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

by Christian Kallias

  “Yeah, but you weren't even born yet,” said Sarah. “You gotta admit that was freaky.”

  Chris shrugged. “I’m precocious?”

  “That you are,” said Argos.

  They all chuckled.

  “Let’s get this show on the road, shall we?” said Chase.

  Ryonna opened her eyes; she felt cold. She no longer wore the super-suit, and the temperature in the dark room was very low.

  Who dared touch me?

  When Ryonna got up from the damp floor, she heard the clanking of chains. Both her legs and her arms were chained to the wall. Her entire body hurt; she was covered in wounds and bruises, and each movement she made was painful. It was as if not a single muscle functioned normally.

  That’s not good. What the hell happened?

  Ryonna looked around as her eyes adjusted to the darkness. The room looked like a medium-sized cell. There were a couple more chains on the adjacent wall, but she was the only occupant there.

  Am I still on the Gorgar planet? If so, why am I still breathing?

  The cell door slid open with a grinding noise. Light from the outside flooded the room and temporarily blinded Ryonna. A slender figure stood at the entrance, and rays of cold artificial light beamed around it.

  Ryonna squinted her eyes to try and get a better look at who stood there.

  “Visiting hours are between ‘fuck off, and I’m gonna kill you’ o’clock, so you’re a little early,” said Ryonna.

  Queen Tar’Sian laughed as she entered the room. She snapped her fingers and light progressively filled the room.

  “Nice to see you again, Ryonna.”

  “I wish I could say the same, Tar’Sian. Tar’Lock will be angry when I tell him about how you treat your guests and supposed friends.”

  “You? My friend? Did you arrive at that conclusion before or after trying to enslave my people like the Furies did?”

  “It’s not like that, and you know it.”

  “No, I don’t. All I know is that you have the mind-control device with you, and if I hadn’t made sure to block its frequency, you might have brainwashed us all over again. So, yeah, you lost your friend status the moment you set foot back on my planet.”

  “Your planet? Do you hear yourself? A week ago you were just another Fury slave, and now all of a sudden, this world is your planet. I don’t know what went wrong with the tech we gave you, but it sure boosted your ego.”

  Tar’Sian approached Ryonna. She jumped forward trying to grab Tar’Sian’s throat, but the chains stopped her hand an inch away from her face. Anger took hold of Ryonna, and she rolled the chains around her forearms and tried breaking them away from the wall.

  She growled between clenched teeth, and hellfire burned inside her eyes. The more she flexed her muscles, the more her body ached, but Ryonna ignored the pain.

  “It’s useless; don’t waste your energy. These are quadrinium infused chains; there’s no breaking them, just like there’s no getting off this planet. At least, not for a while. Once you’ve helped me conquer the Earth Alliance, then maybe I’ll consider releasing you. So, if I were you, I would get used to your new surroundings, and make yourself at home.” She sneered.

  When Ryonna couldn’t handle the pain anymore, she stopped trying to free herself from her restraints. Her eyes were bloodshot from the intense effort, and her nose was bleeding. When blood dripped onto her lips, it tasted metallic, and she spat it to the side.

  “You’re out of your damn mind, and the last thing I would ever do is help you in any way, shape, or form.”

  “You’re strong; I’ll grant you that. And this is not the first time we had this conversation today.”

  What?

  “What are your talking about? I remember being hit by your energy weapon in the bunker room under the auditorium and then waking up here.”

  “Yes, you’ve told me that twice already. Every time we get to a point in our conversation that I don’t enjoy, I use this…”

  Tar’Sian took a small remote device from her pocket.

  “…and I wipe your memory so we can start over. While your mind has no recollection of what happened before, I think you can tell from how your body must feel that you’ve been through some rather painful interrogation.”

  “How long have I been rotting down here?”

  “Not that long; a couple of days. But I’m losing patience, so, why don’t you do us both a favor and tell me where I can find the carrier ship you came from? If you do, I’ll let you rest for a week, and you can even be fed and take a shower.”

  Who the fuck do you think you’re talking to?

