by Tim Sullivan
Jumping over their smoking bodies, Mike made another left turn, trusting in his usually unerring sense of direction to get him to the ship's center. He came to an intersection of four corridors. Which way now?
"Mike!"
He leaped out of the way as a Visitor pounced from above. Before the alien hit the floor, a laser beam had burned through his stomach.
Julie ran to help Mike up.
"Good shot," he said.
She hugged him. "Those long legs of yours are hard to keep up with."
They were off and running again, dodging down corridor after corridor, often having to fight their way through, backtracking, then heading back the way Mike sensed they must go if they were to make it.
Suddenly they confronted a vertical cylinder where the corridors all ended like the inner spokes of a wheel.
"This is it," Mike breathed.
Julie nodded, huffing and puffing next to him.
A door opened, startling them.
"Quick!" Mike jerked the grating off an air vent and lifted Julie up so she could crawl inside. He followed, replacing the vent just as doors slid open all around the command center.
Dozens of Visitors streamed out of each door, drawing their lasers as they ran down the corridors nearest them. Several passed directly below Mike and Julie.
The moment the last of them was out of earshot, Mike kicked the grating off and jumped down. The closest door was closing from the top. It was already halfway down.
He dashed toward it, diving and rolling under with only inches to spare. He came up in a crouch on the inside, pointing his laser at the startled Visitors gathered around their consoles.
"Stand over there," he commanded them, gesturing with the barrel of the laser.
They did as he told them.
"Now open the door and leave it open."
A Visitor inserted a crystal key in a slot next to the door, and the door slid up.
"Julie," he called, "it's all right. Come on in."
Julie entered, laser at the ready.
"Now," Mike said, "set the command to blow this thing to atoms."
The Visitors looked at him in horror, their artificial eyes widening convincingly. "We will all die," one of them finally managed to say.
"It will take a little while for the delayed command to take effect," Mike told him. "We should have enough time to reach the skyfighters."
"But your planet is getting farther away every nanosecond," a voice said from behind them.
Mike and Julie both turned at the same moment. A dark-haired woman looked at them through frightened eyes. Around her neck was the scaly green arm of a Visitor who wore no makeup. At the end of the Visitor's other arm was a claw clutching a laser whose barrel was pressed against the woman's head.
"We wouldn't want to be too close to Earth when we detonate this thing, would we?" Mike asked coolly.
"If you are too far away," Dr. Morrow said, "the skyfighters will not be able to carry you back to your planet."
"It's a chance we'll have to take," Julie said.
"Ah," Dr. Morrow sighed. "But Dr. Fontaine will have no chance. She will die here where we stand."
"Then you'll die," Mike promised.
"Then we'll all die." Dr. Morrow seemed pleased by this little game of one-upmanship he was playing. "Enough, Mr. Donovan. Throw down your weapons or I will kill her right now."
Mike and Julie hesitated.
"Now!" Dr. Morrow shrieked.
They threw down their lasers, defeated by Dr. Morrow's ruthlessness.
"You have lost, Mr. Donovan and Dr. Parrish," Dr. Morrow gloated. "You have not only lost the battle, but the entire war."
"We'll see about that," Julie said. "It's not over yet."
"But it is over. Dr. Fontaine and I are going to conceive a child the equal of Elizabeth, a child which I will personally train to unleash its powers against your kind, destroying you all."
"The child can never hold that kind of power without the Preta-na-ma," Mike said, "and the Preta-na-ma teaches peace."
"You mistakenly believe that the ancient secrets can only be applied traditionally," Dr. Morrow said. "It is the work of the scientist to find new ways to accomplish great things."
"Is it the work of a scientist to warp a child's mind?" Julie asked. "To turn a great philosophy into an instrument of hate? I think you're mistaken, Dr. Morrow."
"No, you're mistaken, and you're beaten," he taunted. "If only you had possessed enough foresight to close this door behind you." He shoved Sabrina forward a step across the threshold. "But you didn't do that, did you?"
