Earthman Jack vs. The Ghost Planet

by Matthew Kadish

  A low groan came from Zarrod as he stared intently at Green, as though he wanted to give into the flattery but was still smart enough not to. Green knew the Deathlord probably could not understand the Ancient symbols, most likely because he had no real interest to, but it was also probably not a good idea to try to lie to him either. The Deathlord was unlikely to admit to any sign that an alien such as Green was smarter than him in any respect.

  After a long moment, Zarrod turned to the three guards around Green. “Take him back to the ship,” said Zarrod. “Have him interrogated. I want to know everything he does.”

  “No!” cried Anna.

  A feeling of despair filled Green’s stomach. He knew he was on borrowed time with this journey he was on, but the prospect of the pain he’d have to endure before it was over frightened him to no end.

  “If you hurt him, I won’t help you, I swear to the Great Observer I won’t!” protested Anna.

  “You’re far enough along where we don’t need your willing cooperation,” said Zarrod flatly as he reached behind Anna’s head and clenched his fist again. She stood straight and ridged, unable to move or talk, even though it was clear she wanted to. Whatever power the Deathlord had over her, it was growing with each passing moment. Zarrod turned back to the guards. “Take him to Warlord Abraxas. I wish for him to handle the interrogation personally.”

  The guards nodded and grabbed Green, turning him around and prodding him with their weapons to walk. Green glanced back at Anna one last time, seeing the tears streaking down her cheeks as the Deathlord Supreme and his remaining entourage continued marching her down the corridor.

  Green sighed sadly as he walked along with his captors, his feet shuffling with the weight of a man condemned to die. In his mind, he started to think of all the things he’d never get to accomplish in his life: all the papers he’d yet to write, all the planets he’d yet to explore, and the family he’d never get to have. Suddenly, his decision not to take on a mate for so many years while pursuing his work seemed like a foolish one. After all, who would there be to mourn his passing? No one but Anna, and Green felt even sadder knowing that her time was likely limited, as well.

  He continued to walk silently with the Dark Soldiers, a blanket of depression and sadness wrapped around him. He took some small solace in knowing that the Ancients, in their wisdom, had set up some type of protection should the Deathlord succeed. But it seemed a rather shallow kind of victory when put in context with everything he was about to lose.

  Eventually, he saw the hovervehicle they had taken down to the entrance in the distance before him. The white light of the tunnel shone through the half moon opening, as though some happy paradise awaited him down there. He wondered if it would be wiser to try and slow down the pace of his walk to stretch out what little time he had left, or if it would be better to quicken his fate? Perhaps the smart thing to do would be to rush ahead and throw himself down the tunnel, robbing the Deathlords of the chance to torture him and learn what he had figured out. Then again, his guards probably had the power to use their magic to lift him into the air before his feet could carry him very far. He shuddered at the thought of the invisible hooks digging into his skin.

  Before he knew it, they were almost to the hovervehicle. It sat there, mocking him, as though it knew it would be the thing that carried him to death’s door. In fact, he could almost hear it laughing…

  Oddly enough, that laugh sounded rather like the high-pitch whine of some type of battery powering up.

  BOOM!

  A hot orange blast suddenly tore through the guard to his left, disintegrating him in a puff of dust.

  Green gave out a cry of surprise and fell to the floor, covering his head. He heard blaster fire ring out all around him, and within a few more seconds, more black dust showered down upon him signaling the end of his remaining two captors.

  Green looked up, almost in shell-shock, glancing around him. His bindings had disappeared with the death of his captors, his wrists now blissfully free of their painful restraints. His vision was blurred, possibly from tears of sudden and inexplicable relief. A hazy image made its way toward him, coming into focus on a smiling face he thought he’d never see again.

  ”Jack?” he said, his voice thick with emotion. “Jack! My boy! I don’t believe it…”

  Jack rushed up beside the Professor and knelt next to him. “Hey Professor,” he said, glad to see the old green alien still alive.

