I expected him to gloat, or torture us, or do something equally evil, but instead he left me completely bewildered by pulling a medicinal injector out of his bag.
He crossed over and stuck the needle extension into Sophie’s arm, pressing the glowing green button on the device’s side and letting the internally stored healing liquid enter her bloodstream. To my amazement, it rushed all through her body immediately, and she relaxed as the pain in her arm lessened.
“I got this from the medical bay.” The Weraynian informed her as he pulled the device out of her arm once more and gently pushed the bone sticking out of her arm back in. The skin healed over almost immediately. I was utterly confused.
“Thank you.” Sophie said with a sigh of relief. “But why are you healing me?”
The Weraynian shrugged, a smile playing on his lips. “A child who burns as bright as you should continue to shine. Plus, this way I get to see you suffer for longer.”
Her eyes flashed with fear at his words. “Tha.... huh.” She managed to splutter out.
I watched as Sophie struggled to keep her eyes open, knowing that the medicine in her blood was causing her to drift out of consciousness. A moment later she was knocked out.
The Weraynian chuckled, and then he ripped her bonds off and draped her over his shoulder yet again. I groaned as he moved over to me and did the same.
“Why do you keep moving us?” I snapped as he put me on the opposite shoulder to the one Sophie was on and then got a grip on both my waist and hers.
“Out of necessity.” He replied, and then we bobbed up and down as he moved through hallways, down elevators and finally deposited us in an empty room. He pushed me against a bedpost, and placed his foot on Sophie’s stomach. He then pulled a pair of technologically advanced handcuffs out of his bag and proceeded to put them on me. He clamped one part over one of my wrists, looped the cuffs around the bed post I was up against and then closed the second part on my other wrist. My eyes widened as I felt the electrical bonding the handcuffs immediately imposed on my wrists; if I could somehow manage to break free of the restraints, the cuffs would immediately send tens of milli-amperes of electricity through my body and kill me instantly. I could tell the handcuffs were of Weraynian design as they’d used weapons and devices with similar functions in the Great War. Plus, despite their list of faults, humans were not this cruel.
Sophie then received the same treatment after she was pushed against the other bed post. Once the Weraynian was sure we were both secure, he gave a curt nod of approval and left the room. I turned to see Sophie with her head lolled against the bed, her arm healing rapidly as she slept. I sighed, feeling relieved that the Weraynian had cared enough to save her. That was incredibly suspicious though, and I wondered if he’d had another motive in fixing her arm. The liquid in the device hadn’t affected her in any way other than healing her exceptionally fast, so he wasn’t trying to poison her or somehow control her using the drug. I pondered only a moment longer before giving up, it wasn’t like it mattered either way.
The Weraynian’s entire plan was like that. First they’d invented a stealth wave so that we wouldn’t know what they were working on, and then they utilised the wave along with their communications to send a distress signal to any passing non-Staarus spaceship with a high amount of passengers and get them to come to their planet, using the stealth wave to secretly breach the force field and allow the ship through. Then they fed the people on the ship lies, installed a stealth wave generator in their spaceship, gave the people weapons, hide one of their own on the ship and then send the innocent, unknowing voyagers off to our planet to attack us. The people were also asked to call for back up so as to invade the entire system and allow them to escape. By doing this, they made sure that my people were caught off guard, as we would never want to fight an innocent race and would instead put up a force field and try for negotiations. The electrical energy exerted through the force field would ignite a gas that was dormant in the air and had come from the invading ship’s exhaust fumes, which would inhibit our minds and therefore put our greatest ability out of use. Also, because the people from the ship would seem to be the biggest threat, it wouldn’t even occur to us to use tactics or weapons for fighting Weraynians and we would be completely distracted when the Weraynians finally disintegrated the force field and escaped to wage war on the universe.
I shook my head to clear it. It really was stupid thinking of what we could have done; it was more important to focus on what we could do now.
I stared at the opposite wall for a moment blankly. Nothing was coming to me; I had no ideas worth trying at all. I hit my head against the bed, which didn’t hurt as much as I would’ve liked. I decided to stick with what I did know.
So I asked myself: what is the problem here?
The answer: obviously that the Weraynians were going to start a war.
That didn’t help much.
I revised the question: what is the immediate problem here?
The answer to that one: the Weraynian has control of the communications unit in this ship and no one has been able to stop him.
