Chapter 3 - Through The Looking Glass
Tara reached out a hand to steady herself against the wall. It was vibrating very slightly against her hand, and she looked it nervously. "A spaceship? That's..." really, really, dumb! screamed a voice in her head. "...kinda hard to believe," she said finally.
"Why?" said Taura, then she made an impatient gesture. "Anyway, you'll soon see, if you can make this a bit bigger." She rested her hand on the wall. "We're in orbit somewhere at the minute," she said, "And we need to get off before this baby jumps." She stepped over to the door, where a shaft of yellow light fell through the hole the fire ball had made, knelt down, and peered through, making the room abruptly darken.
Tara stared at her back doubtfully. Meanwhile, she was still feeling the amazing magical energy suffusing her... why was it so strong? She summoned another red globe between her hands then moved it, slowly and carefully this time, towards the door. Taura turned round, saw the ball, and very nearly fell backwards, trying to dodge around it.
"Sorry," said Tara, "didn't mean to scare you."
Taura said nothing, just loomed to her feet again, and stood aside. Tara moved the globe forward. As it bobbed gently against the door, the metal melted, and hissed. Tara the amazing walking, talking blowtorch - I could join the X-Men. After a few false starts she was soon guiding it in a large untidy circle about three foot across. Her hands were beginning to shake by the time she had carved a ring half way around the door, and when finally the ring was closed, and the cut-out circle fell inward with a clang, she sank to her knees, exhausted, her eyes closing.
"Are you okay?" she heard a concerned voice.
She nodded. "Yeah, that just... takes it out of me, you know. Transformational magic takes a lot of energy."
"Do I need to carry you?"
A heavy, clawed hand descended on her shoulder. Her eyes snapped open.
Taura's face loomed close to her, golden eyes examining her intently. This close, Tara could again feel the heat radiating from her. It felt strange, but... vital somehow, as though Taura was more intensely alive than an ordinary person.
"I'm fine," said Tara. She closed her eyes briefly again, then got unsteadily to her feet.
"Huh, well, you went pretty green there," said Taura. She removed her hand. "Want an energy bar?" Taura held an anonymous foil-wrapped stick out towards her. "Enough calories in there to see a combat soldier through for twelve hours," she said, waving it invitingly. "Tastes like crap, of course."
Tara blinked, and took the stick. "Actually, it will probably help," she said.
"Right," said Taura, "well, you can eat it as we go." And with that she bent down, and disappeared through the hole cut in the door.
Tara froze, ration stick lifted to her lips. Hey! She bolted the chewy bar hastily, then bent and looked through the cut-out hole. A spaceship, huh? Do I want to see what a spaceship looks like? But there was nothing to see, really. Just a corridor, painted off-white.
Suddenly a blue-clad body flew across her line of vision, landing head first against the wall with a massive thump. Tara pulled back hastily, then peered out again. Taura's head appeared around the corner, then her arm, beckoning emphatically. Heart thudding, Tara crouched, and stepped through the hole. As she passed the unfortunate man on the floor, she couldn't help a quick sideways glance. There was an ominous smear of blood on the wall above him, bright red against the whiteness. He was dressed in some kind of dark blue military fatigues, with a patch featuring a stylised cat's head on the shoulder - and he was lying very, very still. Tara swallowed hard and moved on, around the corner.
Taura knelt above another still figure, some kind of weapon that looked like a small water pistol almost swallowed in her right hand, and a little white plastic card in her left.
"This is one old ship," she said, waving the plastic - "door cards, instead of hand prints." She looked down at the motionless figure, "Lucky for him," she said.
Tara had an immediate gruesome picture of Taura ripping off the guy's hand, and pressing it to each door's keypad as they passed.
"Lucky for me too," said Taura. "Carrying some guy for miles down these corridors doesn't attract me much."
Ah, apparently she wasn't planning an amputation. That was sort of encouraging on the good guys/bad guys front. Nice to know she's a good guy. Although that man around the corner had looked awfully dead.
"Okay, we need the other guy's stunner," said Taura decisively. She jogged down the corridor, and neatly and swiftly worked through his pockets, then returned with her spoils.
Tara looked blankly at the objects she held out - something that looked like an electric shaver, another card pass, two bars of what was apparently candy, and some kind of little toolkit.
Taura looked at it and sniffed, "Yeah, it's not cutting edge stuff is it?" she said. She waved the shaver. "But this is charged. Better than nothing." She handed it to Tara, who took it nervously, by one end. When she looked up Taura was staring at her again, golden eyes glowing.
I do wish she wouldn't do that, thought Tara rather weakly. The effect of Taura's undivided attention was... somewhat overpowering. "What?" she said.
Taura tapped the shaver. "I'm guessing you've never used one of these?"
Tara nodded, "you're guessing right."
Taura sighed, "Not hard to tell." She took the shaver from Tara's hand and turned it around. "You were holding it by the business end. If you'd pressed the button, you'd have knocked yourself out."
"Ah," said Tara, "so this is the stunner, right?" Well, why not? she thought - spaceships, stunners. I'm going to run into Captain Jean Luc in a moment, or maybe Counsellor Troi. She brightened a little at the thought.
Oops! Taura had set off again down the corridor, making spookily little noise despite her huge size. Tara sprinted a little to catch up - and ran abruptly into Taura's back, as she stopped dead. After casting her a brief, irritated glance, Taura moved on, and Tara followed more cautiously, keeping to the walls in imitation of her guide, padding silently on bare feet, the only sound a faint gentle throbbing that seemed to come from the walls, the floor, the ceiling - all around her, in fact.
Finally, they came to a door. Taura held up a huge hand, and they both flattened against the wall. Taura waved the card over the keypad, and it swung slowly inward with a just discernible hiss. Two blue light bolts, each fired from a different angle, bisected the doorway, and splashed against the corridor wall. Taura ducked, and rolled, and fired, impossibly fast through the open door, flowed to her feet on the other side of the doorway, then before Tara could move or think, she rolled again, through the doorway into the room. Tara heard the sizzle and hiss of more of those lethal bolts of light, then silence. She gripped the stunner in a sweaty hand. What if Taura just got fried? Going to fight or surrender? Surrender sounds good... But the voice calling her on was Taura's. She stepped through the door. There was an ugly smell of burnt meat in the room, and two men, again in the dark blue military fatigues, lay sprawled on the ground, their bodies still smoking slightly. Tara tried not to lose her breakfast.
Taura now had another two weapons in her hands, presumably the things that spat blue light. The device Tara had whimsically called a water pistol - fire pistol, not water pistol, thought Tara sickly, was now tucked into a holster at her side.
She grinned a deeply scary grin. "Four down," she said. "And with any luck I'll get plenty more." And then she was on the move again, stalking along like a tiger on the prowl. Tara closed her mouth, and followed. How the hell did I get to be on a spaceship, with a .. psychopathic werewolf? Why is everything so weird, and why isn't it freaking me out more how weird it is? Nothing makes sense.
A klaxon sounded, high, piercing and urgent.
"They're on to us," said Tara nervously. But Taura shook her head. "Nah, that's a universal emergency alarm. They got a leak." She looked down at Tara. "Looks like your fireball did some damage after all. Okay, Plan B." She turned, and pointed down a smaller corridor to the right.
"Plan B?" said Tara.
"Let's find the lifeboats," said Taura.