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

by Christian Kallias

  “Yes, at the height of the first Fury War, and after Zeus lost Zalara, he knew that Olympians alone wouldn’t manage to take down the Furies. Back then we weren’t just a one-planet world. The Furies controlled more than half of the galaxy.”

  “I thought they were killing anything and anyone they considered inferior to them?”

  “No, that was Arakan’s agenda. His father was a much smarter man than Arakan ever was. The Furies would force defeated worlds to work for them. When they refused, yes, they were wiped out, and their worlds, territories, and resources were given as the spoils of the war to other races willing to do anything to survive, even as a slave race to the Furies.”

  “So the war didn’t end after the soul ships trapped Erevos in the alternate dimension?”

  Menelas smiled. “I asked your mother that same question the other day. Remember, I wasn’t there either.”

  “Right. What did she say?”

  “That it took the alliance many years to clean up the mess and hunt down every surviving Fury. Something I expected them to do in case the plan worked.”

  “Is that why you kept us in suspended animation?”

  Menelas frowned and his gaze turned cold. “I knew there was a chance I could get killed during the last mission and not return. If that was the case, I needed to make sure I hid you well and for as long as needed so you could survive. The last thing I wanted was to know that if I perished, you’d be hunted down and executed.”

  Chase sighed heavily. “That’s intense, and it must not have been easy for you.”

  “No, it wasn’t. And up until recently, I never thought I’d see you again; in fact, I had no idea that you or your brother were alive.”

  Chase could feel the pain and suffering his father had had to go through while being held captive on Erevos. Knowing all of this helped Chase soften his conflicted emotions toward him.

  “But if we survived, perhaps other Furies have too?”

  “It’s a possibility but, according to Athena, the cleansing process was ruthless, and even decades later, the simple mention of a Fury would have bounty hunters and assassins from all allied worlds rally to hunt down even a single one. Perhaps a handful of them managed to stay under the radar, but I would imagine they died of old age a long time ago.”

  “Thank you for answering my questions. I appreciate it.”

  “Anything for you, Chase. Do you mind if we talk a little longer; I’d also love to know more about you, that is, what you remember of your life.”

  “Sure.”

  Getting into the basement facility, where the interference was coming from, had been easy. Ryonna had to hack the security panel in front of the blast doors protecting the place. Once inside, she checked the systems, but the room was built like a bunker and doubled as a server room.

  Due to the sheer amount of equipment, it took some time to sift through and find the right console. When cheers could be heard from the auditorium above, Ryonna brought up a security camera holo-feed and decided to display not only the cameras outside the server room but also to keep an eye on what was happening inside the auditorium.

  She holo-projected the video feeds around the console where she was working. Ryonna saw the back of what she assumed was the queen who was addressing the people in the audience.

  “We’ve had an incursion of intruders in the past few days, and we need to take a stand against those who want to enslave us. First, the Fury exploited our people for months until so-called saviors came on our planet and liberated us, only to later return with ill-intentions.”

  Ill-intentions? Give me a break, you freaking ungrateful bitch. If it weren’t for us, you’d still be building ships for the Furies, totally unaware you were being used as a slave force.

  Ryonna focused on finding access to the equipment that generated interference, trying to block out the propaganda the queen was spewing to her people. But, eventually, after several minutes listening to how they needed to protect their world and drive invaders away, Ryonna had a nagging feeling that she knew that voice, like she had heard it before.

  She brought up the camera controls on her holo-console and tried finding another angle so she could see the queen’s face. Once she found a good angle and zoomed in on the queen, her heart thundered and skipped a beat. The Gorgar queen was none other than Tar’Lock’s sister.

  “What the hell?”

  Ryonna remembered that his sister was the one that received the new memory upgrade beta pill that Argos had manufactured for Tar’Lock and his people. This probably gave her an advantage over her entire race and could explain her rise to power.

  Had she shared that tech with the rest of the Gorgars? That was doubtful, and Ryonna would, in fact, bet that it was the one thing that made her superior to every other Gorgar on the planet.

