Page 26 of Logic Broken

The door to the block of cells opened without checking permissions and I ducked through it into a hallway. Instantly, my hackles rose, this wasn’t a building, this was a ship. What had happened? How had I gotten here? I didn’t recognize what type of ship, not from what little I’d seen, but I would.

The sound of boots coming down the hallway from my left decided for me, I dashed to the right and turned the corner. Each of the walls was stark black but lights ran in strips along the corners, providing ample light here. A few turns at random to create distance and then I hooked myself up to an access panel next to a door.

I needed intel, and I needed access, and if I could manage it, I needed to call for help. I closed my eyes to help me focus, granting myself access to all the systems of the ship. I felt dread rise in my stomach when I learned whose ship I was on; Drameil’s ship the Dart. So he’d managed to steal me from Ov’Korad, but how had he found me in the desert? And where was Jenny?

I combed through the camera feeds on the ship and moaned in despair when I located her. In a black room, like everything on this ship. She was on her knees, hands tied behind her back, and the green of the amulet glinted on her chest. Drameil stood in front of her in long black robes, the tip of his cane pressed into the tender flesh beneath her chin. With no audio to tap into, I couldn’t hear what was being said, but I knew he was questioning her. Did he think she was the one trying to steal his secrets?

Now I had her location and without hesitation I ran, no plan in mind, just fueled by the desperate need to save her. I hadn’t even counted how many guards were with him, or how many were on the ship. I hadn’t called for help. I was almost at the door when I encountered the first resistance, two Krektar males in full gear. They didn’t stand a chance against my fists or my rage, going down in seconds.

It was the scent of their blood and the bruises on my knuckles that brought me to my senses. Rushing in there might get both of us killed since I didn’t have control of the situation, and I didn’t know all the facts. I had to do something soon, but I needed to be smart about it. Think! I was once a bright AI, and now I controlled a brain as good as any supercomputer, I needed to use it.

I yanked a com device from the wrist of one of the downed Krektar and hailed Ziame’s device by memory. Even as I waited for the call to connect, I typed out a message to him with my location and the coordinates of the ship. Then I added the shield frequencies for good measure, grateful that being what I was made my memory infallible for such details.

“Who is this?” Ziame growled when he answered, and my heart soared at hearing the voice of my friend and Captain. I had missed him, I hadn’t even realized how much. It steadied me to hear his familiar voice and it was even more grounding to answer him in the Lacerten language, the language I’d learned first when I was created.

“It’s me, Akri, Drameil has us. Can you reach us at the coordinates I just sent you? We need immediate extraction,” I rushed out. My feet had already started down the hallway once more, drawing me to the room in which I knew Drameil was interrogating my mate.

“Akri! Thank the stars, are you alright? Of course, we’re coming for you. Sunder, Kitan?” He was already delegating, I could hear the pilot confirm the coordinates in the background. They would come. Now I just had to make sure they could get onto this ship without hurting the Vagabond, and I had to make sure that Jenny and I were alive by the time they got there. Alive and unhurt.

“How soon?” I demanded because I couldn’t tell from the com signal how far away the Vagabond was, or even if Ziame was on it. Hours would be bad, but if that’s what it would take, I would make it happen. If I could free Jenny and we could hide somewhere with access to the ship, I could stall anyone on here indefinitely. Yes, that was going to have to be the plan.

“Thirty minutes?” Ziame said, but he didn’t sound as sure as I would have liked, and I didn’t have time to talk more, I was nearing the room my mate was in. I’d forced myself to remember what else was in the image I’d seen and I was now confident I was dealing with only four guards and Drameil himself. A manageable number.

“See you in thirty, I have to rescue my mate, Akri signing off.” I dropped the com device to the floor, slammed my hand on the access panel next to the door, and then I charged into the room.

*

Jenny

At first, I thought I’d just had a little too much to drink of Drova’s potent brew. Then I recalled the smell of the date rape drug he sold under the table. Not so much to use it for you know, drugging dates as it was used to drug some unsuspecting sap so he could be robbed when he stumbled outside for some fresh air.

Oh fuck, where was I? The surface I was on was soft, a bed or a couch maybe. The light was bright, making my eyes hurt and my head throb. It took precious moments for my body to adjust, nausea rising, the room spinning a little. I was going to be sick, whatever that drug had done to me, it was giving me the hangover from hell.

