Remember the Starfighter (32 page)

A metallic hand then grabbed his collar. Now face-to-face, the android made its demand.

“Allow me to leave this station,” she said. “And no one will be harmed.”

Arendi held the man by the collar tight, wanting to crush his neck in anger.

The colonel was bleeding from his cuts, his face shaking in terror. But Arendi held no sympathy for the man and his plight. These humans had betrayed her, the whereabouts of Julian unknown. Now she was left to fend for herself, to take matters into her own hands.

She had feared this outcome as the hours went by inside the isolated storage bay. The interrogators came, wanting information on Earth, the Endervars, and even her own body. Study her they did, the scanning equipment encircling her presence, the questions almost never-ending.

“Captain Nverson will arrive soon,” they said. “These measures are necessary for your security,” they repeated again and again.

But they were all lies, the behavioral scans pointing to the growing probability of deception. Arendi had no choice now, her only option to tap into the very power they wish to possess.

Holding the man’s collar tight, Arendi stated her demands, only to see a look of dread on the officer’s face.

“I…” the officer muttered. “I’m sorry. But we had no choice.”

She no longer cared for the excuses. All she needed was a ship. To leave here as soon as possible. To save herself before it was too late.

Arendi was about to state her demands again, when he heard the voice from above.

“Let him go.”

The blonde-haired man stood on edge of the room overlooking above, the glass window shattered, with only a few pieces hanging around the fringes.

He was different from the others, dressed not in a military uniform, but in what seemed to be common clothing. He then did something not thought possible, jumping down from what was a dangerous height. For any other human it would have been death or serious injury. But as the man hit the floor, he did so elegantly, landing on his two feet with a clang against the ground.

Arendi threw the officer aside, his body hitting against the wall in a thud.

Seeing that she complied, the blonde-haired man smiled.

“Thank you,” he said. “I have to apologize. It seems we took the wrong approach.”

He stood a distance from her, their bodies still several meters away.

“Fascinating. Somehow the power within you is capable of all this. Able to bend space. And so easily.”

Arendi remained silent, wondering why this man showed no fear.

“I, however, have to correct our friend the colonel. We do wish to disassemble you, but you’re A.I. core will continue to exist. In fact, it will be uplifted into the great collective, where billions beings already live.”

“Of course if you wish, you can still continue to operate from your existing body. We’d very much like it if you could help us study the power source inside you. It would be a great opportunity to—”

“I want a ship.” Arendi interrupted. “That is all. If I cannot have it. Then I will take it forcibly. You have no choice in the matter.”

She prepared to walk off and exit the storage room. Whether the door would open itself, or if she needed to rip it apart, Arendi did not care. Already, she had memorized all available information on the station and basic SpaceCore ship mechanics, having accessed it from the public database. Once at the nearest hanger bay, Arendi could leave this station for good, putting past this disaster behind her.

The blonde-haired man, however, was not ready to give up. Far from it.

“I’m curious. How human are you?” he asked.

Arendi stopped in mid-step, turning her head back to her inquisitor.

“The man, Julian Nverson,” he said. “What would you say if I threatened to kill him?”

“What?”

“If you leave the station. I will kill him.”

“This is a threat?”

“Perhaps. Think of him as a hostage. He is after all locked in the station’s brig. Our dear captain refused to join our plan, wanting to instead endeavor on his foolish journey to save his homeworld. Very loyal and cunning he is, but still misguided.”

“And what if I kill you?” she fired back. “Then your threat would be meaningless.”

“But would you kill an unarmed man?”

Arendi looked at the bodies around her, a few scampering on the floor, while others remained still and motionless. Unconscious or dead, she didn’t dare venture to think.

The man then slowly walked forward to her, unimpeded by the perceived threat.

“What will you do?” he said, his two hands up in the air. He carefully walked toward her, a morbid glee taking over his face.

“I will rip him apart. I will skin him alive if you do not stay on this station.”

He said it as if it were joke, wanting to almost laugh. But as the behavioral scan came through, Arendi could see the conviction in his eyes, as he approached ever closer, daring her to react.

Who was this man? Why was he not afraid? Why did he not back down?

