by Lucas Flint
Mr. Space fired his sound blaster at the speaker, blowing it up and abruptly silencing the commanding voice, leaving nothing but a smoking set of wires hanging from the spot where the intercom had been attached to the ceiling.
Beams, who stood next to the door waiting for anyone who might try to force their way in, looked over his shoulder at Mr. Space. “What was that for?”
“What?” said Mr. Space, lowering his blaster. “I got tired of hearing that guy’s voice constantly telling us what to do. It was distracting.”
“Yeah, but now we don’t know when these guys are going to break in or how,” said Beams in annoyance.
Mr. Space shrugged. “It’s not like there’s much we could do to stop them. If they really want to, they could force the doors open, probably with a plasma cannon if they really wanted to get inside.”
“Plasma cannon? You guys have plasma cannons?”
“Sure,” said Mr. Space. “We also have incinerator bombs, disintegrating lasers, and my favorite, the exploding drones.”
“How likely are they to use all of those to get inside?” said Beams.
“Depends on who is trying to get us,” said Mr. Space. “Deputy Spiral—the guy who was yelling at us—has a reputation for being the kind of guy to get stuff done. The plasma cannon should do the trick, but he could just as easily use the exploding—”
“Could you two please be quiet?” said Sparky without looking at either of them. A cord attached to his forehead was connected to the main database of the Odyssey’s computer. “I need some peace and quiet so I can sift through all of the information I am downloading into my head.”
“Download faster,” said Beams, “before they break out the plasma cannons and turn us all into slag.”
Hypno, who also stood near the doors, shifted uncomfortably where he stood. “You don’t think they’re actually going to risk damaging the Chief’s own flagship just to get to us, do you?”
“I wouldn’t bet against it,” said Mr. Space. “Especially if Aster is the traitor like we think he is. Then they’ll do whatever it takes to us out, up to and including blowing up the entire ship if necessary.”
Beams’ face paled. “They wouldn’t really blow up their flagship, would they?”
“I wouldn’t put anything past the Darzens,” said Mr. Space, “which is really what we’re dealing with here when you think about it. The IEA agents are just a front.”
Beams gulped, though he knew Mr. Space had a point. Still, he found himself wishing that they could have been at least a little bit more discreet. Beams’ chest wound from where he had been shot was still not entirely healed, after all, and he was afraid that it might burst open entirely if he got into a fight.
It’s all Space’s fault, Beams thought. If he had just been a bit more discreet, we might have been able to avoid this situation entirely.
The plan had been going swimmingly until about five minutes ago. Beams, Mr. Space, Hypno, and Sparky had gone to the Odyssey, which was Aster’s flagship, to see if they could find any information they could use to prove that Aster was the traitor. Getting aboard the flagship of the current Agency Chief was very hard to do, but Sparky had used his hacking skills to add a fake ‘ship inspection’ appointment for the day to the Odyssey’s calendar. Beams and the others had been pretending to be part of a ship inspection committee who were just coming over to inspect the Odyssey and ensure that everything was in working order. Beams and Hypno wore IEA suits they had borrowed from Mr. Space and, as a result, the four of them had looked just like a real spaceship inspection committee, whatever that looked like.
Things had almost gone off the rails when they arrived at the ship and found themselves dealing with an initially uncooperative Deputy Walter Spiral, who insisted that Chief Aster had not scheduled any sort of ship inspection and that they should offer proof that he did or leave. But Hypno, using his powers, had managed to ‘convince’ Deputy Spiral that this inspection had been scheduled for weeks and that he had just forgotten about it in the aftermath of the Agency’s big battle with the Darzens and the assassination of former Chief Nebula.
When that happened, Beams almost hoped that their plan would work. But then things really went off the rails when they ran into a new, irritating Cadet named Hewitt Astro who accused them of being spies sent to take out Chief Aster because he had noticed the ship inspection had been added to the ship’s schedule earlier this morning. That was when Mr. Space attacked both Spiral and Astro and led Beams and the others into the Odyssey’s database room, where they were currently holed up, having locked the doors from the inside to give Sparky plenty of time to download the Odyssey’s data into his systems.
