"When we will spring our trap." He said with impatience.
"Patience." Darkstar said. "No, I want that ship, NOW. Each moment we delay gives our enemies more time to move against us." Raf'el's face showed barely controlled anger, and anxiety.
*****************************************
The Sigtryggr had slid smoothly into the docking bays of the Asgard Warriors secret shipyards, code named Bodai.
They could see the wreck of the Chimaera sitting in the shipyards. Tore into at least 4 pieces, with some obvious pieces missing still. An utter wreck. Almost worth as much to make an entire new one.
They docked Captain Deiran and Luciaden took off at a quick pace to the infirmary. They arrived to find Captain Soren on life support, surrounded by medics. A doctor pulled his gloves off and walked up to Luciaden.
"Sir, he is alive, but for how long we don't know." Said the Doctor. "Whats wrong with him?" Luciaden asked.
Doctor: "Heart and lungs are dieing. One of his lungs has collapsed. We could replace the organs, but by the time we replaced all three he would be dead. I give him an hour at most."
Luciaden sighed, realizing what he had to do. "Go ahead with the surgery doctor."
"But sir, he'll die."
"Do not question my orders!" He yelled. The doctor took a reflexive step back. Bowed his head at the reprimand. Yes sir. He mumbled.
The doctor stepped back and grabbed a fresh pair of gloves. He pulled the surgery cart over to Captain Soren. As the doctor and nurses prepared the surgery equipment Luciaden pulled a chair over next to Captain Soren. He sat down, resting his hand over Soren's eyes. His eyes half closed, and had a glazed look in them.
He sat there, head lowered, eyes closed, with his hand on Soren's eyes. If someone paid enough attention they would see the black scars along his arm, and on his hand produce ripples, like water in them. Very faint dark red colored, all along the scars on his outstretched arm and hand.
"Well sir, I don't know how we did it, but hes alive.
Luciaden wearily looked up at the Doctor. Barely an hour had gone by since they began the surgery. "Its simple doctor." His voice raspy. "The problem was his brain would die. I merely kept it going long enough for you to replace his organs."
The doctor gave him a quizzical look.
"Watch him tonight doctor. And now, I think it is time I took my leave."
Luciaden stood up, uneasily. He half walked, half dragged his feet to the door and walked into the hall, the door sliding shut behind him. No longer in sight of his subordinates, Luciaden staggered down the hall. Pulling with his hands, he made his way towards his quarters. Unable to fully keep his balance he fell against the wall at a T-junction. His knees weak, he slid to the floor. Down the hall, Xizer came out the door to the infirmary. Turned to follow Luciaden's path to his room, and saw him lying there, leaned against the wall. He ran over, and picked him up. As he turned to the infirmary door Luciaden whispered weakly; "No.. Just, take me to my room.."
For a moment Xizer looked like he was about to argue the point. But he turned back anyway, and headed towards Luciaden's room, carrying him.
As he was carrying he took a look over Luciaden. And noticed, that the pulsing along his smooth black scars was slower than he had even seen it.
Gently he laid him down on the cot in his room, and took a step back. Luciaden's body was that of a man unconsciously limp. Quietly, Xizer walked back out to the hall. And stood outside the doorway. Maintaining his bodyguard roll even on a safe location such as the secret shipyard.
Back in the infirmary, the doctors had sedated Soren. The doctor was about to leave the room, to go check in on his lower-priority patients when a muffled moan came from Soren. A moan that quickly escalated into a painful scream. The doctor and nurse quickly ran back to him, checking him for a sign of what was causing this.
After 5 minutes of searching, listening to his pained screaming, they had found nothing. Then they saw a dark splotch of red seeping into the bed sheets near his left arm. They threw back the covers to find a gash cut into his arm. Not a natural cut. But the kind of cut, that was made by a large knife, or blade. Surprise was evident on their faces, as they tried to find a reason for this. But as they were thinking another cut was made on his left leg. And then his right. With no time but to stop the bleeding they set to work cover and patching his cuts up. With everyone they covered up, another cut appeared.
The answer to this was in Soren's mind. Or rather, his dreams.
