by Dave Lemel
Dow’s lower half remained sandwiched at the spot where the two cruisers had met. His upper half flopped down onto the hood of the gray and black cruiser. His yellow eyes were wide open. The red pupils rolled up into his head. His mouth hung agape, navy blue blood draining out and onto the surface of the cruiser. The scissor door cracked open, and Sasha tried to squeeze out.
Simon threw Todd’s body off his own. “Sasha!” he exploded off the floor, flying through the hangar to help pull her out. “Holy crap,” he yanked at the door, forcing it a few more inches upward. “What, are you nuts? Are you okay?”
Sasha squeezed through a bit further as Todd arrived and helped Simon lift the door. Finally, Sasha managed to slither through the opening, making it out and collapsing on the floor. She rolled to her back and coughed a few times. “Whew! So that just happened.” She shook her head as Simon fell down on top of her, wrapping his arms tightly around her.
“Careful, hun,” she whispered as he relaxed his grip slightly and raised up enough to look into her eyes. “The baby. Remember?”
He jumped back and placed a hand on her belly. “Is she okay?”
Sasha lifted her head up and looked from Simon to her stomach and then Todd before laying back flat and chuckling. “Tell ya one thing for sure.”
“Huh?” Simon asked, grasping her hand.
“She’s doin’ a lot better than Todd’s face.”
Chapter 37
Jack and Li swung around debris from the explosions, slowing as they arrived at the scene of the crash. “Are you guys okay?” Jack forced out before sucking in and trying to get his breathing back under control.
Todd nodded, blood dripping from his chin. “Yeah. Yeah, I think so, man.”
Lombargnor came to, took in his surroundings, picked himself off the floor, and joined the others. “I believe you all will have to fill me in on the details. I seem to have been rendered unconscious during the fight.” He switched his focus momentarily to Dow’s folded, shattered body sandwiched between the two cruisers, his lifeless torso and head flat on the hood of the gray and black one. “However, it does appear our primary objective was completed. Well done, all of you.” He turned and began walking toward the hangar doorway.
“Where are you going?” Todd asked.
“I will be right back. Stay.” Todd had begun to follow before Lombargnor held up a hand. “I will return in a moment.”
Todd nodded as Simon gasped and grabbed Jack’s arm. “Where’s Jasper?”
Jack winced. “Back that way with Foggen.” He pointed to the rear of the hangar. “It’s not great, man.”
Simon started towards the back of the hangar before pausing and turning to stare at Sasha.
“Go!” she yelled in response to his gaze. “Go check on him. I’m fine.”
Simon zigged and zagged through the debris, cruisers, and fighters. As he weaved around a Vikard saucer fighter, a cart driven by Foggen nearly ran him over, then stopped. Jasper lay flat in the bed at the back, his eyes closed tight.
“Jass, Jass, it’s me.” Simon leaned in gently, taking his face in his hands. “Please, Jasper. Please.”
Jasper’s eyes opened and a grin spread over his face. “Can I go back to the mountains now? Really not diggin’ the Midwest.”
Simon chuckled as his eyes filled with tears. He hugged his brother hard.
“Gentle, Simon,” Foggen said firmly from the front seat of the cart. “We need to keep him as stationary as possible.” Simon took a half step back, looking Jasper up and down twice.
“I can’t feel my legs,” Jasper said flatly.
Simon’s stomach dropped into his feet. “What?”
“I dressed the wounds along the sides of his torso,” Foggen began, “but he needs surgery for the paralysis as soon as possible. We can fix this, but there is a time window to achieve full recovery.”
Simon swallowed hard and nodded as he grabbed Jasper’s hand and squeezed it. “Then we’ll find a way. C’mon.” He jumped in the cart beside Foggen. “The others are just ahead there.”
Foggen stopped the cart beside Sasha. Simon jumped out and hugged her again. Sasha pointed at Jasper, who remained flat out in the bed at the back of the cart, staring at the ceiling high above. Simon shook his head. “I’ll tell you in a minute.” He nodded at Lombargnor, who reappeared from the direction of the doorway. He was dragging the Vikard that had been standing guard before they had rendered him frozen.
