Whisper & Fury: Eydulan Series Book 1 (7 page)

Kat storms out of the med bay and walks into her quarters, slamming her fist on the close button. She lets out a grunt of frustration, and flops onto the bed, then screams into her pillow. Thoughts of what to do and what not to do cycle through her mind like a Ferris Wheel. If she does stick with this guy, it might be helpful having another human on board. For company, other than just two AI’s. The plan to go to Tarus, Mallory’s base of operations, and get supplies from Zane was a doomed plan. It might work, but even if it did, that would be only another six months of supplies, tops. The alternative was to ask Knox for one more favor. She couldn’t bare it if anything happened to him or Gale by her asking for his help again.

“Kat, we need to talk.” Whisper says.

“Yes, we do. Why did you say those things in front of him?”

“Because you are making strange decisions around him. Ever since we left Mars with him in tow. You also have spent too much time by his bed side, just talking to him.”

“That’s because it isn’t the same as talking to you. You don’t have a body for me to look at and see your face.”

“If that is all, I can make one for you. I did not realize that a monkey needed to see to talk to another being.”

Kat sighs, rubbing her forehead. “So let’s say I do want him to stay. So what?”

“He tried to kill you, Fury, and me.”

“Mallory put a bomb in his chest, he didn’t have a choice.”

“Does that matter?”

“Yes, motive matters. People say that I stole both you and Fury with this ship because I was looking for money, but you know that isn’t that case.”

“Yes I know, I was being tortured to test what would happen to my artificial psyche by those no brained flesh sticks. You broke free of your restraints and freed me.”

“Exactly. He had to walk around with his chains on his heart. I want to give him a second chance, but I need you to help me with it.”

“How’s that?”

“I need you to be an extra set of eyes and ears. Watch him when I’m not around, and if he does anything he shouldn’t, tell me.”

“Alright Kat. So we going with his plan then?”

“Gravan, you up.”

He smacks his lips, “Yea.” He yawns, stretching his arms. “What’s up.”

“Are you sure we can trust this guy?”

“I am, he was in my unit back during the Black Raid. It was him, me, and two others that survived that day. I can trust him.”

“You were one of the four, why wasn’t that in your resume?”

“I don’t like to advertise it.”

“So you know you can trust your friend, under normal circumstances, but what if he was given Compel like I was, how would you tell?”

“I didn’t think of that. I know he didn’t use it on me because he just used the bomb. I guess he figured it would be more effective that way with me, but for Zane. I’m not sure.”

“Would you be willing to kill your friend if it came to it?”

“I don’t want to do that, Compel is just a drug, and once it leaves the system the person just has a bad headache for a few days. There wouldn’t be any reason to kill him.”

“You said I was just a part of the test group. What if they made it stronger, or last longer. What then?”

“I don’t know. I know
we
need supplies, and you aren’t going to leave me for dead some place till I am ready to get by on my own. Which should be soon, but we still need supplies before then. Zane is the only other person I can contact right now for help.”

“What about the other two Black Raiders, can’t you contact them?”

“Yes I could, if they were able to be contacted. They went off the grid together on some frontier world years ago. Said they didn’t want to be mixed up with all the nonsense any more. They never said which planet they went to, but knowing them, they went to Raspiel. It’s all they ever talked about. Jack wanted to start up a small town, and run a general goods store, Hanna wanted to study all the exotic life. There was always something new coming off Raspiel for mages to get excited about.”

“She’s a mage!? I never knew Earth forces had any mages.”

“Hanna kept it secret till the Black Raid happened. Once it started, none of us cared, all we knew is we had a mage on our side. She kept us all alive that day.”

“Then why don’t we head there, and see about them first before we try something as fool hearty as running into our enemy’s base.”

“Can’t, it’s on the far edge of Guild territory. We don’t have the supplies to make it that far. Plus this is a stolen Guild ship.”

Kat sighs, “Right.”

“I have a plan, that will get us safely in and out of Tarus. So just hear me out.”

Gravan spends the next few minutes going over everything he has been thinking up. As Kat listens to it, it almost makes sense. She works through all the worse scenarios in her head, and it all seems like it might work. If everything goes right.

