Forgotten Relics

by Cianien Bloodstone

  A grubby hand, larger than her own, emerged. A rusted iron manacle adorned the too skinny wrist. Slowly, the hand came to rest in her palm, and Rei gently guided its owner into the light. It was a young woman, only a few years younger than Rei, at first glance. The manacle was attached to an identical one to her opposite wrist with a heavy chain. Another set adorned her ankles. Rei took in her appearance: a ragged dress hung from her thin body, dirt marred every inch of skin, and long, dark hair hung down her back in limp locks. Around her neck hung a frayed leather cord with a bronze pendant attached to it.

  “I’m Rei. Who are you?”

  The woman’s free hand clenched the rag it held tighter and she shook her head. “No one.” A glint of hatred and life appeared in her hazel eyes, but it quickly faded. “Please,” her voice broke. “Can I go with you?”

  “Whether we’re taking her or not, we better go. They’re bound to be wondering what’s taking us so long to get off their ship,” Kuv said.

  Rei eyed her again, the woman squirmed under her scrutiny. She couldn’t help but keep her gaze from fixating on the chains. “All right then, Kuv, you and Yeke stay behind us in case they come running. I’ll cast a quick illusion, so they think we’re just meeting with more of our crew. If all goes well, we’ll be long gone before they realize we took her with us.”

  The chains floated at Rei’s silent command. The woman started at the difference in her burden. Rei offered her a warm smile as concentrated. The dirt faded and the chains became invisible. Rei seized the hand she had been holding tight and took off down the hallway. Rei guided the woman into the appropriate position for transport.

  “The medics are standing by,” Yeke informed Rei.

  “You’ve used a transporter before?” Rei asked the woman.

  She shook her head. “I’m no one so I use the normal ways. Plus, they’re broke.”

  “Well, we’re using one now. It takes a bit to get used to so if you’re nervous just shut your eyes.”

  “What’s it feel like?”

  “Hard to say. I think it’s different for every person. Most don’t feel anything while others swear they do.” She wasn’t about to tell her that some claimed it hurt.

  The woman opened her mouth to speak when the room around them dissolved from sight and the walls of the Kathya materialized. Her mouth fell open in silence as she stared at her new surroundings. Several of Kuv’s men roamed the edges of the room, geared up just in case, while Aede chatted with the engineer manning the controls. Rei let their newest guest have her private inspections.

  “Everyone back?” she asked Yeke. He nodded and she tapped her headset. “Get us out of here, Foniac, but use an inconspicuous pace. Keep our sensors locked on them. I want to know if they so much as twitch their weapons in any direction.”

  “We’ll take the scenic route out, then,” the pilot replied.

  Rei turned back to the woman beside her. “You’re safe here, don’t worry.”

  “Who’s this?” Aede slipped through the crowd of men trickling out of the room and smiled at them.

  “We haven’t had the opportunity for proper introductions,” Rei replied, she felt the woman duck behind her despite the fact Rei was few inches shorter. “Maybe with time and distance between us and them she will feel safe enough to tell us it.”

  “Before we get too far away,” Aede withdrew a handheld scanner. “I thought so,” she remarked at something on the screen.

  “What’s wrong?” the woman asked.

  “Nothing too bad,” Aede selected a few options on the display. “It seems someone on your ship didn’t want you to go too far. I took care of it.”

  The woman’s hands ran along her body as though she could feel where the signal came from. “But they could still track me!”

  “Aede’s good with tech,” Rei told her. “If she says it’s off, then it is. But if you’re that worried, we could have our infirmary completely remove it.”

  “But... but...”

  Rei smiled. “You’re onboard the Kathya now and no one’s going to take you off here before you’re ready without us saying something about it.”

  “In the meantime, we should find a name that’s suitable for you until you feel comfortable telling us your actual one. How about using... Fiara, until then? It means fierce in my native tongue, and I say you definitely qualify for that title, looking at you,” Aede suggested.

