Knight Errant

by Paul Barrett

  He mentally reached out and found a lingering thread of Sara’s soul; it glowed in front of his vision with a dim silver radiance. With equations of his own formulation, he slowly wrapped layers of energy over her soul, securing it to her body. When he felt he had enough power surrounding the slender strand, he gave a firm tug, pulling her soul back from its destination. The soul was strong. The very universe balked at what it was being denied. The aether creatures fled. Even they seemed to reject what he attempted. Hawk continued, determined to have her back.

  Sweat drenched his clothing. He became unaware of the passage of time. He did not hear the pleas of his companions to open the door. He was oblivious to the door being ripped from its hinges by a concerned Wolf. He noticed nothing of the confused looks and whispered apprehensions of his crew. Though none of them knew what was happening, the golden nimbus surrounding Hawk kept them at bay; they were afraid any contact would injure him.

  After an eternity, he saw her soul, a pulsing amorphous form glowing a dazzling silver-white. Now came the final effort. Reciting improvised equations never before uttered, he gave his power to latch on to her soul. He offered his essence and with it, forced Sara’s soul back into her body.

  Without warning, fire engulfed Hawk’s nerve ends. Electric arcs of light with the vague shapes of winged creatures flew from his body, each emanation a torment on his spirit. They passed through Sara and struck the walls, ricocheting from corner to corner; the crew ducked and scattered from the room.

  Hawk screamed, dropping to his knees as the aetheric power raced from him and dissipated itself in a blazing spectacle that left the air heavy with ozone. His clothes burst into flames and incinerated so quickly his body remained untouched. The same happened to Sara. Her body hitched as she breathed in air. He’d done it!

  As she exhaled, silver strands flew from her mouth, wound through the sizzling arcs of power, and struck the walls. Instead of ricocheting, the glittering filaments faded into the metal, disappearing as quickly as they had appeared.

  As the last of the energy dissipated, Hawk sprawled to the floor, weeping.

  “Are you all right?” Wolf asked. Hawk made no acknowledgment. How could he tell them that nothing was right and never would be? He had failed. He had forfeited all his mortal power to the universe in exchange for the life of his lady. The universe had taken his power and laughed in his face.

  “Ship,” Trey said, his face lighting up through his tears. “Ship is Sara, isn’t she?”

  “At your service,” Ship said.

  “What?” Ashron said.

  “Sara’s soul didn’t go into her body,” Trey explained, “It went inside Ship. Ship is alive.” As he wiped his eyes, Trey’s grin threatened to break his face. “How?”

  “I don’t know,” Gerard admitted. “I’m still studying to try and figure it out.”

  “Wait a minute,” Ashron said. “Maybe I’m a little slow. Are you saying Ship is a sentient being, inhabited by the soul of one of the original Knights?”

  “That’s pretty much the idea,” Gerard said. “Laura, Ashron, Trey, meet Sara.”

  “It’s very nice to meet all of you,” Ship said.

  “So what do we call you?” Ashron asked.

  “‘Ship’ is fine. Sara as some of you knew her is gone, and I think we would all be more comfortable if I remained Ship.”

  “How come you never told us this before?” Laura asked with an accusing look at Wolf.

  “Would it have changed anything?”

  “No, I guess not, but it would have been nice to know.”

  “Hawk used to be a manipulator?” Trey asked.

  “Yes, the power of which I have never seen,” Gerard said with a trace of sadness in his voice. “Now if he even tries to formulate an equation his head pounds and his vision turns blurry. He went as far as to pass out one time. We found him unconscious on the floor with blood coming from his nose and ears.”

  “Well, I guess I was wrong,” Ashron said, “Hawk was an old romantic.”

  “He still is a romantic,” Wolf said. “I told you there are always seven Knights. How many of us are there on board?”

  “Six,” Ashron answered.

  “Sara is the seventh.”

  A lump formed in Trey’s throat as the significance of what Wolf said came to him. They considered him a Knight. They might not always treat him like an adult, but Hawk thought enough of him to consider him a crew member. Surprised and touched by a sudden feeling of genuinely belonging, he ran over and hugged Laura, afraid it might all disappear.

