It had been almost an hour since the
ship had left the station and the three prisoners were becoming fast
friends.
“So Toll's a professional pilot which
is pretty cool, what do you do Rusty?” Carter asked. Rusty smiled.
Toll shook his head.
“Don't say it Rusty.” He warned.
Rusty smiled, proud of himself.
“I'm a mainframe mastermind.” he
bragged.
“And what does that entail?” Carter
asked.
“See now you sound like an idiot.”
Toll admonished.
“I design both hardware and software
for networked systems, like space stations.” Carter laughed at
this.
“Here we call guys like you
IOmancers.” He offered.
“What does that mean?” Rusty asked.
“Well back in the way back days we
were hackers or keyboard cowboys, but the culture changed and all the
'cool' names got changed with it. You know what a necromancer is?”
He asked. Rusty shook his head.
“no.” He responded, totally lost.
“It's someone who can bring the dead
back to life using magic. Very popular gaming character class.” He
waited for Rusty to put it together, which wasn't happening. The ship
rocked heavily. “We're out of time right now so i'll explain it
more later. Three guards came from the front of the ship and took
cover behind chairs, their weapons facing the back of the ship.
Carter ducked down behind his seat as much as possible.
“What's going on?” Toll asked to
anyone who felt like answering, which turned out to be one of the
soldiers with his weapon pointed just over Toll's shoulder.
“Shut your mouth! prisoners don't
speak unless spoken too!” There was a loud hissing sound somewhere
behind them followed by the sound of something heavy hitting the
floor with finality.
“Get your heads down below the top of
your seats!” Carter yelled. Both Rusty and Toll did as they were
told. Both of them watched as beams of light passed back and forth
overhead. The light show was quick and ended with the deaths of the
three soldiers that had come from the front of the ship.
“CLEAR!” a voice rang out from
behind them. Carter sat up in his chair again, Toll and Rusty
followed his lead. Several new soldiers entered the passenger
compartment from the rear. The first soldier freed Carter from his
cuffs. Once his hands were free, Carter motioned to Toll and Rusty.
“They're with me.” he said. Two
other soldiers took the cuffs and chains off the two stunned friends.
Carter stretched extensively, nearly bending over backward. Once he
was upright again he smiled at them both. “Well, you coming or
what? He asked.
