by Frank Carey
Gabe checked the charge status of his primary power cell and saw it was already half-depleted. "Girlfriend, talk to me. How did it kill the strykers?"
"It drained the storage cell, then killed the strykers when they were unable to defend themselves. Once dead, it tore out their generators and somehow drained them."
He watched the thing sidle-up against an ancient wall. Though it never actually touched the structure, the old rock exploded when it got near. "Um, is it equipped with a force field."
There was a delay. To Gabe, it sounded like Siv was talking to someone. Finally, she came back on-line. "That's affirmative. It only drops the field to tear its victim apart."
Gabe had an idea. It was crazy, but it might just work. "Siv, hang in there a little longer. I've got to kill a monster. Gabe out." He took a calming breath, then changed to tank mode and let loose with a barrage of ordinance that would have sunk a battleship, but not before setting his secondary power cell to standby mode and wrapping a low-level shield around it. Kinetic energy weapons, blasters, lasers, and particle weapons fired on the creature, lighting-up its shields and melting the very ground underneath it, while quickly draining his primary cell. The creature roared and let fly a stream of flame from its cavernous mouth while lasers shot fourth from its eyes and particle beams from the tip of its tail. Stone walls melted around the two combatants.
Gabe watched his reserves drop to zero as, one by one, his weapons went off-line. Finally, his shields dropped leaving him only his armor. The creature paced across the melted ground, unsure if Gabe was still a threat.
"Sometimes, one must lose to win," his teacher, Sensei, told him during a prolonged training session. Gab went down on one knee and retracted his armor. He looked up at the creature with pain-filled eyes and yelled, "Is that all you got, asshole?"
The creature leapt. Gabe watched as the thing arced through the air, it's protective bubble disappearing as it prepared to deliver the coup de grace to his spent form. At the last possible moment, he brought the secondary cell on-line and formed a very large sword on which the creature impaled itself. As an added measure, Gabe discharged half the secondary cell's stored energy through the sword and into the creature’s still-beating heart.
The thing exploded with enough force to slide the Tenko 30-feet and overload the stealth fields on Zoe's ship, which was parked nearby.
###
Pris watched the fight unfold on the cabin's main viewer while the mercs and strykers bet on the outcome. None of them knew how lucky they were that she wasn't armed.
"Don't be alarmed," a male voice said as a blaster was carefully slipped into her hand. She turned and saw Bob, wearing a merc uniform, standing behind her. "Are you OK?"
"Now I am," she said as she slipped the weapon into the waistband of her pants and covered it with her shirt. "What's the plan?" she whispered.
"We move when Gabe destroys the crystal."
She glanced at the immortal before returning to the view screen. On it, Gabe continued to battle the creature. "He sent you here to keep me safe, didn't he?”
"Yep. My dear, that man has one bad case of the hots for you. As a father of almost a hundred daughters, I know what I'm talking about..." He stopped when Gabe fell to the ground, his armor disappearing. The creature leapt at the helpless law officer. Pris screamed, but stopped when a sword appeared in Gabe's hand and impaled the creature's head. The screen filled with white light as the ship and its occupants were thrown backwards away from the battle.
"Report!" Zoe screamed.
"Scanners off-line. Engines off-line. Computer reports structure failure along port-side engine pylon. Comm system is fried. We are dead in the water," the pilot reported as he headed toward the port-side hatch. "We've got electrical fires throughout the ship." He hit a mushroom button above an engineering panel, causing the cabin to fill with white vapor as the computer called-out, "Abandon ship. All hands to escape pods..." The message repeated.
"We are not abandoning this ship!" Zoe yelled while one of the mercs grabbed the pilot.
"Then you, me, my crew, and the mercs are going to die. That white mist is an oxygen displacer." He looked at the merc holding him. "That means no air to breathe, moron."
The merc let him go and headed to the hatch himself.
"Somebody kill the cop!" Zoe screamed.
"No can do, Boss Lady. The cat woman is gone!"
Zoe looked around and saw that Pris was nowhere to be seen. "Abandon ship!" She yelled.
"Excellent idea, milady," the pilot sneered as he and the rest of the ship's passengers and crew ran out the hatch after her.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Zoe, still screaming orders, ran down the ramp and right into the back of a motionless stryker. "What the hell's your problem, Idiot?"
