The Plasma Master

by Brian Rushton

  Chapter 25

  Gerran Marnax felt terrible. He had wanted to make sure the decision of whether to participate in the mission or not was completely up to Ned, his reasoning being that Ned would only stand a chance at succeeding if his whole heart was in the mission. Marnax did not feel that such determination was something he could hammer into someone. But now he was not sure if he had made the right choice. Perhaps he should have been more insistent and not given Ned a choice at all. Of course, he was not sure he would have the power to force Ned to do anything, but the situation now seemed bad. It was not that the mission was doomed without a Plasma Master to defeat Dark Viper; Marnax was genuinely confident that Mirana could carry out the mission herself. Once the fortress was destroyed, Marnax would take command of Venom’s defenses, and then the Anacron Empire would have lost every advantage it now had. No, the problem was ultimately not with Ned. It was with Mirana.

  If Ned did not come, Marnax feared that Mirana would become so pessimistic about the mission that she would not allow herself to do the kind of work she had proven she was capable of. If Mirana failed, Marnax would not even know until it was too late. And the battle that he was now planning would undoubtedly be the decisive battle in the war. Perhaps it would be the last.

  Once again Marnax wished that this war had never started and thought back to his life before. He had been happy then, free to spend time with his family, not burdened with the responsibility for the lives and liberty of nearly a quarter of the known universe. Not only that, but Mirana had been different then. Not entirely happy, but content. She, too, carried a tremendous burden, although Marnax was sure he did not understand all of it. Yes, Mirana had been an entirely different person before the war. She had been full of optimism, full of life. Marnax smiled as he remembered. The first time they had met, Mirana’s fullness of optimism and life had nearly gotten him killed.

  It was while Gerran was still serving on the Imperial Council, years before the Aliens had attacked. There had been other threats in the galaxy, but on the homeworld of Anacron one could almost forget that. Civilians went about their lives in relative safety, and they did not fear invasion. Their sense of security was not at all deluded, either; not only was Anacron situated well inside Anacronian space, but it was surrounded by hundreds of orbital defense stations, and it had the most powerful planetary shield in the galaxy surrounding it.

  One day, though, the peace in the Crelandis District was shattered by a massive explosion. At first it was unclear what had caused it, but it was soon shown to have been accidental. One of the power distribution conduits had overcharged, and several miles of it had exploded. Once disaster control officials declared that the area was no longer dangerous, the Council had assigned Gerran go visit the Crelandis District as a show of concern from the government, and to offer whatever aid he could to the survivors.

  Gerran could only stare as he stepped off of the transport shuttle that had brought him. The damage was terrible. In the primary blast zone nothing remained but blackened soil and fragments from the buildings whose tops had been high enough to reach out of the zone. But even those sections of building had fallen from several miles up, and secondary generators in them had exploded as they hit the ground. There was nothing recognizable left there.

  Toward the perimeter of the damage area there were still structures standing, although radiation and secondary explosions had caused severe damage here as well. Aid units rushed injured survivors to hospitals, but many of the wounds were fatal. Many did not even survive long enough for the aid units to reach them.

  As Gerran rode a hover sled through the wreckage, offering consolation to those he saw and assuring them that more help was on the way, his heart melted. He had nearly lost his family once in an attack on his freighter, and he could still remember the feeling he had experienced. But even that feeling was merely anxiety about a possible future, and what these people were feeling was infinitely worse. Their future was upon them; the damage was done.

  Then Gerran and his companions reached an area that had been completely abandoned. It was obvious why; all of the buildings in the area were nothing more than massive hulks of wreckage. Explosions had ripped the entire neighborhood apart and left virtually nothing behind. Those who had survived the blast had already been taken to hospitals, so there were no signs of life left. Except one.

  “Councilor, we’re picking up life signs from that building over there.” Ormik, Gerran’s aide, indicated a building perhaps half a mile away. It was a large structure, and the back of it had been completely blown away. The front was still there, however, and it looked as though parts of it might still be intact. Debris lined the streets, and the hover sled’s relatively weak engines would have severe trouble reaching the building. “Shall I call for an aid team, sir?”

  In one of the most pivotal moments in his life, Gerran answered, “No.” The aid units would take time, and there were still people for them to help elsewhere. Besides, they had already been there. Wouldn’t they have picked up the same life signs? “I’m going in for a closer look.”

  “I’m with you, sir.”

