Chapter 45 Closer
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Tamar could hear the questioning tone in the young man's voice from where she squatted. Once again, she closed her eyes. She didn't need to touch their shared power to take these men out. This time, she was closing her eyes for another reason.
I need your guidance. These men are only following orders, so please guild my hand, make sure I don't kill any of them. Opening her eyes, she slid down the wall, getting lower as she went. When she got as close as she thought she was going to, she took a long slow breath, quieted her pounding heart, then sprang.
The fight was short, taking no more than ten seconds. Once again, the men seemed like they were wading through pudding. Most went down with her first strike, a spear hand here, a single knife. There was enough to take all but the last down. That one had some training.
Her first strike was paired with a high section block which opened her mid-section up to a powerful rising jab. Feeling a rib crack, Tamar back flipped, disengaging to give her some room to maneuver. Growling, she came in again, this time taking no chances. Moving so fast, she flowed across the floor like a black wave. The man never knew what hit him. Leaping on his chest, Tamar locked a forearm under his chin, continued her spin around his body until she was on his back and grabbed her arm from the other side with the other. By pulling with both arms, she began to exert a pressure the man could not escape from. Futility. He pawed at her. With each passing second, his struggles weakened.
"Don't fight it. You showed yourself well. Now it's time for a nap. There you go." The man's body jerked violently for a few seconds as his oxygen supply was cut to his brain, then went limp.
As soon as his body stopped moving, Tamar released her grip, check his pulse, and moved to the lift doors.
"Captain, as I told you, the ten-man security team you sent to secure the lift doors has been neutralized, sir."
"How many of them did that thing kill?"
"None sir, she hasn't killed anyone since being on board. I said neutralized, not killed."
"How? That thing looks like it's about twelve. Those were ten grown men."
"I'm not sure, sir. But why don't you have a look at this?" Central brought up the security camera from outside the lift.
A holograph of the brief but intense action built itself above the bridge. From the camera angle, all that could be seen was a black blur moving from man to man. Murmurs of pain, and a lot of winces spread across the bridge as the men of the watch looked on, until from the footage Tamar could be seen wrapping both arms around the last man's neck then, with the utmost care, lowering him to the deck.
"Central, what is that thing?" Captain Prey pointed to the on-screen Tamar. "What the hell did Malachi bring back to my ship?"
"That is a discussion for another time, Captain. For now, I would advise that if you want to stand any chance of stopping her, I would reinforce the men you have outside that medical wing. I don't think twenty-five will be enough."
"I believe you're correct," he nodded at his security chief of the watch, who turned and busied himself issuing further orders to the rest of shipboard security.
"Joshua, you might be getting some more company." Tomas spoke inside his suit, making sure with a thought that the rest of the bridge could not hear him.
"The guys outside can take care of them if needed. I'm needed in here right now." The exasperation in his voice was plain.
"Whatever your brother brought back with him has somehow managed to find its way down to the medical wing he's in right now. It's carved, its was through everything I can throw in its way. I'm reinforcing the security team outside, but that might not be enough. So be ready for action, remember, this thing cannot be allowed to get near him, under any circumstances. For all we know that thing might have done this to him and is back to finish the job."
"Understood, sir." Joshua shut and sealed the comms channel.
"As if I don't have enough troubles of my own." Spinning away from the wall, he spoke to Doctor Peters.
"What is wrong with him? You said everything's repaired, so why is he not stabilizing?"
"I wish I knew. All the damage that blade inflicted we've already repaired. This systemic failure is unexplained. His blood pressure is falling, heart rate slowing when he should be recovering." The doctor paced back and forth beside Malachi's still form on the bed.
"What about those two seizures he had? What could account for those? He might not have done much here, but he totaled an entire hangar bay with those."
"Sir, I am the last person on board that could give you any information on what he's capable of now. Whatever that thing is that he's wearing, I have no idea of what it can do any more than you do." Doctor Peters and his staff could do nothing but watch the monitors and take readings. Beyond that, they had done everything they could."
The doors to the lift spread open a fraction of an inch, then stopped. Tamar's grip on them kept them from opening fully until she realized nothing was shooting at her. Releasing them, they sprang open with an audible thud, and all was quiet. She had expected all hell to break loose the instant the lift doors as much as twitched. So, with nothing happening, she took a deep breath and waited. Sliding to the front of the lift car, she poked her head out for an instant, looking both ways before hastily drawing it back in. To the right was nothing but a long corridor, much like the one the doors she'd entered through to get into the lift had been in. To her left, on the other hand, there stood red edged double doors with the words. 'Beyond this point, a medical area. Authorized personnel only'. That's where she needed to go.