  That sneaky little bitch.

  Seeing the transformations that happened on the planet in a short amount of time, Ryonna was confident that Tar’Sian had decided to take over the planet. Was that an accidental side effect from Argos’ beta tech, or had it been intentional?

  Ryonna brushed that last thought away, as much as she still despised the Fury, he was clearly on their side, and Chase trusted him implicitly. At the end of the day what mattered was why Tar’Sian would decide to take over the planet and proclaim herself as the queen.

  Her mission brief had included the possibility of having to assassinate the queen, if necessary, and that prospect didn’t enchant her. How could she take the life of her best friend’s sister? Then again, Ryonna would do whatever was necessary to accomplish her mission.

  But if she accomplished her primary objective and sent a new mental command that would align the Gorgar with Earth Alliance interests, maybe it wouldn’t even be needed to consider the assassination scenario.

  Something Tar’Sian said caught Ryonna’s attention.

  “I firmly believe that the only way our people can ever be free is by preemptively striking at the Earth Alliance.”

  “What?” exclaimed Ryonna.

  Strike that last thought; you may be going down after all.

  Ryonna couldn’t believe her ears. Whatever had gone wrong with Tar’Lock’s sister had apparently given her not only a boosted ego but also a thirst for power and that seemed like a highly dangerous mix when one person commanded an army of trillions of potential enemies.

  The ramifications were huge with the Gorgar abilities to build ships very fast. With their sheer numbers, they could very quickly overrun the entire universe. Ryonna accessed the camera controls once more, recorded the last five minutes of video, encrypted it, and sent it to the Emperor’s ship via the subspace transmitter built into her super-suit.

  Ryonna went back to work and finally located the source of the interference, which was controlled by a server in the very room she was in. She located the server in row thirteen. Unsurprisingly, that particular quantum server was under lock and key with a biometric identification holo-cam.

  Before she could check if there was any other entry point to access the server, the biometric scanner activated. Lights in the room turned red, an alarm wailed, and lightning bolts shot from a nearby wall sending Ryonna crashing twenty feet away. She was unconscious even before her body hit the ground. Smoke rose from where the electricity-based weapon had impacted her super-suit.

  Emperor Altair’s voice resonated from inside the helmet, “Ryonna, come in. Ryonna? Do you read me? Please respond!”

  Gaia’s head hurt as if a nail was being rammed through it. She blinked her eyes multiple times until she could recover some of her vision. The first thing she saw was Spiros floating in the air, both arms and legs attached to hover-cuffs. The devices exerted electromagnetic fields causing their prisoner to float and prevented Spiros from moving his limbs.

  “Spiros,” she whispered with a weak voice.

  She tried moving toward him, only to realize she was also being held in hover-cuffs. The realization brought fear to the surface and adrenaline s
hot through her body, waking the rest of her senses quickly.

  She struggled and tried applying more force to her arms, only to be rewarded with jolts of electricity dispatched by the hover-cuffs.

  “Finally, you’re awake,” said a sadistic voice from the shadows.

  “Who’s there?” asked Gaia. “Show yourself.”

  A growl resonated in the room and two red eyes glowed in the dark. As the four-legged creature emerged into the light, Gaia wished she hadn’t been so curious. The creature’s teeth were razor sharp and dark yellow. It continued to growl, and the color of its eyes intensified.

  Gaia swallowed hard.

  “What— what’s going on?” said Spiros as he blinked his eyes open.

  “Good,” said a throaty voice. “You’re both awake.”

  An enormous humanoid with rust-colored skin and boils all over his face stepped into view. He caressed the top of the creature’s head. Its spike-shaped fur gave the creature an even more menacing appearance.

  “What is this?” inquired Gaia. “Let us go!”

  Gaia caught Spiros’ look and saw the fear in his eyes. The man and the creature must have been Morgor and that Kryon beast he told Gaia about earlier.

