The Return (Alternate Dimensions Book 5)

by Blake B. Rivers

  “You did it!” Janix cried, pressing a kiss to my forehead. “Jyra knew you would.”

  I smiled weakly, but that wasn’t what was important at the moment. I hadn’t survived one of the top five worst experiences of my life for a gold participation star. “Did it work?” I asked, looking to the screen once more. But the bright points of light were just a blur in my still-recovering vision.

  “Virus levels…” Jyra murmured, voice low and cautious. “…are completely eradicated.”

  If there was one thing that could get me to perk up immediately, it was that. “We did it?” I asked.

  “We did it!” She replied, throwing her arms around me yet again. “We have the cure! We have the cure!”

  I don’t know if my laugh was giddy or manic, but either way a booming peal of mirth escaped me. Soon the others joined me, and we were all drunk on the relief and euphoria that came with such a discovery.

  “I’ll have to synthesize a mass dose that we can weaponize!” Jyra said excitedly, pulling herself away from me. “But this is it! We’ve done it!”

  In uncanny timing, the alarms around us went off, nearly deafening in their whine. Viys’k reacted first, slamming the comm button. “Hey, what’s with all the noise?”

  “It’s here,” a somewhat familiar voice answered tensely. I thought it was one of the same that had spoken to Angel during our last mission together, but I was still too out of it to be sure.

  “By ‘it’s here’, am I to take that as-”

  “Yeah. You cloud friend finally made its grand entrance. It’s time to gear up for our final fight.”

  Chapter Ten: Joining the Fray

  “I still need twenty minutes to synthesize a batch dose of this!” Jyra cried over the alarm.

  “There’s no way we have enough time! We’ve got to get onto the station to hold off the kodadt that will come pouring in if we’re not able to stop Genesis’ ship, and according to the helm, it did populate less than two minutes from the Quadric station’s hull. Even with intercepting it, I don’t think we can hold it for twenty minutes!”

  “Wait, what if we could slow it down?”

  “Andi, our whole plan is slowing it down, remember?”

  “No, I don’t mean distract it with the fight. I mean lock onto it with that same tractor beam that caught us. That’s gotta buy us at least some time, right? It’d be the last thing Genesis would expect.”

  “Actually,” Arq’s voice buzzed over the comm. “That would give a distinct advantage to our fighters as well. We’ll do it. But I need all of you to make a break for the station as soon as physically possible.”

  “Do you think it’s that likely that Gensis’ ship will bust through?”

  “Yes, I do. Your words didn’t quite do justice to quite how large the vessel is. But we will do our best. I’d rather blow it into thousands of pieces than risk it contaminating the station.”

  “Yeah, that’s not a gamble I’m about either.

  The comm clicked off, leaving us with just the blaring alarms.

  “You all get the transport ready and make sure that we’re ready for takeoff as soon as I’m done with this. Bajol will make sure I get there in once piece.”

  “Ar- are you sure?”

  “Yes, of course. We can’t risk losing even one minute. We haven’t survived everything that’s happened to us just to pitch it all in now.”

  “Aye-aye, Ma’am,” Janix said, giving a snarky little wave. “We’ll have your stallion primed and ready for battle.”

  “Enough with the smarm,” Viys’k cut in, already halfway out the door. “Let’s go!”

  Somehow, I got my body into working gear and stumbled after them. Janix seemed to notice my difficultly almost immediately and came to a halt. “Come on, let me carry you across my shoulders.”

  “I’m fine,” I objected, trying to move past him.

  “Nonsense. You need a minute to collect yourself, but we don’t have that. I’d carry you piggy back, but I’m too short. So, over the shoulders will have to do. Up you go now.”

  I was really tempted to fight him on it, but deep inside I knew that he was right. So, I crossed over to him and allowed him to pick me up, and drape me over his broad arms. I would have been impressed by his strength if I didn’t feel like such a child being toted around.

