by Frank Carey
"You couldn't stop me if you tried. We'll see you up there when we're finished."
"Roger that," Marta said as she watched them walk into the medical facility before she headed off to the Bridge.
###
Hours earlier on planet Destiny...
The area around the Engine had been quickly excavated to a depth of fifty feet by a swarm of earth-mover bots before light-bots were brought in to illuminate the structure. Using their scanners, the strykers found an access hatch which they quickly opened, revealing the inner workings of the ancient device. Zoe stepped inside as several of her technicians set up shop. "What have you found?" she asked.
One of the techs, a Tralaskan woman named Margie, pointed her scanner at a glowing blue cube sitting in the center of vertical crystalline pipe. "Ma'am, that's the source of the epsilon field."
"I see. Why don't you just break the pipe and get it out of there?"
"Because I don't want to kill you, ma'am."
"Excuse me?"
"That 'Pipe,' as you call it, is carrying giga-joules of energy in its wall. If I took a hammer and smashed it, the energy release would instantly destroy the planet and ruin your day in the process."
"That's very considerate of you. How do we retrieve the source, then?"
"We turn off the current flow. To do that, we need to find the right control circuit."
"Keep me posted. Carry on."
Once back at the ship, Zoe sat down in the lounge and opened a biocybernetics journal to see what the other engineers were working on. As usual, Gloria Taggart-Aymar was on the cover with an article about her latest discovery. Zoe choked when she opened the journal and found a full-page picture of Gabriel sitting on a lab bed with Gloria running a scanner over him. Zoe's anger grew as she read the article. "That elf bitch!" she yelled. "How dare she say I cut corners in the design!" She threw the journal into a corner in disgust. "I should sue that bitch..." her tantrum was interrupted when the ship lurched sideways, throwing her onto the floor. She crawled over to the intercom and punched the button. "This is Zoe! Report!"
"Ma'am, this is the pilot. We've lost contact with the excavation. Scanners are picking up a massive energy build-up at the Engine site."
"Dammit. Any word from the mercs or the Strykers?"
"No, ma'am. Comms are off-line."
"What's the ship's status?"
"No damage, just a lot of cleanup."
"Start pre-flight. I'm heading to the site."
"Do you want me to send a crew member with you?"
"No, I should be fine. Zoe out." She got off the floor and headed aft.
###
Zoe knew something was seriously wrong the moment she opened the hatch. In the span of only a few hours, the weather had gone from a cloudless evening with zero chance of rain to a lightning filled sky threatening a deluge of rain. The last time she saw a change this severe was when Mt. Luciferous erupted on her home world of Tralaska.
She picked-up her pace as a feeling of dread overwhelmed her. Her fears were realized when she came around a rock outcropping and found the first of many dead bodies lying in the dust. It was a stryker and it was very, very dead. She stood up and saw other bodies as the rain began to fall while lightning flashed overhead.
"They're all dead, Zoe," Gabe said from his perch in the rocks above her. He jumped down to face her. "My scans show only the two of us and the ship's crew. The rest are dead."
"What about the team from the League?"
"Gone. I sent them away in the Delphi. By now, they're out of the system."
"Why are you here?" She demanded. "Why did Josiah send you to this gods forsaken place?"
"To activate the portal before the Engine fires."
"Who cares if it fires while the portal is closed? So what?"
"If the Engine fires in its present state, it will destroy the multi-verse. I can't let that happen." He looked up into the sky and watched lightning bolts travel from cloud to cloud. "That's why I'm here. That's why you were allowed to bring me back to life."
"Allowed by whom? What are you talking about?"
He shook his helmeted head. "The same beings who taught your brother how to move between universes. Like petulant children, they realized their mistake only too late. I am here to put things back to rights. Zoe, your ship awaits you. Get out of here, and let me do what I was destined to do."
"Not without the epsilon device."
"The epsilon device is surrounded by a radiation field so intense, it would cook a dropped steak before it hit the floor. It’s even too intense for my armor. Anyway, I need it to fix the Grange Universe."