At first Soren wondered where he was. He was strapped to a large metal table, held suspended vertically. He looked around, confused as to what was going on. That confusion grew when he looked down. He sat there in bewilderment at his dark red skin. He was still wondering, when a piece of his hair fell down. Hair that was long, uncut, dangling wildly from his head. It took him another minute to find out this was not him, but a dream. Half a second later, he found, not a dream. But rather, a nightmare. The straps on his arms and legs retracted in the blink of an eye, slamming him back to the metal table. Another metal table rose in front of him. Distantly, he thought he could hear laughing..
The table twisted vertically and started moving towards him. Right where he thought it was sure to keep going an smash him, it stopped. Barely an inch from the tip of his nose. He could feel a pain slowly pushing against the back of his neck. Pain that quickly turned to torment as the needle pushed its way through his skin and punctured his neck. He could feel blood trickle its way down his back. He screamed in agony.
He heard the sound of small motors, and spinning blades. But wasn't prepared for what came. A feeling of swearing heat crawled up, first his left arm, then left leg, and next his right leg. He had just enough room to tilt his head, and that sent a new wave of pain from his neck. But he caught a glimpse of the pain's source. Razor blades, spun by a motor, were cutting its way through his skin, to ship at the bones beneath. Then flames were being shot at from small holes next to the blades to burn the skin, and stop the blood coming out. His throat started burning, and at first he thought this was another pain device, but soon realized that he was still screaming. He attempted to gain control of his voice, just as another three spots of agony laced its way up his body. The blades had moved on to other parts of his body, cutting new gashes throughout his skin. After another 3 hours of it, the blades ceased. The flames died. And the omnipresent pain in his neck went away. His body was so numbed by the pain he couldn't feel anything. Not even the still-present spikes from the wrist and ankle straps cutting in his skin.
The torture table retracted, and as it did he saw the amount of blood covering it. Almost every surface of the table was drenched in blood. Sending a quite throbbing in his head as he realized just how much he had been hurt.
2 figures walked up to him. Stepping in the blood puddle on the floor beneath him. His body hung, limp from exertions. The figure on the floor smiled maliciously up at him. A small voice that seemed to come from inside his head, his own thoughts he realized afterward, seemed to say; C'tan.. "Clever device isn't it? We found it causes much more pain than recent devices. We wanted to test it before we used it on your species. We wanted to be sure it worked properly before we turned it on your family, your neighbors. Why at this moment we are flying towards your home planet. We thought the Miralukans deserve it after all the trouble you have caused us." He wanted desperately to scream at the man, yell at him. But all that came out was a blood-filled cough. The figure gestured to the other one standing there. "Send him to the cryogenic freezing labs." And all Soren could hear was the quiet voice screaming in anger. Promising itself it would have its vengeance against the C'tan for this...
Luciaden sat up in his bed, put his feet over the side of the bed to fall gently to the floor. He sat like that for awhile. Sitting on the edge of the bed, his feet lying gently on the floor. Briefly wondering how he had ended up in the loose robe of silk he had hanging on his shoulders.
Alone with his thoughts he barely noticed the familiar presence outside his door. He smiled wryly. Well that explains how I ended up in this.
She paused at the door, perhaps a bit of uncertainty. Obviously from whether she should knock or just walk straight in.
"Come in." He said quietly.
Of the fifty billion or so people in the galaxy, only three were every allowed to seem him in such a weak and open state. Aurelia was one of those three. And her loyalty was unquestionable.
Luciaden just sat there, not moving. He waited as the footsteps approached him.
"Hi, nice to see your back to normal." She said in her melodious voice.
Luciaden smiled inwardly to himself. Yeah, I bet you do..
He stood up and faced the woman before him.
With long black hair and blue highlight lines along the strands of hair extending down to the small of her back. She had green eyes at her height of 5 feet 11 inches tall, she wore either a shimmering red-fire dress, And alternating color tunic of green and orange that makes it look like it moves, much like fire, when she walks. And a pure black bodyguard outfit, usually worn when escorting in potentially hostile areas.
She was, obviously, wearing the set she preferred when on official business. The red-fire dress extended down to her ankles, with cuts on the side to allow her legs more freedom for walking, and was more of a shirt and long skirt than it was a real dress.
"Xizer left on the "errand" shortly after you fell unconscious. He should have the ship in his hands by now, and on its way back here for refit. Obviously we won't use our traditional weapons on it, it would be too big an indication as to who supplied them with the ship."