Lombargnor tugged the large Vikard by the foot to where the two cruisers had sandwiched together. He dropped the leg he had been using as a tow rope, bent down, and lifted him up from under his armpits. He thrust him into the side of the gray and black cruiser’s hood.
“There,” he said. With one of his free hands, Lombargnor grasped the back of the Vikard’s neck and firmly pressed it forward. “There is your indestructible leader. You will be granted a courtesy that he never even considered extending to a fallen foe. Take him. Take his body. Take it back to the others. You take it, and you tell them to take that body back to your home system and all of you with it. And when you get there, you tell everyone the body came with a message.” Lombargnor turned the stunned Vikard’s head and stared into his yellow eyes. “Stay…out…of…this…solar…system. It is protected. Protected by the star marshals.”
The Vikard tapped the communicator on his chest plate and began frantically relaying the series of events that had just unfolded in front of him. By the time he had freed Dow’s corpse from between the two cruisers, the sounds of battle had begun to die down outside.
As they exited the hangar, two immense Vikard transport vessels descended from the sky and engulfed the runway portion of the base. Dazed Vikards began marching toward them robotically from almost every direction. Vikard fighter saucers began boarding them or flying up and out of the Earth’s atmosphere. Loading up for the journey. The retreat.
Chapter 38
“Foggen, Jack, Li,” Lombargnor called out, “go and open the gates. Get word out there to all who fought that we have regained control of Star Marshal Base. Any in need of medical attention are top priority. Foggen knows where the base hospital is located. Have him show you two on the way to the gates. Lead the wounded to the hospital. I will call up to our fleet in orbit. The best surgeons and doctors we can supply will be flown down immediately. Go. Spread the word.”
“I’ll take over the cart and get him straight to that hospital,” Simon said as he nudged Foggen out of the driver’s seat. “And you,” he glared at Sasha, “are getting checked out too. Don’t even think about getting out of this cart.”
“Oh, I’ll come with to be sure Jasper gets into surgery okay, but I am fine. There’s too much to do for me to waste time at a silly checkup right now. Plus, I need to get to a hol-call room to see Penny.”
Simon lightly poked her belly and raised an eyebrow.
Sasha looked down at her stomach. “Fine,” she grumbled, “a quick checkup for the baby’s sake. Then hol-call.”
“Deal.” Simon turned to Lombargnor and Todd. “You guys coming? You may want to get that blow to your head checked out.” Simon nodded at Lombargnor. He grinned and nodded at Todd. “And your schnozz definitely needs attention.”
“There is too much that requires immediate attention,” Lombargnor replied. “I believe I am okay, considering. I will get checked out before morning, but for now I must get to headquarters and begin tending to the logistics of returning this planet back to its pre-invasion state.”
Todd jerked a thumb at Lombargnor. “What he said. I’m goin’ with him to do whatever I can to help out. The broken beak can wait till morning.”
“We’ll join as soon as we get Jasper in good hands and have a chance to check in with Penny.”
Todd patted Simon on the back twice. “We’ll see you soon.”
Simon drove the cart up the road toward the heart of the sprawling grounds. “You’re gonna be all right, Jass,” he shouted over the wind as he hung a left. “The s
urgeons on their way down will be top notch. You’re crazy, though, you know that, right?”
Jasper rolled his eyes up to try to find his brother’s face. “Why?”
“Taking on a Vikard warlord by yourself. You even have a weapon with you when you went after him?”
Jasper chuckled before grimacing in pain and grabbing his sides. He forced a smile. “My jerk brother said it could help if we dragged our butts halfway across the country to jump in a fight he started on a moon of Jupiter with some rat-eating snake dude. I was stupid enough to believe him.”
Simon laughed as he slowed the cart and pulled up to the doors of Star Marshal Base hospital. The building appeared relatively unscathed from the battle. At least from the outside. He jumped out and grasped Jasper’s hand as he leaned into the side of the cart. “It did help, brotha. You were awesome.”