She pulled out her pistol and shot him, blasting through his armor as if it were tissue paper. He was thrown backwards into the outcropping where he fell to his knee. "Why do this? If I die, you and everyone and everything dies," he demanded.
"I don't believe you. No supreme being would create a system this kludgey. The Engine will fire, and that'll be that."
"What of the Grange Universe?" He asked as he fought off the darkness of death.
"What of it? They're inferior beings just like the non-Tralaskan races of the League. Good riddance to bad rubbish."
Gabe tried to form a weapon but couldn't. His status displays were quickly turning red. He was running out of time. "Zoe, please don't do this. I tell you what. Let me fix things, and I'll give myself to you, body and soul. Together, we can build your army and return Tralaska to its rightful place as the ruling planet of the League. Just help me to that platform so I can activate the portal.”
Zoe glanced over at the platform and laughed. "I don't need you, human. You are nothing more than a testbed. I have hundreds of strykers stored across every planet in the League, all ready to be activated at my signal. Goodbye, Gabriel Adon," she said as she raised her weapon.
She never finished.
A bolt of lightning came down from the sky and vaporized her. Gabe thought he heard laughter in the thunder. He pulled himself to his feet and made his way to the platform while calling Zoe's ship to tell them she was dead. There was no response.
Dragging himself to the center of the platform, he waited, not knowing exactly what to do next while lightning flashed and torrents of rain fell around him. He wondered if Zoe and her crew had damaged the device beyond repair.
Suddenly his armor disappeared as the glyphs on his chest came alive with arcs and flashes of energy. Gabe suddenly knew everything. It was as if a spigot had opened to allow torrents of knowledge to flow into his brain. He turned to face the engine as the portal activated behind him. "Pris," he whispered as a beam of unimaginable power passed through his body on its way to the portal.
The planet exploded.
CHAPTER NINE
Alarms screamed as the Palosa and its fleet dropped into real-space without warning. "Report!" Captain Regus ordered.
"Other-space disruption scrammed our field, sir," the Chief Engineer yelled over the din.
"Kill those alarms," the captain said. "Damage report. Science Officer, what was the source of the disruption?"
"All systems nominal. Only bruises reported, sir," the first officer replied.
"Engines will be back on-line in a few minutes, sir," the chief engineer reported.
"Destiny, sir. It just exploded," the science officer replied.
"Do we have contact with any asset in the Destiny system?"
"Yes, sir. We're in contact with a monitor bot on Destiny's moon. The feed's coming in now," the science officer reported as Marta walked onto the bridge.
"Captain, what just happened?" she asked as she walked over to stand beside his seat.
"Destiny just exploded. We've got eyes on her from a monitor satbot in geostationary orbit," he said as the screen shimmered.
The Bridge crew gasped when the image cleared. At the center of the screen was an impossibly bright point of light. Streaming into it from the nearby star was a huge plasma streamer.
"Sir," the science officer
said. "This is impossible, but readings indicate Destiny's star has gone nova. That streamer is superluminal."
"Nothing natural can travel faster than light," Regus said.
"Yes, sir, or so I was taught." The science officer tapped controls, causing the bot's camera to pull back. The star came into view. It was surrounded by what looked like a force field with a single opening aimed directly at Destiny.
"Is that what I think it is?"
"Yes, sir. You are looking at a self-generating force field powerful enough to contain a nova. It has turned the star into a power supply for whatever is at the other end of the streamer.
"Zoom in."
"Aye, sir."
The view shifted as the bot's powerful lens system magnified the area where Destiny once existed. "By all that's holy," Marta whispered.
"Gabe?" Pris said as she and Siv move to stand next to the General.
On the viewer, a human form floated between a star-like point of light being feed stellar plasma and a hole in space. Energy from the star was passing through the being and into portal. "Sir?" the science officer said.
"What is it?"
"He's alive."
The captain turned toward her in shock. "What did you just say?"
