The Wild Ba’Neesh Chapter Forty-Three ©2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved
Mick trotted along the darkened corridors with only emergency battery operated lights spaced well apart to give light. He found he didn’t need much. His eyes seemed to be adapting to lower light conditions. Behind him he heard raised voices and the heavy thud of boots on the hard floor. He kept his pace. Memory told him Elias was quite some distance down the central hall which formed a shape somewhat like a guitar on the wall maps. He doubted the strange design was intended for interrogation, it seemed more focused on those drones or part of the entire facility’s security presence.
The interior of the facility was well mapped and had three zones in the large part of the building. Portions of the building were shown as stacks, indicating additional lower floors. He appeared to be on the top floor labeled M. He knew this because of the dorm and kitchen placement. Below were a tighter warren of rooms with names he couldn’t identify. He kept to this level. At a guess he felt like he had climbed down about twenty feet and the floor was level, that should put the Ba’Neesh directly over his head if they were following him. He felt they were. His experience with them was giving him a tenuous connection, like a developing sense of their presence.
The doors entering the dorm area were coded but going toward the kitchen the doors were casual swing, likely because they were a common area, as he passed the larger rooms he heard voices and he ducked back into the shadows of a branching hallway. It was hard to control his breathing. He tilted his head as the Ba’Neesh often did as if that improved hearing.
One voice was giving orders. That voice sounded like the big leader guy from earlier. Other men answered and footsteps headed toward Mick. He frowned. Clearly they were organizing a search already, he’d hoped for more time to find Elias. He heard voices calling out, “Klar, klar.” He could guess that meant they hadn’t found him in whatever room or area. From the sound of things, they would be on him pretty fast.
The downside of the facility layout, from his perspective, was that it offered few hiding places. The hallways and corridors were boxy and straight giving a clean line of sight, corners were at ninety-degrees and they wrapped in box style meaning he could be easily trapped by force from two ends of any one hall. He sprinted toward the long arm hallway that should be on the other end of the outer box-set of hallways.
His footsteps rang and he heard the outcry of someone guessing he wasn’t wearing uniform boots. He kept on, knowing that once they entered the hallway behind him they could shoot down the hall with a stunner and that would be the end of his fancy rescue attempt. He cursed aloud, “Fucking bastards.” A laser would use too much juice for not enough payoff, what could he do? What could he do? His mind flailed about touching on each of his experiences and the discussions about weapons and those they had tried in some form. The only one with potentials that seemed even remotely doable required a Ba’Neesh with better Vrill skills than he had. He needed to be a fancy caster like Mael. His head lifted. He gripped Edda’s bone and while running, drew a Seeker in the air in front of him yelling out, “Mael!”
Mael pivoted to stare into the Vrill disturbance off to one side. His name had been called out. “What?” He yelled back.
Mick drew another Seeker and yelled out, “Give me confusion behind me.” He knew that Mael and DireSec had used that trick before during the battle where he was brain wiped.
Mael on his end yelled for help from the Ba’Neesh already scrambling toward him with delighted eagerness. They were so unbelievably bored. He drew a slightly different sigil in the air. Xasper showed up in the center of the aircraft that had become Mael’s regular location. “Get out of the way.” He brushed Mael aside and flashed his hand through the barely formed sigil. With enviable speed and focus he threw a sigil into the air that hovered as if suspended on invisible strings. The Ba’Neesh greeted this sight with excitement, they had known the caster was practicing mobile casting.
The Channels aboard three of the DireSec aircraft began to hum, the Ba’Neesh joined in, now forming circles on all three of the main aircraft.
Mick knew none of this, only the increasing thunder of heavy feet clearly intending to catch him where the outer box crossed the t-shaped corridor. “Come on, Mael.” He yelled again, not wanting to risk another Seeker. He didn’t feel wiped out by his sigil attempts, yet, but he worried that might be adrenaline and as soon as he came to a halt Vrill drop might swamp him. He knew he should have practiced this stuff even if he knew they had done what they thought was safe. Safe wasn’t helping his lack of practice and experience.
He arrived at the still sealed secure door that isolated the long hall from the common rooms. Maybe he could laser it down. Him and what boost for that kind of sustained burn? He thought with increasing sarcasm.
“Mael.” He yelled out again seeing a cluster of men rounding each corner heading straight toward him. The only thing buying him time, he realized, was they didn’t want to shoot their own men while aiming at him.