“That plan… is brilliant. It has a few holes in it though.”

“I know. We have to trust Zane a bit for it to work but from there - if he does try to betray us - we have a little bit of wiggle room.”

“Ten minutes isn’t a lot of wiggle room.”

“It’s enough for us to get the supplies we need and head to Raspiel.”

“I guess.” Kat gazes into his eyes with a smile, losing herself for a moment. She could get used to getting lost in those eyes.

He smiles in return, “You alright?”

She snaps back to her senses, “I’m fine. Whisper, did you get the whole plan down?”

“I did, and it just might work.”

Gravan laughs, “That is the nicest thing you have said to me since I woke up.”

“It was not to
you
flesh puppet, your meat processor just came up with something resembling thought. That is what I was acknowledging.”

He looks to Kat pointing at the ceiling, “She always like this?”

Kat laughs, “Yes, but that was actually polite. She might like you.”

“I can hear both of you talking still, you know that don’t you meat bags.”

Fury yawns awake, “I like everyone.”

…

“This plan was a really stupid idea, I hope you know that.” Kat screams over blaster and live ammunition ricocheting around her.

“How is this my fault, you’re the one that chose which location to go to, which just so happens to be a barracks.” Gravan retorts.

She had chose this spot because when she was the security chief for Mallory it was only an extra supply dump. This was a restocking point before reaching the secret research facilities on the far side of the planet. It was something that not many people would know about. Well it was a place that not many people knew about two years ago. Now it had turned into one of the largest barracks that Mallory has.

People keep pouring out of the main gates near where the landing pad is. Whisper had turned into a long barrel and sight for Fury, and attached onto the end of him, effectively making him a sniper rifle. Gravan was loaded with the single automatic blaster and shotgun blaster Kat took him in with. Felicity had been loaded with blaster ammunition to the gills but didn’t have a single extra gun on board.

Felicity’s weapons would have made a hostile take over of the place a cinch. Had they not been disabled when they got close to the planet. It was their attempt at having a stealthy entrance. Everything was going to plan until they landed at this depot, and found that it was a new barracks instead of the empty supply stop. Kat can’t wait to hear the lecture that Whisper is going to give her after all this. If they live.

Kat yells angrily at Gravan. “Whatever, just shoot them so we can get out of here.”

“You got it beautiful.”

Kat pulls back behind cover, and gives him a look. “No, just… no.”

Gravan looks over to her and gives her a smirk. “This is going to be the start of a great relationship.”

…

“Whew. I didn’t think we were going to make it out of that one.” Kat says while whipping off her forehead. “Nice job Fury.”

“Nice job. For what?” Fury says confused.

“For working correctly, I guess.”

He yawns, “That really took it out of me. I’m going to go to sleep now. It’ll take another thirty minutes till the new bullet core is ready anyway.”

“Alright, have a good rest. You deserve it.”

Gravan walks out of the barracks, back toward Kat, and waves. Butterflies fill her stomach at the simple gesture. He says, “Looks like there is enough supplies here to last us for the next six months, if we’re lucky. There’s munitions too, if you want to load those.”

“Yea, I think we should. We don’t know what we are going to run up against out there. It takes Fury about an hour to convert shells for Felicity.”

“I’ll go round up some small arms for myself then. It doesn’t look like you’ll need those, since you have those two with you.”

She looks down at Fury and Whisper, and can feel a sense of happiness creep back in for the first time in seven months. “We do make a good team don’t we.”

“
We
do.” Gravan says with a smile.

Whisper says, “For an ape, I would say this is as good as it could be.”

Gravan asks, “What about me?”

“You are just a meaty lifting device for all I’m concerned with. Now get back to it.”

“I’ll win you over one of these days Whisper, you’ll see.” He points toward her, walking back into the barracks. Kat watches him turn, smile still plastered across his face. The butterflies in her stomach turn into a warmth over her body, a feeling of home. Something she had not expected to feel out in the stars.

Kat says, “Just be careful, there may still be a few stragglers, and I don’t want to drag your sorry ass back to the ship again.”