"Neither did you." A powerful hand shot out and grabbed Dr. Morrow's wrist in a viselike grip. The laser pistol clattered to the floor as Dr. Morrow gasped and released Sabrina.
Jack Stern lifted him bodily off the floor, slamming him against the bulkhead with one hand. He still clutched Dr. Morrow's wrist, and the sound of crunching bones was clearly audible.
"Their weapons!" Dr. Morrow screamed. "Get their weapons!"
But the command center crew weren't fast enough. Mike darted after the two lasers he and Julie had dropped a few moments ago.
Dr. Morrow was still pinned against the bulkhead, Jack's left hand encircling his throat. He gagged and sputtered, his yellow eyes bulging.
Everyone, human and Visitor alike, watched in silence. It was as though a ritual were being performed that could not be interrupted. The ritual of revenge.
Green fluid bubbled out of Dr. Morrow's jaws, dribbling onto Jack's hand. The scaly mouth opened wide, revealing the spiky teeth within. Another gout of green poured out, and then the head slumped, lolling to one side.
Dr. Morrow was dead.
Chapter 45
"Set the detonator," Mike demanded.
"The explosion will be enough to destroy your world," one of the Visitors said fearfully.
"You heard what your boss said before he died—we're moving away from Earth rapidly."
"But even so, it may not be far enough."
"I think it will be."
"If it is, you will never be able to get back to Earth."
"That's a chance we'll have to take, isn't it? Now, do it."
The Visitor stretched a claw toward the command console and hesitated.
Mike aimed the laser right between his eyes. "Do it!"
The Visitor did it, computer graphics illustrating the process as he punched in the secret code that would turn the ship into a hydrogen bomb powerful enough to destroy the entire earth.
At last he looked up from the console. "It's done," he rasped.
Mike pushed him ahead out the door. Jack stood over the corpse of Dr. Morrow, flexing and unflexing his mighty hands. Sabrina embraced him, gently leading him away by one arm. Julie took the other, and they followed Mike and his hostage, leaving the rest of the command center crew gawking behind them.
Outside the door they found Willie, Ham, Chris, Marie, Elias, and John waiting for them, weapons in hands.
"Come on," Mike said. "This thing's gonna blow in a few minutes."
"You did it," Ham said, his usual cynicism completely absent. "You really did it, didn't you, Mike?"
"Maybe. We still have to get a skyfighter. Our friend here is the ship's engineer, I believe." Mike poked the back of the Visitor's skull with his laser. "I'm betting they won't want him to die."
He glanced back into the command center. "You want to die in space?" he shouted at the crew. "Go on."
They ran out and scrambled down the nearest corridor.
"There's no turning back now," Chris said. "If they could have bollixed that detonation code, they would have."
They didn't run through the Mother Ship's passageways. Instead, they walked behind Mike and their prisoner single file, straight into a spacious, dark area milling with Visitors.
"Don't say a word," Mike instructed the hostage, "or you'll be the first to die."
They stepped into the enclosure. "Let us go and we won't kill your engi
neer," Mike said in a clear, authoritative tone. "We only want to go back to our planet."
As if in a motion-picture freeze frame, the crowd stopped virtually all movement and fell silent.
"Just let us go to the docking bay without any trouble, and we'll borrow a skyfighter. If you do that, he will live. If you attack us, I'll be forced to kill him."
"Gather around Mike," Ham said to the others. They formed a rough circle around him and the engineer, all of them moving as one through the enclosure.
They passed so close to the resentful Visitors that they could hear the reptilian creatures breathing. Slowly the corridor on the far side of the big chamber drew nearer.
Jack felt sweat standing out on his forehead and running down his temples and cheeks. A few days ago he'd been in Miami, working out with his teammates—and now he was running interference against creatures who were trying to conquer Earth.
They were almost there. Once they got to that corridor, it would be a lot more difficult for the Visitors to stop them. They would reach a bottleneck at the narrow passage if they gave chase.