  Leaving the hover sled where it was, Gerran and Ormik made their way over the debris. Passage was not as difficult as it had initially looked; the large, jagged fragments of metal thrusting into and out from the street were too large and erratic for the hover sled, but they were easily circumvented on foot.

  It was not long before Gerran was standing in front of the building. He cupped his hands to his mouth and shouted. “Hello? Is someone there?” No one responded.

  “The life signs seem stable, sir. Perhaps whoever it is does not wish to be disturbed.”

  “That’s what it looks like.” He entered anyway.

  The light inside was dim, but there were so many holes in the walls and ceiling that Gerran could see clearly. “Hello!” he called again, but there was still no answer.

  Ormik checked his scanner. “Whoever it is is moving with us.”

  They walked farther in, searching futilely through the shadows for some sign of movement. “I’m Gerran Marnax,” Gerran called out. “I’m here to help, whoever you are. I don’t want anything. Is there anything you need? I …”

  And suddenly he was staring down the barrel of a laser pistol.

  “If there’s anything I need,” an angry voice shouted at him, “it’s for people like you to stay away from here and leave me alone. Now turn around and get out.”

  Gerran nodded, trying to catch his breath. Then he looked at the person holding the gun and stared. It was a zeld-year-old girl.

  As soon as he regained his composure he …

  “… General Marnax?”

  “Yes!” Marnax said, straightening in his chair as he activated the desktop viewscreen in front of him.

  “Hello, sir,” his secretary said. “Minister Jorin of Telaria is here to see you about the shipping agreements.”

  “Oh, yes. Send her in, please.”

  When Ned left Marnax’s office, his first instinct was to go and find Smardwurst. Up to now, he had talked to his Zalorian friend about everything important, and Ned felt that he needed him now more than ever. But, of course, now that was impossible. He had promised not to discuss Marnax’s plans for the attack on Venom with anyone. That meant that he had to make this decision alone. Ned headed back toward his room, but then realized that Smardwurst would probably find him there. Ned could always talk about something else, but he did not think he could hide his anxiety very well. He thought for a moment about where he should go, then turned town an intersecting corridor and found a lift pod.

  The hangar doors slid open and Ned stepped into the space where Marnax was keeping Ned’s starfighter. It still did not have a name, and Ned didn’t have any ideas for the moment. The ship really was an impressive sight, though. It was sleekly formed, with a bubble canopy on top and trapezoidal wings with laser cannons on the ends. Missile launchers were concealed beneath the wings and where the wings attached
to the main hull, and more laser cannons were located in the rear to the sides of the main thrust vent. In addition to the nose protruding from the front of the cockpit were two other nose-like protrusions just to the left and right, so the front of the ship looked like a three-pronged fork, with the middle prong the longest. The two areas in-between the prongs glowed green. These locations were emitters for the dralanium particle beams, by far the ship’s strongest weapons. This was the kind of thing Starhawk’s ships were studded with. The ones on Ned’s ship could not carry a lot of ammunition, but they were strong enough to rip through the shields of most starfighters in just a few hits. He had never used such weapons in simulators, either because Smardwurst and X hadn’t wanted him to rely on weapons with such limited ammunition, or maybe just because they thought it would make things too easy.

  Ned reached down to his belt and unclipped the small control device that X had given him along with the fighter. He pressed a button, and the floor of the cockpit lowered itself to the deck, allowing access to the command seat. Ned sat down and raised the seat back up. Inside the cockpit, Ned closed his eyes. There was just so much on his mind. He had intended to come here and just think, to sort through all of the questions blasting through his mind, but abruptly he decided not to. He brought up a map of the area surrounding Galactron on his console and found that he had been right in his guess: Galactron was in orbit around the planet Telaria. He contacted the shuttle bay control center and got flight clearance, then reached out with the Plasma force and activated his suit, bouncing forward a little as the extra thickness materialized between his body and the chair. Engaging the safety harnesses, Ned brought the fighter’s main power on line.

