by Clara Woods
The doctor moved away from the second mage and was running toward Lenah, a syringe filled with a red liquid lifted high. Shit. Lenah had dropped her influence while worrying over Cassius.
The doctor’s actions seemed to animate the two free mages, for they also came toward Lenah, a look of concentration on their faces. A second later, something translucent appeared between Lenah and them—a warp bubble.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” Lenah said urgently, trying to reason with them. At least the warp bubble was also keeping the doctor and her syringe from reaching Lenah.
“Then why are you attacking us?” the female mage asked.
“We’re not the ones attacking. What I said before, I meant it. We’re here to get you out. All of you.”
“Nonsense. No one is coming here to free us. Least of all a Callo.” The woman spoke through clenched teeth. Meanwhile, the doctor who was also trapped behind the warp bubble was giving the mage a shooing motion. She wanted to attack Lenah with the syringe.
Behind her, Lenah heard a surprised gasp coming from Cassius but was unable to turn around and look. She hoped that he was fine.
The female mage stared hard at Lenah who resisted the urge of using her powers to push back on the warp bubble. Though she did stretch out her senses to be ready for a surprise push at any time. She sensed that this woman, though overly thin, pale, and barefoot under her robe, was strong beyond her frail look. All Lenah needed to do was convince her that they were really being rescued.
“Let me pass, Mage Sureika,” the doctor urged. “I can disable this freak.” Then she looked straight at Lenah. “I don’t know what you did to us and how you got us to show you around, but you’re out of luck now. Whatever drug you gave me is not working any longer and—”
She stopped abruptly. The sounds of the fight behind them became more agitated. Someone yelped, and this time, Lenah was sure it had been Cassius. But she still didn’t dare look back. The mages were pushing the warp border toward her, and the doctor still held the syringe pointed at Lenah. This wouldn’t do. They were out of time.
Lenah pushed hard against the mages’ border. She was surprised by how easy it was. Then, she sent the sensation of extreme tiredness toward the doctor and the nurse. The doctor sat down on the floor instantly, never finishing her sentence. Lenah saw another, weaker warp border flare up in front of her and replace the prior one. Looking at the mages, she saw that Mage Sureika was trembling, her look one of utmost concentration. Softly this time, Lenah pushed back. The warp magic was so weak that it collapsed at first contact with her mind magic. The other mage went to the doctor and took the syringe out of her weak hands while Mage Sureika gaped at Lenah. “How did you do that? It’s impossible to penetrate a warp wall.”
“I didn’t penetrate it,” Lenah said softly.
“But how?” The mage shook her head.
“Your magic is weak. It wasn’t hard,” Lenah said, hoping they would drop the subject.
“An Other,” one of the mages, an older man still connected to the chair, whispered.
“A what?” Mage Sureika frowned at him. Behind them, the fighting continued.
“It only means that my magic is different. Now is not the time to explain,” Lenah answered. “Are you able to free them?” she asked instead, nodding toward the two mages still hooked up to their chairs.
Mage Sureika’s eyes were wide, and she didn’t move. “You’re a mage just like us?”
Lenah nodded.
“And you’ll really free us?” Mage Sureika asked.
“Yes, we will,” Lenah said without sending any further influence toward them. They might be able to tell as Lorka had, and that might destroy any trust they’d tentatively started to feel. Besides, Lenah wouldn’t be able to mind control a dozen mages out of the facility. They would need to come by themselves.
“We have friends waiting outside who can bring you to our ship. From there, we can drop you wherever you want in Asturis I.
“Police Central,” the older mage firmly said. “I have family there. My son. He’ll help us get justice.”
Lenah held back her grimace. That couldn’t be good for Starwide Research, but did she honestly still care? Especially, after all she’d seen down here? No, she didn’t.
“Police Central it is,” Lenah said and nodded. Another loud clang reverberated behind her. It sounded like cyborg c-nano material banging against the cement floor. She turned slightly, trying to pick up details of the fight. The mages followed her every motion, but they didn’t move to attack.
