Worlds Without End: Aftermath (Book 2)

by Shaun Messick

  He looked quickly at his readings. The peak was now two kilometers away, but the distance between the cruiser and the peak was closing rapidly.

  “Adrian!” Sage yelled, his eyes growing wide as he watched Adrian’s viewscreen, and leaning back in his chair as if he was trying make the ship stop before its collision with the peak. “Adrian!”

  Adrian didn’t respond as he tried punching in every command and power reroute he could think of to get the thruster back online.

  “We’re at 10,000 meters!”

  Again, he didn’t respond.

  “7,000 meters!”

  Then he heard the oncoming missile tone.

  “3,000 meters! Adrian!”

  As the deafening missile tone screamed throughout the ship, he tried one last command.

  “800 meters!”

  Suddenly, Adrian felt the ship jolt forward. “We’ve got thrusters!” he yelled as he grabbed the flight controls and jerked them to the right.

  * * * * *

  Koroan squeezed his flight controls. The battle cruiser in his targets was falling too fast. He accelerated his fighter as fast as it would go to keep pace. He knew that his first missile strike wasn’t enough to keep their thrusters down, and he wasn’t about to let Jake and Celeste escape if they managed to get them functioning again. Squeezing his controls, he used every ounce of strength he had to get his computer targeting system to lock onto the falling cruiser that was ten times the size of his fighter.

  Screaming with all his might, he managed to get a lock and heard the tone he was waiting for. Punching the trigger on his flight controls, a missile fired out from his missile bay. He tried to veer his fighter to the left to avoid the explosion, but he was traveling too fast. As he began to throttle back his speed, he saw that the cruiser ahead had managed to initiate its thrusters again.

  In an instant, it banked right. “No!” Koroan screamed after seeing what lay directly ahead. During his pursuit, the massive ship in front of him had blocked the mountain peak from his view. He jerked his controls to the left just as his missile impacted the top of the mountain peak, sending large torpedoes of rocks in his direction. He managed to bank his fighter just enough to avoid the peak, but debris from the explosion pelted his ship. One massive missile-like boulder hit his right wing, causing his fighter to spin out of control down into a small canyon on the other side of the mountain.

  Reaching down, he pulled his ejection lever, but it was not functioning. His eyes became wild with fear for the first time in a long time. This was going to be painful beyond anything he had ever experienced before. Nonetheless, he knew what he had to do as he unbuckled his seat belt and waited. In a flash, his left wing hit the side of the canyon wall with such force that it sent him hurtling through the front windshield of his fighter. Still conscious, his body flipped out of control toward another rock face. He tried to use his telekinetic ability to stop his momentum, but he was moving too fast. The last thing he remembered was his body smashing against the canyon wall, causing every bone in his body to shatter to pieces.

  * * * * *

  Adrian and Sage both watched the rear-viewscreen, speechless, as the battle cruiser made its ascent out of Gnolom’s atmosphere. They saw Koroan’s fighter spin out of control and then explode into a colossal fireball on the canyon floor below the great Mount Resumpsi. “He’s dead,” Adrian whispered.

  “What?” Sage asked.

  With joy in his eyes, Adrian turned to Sage. “He’s dead. We did it. Koroan Chast is dead.”

  * * * * *

  Onboard the rebel warship orbiting Gnolom . . .

  “How’s it going down there, Petey?” Scott asked, growing more and more anxious.

  “Almost there,” Petey responded. “Give me a few more minutes.”

  “Copy that,” Scott replied as he turned and looked at his viewscreen. Koroan’s personal command ship, which stared back at him with its glowing red eyes, unnerved him. He pressed the application on his screen, enhancing his view of the ship to get a better look. “What are you waiting for?” he whispered to himself.

  Just then, he saw the missile bays open from each wing of the Raqel. “Petey, we’re going to have incoming. How much longer?”

  “Done! I’m heading back to the command bridge now. Remember, you’re not going to have any lateral movement.”

