Void Star

by J. P. Yager

  "I will do the rest of my part by showing you where you need to go. I'm Dosh, son to the Guardian of the Temple, Keeper of the Star."

  "That's great, Dosh. Well, we need to land first, and technically, this is my first, so I'd buckle up." The ship began to lurch as they entered Vale's outer atmosphere. A mixture of temperature differential, turbulence, and wind shear tried to pry control away from Trevor.

  Dosh could not believe his luck in finding the chosen one. What was odd, he thought, was that it told him to take it off the planet to begin with. But then if he had never tried to leave with it, he wouldn't have used the beacon that involved the Eckelions, which brought in the humans, who routed the Ruverans and then returned to this starting point. There must have been much more to the story. A pattern that had to play out. He turned and watched a red light start to flash.

  "Another ship is tracking on us." Boost pointed to the radar.

  "Nya…" Trevor said to himself. "Let's hope she crashes."

  "Nearing planetary threshold." Boost dialed back the engines.

  "We'll have to perform a rapid-D to shake her."

  "A rapid descent will pull this ship apart."

  "She'll hold," Trevor said.

  "Incoming!" Boost called out.

  The ship took a massive hit that shot her forward. The panels flickered on and off, some not returning. They had taken a killer blow, but paranoid Velkas had to have the strongest ship imaginable.

  "Oh no," Dosh said from the back. A large contingency of weapons clawed at them again.

  "Releasing all countermeasures." Trevor punched several red switches on the middle console. Velkas's ship responded with a bombardment of mines, countermissiles, and walls. They coughed out in a mess.

  "She's disengaging," Boost announced. He paused. "There is a fire in avionics. Should I get it?"

  "No. Just hang on. This is going to be rough." He turned to look at Dosh. "What position is this place at?"

  Dosh yelled the numbers above the scream of the air speeding up to meet them. Trevor typed them in.

  "We're in the outer atmosphere, coming in hot." Trevor pulled a switch on the side console. "I don't think we have a way to slow down. Emergency spoilers out." The ship tried to slow. He paused. "How far to our destination?"

  "We are ten thousand meters from the indicated position." Boost pointed to the guidance.

  They burst through the lower atmosphere. Trevor did his best to float her down.

  At ten thousand feet above ground, they were going too fast to crash land, let alone perform a normal landing. The point on the display now read six thousand meters from their destination and continued to fall rapidly.

  "We're too fast to land," Boost began.

  "We'll be fine," Trevor claimed.

  The ship continued screaming across the landscape. They passed a massive spaceport built on a mountain. They flew over forests, oceans, and ancient remains of cities long lost.

  "We're overshooting."

  "I know." Trevor pulled the guidance computer off the console. "Time to abandon ship!" he yelled. "Autopilot engaged." He unbuckled himself, and the others followed suit.

  As they passed the avionics compartment, Trev, holding his breath against the smoke, reached into the avionics bay and disengaged the power core for the ship's weapons system. He placed it in a case. Boost picked up the still body of Raxus and carried the Eckelion into the escape pod where Trevor and Dosh waited. When they were all inside and accounted for, Boost closed the door.

  As soon as the portable ship display reached below one thousand and the case was tied down tight, Trevor hit eject.

  The escape pod immediately shot out. Even though they were all strapped down, their bodies were thrown toward the max their safety harnesses would go. The g-force pushed hard against Trev's chest and almost made him lose what little was in his stomach. It was hard enough to jolt the Eckelion back to consciousness. He woke up to a surprise fall.

  Trevor tried to get used to his new sight, watching the ground as it sped ever closer. It looked like they were tumbling in an uncontrolled free fall.

  They spun and swirled riding the high winds down until the autorelease on the pod's chutes engaged. It came to an immediate stop and floated gently down.

  When they finally landed in a large grass field, Trevor and Boost popped the pod top and helped pull the others out. When he was back breathing the fresh air outside, Dosh saw the remains of his own ship, which had crashed in the nearby forest. How long ago had that happened?