"So I took over for him. It was a good excuse to get out of pointless meetings for awhile." She took a good long look at him.
Her voice turned grim. "You have another line..." She pointed out, her voice neutral. Any casual observer would have absolutely no idea what she was talking about, but he knew exactly what she was talking about. And knew that she knew exactly what it meant. And without any powers he could tell she was angry. His hair had another black line to it.
Luciaden looked forward, staring at the wall across from him.
"I had to. He was the only one who knew what I needed."
"I was meant to be the only one. We both know what might happen --"
In mid-sentence a knock came to the door.
"Come in!" she almost yelled at the door. She waited, without turning.
"Princess, the Zoner's High-council has requested your presence."
"We will finish this conversation later." she promised. He could hear here anger there, as well as the resignation.. She knew what was done could not be undone.
She turned and walked out of the door. the messenger making a shortened version of the same bow he gave to Aurelia, to him. He then turned and followed her.
The door closed behind them, and he just stood there a moment thinking.
Though she hadn't quite understood everything, she did have a point. Was it really that necessary for him to live? He wouldn't have really needed it, it just helped him. But what was done was done, and couldn't be changed.
Besides. From past experience Soren would be waking soon. And he did not doubt what would be foremost in his mind when he regained consciousness. He sat back down, this time at his desk, and prepared himself for the next confrontation. He didn't realize just how much he relied on thought reading in conversations until he had to talk to her. One who's mind was no longer open to him.
He shrugged. It was in fact, his fault for choosing her as the first in his new breed of bodyguards. An experiment they had decided not to repeat due to the irreversible consequences.
(2nd part of the scene comes tonight or tomorrow. ALSO, what the hell people.. I get people posting here, than bam, I end up having to make the last three posts in a row. The amount of things going on in this thread allows for many ideas, surely someone can think of something.)
"We're sorry, but the Lord Captain is out at the moment. We'll notify you when he arrives." The AW comm tech looked board. Sloppy. The Captain of the Unrelenting narrowed his eyes.
"When will he return? We have important matters to speak on."
The tech sighed. "Don't know. Soon."
The captain's left eye twitched just a bit, a significant show of disapproval and annoyance at the abandonment of protocol. "Understood. Unrelenting out." He growled before switching off the comm.
For a bit, he just stood and seethed. Here he was, trying to set up an arrangement with the Lord Captain, and he was 'out.' Not only was he 'out,' but he was apparently so 'out' that they couldn't get him to talk, and on top of that the people here seemed to have little or no interest in following protocol whatsoever!
He took a deep breath and calmed himself. Fine. If they wanted to play like that, it was time to break a few of the rules.
He walked over to his communications operator and spoke to him in a quiet whisper. The operator nodded and entered a sequence.
***
The normally sleepy communications center on the AW secret base was soon roused into action. A signal from the outside spiked into the system, flashed through the barriers, and then proceeded to warm up the hologram projectors of a conference room quite close to Luciaden's room.
The techs scrambled to break it, but they couldn't. Nobody could.
"Who the hell just hacked our system!?" One particularly angry officer demanded.
"Nobody sir. They didn't hack it." One of the tech's answered slowly.
"What do you mean? Of course they just hacked it!"
"That's what I'm trying to say, they didn't."
"Then what..." The officer trailed off, the same realization dawning on him as well.
"That's right sir. Nobody hacked it. Whoever sent this knew all the passwords. They didn't have to hack it, they just accessed it."
***
A soft knock came to Luciaden's door.
"Sir? There's someone in Conference 3 that wants to speak with you."
No more than twenty minutes after Aurelia had left, Luciaden felt another come towards his door. Unlike the other, this one wasn't walking.. He was stumbling. Dimly he noticed the two others chasing after him.. The doctor and nurse he found, with just a cursory touch of their thoughts. It was obvious from the medical concern that was foremost in their mind.. And judging from the likely identity of the man they were chasing, their concern was warranted.
Also, to make the identity any less doubtful, he had no success at penetrating his mind. Unless for some unknown reason, Aurelia was stumbling down the hallway.. Unlikely to say the least..
Sighing he stood up. Hopefully Soren wouldn't be like Aurelia, who could do basically whatever she wanted to do, without having to worry about him stopping her.
