Earthman Jack vs. The Ghost Planet

by Matthew Kadish

“Oh, dear… but, we can’t destroy the planet without first breaking the seal!”

  “You’re gonna have to.”

  “But all that knowledge will be lost! It won’t survive the quantum explosion!”

  “I’m sorry, Professor. Better it than us.”

  “You said she cracked the seal?” asked Green. “If she did enough to break the Ancient protection, you might be able to destroy what is left yourself.”

  “With what?”

  “Do you still have any explosive devices on you?”

  Jack looked down at his grenade belt.

  “Kinda,” said Jack, not really liking where this was going.

  “If you can plant the explosives before you leave, you can trigger them remotely from a safe distance as you make your way to the rendezvous point.”

  Jack glanced over to where Grohm was fighting with Zarrod. “I don’t know, Professor…”

  “Please, Jack! The knowledge contained behind that seal could be vital to the survival of the universe! It could save countless lives! You cannot simply abandon it!”

  Jack turned back to glance at the Great Seal, its massive eye gazing at him amid the luminous cracks all throughout it. Something about it called to him. The eye, as fractured as it was, felt like it had made contact with his stare. Jack remembered that moment in the temple at the center of Earth when an eye had appeared in his mind, and had spoken to him, the words ringing through his head at that very moment:

  Eldil Meldilorn.

  And then for some reason Jack couldn’t explain or comprehend, despite all his instincts telling him otherwise, Jack knew the Professor was right.

  That seal had to be broken.

  Jack sighed. He set Anna down gently behind one of the stone benches by the stairway and started to run back toward the seal.

  “Okay, Professor, you win,” said Jack. “But if you don’t hear from me in ten minutes, fire that weapon anyway and get the heck out of here!”

  “May the Great Observer watch over you, my boy,” said Green.

  “Uh, you, too,” said Jack, not really knowing how to respond.

  As he ran toward the seal, Jack glanced over and saw Grohm and Zarrod engaged in some kind of hand-to-hand wrestling. It was hard to make out what was happening; he just hoped that whatever was going down, Grohm was winning (or at least was buying him some time).

  Once Jack reached the seal, he found the largest crack he could and unbuckled his grenade belt. He looked at the grenades, remembering what Major Ganix had shown him when they were in the Pit.

  Jack popped the cap off one of the grenades and twisted the button until it clicked. He slid out the narrow remote cylinder from the center, its detonator on the top, and hooked it to his gun belt. All he’d need to do is press the button and the grenade would go off instantly, its explosion causing the others on the belt to blow in a chain reaction. Hopefully, the range on it would be far enough that Jack would have Anna well on the way to the hoverbikes by the time he was ready to detonate it.

  Suddenly, a deafening BOOM echoed throughout the dome as a flash of light momentarily blinded Jack. When he looked back up, he saw Grohm high in the air, falling back down with a thunderous THUD.

  Zarrod stood fifteen feet before Grohm, ghostly energy seeping from every nook and cranny of his dinted and beaten armor, giving him a horrific aura Jack could feel even from where he was standing.

  “Enough of this!” raged the Deathlord.

  Grohm unsteadily got to his feet, and no sooner had he regained his footing than Zarrod unleashed another powerful death energy attack which plowed into the Rognok, blasting him backwards through the stone seating, all the way back to the dome itself where Grohm impacted the wall with such force that he formed a small crater.

  Then, a shrill screeching sound filled the air as Zarrod harnessed a ball of chaotic, swirling energy in his hands. It quickly grew to the size of a basketball. Jack watched in horror as Grohm got to his feet, stumbling slightly, unaware of what awaited him.

  “GROHM!” yelled Jack. “LOOK OUT!”

  But the warning came too late. Zarrod unleashed the ball of death energy that shot forth, screaming right at the Rognok. It hit Grohm dead-on, hurling him back into the crater he’d just made. The energy swirled around him, and when it disappeared, the Rognok slumped to the ground and lay still.