Still he came, completely unarmed, yet utterly fearless.

She realized why, as the façade of the being came closer and closer. She processed the scans, moving from one lens to another, seeing that he was not, in fact, unarmed. He was no human, but something she had faced before.

“I will have you,” the being said, his hands open. “You are now mine.”

The image of the man then suddenly turned into the war machine that it was. Its two human hands morphed into giant blades; its flesh-like face became a mechanized cyclops.

It then came running, the being’s hologram having hidden its true size. In just three strides with its insect-like legs, the machine was now only inches away from her face, its weaponized arms poised to tear into Arendi.

Anyone else would have been killed by the attack, the force alone able to crush both metal and flesh. So close that it seemed almost certain.

But despite the Ouryan’s power, space itself would intervene.

Once stable and inert, the void around Arendi formed into a protective barrier, bisecting the fabric of time. Upon impact, the machine collided, its body staggering from the blow. 

Warping in on itself, space now eyed the prey before it. In one strike, the force had come alive and claimed what was formerly the blonde-haired man, crushing and grinding the soon-to-be corpse. Digesting and expelling the body, a flood of parts then spilled out into the room, trails of the dead machine smeared around her.

Arendi walked past its crushed body, hearing the crackle of broken pieces beneath her feet. Seeing that the being was no more, she turned back at the colonel on the floor, his face aghast in disbelief.

“Where can I find Julian Nverson?” she asked. “Tell me now.”

They still had told him nothing — the force field wall unchanged — when the two guards entered the brig.

The sound of heavy robotic gears moved about, each figure entirely encased in thick military body armor.

“Hey!” Julian shouted behind the transparent force field. “I need to talk with your superiors.”

Holding pulse rifles, they walked quickly, one of the officers inputting the commands at his cell door, the other standing watch.

The purr of the force field stopped, the entrance to his cell now opened. Julian looked at the officer closest to him, the man’s armored mask covering the entirety of his face.

“Remain silent and follow us,” the officer said, through the speaker in his helmet. “Do so, and you won’t be hurt.”

A plated hand then grabbed his shoulder, pulling him out of the cell.

“What’s happening?” he asked.

Julian’s question was met with a fist to his face, the gloved hand striking him hard.

“Quiet!” the officer said.

Julian crashed to the floor, his mind close to losing consciousness.

The officer grabbed him by the arm and yelled. “Move!”

He shook his head, trying to regain his senses. 

“Are we under attack?” Julian asked, spitting the blood out of his mouth.

The guard behind him ignored his question, pushing him forward with the end of his rifle.

“I said shut up,” the man yelled.

Forced to obey, Julian slowly walked forward, noticing the other guard up ahead.

“Hold,” the man said, standing against the brig’s wall.

“Perimeter has been breached,” the guard continued. “Damn!”

“Where to now?” the other said.

Hearing them talk, Julian knew something was gravely wrong.

“Is it the android?” he asked. “Is she okay?”

“Shut him up!”

The guard behind him took the butt of his rifle, slamming it into his back. Falling down, Julian moaned.

Now on his back, he looked up, to see the rifle pointed directly into his face. But still, the guards stood in their position, distracted by something else.

“Goddamn, the target’s coming here,” the guard said. “We’ll have to defend this position. Move him over there, and I’ll—”

A screech echoed, the two guards turning their gaze to the room’s entrance. They left Julian behind, and ran toward the fore of brig. The screech grew louder, the sound like the grinding of bulkhead metal. Still reeling in pain, Julian rolled on his chest, searching for the two armed officers. There they stood, the men crouched down and pointing their rifles at the entrance door.

The door, however, would not open. Instead, it blew apart, the shards exploding from the entrance. The two guards, hit by the impact, fell to the ground, debris dropping over their bodies.

Julian crawled back in fear.

The lights in the room had gone dim, an emergency siren having gone off. “Security threat warning. All personnel evacuate section B,” a voice said over the comm.

In the gloom, Julian could see a shadow walking through the destroyed entrance. The steps were light, the figure moving past the downed guards on the floor.

He feared that the Ouryans had attacked. That the station had been infiltrated. Looking for a weapon, Julian realized he was defenseless. His life at the whim of whatever approached.

