Nightmares & Dreams: A Science Fantasy Space Western: Eydulan Series Book 2 (13 page)

Peeking her head inside exposed a room filled with cages, and people that were still alive in them. Alive would be a relative term, Kat thinks. Most she could see were naked or next to. None of them talked or even moved. Each was just blankly staring at their cage door. That is until Kat enters, then their blank eyes lock on and follow her as she makes her way through. Every cage she walked past the men and women inside the cages would never say a word or move. Only stare. There was no fear, or shame, or anything in their blank stares. Kat wanted to get out of that room as quick as possible. The room was at least twice the size of her cargo bay on the Felicity and the cages were stacked on top of themselves so high it was blocking any real sight to give her a feel of the space. So it was only a guess at best.

Whisper says, “Turn right here.”

Kat nearly jumps out of her own skin and screams inside of her head,
Whisper what the hell was that!

“What the hell was what?”

Are you trying to give me a heart attack?

“No, I am most certainly not. I am just telling you where to go, like you asked. Hanna is in a room just past this one.”

Kat takes a deep breath trying to steady her nerves but her whole body is still shaking. She turns and follows Whisper’s directions and knows Whisper did that on purpose, even if she would never admit it. It was extremely creepy in there. A trend she was noticing on this little trip of hers. The next place she goes it should be well lit and fun. No more of this dark, silent, bloody mess this rescue has turned into.

The caged people just continue to stare, no emotion passing though their facial features. It took her another five minutes of walking past blank stares to reach a door, which was the first door that she had come to that wasn’t already open. Which would mean it should be clear of the invaders. She hoped.

The door was locked, which was again she guessed, a good thing.

Kat asks, “Hey Whisper can you get this open?”

“Sure, just a moment.”

The cage doors behind her click.

“Uh, Whisper, don’t open those cages.”

“I didn’t. Just give me a minute.”

The man in the cage that just opened turns his gaze to the door, breaking contact with her for the first time. A chill runs down her spine. She didn’t know who or more importantly what that man was and didn’t want to. He moves toward the door, pushing it open. Kat takes a step back into the locked door testing the handle. Which was still locked. The man takes a step out of his cage turning his gaze back to Kat. It was still blank, but she could see a glimmer behind them now as he creeps forward.

Kat says in a worried tone, “Whisper, door please.”

“I am working as fast as I can. This whole floor is labeled wrong and I’m not sure yet if it was on purpose or it if was laziness.”

“I don’t care, just get the door open before that man gets to me.”

The man walks slowly over to her, showing no sign of rushing. Kat notices for the first time his eyes are black. It wasn’t just his iris’ either, it was the whole eye. Two black voids.

Whisper says, “Ok I think this is it.”

The room is filled with one large
click
sound. The rest of the cage doors squeak open, and the sound of shuffling feet echo around her.

Kat says panicked, “Whisper I don’t think that was it.”

“Meat-minds and their lazy…” Whisper trails off.

Jiggling the handle again only lets Kat know it’s still locked. The man that was first released stops as he gets to almost arms length. His head cocks to the right slightly, then to the left slightly.

Bowing his head he says only one word, never taking his eyes off Kat, and it sounds as if he is struggling greatly to get it out, “Job.”

Kat tries to make her body melt into the door and nearby wall but it wasn’t working. She heard what he said but didn’t care, she just wanted him to leave her alone. Of all things to be killed by in a prison filled with mages.

Whisper says, “Why are you so fidgety right now?”

“Oh I don’t know, maybe the half-alive man in front of me or the hundred or so that are walking toward me.”

“Is that what you’ve been so worried about?”

Kat screams, “Yes, now hurry!”

“They‘re like zombies, but they’re harmless. Well, until you tell them to hunt something. Then their relentless. The Guild calls them husks and uses them for menial labor.”

“You mean to build stuff?”

Kat looks back at the man husk. He hasn’t moved or said anything else. Other than the black eyes he looked normal. A bit hunched over, but normal.

