by Jerome Kelly
“Kalmar, how long?”
“One piece is in, we’re working on the second now,” Kalmar replied, assisting several members of the crew as they tried to haul the particularly heavy piece they had found on Sharstrom into it’s berth on the back of the weapon. They were frantically doing everything they could as fast as they could but it was still going to take time to get each piece in and properly installed. James hurried over to the barricade to lend his support to the team as they held the front entrance. Every so often, a group of Lataka tried to storm the entrance but sustained fire from the team was stopping them in their tracks every time and the mass of dead Lataka on the floor of the entrance hall was making it more and more difficult for the approaching Lataka to climb over.
“We can’t keep this up forever, James,” Kristea warned, “there is only so long we can hold them back, there are just too many of them.”
“Just keep taking them down as they come, we’ll get through this,” James said confidently, despite the enemy continuing their push towards them through the bunker doorway, “just let the teams do what they need to do, we’ll get out of this.”
“If you say so,” said Kristea, “but this isn’t looking good!”
As long as they stayed behind cover and continued to pick off the enemy as they came, they could hold out. The largest piece of the Shadow Bringer was in, they only had to install one more piece, the small blue orb that they had recovered from Alatennia was being placed into an alcove near the front of the weapon and it’s many cables and tubes were being re-attached to where they needed to be. It wouldn’t be long now.
“Just keep holding them back!” James called to his team, seeing how close the weapon was to being completed, “just a little longer, we’re almost done!”
“I think we’ve got it!” Morelli called back to him, “the last piece is in, we just need to turn it on and arm it now.” Morelli rushed around the side of the weapon and opened up a panel. There was a small screen and a keypad behind it which came to life as she opened it up.
“all right…” she said, “. . . Kalmar, how do we get it armed?”
“I… erm…”
“Oh please tell me you know how to arm it!” Morelli shot at him, “if we can’t turn this thing on, all of this was for nothing!”
“Let me have a look,” Kalmar brushed her to one side, taking over at the panel, receiving a very dirty look as he did so “oh damn, it’s all in ancient Jaiytid, I’m not great when it comes to translation. Does anyone else here know how to read it?”
“Yeah, only one of us,” said Morelli, “that was Jaiden, and she’s not exactly in a position to help us right now.”
“Kalmar, can you arm it or not!” James yelled from the barricade as more Lataka tried to get through, Kyrakian stepping out and gunning them down as they approached. The way in was still clear but the pressure was intensifying from the outside.
“I can try,” said Kalmar, although he was starting to look panicked and there was sweat dripping from his brow, “but one mistake and we all go up with it. Wait… I’ve got it!”
He started hitting some of the keys on the pad. James was too focused on holding back the Lataka to see what he was doing but he was onto something and he hadn’t blown them up yet. James just hoped he could find the solution before they were overrun, there were Al’cari soldiers showing up at the entrance to the bunker and they took considerably more firepower to take down.
“I’ve found the arming sequence,” Kalmar said, stepping back from the weapon, “we just need the remote detonator and then we can use it to activate the countdown sequence from pretty much anywhere.”
“So where is the detonator?”
“It’s… Oh…” Kalmar swung around, scanning the room, looking very anxious as he did so, “there’s no detonator! It must be here somewhere, search the room!”
James felt like banging his head on the barricade, although he had to keep his focus on the battle before him. As his expert on the Shadow Bringer, James had expected Kalmar to know what he was doing when the time came but he had not thought it through properly. Maybe he really didn’t know what was needed and was playing on instinct, much like James often did, but it would have been nice to have had certainty having come so far and having now assembled the weapon.
“They’ve stopped coming!” Ansare quickly drew everyone’s attention back to the bunker entrance, “are they just gonna give up?”
“Not likely,” said Saavoy, “they know that if they can’t get in, we can set off the weapon and blow this place. They wont give up, we should be careful, there might be more than one way to get in here.”
“Everyone look sharp,” James warned the group, “you see anything alien, you hit it first and ask questions later.”
James kept a watchful eye over the room as his engineering crews continued the search for the detonator. There was a large amount of salvage being stored at the back of the room, the purpose of which was unknown but it was likely the detonator was thrown in with the rest of it. They could really do with finding it quickly…
“Got it!” Connolly called to them from the salvage pile, recovering a small silver device that was very much in keeping the the Shadow Bringer itself.
“Yes, that’s it!” Kalmar exclaimed, “bring it here, I’ll get it working.”
Connolly had been about to hand the device to Kalmar when a massive explosion tore through one side of the bunker wall, throwing debris across the room and throwing the whole group off their feet. Once more, James found himself dazed but seemingly unharmed. He had been wrong about the Al’cari and their use of conventional weapons, they had taken a great risk by blowing open one side of the room, any damage to the Shadow Bringer could have either set it off or damaged it beyond repair and made it useless to their masters. The side of the room where the entrance had been was now a mountain of rubble and there was a considerable hole in the side of the building through which an Al’cari captain was now forcing it’s way.
