Voyage of the Sanguine Shadow 1: Shadow Galactic (20 page)

The warden nodded.  “That makes perfect sense. 
I’m sorry I didn’t think of it earlier.”  Dutifully, he stepped back and held
and out his right arm.  With a wistful smile, he stared off and sighed happily.

“I’m sorry for this,” she whispered.

“No need to be sorry,” said the guard.

“Turn the force field back on.”

The warden nodded and did as he was bidden. 
Instantly, the force barrier activated, severing the guard’s arm at the elbow. 
Valerie took the forearm and removed a wide digital wristband.  “This is how
they travel,” she said to Gavin as he looked on in horror at the dismembered
warden.  Blood rushed in spurts against the other side of the force barrier.

“What?” he managed, tearing his gaze from their
wounded jailor.  The warden stood there, smiling.

“Look, it’s a teleporter,” she explained, and she
held up the wristband.  Its screen displayed a list of destinations.  “That was
the lightning we saw.”  She slipped it over her wrist and took Gavin’s hand. 
“Let’s see where this takes us.”

Gavin regarded her with wide eyes.  “He’s going to
bleed to death!  We can’t just leave him like this!”

Valerie shrugged.  “Sure we can.”  She tapped the
wristband, and they vanished from their cell in a flash of light.

A dizzying moment followed.

Gavin and Valerie paused to get their bearings. 
They had appeared within a tall, dimly lit chamber.  In the air around them,
holographic symbols faded in and out as they cycled through a spectrum of
colors.  Along the walls, they found prong-backed chairs and bowl-shaped tables
cluttered with game pieces.  In the center of the room, a glass hemisphere
hovered fixedly, showing images of dozens of ithiral men and women.  Through a
high, arched doorway at the far end, a concave bed lay in wait, complete with a
neck brace pillow and recessed organic machinery.  Valerie shivered.  “They sleep
on those things!”

“This must be the guard’s personal chambers,”
Gavin supposed.

Valerie nodded.  “Probably.”  She turned around
and located the door leading out.  “This way.”

“Wait,” Gavin interjected.  “How did you do that,
back in the cell?”

“The mind control?”

Gavin nodded.

“I don’t know, exactly.  I could only ever read
thoughts, not send them.”  She shrugged uncertainly.  “Maybe their brains run
in reverse?  I can’t read them at all, but everything I suggest, they do.”

“That’s handy,” he muttered and breathed out. 
“Still, poor guy.  What a terrible way to go.”

“You’re too nice, Gavin.”  With a smirk, she took
his hand and urged him to follow.  “Come on.”

The door slid aside, and they peered along the
starship’s grand halls.  Overhead, roads and byways spanned soaring buildings,
all enclosed by a thick inner hull painted to resemble the starry void.  At a
distant intersection, figures clad in dark uniforms crossed back and forth, and
two men paused to chat.  Drawing a calming breath, Valerie whispered, “On
three.”  She quietly counted and bolted into the hallway with Gavin right on
her heels.  Before long, they found an access hatch and climbed into a network
of cramped maintenance tubes.  After he was inside, Gavin pulled the hatch
closed.

“What are we doing?” he whispered as they shimmied
along the passage.

“I’ll tell you when I know.”

After some travel, Valerie paused and twisted
around to examine the teleport band.  Toggling out of the list of destinations,
she found a three-dimensional display that was used to set bearing and distance
relative to the user.  Its spherical grid shifted with her as she swung her
forearm back and forth.  Below it, several anchors, presets and a history of
recent teleport points faintly pulsed.  Smiling to herself, she studied their
surroundings.

Luminous cubes and cascades of teardrop shaped
fans flickered and swayed as they exchanged vast amounts of data.  Labels
abounded, written in Ithiral.  It only took a moment for her language chip to
send the characters to her brain in English.  After some searching, she found a
bundle marked “Scanning Relay.”  She looked to Gavin with hopeful eyes and
asked, “How good are you with electronics?”

“What did you have in mind?”

She pointed to the scanner relay.  “We could use
that to find the
Shadow
.”

Gavin shook his head.  “I’m not that good.  Filan,
maybe, not me.”

“No worries,” she muttered, and she propped
herself against the passage.  “It was a longshot, anyway.”  The wall behind her
creaked loudly, and a panel abruptly broke loose.  She slipped backward through
the gap.  Gavin lunged for her, an instant too late, and she landed hard on her
back amidst a squad of armored soldiers.  It knocked the wind out of her.

