Nova Flare (slow updates)

Escape

The tension didn't abate; even as he watched the massive asteroid shrink in the transport's rear screens, Ben couldn't help clenching his fists as a turmoil of thought boiled through his mind.  It was no secret; the high sages and the technomages, named so because they used powerful technology to mimic the effects of magic, were continually maneuvering against each other.  What was secret, however, was that very few outside the circles of power in the two camps knew exactly what they were doing.  Thanks to Geft's data store, Ben now knew.  And the knowledge was curdling his blood.

So lost in his thoughts was he that the wiry human almost missed the brilliant flash which abruptly blanked out the screens monitoring the rear view.  He couldn't ignore the following surge of gnawing heat that washed over him a heartbeat later, though, marking a pulse of radiation too great of the speedy transport's defensive screens to handle.  The transport lurched, as if physically struck, throwing everybody in the passenger cabin roughly about in their seats, if it didn't spill them outright onto the floor.

Clinging to his seat, Ben threw a hasty glance in the direction of the cabin's portholes, heavily shielded windows lining both sides of the cabin.  He watched with a sinking stomach as the asteroid they just left, slid by the windows already breaking up, several of the larger fragments still glowing with the heat of the asteroid's destruction.

"By Taxuus!" hissed one of his fellow passengers in stammered Common as they too stared out one of the portholes.  

"Somebody's blown up Fenril Station!"

Almost in echo to the panicked observation, the forward door to the cabin bent inward with an explosive snarl, a wave of compression following the sharp report with enough force to pin everybody back into their seats or down on the floor.  Having yielded his blaster to the transport's crew at boarding, Ben could only watch in helpless frustration as a handful of black cloaked figures filled the resulting space, faces hidden beneath voluminous hoods.

A passenger close to the door, a heavy-set tydarian male, looked up with a jerk, a snarl already forming on his blunt dog-like muzzle.

"Hey, ...!" he began to growl, half standing out of his seat, only to get hammered back against the porthole wall when one of the cloaked figures extended a gloved hand and sent a surge of energy smashing into his chest, the discharge sending a ripple of compression washing through the cabin.

It looked like a spell, the energy gathering for the briefest moment in the palm before darting forward to discharge against the tydarian's broad chest with no visible weapon responsible for the blast.  But with no tell-tale rush of warmth over the skin, and no murmured spell casting, it wasn't magic that produced that surge of energy.  It was technology tweaked to look like magic.

"Technomages!" Ben husked out loud, a pit of fear opening in his belly.  With their abrupt appearance, suddenly he had somebody to blame for the asteroid's destruction.  If what Geft gave him was accurate, then the technomages would take extraordinary means to insure the information didn't fall into the wrong hands.  Including destroying a mining station on a rather obscure asteroid out on the fringe of occupied space.

Unfortunately their presence on the transport, one running a relatively regular route between the station and the nearest cluster of inhabited planets in the sector, also meant they were aware of somebody escaping the asteroid with some or all of that information.  Or they were simply not taking any chances.

"You."  A stabbing finger marked Ben where he sat stiffly in his chair.  "Human.  What business did you have on Fenril Station?"

Ben felt his expression tighten at the rough demand, spoken in hard Common as the knot of black cloaks advanced on him.  Technomages or not, nobody talked to Ben Talbott with that kind of demanding tone.  Sounded too much like the law for his liking.

"Whatever my business there, technomage, it's none of yours," he hissed flatly in reply.  He tensed as several gloved hands were lifted towards him, the tension not diminished when the speaker pushed forward to put itself between him and the threat.

"You've a quick tongue, human," it growled, its anger abruptly palpable.  "Considering the odds against you, perhaps not the wisest choice."

"Yeah, well, my mom always said I was kinda slow," Ben fired back, bracing himself for the technomage attack even as he began reaching for his weapon.

An attack that never came; as the wiry human coiled himself in preparation to throw his body into battle, there was a soft chime.  The cloaked figures turned their hooded heads to an open corner in the cabin in time to see a ball of light appear there.  It shimmered for a moment, roughly twice the size of a man's head, before clearing to show another hooded visage within.

"All reavers, prepare to withdraw.  We are initiating a cleanse of the transport," a hollow-sounding voice announced from the ball of light before it disappeared in a flash of discharge.

The cloaked beings immediately clustered together, the speaker pulling back its cloak to reveal a strange bracelet on its left arm, crafted from some silvery metal and be-studded with polished gemstones of all colors and sizes.  The fingers of its right hand danced across the gems for a moment then the cabin was filled with a low hum as an energy field began to gather around the black-cloaked technomages.

Ben's expression went grim.  A teleport field, if he wasn't mistaken.  The technomages were getting ready to leave, before this so-called 'cleanse' happened.  He could only imagine what that was.  Then he was throwing his arm over his eyes as the cabin filled with brilliant light, the teleportation field throwing off the flash of energy as it activated.

In that same instant he felt a rough hand take hold of him by his jacket shoulder.  Before the startled human could react, the hand was dragging him around and slinging him through what could only be described as a rent in space, a tear through which warm light managed to tumble in counterpoint to the artificial brilliance of the technomage teleport field.  He hung for a long, heart-stopping moment within the strange space of the rent.  And then, with a heavy 'thud', he was landing on a tile-floored balcony.

Rolling to a halt, Ben twisted back towards the rent in time to see a broad shouldered human male step from it and it collapse in on itself to disappear with a wink of light.  The human, an older looking fellow with gray-touched, short-cropped brown hair, turned a frown on Ben as he pulled heavy black gloves from his hands, part of a matching set consisting of black tunic, breeches, boots and jacket in a variety of fabrics.

"Nasty business, that," he noted in a low, rough voice, his Common almost without accent.

"Just a bit."  Ben scrambled to his feet.  "And just who the hell are you?  And why didn't I see you on the transport?"  He took a hasty look around.  Scratch that.  If he had the power to open up a spatial rift under the noses of technomages, he could be only one thing: a magic user.  Which also explained how he had remained undetected in the cabin.

His surroundings confirmed it.  The balcony was one of many such stone platforms jutting from the varied faces of a massive castle, perched on a green hilltop and looking out over a lush and beautiful forest.  In the sky hung no less than three moons, the planet's sun just dipping below the horizon to leave the sky darkening towards violet, the occasional bright star appearing to compete with the moons' silvery faces.  His eyes swept over the moons in time to catch a long, serpentine shape flying across their brilliant visages, powerful bat-like wings moving just enough to kept it aloft.  The sight was enough to send a chill through his body.

He turned back to the man, who stood silent, muscular arms folded over a powerful chest, a slight smile dancing on his chiseled features as the sounds and smells of an alien world, alive in a way he had almost forgotten, assailed his senses.  Regardless of how he got here and who this man was, Ben had to acknowledge the fact the caster had pulled him out of the fire back there.  Although why he had was now the question foremost in the wiry human's mind.

"You've my thanks, friend, for the impromptu rescue.  I owe you my life," he quietly said.  The man nodded in acknowledgement.

"No thanks needed, Mr. Talbott," he rumbled in reply.  "If I had time, I would've saved all the passengers before the technomages destroyed the transport."  His smile became wry.  "Unfortunately no magic spell exists that can fool time."  He unfolded his arms to gesture at a door leading off the balcony.  

"Now, if you'd be so kind as to follow me, I've someone who wishes to speak with you!"