Nemesis

by Christian Kallias

  Fortunately, since joining the Earth Alliance, Droxia had abandoned some of their old, antiquated ways. The weeding out of weak and sick children was one such custom that had been abolished and a condition to continued membership in the Alliance.

  The Earth Alliance had a liberal attitude on letting each species govern their own people, but anything that resembled cruelty was where they drew the line.

  There were die-hard protectors of old Droxian traditions that wished they had not joined the Alliance in order to keep their beliefs one hundred percent intact, but Ryonna was obviously glad that this change meant that no other parents would have to go through what they did with Ronan.

  Unlike most Droxians, though, Ryonna knew full well that sometimes rules were meant to be broken, but that didn’t mean it came easily to her.

  All life was sacred, and it was time for her people to let go of these old and decadent traditions. The Fury War had devastated their world, with billions of casualties when only three Fury soldiers had attacked it from within. If it hadn’t been for Chase’s courage and his willingness to fight them until his last breath, quite literally, her world would probably have been fully destroyed.

  She wondered how Chase was doing. She hoped with all her heart that he would find a way to cure Sarah. He didn’t deserve this; having risked everything at every turn to save countless civilizations. The Fury War had been very cruel to her friend.

  Altair should have checked in with her by now. So she opened a holo-comm to Earth Alliance Headquarters, directly to his office.

  There was no answer, and the call transferred to his assistant, a human blonde female with ocean-blue eyes.

  “Hello, Ambassador,” said the assistant. “I’m afraid Altair isn’t in right now. Would you like me to leave him a message that you called?”

  “Can you please transfer me to his personal holo-comm device? Unless he’s occupied?”

  “That won’t do you any good, he left on the Hercules.”

  What?

  “Do you know where he went or why?”

  “I’m sorry I don’t have all the details, I think they were answering an Alliance distress call.”

  “Thank you, Sophie.”

  “You’re welcome, Ambassador.”

  The holo-screen turned off.

  What’s going on? Ryonna wondered.

  In order to get back to Earth as fast as possible, she didn’t wait for the Earth Alliance ship that took her to Droxia to return from its tour of duty. Instead, she had the transport she was on diverted toward the Droxian-Earth jump gate at once.

  While on her way to the gate, she decided to call Ronan. Perhaps he could help her get news on the Hercules. When that failed, she linked directly with the home world to inquire why her call hadn’t gone through.

  She connected with a Droxian military officer who told her that her son’s ship had left for a mission of grave importance, and, unfortunately, even her diplomatic status didn’t grant her access to the details on what that mission was.

  Some things never change, she thought.

  “Well,” said Poseidon, “if you’re not going to rest, I think I will. I know little about fighting spaceships, anyway. Call me if you need me to board an enemy ship.”

  Athena smiled. “That’s a good idea. I will. Thank you for the save earlier.”

  Poseidon winked playfully. “Don’t mention it.”

  The Olympian God of the Sea released his hold on his Trident; The weapon was magnificent. It radiated a small blue-green aura at all times. It levitated on its own, around Poseidon, and locked itself on the back of his silver and gold armor.

  Athena was still in pain from her battle with the Spectre. Perhaps Poseidon was correct, and she needed to rest. But right now, she wanted to see what threat they would be responding to.

  If it was from the Spectres, she couldn’t leave her captain’s chair in good conscience. She was the most decorated admiral in the Olympian fleet, for eons now. A natural tactician with a flair for feeling the enemy’s move before they even expressed the thought. Although, her skills hadn’t been required for thousands of years after the first Fury War. They were put to good use to help Chase and the Earth Alliance defeat the Furies a second time.

  Long-range sensors caught brief shadow glimpses of energy signatures that partially matched the Furies. She was having trouble believing the data, likely they were glitches in the main computer.

  But it couldn’t be, Erevos had been destroyed and the last remaining ship in orbit during the final battle. She concluded the sensors must have been glitching, and she asked the computer to run a self-diagnostic.

  The sensor data now showed an Earth Alliance dreadnought and two smaller ships, one matching the database for Spectre design.

  “ETA to hyperspace exit?” she asked.

  “A couple of minutes away.”

  “Are subspace sensors picking up energy signatures?”

  “We’re about in range now.”

  “On screen,” said Athena.

  The sensor data allowed the main computer of the Prometheus to construct a holo-3D image of what happened in normal space.

  A damaged spider ship was attached to one of the latest Earth Alliance dreadnoughts, the Hercules. The ship was in trouble, low in power, shields down, and no sign of its energy reserves rebuilding.

  Athena knew the design of the spider ship very well. This was a smaller version of the one in her database.

  It was damaged, but unlike its prey, its power consumption was through the roof and growing still. It appeared that an overload of the ship’s core was in progress.

  “Make sure to adjust our exit vector to within a thousand kilometers or less from the Hercules, and that—thing,” Athena ordered.

  The ships female computer voice resonated on the bridge, “Hyperspace window is too narrow, chance of collision high, recalculating a safer exit vector.”

  “No!” said Athena. “Override, Athena Gamma-Six-Three-Omega.”

  “Confirmed. Adjusting exit corridor as requested,” the computer replied.