So far, the doors had held up, despite the repeated punishment they had taken from the agents trying to get in on the other side. But Beams didn’t know how much time they had left until the agents busted down the doors, especially if they broke out the plasma cannons like Mr. Space thought they would.
“Sparky, how much data have you downloaded?” said Beams, looking over at Sparky.
“Approximately fifty percent of the Odyssey’s database,” said Sparky. “I am downloading at maximum speed, so I estimate it will take me another five, possibly ten, minutes to download the whole thing. I am also simultaneously sending the data to the Adventure’s database, which is another reason it is taking so long.”
A loud boom at the doors made Beams jump. “Do we even have five minutes?”
“We’ll have to,” said Mr. Space. “If they get through this door, it’s game—”
Mr. Space was interrupted by a dimensional portal suddenly opening in the middle of the room. Two IEA agents stepped out of it, but before they could do anything, Beams leaped forward and fired twin laser blasts at them. The laser blasts struck the agents head on and they went stumbling backward into the portal, which closed with a pop as soon as they passed through it.
“Did they just try to use a dimensional portal to get into here?” said Hypno in a surprised voice.
“Yeah,” said Mr. Space, nodding. He snapped his fingers. “I forgot that they could do that. They might not need the plasma cannons at all if they can just transport themselves directly into the ship like that. Wonder why they didn’t do that before.”
“Meaning we have even less time to download all the information we need to prove Aster’s betrayal than we did before?” said Beams. He cursed. “Maybe it’s time to abort the mission and try something else. The God Slayer—”
“No,” Mr. Space interrupted. “We’re not leaving. I believe that only Aster and his crew have turned on us. If we can prove that Aster is the traitor to everyone else, then he’ll be kicked out faster than you can say red velvet cake. We are staying until Sparky downloads everything, at least.”
“Which should be in another seven minutes,” said Sparky. “Sixty percent downloaded. Not much longer now.”
Beams opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, another portal opened, this time closer to Sparky, and two IEA agents burst out. Rather than shoot at Beams or Space, however, the agents rushed toward Sparky, who stood with his back to them.
Realizing that the agents were trying to take out Sparky, Beams closed his eyes, fired his lasers into his eyelids, and felt power flow through him when the lasers bounced back into his brain. He opened his eyes and jumped through the air over the agents, landing in between them and Sparky.
The two agents aimed their guns at him, but Beams kicked the gun out of the hands of one and fired his lasers at the other. The agent who he fired his lasers at dodged, but then Mr. Space came up behind him and slammed the back of his gun into the back of his head, knocking him out instantly. The remaining agent turned to face Mr. Space, but Beams fired a laser at his back, knocking him flat onto the floor where he lay quite still.
“How many more do you think they’ll keep sending?” said Hypno, who was now wringing his hands anxiously.
“I don’t know,” said Mr. Space. “Probably all of th
em.”
“Is there any way we can stop them from opening portals into here?” said Beams. “There has to be some way to block interdimensional portals, right?”
“If there is, we haven’t invented it yet,” said Mr. Space. “Nor do we have the time. Sparky, what’s your progress?”
“Sixty-five percent and counting,” said Sparky. “Almost there …”
Without warning, the lights on the ceiling flickered and then shut off. At the same time, the computer screen—which had been showing Sparky’s download process as a steadily increasing yellow bar—went blank, as if someone had flipped a switch and turned the whole thing off.
“Uh oh,” said Hypno with a gulp. “That can’t be good, can it?”
“No, it cannot,” said Sparky without looking at them. “The download process has been interrupted. It appears that someone has shut down the power, but who?”
Before any of them could even begin to speculate, a dimensional portal exploded open again, forcing all of them, including Sparky, to turn around to see who was entering. Chief Aster and three bodyguards armed with sound blasters stepped out of the portal, which closed behind them with a soft pop as the bodyguards raised their weapons and pointed them at Beams and the others.