Jack was facing backward, sweaty hand on his laser. Julie and Sabrina—his darling Sabrina—were on either side of him. For the first time he began to think they could make it.
The wailing of a demon echoed through the enclosure, reverberating through the corridor and deafening them.
"What the hell is that?" Jack yelled over the din.
The startled faces of the Visitors told him what it was: an alarm warning of the imminent destruction of the Mother Ship.
Shrill cries, hisses, and rasped oaths filled the enclosure. A blue beam streaked through the faint light within, barely missing Marie's head.
Mike shoved the engineer out of the way. "Run!" he bellowed.
His cornpanions-in-arms were way ahead of him. They dashed down the dark corridor, their way lit by the laser beams of their enemies.
Chapter 46
Somehow they made it to the docking bay without losing anyone. By this time the entire ship was in a state of panic, the Visitors either running around in confusion or readying the skyfighters for flight.
Mike held up his hand at the mouth of the corridor overlooking the docking bay. "Wait until they get one fueled," he said. "Just when they're ready to board, we'll make a break for it. If we can fight our way through this crowd, we've got a chance."
They all waited, knowing that a chance was only a slim one. One of the skyfighters lifted off the bay floor as the enormous hatch opened to let it out into the starlit blackness.
Bulky hoses were clamped to the bottom of the next skyfighter in line. Fights were breaking out on the docking bay floor as everyone tried to position himself to board the departing craft.
Somehow the techs managed to keep the rabble from storming the skyfighter. Perhaps they sensed that their only chance for survival depended on a few moments' patience.
Those few moments were enough for the resistance fighters to race across the mobbed floor to the newly fueled skyfighter. Flicking tongues and widened, yellow eyes rushed past as they sprinted. Those who saw them cried shrilly, but their voices were lost amid the chaos.
They only had a few more yards to go when the hatch opened and the technicians allowed the first few to board the skyfighter. Shoving Visitors out of the way, Jack was the first of the resistance fighters to reach the ramp. He turned to pull Sabrina up beside him.
"Stop them!" a strident, reptilian voice rasped.
Jack picked a Visitor up over his head and hurled him into the crowd as his friends clambered aboard. The body knocked half a dozen Visitors to the floor, clearing the ramp.
All the while the hideous howl of the siren sounded a continuous note of doom in the background.
Jack pulled the ramp up with his powerful arms, shutting out that dreadful sound forever. Willie was at the console, and the skyfighter lifted off the docking bay floor. As Willie turned the skyfighter toward the stars, Jack saw the terrified Visitors below them, claws raised in enraged frustration.
The huge hangar door of the docking bay began to close.
"Willie ..." Mike tried to stay calm.
Willie ran his hand over the console. The doorway narrowed. All aboard the skyfighter watched with fascinated dread.
The engines pulsed, and they hurtled through the closing bay door with only centimeters to spare.
"Stern!" Ham shouted. "Fire that laser cannon at the panel next to the docking bay door."
Jack jumped into a swiveling chair suspended above the floor in the tail of the skyfighter. He glanced at the controls, not consciously knowing what to do. And yet, as soon as he put his hands on the grips, he squeezed the firing mechanism and watched the blazing twin beams sear the curved shell of the Mother Ship. The docking bay door began to reopen.
He kept firing until he could control his shots. Then he lined up the panel, which was diminishing to a tiny rectangle as the skyfighter gained speed. The nose of another skyfighter appeared in the opening door.
The panel in the Mother Ship was sliced open in a shower of sparks. A flaming jet licked silently outward, and the door convulsed. The emerging skyfighter, its pilot anticipating the timing of the door, collided with its solid edges and exploded.
The resistance fighters cheered and hugged each other. But it wasn't over yet.
"How much time do we have before the Mother Ship blows?" Julie asked.
"One minute," Willie said, never taking his gaze off the console. "Perhaps two."
"The rest of them will never get off that ship, but one skyfighter got out before us."
Willie nodded. A moment later, their ship veered off, affording them a breathtaking view of Earth's rising blue-white curve.
