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Rei, clad in clothing more fit for physical activity, strolled into the space Kuv and his security forces had converted into a training area. It saw frequent use by all the inhabitants of the Kathya, especially during long stints in space. Thankfully, today it was deserted.
“Seal the doors. Senior level authorized to override,” Rei ordered the computer. The system beeped in response.
Bit by bit she released the stranglehold she kept on her Essence. The blue energy ripped down her limbs until she had the appearance of a fire elemental. The room’s built-in shielding hummed into life. Once she was sure it was safe, she manipulated the energy, shifting it into various elements. Rocks spread across the ground, then turned into a stream that soaked her pant legs. The water twisted around her form before it came crashing down. Rei breathed deep. The pressure she had been feeling was lessened, but not enough for her to feel comfortable with.
“What next?” she whispered. The old drills the Federation scientists had her run instinctively came to mind. The shiver that came over her at the memory quickly morphed into blind rage. Gen.
She strode forward, each step emitting a bit of power. How dare that man manipulate her like this? And the worst part was that he knew he was doing it! Rei’s fists drove into the tough material of the punching bag.
What does it say about you that you’re falling for it? How many years has he pulled you along for now? How many years has he reminded you that he just has to say the word and the Federation will storm your ship to put you back in those sterile halls?
“Watch it!” Yeke’s voice interrupted her thoughts.
Rei felt her feet lift off the ground for just a second before she hit it again. Yeke’s rushed footsteps barely registered in her painful daze.
“Rei!” He pulled her to her feet.
“What the hell hit me?”
“Your victim decided that it was time to get even.” He motioned toward the mangled punching bag across the room. “Are you okay?”
“Fine, though my face and back feel like they’re on fire from the hits they took. I know my muscles will barely let me move tomorrow, and I’m pretty sure I’ll have more than a few bruises.”
“You got lucky. Given how much Essence I can see coming off you, it should have backfired.”
Rei’s heart leapt in her chest. She yanked on her Essence with all her might, drawing it in until it was tightly wound coil again. “Wait, I locked the room. Did you need something, or did Chia blow up the ship?”
“Nope, I came in because Kuv and I were going to be working in here and I thought he beat me to it.”
“You two command code the doors? I thought you liked when everyone joined in because it lets you do an unofficial inspection of how good they are.”
“We do,” he admitted. “But we also like to go all out like someone else I know,” he tweaked her nose. “Do you want me to head out? I’ll tell Kuv we’ll have to call it for today or do it later tonight.”
“No, have your fun. If I do anything else, I’m going to regret it.” She stood, doing her best to ignore the soreness that had already settled in. “If you need me, I’ll be trying not to die before I meet with Chia."
She slowly hobbled across the floor. “Unlock the doors,” she ordered.
“Hey,” Yeke called.
She slowly turned.
“Why didn’t you shield?”
She felt her face heat up. “It... it wasn’t supposed to get that far. All I wanted to do was bleed some Essence off.”
“So, what made you go twelve rounds with a punching bag?”
Rei sighed, the temptation to spill the beans rising. “Trust me, Yeke, it’s better off that you don’t know.” She hobbled toward the door. “Hi, Kuv.”
“Cap...” Her head of security’s head whipped back and forth between them. “Captain.”
She gave his arm a half-pat. “Have fun and kick his ass for me. That’s an order.”
“Why?” Yeke called.
Rei ignored him, her thoughts centering around a nice refreshing shower and a nap before she hopefully got some answers.
~*~
Rei’s refreshed feeling quickly faded at the amount of noise that came out of Chia’s room. A silver disk rolled into the hall followed by a string of Ornian curses. She bent and picked it up, taking a deep breath before entering Chia’s domain.
“Missing something?” she asked, stopping just inside the doorway.
Chia’s head shot up from what she was working on, glaring at her. “I don’t need the commentary. Just put it over there on the bench.” She bent back down and resumed her work.
Rei did what she asked, then looked around. “Are you ready for this?”
“I’ve been ready since last night, come on.”
Chia set the tool she was using on the tray at her side, then led Rei past the chaos to the left side of the workroom. Several coils of wire wound around the jewelry box, each connected to a large generator. Chia placed Rei near a set of controls and gestured for her to stay put.
“Lock the door under voice protocol.” Chia walked around and checked each connection.
