Into the Fire Part II: To End All Wars (Universe in Flames Book 10)

by Christian Kallias

  “Never mind my anger. What about jump engines?” he proposed.

  “I’ve already tried; the ship’s computer isn’t letting me jump. It says the ship will be destroyed if we do.”

  “We wouldn’t want tha—” but Spiros paused. “Uh…can you disable the safety protocols?”

  “I can’t; committing suicide goes against the main protocols you’ve defined for the mission.”

  “I’m not trying to get us killed; well, that’s not my objective anyway. But I do have an idea. It’s a long shot at best, but since I don’t want either of us to end up as lunch for a Kryon, whatever the hell that is, we may have to take it.”

  Spiros checked the cargo and located the cloning biomaterials. He then initiated a full ship scan of Morgor’s dreadnought. The ship’s shields were still activated, but they probably would have to lower them the moment Spiros’ borrowed ship approached a cargo bay. It took some fancy on-the-fly hacking, but Spiros managed to penetrate the shields with his scanner. He calculated the time until the tractor beam would bring them inside the ship, which gave them less than two minutes to execute his plan.

  He locked onto the biomaterials and programmed the computer to automatically beam both the selected cargo and them to one of the empty cargo bays. The computer complained that trying to beam living tissue through a shielded ship would most likely result in the death of the beamed lifeforms.

  “I’m not sure we should be doing this,” commented Gaia. “Perhaps I can overpower whomever they send to get us out of the ship.”

  Spiros had thought about that, but the sheer size of Morgor’s ship told Spiros that he had a large crew, and no matter how deadly Gaia’s combat sub-routines were, she was still made of flesh and bones and not reinforced quadrinium alloy like her old avatar body.

  One stray blaster shot to the head or the chest could kill her. It was too risky. Stealth and a crazy plan had more chance of succeeding.

  “I know what I’m doing.”

  Spiros was fully aware of the irony of the statement; after all, it was his ideas and plans that had gotten them into this mess in the first place. That and the pitiful maintenance level of Argos’ base. Spiros made a mental note to reprimand the Fury if they survived this.

  “Very well, Spiros. It seems to me there is a higher chance we won’t survive the next few minutes. Therefore, I just wanted to thank you for bringing me along and letting me experience all of this.”

  “We’re not dead yet; and please, don’t jinx us.”

  Spiros checked the time. They only had fifteen seconds before their ship would be delivered to the cargo bay. The dreadnought ship opened part of its shield to allow their ship in.

  Well, let’s hope that the beaming tech doesn’t need more than a hole in the ship, or we’re toast.

  Spiros activated a delayed hyperspace jump and hovered his finger on the beaming macro while looking straight at Gaia.

  “Here goes nothing,” he said as he activated the command.

  Lights came to life the moment the team beamed inside the facility.

  Chase and his friends were standing on solid metal floor panels that reflected the light source around them.

  “This place is bigger than I expected,” said Chris.

  Chase looked around himself; the place was indeed massive, more than he expected it to be, too.

  “How can the power source for this place last ten thousand years?”

  “They are actually power cells, which is why the place is so massive, as they needed to accumulate and hold power for the facility for as long as it would be required. The power cells are fueled by the planet’s core itself.”

  “Impressive,” said Argos.

  “I don’t see the ships,” noted Sarah.

  “That’s also a security feature; one that I didn’t put into place,” Menelas answered.

  “What do you mean?” inquired Chase.

  “You see, you don’t choose the ships, they choose you.”

  “What do you mean, they choose you?” echoed Argos.

  “The main component of the soul ships are its pilots. They have to have the right energy, and the right attitude, too. The ships won’t fly if just anyone tries. The ships are capable of being moved from one place to another, but they won’t deliver their extraordinary firepower unless they themselves choose their pilots.”

