Universe in Flames – Ultimate 10 Book Box Set: An Epic Space Opera Adventure

by Christian Kallias

  When the convicts didn’t move a muscle, Argos made a growling noise that froze everyone’s blood instantly.

  “I don’t think I made myself clear. I need the diversion. So you either start running through there”—he gestured to the hole he made a few moments earlier—“and make a commotion, or I don’t have any use for you. If you catch my drift?”

  That latest speech had the effect Argos hoped for. All of the convicts started running towards the hole as fast as their legs could carry them.

  That should keep the sentries occupied while we locate Ryonna, thought Argos, smiling to himself as he watched them run.

  9

  Ryonna could hear every single beat of her heart. It was hammering so hard that her body almost moved into a fighter’s stance by instinct. After a few moments, she finally closed the distance between herself and the body and turned the Droxian towards her.

  The boy was dead, but it wasn’t Ronan. The weight of her joy rolled her to a sitting position. Not Ronan. Not Ronan. Not Ronan, she kept repeating to herself. She exhaled deeply in relief, but she felt sorry for the boy nonetheless. She had still lost one of her own.

  The Gorgar came to her side and didn’t say a word, but he looked worried.

  “It’s not Ronan.”

  “I am very glad to hear that.”

  “We still need to find my son.”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Any ideas?”

  The insectoid nodded. “I have an idea. Stay here.”

  Just like that, Ryonna found herself alone with the dead Droxian boy. Not Ronan, she repeated to herself. But someone’s son. Her body felt ravaged by emotion. She had truly thought this was her son. She had felt that loss, and it had hit her like a fatal blow. She allowed herself to feel every emotion she had been trying to hold back as she looked at this boy who had been someone’s Ronan. They were even the same age; maybe this one was a year or two older.

  What was he doing here? she wondered. She understood now why her enemies had sent her boy here. And she was expecting them to show up any day to claim them both. They would probably execute her in the process. But maybe Chase’s battle with the Obsidian Empire had taken priority over her personal issues with them. She could only hope. One way or another, she had no intention of sticking around to find out.

  She heard light steps running towards the alcove, and instinctively she got up and hid behind the entrance. A person stopped in front of the opening but she couldn’t see who it was.

  “Deriak... No!” cried a familiar voice.

  Before she could register who the voice belonged to, Ronan ran towards the body, fell over it, and started crying.

  Ryonna took a step forward with tears of her own. She hated to see her son’s heart aching, but she was overcome with relief and joy that at least his heart was still beating. Her son was here, in front of her.

  “Ronan,” she said, sobbing.

  Ronan whirled around in surprise, his eyes widening fast. At first, he looked as though he was in shock, then he stood up and ran, launching himself into her arms.

  “Mom!”

  “My son...”

  They both cried for what seemed like ages. Soon after they finished, the Gorgar entered the alcove and said, “Ryonna, I think I know... Oh... Ronan, I presume?”

  “Yes. Ronan, this is... I don’t think I know your name.”

  “Tar’Lock; my name is Tar’Lock.”

  Ronan released his grip on his mother and looked at the Gorgar. “Mom, these creatures can’t be trusted.”

  “I don’t trust anyone, son, but Tar’Lock has been very helpful in locating you. I owe him.”

  “Well, technically you found your son on your own, Ryonna, so I don’t think our...”—he hesitated to choose his next word—“arrangement applies anymore.”

  “Actually it does,” she disagreed. “If we didn’t follow this poor boy here, we wouldn’t have found Ronan so quickly.”

  “That’s fair and very honorable of you.”

  “I will do whatever I can to help you escape with us, but I can’t guarantee we’ll survive the attempt.”

  “Nobody can guarantee anything in this world.”

  Of course Ryonna knew Tar’Lock wasn’t going to become a casualty right away. When she met him she saw, like she always did, the moment of his death, and it did not seem to be happening on Hellstar. But since insectoids didn’t really show signs of age, she had no idea if he would be dead soon or in many years to come.

