The Forbidden Spacemage

by Dan Oakley

  “It’s me, Tomas, I’ve got the girl. Let us in.”

  The girl pulled out a selection of small tools from the pocket of her cargo pants and got to work on the lock as I continued to bang on the door.

  Within seconds, she’d bypassed the lock, and the door slid open.

  I practically threw myself inside and looked around.

  There was no one there.

  They’d gone.

  They’d left us.

  Chapter 27

  I turned in a slow circle unable to believe they’d left. The room was empty apart from us. The cushioned chair beside the central console was still dented from Bayliss’s large frame. They’d not been gone long.

  “He’s got away with it,” I muttered, picturing Zarak’s smug face.

  I leaned heavily on the console and then ran one hand along the tips of the crystals. They weren’t glowing any longer.

  The console was dead.

  I turned to the spiky-haired girl who was watching me closely. “I’m sorry. I messed up your only chance to get out of here.”

  She seemed to sense I was suffering and reached over to pat me on the shoulder.

  I took a shaky breath and closed my eyes as the floor seemed to wobble. The girl stood perfectly still, watching me. I realized there was nothing wrong with the floor. My senses were tricking me.

  My chest felt like it was burning up. The lizard’s claws were probably coated with dirt and bacteria. I’d need to clean the wound soon, but first I had to try to contact the ship.

  If the jump occurred in the last five minutes, there was a good chance the ship was still in range to accept communications.

  I just needed to remember what buttons on the console Bayliss had pressed to initiate contact with the K.S. Morellic. Curse it. They all looked the same to me. Why hadn’t I paid more attention? I pushed a few buttons, but the console remained unresponsive.

  “Do you know how to work this?” I asked, pointing at the confusing array of buttons.

  She shook her head.

  Frustrated, I kept pressing buttons, hoping to hit on the right combination.

  Then I was surprised when the spiky-haired girl pointed at one of the crystals.

  It took me a moment to work out what she meant, then I smiled. She had a point. Maybe the console needed to draw energy from the crystals to work as the main power supply wasn’t up to the job.

  I removed the crystals from their slots, and as before, charged them up by holding them in my hands and feeling the vibrational energy build within them. When I put the crystals back into the appropriate spots, I hit the buttons and my spirits lifted when the computer-generated voice said, “Searching for vessels within communication range.”

  I turned to grin at the girl. “It worked!”

  She didn’t seem pleased. If anything, she looked suspicious.

  A second later my spirits were dashed when the voice announced, “There are no ships within range for communication purposes.”

  “That can’t be right. Try again.” I tapped in the buttons.

  For the second time, the voice confirmed there were no ships in range.

  That was it then. We’d lost them.

  The spiky-haired girl pointed at the cuts on my chest and then beckoned me to follow her. She knew as well as I did they needed to be treated quickly, but with my hopes dashed, cleaning my wounds didn’t seem important right now.

  Reluctantly, I got to my feet and plucked the crystals from the console, figuring they might come in useful later. With a heavy heart, I followed the girl out of the communication suite and down the stairs.

  The lizard carcass was where we left it.

  Somehow we were going to have to clear this building of carcasses— both human and lizard— and give the humans a decent burial. I might be disappointed we had to stay on Tor for the immediate future, but somehow I would get us out of this. We just needed a plan.

  Right now, I couldn’t think how we were going to get in touch with a passing ship, but I’d focus on that later. Our first order of business should be to clear the building and somehow try to secure the main areas.

  It seemed to me the security system crashed when the main power went out. If we could somehow connect the power again, we’d be in a much better defensive position.

  I raised the cooling within my headset. My cheeks were burning. I’d need to clean my wounds and take a few hours to recover, but then I’d get started reclaiming this building.

  The mutant lizards were not going to beat us. I was not giving up without a fight.

  By the time we got back to the girl’s secure room, I was really starting to feel the effects of my injuries.

  She had to help me again, supporting my weight as we staggered along the corridor. The injection she’d given me earlier had helped to minimize the effects of the knife wound. Although it was sore, the bleeding had stopped. But my chest was incredibly painful. It felt like flames were licking at my chest. The lizard’s claws must be coated with a toxin. I doubted bacteria could have infected me this quickly.

  When she opened the door, I staggered inside and slid down to the floor. She helped me pull off my headset and cooled my forehead with a water-soaked cloth.

  I could hear her moving about, preparing something, but I didn’t even have the energy to open my eyes. My head was swimming, and I could feel delirium reaching out its long fingers to pull me under.

  She tried to force some liquid into my mouth, but my throat closed up, and I began to cough and splutter. I felt the stab of a needle in my arm and then drifted off.

  I dreamed I was back on Terrano again. As someone who hated living on the planet where the inhabitants treated me as an outsider, it seemed odd that I was obsessed with the place in my dreams.

  Maureena was in the cabin, rushing around urgently, but she didn’t notice me.

  Caught between the dream world and reality, I puzzled to make sense of what I was watching. It had to be a dream because I knew our old cabin was no longer standing. It had been burned to the ground.

