Sac'a'rith (23 page)

“‘Cripple mode?’” asked Marcus.

“I would have thought you’d know more about your own body parts. Cripple mode is when they shut themselves down to prevent damage,” I said.

“Why did they do that?” he asked.

“It appears that there’s a specific set of operations needed in order to restart them after they’ve been in a hyberpod,” I said, pausing to consider how to explain what I was reading. “In a sense they still think they’re in the hyberpod, so they’re not running.”

“I don’t recall reading anything about this in the manuals,” said Marcus.

“Did you actually read the manuals?” asked Raquel.

“Yes; well, maybe not all of them. I mostly flicked through them looking for the interesting stuff,” he said.

Raquel chuckled. “I say we shouldn’t turn his implants back on until he’s read all the manuals.”

“A little help here, Purwryn?” asked Marcus.

“Hey, Zah’rak,” called Purwryn as I was on my way to the bridge.

“Yes?” I said.

“Marcus is fully functional again. He’ll need a bit of recovery time, but thanks to his implants he can get around just fine now.”

“Excellent!” I said, although ‘fully functional’ seemed like an odd way to put it. “I take it that the message we received from Hospital Station yesterday was of some assistance?”

“Yes. Raquel is preparing a reply with all our new information, just to make sure we didn’t miss anything else.”

“Good. I was just going to the bridge to check out our progress. I believe we’re less than a few days from the military base. From there, we should be able to establish an encrypted channel over the military network for a real-time conversation with the hospital.”

“That would be great. Maybe we should hold the update until then.”

“Good idea, since we might be able to contact them before they could receive that message.” I had turned to continue my way to the bridge when he stopped me again.

“There was something else in the message from Hospital Station, and I think you should look at it right away.”

I followed him back down the corridor and we met with Marcus and Raquel in the mess hall on the Resden craft. They played the message from Dr. Leslie on the hospital station warning us that Resden was hunting us.

“Since we’re sitting on a stolen Resden cruiser, do you want to tell me what it was you did?” I asked.

“Nothing. I already told you everything I know,” said Purwryn.

“I doubt they’d put this much effort into hunting you if there’s no more to it than what you’ve told us. There must be something else,” I said.

“I agree, but I really don’t know what,” said Purwryn.

“Marcus, do you know any more?”

He shrugged and said, “Honestly, I don’t. Before we left I checked with my father, who is the captain of the ship we were serving on, and he didn’t know anything either. He said he anticipated that Resden agents were going to take control from him at the next stop and sweep the ship.”

“That could be it,” said Purwryn. “Maybe they weren’t after us specifically but, since we ran before they could search the ship, they’re making the assumption we’re part of whatever was going on.”

Raquel frowned in thought. “That’s a possibility. Any idea what they were looking for? Was it a person or a thing?”

“No. I wish I did, but I don’t know what they were after,” said Marcus.

“How did they know about the Night Wisp?” I asked. The whole thing stank. Someone knew something; whether it was Purwryn or Marcus I didn’t know, but one of them did. I was sure of it.

“I can answer that,” said Purwryn. “They intercepted the call from me to Crivreen, and his reply. The encryption code we used is a fairly simple one. If they transmitted a copy back home, I’m sure their computers could have cracked it.”

“Makes sense,” I said.

“Look, Resden is after one or both of you for some reason. If we’re to protect you, we need to figure out why they’re pursuing you,” said Raquel.

They both remained silent. Despite everything, I believed Purwryn was telling me the truth, or at least the truth as he understood it. That left Marcus as a wild card. Had he done something and decided to capitalize on Purwryn’s departure to make his own escape, or was he the innocent tagalong friend he claimed to be? I wasn’t sure I trusted him fully. He’d done nothing to make me think he wasn’t trustworthy, but there wasn’t much he could do when paralyzed in sickbay.

“We’re en route to a Phareon military base to restock weapons and ammo. From there we’re heading into what is likely to be a hot battle zone. We can’t have Resden making a move while we’re already in combat, and we can’t show up at a Phareon military base with a stolen Resden cruiser,” I said.

“What are you suggesting?” asked Purwryn.