  Scott looked back at the menacing ship before him. A sick feeling overcame him, but there was no other way out of this mess. His ship was no match for the Raqel, and it might be the only way to save the others on the planet below. In a somber voice, he responded, “I know that, Petey.”

  The door to the command bridge slid open, and Petey – covered from head to toe in grease – rushed in and secured himself into his seat next to Scott. He then looked at Scott with fear. “There’s no other way out of this, is there?”

  Scott lowered and shook his head. “No, either way we’re dead.”

  As he turned his attention back to the Raqel, he tried one more time to radio Adrian. But it was no use. The transmission was interrupted too much from Gnolom’s atmosphere. Knowing their imminent deaths were near, he and Petey offered a quick prayer. Once they finished, they looked back up just as the Raqel fired two missiles. “Petey,” he said, “it has been an honor serving with you.”

  “No, General, the honor is mine.”

  Staring at the oncoming missiles, he ordered, “Punch it, Petey.”

  Petey pressed the application on his screen to activate his makeshift thrusters. The force from the blast out of the back of the ship threw their heads against their seats and the warship rocketed with maximum velocity on a collision course with the Raqel.

  * * * * *

  Onboard the Raqel . . .

  “General Lychen, the missile targeting system has been repaired.”

  Lychen, now standing in the same spot that Koroan usually stood in, turned and looked at Lieutenant Borodin, the young officer commanding the weapons systems. “Good. Arm the bays and prepare to fire on my order.”

  “Understood, sir …” the young officer answered with hesitation.

  Lychen recognized his reluctance. “What is it, Lieutenant? Say your piece.”

  Borodin cleared his throat. It was rare for young Gnol officers to question their superiors. Doing so often meant a severe beating or worse – death. “If I may, sir . . . shouldn’t we wait until our propulsion systems are functioning before we fire?”

  General Lychen was impressed with the young lieutenant’s attention to detail. Borodin had a point, but Lychen had direct orders from Koroan to destroy the warship before them once their missile targeting system was operational. And he wasn’t about to question direct orders from his lord and savior. “Your argument is noted, Lieutenant, but that ship isn’t going anywhere. Their weapons will barely leave a dent in the armor of this ship. We have our orders, directly from our lord. That ship will be destroyed.”

  “Understood, sir.”

  General Lychen then turned his attention to the officer piloting the Raqel. “Captain, how much longer until you have propulsion?”

  Captain Vandaer looked up from his computer console with a steely gaze. “Engineering informs me in a matter of minutes.”

  Lychen smiled. “Good,” he said, turning his attention back to the warship. “Lieutenant, Borodin, are the missiles ready?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Fire.”

  The lieutenant fired the missiles, one from each wing. General Lychen watched in anticipation. He knew that the missiles wouldn’t completely destroy the warship, but he liked it that way. He enjoyed inflicting slow and painful deaths upon his victims. After this first wave of missiles, his plan was to pelt the warship with a barrage of plasma blasts and then inflict the kill shots – two more missiles that would completely destroy the rebel warship.

  Just as the missiles flew past the halfway point, Lieutenant Borodin spoke up again. “Sir, I’m getting readings that their propulsion systems have been activated.�
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  “What?” Lychen screeched, turning around to look at Borodin.

  But the lieutenant didn’t make eye contact with him. Instead, his eyes widened as he pointed at the viewscreen. “They’re coming right at us!”

  Lychen whirled around. The rebel warship had just fired its thrusters and was now on a collision course with them. The two missiles exploded on impact, but they weren’t enough to stop the velocity at which the warship was heading for them. “Fire everything we have!”

  Plasma blasts began to pour out of the wings of the Raqel, causing significant damage upon the oncoming ship, but it wasn’t enough. “Lieutenant, prepare two more missiles!” Lychen ordered as he jumped into his command chair and braced himself for impact. As he began to buckle himself in, the Raqel shuddered and alarms – warning them of impact – began to spew from their warning systems. He looked at the viewscreen. The warship, now engulfed in flames, was within 1,000 meters and closing fast.

  He snapped his head toward Captain Vandaer. “Evasive maneuvers!”