  Maureena went into her bedroom, and I saw her delving beneath the floorboards, pulling out the stone runes.

  She carried them through to a man sitting by the fire.

  His pant leg was rolled up and his calf was gangrenous — yellow and green, emitting a pungent smell.

  I remembered this man. I’d come home to find Maureena had treated him, but he’d refused to pay her. She never treated the villagers when I was home as I had a habit of losing my temper. She had a point. I’d gone to his house that night and thrown a rock through his window.

  Maureena selected one of the stones, marked with the cleansing sign of water. She held the stone above the man’s wounds and muttered a few words.

  I watched as the yellow pus was replaced with pink flesh and fresh blood.

  Then Maureena put the stone to one side and dressed his wound with healing herbs.

  I reached out to touch her shoulder, wanting to say goodbye, but as I did my hand faded, becoming opaque and increasingly fuzzy until it disappeared.

  With a jolt, my eyes opened. I was back on Tor, on the floor with a patchwork blanket wrapped around my body. The girl leaned over me, concern in her bright blue eyes.

  I reached up to grab her small hand and croaked out a single word. “Crystals.”

  She probably thought it was delirium talking, but she did as I asked, holding out the crystals to me.

  I picked the pink one and tried to identify the rune. My eyes struggled to focus. But eventually, I recognized the cleansing water rune. I clutched it in my right hand and held it over my chest. Then I looked at the other crystals, but I couldn’t identify the runes. All I knew was that they weren’t healing runes.

  Would the water rune be enough?

  I held it tightly above my chest, so tightly my fingers cramped around the smooth surface. It felt warm in my hand, but a cooling sensation spread over my chest.

  It didn’t happen instantly, but steadily
and slowly, the crystal worked its magic, drawing out the impurities and toxins from the claw marks on my chest.

  A few minutes later, my temperature had reduced enough to allow me to sit up. I held the cleansing crystal to the knife wound in my side just in case the magic-channeling crystal could shorten the healing time.

  The girl sat cross-legged on the bed, watching me.

  “I’m starting to feel better,” I said. “Thank you for saving me… Again.”

  Her lips curled in a smile, and I wished I’d been able to get her off this awful planet.

  She offered me water, and we shared one of the prepackaged meals. My strength was slowly returning.

  “We’re going to make things better here,” I said. “Somehow we’ll figure out how to get the security up and running.”

  She watched me carefully but didn’t reply.

  “How do you get the power routed to this room?” I asked. “There must be some source of power in the building.”

  She pointed up to the ceiling.

  “The solar panels on the roof?”

  She nodded and then mimed them snapping in two.

  “You mean they are broken? But some must be still working if you’re getting power?”

  She held up one finger.

  One solar panel. That wasn’t much to work with, and if that was taken out, we’d be in even more trouble.

  “I think that’s the first thing we need to do,” I said. “We’ll find out how to repair the solar panels.”

  She looked interested and leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees.

  “Can you direct the power to any room in the building?”

  She nodded.

  That was good. It meant we could have a comfortable room to work from wherever we were in the building. It also meant we could direct the nearest cameras and get them working. I’d already seen she could record using different cameras around the mining complex, so that meant we could check the rooms for lizards first and get a heads up when there was one nearby.

  I was feeling more positive about defending ourselves after seeing her fire weapon in action. It looked bulky and old, but it was certainly more effective than our newer laser models.

  That was more evidence suggesting the commander had given us defective weapons. I guess if we’d found survivors, he didn’t want anyone who knew the truth getting off Tor alive. If he knew we’d uncovered his secret, he would have let us all die on Tor, and we’d be easy targets with malfunctioning weapons.

  I took another sip of water, feeling stronger with every minute that passed.

  The girl offered me some blankets and a pillow, and I made a bed on the floor. Tonight I needed to rest so tomorrow I could put my plans into action.

  We needed to make this building as safe as possible. There would be another expedition to Tor eventually. It could be five or ten years before another crew visited the planet, but the minerals and natural resources on Tor were too valuable to be ignored for long.

  I just needed to bide my time, hole up here and wait for the next visitors to Tor. It wouldn’t happen soon, but eventually, we would find a way off this planet, and then I’d make flaming sure Zarak paid for his crime.

  I fell asleep dreaming of revenge.

  Chapter 28

  When I woke up, I felt like I was suffocating. I wrenched off the headset and pushed it across the floor. The cooling system and air purifier had run out of juice. It looked like I needed to get used to the climate on Tor sooner than I’d hoped.

  Maybe I could find a way to charge it. I’d woken in the night, and unable to sleep had put on my headset, using the software to plan my next step. Trying to memorize the minute details of the complex had sent me off to sleep again.

  The girl was still sleeping, snoring softly, one arm flopped over the side of the mattress.

  Stiff and aching, I stood up. My clothes were soaked with sweat. I should have taken the armor off last night. I tugged off the breastplate, which had proved itself useless against the lizards anyway. No point in wearing it when it didn’t work.

