It's time for another short story! For this one, we take a look at the far future of the Magic Realms timeline where magic and technology both exist together and sometimes combined for added epicness.
This story is brought to you by my lovely and talented wife, S. J. Dracken.
“Lora!” a man’s voice called out of the inky darkness. He sounded frustrated.
Lora looked down, her pitiful goggle light revealing a shadow-filled sand dotted by formless shapes that shifted with the cold current. Her eyes roamed back to gazing into the gloom in front of her. There was a giant stone face, pitted with time, staring lifelessly back at her.
“Lora!” the man’s voice repeated. “You can’t do this!”
It didn’t quite match the face, though that was where it seemed to emanate from. An annoying siren was wailing somewhere in the distance, muffled and distorted.
“I have to,” she replied calmly to the statue. “You’re still recovering.”
What an odd thing to say, she thought idly as the sirens warbled and quieted.
“You’re not a soldier!” The man’s voice barked back. “You can’t-“
“Enough!” Lora shouted as she moved to shove the unyielding stone. A painful feeling traveled up her arm as it struck something before reaching the statue. Other sounds suddenly invaded the lightless, murky water.
“She’s waking up!” a nasally voice squeaked in panic.
A rough, brutish sounding man replied, “Increase the dose. Keep her under.”
“Sir, I don’t know how much more I can give,” the nasally one whined. “We’re nearing lethal levels.”
A resounding ‘Smack’ came through the murk quite clearly.
Lora became aware of a heavy feeling in her limbs as the two voices argued. The brute wanted to test the limits of what she could take, the other was desperate not to risk killing their only live sample.
Sample? She bristled at being talked about as if she were some nameless lab specimen. A pulse of energy shot through her limbs, bringing with it the sound of shattering glass and a sudden loss of pressure. Lora’s unearthly violet eyes shot open as she dropped to the floor of the containment chamber and water rushed out to greet the stunned men. She saw the brutish man, an orcish looking one with tattoos and bulging muscles, reach for the pistol strapped to his hip.
He seemed to be moving unnaturally slowly to Lora, enough so that she jumped at him without hesitation, striking the pistol out of his hand as the muzzle cleared the holster. Only afterwards did the thought occur to her to grab it to defend herself. The man reacted quickly, moving much faster in her perception than before. He grabbed her arm and attempted to twist it to get a hold on her, shoving her shoulder with his other hand.
It felt weak to Lora as she forcibly recoiled and aimed a punch at his square chin. The man crumpled to the floor like wet paper, releasing Lora from his grip. She turned to look at the small wiry man he had been talking with. He was running for a desk and seemed to be doing so in slow motion.
Lora recognized the threat of an alarm going off. She ran after the man, coming up on him much sooner than expected, surprising them both. Before he could recover from it, she dropped him with a quick strike to the nose with her palm, cringing as her strike hit harder than she anticipated.
With both men out of commission, Lora took a moment to look at her own hand with curiosity. It was larger than she remembered, especially in comparison to the little man on the floor. I don’t remember being so much taller than guys …
Lora shook her head, recalling the words of doctors telling her that the experimental treatment she underwent came with the potential for drastic changes. This was quite the change. Her head swam as the room tilted freely for a moment, threatening to bring her to the ground.
Struggling to get her senses under control, Lora took stock of the room around her. Files lay opened on the sterile metal desk and thick square containers with black vials secured inside rested nearby to them. Lora’s eyes widened as she recognized the foul color of the Shadow Virus swirling within the vials, the plague that was currently ravaging their home world.
She stepped over to the desk and looked at the files. Her eyes caught the names on the tabs, her own among others. The pieces began coming together in her mind. They raided the facility for the treatment, she thought darkly. To replicate it.
Lora held up her hand as she focused. There was one thing that could destroy the Shadow Virus and she hoped desperately that the nagging energy building in her body meant she could pull it off. A long minute passed before the top of the desk was consumed in a blindingly hot flash of light. Lora staggered back as her strength gave way. The energy was gone, replaced by exhaustion. Alarms sounded and red lights began flashing on the ceiling. Lora glanced up at the ceiling, noting the small black half-orbs interspersed evenly throughout the room.
