Sleep

Anri and Gina were the only two left on the craft after unit 13 had exited through the airlock. The sorcerer had been watching the debris float by their ship while the doctor kept an eye on the several monitors that covered the walls of the ship's bridge.

Bzzzzzt.

Anri's head snapped up to the source of the sound. His eyes caught the fading spark of something blue before it disappeared. He hadn't seen that happen before. Concerned, the teenager turned to look at Gina and realised that the doctor hadn't heard the sound.

"Gina," Anri called out.

The doctor raised her brows at the teenager.

"Sound," Anri told her while pointing up at the panel on the ceiling where the spark had disappeared.

"What sound?" To her credit, Gina didn't discount the teenager's concerns. She came to stand before him and they both stared up at the panel.

"Bzzt?" He mimicked the sound he had heard.

"That's no good," Gina said after a few seconds of silence. "Are you sure-" before she could complete her sentence, a trail of blue sparks ran like a snake across the ceiling and disappeared behind a monitor that immediately went dark.

"Oh no," Gina groaned in annoyance as she double-timed it towards the control panel. "Anri, get down!"

The confused teenager lowered himself to the floor as Gina began entering commands into one of the monitors. "Leah, come out!" Gina yelled at the screen impatiently. Her calls were answered by the ship's AI which appeared beside her.

"Awaiting your orders, Gina." The AI looked and sounded exactly like a tiny human girl wearing a black uniform with a blue star insignia on its collar. Leah, the AI, had been deactivated by the commander because of the possible security breach that could take place through an ASI-3 type that she was.

"Open a channel with the commander and keep him abreast of whatever happens on the ship," Gina told the AI. The thing that was taking a ride on their spaceship was called a hyper-arc, an entity from hyperspace. Rare and dangerous, not much was known about it despite attempts to study it. This was because people had been killed when they attempted to capture or destroy it.

"Anri, come," Gina told the teenager who appeared to be spacing out. She wanted to get them away from the arc because neither was capable of withstanding an attack from it.

As for killing it, there really wasn't any way to destroy the arc. The crew of a spaceship unlucky enough to meet one had but only a single course of action - to power the ship down and hope that it didn't erode something important before its energy dissipated.

Leah, the AI, was keeping track of the arc's movements. It was her job to shut off power to any core system that was in the warpath of the arc.

"Leah, why do I feel like it's following us?" Gina asked the AI as she hot-footed it out of the bridge with Anri right behind her. Lights began flickering on and off in front of them.

"I am unable to compute an explanation, Gina. Run faster."

Anri turned around and saw the bright sparks of light following their escape. He knew it wasn't following them; it was following him. The sparks were so close to them he could taste the magic in the air. They were almost out of time. Taking a risk, the sorcerer pushed Gina to the side and stopped running. Calmly, he turned around and faced the arc. The teenager wasn't doing this out of a heroic need to save Gina. Anri knew that whatever that creature was, it was magical in nature and he could absorb it.

Sparks filled his vision and the sorcerer heard Gina screaming in horror. He was then hit on the chest by the arc and it caused a searing pain that was reminiscent of the time he was branded on his chest with a hot iron rod. Sweet sweet pain. Anri fell to the floor and groaned as he was immediately flooded with magic. The arc had no chance against Anri's superior magical body. It disintegrated and released all its magic inside the teenager.

Magic depletion was a real bitch but magic inundation was hell. And Anri was going through it at the moment. He fought the pain of a thousand hot needles lancing his veins. The sorcerer twisted and convulsed on the floor and he could feel cool palms holding his head in a gentle grip. He assumed it was Gina holding him.

"Injection- neck-" he could hear Gina say to someone.

"Won't stop-" it was Isa's voice and it sounded closer than Gina's.

Anri slowly discharged the excess magic into the air even as he fought the pain that wracked his body. Slowly but steadily, the magic bled away and his body began to stabilise.

"-medbay"

Anri wanted to tell Gina he was going to be fine. She sounded so worried.

"Gina, m'okay," he mumbled.

"You're not okay, Anri," came Isa's cool reply.

"Dumbass kid just pushed me to the side and allowed the arc to hit him!" Gina sounded exasperated and anxious in equal parts. "Anri, if you can hear me, I'm going to put you in cryosleep. Why am I even telling you this when you won't understand-" the doctor cut herself off and punched in the code that would let her into the medbay. It had a cryo-chamber exactly for situations like this. Gina's med bay wasn't equipped to handle a case like Anri's because no one really survived an attack like that. She planned to put him to sleep till they reached home where a team of medical professionals could patch up the unfortunate hero.

The sorcerer registered the motions that went into placing him inside the cryo-chamber. Cool air began to circulate over his skin before he felt his consciousness slipping away into darkness.

_____

At the bridge, Red, Isa, and Dom were watching the holographic projection of a video of Anri and Gina during the arc's attack. He had acted bravely to save the doctor and that was evident to everyone.

Isa glanced at the commander whose face was unreadable. Dom appeared impressed by the quick action that Anri had taken.

Red pressed a key and the projection went dark. "Black, you are certain he is alive?" He asked Isa.

"Affirmative. Gina has put him in cryosleep, sir."

The commander nodded once. "Leah, prepare our exit vector. It's time to go home."