The Plasma Master

by Brian Rushton

  Chapter 14

  X found Ned there just minutes later. Mrandor was lying next to him, his massive body shaking with grief. X swooped out of the sky atop Valkron and just stared. He had known Koral even better than Ned had, and the sight of the man lying there on the battle-scarred ground was almost too much for him. He would have stayed there longer, but there was still business to attend to. “Ned, I know. I know. But we have to go now. Straker and the others can take care of the body…” He fought with himself for a moment, trying not to break down – not yet. “Ned, what happened?” Ned just shook his head.

  “We’ve got to get back. Jenara says Black Fang has gone, but that other ship is still attacking. We don’t know what happened, but we’ve got to get back there right away. Valkron can carry us both.”

  Mrandor grunted and rose onto his hind legs. “Mrandor says he’ll carry you. I’ll see you there.”

  The ride lasted only a couple of minutes, but as Ned watched the lush landscape fly by underneath it seemed like an entire age was passing away. Koral was dead. The mighty Shield Master who had protected his Empire from Alien attacks – and then protected the Empire again by departing when its leader became the threat – was gone, and virtually all he had left behind to carry on his work were a glowing blue stone and an inexperienced, uneducated young man who could not even save the life of one person from two enemies. How could he be expected to overthrow an entire empire? How could he be expected to do anything when his teacher was gone?

  As King Trennon’s palace appeared from around a bend in the mountain, the answer came to Ned. He could be expected to do what he had to because someone had to pay for what had happened to Koral Ralok and the billions of others whose lives had been taken or forever broken by this mindless war. First Kayleen Rax, and then Dark Viper. They were going to pay. Ned would see to it.

  King Trennon and Jenara were waiting as Mrandor and Valkron landed. The looks on their faces told Ned that X had already used his short-range communicator to tell them of Koral’s fate. Nevertheless, Jenara smiled at Ned as he dismounted and walked up to those waiting for him. Last night Ned had been apprehensive about seeing Jenara again, but this day’s events had drowned out such minor problems as had previously existed. Ned turned his eyes toward the King and saw that he was waiting for Ned to speak.

  “Markan Dren is dead. Kayleen Rax killed him along with Koral.”

  “Ned, you did it!” Jenara could not hold herself back any longer. “Both ships just headed back into the nebula. You saved Palandora!”

  Ned assumed that Jenara meant no disrespect by not making a big deal of Koral’s death; she was probably just trying to get Ned to focus on the victory. Still, her congratulations seemed to Ned to be out of place at best. “No, I didn’t. Just maybe, Kayleen Rax decided to leave because she didn’t want to face me alone, but the only reason she would have had to is because Koral gave his life to destroy the Vortex Master. All I did was annoy them.” Jenara saw that there was no use arguing the point for the moment, so she didn’t try.

  King Trennon walked up and put a hand on Ned’s shoulder. “We’re very proud of you, Ned – of both you and Koral. We know what happened was not your fault; we’re just happy our city was saved. I know you must feel bad, but try to remember that his death was not for nothing. He helped to save Palandora, and surely Dren’s loss is a great blow to the Emperor as well.”

  Ned looked into his eyes with hard determination. “I will do everything I can to bring Dark Viper down. Everything. That’s a promise.”

  Ned’s voice broke off as he finished the sentence, so the four of them walked into the palace in silence.

  “Sir, two ships just passed through the corridor. In just a few minutes they’ll be out of the nebula.”

  That was the best news Smardwurst Varlon had heard in a week. Green Scorpion had just barely left the Uraxis Nebula when an Imperial warship had appeared on warp-range sensors. The warp drive was not even close to being fixed, so there had been no choice but to head back into the nebula. Smardwurst had deviated from the corridor so that the enemy ship would not detect it. It hadn’t, and Green Scorpion’s crew had been working full-time on repairing the shields and warp drive. This task was made especially difficult by the presence of the distortion waves that were present in small form even this far out. The crew had finally completed the task to a reasonable degree when Black Fang appeared, again forcing Smardwurst to take his ship farther into the nebula to escape detection. He had considered following Black Fang in, but decided there was nothing he could do for Ned in his present condition. Smardwurst had not been able to identify Black Fang and so did not realize the full significance of the ship’s presence but had nevertheless felt guilty leaving Ned to deal with two Anacronian warships without him. So, Smardwurst was more than a little relieved to learn that the warships were leaving.

  His bulging eyes stared intently at the readout that showed the departing ships’ locations until they were safely out of range. “All right, Ensign, let’s try this one more time.”

  The rest of the day passed like a dream for Ned. His entire life seemed just too impossible to believe. He was on a planet full of aliens. He commanded a power that people back on Earth might call magic. It bothered him more than a little how easily he had rushed into battle and nearly killed Kayleen Rax. Yes, it was the right thing to do, but shouldn’t it have felt different? Ned decided that he had not really intended to kill her or Markan Dren, just to harm them enough to capture them or maybe drive them off, but still he had committed more violence during that one hour this morning than he had in the rest of his life combined. It didn’t bother him, and that bothered him. Worst of all, he had seen a man die. His friend. His teacher. In short, Ned Simmons’s life was in chaos.

  It helped tremendously when Smardwurst arrived. Ned was able to put aside his negative feelings for a moment and enjoy the fact that his first friend in this alien society was still alive. Ned’s mood quickly darkened again though, and Smardwurst had other business to attend to. Ned spent most of the day reminiscing with X about Koral. Listening to X’s stories about training the dragons and Koral’s fighting the Aliens in the previous war, Ned realized that he knew almost nothing about the man for whom he was grieving. It made Ned feel better to know that there was someone else who felt at least as bad about Koral’s death as he did.

