Astra: Synchronicity (42 page)

"Sorry," he called but wasn't sure she even
heard him.

Magnius watched her open a panel high above
him and reach her arm inside. Her legs flailed as she groped around
like a cat straining for the mouse to be her dinner. After a
minute, she caught it and pulled with all her might. The seal of
the hangar door broke, and distant starlight poured into the room
accompanied by a smattering of snowflakes.

In that same instant a deafening siren echoed
throughout the room, and a surge of red light fell on every
surface. His heart pounded in his throat while Amii hurried to open
the first half of the hangar door, but there wasn't much she could
do to work faster. The behemoth moved slow and deliberate to spite
their perfectly orchestrated getaway. He felt his airway narrow
with dread at the thought he could do nothing to help her or stop
anyone from entering the room; she required his complete attention
right now.

Amii shouted down at him, but he could not
hear her words. She pointed to the panel opposite her and waved her
hand toward it. He assumed she was ready for the other side so he
took a deep breath and moved her over to it. The alarm drowned out
his thoughts and his head throbbed from the pain of the noise, but
he couldn't lose focus on her. She was the only thing standing
between their freedom and a world of hell.

After she tossed open the panel on the far
end, Magnius felt the cold muzzle of a rifle burrow into his back.
"Hands on your head right now, mother fucker. One wrong move and
you're dead."

He hadn't even heard the door open behind
him. All he could do was bring his hands to his head, never once
taking his eyes off of her. He couldn't disarm them fast enough. If
his gaze wavered and his concentration waned, it would only take a
few seconds for her to die from the fall.

Think, Magnius, think
, he scolded
himself. Nothing in his immediate visual range could prove a
distraction. He couldn't risk diverting his attention in a room so
dark on nothing but wishful thinking. So he resigned himself to the
fact he'd have to hold out until Amii finished the job.

A second guard meandered around him with a
shotgun raised. He chewed a wad of hashish with snarling lips. He
looked like the stouter of the two men who'd passed them earlier.
"On yer knees, sum'bitch," he ordered and swiftly booted Magnius'
left shin.

He winced at the sharp sting but recomposed
himself and knelt in front of them. When he looked back at Amii, he
saw her clinging to the ceiling in frantic desperation. She grabbed
onto the edge of the open panel with all her strength while she
searched for the same mechanism that opened the lower half. The
second side of the hangar door had not yet budged. He strained to
right her, hoping the guards wouldn't notice her so high above them
while she continued.

"How in damnations did a bastard like you get
in here? Ya know what we do to folks who break the law 'round these
parts?"

His nostrils flared at the crass comment but
he did not answer. He doubted either of the men would kill him
outright, but their questionable morality wouldn't stop them from
brutalizing him.

The flash of metal from a rifle smashed him
across the face, and he crumpled over from the pain. Blood trickled
down his cheek, and he forced himself to look back over at Amii.
She hung onto a cable that came unseated from the bulkhead and
pulled it with the force of her weight, yanking it wildly for it to
give. The moment it did, the slick cable slipped out of her hands
and she fell.

The two guards turned and looked up when the
second side of the hangar door started to open. Magnius
concentrated enough to break her fall, coasting her to the floor
like an angel descending from heaven. The man with the shotgun
leveled his weapon at her and stood poised to fire. The door might
be open, but they still had to get on the ship and last long enough
to delve into hyperspace.

Magnius embraced the fury in his heart over
how he'd been treated by these men. His eyes burned with fervor and
before either of the guards had a chance to react, he channeled a
powerful concussive blast into the man behind him. The force of the
impact struck him so hard he sailed into the far bulkhead and was
knocked unconscious from the raw power. In the same breath he threw
the man with the shotgun across the room. He yelped as he
cartwheeled into the darkness behind the ship and plunged headfirst
through a monitor on the far wall.

He disregarded the soreness of his head and
compelled himself to find Amii. Moonlight cast a peculiar glow on
the hangar, and the bite of the frigid air became increasingly
harder to stave off. She retrieved the shotgun that had fallen
under the ship and hurried back to him.