Now that was something I could work with. If I could somehow manage to escape without the Weraynian noticing, I could go find the people the Weraynian had tied up elsewhere in the ship and get them to cause a distraction whilst another group regained control of the ship.
The problem there? Oh yeah, that I couldn’t escape; if I even began to try I would be electrocuted and that would be the end of the entire tirade.
I wondered briefly what the Weraynian was currently doing and assumed that he was inspiring terror in the hearts of everyone he encountered while exerting his extreme superiority over them.
I twisted my head to look at Sophie, and it softened my heart to see her sleeping peacefully. She seemed almost like a child, her face free of the fear and pain she had been experiencing before, her head tilted to the side, and her lips parted slightly as she breathed slowly in and out. There was even a tiny sliver of drool coming from the corner of her mouth, which retracted with each intake of breath before sliding out again.
My gaze drifted down to her belt, the one which had previously held seven separate gadgets. It now held none but I could see a slight bulge in her pocket which indicated that her scanner was inside.
Sophie would probably be upset about that when she woke, I knew she liked her devices; especially her friction stabiliser. As I thought about that device, I began to recall how I’d used it in my fight with the Weraynian, and how well it had worked. It seemed that Sophie was as good with machines as she’d said. I supposed it came from her occupation as a teleporting space traveller; she depended on devices for it so she’d have to know how to use them. But I could also recognise the natural skill and interest she had in engineering, mechanics and just programming in general. I wondered where she got it from, but just like before my mind was hazy, I couldn’t process anything, let alone work out where Sophie’s engineering skill came from.
I sighed, turning my head back to face ahead once more. I was getting distracted, but what else was there for me to do? This situation was hopeless, and Sophie was asleep and recovering, so to stop myself from stressing about the oncoming war I was thinking on random subjects.
Oh no; now I was thinking about the war again, or at least how it would affect life as I knew it. Everything would change. The Weraynians and the humans would effectively force my people and the others in the system to either fight or submit, and it would be a struggle just to get through each day. Soldiers would be taken from each town, and my dad, along with other people I knew, might have to go out on the warfront. Mum would have to work harder than ever before, to help the planet grow rations for the war. And Leila, oh Leila! Did she know what was going on? Did she know the gravity of the situation we were in? I wondered if she knew about the Weraynian, or the fact that I was here opposing him. I laughed hollowly at that. It wasn’t the kind of thing that would be reported on. News of a Weraynian outside of Werayne would cause a system-wide panic, and there would be no point in saying anything about little old me.
It was strange though, thinking about my best friend over in Halapatov, because whenever I thought about Leila a feeling, like guilt or betrayal, would press down on my chest. Was I feeling bad about the fact that I had a friendship with Sophie mere weeks after Leila had left? Surely not; I mean, Sophie and I worked well together but that in no way made the multiple years of friendship Leila and I had accumulated any less relevant to me.
I shook my head to chase the thoughts away. It didn’t matter, not one bit. The Weraynian was trying to kill us all and that’s all that mattered, stopping him.
Trying to think once more of ways to stop him, I failed. I lacked the motivation to be honest. When it seemed there was no way to win this conflict anyway, what was the point in even trying?
My pondering was cut short as Sophie began to stir beside me.
I looked over as her eyes fluttered slowly open, her mouth opened in a silent yawn, and she moved her shoulders as if she was going to stretch. Her eyes immediately showed signs of panic as she realised that her arms were trapped behind her back and tied together. Sophie’s breathing rate quickened and she stared around wildly before her eyes alighted on me.
“Abi, where are we?” she asked frantically. “What’s going on?”
“The Weraynian tied us here.” I went to shrug my shoulders, but only achieved a jarring pain in my back.
Sophie looked confused for a moment, until realisation sunk in. She stopped struggling and relaxed her muscles as she remembered everything that had happened in the past hours. The sudden hopeless look on her face terrified me. How could Sophie Lestari, the girl who’d braved so much, be feeling defeated at the threat we were now facing? But the expression only crossed her face for a second before she composed her mask once more and looked towards me with a stretched smile.
“So what are we going to do about this then?” She asked me, pulling on her chains then falling back.
I stared back at her, gnawing on the inside of my lip in sudden anxiety. I didn’t want to admit to her that I had no idea what to do. I didn’t want to let her see that I felt even more lost than she did. I was scared, more terrified than I’d ever been before. There was a Weraynian, only one mere warrior, holding the entire Staarus system hostage simply by having control of one spaceship, and I was helpless against him. Even with all my powers, the gifts I’d thought I’d been given specifically for times like this, I didn’t have anything I could do.