  22

  Moran’s Motives

  “So now you all know,” Hawk said, walking into the wardroom.

  The crew watched him as he came toward them. Laura said, “You know you could have told us before.”

  “Yeah,” Hawk sat in his chair.

  “Okay,” Ashron said. “That explains Ship, but I still don’t understand what that has to do with the horror show we saw downplanet.”

  Hawk said nothing for a moment, uncertain where to start. Trey walked over and handed him a drink.

  “No thanks, I’m on the wagon.”

  “Since when?” Ashron quipped.

  Hawk gave Ashron a steady gaze. Ashron, realizing he had stepped over the boundary, muttered an apology.

  Hawk continued. “I will take some water, though. Moran was over the edge. He had been going downhill ever since Gerard came on board.”

  “Gerard?” Trey asked as he poured a glass of water. “What did he do?”

  “He’s a cyborg, and Moran was intrigued by anything related to technology. He began studying everything he could find on the effects of body implanted hardware. I think part of it was that Moran always had a feeling of inferiority, even when we were kids.”

  Hawk took the water glass from Trey and drank half of it before continuing. “He was easily the smartest of the seven of us, but all he saw was himself in league with two very powerful manipulators, a walking tank,” he pointed at Wolf, “two outstanding warriors, and me. He constantly looked for ways to make his own physical and mental capabilities greater. It started with minor enhancements, but he soon had major hardware being implanted.”

  “I thought cybernetics were illegal except for medical or religious reasons,” Ashron said.

  “Off the top of my head,” Laura said, “I can name at least twenty-five doctors who will happily give you two ultra-boosted legs and swear on their mother’s grave your real ones were gnawed off by a Chihuahua.”

  “Not to mention,” Gerard added, “the military and any number of scientific companies that will take volunteers, legal or otherwise.”

  “Well, fork my tongue,” Ashron said, his tongue flicking.

  Laura looked at Hawk. “So, Moran was a victim of cyberpsychosis?”

  “I don’t think so,” Gerard spoke up. “I noticed his interest and kept a close eye on the number of enhancements he had. He was nowhere near what I would have considered the danger zone. Besides, even doctors who will do illegal implants will only go so far. If they think you’re too close to the edge, they won’t operate no matter how much money you throw at them.

  “Why not?” Trey asked.

  “I’d like to say professional ethics, but I’d be lying,” Gerard said. “The fact is the doctor who did the operation is most likely going to be the first person the patient sees when he wakes up. If the patient has tumbled into psychosis, chances are the doctor won’t survive the attack.”

  “So, what do you think happened to Moran?” Laura asked.

  Hawk took over. “I think he was borderline from the beginning and kept it well hidden. He did some things when we were younger that might be considered psychotic. I chalked them up to being young. After all, I did some pretty crazy things, too.

  “Be that as it may, his fascination soon became an obsession. We told him about our concerns, and he assured us he had it under control. At that time, I believe he did. He told us he had gotten everything he wanted an
d his other research was merely so he could work on his own inventions. I believed him because he was worse than Gerard when it came to tinkering with things, but also because we were friends and I was still young and naive enough to believe friends stayed that way forever.

  “Obviously, he got more enhancements we didn’t know about. He started becoming withdrawn and moody. He became envious of Gerard and began experimenting with ways to infuse aether into cybernetics. None of his attempts were successful, and that made him even more withdrawn. He started steadily becoming more and more irrational. It finally came to the point that I couldn’t trust him on missions anymore. I told him and, as you can expect, it turned into an argument.”

  “One that I’d just as soon forget,” Gerard said.

  “Why?” Trey asked.

  “Hawk’s understating it quite a bit. Moran became violent. He broke Terrafin’s arm, and we ended up having to restrain him and remove him from the ship.”

  “That was the last time we saw him until the day that…” Hawk stopped.