  But I didn’t protest further, instead allowing myself a minute to recuperate. My middle was still sore, like I had done about a hundred too many sit ups and now my abs were making me pay for it. Or at least they would have if I had abs. I had lost almost all of my muscle in the hospital and I just felt like an empty sack.

  It was strange, for all the times that I had imagined riding valiantly into our final battle, this wasn’t how it happened. Usually there was dramatic music, and slow mo. If Guinevere ever wrote about my adventures for other Children of the Light, I hoped she left this part out.

  Janix didn’t set me down until we were in the lift leading down to the docking bay, and when he did, he did so carefully. “You think you’re okay to run to the ship?”

  “Yeah.” I answered slowly. “I’ve got my breath back.”

  “Here,” Viys’k said, pushing something small and white into my hand that was no bigger than a penny.

  “What’s this?”

  “A mint. No offense, but your breath smells like actual death.”

  “Oh, right. That makes sense.” I quickly tossed it back and my mouth was filled will cool, refreshing mint flavor. Not a bad taste to save the world on.

  The elevator stopped and I ramped myself up. I couldn’t afford to wimp out now, so it was time to suck it up and get to running.

  And run we did, right to the ship that was meant for us and already primed. It was nice not to have to steal one for once, but it kind of threw off my rhythm as I rushed inside. I got over the weird dissonance quickly though, and strapped myself in as Viys’k boosted up the engine.

  “Hey, Jyra, what’s the ETA on that systhesis?”

  “Are you kidding me?” The scientist snapped in a very un-Jyra like way. “It’s been seven minutes max. If I rush this, then we won’t have a cure, we’ll just have a terrible smelling liquid to spray on our enemies as they rip us limb from limb! Is that what you want?”

  “Holy hell, cut back on the friendly-fire there. I’m just not sure we have thirteen more minutes to lollygag about while the fight of the century happens right outside this hangar.”

  “Wait, I have an idea,” Viys’k said. “There’s escape pods on every level of the ship, right?”

  “Yes,” Bajol answered. “I believe I saw that in the schematics when I was researching the fire safety of the vessel.

  “Alright, well what if we took off now and helped distract Genesis’ vessel, then swung around to catch your escape pod once you’re done brewing your potion.”

  “I am synthesizing a cure.”

  “Yeah, yeah, whatever. Do you think that would work?”

  “We would need to make sure we had space-suits as well as a hermetically sealed container to transport the cure, but that just might work.”

  “But should we really risk being blown out of the sky in a firefight?” I said, looking nervously from Viys’k to the com.

  “Probably not, but we need every single ship we can get, and I’m not going to sit out of the action just because the nerds gotta batch-brew their life-saving, miracle drug.”

  “You do know that drug is literally going to be the thing that saves the universe, right?” Bajol shot back. “Because you’ve got a touch too much sarcasm going there for me to be entirely sure.”

  “Yeah, yeah, I know exactly how important that is. But that important cure ain’t going to mean anything if we get blasted out of the sky, or if that ship manages to crash into the station before we get onto it. So, are you guys going to allow me to go out there and make a difference or not?”

  “It’s fine.” Jyra cut in. “You have ten minutes to make a difference. I believe in Viys’k skill th
at she won’t die.”

  “Thanks. The vote of confidence is appreciated. Now let’s go kick some ass!”

  Without a second to loose, Viys’k let out a whoop and punched it. We slammed forward and went flying out of the hangar bay, into the wild, open expanse of space.

  The only reason we weren’t immediately embroiled in battle was because we were on the opposite side of the main bay that was being used for all the fighter vessels. This put us closer to the station, but also the Council fighters that were no doubt going to come flocking to the giant, illegal space assault about to go down.

  Our ship quickly swung around, and we zoomed under the large underbelly of Angel’s grand flagship to join the fray.

  I had expected an intergalactic fire-fight full of blasters, color, and flaming ship debris. What I hadn’t anticipated was a massive vessel so big that it blocked this system’s star from view.

