Authors: Vincent Trigili
“Don’t apologize,” he said weakly. “It’s fine. I’d much rather be knocked over than turned into a walking corpse.”
“How did you do that?” asked one of the other magi.
“Do what?” I asked.
“You spotted the wraith and fought it with your eyes closed,” he said.
“I’m not sure. I could feel its presence right away, but at first I could see it only when I closed my eyes. Very weird, but I didn’t dare take the time to open them again.”
“Excellent work, Zah’rak! Your training is really coming along! What you used was a power you were born with that we call Sight. It allows you to see using only your mind. Creatures like the wraiths can’t hide from Sight,” said Narcion. “Now, with the shields back up we are safe. Let’s see what we can determine about this station.”
“You should have full command access now,” said Felix.
Felix and Narcion were busy with the terminals, so I walked over to the other two. They were doing their best to stay quiet and out of the way. I decided that I should try to make some kind of amends for our rocky start. “Hey, sorry about getting rough with you back there,” I said to the one who had tried to probe my mind earlier.
The magus looked scared and swallowed hard. “It’s okay. I understand.”
“Can you get into the head of anyone you want to?” I asked.
“Any mund … well, with anyone who is not a magus it is easy,” he said. “Other magi can be much harder.”
“So you can read me right now?” I asked.
“No, at least not without you knowing. I tried that once and it did not go well for me,” he said with a weak smile.
“What is your name?” I asked.
“I don’t have one,” he said.
It was then I noticed some very old scarring around his neck. He must have been a slave also. I pointed to the scars on my neck. “It seems we have something in common.”
He nodded in silence.
“What should I call you, then?”
“I used to be known as Crivreen. I guess I can be again.” He was a bit chubby and had the kind of hair that always looked unkempt. His face had the soft features of someone who had given up fighting and was letting circumstances take him where they would. There was a deep loneliness in his eyes.
The other magus with him was as different from Crivreen as possible. He was obviously a bodybuilder and no doubt took a lot of pride in his ability to lift heavy objects. He had several scars on his face that hinted at a rough past. He always seemed to stick close to Crivreen, as if to protect him.
“So, Crivreen, how can I protect myself from someone trying to read my mind?”
“Well, if you don’t have the gift, I can’t teach it.”
“How do I know if I do?” I asked.
“He does. Teach him,” I heard Narcion call out from behind us.
Crivreen looked very nervous and stumbled over his words as he tried to talk. I reached out and placed my hand on his shoulder and said, “Look, it’s okay. Narcion asked you to teach me, so go ahead. I won’t hurt you.”
He nodded and walked over to a security terminal. After making an adjustment he said, “Look at this screen. Do you see anything odd?”
I looked, and it showed a view of the room we were in, but I was the only one in the room. “But that doesn’t make sense.”
“We can use this monitor so you can see how you are doing. Before I can teach you to defend against a mental attack, I need to teach you how to hide like the rest of us are doing. We can completely drop off all electronic sensors, like this one, at will. The same skill that is used to hide will help you in defense later.”
I do not know how long we spent there with him trying to teach me, but it seemed like years. I think his fear of me gave him patience beyond that normal for his species because he never once let himself lose his temper. Eventually I started to grasp it, and then suddenly it clicked. I heard Narcion call out, “Well done!” I looked over at the screen and saw that I had dropped completely off the internal sensor grid.
“As much as you can, stay hidden. Practice that much and we can move on to more advanced lessons later. Now I need everyone to take a terminal and start sweeping the station. We need to know who is on this station with us and what they are doing,” said Narcion.
I moved to the terminal closest to me, but was unsure how to work it. Crivreen gave me some quick pointers and then went to his own terminal. As I swept through the station I could see sentries, which are powerful robotic defenders; they were all over the place, destroying the walking dead, but the entire time we had traveled through the station we had not stumbled across even one of them. The sweeps the sentries were making were too clean; someone had to be controlling them. Then something struck me.
“Three groups,” I said.
“What?” asked Narcion.
“There are three groups on this station: the attackers, ourselves, and whoever holds the core. The attackers are trying to push us to the core so that we will open it and give them a vector to attack it. The wraiths, that bug, and the humans we have seen so far are all together, which is why they are not dead yet.”
“Go on. What does that mean?” asked Narcion.
“That means that there must be something in the core that these attackers, whoever they are, want really badly; and the military is not willing to risk giving it up.”
“Yes, and what will happen if the core is breached?” he asked.
I thought about that for a while and came to a sickening conclusion. “They will blow the station up.”
“Exactly. Well done, you are making an old teacher proud.”
No one had ever been proud of me before, ever. I did not know how to respond, so I just stood there in stunned silence.
“If they blow up the station, do we have a way off?” asked Felix.
“If we can make it to an airlock, I can arrange for my ship to meet us; but that would require enough warning for us to make it there, and we currently have no way of getting that,” he said.
“Great, just great,” said Felix.
Narcion worked at the computer for a long time. Then I saw something on the viewer. “Narcion, we have company.” On one of the viewers there was a group of men supported by sentries, fighting through a wall of walking dead, trying to reach our position.
“Should we help them?” I asked.
“If we lower those shields, the wraiths could rush the room,” said one of the magi.
“These men will reach the door and, if they are from the core as I believe they are, they will be able to open it. So everyone get in position to cover them as they rush in. Magi, use blasters and save your spells in case the wraiths do come. Zah’rak, hang back and watch for the rush. I am going to take over the automated defenses and give them some help,” said Narcion.
“Are we sure they are on our side?” asked Felix.
“Pretty sure. Just be ready for anything,” he responded.
