The Spires of Elladon
“Wake up”, said a voice, distant and disembodied. She felt water
strike her face, uncomfortable and unexpected. “I said, wake up,
damn it.” This time the voice was more forceful, but still she
couldn’t focus on its source. Feeling returned slowly to her
right side, though her left remained motionless. Her brain
struggled to sift through a tangled mess of memories and
sensations. The memories seemed fleeting and intangible, like a
half-forgotten dream, while the sensations were confusing,
something that had happened to another person, not herself.
She felt a strong grip close over her right forearm, bringing the
distinct sensation of pain. Helpless, she could almost see herself
being dragged across broken and rugged ground.
The hand felt rough, which befitted its manner of movement.
She tried opening her mouth, but no sound was able to come
out. With that failure, she focused her waning will on opening
her eyes. Again, the left one refused to comply, and remained
firmly shut. The right seemed more cooperative, but barely so.
Gradually they eyelids began to separate, and her mind was
flooded with new sensations. The visual world was slowly
being returned to her. At first everything was shrouded in a
blurry halo of indistinct colours. She concentrated on the man-
sized shape bent double in front of her. She tried to focus on her
erstwhile companion. It was no use. All she could distinguish
was a shape darker than the surroundings. She tried to speak
again.
“What happened?” she uttered at last, and with considerable
effort. The man’s grip did not relent, and still she felt herself
being dragged along.
“Good to see you’re awake,” said the gruff voice. “Next you
might try walking. It’d help me out no end.” She tried too
listen, but the words made little sense. She tried to respond, but
the words didn’t come. Frustrated, she mumbled an indistinct
reply. “Well, come on, it’s not much further now,” the man
continued, relief evident in his voice. She lay there, unable to
speak properly, unable to struggle against what seemed very
likely to be her abductor. Why she was being abducted, she didn’
t know, and she had the feeling that even if all her senses were
functioning perfectly, she still wouldn’t have a clue why. The
feeling of the ground beneath her changed suddenly, going from
the broken, tearing gravel and stones to the cold hard feel of
metal. Metal that was inclined to the rest of the ground. She
heard the man emit grunts of effort as he pulled her up the
slope. A faint oily smell washed over her, and she wished feeling
had not yet returned to her nose. She wrinkled it against the
metallic scent of grime.
“Finally, now, let me just put these on,” the man said, mostly to
himself, as he grabbed hold of her other hand, and enclosed
them in some kind of restraint. She felt the buzz of electricity in
the air, making the hair on her arms rise up in protest. A similar
contraption was placed over her ankles, and she realised that
even if she’d wanted to, there was no way she could move now.
She closed her barely functioning eyes and began to sob.
“What are you crying for lady?” said the voice, much more
confident than before. She tried to ignore the sound, shut out
its mocking tone. “If it wasn’t for me, you most likely’ve died
back there. But don’t worry, I’ll keep you nice and safe from
now on.” The voice disappeared for a while, and again she felt
lost and alone. Vibrations from the floor beneath and the wall
she was propped up against brought her attentions back to the
moment. A whirring sound filled the air, as she felt certain the
vibrations would tear the place apart, cause the walls to come
tumbling down. A deafening roar shook the air, as she felt the
curious sensation of gravity pounding down on her. Gradually
it subsided, but the roar still remained.
Suddenly it dawned on her. I’m on a ship, she thought. I’m on
a strange ship. And someone has kidnapped me. Lost in her
thoughts as the vessel soared into the heavens above Elladon,
the girl did not hear the voice of her captor.
“Well, Miss Cyphen, guess you won’t be seeing home again
soon. Don’t worry though, you get used to it.” And with the
sound of the engine thudding in her ears, and the hum of the
ship surrounding her, Cyphen was suddenly overcome with
sheer fatigue. She lost her hold of consciousness and fell asleep.
The last thing she remembered in the waking world was a
thought of her parents. Surely they would come to wake her
from this dream. Surely they would be there to comfort her from
the pain and fear she now felt. And with these thoughts,
Cyphen drifted into the sweet embrace of darkness.
Tanrik Dar had other things to consider as his captive lay
unconscious in the ship’s cramped crew compartment. Dar
rarely had use for it, he usually caught a few minutes’ sleep in
his chair, never fully able to trust the ship’s auto-nav computer.
On an older class vessel like his, the AI was patchy at best. He’d
heard stories of pilots trusting their auto-nav systems, right up
to the point they plummeted into the orbit of a gas giant.
Unable to escape the planet’s immense pull, they had been
drawn inexorably to their deaths. Hence the reason Dar stayed
in the chair, and flew the ship as much as possible. As they
crested the ionosphere, Dar welcomed the blackness of space.
Dar didn’t like being in one place too long. Too much time to
become familiar, too easy for the law to catch up with you. It
was the price he had to pay for his line of work, and by
following a set of rules of his own devising, he had always
managed to outwit the authorities. So far. One of his major
rules was to avoid complacency. He flicked a switch on the
scanning computer, double checking the visual display which
suggested no one was pursuing. He doubted there would be
after the destruction he’d witnessed on Elladon, but he could
never know. As he prepared the Star Light Drive for a jump, he
wracked his brain for a place to jump to. He didn’t have enough
fuel for a jump to Kass Varn, a place he could lay low for a
while. He scanned the charts of nearby systems, as the SLD
achieved full power. A patch of dull blue on the scope brought
ideas into his head. Perhaps, he thought. That might be just
what I’m looking for. He punched in the coordinates, which
received a verbal acknowledgment from the SLD computer. He
strapped himself in and, closing his eyes, hit the switch.
Dar wondered if anyone every truly got accustomed to the
effects of SLD travel. He often swore he could feel his molecules
disassembling as the ship travelled over vast distances in a
matter of moments. Travelling as much as he did, SLD was a
necessity, though Dar was always very relieved when he
returned, all molecules intact, to normal space. He wondered
what actually happened during the jump, to him, to the ship, to
the space around them. Some drunk scientist had explained it to
him once a long time ago, something to do with quantum fields
and photon discriminator coils. He’d not made much sense of
any kind, except the nonsensical kind. Thus Dar was none the
wiser and still thanked his gods whenever he returned to space
and time that seemed real.
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