so it is unlikely Felix knows anything of value,” I said.
“Are you sure you want me to call off the search?” asked Agent Byron.
“Yes. If he doesn’t want to be part of this team, then I don’t want him,” I said.
“Very well, but I will have to cancel that ID, then,” said Agent Byron.
I knew that could put Felix in an awkward spot at some point. “Is there any way to make it look like he was retired, or something like that? I would hate him to try to use it and get arrested without any warning.”
“I will see what I can do,” he said.
Chapter Forty-One
It took three days before the magus regained consciousness, but when she did I was by her side. We were all taking turns at watch and my turn had just started when she weakly asked, “Where am I?”
“You are on board the Night Wisp in our medical bay,” I said. She tried to sit up, but could not quite manage it. “Easy, you’ve been through a lot.”
“What happened?” she asked. Her eyes did not seem to be focusing, and it was obviously a struggle for her to talk.
“Easy,” I said again. “There will be time for questions later, but right now you need to regain your strength. Let me call Crivreen to check on you.”
“Crivreen?” she murmured.
“Yes, he has been your nurse all this time,” I said.
“Then you’re Zah’rak, which means I have been captured,” she said.
“Captured? No. Rescued, yes,” I said.
She slowly reached up to her head where the bandages were. “It’s gone?” she asked.
“Yes, it is,” I said.
She then fell back asleep. After I’d called Crivreen over the intercom
and reported what had happened, he came down and checked her over. “Her vital signs are getting better. She will probably wake up and drift off a few more times; the doctor said this might happen. You might have this same conversation with her again, depending on how well her memory is working.”
I stayed by her side as much as I could. She was so tiny, even for a human; it was hard to picture her being much of a threat. She was at most one-and-a-half meters tall, and probably weighed less than some of my meals. She had dark skin, dark hair, and dark eyes. Her body had many scars on it that told of a hard life as a slave. I was sure each mark had some story behind it: some perhaps pointless shows of superiority by her master, but some would have tales of rebellion behind them. I felt a strange connection to her, probably because of our shared background; whatever it was, I saw her as the baby sister I never had.
We went through three more days of her waking up, asking questions, and going back to sleep. I was not sure if she remembered any of it until she woke and said, “Zah’rak?”
“I am here,” I said.
“So it was not a dream,” she said. “What is to happen to me?”
“For the moment, you are going to get better,” I said.
“I have done horrible things. You should have killed me,” she said.
“You were an implant-controlled slave. As such you are considered innocent under the law, and this once, I agree with the law,” I said.
Ragnar was in the room with us and asked, “What should we call you?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “My master always just called me ‘Wormling’.”
“Well, that won’t do one bit,” said Ragnar. “What would you prefer to be called?”
“How does one choose a name?” she asked.
“Where I come from, names carry meaning. For example, my name is Ragnar Runecaster. I have that name because I am next in line, or rather was, to be Runecaster for my tribe. My older brother currently fills that role, so I am known as Ragnar,” he said. “He currently goes by the name of Runecaster, and will do so until he steps down; then whoever takes his place will have that name.”
The Sac'a'rith Page 28