  The large set of doors in front of him opened, and beyond them Ned could see the short launch tunnel leading into space. He gently lifted his ship off the hangar floor, aimed its nose straight down the launch tube, and fired up his thrusters. Ned felt a rush of adrenaline as he sped down the launch tube, its walls just a few feet away in any direction, and then burst out into the starry expanse of space. Bringing his ship about, Ned could see the massive battleship Galactron, and behind it several other StarBlazer ships as well. The most impressive sight in the immediate area, though, was the planet itself. Telaria’s continents looked nothing like Earth’s, but even so Ned could not help but be reminded of his homeworld. The planet looked so beautiful from up there – its crystalline blue oceans, the brown and green of the land masses crisscrossed with rivers and dotted with lakes, and the white, ethereal forms of the clouds. It was mindboggling to consider the size of the planet; even as far up has he was, it was not at all difficult to position himself so that the planet took up nearly his entire field of view. It was refreshing to see an actual planet up close again after being inside starships for so long. Ned briefly considered landing and looking around, but decided against it. Too much could go wrong, he told himself, and at the moment he had plenty of problems to worry about.

  And there it was again, the question as to whether he should go home or go to Venom. Just this morning he had been practically obsessed with the idea of getting to Venom as quickly as he could, but now that the opportunity was so real, the entire idea scared him to death. He supposed that the reason for the quick change of heart was that Ned had always assumed that StarBlazer’s leaders would be able to come up with a reliable plan, and that all Ned would have to do would be to carry it out. But now, he was simply being offered free passage to Dark Viper’s front porch, and he was supposed to figure out what do to once he was there. And he was supposed to figure it out after he got there! What kind of a plan was that? An incredibly stupid one, in Ned’s opinion. One that did not even merit consideration.

  Except for one thing. Both Gerran Marnax and Mirana Kelar had placed their complete confidence in it. Well, not quite. It’s not the plan they’re confident in. It’s me! Why? Ned had great power, but Dark Viper had demonstrated that his was greater still. Hadn’t he? More questions. This thought process was an old one, and it was beginning to wear on Ned.

  If only I knew more.

  Ned glanced down at his controls, blankly studying them. His eye rested on one particular device, the communicator. His head snapped up. Quickly he opened a channel to Nemesis. “This is Ned Simmons. Mirana – Miss Kelar, are you there?” No response. Ned tried a few more times, but still there was no answer. He hadn’t seen Nemesis in the fleet; maybe Mirana had left. He laid in a course for Galactron. He had been flying around for nearly an hour now, and he was hungry.

  Suddenly, Galactron faded to black and disappeared. So did the stars surrounding it.

  An instant later the space directly in front of Ned’s ship brightened slightly into a grey silhouette. Ned’s blood ran cold. The image burned into his mind of a giant shark bearing down on him; Nemesis was less than a hundred yards away and closing. Ned quickly pulled back on the control stick to avoid a collision, but his ship merely shuddered. An indicator panel on his console informed Ned that he was caught in a tractor beam. He was being pulled into Nemesis’s shuttle bay. That was a relief, although Ned could not see why Mirana had found it necessary to scare him to death in order to answer his hail.

  If Nemesis were to be compared to a shark, then the shuttle bay was right where the mouth would be. Ned breathed deeply as the tractor beam brought him down on a landing pad, hoping he would be sufficiently calm when Mirana appeared. He waited patiently as the bay doors closed and air was pumped back in, then lowered the cockpit seat and climbed out. Mirana was nowhere in sight.

  Ned deactivated his battle suit as he left the shuttle bay and looked for a computer console. He found one built into the wall nearby and brought up a map. Ned was surprised to see how small the corridor layout was. The pricom was at the center, and six living quarters were located just forward of it. Also surrounding the pricom were a kitchen, a dining area, and two other rooms that Ned could not identify. Corridors led to the shuttle bay and the engine room, and various access passages led elsewhere into the ship for maintenance, but other than that there was nothing but engines, weapons, and shield generators. And a shadow field generator as well, somewhere in there. Ned took a moment to memorize the main part of the map, then made his way to the pricom.

  Ned walked until he reached the place where the corridor from the shuttle bay intersected the main corridor surrounding the pricom and turned the corner. He had just caught sight of Mirana when she spun and directed a powerful kick at him, her boot passing barely an inch in front of his face. Ned froze, the Plasma building up annoyingly in the bridge of his nose.

  “What … What was that?” He managed, once again struggling to catch his breath.

  Mirana put her face right up to his. “You’re slow, Simmons. Walk into Venom like that and you’ll be dead before you can blink.”

  Ned stepped back. “What are you talking about? Why did you do that?” Mirana just stood there with her arms folded. “If you had made contact, the Shield Plasma would have shattered your foot! What were you thinking?”