“What are the chances of this exploding our home?”
“Almost none. If you want a number, I’d give it a solid less than five percent.”
“That’s comforting,” Rei mumbled. “But at least we’ll be right there when it does.” Chia glared at her from the other side of the box. Rei cleared her throat. “What’ll happen once you flip the switch?”
“The generators will start to build up power. I’m using four of them so the power levels are consistent and the lock won’t be affected by any spells being cast in the ship. After the proper levels are maintained, the lock will pop right open.”
“Fingers crossed,” Rei said as Chia hopped up on her stool at her side. “Let’s get this over with.”
The engineer entered a command and the generators came to life in mechanized song. Her eyes remained fixed on the readout while her fingers flew across the keyboard. Rei clenched her hands and tried not to tap her foot as she waited. It was hard to believe an old jewelry box was causing them so many issues.
“Power levels are holding,” Chia reported.
Rei nodded, lips pulled in so tightly they made a thin line. She bounced from one leg to another in an effort to calm her nerves. Minutes ticked by, though they felt like an eternity.
“Finally!” Chia’s shout made her jump.
Rei whipped around. “Well?”
“One second...” Chia fiddled with the controls. The generators gave out one final pulse of energy, then went quiet. “Let’s see, shall we?”
Rei followed behind, more than content to let Chia take the lead despite the potential things they were about to uncover. The lock had popped off the box and laid smoking on the table.
“Is it safe to get near?”
“Yes.” Chia picked it up. “It wasn’t a radiation pulse that I hit it with.”
Rei tentatively took the box from the engineer. Her skin prickled with the residual Essence that covered its surface. Rei took a deep breath and lifted the lid.
“Well?” Chia hopped up and down beside her impatiently.
At first glance, the jewels and other valuables inside appeared ordinary. Frowning, she held each item in her hand for just a second. Essence, a ton of Essence was contained within each item. She tossed the last jewel inside and backed away as fast as her feet would carry her. The power just felt... wrong.
“How?” she said aloud. “We were Essence-less... this shouldn’t have been possible.”
“What?” Chia demanded.
“Here.” Rei pushed Chia in front of her. “What do you sense?”
“This isn’t entirely uncommon,” she reminded Rei. “Essence bleeds out over time. These objects could’ve absorbed it and that’s why it feels different to us.”
“But how, Chia? It makes no sense.”
The engineer shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine. I... You know what? Just wait until we can talk to my friends. Perhaps the papers shed light on this.”
“It can never be easy, can it? Thanks for the help.”
Chia nodded while she gathered the box up in her arms. “What answers were you hoping for, anyway?”
“I’m not sure.” Rei looked at the box. “Anything but another mystery to solve would have been nice.” A wry smile crossed her face. “Wishful thinking, huh?”
“I’ve heard worse.”
“Thanks again, Chia.” Rei started to the door. “Have fun working on your new project Just try not to destroy the ship.”
“Don’t I always?” Chia smiled sweetly.
Rei waved a hand and made a quick getaway and tried her best to ignore the fact she was no closer to finding out her answers.
~*~
“Captain.” Kuv’s crisp voice sounded in her ear.
She pushed away from her desk and activated her headset. “Yes?”
“Our boarding party is assembling in the transporter room.”
“I’ll be right there,” she said. “How long do I have until we’re in transport range?”
“About ten minutes.”
Rei leapt from her seat and rushed from the room to get a few supplies. While she was a good shot with her blaster, she wanted something in case the gun failed. One of the many habits she had picked up from Yeke over the years.
The main armory was in the center portion of the ship, so it was accessible from multiple angles. The walls were lined with handguns like hers along with high powered rifles and explosives. Rei grabbed another handgun and strapped it to her belt before hefting up one of the rifles and arranging the strap across her torso. From a table, she grabbed some concussion grenades and shoved them into pockets, and striding from the room.
“What’s the plan?” she asked Kuv as she walked into the transporter room.
He abruptly turned from his conversation and stood at attention. “We’ll split up once we get on board. Most will go with Yeke and me to secure our target, while a few will go with Aede to shut down any resistance.”
“Good,” Rei approved. “Where do you want me?”
“Wherever you like. Though if you want some sort of preference, you’re best when you float between the groups.”
“Then that’s what I’ll do.”