  If the Kryon was already a scary creature, the madness in Morgor’s eyes was even worse. He maniacally laughed, and Gaia was surprised to feel an emotional feedback from it. Fear. She was unaware of that feeling and didn’t quite know how to deal with it except she wanted to be somewhere else right now. Somewhere safe.

  “That’s not happening, I’m afraid,” said Morgor with a sadistic smile. “First, you’ll tell me everything I want to know, and if I’m satisfied with the answers, I might consider ending your lives quickly before MooMoo here gets his dinner. You don’t want to still be alive when he rips through your flesh, trust me.”

  Fear turned to panic. Gaia was overloaded with new sensory inputs she wasn’t accustomed to and didn’t understand what was happening to her. The experience was extremely unpleasant, and she wanted it to stop.

  “Please, don’t hurt her,” pleaded Spiros. “I’m the one you want. She has nothing to do with this.”

  “And, yet, she’s been found with you on my ship, my stolen ship, and nobody steals from Morgor and lives to tell the tale.”

  Gaia scanned the dimly lit room now that her eyes had fully adjusted. On a table behind Morgor was her blaster. If only she could get free and get to it.

  “Look, I’m sorry for stealing from you,” said Spiros. “I had no idea the ship belonged to you. I’m part of the Earth Alliance, and I’m sure if you contact them, they’ll be more than happy to compensate you for your troubles.”

  “I don’t care about your Alliance, and now that I recovered my ship, I don’t need compensation other than your flesh. MooMoo is hungry; I can tell.”

  The beast looked like a cross between a large dog and a panther. He growled and licked his dirty teeth.

  “Then feed me to your pet, but please, I implore you, let her go.”

  “Do you take me for a fool?” shouted Morgor, his voice resonating in the room. “I’ve seen the video logs from my ship; she is the one that killed and incapacitated many of my men.”

  “That’s right, I’ve killed them, and unless you let us go, you’ll suffer the same fate,” said Gaia with as much confidence as she could muster.

  Morgor laughed. “Is that so?”

  “Don’t listen to her,” insisted Spiros. “The gas has made her delirious, just please, I beg you, I’ll give you anything you want if you let her go.”

  Morgor looked at his pet. “What do you think MooMoo, should we make a deal with them?”

  MooMoo growled and roared. Spit shot from his mouth and landed on Gaia’s leg. It burned through the fabric of her clothes first, then through her skin. The pain was intense, and Gaia had to refrain from screaming.

  “Oh yeah, my MooMoo here has acidic glands in his mouth, which allows him to easily digest his prey. And it doesn’t look like he’s in the mood for negotiating with you.”

  The Kryon drooled, each drop making a sizzling sound as it hit the ground, with smoke rising from its point of impact.

  Morgor took a dried blood-stained blade from his back as he approached her. Gaia noticed the blade was so dirty that barely any light reflected on it.

  “If I didn’t love MooMoo so much, I’d be inclined to taste you myself. You look delicious. Let’s see what color your blood is.”

  “No! Stop!” screamed Spiros.

  MooMoo jumped in front of him and spat on his stomach. Spiros screamed as the acid burned through his skin.

  “You may want to keep quiet. The more you open your trap, the more you’ll suffer.”

  Tears filled Spiros’ eyes as Gaia’s heart pounded so hard it felt like it wanted to burst out of her chest. Terror overtook her, and she started trembling. His putrid breath was the worst odor Gaia had ever experienced.

  “You don’t seem so tough now, do you? Who are you working for?”

  “We’ve told you, the Earth Alliance.”

  “I don’t believe you.”

  “That’s your prerogative, but that doesn’t make it less true.”

  “Oh, a smart ass; you’ll soon discover sarcasm is not something I’ll reward.”

  Morgor put the tip of his blade on Gaia’s cheek and slid the knife downward. A red line grew on her face, and a single streak of blood ran down her cheek. Gaia felt the pain, but it was less intense than the Kryon’s acid spit.