My mouth filling with saliva, I hadn’t even managed to focus enough yet to figure out my surroundings when I was forced to throw up. I leaned forward, my hands finding the edge of whatever I was on. I pulled weakly, just enough for most of the vomit to land next, instead of on the soft bed I was on.

A hissing noise sounded over my retching. At least the expelling of my stomach contents was doing the job of finally clearing my mind. Everything was black around me but the light was as bright as day. I wasn’t on a bed but a settee of deep black silk, marbled with silver thread that looked too real for my comfort, I was glad I hadn’t puked on that.

“Disgusting, are you done?” a voice hissed and my head jerked up, the world seesawing around me. Across from me, on a large black chair sat a male; a Sythral male. For a disorienting moment, I wondered if it was Laimeil, the loan shark that Drova had tried to give me to. They looked so very similar that they could have been brothers. Maybe that was just me not recognizing their features well enough because they looked so creepily alien.

This one was wearing a pair of black pants and a long open robe in the same color. The Sythral were fond of silver and gold, and of decking themselves out in their wealth to show it off. This particular one didn’t even have gold to cap the two horns jutting from his narrow chin. He had none of the gold curling around the edges of his clothing, or dangling in chains from his chest. He had no gold at all.

The lack of wealth on display only made him seem more menacing, leaving him down to the bare basics of his species, which was terrifying. I’d once seen a Naga visit Drova’s bar, scary looking guy, with his long snake body and male torso. There had been something noble about him too. The Sythral? They reminded me of snakes as well, with their needle-filled mouths that they could open to frighteningly large proportions. They were insidious and evil. They reminded me of the bad guys in one of my favorite gate-hopping sci-fi show.

“Who are you?” I asked, my voice croaking. Now my mouth felt dry and disgusting and I swallowed a few times to ease the feeling. I didn’t see Akri anywhere and I was terrified that something had happened to him. I didn’t know what was going on, how had I gotten here? Who was this guy? Why had he kidnapped me?

The Sythral male hissed again, the noise making me think that what I had just said infuriated him. Should I have recognized him? “I’m your worst nightmare!” he said, his body shifting in far too liquid a manner as if he had no bones. I couldn’t remember if other Sythral I’d seen had moved quite like that.

His pompous answer didn’t tell me anything, but it installed an ever deeper fear in the pit of my belly. I might have woken up on a pretty fainting couch, but whatever he had in store for me; I wasn’t going to like it one bit. That I was unsecured, free to move about only told me he thought I wasn’t a threat. Sure, I could see four men stationed around the room, guards kitted out in black gear, but they looked like they were bored, rather than worried I’d harm their master.

“What do you want from me?” I asked, and where was Akri? But I didn’t dare ask that in case he’d gotten away and they didn’t know about him. If they did have him locked up somewhere, I didn’t want them to realize that I cared about him, that might be really bad.

The Sythral male rose to his feet and I didn’t like how that made him tower over me. I got to my feet to match his posture, but it didn’t make me feel any less vulnerable. I tried hard to hide how weak I still felt and how confused I was by what was going on. The last I remembered was falling asleep in Arki’s arms after we’d made love in that tiny little cave. My brain was having a hard time wrapping itself around this new reality.

He scoffed, his long, slender body appearing almost like a wraith or a skeleton beneath the long black robe. Then he swung a cane around and I finally saw the first sign of gold, the tip of the thing glinting luridly in the bright light. I flinched back, nearly tumbling onto the settee behind me to avoid having that thing hit me in the throat.

“I want you to tell me where you found him! I want to know who you were going to sell it to!” he screamed in my face. His mouth opened so far that for a moment all I saw was needles and a deep black hole I could disappear into. I didn’t understand his questions, not until he pulled something from his robe and shoved it into my face.

I stumbled back then, falling onto the couch while I stared at the green amulet he dangled in front of me. This was about that thing? Was he trying to stop Akri from finding out was on it? Or was Akri the he that he was talking about? No, my brain still couldn’t process what he wanted from me. I didn’t have all the facts but maybe that was a good thing. I couldn’t tell this asshole what he wanted, no matter what he did.