“Hi there, dudes,” said Aster, waving at them, albeit somewhat mockingly. “Got a report that someone broke into my ship and saw that someone was trying to steal some information from my computers. Couldn’t have that, so I ordered the power to this room shut off, though don’t worry about the oxygen generator. It’s still on. Otherwise, you guys would have suffocated in here.”
Beams looked at Mr. Space. “Do we run now or—?”
“Ah, I wouldn’t run if I were you, dudes,” said Aster, wagging a finger at them. “Your ship—the Adventure, I think it was called—is currently under the control of some of my subordinates, who’ve given the docking bay workers orders to make sure that that ship doesn’t go anywhere. So even if you escape, you have nowhere to go, so I suggest surrendering peacefully instead.”
Beams could tell that Aster, despite his informal attitude, was not lying, but he didn’t want to surrender, either. He just began charging the lasers in his eyes, but then Mr. Space held up a hand as if to tell Beams to stand down. Mr. Space’s eyes were locked on Aster, who stood with his arms folded in front of his chest, an amused smirk on his face.
“You traitor,” said Mr. Space. “How can you just stand there like that and pretend to be a good guy? You sicken me.”
“Traitor?” Aster repeated. “Who have I betrayed? I think you’re projecting a little bit there, buddy, because you are the one betraying the Agency by breaking into my ship and trying to steal my valuable, top secret information there. Where were you sending it to? The Dread God, maybe?”
“I’m projecting?” said Mr. Space. “No, you are the one projecting here, Aster. You’re the one who killed Chief Nebula on the orders from the Dread God. You can’t fool me. I may not be a genius, but even I can recognize a traitor when I see one.”
“I killed—?” Aster shook his head. “I don’t know where you got that idea from. I had nothing but the deepest respect for Chief Nebula when she was still alive. There’s no way I would have killed her for any reason. She was like a mother to me, just like she was to everyone else in the IEA.”
“Liar,” said Mr. Space. He shook with barely repressed anger, his finger twitching against the trigger of his sound blaster. “You murdered her because you wanted to be the next Chief. And you blackmailed the rest of the Commanderate to make them vote for you. And you put a bounty on Beams and Bolt’s heads so you could get rid of a threat to the Dread God.”
“I didn’t blackmail anyone, dude,” said Aster. “The other Commanders voted for me because they honestly thought I would make a good Chief. Seriously, I was just as surprised by it as anyone. I didn’t even vote for myself because I thought I had no chance of winning.”
Beams frowned. Beams had developed a good ability to tell when someone was lying and when they were not and he thought Aster seemed very honest. Then again, Aster might just be a very good liar for all he knew, which was a distinct possibility, though he found Aster’s explanations for his strange behavior reasonable so far.
“Then why the bounties?” said Mr. Space.
“Because they’re natives who need to be taken back to their original universes,” said Aster slowly, as if explaining a complicated concept to a very dull person. “That’s in the IEA rules. The Chief has the right to set up bounties in order to encourage IEA agents to find and return rogue natives to their original universes. It’s part of the IEA’s mission to maintain the balance of the multiverse.”
Mr. Space blinked at that. “What, really? I didn’t know that.”
“Not too many people do, but I’ve found out a lot of neat things since I got elected,” said Aster. “Now, I’m a pretty chill guy and I can tell that this was something of a misunderstanding between us, but this type of behavior still requires some kind of official response from me. You’re already on thin ice for bringing a native out of his own universe, but if you give up now, I promise to give you a pretty lenient punishment.”
“I …” Mr. Space trailed off as if he couldn’t think of what to say. “If you’re not the traitor, then who is?”
Without warning, Sparky held up a hand and said, “Mr. Space, I’m getting a call from Captain Galaxy.”
“What’s she saying?” said Mr. Space, whipping his head over his shoulder to look at him.