  “I thought… I thought you’d gone,” Green said, his wide lips quivering. Jack suddenly felt his stomach tighten with guilt, the image of the Professor lying on the cold floor of the hanger as Jack and the others left him behind playing out in his head. He reached out and put his hand on Green’s shoulder, flashing the bravest smile he could.

  “And let you have all the fun?” said Jack. “C’mon, you know me better than that.”

  Green smiled and looked at Grohm and Scallywag, who came walking up from behind, both of them sporting rather impressive looking weapons. “Well, it would appear I’ve stumbled across a good old fashioned rescue. And not a moment too soon, I might add,” he said. His voice was thick with the cheeriness he’d been known for. As the first sliver of hope since he’d been captured worked its way into him, relief seeped into his muscles and filled him with warmth.

  “Well, not so sure ya’d call it good,” said Scallywag, scratching his head with the muzzle of his pistol. “Or old fashioned, for that matter.”

  “Don’t mind him,” said Jack, helping Green up to his feet. “He gets kinda cranky when storming the Deathlords almost single handedly.”

  “Right,” replied Green. “Where is Paragon Shepherd?”

  The smile on Jack’s face immediately disappeared at the mention of Shepherd’s name. He glanced at his two companions, who remained silent. “He… uh… he didn’t make it,” said Jack meekly.

  Green’s large eyes blinked, as if his brain hadn’t quite registered what Jack had just said. After a few moments, Jack’s words seeped in. “I see…” he said, frowning. He felt his heart break a little at hearing of the loss of his friend. Then, the reality of the situation hit him. “Wait, you mean, you came here on your own? Just – just the three of you?”

  “Well, we have a fourth back on the ship,” said Jack, as though that evened the odds they were facing.

  “Oh, dear,” mumbled Green.

  “Yeah, welcome to my world, Greenskin,” muttered Scallywag.

  “Hey, we’ve made it this far, haven’t we?” said Jack defensively.

  “No, no, don’t get me wrong,” replied Green. “Kudos for bravery my boy, kudos. It’s just that the situation is, uh, complicated.”

  “Ain’t that an understatement if I ever heard one,” said Scallywag.

  “What do you mean, Professor?” asked Jack.

  “Do any of you know what this place is?” Green asked.

  “Yeah, we all saw the slideshow, remember?” said Jack. “Big scary Ghost Planet.”

  “Yes, you told me about Terahades and that it was created to imprison a fleet of powerful enemy ships,” replied Green. “But this place is more – much more – than just a simple prison.”

  Jack, Scallywag, and Grohm all exchanged glances. None of them liked where this might be going.

  “Professor,” said Jack. “We don’t really have a whole lot of time here. Can you just cut to the chase?”

  “Jack, I’ve spent my life studying the Ancients,” said Green. “Much of their history, their story, is still unknown to us, even after thousands of years of the greatest minds in the galaxy studying them. But one thing every Ancient scholar knows about is what’s called The Great Prototypes.”

  “Oy, I hearda those,” said Scallywag. “They’re those Ancient inventions – the ones nobody can figure out what makes ‘em tick?”

  “Indeed,” said Green. “The portgate system, the very thing that ties the Regalus Empire together, was the first Great Prototype ever discovered. It’s been used fo
r millennia, and we have yet to scratch the surface of how it’s able to operate. But there are other Great Prototypes… things the Ancients created that are so powerful, so wondrous, they could change the very foundation of the universe.”

  “Don’t tell me,” said Jack.

  “Yes,” said Green, smiling. “I believe this planet is one of them.”

  “This place?” said Scallywag. “A bloody rock in the middle of nowhere? This is a Great Prototype?”

  “This is far from just a rock, my friend. Look…” Green pointed to the pillars, which were engraved with glowing symbols.

  “From what I can gather,” said Green as he gazed up at the pillars, “the Ancients were experimenting with the genesis of life. They were trying to figure out how to create worlds.”

