by John Short
“We will survive. Thank the Goddess our storage sheds were not harmed.”
“I'll have a few of my men help you clean this up, but I'm afraid we cannot stay here for long.” Jon explained. “We have brought the ship with your supplies. I'll make sure you get everything your expecting.”
“I know. I heard you calling your ship before the center was hit. Do you really fly the Defiance?”
“Yes, that's my ship.”
“I have a message for you Sire.” the greenish man started to say before Jon held up his hands to stop him.
“Please stop calling me that. I am not a Dragon King and I'm certainly no King to you.”
“But the dragon that appears at your back says differently, my Lord. You have been called to a meeting at Jake's Tavern on Hiliost 5 any day you can be there at 1900 hours local time. The message is for the Butcher, that's you. Your Dragon's Breath sword is famous even this far out from the center planets.”
“Thank you Kikol.” Jon acknowledged. “Jar, are you OK to fly?”
“Yeah, I'll be fine. Just don't tell Phillie I got hurt. I'm going to have a hard enough time explaining these bruises once she sees them.” the warrior who was almost as big as Jon pleaded.
“You're on your own with that one brother. Try keeping your clothes on for a change. Whatever you end up telling her, make sure you keep me out of the story.” Jon smiled and slapped his friend on the back. “I'm heading back to the ship. Let me know when the clean up down here is finished. Make sure you have that leg checked by the Healer. I know how you are about injuries.”
“I'm no worse than you my friend.” Jarrieal answered. “Why are you digging in a pile of rubble with your back in the shape its in?”
“I was trying to save your hard ass.” Jon smiled at his friend and together they both laughed. Jon stopped to talk with a few of his men and several of the settlement's civilians on his way back to his Dragon Ship. He instructed his people to offer any help that they could in finding survivors. He found he was mainly trying to make the settlers stop falling to their knees whenever he approached. Then a very old female approached him and said,
“The people have studied the legends of the Umin for all the cycles of our planet. They have seen the Dragon Ship you fly and the dragon that appears at your back. Your men wear the house colors of the Dragon King. You speak and they obey. You have even risked your own life to save one of them.” she bowed deeply before saying, “You are the Dragon King, my Lord. We have all waited hundreds of cycles for your return.”
“I am nobodies King my Lady.” Jon corrected her. “I am just a male who offers what help I can to the good people of the rim worlds. I would like to see all of them set free from the evil males who keep them crushed under their boots.”
“What more can any good King want except to have his Queen at his side?” she asked before backing away and bowing again and again until she was out of sight. Jon continued to his ship and put the old female's words out of his head. There was no way he was some mythical Umin Dragon King. As far as having a Queen at his side, well, that would never happen!
Strapping in to his pilot's chair Jon carefully lifted his ship into the air and away from the settlement before pointing its nose straight up and blasting into space. He followed the Defiance's locator beacons and found her patrolling on the other side of the planet from where they had destroyed the suicide ship. She had another of the pirate vessels locked in combat and He watched as streams of deadly laser fire was exchanged between the ships.
“Dragon to Defiance, why are you playing with them? Just blast them out of the sky.” Jon commed over.
“It’s about time you answered!” Phillie's excited voice responded. “I was waiting for you because this one is different from the others. I thought you might want to see it.”
“What's so different?” Jon questioned.
“Can you see those scanner beam generators on her hull?” Phillie asked. “I think this is the control ship for the other one that was bombing the planet.”
“You want me to take it?” Jon asked her.
“Where are the rest of the teams?” Phillie asked. Jackal had already contacted the ship, so she knew that her mate was safe even if the fool had gotten himself hurt. Now all she had to worry about was her heart-brother doing something foolish.
“Busy. I'm heading in now.” Jon told her and cut the connection. He flew into position behind the pirate's vessel and sent missiles into each of its engines, crippling the ship. He waited to see if it was also rigged to explode if attacked, but nothing happened. With the vessel now dead in space, Jon flew along the planet side of it and blasted away each gun emplacement before swinging around to the side facing Defiance and carefully taking out each cannon as it waited to reload between shots. With the ship's engines off line, and its cannon s destroyed, Jon brought his ship in close and he could finally see the scanner generators that Phillie had told him about. They stuck out on the hull like bunted quills, literally covering every inch of the ship's surface. Jon did find one spot near the tail with enough room for him to land.