“Fucking Soc-heads.” He yelled out, pivoting to put his back to the door, raising his right hand ready to summon the laser. Instead, oddly, Elias’ Nefertari eyeball sigil popped into his mind, from that first ever sigil he had seen. He grabbed both bones and drew the shape around him in a curve, as if he were inside a glass tube. He focused on Mael saying, “See this.” He threw Vrill at the shape.
Mael gasped, a near panoramic scene appeared outside of Xasper’s hovering Vrill sigil. “You did that?” He asked Xasper.
Then he realized he was seeing Tule Soc operatives running toward him from two sides and a hallway ahead, all dark with emergency light running. “Wait, that’s Mick’s view of things.”
“Let’s give them light and confusion.” Xasper said, a bit boastful as he formed his right hand into a ball of Vrill and threw it toward Mick’s sigil. The Vrill flowed to Vrill and they watched the ball fragment like exploding marbles, bouncing and peening down all three hallways.
“Now, that’s fucking cool.” Brad observed with true admiration, powering his chair into the heart of the circle. “Have we ever done double sigil at distance before Xasper?”
“I haven’t.” Xasper, like everyone else, was watching and noticing that Mick’s sigil was holding.
Mael was first to comment, “How the hell is that kid holding that sigil in place? He isn’t you, Xasper.”
The Ba’Neesh in their own circle just inside the curved sigil, laughed. “He is robbing us.” Anya said. “Little bastard is reaching right into our Channels to fuel his own sigil.”
“How the hell… We are fucking behind, again.” Mael said. The marbles were now chasing the Tule Soc men who were running away as if from the devil itself. They could hear screaming and then the view pivoted to face a security door. Mick kicked it.
“We have view.” Mael announced the obvious. “Where the hell is he anyway?”
“Darkened badly lit corridor,” Brad observed. “Likely underground from the look of it. Plain like Citadel.”
“Doing what we should have done.” Anya said. “He isn’t a coward.”
Mael flinched. Mick kicked the door again.
Xasper leaned forward and reached out his Vrill hand to do a simple unlock exercise.
Mick yelped as a Vrill hand emerged near the door. It clearly tried to unlock the door. It failed.
“It seemed obvious.” Xasper said, withdrawing his hand.
“That confusion cast won’t hold too much longer.” Mael observed.
“Gods I suck at this Vrill shit.” Mick said aloud. “Give me hot hot hands whomever is chaining back behind me. Gonna laser this fucking door to the floor.”
“Shit.” All of the Soek with Mael got up close with the curved sigil. How had the kid made a curved sigil? Mael stuffed that aside for later thought.
“Chaining, of course.” Anya laughed again, and then reached over to grab the horn of the Ba’Neesh on either side of her. “Chain up for Mick.”
The MagC aboard each ship powered to life, the Channels ramped up their hum.
Xasper and Mael shared a somewhat horrified glance. “Was dealing with me like this?” Mael asked, finally understanding what it was like to be on the out-of-control end of an untaught Soek going to laser a full-on security door.
“Hopefully, they don’t have explosives in that door.” Brad observed, “Some of ours do.”
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Oh great.” Mael said, “You mean we might get a full view to him exploding? “Shit. Don’t we have any damned shields to push through his sigil.”
“No time.” Xasper said, “He’s starting the cut. But, clearly we need to work on shields. We needed them in that air battle too. He complained about their absence, as I recall.”
Mick went for the hinge side first and then he kicked. Nothing. Then he lasered the handle grip side from top to bottom and kicked again. All of them could hear the return of boot footsteps.
“Hurry!” Mael said. Uncertain if the sigil was carrying sound both ways. They needed testing. What was he doing parked outside a facility deep in negotiations with restless Ba’Neesh? Clearly his job was solving this rapidly widening pool of questions.
Anya said aloud, “When he does that lurch back thing right before he kicks…”
Mael, Xasper and Brad turned to see the Ba’Neesh lifting their right legs in unison.
“Now!” Anya yelled out.
They Vrill kicked the door through Mick’s foot. Mael, Brad and Xasper gurgled and gasped as the secure door when flying and skidding down the hallway, nearly falling on two armed Tule Soc operatives who had been brandishing their weapons at the door. Those two screamed, turned and ran. Clearly a flying door wasn’t what they were trained for.
Mick chased them.
“They Soek.” One of the Akaitapi observed from the rear of the Ba’Neesh circle. “They felt the Ba’Neesh coming and ran.” She laughed aloud. “Mick forces us to remember, as expected.”
Mick’s sigil ran with him. Xasper who was studying the sigil yelled over to the Ba’Neesh to help him finish it properly.
Moira came forward to stand next to him. “Full circle?” She said.
“Always.” Xasper nodded.
