Sophie and I entered a dark room, trying to find a way to the upper levels that didn't involve an elevator. The Weraynian could easily hack into the camera feed from them, and we didn't want to risk it. We both knew how vital it was that we didn't get captured again; this time the Weraynian would kill us on the spot. So we were looking for some kind of staircase or access ladder so that we could get to the pilot deck.
We stared around the room, my eyes taking in each shape in the room instantly. It seemed to be a dead end, but I felt a strange intuition, as if the room was hiding something. I couldn't help but lament on humans and their darned stupid technology at this point.
Facing the door was a control panel, and pushed to the sides of the room were a couple of tables and chairs. The middle of the floor was clear, and when I looked closely I could see that it was made up of interlocking pieces. Glancing at the ceiling far above I saw a sliding panel, currently motionless, but I knew that once some power ran through it the panel would slide away leaving a large opening.
While I'd been examining the room Sophie had crossed to the control panel and started fiddling with it. She pressed a button and a small screen flickered on, along with the lights.
We looked at each other and then all around the room as a low humming began and the room powered up. Sophie had a curious look on her face and turned back to the control panel, placing her hand on a lever.
"No Sophie!" I yelled, but it was too late; she started turning it as far as possible.
A deep rumbling came from beneath our feet as the parts of the floor started elevating, with us on top of them! Sophie quickly jumped away from the controls and onto one of the moving platforms beside me, laughing maniacally.
I raised an eyebrow at her.
"What?" she said with a smile and a shrug. "I found a way up!"
"Yeah, one that makes a lot of noise." I replied as the block underneath me began to rise higher than Sophie's and the ceiling panel retracted into the wall, just as I'd predicted.
We were on a sort of floating, spiralling staircase. The blocks continued to move upwards, then sideways, and then upwards once more as ceiling after ceiling moved out of our way. I figured the humans had a lot of fun designing this one.
Finally we stopped moving and I knew we were as high as you could go. As soon as we stepped off the platforms the floor slid back into place and the platforms we'd been standing on fell back down to the room we'd been in about three floors beneath our current location. Wrenching the door open, Sophie exited the room, and I followed her, glancing about warily as I did so. It was likely the Weraynian knew the staircase had been activated and we would have to be on our guard.
I glanced at Sophie. "I assume you know which way the pilot deck is."
"Yeah, and so do you." She smirked knowingly. "Come on, let's go."
Huh, I thought as I followed her warily up the corridor. She's picking up fast.
Eventually the corridor joined perpendicular to a wide hallway, which we turned into and walked along.
I smiled in surprise. The hallway was large, empty, and gleaming white. Unlike all of the other forsaken passages I'd been through on this spaceship, this one had no doors set into it the whole way along, there were only corridors at the end.
Sophie and I shuffled along the walls, and when I caught sight of a camera indent up ahead, we crawled, making as little noise as possible.
Once we were right underneath it, Sophie reached up and switched it off. Hopefully if the Weraynian noticed he would just think it had powered down.
Directly opposite the camera was a large alcove, a recess from the walls. Set in the back of it was a pair of double doors with a nice shiny bar as a handle. Above the doors was an electronic sign reading 'Pilot Deck'. Well, at least we knew we'd found it.
Sophie and I hurried forward, and placed one hand each on the door handle. Looking hopefully at each other we swung the doors open, and then we sighed in awe at the room that we found behind.
The pilot deck stretched along the whole width of the ship, and at least twenty metres lengthways. The curved wall that made up the front of the pilot deck was completely made of thick, airtight glass. While in space I was sure it gave a beautiful view, and the same was true now. I could see the mountains in the distance, past the forest and the field. Looking to the edge of the window I could see faintly the closest part of the crowd gathered outside. From what I observed it seemed they were organised into different groups, and there were some leaving while others stayed. I hoped they knew what they were doing.
Set in the centre of the room were the captain's controls. There was a high-backed, silver chair, with a comfortable lining, behind the machine which controlled the steering mechanisms of the entire ship. A steering wheel, a sleek and advanced one at that, was set into the controls, alongside many levers, buttons and controls. The command module, an advanced processing unit, was quite lengthy and curved around the captain's area, enclosing it from the front while still giving a view out of the window.
Around that main control point were many other stations used for maintaining flight and control of the ship. Different kinds of computers and controls made up each one, and there were chairs ranged around them. Aside from the large glass one, the walls had high-tech cabinets each with labels holding all the supplies that could be needed for the pilots. Lights hung overhead, and when lit would cast the room in a good array of light.
