New Dawn
Chapter 6

Theentrance to the bridge of the Argoniliterally burst open, shards of the steel door exploding inwards anddecapitating the two guards instantly. As the door was breached, a loud,wailing siren began to sound, echoing through the Imperial ship. The soldiers whoran to the bridge from the deck saw an unbelievable sight: Kabi, his left handoutstretched towards the hole blasted in the steel door, and a glitteringcrystal sword in his right hand.

Thesoldiers stood, facing the door, their mouths open in astonishment, until theAdmiral broke their trances.

“Fire,fools!” he growled.

As a man,the soldiers drew their weapons, energy bolts flying from every blaster,converging into one huge ball of exploding fire.

“Fire!Fire!” repeated the Admiral, raising his voice above the hissing of the bolts.

After threesalvoes, the men paused, as they had been trained to do, to allow the smoke toclear and to give them a better sighting of the enemy. And once more, they wereleft open-mouthed. Kabi still stood in the doorway, his posture relaxed, hissword arm poised for battle. The bolts had had no effect whatsoever.

Two mentook the initiative—brave men, men who saw the opportunity to please theirAdmiral, to achieve the promotions that both so desperately wanted, and theydrew their own swords, edging closer to the man in the doorway. The Admirallaughed his high-pitched, girlish laugh, gleeful at what he knew was about tohappen.

For amoment, Kabi allowed himself to leave the place of deep focus in his mind, theplace where the power resided, and rely instead on his physical skills.Swinging the great crystal sword with ease, he gracefully parried and took onboth soldiers at the same time. With dancelike movements, he goaded them intotheir mistakes, and within seconds, both lay dead. He stepped back, allowinghis weight to descend onto his heels for an instant of rest.

“It appearsthat you have not lost your skills,” the Admiral said, his voice admiring.

As hespoke, there was a resounding clang of metal on metal as the remaining soldierson the bridge unsheathed their swords in one movement. The Admiral laughed butheld up a hand to stop them. He had no desire to watch such a mismatched fightagain.

“Stepaside, fools,” the Admiral drawled. “You're no match for him. Do none of youknow who this man is?”

Kabi caughtLucia's eye, giving her an almost invisible wink and seeing her smile inreturn. Smart girl. She was staying well back from the action. Then heconcentrated again, seeking out that place of mental focus, knowing that he wasgoing to need the power soon.

“None ofyou recognise him?” the Admiral said in disgust. “In that case, gentlemen,allow me to introduce to you Archangel Scorpio.”

“Now,there's a name I haven't heard for a long time,” Kabi said, casually swingingthe crystal sword around and burying its point in the deck so that he couldlean on its hilt. “And how would it be, dear Admiral, that you know this name?”He rested on his sword, patiently awaiting an answer, his body relaxed, hismind scrabbling to focus on the power.

“I knowmany things,” the Admiral said airily. “I also happen to know that you are theonly Archangel left.”

Hmmm, thought Kabi. So, the Admiral didn't knowquite as much as he thought. Interesting. He watched impassively as the stoutman turned and reached up to the weapon rack on the wall behind him, selectinga trident before turning back.

“And I'vebeen looking for you for a long time. Fifteen years, give or take.” The Admiralgrinned, a smile full of frozen promise, and weighed the trident in his hand.“And finally it is time to regain my honour.”

Slowly,Kabi raised his sword. The Admiral's grin got only larger as he hefted histrident, striking the butt of it on the ground. As he did so, the three prongsignited in deep blue fire. Kabi shook his head slightly, and the Admirallaughed.

Despite hiscontainment, Maicee was actually very impressed with the medical bay on the Freedom. There was everything a doctoror a surgeon could possibly need, including a small, sterile operating theatre.Not bad for a pirate ship, hethought. He looked at the young woman on the bed. Not that he'd be needing anoperating theatre.

“She'sfine,” he told Falorni, completing his examination of Lean, the ship'sengineer. “A few lacerations, a couple of bruises, nothing that a hot showerwon't cure. No lasting damage that I can see.”

