by Lee Watts
"What is it, Merrick? Everything alright?"
"I don't know, Sire. Something peculiar, he says there's a package for me with a message that it's urgent."
"Package? From who?"
"We have no idea, Excellency," answered the soldier. "There's no sender information, but we've scanned it for explosives, and it came up clean."
Merrick looked to Alexander, who nodded.
"Bring it in," Merrick instructed.
The soldier nodded and quickly stepped out. A few moments later, with the Councilors departed, he returned with the sealed container… and Vivica.
"I heard there was a present, so I just had to come and see," she bubbled.
Alexander rose as Vivica entered the room. Aulani and Caedmon also stood, but in deference to Alexander's lead more than for Vivica. Cheyenne, being the former queen, remained seated. After Alexander's return, he suggested Cheyenne reassume the throne, but she adamantly refused. Never comfortable with political maneuvering, and even less so in military matters, she abdicated the crown to her son. At his request, she attended the council session but rarely interjected.
Placing the metallic, non-descript box on the table, the soldier bowed and left. Merrick approached the container, which had a small camera attached. Tapping the only button, a red beam traced Merrick's face to confirm his identity. Scan complete, the container gave two loud clicks as it unlocked. Slowly, Merrick lifted the hinged lid.
"Let me see; let me see," Vivica bubbled. "I love surprises."
Seeing the contents, she screamed.
"What? What is it?" Alexander demanded.
Merrick swallowed hard before answering.
"It's… it's Mr. Didymus, Sire," he answered, his face showing the disgust he felt looking at the head of his friend.
"Who would…" Alexander started but was too stunned to finish the thought. A mentor to Aulani, the two had spent many hours discussing the intricacies of the spoken word. She couldn't force herself to look in the box.
"Who would do such a thing?" Alexander asked in revulsion. "Who sent this to us?"
"It wasn't sent to us, Sire," Merrick replied lowly. "It was sent it to me, and there's a message," he added then pulled out a flower with white petals and a bright red center.
Alexander gazed at it in confusion.
"What does it mean?" he asked. "Who's it from?"
"Koraden," Merrick answered.
"Koraden? The Dridmor on the Chariot that day?"
The Guardian nodded.
"But what does he want with you?"
"He wants what I have, and revenge for what he did?"
"For what he did?"
"He blames me for the Dridmor's failure when they tried to overthrow Paradise. He thinks if only I would have joined him and his prince that they could have won." Merrick trailed off in thought, thinking about a time long since past - a time before time. "He's wrong of course, there is no power greater than the Elder's... no love greater, no mercy greater, but the Dridmor rejected all of it and now are condemned. They know what eternity holds for them, and it's driven them all to madness. In their spite, they'll stop at nothing in their attempt to kill every human in the universe. They are relentless and will continue until the last day, in that great and terrible battle, when they will, at last, be vanquished to the Vortex forever."
"What are you going to do?" Alexander asked.
"I have to go. If I don't, we'll keep receiving… packages."
"Then I'm sending a task force with you. I'll contact Admiral Balin and have him dispatch-"
"No, Sire," Merrick countered. "This is not your war; this is one started long ago. It was a battle I could have ended then but didn't. I thought I was showing mercy, but it's a decision that's cost too many lives. I have to go back and do what I should have done in the first place. This is my fight, a contest between children of fire. I'll go alone."
Alexander wanted to protest but could tell Merrick was adamant in the decision. Respecting his mentor's wishes, he reluctantly relented.
"Very well. When will you leave?"
"In the morning. I need to make some… arrangements first."
"I'll see you off," Alexander said. Then Merrick bowed and left the room; Aulani followed him.
"Merrick," she called to him as he strode down the hall. "Merrick, how do you know where to go?"
Holding up the blossom he explained.
"This flower only grows on one planet. He'll be there, in the place where it started."
"Where? Where is it, Merrick? My father disappeared with Professor Didymus. He's wherever this flower came from. I must know, I've got to find him," she insisted.