All in all the pilot deck was beautiful, as spaceship control rooms go. It showed a lot of the skill of human engineers and designers, and I could tell that all of the components of this central control unit would work amazingly together. No wonder the ship flew so well. I remembered watching it land from my hill a few nights before, and now I was standing in the place that it had been controlled from. It was an interesting feeling.
Suddenly I remembered what we were here to do, and that we were in danger of being found.
I turned to Sophie, who was trailing her hand along the corner of the command module.
"Have you got your scanner ready?" I asked.
She nodded, unclipping it from her belt.
"I'll just have to hook it up to the CPU." She explained, and I watched as she stepped down into the captain's area and crossed to the central part of the command module. She felt for a moment on the side of a box, and then swung it open. Inside was a large hard drive, along with all the wires, chips and other pieces of technology that helped run the unit. Unhooking a wire from a memory chip, Sophie inserted it into a port on her scanner.
I stood guard by the door as she connected her device to the ship's systems.
Eventually she gave a cry of triumph, and pulled out the wires from the scanner.
"Have you done it?" I turned and asked her.
She smiled. "Not yet, but I've integrated my scanner so it can work wirelessly with the system. I need the emergency codes that the captain has to back up the communications system though, otherwise I can't hack in."
I nodded. "It can work wirelessly? Is this anywhere in the ship or just here?"
"Well," Sophie fidgeted awkwardly. "it was a quick connection so it will only work fast at this short range. I might lose the connection with the central unit if I go too far away."
"Hmmm," I contemplated for a minute. If Sophie had to be here to get control of the Eridanus II away from the Weraynian she would be very much exposed and if he turned up he would find her and kill her, and all hope would be lost.
"If you go and rescue people just like we planned, surely one of them will know the codes." Sophie said thoughtfully. "Anyone who worked in the pilot deck would have access to them."
I nodded. "Alright, so if I do that, we just need to hide you in here so that the Weraynian won't see you."
"Yeah, okay."
We both looked around the room for a hiding place. The cabinets set into the back walls caught my eye, and I ran over. Wrenching one of the cupboard doors open, I found the space cluttered by spare equipment. Opening the next one, I found a cabinet that was almost empty, and large enough to fit a person inside.
"Perfect." I hissed, and quickly Sophie ran over and helped me move the few parts in that cabinet to another one, leaving the former one empty.
Then Sophie climbed inside, and sat herself against the back wall, wriggling to make herself comfortable. She held her scanner in front of her whilst in that position and glanced up at me.
"I think it'll do." She smiled flimsily.
I smirked. "Good. Now, is there some way of locking that door from the inside?"
"Why would it need to be locked from the inside?" Sophie raised an eyebrow sarcastically, giving me the answer I had been sure of already.
I sighed. "Well, maybe we can find a way to fuse it shut." Suddenly I was struck with inspiration. "Hey, could your friction stabilizer do that?"
"Hmm," she rested her chin on her hand thoughtfully. "I suppose, if I had some sort of soft or soluble metal, then it might work. But then I don't have my friction stabilizer on me so what's the point anyway?"
"I was thinking I might be able to find it." I replied and then reviewed that thought. "Actually, that's not a very good idea, it will take too long and the priority is stopping the Weraynian."
"Oh yes." Sophie's eyes showed no fear for her own safety and weirdly that made me proud. "But what do I do until you get me the codes?"
"Hope the Weraynian doesn't turn up." I replied. "He probably won't; he'll be too distracted in any case."
She shrugged. "Alright then." she settled back once more, and drew her knees up to her chest. "You should probably go now, before that guy realises we've escaped and comes after us."
I glanced around warily. "Okay. Stay hidden in here, alright?"
"Yeah, yeah, just get going." She answered, reaching out for the cabinet door.
"I'll be back soon." I said, and then I closed the door on her and ran off.
I stopped for a moment at the command module, and swiped my hand across the screen until I found what I was looking for. A holographic 3-dimensional model of the ship appeared, complete with labels for each of the craft's many rooms and flashing dots to represent each living person on board. I swept my eyes across each dot, imprinting in my brain the image of where each person was. Zooming in on the hologram, I discovered separate data could be accessed on each person. The Weraynian was still in the observation deck, ignorant of the events that were unfolding, and the only other people that were identified by species were humans; both Paladanians and Halapatovians were classed as 'unknown'.
There were about ten humans scattered around the ship, though three of those were clumped together in one room, with a few unknowns. There was only one other unknown on the ship, and from the data I was pretty sure they were fading fast.
