Sac'a'rith (13 page)

“You didn’t go beyond the airlock
,
”
commented Shira.

“When I got there, I figured that blowing open their airlocks would cause all their air to rush out. They would have to seal blast doors all over the craft, preventing them from moving about. That should make the point without hurting anyone
.
”

I watched as the grenades detonated and the doors flew off the airlocks in eerie silence. The cruiser pitched as the air rushed out and tossed them off course. The ship’s stabilizing thrusters fired to counter the effect, but that would be the least of their concerns as their atmosphere was being emptied into space.
“Message sent
,
”
I sent.

We got back on board and headed to the bridge. “How does it look?”

“Well, you got their attention all right,” said Crivreen.

“Open a broadcast channel and send this message,” I said. “Pirates, as we have just demonstrated we can board your craft at will and destroy anything we wish. You cannot stop us. Do not attempt to follow us, and we will allow you to live. End transmission.”

“Okay, message sent,” said Crivreen.

“Jump then, but come up short in case we have to run.” Once we were clear of the post-jump hangover I said, “Did they follow?”

“Doesn’t look like it,” said Crivreen.

“Okay. As discreetly as you can, get us out of here,” I said.

Shira slipped off and presumably headed back to hydroponics. Raquel stood watching the tactical screens, but no threat materialized. Ragnar slumped into his seat, looking greatly relieved. I sent him to his quarters for some rest, planning to question him when he was rested.

“Now that that is behind us, I’m going to head back to the mess hall,” I said.

“Wait, there’s one more thing,” said Crivreen. “That Phareon guy called, looking for you. He didn’t seem happy.”

“What did he say?” I asked.

“He just demanded that you call him on your return,” he said.

“Really?” I was getting tired of his attitude and didn’t appreciate the way he treated Crivreen like a second-class citizen. Dealing with him was just one more reason to retreat to the woods and forget this life for a while. “Well, put him up on the big screen and let’s see what he thinks is so important.”

“He’s not going to like that,” warned Crivreen.

“Good,” I said, cutting him off. “Put the communication through.”

It took Crivreen a few minutes, but eventually he was able to raise the commander. “Zah’rak, I see you’re well,” said the commander.

“Yes,” was all I said.

“Then tell me, what in the Emperor’s name is Felix up to?” he demanded.

“That’s not really your business,” I replied.

“He emptied all his accounts and disappeared while under contract with us. That makes it my business,” he said.

“Commander, you haven’t paid for the last two missions we completed for you. That means you are in breach of contract and Felix owes you nothing,” I said.

“Look – ” he began.

“No!” I interjected. “You are in breach of contract. There will be no negotiations until you pay what you owe. Is that clear?”

He cursed and closed the channel.

“I think we might be unemployed,” I said.

Crivreen chuckled. “You think so or hope so?”

“He’ll pay,” said Raquel. “He has no choice.”

“Why?” I asked.

“He needs you. I checked on current events before meeting up with you. Things are developing which would normally lead them to seek Narcion’s help,” she said.

“You mean more undead?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” she said. “All they know is that there are mysterious circumstances which other teams have failed to return from investigating.”

“But why does he care about Felix?” asked Crivreen.

“He’s a controller, and Felix just walked away from him,” she said. “We’ll hear from him again, but the last report I had was that he was sending a team of magi to check one of the stations in question. I suspect it will be another team like Criveen, Jasper and Felix.”

“Crivreen, set best speed to Siden. I would like to have the supplies to make better armor before we accept any new missions.”

The flight to Siden passed without incident. Raquel worked with Shira, training her in the skills which Narcion had taught me at first, and Shira slowly accepted that Raquel wasn’t planning to kill her. Crivreen and I studied the spell book that we had acquired from Master Dusty and his team. As time passed and I came to know Raquel better, my unease started to fade.

She was different from Narcion in some ways, but mostly she resembled him. Her instinctive behavior was to fight, and she was very cryptic when questioned on subjects she didn’t want to discuss. It was obvious she was from a different time and a different world. Before waking up in our era, her life had been lived under the constant shadow of war.

