I turned slowly, knowing I was busted.
“Hello Weraynian.” I managed to reply in a squeaky voice.
He laughed, throwing his head back as he did so. His eyes glinted with triumph and I knew that this was part of his trap.
“I’ve been expecting you, little girl.” He said, confirming what I’d just thought. “You and Miss Lester in here may have been unforeseen variables in this conflict, but it has certainly been intriguing watching the two of you running around, meddling in affairs you do not understand.”
I clenched my fists shut as my confidence came back. “I think I understand full well.” I retorted coldly, as I faced a Weraynian; a person whose ancestors had inspired fear and terror into the hearts of many during the Great War, and who himself was prepared to do the same.
The Weraynian smiled, his eyes narrowed. “You are tiny. There is no power in the galaxy that can match that of the Weraynians, so it is useless to even try. If I were you, I’d give up now.”
“Not a chance.” I told him. “You’ve killed people, and you also hurt one of my closest friends, and no one gets away with that, especially not you!”
“So be it.” The Weraynian replied, stepping forward menacingly.
I positioned myself to fight. With a roar the Weraynian ran forward, faster than was even possible, and I had to desperately focus all my senses to dive off to the side, dodging his rampage by a mere hair. Literally, he grabbed for my hair as I jumped out of the way and if it weren’t for my enhanced senses I would have been in a tight spot. I sprinted over to the circuit control room door and slid inside; the Weraynian was hot on my heels. Sophie gave a gasp as I entered, and I grabbed her friction stabiliser off of the floor and pointed it at a panel on the wall. It unscrewed immediately and I grabbed it up and swung it round, trying to hit the Weraynian. Naturally I didn’t; he was too fast for me, but it did stop him from grabbing at me again. His fist flew into the corrugated metal in my hands and it crumpled immediately, throwing me back against the wall. I stood up to face him again, this time defenceless. As the Weraynian aimed his fists at me once more I stood my ground; ducking, weaving, dodging and manoeuvring each punch he tried to land on me. Normally one-on-one combat with a Weranian was a terrible idea, but I was small, agile and had special mind powers that helped me anticipate his fighting strategy; so naturally I had a slightly better chance than most would against him.
We fought like that for a few long moments. Sophie watched with gaping mouth as the Weraynian tried to hit me, sweep my legs out from under me and grab hold of me, failing every time. I used my senses to somehow avoid him, but I was tiring fast. Finally he landed a blow on me, throwing me against a control panel that sparked as I slid to the ground. I tried to rise again but the Weraynian placed his foot on my stomach, pinning me to the floor beside Sophie.
I managed to turn my head and send her a weak smile. “Hi.” I said lamely.
She stared at me, looking amazed at the fight she’d just witnessed. “Yeah.”
The Weraynian bent a few strips of metal and strapped them around my wrists and ankles, pressing them tightly into the floor so I couldn’t escape.
He then proceeded to continue with the work he’d been doing with the circuit controls before; bringing the spaceship under his control.
The room was silent apart from machine noises as he did so. Sophie and I stared at each other hopelessly as we both lay on the floor, unable to move. The skin of her arm was stretched around the bone that was almost protruding from where her elbow would be. I gritted my teeth as I examined the injury with my eyes, as I could tell how much it was hurting her. I couldn’t do anything about it though; I was forced to stay in position by the cuffs binding my legs and arms.
Soon the Weraynian finished and he turned to look down at us with a creepy smile.
“And now we begin.” He said evilly.
Before I had a chance to respond he knelt down and with a swift arm movement picked Sophie and I up, ripping off my bonds in the process, and draped us over his right shoulder. An unnatural sound emanated from Sophie’s mouth as she was swung up through the air, a mixture between a scream and a gasp of pain. I closed my eyes tight as the Weraynian left the room with us hanging on his shoulder, not wanting to see the floor shifting sickeningly below us or the jagged edge of bone now literally poking out of Sophie’s arm.
Soon the Weraynian finished and he turned to look down at us with a creepy smile.
“And now we begin.” He said evilly.