I resolved to go find that person first.
Rushing out of the pilot deck, I ran until I found a service hatch, and then pulling it open climbed down the ladder that was there. The fading unknown was on the third floor down, in a hallway, and I had to get there quickly or they could die.
I exited the service area once I had gone down far enough, and passed room upon room on my search. Only after I'd woven my way through many hallways did I finally find the unknown; it was Criken, and he was bleeding terribly! I sprinted over to him, and sat him up, leaning his back against the wall.
His eyes were shut tight in resistance to the pain. The wound was in his side, and had come from a shard of metal the Weraynian had most likely administered on him. Criken's clothes were soaked through with blood, a dark mixture of purple and red. His hair was plastered to his sweaty forehead, and as I pushed it out of his face his eyes opened.
"Abigail?" his voice was weak as he tried to pull himself upwards.
"Leader Criken, you're badly injured!" I pushed him back down. "What happened?"
"He was chasing us," he rasped. "I tried to stop him so they could get away but he punctured my stomach. I am dying, Abigail."
"No you mustn't!" I told him in a panic. I'd never, ever, witnessed anyone die before today and now person after person had been murdered by that merciless Weraynian. There was no way I was going to watch Criken lose his life! "You're one of our wisest leaders; brave, influential. The Paladanians need you sir! I'll get you to the medical bay."
"You can't..." he gurgled, pushing me away as I struggled to lift me. "You have to find the others, save them, and then we might stand a chance."
"This isn't fair." I sobbed, honestly impacted. "Good people can't die!"
"It's a fact of life." Criken replied with a wretched sigh. "But if you don't leave me now, and help the others, I will only be the first of many to die! There are only a few hours left before the human fleet arrives, and then all will be at risk! So please, go!"
I nodded, tears streaking my face. I stood up and turned but I just couldn't leave him there. I knelt back down, and tore off the sleeves of my shirt, tightly wrapping them as best as I could around his wound.
"Abigail...." He could barely keep his eyes open.
"I'm coming back for you." I whispered. "I'll save all of you, I promise, and then I'll make the Weraynian pay!"
With that I rushed away, to find the next group of survivors. As I ran and tried to block the swirling thoughts of death from my mind, I found myself marvelling at the fact that there were survivors still. I'd expected the Weraynian to mutilate everybody. But I supposed he needed hostages, and I'd already seen how much he enjoyed watching people suffer. Locking them up, out of help's way (or so he thought) must have been gloriously pleasing to him.
Well, that made me adamant to stop him, and I pressed on, down corridors, past flashing lights coming from various rooms, and across the carpeted floors of many halls, on my way to the large group of survivors, trapped in a room on the west side of the ship, on the second floor. They'd gotten so far before the Weraynian caught up! Only one level further and they might have reached the communications unit!
Oh well, there was no point lamenting what might have been. I had to get a move on if I was to be of any use.
Eventually I reached it, the corridor off which branched the room where the small gathering of humans and 'unknowns' were. From the other end of the hallway I heard the sounds of grunts and people talking as they tried to shift whatever was blocking their way. I ran up the corridor until I was right in front of the room where they were trapped.
The door was blocked on my side by a bed and other furniture clearly pulled here from some bedroom nearby, and the opening mechanism for the door, located on the wall beside it, had been deadlocked and then melted, so that it couldn't be operated. The Weraynian had taken no chances, you know besides from leaving the people in there alive.
The voices inside grew louder and I heard with them the sound of people trying to move heavy objects across a carpeted floor.
"Can you all in there hear me?" I shouted, and the noise inside stopped immediately.
Then the mutterings began.
'That's not the Weraynian.' 'It sounds like a girl.' 'I've heard that voice somewhere before.' 'But he might be trying to trick us.'
I rolled my eyes. Most of the voices were those of the humans; scared, stupid humans.
"My name is Abigail Shurn." I told them, raising my voice once more. "I was the girl who spoke outside, standing on the tank. Is everyone alright in there?"
There was a silence and then:
"We're all alive, but two of our party are injured, and we're trapped in here." It was a Paladanian voice, Reeina's; I recognised it. She was the one with the unusual power to extend her mind to see things beyond her line of vision, and I was sure that's why it was she that replied. She must have used her power to make sure it was me.
"Can you get us out?" a male human yelled.
I stared at the blockage on my end. "Well, I can try. The lock's melted closed and the doorway's blocked but I might be able to clear it."