He smiled inwardly at himself. A Zoner Princess could do basically anything she wanted. Whether he could read her thoughts or not.
Especially one who had the backing of the entire Zoner military backing her. She practically ran the Asgard Warrior's Theta Defense Fleet and, of course, the Royal Guard. Luciaden's private fleet.
Though Luciaden's interests in her were purely professional he was fairly sure, and it was fairly obvious, that her's was more than that. But he would deal with that when it was needed. For now he had more explaining to do. Alot more.
The doctor had almost reached Soren by the time he had reached the door. Luciaden had to hold back a laugh. Soren was here alright. Here and still attached to half the medical room's equipment. Some of the lighter weight equipment was still being pulled behind him, on its wheels.
Apparently he had to make a quick get-away...
The doctors face lit up when he saw him. "Ah sir, than god your here. Captain Soren here should be in his bed! He will --" Luciaden held up his hand, palm outward, the sign for him to be silent. An act he did, reluctantly. The nurse, however, was not quite so smart. "Return to your duties doctor." Luciaden said. "But sir!" The Nurse yelled with concern. It took only the barest of psychic ability to hold her mind. He blanked all current thoughts. He then planted his own into her. Walk away, do your duties. The doctor watched as she walked away, her face blank with no expressions, still in his hold.
Luciaden sighed, for what felt like the 8th time of the day. How many things can go wrong so early in the morning? He closed his eyes. "Go back to your duties doctor." He said coldly. "Yes sir." The doctor replied politely. Though the thoughts he was having were anything but.
Luciaden pulled the non-essential equipment off of Soren and brought him inside. Soren sat down on the bed. Wearing the same expression he had since he had saw him. One a mix of horrer, dread, anger, and pain.
He was practically covered with bandages. Some blood-stained, some not.
"I assume your here for answers." It was not a question, but a statement.
"I want to know what happened." He said, his voice hoarse.
"You would like to know what happened after what you saw?"
"Yes."
"It is as you heard. They tortured me. Killed my people. And then sent me to die. I was sent, frozen, with the first of their ships to Sirius. To be used as an example. I got out, and they couldn't get me."
"And how are we here?"
Before Luciaden could think up an answer to his question the door was opened. The unexpectedness of it shocked him. Normally he could sense anyone coming to his door, unconsciously. Which had to mean Aurelia was back.. She looked at Soren, then back at Luciaden.
"So this is him, huh? I can tell from the cut marks."
"I volunteered to go through this. To experience the memory that you experienced." She added at his curious glance.
The conversation was halted by a knock on the doors.
"Sir? There's someone in Conference 3 that wants to speak with you."
"What password was it?"
"Oh, uhh.. I believe it was the ultra-diplomatic code."
Luciaden laughed. "Ah, then tell the Unrelentless I'll be there momentarily."
"No, I'll go." Aurelia walked through the doorway. "I'll be back in a bit." she called over her shoulder. And with that the automatic door closed.
She strode to the comm center.
She turned to the comm equipment. Pressed some keys in.
The clearance code they used was designed with a back-fire program.
She turned towards the screen camera.
* * *
The screen of the captain's console turned black for a second. A message appeared on the screen. Unrelentless commander. sat there blinking white on black.
The captain quickly told the Unrelentless' commander to the station. He turned on the comm screen.
The picture of a beautiful woman appeared on the screen.
"This is Aurelia Silven, Bodyguard. Luciaden is currently busy with matters, that dare I say, might be a tad bit more important than yours. what is it that you want?"
The captain stiffened. "It's not what I want, madam. It's what -she- wants."
With that, the screen faded out to black for a moment before the words "Holographic Projection" appeared on it. The projector's warmed once more and an image flickered to life. Dressed in her trade-mark black corset, red silk undershirt, black pants, and ruby-red stiletto heels, Elexis Sinclare' looked up at the Zoner Princess.
"Hmm... I was hoping to catch the good Lord Captain himself. But if all he can do is send others to talk for him, then I must do without meeting him face-to-face." The hologram walked around and 'sat' on the edge of a table.
