The Sac'a'rith (34 page)

We had not seen any other spacecraft as we approached, but the Night Wisp was not designed for reconnaissance, so our equipment might not have been capable of finding a hidden ship. This enemy had so far outmaneuvered us at every stop, so I was sure the magus had planned a way off the station. She may have intended to simply steal one of the many military craft on the station to ditch later.

Regardless of her plans, I needed to get this area locked down in case our magus had another way out. I found a terminal and gained access to the station’s communications array. “Commander, are your ships in position?”

“Yes, Byron,” he said.

“We have tracked the enemy operative all the way to this station, and we cannot afford to let her escape. I will send a signal once we make a move on her position. When that happens, I will need you to jump in and cut off any possible exit,” I said.

“Did you learn anything from Zah’rak yet?” he demanded.

I chuckled quietly to myself. He was still trying to exercise control over the mission, unwilling to admit he was no longer in charge. Still, I had to cooperate with him to some extent, since I needed his fleet. “I did, quite a bit, but there’s no time to talk right now. We will be making our move soon, and I have to get into position. Byron out,” I said.

Zah’rak trusted me, so I hoped he would not have a problem with me calling in backup like this; if we were to find Narcion, or track down the ringleader, we could not let this woman get away. We had to trap her here. It was not certain we would ever get another chance.

It was not my style to play a victim, as I had done with Zah’rak, but it was working well. I had earned his trust and confidence. I had originally planned to step into their group and take over Narcion’s leadership slot. I figured that Zah’rak did not want to lead, and would welcome a new leader to follow. I knew that Crivreen would follow Zah’rak’s direction if I was successful, but what I failed to account for was Ragnar. Unlike Zah’rak and the others, he was an unknown quantity; I had not had time to build a profile of him, so I was caught off my guard when he told them I was not human. I was also surprised when he turned out to be my greatest champion among them. He was a powerful asset to Zah’rak,
and it would be good to keep him as a friend.

Zah’rak had surprised me by his ability to induce people to follow him. He was a far stronger leader than I had originally thought. It was easy to see why Narcion had chosen him to be his successor; people naturally followed him and trusted him. Even I was beginning to think of Zah’rak as a friend and ally, and I had planned to step in and be the saving hero.

Doing my best to be stealthy, I made my way through the station, heading towards one of the secondary control rooms. My ability to control the station would be limited from there, but it was likely they would be unguarded and forgotten in a siege like this.

It did not take long to find one, but this had several dead bodies in it; those of several young soldiers who had died at their post. Normally that would not be an issue, but given that the dead seemed to stand up and continue to fight these days, I dragged the bodies out into the corridor. I had seen Zah’rak take the time to remove or destroy the heads of the fallen to prevent them from standing back up, but I could not bring myself to do that. Instead, I locked the door to prevent them from coming in after me.

The equipment in the room was fully functional, and I was able to use my access to override the lockouts. Using the internal cameras on the station, I could map out the enemy’s position. It was time to check in with my newest boss. “Zah’rak, do you read me?”

“Yes; what’s the situation?” he asked.

“It looks as if the attackers are focusing all their power in corridor A-13, section 2003, but the magus is not with them,” I said.

“Where is she?” he asked.

“She is in a room by herself, and appears to be sitting in a corner crying,” I said.

“Where?” he asked.

“Same corridor, near junction 71,” I said and gave him directions to it.

“She is the only thing that matters. We need to capture her alive,” said Zah’rak.

“I agree. Tell me when you’re ready to move in on her, and I will create a distraction to cover your approach,” I said.

“Sounds good,” he said and then closed the channel.

Now I had to reach what was left of the station’s defenses. “Central Core, this is listening post alpha-one-four-three. Do you read me?”

“Please confirm your identity and access,” came the reply.

Once that was done, I asked, “With whom am I speaking?”

“Sergeant Riley, sir,” he said.