  “Mom, how do you plan to get us out? Nobody escapes Hellstar.”

  “Well, let’s hope you are wrong, son. I have a plan to get us out. We should get going towards the entrance of the prison. We have a gate to blow.”

  “With what exactly?” said Tar’Lock.

  Ryonna bent over at the waist with her hands on her knees. Her face contorted strangely and she began making weird, gurgling sounds. It looked like she was about to get sick. Both men took a step back. It took a few retching movements and strange noises but she eventually spat something out into her hands. It looked like a small, roundish, metallic box.

  “With this,” she offered.

  “What the hell is that?” Ronan asked.

  “It’s a micro quadrinium bomb.”

  “How did you smuggle a bomb in here?” Tar’Lock asked in astonishment.

  “I didn’t.”

  “You’re not making sense! Care explaining how you just spat one out?”

  “It’s a long story; I managed to acquire just enough quadrinium entering the prison.”

  “And you spat out a bomb? Still not making sense, I’m afraid.”

  “Mom, I don’t understand either.”

  She sighed. “I underwent a surgical procedure to install a nanite factory inside my stomach. It transformed the raw quadrinium into a crude yet effective explosive.”

  “Ouch. That must not have been a fun procedure.” Tar’Lock grimaced.

  “Is that safe, Mom?”

  “I should be fine as long as we reverse the procedure within a few days.”

  “Let’s go then. We don’t have time to lose,” Tar’Lock said enthusiastically.

  Chase was looking over the Omega starfighter in the docking bays of the Iron Fire. They were nearly at the end of their hyperspace jump to Hellstar and his stomach was in knots. He was worried about Sarah; he kept seeing her ashen skin and blackened eyes from his vision.

  That couldn’t be a good omen, he thought. But he tried to focus on the positive.

  The Omega fighter was really a beauty to look at. Thanks to Captain Saroudis, Admiral Thassos had agreed to lend them this one for the purpose of Chase’s mission. It was a more advanced, more streamlined version of the Manticore starfighter, looking meaner, sleeker, and more robust. It packed impressive firepower as well, but the one thing that really set it apart was its cloaking ability. Chase wasn’t even aware the Alliance had been working on cloaking for a starfighter. Of course, in hindsight it sounded logical. Cloaking a fighter was a tremendous strategic advantage, one that Chase would need in order to enter Hellstar undetected. Prior to leaving the Destiny, he had requested that his chief engineer friend Yanis take a look and find a way for the cloak to remain active when the fighter was landed. He had to apply a quick fix as time was of the essence, but he would get about half an hour of standby cloaking. Hopefully, it would be enough time for him to complete his mission.

  Daniel entered the docking bays and approached Chase, his arms laden down with weapons, rifles, grenades, and side arms.

  “Preparing for a war?” Chase asked.

  “It’s Hellstar, after all. We’d better have the capability to defend ourselves.”

  “I’m hoping for a stealth mission here, but it definitely won’t hurt to have these.”

  “I don’t think a stealth entry is even a choice, Chase. While the number of living guards is low, they have artificial intelligence sentries, and those you can’t really negotiate with.”

  “Yeah, I
guess not.”

  Daniel sighed. “Are we going? The Iron Fire should exit hyperspace any minute now.”

  “Yeah… let’s go.”

  The Iron Fire dropped out of hyperspace a few moments after Chase and Daniel had boarded the Omega starfighter. They engaged the cloak and left the docking bay. After a couple of minutes, they approached the landing port.

  As instructed, the Iron Fire returned to hyperspace as soon as they had left the ship. They would stay within quick jump distance and return upon Chase’s signal.

  It didn’t appear that they had been detected, so they proceeded to enter the bay. It wasn’t shielded, but was protected with very powerful ion cannons. The kind that could take on ships even bigger than the Iron Fire. But it was none of these cannons that made Chase pause; it was what he saw already docked on the platform.

  It was the dark ship. The one that had taken Sarah in the battle.