“Simon!” Simon recognized Foggen’s voice calling out from down the road. He located him a hundred yards or so away, approaching with two men he did not recognize. One was wearing a tattered old olive green jacket and noticeably limping. The other appeared quite young as they came closer and his face became clearer.
“You know who he’s with?” Simon asked Sasha.
She squinted and shook her head. “No clue.”
Jasper tucked his chin into his chest and lifted his shoulders ever so slightly. “Ha,” he said, lying back flat and chuckling gingerly, “they’re with me.”
The figures walked straight up to the cart, the limping one taking the lead in a more hurried pace as they neared. He beelined straight for Jasper in the cart bed. “Awww, no, kid. No. I can’t, I didn’t, he told me when I was asking if anybody had seen you or heard anything about you, but I just couldn’t believe it.” Jerry’s eyes watered for a second before he blinked hard and cleared his throat.
“It’s okay, General. I’m fine. Well, not exactly fine, but I’m gonna be soon. They said best surgeons they got are heading here now, and it’s not too late for me to make a full recovery.”
“That’s great news, kid.” Jerry squeezed Jasper’s shoulder. “Great news.”
“Simon Cain,” Simon said, offering a hand to Jerry.
“Jerry Cooper,” Jerry replied as he shook it. “I take it you’re the star marshal brother we spoke to what feels like months ago now.”
“That’s me.” Simon gestured in Sasha’s direction. “And this is Mission Commander Cain. Otherwise known as my wife, Sasha.”
“Call him the General,” Jasper said with a grin. “And that kid over there is Kyle.”
Kyle waved quickly before his eyes darted back to Jasper’s legs.
Foggen looked up from his link. “Doctors and surgeons will be arriving in just a minute or two.”
“If you two are needed elsewhere,” Jerry said to Simon and Sasha, “I can stay with Jasper here. I’m certain there’s plenty to do at the moment.” He leaned back and gazed up, scanning the sky. “Looks like a full-scale invasion, so many ships punching the atmosphere at once up there.”
Sasha looked up before turning to Simon. “Actually,” she raised both eyebrows and stared at him, “there is one extremely important thing we’d love to tend to as soon as possible if we could.”
“Go,” Jasper said. “Seriously. Please go. You guys can’t do anything for me here. I’m super good. You got me to the right place. I got Jerry. I’m good.”
“The baby,” Simon half-whispered to Sasha.
“She’s fine. I swear as soon as we’re done with the hol-call, I’ll head straight back here to be sure. Or,” she rubbed her chin, “I could order a doctor to meet me at headquarters to do a quick exam. Either way,” she grabbed Simon’s hands, “I promise right after the call. Now, come on.” She bent down and kissed Jasper on the cheek. “Good luck.”
“Good luck, brotha.” Simon patted Jasper’s cheek where Sasha had just kissed it. “I love you.”
“Love you too, brotha.”
Sasha tugged him away gently. “Come on, I need to see that little face so bad it hurts.”
Simon smiled ear to ear, his eyes filling with tears as they walked back out to the road in the crisp night air. “I love you, Sasha.” They stopped, looked into each other’s eyes, and shared a quick kiss before embracing each other.
Chapter 39
The sun was just beginning to break the horizon over the surface of the choppy water. Todd’s head snapped around at the sound of approaching feet from the path down the bluff behind him. He followed the winding trail through the trees and up the slope with his eyes until they found Lombargnor cautiously navigating the steep path.
“I had a hunch I might find you here if I headed down for a morning walk.”
Todd shrugged. “Just tryin’ to clear my head a little. Gotta wind down somehow. That was kind of an intense night. Hey,” his brow creased as he looked up from the sand, “speaking of hunches. How did you know they would leave that easily after Dow was dead like that? The Vikards, I mean.”
“I did not know.” Lombargnor squatted down and examined a little jagged black rock he picked out from the sand and other rocks and stood back up as he turned it over and over in his long, purple fingers. “I believed that would be the likely outcome based on my knowledge of the Vikards’ history. That, combined with personal experiences and having been the beneficiary of some exceptional teaching from others who had observed or lived through similar situations before me.”
“But what if you were wrong?”