  “We’re telling you the truth; we’re from the Earth Alliance. They’ll come looking for us, and you may want to rethink your next moves.”

  “Was that a threat? You’re in no position to tell me what to do. I’ve managed to stay ahead of the Obsidian Empire for years; I’m not worried about the Earth Alliance.”

  “You should be worried about its leader, Chase. A half-Fury half-Olympian hybrid, he could kill you with a single thought.”

  “Furies are dead.”

  “Where have you been this past year?” protested Spiros. “The Furies are back, and the Earth Alliance is all that stands between them and us, and that includes you!”

  Morgor swiftly turned his head toward Spiros.

  “Shut up!” he screamed.

  “For the love of gods, listen to us,” added Spiros.

  Before he could say more, Morgor growled, spun, and planted his knife in Spiros’ stomach.

  “I said shut the fuck up!”

  As MooMoo barked and growled, something inside Gaia’s head snapped. She roared from the bottom of her lungs.

  “Nooooooooo!”

  8

  Chase woke early and went to cargo bay eleven as requested by Yanis. When he entered, he was surprised by the amount of tech and gear that filled most of the bay.

  “You guys have been busy,” he said.

  “Hello, boss,” replied Yanis.

  “Good to see you, Chase,” added Cedric with a two-finger salute.

  “Admiral,” said Kvasir with a nod.

  “Hello, everyone. Are we ready to test the chamber?”

  “We are,” said Yanis. “Well, we think we are, anyway.”

  “Isn’t doing this extremely dangerous if you haven’t covered all your bases?” Chase inquired. “I take it a black hole could just rip through the ship.”

  “Well, that’s why we jumped all night and got as much distance from Earth and the fleet as we could. Plus, we’re fairly certain our polarity engine will instantly turn your black hole into a white hole,” said Yanis.

  “Not that this would be any better, should we lose containment,” added Cedric.

  “There are thousands of souls on this ship, guys. What are your contingencies if things don’t go as planned?”

  “Well, that’s why Thor agreed to lend us an Asgardian ship,” said Kvasir. “If we lose containment, or if things turn sour, the captain of the Svalinn will beam the entire crew of the Victory onto his ship, and, if necessary, destroy the Victory.
”

  Chase’s eyes widened. “So, let me get this straight, your contingency plan is to blow up my brand new ship? You can’t be serious? We need the Victory; she’s the first of her kind.”

  “And the only ship in the fleet capable of crunching the power requirements for this mad science experiment,” said Cedric. “It’s her or nothing in this scenario; we either use the Victory or forget about the whole thing.”

  “There are more ships being built and she can be replaced, should we need to,” added Yanis. “But, I’m sure we won’t have to; we’ve triple-checked everything, every simulation we’ve run shows that this will work. The only unknown element is whether or not you’ll be able to create the anomaly.”

  Chase also wondered how that would work. He understood the main concept behind the way the tech would work, and by beaming parts of space into the ship Chase could replicate what he did against Miseo’s ship. But that required him to access his survival instincts. Could he replicate that without his life and that of his friends on the line?

  “I sure hope you have a backup plan in case I can’t do this.”

  “We’d probably figure it out, but if you can’t create a black hole today, your time-training facility could take longer,” said Yanis. “But, I’m sure you can do it, boss.”

  Cedric gave Chase a wide smile and thumbs up.

  “No pressure, then. When do we start?”

  “It’s really up to you; what about Argos, Chris, and Sarah? I thought they’d be here for this?” said Yanis.

  The cargo bay doors opened as Argos, Chris, and Sarah entered.

  “Never mind,” added Yanis.

  “Speak of the devils,” said Chase.

  “Hey, Dad,” said Chris cheerfully. “Uncle and I were talking, and we think you may need a power boost, so we’ll be ready to give you one, that way you don’t exhaust yourself like you did last time and died. I’m not sure I could resurrect you this time around.”

  “I’m still fuzzy on how you did it in the first place,” said Argos.

  “I just didn’t want my father to die.”