“All right, Sergeant, what is your status down there?” I asked. His voice sounded young and scared. The fact that he was only a sergeant made me suspect he was merely the highest-ranking officer left standing, and did not have much command experience.

“We have about one hundred and fifty soldiers here, sir. We are presently under siege by, um, well, skeletons and things, sir,” he said.

“I can see that. I am on the station with you. How long can you hold out there?” I asked.

“Our shields appear to be holding, and we have enough supplies for at least a few weeks, sir,” he said. “But the enemy has increased their numbers on two occasions since we have been trapped here. If they keep getting reinforcements, our shields could fail much sooner,” he said.

“Understood. We currently have special forces on the station, and a full battle fleet should arrive shortly. I just need you to hold out a short while longer. Can you do that for us?” I asked.

“Yes, sir,” he said in a very unconvincing tone.

“I need to take control of the station’s defenses from here. Can you pass that control to me?” I asked.

“Yes, sir,” he said again.

“Excellent. Now, you just sit tight; if all goes well, in a few hours the station should be ours again,” I said.

“Thank you, sir,” he said and closed the channel.

I brought up the camera in the room with the female magus and looked at her again. One hundred and fifty souls were all that was left out of the five thousand soldiers who had been stationed here. This one slave girl was all it took to defeat everyone on the station, and among them had been some of the most highly-trained and skilled warriors we had ever produced. Not only was this consistent with the history of her previous attacks, but a single mercenary and a former slave had consistently defeated this all-powerful enemy when troops of soldiers could not.

Not even a century ago, magic was a thing of fairy tales and legends. Reality as I knew it was changing, and I was not sure I was ready for it. Things used to make sense; the dead used to stay dead, and skeletons were something you saw hanging in a doctor’s office. The worst part about it was that no one really knew when things would stabilize again. Magic itself was still largely a mystery and did not appear to be predictable or reliable.

“How are you doing, Ragnar?” I asked.

“Better. Does it ever get any easier?” he asked.

“Yes, you adjust to it more quickly each time,” I said. Ragnar had had some trouble dealing with the transition between the artificial gravity field of the Night Wisp, the microgravity of space, and the return to gravity on the station, so we found a secluded room to wait for him to recover.

“Zah’rak, I was wondering: how do we plan to catch her?” asked Crivreen.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Well, she can teleport and gate at will. We won’t be able to trap her anywhere,” said Crivreen.

“She can’t gate at will. That involves casting a spell,” said Ragnar.

“And she needs line-of-sight to teleport, right? So we just need to make sure she doesn’t have line-of-sight anywhere and keep her from casting,” I said.

“If she does cast a gate, run through it as fast as you can,” said Ragnar.

“But where will that put us?” I asked.

“Somewhere else on the station. Her skill and power are not great, so the distance she can gate will be very limited,” said Ragnar.

“But that makes no sense. Where did Narcion and Felix go, then?” asked Crivreen.

“She did not open a gate for that; someone else did. The closer we get to her, the more certain I am that my initial reading overestimated her,” he said.

“So we get her in a room and then fight with her nonstop to keep her from casting?” asked Crivreen.

“Just get me close to her, and I can safely put her to sleep. Then we can take her off this station and back to the Night Wisp where gates and teleporting will not help her to get away,” said Ragnar.

“Once we have her on the Night Wisp, we can put her in stasis until we can remove that slave implant. When that is gone she will be more friendly,” I said.

“Stasis?” asked Ragnar.

“It’s like being in an extremely deep sleep,” said Crivreen. “Normally it is used to keep someone alive until medical help can be found, but it should work well in this case, too.”

About then, Agent Byron contacted us and gave us an update on the status of the undead attack on the station. When that conversation was over I said, “If you are ready, Ragnar, I would like to move out.”

“I’ll be fine,” he said. He did not look fine, but time was not on our side on this mission.

“Let’s keep as low a profile as possible. I’d rather not have to fight my way through thousands of walking dead to reach her, if we can help it,” I said.

