Earlier, when Star shut down the thrusters, she turned on a computerized security program. Although the voice of the Rook restraining Bach was somewhat distorted by the bodysuit, she’d heard it before. Wilde’s name showed up on the ID screen. She faced her former countryman. “Hello, Wilde. Looks like the game is over and you win.”
“Yes, my little Star,” he hissed, “I’ve directed the ultimate coup. Now you’ll answer to me, so stop wasting time and pack up that fuel!” He looked at his accomplice and used his head to motion him to Star’s side. “Watch her every move, Kwan.”
Bach bristled at Wilde’s taunting of Star, and his skin crawled at the thought of his adversary’s hands restraining him. “Waste your time, fool. You’ll never figure out the formula.”
Wilde twisted a fistful of Bach’s hair until his scalp rose, then jammed his knee into his back.
Star stepped to the fuel storage bin and unloaded the fuel like a pickpocket going through a designer suit. “Our travels have consumed all but these last few briquettes,” she lied, as she glanced toward Wilde. “We don’t have enough to get back to Dura.”
He sneered, “How sad. Unload it.”
With two shoebox-sized containers filled with briquettes, Star spent more time than necessary taping the boxes shut as the agitated accomplice bobbed like a child waiting for a birthday surprise. She looked at him with mock kindness. “I wouldn’t want you to spill any.”
“Nice of you to care.” His voice dripped with sarcasm.
“Why do you have to fight Dura?” she blurted out. “Why not take us back as associates? We can work together to restore our zone.”
The accomplice grasped the light-emitting device hanging around his neck and pointed it between her eyes. “Shut up, pitiful Star, or I’ll muddle your brain.”
Two Rooks stormed up the ramp and stopped short inside with a salute. “Chief, we need you back on the ship—a female prisoner’s out of control.”
Wilde blew out a hot breath and yelled, “Get back there and take care of it. What kind of agents are you? How can you not control a female? Put her in restraints.” As the two ran from the ship, Wilde barked at his accomplice, “Make Star hurry up, she’s taking too long with that fuel.”
Star spoke to Wilde without looking at him. “Everything we have is in these two boxes.”
He yelled, “You haven’t emptied the chamber.”
“You won’t need what’s in the chamber,” she said calmly.
“Look, Star, I’m not playin’ around. Get the fuel from the chamber!”
“Look, Wilde…” she opened the shaft, stuck her hand inside, and flung a glob of brown slime on the floor at his feet “…there’s liquid in the chamber. The solid fuel converts to liquid to burn in Alpha’s engines.”
“Told you,” Bach said with a grunt.
Wilde loosened his grip on Bach and motioned to his ally. “Check that out, Kwan. She’s stalling.” He mumbled to himself, “It’s not possible they changed the specs.” Waiting impatiently, he noticed the nameplate from Altemus’s office door just inches from Bach’s face. He reached over with a smirk and tauntingly picked at the raised gold lettering. “Isn’t this a nice touch? The old dictator’s nameplate. He had to lay claim to one final piece of crap.”
Bach’s jaw clenched and his body stiffened. Star froze and held her breath.
Wilde looked at Star, then at Bach, then at the nameplate, and at the same time slowly curled his gloved fingers around the plaque and pulled. When nothing happened, he focused on Star’s emotionless face and tried again, pushing sideways. The plaque slid aside. A puff of air exited his nose. “A secret fuel chamber.” He laughed. “I have to admit, you guys are kinda clever. I’m almost impressed. Now, remove the briquettes.”
“They’re irretrievable—vacuum-drawn into the shaft,” she said.
Wilde’s voice coarsened. “Last warning, Star, stop stalling. There’s no vacuum chamber, and a fuel conversion chamber is a lame ruse. We saw the specs. This old piece of prehistoric rubble couldn’t even be configured to hold the full amount of fuel you’d need. Don’t underestimate the Specter’s army; we did our homework. And in case you don’t know who we are, well, it’s me and Lavender Rose—Bach’s amorous little pursuer.” He shouted harshly at Kwan, “Get the fuel!”
