Worlds Without End: Aftermath (Book 2)

by Shaun Messick

  Adrian punched the thrusters, increasing his speed toward Terrest. The surprise escape stunned the remaining two Gnol pilots, resulting in Adrian distancing himself a little from his enemies. But he knew that the swifter fighters would catch the shuttle in no time. He just hoped that the rebel force on Terrest received his message.

  * * * * *

  Underground Rebel Base, Terrest . . .

  A tear rolled down Anyta Palmer’s fair face as she stared at the picture of the only man she had ever loved. Clutching the picture in her right hand, she traced Adrian’s face with the index finger of her left hand. Adrian was younger in the picture, as it was taken just before the Gnols attacked some sixteen plus years ago. He was so handsome, dressed in his Terrestrian gray officer’s uniform. And now, more than ever, she missed him. The pain was almost intolerable because his body had never been recovered from his crash onto one of the Terrestrian moons. His death wasn’t final in her mind, and that was what hurt the most.

  She wiped the tears from her brown eyes and looked up at the computer screen within the command center of the underground base. She had volunteered for watch duty on this night because she knew that she wouldn’t have been able to sleep anyway, not without her husband beside her. She looked back down at the picture. “I miss you, Adrian,” she whispered as she brought the picture to her lips and kissed it ever so gently. More tears began to pour from her eyes, and she tried to control the sobs that were beginning to come again. She had spent many restless nights like this in the many months since Adrian went missing.

  With most of the base asleep in the middle of the night, with the exception of the guards, she was grateful she was alone in the command center. Consequently, she let the floodgates open and began to cry uncontrollably. Sometimes a good cry was what she needed to make it through the tough times. She continued to sob when an alarm began to beep from her computer station, indicating an incoming message.

  She immediately wiped the tears from her eyes so that she could read her screen clearly. The unexpected alarm, which only sounded when encoded and emergency text messages came through, continued to beep annoyingly. She leaned in closer and pressed the application on her screen, silencing the alarm and allowing the message to come through. It read:

  Mayday … Mayday …. Incoming message from General Adrian Palmer. . . Authentication code A94G86I2 … Under attack from Gnol forces at wormhole … Send assistance … Urgent!

  Anyta blinked twice and shook her head as she read the message a second and then a third time. No, it can’t be … It’s a trap, she thought. Quickly, she jumped from her seat and made her way to the next computer station where she quickly typed in the authentication code contained in the message. Every individual was given a special code to memorize and to only reveal if they needed assistance in emergency situations. This was to prevent any sabotage from Gnol spies, who could have used emergency situations as traps to snare rebel military leaders.

  After a few seconds, the screen came to life. Adrian Palmer’s vital information and statistics began to scroll across the screen. The tears that were continuing to pour out of her eyes were now tears of joy. Adrian had returned from the dead. Instantly, Anyta pressed the emergency alarm, awakening the entire base. Her husband needed help, and he needed it now.

  * * * * *

  In orbit over Terrest . . .

  Adrian tried to maintain control of the rickety Gnol shuttle, but the damage his pursuers had inflicted upon the ship was too much. He had already lost one engine and was now trying to out fly a total of five Gnol fighters, three of them joining the fray after two of their comrades had been destroyed. The shuttle shuddered again. “Kevin, try and get at least one of them!” he shouted.

  “I’m trying, but these fighters are too fast. They’re dodging every blast I shoot at them.”

  Adrian knew that his brother would have a difficult time, but at least he was keeping the fighters at bay with his barrages of plasma fire. Adrian was nearing Terrest’s atmosphere, however, and with only one engine, he was having a difficult time controlling the shuttle so he could enter at just the right angle, so that he and Kevin wouldn’t burn to oblivion. He jerked the controls upward, trying to get the right angle.

  Just then, a plasma blast from one of the Gnol fighters ripped through the hull and into the cockpit. The explosion wrenched the seat that Adrian was buckled into from the floor of the shuttle. It flipped backwards into the passenger bay before crashing back first into the far wall. Adrian nearly blacked out from the impact. He fought with all his might not to descend into darkness as the vacuum of space began to suck the oxygen out of the passenger bay from the now missing hull and cockpit of the shuttle. The vacuum caught hold of Adrian and the chair he was still buckled into and sent it hurtling out toward the blackness of space.