"He's alive, and he's somehow modulating the energy passing through him."
"How much energy?"
"According to these readings? All of it, sir." She stopped and checked a readout. "I estimate twenty seconds to energy flow shutdown based on the depletion rate of stellar plasma."
"Navigation, how fast can we get a rescue ship to that location?"
"Ten minutes minimum, sir."
"Delphi can do it in one," Marta said. "Pris, Siv..." But she was too late. They were already gone.
###
The Delphi's atmo wing tips nearly brushed the still-opening doors as Siv flew the swift ship out of the shuttle bay and into the blackness of space. Ignoring all safety protocols, she dropped into other-space only seconds later. One minute later, she dropped back into real-space only a few thousand kilometers from Destiny's last known position. "Pris, we're here!" she yelled through the open hatch while forgetting the ship had an intercom system.
The Katalan stuck her head through the doorway. "I'm ready." She was wearing a spacesuit sans helmet. "Find him yet?"
Siv looked at the sensor readouts. "Three clicks dead ahead."
"Status of the impossible solar flare?"
"The flare is gone. The planet is gone. The Engine is gone. Radiation is normal for deep space. It’s like there was never a star system or a planet."
Pris' voice tightened. "Is he alive?"
"Aye, alive and well. His armor is intact, thank the gods. His life signs suggest he's in a deep sleep or a coma. Activating medbed..."
Pris looked behind her and saw the medical section lighting up as power was fed through the system. "Copy that. Status indicators show green."
"There he is," Siv said.
Pris looked and saw a white and black form approaching the Delphi from the port quarter. She saw its eye slits slowly pulsing blue. "I'll use the port-side emergency airlock."
"Copy that. Activating robo-gurney..." Pris heard the device emerge from is nook and trundle to the hatch. "Pris, you are go for EVA. He's about 10 meters from the hatch..." She turned to look at her friend. "Bring him home."
"Roger that." Pris put on her helmet, activated the suit, then walked over to the airlock. She pressed a button which opened the door. Stepping inside, she waited for the robo-gurney to join her, before cycling the lock. She gasped when she saw Gabe floating in space next to the ship. With a deep breath, she shutdown the locks gravity generator, then jetted over to Gabe while the gurney followed closely behind.
Reaching him, she found his right hand, then tapped the back of it three times, activating the suit's diagnostic systems. "Siv! Do you copy? Over."
"I read you five-by-five. How is he?"
"Like you thought, he's out like a light. Suit diagnostics indicate his nanobots are gone, otherwise he's fine. Stand by." She moved out of the way, then pressed a button on her suit's right gauntlet. The robo-gurney jetted over and took-up a position under Gabe. Several tentacles emerged from the sides of the gurney and wrapped around Gabe, drawing him to its bed. Once he was in place, another tentacle emerged and connected to his armor's diagnostic port. Panels on the gurney lit up as data flowed into its computer system. Pris knew that the same data was flowing through the gurney and into the waiting medbed. Once everything was in place, she and the gurney returned to the waiting ship.
When they were inside, Siv informed Pris that the Palosa had arrived. "Great..." she gasped.
"Pris, what's wrong," Siv asked.
"It's Gabe. His armor just dissolved," she replied while checking the gurney's readouts. "He's fine, though."
"Roger that. I'm heading to the Palosa."
"Copy that," Pris replied. She reached down and took his hand. "Hang in there, Gabe," she whispered.
CHAPTER TEN
Three weeks later...
Marta and Siv stared at the viewer as the Cube's Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Ursula, explained what they were seeing. "As you can see, Gabe's life signs are completely normal as is his epsilon field strength. The nanobots are gone as are all his cybernetic implants."
"What about his nervous system?"
"Are you asking if he's nuts or perhaps a vegetable?" the Alturan physician asked as she gnawed on a nutribar. She saw the look Marta gave her. "What? I missed lunch."
"Sorry. So, is he OK?"