  “Is that…” Daniel began.

  Chase gulped. “It is. I—I hope we’re not too late.”

  “At least there’s a chance you’ll find Sarah here.” His friend tried to comfort him.

  “Yeah, it’s just in what state that worries me at the moment…” Chase blocked the image from his mind.

  “Stay focused. We’re here to get her and your friend Ryonna back. Should we shoot the black fighter now that it’s landed?”

  “What if Sarah is onboard in a cell?”

  Daniel paled. “Right. That would be a terrible idea then.”

  “We can’t do anything to compromise our presence here anyway. We’ll have to enter the prison and see what we can do from there.”

  “Do you have a plan on how to enter the general population? I mean, this is one of the deadliest places in the universe. I doubt they’ll just let us knock on the doors.”

  “I know that. And… no. I have no plan. I just know we need to be here.”

  Daniel grinned weakly. “Why don’t I like the sound of that?”

  Chase landed the ship next to the black, heavy fighter. They locked and loaded themselves with as many weapons as they could carry as well as full body armor and exited the fighter. Chase hoped the cameras in this place wouldn’t pick them up exiting an invisible ship. But even before they stepped out, they heard the ongoing wailing of a siren.

  As they ran towards the nearest gate, they could hear laser fire and a great commotion behind it. They automatically took cover and cast each other frantic looks.

  “Something is happening here,” Chase muttered quietly.

  Then the gates opened. A couple of convicts sprinted past them but were shot in the back by orange laser fire.

  “Yeah, looks like there is a prison break in progress. So much for stealth,” Daniel offered with a grimace.

  “Alright, Daniel, be careful. We need to eliminate the sentries in that corridor before we can proceed any further.”

  “Roger that. The firing came from there,” Daniel answered, pointing to the right.

  “I’ll cover you.”

  Chase stuck his right arm through the opening and started blindly shooting in the direction where they thought the sentries were. At the same moment, Daniel slid on the ground and shot multiple times. There were three sentries that he dispatched in no time, and the next second, the firing stopped.

  Daniel got up and Chase followed him. There were at least ten convicts lying dead in pools of their own blood in the corridor, and a few more sentries besides those Daniel had destroyed lay in spiked piles of sparking metal on the ground.

  “I thought Hellstar was inescapable?” Daniel said incredulously.

  “Getting out is the challenge. Our enemy must have blasted his way in and let the general population escape. That way, he wouldn’t be the main center of attention. That’s what I would have done, anyway.”

  Daniel gave him a look. “Let’s get to general population as fast as we can then.”

  They ran down the corridors, encountering more sentries, but thanks to their body armor and laser rifles, they dispatched them without too much trouble. A few moments later, they stood in front of a reinforced gate that had a huge hole in the center of it, large enough for people to pass through.

  “I guess we know how they entered the prison,” Daniel said conversationally.

  “Yeah, not very subtle.”

  “Look at the bright side: I’m not sure any of our grenades would have even made a dent in this gate.”

  “Yeah, they probably wouldn’t have,” Chase conceded.

  They went through the hole just in time before another set of convicts came from the other side, getting shot at by multiple sentries. They quickly jumped out of the way and found cover. They engaged the sentries, but there were too many of them and soon the two were pinned down. Fortunately, the convicts running all over the place in a frenzy gave the sentries many targets to shoot at, buying them a little time.

  “What do we do now, Chase?” Daniel shouted over the noise.

  “Keep firing. I’ll think of something.”

  As Ryonna, Ronan, and Tar’Lock progressed back the way they came, they heard the wailing of the sirens.

  “That can’t be good,” Tar’Lock muttered.

  “Agreed,” said Ryonna. “Let’s pick up the pace.”

  They started sprinting as fast as they could, but they could hear laser fire and people screaming all over the place. They didn’t know what was happening but it sure sounded like trouble. Soon, they reached an intersection and took a left. They were still sprinting when suddenly two figures appeared in the distance. A man and a woman running towards them. Ryonna swore she recognized Sarah and stopped short. She couldn’t tell if the man was Chase; he looked like him somehow, but something was off.