Lean'seyelids began to flicker, and Falorni used the cool cloth that she'd beenwiping the engineer's limbs down with to soothe her forehead. Lean groaned.

“My head ...”

Falornisteadied the girl, who was beginning to thrash around, unsure of what was goingon. “Stay calm,” she said.

“Where amI? What happened?” Lean said, eyes opening.

Shestruggled and tried to sit up, but Falorni resisted her efforts. “It's okay. You'refine, Lean. It's me, Falorni.” She waited a moment until the girl understoodwho was speaking to her and calmed a little. “We found you unconscious in theengine room. Do you remember what happened?”

Leangroaned again. “No ... wait, yes ... I was working. Checking the engine stats.The next thing I knew, the engine exploded, just out of nowhere. I rememberbeing thrown backwards, then black. Nothing else.”

Falorninodded. “You were unconscious for a while, but you're going to be perfectlyfine. Do you remember seeing anyone else around the engine room before theexplosion?”

The youngengineer shook her head. “No, no, I don't think so.”

Maicee sawa small flicker in the corner of her eye. Maybe,he thought, she remembers more than she’ssaying. He was about to ask her, and to introduce himself, when the comsystem beeped.

“ABDSdeactivated. Return to bridge,” Bettie's voice said.

Falornipulled a blanket up over Lean. “You just stay here. I'll come check on you in alittle while. Try and get a little sleep if you can.”

She strokedthe girl's forehead one more time, then nodded at Maicee.

“Let's go,”she said.

The twoleft the medical bay and hurried back to the bridge. A few minutes later, whenshe was sure that all was clear and she wouldn't be noticed, Lean too got up.She clung onto the side of the bed as her head spun for a moment, then cleared.Then she left the medical bay.

Sword andtrident clashed, spilling blue and gold sparks into the air. When it came tocombat, both Kabi and the Admiral were well trained. Sweat beaded across theirbrows as each fought to gain the upper hand. The remaining soldiers of the Argoni lined the sides of the bridge,watching as their commander battled in a way they'd never encountered before.None made a move to step into the melee.

Circlingdefensively, both men breathed heavily. Kabi was thinking that it was abouttime to end all this. The combination of fighting physically whilst stillmentally trying to hold on to the power was getting exhausting. The Admiralcaught the glimpse of fatigue in the other man's eyes and laughed.

“It hasbeen some time since I fought someone of your calibre,” he said, still circling,his eyes never leaving Kabi's. “This has been fun, my old foe. But the sands oftime are rapidly running out. You must forgive me.” With this, he once morebanged his trident on the deck, and the flames spouted higher and burnedbrighter.

“Agreed,”Kabi said calmly. “Let us end this here.”

Squintingin the bright light of the flames and bringing his left hand in front of him,he focussed a sharp burst of the power and fired three small crystal shards atthe Admiral. Another peal of laughter as the Admiral stepped elegantly to oneside, causing all three shards to fly over his shoulder and embed themselvesinto the wall of the bridge. He swung the trident to block Kabi's incomingattack and sighed theatrically.

“Youunderestimate me, Scorpio,” he said. “After all, I did singlehandedly killAquarius. Why should I not do the same to you?” He paused, moving his handfurther up the rod of the trident. “Oh my, how could I forget? She was yoursister, wasn't she? You do have my apologies, dear Scorpio.” He jabbed forwardwith the trident.

Kabi's eyesburned even brighter than the fires of the trident as he gritted his teeth.“Your blood will be mine,” he said, cursing.

“I thinknot. I think you'll be joining your sister in hell sooner than you might haveplanned,” riposted the Admiral.

The tridentslashed forwards again, burning a deep hole in the deck, and Kabi only justmanaged to leap aside. The flames seared a sharp pain through his rightshoulder. Lucia gasped when she saw blood run down his arm, staining theshining handle of his sword.

“You haveno idea just how much I hate you,” said the Admiral, pulling his weapon backfor another blow. “Or how powerful a motivator hatred can be. I will destroyyou.”

Theirweapons locked again, Kabi feeling the burning of his muscles as he forced hissword to push the trident down. “It seems that I have far more reason to killyou than you have to kill me,” he said equably, not letting his voice betrayhis emotions. “You killed my sister, after all.”