Whisper says, “Yes, build stuff, farming, mining, and manufacturing. All of it. It lets mages be mages. Everyone in the guild signs their bodies over to be used in such a way, some even are allowed to stay with the family, although most don’t.”

“How do you know this?”

“I have had a few days worth of free time since hacking into those Guild warships. I downloaded everything that was classified and higher for reading material. There are some really interesting things going on in this lab. It was one of the reasons that I was happy to come with you. I did want to see the dead meat-bags. Maybe I can have you like this when you go as my personal walker.”

That was a thought that Kat didn’t want to dwell on, but she instantly got a mental image of herself as one of these husks. It was in a growing list of things she couldn’t undo or unsee.

Kat asks, “So they’re harmless?”

“Yes. Just give them a command, and they will follow it until you give a new one.”

“Why would they follow what I tell them to do?”

“Because you’re the living human that released them from the cage. They are taught to only take orders from the cage opener.”

Kat turns to the man saying, “Open this door.”

He struggles to say, “Open…Door…”

The husk man walks up to Kat as she steps aside from the door. He grabs handle with more care than Kat believed he would and tried to open the door, receiving the same result. His head turns to the panel on the right side of the door, where he proceeds to hit a few buttons. The door clicks, and he opens it for her, turning his head back in her direction but not looking directly into her eyes.

He says, “Job?” In the same way he did before, struggling to make the sounds.

Twenty or thirty others had reached the door by the time it opened, and they all looked the same way, their heads with a slight tilt toward the ground and awaiting an order.

Whisper says, “Well are you going to give them another order or aren’t you?”

Kat still hadn’t come up with an escape plan, but it might have just been made for her.

She says, “I want anyone other than me and anyone that I am with to be put into cells. Clear all of the floors for me, then patrol around waiting for my order.”

The only affirmation she got was the sound and echo of over a hundred husks turning and shuffling out of the room. Kat still can’t believe the truth of this. How could the Guild do things like this to people? Living or dead a person is still a person. This felt like just another reason to hate the Guild, the Earth Empire isn’t perfect but she’s reasonably sure they would never do anything like this to the dead. Probably.

She shakes the idea from her head, she didn’t have time to contemplate the morality of the Empire right now. Hanna was supposed to be behind this door, and then they could get out of there. There was a small desk with a single chair in a rectangle room. The desk had a display screen scrolling through the guard’s daily duties. Behind the desk was another hallway but this one had a purple glow. Steel guardrails line the walkway with the only light coming from the cages. Instead of bars or walls or doors, the prisoners were in cages of light.

Men and women of all shapes and sizes behind purple light. There is a metal floor for each, holding the toilet and bed, but that was it. As Kat enters everyone turns toward her. There is almost a feeling of deja-vu but sees a few of them are trying to say something. The only thing she hears the soft hum of the cages.

Kat asks, “Whisper where’s Hanna?”

“Last row, three up. There should be a lift at the end of each row.”

She runs to the last row and finds the controls for the lift which she takes three up. Hanna was a tall woman, standing almost a head taller than Kat. Her eyes were a bright brown with a hint of copper, matching her hair, which framed her face in curls. She was a beautiful woman even while wearing the same white jumpsuit Kat had gotten rid of. Her pictures didn’t do her justice. She was standing at the edge of the cage, almost as if she was waiting for Kat to get their. Kat hits the cage release button on the controls and as Hanna steps onto the lift she hugs Kat.

She says, “I wasn’t expecting to meet you like this Katrice, but thank God you're here.”

“I was hoping for somewhere a little cooler than Ragnarok myself. You know with less skin blistering heat.”

Hanna laughs, “Isn’t that all too true.” She pauses and makes a serious face before asking, “How’s Jack?”

“Alive, barely. He was given mage root but we had enough antidote for him to live.”

Hanna lets out a sigh of relief. “What about the spheres?”

“We got them, but it almost cost us getting off that planet alive. What are they anyway and why were they so important you would like yourself get captured?”