“Hey, Boss, we’re getting some hails up here. Should we answer yet?” Foniac asked over the comm.
“Stick to the plan,” Yeke ordered. “They’ll ask a few more times before they give us a warning shot.”
“We’re ready for when it does happen,” Chia broke in. “Shields are at full and we have backups ready to deploy.”
“Are we all here now?” Rei asked Kuv and Yeke. Kuv nodded. “Let’s get this show on the road before it comes to that.”
Rei watched Kuv get the first group in position to go across, her arms gently folded in front of her.
“Think we’re set?” Yeke asked quietly in her ear.
Rei shrugged, her eyes locked on her vanishing crew. “As much as we’re going to be.” Speaking louder, she approached the transporter pad. “Come on!”
No matter how many times she had done it, another room instantly materializing in front of her eyes was fascinating. The others crowded around the only door, waiting just long enough for them to join before they spread out in silence. Rei waited a couple of minutes before cautiously setting out herself. The halls were easy enough to navigate, most ships that the Federation used for transporting their goods had the same stock, and in her opinion sterile, layout.
“Hold it right there!” a voice shouted from behind her. Rei paused as she heard the rustle of a weapon being brought into position. “Turn around with your hands up.”
Rei allowed her rifle to fall to her chest as she raised her hands. Slowly, she turned around, “Yes?”
Two soldiers had their guns trained on her. “How did you get on board?” the speaker asked.
Rei bit her cheek to keep from laughing at their wide-eyed expressions at how armed she was. “I walked.”
“I see we have a wise guy here,” the second soldier sneered. “You’ll learn to lose that fast enough.” He turned to his partner. “Let’s get her secured. Go disarm her.”
“Don’t do anything stupid now,” his partner warned as he approached.
Rei resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She allowed the man to relieve her of the rifle without protest. He was reaching for the gun strapped to her thigh when she unleashed a wave of Essence toward them and sent the pair into the wall where they crumpled, unconscious. Rei pointed to direct her Essence toward them. They rose in the air, their limbs hitting each other in a cartoonish fashion with no resistance. Rei floated them into a nearby room before letting them drop to the ground in a crumpled heap. She set the door to unlock only from the outside, then retrieved her rifle where the soldier had dropped it. The chamber had cracked open in the fall causing Essence to leak out.
I’m never going to hear the end of this. She let it go, then frowned at the door for a moment. Summoning a bit of Essence, she used the energy to melt the control panel.
As Rei turned down the next corridor, she glanced in the first room only to pull back flush against the wall. Inside appeared to be a secondary control room with five armed men watching what was happening on their screens. Carefully, she reached for the door controls. The door slid shut, though she could hear them protest inside. She gathered a ball of electricity in the palm of her hand, then released it into the panel. The smell of melting plastic filled the air. Giving the nearby security camera a wave, Rei rushed off.
“Where are we?” she asked over comms.
“I am about to get in and lock down the system,” Aede replied, breathless. “So be careful of what doors you try to go into.”
“First load is on its way and we’re getting the second ready,” Yeke said. “Kuv’s also found some other goodies that might be worth it to take with us.”
“Keep me posted.”
“Damn it,” Aede broke in with a sigh. “This is going to take me longer than I thought, their back up firewalls just triggered.”
“How long?” Rei asked.
“Depends on how much of a fight these defenses put up.”
Rei grimaced. “Fine—I’ll keep going manually and do what I can.” She closed down her comm. “And people wonder why I’m so overbearing.”
Spherical pulses of Essence energy flew greeted her around the next corner. She ducked into a doorway before easing over just enough to see who was responsible. Two more soldiers peeked out just enough to fire off a few shots before they vanished again.
They’re getting smarter, she thought as she readied her gun. Slowly, she inched around the corner and fired in a steady stream to cover her race to reach the next doorway. Several shots responded, many coming dangerously close to their target. She crouched as far back as she could to plan her next move. The soldiers continued, maintaining their pattern of alternating who was the one firing.
Rei returned fire so she could continue to advance. One of the soldier’s shots splattered across her shield at the level of her heart. Her brow furrowed as she adjusted her pattern of fire. If they were going to have no problem aiming to kill, neither would she.
“Drop your weapon!” one of them shouted as she reached the next doorway.
“Now you want to talk?” she yelled back. “After you fired on me first!”