"Since you are one of his many body guards, I suppose there is no harm in discussing our relationship with you. The one between SiN Tech and the Asgard Warriors. As you have no doubt heard, the original Unrelenting was reduced to scrap because of these crystal ships. Quite obviously, there are those who are rather annoyed with whoever is running their show. Thus, something must be done."
The hologram gave a mock sigh and stood. She continued talking as she wandered the comm center, strangely enough never bumping into anyone or anything and glancing at the uncountable number of screens, consoles, diagnostics displays, and out the armored windows to space.
"Besides the obvious technological benefits from capturing and reverse engineering one of those ships, there is the matter of pride to consider. Some of those under my employ seem to take the attack on the Unrelenting Dreadnought as a personal insult, and are driven by a very powerful emotion; Desire. In this case, the desire for revenge."
The hologram turned back to Aurelia and fixed her piercing eyes upon her. "So, here I am, Miss Silven. Attempting to re-negotiate a temporary alliance with the AW to deal with these mysterious ships."
Once more, the Elexis hologram looked Aurelia up and down. "Although I do hope the Lord Captain manages to find time to speak with me directly."
She glanced down at her holographic body. "In a matter of speaking, anyway." Elexis laughed, a tinkling laugh that, like Elexis herself, gave the impression of a simple whore but was obviously that; an illusion. It was in her eyes, her posture, and her manner of speech that gave her away and revealed the true Elexis; A very dangerous and powerful woman.
Aurelia's eyes narrowed, and she walked towards the hologram of Elexis. "If you have business that concerns him, than it concerns me as well. And as I said. He is busy with other matters. One of which includes conversation with the first man to find these ships. And the piece of equipment they got. A piece that resulted in the complete destruction of the ship, and its crew. A piece of equipment they got, straight off one of those ships. And you obviously didn't know I'm more than his bodyguard. I also lead the Theta Defense Fleet, founded and funded by the Asgard Warriors. As well as the Royal Guard. The fleet your ship is currently sitting in the middle of, if you'd care to look outside your window." Her voice turned suddenly cold. "So if you care for the life of your men and ship you will do well to watch your tongue. I will not tolerate threats."
"And do not compare losses here. We are the ones fighting a three way war while you flit around in your little ships."
"I can speak for the Lord Captain, and the Asgard Warriors. As well as the Zoner military. And I am willing to hear your terms for the continued temporary alliance. If your ship is yet again destroyed we will replace it with a much better constructed ship, as payment for the sacrifice."
"But you will do well to watch your step Miss Sinclare. The risks here are more than you know. And the forces involved could sweep through you without so much as a twitch."
"We will contact you shortly. Consider yourself at home at Freeport 9, you might be there awhile." Aurelia slapped her hand on the end switch, cutting the transmission.
Aurelia turned and headed back to Luciaden's room.
The hologram flickered out of existence, and half a universe away Elexis opened her eyes. Back on Manhattan, the founder of SiN Tech Industries sat up and unplugged the neural interface.
"Well. That could have gone better." She looked off in the general direction of Omicron Theta. "I wonder if a God Complex is actually contagious... That Aurelia was certainly rude, no excuse for it."
Elexis shrugged. "It is of no consequence in the end, however. I -will- get what I want, and not even Luciaden can stop me."
***
The captain of the Unrelenting raised one non-existent eyebrow at the computer screen. Somehow the channel to the Unrelenting had been left open when the hologram signal was sent out and so he had been privy to the whole conversation, short as it was. Him and the bridge, not that it mattered.
"Well, I suppose you all heard that." Members of the bridge crew nodded in a agreement or gave the standard 'Aye captain.'
"All right then. Let's make ourselves at home."
***
The Frigate was a massive ship by almost anyone's standards. Only being out-massed by the great Battleships still meant that the Unrelenting itself was nothing to sneeze at. There were three points of entry to the ship now that it was docked. Three points was a rather large number for security, not to mention the numerous access ways, passageways, halls, and ventilation shafts that connected the three points. So to make things easier, SiN Tech rented the whole area and where they couldn't put guards they flooded with drones.
There were perks for this. The Zoners got a good donation, not to mention the Unrelenting tied it's own impressive armament into the station point defense. There was also the SiN Tech soldiers, for no other term truly applied, who helped keep the peace. Being a Zoner station there would be fights between enemies. But fights would disturb the other guests and residents, not to mention harm sensitive equipment. So SiN Tech, as part of its deal, loaned some of its soldiers to them to help maintain the truce on board the station.