  The Eckelion was still trying to piece things together. "Where am I?"

  "Glad you're with us," Trevor answered.

  Raxus's fear subsided when he saw the Salarian was there too. "Dosh?"

  "Raxus." The Salarian gave him a quick hug.

  "I intercepted your beacon and was able to get the Void Star back."

  Dosh pointed to the human. "This is the human we've been looking for."

  "I know. The star showed me," Raxus said. He looked to be in as much disbelief as Dosh. "I only have one more task to perform."

  "Me too," Dosh agreed.

  Then a familiar ship reappeared on the horizon.

  "It's Render…" Dosh couldn't hide his fear.

  "Great. Now what?" Trev asked himself.

  He wasn't able to answer; he was too busy watching two smoke trails burst from the craft and speed toward them. They were two laser-guided missiles.

  Chapter 26

  Trevor searched the terrain for any sign of hope and found none; the grass valley was hopelessly devoid of cover. There was a riverbed, but there was no way it could protect them. There were odd-looking lightning rods littering the valley; they were basically long metal poles standing around uselessly. But they were nowhere close.

  The missiles closed in.

  The group watched as the first missile burst midair and then, just as suddenly, the second.

  Trevor turned to the lightning towers. They were much higher, with large cylindrical bodies beneath them. They were anti-aircraft turrets.

  "My people must have fixed our defenses," Dosh told them.

  "Clearly," Trev said, though he was thankful.

  "I wonder how they knew…" Dosh let the thought drop. "We're not far." He pointed to a spot where a river spilled into a lake. "My people must be manning the defenses. We'll have to do the rest ourselves."

  They ran down the open field. Dosh led the way with the others on his heels.

  On any other occasion, the green valley would have made for a nice day trip. The weather was perfect, the air cool. The smell of the ocean blew past them from some faraway shore. The smell reminded Trevor of Aquaria.

  The thought brought back multiple images of what had happened since the beginning of all this. The Salarian had been imprisoned for trying to help him. The Nymarian with the data pad, Kaida, Glade—all died for a cause that ultimately centered around him. He couldn't let them down.

  The defensive turrets continued their barrage against the lone Ruveran fighter. Several fiery explosions rang through the air. When Trev looked back, he couldn't see Nya's ship. He didn't think they could hit her. She would never go down so easily.

  They huffed it all the way down until they finally reached a point at the front of the lake.

  Dosh pulled up a section of ground and revealed a small room beneath. "Wait here."

  The ground began to shake beneath them. The water of the lake started rippling and then bubbling up.

  Dosh reappeared. "That'll do it."

  From the center of the body of water, the top of a structure emerged. It came up slowly and loudly. A machine was screaming from underground somewhere. The lake separated itself from the long building that arose.

  "This is the temple. It used to be hidden in the sky, but it was brought down during the Great Valian Rebellion. Our great ancestor Dego engineered a way to hide it again after we lost the war." Dosh motioned for them to follow as soon as a walkway appeared. Stone blocks emerged from the
depths of the lake to connect the shore to the temple.

  They sped up their pace.

  Trevor looked over his shoulder.

  He now saw a field of destroyed turrets and a single fighter opening on them. The laser fire seemed to hit a hidden barrier surrounding the lake. They pinged off harmlessly.

  "Don't worry. She won't be able to get us with electronics," Dosh told them.

  Unable to strike at them, the ship spun around and dropped. In a hurry, it landed by the stone walkway. Render popped out when she landed.

  "She's motivated." Trevor turned back forward. The group reached the nave of the temple and went in.

  "I'll need time to activate the device," Trev said.

  "I can help you," Raxus said.

  "I will do my best to seal the temple in time and slow her down if I can." Dosh nodded. "Now you must do your part. You have to stop the darkness."

  "I will slow her down too," Boost added. "I don't see another use for me."

  "You've done admirably, Booster." Trevor patted the scraped-up robot's head. “And thank you too.” He told the Salarian.