Closing the helmet on his Umin armor, Jon exited his ship and drew both of his swords, igniting the plasma blades. Making certain of his every step, he moved to what looked to be a hatch. It was marked as an emergency air lock, so Jon cycled it and preceded into the aft section of the vessel. What he saw inside had him rethinking everything he thought he knew about the operation of a ship in space.
He was standing in what had to be the largest Engineering section he'd ever seen on a ship of this size. Instead of a team of Engineers manning rows of computers, Jon found only a massive mainframe computer connected to hundreds of mechanical arms set up around the room. Paying no attention to his presence, the arms seemed to be working furiously to repair the ruined engines. Finding what he thought had to be the power connection for the computer, he used his sword to neatly slice through the cable that was as thick as his leg and was rewarded by a shower of sparks as the lights went out on the mainframe and the mechanical arms fell still on their mounting points.
Jon found the entryway into the rest of the ship and as he searched the vessel, he found none of the telltale signs of a crew anywhere. He had expected to at least find living quarters and beings manning the guns, instead he found another mainframe computer. This one had Defiance targeted and was still issuing commands for the laser cannons to fire on her despite the cannons having already been destroyed. Once more Jon searched for the power cable and cut it cleanly through, putting an end to the ship's ability to shoot at anything.
Opening his coms he called up to Defiance, “Phillie? Can you ask Leviathan to come in and pick up this thing? I'm almost up to the command bridge and still haven't found a crew onboard. It’s all being run by computers.”
Continuing his inspection of the ship, Jon found the bridge. As soon as he stepped through the entry he was hit by the blast from a heavy laser. Its beam hitting him squarely in the chest. If not for the Umin armor that he was wearing Jon would have been killed by that one blast alone. “I've already set the self-destruct Peacekeeper!” a hidden male called out. “You don't want any part of this. Boss King has claimed this planet and he will have it. Once this ship dies he'll send others!”
“I've shut down two of the mainframes running this thing.” Jon called back. “Come out and lets talk. I'm not a Peacekeeper any more.”
“You ain't on the Bosses pay roll either. If you were you'd know better than to have attacked his death ships.” the voice replied and fired another blast to punctuate his remark.
“Do you really want to die out here?” Jon asked.
“I'll die anyway! Boss King doesn't accept failure.”
Jon had slowly worked his way around to where he heard the voice coming from and when an arm reached out to blindly fire another shot, he quickly sliced it off with his sword. The laser fired again as it hit the floor with a hand still grasping its trigger. “My next move will be to cut out your he
art!” Jon yelled.
“HA! You're out of time!” the hidden male shouted and Jon heard the screech of an alarm somewhere on the ship that indicated it had only seconds left before its reactors would explode. The next thing he knew, a blindingly white flash surrounded him as an explosion erupted around him! He was immediately knocked unconscious. His last thoughts were about Satrina and her beautiful smile.
On the bridge of Defiance, Phillie fell to the floor. She had just seen Jon enter the pirate vessel. Once he had gone inside that ship, all communication with him had been lost, so she did not know what he was doing. Then just a few minutes after he went inside, the enemy ship exploded! Pain gripped her heart as she thought that the one male who'd had enough faith in her to give her a new life died with that ship. Her grief overwhelmed her and she openly screamed out her pain and fell to her knees. “NO! JON! NO!” she screamed.