Of course, there were some problems with this temporary arrangement.
"What do you mean, 'Off limits'?" One rather disgruntled Zoner demanded. He had always taken his girlfriend, whoever she was this week, to one spot within the hidden maintenance passages where the Unrelenting was now docked. Breaking from routine can be hard.
"I mean, you can't go in there." The first of the SiN Tech soldiers at this particular intersection growled.
"And just who do you think you are!? You don't own this pla..."
"Actually, we do." The soldier pulled out a data pad and growled at the youth again. "SiN Tech owns this part of the station. At least, for a while. So, until the deal is off we own everything from this deck plate..." He stamped his foot. "To the Unrelenting." he jerked his thumb behind him.
At this point, the soldiers teammate spoke up in a similar growl. "Unless you have pressing business to attend to, say, buying some of our products, I suggest you move along."
The first glanced down at the sputtering Zoner's jewels. It wasn't easy to notice, just a slight tilt of the helmeted head, but he did look. "Might do well to look into our stuff there. I can't imagine how you pleasure your lady friend with that little thing by itself."
The soldiers cackled as the young, would-be pimp stalked off.
Aurelia left the comm room after encrypting and sending the message to the AW fleets currently active.
She headed back to Luciaden's room.
Aurelia looked around as she walked into the room. "Where did Luciaden go?" She asked to the room's single occupant.
"Equipment room called up here. Asked if he could come in and take a look at the machinery we brought back on the Chimaera."
She carefully hid a sneer. Great. Stuck up here, left to explain everything to Soren herself. She shrugged to herself. Well, short of any disastrous events occurring, there was precious little else she could do.
And if she was going to be her for awhile, she might as well get comfortable. She pulled back the chair to the computer station in the room. "So. Where did we stop?" She asked as she dropped herself into the chair.
"Oh yes, me having that same dream, if it can really be called that. See, what you experienced was not a dream. Its definitely too orderly and clear for it to be a dream. What you experienced was a memory."
"A.. memory? Who's mem..." His voice trailed off. He recalled the dream.. Long white hair, dark red skin. "No.. No, that can't be." He breathed. "They said.. They said he was going to be frozen." He stuttered.
"You didn't think they would keep him frozen forever did you? They would have brought him back at some point or another."
"To torture him again?"
"No, not quite."
Aurelia closed her eyes lightly. Unlike Soren, she had done this awhile back, giving her plenty of nights to toss and turn through these nightmares. Fortunately only the first would do anything to you.
Eyes still closed she began speaking.. .. ..
He found himself lying on a cold surface. He wondered what had happened to him that would result in his blindness. For surely that was why he couldn't see anything. Until his vision slowly started to clear. At first everything appeared as a dark gray haze. Then color slowly worked with way back into his retina. He was laying on a metal table, horizontally. Staring up at the celling. The room was kept too dark to see anything farther than a foot or so.
He opened his eye-lids. Not the normal human-like eye-lids most would think of. The second, thinner layer that captured color and light, and protected his eyes from heat. Once it had been pulled out of the way, his plain eyes could see the way they were meant to usually see. His eyes were magnets to heat. The heat was pulled in through the eye to a heat sensing retina.
Suddenly the dim room turned to a blue light. He turned his head as far as it would go either direction. Picking up about 3 of the C'tan. He could also see a small blotch of orange, meaning a slight heat, perhaps that of a power source. It was attached to a slightly darker blue outline. Some kind of table perhaps? He tried to reach out with his mind, and see how many C'tan were in the room, or watching. But he found he couldn't hold his concentration for very long. [i]drugs.. They must have been drugging him to keep his concentration and clear thought process down. Some kind of intoxication drug.
Suddenly, perhaps finding that he was awake, the 3 C'tan he could spot moved up towards him and the table. He closed his inner-eye lids so he could see what machine they were carrying up towards him. Seeing the machine gave him no insight. He had never seen it before, but it did vaguely resemble a surgery device. One that could get inside one's body to heal, or alter it.