  Athena zoomed the holo-display with her fingers and painted three of the five remaining legs as targets for the Olympian’s ship’s weapons to fire upon. She also pre-locked the tractor beam to lock onto the ship’s energy signature. From the amount of energy its core was radiating with each passing second, Athena knew they wouldn’t have much time.

  She brought in a star chart to see what lied beyond their hyperspace exit. A red dwarf was only seconds away at maximum hyper-speed, so she pre-programmed the coordinates into the jump engines as their next destination.

  “I’ve pre-programmed our battle plan, get ready to execute all three commands on my mark,” said Athena.

  “Understood,” answered her tactical officer, the only Droxian member of her crew.

  Times sure had changed, more than half her crew were not of Olympian heritage since Olympus was now gone. When Zeus was still alive, and their beautiful planet was still teeming with life, this would never have happened. Now with Olympian survivors numbering in the low thousands, the external help provided by the Alliance was more than welcome, if not a little strange.

  Athena had nothing against other races, but she had been accustomed, mostly through her father’s way of ruling Olympus, of not interacting with many outsiders, let alone trust them with her life. But her sister, Aphroditis, and her nephew, Chase, had changed all that for the better.

  “Exiting hyperspace in three. . .two. . .one,” said her officer, interrupting Athena’s train of thought.

  The Prometheus jumped out of hyperspace very close to the Hercules. Real-time sensor data confirmed that the core of the spider ship was about to explode.

  “Now!” she ordered.

  The Prometheus’ plasma batteries surgically opened fire on the targeted legs and scored multiple impacts. Olympians had some of the best targeting sensors in the universe, which had always allowed Athena to come up with very meticulous strategies.
>
  “The enemy ship’s engines are about to explode,” informed her tactical officer. “Recommend we clear the area.”

  “Negative, keep firing.”

  “As you command, Admiral. As you command.”

  Two of the three legs targeted were now in flames but still holding, and large dark pieces of metal were floating around as the Olympian’s plasma turrets continued targeting the remaining legs.

  That will have to do.

  “Engage phase two. Deploy the tractor beam and jump the moment we have a lock.”

  “We could rip part of the Hercules’s hull that way,” argued her officer.

  “Better rip a deck or two than have it explode. Just do as I say, and be quick about it, or we’ll be the ones who pay the price.”

  “Understood, tractor beam locked and firing.”

  Athena used her chair control to redistribute power from the weapons to the tractor beam, and she had already pre-programmed the rest of her plan.

  As the Prometheus flew by, its tractor beam ripped the spider ship off the hull of the Hercules, snapping two legs that were still holding on like delicate twigs. One of the attached legs unstuck from the hull of the Hercules and exposed that particular deck to space for a moment until an emergency force field activated.

  Immediately after, the Prometheus micro-jumped dangerously close to the red dwarf in the area. The moment it re-entered normal space, the tractor beam reversed polarity and pushed the spider ship into the burning sun.

  Athena had pre-programmed a volley of quantum torpedoes to make sure they would finish the job, even though she doubted the enemy’s core overload could be stopped at that point.

  The tractor beam released its grasp as the volley of torpedoes flew toward their target like blue shooting stars heading toward a red inferno.

  The Prometheus micro-jumped away a fraction of a second before the spider ship exploded into smithereens and the debris was consumed by fire.

  27

  “What the hell just happened?” asked Altair as every system on the ship came back to life.

  “Checking sensors,” said the officer. “The ship looked Olympian. Actually, it was the Prometheus.”

  Athena’s ship, thought Altair. Well, they sure arrived in the nick of time.

  “We’ve got an incoming transmission.”

  “On screen.”

  Athena’s face filled the bridge’s main holo-screen.

  “Are you alright, Altair?”

  “We are. Thanks to you. I didn’t expect anyone else to show up. Did you pick up Tar’Lock’s distress call as well?”

  “We did. But we were delayed by a Spectre that boarded our ship.”

  One more confirmation, besides the ship they had engaged with in battle, that Spectres had forces in their universe. And just when every sentient life in this dimension was getting used to this time of peace. In the grand scheme of things, one year wasn’t much, and it had come and gone so quickly. Whatever doubts or hope to the contrary inside Altair’s mind lifted—war was coming.

  Altair’s expression turned grave. “I was hoping this was a single occurrence, but if one attacked you, then we have to assume they have more ships. Speaking of ships, what did you do with the one stuck on our hull?”

  “Extreme suntan.”

  Altair chuckled. “That’s good. One less thing to worry about. We’ll have to intensify patrols and long-range scans; there must be more out there.”

  “We know there are. We received some troubling news from Asgard on our way here. I’m afraid a Spectre killed Odin.”

  Holy shit!

  “I’m sorry to hear that. I can only imagine how Thor is taking this.”

  “He wants us all to meet on Earth and discuss an aggressive strategy to hunt them down.”

  It made sense, even though Altair had no doubt this decision was tainted by Thor’s thirst to avenge his father. They had to proceed carefully since it took three Ultra Furies to bring down the one Spectre a year ago. Which begged the question. . .