  “What is it, Mom?”

  “I know that woman… but something’s not right.”

  The pair stopped running and started to walk in their direction.

  “Ronan, Tar’Lock, be ready to fight!”

  “Understood,” said Tar’Lock. Ronan nodded.

  Ryonna swayed herself into a fighting stance as Sarah and the man that looked like Chase stopped a few feet away. The man stepped forward even further with a hard smile.

  “I presume you are Ryonna?”

  “Who the hell are you?”

  “My name’s Argos. I am Chase’s brother.”

  She frowned warily. She didn’t like the look of this man. “Why isn’t he with you?”

  “He had other business to attend to. Droxia is under attack from the Obsidian Empire and he sent me in his stead.”

  Inside her mind Sarah tried screaming all she could, but nothing happened. She could scream at Argos, however. He could hear her.

  You son of a bitch, why are you doing this?!

  What did you expect? Would you rather I shoot them on sight?” he answered her mentally, keeping a fixed smile on Ryonna. “No, I need them as bait for your boyfriend.

  Ryonna didn’t look convinced by Argos’ statement. Instead, she looked at Sarah. “Are you alright, Sarah? What are you doing here?”

  “We came looking for you, of course,” Sarah’s voice answered beyond her control. “We told you we’d help you as soon as we could.”

  “I had a plan to get out of here,” Ryonna fumed. “You might have jeopardized it now.”

  “It’s alright, Ryonna, we have a way out. And I see you found your son,” the possessed Sarah offered sweetly.

  “Yes, but we need to go. Soon this place will be crawling with deadly sentries.”

  “Right, follow us, we have a ship waiting.”

  Ryonna felt a weird sensation in her gut. Was it her instinct trying to tell her something was off, or was it just the nanite factory acting up? She decided that under the circumstances, she had very little choice anyway.

  “Lead the way.”

  10

  “Chase! How’s that plan coming? We’re pinned down here.”

  Laser fire grazed Chase’s cheek and he took cover again. “Thanks for
reminding me. I hadn’t noticed!”

  “We need to make a hole, or we’ll get stuck here,” Daniel shouted over the noise.

  “Alright, prepare to cover me in three, two...”

  Chase took the grenade from his belt.

  “One... Now!”

  Daniel started laying cover fire while Chase sent a grenade flying in the air. He then jumped on his side, aligned his shot, and fired at the grenade once it reached the multiple sentries. It exploded and took out three of them as well as pushing the others out of the way. Chase and Daniel took advantage of this opportunity and picked off the rest of them with precisely laid laser shots. With most of the sentries now destroyed or disabled, they continued firing until every sentry in the area was annihilated.

  “About time! How long did we get stuck here, do you think?” Daniel panted.

  “I don’t know, but way too long. I’m not even sure if the ship is still cloaked.”

  “Yeah, that’s also my concern. What if it isn’t?”

  “I’ve programmed the onboard computer to lock the canopy and raise shields if anyone besides us approaches it.”

  “Good thinking. But if the black fighter fires on it, surely shields won’t last too long.”

  “They’re a better design than our Manticores and F-140s, but I agree, they probably wouldn’t last very long.”

  Daniel shook his head dismissively. “Later,” he instructed. “Where to now?”

  “I’d say this way.” Chase pointed to a corridor nearby.

  They started walking towards it when they heard footsteps and five shadows appeared.

  For the second time that day, Chase stopped dead in his tracks.

  Was he dreaming?

  The first person he saw was Sarah, next to Ryonna and what probably was her son standing behind her. On their left was also an insectoid.

  But it was the last member of their party that made his blood run cold. There was no mistaking it. It was the man from his nightmarish vision.

  Argos took a step forward and looked straight into Chase’s eyes, not saying a word. Chase’s heart pounded so strongly against his ribcage he thought it might break through.