The Forbidden Spacemage

by Dan Oakley

  “A person? Are you sure?”

  She nodded fervently. “They disappeared. One second they were there and then they just disappeared.”

  Was this some kind of magic? Trella? I burst out into the corridor with my weapon raised, just in case the person was hostile. But there was no sign of Trella or anybody else.

  My spirits sank. “There is no one here now,” I said sadly, walking further down the corridor to make sure.

  When I’d checked the other rooms, I walked back to Kira and asked her, “What did the person look like? Male or female? Was it my friend, the one with the red hair?”

  Kira shook her head. “I don’t know. I don’t think so. They wore a kind of cloak, I think. They had something covering their head. It wasn’t like a real person…more like a ghost.”

  Maybe it was a hologram? A recording? I ran through the possibilities in my mind.

  “It could be that somebody else has accessed our network and sent us a recording, but that isn’t possible…” I continued as I thought it through. “For one thing, we’re the only people here, and for another, we turned the power off.”

  I shook my head in confusion.

  A vine had climbed the external wall of the building and had suckered itself to the long window in the corridor. I wondered whether the leaves moving in the breeze had caused shifting shadows and made Kira believe she had seen a human figure.

  Part of me wanted to go on searching, or at least go back to the lobby and turn the power on so we could use the cameras to search the building, but it was unlikely Kira had seen a real live person.

  If anyone were here, they would have made themselves known to us. It was wishful thinking on my part to think Trella had survived.

  The team had found her headset covered with blood. I needed to accept reality. Trella was gone, and she wasn’t coming back.

  I tapped my wrist device and opened the program to search for human life. Holding my breath, I waited for the results to come through.

  Nothing.

  I shook my head again and returned to pick up the wiring.

  Putting a hand on Kira’s shoulder, I said, “Maybe it was a blip in the system. There could have been some residual power in one of the fuel cells and us screwing about with the power supply caused something to malfunction and replay an old recording.”

  She seemed comforted by that thought. As much as I wanted there to be somebody else on this planet she didn’t trust other humans.

  “Do you think so?” she asked as we entered the corridor again and I carried the wiring towards the green door at the end of the hall to access the roof.

  I replied with just a smile. I had no idea what she’d seen, but right now our priority was fixing the solar panels. We didn’t need distractions.

  It was hot work, and we guzzled two canteens of water as we worked to replace the wires.

  We worked in silence for the first few minutes, and then I asked, “So how did you end up alone here?”

  “I was born here,” she said. “I’ve never lived anywhere else.”

  She shrugged, and I thought that was all she was prepared to say on the subject, but then she surprised me by opening up.

  “I was an adventurous kid, and I loved exploring the jungle, even though I wasn’t allowed. There weren’t many predators around then. But my parents still didn’t like me going deep into the jungle without an adult present.”

  She set down the wire cutters and looked out over the tops of the trees. “There’s a lake not too far from here, and I’d decided I wanted to go canoeing. My sister covered for me, but I figured my parents would find out eventually because they always did. Still, I thought I’d deal with the punishment when I got back. I was always getting grounded so that was nothing new.”

  She shrugged and turned back to me. “I was a bit of a brat.”

  “Was that the day of the accident?”

  She nodded. “I was in the middle of the lake when the explosion happened. A huge cloud engulfed the whole sky, and there was a strange yellow glow. I paddled back to the shore and then ran most of the way back to the mine, but there was no one there. All their belongings had been left behind, but the people were gone.”

  “Your parents just left without you?”

  Kira looked away, tears shining in her eyes. “I guess they must have. I probably deserved it. If I hadn’t gone against their wishes, then I would have been able to get back in time and would have been evacuated with everyone else. It was my fault.”

  I wasn’t sure how to respond to that. I couldn’t imagine how she managed to cope as a nine-year-old girl left to fend for herself.

  “You were a kid. It wasn’t your fault. I bet your parents didn’t want to leave you behind.”

  “They still did, though.”

  It was bad enough to be deserted, but to be left with the threat of a nuclear fallout hanging over the planet must have been terrifying.

  “How did you survive the radiation?”

  “We had anti-radiation sickness medications. The mining process intermittently released radiation from the ground, so I was used to taking it occasionally. I just used the medication daily for as long as it lasted. It’s been ten years since the accident, and I’ve not gotten sick so far.” She grinned at me and tapped her brow. “I haven’t sprouted another head yet!”

  It made me think about my own life. I thought I’d had it bad after being turfed out of home when I was eleven, but I’d been two years older than Kira, and I’d had Maureena to take me in.

  “It must have been incredibly hard,” I said. “I’m sorry.”

  She shrugged. “I got used to it. The lizards were the worst thing. It wasn’t too bad at first, but the horrible things keep breeding. Once I managed to reroute the power, I knew I could keep myself safe. When the science expedition came, I thought that was my chance to get off Tor and live in one of those houses I’d seen on the soap operas…” Her cheeks flushed. “I know it’s silly.”

  I smiled. “So you wanted to leave with the scientists?”