  “Come with me, Ned. I imagine you’re hungry after your little trip.” She led him down the corridor at a brisk pace toward the dining room.

  “How did you know what I was doing?”

  “I’ve been watching you.” The door slid open, and Mirana motioned him inside. She followed him, and they sat down across from each other at a table which had been prepared with one of the many alien dishes Ned had become accustomed to. Ned looked at Mirana, expecting her to explain, but she just looked back at Ned. Exasperated, he began eating, and Mirana did so as well. Ned tried to piece together what was going on as he ate, but very little was making sense at the moment. Mirana pushed her dishes aside when she was finished, and when she spoke, the edge was gone from her voice.

  “You still haven’t decided, have you?”

  Ned was not sure what he should say, but he figured that it would be best to tell her everything he could. If anyone could answer his questions, it was probably Mirana. “I was le
aning toward going home, but I kept thinking about how confident you and General Marnax seemed in me. I just can’t figure out why you could have that kind of confidence in such an uncertain plan, but since you did have that confidence I just couldn’t tell myself it was impossible. I called you to see if you could explain things to me, but you don’t seem to have a lot of confidence in me at the moment.”

  “I have a great deal of confidence in the Plasma force and in your ability to control it. You have demonstrated that ability on numerous occasions, and your power seems to increase with each conflict. I also have confidence in your potential to defeat Dark Viper. But there’s a lot you need to learn. That’s why I dropped the shadow field right in front of your ship and then startled you in the corridor. I wanted to show you that even with the Plasma force there are things that can be a threat to you, and you need to be ready for them. If you thought I was suggesting this morning that you walk through Venom’s corridors until you saw something that demanded your attention, the way you were walking through Nemesis’s corridors just now, you were mistaken. You need to learn to plan ahead, to be ready for things even if you don’t know they’re coming.”

  “And you risked breaking your foot to tell me that?”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. I wasn’t trying to hit you, so there was no chance of me doing so.”

  “I see.”

  Mirana rose from her chair, walked around the table, and took a seat next to his. She turned to face him and leaned forward. The hardness of her countenance eased up just slightly as she spoke. “Ned, I know you miss your home and your family. I know you are not used to a life where every decision means life or death for you and trillions of others. But you are in that position, and you have to make a decision. Now.”

  “General Marnax said I had a week. And besides, he seems convinced that you can complete the mission without me.”

  Mirana looked away for a moment, thinking. When she looked back, the hardness had returned. “I believe that if I wanted to I could bring down the shields on Dark Viper’s fortress. I believe that if Gerran coordinated it right, he could get enough firepower inside Venom to destroy that fortress, although it would take nearly all the missiles and laser energy he had. But suppose he did that. Suppose he managed to destroy Dark Viper’s fortress. What would that accomplish? All it would mean would be that he would have that much more to defend, that much more to lose. Worse, I believe that Dark Viper would escape. The fortress is nothing if Viper survives. He could probably take control of Venom from somewhere else. I don’t know everything that goes on in Gerran’s mind, but I don’t think it’s enough to pull him out of this. It’s political leader and military strategist against Plasma Master. It just can’t work. Gerran can’t win. Only you can.”

  “You seem sure of that.”

  “I am.”

  “You seem to know a lot about Dark Viper. Are you sure you have no idea what his power is? What it can do?”

  “I can tell you this: With nothing more than Rax and Dren’s powers to aid him, and with very little funding, Trelan Thendrak accumulated enough matter to construct Venom, and then built it. It must have drained his power significantly to do that, because he has not even attempted anything on that scale since. But just like you, Dark Viper can increase his power, and eventually he will build it up to the point where it was before he built Venom. I don’t know when that will be, and I doubt anyone will until it is too late. But when it does happen, no one will be able to stand in his way without equal or greater control over the Plasma force.”

  “His version of world peace,” Ned mused, mainly to himself.

  “Don’t bet on it. Someone who cares about his people does not live in an isolated fortress, having almost no contact with them. Someone who cares doesn’t send his people into battles of attrition just to gain a few more worlds or to destroy just a few more of his enemies. He cares about himself. Nothing else.”

  “I see,” Ned said again.

  “Do you? Do you really see what all of this means? It means that if you go home, the galaxy will fall to him. We’ll lose. There are only two Plasma Crystals left, one for you and one for him. You can’t give it to anyone else, so you have to use it. You have to.”