“Let me put her on speaker,” said Sparky, tapping the side of his head. “All right, Captain, you are on speaker, what is the—”
“Space! Beams!” came Captain Galaxy’s panicked voice all of a sudden. “Come to Aster’s office! The traitor is here. He’s already killed Bolt and—”
“Wait, Bolt is dead?” said Beams. “What are you talking about?”
“I mean, I think he is,” said Captain Galaxy. “He’s lying on the floor and he looks unconscious, but—”
A scream suddenly came from the speaker in Sparky’s chest and then an abrupt click indicated that the call had ended … possibly with Captain Galaxy’s life.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Five minutes before the call …
Aster had told Bolt and Captain Galaxy to stay in his office while he went to deal with the ‘traitor,’ Mr. Space. Captain Galaxy had insisted on going with him, but Aster overrode her, telling her that she and Bolt would be safer in his office because Mr. Space might try to take advantage of their friendship to get one over on her. This obviously frustrated Captain Galaxy quite a bit, but in order to keep up their ruse, she had acquiesced to his demands. She had also pretended to be surprised by Mr. Space’s ‘betrayal’ so Aster would not assume she had betrayed the IEA with him.
But almost a second after Aster left through a portal with three of his bodyguards, Captain Galaxy jumped from her seat and went over to Aster’s personal laptop, which sat on his desk unguarded. She opened the laptop and stuck in the small, USB-like device into the side, causing a steadily filling yellow bar to appear on the screen.
“There,” said Captain Galaxy, looking up at Bolt, who was still sitting in his chair. “It’s downloading all of his files now. Should take a few minutes.”
Rising from his chair, Bolt frowned and said, “Are you sure about this? Maybe we should head back to the Odyssey and try to help Beams and the others.”
Captain Galaxy shook her head sharply. “No. While I am a little concerned about them, this is our best opportunity to download incriminating files straight from Aster’s laptop. I suspect that he keeps all of the most important ones here, not on his ship. Besides, they’ll be fine. Space can take care of himself, especially with Sparky by his side.”
“I suppose you’re right,” said Bolt. “Still, what if Aster returns early and sees what we’re doing? Or what if he manages to capture Space and the others?”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get there,�
�� said Captain Galaxy. ‘Until then, I suggest keeping your eyes open and being ready to fight. I don’t think we should have to fight anyone, but if Aster does come back and see us … well, we might just have to crack a few skulls.”
Bolt smiled. “Now you’re talking. I was hoping to get a chance to bust a few skulls.”
“With luck, we won’t,” said Captain Galaxy. “Anyway, keep an eye on the door. If anyone is going to enter, it will be there. Just let me know if you hear anyone on the opposite side, okay?”
Bolt nodded. “Sure.”
He turned around, but at the same time, he heard a soft click come from the door and saw the glowing red light above the door turn to green. Now Bolt wasn’t an expert on the IEA or what its various lights meant, but he immediately understood that someone was about to enter the office.
Looking over his shoulder, he said, “Galaxy, someone is coming in. Pull that thing out and close the laptop.”
“I can’t,” said Captain Galaxy. “It’s about twenty percent downloaded already, but if I pull it out, it won’t have anything on it at all.”
“But if you don’t pull it out, whoever is entering the office will see us and—”
The door slid open and a man who Bolt had never seen before stepped inside. He was apparently in his fifties, with long, gray hair like an aging hippie with a beard and mustache to match. But the way he walked and stood made him look more like a military general than a peace-loving hippie, which made Bolt wonder just who he was.
“Chief Aster,” said the man as he entered. “I’m here to—”
The man stopped speaking the second he saw Bolt and Captain Galaxy. A confused frown crossed his lips as he said, “Captain Galaxy? What are you doing here? And where is Chief Aster?”
“Aster went to stop some rogue agents from stealing his ship, Commander Nova, sir,” said Captain Galaxy quickly. “As for this, uh, I was just—”
“Downloading some of his personal files?” the man, apparently named Commander Nova, said. His eyes shifted to Bolt. “And who is this young man?”