  She nodded. “Yes, the team were nice to me and told me all about life in the Seven Kingdoms. They promised to take me back with them. I warned them about the lizards, but they said they knew what they were doing and their mission was to inject the lizards with mutagens. But then the scientists began to get attacked. I persuaded the survivors to come down to the secure room, and that worked for a little while, but Dr. Taggert needed to get in contact with her brother so he would send help. She said they needed a bigger team, more soldiers and better weapons. So I helped out by rerouting the power to the communications area she wanted to use. He gave me the creeps, so I started to record their conversation.”

  She paused to take a breath then looked at me. “He was an evil man. The lizards attacked the communication area. I escaped via the crawlspace, but Dr. Taggert didn’t reach the hatch in time. None of them did.

  “There was a man called Davies, who jumped up behind me and nearly made it, but a lizard clamped its jaws around his legs and pulled him down.”

  She brushed a tear away from her cheek. “I figured then I was better off just staying here alone. At least I knew what I was dealing with. Lizards are nasty, but Commander Taggert is evil.”

  I nodded. She had no argument from me on that point.

  She pushed back her spiky hair. “Dr. Taggert hadn’t told the commander about me, so I thought I was destined to live here alone. But then when you and your team arrived, I thought the commander found out I’d witnessed what he did to his sister and sent you to kill me.”

  “The commander doesn’t know…” My voice trailed off. I wanted to reassure Kira that the commander didn’t know what she’d witnessed, but for all I knew, the team could have told Commander Taggert about the spiky-haired girl after they’d returned to the ship.

  “Anyway,” she said. “It’s not so bad. I have purified water to drink and food to eat. I just have to be constantly on the lookout for lizards and never go out after
nightfall. They seem to be getting more aggressive recently.”

  “Aggressive is one word for it,” I said as a longed-for breeze ruffled my hair.

  We finished our work in companionable silence.

  Kira had obviously tinkered with some electronics before as she’d quickly picked up what we had to do, and with both of us working, it took us half the time I’d expected to replace all the wiring below the solar panels and link them to the central system.

  It was possible there was more damage to the wiring in the ceilings or the wall cavities, but for now, we’d done as much as we could. If there were unseen wire damage, we’d have to come back and try to locate the issues tomorrow or the next day.

  I finished connecting the last panel and stood up, wiping my forehead. The sun was getting low in the sky. We’d just made it. Nightfall came quickly here.

  “Let’s get back down to the lobby,” I said. “We’ll turn the circuit breakers back on and see whether we can get any power out of these panels.”

  Kira dusted her hands together and looked proudly at her handiwork. “I’m surprised we managed to get so much done in one day.”

  Back in the lobby, I switched the power back on and held my breath. There was a low hum as the machinery powered up. The screen behind the reception desk lit up and the security panel on the front door locked with a click.

  “It’s working,” Kira said disbelievingly.

  “See, told you it would be worth it,” I said with a wink, but even I was surprised the equipment was working so well.

  A loud alarm sounded.

  “What’s that?” Kira asked, reaching for her weapon and whipping her head around.

  Fear prickled the back of my neck. The sound was a plaintive wailing and set my teeth on edge.

  I reached for my weapon. “I’m not sure, but I suppose we’d better go and find out.”

  Chapter 31

  We checked the security panel behind the reception desk and saw a zone on the ground floor flashing red.

  “Does that mean there’s been a breach?” Kira asked. “Maybe the security system can detect lizards when they enter a room.”

  “Maybe, or the alarm could need resetting. Let’s go check.”

  The noise grew louder as we headed down the corridor towards the old mess hall. Pausing beside the double doors, I peered in through the small rectangular window at the top of the door. The large dining hall was filled with tables and chairs. Some had been knocked over, but there was no sign of any of the mutant creatures there now.

  I pushed open the door, keeping my weapon handy. The alarm grew louder, and Kira put her hands over her ears.

  “Where is the alarm? It is so loud in here so we must be close,” Kira said as she walked towards the door on the far side of the room.

  “Be careful,” I warned. “What is through there?” I asked nodding at the door.

  “The kitchens,” Kira said and slowly pushed open the door, gripping her plasma weapon in her right hand.

  I followed her in, and we both spotted the red flashing light at the same time. Exhaling in relief, I pointed at the cooler cabinets. “Looks like we’ve found the source of the alarm.”

  I studied the large, metal cupboards and pressed the reset button. The kitchens were furnished with white cabinets, fancy cooking pots, and apparatus and at one time must have looked impressive, but now the area was covered with cobwebs and dust. The kitchens looked abandoned and dirty.

  “I bet the contents of the coolers won’t smell too good if we open them up!” I said.

  “I cleared them out a long time ago,” Kira said, twisting her face into a grimace. “It wasn’t a pleasant job.”

  I looked around, trailing a finger in the dust along a center island. “This kitchen could be pretty useful once it’s cleaned up.”

  Kira shook her head. “I abandoned it pretty early on because it’s on the ground floor, and lizards seem to gravitate here for some reason.”

  “Well, I have a plan to deal with them.”

