~ Chapel Perilous ~

[majkp]

Location: Freeport 5, Hospital

...

Fnordie finally awaked from his raving. He remembered the last hit from Kitty which caused explosion of his ship and after that he had a complete blackout. He had tried to contact Rick with full mental-force he was capable of but he was not sure of the success. Fnordie closed his eyes again.

He felt....different. He thought he was aware of all his powers but something had changed. He gently touched minds of some Freeport's inhabitants and then he discovered the difference. He was able to read through the thoughts of other beings before. Well, they weren't as clear as now and his range was more limited before but there was something else.

He now clearly recognised effective brain fibres and he was able control them. He moved his mind to the Freeport's bar and chose randomly a man drinking beer. He took over one of the mind fibers, made the man stand up, turn around and spill his beer on another man. It was very easy and he still didn't feel the usual tiredness which always came when he was using his mind force. A loud skirmish started in the bar but Fnordie had to try more.

Then he located a nearby asteroid, sized approximately same as the Large Train, and made it accelerate swiftly towards the Neutron Star. He did it before when passing Omega 5 with Rick in his previous Container Transport. But it always was on a very short distance and he could "produce" only a very slow speed. The move was noticed by a man in the observatory who was quite shocked to see a huge piece of rock to start moving first slowly but then it speeded up insanely and disappeared. He was just about to report such an exciting phenomenon but Fnordie didn't need any sensations. He moved onto the mind of this man, made him calm down and narrowed the last memory fibre so the man didn't remember what happened any more.

There were several more things to be found out. First, what happened Fnordie remembered just before the explosion he tried to eject the emergency pod but the ship was already so damaged that the pod jammed in the cockpit and Fnordie was hit by something very badly in the back of his head. ~ Back of his head... ~ Fnordie just discovered this thought in the doctor's mind who was trying to fall asleep somewhere on Freeport 5.

Dr. Mitchell was taking care of Fnordie. He was just thinking of some very strange EEG recordings with an odd brain activity and CT scans showing a huge inflammation of Pineal Gland of the subject (which happened to be a dog brought by a desperately looking man). Dr. Mitchell has never seen something like that. It later started to heal very quickly but the Pineal Gland remained greatly augmented. And the magnetic resonance showed prevailing activity, which was expanding the subjects physical body. Dr. Mitchell knew he was at the beginning of a great discovery and was looking forward to transfering the subject to the nearest research station and start its deeper research. He suddenly fell asleep. A deep one. A forgetting one. And his enthusiasm vanished as suddenly as it once appeared...

So it was Rick who saved him, he was the other concern of Fnordie. Fnordie recognised his image in Dr. Mitchell's thoughts. Rick was different than the others but he didn't know it. Fnordie now remembered that he dreamed about Rick while being unconscious. After "taking care" of Dr. Mitchell Fnordie concentrated and tried to find Rick's mind. He didn't want to harm him so he started very "silently". Nothing. He increased his mental force a bit and finally found a diminishing trail. It led out of the Omega 49 system and it was very quick as if it was moving nearly at light-speed. This was ubnormal, Fnordie knew that no Sirius-made ships are capable of travelling at such speed without using jump holes. There was not time to loose.

Fnordie sneaked out of the hospital and headed towards the docks. He found a lonely bounty hunter who was wandering through the passages of the Freeport 5. Fnordie "persuaded" him to enter his Manta with him and few minutes later they were both flying in the direction of Omega 49. Fnordie found some surprising similarities of this man's mind and Rick's one. They both weren't clones, Fnordie was quite sure about that. Clones are biologically grown and their minds are always equal to their "parent" ones. But the mental fibers of Rick and this man were somewhat hardened. It consumed much more of Fnordie's force to change them. Fnordie used a trick and infused him a thought that there might be a certain girl called Margarita spotted on Planet Canaria as the man felt a certain attachment to her. Fnordie therefore didn't have to control the man's mind and could rest. If Rick's in trouble Fnordie will need his force at full strength.

...

After landing on Planet Canaria Fnordie let the man to search for his girl of interest and remembered the pattern of his brain in order to locate him later. There was a connection between him and Rick. But there was not time for that at the moment. Fnordie came to the Veranda entrance. The lasers seemed incative. There was Rick's Large Train parked nearby. But there was also a man lying dead in the slop of blood on the path leading to the Veranda. Fnordie recognised Shamus but his brain was inactive too long and the last remains of his mind were gone. Poor Shamus, this confirmed Fnordie's catastrophic scenarios. No time to loose, at all, at all. He jumped in the train and started the launch sequence.

Once in space Fnordie detected the direction Rick left. The trail was almost "cold" so Fnordie entered the cruise speed immediately and then used his abilities to accelerate the Large Train rapidly in the trail's direction. The ship was not built to travel at such speeds so Fnordie had to maintain a force shield in front of the ship. Once the ship approached the light speed Fnordie stopped accelerating it. He used a huge amount of his powers but he couldn't rest now. The front shield had to be kept so the ship's not vaporised by the first hit by a stray asteroid. Fnordie must keep on. Rick's life is in danger. And Fnordie can't let him down.

Fnordie must keep on! Keep on!...