Before I had a chance to respond he knelt down and with a swift arm movement picked Sophie and I up, ripping off my bonds in the process, and draped us over his right shoulder. An unnatural sound emanated from Sophie’s mouth as she was swung up through the air, a mixture between a scream and a gasp of pain. I closed my eyes tight as the Weraynian left the room with us hanging on his shoulder, not wanting to see the floor shifting sickeningly below us or the jagged edge of bone now literally poking out of Sophie’s arm.
I don’t know how long we were moving for, but to me it seemed like forever. I could feel that we were going upwards as we went, and at one point along the way the Weraynian stopped to pick up someone else who was then hung over his other shoulder. From the person’s breathing pattern I could tell they were unconscious and wondered how long it had been since they’d been knocked out.
I realised as I continued to sway upside down that the Weraynian was even stronger than I’d previously thought. I mean, he was carrying three people, one of whom was an adult, and his pace hadn’t slowed at all. I contemplated on how many people the Weraynian would be able to carry without being weighed down, but couldn’t work it out. My mind seemed to have been affected by that smoke selectively; I could still read emotions and understand things, but my mind couldn’t process other information like normal. It must have been a side effect of my advanced powers.
I opened my eyes as the Weraynian reached the uppermost level of the spacecraft and instantly regretted it because Sophie’s horrifyingly pale face was right beside mine, and I knew she was on the verge of passing out. The blood rush to her head was just making things worse. Now I thought about it, I didn’t feel too good myself, but Sophie was clearly the priority here. There was no point worrying about my problems when she was in pain right next to me.
We entered a room, slightly larger than a standard living room, with screens ranged around and one main control desk with a large processing machine set behind the monitor, keyboard, buttons, dials and levers. There were a few chairs ranged around, and the main monitor had computer cords that led up into the ceiling. There was a thick window set into the ceiling at the front of the room, letting natural light enter, which was a nice change. I could tell that the room was the observation deck and communications centre of the Eridanus; this was where the distress signal had been sent from, and where it could be rescinded as well.
The Weraynian wanted to stop the latter from happening, but how was he going to do that?
He threw me, Sophie and the other human unceremoniously to the floor and crossed to the main console, drawing back a chair to sit in.
I rolled over on the floor and saw the other human, a male mechanic, had woken up, and now he was both confused and terrified.
“What happened?” he stared at me in horror.
“We failed.” I replied mournfully, choking back a sob as Sophie twinged in pain beside me. “The Weraynian’s going to start a war.”
The human gulped, and turned his eyes on the Weraynian, whose back was turned away from us.
Suddenly I remembered the people who had followed me to the ship; what had happened to them? They’d had more than enough time to catch up, to storm in and save us so where were they?
“What happened to the others?” I voiced my thoughts, addressing the Weraynian. “The ones who were following me into the ship.”
“They were blocked off.” He replied coolly, without turning. “I had no need or desire for another distraction.”
I rolled onto my back, and stared up at the ceiling hopelessly. There was a chance, I supposed, that they would be able to make it through, but then would they find us? Would they be able to stop the Weraynian even if they did? I didn’t know the answer. I could only anticipate the outcome; whatever it was, it wouldn’t be good.
As the Weraynian worked, I heard screens coming to life around me, and so I rolled over again to take a look, as did the human beside me. Sophie didn’t; I didn’t even know if she could move by this point.
Each of the screens showed something different. The majority were footage of different places around the ship; the pilot deck, the entrance, the dining hall, the kitchen and multiple hallways. There was one screen that showed an image of blips on radar; it was the live progress of the human fleet coming for assistance, received from so far away. The final screen showed the view from outside the ship; the worried crowd that still mingled, knowing nothing of what was going on inside.
Another monitor flickered on as I watched, and my heart leapt as I saw a shot of the humans and Paladanians who’d been sent after me, trying to move the extensive rubble of a collapsed hallway. The ones who weren’t working on the blockage were looking after a few injured human mechanics, victims of the Weraynian that they’d found.
“Now you know where they are, Paladanian.” The Weraynian informed me tersely. “Happy?”
“Totally.” I replied sarcastically. “And my name’s Abigail, for your information Weraynian.”
“I do know that, Paladanian.” The Weraynian spat over his shoulder at me. “But it’s respectful to you to use your real name, and I do not respect your pitiful existence even slightly.”
I scoffed. “Right back at you.”