Jon stood in front of a pair of doors that had twin dragons carved in them and on each dragon was a male with a flaming sword. Between the dragons was a small object that could somehow expand to engulf both dragons and their fliers. Why am I here? He wondered. The doors opened and Jon walked through only to find a long hallway with paintings along each wall. They showed beautiful landscapes, armored warriors, beautiful females, and the last painting seemed to change before his eyes. He knew each of them because his ancestor had taken them from the cave and brought them to the house. Jon had loaded them onto the shuttle and brought them with him when he left the house on Haven. Finally he came to the painting he had looked at many times. It began as a painting of a tall handsome male dressed in silver and black armor, holding a flaming sword in one hand while his other was wrapped around the beautiful female at his side. Behind them stood a gleaming city of gold. Next the painting showed his ancestor with his mate and the youngling they raised together. The youngling was Jon's great, great grandfather. Finally the painting became him and Satrina with Talga sitting next to them. In one hand Jon held a flaming sword while his other arm was pulling Satrina tightly to his side and she had her hands resting on his chest. She was wearing the Connell House colors and had chosen the most beautiful gown of them all. She looked like the Queen that she was destined to be. The look of absolute love on her face brought tears to his eyes even though he knew he was sleeping in a tube in the Med Lab on Leviathan. It was exactly as it had been the day it changed when he had given Satrina his house colors. Still it had changed again because what had been a blurred area above his mountain home now clearly showed the image of Leviathan surrounded by stars. Jon now wore a black cape that was edged in gold with a hood that covered his face and instead of the look of innocence that he had before, now the image showed his face as a mask of rage and pain. He was the Death to Satrina's life. The darkness to her light. The hate to her love. Jon suddenly realized that the look on Satrina's face was not one of love, it was one of a person pleading for someone to return to the innocence that once was. “I'M NOT THE ONE WHO TURNED AWAY! SHE REJECTED ME!” he screamed out in the dream.
“Take a care Warrior” an angry voice called to him. “The time comes when you must decide to forgive. If you cannot, my ship will betray you and you will be he of the painting knowing only darkness and death when love is calling.”
Then the angry male voice was gone and Jon was left alone looking at the painting that had changed back to the Umin King and his beautiful Queen with their golden city behind them. In the sky high above that part of the image that had always been just a blur slowly became sharper until Jon realized that the painting was of a massive ship far out in space! The ship was the Galaxiey!
As the dream faded from his head Jon heard a female's gentle voice telling him, “Your future is in your own hands my chosen Warrior. One path leads to an ever-lasting love. The other to misery.”
Jon slowly shook the sleep from his brain and hid his eyes from the bright lights in the Medical bay on Leviathan. He'd experienced this before. The last time was when he had been removed from the healing tubes on Lexon II after the battle of Canari Prime. This was different. His muscles weren't weak and his back, while still painful did not send the fiery stabs of pain straight into his brain.
“Ah, you're awake.” Healer Hukor said. “You gave us all a scare Admiral.”
“What happened?” Jon asked.
“I'm not sure. A pirate ship exploded and we found you and your fancy ship floating in space all jumbled up with the wreckage.” The Healer ran his scanner over Jon's body then frowned. “You've done some real damage this time Admiral. You'll need your chair or the frames for a while. Lucky for you, that Umin armor kept you alive.” As he turned to leave he looked back at Jon and just snickered. Then opening the curtains he said, “He's all yours.”
Phillie exploded into the room. She was all over him checking his legs, arms, head, and neck lastly looking him straight in the eyes. “So help me Jon Connell! If you ever do anything like that again!” Then she threw her arms around him and hugged him tight. “You made me cry, damn you.” she sobbed.
“I'm sorry little sister.” Jon told her as he stroked her long hair. “I wasn't expecting the ship to blow itself up like that. In the long history of space, no ship has ever done something like that. No living being would set foot on one if it could.”
“I know Jon, we've already gone over the recordings your ship and armor made.” Phillie sniffled. “You could not have known. I'm just thankful that Jar wasn't with you when it killed itself. As good as all the new armor is, it would never have kept him alive the way yours did.”
“Did you bring me a clean tunic?” Jon asked.
“Yes, and clean leggings, and your wheelchair.” Phillie told him. “The Healer wants you in that chair for at least a day.”
Jon quickly dressed and when he tried to walk out of his area, the pain in his back nearly made him fall. Lucky for him he managed to get himself seated in the chair before Phillie or the Healer saw him struggling.