  While Ryonna disliked the idea of killing Tar’Lock’s sister, it was the only thought in her mind at this moment. If she could break free from her shackles, she would snap the queen bitch’s neck. Tar’Lock would hate her for it, but Tar’Sian was no longer his baby sister; in fact, Ryonna doubted she was the same person at all. Whatever had gone wrong with Argos’ tech had changed what seemed like a really sweet and innocent creature into a power-hungry, vile, and dangerous dictator.

  So, yes, Ryonna knew it in her heart, if she ever got a shot at killing her, she would take it.

  “Hmmm…a shower does seem nice right about now.”

  And I’d gladly bathe in your blood.

  “But you’d rather take a bath in my blood.”

  What?

  “That’s what you said last time, and I can tell from the fire in your eyes that it’s what you’re thinking about now. This isn’t going anywhere,” said Tar’Sian, bringing the remote up.

  “Don’t.”

  “Why do you care? You won’t remember anyway. Now you know how it feels to be a Gorgar at least, and also how it feels to have your mind fucked with.”

  “We didn’t fuck with your minds! We freed you from Fury oppression!”

  “Using their tech!”

  “We tried opening a dialogue, but you started shooting at us.”

  “What dialogue? We want to be left alone, but apparently, you haven’t gotten the message. Perhaps I’m going at this the wrong way. Perhaps I should just kill you right now and throw your body in space as a warning to those who think they can come and abuse my people.”

  “You mean like you’re abusing them yourself?”

  Tar’Sian twitched.

  “Come on, bitch! Don’t play dumb with me; you used the same tech to rise to power. That’s the only way you could have exerted that much change in so little time. You act all mighty and hurt, but you’re doing the same thing, for yourself.”

  “I’m trying to save my people.”

  “So am I, Tar’Sian!”

  “Yeah, right.”

  “If the Furies win this war, they’ll come to your world and reclaim it, and if they can’t make the tech work, they’ll just annihilate your kind. It is in your best interest to let us help. Once we realized that we couldn’t even negotiate with your kind anymore, we decided we’d save you in spite of yourselves and then apologize for using the mind control method. But we’re nothing like the Furies; we would never enslave you to do our bidding. Right now, however, we need your help, and in helping ourselves, we help you, as well.”

  “Only an insane mind would think this logic could be explained rationally. The Earth Alliance is no better than the Furies, and we will destroy you both.”

  “Over my dead body!”

  “Careful, Ryonna, because, thanks to you, I have opened my eyes to the oppression of my people, and because my brother likes you, I will let this one slide. But make no mistake, killing you can easily be arranged.”

  “You don’t have it in you. You’re a coward that hides behind an usurped throne to get her bidding done. If you had a sliver of courage in your DNA, you’d have done it already.”

  Ryonna spat on her face.

  “Now, go fuck yourself, your majesty.”

  “Guards!” shouted Tar’sian as she wiped off the blood-tainted spit in disgust.

  Two heavily a
rmored Gorgar males ran into the room.

  “Teach this rebellious mind a lesson. Beat her to an inch of her life this time, and the next time I see her, I want to see bruises all over her body. Understood?”

  Tar’Sian turned toward the cell door when Ryonna laughed.

  “I’m afraid you won’t be laughing for much longer,” she said without bothering to face Ryonna.

  “You’re just proving my point; your cowardly majesty. You can’t even stomach looking at what your pathetic little bugs will do to me. But it’s nothing compared to what I will do to them. But sure, run away, and spare your eyes the spectacle. Go hide in a velveteen room where trillions of minions will attend to your every need. I can’t believe Tar’Lock is the brother of such a feeble, scared, and pathetic creature.”

  Tar’Sian turned to Ryonna, and the Droxian finally saw what she had hoped for in the Gorgar queen’s eyes: anger, hatred, and pride. The queen snapped her fingers, and one of the guards ran out of the cell and returned with a chair. She sat on it.

  “Make her bleed, and take your time, I have all the time in the world.”