He had seen such devices at a Miralukan test facility before. He remember seeing it poking into the brain of another Miralukan. Altering its brain searching for more effective ways to higher the psychic aspects of their brains. The one he had seen had, like every other of his species had, dark red skin. Unlike the others, this one had vertical yellow strips running along his neck. And dark hair. He had felt no pity for the other, he was nothing more than a lab rat. Raised in an embryo tank.
One of the C'tan fed what he guessed was a drug into a needle in his arm. He immediately began to felt drowsy, and no matter how he tried to stay awake, his mind kept slipping into thoughtlessness. Until he had finally fallen unconscious.[/i]
"What happened?!" Soren blurted out. One look at his face and Aurelia was made blatantly clear that he was fully entranced in the story. She preferred to call it a nightmare.
"I had thought it was obvious. The device they had brought up to him was an antique version of the C'tan's modern enlightenment machine. Turning the enlightenee into barely anything more than a zombie, who did every order he was given."
"Then..." Soren's face was an expression of utter confusion.
"Why isn't he a puppet for the C'tan?" She finished the question for him. The answer is simple. Luciaden's mind was too complex. Too sophisticated that the enlightenment machine implanted into his head, had absolutely no effect at all. Luciaden had no idea that they had inserted something that should have made him follow every order. By the time he woke up.. .. .."
Again, Luciaden's eyes slowly began to take in light. This time he decided to skip the waiting. Opening his inner eyelids he looked out. One of the C'tan had gone. The one who had been messing around with the machine shortly before they had drugged him to sleep again. The other two, guards he assumed, were still standing near the door.
And, unlike last time he had awoken, he had no concentration issues at all. Did they think they had so little to fear from him, that some psychic powers would do him no good? Or had the simply forgotten to give him the intoxicating drug?
Whatever the reason was he was glad for it. He could feel the presence of three C'tan minds around the area. The two he could see, and another behind a wall somewhere. Probably a mirror designed to look like a wall from this side.
One of the guards noticed him moving, and hit a button on the wall. Then restraints on the table reeled back into their slits on the table. Freeing him.
Before he could figure out a reason as to why they were letting him go, one of the guards spoke. Well, not exactly spoke, he couldn't understand what he had said. But the rough translation had been thought in the C'tan's mind, which allowed him to interpret the command. "Come." the alien had ordered. And obviously, as the impatience he could feel implied, it had expected its order followed. With no resistance on Luciaden's side.
Well he would play along for now. He should be able to get himself in a position to get free eventually. He just had to make them think they were in control. though why they would think that in the first place, he couldn't imagine.
Both C'tan turned their backs on him and headed to a door out of the room. At about a distance of ten feet Luciaden followed. One of the alien's had been reaching for the door control, or at least he thought it was the door controls. The other Alien extended a hand towards a replica of the control on the other side of the door. A security precaution he guessed, to make both controls have to be pushed at once.
The time he had been waiting for had come. Neither alien had their attention towards him. He took off in a sprint, his footsteps making loud enough noise to alert the two beings of his quick approach. they turned to look at him, but the alien on the right had barely faced him before he was in striking distance.
Before the being could move, Luciaden pulled his arm back, still running towards them, and punched the alien straight in the head. The strength of his inertia and muscles making a strong enough impact to slam the C'tan's head into the wall. He continued pushing with his fist until it wouldn't go any farther. The strength of the blow had in fact been strong enough to make an indent in both the wall, where the aliens head had hit. And in the alien's face itself. At the spot where his hand had slugged him.
Quickly turning towards the other alien, who in the amount of time it had taken to take out the first, had only managed to get a small metal item out and was pulling it to its face. A communication device, obviously. Also, obviously, his attack had taken the being by complete surprise. Before the C'tan could start speaking into the comm device he threw himself at him. Tackling the being against the wall. The comm device flew out of his hand as his hand bounced against the wall.
Luciaden pulled his arm back, and with commando strength muscles, slammed the C'tan straight where the stomach was on most humanoids. A big Whoof sound came out as the breath escaped the being lung or lungs. The C'tan bent over, arms clutching at its stomach. Luciaden brought his elbow down right at the point the head was attached to the rest of th body.
He heard a loud snap and the alien dropped to the floor, likely dead. He bent down to pick up the gun-type weapon attached to the being's clothing when he heard the door behind him open. Knowing he couldn't turn in time to shoot the other C'tan, he turned and pulled up his gun.. .. ..