Sophie managed a snicker from where she was lying, but it quickly became a fit of groans at the movement of her body.
Propping myself up on my elbows carefully, I peeked at the main monitor. The Weraynian had found the main communications unit and had the recent entries displayed on the screen. Alongside that was a map showing the layout of the ship and the life forms inside it.
There were two main groups of living beings; the group in the blocked hallway, and us. Besides those main ones, there were scattered dots representing people across the ship, mainly in control rooms and hallways. I stared at the screen, trying to work out how I could use this information, but I couldn’t come up with anything. It was a lost cause. I found it kind of ironic how barely an hour before I’d been sure we had won, just to be reminded that we weren’t even close.
The Weraynian War had now restarted, officially.
As he turned to study the screen showing the people in the blocked hallway, the Weraynian scowled, and I could almost sense it as his mind worked out a way to kill them. It seemed that they weren’t too much trouble at the moment though, because he then went back to working on the communications unit.
Sophie continued to nurse her arm next to me, and the nameless human on my other side shifted as he noticed that the Weraynian was currently preoccupied. Edging ever so carefully onto his elbows, and then his knees, he stood up. He kept glancing over at the door we’d come through. He was trying to escape.
“Get down.” I hissed at him and he sent me a look of annoyance.
Now, I wasn’t trying to impair his chances of getting away; in fact I was trying to stop him from making things worse. If he thought that the Weraynian had made a mistake in leaving us with our limbs free, and that it was a chance to escape, then he was about to be proved painfully wrong.
Soon enough, when the Weraynian had leaned in closer to the screen he was examining, the human made a break for it. He wrenched at the door, and gave a gasp of triumph as it opened. But as he started to bolt through the door, he was thrown forward by the weight of a spare part the Weraynian had chucked expertly at him. Completely disoriented, the poor soul was in no way ready for the merciless way the Weraynian then strode over to him and picked him up by the scruff of the neck, laughing in his face.
“You really thought it would be that easy?” he asked cruelly, as he pinched the human’s skin tightly, earning a yelp of pain. “I knew you humans were weak; weak-minded and weak-willed. You’ve just proved that you are the perfect candidate.”
“Ca-candidate for what?” the human stuttered fearfully.
“Oh just you wait.” The Weraynian set him down again, and for a moment the human gave a sigh of relief, before being pressed tightly against the wall. The Weraynian reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, hand held gun, and then lifted the human up again. “This will do nicely.”
He then proceeded to throw the human onto the floor beside the main console, and aimed the gun at his head.
“Start up the message broadcasting program!” he ordered sharply and threateningly. The human shakily crawled over to the controls and started working.
Then the Weraynian turned to Sophie and I once more. Pulling a panel off of the wall, he tore it effortlessly into strips and bent them. I sighed, knowing I was about to be restrained once more.
As if on cue, the Weraynian lifted me to the wall, and pressed the strips of metal around my wrists and into the sturdy panels behind me. He left my legs dangling free, purposely trying to make me feel vulnerable.
Then he surprised me by picking Sophie up as well. In her current state she was no threat to the Weraynian at all, and there was little chance of her recovering any time soon. She gave a piercing scream as the metal was pushed against her flesh, especially her injured arm which started to drip blood onto the floor.
“Why are you doing this?” she whispered as sweat poured down her brow and the bone sticking out of her elbow grinded loudly with the other bones in her arm.
I noticed a flicker of something cross the Weraynian’s face as he considered her question. Was it guilt? Remorse? Just plain old annoyance? For once I honestly couldn’t tell, and that perturbed me. Finally he gave an answer.
“Because it is my duty.”
Confusion flooded Sophie’s features as he moved away from her and back to the human who was frantically typing and pressing switches on the main machine in the room.
“Are you ready yet?” the Weraynian asked without emotion.
The human shook his head desperately, and quickened the pace of his fluttering fingers.
The Weraynian smirked contently and turned back to us once more. He pulled two small knives out of his belt and held one to both Sophie’s throat and mine.
“If you two try to interfere at all, I will kill you, painfully, in all the ways you fear the most.” His tone darkened and I fought the urge to gulp. “So keep your mouths shut for the time being, and reflect on the pitiful attempts you and your people made to stop my race.”
He drew back the sharp implements just long enough for us to each nod and then they were at our throats again.