She winced when she saw the cut on his head
but kept her weapon at the ready. "Where's the third one?"

"There were only two. Let's get the hell out
of here."

She put her arm around his shoulders and led
him onto the
Excalibur
. After stumbling through the ship in
her arms, she poured him into the aft chair. He watched her slide
into the navigator's seat and belt herself in. "Hold onto
something. The inertial suppressors are inoperable."

He grabbed onto a molded section of the
interior hull and braced himself against it. He had done this
before, long ago when the thought of inertial suppressors was the
stuff of science fiction. Traveling this way felt much like flying
aboard a plane in the Earth days of yesteryear: being pressed back
in your seat as the craft accelerated or decelerated and the strong
possibility of turbulence along the way. Most people became queasy
at the mere suggestion of flying without inertial suppressors
nowadays.

Amii pecked away at the console and the ship
rose off the ground and through the hanger doors before proceeding
forward. Its hover technology allowed it to glide over the contours
of the land. He heard the deep burn of the engines and wondered how
loud they sounded outside. On the display beside him, power usage
spiked as the ship settled into its stride.

He closed his eyes and started to inhale when
he felt a uniformed arm latch securely around his neck. Magnius
froze and his heart threatened to beat its way out of his chest
from panic.

After they'd returned from Xur, infatuation
had lulled him into complacency, and now both of them might pay the
ultimate price.

"Nowhere to run, Magnius," Tiyuri growled
while he pinned Magnius' right arm behind his back in a hammerlock.
He wrenched his shoulder as far as it would move without
dislocating it. "You're coming with me whether you want to or
not."

The iron bicep and forearm that snared him
reduced his voice to a whisper. "That's where you're wrong."

"I've been looking for an excuse to hurt you.
Give me one and I promise I'll enjoy it."

Without warning, he sprayed a canister of TRE
into Magnius' eyes. Magnius tried to struggle but the vice grip
tangled him. The substance was used as a deterrant in riot gear,
and while it caused the victim mild discomfort, it rendered them
legally blind for upwards of an hour. His limited range of motion
hindered him from fighting back. Until the assassin decided to
release him, he was trapped.

Tiyuri turned his head and directed his ire
toward Amii. "Unless you want to die, you will fly this ship to
Superbia."

She glanced toward them for a moment before
returning to her display. Her fingers fluttered over the console in
front of her. "Magnius, what's going on?"

"Don't do it, Amii," he gasped. The assassin
tensed his hand and crushed Magnius' wrist to quiet him. He bit his
lip to suppress his pain and felt more helpless than ever.

"You
will
do it," Tiyuri ordered
her.

"If we don't make it to orbit, we won't be
going anywhere," she said. "Half a dozen ships are after us."

"While you deal with them, here's something
to emphasize my point." Tiyuri grabbed the arm he'd secured behind
Magnius' back above his wrist and broke it. The audible snap echoed
through the control room before he screamed in agony.

Magnius tried to double over, but Tiyuri
forced him to remain upright and meet his pain headfirst. His eyes
watered as cloudy prisms of light obscured his vision. The shock
disoriented him, and it took several moments before he regained his
bearings. He strained to breathe, but as his adrenaline surged, the
pain faded to a dull ache.

In the window beyond the helm, the jagged
mountains blurred from a sudden change in direction. The ship
tipped sharply to starboard and both of them collapsed hard onto
the floor. Tiyuri lost his stranglehold but not his determination.
Before Magnius could catch his breath, the assassin stood above him
with a wicked stare, grabbed his shirt, and hoisted him to his
feet.

I may not win this round but I have to
try
, he thought.

Before he saw it coming, Magnius channeled
his telekinetic power through his fist and nailed him with a wild
left hook. Tiyuri staggered backward from the blow and brushed it
off. Due to the fact he'd spent his formative years as a
streetfighter in Vilacabamba, the assassin knew how to tolerate a
great deal of pain. Magnius, on the other hand, ran from every
fight he'd been confronted with in his life and it had served him
well until today.