  A funeral was held that evening, and Ned was pleasantly surprised to find that he was able to control his emotions. He wanted to stand up and give a powerfully inspiring discourse, engraving in everyone’s mind the greatness of who Koral Ralok had been and what he had done, but the words just would not come. Ned just sat there, content to let X do an admirable job of it instead.

  Sunset approached, and no plans were made for the future, at least none that Ned heard. He was still far from over his grief at what had happened that day, but he had come to accept things and felt that he was reasonably ready to move on. Perhaps that was because Ned had only known Koral for a few days. Perhaps it was because Koral’s final message to him demanded that he pull himself together and go on. Ned liked to believe that the strength Koral had given him during those few days of intensive instruction went beyond Ned’s use of the Plasma – that Koral had strengthened Ned’s character as well.

  As everyone else was retiring to their beds, Ned decided to take a walk through the palace gardens. He would probably be leaving Palandora tomorrow or shortly afterward, and he wanted to remember as much of it as he could. He was leaning on the trunk of a tree and gazing outward at the starless night sky when Jenara walked softly up to him from behind.

  “Sleepless again?” she asked in her usual cheerful manner.

  Ned smiled, glad to be talking to her again. His apprehension about talking to her had completely dissolved, and besides, he had no intention of leaving here without clearing up whatever he needed to.

  “Hi, Jenara. I was just thinking.”

  “About what?” She walked up next to him and looked ou
t at the sky as well. When Ned failed to answer quickly, she changed the subject. “My father says that the Chelaris will be ready to leave the nebula tomorrow afternoon. X is getting the starfighter fleet ready, too. I guess you’ll be heading out then.”

  “I had forgotten about Koral’s ship. Yeah, I guess Smardwurst and I don’t have much left to do here now. The sooner we’re back fighting the Anacron Empire, the better.” Ned looked into Jenara’s eyes, trying to read the look he saw there. “I’m glad you came to talk to me. I would have found you tomorrow, but now’s as good a time as any. I wanted to thank you and X for everything you did for me. Besides feeding me and giving me a place to sleep and showing me how to reach Koral, it really helped to have people I could talk to while I was here – you know, being so far away from home.”

  Jenara nodded and looked away. “I could have made it even easier, couldn’t I? I’m sorry about…”

  “No, don’t be sorry. I misunderstood you, that’s all. I didn’t mean… I …” Ned was irritated at the difficulty both of them were having forming complete sentences this evening.

  “I know. When X brought you to Tibrus City and told us about you I couldn’t resist learning everything about you I could. I mean, a real Plasma Master here! And then I started to get to know you, and I guess our minds were on totally different things, and I just didn’t want to see that you didn’t feel the same way I did. We’ve only known each other for a matter of days; it’s ridiculous to expect us to be anything more than acquaintances.”

  “Wait, Jenara. I’m not so sure we do feel all that differently. Maybe we just express it differently. I really did enjoy being with you this past week. My friendship with you is just about the only thing about my stay here that hasn’t turned out to be a complete disaster, except for maybe X and me, but that’s different. I really do like you, Jenara, a lot. I just wouldn’t call it ‘love;’ like you said, we haven’t known each other long enough. But I don’t think we feel all that differently.”

  Jenara’s eyes had been lowered as she spoke, but as Ned talked she brought them up to meet his. The smile on her face made Ned think that maybe he had set her heart on fire. It made him feel good to have the tension relieved. It would be a lot easier to say goodbye now that it was.

  “Really?” Jenara said after he finished. “I’m glad you feel that way. It should make things a lot more enjoyable over the next month or so, or however long it takes.”

  “Takes to do what?” Jenara’s smile had turned wry, and Ned was getting nervous. “What are you talking about?”

  “However long it takes to defeat the Emperor. Haven’t you heard? I’m coming with you. Father put the Chelaris under my command.”

  “You’re coming? To war? But you don’t have any experience!”

  “Neither do you. Besides, I won’t be in any battles. The Chelaris is just a freighter Koral bought before he left. We just figured that General Marnax might be able to use an extra ship, plus six starfighters. X’s squadron is really quite good, although I’m sure they’re rusty after being alone here for so long.”

  Ned was still shocked. “You’re coming to war?”

  “What’s the matter, Ned? Don’t you want me to come?”

  “It’s not that. It’s just that you’d be a lot safer here. You could get killed! Couldn’t someone else…” Ned trailed off, deciding there was nothing to be gained by pressing the matter. “You don’t need my permission, you know. You’re the Princess.”

  “And Captain. I know. I just wanted to know how you felt about it.”

  Ned gave up. After all, what harm could come to her? Marnax wouldn’t send an inexperienced girl into any situation he didn’t think she could handle. And besides, she was right. It would be more enjoyable to have her around. Ned smiled. “I think it’s great. I wasn’t looking forward to saying goodbye to you anyway.”

  “Great! I’ll see you in the morning sometime before we leave. And Ned?”

  “Yes?”

  “About what I told you the other night?”

  “Yes?”

  Before Ned could react Jenara grabbed his shoulders and kissed him on the mouth. “I meant it.” Then she wheeled, deliberately smacking Ned in the face with her hair, and walked away.

  Ned just stood there and stared after her, not knowing what to think. His lips still felt warm from her kiss, and his heart was still pounding with the flattery of having the affection of such a cute girl. He was more than a little scared, though. He was at war, and this was no time to pursue a relationship, especially with an alien who he might never see again after this conflict was over. He wondered if it might be best to avoid her, or maybe to tell her it would be best if they didn’t spend time together.

  But somehow that felt wrong. After all, it was just a normal friendship, with a little flirting mixed in. Yes, Ned was glad that Jenara would be coming with him. The weeks ahead would undoubtedly be filled with plenty of stress and confusion – not to mention danger – and Ned decided that he was going to need all the friends he could get to help him through it.