Startled, they scrambled for their weapons.  A
dozen ithiral soldiers soon pointed silver pistols at Valerie while she
struggled for breath.  Gavin hopped down from the tube overhead, and they
pointed their guns at him, instead.  He raised his hands.  Within moments,
other curious ithiral crewmen gathered round.

At last, Valerie’s voice returned, and she
croaked, “Holster your gun.”  One of the soldiers did as he was bidden, and
Valerie blanched.  She scanned the growing sea of onlookers.  “Gavin,” she
whispered, “I think I can only affect one at a time.”

“Oh.”  He nodded dejectedly.  “Great.”

“Do not be afraid!” a woman in the crowd shouted,
and she stepped forward into view.  Like the others, her clothing was black,
though its seams were yellow, and a flared collar swept out from her neckline. 
She was tall, gaunt, with a long neck.  Her pale features were flawless, her
lines chiseled.  “It’s been centuries since any initiate has revealed one of
our own to be unworthy.  Let them test us.”

“Yes, let us!” said Gavin, and he quietly cleared
his throat.  “It’s only fair, after all.”

His response caused some confusion within the
ranks of their captors.  After a moment of discussion, the spokeswoman said,
“The guard you killed has been stripped of his name, his history expunged from
our own.  It must be replaced by something of equivalent value.  The balance
demands it.”

“That much is obvious,” Gavin asserted.  “But my value
is inherent, and I’m saddened that you discarded the guard so hastily.  If he
was once found worthy, doesn’t that place him at an even level with me?”  He exhaled
nervously, as his mind raced.  “Am I increasing the value of the ithiral body by
fulfilling an equivalency?  If the answer is no, aren’t we all both worthy and
unworthy?”

Onlookers discussed in a murmur at first, and it
quickly escalated to a full blown din.  At last, a wide, squat fellow raised
his hand and shouted, “Silence!”  Lengthy stalks jutted from the back of his
head, and the pallid flesh of his jowls had a brittle appearance.  “It seems
the expanse brings us a philosopher in initiate’s clothing.”

“It’s a good integration,” muttered another.

The stout speaker flashed him a warning glare
before advancing close to Valerie.  “It’s a good integration if this is indeed
a philosopher, and not a corruptor!”  He stood two heads shorter than her. 
“Which is it, initiate?  The paradigm compels you to answer!”  With zealous
fervor, he thrust his finger toward her ribs.

With her thumb, she pointed to Gavin.  “He speaks
for us both.”

The stout ithiral spun on his heels.  Thrusting
his finger in Gavin’s face, he spat, “Speak your truths, corruptor!”

Gavin leaned away from the accusing digit. 
Wearing a sagacious look, he thoughtfully tapped his chin.  “No corruptor can
speak in whole truths, and time alone has the authority to distinguish the
corruptor from the philosopher.  For what is enlightenment, but a facet of
growth?  And what is growth, if not a point in the circle?”  Apprehensively, he
took in the mix of hope and rage in the faces around them.  He started to say
something more, but instead closed his mouth and bobbed his head slightly
before slowly drawing a large circle in the air.

Black leather creaked, and the ithiral masses regarded
Gavin expectantly.

For a drawn moment, he chewed on his lower lip.

Suddenly, Valerie leaned in and tapped a point on
the circle.  The gathering erupted in quiet applause and quickly took to excited
chatter.  Gavin and Valerie looked to each other with relief, though their
hearts still pounded.

“It appears they are both philosophers,” the willowy
spokeswoman defiantly asserted.  Downcast, the stout ithiral faded into the
crowd, grumbling to himself.

A guardsman approached and lifted away his helmet,
revealing a head covered in green and blue spots.  “Welcome aboard the
Draconian
!” 
Anxiously, he extended his hand, palm down.

Gavin took his grip and shook, again prompting a
round of uneasy whispers.  “It’s a fine starship.”

The soldier practically jerked his hand away. 
“You challenge much today, valued philosopher,” he nervously laughed.  “Perhaps
we can provide you with some objects to occupy your worthwhile contemplations?”

“What a fine idea!”

With an overly innocent smile, Valerie tapped the
teleport device and said, “Perhaps a few more of these wondrous transport bands?”

·· • ··

Aboard the
Sanguine Shadow
, Zerki stood
triumphantly alongside her companions.  They had stormed the bridge, leaving no
ithirals alive, and Cajun now tended to Krane’s and Collins’s wounds.  Her comm
light flashed urgently, and she tapped it on.  “Zerki speaking.  Go ahead.”