There was only one problem. Between her and the doors were well over thirty men. They had even erected a sandbag firing position across the passageway from side to side. There was no way she could take out that many men, not without evening the odds somehow. All it would take was for one of them to get off a lucky shot and she'd never get anywhere near Mal.
At the thought of him, she was seized in the grip of something akin to a physical vise. She topples to the floor, her body convulsing. As her body underwent something that looked like an intense seizure, her mind was assaulted by sounds and images from everywhere at once, yet from nowhere.
"MALLLLL!" Her scream knocks out every light within a hundred yards as a pulse of energy balloons out of her.
Her eyes were open, and her course was set. He was dying; she knew that. Her life was being snuffed out because she wasn't close to him, wasn't WITH him. No more, she didn't have time to be nice now, if these men wouldn't get out of her way, she'd have to go through them, only this way she couldn't afford to hold back, if they made it out alive, or if they didn't, she no longer cared.
Rolling to her feet, her body was out the doors before her mind realized she was moving. As she closed on the sandbag barrier, Tamar saw that the men were busy with the confusion the lights dropping had caused. Their night vision equipment was coming online as faster men got the equipment switched while other still fumbled with theirs. Several glowing rounds zipped past her, nothing like the fusillade she thought she'd be facing, one so close she felt it tug at her sleeve. Maybe if all the men could have fired on her, they could have stopped her. Only they managed a paltry four shots before she was on them.
In among them, she was like a shadow, her black fur blending in with the surrounding darkness. Her years of training took over, guiding her body in its lethal dance. Rifles were used as clubs to bring her down. Some connected, most didn't. The ones that did she didn't feel as anything aside from bumps. All the while, a tune snuck into her mind, one that she'd hummed many times, only this time she couldn't understand the timing. A soldier made to smash her in the head, only to have her bat the rifle to the side, make a spear with her fingers and jam them in the man's throat. With a startled gag, he dropped to his knees, and on it went.
Tamar stumbled, dropping to one knee when she realized her mind wasn't just hearing the heavy metal music, the words to the song in her head were as plain as day to her. Before a word could escape her lips, she found herself under an avalanche of bodies. The first man to reach her took her off her feet from behind. Pressing his forearm into the back of her neck, he forced her face down on the deck. After that, body after body piled on until breathing became difficult.
The song's title was, Bring me back to life. Malachi knew this song. With a start, she realized she was getting it from him, his mind communicating it to her. It must be the proximity. The closer to him she got, the more he, or a part of him, could communicate with her.
Energy began to gather within her, it was an instinctive reaction. She'd reached for the glowing ball of energy without realizing it, and instead of just touching it this time, she dove in headfirst. There could have been three hundred men on top of her. It wouldn't have mattered. A movement, as negligent as flexing her shoulders and everyone in the corridor was thrown from off her to crash hard against whatever surface they first came in contact with.
Standing, Tamar looked around at what she'd just done. Bodies were strewn every, some at grotesque angles, their arms and legs clearly broken. At least all were still breathing. For how long they'd stay in that state, she neither knew nor cared. Turning towards the door to medical, she didn't notice the steel under her feet shaking until the trembling made its way to her knees. Her eyes snapped open in panic.
"No, Mal! I'm almost there." This time, the pain hit at the same time as an overpowering wave of pressure. Eyes wide open, she watched as the pressure wave began to shred the doors to medical. First it blew through the thin gap between them, then like water eats away at the hardest stone, the doors began to be filed away. Only as water takes years to carve stone, the doors were gone in a matter of seconds.
He was searching for her, that much she knew. Why had she been so stupid? He was going to kill himself and not even realize it. Tamar had to find a way to stop him.
"MAL!" her mind screamed, with as much force behind it that she could manage.
The pain lessened, then ceased all together. Tamar laid there, unable to move more than her head. Turing it to the other side, she was relieved to find that the men she fought hadn't taken any more damage from what had just happened. A few minutes later, with feeling returning to her extremities, she stood, slowly making her way to the doors, the song still stuck in her head, Bring me back to life!
"I'm trying. If you'd just stop having these little tantrums, I'll be there in a few minutes." She mumbled to herself.
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