“First we have to ditch the cruiser. So, Marcus, you have a choice: you can come with us and potentially be killed in combat, or you can take this cruiser and try your luck alone,” I said.

“Purwryn told me quite a bit about you all while I lay in sickbay,” he said. “If I understood correctly, you’re all citizens of the Wizard Kingdom?”

“Yes,” I replied.

“Then I’d like to stick with you. The way I see it, the only way I’m going to be safe now is to move there. Resden certainly won’t look for me there and you don’t seem likely to cut me apart and remove my implants.”

“Raquel?”
I sent telepathically.
“What do you think?”

“Marcus knows more than he’s telling,”
she sent.
“But ultimately he’s right; the only safe way for him is to stay with us for the moment and later move back to the Wizard Kingdom.”

“So your advice is to help him?”
I sent.

“I’m not sure it’s the wisest course, but we should do it. I think Purwryn at least feels we owe him that much, and he may be right
.
”

I sighed. It seemed I’d picked up a new team member. “Fine. Our next step is to gut this cruiser of everything that might be of value: armor plating, launchers, ammo, food, medical supplies, or anything else at all. I’ll get Crivreen to lead the salvage operation. Once that’s done we detach and blow her up.”

“Let’s get started, then,” said Purwryn. There was relief in his voice. I wondered if he’d have gone with Marcus had we turned him away. Perhaps they’d have tried to make it to the Wizard Kingdom. That trip would have taken many years in the small cruiser, but for most of it they’d be out of Resden’s reach.

They’d be out of everyone’s reach. The inner galaxy was heavily populated in the controlled systems, but that was only a tiny fraction of the space; most of it sat empty. A ship making the trip would be completely alone without supplies or help should anything go wrong.

I left them to start salvaging and went up to the bridge. When I’d brought Crivreen up to date, I asked, “Is there anything creative we can do?”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“We don’t have any shuttles. Can we make one out of that cruiser, perhaps? Or - heck, I don’t know; you’re the engineer.”

He shook his head. “We can probably cut off most of her armor and attach it to our hull, which would give us greater mass, which in turn would increase our jump distance. We’d need to compensate for that mass by adding in their engines, but all of that would take weeks in a space dock. Out here, without access to the tools we’d need, it’d be best to strip her of supplies and move on.”

“All right. Head over there and take charge of that. I’ll stand watch here.”

“Okay, I’ll keep my eye open for anything creative we can do,” he said.

“Zah’rak, our fearless handler is calling,” said Crivreen.

We were approaching the military outpost, and once again were in range of the military jump space repeater network that allowed for real-time communications. “Did you send the list of supplies we need?”

“Yes,” he said, “yesterday, so they should have it.”

“Okay. You’d better put our friend up on the big screen.”

“You enjoy poking the beast a bit too much,” said Crivreen. The commander hated being on the screen before all the crew, but I wanted everyone to hear what he had to say. I refused to accept his arrogance and lack of respect for my crew.

“Hello,” I said as he came on the screen.

“Where have you been?” he demanded.

“Around and about, handling another mission,” I said.

“For whom? I didn’t authorize any missions!” he exclaimed.

“This wasn’t for Phareon. Now, do you want to tell us about this mission or should we go on our way?”

“As special agents, you report to me; but we’ll deal with that later. Dock, and the station staff will get you loaded up. As soon as you’ve restocked, you’ll join with one of our fleets for immediate departure. They can get you to the target in two jumps.”

“What exactly is the mission?” I asked.

“The fleet will stop within one jump of the station and stay there. You will jump in and find out what’s going on. The setup is the same as before: this station is a secure military facility which was well-defended and suddenly stopped communicating with us. A team of five magi were sent in, but haven’t been heard from since,” he said.

“What was on the station?” I asked.

“Top secret weapons research. Do you think the necromancer could have returned?”

“No. Even if he could, he wouldn’t come out here. The Wizard Kingdom has become active in this area, and he was here to hide from them. No, if he is active again it’s elsewhere. This must be a new threat.”

“Very well. Obviously we’d like to have the station back, but the primary objective is to identify this new threat and deal with it.”

“Understood,” I said and wrapped up the conversation. “Crivreen, has Raquel called Hospital Station yet?”