The tridentdropped down, releasing itself from the sword, before jumping straight upagain, an obvious feint and one that Kabi easily blocked.

“You don'tremember, do you?” the Admiral said. His face was red, sweat streaming down hischeeks, stinging his eyes. “You don't remember at all.”

“Why wouldI remember one as insignificant as you?” Kabi asked quietly. If he played hiscards right, he might get the Admiral to have a heart attack before he gotstabbed with that damn trident.

“Fifteenyears ago, I was tasked with killing you,” hissed the Admiral. “And youdisappeared off the face of Archeonis. And because I could not fulfil mymission, the Supreme Emperor stripped me of my rightful title. That of MagiLord. I have suffered fifteen years of shame and humiliation. But now, now Ishall regain what was always mine. I shall redeem myself.”

Kabishrugged as if this hardly mattered to him, though this new information madesense to him and went a long way to explaining how the Admiral knew who he was.He was rewarded with a blaze of uncontrolled anger in the eyes of the Admiral,who raised his trident and lunged. Kabi parried, but the flames of the tridentburned a small dent into his crystal sword. Fine,he thought. Enough was enough. Extending his left hand, he focussed the poweruntil a small, transparent ball appeared, growing larger and flatter until itformed an impenetrable shield.

The shieldblocked the Admiral's attacks, the heat of the trident having no effectwhatsoever on it. Kabi dropped his sword and allowed the shield to protect himas the Admiral's frustrations grew, his attacks became frenzied, his footworkshoddy. The battle is coming to an end,Kabi thought with satisfaction. He waited for a particularly strong tridentthrust and then allowed the shield to fade for a split second before renewinghis focus. The result of this was that the trident was now captured in theshield itself, the Admiral unable to pull it free. That sort of manipulationtook intense focus, and Kabi was very pleased with himself. Not so pleased,however, that he forgot his aim.

Pulling ahand back, he pushed the power down his arm and into his fist, punching thefull force of everything he had down into the Admiral's chest. The man's torsoruptured open, wide enough that Kabi could see his heart still desperatelybeating, pumping blood around a body that could no longer contain it. The Admiral'seyes widened, and he choked, trickles of blood coming from his mouth.

“No ...” hegroaned. But seeming to realise what was happening, he raised his right hand,and his clouded eyes cleared for a moment. “You shall die with me!”

A fireballerupted from his hand, aimed directly at Kabi, but the Admiral didn't live tosee the consequences of his actions. His eyes closed even as the fire ball lefthis palm. He died smiling, believing that he had taken his enemy to the gravewith him.

Thefireball was right on target. To give the Admiral his due, he was a good shot.Slowly, even lazily, Kabi opened his hand; and as the fireball grew closer, heallowed the power to extend out of him, wrapping the fire in a safe cocoon oftransparent energy that suffocated the flames and then evaporated.

Aware thatall was not going to plan, the soldiers of the Argoni had fled as they saw their captain sinking towards the deck.And when the fireball was gone, Kabi and Lucia were left alone. The man smiledat the young woman, who was still kneeling on the deck.

“You cancome in now,” Kabi said over his shoulder. “I told you I'd keep him safe,” hetold Lucia as Benho entered the bridge from where he'd been waiting behind thedoor.

The youngdoctor, slightly pale from the anxiety of what he'd just seen, bent to cutthrough Lucia's restraints. Lucia rubbed her wrists, then accepted Benho's helpto rise to a standing position.

Regardingthe body of the Admiral and unfazed by his open chest, Lucia shook her head.“Your skills continue to impress me, KabiOnn,” she said. “Killing a Magi Lordis quite something. Even an ex-Magi Lord.”

Kabi sighedbefore answering: “All Magi Lords are my kin. There is no pleasure in killingmy own nephew.”

The smallcrew stood to attention as their captain entered the bridge. Even a pale Leanwas on deck. Benho gallantly escorted Lucia to the captain's chair, where shesank heavily down and let the soft cushions of the seat embrace her. She wasglad to be back on her own ship, but now she was here, she had to deal with avery pressing matter. No matter which way she looked at things, she could comeup with no other solution than that someone on board had betrayed them.