  Boost even looked like he was smiling at the compliment. Then, Trev nodded his thanks again to both of them and ran deeper into the unknown.

  -o-

  Nathan continued to crawl through the vents. He and his team were able to escape in the chaos, but the Ruverans would have things together by now. Velkas would be under lock and key.

  Stranded on Razerus, there wasn't even a slim chance he would survive this. Finally, at long last, his journey would be over. The Void Star promised a closure he would never have expected. He would always love Maura and Arilyn, but his heart had found someone else and they would be together again shortly.

  "It's okay." Nathan heard from up ahead. The musical sound of her voice filled his heart with a new strength to continue forward.

  He crawled through and looked down the crawlspace. Up ahead, Kaida was motioning for him to follow. She had the look of a flesh-and-blood person but with a slight glow, close to what had happened to Trevor had Nathan seen the same thing. She smiled at him to let him know it was okay. "C'mon. I know the way."

  He didn't want to yell, so he merely asked, "How is this possible?" Even though he had seen the future, he still couldn't believe it.

  "Anything is possible." She started down the duct she was near.

  "I'm sorry I didn't tell you when I had the chance," he said, following her. "I'm not one for romance." He paused to catch his breath.

  Kaida giggled up ahead. "I didn't think you were."

  "That night inside my room at the Helcarion, I—"

  "I know. Me too." Kaida laughed to herself as she went. "Of course, now you're one to talk."

  Nathan saw her legs swing up an access ladder and go up. He followed.

  "Do you know where you're going?" he asked.

  "Of course. I'm helping you," she said simply.

  His mind went back to what the Void Star had showed him. No matter what he did, he was going to be reunited with his loved ones. He would hold Kaida in his arms again. But there was one more thing he had to try to do before that happened.

  "We're almost there," Kaida said, still climbing.

  Nathan continued to follow and readied himself for his final battle.

  Chapter 27

  "Armiger, I have two more…make that three more enemy battleships jumping out of hyperspace. We are cloaked but not for much longer. What are your orders, sir?" Lieutenant Clemons had an open line to the fleet, ready to act.

  "Fire everything, including all X-13's."

  "Did you hear that? Destroy everything we can and use all special weapons!" Clemons yelled.

  Outside the Helcarion, the agile Valian fleet attacked the massive space world of Razerus. Orange spikes injured the goliath but couldn't bring it down. Their fighters buzzed around the great ship but only looked to pester it. Action filled the screens, but the Ruverans barely noticed their presence.

  Fox looked out the viewing port. Since parting ways with Nathan and his crew, his fleet had jumped nearly into the anomaly itself. From then, they'd been trying to outrun it. Wherever they had tried to move and regroup, there it was coming from another corner of the universe. Until the screamer had been activated, they'd had few places left to go. The dark tidal cloud had them all surrounded, including those on board Razerus.

  "What of the anomaly?" Fox asked, refusing to call it what it appeared to be.

  "It has completely surrounded this galaxy cluster. There will be no escape, sir," Clemons responded.

  They were going to find out what happened when the real fox finally caught the rabbit.

  The late Armiger, rest his soul, would call everyone back to be with their families in their last moments. But his father had also wanted them to fight this last fight even if they didn't survive it, and that was what they were going to do. Either from Ruvera or from the anomaly, it was all going to end here.

  For some reason, Fox remembered something Nathan had told him once during the war. "If you knew you were going to die, why not take as many enemies with you? Your fate has already been decided, so you have nothing to lose." Then he'd added, "C'mon, Fox, wouldn't you rather die on the battlefield than as an old man in bed?"

  Now what should his last orders be?

  Fox looked far through space and saw the darkness speeding toward them. He went to his intercom and opened a channel to the fleet. Another Valian ship had been hit with a rift cannon and was lost. Nearby Valians opened up on the Breaker that had done it.

  "Attention Fleet, this is your Armiger. I want to commend you on your service. It was a pleasure serving with you these last several years. Trying to overcome our enemy is never a loss. My orders are to take out as many enemies as you can before the anomaly robs you of that joy. I'll see you on the other side, Ladies and gentlemen. That is all."