  “Holy crap…” I breathed, completely at a loss. “How did I not know it was that big?”

  The thing was easily ten times bigger than Angel’s massive ship, and looked to be about a quarter a size of the station.

  “Well,” Viys’k said, swallowing audibly. “That’s definitely going to crash into the station. Our best bet is to distract it as much as we can and use the tractor beam to kill some of its momentum before it slams into the Quadric.”

  “I’m sure Arq already knows that.” Janix whispered, equally cowed. “But yeah, uh, that is one big ship.”

  “It’s practically a moo-”

  “No, don’t say that.” I interrupted. “Because I’m not in the mood for that particular space opera.”

  “What?”

  “Nothing,” I said, shaking my head. “I just- Ship, incoming!”

  Viys’k jerked and turned her attention to the helm just as the ship’s warning system went off. Deftly, she yanked the nav-controls and we went spiraling out of the blaster path of the massive ship. The beam went on to hit Arq’s ship, causing the shielding to ripple in the light spectrum.

  “I don’t think we should let it take too many direct hits. At least we don’t have to worry about the kodadt flying any smaller fighters to take us out.”

  “Thank God for small miracle, I guess.”

  “Hold on tight, we’re going to be taking maneuvers I’ve only ever read about.”

  “That’s not entirely comfo-”

  But we were already spinning, diving and churning. We joined over two dozen other speedy ships, peppering the massive attacking vessel with all our fire power.

  “Are we even making a dent?” I asked as we scattered from the massive beam that shot past us.

  “Probably not, but that’s not the point. We’re giving the flagship a chance to get itself into the optimum position for that tractor beam without being blown into a million tiny pieces. And considering said ship is not blown up right now, I’d say we were doing an alright job.”

  “I’m almost done!” I let out a yelp as the comm crackled to life with Jyra’s voice. “I can get to the escape pod in five minutes.”

  “I’ll make sure she stays on schedule,” Bajol added.

  “Alright, I’m putting a rendezvous point into the helm, have Bajol input it into your own pod as soon as you jettison. And if we somehow die before then, you know the path to get in.”

  “Yes, but don’t die.”

  “I’ll try my hardest.”

  Viys’k peeled off from the formation we had joined to make a concentrated effort at one of Genesis’ turrets, and then we were flying away from the heat of battle. For a moment, I was sure that the ship was going to fire after us, effectively blasting us out of existence, but we pulled back into the shadow of Arq’s ship before the vessel could recharge its massive weapons.

  “Does anyone else think that this is going entirely too smoothly?”

  “Don’t jinx it,” Viys’k snapped, her eyes locked on the readings in front of her. “We’re going to need all the luck we can get.” She hit the comm again. “Jyra, were about three minutes from rendezvous. What’s your ETA?”

  “We’re on track and running for the escape pod now.”

  “So, you have the cure then?”

  “No, I just thought I would forget about all of that and impress the kodadt with my shamys skills.”

  “Oh yeah, I’m sure they’d love that. If sentient monsters are known for anything, it’s their absolutely scholarly interest in traditional seirr instruments.”

  “Guys, less of the banter, more of the flying for our lives.” Janix said. “If there’s going to be any witty commentary running through our final battle, you can leave it to me, the handsome smuggler and sardonic comic relief.”

  I would have rolled my eyes but I was too tense. I appreciated that everyone else was blowing off steam with some snarky banter, but I needed to steam to function. I was still somewhere between deflated balloon and worn out purse that had seen better days. But I wasn’t going to miss this for the world. I couldn’t imagine letting myself hide away while everyone else had the fight of their lifetime. The fight that I everything I had done was leading towards.

  “Rendevous in one minute!”

  “Taking off now! Our helm has us on track to meet. Try not to crash into us.”

  “Oh man, that would be ironic, wouldn’t it?”