  Emotions and what felt like a million memories rushed through Gaia’s mind. She began to remember who she was, her entire life from the moment she came into existence back on Earth to the time she overloaded her circuits back aboard the Hope. The one emotion that shone brighter than the rest was the unconditional love she felt for Spiros.

  She roared like an animal, which made the Kryon take a couple of steps back and cower in fear. He was sensing the intense rage that ran through Gaia’s veins right now. The view of blood gushing from Spiros’ wound sent Gaia spiraling into a ball of hatred.

  She felt something get very hot inside her skull and lightning bolts shot from her scalp and struck all four hover-cuffs, allowing her to land on her feet.

  “MooMoo, attack!” ordered Morgor.

  The fires of hell burnt inside Gaia’s eyes as she gazed in the Kryon’s direction, sending him a look that required no words to be understood. The beast yelped and ran out of the cell as fast as it could.

  That angered Morgor, and he slashed his blade at Gaia, but she kicked it out of his hand long before it came anywhere near her. She then rammed him with the full force of her body and sent him crashing to the floor.

  “Spiros, hang on,” she said as she rushed to the table and grabbed her blaster.

  When she turned around, she saw he had lost consciousness.

  No, no, no; hang in there, love.

  Morgor touched something on his forearm as Gaia aimed her blaster at him and fired. Her shot bounced off his personal shields that lit up green upon impact.

  She kept firing at him, but every one of her shots bounced off his shields.

  “Guards!” Morgor shouted.

  But no one came. Instead, blaster fire could be heard in the distance.

  “Looks like your goons are busy; maybe your stupid MooMoo found himself someone else to eat for dinner.”

  “You’re going to pay for this!”

  Gaia ignored Morgor, jammed her blaster behind her back, and grabbed the metallic table with both hands. Morgor got back up, intent to make a run for it, but he wasn’t fast enough, and Gaia smashed the table on his face. His shields lit up bright green but still sent him crashing against the nearest wall, which cracked upon impact.

  A guard eventually entered the room, but Gaia had the element of surprise and disarmed him and grabbed his blaster rifle. She kicked him to the ground and sent a single laser shot burning through his brain. She looked at the weapon and set it at max power while Morgor was getting back on his feet.

  She rained blaster fire on him, but his personal shield kept absorbing her shots. She kept firing, nonetheless. She knew the tech would require a portable power supply that wouldn’t last forever. When the shields turned orange, she knew it would eventually fail.

  Morgor growled once he got fully back on his feet and turned to face her. He made fists, and metallic claws shot down from his knuckles. He ran toward Gaia and slashed one of his clawed hands at her. Gaia dropped to her knees and knocked Morgor off his feet with a powerful sweep kick.

  As he fell, Morgor got in a lucky swipe and slashed Gaia’s back. The pain was intense, but she ignored it. She rolled, readjusted her aim, and kept lighting him up with her blaster rifle.

  Morgor unceremoniously twisted to avoid some of the incoming fire and threw his hand toward her. To her surprise, the attached claws left his hand and acted as three razor-sharp throwing blades. She used her rifle to successfully deflect two of them, which sparked as the blades crashed into the rifle. The third lodged itself into the top of her thigh.

  Again, she ignored the pain, lined up her shot, and depressed the rifle’s trigger. The weapon sparked and hummed. It was overloading. She blocked Morgor’s next incoming slash with one arm, while smashing the weapon onto his chest, and jump-kicked him away. The rifle exploded and sent Morgor twirling in the air and back to the ground.

  She grabbed her blaster from her back and resumed firing. Morgor’s shields dropped, and Gaia unleashed precise shots to all four of his limbs, making sure he couldn’t move. She could have finished him off here and now, but she wanted him to suffer.

  “Please, don’t kill me,” he begged.

  “We’re way past that, asshole,” she said before clocking him with her blaster.

  She grabbed the deformed table from the middle of the room and flipped it back on its feet and then ran to Spiros. She freed him from his hover-cuffs and gently laid him on the table.

  “Spiros, please stay with me. I love you.”

  But Spiros was out cold. She kissed him on the mouth and ripped part of her clothes to make a ball with the fabric and pushed it against Spiros’ wound to stop the bleeding.