  “I don’t,” she whispered. “I’m weak and cowardly. If I was stronger...” The chains rattled as her fists shook. She was looking down but Rei could see that spark reappear in her eyes, already lasting longer than it had on Nekose’s ship.

  “You lived,” Rei said. “You lived to fight another day. Things no doubt looked bleak on that ship, but you never gave up hope. That qualifies in my book.”

  “Mine too,” Aede agreed.

  Rei gave her a comforting pat on the shoulder. “Use it, Fiara. Everyone deserves a name.”

  “If you think I should, then I will be happy to.”

  Rei sighed inwardly; it was going to take some work to get the other woman comfortable with the idea of making choices for herself and that was work she didn’t have time for at the moment.

  “Here.” An engineer appeared at Aede’s elbow. “Before you go to the infirmary, I can remove those—” he gestured to the chains with a nod of his head “—for you.”

  “How? I was told they were permanent.”

  He scoffed. “Nothing is truly permanent. This—” he lifted up a metal torch that was just barely the length of the palm of his hand “—should get those off in no time at all.” A vivid blue-green flame roared to life at the tip. Fiara flinched. Rei’s hand inched toward her out of instinct but stopped short at the glazed look in her eyes. A quick look at the engineer and Aede told her they had noticed the same reaction.

  “Get it over with as fast as possible,” Rei said.

  The engineer set to work while Aede leaned closer to Rei, keeping her voice down so the few stragglers couldn’t hear. “Is she going to be all right?”

  Rei watched the manacles on the wrists tumble to the floor to reveal red and chaffed skin.

  “Given enough time, yeah.” She felt like a broken recording, but what more reassurances could she offer? The best she and her crew could do for Fiara, and what Fiara could do for herself, was give time and the companionship to help her get her feet back under her. Luckily, if there were a crew to handle such a momentous task like this, it would be the Kathya’s.

  The final manacle fell away from Fiara’s ankle and the engineer turned off the tool. “Thank you,” Rei said. “Please get rid of those as soon as possible.”

  “Right away.” He picked up the pieces, holding them between two fingers as far away from his body as his arms would allow, and rushed away to take care of them.

  Rei turned back to Fiara and gently touched her shoulder. The younger woman blinked and looked around before focusing on Rei. “I need to go to my bridge to check in and see how we’re faring. Will you be all right with Aede? She’ll take you to get cleaned up and then settled in the infirmary.”

  “I’ll be fine,” she said, offering a small smile.

  “Once I know she’s all set, I’ll start looking at the data I grabbed from the ship,” Aede said.

  “I’ll check in as soon as I can—with both of you.” Rei eased away from the pair of them and turned to Yeke and Kuv near the door. “We’ll meet up when Aede has something,” she informed them before she strode from the room.

  ~*~

  “How’s it looking?” Rei greeted as she took her seat behind the pilot’s station on the bridge.

  “So far, so good.” Foniac adjusted a few settings. “They’re still limping away and maintaining course.”

  She leaned back in her chair. “Good. I was worried they’d be so stupid to pick a fight once they discovered what we took from them.”

  Foniac glanced over her shoulder, “And what did we take? I thought it was simple—go ove
r and scare them shitless.”

  “Some data... and a person.” She felt the heads whirl towards her.

  “Come again?”

  “You heard me right. Aede worked her magic so we could get intel on them safely and we took a person, a woman, who they had as a slave.”

  “It looks like Aede has a new thing to put down.”

  “Put down where?” Rei asked.

  Foniac grinned at her. “You know, the ‘reason for travel’ section' of those Federation forms Aede has to fill out when we’re flying legally.”

  Rei’s brow furrowed as she tried to connect the dots. “What about them?”

  “She always puts down that we’re transporting cargo or people. But really, we’re always taking in the lost ones. Doesn’t matter if your home was lost to the Federation, civil war, or something else, we have a place for you. It feels like we should throw out the welcome mat and a huge sign.”

  “Weren’t you one of the last that we threw the welcome mat out for?” Rei’s eyebrow twitched.