  “Is that actual irony?” I asked, allowing myself to be distracted for a moment. “Or just unfortunate?”

  “I don’t know, I’m a thief, not a linguist, and somehow during this journey I seemed to have made a career shift into pilot.”

  She pressed a series of buttons and I felt our momentum begin to slow.

  Estimated pick up point in twenty seconds. Sealing off cockpit now.

  “Thank computer. What would I ever do without you.” Viys’k grumbled. “It wasn’t like I got this far on my own.”

  My stomach dropped as we came to a complete stop, and a metal wall slid down behind us. I could hear the distinct sound of air being sucked out of the load up room as the hatch slowly opened.

  And then… we waited.

  Did I mention that whole anti-climatic thing? After so much rushing, and fighting against the clock, it seemed entirely counter intuitive to just sit here, doing nothing.

  “Approaching now!” Bajol’s voice came over the comm. “Killing our speed and preparing for jettison. I hope you’ve practiced your catching.”

  “Only every night for the entire summer.”

  “Noted. That will only be funny if we don’t die.”

  “Trust me, it’ll be funny.”

  “Right. Jettisoning now.”

  I looked to the helm and I could see two tiny red dots come flying towards us. Was that our friends? I couldn’t imagine what else it could be, but it was strange to see two of the most important people in the world -to me at least- being reduced to tiny blips on a screen.

  Breathlessly, I watched them come closer, and closer while a tense silence filled the cockpit. No one dared to say anything until the two dots disappeared into the center of the display and we heard a thunk in the back.

  “We made it!”

  “I don’t know why you doubted me, recompressing chamber and getting us to the drop off. Congratulations guys, we may be about to lose round one, but I think we made it alive to round two.”

  “Let’s just get there with enough time to do what we need to do.”

  “Of course. After all, I wouldn’t want to be late to the party.”

  “Some party,” Janix snorted as the wall separating us from the cabin of the ship raised itself up, revealing Jyra and Bajol outfitted in streamlined space suits. “Next time let’s just watch sims on the net and eat copious amounts of bitroot.”

  “Maybe next time,” Jyra answered, nodding her head towards me. “Right now, we have a battle to finish.”

  Chapter Eleven: Space Battles and Janitors

  We set down on a landing platform that looked like it hadn’t been used in over a decade, and the ship listed off
about a dozen or so different warnings from structural weakness to lack of environment and beyond.

  “I was wondering why this landing bay had been decommissioned.” Janix murmured as we geared up.

  “Yeah, I think it was somewhere after the twentieth platform collapse that they gave up on patching the infrastructure and roped this place off.”

  “Yeah, but why not just destroy it then?”

  “Because it makes a great trap to bust illegal drop offs.”

  I jolted at that. “Wait, if the Councilmen know of this spot, why are we using it?”

  “Because they might just be a little preoccupied with the giant ship outside that’s heading straight for this station.”

  “Right. I guess that makes sense.”

  “Everyone suit up, we’re about to do a mini-space walk.”

  “Can it really be a space walk when it’s really just a glitchy environment replicator?”

  “Eh, semantics. Let’s go.”

  A bit like ducklings, we lined up and made our way out onto the platform, heading towards the sealed entrance.

  “So,” Viys’k asked as we went along. “What’s the delivery system for this cure?”

  “It can be ingested, aspirated or applied directly to the dermis.”

  “Um, that’s great and all, but I meant how are we getting it on the waves of kodadt that are no doubt going to be descending onto us?”

  “I don’t… I don’t catch your meaning.”

  “I mean how is it going to go from that hermetically sealed container to onto the big baddies that are going to come pouring in after a level five impact with a giant spaceship.”

  “Oh.”

  “Oh? That’s not exactly the type of verbiage I was hoping to hear.” We reached the sealed entryway and Viys’k knelt by the dead panel, hooking two different handheld machines in and going to work punching in codes and turning dials. “Care you use a few more syllables to express yourself?”