“Right now isn’t the time. Lets get out of here to somewhere safe and then we can talk about who those sphere’s are.”

Who? Kat thought, which got her imagination up and running, but Hanna was right. Now isn’t the best time to have a full blown conversation about some glass trinkets, or what she thought those glass trinkets were. It was now time for the difficult part.

Hanna asks, “Is Gravan bring the ship, or is he already here?”

“I hope he’s close, but I don’t know.”

“Then why did you rescue me?”

“There was some kind of earthquake, and then a few explosions. There some people in lit up jumpsuits tearing the place apart. It looks like they came to steal something, and they killed everyone that got in their way before they got it.”

Hanna’s face went white, “They’re here?”

“If you’re talking about the guys in the flashy orange and blue jumpsuits, then yes.”

“Where’s Terra?”

Kat wasn’t expecting to hear her name. How did Hanna know who she was? “Do you mean the little girl?”

“Yes, where is she?”

“I only met her for a second and then the Warden Celeste told her to come down here. That was like a day ago.”

Hanna starts to bite at her the tip of her thumb and Kat can tell that the gears in her head are cranking hard. What was going through those gears that she stopped wanting to be rescued?

Kat asks, “We need to get out of here don’t we?”

Hanna shakes off her blank stare and looks at Kat with worry in her eyes. “We need to find Terra and get her out of here. I just hope
they
didn’t come here for her.”

Whisper says, “She’s no longer in the facility.”

Hanna jumps back and looks around, “Who’s there?”

Kat says, “It’s ok Hanna, it’s just Whisper. One of the AI’s that Gravan and I told you about.”

“Oh, right. Then what do you mean she isn’t in the facility any more?”

Whisper says, “She isn’t here, as in gone, left, vanished. I’m pretty sure the intruders took her and her stasis chamber with her.”

Kat remembers there was a tube like thing that they were carrying out of the vault, but why would they want that little girl?

Kat asks, “Why would they want her, and who are
They
?”

Hanna answers, “
They
are the Foremid or you might have heard them called the Gluttons. The Guild is currently at war with them at the edge of their territory, and are barely fending them off. Any ship or piece of technology they get, they adapt for all of their fleet. So far its been a stand still because they keep using magic to hold them back. If they get Terra, then they lose that advantage and they win.”

The Foremid. This was something else she wasn’t expecting to hear. This whole trip has been filled with more than she wanted. Hanna seems to be holding back a lot more than she’s letting on. Kat keeps that in mind when they hopefully get back to the ship.

Kat changes her mind back to Terra and asks, “Why does that make Terra so special?”

“She would be their key to unlocking how to use magic. I’m certain they already have everything else they need, but just lack the knowledge to use it.”

“So she’s like a magic prodigy or something?”

“Something like that yes, but it would take too much time to explain and we have wasted far too much time talking as it is. We need to leave, now, and then we need to rescue Terra.”

“Alright, but there are somethings we need to talk about while we walk. Whisper have you been able to get a communication out?”

Whisper says, “No. As far as I can tell communications are blocked.”

“Can you get anything through?”

“Not until someone stops the block. Which looks like it’s coming from the ground level.”

“How did you… You know what, doesn’t matter. We need to get to the ground floor anyway so its on the way.”

Kat and Hanna talk as they make their way back to the elevator. Hanna explains that Terra is her cousin from the House of Eagle. She was taken at an early age because she was compatible with all of the cybernetics needed for every type of magic. The Guild used her as a way test sound theories on making synthetic magic, which Kat didn’t even know magic was possible though cybernetics in the first place. They reach the lobby and nothing has changed since the last time that Kat was there. Hanna grabs a change of clothes for herself from one of the male guards. Whisper leads them to the working elevator that can take them to the ground level and Hanna continues explaining.

She talks about the Foremid and how they are so close to breaking through the Guild’s barricade it would just take one mess up. That if they got through they would take over humanity, and enslave them. The Earth Empire and the Conglomerate know of the Foremid and provide supplies and materials for the front line. They are the only thing keeping the three in balance with each other.