  After stripping to the waist, I soaked the cloth the girl had used to cool my forehead yesterday and ran it over my body, leaving the water to evaporate and cool my skin. At that moment, I’d have given all my worldly possessions for a shower. Not that that meant much. I didn’t have any worldly possessions.

  I was guzzling a bottle of water when the girl woke up. She gave me a sleepy smile and scratched her head. Her hair practically stood on end this morning, taking spiky to a whole new level.

  I passed her some water, and she took it gratefully.

  “I guess you always keep some power running to the water purifier?” I asked.

  She threw her legs over the side of the bed and nodded.

  We shared a box of dried food, and I told her of my plans to make the building more secure. She’d done amazingly well on her own here, so I didn’t want to boss her around and make her think I was taking over. She’d already proved there was plenty of stuff she could do better than me.

  “Do you want to try fixing some of the solar panels? We can take a look at them at least and see if they can be salvaged.”

  She stretched and smothered a yawn before nodding.

  After finishing our breakfast and getting ready, I picked up one of the old-fashioned plasma guns. “Do you mind if I use this?”

  She smirked before nodding, knowing full well her stash of weapons worked much better than mine against the mutant lizards.

  I was about to unbolt the door when she stopped me, grabbing my arm and pointing upwards.

  I looked at the ceiling.

  “I suppose you’re right. Do you know the way to the roof through these vents?”

  She smiled, looking pleased with herself.

  “All right then. I’ll follow you.”

  We removed one of the grid panels, and I linked my fingers together and crouched down, thinking the spiky-haired girl could use me as a springboard to get up into the crawlspace. But she didn’t need my help. With barely any effort, she lifted her slight frame through the dark hole into the ceiling without making any noise.

  Obviously, she’d done this a lot.

  When I followed her, I didn’t make it look quite as easy. I jumped up, grabbing the sides of the metal grid work and grunting I used my upper body strength to heave myself into the crawlspace.

  It was dark up there, and although the girl was ahead of me, I could only see her bright blue eyes.

  “Lead the way,” I said.

  She moved forward on her hands and knees, and I tapped my wrist device. Its battery should last months so I wouldn’t have to worry about recharging it for a while. I brought up the schematics of the building and tried to make sense of them, but in the end, decided the best option was to follow the girl who had first-hand experience of this building.

  Utilizing the crawlspace to navigate around the building was pretty smart. It was easier for her, too, as she was tiny and could fit through the small gaps and around the thick pipes without any issues. It wasn’t quite so easy for me, but it was still better than running the risk of bumping into a lizard.

  Although I felt safer hidden by the pipework and the metal grates in the ceilings, I didn’t feel entirely secure. I’d seen what the lizards were capable of given half a chance.

  If the lizards detected us up here, it would be easy for them to dislodge one of the panels and make us their next snack. I tightened the strap on my plasma weapon. If we came across another one of those monsters, at least I would have a reliable weapon to use and wouldn’t have to rely on my intermittent magic.

  The girl made progress almost silently as my hands and knees clanged against the metal, rattling the panels. A few times she looked back at me and frowned, but I was doing my best to keep quiet. The last thing I wanted to do was attract the attention of another lizard. I put up my hand to apologize, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t move as quietly as she did.

  It felt
like we’d been crawling for ages when we came across an obstacle. In front of us, the narrow tunnel suddenly turned forty-five degrees upwards. I guessed this ran parallel to the ceiling over the staircase. The only problem was, the small, tight enclosure went straight up, and there were no places to grip or hold onto as we made the climb.

  This didn’t deter the spiky-haired girl who must’ve been this way multiple times before. She put a foot on either side of the tunnel and climbed up as though the boots she wore were made of some ultra sticky substance. She crawled up like a spider.

  I braced myself in case she came tumbling back down towards me, but she was surefooted and didn’t miss a step.

  Before long she was out of sight, and I knew I had to follow.

  I’d struggled to do it the same way she had, so instead, I braced my back against one side of the smooth metal sheeting lining the tunnel and put my boots on the other. Stabilizing myself with my arms, I pushed myself up a few inches at a time.

  I made slow progress.

  I was sweating profusely by the time I made the top of the incline.

  The girl’s bright blue eyes were watchful, and I saw relief pass over her features when she saw me approaching.

  At least she had waited.

  I gave her a rueful grin as I thankfully hauled myself onto the level surface.

  She scurried a little further on. Then she looked over her shoulder, meeting my gaze and pointing down at the metal panel directly below her knees.

  I guessed this meant we needed to enter the room below us to finally access the roof. Together, we lifted off one of the panels and then sat in silence for a moment making sure there were no predators in the vicinity.

  When we were relatively sure it was safe, I lowered myself slowly down through the hatch. As soon as my boots touched the floor, I grabbed my weapon and held it in front of me.

  It looked like we were in a suite. There was a door to my left that was partially open, and through the doorway, I could see a room with a bed. The room I was standing in had plush, thick carpet and a well-padded sofa was built into the wall and circled three-quarters of the room. The other wall contained a large window with a view out over the jungle. Everything was very dusty. Perhaps this had been one of the officer’s residences before the nuclear accident.