Two days later another distress call came in. A loaded cargo vessel outbound from Helued system was under attack by pirates using a military surplus Destroyer class vessel. The larger cargo vessel was running and managing to keep out of their range, but their slipdrives were damaged. They needed help.
Jon moved several shuttles over to Defiance including his own Dragon Ship and jumped to the coords where he found himself facing not one, but two Destroyer class vessels chasing the cargo ship.
“OK troops, Phillie needs one of these ships to be able to fly for a little experiment she has in mind. We can blow the other to the Goddess and be done with it. Shuttle Captains, launch and insert your grubs on the starboard Destroyer. Defiance, blow the port ship out of the space ways. Cancel that. Let's take both ships. Defiance, disable your ship, grubs, split up between both ships. Leave them both flyable if we can” Jon ordered then he hurried down to join the attacking shuttles. He stepped into his armor then strapped himself into his ship, started its engines and drove it out of the hanger bay into space.
No sooner than he cleared the bay, he found himself in the middle of a fierce battle. Both pirate Destroyer class vessels had turned and were now attacking Defiance. From the looks of the battle, the attack on the freighter was only a ploy to lure Jon's Destroyer into the fight. Plasma cannons ripped space with their electric blue bolts and torpedoes exploded harmlessly on the Umin armor shell Phillie had installed on Defiance. The new ship's armor prevented the pirates from inflicting any damage on his ship’s hull. With his shuttle cloaked, Jon flew over to one of the pirate vessels and began firing on its weapons to disable them. Soon he found himself the target as the pirates realized what he was doing. Shooting at him might have worked if he wasn't flying with the nanoid enhancements in his brain telling the Dragon Ship's controls when to jerk to the left, right, up or down to avoid incoming fire as another part of his mind directed his own plasma bolts and rockets to blast away at the pirate ship. To someone watching the struggle from a distance it appeared as a display of brilliant blu
e and red beams clustered at one tiny ship and the returning blue and red streaks coming from the smaller vessel as it “pulled the teeth” from its larger opponent. The much smaller Dragon ship skipped around the pirate's Destroyer taking out its weapons one at a time. It had no worries at all about the return fire it was taking from both pirate vessels now as they both left off trying to attack the Defiance and turned their attention to the small vessel that was crippling their attack systems. For Jon's part, his mind link with the Umin Dragon Ship gave him the added advantage of being able to move faster, react more efficiently and attack relentlessly, all simply by thinking about what he should do next. Unlike the pirates who had to think about where to aim, then when to fire, for Jon, it all happened together as if he were gliding around a dance floor with a beautiful female in his arms. This dance was the dance of death for the pirates and the female was his Dragon Ship as it responded to his every thought and the most gentle of touches to its controls. Toying with the pirate vessels, Jon would allow his ship to be picked up on his opponents scanners just long enough to fire another shot before recloaking and moving to blast another of the pirate's cannons.
With the pirates weapons silenced, and his troops onboard both ships, Jon locked the helmet down on his Umin Battle Armor and picked one of the pirate vessels to board for himself. “This is Dragon” he commed. “I'm coming onboard the port side ship. I'll head to the command bridge.” He found a convenient air lock, brought his Dragon Ship into position and locked his ship to the pirate vessel just as it started to make a run for a near by slipway. It took a few seconds for the air lock to cycle so Jon could enter the vessel, but once he was inside he drew his sword and made his way forward.
Jon easily cut down any who tried to stand in his way as any plasma bolts fired at him bounced harmlessly off his Umin armor. It was as if he were an angry God that had come to take his vengeance out on any who would attack the weak and helpless. Pirates seemed to keep coming at him as he continued on to the command bridge. The layout of this Destroyer was an exact twin for Defiance so Jon knew where he was going as he stepped over the dead bodies he had sliced and cut as they tried in vain to stop him from reaching the control center of the ship. Finally reaching the command bridge he walked in on a fierce firefight as his own troops fired at the pirates who had taken cover across the room behind a bank of computers.