  The captain frantically punched commands into his console. “I can’t, sir! Propulsion systems are still offline!”

  General Lychen cursed.

  “General, the missiles are ready,” Lieutenant Borodin said.

  “Then fire them!” Lychen bellowed, staring in fear at the blazing ship that was about to destroy them.

  The two missiles fired from the missile bays. But the rebel warship was now too close. The missiles hit the warship and exploded. The force of the blast rocked the Raqel.

  “Sir, I’ve lost our plasma guns!” said Lieutenant Borodin.

  Without a word, General Lychen gaped in horror at the oncoming ship. There was no way they could escape.

  “Sir! I have propulsion!”

  “Evasive maneuvers, now!”

  Captain Vandaer fired the right thrusters and began to bank the Raqel to its right. But it was too late. The last thing General Lychen remembered was feeling the searing, hot flames as they roared into the command bridge.

  * * * * *

  Adrian guided Gnolom 1 out of the atmosphere. He tried to establish communications with Scott, but there was no reply. His heart began to sink again, knowing that Koroan’s ship had to have been in orbit as well. Looking at his monitor, he noticed that the rickety old warship that he, Scott, and Petey had used to travel to Gnolom was in orbit on the other side of the planet. But there was another ship as well – the Raqel. He activated Gnolom 1’s aft thrusters and sped off to aid his friends against Koroan Chast’s flagship.

  The trip to the other side of the planet wasn’t going to take very long, so he decided to see how Nichelle and Skip were doing down in the medical bay. “Nichelle, do you copy?”

  “I’m here, Adrian.”

  Adrian was emotionally drained. There was a hole in his heart now that he would never be able to fill again. The loss of his son and Celeste was so painful that his voice trembled with his response. “H-how do you plan to get that piece of fruit into my son and his wife?”

  “We’re going to liquefy and introduce it into their bodies via an intravenous solution.”

  “Before you and Skip start that, I want both of you buckled in,” said Adrian as he rubbed the exhaustion from his eyes. “We are going to help Scott and Petey. They may have gotten themselves into trouble with Koroan’s command ship.”

  “Roger that.”

  The comlink clicked off and Adrian decided to close his eyes for a few seconds. But before he could get comfortable, Colonel Merrok spoke. “Adrian, look.”

  Adrian slowly raised his head toward the viewscreen. His jaw dropped. Directly ahead were the warship and the Raqel. Scott had just fired his aft thrusters for a collision course with Koroan Chat’s superior ship. “Scott, this is Adrian! Do you copy?”

  There was no response as two missiles hit the upper hull of the warship. “Sage, prepare to fire on the Raqel.”

  Sage nodded and began to type in commands on his console.

  “Scott! Petey! . . . Do you copy?”

  Gnolom 1 was still out of firing range as it sped toward the old warship. Adrian knew what Scott was about to do, but he needed to communicate with him to pull out, so that the two of them together could take on the Raqel. “Scott!” he screamed as red-hot plasma blasts began to pour from the Raqel.

  “Almost in firing range,” Sage said.

  “As soon as we get in range, I want you to fire every missile we have available and empty every plasma cannon on the Raqel.”

  “We’re in range,” Sage said as he fired everything they had at the Raqel.

  But before their missiles and plasma blast could reach Koroan’s mother ship. Scott’s warship was hit with two more missiles, exploding the ship into two pieces before colliding with the Raqel, exploding into a bright orange fireball. Adrian watched in agony as two more people that he cared about perished.

  Small explosions began to rip throughout the Raqel’s hull. Then the missiles and plasma blasts fired from their ship finished off Koroan’s command ship as it too blasted into a million pieces in orbit above Gnolom.

  * * * * *

  Adrian, in a daze, slowly walked down the long corridor toward the medical bay. After witnessing the loss of two more good friends, he ordered Sage to fly them back to Terrest at maximum velocity and then left to see what progress Nichelle and Skip had made on their plans to revive Jake and Celeste with the mysterious fruit plucked from a mythological tree from another planet. Even though he had witnessed miraculous things in his life, he had a very difficult time believing that this fruit of life could heal two people that he loved with all of his heart.