“Then we would have adjusted, evolved. Nobody knows the future for certain. Nobody knows precisely what others are thinking. Sometimes we are right, sometimes we are wrong. Most of the time it’s something in between. Life happens in the gray. It is rarely ever black and white. Not absolutes. We do not get to see other beings’ inner thoughts or intentions. It is ultimately up to all sentient beings to use their life experience, the lessons they have learned and been taught, their intuition to determine which shade of gray they are seeing in a given situation or in another being.”
Todd rubbed the back of his neck, stared down at the rocks and sand, and then began to run his hand slowly up and down the back of his head. Lombargnor threw the black rock into the crashing surf. He sat down in the cool, damp sand. Todd squatted down and then sat in the sand beside him.
Lombargnor gazed out at the lake. “Evolution is a universal constant. It is woven into the fabric of everything. Without competition, without conflict, without change it could not exist. This is a wonderful thing. Without it, everything would stagnate and die. It does, however, create some negative byproducts. Evil pops up. Sometimes the evil produced is so dark on the gray scale that if left unchecked it would halt the entire process. We are protectors of the process. The ultimate goal is to keep the ever-flowing river flowing in the direction of progress.”
“But who made you the decider of shade on the gray scale? The Bopecans were just anointed this benevolent species by what? By whom?”
“Nobody placed us in this position. We have evolved to our current state. We were in no way always this ‘benevolent species,’ as you call us. What if I told you the Bopecan home planet we refer to is not actually the planet we began life on? That we inadvertently destroyed that true home planet. Rendered it uninhabitable. Well, that is what happened.”
Todd stared at Lombargnor, and he turned back from facing the lake to face him. “As the end days of habitability had begun approaching, we discovered a planet suitable for life as we knew it orbiting a nearby star. We loaded up ships and set course for that new world. Once we arrived, we decimated the local beings.”
Lombargnor turned his focus back to the lake and the crashing surf. “Nearly wiped them out entirely. A few dozen generations passed, and the descendants of the original settlers were attempting to reconcile with our past as we looked toward the future and further exploration of our galaxy. It was around that time that we discovered the Vikards.”
“And it’s just been war ever since?”
“No.
Not always. There have been periods of relative calm and peace, even with the Vikards. In fact, even the Vikards have not always been as unequivocally evil as they now seem to be. Do you know how Dow got his unsightly facial scars?”
Todd shook his head.
“He led a mutiny to unseat the previous supreme ruler. He and his followers felt, as he loved to tell anyone who would listen, that the Vikards should always be actively pursuing their perceived rightful place as supreme beings of this galaxy. The coup was a brutally violent period of his life even by Dow’s deplorable standards. He received both permanent marks on his face as constant reminders of this time in his life.”
“So, in essence, even the Vikards, given enough time and with the correct sequence of circumstances, possess the capacity for change. Even them. They could become good?”
“Yes,” Lombargnor nodded. “I do believe that to be possible. Change is one of the few true constants I have observed in this galaxy.”
“So, if they did change to good, the Bopecans could rest? Stop being protectors of the process, as you called it?”
“Doubtful. We would likely find some other beings determined to exploit the galaxy for their own selfish gain. Or even a Bopecan who shades the wrong way on the gray scale rises to power setting in motion a dark period for our species where we forget lessons learned and take a giant step backwards for a generation to re-learn.”
“Kinda like my dad to me,” Todd smiled thinly. “I mean on a way smaller scale, of course.”
“That is not a terrible example, actually. Especially for the sliding gray scale. The constant change and evolving nature of the galaxy and all things living within it. Yes, take your father. There is a good man in there. He made an awful mistake. Truly atrocious decision on many levels, in my opinion. And, I know the man you encountered on Gleeb was a shell of the good man who existed prior to that awful decision. But, for a moment, imagine being him. Imagine living with that fallout. One big mistake. One moment of incredible weakness. You lose everything you cared about. Even your family. Then spending seven years, a hostage of sorts, living among alien beings who lean toward the darkest of dark gray on the scale. That sequence of circumstances would have a profound impact on pretty much any sentient being I’ve encountered in my travels.”