  “But that would mean that they’re somewhat alive or at least sentient?” said Argos. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

  “They are both of those things, Argos. Their circuitry is a mix of silicon, carbon, and what can only be described as a biomaterial nervous system. They’re a hybrid between machine and living creature. The symbiosis you form with the ship might go beyond anything you have experienced before, or so I’ve been told by the ships’ former pilots.”

  “What happened to them?” inquired Sarah.

  “I have no idea; I was on Erevos when they flew the ships last, ten thousand years ago.”

  “So, it’s possible they flew the ships back here themselves?” asked Sarah.

  “Probably, or the ships flew back on their own if they lost their pilot, like I programmed them to do,” said Menelas.

  “Interesting; what happens if the ships don’t choose us?”

  “Then I’m afraid there is no way to make the machine work properly. It will only activate if at least four of the five ships have chosen pilots.”

  “I thought there were only four ships?” said Chase. “Sarah had a vision, which showed only four.”

  Menelas went to the nearest console and keyed a few commands. “Well, it looks like her vision might become true. One of the ships seems to be damaged; it’s been deactivated.”

  “Can it be repaired?” asked Argos.

  “Its self-repairing system hasn’t managed to. Beyond that, we’d need one hell of an engineer to achieve that. The computer reports a main component is missing, without it the ship can’t function”

  “But could you pilot one of the ships?” asked Argos. “Say, if we managed to repair it.”

  “None of the ships chose me the first time around; I don’t see why they would this time.”

  “Why didn’t a ship choose you?” asked Chris.

  “I’m not certain, but I believe the pilot has to have certain genetic characteristics as well as the capacity to muster a certain level of inner power in order to be chosen.”

  “That’s where I’m a little fuzzy,” said Argos. “What does it have to do with power levels?”

  “The ships are able to channel their pilot’s inner pools of energy, which is why only a few races can pilot them. Furies, Olympians, and a few rare others, most of whom were wiped out during the first Fury War. Which of you wants to try it first?”

  Chris stepped in. “I’d like to go first.”

  Chase smiled.

  “Then step over here,” said Menelas pointing to an open area of the complex where there was a luminous white circle on the floor. “Step into the circle and, if you’re meant to be a pilot, a soul ship will choose you.”

  “Neat,” said Chris as he walked to the open area.

  Before Chris entered the circle, Menelas put his hand on the boy’s shoulder.

  “What happens next is like nothing you may have experienced before; just let it happen, okay? Don’t resist and trust that the ship isn’t your enemy.”

  Chris frowned. “What’s going to happen?”

  “Well, if the ship chooses you, you’ll see. Just don’t step outside of the circle; if you refuse the ship, it might not want you as its pilot. The pilot-merging ritual needs to happen on the ship’s terms; it will test your courage, sense your fears, then decide if you’re a worthy pilot.”

  Chris smiled and flashed his grandfather a thumbs up. “Okay, thanks for the warning.”

  “Good luck, Chris,” said Menelas.

  Chris turned around and looked into Chase’s eyes. Chase nodded.

  Good luck, son, said Chase telepathically.

&nb
sp; Thanks, Dad.

  You can do it, added Argos.

  But Chris was still a little disappointed with his uncle’s attitude back on board the Victory and decided not to answer him.

  He advanced forward and stepped inside the circle. The light on the floor intensified as a loud humming noise surrounded everyone. It sounded like something massive was spinning. Further away, lights illuminated areas that were previously plunged into darkness, and Chris saw what was making all the noise.

  There was a circular wall nearby, and it was spinning. Every few hundred yards inside the wall, a dark glass window could be seen. There were five of them, which Chris assumed were the chambers where the ships resided. They were pretty large.

  The entire complex trembled as the circular wall kept spinning. Chris started to worry. The spinning wall kept accelerating with no sign of slowing down. Then, after a few minutes, the rotating sound attenuated and the wall stopped abruptly. One of the glass chambers aligned in front of Chris. The glass flashed for less than a second, and Chris thought he saw the outline of a starfighter but then it was gone.

  He swallowed hard.