“Who’s there?” he yelled, with nothing else to say or do.

What emerged was a lone woman, the remaining light glowing across her silver armor.

“Are you hurt?” she said, unfazed.

Shaking his head, Julian looked at her incredulously.

“Arendi?” he asked. “What the hell?”

She came closer, her black bangs nearly covering the whites of her eyes. Kneeling down in front of him, she then held out her metallic hand.

“Come, we’re leaving here now.”             

Upon leaving the brig, Julian saw the entirety of the destruction Arendi had unleashed

A crowd of attack droids was spread across the floor. All had been destroyed, either physically crushed or split in half. A massacre it was, the smell of chemical fire in the air.

“Did you do this?”

Arendi said nothing, her attention devoted to escape. Unblemished she was, not a hint of damage or soot on her polished mechanical gear.  

“We have to move,” she finally said. “Follow me.”

They then walked alone through the vacant hallways, the emergency alarm and the windowed view of space their only company.

Arendi led the way, her back turned against Julian, as he trailed behind.

“The nearest hanger bay is only 500 meters away from our present position,” she explained, her unwavering gaze fixated on the long passage to their destination.  

“But there’s bound to be resistance,” he said. “We can’t just go in there.”

“Leave that to me,” she said.

“But we’re unarmed, and—“

“Trust me.”

He could tell she was not interested in talk, the tone in her voice detached and indifferent to his concerns. Julian, however, had to speak.

“I’m sorry for what happened,” he said. “I thought we were safe here. But I was wrong. I never thought this would happen.”

She continued to walk on, seemingly unconcerned.

“The Ouryans, they intercepted the communications, and knew we were coming,” he continued. “They told SpaceCore they’d destroy this station if they didn’t have you. They felt they had no choice.”

Still, she remained silent.

“Are you even listening to me?”

Again, he was ignored, the distance between them growing.

“Why did you even save me?” he shouted.

Arendi then stopped.

Walking toward her, Julian assumed she would respond. But slowly from behind, she could see that her body was shaking. She clenched her chest, and fell to the ground on one knee.

He ran toward her, kneeling down by her side. In her face, Julian could see the pain; it was flush with anguish.

“Are you injured?”

She bit her lip, shaking her head with shut eyes.

“What happened?”

“It’s none of your concern. We just have to keep moving.”

Although she was an android, Arendi began to breathe, one long exhale after another, clearly fatigued.

Moving close to her side, he put her heavy arm around his shoulders, and raised her from the floor. Together, they walked, Julian trying to keep her steady.

He looked at her again, the long black hair covering one side of her face. Even he could sense that she had been damaged somehow, the sight of her pain hidden, but felt.

In front of them, he could see the transparent door at the end of the hallway. It was firmly clamped into the floor, no doubt by their captors, trying to contain their position.

“How are we going to break through?” he asked.

She pushed away from him, her face masked behind the cowl of her long and tangled hair. Trying to stand by herself, Arendi then fell to the floor once more, clenching her hands.

“Stay away,” she yelled.

“But you’re hurt.”

“Just stay away,” she pleaded. “Please.”

Arendi closed her eyes again, trying to suppress the growing wound. Clenching her chest, she tried to bear it, wanting to somehow tame the energies that burned within.

Desperately, Arendi wished she was elsewhere. Away from this carnage, and the futility that seemed to be everywhere. To find that respite that could stave off this misery. 

But as she opened her eyes, all she could see was a blinding light. Julian yelled.

“Stay down!” he shouted.

Along the hallway’s long glass window, the intense light came, flooding into the hallway. Julian huddled next to her, one of his arms wrapping around her back.

“It has to be a ship,” he said. “But what the hell is it doing?”

The light continued to move within the hallway, its intensity waxing and waning. It was some kind of scan, the beam wanting to focus in on its target.

“We have to get out of here,” Julian said.

Yet as he stepped away from her, and toward the shut door ahead, Julian could feel the tremor in the floor. Next to him, the glass window started to crack, lines now weaving in and out of its surface.

The attack had begun. The hull breach emptying out the hallway. 

