by Bruce Marcom
Chapter Three
The next day the Endure continues on its way to the capital with its host of telepaths. Eve set a course to the Neutral Zone and went on her way as well. By the fourth day, the trip had been entirely uneventful. Now, they had left Reptilian space and were entering the Neutral Zone. Eve has been practicing several of the new telepathic abilities she had learned from Zach for the past four days and is mastering them at a very quick pace.
She is sitting in her office when she hears the door chime.
“Enter.”
The door opens, and suddenly a blasting sound shrieks into the room for a few moments. Then there is silence. First Officer Meto is standing in the doorway, one foot in the room with a blaster pointed at the Captain. He activates the sonic inhibitor that lets out a loud noise on a certain frequency that incapacitates a telepath’s telepathic abilities. He fires his blaster at Eve at point blank range. The blaster makes a clicking noise.
Eve remarks, “Oops, looks like your blaster’s warranty is up.” With her blue eyes flaring, she grabs him and slams him into the wall.
“You did not think it was going to be that easy, did you? I am not an idiot. Are you wondering why your blaster doesn’t work? Or your sonic inhibitor for that matter? It is called an EMP, an electromagnetic pulse. I carry a device around with me that generates a small EMP. My office is equipped with one, too. I have them set to the same frequency that sonic inhibitors use. Therefore, when a sonic inhibitor goes off, it triggers an EMP that kills all the electronics within fifty feet of me or my office. You seriously must be stupid to think I do not have a defense against sonic inhibitors. People try to kill me all the time. Of course I have defenses in place.”
“While you are struggling on the floor to breathe for air, I am trying to decide whether I want to choke you to death, burn you, or kill you in some other way.” She presses a button and a panel opens. Her collection of heads gleams as the power reactivates in the room. She probes his mind to see who he is working for.
“So they offered you my ship in return for assassinating me. Once I take out the Apel Merchant Group, I will show them your head. It will be filling that empty spot right there at the end of row 2.” She takes a huge cleaver out of her desk and walks over to her First Officer, lifting him off the ground with telekinesis as he gags for air. She heats up the cleaver with her mind until it glows red-hot and takes a sudden but swift swing, removing Meto’s head. She then walks over and places it on the empty peg on row 2 of her heads. My taxidermist is going to appreciate my business this month for sure, she thinks to herself with a slight giggle.
She presses the intercom button. “42, you are now First Officer. Congratulations. Also, have a custodian come down here to clean up what is left of our former First Officer. I will be up on the bridge in a few minutes, so have a status report ready. Out.”
Eve walks down a corridor to get to the bridge when she hears someone behind her chanting. Just as she turns around, she sees a flash of lightning in the corner of her eye. She ducks and rolls to the left with blinding speed as the lightning bolt barely misses her right shoulder and slams into the corridor wall. “Shield,” she says as her personal shield activates just in time to intercept another lightning bolt. In front of her is a human female sorcerer wearing a red dress and a black cloak with black hair and green eyes. The sorcerer begins casting through what appears to be some sort of magical shield. At the same time, another sorcerer appears from behind her, a human male dressed in black leather, casting a spell. Eve realizes she has been caught in an ambush. Both of them are wearing metallic telepathic protection helmets.
“Disintegrate,” the female sorcerer says, completing her spell as a red beam shoots out of the hand of the sorcerer and hits Eve’s force field. Eve becomes defenseless as her shield drops.
“Lightning,” the male sorcerer says as a bolt roars through the air and catches Eve on the left side of her rib cage and she rolls to the right of the hallway. Severely wounded, she knows she is doomed, boxed in like an animal on safari. She hears the sorceress begin casting again. Eve turns her fear into anger, standing up slowly while holding her left side, which is bleeding heavily. She focuses her mind, grabs both assassins at the same time, and hoists them up in the air while choking them.
“Hard to cast spells when you can’t talk, isn’t it witches?” Eve grunts in pain. “You like lightning so much, let me give you some of mine.” Both her hands began to glow as a huge arc of lightning slams into both airborne figures sending them flying down the hall into the wall. She hits them again, this time maintaining lightning streaks until nothing is left of the bodies except charred remains. As the smoldering corpses release the smoky whispers of burning flesh, Eve walks down the corridor toward the bodies.
“I guess only skulls are left from these two for my collection, heh.” She coughs and limps off toward the infirmary.
Over the intercom, an automated message begins playing, “Intruder alert on Deck 13, Section 8. Intruder alert on Deck 13, Section 8.” Security comes down the hall about the time Eve starts limping toward the infirmary, she collapses in the hallway just as they arrive.
Gartooth commands, “Secure the corridor door, men. I don’t want anyone coming down here unless they are medical personnel.” He clicks a button on his com badge, “Farshe, get a medical team down to Deck 13, Section 8. The boss has been hit really bad. Also, fire crew! Get your butts down here fast and contain this fire.” A few moments later, the medical crew arrives with Dr. Farshe.
“Get her on the gurney and get to the medical bay. Start scans and tests as soon as we get there. I need to prep for surgery. Do it now!” Dr. Farshe barks loudly. They load Eve on the gurney and rush down the hall with the security team following them, looking for unknown assassins who may potentially jump out along the way.
Gartooth says on the ship-wide intercom, “The ship is on lockdown; all personnel who are not on duty report to your quarters and stay there. I don’t want anybody roaming around while there might be unknown assassins lurking about. If you are not in your room, you will be shot on sight. We will ask questions later if you are still alive. This lockdown is in effect until further notice. Gartooth out.” When it comes to security, Gartooth takes his job very seriously; this is one of the reasons Eve recruited him. This is not the first time someone has taken a shot at the Captain, and it will not be the last.
“The trauma team is ready to operate, Doctor.”
“Very well, let me see the chart pads for the test results. Okay, looks like some broken ribs and third-degree burns on the left side. Let us get all these clothes off and remove the burnt material from the skin first and then disinfect the area.”
After about three hours, the doctor completes the surgery. The command staff had been waiting in the sitting area outside the surgery room. The doctor walks outside the hall and notices Helma and Nelma pacing back and forth. Gartooth is standing at the doorway along with some security guards who are placed all around the hallway as well as in the waiting room. He had ordered a ship-wide search for any other intruders who were not listed on the ship’s manifest of employees. Rulu, the chief engineer, and Pura, the ship’s cook and cargo supervisor, were sitting in the chairs waiting for news.
“The surgery was successful. She is not out of the woods yet, but she is stable and very lucky. If she makes it through the night, she should be okay. But you know the Captain—she is stubborn and relentless,” the doctor concludes.
“Thank you Dr. Farshe,” Helma says with gratitude.
“Get some rest, guys, and I will inform you if there is any change. There are plenty of security personnel here.”