"Aulani! This-"
"No! No, Merrick! I won't back down on this. Besides Jaiden, my father is the only family I have left in this universe. We waited for years to escape that island-jungle planet, and I'm not going to let him die now on some unknown world alone!"
Merrick sighed in anguished frustration at the situation and how he might have prevented it.
"Alright, you and Jaiden can come with me. We'll find your father and the others, but you must go when I say and without hesitation."
"You have my word."
Merrick saw the fierce determination in her eyes and knew he could trust her.
"Let Jaiden know, and you two be ready to leave at dawn."
"We will."
With a singular focus, she hurried to tell Jaiden they were going to save their father.
That night, Merrick went to Alexander and entrusted him with something he had not let out of his sight for a thousand years then gave him the battlestaff he took from Chrianjiv. Mentor and student prayed together, wept, and said their goodbyes in private.
"You're not expecting to come back, are you?" Alexander deduced.
"I'm not sure. I hope so, but only the Elder knows. Remember what I've taught you."
"I will, Merrick."
"Tell no one but Caedmon about what I've entrusted to you. Not the queen, not Aulani, no one, no exceptions."
"I understand. I'll guard it with my life; I give you my word."
Alexander did his best to keep his promise, but Merrick would look back in sorrow on that day, regretting the decision as one of the greatest mistakes of his long life.
CHAPTER 15
"... the triumphing of the wicked is short…" – Job 20:5
Gliding in tranquility past the beautiful purple cloud of the super-heated nebula, the luxury liner Empress II came under sudden attack.
"Where did they come from?" demanded the captain.
"I don't know, Sir! There was nothing on the scope. They came out of nowhere!"
Another blast rocked the ship. Equipped with only sufficient shielding to protect the liner from stray particles of space debris, the protective screens quickly buckled. Two more high-charged bolts of orange energy slammed into the ship, causing its engines to go dark. An assault shuttle leaped out from the stolen Hateeg craft, speeding toward the defenseless liner. Magnetically attaching itself to the hull of the Empress II, the attack shuttle activated its cutting beam and bored a hole. As a bulkhead of the luxury craft collapsed, frightened passengers ran screaming as heavily-armed pirates boarded the pleasure craft. Starting with the ship's stores, the pirates looted everything of value then moved on to pillaging the private cabins.
On the Fame, Crimson's only biological eye gleamed as he thought of what a rich haul this would be and anxiously awaited the return of the boarding party. His other eye, gouged out during a similar raid almost twenty years prior, was now a cybernetic implant. When his original implant malfunctioned, the doctor said he could replace it with a more natural looking prosthetic, but Crimson declined. He liked the way the glowing green socket made people feel uncomfortable.
Within ten minutes the shuttle detached, leaving a gaping hole in the Empress II.
"If they're coming back that quickly, they better have hit a sweet load, or I'll space the lot of them," Crimson growled. "I'm going to t
he shuttle bay to make sure they're not trying to rip me off," he groused as he left the bridge.
Ascending through the magnetic field of the floor, the shuttle hovered in the center of the shuttle bay. When the metal door slid into place covering the area, the shuttle sat down and switched off its engines. As the back hatch began to open, Crimson rubbed his hands together in greedy anticipation.
"Hurry up! Get out here and show me what you got."
Blaster leveled at Crimson's heart, Sosimo LaRouche exited the shuttle with three of his men.
"LaRouche," Crimson gasped. "How did…What are you doing here?"
"Keeping a promise."
Pulling the trigger, Sosimo sent a bolt squarely into Crimson's chest.
"I thought we weren't supposed to kill him?" bellowed Byron who was one of the men accompanying the captain.
"I didn't say anything about not hurting him," Sosimo answered with a shrug.
Crimson clutched the burnt cloth on his chest while shouting from the stinging blast set explicitly for a painful yet non-lethal energy discharge.
"We've got to move fast before the whole ship knows we're here," Sosimo told them.