Their guns suddenly went silent. She looked out just in time to see one of them crawling across the floor. Rei waited but silence reigned over their battleground. She slowly approached where the soldier had vanished, gun ready to fire. At her approach, the soldier’s gun flew upward, aimed at her chest. Rei’s expression softened as she noticed how badly his hands shook.
“Think about what you’re doing. Your friend is dead and I could have made you join him, but didn’t.”
“What do you want?”
“To finish this without any more bloodshed. Why don’t you take your friend and tuck yourselves in one of these rooms?”
“Why don’t you kill me, too?”
Either he’s greener than I thought or he’s an idiot. “I didn’t come here to kill anyone. He was an accident that wouldn’t have happened if he didn’t shoot first and ask questions later.” The lights in the hallway dimmed and the engines powered down. The expression on his face told her that he had reached the correct conclusion about what had caused it.
“Make your choice. Or I will shoot you and then jettison both of you into deep space.” He looked down at the cooling body, swallowed, and nodded. “The room behind you is good enough. Get moving.” She reached over and activated the door with her weapon still locked on the soldier.
He lifted the body under its arms and started to drag him toward the open door. Sweat ran down his brow as he struggled with the weight of his comrade. Once they were fully inside, Rei motioned for him to hand over their weapons and communicators. He did so reluctantly. Before Rei could do anything else the door slid shut between them.
“I have them locked out now,” Aede said in her ear. “There might be a few still out and about, but they can’t call in reinforcements.”
“Well, we should be able to make a clean getaway,” Kuv said. “We’ve tagged the last bit of stuff, and our men are on their way back to the departure point.”
“Good, get yourselves back there too,” Rei ordered as she holstered her gun and dashed away from the door.
“You got it,” Yeke said.
Rei didn’t worry so much about caution as she retraced her path through the halls, eager to get back to her ship as soon as possible. Near the control room she had locked down, she heard footsteps racing toward her. Aede and her group appeared at her side. Wordlessly, the pair of women fell into step together until they burst into the room they arrived in. As the last of their group cleared the doorway, the room vanished and she found herself staring at the familiar walls of the Kathya’s teleporter room. She did a quick survey to make sure they were all back. Kuv nodded his approval and she tapped her earpiece.
“Foniac, get us out of here.”
The Kathya shook under a barrage of weapon’s fire.
“With pleasure, Boss,” Foniac replied.
“You didn’t lock out their weapons?” Yeke asked Aede.
“I thought I did, but they must have restored them already.” Aede looked at one of the computer screens. “At least the engines are still offline.”
The ship quivered a few more times. Kuv wandered over to the computer. “She’s right, they can fire at us all they want, but they cannot follow.”
No one spoke in the room as they listened for the impacts against their shields to stop.
“We’re clear,” Foniac announced over the ship-wide system. “You are now free to go about your business.”
“She has way too much fun with this,” Yeke muttered.
“What all did we end up getting?” Rei asked.
“Everything we wanted plus some food, and quite a few boxes with no label,” Yeke replied.
“Do we know what’s in there?” Aede swung away from the computer.
“Medicines and other supplies were in the one we opened. We’ll know more when we get a better chance to look at the others,” Kuv replied. “They had the standard number of guards on it, so let’s hope it was worth it.”
“What were our casualties?” Rei asked.
“A few were banged up a bit, but otherwise it was all on their side,” Yeke said.
“Good.” Rei walked to the door, taking out the extra cartridges and gun except for her personal one. She passed these to one of the men by the door to take back to the armory.
“Um, Rei, aren’t you missing something?” Yeke asked.
“Hm?” Rei tried to make her tone as innocent as possible.
“You were armed to the teeth when we went over and now, you’re missing at least one rifle.” He folded his arms across his chest.
“It was... an unfortunate casualty.” Rei offered a sheepish grin.
“Captain, those rifles...” Kuv sounded horrified.
“And you say I’m the reason we can’t have nice things,” Yeke added.
“At least I can replace the toys I lose,” Rei retorted. “Just make sure I get an updated inventory later today so we can see what we can get rid of on the next planet we’re on.”
“What planet is that?” one of Kuv’s security force asked.
“Bruatin,” she replied, her tone miraculously even despite the twisting her stomach did at the thought. “We’re going to Bruatin.”