“All of you, back away from the weapon!” it exclaimed, “do it now!”
It held it’s weapon up in their direction, ready to fire if any of them made any kind of aggressive move towards it. Most of the crew were still struggling to get to their feet and none of them could make a move to attack fast enough. James wanted to go for his weapon but the Al’cari captain was prepared for any move he might have made, he had to hold back or he would have been shot before he could get within a meter of his gun.
“It does not have to end this way,” the Al’cari said to them, “all of you leave, now, and we will let you live. The weapon, the Shadow Bringer, must go to our masters in order to save my people. There is no other choice.”
“There is always a choice,” James contested, “you don’t have to do this. Call off your people, call off the Lataka and we can take this weapon out of here instead and make sure no one can ever use it on an inhabited system. No one else has to die over it.”
“No!” The Al’cari said aggressively, “you do not know the torment the survivors of my race will face at the hands of our masters when we return if we do not deliver the weapon. Do not force this pain upon us, we have suffered enough over the years.”
“You forced this on us right from the start!” Kalmar shouted at it, “thirty five years my people have been suffering under attacks from your kind. Thousands of us have died at your hands and at the hands of the Lataka. If we destroy this weapon now, it all stops.”
“We never wished a war with your people, Adean,” said the Al’cari, “to save our race we are to deliver the weapon at all costs, even if we had to take over the dig site from which you recovered this weapon and kill your people who were stationed there. Two hundred lives to save an entire civilisation from extinction was seen as an acceptable sacrifice. Your people chose to make war on us, we defended ourselves. All we did was make an acceptable sacrifice to save ou
r people.”
“No, murder and theft on that scale are not acceptable, not ever!” Kalmar snarled, resisting the urge to go for the weapon that lay just a meter from him.
“What about the murder on the scale that you would commit by detonating the weapon in the middle of our operations?” the Al’cari asked him, “is it not acceptable for us to kill two hundred but perfectly Ok for you to simply blow up several thousand in one press of a button?”
“Diplomacy can still work here,” said James, “call off the assault and let us take the weapon away from here. Sever your ties with your masters and be free of them. We can offer you a place in our galactic community, we can give you a home, space to build. Just let the galaxy be rid of the Shadow Bringer once and for all… please.”
“I cannot,” the Al’cari said sorrowfully, “I’m afraid this has to end now. Give me the detonator now or I will take it from you. There is no other way to end this”
Kalmar looked around, the detonator was not there. James scrambled to his feet, looking to see where it had gone but it was not by him. It had been thrown across the room towards the weapon itself, near where Morelli and Ansare where both lain back against the weapon. Morelli quickly went to grab it but the Al’cari sprang too fast, reaching for the detonator but Morelli managed to knock it just out of it’s reach. The Al’cari went for the detonator again but Ansare picked it up before it could reach it and rolled out of the way, clutching onto it.
“Hand it over, Jaiytid,” the Al’cari demanded, a small blade springing forward from a compartment on it’s wrist armour, “give me the detonator or I will have to kill you for it.”
“No! The Shadow Bringer is not yours and never will be,” Ansare snapped back at it, “it’s the end for you and your thug allies.”
“So be it.”
Ansare was quick to grab a nearby rifle, diving to pick it up as the Al’cari captain missed with a swing of it’s blade. Ansare turned to fire a shot but the Al’cari was quick and it drove it’s blade towards Ansare who only just managed to block in time, using the rifle as a shield. Deflecting the blow to the side he struck the Al’cari across the face once, twice, he went to hit it a third time but it swung it’s blade around, knocking the rifle from his hands. With it’s free hand, the Al’cari grabbed Ansare by the throat, lifting him struggling into the air. James had scrambled for his rifle and was trying to move into a position to get a shot away but he was too late. The Al’cari stabbed it’s blade into Ansare’s stomach to the cries from the watching team around him. It withdrew it’s blade and dropped him to the floor, bleeding profusely from his wound. Picking up the detonator, the Al’cari captain thrust it’s blade through the device and ripped it cleanly into two pieces, tossing them to one side. Their only way of detonating the Shadow Bringer was gone…
Chapter Nineteen
The Supernova
The cries of anguish from James’s team pierced the air. Saavoy and Kyrakian, in a rage, drew their weapons and pounced towards the Al’cari captain in a furious attack. James quickly scrambled to his feet, hurrying over to his fallen comrade. Ansare was alive, just, but he was bleeding badly from the wound on his stomach. He and Kalmar quickly dragged him and sat him up against one side of the Shadow Bringer.
“I’m sorry, James…” Ansare croaked, his voice sounding weak, “I’m sorry…”
“Don’t apologise, we’re getting you out of here,” James said angrily, putting pressure on the wound to stop the flow of blood, “I’m not leaving you behind.”