"He's fine. Brain wave activity and nervous system functions are all normal. He's just sleeping. I've pulled him--figuratively speaking, of course--from the medbed and put him in a private room. He'll wake up when he wakes up." She walked over to where the women were standing. "He's doing great, especially considering he channeled the raw power of a nova through his body."
"When will he come-to?" Siv asked.
"Soon. Say, within the next couple of days. Now, call if you have any other questions. I have a sick bay to run. Toodles," she said as she walked out of the room with a flick of a tentacle.
"At least he's OK," Siv said.
"Yeah, but only he knows what happened on destiny after the Delphi left. The council is having a fit. They're demanding to know what happened to Zoe and her motley crew. They also want to know what Gabe didn't tell us about that damn engine. Can you imagine a civilization so advanced that they could harness the power of a nova?"
Siv looked at her. "Are you sure we're talking about a civilization?"
Marta looked at her. "Are you religious?"
"I believe that something other than random laws of physics put this whole shebang together. Call it religion if you want. I prefer to think of it as knowing there's something bigger than us out there in the void."
Marta was about to say something when the computer announced a station-wide alarm. "Report!" Marta ordered.
"Intruder alert. Three unknowns have appeared... Five unknowns have appeared in section 322-A-3. Weapons detected, type unknown. A possible explosive device detected. Nanorobot signatures have been detected. Security is responding."
"Damn. Headings and destinations?"
"Three tangos on heading to central core with explosive device, all three with nanorobot signatures suggesting they are all advanced stryker units. Two tangos on heading to Sick Bay--one Katalan and one stryker. Security is responding."
Marta reached under the back of her jacket with both hands and withdrew two ancient slug-thrower pistols, one of which she handed to Siv. "Birthday gift from Lucien. They look like old .45 caliber automatics, but they're actually blasters. Let's go."
###
Pris sat and watched Gabe sleep as she had done for almost three weeks since they returned to the Cube. She looked up at the diagnostic display above the bed and saw nothing amiss, just the readings of someone deep asleep. Alarms went off as the diagnostics were replaced by a security warning. She
looked over at the door as reinforced shutters covered it, sealing Pris and Gabe inside while preventing anyone from coming in.
Her comm bleeped. "Go for Pris," she said.
"This is Siv. You've got two intruders heading your way. Are you armed?"
She reflexively pulled her blaster from its shoulder holster and thumbed it to full power. "Yep. Any ID on the tangos?"
"One's a Katalan and one's a stryker. Marta and I are on our way with a security team not far behind."
"Copy that. The room is sealed..." A pair of hands punched through the security door and pulled it into the hallway. This was followed by a stryker stepping into the room. "Um, I've got a visitor. Hurry." She put the communicator in her pocket, while keeping her weapon aimed at the intruder. "Identify yourself!"
The stryker’s helmet retracted to reveal Zoe. "Hey, Pris, how's it going?"
"On your knees with hands behind your head!"
"Now, is that any way to treat the woman who saved your friend?"
"On your knees, bitch!"
"Now, is that any way to talk to your..."
"You heard the woman. On your knees, bitch!" A Katalan woman walked in with gun drawn and aimed at Zoe. She was in her twenties and wearing a police uniform. She looked familiar."
"You!" Zoe hissed. "How the hell did you follow us through the portal?"
"Silence!" the young officer yelled. "Zoe Muntz, you are under arrest on the charge of sedition. Now, on your knees!"
"Do you really think the two of you are any match..." She stopped when her right gauntlet buzzed and three lights went out. "That's what I get for hiring imbeciles. Oh well, plan B--I kill the three of you, then I can try again. Don't you just love do-overs?"
"Actually, no, I don't" a second stryker said as it grabbed her by her armored throat and threw her into a wall. "You heard Officer Adon. On your knees!"
"Not today, human. Not today!" She tapped a spot on the back of her gauntleted hand and disappeared.
"Damn her. She's as slippery as an eel," he said as he turned to face the two women. "Stress reading?"
The younger woman looked at a device on her wrist. "Moving to orange. We've got to go."
