To the Last Syllable of Recorded Time - Part XII

To the Last Syllable of Recorded Time - Part XII

     Noooooooo...

     The scream was mental as well as physical. Niko's body, a tense arch in Goose' arms, reflected the guttural groan that left her throat. Tendons stretched to the point of bursting, muscles locked in a futile attempt to block off the agony behind her exploding temples, Niko screamed her pain out in a burst of telepathic power that seemed to infuse even the walls.
     Doc made a strangled sound that was drowned in the screams of their guards, now exposed to a pain so excruciating, so maddening, that it rendered their bodies useless as they fell, jerking spasmodically, to the floor.
     "Niko," Zach managed on a hoarse, strangled groan. "Stop it!"
     As in response, the wound on her belly split open, red blood trickling across the dirtied ivory skin. The all-encompassing agony started to ebb, allowing the men to breathe again. Zach didn't want to know what weaker minds were experiencing right now, minds that hadn't been exposed to weeks of torture before the telepath's pain threatened to split them open.
     "Shane... Zach." It was a plea, and a command. Niko's eyes didn't open but her body gradually untensed, along with her mind. Along with her sweating, hurt teammates. "It... worked. I -- I want to go... home."
     "What worked, Niko?"
     The redhead's gaze shifted tiredly to Zach's, a half smile on her dry lips. "Everything. Everything," she repeated contentedly, curling deeper into Shane's embrace despite the pain in her stomach.
     "Doc..." Telepathic tendrils stretched out, their touch soothing to the hacker's fevered brain.
     "Yeah, Niko." A grin from cut and swollen lips was her reward. "Welcome back..."
     A power cell exploded just outside the cell wall. Niko smiled up at the short blur in the wall's structure, as further explosions shook the station in quick succession.
     "Residual temporal disturbances," she intoned dreamily, like a child reading from a favourite book. "We should go home now..."
     The Supertrooper met the other men's eyes with a shared, feral understanding. Fangs flashed in the semidarkness as Niko was lifted upon muscular arms.
     "I say we make a break for it. Now."
     Niko's long-depleted badge flashed dimly, unnoticed. Zach nodded.
     "I say you're right." Hoisting Doc up by one arm, Zach made a dash for the locked cell entrance just as the wall blurred again, only this time it melted, landing in a pool of metallic looking fluid on the floor. The resulting gap was a huge opening into the corridor. Niko giggled happily, motioning at the hole.
     "That was me, you know?"
     Goose ignored her as he burst backwards through the opening, shielding her with his body. Everywhere on the floor troopers squirmed, moaning, clutching their heads through their helmets. Some had taken off the helmets and were clutching their bare temples instead, opening glazed eyes towards some unknown horror only they could see. Goose bent and retrieved a handful of blasters, swiftly and expertly checking the charge before he shoved them into his pants. Zach followed his lead, trying not to notice how young some of the faces looked. From green to yellow-skinned, belonging to a multitude of races, they still reminded him of his children, who were sitting safely at home, trying to reconcile themselves with losing another parent. But he also remembered the ready cruelty some of those children had displayed in the torture chamber, the cold enjoyment of toying with the victim.
     Swallowing a curse he straightened, supporting Doc, and secured the long-range laser rifle he had chosen.
     Dammit to hell, Fox. You can't save the whole world.
     No. Some couldn't be saved. Zach motioned for Goose to follow as he stepped around the quivering bodies cluttering the corridor. The ST complied, carrying Niko, who was still muttering silently to herself. No doubt the load of endorphines in her bloodstream was as potent as any drug, and definitely better than the pain -- the agony that had been enough to fell half of the troopers on the station.
     Long minutes later, the unaccustomed flash of a still functioning terminal amidst the destruction alerted Goose, who stopped in front of the cracked screen. Zach half-dragged, half-carried Doc to the crackling console.
     "Doc? Are you up to it?"
     The hacker nodded tiredly. "I'm the mind behind those tweakers," he muttered. "Of course I'm up to it!" Exhaustion and the lack of a mental interface rendered his movements slower as he attacked the manual interface. Back pressed against the wall, Niko on one arm, a blaster in the other, Gooseman watched for intruders. Zach did the same, using his bionic arm to support Doc.
     "They must have brought Ranger One into one of those hangars after they got us. Try to find out which one."