  He put his com unit down. His forces fought with a stronger vigor. An injured Valian ship used itself to batter into the Razerus. When it hit, the thunderous explosion took out an entire wing of the station.

  Fox turned from the battle and watched the darkness come. He thought it funny they were all suddenly relying on the Void Star. He just hoped that it was everything they thought it was.

  -o-

  "There we go," Velkas said as his screens came back online.

  A fleet of his fighters were engaged in battle as the mass of black appeared. The thing, if that was even what it could be called, reached out and consumed a nearby planet. In a second, its mouth reached around, and it was gone. His fighters reached the spreading mass and had two moments to fire on it before they just…disappeared.

  Uncloaking, Velkas saw the Elysian command ship was between Razerus and the mass. The blackness came at it in waves and hugged it, eating at it, and then it was torn apart. The Elysians were no more.

  He balked at it. Everything was going just like it had told him it would. His thoughts turned to his own self-preservation. So maybe he had tried to double-cross the darkness back there when he tried to open the star and not destroy it, but hey, if it knew him so well, it would've known he'd do that. There wasn't any way to know for sure where his current standings were. He just hoped the thing known as Abel went easy on him.

  Something clanged behind him. When he turned, he saw the last thing he'd expected. It was then that he suddenly remembered he had sent his guards away so he could watch the apocalypse alone. And where was his useless daughter when he needed her?

  "Captain Sutherland? Really?"

  Nathan pulled out the gun he'd picked off the guards. He didn't utter another word before he pulled the trigger and discharged the full capacity of the weapon into Velkas. Velkas took the hit and went flying across the room, slamming into the opposite wall. Nathan tossed the weapon aside and ran to his adversary's side.

  Velkas was a broken mess, already bleeding all over his nice rug.

  "Didn't even…say a word…before…" Velkas looked up; blood was run
ning down his face, pooling behind his head.

  "I didn't want to waste time bantering with you." Nathan pulled himself back up. "This isn't the final scene in a story."

  Outside, the massive dark force reached the Razerus XIII. The defenses didn't even react. Technically, there wasn't anything there to react to, it being the absence of existence. It hit the station. Nathan saw it tearing through as each camera screen blinked off.

  It was ripping through the station like a starving lion.

  Nathan could hear laughter below him. He looked down to watch Velkas coughing up blood. Between bouts of bloody spit, he giggled in raspy tones. "You have no idea who you're up against."

  "You know what it is?" Nathan crouched over him.

  Velkas gasped for air. "A force of unspeakable evil. An unstoppable entity. That which cannot be overcome."

  The lights were going out in Velkas's eyes. Blood continued to flow from his open mouth, but his stare went blank.

  Nathan had done it. Even at the premature end of his life, he had killed the ruler of the Ruveran Empire.

  After the last fight outside Earth, he’d been inches from taking out Velkas’s ship but allowed him get away. The shock of watching his planet torn apart had sent him into a mad daze. He’d ordered the retreat. He had pushed his ship to its limit and crashed outside Bastion where everyone was gathering. He had gotten more of his men killed and lost his leg in the crash landing. Then he’d gone on the run with his nephew. Until this moment.

  There lay Velkas at last. Dead by his hands. Was it revenge or redemption? Did it even matter? It felt too good to not be revenge.

  Something odd caught his eye in that moment. Nathan leaned down and picked up a simple piece of dirt Velkas had been holding. If he wasn't mistaken, it was a piece of Earth. There was no way to be sure, but it somehow felt like it was. He tossed it aside. There was no need to lament his home anymore when so many had been lost.

  Suddenly, the walls disappeared, and he was surrounded by the dark mass. It was swirling like a vortex around both him and Velkas’s dead body, as if they were the last two objects in the universe.

  Out of the darkness came a lone figure in dark robes. He ignored Nathan as he knelt by Velkas and put a hand on his chest.