Cassius was on the floor, but the two men were under him. That was a good sign. At least he wasn’t losing. Uz and Persia had already tied up the remaining four guards. Lenah turned her full attention back to the mages.
“If you won’t unhook them, I’ll have to, or my friend, Doctor Lund, will. But I warn you, he’s not a real doctor.”
“I am a real doctor,” Doctor Lund called over from where he was still guarding their stuff and clutching his tranquilizer gun with white knuckles. “Just not a medical one, but you show me something related to the warp phenomenon, and I will be able to tell you all about it. In time.”
Mage Sureika shook her head at the exchange. “All right.” She finally sighed. “I’m willing to risk it for a chance at freedom. It can’t get any worse.” She turned and walked toward the older mage, then started to press buttons on the machine. The blood inflow stopped, and after pressing a few other buttons, the outflow stopped as well.
Lenah was glad the mage had done this. She didn’t know how to operate the machine and would have been forced to rip the tubes out. Even like this, the man winced as Mage Sureika undid the tubes on his neck.
She then moved on to the second mage to repeat the procedure, and, finally, Lenah felt she could turn around and take a good look at what was happening behind her.
It seemed the fight was ending. Cassius had one of the enhanced men down. He was lying unconscious a few meters away, and Uz and Persia were working on tying him up. Lenah edged closer to see if she could help with the second one when Cassius jumped up, then landed again so hard the floor vibrated. But he managed to surprise his adversary from behind. The man, who already seemed to be limping, was unable to turn around in time. Cassius lifted him and crashed him against the wall where he stopped moving.
“That was harder than it should have been. I’ve never seen suits this good,” Cassius said panting.
“Cheung Corp likes to surprise,” Lenah muttered.
“What?” Persia asked.
“That’s their slogan. Cheung Corp likes to surprise. Probably anyone living on Astur knows it.”
“Huh. Go figure.”
Lenah turned away, remembering the mages. All four were standing now, but none giving any indication of hostility.
“We need to get you out of here, and we need your help in getting all the other mages too. Do you think you can do that?”
Both the older mage and Mage Sureika nodded.
Lenah pressed the communication button on her wristpiece. A moment later, Lorka’s panting voice acknowledged. “Yes?”
“Lorka, have you found a way out? We have the mages.”
“We did, it’s really long stairs, but the exit ends pretty close to the house. Erm, on a grass field with funny hills and holes. It’s not guarded.”
“The golf course.” Lenah nodded. “That’s not too far from the Rambler. Where are you now?”
“Almost back down again.”
“Okay, we’ll send everyone to meet you in the atrium.” She cut the connection and turned to the mages.
“We have friends coming, and they will help you gather everyone.” She regarded the tied-up guards.
“I hate to ask, but do you think you can bring them out? Not to our shuttle though, just leave them somewhere on the grounds.”
“You’re not coming?” Mage Sureika asked.
“Not yet, we need to do something else first. In the reservoir.”
&n
bsp; Mage Sureika looked skeptical, but then she waved for the others to follow her outside.
“One more thing.” Lenah stopped her before she could leave the room. “Do you know what we can expect to find in Tract B?”
They shook their heads. “No, we’ve never seen it. Not even they are allowed in there.” Mage Sureika pointed to the doctor who was clutching onto a mage.
30 Into the Reservoir
They made it to Tract B with no further interruptions. Once behind the door, it looked quite different from the mage’s area. The temperature was noticeably cooler, the layout more raw. The small room held no potted plants; instead, the walls were filled with exposed circuitry. The mechanical sounds of hissing and clicking made it impossible to hear anything else.
It was like being inside the gut of a giant creature. Lenah shuddered. Doctor Lund turned a few times on the spot, taking in the place wide-eyed. He was about to say something when Cassius gripped him by the arm in warning. Then Cassius continued toward the only other door that lead out of the room.