  I hope this is a good sign, he thought.

  Remember, said Menelas in his mind, don’t get out of the circle; just let it happen.

  The glass flashed again, and a sphere of white energy emerged, casting an intense white light all around. It reflected so brightly on the dark glass that Chris had to squint his eyes to keep looking at it.

  The sphere of energy erratically changed form for a few seconds, taking nondescript shapes, and then reformed into a random blob of energy. Then it morphed into an oversized tiger made of white light. It took a few steps toward Chris, stopped, and roared.

  Let it happen, Chris reminded himself.

  The energy tiger darted toward Chris, who had to stay focused on doing nothing, even though his instincts screamed to either dodge or punch the tiger to smithereens.

  The tiger entered Chris’ body, and he felt a foreign energy inside himself. When he wanted to vocalize how weird the sensation felt, Chris roared instead.

  “Chris!” shouted Sarah. “Chase, we have to help him.”

  Menelas waved a hand. “No, no; don’t intervene. This is normal; I promise Chris will be okay.”

  “You’d better be right about that,” warned Chase, flexing both his hands into strong fists.

  The energy left Chris’ body and was now green-tinged and still in the shape of a tiger. The tiger nonchalantly walked away from Chris. The circle around Chris turned green, as did the light around the dark glass window. As the energy tiger walked to it, the glass, acting as a door, lifted from the ground, revealing a magnificent starfighter. It was similar in size as a StarFury but looked more like a living, organic ship than the hard-edged, cold hulls of the fighters of the Earth Alliance fleet.

  The energy tiger dissolved into a million small green specks of light and re-integrated into the ship. The canopy opened as lights from the cockpit’s controls came to life.

  “What do I do now?” shouted Chris, still in the center of the circle.

  “The ship has chosen you; now you go on board and take your first flight,” answered Menelas.

  “How will I know how to pilot it?”

  “The ship reads your thoughts; it will know what you need it to do and will take the best course of action to achieve whatever goal you give it. It may take a few minutes for the ship to adjust to you, just as it may take a moment for you to adjust to the ship.”

  “Awesome,” said Chris as he started running toward his new starfighter.

  He somersaulted and spun in the air and landed in the cockpit. The moment he did, a strong green light lit around the edge of the cockpit as the canopy lowered and sealed into place. The engines hummed to life, and the ship rose from the metallic floor and floated forward.

  Chris could see all eyes were on him and his new ship, and he could tell from their expressions that they had never seen anything like it.

  I’m the spirit of the tiger, and I’m your soul ship, said a voice inside Chris’ mind.

  “Wicked! My ship talks!”

  The female voice then resonated inside the cockpit.

  “Are you ready for your first flight, pilot?”

  “I am, but you can call me Chris. What’s your name?”

  “Very well, Chris. You can call me Tigris.”

  High inside the complex, a circle-shaped orange force field appeared out of nowhere, and before Chris could ask what it was, Tigris flew the ship through it. One second they were in the base, the next second the ship emerged into space in orbit around the Earth.

  4

  After beaming out, Spiros quickly checked himself, patting his legs and touching his face.

  “That felt weird; I don’t like the idea of being de-molecularized and reassembled. Are you alright?” he asked Gaia.

  “I’m perfectly fine. I would think as a scientist you would trust technology, such as transporters.”

  “It’s not a tech the Star Alliance had used. Since the battle with Argos’ forces on Earth, the humans have developed a crude version of it. We haven’t streamlined its deployment on all the ships yet, since there wasn’t much time to do so with us fighting one battle after another. Because the Earth Alliance version hasn’t been widely used to transport living beings, I guess I have a distrust of the tech in general.”

  Spiros could tell Gaia was lost from the way she gazed at him with empty eyes. Without context, she wouldn’t be able to sympathize with Spiros’ rambling one way or another. Ever since Gaia had told him she remembered her old body, Spiros had wondered if interacting with her more as he did with the old Gaia would trigger something in her matrix. Right now he didn’t know if that would be a good thing or bad thing, but his instincts told him that having the fully fledged Gaia at his side would be beneficial. Perhaps it wasn’t his instincts talking but just his heart.