  After a pause, Ashron said, “I’m still a bit confused about what this has to do with Meta Brévé,”

  “What we saw on Meta Brévé,” Hawk answered, “was an extension of Moran’s experiments infusing aetheric energy into cybernetics.”

  Ashron continued giving him a blank stare.

  “I guess that is a little vague,” Hawk said.

  “A little,” Laura agreed.

  “One of the things Wolf neglected to tell you was that while I was working my way back to the ship, Moran linked into the computer and attempted to download everything he could. Gerard discovered it about the time I got back with Sara and started trying to cut off his access.”

  Gerard cut in. “At that time, Moran had the advantage, because one of his enhancements was a direct neural net link, which I didn’t know about.”

  “What does that matter?” Ashron asked.

  “A direct link is faster and harder to break. In fact, it’s almost impossible short of shutting down or overloading the system.”

  “So Moran’s mind was hooked up to Ship when Sara entered it?” Trey asked.

  Smiling at the boy’s insight, Gerard said, “Sort of. Moran was connected to the ship when Sara died.”

  “But Sara didn’t die,” Trey protested.

  “Moran didn’t know that,” Gerard told him. He paused a moment, then looked at Hawk, a glint of realization in his eyes. “All he felt through his connection was a massive influx of aether, a scream of pain, and then the connection being abruptly severed. Moran must have thought Sara was dead. Something has happened to make him find out otherwise.”

  Hawk nodded, indicating Gerard’s line of thought was correct.

  “Sorry, me again,” Ashron said, “I missed the pain thing somewhere along the line. What pain?”

  “Imagine,” Hawk said, “having your soul ripped out while you were still alive.”

  Ashron was quiet a moment, then said, “Tough to do, but I think I see your point. Sara wasn’t dead when she went into Ship.”

  “She was dead, and I thought I could bring her back. I tried to play God in my own fumbling way,” Hawk paused a moment. “Getting her soul back worked, barely, but once I had it, I was at a loss. How do you weave a soul back into a body? I didn’t know what to do, so I used a hammer on crystal and forced it back to where I thought it belonged. It went against all that is natural. Her body awakened, she took a breath and screamed. The universe wanted to show me it was not to be denied. Her soul was torn out of her body and thrown violently from my grasp. It shattered and fled, trying to escape…”

  Ship said, “I couldn’t find the light anymore. I had nowhere to go.”

  The crew was silent, until Trey, in a small voice, said, “Why?”

  “The first time was easy, like following a lighted path with someone holding your hand. The second time there was so much energy and so many emotions it was like trying to swim upstream in a strong current. I didn’t have the strength to fight it, so I went where I could rest, and I never found my way out. I quit trying a long time ago.”

  “I think I get it,” Ashron said. “Moran thinks the pain combined with the magic trapped Sara, so he’s trying to duplicate it.”

  “That, or he thinks I did it on purpose,” Hawk said. “Regardless, he’s trying to reproduce the conditions.”

  “To what end?” Ashron asked.

  “Strictly from a monetary standpoint,” Gerard said, “a vessel like Ship is priceless. We work with the only self-aware computer in existence. Companies would give us planets to have her.”

  Trey said, “I don’t want any planets. I like Ship.”

  Gerard smiled. “I think that may be the other reason. Moran may still love Sara and could be working on a way to reverse the process. That’s a question we’ll have to ask him.”

  “Ask him?” Ashron repeated. “Assuming he’s still alive--which I’m beginning to accept as a distinct possibility, by the way--we don’t even know where he is.”

  “We don’t yet,” Hawk told him. “When we get to Seladyne Propulsion, we’re going to see if someone there can tell us.”

  In another part of the Universe, Alexic Salakon sat at his desk, looking at the beautiful body of another anonymous boy, this one with pearl-colored skin and curly ebony hair. He chose to ignore the haunted glaze in the boy’s eyes. Just as his father had ignored the look in his eyes. These boys basked in his affection, even if they didn’t know it yet. Much as it had taken him decades to understand the depth of his father’s love.

  “Come closer, boy,” Salakon said.