  Adrian choked from the lack of oxygen and frantically tried to unbuckle himself. But the force from the space vacuum was too much. He watched in terror as he flipped in somersaults out toward space. He was about to die.

  He closed his eyes and could only imagine the horror of the death he was about to face. Quickly, he exhaled every ounce of air he had left in his lungs, knowing that would buy him a few seconds and keep his body from exploding from the lack of pressure. The lack of atmospheric pressure, however, was about to spontaneously evaporate all water within his system, thus causing his eyes to boil away. The pain in his head was almost unbearable as he opened his eyes one more time to see his oncoming doom.

  But, without warning, Adrian saw Kevin fly past him. The vacuum must have caught hold of him as well from his position in the gun turret above the passenger bay. Kevin, though, wasn’t buckled into a chair. He caught himself on the wall and pressed the large red emergency button that every shuttle had in their fuselages on the opposite wall of the cockpit. Instantly, an emergency wall dropped down from the ceiling of the passenger bay, sealing it. The chair Adrian was still buckled into continued to spin out of control. Kevin tried to push himself away from the oncoming chair but didn’t get out of the way in enough time. The front of Adrian’s chair slammed into Kevin’s right thigh, pinning him against the wall that had just dropped down. Kevin screamed in agony as oxygen from the emergency oxygen tanks rushed in, equalizing the pressure and providing the needed air both men needed.

  Suspended in midair from no gravity, both Adrian and Kevin gasped and choked for air. The pain behind Adrian’s eyes and within his muscles began to subside. He unbuckled himself and pushed the chair away. He quickly turned to assess the damage that the chair had inflicted upon his brother.

  Kevin hovered in the air, holding his leg. Droplets of blood floated in the air just above his leg. Adrian assessed his brother’s injury. His leg was broken. His femur bone was broken in half with the jagged edge of one side pierced all the way through the muscle and skin of his thigh. His heart continued to beat, pumping blood out of the injury. The blood coalesced into droplets that floated past him once the blood hit the weightless environment.

  Another plasma blast hit what remained of the Gnol shuttle, causing it to shudder. Adrian was grateful that Gnol transport shuttles were heavily fortified. But he knew that very soon, his pursuers would eventually use a missile to blow them to pieces.

  Thinking quickly, Adrian tore the sleeve off of his flight suit and tied it as tightly as he could, forming a tourniquet just above the injury to cut off the circulation. Kevin was still in a tremendous amount of pain, but was conscious. Adrian then managed to tie Kevin down into one of the passenger bay chairs so that he was immobile. He then pushed himself up to one of the passenger bay windows and looked out. From his perspective of Terrest below, he could tell that the shuttle had skipped off Terrest’s atmosphere and was now spinning out of control out into space. Without the hull of the shuttle, he and Kevin were sitting ducks. He arched his head back and could still see at least three Gnol space fighters in pursuit, lining up for what was obviously missile lock. He figured, however, that they were having a diffic
ult time locking on because of the velocity for which they were spinning out of control.

  One fighter fired. The plasma blasts hit the wing just outside of the window from which Adrian was looking. The wing exploded, sending shards of hot metal into the heavily fortified fuselage. If they couldn’t lock onto the shuttle with their missiles, then they were going to tear it apart with their plasma guns.

  The blast leveled the shuttle out, giving its enemies a clear target for a missile strike. Adrian was just about to look out the window again when he saw another bright explosion out of the corner of his left eye. He wrenched his head in that direction, just as the second Gnol fighter and then the third fighter erupted into a red and orange fireball before being extinguished just as quickly from the vacuum of space. “Yes!” he shouted as three silver Wildcats flew through the blasts.

  He pressed his face up against the window. A Wildcat flew beside the shuttle. The pilot within – covered with a helmet, tinted visor, and oxygen mask – looked back at him. He quickly unlatched his mask and raised his visor.

  “Bantyr! It’s Bantyr,” Adrian said, looking back at Kevin.

  Kevin tried to smile and nodded. He was still in a tremendous amount of pain.