There, he stopped to listen, but shook her head. “Too loud,” he whispered, before pointing up to the whirring and hissing cables. He pressed the door handle. It didn’t give. Lenah saw a panel next to it and swiped the access card from her father’s safe over it. A green light blinked, and the door swung open.
Cassius went first. Immediately, he whirled to the side, and Lenah heard a thump. She rushed in after him, pulling out her tranquilizer gun. A second thump sounded, and she saw two guards had crashed against the opposite side of the wall. They were wearing the iridescent fighting suits and were already scrambling up to join the fight again.
Quickly, Lenah let her gaze sweep around the room. A tall ceiling full of moving circuitry and a chunky body scanner dominated the inside of the space. As her eyes swept over to the two doors at the far end of the room, three more guards burst through one of them.
The mechanical whirring grew louder, but Lenah didn’t have time to find the source. She discarded her tranq gun and pulled out her knife. She jerked it up as one of the suited guards reached her and tried to concentrate on his mind while evading his blows. He wasn’t wasting time on knives and knocked her hand aside with brutal strength, then lifted his own laser gun with the other. Lenah sent the sensation of burning pain into his mind. He stumbled backward, starting to pat out imagined fires on his body. Before Lenah could breathe in relief or get an overview of the fight, she was suddenly hoisted off the ground.
Something big had grabbed her by the waist, and she was lifted several meters. She looked around frantically to see Persia in the same position as her. A large metal arm, like a tentacle, had grabbed her. It seemed part of the very machine making the whirring sounds in the room.
Lenah looked down, watching as her friends vanished from view when she and Persia were lifted over the wall and into an unlit area beyond. She writhed in the grasp of the machine hand but quickly realized that she might as well not waste her energy.
“What’s happening?” Lenah called to Persia, who was wielding her hammer, trying to twist and hit the mechanical tentacle. It was an awkward angle, and she couldn’t reach.
She looked at Lenah and yelled, “Where is it taking us?”
Meanwhile, the sounds of the fight faded away.
“Give me that,” Lenah shouted, stretching out her arm for Persia’s hammer. Unlike Persia, who had been grabbed from behind, Lenah was held from the side and would have a better angle to the mechanism holding them.
Persia tossed the hammer, and Lenah grabbed it, surprised by its weight. She swung her arm like she’d seen Persia do, then brought it around to hit the tentacle that held Persia in the back. It didn’t let go, but a couple of the claws-like appendages grasping Persia bent. Lenah swung again, this time with more strength. More claws bent. Finally, the arm gave way and let go of Persia who fell out of its grip with a yell.
Lenah, who was being moved further into the darkness, started hitting the claw holding her. It let go on the third hit, and she plummeted downward. Lenah steeled herself for the impact but was still surprised how hard she hit the floor. The bones in her body protested. She held her eyes shut and didn’t realize immediately that the lights in the room had turned on. The sound of running footsteps came closer, and Lenah snapped her eyes open to see two guards, both in Cheung fighting suits, running toward her and Persia, who stood a couple of meters away. The room they were in had several prison cells with metal bars against one wall.
Lenah stumbled up, and, at the last moment, moved away of the guard swarming her, then jumped back, this time more nimbly avoiding his hit. A suited fist hissed by Lenah’s ear as she ducked away and tried to gather up enough concentration to feel his mind. But every time she tried, her attacker charged again, and all she could do was scramble out of his reach. Lenah heard air swoosh by her ear once again and tried to duck, but his leg connected hard into her gut, and she bent over, gasping. He grabbed her wrist and twisted with merciless strength. Lenah dropped the hammer, unable to breathe through the pain in her belly as he followed up with another kick that sent her to the floor.
Out of the corner of her eye, Lenah saw that Persia was also on the floor, her knife lying uselessly a few steps away.
“That’s enough,” a commanding voice from the speaker of her attacker’s suit said. “Get them into the cells.”