“Good.”
He lowered the knives for good this time, and grabbed at my jacket, slicing it easily into two strips. He then tied one piece of cloth as a gag tightly around Sophie’s mouth, before doing the same to mine. The Weryaynian's eyes glinted with evil, and then he turned back to observing the human on the floor again.
I turned my eyes as far as I could to look at Sophie; her eyes were shut tight in resistance to the pain and her face was completely pale, and shining with sweat. Her t-shirt was singed and her belt empty of gadgets. She looked entirely dishevelled and her ever-messy hair was not helping matters. I wished I could do something about her arm, but there was no way I could even try.
“Are you prepared to record a message yet?” the Weraynian promptly addressed the human at the communication controls.
“Ye-yes.” He replied, trembling.
“Alright then.” the Weraynian levelled the gun at his head. “When I tell you to, you will start the recording. You will speak desperately, as if this is your one chance at freedom. You will say that the Paladanians have found you out, and are slaughtering everyone on this ship, even taking the children as slaves. You will beg for immediate assistance, and urge your human fellows to come here as speedily as possible. It will be a live broadcast, but don’t think that will save you. If you even begin to alert them that you are being pressured to do this, I will kill you on the spot, only furthering the idea that the Paladanians are ruthless murderers. Do you understand?”
The human nodded, shaking like a leaf in a severe storm.
Another look of triumph alighted in the Weraynian’s eyes. It was sick, the way he enjoyed the torment of others. He had managed to surpass all my expectations of Weraynian cruelty. I knew it was all because their ancestors had played with their biology, and thus this Weraynian was only following his genetic coding, but it didn’t make it any less horrifying. He honestly thought the Weraynians were superior, and had the right to kill anyone in their way.
“Begin recording now.” The Weraynian said curtly.
The human moved his finger slowly over to press down a button that immediately started flashing orange, signalling that it was recording live. He leaned in, breathing heavily, to the microphone.
“Please help!” he cried out, faking desperation well. Nothing was heard from the other end of the line, but that was because it was an open signal. Multiple people could be receiving it at this moment and we wouldn’t know. “They- they’re killing us, all of us. The enemy found us; they’re so powerful we couldn’t stop them! They took the kids, and we don’t know what’s happening to them! We’re being slaughtered! And they’re not going to stop with us either; we know they have plans to conquer the entire universe. So please, if any of you have any kindness in you, summon all the forces you can, and fight them! Don’t let them get away with this! Please!” he faltered for a moment, glancing towards the loaded gun in the Weraynian’s hand. Then he drew in the confidence to speak again. “The power i-”
The human was cut off by a sudden shot to the head, delivered coldly by the Weraynian. His head smoking, and with life completely gone from his body, he collapsed sideways onto the floor. The human was dead.
Sophie gave a muffled cry of protest, her eyes widened in shock. I was shocked too, despite the fact that I saw it coming. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the human’s lifeless body, and the way his eyes stared emptily upwards, set ghostly white into a now charred face.
As Sophie and I were trauma struck, the Weraynian moved over to the communications device, switching the broadcast off with a clunk. He had a smile on his face, and I felt the urge to brutally murder him, which is honestly completely unnatural in a Paladanian. The Weraynian kicked aside the body of the person he had just killed in cold blood, and summoned up the speaker system on the machine.
He began to address the crowd seemingly still gathered outside of the spaceship.
“Hello pitiful creatures! Here I am, one of the dreaded Weraynians! I hope you’re scared.” he said wickedly, and I could hear the sound of his voice emanating beyond the walls of the spaceship. There was an image showing the outside of the spaceship and the crowd gathered beneath it displayed on one of the monitors to the Weraynian’s left, and as he talked it projected outwards holographically. I could see that the crowd had swelled majorly since I’d left; there were new additions either from town or the sparse Paladanian military. They had actual weapons now, which along with the human weapons were enough to defeat an army. If only the Weraynian didn’t have so much power at the moment we might have actually had a chance. But with the extra human forces arriving in but a few hours and the hostages the Weraynian currently had, my people would have to think really hard to come up with a solution to this problem.