  The boy took a hesitant step forward when a chime sounded on Salakon’s desk.

  “Sir, Moran is here to see you,”

  Salakon sighed. “One moment.” The boy’s evident relief disturbed him.

  “Return to the waiting room,” he snapped. When the secret panel had closed, Salakon punched the pad that unlocked his door. “Come in,” he said and turned to face the window as if he had been staring over the city in contemplation.

  Moran’s reflection appeared in the window as the dark-haired man, bruised and battered, walked in and stopped in front of the desk. Moran looked perturbed, or as perturbed as his almost emotionless face could.

  “You have seen the report?” Moran said.

  Salakon wheeled around in the chair to face Moran. “I have. I was going to call you when I finished my…meditations.” Salakon tugged at the skin on his neck.

  Moran’s eyes, the real one and the new cybernetic one, replaced after the skirmish on Tekran, flickered toward the wall. A moment’s panic touched Salakon. Did Moran know about the secret room?

  The man’s gaze returned to him with no change of expression, and Salakon relaxed. No doubt it was a reflexive glance around the room. The ever-paranoid Moran had continually darting eyes.

  “I have trouble believing they would destroy their own station,” Salakon said. “All the analyses indicate a failure in the reactor. The resulting explosion destroyed the station and all aboard. Are you sure they did it themselves?”

  “Positive,” Moran told him. “We have been unable to get a reply from the laboratory, and I have no doubt we’ll find it also destroyed when our ship gets there.”

  “This is beginning to become an expensive proposition. Are you sure this vessel is worth it?”

  Anger flashed in Moran’s good eye. “Don’t back out on me now. These losses are nothing compared to what we will gain. When it comes down to the final battle, you had better accept losses, because there will be plenty. What we get in the end will make it all worthwhile.”

  “I’m not backing out on you,” Salakon assured him, “but some of the board members are becoming a little edgy.”

  “If any of those weak-willed fools are having second thoughts, send them to me. I’ll persuade them to change their way of thinking.”

  Salakon cringed to think of Moran’s methods of persuasion. He changed the conversation’s foc
us. “Do you think they killed the station crew?”

  “I doubt it. Hawk has too much sympathy for that. Have your crew look for them on the planet. If they find them, kill them. Don’t expend a lot of resources. We have more important things to worry about.”

  “You think Motash talked?”

  “I’m certain of it. You had better alert our people on Jeran Seven to be prepared for visitors.”

  23

  A Visit To Jeran Seven

  Laura sat in a large booth near the back of the Whysky Café, drank her iced selaba tea, nibbled on fresh vegetables, and waited for Hawk. The remainder of the trip to Jeran Seven had been uneventful. Ship easily found Seladyne Propulsion’s headquarters located in the planetary capital of Jeranos. While Gerard arranged transportation for Patishi to her grandparents and the still recovering Thomas to the local hospital, Laura had spent the last hour probing the company’s defenses, or lack thereof. It quickly became evident to her that the corporation was a business and only a business. The receptionist had been friendly and helpful, and Laura’s later calls had been routed without delay. She didn’t know what Wolf could do with some of the parts she ordered, and she could already picture Hawk wincing at the price, but it was evident from the ordering process that Seladyne was a legitimate company.

  As she took a sip of tea, she spotted Hawk’s silhouette stepping into the doorway and waved to him. He walked over and slid into the opposite side of the booth.

  “How did it go?” Hawk asked.

  “Hang on. Here comes the waitress,” Laura indicated with a nod.

  After ordering a selaba tea for himself and sandwiches for both of them, he said, “Well?”

  “It seems legit. I posed as a buyer for Firefall, Inc. and told them I wanted to upgrade our control systems and add some custom elements. The sales rep I talked to was knowledgeable and helpful. He already had some programs that would fill the immediate needs of the problem I laid out for him and said he would get back to me on our long-term goals. I followed up about an hour later and got the same treatment. I also contacted their shipping, receiving, parts, and accounting departments. Everyone was helpful and eager to do business. I think we’re dealing with a legitimate operation here.”