     "Yeah, I'm trying, I'm trying..." He frowned at the blurry image of a black-and-red ball. "The maintenance AI is severly damaged -- I should have it in one more minute..."
     After four minutes, the only sounds to be heard were Doc's subdued cursing and that of the occasional trooper slamming to the floor. An alarm had started screeching somewhere in the distance, and the corridor lights were flashing in a sickening red. Doc blinked often and a little owlishly, clearly unsatisfied with the progress he was making. A few more entries and he finally sighed, relieved.
     "Got it. Ranger One is in docking bay ei--" despite his weakened state he jumped hugely as the interface burst into life under his touching fingers, discharging part of the load into the sensitive skin of his hands. "What the -- Niko!"
     The telepath was trembling in Goose's arms, eyes pressed shut. Bloodless fingers clutched the ST's shoulder. Her breath was a flat, wheezing sound. When she finally spoke, it was one word.
     "Run."
     Looking at the console that had started to crumble away along with a portion of the supporting wall, they complied.
     "Bay eight?" Zach shouted at Doc through the chaos. The hacker nodded.
     They had reached a familiar part of the station, one firmly etched into the mind of all four captives. Every time the pain became too much to bear, each of them had imagined escaping to freedom along this path. Now they were finally doing it, blasting their way towards their waiting ship. The way seemed endless through the smoke and fires from surrendering machinery, and still, after the next turn to the right the huge sliding door entrance to the hangar was there, sure enough. It looked massive, and threatening, and huge.
     In Goose's arms, the telepath jerked once, moaning.
     "Stand... back. I have to -- Have to release..." The men stepped back instinctively, watching her with horrified gazes. The energy building inside her body was visible now, an accumulating ball of midfrequency waves and telekinetic energy, growing, then hovering for a moment on the cusp before it burst. Right into the portal, which resisted the pressure for a bare second before disintegrating, suddenly and unspectacularly, into metallic dust. As soon as the portal had given in Niko, too, crumpled against her teammate's chest.
     From behind the settling dust Ranger One rose, majestically white, in the middle of the hall. And beside it, at a distance, the Queen stood smiling in the circle of her five best slaverlords.
     In the middle of an otherwise empty hangar.
     But she was facing four people much too well-trained to let themselves be distracted by an unexpected turn of events. Efficiency was there in every move as they made their way towards the closed hatch of the ship, covering their backs at the same time. Despite countless attempts by the Crown's scientists the entry was still sealed -- the hacker didn't need his tweakers to insert a code he knew in his sleep. Bare moments later, the hatch slid open, revealing the lighted interior of the one cabin all four had dreamt about for weeks.
     "I must admit you've made it quite far." The Queen sounded mildly impressed. The four rangers froze, halfway up the steps to Ranger One's now open hatchway. Niko, who had fought her way back into consciousness, stared tranfixed at the one slaverlord whose energy pattern she recognized -- and wished her new and uncontrollable abilities to hell at the same time.
     "The journey ends here, however. Unless..." she smiled horribly and motioned to the silent slaverlord at her left, "...unless your captain is willing to leave without trying one last time to rescue the crystal of his dear little wife. Before -- " stretching out a hand, she ripped the crystal from the slaverlord's chest, enclosing it in clawlike fingers. The projection disappeared, only the red light of the pulsing crystal still bleeding through her fingers -- "before I crush it, that is."
     Niko saw Zach blanch, all color draining out of his face as he watched the crystal pulse with the lifeforce of his wife. Her brain patterns, enclosed in a fragile hexagon of red quartz. It was obvious that Zach's self-control had almost reached the snapping point as he turned to face the Queen.
     "You will never destroy a human crystal," he hissed. "It's the only one you have."
     "But you're so wrong, my dear captain. I gain four crystals in return. Or are you really going to leave her to die, so helpless... See how the crystal flickers? It's Eliza's life force draining away even as we speak... The structure is fragile -- it is easily crushed. But the guilt -- ah, the guilt is eternal, I'm afraid."
     Zach's body jerked forward as if of its own volition, trembling with the need to hurt that horrible creature who seemed to enjoy feeding on other's people pain. For that one moment, the controlled captain was lost to rational thought. His teammates were also immobilized -- except for one: imperturbable, ignoring the hovering slaverlords, the ST kept his sights as well as his blaster trained on the only real enemy. She reciprocated with a look of pure ice.