"They're my problem, Mistress," the stryker replied while she pointed at the troops surrounding their ship while several armored assault vehicles patrolled the perimeter. Standing between them and Zoe's people was a rather muscular woman in what looked like fatigues. She walked over to stand in front of Zoe. "Dr. Muntz, my name is Captain Blev of the Consortium of Planets’ Space Navy. I'm placing you and your motley crew under arrest for high crimes and misdemeanors against the State. I suggest you come peaceably or I will be forced to take drastic measures."
"Right. Your troops are no match for my strykers. Show the captain what I mean, Ralls."
The stryker reached over to grab the captain, but stopped when she transformed into a dragon, grabbed his wrist, and threw him into the side of the wrecked ship. He slid to the ground unconscious, leaving a large dent in the derelict’s tough hull plating. Blev looked down at Zoe, her wings absentmindedly flapping the dust away. Behind her, a number of her troops similarly transformed.
"You were saying, Tralaskan?"
Zoe swallowed hard while noting Blev's rather pronounced set of teeth bared only inches away from her head. "Everyone stand down and surrender to these nice...people."
"See, that wasn't so hard, was it? Lieutenant!"
"Ma'am!" A younger dragon replied as it suddenly appeared next to the captain.
"Take the doctor and her people into custody. Be gentle, but firm with them."
"Yes, ma'am," he replied as he went to attention while pulling his rather formidable-looking weapon to his chest. "Squads! Take the prisoners into custody!"
Zoe and her people were swarmed by dozens of armed dragons who handcuffed them before leading them to waiting transports. Blev watched them leave with a bemused smile on her face. "Not once did she ask about you, Gabe."
Gabe, Pris, Siv, Percy, and Anna suddenly appeared as Gabe collapsed his stealth field. "I'm crushed," he replied. He handed her an inert sphere of crystal. "I think this is yours."
She took it and rolled it around in her taloned hand. "This maintained the bridge between the two universes and generated the keep? Doesn't seem like much, does it?"
"And that creature that attacked Gabe and the other strykers fed off it as well," Siv added.
"Now, it's just pretty glass," Gabe noted. "Maybe your scientists can figure out how it works."
"They're already talking to the builder Siv met in the prison.
"What do you think Zoe wanted if for?" Pris asked.
"Probably an improvement for the strykers. The power cell-generator is a choke point in the design. Luckily, I have two of them."
Blev looked up at Gabe. "So, why the change in armor? The last time I saw you suited up, you were into a more dark and somber motif."
Gabe looked down at his new armor. Instead of the black infiltrator or dark green tank, he was now something else. He was now cladded in thin, flexible metalized fabric under smooth, rounded white panels with small, neon-blue emitter squares. His helmet now sported two neon-blue eye slits. "I have no idea what happened. I was briefly knocked unconscious when the creature exploded. When I came to, I was wearing this. Infiltrator and Tank are gone." He said as the armor retracted into spots in his back.
Pris took his arm. "Thanks for coming for me. I thought you'd died in that explosion."
He looked at her, happiness filling his eyes. "I can't very well leave you in the clutches of an evil mad scientist, now can I?"
Siv rolled her eyes.
Gabe looked around. "Where's Bob and Aphrodite?"
"You mean the guy with the lightning bolt? He disappeared in a flash of light and took all the other captives from the prison universe with him," Blev explained. "Nice trick, by the way. Oh, Adonis said he would get together with you after he finished with personal matters. By the way, Gabe, our date's off. I make a rule not to go after another hunter's catch. You all have a great day." She walked away, returning to her normal form as she went.
"I wonder what she meant by that," Gabe asked. Then he noticed Pris' arm wrapped around his. Looking up, he saw the smile on her face. "We really need to get back to the ship."
"Need a lift?" Percy asked. He and Anna seemed amused by Gabe's confusion.
"Yes, thank you," he replied. "It has been a very long day."
"And one that's bound to get longer," Siv whispered to herself.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
A cup of hot coffee sat forgotten next to him as Gabe filled-in the umpteenth page of the after-action report. Unlike most modern-day cops who used computers or voice input, Gabe preferred a pencil on paper, though he did use an auto-sharpening mechanical pencil as a concession to modern sensibilities. Continuing to write, he reached over for his coffee, but pulled his hand back when he burned his fingers on the hot cup. "What the hell?" He looked up and saw Pris standing there holding his cold cup in her hand.
"It was cold, so I brought you a fresh cup. On Katala, we call cold coffee 'yuck,'" she explained.