At gunpoint, he forced Crimson to escort them through the ship, carefully avoiding passages with crewmen. The door of Crimson's quarters slid shut and there, discarded on a cluttered table, was the map ring Crimson took from The Hammer.
"Ah, here's what I've been looking for," Sosimo beamed excitedly as he crossed to the table and touched the map ring embedded into his cybernetic hand with the one on the table. Upon contacting his ring momentarily glowed a brilliant blue, the confirmation the map layer was authentic and not a layer previously discovered.
"That should be the last layer," Sosimo said. "Finally."
"You tracked me down for that?" Crimson scoffed. "It's worthless! The whole thing's a hoax. The stars are all in the wrong place; and yes, I took into account drift over a thousand years. Face it, LaRouche, there's no Vault of the riches of ages. Even if there ever was, you won't find it with that map. I'll-"
Fed up with Crimson's rant, Sosimo shot him again.
"Boy I like doing that," he quipped happily.
Clutching his shoulder to ease the stabbing pain of the latest blast, Crimson activated his cybernetic eye and used a beam from the implant to trigger the communications panel on the wall.
"You won't get off this ship alive," Crimson threatened, his voice now heard on the speakers of the bridge.
"Oh, I think I will," Sosimo retorted. "In fact, not only am I leaving, but I'm taking your stuff with me."
Gesturing with his pistol, he nudged Crimson to the door.
"Let's make a little visit to the cargo bay, shall we?"
"The cargo bay?" Crimson bellowed loudly.
"Yes, so get moving."
Crimson stepped out followed by Sosimo and the three other men. Making a few quick turns to avoid the crew, the group soon reached the cargo bay. As the wide door parted, Sosimo saw something he knew he didn't want, twenty armed men aiming at him.
"You were saying," Crimson sneered.
Before Sosimo could answer, a cracking blow to the back of his head turned everything black. Later, in the brig of the Fame, he groggily roused back to consciousness.
"He's up," the guard called on his radio.
"You alright, Cap'n," Byron asked, helping the man to his feet.
"My head's killing me, but she was worth it." Noticing his surroundings, he realized he was waking up from a different time of being knocked out. "Wait a minute, no that's not it. We're on Crimson's ship aren't we?"
"That's right," answered Crimson as he strutted into the brig. "My ship. The only reason I haven't spaced you already is I want some information. Start talking and I'll make your death easy. Make me get it the hard way and… well… doesn't really matter to me. I'm going to enjoy it either way. My old captain, you knew the map didn't work since I would have used it to find The Vault myself. So the first thing you're going to tell me is why you came all this way? Second, I heard Byron say you weren't supposed to kill me. That's an odd sort of thing to hear from someone who swore payback for Lei's death. So spill it, what's going on?"
"I'll tell you what's going on," LaRouche answered. "The Hammer thinks you've been skimming off the top. So sh- so he's put a bounty out to bring you in alive. Seems The Hammer has something special in mind for you. A fate wurth than death, so I hear."
"That's crazy," Crimson protested. "The Hammer's got a piece of everybody's action, and he's worried about me getting a few extra credits!"
"Hey, don't shoot the messenger," Sosimo exclaimed, "and I mean that, don't shoot."
Over the ship's speakers came an urgent call.
"Captain, we've got a ship closing fast from astern!"
Sosimo gave a lopsided grin upon hearing that.
"Looks like you're a hot ticket," he teased.
Frustrated, Crimson stormed out of the brig. LaRouche figured the incoming ship was probably just some local authorities checking on the liner. He smiled at the thought of Crimson's paranoia creating all kinds of details about the approaching ship's sudden arrival. Sosimo reveled in each irritation he could cause his rival and used the brief distraction to plan his escape.
Fuming at the thought of The Hammer putting a price on him, Crimson tromped onto the Fame's bridge, angrily dropping into the command chair.
"Do I have to ask for every bit of information around here?" he snarled. "Is that ship still on an intercept course or not?"
"Aye."
"Blast! Engage cloak then set a new heading and jump to lightspeed."
