Astra: Synchronicity (43 page)

Fury bubbled over in Magnius' soul, and he
charged Tiyuri before he considered the consequences. He pinned the
assassin next to the console with his remaining psionic power and
beat him repeatedly with his left fist. Fortified by madness, he
punched his face over and over again despite the excruciating pain
he was in. Tiyuri shut him out and weathered the storm with silent
strength. Magnius lost feeling in his hand but the bloody prints
his knuckles left on the side of his face brought him a great deal
of satisfaction.

When his might began to falter, Tiyuri
started to regenerate. The bloody and battered face healed before
his eyes. Everything he'd worked toward erased in seconds. He'd
successfully pissed off a sleeping dragon and now it was his turn
to suffer.

Tiyuri grabbed Magnius' shoulders and he felt
the headbutt moments before hitting the floor in a daze. In his
disorientation a grapple ensued. Despite being spent and too sore
to fight back, he writhed beneath the assassin's heaving body,
clinging to consciousness with what little strength he had
left.

"Amii, do something!" Magnius shouted.

"I'm kinda busy," she said.

A sudden burst of acceleration launched them
toward the stars. Tiyuri braced himself on the console to keep from
tumbling all the way to the cargo hold. The engines roared with
fury as they passed escape velocity. From the angle of their
ascent, they'd be in orbit soon.

After a minute, the struggle continued, each
attempting to gain the upper hand. If it weren't for his blinding
migraine, Magnius might've had a chance, but between the
afterimages and his mosaic double vision, he had no hope of
success. He could not match Tiyuri's strength or drive. Their arms
crossed and tangled, but in the end Tiyuri forced him to his knees
in a tight pin that made it painful to struggle.

"I'd knock you out but I want you to watch
her suffer." Tiyuri's hot breath against his ear caused Magnius to
shiver.

Within moments, he could no longer feel the
vibration of the deckplates beneath them. They'd reached space, out
of the grasp of the enemy they'd left behind and into the arms of a
new one.
Maybe Tiyuri is right
, he thought.
There is no
way out
.

"You've got me," Magnius pleaded. "Leave her
out of this."

"You forfeited her life the moment you fought
back. You should be more concerned about what's going to happen to
you when we get home."

Magnius had thought about it. The prospect of
death gave him all the incentive he needed to fight Tiyuri tooth
and nail. He might've eluded the assassin before but not this
time.

Amii darted through the doorway and gaped at
them in shock. He was ashamed for failing her, for failing both of
them. If Tiyuri thought for a moment Magnius would let him waltz
over and kill her, he had another thing coming. With any luck the
seed of doubt he'd planted would save her life.

He yanked Magnius to his feet and stayed out
of her line-of-sight in case she had any ideas of a heroic rescue
attempt. "You will fly this ship to Superbia," he ordered her.

"Amii," Magnius said, "do as he says."

"No." She crossed her arms in defiance.

Tiyuri curled his left arm around Magnius'
throat. "How much pain are you willing to put him through in your
selfish attempt to save yourself? I can torture him for days if I
need to, more than enough time for us to reach Superbia."

"And when you get to Superbia? What becomes
of me then?"

"Aliane will decide your fate."

"Aliane?" Amii repeated the name in a shaky
voice that underscored the fear in her heart.

He hadn't wanted to divulge his past to her
so he'd left it in the void of his mind. Even now, he couldn't
bring himself to explain it. His former friend and mentor…his
youthful illusions shattered. The garbled history he longed to
forget all crashing down on him in this inglorious moment.

"You're taking us to Aliane? She's going to
kill us both!" She began to tremble with panic, and her shallow
breathing revealed a sense of terror he'd never seen in her. "I
won't help you. I will not deliver us to that butcher!"

"Oh, you will." Tiyuri unsheathed a four-inch
blade from his back pocket and held it in front of them. Magnius
recalled seeing the sculpted white knife as a boy. Its iridescent
edge could cut through bone like butter. It scared him as much now
as it had then. "How much of his agony will it take for you to
change your mind?"