  “But— Never mind that,” he added.

  “What are we going to do next? What’s your plan?”

  “First and foremost: survive, which should be easier now that we’re away from prying eyes and a flesh-hungry welcome committee.”

  The simple thought of being devoured by Morgor’s Kryon turned Spiros’ stomach.

  “That might not last for too long, though,” Spiros continued. “They probably detected the transporter signatures. Give me a second while I secure full access to the ship’s systems.”

  Spiros twisted his head around trying to get his bearings and then invoked scans of the ship’s schematics he had uploaded to his mental implant a split second before beaming out. They had been beamed precisely where Spiros had hoped, in a remote area of the ship, inside a mostly empty cargo bay except for some crates piled in a corner.

  He then ran a quick check of the surrounding systems and managed to find low priority system vulnerabilities that allowed him to link with the dreadnought’s central computer core. The next part of the hack would be paramount; he needed to make sure he wouldn’t get kicked out of the computer’s system. He mentally wrote stealth procedures to ensure the processes he would run would appear to be system generated and masquerade as normal ship operations. That would allow him to spoof logs and hopefully stay undetected should someone be trying to locate him inside the computer systems.

  Spiros encrypted his newly created user with a polymorphic algorithm that even he couldn’t break. With the safety protocols in place, he should be able to gain access to many of the ship’s systems without triggering any alarms, and it would be protected from any of the ship’s crew from manually deleting it.

  Spiros closed his eyes while doing these mental hacks, and as he reopened them, he noticed Gaia had disappeared. His heart thumped and skipped a beat, but then Gaia emerged from behind a crate with a large metallic pipe in her hand.

  “What’s that?”

  “I’ve been looking for something to defend ourselves with since you said we could have visitors soon. You seemed deep i
n thought, so I thought it was a good time for me to try and obtain a weapon, but I’m afraid this is all I could find.”

  “That’s alright; I just need a couple of minutes to locate where they took our ship and the biomaterials. Hopefully, they haven’t figured out we’re missing yet.”

  When loud footsteps and shouts could be heard outside the cargo bay, Gaia grabbed Spiros and forced him into cover behind a large crate as the doors opened, revealing three men armed to the teeth.

  Ryonna sat opposite Emperor Altair in his ready room.

  “What is it you need me to do, Emperor?”

  “I’ve received orders from Chase to take back the Gorgar world, by force, if necessary.”

  Ryonna’s eyebrows furrowed.

  “That doesn’t sound like him, but since I happen to agree, I’m not even going to question his motives. Has their mission to Erevos been successful?”

  “Depends on how one defines the word, I suppose. They achieved their main objectives, but Oryn has been killed. Chase and everyone else are lucky to have survived the mission.”

  “They fought Arakan?”

  “Not exactly; Oryn killed Arakan,” said Altair.

  Ryonna twitched.

  “Then something took possession of his body, and the power from that being was, and is, like nothing we’ve seen before, as Chase described it. In fact, Chase feels unprepared to battle that creature again.”

  Ryonna knew full well what that meant. If Chase felt unprepared then who in the universe could fight and defeat this new foe? As for Oryn’s passing, she hadn’t had many interactions with the Fury Olympian hybrid, and while she imagined her loss had saddened Chase, Ryonna was fully aware of the price people pay in times of war. Her world had been the target of Furies not once, but twice, with billions of Droxians killed as a result.

  Part of her wished she had been present to fight Arakan, but as proud as she was, she knew that was the type of adversary she had virtually no chance to defeat, no matter how much she wanted to. At least he had paid the ultimate price for the massacres he had brought upon her home world.

  “Okay, so we have a new enemy, stronger than anything we’ve encountered before, and we need the Gorgar’s help to start building ships, I take it?”