  “They wanted to create planets?” asked Jack.

  “Not just any planets,” said Green. “Habitable planets! The universe is vast, and finding planets capable of supporting life can be difficult. But if you could simply create a habitable planet anywhere you wanted – one with light, atmosphere, water… why, you could colonize the universe! You’d never have to worry about destroying another planet’s ecosystem, or misplacing indigenous life-forms, or settling someplace that’s potentially dangerous to your species. You could literally create life!”

  “Wow, that’s cool,” said Jack, not really caring. “So, anyway Professor, which way did the Deathlords take Anna?”

  Green’s smile disappeared, as though he suddenly remembered everything that was happening. “They took her to the Great Seal,” he replied.

  “The what?”

  “That’s what I was about to get to,” said Green. “Every Great Prototype is a type of experiment, a work in progress. Often times, it will defy the laws of physics, nature – pretty much anything we accept as scientific fact. It is able to do this through the use of something called a Great Seal – the very thing I was searching for when I stumbled across your planet.”

  “You mean, this Great Seal is the reason why this planet has breathable atmosphere, a world-wide shield, and a big angry tornado?” asked Jack.

  “An angry what?” asked Green.

  “Long story,” said Jack, dismissing the question.

  “There’s a living tornado on the surface of the planet that kills ya,” mumbled Scallywag.

  “Yeah,” sighed Jack. “I really gotta learn how to summarize stuff…”

  “Well, yes. Everything about this planet is tied to its Great Seal. Scientists have tried to figure out what is behind the Portgate network’s Great Seal since it was discovered, but it was always considered too risky to investigate since disrupting the Portgate system would be disastrous for the Empire. But whatever is behind it, we theorize, is some type of quantum energy source capable of stabilizing whatever science the Ancients invented to create the Great Prototype. If what the Deathlord said is true, then that energy source is actually the knowledge of the science behind these prototypes, converted into the very energy needed to create it!”

  “Professor…” said Jack impatiently.

  “The Deathlords plan to use the Princess to release that energy,” said Green. “She is the blood of the Ancients. The only one capable of accessing the energy that’s contained behind the Great Seal.”

  “All the more reason to hurry up and get her,” said Jack, turning to hurry down the corridor.

  “You have to let them!” called out Green urgently.

  Jack stopped in mid-step along with the rest of his group and turned to Green.

  “What?” said Jack, uncertain whether he had correctly heard the Professor.

  “You have to let the Princess unleash the quantum energy that’s trapped behind the Great Seal,” said Green.

  “Hold up now,” said Scallywag. “I thought doing that would free a fleet of unstoppable evil spaceships?”

  “It will,” said Green.

  Jack slapped his palm to his face. “Then why—”

  “Because the only way to save what the Ancients created here is to release that energy back into the universe,” said Green. “As long as it is trapped here, behind that seal, the knowledge of this science is not accessible to anyone. As long as that knowledge is being used for such energy, it’s trapped, shielded from even the most free mind, inaccessible to the universe at large.”

  “Who cares?” said Jack.

  “You should!” said Green. “We all should! Don’t you see? The Deathlords don’t understand what they have here! With this knowledge, we could rebuild what they’ve taken from us! Create new planets to replace the ones they’ve destroyed. Fight death… with new life.”

  Grohm grunted. Jack couldn’t tell if the Rognok was getting bored, or if he was impressed with what Green had just shared.

  “Lemme get this straight,” said Jack. “We have to let the Deathlords force Anna to unleash whatever’s behind this Great Seal, because otherwise no one will be able to figure out what the Ancients did?”

  “Yes,” said Green. “This place was not meant to be a prison, Jack. I believe the Ancients modified it out of necessity. Whatever is behind that Seal was not meant to be trapped there forever. Once it is released, the knowledge of the Ancients will be freed upon this universe. The science behind this is so vast, so new, that the only hope we have of harvesting it lies with tapping into that energy. And somewhere, someone will tune into it. When that happens… we may finally have an advantage over the Deathlords.”