“Yeah. I helped them set up an encrypted channel once we were in range,” he said.

“Okay, see to the reloading. I’m going to get an update,” I said.

I found Raquel, Marcus and Purwryn in sick bay. I hesitated, feeling that it wasn’t my place to barge in; however, before I could leave Raquel called me in.

“Zah’rak, they want to see Marcus for a full checkup,” she said.

“We’re months away and about to leave on a mission. How critical is it?” I asked.

“Zah’rak! Good to see you again,” said Dr. Hawthorne. “It’s not critical, but the sooner the better. Can you head here after your mission?”

“Sure, but it could mean months of travel for our little ship,” I said.

“When you’re ready, contact me and I’ll see if any friendly fleets are nearby,” he said.

“Will do. Oh, there’s someone you should meet,” I said, and then sent privately,
“Shira, please come to sickbay
.
”

“On my way,”
she replied.

“She should be here shortly,” I said.

“While we wait for her,” said a woman whom I didn’t recognize, “did you get the message about Resden?”

“Yes. As you probably guessed, they’re after Marcus, but we don’t know why,” I said.

“Dr. Leslie, Marcus has the full protection of the Wizard Kingdom,” said Raquel. “I’ll contact the Resden ambassador and tell them to stand down.”

“Okay. Is it just Marcus?” asked Dr. Leslie.

“No, Purwryn also, but he’s a citizen of the Wizard Kingdom with full protection,” said Raquel.

“I don’t envy you dealing with him, and I’m glad to pass on the task,” said Dr. Leslie.

Shira came into sick bay and said, “I’m here, what’s up?”

“Shira, I want you to meet Dr. Hawthorne,” I said.
“Raquel, could you clear the room for a moment?”
I sent privately. I wished I’d thought about this sooner so I could have prepared the ground.

Raquel seemed taken aback but ushered Marcus and Purwryn out of the room.

“Shira! It’s great to see you! How are you feeling?” asked Dr. Hawthorne.

Shira looked at me with obvious confusion.

“Shira, Dr. Hawthorne is the person who performed the surgery to remove your slave implant.”

“Oh,” she said, looking back at the screen. I couldn’t judge her feelings. Human skin is much more reactive than Zalionian scales, which makes it harder to read. There was confusion there, and maybe some apprehension; whatever she felt, though, I was glad she hadn’t run off right away.

I took my leave to let the two of them talk. Out in the hallway, I told Raquel what I was doing. “She never talks about the implant or the surgery, so I’m hoping this will give her an opportunity.”

“Why do you think she’ll talk about it now?” asked Raquel.

“Because Dr. Hawthorne will ask, and she never had a post-op checkup,” I said.

Raquel considered the matter and said, “Maybe they’ll talk, then.”

“Was that a bad idea?” I asked.

“I don’t know. It might have been wise to ask her about it first.”

I sighed. All I wanted to do was to see Shira happy again, the way she’d been for a little while in the forest. “Okay; while we wait, I’ll brief you on our new mission,” I said and told them what the commander had said.

“Why doesn’t the military just send in a boarding team to take the station?” asked Marcus.

“Because they’re afraid this might be like the previous stations where their boarding teams were wiped out,” I said, and summarized our earlier missions for him.

“Wow,” was all he managed to say. His expression briefly showed genuine shock but quickly reverted to a more neutral look, as if a picture had changed in an
internal slide show projected onto his face.

“Why are we still working with him?” asked Purwryn.

Raquel turned back from watching Shira through the window. She said, “We haven’t told him yet about the new arrangement, partly because the Wizard Kingdom also has a vested interest in finding out about this station.”

“Do you think the necromancer is back?” asked Purwryn.

“No, but he’s not the only one from my era that I expect will waken. It’s too soon to tell, but I anticipate more sorcerers waking up and operating out here,” she said.

“Why out here?” I asked.

“When the wizards tore reality to end magic, the effect rippled outwards. Most magi fled ahead of the effect, hoping to find a safe place to wait out the spell. So all around the edge of this galaxy there are likely to be many sorcerers and wizards, those who managed to escape the impact long enough to slip into a timeless sleep as Narcion and I did, and I expect they will start making themselves felt soon enough.”