He raises his hand up high, waving it back and forth. Beneath his feet a light starts to expand, like a spotlight slowly turning on. She raises her head to look up at what is causing the light, and her jaw drops. Before she has a chance to speak it’s already too late, and the force of the impact drives her to the ground.

White hot flames. That is all Kat sees as she sits back up. Gravan was right in the middle of where the fire now is, and can see a figure walking around the edge of the blaze. She can make out it’s a woman, with a long staff in hand. The feeling of home shatters, as she stares at the mage.

“There was a second one after all. I guess the reports were accurate.” The mage says, and takes a few steps toward Kat. “You’re the female, Ryker’s ex as it were?”

Kat keeps her voice low, “Whisper get ready, I hope you can load that weapon program faster this time, because there’s a mage staring at me.”

“Are you deaf girl, or just afraid?” The mage says. “I still can’t believe you two were together. He talks far too kindly of you for my taste. You’re also a bit more homely than he was letting on about.”

“What does that matter?”

“Not much once I’m done with you.” She holds out her hand, and with swirls of orange air converging into her palm, a ball of fire floats above it.

Kat had only seen a mage once in her life, and he was doing a show for the troops. It was a way for them to blow off some steam, away from the front lines, and for the Guild to show its support for the Empire. That mage had done some impressive feats, but nothing like what she’s stares at now. The more she stared the more it looked alive, like the mage was holding a miniature star in her hands. Kat breaks her gaze from the ball, and looks up to the woman staring her down.

She says, “I take it you’ve never seen a wizard before?”

“I have, during a troop show the Guild put on eight years ago.”

“Ha ha, that is not anything but apprentices learning how to wield their newly found power. No wonder you stare so.”

Kat stays silent, not sure what to say.

“I guess you are a smart one at least. Ryker always did say he valued your mind above all.”

“Why are you so interested in what Mallory has to say about me?”

“You call him by his last name. How odd, I guess he asked you to call him that so it would remind him that all you were was a puppet. A doll. A plaything.”

Each word sank into Kat like a dagger. Her memories of how happy she was with Mallory, were nothing more than a drug messing with her body chemistry. And this woman knew. She stands, even though her body was sore from the recoil of the explosion.

“You’re the new girlfriend.”

The wizard shifts her stance, lowering the undulating ball of plasma to her side. “I am. Gwen Stacy is my name, and I am one of the Guild’s enforcers. Forging a close relationship with Ryker Mallory is an important task to ensure the Guild’s resources for the future.”

“That sounds very Guild like, but you like him, you
like
like him. Otherwise you wouldn’t be trying to verbally bring me down.”

“I am doing nothing of the sort. I do not need to degrade you, for I am already beyond you. I am merely stating fact.”

“Oh, I get it. You’re jealous. I made him happier than you’ve been able to, I can see it on your face.”

Gwen’s face turns a shade of red, and she raises the orange and yellow ball up, pointing it at Kat. “You lowly powerless puppet. You are nothing, he used you like a sex doll, even going so far as to never allow you to address him by his first name. I have nothing to prove to the likes of you.” A snarl comes across her lips and eyes. “Now burn like the worthless puppet you are!”

Kat watches in slow motion as the plasma flies out of Gwen’s hand in her direction. Everything around the fiery ball of death fades into the background till it is all she can see. She calls to Whisper, “Whisper, a little help.” Before an answer can be heard, she can feel the heat of the miniature star on her face, watching her life flash before her eyes.

Short black hair, soft blue eyes, strong chin. She had to be dead, and this had to be heaven. It was the only explanation that she could come up with as to why Gravan was holding her in his strong arms. She could smell him, it was an earthy smell. It reminded her of Gale’s garden and all the times that she spent helping her pick fresh vegetables for supper. She felt like she could curl up and go to sleep with that smell by her side. Kat’s eyes focus a little, and she can see he’s trying to say something, but she isn’t sure what. He looks away from her, and she can feel his embrace get stronger, and it’s warm. Again she feels safe, and comfortable. She snaps back to herself when she finally hears his voice.