Bach’s bloody nostrils flared in anger, but silence was his only weapon.
Kwan shoved another empty box into Star’s hands and she began ejecting the chamber’s fuel.
The two Rooks stormed in again from outside and one yelled to Wilde, “Come, now! We’ve tried everything, but we can’t control that one!”
Wilde eased his hold on Bach and motioned to the two. “Get over here and keep him restrained while I handle it.” He headed into the night with a snort just as a sky-wide lightning bolt zigzagged through the blackness.
Then came an earsplitting crack of thunder that sounded like it ripped the planet in half, and the sky let loose with blasting, torrential rain, as if the floodgates of heaven had opened.
Kwan handed the boxed fuel to one of the Rooks and sent him back to their ship, then he grabbed Star by the back of the neck. “Check one last time, ’cause I’m going to look, and if you’ve missed any, you die.”
She knocked his hand away, stared at his bug-eyed goggles, and without saying a word stormed aft.
He chased after her, “That’s it! You die!”
She opened a cabinet and held out the iridescent purple box for him to see. “Do you know what this is?” she coolly asked.
Bach watched in shock. “Star! What’re you doing? You can’t give him the EMOG. Star, don’t!”
She pushed the small, weighty box to Kwan’s chest. “Take it! This activates the fuel. It’ll even boost the power of your liquid fuel if you use it correctly.”
The Rook opened the box excitedly and fondled the bright blue EMOG. “So, Altemus’s superior solid fuel was a hoax. The final ingredient isn’t chemical at all—it’s a device.”
The cabin lights dimmed and warnings chimed.
Star closed the box while it was still in Kwan’s hand and blamed the power surge on the rainstorm. “Boy, that storm sure is powerful.”
He pressed close to her and demanded, “Now tell me how to use it on our liquid fuel.”
She continued, as if reluctant. “Always keep it closed so the power doesn’t drain. Then, at liftoff, as soon as you’re airborne, hold it against your generator.”
“Excellent! Now we really will be rulers of other kingdoms!” Still gloating, Kwan pushed Star back to the cockpit and signaled the accomplice to release Bach. The two Rooks headed out the door.
Bach yelled at their backs, “What about our crew? Let them go.”
“We got what we came for,” hissed a voice blending into the raging downpour. “Enjoy life on Ashkelon.”
Bach and Star hurried to the ramp, anxiously waiting for their crewmates. But when minutes flew by and the four didn’t return from the enemy ship, the pair’s concerns grew.
Then, through the darkness in blinding rain and thunder, G.R. raced into the Ark, followed by Lynch and Deni. Star moved to the cockpit to close the ramp.
“No!” Deni shouted. “Kaz is still with the enemy.”
The Arkmates caught glimpses through the storm with each lightning strike, but there was no sign of Kaz.
Bach automatically started out the door. “I’m goin’ to get her.”
Lynch grabbed him. “I’ll get her.”
G.R. pulled Lynch back just as Kaz ran from the Rook’s ship.
She bolted up the ramp and into the Ark shouting, “Quick, close the ramp. They might come back.”
“Come back?” Star closed the ramp.
“Some jerk named Wilde was boastin’ about gettin’ a secret device, leaving us without fuel, and how he tortured Bach, so I delivered him a cruel blow, if you know what I mean.”
“Kaz, they could have killed you!” Deni said with a huff.
“They won’t be
back,” Bach stated. “They got what they wanted.”
G.R. groused, “And we’re here on Ashkelon for the rest of our days?”
“In a ship with assorted animals ‘n’ people from other planets all havin’ special environmental needs? This can’t be happenin’,” Lynch said.
“This rain will be catastrophic,” Deni added. “The waterways are already at their limits.”
“Well, I’m not going back to live with that community of women on Ashkelon where I can’t be with Lynch,” Kaz snapped. She moved to within inches of Star’s face. “Didn’t you keep any fuel? You weren’t dumb enough to give them all the fuel were you?”
“I had to give it to them or they would have killed us,” she calmly stated.
Kaz wrung her hands and paced. “Death’s probably better than what’s in store. You haven’t lived on Ashkelon; you don’t know all the rules and restrictions.”
