Barin fired into the door and kicked it down. Before the startled Power Men could react, he began shooting at all the regulating devices and other controls. The machinery coughed up red smoke. A soldier on guard aimed a weapon, but Barin cut him in two.
Meanwhile, Zarkov pressed a button at the smoking console in the monitoring room. He had worked feverishly for the last two minutes, but now he experienced an elation much like Barin’s.
Flash did not know the lightning field had been switched off until the warship had nearly crashed into the castle.
The wedding guests had realized it seconds earlier, and Zogi and his aides had realized it before they. The priest’s eyes practically popped from their sockets, something they always did when panic gripped his soul and he lost faith in his gods (which occurred with alarming frequency). Knowing that his subconscious would forever regret he had not kissed the bride, knowing that escaping the oncoming rocket was more important than a little sexual titillation any day, he hiked up his robes and ran from the altar as quickly as his stumpy little legs would take him.
Ming raised an eyebrow.
The Emperor of the Universe saw Dale fleeing into the doorway from which she had emerged onto the altar. He wondered why the guards had not detained her. He noticed the guards fleeing from the palace hall. In fact, the entire wedding reception was running amok in all directions; the caterers had overturned the tables of food in their haste to find an exit.
At this point Ming could not fail to perceive the warship bearing down upon the gigantic picture window of the palace hall. The huge tine fixed to the bow seemed to call for him as the warship crashed through the window with an ear-splitting noise future generations would say was heard ’round the universe.
Ming ran to the right, he ran to the left, but in the end he stood where he knew the Fates had dictated he stand: in the center of the wedding platform. He did not feel pain, he did not experience fear, he only stared in astonishment as he grasped the tine which had passed through his chest. He did not hate Gordon, nor did he curse the Fates. For he knew during those moments, as only one who frequently communed with the universe could know, that he had been destined to lose.
As the Ajax crashed into the palace hall, it propelled Ming with it off the platform; his weight tipped it over as it came to rest, and he eventually appeared to be standing on the lower level, though in actuality the Ajax was supporting him.
Ming pulled himself forward on the tine. He left it vibrating behind him, coated with blue blood and pieces of his internal organs. Tenaciously holding on to life despite the inevitable, Ming knelt, tried to stand, refused to fall.
The blond Earthling, pale and shaken from his harrowing experience, crawled from the wreckage and retrieved a golden sword from the rubble. He raised it, fully prepared to use it if necessary.
“You could have been ruler of a kingdom,” said Ming hoarsely, defiantly turning his ring on Flash even as his life ebbed away.
“Turn off the generators and I’ll spare your life,” Flash said.
Ming’s upper lip curled in a snarl. “My life is not for anyone to take.”
“Your power is fading,” said Flash. He was fascinated at how Ming was becoming transparent before him, though he knew he should have been occupied with other matters.
Closing his eyes, Ming turned his ring on himself. He sent his will to uncharted realms, he divested himself of his considerable ego. The cold matter of the universe called. The myriad planes and dimensions of space became easily accessible to him. And as he sent his mind to the aforementioned uncharted realms, his atoms loosened their mutual bondage and became a red gas that flowed into his ring as if it had been sucked up by a vacuum cleaner.
For a long moment the ring stayed in the air; then it dropped onto the floor.
Flash lowered the sword.
Dale emerged from the doorway. Running toward him, she exclaimed, “Flash, Flash!”
Vultan entered the palace through the rubble created by the Ajax. “Congratulations, Flash! You’ve won!”
Barin burst through a doorway directly opposite Vultan. He held his weapon high. “I’ve destroyed the generator controls! The Earth is saved!”
At that point, the globe which had disintegrated the Lizard Man and Zarkov’s pistol flew into the room and halted in front of Flash. The victors tensed, Flash stepping before them.
“Hail, Flash Gordon, conqueror of Mongo!” said the globe.
Shouting with delight, Flash leaped into the air, and pandemonium erupted throughout the courtroom.
13
The End? Well, Maybe . . .
AS the court applauded and cheered, Vultan raised his sword. “Barin is the rightful heir!”
Led by Luro and Biro, the court shouted, “Hail, Barin, King of Mongo!”
Barin grinned, bowed, and said, “We owe everything to Flash Gordon!” He gestured for the Earthling and his two companions to join him on the upper level of the palace hall, and the Mongians cheered their saviors from the stars.
“We appoint Vultan general of our armies. From this day on, every breed of Mongo shall live in peace.” Barin turned to Aura, put his arm about her waist. “And we cordially invite you all to the wedding of your new King and Aura, daughter of the deposed Emperor, three days hence.”
As the court cheered again, Aura passionately kissed Barin. “My hero,” she whispered.
Zarkov smiled at Dale. “Somewhere on Earth the sun is rising.”
“Oh, I bet it’s a beauty,” Dale said. “Will we ever get home again, Hans?”
“I don’t know. We’ll try.”
“We certainly invite you all to stay,” said Barin.
“What do you think?” Flash asked Dale. “Could you get used to it here?”
Dale shook her head. “I’m a New York girl. It’s pretty quiet around here for me.”
However, as the attention of all was fixed upon the Hawk Men saluting Flash in the red sky, no one noticed a gloved hand taking Ming’s ring from the rubble and concealing it beneath the folds of a robe.
Flash Gordon Page 22