  “How did you defeat the Spectre?”

  “I didn’t,” said Athena, looking down. “As a matter of fact, if Poseidon hadn’t intervened, I would be dead right now.”

  “I take it his intense training paid off?”

  “That, and according to his own admission, this Spectre wasn’t as powerful as Tanak’Vor. That much he was certain of.”

  “Well, I’m glad you managed to neutralize the threat. I wonder if we shouldn’t try and contact Chase. He’s deep in uncharted space, but perhaps if we boost our subspace transmission, we could get in contact with him.”

  “I’m not sure we should. Right now we have dealt with the immediate threat, perhaps we should allow them time to take care of their own mission. I don’t think Chase is ready to fight another war, not until his wife’s condition is treated.”

  “I understand that, but if the Spectres attack us full force and Chase is away, what chance do we have of winning?”

  “None of that has happened yet. I wish we could have interrogated the Spectre for more information.”

  “It’s doubtful he would have revealed anything.”

  Athena nodded grimly. “Probably not.”

  “Are you alright, Athena?” asked Altair.

  “The fight took a lot out of me.”

  “I can imagine, but thanks to you, there’s no immediate threat anymore. We owe you a big one. I suggest you get some rest on your way back to Earth.”

  “Will do. It’s good to see you again, Altair.”

  “It’s been good seeing you too, Athena.”

  The power holding Nyx captive wavered, and she pushed her aura to its extreme and broke free of the invisible force.

  This time she didn’t wait for the Spectre to recover, and she sent him flying against the nearest console with a powerful mental shockwave. Her enemy’s spine made a satisfying cracking noise as it slammed into the metallic structure.

  The power she now wielded was intoxicating but also scary. She would have to use it wisely as she remembered Ares’ warning about the ship. They couldn’t risk damaging the prototype engine. They’d still need the ship for a little while so that they could get back to their dimension.

  Keep your head in the fight, said Ares in her mind. I can sense your thoughts are all over the place. I’m almost done with the modification. Just another few minutes and we can get the hell out of this damned place.

  Ares was right. She needed to stay focused on destroying the Spectre, and even though her powers seemed boundless at the moment, she never heard of a Spectre losing a duel with any other race, before that Fury, Chase, Ares had told her about.

  Understood. Thanks, Ares.

  For what?

  Having my back and unlocking this power in me.

  Sure thing, just kill this fucker, fast!

  She smiled. On it.

  Nyx darted toward the Spectre as he was getting back up. It was time to end this fight. This thing would pay for all the suffering inflicted upon her, experimenting with her, and trying to build a clone hybrid army based on her DNA.

  The wound she had inflicted to his brain was almost healed. Black, oozing liquid was already rebuilding the burned tissues.

  She sensed the Spectre trying to block her with telekinesis again, and her rage exploded and multiplied by several factors, boosting her aura and energy, and she broke through the block.

  Orange lightning bolts sizzled around her as she enhanced her energy to its paroxysm. As she approached her prey, she saw something in his eyes, something she had never seen in a Spectre before. Terror.

  “Wait!” he shouted.

  “Not a fucking chance.”

  She concentrated all her power into her right leg and slashed it upward the moment she was upon the Spectre. The kick was devastating and cut him in half.

  She pushed away both halves of his body with telekinetic energy. They crashed to the floor with a squishing sound and left a long trail of sticky black blood on th
e tiles.

  Hundreds of small tendrils shot from the open core, growing toward the other half.

  “Oh no, you don’t!” shouted Nyx.

  She aimed her palms to the gestating halves and opened fire with concentrated beams of golden energy, consuming the black flesh and blood. His body parts moved about like a virus running from a cure, recreating more flesh and trying to survive.

  The sight wasn’t pretty, but it was also scary to think that these organisms could reconstruct themselves from a small biomass. Something Nyx was intent on not letting happen. She intensified her energy beams and rapidly burnt through the rest of the flesh until the last molecule of the Spectre turned to dust.

  When she was confident he was gone, she stopped her attack but looked at the scorched floor, making sure she hadn’t missed any part of the Spectre. He was gone. A whooshing sound came from behind her.

  She expected more arachnoid guards to burst in, but her eyes locked onto something even viler.

  Tar’Lock and the Bellerophon were tractored aboard the Hercules without issue. The regen tank, which contained Captain Talon Epizon, was transferred to med-bay three.

  Altair walked in and stood next to Tar’Lock.

  “I’m told he’ll be fine.”

  Tar’Lock solemnly clicked. “Yeah, fortunately, his injuries were minor. I’m not sure how he will feel when he wakes up, being onboard an Earth Alliance dreadnought, though.”

  “I checked his record before coming here. He resigned his commission from the Cronos during the Fury War. Do you know why?”

  “I do, but I don’t think he’d want me to tell anyone about it. I’d rather not share something he me told in confidence.”

  “I can respect that. I’m mighty impressed that you guys survived as long as you did against a spider ship. Know that if Talon were open to it, I’d love to give you guys a ship of your own in the fleet. To think you escaped death on that hunk-a-junk like that one…no offense.”

  “None taken, the Bellerophon surely has seen better days.”