  “True, but I wonder...” The pilot looked around pointedly. The rest of the bridge crew quickly went back to what they were doing. “What makes you so willing to do it? We might have some standard of the law, but anyone could turn us into the Federation at any time. Which could be very bad, in the case of some.” She gave Rei a pointed glare. “Something must strike a chord with you though. Otherwise, why would you take the risk?”

  Rei leaned back in her chair, unsettled by the question. “This has been bugging you for some time, hasn’t it?”

  “Sorta. But what got me thinking about it again was that night in the Drunken Inventor after we offloaded on Vantani and realizing what was at stake.” The pointed glare came again. “And now this...”

  Rei shrugged. Her gaze found a red-purple nebula cloud as it appeared off the right side of the ship. She allowed her thoughts to drift for a moment. “We still in the clear?”

  “Yeah.” Foniac glanced down at the screen. “They’re almost off our sensor range.” She paused and entered in a few more commands. “Will she be okay?”

  “Let’s hope so,” Rei replied quietly. Then in a whisper, “I really hope so.”

  ~*~

  Once she was certain they were clear, Rei rose and stretched, loosening muscles that had grown tense while dealing with the other ship and preceding battle. She gave a nod at one of the junior bridge members before deciding to take refuge in her office. Aede, no doubt, was already hard at work sifting through the data she had taken in, and their newest crewmember was still being patched up. In other words, there wasn’t much for her to do at the moment. The door opened and she couldn’t stop the bewildered expression from crossing her face. Inside, appearing well settled in, sat Yeke on one of her couches. A pitcher of wine rested on the table.

  “You’re classing it up today,” Rei commented as the door closed. “Have you been here a while?”

  “Nah, I only got here a little bit ago since I had a bit of a pitstop to make along the way.”

  “Why you didn’t come to the bridge?” Rei sat across from him.

  Yeke poured her a glass of the wine. “I figured it wouldn’t be too much longer before you escaped into here. About my pit stop though, I figured you wouldn’t want the exact details of our newcomer’s condition to be public knowledge but would want to know how she was. So, I told Aede I’d wait with her so I could deliver the news and she could get to work on the data.”

  “How is Fiara?”

  “All right, but she won’t be leaving the medics for a long time. She’s so malnourished the medics swear its sheer willpower keeping her upright. That dirt hid a number of nasty surprises—bruises and cuts, most of which were infected. They still had to look at some scans to see if there was anything internal wrong. When I left her, she was tucking away some water and as much food as they dared give someone who hasn’t had more than a few morsels for a while.”

  “I suppose it could have been worse,” Rei exhaled sharply.

  “What were you expecting?”

  “What gives you the impression I was?”

  “I know she resonated with you—like most of them do. Hers was worse, though. When I saw her in the light, she reminded me of you when we first met.”

  “Especially when they removed her chains,” Rei agreed.

  He took a sip of his wine. “You noticed, then?”

  “The fact that they have some of the most potent Essence-dampening properties I have ever felt? Yes. I think even Foniac could have sensed them on the bridge.”

  “I wonder why they were there. While I was waiting for the medics to get what they needed I did a bit of snooping and her Essence levels are ridiculously low.”

  “Are you sure it couldn’t be because of the effects of those chains? Her natural Essence won’t replenish until the influence fades completely.”

  “The levels she is showing barely register she has any, even those chains couldn’t do that.”

  “Captain,” Aede’s voice came into her ear. “Come down to my workspace, I think I found something already.”

  “We’re on our way.” Rei set her glass down next to Yeke’s.

  Aede’s work area was a few levels down from the bridge, in the section full of small, open rooms. Most of these were empty or used for storage of sensitive cargo in case the main bays were searched. As they strode into the room, they found Aede in the dark, staring at a computer screen at the central desk. More computers lined the shelves along the walls along with old fashioned projection screens and empty shells.

  “It’s always so stuffy in here,” Chia’s voice came before Rei could ask what Aede had found. She hopped up on a stool and eyed the dark computer in front of her.