Luciaden walked out of the room, stepping over the body of the dead Vahkari.
Such a stupid race. He thought. The Vahkari hadn't even been able to tell who it was that shot its masters. The only thing they had going for them was their size and strength. Nothing a few shots in the chest couldn't defeat.
He made his way to what he thought was the hanger bay. Pausing inside the shadows behind the door to the vast room. Wherever he was, it was definitely a space station. He could see the stars through the air-containment fields.
Great, just as I'd hoped. He looked to the right and spotted his old commando shuttle. Made with some of the darkest crystals that could be found, it was nearly invisible to the black of space. And with extensive anti-sensor equipment. But it had its drawbacks. The crystal used was very fragile, so they had to rely on small size and speed. Barely bigger than a based fighter, it had just the cockpit, engines, and the extra room for the anti-sensor package.
He heard footsteps coming. He stepped a little farther back into the shadows. It was another Vahkari, carrying a huge computer, probably for a ship. He silently walked up behind him and followed it in, his light footsteps couldn't be heard over the Vahkari's heavy footsteps.
As they neared the ship, he stepped out from behind the Vahkari, and shot at the techs moving around the the small ship. One shot hit the back of a C'tan and his gas sack exploded. the wounded C'tan fell to the floor, its tendrils flailing uselessly around. The other techs scattered.
He made a dash for the ship, left open from the technician's observations. He jumped into the seat and pulled the canopy shut. Laser blasts were coming at him as he lifted the ship off the floor. Just missing a large bolt that struck the floor right where the ship had been. Turrets were appearing out of the walls, an inter-defense system obviously.
He drove the ship out of the hanger bays, still sliding the front of the ship in that direction. He slammed on the accelerator, blasting his ship away instantly at hundreds of kilometers and hour.
He was just about to hit the Warp drive lever when a bright blue cone appeared in front of him.
3 C'tan Frigates came through. Long, sleek, ships with broad wings studded with laser batteries. He knew those wings could move about the ship independently, constantly changing the ships profile, and the pattern of gun blasts. Looking more like a luxury vessal it was one of the deadliest weapons he had yet to see.
He immediately began a downward spiral, changing his direction away from it. Unfortunately, in that direction there was a gun platform. Its weapons already blazing away at him. He began a loop back towards the base, changing it to a spiral reverse towards the frigates again.
It came to him that the frigates had yet to find that he was an escapee. Within a few moments however, they would get a call from the base informing them of the situation. He drove hard at the frigate group, aware that their guns would swivel towards him at any moment.
They won't have their own people doing the laborious tasks, such as maintenance. He thought. They would certainly have some lesser beings aboard the crew.
He stretched out towards the middle ship. Looking for anything simple-minded enough to control. He found one, near the engine compartments. Its thoughts were too fuzzy to identify the race, but it responded to his mental demands. He saw in his mind what the being saw. Ah, perfect. He was standing near the energy core. Which supplied the weapons with the energy necessary to fire. He used the being to program a backfire into the weapons systems, so that when they were fired, the energy would double back and feed back into the energy core, forcing an overload. Hopefully it would result in the destruction of the ship.
Almost to the ships now. If he could make it past, he could escape. If they fired, the blast would destroy the middle ship, but he might be caught in the blast himself if he got too close. And there was always the chance of one of the others scoring a direct hit on his ship.
...
Almost at the last second, the three frigates opened fire on him, the middle frigate, however just sat there for a few moments. Then he could start seeing a bright glow of heat on the bulkheads of the engine compartment. Then a blast of fire came out the engines, starting a chain that fed up towards the front of the ship. Fire exploded out of viewports, and parts of the ship flew out. A large chunk the size of a building flew off towards the ship to its port side, bashing through the armor. and gouging a hole where the piece stuck. Just as he thought he was safe, another blue glow appeared ahead and below him.
A dreadnought, a much heavier defended ship than the frigate, but lacking in firepower came out.
It was too sluggish to be able to get in his path as he rocketed away from the exploding frigate. Just as he pulled back the lever he felt a small touch on his mind. Subtle and weak, but there. The touch was like another of his species. Then it was lost as the lever reached its full-back position and disappeared as if it had never been there. The warp drives left no evidence of departure, as if it had just vanished.