  Adrian looked back and gave his son a thumbs up, letting him know that he was okay. Bantyr smiled and gave a thumbs up of his own. He then gave his father another signal with his hands. Adrian knew what the signal meant. They were going to try and tow the out of control shuttle back down to the surface of Terrest. It was a risky maneuver. One they had simulated many times on the flight simulators, but not one that had actually been done in space. They would need at least four Wildcats to accomplish such a dangerous feat of flight.

  To gain control of the shuttle, one Wildcat would fly in front of the ship, two others would fly on each side of it, and a fourth would fly behind it. On the flight leader’s command, each Wildcat would fire a cable from each one of its winches on top of the craft into the shuttle. Each cable would then go rigid. In essence, the maneuver would morph the Wildcats and the Gnol shuttle into one spacecraft. Then, each pilot would relinquish his or her controls to the lead fighter so that they could safely descend to the surface below.

  Adrian looked back out the window and gave Bantyr another thumbs up, letting him know that he understood what was going to happen and that he was prepared. But just before he turned away, he looked past Bantyr. A squadron of Gnol space fighters was approaching, anywhere from ten to fifteen. He didn’t have time to count them all, and he quickly pointed. Bantyr saw him pointing and looked out to where his father had pointed. He snapped his head back around and signaled to Adrian to get secured.

  Adrian pushed himself away from the window and turned to his brother. Kevin’s eyes were closed and his arms floated just above the armrests of his chair. He swiftly made his way down to his brother and felt for a pulse. He was just unconscious. Adrian was relieved, but he knew that his brother needed immediate medical attention. He then made sure that Kevin was secured to the seat and he buckled himself into the passenger seat next to him.

  Without warning, hard thuds simultaneously echoed throughout the passenger bay. The Wildcats had successfully attached themselves to the wounded ship. Adrian just hoped that they would be able to fly the ship into Terrest’s atmosphere and avoid the oncoming onslaught.

  Unexpectedly, the ship shuddered, obviously from a plasma blast. Again, it trembled. But this time, it continued to shake violently. Adrian figured that they must have just entered Terrest’s atmosphere because gravity had returned to the passenger bay, but there was a problem. He was becoming lightheaded and he couldn’t maintain focus. His vision was blurry as he tried to look at the atmospheric gas gauge upon his wrist. Squinting, he leaned in closer to get a better look. And it was just as he figured. The carbon dioxide levels within the bay were too high.

  He couldn’t fight it any longer as the shuttle continued to tremble uncontrollably. Just as he was about to pass out into darkness, another explosion tore through the passenger bay.

  * * * * *

  Adrian’s eyes fluttered open and then closed again. He was conscious, but he was having a difficult time gaining his bearings. He could tell that he was no longer buckled into a chair within the passenger bay of the shuttle. He was lying on a bed; a soft feather pillow supporting his head and clean satin linen covering his body. His body! The last thing he remembered before passing out was feeling the hot flames from the explosion that had penetrated the passenger bay of the Gnol shuttle.

  “Adrian?” a familiar voice asked.

  He turned his head to his left from the direction the voice came. He slowly opened his eyes and adjusted their focus. Once the blurriness cleared, he couldn’t hide his excitement and surprise. Sitting right next to his bed was his wife.

  “Anyta?”

  Anyta nodded with tears gushing. “It’s me, Adrian. You’re back. . . I-I can’t believe it. You’re alive.”

  Adrian pulled the oxygen mask away from his face and sat up. Kylee, Bantyr, and Lexis stood along the bedside as well. Each one of them was crying with tears of joy for the return of their father from the dead. “Oh, it’s so good to see all of you,” he said, hugging each one of them. As he hugged Bantyr, he said, “I thought you were dead.”

  Bantyr then went on to explain how he had been captured by Dorange and then sent to the slave camp of Zikf where he eventually escaped with Skip, Sean, and Skyler.

  “Skyler? Skyler’s alive?”

  “Yeah, he had been a slave at the Zikf camp the entire time,” Bantyr said.