  Jack felt frozen for a moment, his eyes fixed on his friend. His heart felt like it had stopped and his breath was stuck in his throat. Then, something within him made him look away, and his gaze landed on the Deathlord Supreme.

  And the Deathlord Supreme was looking right back at him.

  He pointed a crooked claw directly at Jack, his voice booming with anger.

  “You,” he said, simply.

  “Ohhhhhhh, crap,” muttered Jack, panic starting to grip his belly. In this situation, there was little Jack could think of to do other than to fall back to his patented strategy number one for avoiding a beat down - which was to run away. Fast.

  Without another moment’s hesitation, Jack took off running as quickly as he could for the stairs. He heard something whizzing in the air, and turned in time to see a ghostly ball of white barreling toward him. He turned just as the death energy impacted the ground where he was going to be. The blast exploded on impact, its force sending Jack flying into the air.

  The room turned topsy-turvy as Jack spun head-over-heels. He landed on his back hard, his head ringing from the impact. Spots of color assaulted his vision as he opened his eyes. His hearing was dulled, and he felt fingers of pain running up and down his spine.

  He tried to sit up, but his back wasn’t having it. Slowly, Jack rolled over onto his belly. The ringing in his ears subsided, and he blinked his eyes to clear his head. When he did, he saw Zarrod.

  The Deathlord stood before him, the massive Great Seal behind the alien, its cracked visage dancing with brilliant light. Zarrod looked down at Jack, his terrible red eyes practically burning with hate and malice. Ghostly white energy seemed to fall off him like smoke, and the Deathlord’s hands shimmered with furious power.

  Jack gritted his teeth, the image of what the Deathlord had done to Grohm fresh in his mind. His memory jumped to Shepherd’s last pained breath, and to Anna hanging helplessly at the Deathlord’s side – both in the hanger of the mothership and in this very room.

  Then, the words of the Regal Soldiers rang in his mind. If you’re going to die, die advancing.

  Jack pushed himself up.

  Jack got to his feet.

  And Jack gazed at what was to be certain death with a courage he had never known he had until that very moment.

  “I destroyed your planet, I’ve killed everything you’ve ever cared about, and now, I’m going to kill you,” rumbled Zarrod.

  Jack looked at Zarrod, and for some strange reason, his mind flashed back to his first fight ever… the one in the school cafeteria with J.C. Rowdey, the bully he had suddenly punched to the surprise of everyone, including himself.

  And Jack just couldn’t help it. He had to laugh.

  Zarrod hesitated a moment, taken aback by Jack’s reaction. The Deathlord’s eyes grew wide with indignation, anger and fury welling up inside him.

  “You… dare… laugh at me?” the Deathlord growled.

  “Sorry, dude,” said Jack as a strange feeling of peace came upon him. “I just realized that there’s a point where bullies stop being scary.”

  “You say you’re no longer afraid?”

  “Oh, no, I’m afraid,” said Jack. “Just not of you.”

  “Is that so?” the Deathlord growled.

  Zarrod reached out his hand, and Jack felt the sharp pain of razor-like hooks digging into him all over his skin. Jack writhed and gritted his teeth as he felt himself lifted into the air, trying desperately not to scream.

  Zarrod brought Jack, hovering helplessly in the air, to him The two of them stood in the middle of the open arena, face to face, eye to eye.

  Jack felt Zarrod p
ull at his soul, pain shooting through every fiber of his being, but he kept his gaze on Zarrod, and bit down so hard to keep from screaming it felt like he might break his teeth.

  Zarrod looked at Jack with a hint of amusement in his horrible red eyes. “I am Zarrod, the Deathlord Supreme - culler of worlds, master of darkness, and bane to all that is living. No force can harm me, no weapon can strike me, no army can defeat me. I am the Omega, and the universe trembles at my fury. Who are you not to fear me?”

  Jack’s body trembled as pain shot through every nerve like a fire ravaging unchecked through a defenseless forest. He could feel the cold hand of despair tighten around his gut and gnaw like a rabid animal. Flashes of light shot off in sparks in the periphery of his vision, and it was almost as if he could feel the frigid embrace of darkness begin to wrap itself around his very soul.