  As he walked, he began to realize just how exhausted he was. His head pounded in agony, and he was extremely nauseated. Also, he couldn’t walk straight because of the dizziness. Stopping, he leaned his right shoulder against the wall. Suddenly every emotion a human being could experience seemed to pour over him. He began to sob uncontrollably as his body slid down the wall. Once on the floor, he curled his knees up to his chest like a small child and rocked back and forth in an emotional pain he could not describe. It was as if his body was finally realizing what his mind and spirit knew. Jake and Celeste weren’t coming back. The thought was unbearable.

  Finally, after what seemed like hours of pure emotional aguish, his body began to relax and the tears subsided. Sitting for a few more minutes, he wiped the tears from his eyes, took two deep breaths, stood to his feet, and began to make his way to the medical bay once more.

  Once inside, his eyes had to adjust to the lighting in the room. For some reason the room was brighter, brighter than he had ever seen a room before. After his eyes adjusted, he recognized what was causing the brightness. Skip and Nichelle were hanging two I.V. bags of the solution from the fruit of life that they had blended and liquefied above each bed. The solution was emitting a gold, white glow.

  “Wait,” he said, making his way closer to the bodies. “I want to say a prayer with both of you before you start.”

  Nichelle and Skip both nodded. The three of them stood in a small circle with their hands clasped together as Adrian offered a fervent prayer to his Father in Heaven that if it be His will that the fruit of life would heal Celeste and Jake. As he prayed, a presence entered the room. Its strength and goodness was undeniable as tears of comfort and peace now began to pour from each of their eyes.

  After the prayer, Skip and Nichelle began to administer the I.V. drips into the arms of each body. Skip broke the silence first. “Each I.V. bag has a volume of 500 milliliters. Each body will receive one hundred cc’s per hour, so in about five hours we’ll know if this works or not.”

  Adrian nodded and turned toward the exit. “I’m going to lie down. Let me know when it’s done.”

  “We will, Adrian,” Skip replied.

  After leaving, Adrian found the private quarters that his son and Celeste had used on their journey to Gnolom. He entered, and without even taking off his spacesuit, he fell
onto the soft mattress of the bed and fell asleep instantly.

  As he slept, he had a dream. He dreamed of a young boy about two years of age. Adrian was playing with the toddler in a field of green grass, the best shade of green he had ever seen. Trees dotted the field in various locations. The day was warm, but not too hot. A small breeze blew in from the west as he chased the young boy through the field. The toddler squealed with delight as Adrian caught him, picked him up, tickled him, and then kissed his cheek.

  As he held the boy out in front of him, he noticed how blue his eyes were. They were the brightest shade of blue. They were the windows to his soul, emanating the goodness this little boy had within him. The boy smiled and pointed over Adrian’s right shoulder and squealed in delight once again. “Mommy! Daddy!”

  Adrian turned and met the loving eyes of the boy’s parents. “Jake, Celeste, I-I thought you were dead.”

  Jake and Celeste stood next to one another. They were both dressed in white robes, their feet were bare, and their entire beings radiated the same bright light that the fruit of life shined forth. Within their hands were the three golden tablets. Jake held Earth’s tablet, and Celeste held the tablets of Terrest and Gnolom.

  Jake nodded toward the toddler in Adrian’s arms and then looked at his father. His smile turned downward and his face became serious. “The prophecy is in your hands, Dad. Take care of him.”

  “I will. I promise, son.”

  Suddenly, the bright sun that had been warming them began to disappear and dark, menacing clouds rolled in. The thunder clapped, causing them to jump, and lightning flashed all around them. Pouring rain began to drain from the clouds as darkness engulfed them. The toddler in his arms began to cry.

  Celeste then took Earth’s tablet from Jake and placed all three at Adrian’s feet. Standing back up, she looked at Adrian. Fear and grief had replaced her once joyous smile. “Don’t let them take him, Adrian. Please take care of my s—”