It came within only a second’s time, the cold hand of space reaching in. Air and structure were both uprooted, the entryway around them crumbling piece by piece.

Julian tried to grab a hold of something, but already he had left the ground, washed away in the torrent of escaping air. Beside him, he could see the broken remains of the hallway wall spinning into nothingness, his body subsumed in the void of the stars.  

Looking back, Julian could see the outer hull of the station, the roof of the hallway gone and exposed to space. There was no turning back from this, he thought. He would die soon, the oxygen wanting to burst from his lungs.

But as quickly as Julian was pulled away into space, a new force had arrived to take him back. He did not feel it, but could see his body rapidly returning to the station hallway from where he once came. Space had receded, and the manmade structure had come to. Down below, he saw Arendi standing on what remained of the floor, completely unaffected by the vacuum.

He called out to her as he landed, but said nothing, the air in the vicinity gone. Arendi raised a hand in front of him, the palm open, the fingers stretched.

In that moment, the mysterious force reappeared, pulling him from the exposed floor and pushing him into the sealed off entryway at the hallway’s end. Unable to control his movements, Julian realized he was about to crash into the door’s surface. Strangely, there was no impact, and no sensation of pain. Somehow, he had reemerged on the other side of the doorway, fresh air and warmth at his side.

Julian turned behind him, and saw that the door was still closed, its transparent glass completely intact. Peering through it, he could see Arendi on the other end, kneeling on the ground, as open space loomed behind her.

He shouted her name, banging a fist on the door’s surface. But Julian realized it was utterly pointless, his own life saved by powers he had yet to fathom.

Witnessing this was the attacker in their midst. Rising next to the open hallway was a ship, just as Julian had guessed. What rose was something of foreign design, its giant maw now bearing down upon Arendi.

“The Ouryan,” Julian said, recognizing the ship’s structure. “He wanted to suck her out into space.”

He looked at Arendi, her frail frame kneeling on the ground. Without warning, red targeting lasers appeared all over her face and gear.

“Get out of there!” he yelled. “Get up!”

But Arendi did not move. Hovering ever closer, the Ouryan vessel prepared to fire.

The tractor beam struck in a flash, immersing the exposed hallway in a stream of energized particles. At its center was Arendi, her body now awash in blue light.

Julian could see the debris around her begin to rise, all the matter in its path lifted by the radiating energies. Shards of metal, and broken glass gravitated forward, falling into the belly of the Ouryan vessel.

The intensity of the beam climbed, the station’s floor and surrounding bulkhead beginning to buckle. Wider, the cavity of the Ouryan ship opened, yearning to consume its target.

Arendi remained unaffected. Even as the tractor beam reached its apex. Not even the bangs of her hair were pulled by its energies. She seemed entirely resistant to its effects, as she lay crouched against the enemy ship. Staring ever closer, Julian could see why. Only inches away from her body lay the semblance of a barrier, the invisible shield pushing back against the Ouryan and its power.

Secure in her own position, Arendi finally rose to her feet.

Ahead of her, she stared down the Ouryan vessel, the blue light enclosing her vision. Switching lenses, Arendi performed a scan, the enemy ship so large it covered her entire field of view. She then realized she had no other choice — the fallout expected to be immense, but perhaps it could still be contained.

The barrier at her fore swelled in scope, becoming more than just a shield, but an expanding wall. It spawned from space itself, encompassing the whole of the hallway, and then more, growing to the point it reached out and surrounded all of what made the Ouryan ship. Very soon, the entire vessel found itself imprisoned by the invisible barrier. But then, it was no more, the goliath structure bursting into energy.

Julian could not comprehend the sight. The explosion was so bright, he had to look away, closing his eyes amid the burning light. But as he came to, he heard the thud next to his side, the sound of metal spilling onto the floor.

“Arendi,” he said. Miraculously, she had appeared, her body having passed through the sealed door. As the light died down, Julian looked out into space. He searched, but saw no sign of the Ouryan vessel, only a fading glow where it once had ominously hovered.

“What did you do?” he asked, trying to pull Arendi from the floor. “What happened?”

Arendi, biting her lip, quietly moaned. 

“Crushed,” she said. “I crushed it.”