We slipped through the corridors, taking the long way round to avoid the main area of combat that Agent Byron had told us about. Everywhere we went there were piles of dead bodies. Most bore no sign of wounds, but there were scorch marks all over the walls, indicating that there had been a heated battle.

“Please tell me we don’t have to remove their heads,” said Crivreen.

“Remove their heads?” asked Ragnar.

“That is the only way to make sure they don’t get back up and come after us,” I said. “No, Crivreen; at least, not yet. That might give away our position.”

“Good,” he said.

I am not sure how long it took us to work our way to where the magus was hiding. We made it there eventually, apparently without being noticed. Once we were outside the door, I contacted Agent Byron. “We should be right outside the door. Is she still alone?”

“Yes. What is the plan?” he asked.

“Well, you said you were going to create a distraction, but I wonder if complete surprise would be better?” I said.

“It’s worth a shot. Once you make your move, I can activate all the station’s defenses and send sentries to your aid,” he replied. “You should be far enough from the main battle to get out of there before reinforcements can come to help her.”

“What about the soldiers at the core?” I asked.

“If we can stop her from bringing in reinforcements, they will be fine,” he said.

“As soon as we charge into the room, make sure this door seals behind us. We need to cut off her line-of-sight so that she cannot teleport away,” I said.

“Understood. Ready when you are,” he said.

“Now!” I called out, opened the door, and charged in. She was sitting in the corner alone and not moving.

As soon as she noticed us she leapt to her feet, but it was too late. The door behind us slid shut. She started to cast, and I called out, “No! Wait!”

Ragnar was already on the move. He pulled a small stone out of his pocket and tossed it at her while calling out a word I did not recognize. As the stone approached her it burst into a small puff of smoke, which encircled her head. She wavered for a moment, then fell against the wall and slid down to the floor.

“She will sleep for a while,” said Ragnar.

“Trouble,” said Agent Byron over the intercom.

“What’s up?” I asked.

“Looks like someone is gating in more skeletons and they are moving towards your position. Get out of there!” he said.

As he said that, there was a pounding on the door that was getting louder and louder. “What is that?” I asked.

“Skeletons, trying to break down the door. I am moving sentries to assist you, but I fear that they will be too late. You need to find a way out of there now,” he said.

“Crivreen, what is on the other side of this wall?” asked Ragnar.

“Not much; a supply closet, I think,” he said.

“Then take cover,” he said. “I am going to make a rather large hole in this wall.”

I scooped up the fallen magus, locked her helmet in place, and covered her with my body. She was wearing only a very lightweight environmental suit that would do little more than protect her from adverse environments like space. I had noticed that casting of spells required many complex gestures, so I assumed she needed something more flexible than traditional armor to work her magic with. Whatever the reason, I was sure it would not hold up against whatever Ragnar planned to do to the wall.

Ragnar took another stone from his pouch and threw it at the wall. I ducked my head and braced myself for the impact as I heard him call out another word unknown to me.

I felt the shockwave slam into my armor just as its exterior microphones cut off the sound of the explosion. Once that had passed, I carried the magus through the gaping hole that had taken the place of the rear wall of the room.

“Byron! What is the best way back to the Night Wisp from here?” I asked over the intercom.

“Run down that corridor, and take the second turn on the left. I will try to use the sentries to clear you a path,” he said.

As we ran, several wraiths tried to get to the magus, but Crivreen’s fast work with lightning bolts and Ragnar’s swords killed them as fast as they came. It was all I could do to use my body as a shield against the wraith attacks. This little human was my best chance of finding Narcion, and I would not let anything happen to her.

Once the wraiths were cut down, the skeletons began to press in. Try as we might, there were just too many of the enemy forces. We were constantly being cut off at every turn. Agent Byron tried to use the sentries to help, but they were spread out too far, and the walking dead formed walls of flesh to prevent them from reaching us.

“Ragnar, do you have more of those exploding rocks?” asked Crivreen.