  “Don’t start.” Aede glared at her before returning her gaze to the screen in front of her.

  “I wouldn’t dare.”

  “Don’t you use some of Aede’s programming in your area, Chia?” Yeke asked.

  “Yes, the programming is top notch for what I need it to do. The machines here, though...” She swept her hand at the room in general.

  “Chia.” Aede’s voice was a growl.

  “What? I was just going to say they could use some upgrades.”

  Rei leaned her head back against the wall with her eyes shut as Aede spoke in a long string of Ornian, her voice steadily rising in volume. Chia shot back just as angrily in the same language. Back and forth they carried on and Rei half-wished she had chosen to translate from the beginning in case this somehow found its way to her office later. She opened her eyes in time to see Chia jump on the bench beside the computer she had been subtly insulting and start to hop up and down, screeching. Glancing at Yeke’s pale face, she confirmed that she was probably better off with her initial decision. A soft noise to her left caused her to turn away. Foniac entered the room with wide eyes, followed close by Kuv, who removed his hand from her back. Rei glanced at Yeke and he grinned.

  “Anyway!” Rei began loudly. The arguing pair fell silent. Chia slunk back down to her stool, her tail drooping. “I think we’re ready whenever you are, Aede.”

  “Right,” Aede said and cleared her throat. “Our new friends have definitely gone out of their way to hide their secrets. I thought trying to get through when I was on the bridge was bad, but I had to use one of my throwaway units to handle this. Every file I took had some sort of security inscription that unleashed a virus into the intruding system, on top of already virus ridden files.”

  “Why don’t we ever do that for our systems?” Chia muttered to Yeke.

  Aede ignored her. “These viruses were something else, too. While I was right that a lot are old tricks, there’s some that contain new code that tries to mimic some of what the high-end hackers have to offer.”

  “Aede,” Rei groaned. “You can tell us how cool their programming is later.”

  “Right,” Aede drawled. Redness spread across her cheeks. “Their central command is in a nearby system, but they’re spread thr
oughout this region. I’m still trying to see if I can find out how many more ships we might come across.”

  “Well, at least they’re down one,” Yeke said quietly.

  “It’s a loose alliance of planets,” Aede continued. “And they consider anything Federation an enemy, though they don’t look too friendly with anyone else either. I’d guess they only let us go because they knew they had no chance against our weapons.”

  “Based on what we know and how unapologetic they are about accosting ships, I can agree with that,” Kuv said. “Their desire for secrecy also might explain their lack of allies.”

  “Here’s the real kicker.” Aede’s gaze slid down the screen. “According to this, most of the planets in this alliance are Essence-barren. They don’t even the so-called primitive powers. Their main leadership, however, has some, but I wouldn’t have them duel anyone any time soon based on what’s indicated here.”

  “What about Fiara?” Rei asked. “She has a low register of Essence and those chains were loaded with enough Essence-dampening properties to take any of us out.” Someone coughed, but Rei ignored it. “Surely her story is in there somewhere.”

  “Are we dealing with some hidden department of the Federation?” Chia asked.

  “Nah, that I’m pretty sure of. They’re too low-tech for that. Those groups are usually pretty well funded,” Rei replied. “This is probably just another group that opposes the Federation.”

  Aede hit a few keys. “I’m trying to save what I can, but the data on here is getting lost fast. The file on her has deletion triggered. I’m just copying what I can before it wipes completely. What I can read so far is that she’s just a valuable prisoner of war they made use of. But valuable to who?”

  “Good question. She has too little Essence to be of any real value to the Federation and there aren’t any other major players that I can think of,” Yeke said.

  “Keep digging,” Rei ordered.

  “No problem. One last thing...” A map of the immediate system popped up on a small projection map like what they used in Rei’s office. Two ships were in orbit above one of the nearby planets. “I think it’s safe to say they’re the only ones in that system, but like I said, I don’t know if I can get it to show us more of them.”