Before he had a chance to protest, Tiyuri
plunged it into Magnius' stomach. A sense of warmth spread across
his abdomen while shock suppressed his agony. When the assassin
twisted the blade in his gut, the exquisite pain overwhelmed him.
The bloodstain on his shirt grew like a giant amoeba threatening to
swallow him whole. Magnius panted and cried but Tiyuri did not
relent.

Amii covered her mouth with her hands in
horror as she watched the sight unfold. "Stop it!"

"Set a course for Superbia. Only then will I
remove my blade."

"Alright! I'll do it. But I'm not moving
until I know he's going to be okay. And do it quick. We don't have
much time until AC reinforcements arrive."

Tiyuri sighed impatiently. "Very well."

He slid his hand under Magnius' shirt and
placed it against his back. Warmth flowed into his body as the
psionic energy manifested itself. Tiyuri extended his astounding
psychometabolism to stabilize the abdominal wound. With the
heightened awareness of body it imparted to him, Magnius felt his
cells dividing and knitting back together in spite of the knife
that cut right through him. Even his arm tingled from the wave of
healing. A moment later the psionic force subsided without
repairing all the damage.

"The bleeding has stopped," Tiyuri said. "Do
it now before I change my mind."

She nodded to the center console of the
engine room. "I can use this terminal."

Tiyuri relaxed his grip on Magnius and moved
to the starboard side of the ship, careful to keep his hostage
between them at all times. He figured the assassin would tie both
of them up and stick them in separate rooms to ride out the trip to
Superbia. It could be the last time the two saw one another.

Amii approached the circular console. She
hung her head and drew in an uneasy breath while she tapped the
buttons underneath her. After a moment's pause, perhaps to
contemplate their sorry luck, she licked her lips and
continued.

Before he had a chance to blink, he felt the
two of them smash into the aft bulkhead. The cushion of Tiyuri's
body kept him from being knocked out. A second earlier the floor
shot out from underneath them when the
Excalibur
dove into
hyperspace. The incredible g-force pinned them in place, and they
weathered the worst of it under threat of blackout. The colors in
the room lost saturation and lightheadedness set in.

Amii had been prepared for the velocity jump
but even she underestimated its power. She clung to one of the
chairs before losing her grip and rolling to the aft wall near
them. On impact, Tiyuri lost his grip on the knife, which sailed to
the other side of the room and rolled into the far corner. The
white sheen of the blade caught her attention, and she inched
herself toward it as the force continued to hold them down. Tiyuri
pushed Magnius aside and clamped onto her ankle to maintain control
of the situation. He only needed to contain them for a minute
before the acceleration would diminish and his dominance would be
restored.

Using her other leg, she smashed their captor
in his face. Tiyuri grimaced but did not relent. He dug his fingers
deep into her skin, which caused her to yelp. Before her leg met
the same fate his arm did, Magnius grabbed onto the brute and
clawed his way over his back to pin him. Tiyuri thrashed to free
himself, and when Amii kicked him in the face again, he released
his hold on her.

With the full brunt of Tiyuri's attention
back on Magnius, the assassin rammed his backside into the
bulkhead. The impact knocked the wind out of him, but he could not
let go. Each second he held out put Amii closer to her goal so he
forced himself to endure the trauma. After three collisions with
the hard metal, Magnius' resurgent strength left him and he
released his grasp in newfound anguish.

Once free, Tiyuri lunged for Amii like a
starving lion. Before she reached the knife, he grabbed her waist
and rammed her headfirst into the adjacent console. She stumbled
and sunk to the floor as he reached his blade and clutched it in
triumph.

But his victory was short-lived. Amii reached
into her jacket and pulled out her disruptor. Three gunshots rang
out in quick succession. The throaty blast of the weapon deafened
all of them. Tiyuri slumped backward, clutching his bloodied
shoulder and hitting the floor in an unconscious heap.

The rush of acceleration subsided, and while
his color vision returned, it brought Magnius no sense of security.
His bleeding may have stopped but the pain persisted. He wiped his
eyes, though doing so only made his distorted vision worse.

Amii rushed to his aid and helped him into a
seat next to the center console. After doing so, she refocused her
gun on Tiyuri. The glint of vendetta filled her eyes.