I moved into position behind the magi, but then thought better of it. I moved to a place where I was completely under cover and closed my eyes. With my eyes closed I could see the wraiths gathering outside the door, waiting. They could guess our plan easily enough. Moving quickly, I began to dismantle one of the railings that separated the two levels of the command center.
“Whatever you’re doing, better make it fast. They are almost at the door,” said Felix, who had taken up a position, which gave me cover fire.
I merely grunted and kept working. Moments later, the door opened and the men rushed into the room. I stood and picked up a piece of the railing which I had beaten into a point. With my eyes still closed, I threw it at the lead wraith. As I released my makeshift spear, I wondered if I had understood correctly what Narcion had told me about the knives. As the spear hit the wraith and pierced it through it screamed out in pain, confirming what I had learnt. The surprise of it broke the charge of the wraiths, and I began to throw what was left of the railing as fast as I could.
Under cover of flying metal the men made it into our base and resealed the doors. With my eyes still closed I carefully searched the room and said, “It looks clear to me.”
“Yes, we can relax for the moment,” said Narcion.
A man sat behind a desk in an office working hard at the computer. Around him in cages were samples of many different races. All of them looked like statues, frozen in fear, and yet you could sense they were alive. There were Zalionians, humans, Parrinians, and many more.
The man did not seem to notice the room around him and was focused intently on his computer. His hands flew across the holographic interface with amazing speed and agility. While he was working another man walked into the room. This man was dressed in black and grey body armor. He was armed with two blasters, one on each hip, and a pair of swords sheathed in an X on his back. His armor was completely devoid of markings with the exception of one design of the head of a growling wolf. He longingly looked at a young woman who was among those trapped around the room.
As he approached the desk the other man said, “What is the situation on the station?”
“The attack is going as planned. Narcion and his pet are trapped in the main command center, and the computer core has only a few hours of power left.”
“Excellent. When the power fails the autodestruct will be triggered, and we will finally be rid of that filth.”
“Sir, Narcion is too wise for that. I am sure he knows about the autodestruct as well as we do.”
“Tell your men to make sure Narcion stays on that station, at all costs.”
The warrior paused; it seemed that he was going to say something, but when he looked at the woman again, he changed his mind. There was a tone of steel in his voice as he replied, “Yes, sir.”
“I used a considerable amount of my resources to set up that station as a trap for him. Narcion must fall, or all our plans are in jeopardy. If he gets off that station, I expect you to hunt him down.”
“With pleasure,” said the warrior. There was an edge in his voice that could not be missed.
“Just so that you understand, let me make myself perfectly clear: either he dies or you both do. There can be no more mistakes.”
“I understand, sir.” The warrior turned and briskly left the room, and eventually the building. The office was in an upscale section of town and the warrior stood out among the crowd of business people who moved out of his way wherever he went. He did not seem to notice the people around him; they were merely an impediment to his progress.
From there he rode a public transit vehicle to a much seedier area of town. Thugs of all kinds roamed the street, but even here lesser men cleared a path for him. There was a deliberate purpose to his gait, and no one dared interfere with it.
He entered a bar and looked over to the corner. Two men dressed similarly to himself were sitting there having a private conversation. He approached them and said, “Claw, Fang, we have work to do.”
“A hunt?” asked Claw.
“Yes, and a most deadly prey,” said the warrior.
They both rose and said, “Excellent.”
“When do we leave?” asked Fang.
“Now,” he answered.
The three of them had turned to leave when the bartender ran over to them. “Please, sirs, begging your pardon, but your tab is long overdue. Would you please settle that before you leave?”
Claw drew his sword and pressed it against the bartender’s neck, but the warrior placed his hand on his shoulder and said, “Easy, the man is due his pay. Fang, pay him and let’s go.”
Once that was done they went outside and climbed into a sleek black transport bearing the same wolf design etched into its side in silver. The transport took off vertically and raced towards orbit. On the way up, it docked with a spacecraft that was waiting in a parking orbit, displaying the same wolf emblem.
“Who is the target?” asked Claw as they disembarked from their shuttle.
“Narcion and his pet Zalionian,” said the warrior.
“What makes him so special?” asked Claw.
“Many have tried to take him down; all are now dead,” said the warrior.
The three of them moved through the ship, apparently the only ones on board. Once they had reached the bridge, Claw asked, “Where to?”
“He is currently trapped on a Phareon military outpost, but he will be long gone before we arrive. I suspect he will travel to his next hit after that station. We need to find out where that will be, so take us to the government embassy and let’s see if our friends there still value their lives,” responded the warrior.
The commander of the men we had just let into our sanctuary walked up to Narcion and said, “Hello, sir. I am Commander Elridge, ranking officer in charge of station defense. We have been monitoring you on the security and communication systems, so we know why you are here.”
“Good to meet you finally. What is the status of the defense?” asked Narcion.
“We have lost the station. The enemy has severed main power to the core. We have at most a few hours of battery power left until the defenses fail. At that time the station’s autodestruct mechanism will be activated and the battle is over.”
“How many men do you have?” asked Narcion
“These eight, plus another dozen who still hold the core.”
“How did you make it past the wraiths to get to us?”
“Private Johnson here can keep them back,” said the commander.
Private Johnson looked exhausted and was leaning heavily against the wall. I went over to him and offered him some water, but he just stared listlessly into space.
“He doesn’t look so hot,” I said.
“Yes, sir. It took a lot out of him to get us here. I’m afraid it was a one-way trip, as it will be days before he recovers,” said the commander.
“Narcion, they are laying siege to the doors,” said one of the magi.
On the terminal at which he was pointing I could see more of those bug creatures coming, but the sentries seemed to be holding them off.
“They are trying to pin us down,” said Narcion.
“Aye, they know as well as we do that there’s a self-destruct mechanism, I am sure,” said the commander.
“Then it’s a suicide mission for them?” I asked.