“Captain,” Filan huffed.  “Thank God!”

“We’re coming for you,” said Zerki.  “Hang tight!”

“No, we’re alright!  I mean, come down if you want
to, but the guards are dead.  You should’ve seen D’Arro fight, Captain.”  She
hooted, and the speaker cut out momentarily in mid cheer.  “It was awe-inspiring!”

“D’Arro’s
alive
?”

“He is!  You should’ve seen him, Captain.”

Grinning for a moment, Zerki reached for the
ceiling and whispered, “Thank you!”  Sobering quickly, she asked, “How many did
we lose?”

The sounds of excited chatter in the background
carried through the comm.  Somberly, Filan reported, “They pushed five of us
out of the hangar.  I think maybe a dozen more got hurt in the fighting.”  She
added, “Buck is in pretty bad shape, Captain.”

Zerki looked to Cajun as he sedated Collins and
wrapped his head.  Gently, he set a blanket over his chest and turned his
attention to Krane.  “I’ll send Cajun down as soon as possible.”

At that moment, Stone checked in, reporting the
successful restoration of the radiation nullifier.  He immediately volunteered
to triage the injured crew members.  Zerki thanked him graciously and turned
the bridge over to Taryn.  She and Takeo joined Stone in the forward hold. 
Racing to her side, Takeo lifted Filan off the ground and spun her around in
his arms.

Zerki embraced D’Arro tightly.  “Buck needs help,”
he said when they parted.  He was drenched in sweat, covered in dark blue
ithiral blood.

“I know,” said Zerki, and she nodded toward the
wounded, haggard man.  “Stone’s taking care of him.  Any sign of Val or Gavin?”

D’Arro shook his head.  “Filan says they were
taken back to the city-ship.”  His shoulders sagged.  “And I got more bad
news.”

“I don’t know if I can take any more bad news.”

Wincing as he spoke, D’Arro muttered, “They took
out the PLA.”

Zerki shifted her weight.  “Are you sure?  It
looked fine from outside.”

D’Arro nodded.  “They harvested the lasers.  Even
if we find replacements somewhere on the surface, it’ll take days to install
them.  ‘Course, without Gavin, we’re dead in the water, anyway.  For all we
did, we may have only bought ourselves a few more hours.”

“I refuse to accept that.  Anyway, we have
surprise on our side.”  She glanced outside, as the hangar doors drifted closed
and locked into place.  “Now we just need a plan.”

·· • ··

Aboard the
Draconian
, Gavin and Valerie
made their way to one of the shuttle bays, ahead of a crowd that followed in
their wake.  Her forearm was draped in teleport bands.  “Think you can fly one
of those things?” she asked as the hangar came into view.  Beyond a vast pane
of sloped glass, they saw a tarmac full of smaller starships and dozens of
armed guards.

Gavin blew out through puffed cheeks.  “I hope
so.”

She squeezed his arm close to her side.  “I’ll
pretend you said yes.”

The crowd at their back suddenly fell silent. 
Behind them, a deep voice roared, “
Corruptors
!”

Startled, Gavin and Valerie turned around.  Huge
compared to the others, a uniformed ithiral strode toward his captives.  The
crowd parted hastily to allow him passage.  “I’ve already had this debate,”
said Gavin.  “Who are you to challenge the value of a philosopher’s truth?”

“Spare me your serpent’s words,” barked the
massive ithiral.  “I’m the captain of this starship, and a master of truths. 
Your corruptor’s words fall upon me like seeds upon the rocks, and they will
never take root.”  He bared his teeth.  “Fools!  You are unique amongst the
vermin of your galaxy, and I offered you initiation!”  From his belt, he drew
an ornate silver gun, trimmed with tiny rails and encrusted with glittering
gems.  Pointing it at the deck, he said, “But it seems even the most extraordinary
of maggots can only ever be flies, in the end.  I deem you unworthy, fit only
for extermination.”

Valerie looked to one of the soldiers.  “Kill
him,” she whispered, but the soldier collapsed.

The ithiral captain smiled thinly.  “They hear
only my voice now, corruptor.  Your influence holds no more sway, and I have
issued a ship-wide order to shoot both of you on sight.  There’s not a place on
the stardrome
Draconian
that you can hide.”

Gavin glanced backward.  They were still so far
from the shuttle hangar.  Looking at the teleport bands, he whispered, “What’s
the range on those things?”