  Then, in the far reaches of his mind, for some reason, he remembered an afternoon sitting in a classroom with a man he thought he hated. He remembered the talk they’d had, and the strange sense of pride he had felt when he had suddenly earned that man’s respect.

  He remembered the courage that man had shown, fighting a foe he knew he could not defeat.

  He remembered the trust that man had placed in him, even though he wasn’t sure he deserved it.

  But most of all, he remembered how much he hated to lose.

  With every ounce of strength he could muster, he clenched his teeth, grabbed the detonator on his belt, raised it right in front of the Deathlord's face, and said...

  “I'm... Jack!”

  And with that, he pushed the trigger.

  The explosion erupted, smoke and fire racing up the face of Great Seal. Shrapnel and debris shot forth, and Jack could feel them whizzing by, though if they had any impact on Zarrod, he did not show it.

  There was the sound of a massive CRACK and the Great Seal broke in half, giving into its wounds and crumbling to the ground in a cloud of dust and smoke. Behind it was nothing but a brilliant white light.

  Jack gazed at the light as the Deathlord stood before him, not moving, not taking his venomous gaze off Jack for one instant. Jack heard Zarrod laughing.

  “Foolish boy,” the Deathlord growled. “You did exactly what I had wanted.”

  Deep in the light, Jack could see blue sparks start to dance around, and lightning start to cascade, swirling into a maelstrom in the shape of one great, all-seeing eye.

  “Trust me,” said Jack. “I don’t think you wanted this…”

  Zarrod turned, shifting his attention from Jack to the opening behind him. Whether the Deathlord was frightened, confused, angry, or just plain indifferent, he couldn't tell. All Jack did know was that in his final moments, he had succeeded.

  Just as Jack was about to succumb to the darkness of the Deathlord's culling, an ear-shattering BOOM exploded from the opening.

  For an instant, time seemed to stand still, activity from the opening ceased, and all was quiet.

  Then, with the might of a star going supernova, the energy the Great Seal had been protecting mere moments before shot forth with the strength of a thousand furies, crashing through Zarrod, and funneling directly into Jack.

  Both Jack and Zarrod screamed as the energy from the opening coursed through both of their bodies. It was almost as if Jack could feel the very atoms that made up his being dance, as they threatened to rip apart and never come back together.

  As more and more of the energy channeled into him, he was bombarded with flashes of images - people, places, things – an avalanche of information, as though they were being etched onto the very fiber of his being.

  It was just like the feeling he had experienced in the temple leading to the Earthship, only a billion times stronger. More images danced before his eyes, all of them strange, familiar, and fantastic. It was as though the entire universe was laid out before him, and he was only able to perceive a tiny glimmer of its majesty and wonder.

  But there was a darkness there, too. It was small but noticeable. It writhed, drenched in fear, and pain, and sorrow - scared of what was happening to it. It was seeing what Jack was seeing, but unable to understand the overwhelming light that was at the center of the message that was being shared.

  It was a message of hope, of peace, of wonder... of life itself.

  It was a message looking for a home, a place to take root and grow and flourish. Instantly, Jack knew he could be that home. But the darkness wrapped itself around the message, like a scared snake coiling around its enemy, and Jack realized that if he were to let in the light, he’d be forced to let in the darkness, as well.

  Jack considered himself to be many things, but he never considered himself to be a very good student. However, this was one lesson he was willing to learn - no matter what the cost.

  He opened his mind and invited the message in.

  * * *

  Jack awoke, floating. Light was all around him. It was bright, but it did not hurt his eyes. It was warm but comfortable. It was as though he were lying on a cloud, drifting in a still, clear lake on the most beautiful day he could ever have possibly imagined.

  Then came the voice.

  “Hello, Jack.”

  Jack turned. Before him stood a man. He was tall, and slender, with wavy light-brown hair that was just starting to grey at the temples. He had kind hazel eyes, a warm smile, and a glimmer of familiarity that Jack couldn’t quite place.