Working quickly and methodically, I pulled each item away from the door. It took the full exertion of my strength to manage it, and there were two items I couldn't move; a large steel wardrobe and the bed. I figured I'd get to that later.
I concentrated on the lock. Placing my hand over the touch pad that operated it, I closed my eyes and delved inside with my mind. The mechanism was well and truly busted, but if I could shift a few molecules with my newly found powers, maybe I could unlock the door.
I focused the way I had before, and after a moment could feel the familiar tingle of moving particles with my mind. I was tired from all the energy I'd already exerted though, and it took me much longer than it should have. But, eventually, I heard the click of the lock opening and gave a sigh of relief.
"The door's unlocked!" I called, and watched through the items before me as the door was slid slowly and forcefully open. The grateful faces of two humans and a Paladanian appeared through the gap and they started to shift the bed and wardrobe. More people moved forward to help and I levered them back from my side and soon the doorway was clear.
I was instantly swamped by multiple people.
"Oh thank you, I thought we would die in there!" a human lady, not an engineer or maintenance personnel like the other humans that had come after the ship but actually a scientist I could tell from the way she talked. Then all of the people around me moved back and just beamed at me.
A little awkward from being in the spotlight, I smiled modestly. I was glad they were free, it had been stressful scouring the ship on my own.
Reeina cleared her throat, drawing everyone's attention instantly.
"Perhaps we should move from here." She suggested, glancing up and down the hallway. Then she sent me a grateful smile. "I'm sure you have a lot to fill us in on, Abigail. You can talk as we go."
I nodded, and the others followed suit, and we began to walk to the left down the corridor.
Reeina took the front, and I fell in beside her, with the Halapatovian making up the rear and the humans in the middle of our small troop.
"So what purpose were you sent in here to fulfil?" I asked Reeina curiously.
She looked down at me with sadness in her eyes. "We were sent to delay the Weraynian or cease his plans where possible. Obviously we failed. We had weapons and were prepared, but.... It's my fault really, I wasn't focusing and so he snuck up on us and disabled our assets before anyone had a chance to fire on him."
"It was terrifying." The scientist from before interjected. "He was super strong, and fast. We stood no chance against that monstrous being. He's inhuman."
The male human beside her gave a harsh bark of laughter. "Exactly, Verity, that's the point. He's not human."
The scientist, Verity, gave him a look that clearly indicated that this was not the time for jokes and his face fell once more. In fact, everyone in our party had haggard looks on their faces, it was hard not to after fighting a Weraynian.
"Anyway," Reeina cast her eyes back onto me. "there were five more of us, but as the Weraynian chased us and we tried to battle him, in vain I might add, we lost them. He killed them in cold blood."
"Did this include Criken?" I jumped on the question, suddenly remembering the fallen leader.
"Yes, it did." She shut her eyes as if to ward off painful thoughts. I immediately felt bad for having asked, I'd have known the answer either way. "He told us to run, to get to the observations deck while he held the Weraynian off. The last I saw of him he had suffered a severe blow. I doubt he survived."
"But he did." I told her, becoming excited. There was actually a chance we could save him. "I found him, he's on the next level down but he's bleeding heavily. I tied a rough tourniquet to stop the flow though, so maybe...."
Reeina's eyes lit up instantaneously. "Lead us to him. We must not let such a noble leader die in this way!"
"Of course." I replied, and quickened my pace.
Along the way, I realized that a fair few of the people here were mildly injured and totally on edge, and therefore probably wanted to be anywhere but here now so I stopped and addressed the group.
"This is where things get really dangerous." I told them, eyes sweeping my motley crew. "So if anyone is nursing a wound, or having second thoughts, my advice is to leave the ship now; inform those outside on the internal situation if you can. It would be of great help."
A few, like Verity, nodded and awkwardly moved off. They weren't trained for this sort of thing, most of them being scientists, and so I didn't blame them for leaving. Besides I'd been telling the truth, those outside did need an update on what exactly was going on.
The remnant followed me onwards and soon we were there, in the very hallway where Criken lay dying, pressed against the wall.
"Criken!" Reeina cried in distress, and slid across the floor to kneel beside him. She lifted his head; he was pale and motionless, though merely unconscious. If he didn't get medical attention soon though, he wouldn't be able to survive. "You!" she snapped at the human male who'd spoken before. He straightened, looking expectant. "How close by is the medical bay?"
"It's only a floor or two below." He answered, staring at our leader in his pool of blood. "I could take him down there if I had help."
"I can do it." The Halapatovian spoke up, and Reeina nodded at him.
"Alright, go."