“Okay, Zah’rak,” said Crivreen, “we’re in a geosynchronous orbit over the ruins of the necromancer’s castle.”

“Any sign of life?” I asked.

“Nothing on active or passive sensors, but we still haven’t upgraded the sensor array.”

I chuckled. Narcion had rarely depended on technology, so our ship was far from cutting-edge, a fact that bothered Crivreen no end. I didn’t see the problem, since most of the time the Night Wisp was just a mobile home. We relied on other tools far more than on the ship.

“Everyone to the mission room, except Crivreen,” I said. “Crivreen, I need you to take Felix’s place and stay with the Night Wisp.”

“I guessed as much,” he said. An expression of relief passed over his face, as if he were happy to be left behind.

In the mission room we all suited up in our armor. Before clicking on my helmet I said, “Standard penetration formation. I’ll go first and break left. Ragnar, you’ll follow and break right. Raquel, you follow and make sure our rear is clear. Shira, once we give the all-clear you come through and close the gate. Everyone understand?”

“Yes,” said Raquel. “But what are you expecting to find?”

“I have no idea, but we’ve jumped into plenty of unknown situations as a team. We can never assume a gate is taking us to a safe place.”

She smiled and nodded in understanding.

I clicked on my helmet and disengaged the safeties from my blaster. Ragnar and Shira also engaged their helmets. They would depend on wands which Crivreen had crafted for them, but I still preferred the feel of a solid blaster in my hands. Crivreen’s wands were just too small and flimsy for my taste.

I looked to Raquel, who nodded and pressed a button on the collar of her armor. A helmet automatically unfolded and surrounded her head. Once it was locked in place her armor deepened from its purple color to an almost perfect, flat black. No light at all seemed to reflect from it. Even in that well-lit mission room she was hard to see. It was like looking into a hole with no light. It was there, but you had to infer that from the blackness instead of seeing it directly.

“Ready,” she said.

“Shira, open the gate, please,” I said.

Shira cast her gate and I charged through. As I came out the other side I dove to the left and rolled behind some cover. After a quick scan of the area I called out, “Clear!” on the comm.

Ragnar came through with a wand in each hand and found cover to the right. “Clear!” he reported.

I expected to see Raquel come through next, but no one came. I was about to say something over the comm when she called out, “Clear!”

Shira came through then and closed the gate, quickly running to my side.

“Hold cover,” I said. After checking the environmental conditions with my armor’s sensors, I pulled off my helmet and tasted the air to see if I could catch any scent of life around us. Closing my eyes I used my power of Sight to sweep the area and saw no threat.

Using Sight I was able to see Raquel crouched behind cover with her back to our position, watching our rear just as I had asked. I sighed with relief. “Looks clear.”

“Where’s Raquel?” asked Shira.

“Here,” said Raquel, who shimmered into view as she walked up.

“Adaptive skin?” asked Shira.

“No,” she said. “I don’t have the concealment line of magic. This is a camosuit.”

“What’s that?” I asked.

“My armor automatically changes color and texture to match the environment, making me hard to see,” she said. “It’s an invention I picked up while traveling in another realm.”

“Very nice,” said Ragnar.

“Indeed. We may have to go there and buy ourselves some,” I said.

“Oh, I doubt that would be wise. I barely got back with my life the last time I was there,” said Raquel.

“Not exactly the prettiest place, is it?” commented Shira, bringing us back to the situation at hand.

The region had once been a thick forest full of life, but now it mostly consisted of burnt-out husks of trees and rubble, permanently scarred from our battle with the necromancer. There was nothing green anywhere to be seen and no trace of animal life. I knew from the orbital view that there was healthy forest not far from our position, but you would never have guessed it from our immediate area. We were close enough to see the remains of the fortress, which was also mostly destroyed.

“I’ve always wondered why Narcion didn’t warn us about the aftermath of destroying the table,” I said. “Was he afraid we wouldn’t follow through?”

“No, nothing like that. We simply didn’t know this would happen,” said Raquel. “We assumed the power would have vented back into the Spirit Realm.”

