Sacrifice - Part Two

<Snip>
“Do not fear. The surge will power me sufficiently for the operation, I will absorb it safely. Between that and the data from the Sovereign I can convince them.” Kenneth said, the holographic projection flickering before going out.

“Data? What data? Stick to the plan damnit!” Cass hissed as loud as she dared after him, but Kenneth was already on his way.
</Snip>

"What the smeg did he mean by that?" Jay asked, looking out as the dimly glowing Black Nebula drifted up the steep sided temple and blinked out of view.

"How the hell should I know?" Cass snapped tapping on the pad and trying to hack into Kenneth to get him to come back. She let out a breath of pure exasperation and tossed the pad onto the ground. Concerned Jay picked it up again.

"We can't just stand here" He said, turning the electronic device over in his hands and looking for the source of the vexation. It was easy to spot, a large crack down the screen from where she had been shoved by the brute squad.

"Well I can't do anything from in here now." Cass lamented and let out a huff of air as she sat on the ground heavily.

"There has to be something." Jay muttered, passing the broken device back to Cass and beginning to absently pace the cage.

***

Their scaly hands had pawed and clawed at her washing her off in a foul smelling mixture of what smelled like Aloe Vera, Tea-tree and yak vomit. Her clothes were discarded and replaced by a strange leafy, mossy, leathery ( oh god please say it's animal skin and not human) robe. They then marched her up the pyramid, by the time they reached the top she was sweating so hard in the broken humidity that the ceremonial paint had mostly dripped off.

It was at this point, seeing the bloodied altar in the centre and the cheering maniacal hordes of flesh eating Huzzards below, that she suddenly realised that unless Jamie had pulled it off. She was about to die. Panic gripped her as the sparking from the emergency lighting intensified.

She struggled against them as they tied her to the stone altar, and began to scream as the shaman approached wielding a dark, stained ornate blade.

***

"He's too late! They're killing her!" Cass panicked, as Jay shifted slightly trying to get a better view. Cass wasn't sure at what point she'd begun to class Jade as a friend, but now that she was a friend, she wasn't sure she could cope with another death.

"No. Look. It's OK." Jay pointed up as the tiny blinking Black Nebula blinked back into existence above Jade.

***

The shaman raised his blade, chanting in a hissing language, the crowd howling below. Jade watched the blade as he raised it higher and higher, glinting in the light of the single star.

Star? She had time to wonder before an almighty booming wave of power shuddered through the arboretum. Lights that were still on shattered and a majority of the emergency ones blew their bulbs too, plunging the room into darkness. The excess power being routed through the weather system lighting up the room with staccato bursts of forked lightening.

The little star glimmered brighter and screams of panic began to emanate from below as the Huzzards didn't know what was going on. The Shaman paused, looking up at where the elite guard were now pointing, just in time to see the glowing orb get struck by a bolt of lightening.

The room went dark.

***

"Did it work?" Jay whispered, looking out into the blackness, a few torches flickering in the gloom as the screams echoed into the dark.

"Shut up and look." Cass hushed and pointed up at where Kenneth has been. Even the Cyborgs had begun to come to the front of the bars, in the cages either side and peer out at the strange goings on.

***

In the crushing void that surrounded Jade a glimmer of light began to form. Directly above her and growing in size a shape began to form from the murk. A ghostly head took shape, and silence began to fall over the Huzzards.

"'Orrite dudes?" Came the north London tones of the ship board AI Holly. Jade stared, amazed herself that Holly was able to do such a feat, especially given the power situation.

Utter silence greeted the question.

"I said, 'orrite dudes?" Kenneth asked again, booming his voice like a loud speaker.

"Great One!" the Shaman proclaimed. "You have returned!" He lay himself prostrate beneath the figure.

"You think we can talk this whole killing humans thing over?" He asked, floating down the the Shaman and forming a ghostly holographic body to match the head.

<TAG>

OOC - I'm going to stop writing now... *passes out*