"Wait," I exclaimed, as they bent to pick Criken up. They both stared at me wide-eyed. "You don't happen to know the Captain's override codes for the CPU in the pilot deck?"
The human blinked, mind reeling. After a moment he spoke. "No I don't. I'm just a researcher; you'd have to ask someone in maintenance or who worked directly with the captain."
"Is there anyone like that on this ship currently?" I asked as my follow-up question.
"Quite possibly." The female answered for her fellow human. "Though they might be deceased."
Everyone flinched at that. The lady looked horrified at herself.
I took a deep breath, and shook my head. "You should take Criken now."
"And be careful!" Reeina added, as they heaved Criken upwards and carried him down the hallway. As they disappeared round the corner, she turned to me. "I hope they're smart enough to go cautiously and be ready to defend themselves. The Weraynian could attack at any time."
I raised an eyebrow at her. She began to pace down the hallway, and indicated for me to follow her out of earshot of the human still there.
Once we were a safe distance away, she told me in a low voice. "I didn't want to cause a panic but... he knows we've escaped, I decided to use my powers to check his whereabouts... and he'd left the observation deck. There was a screen showing a detailed map of the ship, and it was focussed on our section of the ship. I'm sure he knows you've escaped as well. Oh yes, and I wanted to congratulate you on your discovery of your extended powers."
"How did you know?" I asked in hushed awe.
"I saw, obviously. The way you unlocked the door made it clear that you have gained telekinesis. Are you feeling well?"
"Erm, actually.." I said, still trying to take in this sudden turn in the tide. I should have realised that Reeina would know everything that had been going on. Her power was far beyond anything else I'd experienced so it was just natural she'd have used it to gain knowledge under these circumstances.
"I believe you're probably feeling quite drained at the moment." She continued before I could gather my thoughts enough to answer. "The exertion of energy that you've been experiencing is quite extensive and although I can tell you're enduring well you might want to take extra care of yourself, no matter how ridiculous that might sound in this situation."
"Oh, of course" I replied, thinking of the dizzy spells I'd felt and then shoving those thoughts aside. "For now though, what would you suggest as a course of action?"
Reeina had a patient look on her face as we continued to walk, and I could tell that the cogs of her brain were whirring. The human was trailing behind us a few metres, glancing around nervously as she went.
"The main objective is obviously ceasing the Weraynian's plans, which means disabling him in some way of course." Reeina spoke abruptly after a minute of thinking, pulling on my attention, and I could see from the look on her face that she had a plan fully formed already. "Nobody who's fought the Weraynian so far has succeeded, as nobody's ever gotten any kind of firepower into him and physical strength is pointless under the circumstances. So I propose that we, first, rescue all that we can of the people left alive here then, secondly, scavenge every possible plan of attack in the hopes of finding the best one. You quite rightly have pointed out that we need the captain's codes to safeguard the comms, or communications, unit, so finding someone who knows those codes should be a priority. But the most important thing is getting weapons to fight the Weraynian. Does that sound acceptable to you?" She shifted her eyes from their distant staring and pondering position to lock with mine questioningly, which I found ironic because we both knew she already knew that plan was perfect (though a little vague).
I nodded. "I remember the next survivor was situated in one of the amenities on the third level. We should start there."
"Good reasoning." Reeina stated, and coming upon a fork in the hallways we turned left. The clacking sound of the shoes of a running human emanated from the following female who sped up to match our pace.
"Third level, you say?" she directed the question at me as she came level with Reeina and myself.
"Yes. C16 to be specific." I cited.
Nodding, she continued running once more. "I'll meet you guys there."
With that she raced off, and with a swift glance at each other Reeina and I both silently confirmed each other's theories; the poor human felt useless besides mine and Reeina's quick-witted and calm reasoning and was pulling on her energy reserves to be of whatever use she could. That was to be expected though.
Just as I was about to quicken my pace to follow her, Reeina placed her hand on my shoulder. I slowed instantly, inclining my head to her.
"I just wanted to tell you," She said softly. "if you ever feel afraid or worried or as if you're not good enough, you should know that you are. You are a wonderful girl Abigail, and I know that no matter what you experience as long as you persevere you'll do fine...... I went through the same thing when I was your age. So don't stress, okay?" In a flash I was reminded of the fact that Reeina, powers-wise, was just like me, and that she knew what it was like to discover new abilities beyond your imagination. I nodded slowly.
"Good." Reeina smiled and, having said all that she'd wanted to, she strode onwards.
With an instinctive shrug, I followed.