“Cameras …” she muttered. Of course there would be cameras in a lab like this. She turned and darted to the door, skidding as it came up faster than she expected. Looking around the door, she discovered it had neither doorknob, handle, or keypad for opening. It was opened by someone outside of the room and she could hear him talking in a strange drawl.
“Ya ain’t getting out this way darlin’!” he called. “Not ‘til the cleanup crew gets ‘ere.”
Lora struck the door in frustration, leaving an indent in the middle. “I will get out of here!” she growled.
“Now hang on there, darlin’, I didn’t finish speakin.” He began talking quickly, as if to keep her from ripping down the door. “I was gonna say, tell ol’ Tune what’s goin’ on in the New Crescent Space Station an I’ll let ya out fer being grateful.”
“Treatments,” Lora replied, taken aback by the strange man.
“Fer what?” he drawled.
“The Shadow Virus!” she snapped. “What else?! The damn Virus is ravaging our home world and the treatment is our only way to overcome it! Once someone’s infected, that’s it! You’re killed by twisted Shadow magic and your body is warped into a monster. Do you really want that?”
“Oh.” The man seemed stunned by the rush of information and hesitated to reply.
“Let me out!” Lora urged, realizing they were running out of time.
The door opened two feet before the dent in it brought the mechanism to a grinding halt. The man peeked around from the other side. He was a rough looking human mix of some sort, Lora couldn’t tell whether it was Elf or Troll, with weather worn brown skin, wild grey-specked blond hair, and earthy brown eyes.
Lora stepped forward and slid through the door sideways. Tune gazed at her in curiosity for a long moment before she interrupted his thoughts by gesturing down the hall. “Time to go,” she said flatly.
He nodded and took off down the hallway, leading the way around winding hallways and narrowly ducking past guards. They went on in silence for some time, ascending stairs and weaving through halls as the alarm in the base grew. Guards and staff could be heard yelling and they encountered more doors which were locked down.
Tune always had a method for opening them and never cared to explain what he was doing. Lora simply followed, finding herself liking the strange backwoods-type rogue. It was when they reached the parking garage that all their careful sneaking was thrown to the wind. From behind oblong shaped craft leapt black armored men letting off muffled shots as they moved. Tune jerked and went down with a quiet ‘umfh’ noise. Lora grabbed him up by the arm, throwing him over her shoulders like a sack, and carried him quickly to safety as a shot seared across the back of her thigh.
She ran, gritting her teeth against the pain of the burn, and made her way to another row of craft, trying to lose the pursuers. A wrong turn resulted in a shot impacting her stomach, blowing her back into the smooth side of a sleek scout craft. She heard Tune groan as he collided with the metal and cringed, trying to maintain her grip on him as the impact area lit up with a burning pain.
Lora struggled to bring herself back to a standing position, but her body wasn’t cooperating. Her legs felt like jelly as she staggered and she was quickly losing feeling in her lower half. A click sounded, causing her to look up at the soldiers approaching. They all had rifles leveled, ready to shoot. Lora cursed under her breath as her legs gave way. Now he’ll die ... and I’ll be dissected like some school experiment. Creator help us!
A resounding boom thundered through the garage as the wall was blown away in a hailstorm of rubble. Some of the soldiers were hit and went down. Lora blinked as the blinding, dust-filled sunlight filtered through the massive hole. Soldiers turned to face it, only to be shot down in a flurry of laser blasts.
She smiled as a short man stepped forward, decked in new silver armor and carrying a rifle in his hands. “Leon,” she gasped as her body gave out completely.
Help had arrived in the nick of time.
I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into the space faction known as The Solar Storm, especially because there's already another entry in the "Tales of the Solar Storm!" Expect it to land in a few days. Until then, enjoy and read on!
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