Their first reactions were amusing to me and caused my adrenaline to kick in again. I slashed my sword across the chest of the man closest to me and he let out a cry of fear and pain. I felt a sting in my side and looked down. Blood began to pool around the bullet hole and then spill down my side. Running my hand over it caused it to close up immediately and I looked at the man that had shot me. He was backing away slowly, trembling with fear, into a large boulder. I growled and leaped onto the boulder and as I jumped down at him, I rammed my sword through the top of his head. The blade pierced his skull and came out at an odd angle through his ribcage. With a twist of my wrist my sword was free and his body was lying on the ground.
I began to cough a moment later and I felt something metallic rise up my throat into my mouth. I spit it out into my hand and saw that it was the bullet. I looked at it for a moment and had an idea. I wrapped my hand around it, then threw it as hard as I could. It moved with amazing speed, entered, then exited the skull of a man that was trying to get away. Adrasta looked at me and I looked at her. Her eyes lit up and she nodded. I stuck my sword into the ground and raked up a few rocks and clumps of dirt and sent them zooming out in an arc. Everyone in my general vicinity was taken out by them.
Adrasta pulled her fist out of a man's skull and looked around. I surveyed the area and saw that everyone was finally dead. I was covered in dirt, blood, and ash and Adrasta was completely spotless. I figured she had repelled everything that would of sullied her skin and clothes. I need to figure out how to do that in the heat of battle. It might come in handy sometime.
We crested a hill and looked around. There were a few skiffs parked in a circle.
"Can you fly one of those?"
"Most likely."
"All right. Let's go."
We boarded one of the smaller skiffs and I powered it up. It wasn't much different than any of the skiffs I've ever flown. I still miss my yautja craft though. That was the best.
"Where are we off to now?"
"Surprise me."
Adrasta laid down on the medical cot and closed her eyes. Great. No direction, and still no idea where I am.
"Could you at least pick a direction?"
"Head towards Gyges. That should be a good place. . . to . . .practice. . ."
I heard her begin to snore softly. I've never been able to fall asleep that fast, I must say, I'm a bit envious of that. She rolled over to face the wall as I looked through the planetary atlas. I set the coordinates for Gyges and leaned back in the chair. I only planned to rest my eyes for a few moments, but I ended up falling into a deep sleep.
Adrasta and I were walking down a long corridor surrounded by shadows. There was a light coming from somewhere, but I couldn't discern the source of it.
'Where are we going?'
Adrasta turned to me and I saw that her eyes were glowing brightly.
'We have to find him before they do.'
Her words sent a shiver down my spine and she quickened her pace.
'Find who?'
A moment went by and she still didn't answer me. I put my hand on her shoulder and forced her to look at me again.
'Who, Adrasta? What are you talking about?'
She sighed and ran her hand back through her hair.
'We have to find Ya'uta. He's here somewhere and it's time that you met him.'
'What? No. I can't see him. Things will go wrong again.'
'Only if you make them. You've changed and the circumstances have also changed. You are both ready to meet each other now. It has to happen.'
'Or what?'
'I'm not entirely sure.'
There was a loud crash to our right and a klaxon began to blare.
I fell out of my chair and scrambled to my feet. Adrasta was already at the controls trying to get the proximity siren to go off. She finally hit the right button and there was silence again. Something came up on the com screen and Adrasta sighed.
"Look, you really don't want to do this."
"But you have parts that I need."
Adrasta looked over at me.
"He's a harvester."
"But we just got this skiff. . ."
For some reason, in my hazy mind, that seemed like an important detail at the moment. I was just getting used to the controls and starting to appreciate the hyper drive feature. My eyes traveled around the cabin and then stopped back on Adrasta. Her face was as blank as ever, but something in her eyes was mocking me.
"What?"
"He doesn't want the skiff. He wants us."
"For what?"
"Organs. There's a high demand on his planet. A big war is going on and they keep having to replace things in their soldiers. They are running out of civilians to dissect."
My mind cleared up fairly quickly and I frowned.
"That's barbaric! What a freak. Let's get out of here."
"We can't."
"Why?"
"We're stuck."
"To what?"
"A magnet."
"Shit. If I had my old skiff I could reverse the polarity. . .Fuck."
"We're just going to have to go onboard and kill everything."
"Well, I'm getting pretty good at killing everything."
"I've noticed."
I heard a series of metallic clunks and felt the skiff hit something fairly hard and I was thrown across the cabin. I looked at Adrasta and wasn't surprised that she had been holding on to something already.
There was a high pitched screeching coming from outside the door.
What is that?"
"They're peeling the door off."
"That's a horrible noise."
"I know."
Adrasta pulled out her sword and got ready to demolish the first person she saw. I did the same.