Steppingforward, Bettie reported on the condition of the ship and what had transpiredduring the captain's absence. Lucia nodded, understanding the seriousness ofwhat had happened, but the weight of betrayal overrode the ship's engineeringproblems.

“Thankyou,” she said curtly as Bettie finished.

The firstofficer stepped back, and Lucia let her eyes rove over her crew. “Our missionwas a failure. We walked into a trap. We were ambushed. And that can mean onlyone thing. We were expected.” Eyes darting back and forth, carefully lookingfor a reaction, she said: “Someone amongst us is a traitor.”

There was acollective gasp of shock from all but one of the crew. Lucia allowed her eyesto settle on the woman who was staring at her with hatred. Slowly, the captainpulled her dagger from her belt and aimed its point at the woman's throat.

“Why didyou betray us?” she asked softly.

Lean's eyesglittered, and Lucia saw no fear, just pure and unadulterated hate.

“To avengemy father,” the ship's engineer said, spitting out the words.

“Yourfather?” Lucia said, raising an eyebrow.

“Five yearsago, you killed my father when you boarded this ship.” Lean's voice was as hardas steel, and Lucia heard truth in every word she spoke.

“And whoexactly was your father?” Lucia asked, dagger still extended and ready tothrow, her manner almost conversational.

Leangritted her teeth, her jaw pushing out as she recounted her story, the wordsdripping with anger. “My father was Jason O'Conule, chief engineer of thebattle cruiser Bravery. The Admiralinformed me that you killed everyone on board when you took the ship. Thisship.”

Luciaslumped back into her chair, letting her knife drop. “Because the Bravery went on to become the Freedom. This ship.” She nodded wearily.

The ship'sengineer was surprised that her captain had not denied what she was being told.She'd expected more of a fight out of the woman. For a moment, her certaintywavered, but then she collected herself, reminding herself that this woman hadkilled her father.

The captainbit her lip and blinked twice before continuing. “I did not kill your father.”

Lean lookedabout to interrupt, and Lucia held up a hand.

“But he diddie because of me,” she continued. “Your father was the one who gave me the Freedom. He was my agent on board. Heprovided me with information, and when the time came, he sabotaged the ship bydisabling its engines. With his help we were able to easily take the vessel.”

Again sheblinked, and the crew watched her. It was rare to see their captain exhibitmuch emotion. Lean too was still, patiently waiting for further explanation butknowing deep in her stomach that she'd made a terrible, terrible mistake.

“After weboarded the ship, I tried to take your father with us. He refused. He said thathe could be more use to us if he remained a naval officer. He could continue tobe my agent and continue to pass information along. Against my betterjudgement, and motivated, I'll admit, by greed, I allowed him to do as hewanted. I never heard from him again.”

Leanswallowed. “Is this the truth?” she asked quietly.

“Upon myname, I swear that this is the truth,” Lucia said, looking directly into thegirl's eyes. She knew that she could not let treachery go unpunished. But shealso knew she could not kill this girl. “I will let you live. For your father'ssake. But you will leave. Now. I do not want to see you again.”

Theengineer's breath was coming faster, her colour fading from an already palecream to a delicate shade of ivory. She swayed unsteadily on her feet, theknowledge of what she had done burning inside her. And finally, she did theright thing. She opened her mouth and spoke.

“It's toolate.” Each word was a battle, getting her mouth to form sounds almostimpossible. “I'm dying.” Her breath was short pants. The words were swimming inher head so she had to concentrate to snatch each one individually from theair. “And. I. Take. The. Freedom.With. Me.”

Leancrumpled to the deck, and Benho rushed to her side. The doctor bent and found aweak, thready pulse. Roughly pulling down an eyelid, he looked at her pupils.

“She'staken a poison. I don't know which,” he said, looking up. “Falorni, go tomedical and fetch me every anti-toxin that you have.”