  When Morgor moaned, she turned and kicked his head with such power that blood sprayed the walls, and a handful of teeth flew in the air, eventually clinking against the floor.

  She quickly returned to Spiros, pressed on his wound with one hand and took his pulse with the other. It was very weak. Tears flowed from her eyes like running rivers.

  “I beg you, please, don’t die, I can’t lose you again,” she implored him.

  Gaia heard heavy footsteps but couldn’t bear to let go of Spiros.

  An armored guard in a full combat helmet and a heavy-duty blaster rifle entered the room and looked around. She aimed her gun at Gaia’s head.

  “Don’t move!” she ordered.

  The guard looked to the side and saw Morgor holding his bloody head. Morgor blinked his eyes open and saw the sentry.

  “Kill that bitch; kill them both,” he said between whatever was left of his bloody teeth.

  The female guard looked straight at Gaia.

  “Nothing personal.”

  At least she would die with the man she loved.

  Goodbye, my love.

  The guard turned and aimed her rifle toward Morgor, and before he could protest, a powerful discharge from the gun blew his head clean off.

  What?

  The female guard took off her helmet and revealed beautiful flowing green hair.

  “Keera?”

  “Sorry I took so long to get to you, this ship is filled with a shitload of mercs. It hasn’t been easy finding my way around, which is why I needed to impersonate one of them.”

  Gaia remembered the laser sounds she heard in the distance earlier; she would never have guessed it was from someone from the Earth Alliance.

  Keera magnetically attached the rifle to her back and ran to the table on which Spiros was bleeding.

  “How is he doing?” she asked.

  “Not good; I don’t know what to do.”

  Keera grabbed something from inside her armor and put her hand on Gaia’s.

  “Let me help; this will stop the bleeding so we can get out of this shitty place.”

  Gaia didn’t want to let go, but she eventually let Keera inject Spiros with some cauterizing foam. The substance w
as used by medics on battlefields to stabilize the wounded so they could be moved out of harm’s way.

  “That’s not gonna save his life, but it will stop the bleeding; so let’s get out of here quickly.”

  “His clone body is dying; he will never make it back to the Hope.”

  “We’re not going to the Hope; the Emperor’s ship is only a two-hour jump away.”

  Tar’Lock blurred past the cell’s door and doubled back.

  “There you are; I’ve been looking everywh—”

  But he stopped and clicked when he saw Spiros and his pale features.

  “Oh, dear, is he…?”

  “No! Quick, Tar’Lock, take him to our ship, hook him to the automated med-bed, and then prepare for takeoff.”

  Tar’Lock nodded and then delicately put Spiros over his shoulder, and before Gaia could ask him to wait, he was gone.

  “We need some of the biomaterials from the ship we came in; it’s Spiros’ only chance.”

  “Well, if it was in the landing bay, we may have blasted it; to say we came in hot is an understatement.”

  Gaia’s heart dropped. Without the materials, Spiros was as good as gone. Gaia punched the table in anger and bent it even more than it already was.

  “Easy, Gaia; we’ll do everything we can to save him. I have a cryo-pod on my ship, so if worse comes to worst, we can at least sustain him. But right now, we have to go.”

  9

  Thor dodged Poseidon’s slashing Trident attack by jumping over the Olympian’s mighty weapon and landing on the floor with a roll before bouncing back to his feet.

  “Impressive,” said Poseidon.

  Thor invoked his hammer, Mjölnir, aimed it at Poseidon and shot a green lightning bolt toward the Olympian. Poseidon spun his Trident and deflected the lightning bolt back to Thor, who stopped it with the palm of his hand. Smoke rose from his slightly burned appendage.

  “You’re not doing too bad yourself,” said Thor with a smirk. “I’m glad you accepted my invitation to train.”

  “So am I. How is your niece doing? Any news?”

  Poseidon shook his head.

  “She’s still in suspended animation. I think she will probably stay there until the end of this war. Chase has too much on his plate to try and find a solution for her, at least at the moment.”