Sophie began to look worried as my silence persisted. “You alright Abi?” she asked me, her face falling. I could tell that she’d been placing all her hopes on me, and I’d let her down. A pang of guilt suddenly attacked me in the gut, and I felt terrible. “Abi, what’s wrong?”
I shook my head, feeling pricks in the corner of my eyes. “It’s just… I have no idea what to do. This Weraynian, for all his faults, has done everything he could to stop us from opposing him and I just- I just can’t.” my voice cracked, and I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath. “I feel useless.”
Just like that, Sophie’s eyes flashed with what I could only call righteousness. She seemed almost…. offended by my words, and inclined to convince me otherwise. “You’re not useless.” She stated softly, her eyes meeting mine. “In fact, without you we would have already lost. You’re an awesome person and you’ve been acting really bravely, making plans and putting yourself at risk to try and save everyone. Just because, right now, we’re locked up and not really able to do anything, it doesn’t mean that there’s no hope left. I mean, sure, there’s a lot at stake here, but there are lots of ways this could be resolved. The humans on their way here could be met by disaster, your people could make their way in here and stop the Weraynian, or this could just blow up in his face in the natural course of time. So we haven’t failed. Please don’t be upset Abi, I’ve been so glad to have you as a friend through this and... I know that if we make it out of here alive I’ll always think the world of you. You're not useless at all.”
I felt a rush of warmth at her words, but then my doubts came back, clouding my mind. “Sophie, thank you for trying to be so encouraging, but there really isn’t much hope here. The Weraynians have engineered this situation really well. They pitted two innocent races against each other, knowing we’d hesitate long enough for the back up to arrive and allow them to escape. And even though you and I ceased that plan for them, their back up works better. The Weraynian is holding us hostage as well as having control of the ship. No one can stop him. The war will come and everything will end. That’s all I can see coming out of this situation.” My thoughts came pouring audibly out of my mouth, and I only realised once I’d voiced them how lame I sounded. Was it really that hopeless? Hmm, I wasn’t so sure now I’d said it.
“I think you’ve forgotten something.” Sophie replied with a glint in her eye, still not giving up.
I sighed. “What have I forgotten Sophie?” I asked flatly.
“If we escape, we can bypass all that. We can regain control of the ship, nullify the distress signal, beat the Weraynian and fix everything! He’ll never see us coming.” Her eyes seemed to shine with inspiration as she said it, but I wasn’t convinced.
“Of course he won’t see it coming Sophie.” I snapped at her. “Because it’s not going to happen. These handcuffs he’s used on us. They’re trapping us here. They’re Weraynian technology; unless they’re opened in a specific way they’ll kill anyone who tries to force them off. So we’re not escaping, it’s still hopeless.”
Sophie shrugged. “Why not just use your powers on them?” she asked as if it was obvious.
I stared at her in disbelief. “How on Flauraan will that help?” Sophie sniggered but I fixed her with a glare. “My powers involve understanding things and seeing through walls.”
“So?” she replied, eyebrows raised. “You’re extending your mind beyond its usual barriers. Surely there’s something like telekinesis in your skill set.”
“I don’t think so, Sophie.” I told her sadly, tired of this argument; tired of everything.
“Have you ever tried?” Sophie shot back immediately, still optimistic.
“No of co-”
“Then how do you know you can’t do it?” she gave me a knowing smile.
“Because it would have surely showed itself before now, if I had that power.” I answered, trying to keep my cool.
“Not unless you needed it to.”
“Sophie.” I said testily.
“Please, Abigail,” she looked at me with pleading eyes, almost breaking my heart. She really thought I could do this. “Just try, for me. Please, I really think it might work.”
I sighed. “Alright, I’ll try.” Her eyes lit up in triumph and I continued. “But tell me, if this magically works, what will we do next?”
Sophie’s smile dropped for a minute, and she thought earnestly with her lips perked up towards her nose. “You said the main problem is the hostages and the control the Weraynian has on the communications unit, yeah?” she finally asked me.
“Yeah.” I replied slowly, feeling like I knew where this was going already.
“So we need to take those two things back, to beat him.”
“Yeah.” I repeated. “How do we do this?”
She thought again. “What about this? First you get your hands out of the cuffs then you get me out. Next we go up to the main pilot deck. That’s where everything is controlled from, and in case of emergency the captain can manually back up anything he wants, including the communications programming.”