  After the tearful but joyful reunion, Adrian suddenly remembered his brother. “Kevin! Is he …”

  Anyta stood and walked over to the curtain separating Adrian from the other patients in the infirmary and pulled it away. There Kevin lay, unconscious. I.V.’s were attached to him, an oxygen mask covered his face, and his leg was wrapped in a cast.

  “Is he okay?” Adrian asked.

  “He’ll be fine. Doctor Hopet has him heavily medicated because of the pain from his broken leg and burns.”

  Adrian quickly assessed his body. He remembered the blast in the passenger bay, but he had not noticed any burns on his own body. “Burns?”

  “Uncle Kevin has third degree burns on his chest, arms, and legs.” Kylee said before her mother could respond. “Doctor Hopet thinks that he can successfully graft new skin, so there’s hope.”

  “Thank the Lord,” Adrian said, looking at his older brother. Kevin seemed to be sleeping peacefully with no pain at the present moment.

  Anyta then returned to Adrian’s bedside and grabbed his hand. “We had a chance to talk with Kevin before he went into surgery. He was conscious when you guys landed.”

  Adrian looked at Bantyr, who looked beat up as well. He had a bandage wrapped over his forehead and his hand was bandaged. “You made it, son. That maneuver has never been done before. I’m impressed. I think we’ll call it the Bantyr.”

  Bantyr smiled shyly. “It was rough. A squadron of Gnol fighters was pursuing us. But once we were able to get into the atmosphere, General Hauler had another squadron of our own fighters waiting to assist. The landing was the tough part. I lost one of my pilots in the process. The other two pilots and I sustained minor injuries.”

  “I’m sorry, Bantyr. I know what it’s like to lose one of your men.”

  Bantyr nodded his appreciation as Adrian looked him over. His son, only nineteen years old, looked older and wiser, obviously due to his time as a slave and his battle experience.

  Adrian was about to speak again, when what was left of his old Mars I crew rushed into the room, led by Scott. Behind Scott Hauler was Peter Sanchez, and to his surprise, Skyler Green, whom he had not seen in over fifteen years. Skyler rushed past Scott and to the other side of Adrian’s bed opposite Adrian’s family.

  “Skyler! … I don’t believe it. We thought you were dead.”

  Skyler’s face was scarred and worn, and his head shaven, but he sti
ll looked as confident and cheerful as ever. “No, sir. Nothin’ could stop me,” Skyler responded as he embraced his old shuttle commander.

  Scott then stepped in. “Boy, am I glad to see you, Adrian,” he said, embracing the commander as well.

  “It looks like you have kept everything going strong, General Hauler,” Adrian said.

  “Barely,” Scott replied.

  Adrian then embraced Peter and began to look around the room. Worry and concern overcame him as he looked for the other person whom he had expected to meet him here. “Jake? Where’s Jake?”

  Concern spread over Anyta’s face as well. “Jake’s still alive, but he and Celeste are on a mission now.”

  “Mission? Where?”

  “They, along with Sean, Nichelle, Skip, and two other Gnols are on their way to Gnolom as we speak,” Scott interjected.

  “Gnolom? Why?”

  Scott then went on to explain their suspicions about the goddess of light hologram and the possible source of Koroan’s power. He then went on to explain who Commander Nateal Runa was, as well as Colonel Sage Merrok. And how Colonel Merrok had discovered a golden tablet hidden in the basement of the Talead pyramid before it was destroyed. But now that tablet was in Koroan’s possession.

  Adrian shook his head. “No, they can’t go to Gnolom. It’s too dangerous.” He then went on to explain everything that happened to him on Earth, from his public torture to his miraculous escape. Then he told them about John. Everyone in the room stared at him in stunned silence, almost in disbelief. He then went on and explained about the battle at Scott Air Force base, and how they were again miraculously saved. But, most importantly, he explained to them what John had told Kevin and him just before they left Earth.

  Petey interjected, “Wait a minute, sir. Are you telling us that God Almighty, The Alpha and Omega … That he can be defeated?”

  A distressful feeling entered the infirmary. Adrian nodded. He did not believe it himself. “This war, between us and the Gnols, It’s not just a little war between two different races. It’s just one of the millions of battles that have been raging on since the beginning of time. The war between good and evil.”