He looked over at her huge rack of antlers. Never would he have considered grabbing them. Rude bravery? The worst she could do was kill him, and would that be so bad? He reached over and grabbed her antler. She howled, pulling him around as she tried to shake him off. He hung on and said as loud as he felt was polite, “Moira, let’s finish the damn sigil. You can gore me later if you want to.”
She stilled. He reached up his right hand and seemed to grab the edge of the eye to pull it around the room until it touched the other side of the eye. As soon as they touched, they got a three-hundred and sixty-degree view of Tule Soc operatives chasing Mick while Mick chased two Soek mules who thought they were Tule Soc operatives.
“Take the Soek.” Mael said. “We can yell through this thing? Yes. No? We hear him, logic says he hears us too. Fuel Mick’s voice? Damn, what are the properties of this thing?”
Anya stepped forward as if getting closer to the circular sigil would allow him to hear her better. “Mick. This is Anya,” She called out firmly, “You need to tell the Soek to help you. Use the true Speech and say, “Soek assist.” Just that. Now, we help.”
Mick looked around trying to see Anya, but he saw only operatives in both directions. Didn’t she know he sucked at speech? Help him, how?
He lifted his right hand.
“A signal?” Anya snorted with growing amusement. Soek. Clearly the Ba’Neesh in the ship were enjoying themselves. Fun. “Boost him.” She ordered.
Mick yelled out, “Soek assist.” He could feel the words inside his mouth altering and swelling, growing from his weak-ass edge to a wallop. He instantly wanted to assist himself. “Shit.” He said.
The two Soek ahead of him slowed and then turned staring at him in growing confusion and not a little fear.
“Stun the ones behind me.” Mick ordered as he caught and passed them.
The two got about half of the first group before they were stunned by those following. Then a strange thing happened, three of those following fired on the rest of them to chase after Mick, yelling questions at each other they couldn’t answer. The three confused, chasing mules argued loudly trying to sort out what had just happened and why they were not shooting the kid. They tried. They couldn’t raise their weapons on him. It was a long fucking hall.
An all-too familiar skittering sound brought Mick and the mules’ heads around in horror, to find the hallway being invaded by bugs, mice, rats and other mobilized robot devices.
“Fuck.” Mick yelled.
“Allow me.” The familiar tones of Iiyiko’s sarcastic voice intruded as she manifested in the hall between Mick and the mules.
“Bout fucking time You showed up. Behind the mules.” Mick yelled as the running Soek were trying to break and looking for cover in a hallway with zero cover.
“Assist him.” She repeated the order aloud, her Vrill-laced voice powerful and without any hint of mercy.
The Soek ran past her staring wide eyed, the bugs hard on them.
She laughed and rolled a sheet of Vrill to flow along the floor and climb up the walls of the hallway.
“How does She do that?” Anya asked, stomping a foot in frustration. She wasn’t alone, all of the Ba’Neesh feeling trapped inside of the aircraft on a good day were stomping in frustration. How come a Neeshatari could go to Mick directly and they were stuck in these damn DireSec aircraft, watching.
Mick accelerated, yelling behind him. “You Tule Soc morons, catch me before She accidentally fries you into pillars of ash. She has a low tolerance for stupid Soek.”
They too sped up trying not to hear the explosions and weapons fire from the hunting machines. Iiyiko, of course, was having fun.
Mick arrived at a plain door with a warning sign in red, in German. He could guess. Drone headquarters. He slid to a stop and pointed his right index finger at the door knob. Elias’ unlock simple had risen through his memories when Xasper sent a Vrill hand at the other door. Its memory lingered in Mick’s mind. “Unlock!” He articulated, the Soek mules came up beside him. One looked at him and reached out to turn the knob, it wasn’t locked.
“Shit, Mick.” Mick said aloud to himself, “Always try the handle first.”
Then he pushed through to find a small apartment with a bedroom with three bunks, a tiny kitchen, an equally small shower and a lounge area with a wall of electronics. Function. Clearly they had found the quarters of the two Soek who had run into Mick down the hall.
The Soek rushed in and Mick slammed the door. He really didn’t want to see if Iiyiko got all of the bugs. Only one had to escape. The sound of that battle grew increasingly close making him suspect she was falling back a bit. She could just collapse that tunnel.
He opened the door and yelled out, “It’s a fucking tunnel Iiyiko, collapse it on them. Blow the fucker up, just don’t blow me up, okay?” He slammed the door shut again to face three near panicked Soek mules.
“Where is Elias?” He yelled at them.
“Prisoner?” One answered in thick English. He was the same massively large leader guy from outside the kitchen.