  “Three Crystals, remember? There’s always the Shadow Master. Whatever it is, its power is a lot greater than mine. I can’t hurt it, I can’t defend against it. If Dark Viper has any sense at all, he’ll just send the Shadow Master after me, and that will be the end. I’m surprised he hasn’t done it already.”

  “Don’t you think you’re oversimplifying things?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean that if Dark Viper really had that much control over the Shadow Master he would have done exactly what you suggest long ago. Either that, or the Shadow Master’s power is not as great as it seems. In any case, none of that changes what I have already said. If the Shadow Master is a threat, then you’ll have to deal with it. Either that, or leave the matter to someone else, someone who’s not invincible, someone who can’t shoot lightning bolts at will. Someone who will lose.”

  Ned looked at the floor. “When you put it that way, it doesn’t seem like I’ve got much of a choice.”

  “When I put it that way, it doesn’t seem like you could come up with much of a reason to want to choose differently.”

  “I can think of one reason. Not a very good one, though.”

  “And what is that?”

  Ned forced himself to look directly into those cold, gray eyes. He had to fight back a tear. “I don’t want to go because I’m scared to death of what will happen to me if I do. I know there will be bad consequences, but the immediate threat to me is there. I can’t shake the feeling that if I go there, I’ll be killed.”

  Mirana’s eyes narrowed. “Fear is what’s stopping you? Do you mean to tell me that the most important thing to you is comfort? Feeling good?”

  “Life, Mirana. You forgot life.”

  “Then there’s nothing you would give your life for? It’s going to end eventually anyway, you know.”

  Suddenly the fear and sense of weakness Ned had been feeling gave way to anger. “How can you say that? How can you ask me that question? Of course there are things I would give my life for! I left my family on Earth and came to a place where I am a hundred years primitive because if I stayed I would risk harming them! I fought Kayleen Rax and Markan Dren because they were about to kill everyone on Palandora! Then, after I had gained control of the Plasma, I could have gone home to my family and not risked harming them. But I didn’t! I stayed, I fought Rax and Dren again, and I beat them! I destroyed their power! I killed Markan Dren! Do you know how that felt? Do you know what it’s like to take someone’s life on purpose? I’m not sure I’ll ever get over it! And I did it for these people, the people on this side of the Galaxy, most of whom I will never see or even hear of. Strangers. And now you’re demanding that I give my life on a mission that will probably fail anyway!”

  “Are you through?”

  “Yes I am. In fact, I think I just might be through with this entire business. Thank you for helping me make up my mind. I’m going home.” Ned started to get up.

  “Ned, wait, please.”

  Ned turned back to her, fuming.

  “Ned, I’m sorry if I offended you. I didn’t mean to say that you haven’t done anything unselfish or productive. I know you have. That’s why I’m here. I’m not asking you to give up your life. I’m asking you to let me help you learn how to use your life to save hundreds of billions of others. Maybe the entire galaxy is at stake here. But don’t think of it like that.

  “You know, it just so happens that I do know what it’s like to be responsible for someone’s death. I lost count a long, long time ago. It never gets easier. Never. But I keep doing it. Do you know why? Because it’s necessary. Sometimes you have to ignore what feels right and think. You have to look at you priorities, and decide which decision will best protect the things you care about. So think. W
hat is important to you, Ned?”

  Ned was so blown away by what Mirana had said that his mind locked up for a moment. Why was she doing this? The woman who not two hours ago had no personality and no shred of warmth in her was now lecturing him on morality. But what she had said made sense, and Ned began thinking about her question. “Well, it’s like you said before. I care about my family, and my friends. I guess to some degree I care about just about everyone.”

  “Well if you care about people most, then the decision is simple. What can you do that will have the best outcome for people? For your family and friends?”

  Ned just stared at her. He saw in his mind his father and mother and Jared. He remembered everything he had done with them and thought about how badly he wanted to be back with them. But if he couldn’t be back with them, he knew that at least he would want them to be safe. Then he remembered the dream he had had that night before he went to Varlax Kanlor, the one where the Plasma force had flown out of him and consumed Earth. Now it was replaced by a new nightmare, one of Dark Viper’s terrible power unleashed on his homeworld. No. It won’t happen. I’m going to make sure of it.

  “Mirana?”

  “Yes?”

  “I’m coming.”