  “You do?” She looked at me skeptically.

  “Yes, we need to get them out of the building. But there’s no need to risk our lives to do that.”

  She frowned. “So how do you intend to do it?”

  “We need to go to the control room and access the security cameras. Now that the door locking mechanisms and security panels are working properly, we can locate the lizards and herd them out of the building by selectively locking certain doors and leaving others open.”

  Kira tilted her head to one side. “That’s actually a really good idea.”

  “Don’t look so surprised,” I said, laughing. “I do have an occasional good idea.”

  “Should we do it now?” Kira asked.

  I checked the time on my wrist device and shook my head. “No, it’s going to take quite a while to get every lizard out of the building, so I think we should tackle that job tomorrow. Let’s get back to the secure room and have something to eat. We can set our plan into motion tomorrow.”

  “Sounds good to me. I’m starving.”

  We got back to the secure room without any problems and ate some more bland prepackaged food, washed down with purified water. As we ate, I told Kira of my plans to secure the perimeter.

  “If we can, we should secure the fence. That will give us another line of defense and protection against the creatures. From there we can work on improving the building and improving our lifestyle.”

  Kira took a gulp of water then said, “I like that idea.”

  “When we’ve finished with the fencing, maybe we should work on the communication system and set up a scanner to detect passing ships and relay a message.”

  The smile slid from Kira’s face. She wasn’t so keen on that idea.

  “Not everyone is like Commander Taggert and Zarak,” I said. “There are some nice people. If you can deal with lizards, you can deal with the population of the Seven Kingdoms.”

  Kira swallowed the last mouthful of her water and then sat on her narrow bed with a monitor, ready to watch one of her favorite soap operas.

  Once we had the whole building secure, I’d move into one of the other rooms to give her back her privacy, but for now, it was safer to stick together.

  I spent the evening trying to use my magic to move boxes of prepackaged food. It took a few attempts, but I was soon back into the swing of things and could move the cartons around just like I had with the balls back on the K.S.Morellic.

  Occasionally, Kira looked up from her soap opera to watch me with fascination before she was drawn back into her world of soaps.

  After she’d fallen asleep, I lay back in my makeshift bed feeling more positive. Within days I’d be sleeping on a proper bed again, and we’d have a lot more freedom in the building. We’d have our own personal space. Ideally, we’d get the bathrooms up and running quickly. A shower sounded like a fantastic idea to me right now.

  I closed my eyes but kept thinking about the figure Kira had seen upstairs. Had it been some kind of optical display? Or a hallucination?

  Maureena used to tell me that the logical explanation was usually the right one. The trouble was I didn’t know what the most logical explanation was.

  On this planet, it seemed logic didn’t follow the rules.

  We spent the following day checking the security system for signs of weakness. I was impressed by the coverage we had from the console in the safe room. It gave us data on every section of the building as well as the external perimeter fencing surrounding the complex. For the first time, I got an idea of the scale of the mining complex. The fencing originally circled the compound with a diameter of a kilometer. Fixing the fence would be a much bigger job than I’d envisaged yesterday, but it did mean that once we had everything secure we’d have a large area to roam safely.

  I was pleasantly surprised to find only one section of the building was down. It was a small section, downstairs on the opposite side of the building to us. Although the console didn’t te
ll me exactly what was wrong, I guessed our large, scaly, gnawing friends were responsible. Still, that shouldn’t be a problem. It was only a very small area of the building.

  Kira helped me by checking the feeds from the viewing cameras. She made sure they were working from every angle. Some had been damaged, which was inevitable as marauding, giant, mutant lizards had been roaming the building for the past ten years, but we still were able to get a good view of most areas of the building. It would be enough to herd the critters out of the building.

  “There’s one!” Kira said pointing out a lizard in one of the restrooms.

  I frowned and zoomed in on the section.

  “Yes, he looks pretty mad. Maybe he’s been in there all night. Let’s release the door and see if he leaves.”

  I accessed the security console and opened the door.

  Unfortunately, the lizard didn’t go straight out as I’d hoped. The door slid open, but the stupid creature remained inside.

  “I think we are going to need an incentive,” Kira said.

  “What do you suggest?”

  “What about some music?” I’d never been a big fan of modern music. I had an old guitar and had learned to play the flute. But I had a feeling Kira was suggesting something a little louder.

  She walked to the other side of the console and began tapping buttons, then her face lit up, and she smiled. “This ought to do it.”

  She routed the music into the room. Immediately, the lizard stiffened. It cocked its head to one side and then looked around as though searching for the source of the noise.

  “What music are you playing?” I asked, and Kira turned up the volume and set it to play from the speakers.

  It sounded awful. Like somebody just dropped a load of pots and pans on the floor and then decided to kick them around the room all while howling.

  “Good choice,” I said. “That music is terrible.”

  Kira frowned. “It’s my favorite band.”

  I pulled a face. “Sorry.”

  I think the lizard shared my opinion because it soon scuttled out of the room as quickly as it could. As soon as its tail was clear, I slid the door shut behind it and activated the steel magnetic security door.