“Yeah.” Mick nodded.
The Soek pointed toward a trapdoor with a ring twist handle. Mick ran over, twisted and yanked. Even as he was pulling the door up he yelled out to himself how stupid he could be. It could blow. It could be a trap. It likely was a trap. He really was stupid. The door slammed to the floor and he radiated light down in the hole to see a small, boxlike room, devoid of even a bed, a figure crouched in the corner, a hole in the floor for a toilet and one that didn’t work well. It reeked.
“Elias?” He yelled. The figure barely moved. He regrouped, the figure moved.
“You and you, go down and help him out of that hole.” Mick yelled at two of the three Soek. There was a set of collapsing stairs folded to the wall next to the trapdoor. “Hurry, some of those bugs might get through and She might actually blow the tunnel and this fucking place may blow with it. You got, hurry, yet?”
The two Soek nodded and sent the unfolding ladder down. Mick turned on the third Soek. “How do we go up?” He yelled and pointed when the man seemed not to understand. Up?”
There was a fixed ladder in the side of the entertainment, surveillance room leading to another trapdoor. Mick climbed it first and twisted and threw the trapdoor up and over on its side. He looked up into the back side of cubbies designed to hold and recharge armed drones. He was staring them in the face.
“Shit.” He yanked his head back down as the slight whir of wings warned him that some Tule Soc operative was going manual operation on the drones from a remote location.
The two Soek were dragging the badly beaten Elias up the stairs. He was naked. Mick frowned. “Put pants on him.” He yelled at the lone Soek, bring a bag of shoes, socks, underwear and the rest. Fast!”
They pulled the closest fitting pants on Elias they could find. He was perking up enough to lift his head.
“Damn, Elias.” Mick said. “You are a sight for sore eyes.” He grinned. “Glad to find you alive. Iiyiko is blowing shit up outside that door and we are going up into the all-time lair of weaponized drones, now being activated by some bastard back there somewhere.” He pointed at the now loud sounds emanating from the door. “We gotta go. You ready?”
Elias nodded.
“Great!” Mick focused and stared upward. Yellow, Red, Yellow, Red. He thought at Aenor hard. He was coming up.
“Here goes nothing.” Mick thrust himself partially through the trapdoor while firing his laser finger. “Come to daddy you mechanical pieces of shit.” He yelled out, completely unaware of the entertainment factor the curving sigil was providing to Mael’s aircraft occupants.
He discovered the wall of the drone shed blown out and Ba’Neesh happily lasering the drones who seemed to be trying to hide in their caves, as if they understood the manifestation of death approaching.
He crawled out, staying low to the floor and yelled into the hole. “Bring Elias next. You…” He gestured at the large angry-eyed lone mule, “Up here, we will pull on him while they push from below. Move your ass you slow fucker.”
The Soek could see laser fire above Mick’s head. The last place in the world he wanted to go was up to get his head blown off by what? Who was up there? In the choice between death and death, he noted that at least this kid was still alive. He trusted the laser fire over the explosions and shudders outside the door. The mule lunged upward and twisted to belly flop, reaching down for one of Elias’ arms. Mick had the other. “Now!” He yelled, a trace of Vrill coating the word.
By then, the drones were slagged and the Ba’Neesh were making definitive kill shots just to be sure. The lone Soek with his face down looking at Elias heard movement of someone stepping over him but he was busy grunting, certain death was with the next breath, or the one after that. Elias emerged gasping and in obvious pain.
Furry arms reached down and lifted him whole to throw him over the back of the largest of their Ba’Neesh, Freya. They expertly used pack straps to tie him in place while the other two bewildered Soek crawled upward just as the outer door collapsed and shrapnel exploded everywhere. Mick slammed the trapdoor down behind the last of the Soek and said, “Now we run.”
They were gaping at what looked like a herd of semi-human females all snorting and slamming their hooves, eager to be away.
“We disabled the trip wires.” Aenor trumpeted, her excitement too much for simple words.
“Thank the gods.” Mick answered, grabbing for Edda’s pack to swing it up on his back. He was unaware that the sigil held, that the Ba’Neesh and Soek in the transport ship were seeing the well-organized teams of Ba’Neesh in the wild.
“They have Beloved.” Anya said, sobering, her hand pointing.
Aenor twisted and turned and then walked over to Mick. “You got eyes, waste precious Vrill.” She swept with her hand through the sigil. “Now they gone.”
(The return of Iiyiko, for the fun, of course. More tomorrow my friends. Are you having fun too? Don’t forget to toggle my stars and invite your friends and you know, say nice things about my story.)