A tiny, gleaming mote over the azimuth was the refugee skyfighter.
"They don't know we're after them," Mike said. "Can you come up under them, Willie?"
The alien nodded, turning on a burst of speed. "We are close enough to your world to take advantage of the gravity well," he said, "but far enough away to maneuver quickly, our antigravity engines playing against the tidal forces."
Plummeting toward Earth, they gained quickly on the unsuspecting passengers of the other skyfighter. Willie pointed the nose up as Mike seated himself at the other laser cannon.
"Fire!" he shouted as the belly of the skyfighter came across their sights.
Jack and Mike both fired at the same instant. Blue flame danced along the skyfighter's hull, but she didn't explode. Instead, she banked and hurtled off the way she had come.
"Let's go after her," John Tiger said, excited in the heat of battle.
"You got it!" Mike yelled. "Let's go, Willie!"
The wounded skyfighter zigzagged through space, the moon's cratered face peering down at her. Willie observed her course on his console screen, doing his best to duplicate its serpentine trajectory.
They gained on it, but suddenly the crippled skyfighter banked to the right and shot off straight toward the Mother Ship.
"They're slowing down," lack said. "We can catch 'em."
"Come on," Elias hollered. "Go for it, Willie."
"No!" cried Willie.
Their skyfighter banked, Willie frantically working his hands over the console. Frustrated cries rose from the resistance fighters.
And then they saw the wisdom in what Willie had done.
Jagged lines of pure white light appeared in the curve of the Mother Ship's fuselage. They grew into abstract blots of brilliance and joined, the hurtling debris unable to outrun the heat.
Earth and moon were lost in the blinding brilliance. Ahead, a tiny fleck of black showed against the mushrooming effulgence. It was the crippled skyfighter, banking, trying to turn around.
It was absorbed into the omnipresent light.
The light reached out past where the wounded skyfighter had been, stretching to cross the emptiness of space and take the second skyfighter—the one they were in.
"No!" Marie cried.
&
nbsp; "God help us," Jack prayed.
"At least we got them first," Ham said.
The burning light that filled the emptiness steadied, no longer increasing.
They held their breath.
And waited.
The light remained ... but it began to fade.
None of them moved as it slowly diminished, receding gradually into the darkness of space, leaving nothing in its wake.
As if from a trance, they were roused by a crackling, female voice. The image of Medea, the fleet commander appeared in their midst. She was transmitting from her Mother Ship based beyond the moon.
"Why doesn't anyone aboard answer?" she demanded angrily.
"Can you patch us in to that transmission, Willie?" Mike asked.
Medea's eyes widened as she saw Mike Donovan standing before her. "Dr. Morrow?" she said, enraged. "What is this?"
"Dr. Morrow is dead," Mike told her. "The ship has been destroyed and all of his secrets with it. Nice try, but you lose again."
Medea's nostrils flared. Her reptilian nature seemed to show through the beautiful human face she wore. She slammed her palm down, and the transmission ended.
As his friends began to cheer, Mike held up a restraining hand. "Let's see if we make it home before we start partying."
Willie pointed the skyfighter toward the sunlit side of Earth. As soon as they were close enough, he cut the engines and let Earth's gravity do the work.
They sank toward the luxurious white clouds and the cerulean oceans, coasting all the way home.
Chapter 47
Jack stood watching the bonfire burn, one arm in a sling and the other around Sabrina's waist. She leaned her head on his shoulder as the Indians danced and laughed with the other resistance fighters, celebrating their victory against a common enemy.
Mike, Julie, Elias, and Willie had returned to the West Coast. Jack had been sorry to see them go, but everyone else was here tonight. John Tiger and Marie approached them, walking around from the other side of the bonfire. They were dressed in the traditional bright colors and feathers of their people.
"I don't know how to thank you," Sabrina said to them.
"You don't owe us any thanks," John replied, holding up his hand palm outward. "Marie and I both lost someone we loved. It was tough, but I think we both learned something."