“I should probably inform you of a couple of things.” He continued. “One, I have complete control of this spaceship. Two, the coming humans have been recently assured of the slaughter that they believe the Paladanians are inflicting. Three, as the time of Weraynian deliverance approaches I will not hesitate to kill anyone who tries to stand in the way of our triumph. Put these things together and I’m sure you’ll all understand you are not to interfere. Don’t even try. It’s pointless really. You can’t stop me anyway. So… just to rub it in.” He pulled a device out of his pocket. I gaped as I realised that it was a remote control for the external weapons systems of the Eridanus.
My eyes flicked to the screen as a flash of red light crossed it, emanating from the ship’s outer lasers. The laser bolt flew past the crowd and landed in the woods, decimating a chunk of trees in one go and lighting the bushes around on fire. I gasped as the whole forest set on fire, bit by bit, tree by tree. Some people from the crowd had been thrown away by the blast and others had been engulfed in the ensuing flames. There were screams of terror. One particular scream caught my attention and my eyes widened further as they focused on my mum and dad rushing to the forefront of the crowd, staring in horror at the scene along with everyone else. My parents were here. I started to shake. This was too much for me, I couldn’t handle it. Already I’d seen enough death and destruction to last a lifetime, and now my mum and dad were in the mix. It didn’t help having Sophie in pain beside me, and not being able to care for her injury. I didn’t understand how the Weraynian was getting away with this. I knew they were cunning, and powerful, and evil, but this was insane. On the other screen I saw the people in the blocked hallway had finally dislodged most of the wreckage and were climbing through the decent sized hole. They were coming. I sincerely hoped the Weraynian wouldn’t notice but of course he did. His eyes flared in anger as they alighted on the screen, and his gleeful expression at the fire he’d caused evaporated.
“You have been warned.” He said into the speaker and then he cut the connection, and sprinted out of the room.
“Sophie, are you alright?” I immediately directed my attention to my friend beside me. She was paler than ever now.
“How do you think?” she said weakly.
“I’m sorry.” I murmured. “I wish I could do something to help.”
“Don’t be sorry.” She replied, squeezing her eyes shut tight. “This is my fault.”
I sighed. “Sophie, this is more my people’s fault than anyone.”
Her eyes snapped open. “What do you mean?”
“Well, if we had better defences and were more prepared we would have been able to stop this before it even started.”
Sophie tried to shake her head, but it pained her too much and she groaned. “No, it’s not because of that. The Weraynians invented a stealth wave generator. When I was checking the systems I found it installed there, and the records say we got it from Werayne. It stops the ship from being picked up by any instruments other than specified ones. I assume it’s how the Weraynians have managed all this stuff without being noticed. So it is in no way your fault.”
“Wow.” I said quietly. I was in shock; the Weraynians were better than I’d ever previously thought. “So…. it’s the fault of all the Weraynians. I guess I could accept that.”
Sophie didn’t answer. I felt bad; all that talking had weakened her more.
“I’m sorry for getting you messed up in this Sophie.” I told her, looking up at the ceiling dejectedly. “This is hopeless.”
Sophie only managed to make a small noise in her throat in reply.
My eyes turned to the screens once more. The one focused outside of the ship showed people either frantically trying to put out the fire in the woods, looking after people who’d been injured, or desperately talking; devising some sort of plan.
The other screen I’d been looking at before showed the partially blocked hallway now only had two people in it; one was injured and the other was using a hand held device for something, probably scanning the ship or the like. Movement on another screen drew my attention and I looked just in time to see two humans, three Halapatovians and a Paladanian being chased up a hallway by the Weraynian. He looked angry. One of the Halapatovians kept shooting beams of energy from her hand over her shoulder, but it only served to infuriate him further. I watched helplessly as he caught up to one of the humans and promptly snapped their neck. Sophie saw it too; I could hear her sharp intake of breath at the sight. By the time the human had died, the others had gone out of sight of the camera surveying the scene. The Weraynian quickly followed.
I’m not sure entirely how long we were there, strapped painfully to the wall, but it felt like it could have been days.
Suddenly the door to the observation and communications deck slammed open, and in walked the smiling Weraynian. I knew that wasn’t good. He was carrying a small bag packed with what looked like multiple devices. The Weraynian crossed to the control desk and turned off all of the screens. Then he twisted to face us.