Lenah turned her head as a mechanical noise sounded from above and saw the robotic arm swoop in again. Two of its claws were broken, but in a third one, she saw the writhing figure of Doctor Lund. He was hitting the metal with his tranquilizer gun but to no effect. In moments, he crossed the room and was dumped into one of the cells at the wall. Lenah’s attacker grabbed her by the legs and started to pull her over in the same direction. It was now or never.
Trying to concentrate despite her pain, Lenah channeled the painful sensation from her belly and sent it out into the room. The guard pulling her swayed with an outstretched arm as if he were trying to find support against a wall that wasn’t there.
Fueled by her desperation, Lenah pushed harder and heard Persia gasp. Lenah was dimly aware that she was influencing all three of the people in the room, including Persia, but didn’t have the strength to separate out the two guards. Her captor let go of her leg, but his fist came toward Lenah. His movements were slow though, and she didn’t have a hard time evading his blow by rolling to the side.
“How did you do this?” he hissed, going down on both knees. “You didn’t even touch me.”
Lenah stepped away from him and took a few seconds to separate the three minds she was influencing.
Careful to hold on to the others, she let go of Persia’s mind. Her friend stopped clutching her legs and instead lay silent on the floor, breathing heavily. Lenah concentrated on the men. A small slip in her focus and the fight could resume in the blink of a moment. She crouched next to Persia’s attacker and checked out his helmet, glad to find a button by the side of his ear. As she pressed it, his suit’s headpiece clicked open to reveal a young man staring daggers back at her with pain-clouded eyes. He tried to move again, but Lenah used her own pain to intensify the effect, and he closed his eyes, whimpering. She pulled off his helmet and put it on.
Once Lenah pressed the button, the helmet’s UI appeared before her eyes. The sensation was dizzying. Every time she focused on an item, the helmet detected it and zoomed in. Lenah, trying to see how to get the suit off the man, didn’t care for any of the menus. She was also still distracted by focusing pain toward the two guards.
“Lenah, what are you doing?” Persia’s voice sounded weak.
“I’m glad you’re up!”
“I’m alive. Can I have my hammer back?”
The moment Lenah thought of the word hammer, a red outline appeared in her vision through the visor, showing her exactly where it was. Lenah walked it over toward Persia who was sitting on the floor a few meters away, carefully guarding Lenah’s attacker.
“What a
re you doing?” Persia repeated her earlier question.
“Shh.” Lenah sat back.
“Why are they doing that?” Persia whispered, pointing at one writhing man on the floor.
“They think they’re in great pain.”
“They think?” Persia started. “Ah, now I understand… I thought I had gone mad or was dying. You know how they say that your pain gets less the closer you come to death?”
“Shh,” Lenah repeated. “I don’t want to do this longer than necessary.”
Persia stayed silent, but through her visor, Lenah saw the look on her face. Persia wouldn’t mind letting these men think they were in pain for a little longer.
Finally, Lenah found an interface at the lower corner of her vision. Several options popped into her view, and finally one of them read ‘Off.’ She stared hard at it, and within seconds, her visor popped off, and all interfaces disappeared.
The rest of the suit that the young guard behind her was wearing, simply popped off him. Lenah scooted back, shoving it away from him.
“Those things are well designed,” Persia said. “I’ve never seen a smart suit do that. I hear they are a bitch to get out of when you have to go to the bathroom.”
“The bathroom?” Lenah asked in confusion. “Do you have a concussion?” She turned back to Persia to see her shaking her head.
“Didn’t get hit in the head as far as I know. Should we undress this other one?”
“I’ll do it. Can you tie this one up? And go check on Doctor Lund?” Lenah waved her hand toward the cells, and Persia’s eyes went wide as she saw who was occupying one.
Lenah turned to the next guard to repeat the process of putting on his helmet and turning the suit off. Before long, both the guards’ hands and feet were tied up with shreds of their own T-shirts that Persia had cut using their knives.
“Did you find a key chip on any of the guards?” Persia asked as Lenah joined her in front of Doctor Lund’s cell.