Star looked out a porthole. White-hot flashes of light lit up the sky, highlighting the enemy ship as it ascended into the storm with its high-intensity orange lights pulsating. The craft was barely airborne when a lightning bolt and clap of thunder struck with the force of a concussion bomb. A frazzle of blue-white sparks zipped around the ship’s kite-shaped framework making it look like a high-voltage skeleton momentarily suspended in space. When it plummeted to the ground and exploded, tons of debris propelled hundreds of yards in all directions.
Flaming projectiles hurtled toward the Ark’s portholes and Lynch dodged instinctively. “Damn! They dropped like a rock.”
“Definitely a mechanical malfunction,” G.R. said.
Star checked stats on a computer, talking to herself. “Was it the EMOG or lightning that brought them down?”
“What’s an EMOG?” Deni asked.
“A device developed by my father to detect the death lake’s cycles. But it had a secondary aspect that was unwanted until now. It scrambled instrumentation.”
Bach added, “Altemus made a protective box and put the EMOG aboard. Star gave it to the Rooks and told them it was the final step necessary to activate the solid fuel. She told them it would also boost their liquid fuel. Sure enough, their curiosity did them in. It scrambled more than their instruments.”
“That was the plan,” Star said with a grin. “But I’m not ruling out divine intervention. That miraculous electrical charge lit up the whole planet. The EMOG may have attracted a forcefield.”
Lynch looked into the torrential rain, then signaled Bach and G.R. “C’mon, guys, time to head into the face of the storm and find our fuel.”
The men headed out with Star reminding them, “Make it as quick as you can. The Ultimate World’s security will know their guys are down. When the Rooks don’t respond, they’ll be out looking for them.”
*****
In the black night, white hot flashes of lightning struck all around, and thunder rocked the planet like sonic booms.
Pelted by wind-lashed rain, barely able to see, the three men scoured the waste-strewn area. Bach yelled from the right side, “Anybody find anything?”
Lynch’s words could barely be heard from the left. “No. Rain’s skinnin’ me alive.”
A vertical lightning bolt struck a large metal shard nearby, sending it twisting through the air. Fiery sparks flew and the crewmates ducked in reaction.
Crawling and plowing through the wreckage, Bach found a box of waterlogged fuel. He tucked it under his arm and crouched at a run to Lynch’s side, reaching him just as another bolt struck nearby. The mighty, thunderous reaction knocked them both backwards.
Lynch said something, but his words blew back into his lungs as a wall of wind slammed the area and a sudden temperature drop delivered marble-sized hail that bounced a foot high when it hit.
Bach hollered, “Where’s G.R.?”
“Don’t know!”
Soaked to the bone, eyes driven shut by the frigid rain, they searched and yelled for their crewmate, but no one yelled back. Hunched over, Bach went one way, Lynch the other.
A blinding flash of lightning fractured the air, turning pitch darkness into electric gold for a split-second. Bach and Lynch saw G.R. flat on his back a few yards away—eyes wide open, and with the stricken expression of someone about to die a horrible death on his face. They pulled him to his feet and pushed him back to the ship as he kept repeating that his brother was once struck by lightning.
Star closed the ramp just as Ashkelon’s dams and spillway gates gave way. With oceans and seas cresting in forty-foot waves, the Ark’s landing site quickly flooded from rapidly rising water and was in the danger zone for a washout.
Deni and Kaz treated G.R. for shock while Bach and Lynch headed to the flight deck with the box of wet fuel.
“Just one box.” Frustration hung from Bach’s words.
With rips of thunder sounding like explosions, and blinding lightning dancing around the craft incessantly, there was little time to explore how to get the meager ration of wet fuel to work. Star and Lynch focused on the data center; Bach tried to figure out how to dry the fuel fast.
Challenged by the dilemma, Star grabbed a pen and touchpad. Her hand flew across the surface writing dozens of formulas. A maze of statistics flickered on the glass panel. Her whisper spoke volumes, “No … no! Oh, come on!”
“Can I help?” Lynch asked.
“We need a miracle.”