I nodded, with a small smile on my lips. This was sounding likely already, except for the escaping part of course.
“I hook my scanner up to the main hard drive, and download the program so that if the Weraynian destroys the physical unit we can just rebuild it and use the same wavelength and everything, and it’s out of his control too. While I do that you go down and rescue anyone you can find, keeping away from Enemy Number One of course, that’s the Weraynian by the way.” She added, looking at me to make sure I was keeping up.
“Yeah, I know.” I said. “What then?”
“They get weapons, and go to fight him. You know it’s funny, I haven’t seen anyone pull a gun on him even though he’s fought plenty of people but whatever.” She said that last part mainly to herself. I cleared my throat to urge her to continue. “Oh yes, then we stop him, all together. Sound alright?”
She looked to me with a questioning expression. I looked up to the ceiling for a second and then back to her.
“It sounds fine, in theory.” I said measuredly. “But I still have my doubts.”
“Whatever, just try your powers on the handcuffs!” she anxiously bounced up and down, as best she could while tied to a bed post. “We can work out details later.”
“Okay.” I gave in. “Just give me a minute.”
And with that I closed my eyes and concentrated. I felt the familiar sensation of my mind moving outside its normal parameters, and traveling down to what my hands were touching, which was of course the handcuffs. I could feel the electrical hum of the current running through it, understand the workings of the deadly device. I let my mind penetrate into the innermost part, the locking mechanism. I stared through my mind at the empty slot inside, waiting for a key to fill its space and then turn, switching off the power and making the cuffs useless. I concentrated on the mechanism, harder than I’d ever concentrated before in my life. I was focusing everything on trying to exert my will on that tiny turning connector which was currently holding my life in the balance. If it got pushed into the right spot, it would act as an insulator the circuit maintaining the electricity that could kill me, and stop the current from flowing. I strained harder against my mental barriers, trying to make my powers physical. Now that I was trying, really, properly trying, I knew that I could move it if I wanted to. It was just about forcing it. Using my powers normally took a lot of energy, so using them for telekinesis would cost me more, and it was. Suddenly, as if to show my effort, I felt the mechanism shift slightly under my power and I gave a little yelp of triumph.
“Did you do it?” I heard Sophie’s voice distantly, as if she was far away as opposed to right beside me.
“I think, I think I made it move!” I replied, my eyes still shut, excitedly.
I pushed myself harder. I suppose it was sort of like running in a race. You can run at a normal pace, but if you want to win you have to pump your legs harder to go faster. My power was like that. The more you want to do, the harder it is to do it. And moving things with my mind was proving to be harder than anything else before.
As thoughts swirled around my head, threatening to overwhelm me, I could suddenly feel the particles inside the handcuffs start to move, really move! A short laugh erupted from me, and I continued giving everything I had into turning that integral piece. It started to turn, and concentrating I moved it slowly, ever so slowly with my mind, round into place. Doing so, I felt elated. I could do it, I really could! I would get Sophie and I out, and we would try our hardest to stop the Weraynian. I would do what’s right, just as I promised. I wouldn’t let my mum down.
And with that final assertion, I heard the click as the handcuffs turned off and unlocked. My eyes snapped open and I sat there for a moment, unmoving, trying to see if the cuffs were safe. Then with a laugh I pulled myself upwards, breaking the chain without hurting myself and standing, stretching.
I heard a cry of triumph and looked down to see Sophie staring at me in amazement, excitement.
“You really did it!” she said, almost faintly.
“Yeah.” I replied, beaming. “Things aren’t so hopeless anymore.”
Sophie gave a laugh, and I bent down, placing my hands onto her cuffs. After a few minutes of rigorous concentration, hers unlocked too, safely, and she pulled her hands out. Rubbing her wrists she stood up, and gave me a hug.
“I knew you could do it Abi!” she told me happily.
“I know.” I said, pulling back to smile gratefully at her. “Thank you for believing in me.”
She smiled back a little sadly. “It’s alright.”
“No seriously.” I continued forcibly. “And I’m sorry for being so angry with you, I just….. didn’t feel good at all.”
“I understand.” Sophie answered, then grabbed my hand. “Come on, we’ve got to go stop the Weraynian.”
We ran off together, opening the door and moving along hallways quickly and cautiously. I still couldn’t believe what had just happened though, and I wasn’t sure if I ever would.