Being trapped aboard a spaceship was a
dangerous place to manipulate telekinetic abilities. One stray
thought could rupture the hull and kill them all. The control room
had no loose objects hanging around to artfully impale him with. He
could fling Tiyuri into the walls until the brute force rendered
him unconscious, but the tumultuous movement of the ship made such
a feat impossible.

The floor tilted from side to side as Tiyuri
charged back into the fray. He battered Magnius left and right
while they struggled to maintain their footing. In such an exposed
state, he could do nothing to shield his broken arm from further
anguish. Tiyuri did not hesitate to exploit that weakness. After
sustaining a few punches to his throbbing arm, Magnius concentrated
on protecting his weak side by anticipating the assassin's moves
and nudging them off their intended target with his telekinesis.
Between his focus and the turbulence of the ship, only one in five
fists hit their intended mark.

Bit by bit, Tiyuri's face twisted into an
animalistic snarl. "Why do you bother resisting me? Both of us know
I will win in the end." The force behind his punches strengthened,
as Magnius could attest to when he failed to deflect them and a
shock of pain radiated through his arm.

From his position in the control room, he saw
a valley of pure snow materialize in the window ahead of the ship.
Lasers lashed the air as the ship maneuvered around them. The
illumination of the falling snow made the
Excalibur
look
like it was traveling a million times faster than the speed of
light.

"I'm not afraid of you." Magnius retaliated
with a punch of his own, which his opponent dodged and countered.
The counterblow rattled his senses but he drew in a breath of air
and recovered.

"A lie. I can see it in your eyes."

Tiyuri feinted with a flurry of jabs before
hammering Magnius with an uppercut. The sheer power of the impact
knocked him off his feet, and his head slammed into the nav
console. When he opened his eyes, he saw Amii's stare meet his. Her
contorted features were wrought with panic and concern. Whether it
was for him or from their predicament, he couldn't say.

The ship turned hard to port, and Tiyuri
skittered into the opposite bulkhead. Magnius drew a few labored
breaths before he returned to his feet with his arm against a
console to maintain his balance. The shriek of grinding metal
scraped the lower hull. Quakes vibrated the floor one after another
with sudden urgency from projectiles grazing the ship. Judging by
the severity of the turns, the situation was dire, and he prayed to
any God that was out there they'd make it through alive.

The assassin took a wide stance and lumbered
back toward him. The red glow of his eyes hid behind his dark
pupils, making him resemble a demon incarnate. No one stood up to
Tiyuri and won. The ones who tried died.

The giant redoubled his efforts when he
grabbed Magnius and pushed him face first into the bulkhead to
resume the assault. Not only were the punches stronger but also
faster. One blurred into the next at an inhuman speed. The pain
disoriented him, making it harder to evade those lead fists. His
body began to ache and feel numb. He didn't know how much longer
he'd be able to last.

"Hold onto something," Amii called out.

Magnius stared at the behemoth throttling
him.
Hold onto what?

The ship went into a barrel roll and took a
hard left. The two of them collapsed to the floor again, rolling
over the tops of one another before sliding toward the open
doorway. Once their flight stabilized, Tiyuri climbed on top of him
and held him down in a chokehold. Magnius gasped for air as his
trachea was compressed. If he fell unconscious, Tiyuri would be
free to manhandle Amii however he wanted to.

In an act of desperation, Magnius blasted him
with a concussive burst. Tiyuri sailed through the door to the
engine room and slammed into a chair near the center console. He
pulled himself to his feet and wiped the blood from his mouth
before staring at the red streak it left on his hand. His eyes
narrowed and his nostrils flared as he transformed into the
embodiment of hell.

"I may not be able to kill you, but I can
kill your girlfriend."

Magnius shook his head. "She's the only one
who can fly this ship."

"A bluff. And not a very good one."

"It's the truth!"

Tiyuri's sneer curled into a smirk. "It
shouldn't take much to make her scream."