Lynch moved to Bach’s side. “What about the ingredient Altemus added as the last step, can you add more of that? It might promote combustion.”
Bach shook his head and talked as he worked. “It’s not an ingredient.”
“It’s not? Then how did he activate it?”
“There’s a catacomb under the Skyprisms with dozens of passageways. Altemus used his hovercart to navigate through the burial plots to an exit near the holy hill. Then he’d ride to the summit, place the fuel in the light and pray for the Creator’s blessing. The fuel is powered by the light.”
Lynch gulped. “The last ingredient is power from the light?”
“Yep.” Bach pecked on the keyboard and flipped an overhead switch. “Endowed by the Creator, and foolproof because the Specter won’t go near the mount.”
“We could use that power now,” Lynch replied.
Deni, G.R., and Kaz watched tensely as Star tackled a blitz of calculations on a computer. She wrote on the touchpad. Data flashed on the electro-brain panel. She studied the statistics, then wrote some more. “That’s it! Our miracle!” she announced.
Bach slid across the bench and looked over her shoulder. “Miracle?”
“The fake chamber with the liquid in it. It’s not fake.”
“It’s full of brown slimy stuff.”
“That slimy stuff is a propellant. It’ll significantly extend the solid fuel’s burn time.”
“Extend the burn time? The fuel’s wet,” he complained. “And the briquettes don’t fit in that chamber.”
“They’ll fit now that they’re wet. Load it.”
“Star, if it doesn’t work, we’ll never get it back out. We won’t have another chance.”
“It’ll work,” she said.
Bach reluctantly slid the briquettes into the liquid-filled chamber.
*****
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Frozen in silence, the crew watched as energy from the fuel cell steadily grew in intensity. Then a roaring vibration indicated ignition of the propellant cocktail.
“Lift her off,” Bach yelled to Star.
The Ark ascended over the rising seas of Ashkelon with a strong, steady thrust.
Star calculated the distance to Dura against the sparse measure of fuel and brown slimy stuff now critical to their survival. They’d have enough fuel to make it if no additional demands were made on the engines.
During the flight, the crewmates ate, checked on the passengers and animals in the modules, and slowly unwound. Deni curled up in a wall hammock and massaged her neck with a sigh. “I’m so tired. It seems we’ve liv
ed a lifetime since leaving Earth.”
The mention of Earth got Kaz’s attention. “Hey, Bach. We’ll be going back home soon, right?”
“That was my original plan,” he replied.
“Original plan? What’s changed? With this technology we can make it back to Earth, can’t we? We can’t be stuck here forever. We’ll never survive here; things are too different.”
G.R. spoke up. “Think about it Kaz, it’s not that different.”
“I’m not staying here. I’ll find a way to go home.”
Lynch put his finger to her lips. “Shhh. Let’s talk about it later, honey. It’s a long way off.”
Bach wrestled with whether or not to share something with his crewmates, but his good news couldn’t wait. He stood and announced, “I have a secret in my back pocket!” He flashed a knowing smile and waited until the crewmates focused on him. “When we rebuilt these ships to the Creator’s specifications, I slipped in a spec of my own.”
“Like what?” Lynch asked.
“I built the E-module to fly independently of the mother ship.”
Lynch hollered, “Bingo!”
“As soon as we get back to Dura and you guys are mainstreamed, we’ll put our heads together,” Bach said. “The E-module’s just temporary quarters for those we’ve picked up, so our first move will be to integrate them into the Skyprisms. It might require constructing another Skyprism with the different environments, but I think we can pull off whatever it takes in six months. Then we’ll need to secure enough fuel to take us all the way home.”
“Whoo.” Kaz let out a little yelp. “Outta here in six months?”
Star listened from the cockpit, but said nothing.
Bach continued. “I spent long hours refurbishing that module to withstand the trip to Earth. We’ll have onboard food from the hydroponic gardens, and all the elements we need to sustain life.”
“Let’s do it faster than six months,” Lynch added.
“By the way,” Deni interjected, “has anyone kept track of time? I’d be interested in knowing what month this is—Earth time.”
Alpha Rising Page 29