“We’re being watched,” said Ragnar.

“By whom? Where?” I asked.

“By – ” he started to reply, but was cut off as a bolt hit him in the chest and knocked him down.

I grabbed him and dragged him behind cover while Raquel pulled Shira down behind some boulders. “You all right?”

“Yes,” said Ragnar. “The armor absorbed most of the energy.”

He was wheezing a little as he spoke, but there was no time to press him as another bolt slammed into the rocks near us.

“Where are they coming from?” I asked.

“I see him. He’s behind those logs to the north. I need a distraction,”
sent Raquel.

“Go!”
I sent and tossed a concussion grenade towards the logs. A thunderous rupture of energy shook the ground under us as the grenade went off. As soon as the shockwave had passed our position, I sprang up and was aiming my rifle when a human body went flying over the logs and hit the ground hard.

About to charge, I noticed something odd about the air above him, a sort of shimmer. Then a black hood appeared and pulled itself over the man’s head.

Fire rained down on the area, and the downed magus screamed in pain. I closed my eyes and used my Sight to see Raquel in her image-shifting armor running for cover as a second magus cast fire down from the sky.

I fired my rifle at the invisible magus, but the energy from the bolts seemed to explode around him.
“Now what?”

“He’s shielded from energy-based attacks,”
sent Raquel.

“Shira, watch for the explosion and gate me right above it,”
I sent.

“Got it,”
she sent back.

Shira and I had used this technique many times now and she needed no further instructions. This would be the first time we used it against an invisible floating target, but the principle should work the same; at least, I hoped so.

I opened fire and elongated balls of tightly-packed, highly-energized particles flew towards the magus in the sky at the speed of light. As each blast from my gun slammed into his shield bright flashes of light were released, clearly marking his position for Shira.

Shira cast a gate in front of me and I sprinted through. As I came out the other side I was directly above the magus. Keeping my eyes closed, which allowed me to see him clearly despite his invisibility, I used my telekinesis to push against the ground and slow my fall. As I passed him I kicked him hard. My foot connected squarely with his chest, doubling him over and breaking his concentration. He fell quickly and slammed hard into the ground.

My kick had sent me flying backwards from him. I teleported to the ground, rolling a few times to use up my momentum, and came to a stop next to the magus. I raised the stock of my gun to strike him.

“Wait,” called out Shira.

“Why?” I asked.

“I think he’s dead.
”

Raquel appeared next to me and said, “They both are.”

“Anyone hurt?” I asked.

“Ragnar had the wind knocked out of him, but his armor held,” said Raquel. “Shira?”

“I’m fine. The fire magus was more concerned with you two than with me,” she said.

I wondered if that bothered her. I knew I might feel slighted if an enemy never bothered to target me. It would imply that I wasn’t enough of a threat to them. Shira’s gate had won the fight, though, proving her to be a worthy target. It was impossible to guess what she thought of it all.

After making sure Ragnar was okay, I walked over to the corpse of the other magus. “What’s with the hood?”

Raquel chuckled. “An old trick to keep a magus from teleporting away, or from using most of his spells.” I noticed she had also tied his hands.

“Cunning,” said Ragnar. “He can’t use his hands to cast, and you allowed him no line of sight for aiming any spell that didn’t need his hands.”

“Who is he?” I asked. It struck me forcefully how easily a magus was disabled. A simple hood and rope eliminated most of his power. From a distance a magus seemed unstoppable, yet I’d just kicked one out of the sky and Raquel had stopped another with only a hood. Seeing how easily these two had been defeated was a strong warning for me; I would have to be careful not to overestimate myself.

“I don’t know,” she replied.

“He’s a Korshalemian sorcerer,” said Ragnar, “as was the other one. They must have been psionics, since one was levitating and the other teleported at least once.”

“Not true,” said Raquel.

“What isn’t true?” asked Ragnar.

“This persistent belief that the basic powers differ between realms. They are in fact the same,” she told him. By her tone it was apparent that she was fed up hearing that belief, but this was the first time I’d heard her address the issue.