     "Do you think this is a good idea, soldier?"
     Goose stared icily back over the expanse of empty hangar space. "I can make the shot."
     "Oh, but I'm sure you can. With your training and all..." The hand holding the crystal waved perilously. "You see, the important question is what happens after. Crystals without shielding break so easily... and I'm afraid none of you is close enough to risk a catch."
     A blond brow lifted in response. "Ah. And you are stupid enough to destroy your only chance of keeping us here -- as well as your only guarantee that you'll get out of this hangar alive." He smiled, all white, gleaming teeth. "I don't think so."
     Nobody noticed at first that Niko's badge had started to glow, although it contained no shred of energy. It was activating her implant again, amplifying her powers to a level that was no longer controllable. In reaction to the strong surge of psi energy, the crystal in the Queen's hand glimmered as if answering and intensified its pulsing. Swallowing, the telepath clamped down on the surge of energy. She stared in horror at her badge, now suddenly her enemy, targeting the crystalline structures all around her, hoping for a discharge...
     Finally understanding, she pulled at it, trying to rip it out of its socket. Not succeeding. Realizing what she wanted Shane joined her, his eyes still on the Queen -- stronger than she, he ripped the symbol off easily with a powerful jerk. But it was too late. The crystals vibrated faster, emitting a high-pitched wail; the building energy had already been channeled. Red crystals burst, one after the other. The Queen stared incredulously into her palm as the last explosion buried tiny shards in her skin, drawing green blood. Sending the same thought through four minds at once: Eliza Fox was history.
     Zach froze, a marble column of locked muscles and burning eyes. His eyes were fixed on those of the Queen in a silent promise. Paralysing. Menacing.
     Deadly.
     Niko knew better. Eyes tightly shut with the effort of imprinting Eliza's brain patterns onto her own mind, she grasped Goose's arm for support. She already felt the other's disorientation, the fight against the onslaught of impressions a body provided after two years of living as a holographic entity. Eliza was confused, shaky, and frightened out of her mind.
     "Zach." A croak, barely audible. Powerless against the barrier of agony in his mind. The deadly intent that was about to send him, barehanded and determined, against his ultimate nemesis. So that he could close his hands around her throat, pressing down...
     Zach! Eliza is with me. ALIVE. Alive. Alive...
     He shook his head as she repeated the telepathic message until it was the only thought vibrating in his brain, telling him what he didn't dare to believe. The telepath insisted.
     It was a broadcast, tuned into human minds. Both Doc and Goose heard it on the edge of perception, and while the first hurried into the cockpit, firing up the engine, the ST shoved Niko into the ship and went after his captain, who obviously wasn't going to move of his own volition. Except to kill the Queen.
     But the Queen was defeated -- her carefully laid plans had dissolved into nothingness, and Goose's strategist's mind insisted she deserved to live with the failure. She looked small and haggard in the huge hall, dwarfed by both the size of the empty space and her loss of control.
     "Zach. Come with me." It was a level command, but the captain didn't even look at him. He continued hearing Niko's voice in his head and denying her message, the implication that there was hope after all. That he hadn't seen his life and sanity trickle away along with a stream of green blood against red glass.
     Shane sighed. Left hand still firmly closed around the blaster, he jabbed two fingers of his right firmly into a point between the right side of Zach's neck and shoulder. He caught the collapsing body, dragged it with practiced efficiency through the opening. The stairs descended after him and the gate slid hermetically shut.
     Shaking off the stupor that had gripped her the Queen ran, for one of the first times in her life. The hangar doors were still far away, and the white ship's engines were already blasting flames, weapons readying with a telltale click of shifting armament...
     The laser shot was silent and powerful. It blew away most of the outer wall, and the few contents of the hangar were sucked out into space with overwhelming force as the ship lengthened and then disappeared into hyperspace, the blue-white ring of the wormhole slowly dissipating in its wake.

To the Last Syllable of Recorded Time - Part XII

From Betamountain.org