"Back in the day we used less polite terms." He picked the cup up by its ear and took a sip. "Delicious. Thank you. How are you feeling, Pris?"
"Fine. No ill effects from my stay with Zoe. How are you feeling after your transformation?"
"I feel great. The only thing I've noticed is my hair going white, but the nanorobots seem to be fine with it, so who am I to complain. Oh, Adonis called. He thinks he knows who my grandmother is."
"He thinks? How many Earth women did he sleep with?"
"He didn't say. I get the impression that he visited a lot of places he wasn't supposed to. Aphrodite has her hands full with that one."
Pris got up and walked over to sit in his lap. She ran her fingers through his hair. "I like it."
"Pris, I'm your boss. I don't want to take advantage of my position..."
"Do you like me?"
"Yes, but..."
"Do you love me?"
He stopped and looked at her, seeing for the first time the fine hair on her face and the cat-like eyes. She smelled of alien worlds filled with beautiful flowers. "Yes, I love you Priscilla Kitra."
"So, what's the problem?"
"Commanding officers don't date subordinates..."
"On Earth in the 21st century. Things have changed. The people running things realized that it was OK for people to be people. Anyway, I looked it up. Dating is not only allowed, hell its encouraged."
"It is?"
"Yep." She leaned over and kissed him. He kissed her back.
"Pris, there's something you need to know..."
"You've been having strange dreams where you think you might die." She looked at him in a way that made him feel like an idiot.
"Yeah. Did Marta tell you?"
She nodded. "The General is worried you might do something stupid, like not ask me out. She is a very wise woman."
Gabe smiled. "I am blessed with wonderful children and grandchildren."
"So, are we dating?"
"Yeah, I'd like that."
She kissed him again. "By the way, Siv made dinner, and she was hoping you'd join us."
"I would be honored."
"Good. Let me dump the yuck..." she stopped and stared in the cup. "Did you drop something in here?"
He took the cup from her and reached in to retrieve an object that was partially submerged in coffee. He held it up to the light. "It’s an artifact," he said as it lit up before being absorbed into his hand. Immediately, another glyph tattoo appeared on his upper arm.
"How did it get into a cold cup of coffee while we're in other-space."
"I have no idea, but we should have the Delphi swept for ghosts when we hit dock."
She cuffed him, then took him by the arm and led him out of the cabin. When they were gone, two figures emerged from the shadows. Sitting in the now-empty chairs, they sat back and looked at one another.
"You are playing with fire, Gaia." The one who spoke was a human male, his skin far darker than any that evolved on Earth. He was bald, muscular, and gave the air of being both cock-sure and weary of the chase.
"Ter'rell, when have I not played with fire? Yet, look at how well things have turned out?"
"If you call the multi-verse reverting to a primordial state, then yeah, things are just peachy."
"Gabe will fix it, especially now that he has something to fight for."
"I thought his daughter and her offspring were enough of an incentive. You think he needs more? Anyway, your roll in all this is as bringer of disorder while I'm your foil. Did this change?"
"Things changed when Josiah went too far. He wasn't supposed to bring on the complete annihilation of reality, only jiggle it a little. O is very upset with me and I don't like that."
Ter'rell leaned back in his seat and stared at his counterpart. "You actually care what someone thinks about you. I am ploonharped."
"Don't think for one moment that this is a permanent state of affairs. I promise you, things will return to normal when Gabe's worked his magic."
"You mean when he dies."
With a scathing glance in Ter'rell's direction, she finished Gabe's coffee before winking out. Ter'rell shook his head, then followed suit.
<<<<< FINIS >>>>>
About Frank Carey
Frank Carey has been formally writing and publishing works of science fiction since late 2013. Over the years prior, he had dabbled in various forms of writing including haiku poetry, but that all changed when he and his wife, Jo, decided to try their hand at writing and self-publishing. All his work, to date, has been in the science fiction genre.
Most of his stories take place about two centuries in the future when Earth joins the League of Planetary Systems. Many of his protagonists are strong females. He is an inveterate pantser who believes the story will go where the story wants to go.
Frank’s background includes degrees in physics and extensive work as a scientific programmer and technologist.
Frank and his wife produce a podcast—Xtreme Self-Publishing—which details their self-publishing efforts.
Frank can be reached through his podcast at xtremeselfpublishing.podbean.com or via e-mail at [email protected] or [email protected]