Crimson knew if The Hammer was after him, then there was nowhere safe for him anymore. Crimson seethed as he mulled over how The Hammer figured out he was cutting himself in for a little extra.
Who ratted me out? he wondered as every person of his crew came to mind. They were a cutthroat lot, and he knew none of them would hesitate to shoot him in the back if they thought they could get a quick credit out of it. However, he figured none of them had tried to turn him over to the Hammer. If there was a price on his head big enough for LaRouche to forego blasting him for killing Shen Lei, then it had to be a serious chunk of change. So far, none of his crew had tried anything. He knew it wasn't love or loyalty keeping a knife out of his back so reasoned the crew didn't know about the bounty on his head.
So, what is it? he wondered.
Then it came to him. Where had he learned about the bounty, and who had used that to get him off track… LaRouche. Figuring out there was no one after him he cursed loudly and hurried back to the brig to deliver a little payback for LaRouche's target practice. Bursting into the brig, Crimson noticed the door slightly ajar and the lock melted from the inside.
"All the little gizmos in that fake hand of his," Crimson grumbled aloud. "Curse him!"
In half a second Crimson figured out where LaRouche was heading and hurried to his quarters. As soon as he opened the door, he saw where the map ring used to be was a little note which read, A promise is a promise. Crimson knew Sosimo was referring to his pledge to kill him for Lei's murder. With LaRouche on his tail, he'd have to watch his back every second. He knew there was only one way to sleep safely at night - kill Sosimo LaRouche.
"I'll give him this, he figured it out quicker than I thought he would," Sosimo mentioned to Byron as the alarms began to sound.
"Where to, Cap'n? Shuttle bay?"
"No, they'll be expecting us to try and get off the ship that way. I've got a better idea. Come on."
As the trio of Fortune crew followed Sosimo down the hall, they worried about what sort of plan their half-crazed captain had in mind this time.
"Lock down the doors to the shuttle bay," Crimson ordered. "And disable the escape pods. He may try to get off that way." Tightening the noose on his old rival, Crimson smiled and hit the intercom. "This is my ship LaRouche, and you're not getting away this time."
"We'll see," Sosimo taunted with a doubtful
shrug. "Alright boys, take your pick," he said while pointing to the escape pods. "They're small but sporty. Let's go." Hitting the switch to open the hatch to the pod, Sosimo frowned noticing the system was off-line.
"He's guessed our move Cap'n. What's plan B?"
Pausing for a moment, LaRouche mumbled.
"I hadn't thought of that, but don't worry, something will occur to me."
Rolling his eyes, Sosimo thought for a moment. Drawing a blank, he crossed his arms and sought inspiration, but came up dry. Taking a breath as if he was about to say something, he stopped suddenly and shook his head.
"No… nothing."
Then a blast slammed into the wall next to his head.
"I've got it," he shouted. "We'll run!"
"What?" Byron asked as they took cover behind a corner.
"RUN," Sosimo repeated, and the group fled down the corridor.
On the bridge, Crimson heard an encouraging report.
"They've spotted him on deck seven."
"Excellent," Crimson growled. "Put the word out, five hundred credits to whoever kills him."
"Aye!"
Weaponless, Sosimo and his men had nothing with which to return fire, so he… improvised. Grabbing a fire extinguisher off the wall, the rogue used it to smash the light control panel for the passage. When the lights went out, it was so dark no one could see their hand in front of their face.
"There, that ought to even the odds a bit. Now they can't see where they're going."
"But Captain," one of his men commented, "now we can't see where we're going either."
LaRouche paused a moment.
"Hadn't thought of that," he lamented. "Nothing for it now, but I've figured out how we're getting out of here. We'll just blow up the ship."
"That's one way to get off," Byron quipped.
"Don't worry, I have… a plan," Sosimo hinted. "Follow me."
As the four unarmed men went to destroy an entire ship of pirates, Byron wondered not if, but how, LaRouche was going to do it.
CHAPTER 16