The medicalofficer nodded and fled from the bridge. Lean's hand raised and beckoned to hercaptain. Obediently, Lucia went to her side and leaned over, allowing theengineer to whisper into her ear. The woman's face froze as she heard thewhispers, and she stood as Lean faded into unconsciousness.

“There arethree time bombs in the engine room,” she announced to the crew. “Set to detonatein thirty minutes. Kabi?”

Kabi lookedat the woman and nodded. “I shall do what I can,” he said.

“Bettie,take Kabi to the engine room immediately,” ordered Lucia. “If he can do nothing,we will be prepared to evacuate the ship on your order.”

The firstofficer nodded and escorted Kabi from the bridge.

“You two,”Lucia said to Maicee and Benho, “carry her to the medical bay. I don't want herhere in the way.”

The two menpicked up Lean's unconscious body easily and manoeuvred her off the deck.

Lucia sunkback into her chair, closing her eyes. Gods. How had it all come to this? Hercrew betrayed, her faith placed in newcomers. Her ship in danger.

“We'vefound all three bombs,” said Bettie over the com. “One on each of the mainengines, and one on the fuel conduit. One of them would be enough to cripplethe ship. Should all three go off, we'll be vaporised.”

“Does Kabithink we should evacuate?” came back Lucia's voice, crackling over the line.

Bettielooked at Kabi, who shook his head.

“There'snot enough time,” he offered by way of explanation.

“Then maythe Gods be with you,” said Lucia, who had heard his response.

The comhissed and fell silent. Kabi moved to the first of the three bombs, gentlyremoving the cover and examining the internal workings. Inside there was achronos, and he saw blinking numbers counting down. After a few seconds henodded, then moved on to examine the other two devices. After the third, hegrunted with satisfaction.

“We can'tmove them,” he said, turning to Bettie. “They've got motion sensors that willdetonate them if they're moved. But thankfully, all three devices are the same.Which makes my job a lot easier.” He paused for a moment, looking at thechronos on the nearest bomb. “Stand back for a moment. I need to try something.”

Saying asilent prayer, Bettie took two steps back and watched as Kabi lowered himselfuntil he was sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of one of the devices.He raised both hands, palms down, and let them hover over the box. Then heclosed his eyes and was silent. After a few seconds, she noticed perspirationbegin to trickle down his forehead but could see no other visible change. Heartleaping in her chest, she waited.

“One down,two to go,” said Kabi a few minutes later, standing up.

Steppingcloser to the device he'd apparently disarmed, she noticed that the chronos wasstill running, counting down.

“That'sjust the timer,” Kabi told her. “Don't worry. It's harmless now.”

Hestaggered as he moved to the second device, seeming to grow older with eachstep he took. Whatever it was that he was doing, it seemed to be draining himsomehow. Bettie kept a suspicious eye on the still-running timer of the firstdevice, wondering if it truly was safe, seeing the minutes tick down.Approaching five minutes. Her pulse quickened. Then she jumped as a metallicclang echoed through the room.

“Did Ifrighten you?” Maicee asked, stepping through the metal door and seeingBettie's shaking hands.

“No, no,”she said, lying through her teeth.

“Just intime,” Kabi said, looking up to see the boy. “I could use a little help here.”

He stood,shaking, and Maicee was astonished to see how old and tired he looked. Quicklyhe moved to take the older man's arm and supported him as he guided them bothto the third device.

“The firsttwo are taken care of,” Kabi said tiredly. “I need your help with the third.”

“I'm asurgeon, not an engineer,” said Maicee, doubtfully.

“It mattersnot your knowledge, but the power inside you,” said Kabi, sinking down in frontof the device. “I will guide you. Come here and sit just so, like me.”

Maicee didas he was told and clearly saw that the chronos on the third device was readingless than four minutes. He gulped. He had no idea what to do. He could onlytrust in Kabi.

“Take adeep breath and close your eyes,” Kabi's voice said. “Stretch your hands outover the device but do not touch it. Now relax. Look for that place in yourmind. The place that is focussed. The place that contains all the concentrationthat you have distilled down into one point. The place where the light comesfrom. And when you replace it, jump into it with your mind.”