"No!" he cried. "Don't kill him."

"Why not? He deserves it."

He clutched his midsection and struggled to
voice the words. "Because then she will never stop searching for
us. If he survives, at least we have a chance."

She frowned and uttered an angry sigh. "Then
I'll throw him out the airlock."

"What?"

"I saw a few v-suits in the back. The air
should last a week. Ships come through here all the time. He might
even latch onto Beta Station when it swings by on its next
revolution. But if he does die, I won't lose any sleep over
it."

Realizing it was better than outright killing
the man, he relented. "Okay."

After she sheathed her disruptor, she grabbed
Tiyuri's hands and dragged him back toward the cargo area. With a
few labored breaths, Magnius rose and followed her to the aft
portion of the ship. He steadied himself on the airtight door to
the hold and watched her suit him up. He'd never worn a v-suit, but
it was apparent she had by the rate at which she sealed him into
it. Though soft and ductile, visrene plastic was impermeable to a
vacuum. Its characteristic opal sheen surrounded a padded suit, one
the goliath barely squeezed into.

When finished, she rolled him into the
airlock and condemned him to space. "With any luck, this will be
the last time we ever see him." She grabbed his shoulder and
compressed the wound to rouse him.

Magnius gasped at the insanity of the act.
"What are you doing?"

"I want to look him in the eyes so he
remembers what we did to him." Her words took on a demented tone
that he never expected to hear from her.

She slapped Tiyuri hard before closing the
airlock door and peering out at him. He rolled around for a moment
with a wince imprinted on his face and climbed to his feet. He
pounded on the door a few times in vain, but she ignored the pleas.
Bested because he'd underestimated her. Both of them had.

She reached toward the console next to the
door and keyed in a command without even looking at it. The
characteristic whoosh of the airlock echoed through the ship, which
shuddered with the sudden release of atmosphere into space. With
nothing to hang onto, the vacuum ripped Tiyuri from the safe
confines of the
Excalibur
into the unknown. He sailed away
toward a satellite with an expression of horror, and Amii watched
until he faded from sight with a satisfied grin.

Magnius wrapped his weak arm around his
stomach and caught himself on the bulkhead to keep from toppling
over. She put her arm around his shoulders to stabilize his footing
and led him back to a chair in the engine room. He could no longer
ignore the mounting agony of his condition.

She sprinted into the control room and
returned with a blue satchel. When she knelt down beside him, she
touched his bloodstained shirt. "How bad is it?"

The words got stuck in his throat but he
forced them out. "I don't know."

She dug in the pouch and produced three white
pills. "Take these."

"What are they?"

"Take them."

He was in no condition to argue with her. She
dropped them into his hand and offered him some water. Because he
trusted her, he swallowed them and drank half the bottle before
handing it back to her.

"I'm so sorry. I was such an idiot. I saw him
in the transport, I didn't know—"

"You saw him?"

"Yes. The third guard."

He coughed and doubled over, and she moved in
to hold him. He'd just fallen into her embrace when she pressed a
nebulization syringe against his arm. In seconds his eyes got
heavy, and she kissed him to ease his pain. He focused on a hazy
ribbon of bubbles churning around in the iridescent emulsion behind
her, and the taste of her lips was the last thing he remembered
before passing out.

***

Magnius opened his eyes and focused on the
embossed ceiling overhead. His dreamless sleep left him with no
idea how much time had passed since their escape from Icelandia,
but no trace of pain remained. Even his space-induced headache was
gone. He had no idea what she'd given him, but it worked.

When he tried to sit up, his persistent
weakness became apparent. He strained his neck to look down at his
abdomen and saw his midsection had been wrapped in white gauze.
She'd splinted his arm with fiber optic cable and two biometrics
scanners, and though he felt silly seeing them there, he felt
grateful she'd taken care of him.

In the corner was a small sink and mirror,
and he toddled over to it to clean himself off. But once he got
there, he saw the task had already been done. The dried blood was
long gone from his face and body. A gash above his right eyebrow
had been stitched up. It might be healed before they got to Barnard
Station. The abdominal wound and his arm would take much
longer.