  “Am I dead?” Jack asked.

  “No,” replied the man.

  “Then where am I?”

  “Same place you were before.”

  “This doesn't look like the same place.”

  “Well, I guess it depends on how you’re looking at it.”

  “Are you sure I'm not dead?”

  The man laughed. “Quite. Don’t you trust me?”

  “I guess. Who are you?”

  The man’s smile turned slightly sad.

  “Someone who wants to help,” he answered.

  “Well, you could start by being a bit more clear with your answers,” said Jack. “I'm not big on reading between the lines.”

  The man chuckled. “Fair enough. But I'm afraid there’s only so much I’m allowed to tell you.”

  “Okay,” said Jack, more than a little bit confused. “Are you allowed to tell me what the heck just happened?”

  “You freed the quantum energy that was behind the Great Seal, and you opened your mind to it.”

  “All that stuff I saw,” said Jack, “that was the knowledge the seal was protecting?”

  “Yes. And now you’re its vessel.”

  “Wicked,” said Jack. “Does that make me the smartest guy in the universe or something?”

  “Not exactly,” the man chuckled. “With your current level of development, if you had access to all that information at once, it’s very likely you’d go insane.”

  “That’s… not cool,” said Jack.

  “Try to understand something, Jack… all knowledge exists in the universe. Everything anyone could ever think or discover is already out there. It just has to be found by a mind that’s open to it. The Great Seals were designed to harness some of that knowledge, which in effect hides it even from minds open to discovering it. You were at ground zero when this knowledge was unleashed from its prison. And somehow, without any training whatsoever, you opened your mind to its entirety. Where it might take some a lifetime to discover even a fraction of what was contained in there, some part of you will know where to look for all of it. So its not that you can’t access the knowledge, it’s just that you’ll have to figure out what you want to access, and do so when the time is right.”

  “Is that why you’re here?” asked Jack. “To teach me how to access it?”

  “No. I’m here to deliver a message.”

  “What kind of message?”

  “A message of hope.”

  “There you go,” said Jack, “being all cryptic again.”

  “Well, get used to it kiddo, because before all th
is is over, you’re going to run into a lot of stuff that won’t make any sense.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I'd tell you, but then I’d just have to be all cryptic again.”

  Jack nodded. “Okay, fine. Can you at least tell me what your message is, straight up?”

  “Okay,” said the man. “The message is: You can save Earth. Is that straight up enough?”

  Jack’s heart skipped a beat.

  “What?” he asked.

  “You can save Earth, and every other planet the Deathlords have destroyed.”

  “But... how is that possible?” Jack asked. “They blew up Earth!”

  “Anything is possible," said the man. “If you find the final creation of the Ancients.”

  “The final creation? You mean that thing Anna's looking for!” exclaimed Jack. “The Ancient weapon? It really exists?”

  “It does,” said the man. “And now, you know how to find it.”

  “I do?” asked Jack. “Was it one of the things that just got downloaded to my brain? How do I access it? What is the weapon? How does it save Earth?”

  Jack stopped talking when he realized the man was grinning at him strangely.

  “Let me guess,” said Jack. “You’re not allowed to tell me.”

  “No, no...” said the man. “It’s just... well, it’s just that I see a lot of potential in you.”

  For the first time, Jack tried to clear his mind of confusion and really look at the man standing before him. Deep in his gut, Jack felt like he somehow knew this man, like in the back of his mind, he could remember someone saying the exact same thing to him, long ago.

  “Who are you?” asked Jack again. “Are you an Ancient?”

  The man shook his head. “No, unfortunately, I'm not.”

  “Then who? Please, tell me.”

  For a moment, it looked like the man was going to answer, then suddenly, a piercing SHRIEK cut through the air. The light around them began to dull, as streaks of darkness soaked its way in and swirled around with the light.

  The man looked around, startled.

  “No,” he said. “We’re supposed to have more time!”

  “What is it?” asked Jack, as he began to feel a cold wind swirl around him. “What's happening?”