Maiceebreathed slowly, opening his mind to what Kabi was saying. And he found that heunderstood completely. He knew this place. He'd been there before. It was theplace he entered when he performed the perfect surgery. The place whereeverything was somehow more orderly, more controlled.

“Enter thatplace, Maicee. Let your senses stretch out inside it. Extend your senses; letthe power run through you.”

“I ... Ithink I'm there,” Maicee whispered, his voice hesitant. “I feel something.Something like a pulse.”

Kabi smiledgently at the boy's face. It radiated the power, and he had known even beforebeing told that Maicee had found the place.

“Very good,”he said quietly. “That's the energy of the bomb.” He moved closer to the boy,bending so he was speaking directly into his ear. “Now, listen. I will show youhow to alter the energy.”

Maiceenodded in silence, trusting completely in Kabi now. He felt sweat trickle downhis body, wetting his clothes, fabric sticking to his skin. Energy leaked fromhim, and he began to feel lightheaded. But as he followed Kabi's instructions,it was like time began to slow down and the impulses coming to his sensesslowed too. Soon he felt like he was floating through a room filled with balls,each ball being an impulse. When he felt a ball that seemed bigger or strongerthan the others, he directed himself towards it and then began to mould it bydoing as Kabi told him to. And after a time, the powerful energy ball turned towater. Why water? He had no idea. It just seemed natural to him. The processwent on and on, and time ceased to have any meaning to him.

Lucia bentover the traitor, keeping out of the way of Benho and Falorni. The female medicwas working on the blood that Benho had given her, and finally she looked athim and nodded. Tearing his eyes away from the stat machines, Benho thankedher.

“So?” askedLucia, aware that something had happened.

“She tooksome sort of hemolytic poison, which caused her red blood cells to break down.But we got there in time. We've neutralised the poison with the appropriateanti-toxin, given her a transfusion, and she'll live,” said the doctor.

“Good,”Lucia said. “I owe her father a lot.”

“How arethings going in the engine room?” asked Benho.

Luciashrugged. “I guess we're going to replace out one way or another very soon.”

Then,suddenly, there were no high-energy balls left. Pushing the power through hissenses one more time, Maicee searched but found nothing. And then everythingfaded to black.

As he fellunconscious to the floor, Bettie's eyes followed the countdown, the red numbersflashing and her hands sweating. Three. Two. One. Zero. A click. Then nothing.She looked up and saw Maicee lying on the floor, a decrepit-looking Kabibending over him.

“It seemstoo early for her to use her powers,” the older man said wonderingly.

Bettieignored his ramblings. “You've done it.”

Kabi lookedup, remembering that she was there. “Yes,” he sighed. “We did it.”

“But how?”asked Bettie, curiously. “I saw both of you sit there, but neither of you evencame close to touching any of the devices.”

Rubbing hislined face with a large hand, Kabi shrugged. “I simply transformed the explosivematerial inside the devices into sand. Maicee did things a little differently,but the result is the same.”

He laid ahand on the cold forehead of his young accomplice; there was still a littlewarmth there, but not much. Reaching down, he began feeling for a pulse.

“How isthat even possible?” Bettie said sceptically. She moved to get closer to thetwo men, to see what was going on with Maicee.

“It'scalled molecular transformation,” said Kabi, still busying himself withMaicee's health. “Only a handful of people can do it. There are few alivenowadays who are capable of it, anyway.” He put Maicee's wrist down andfrowned. “I can explain more later if you're interested. But in the meantime, Ithink that we should get the boy to the medical bay.”

“Yes, ofcourse,” said Bettie, reaching for the com.

She decidedto probe no further. She probably wouldn't have understood anyway, and how itwas done seemed to be of little importance. What’simportant, she thought, as she keyed in the number for the medical bay, is that whatever they did worked. Theship was saved. The crew was saved. Now all they had to do was figure out howto get the Freedom moving again.Falorni answered the com.

“Sendsomeone down to help me carry Maicee up to medical bay,” Bettie ordered. “Andtell the captain that her ship is safe.”