  “Yeah, that’s nice and all… but I’m still not hearing anything about the invincible evil spaceships,” said Scallywag.

  “Oh, well there’s a relatively simple way to handle that,” said Green. “We’ll just need to blow up the planet.”

  This time, both Jack and Scallywag hit their faces with their palms.

  “I think the Deathlords tortured yer friend a tad too much,” mumbled Scallywag.

  “I know how it sounds,” said Green. “But there is a Deathlord Planetkiller docked right above this silo leading directly to the unstable quantum core of this planet where those ships are imprisoned. If the state of quantum flux is as intense as I believe, I am willing to bet the mothership’s main weapon will start a chain reaction that will detonate the core and cause the ‘invincible armada’ to cease to exist.”

  “Blowing up the planet in the process?” said Scallywag.

  “Yes,” said Green. “And most likely the better part of this sector of space.”

  “Charming,” replied the pirate.

  “Well, it’s just a nebula,” said Green. “There are no life-forms here the explosion would hurt.”

  “Yer forgetting about us,” said Scallywag. “I’m pretty sure we’d be hurt.”

  “Well, how were you planning to escape the planet to begin with?”

  “Uh…” said Jack. “We were just gonna use the ship’s Entanglement Engine to jump out of here.”

  “Ah!” said Green. “Brilliant. Chances are its coordinates would take you back to your own space/time, so you’d be able to get off the planet without a worry. Good thinking, my boy.”

  “Thanks,” said Jack, even though the idea had been Heckubus’s, and none of them was even sure it would really work. But bottom line, being anywhere away from the Deathlords was preferable, even if it meant hopping into another reality.

  “That should work just fine,” continued Green. “It will take some time for the chain reaction to trigger and destroy the planet. If we can make the jump before it happens, we should be okay.”

  “Yeah, this plan was bad enough before adding a massive explosion into the mix,” said Scallywag.

  “It’s really the only way to ensure the Deathlord’s invincible armada is never unleashed,” said Green. “The Ancients meant for the seal to be a failsafe. As long as the knowledge is contained behind the seal, it would keep the invincible armada captive. If the seal were broken and the armada were released, the knowledge to defeat them would once again be available to the universe. If we can destroy the
armada AND release the knowledge, then we just may be able to have a significant advantage over the Deathlords for the first time.”

  “So now, we’re not just supposed to rescue the Princess,” said Scallywag, “we’ve gotta free the Ancient forbidden knowledge, infiltrate a Deathlord Mothership, and blow up a planet?”

  “Precisely!” smiled Green.

  Scallywag stared at the Professor dumbly for a moment.

  “I think I was better off in the bloody Pit,” hissed the pirate.

  Jack sighed and looked at Green. The alien stared back at him, his large lips curling around his face the way his human version used to smile when he was leading Jack to the correct answer during class.

  “Shepherd would’ve gone for this plan, wouldn’t he?” asked Jack.

  “Without a doubt,” replied Green.

  Jack nodded and looked at his companions. Scallywag rolled his eyes. Grohm just stared stoically.

  Jack reached up to his earpiece and activated his comm unit.

  “Heckubus,” said Jack. “We have a change of plans…”

  “You have what???” squawked the robot in reply. “How dare you alter my brilliantly plotted scheme! As if any of you nitwits have the wherewithal to account for all the various details and nuances of—”

  “We’re gonna have to blow up the planet,” interrupted Jack.

  After a moment of silence, the robot answered.

  “Oh, well that’s okay then.”

  “Good. Now listen up because there’s a lot you need to know, and we don’t have much time…”

  After Jack explained the situation to Heckubus, it took the robot a few minutes to come up with a strategy for the group that seemed somewhat viable to everyone involved. After the plan had been formulated, Scallywag looked at Jack and frowned.