“It’s too late…”
“No!” Morelli snapped, “no, you’re not dying, we didn’t come all this way just to lose hope like this at the end, we’re getting you out of here.” “It doesn’t matter anyway,” Kalmar said grimly, “the detonator is gone. We can’t remotely trigger the weapon anymore. It’s over.”
If there was no method of triggering the weapon’s activation sequence, there was nothing they could do. They couldn’t destroy it, not without being able to craft another detonator but that was simply not an option in their current predicament. Kalmar may have been right, it may have all come to an end.
Saavoy and Kyrakian continued to attack the Al’cari captain, enraged at the wounds it had inflicted on their comrade. Saavoy cut the blade from it’s arm with a furious swing, disabling it for Kyrakian to deliver a fatal blow, cutting it’s head from it’s body and sending it crumpling to the floor. Immediately, Saavoy rushed back to the others and to Ansare’s side.
“Damn it, Kaldun!” Saavoy exclaimed in anguish, “after all we’ve been through…”
“Just a hazard of the job I guess,” Ansare said with a touch of gallows humour, “it’s been an honour fighting alongside you guys you know. I just wish it didn’t have to go this way.”
James slammed his rifle into the ground in a rage. After everything they had been through right from when Artennes had pulled them from their week away in Lahara, this was not how it should have come to an end. There had to be a way, something they could do to finish the job, there just had to be…
“You should go,” Ansare said weakly, “call in the flyer, get everyone out of here, you’ve done all you can.”
“Not without you, not without setting this thing to blow!” James yelled at him, “we’re all getting out of this, we’re getting out alive.”
“It’s over, I’m sorry,” Ansare had a tear in his eye. As much as Lucy and Kristea were able to halt the blood loss in his current position, if they moved him he would bleed out and he would die.
“Kalmar, please, please tell me there is another way to set this thing off,” James said with his head in his hands, “please tell me this isn’t how it ends. There has to be a way…”
“Without the detonator, we can’t set it remotely,” said Kalmar, “the only way to do it would be to set the detonation sequence manually but you would never get out in time, the blast will consume the entire planet and stretch for tens of thousands of kilometres around. The only way to set it off and to get us out of here alive… is for someone to manually set the device to blow once we’ve all made it out.”
“I’m not leaving any of my crew behind to die, no captain would,” James said aggressively, “we’re all getting out of here and that’s final.”
“James, you know what you have to…”
“NO!” He cried, “no, I know what you’re going to say, Kaldun, it’s not going to happen!”
“It’s the only way, James,” Ansare said, his strength visibly starting to fade, “you have to let me do this.”
“Kaldun… are you sure about this?” Morelli was having a hard time holding back her own tears at the sight of him laying there so close to death, “you are really prepared to do this?”
“It’s the only way,” he said, despite James wanting to make a protest, “you can all get out of here now, let me set the weapon to blow, let me finish this for you.”
“Kaldun, don’t do this, there has to be another way,” James begged him, “please, don’t do this.”
“You know it’s the only way, James, you just don’t want to accept it,” Ansare said with all the strength left in him, “I’m touched that you all want to go to such lengths to save me but it’s the only way. If you move me, I’m finished.”
“He’s right, James,” said a tearful Morelli, “we have to do this, I don’t like it but it’s the only way.”
“It’s been an honour serving with you all,” Ansare said to them, “I’m going to miss our adventures, blasting through space, fighting against the unknown, saving the alliance time and time again. It’s been a good run. Oh, and when you get home, please, tell Anaya…”
“We will,” Saavoy assured him, “we’ll tell her what happened and what you chose to do for us. You’ll always be remembered for what you’re about to do here today.”
“I always did say right from the beginning that I would die t
o save my people,” Ansare said weakly, “I guess I shouldn’t have tempted fate so much. Now all of you go, get out of here.”
James reached for his commlink. The destruction of one side of the bunker had broken through the interference and he had a signal. He quickly contacted Melina on the flyer.
“Kaydenne, we’re ready for extraction, bring the flyer over,” James tried to disguise the anger and frustration in his voice but it was too evident for all to hear.
“I’m locking onto your signal now, I’ll be there in a minute,” Melina replied, “James, are you Ok, you don’t sound too good.”
“It’s fine, just come and get us, we’re ready to leave,” James said, not wanting to give her the news just yet, “the Shadow Bringer is set to blow, we’re ready to get going.”
“I’ll be there in a minute, get to the roof, I’ll pick you up there. I’ll warn the alliance forces to get clear and return to their ships.”
James turned back to face Ansare one more time as he lay there up against the Shadow Bringer. Kalmar had pulled the small console from the Shadow Bringer and had placed it down next to Ansare where he could set the detonation sequence when he was ready.
“Don’t look back, James,” Ansare said to him, keeping his air of calm about him despite his impending fate, “it’s over now, the battle is won.”
“We’re all going to miss you,” said James, now struggling to hold back the tears himself, “you’ve been an important part of my crew on two of the greatest adventures of my life.”
