Sinistra took a long step forward and raised her staff toward us.
“Fools!” She yelled. “You will pay dearly for this.”
The purple crystal at the top of her dark staff flared and I heard a low groaning. She thrust her staff forward and suddenly, two large strips of the metal flooring curled away from the ground and broke off. One of them flew toward Rand, knocked him over, and pressed him against a wall just behind him.
The other strip of metal raced toward Hiller, Kovac, and Lopez and pinned them to the nearest wall, too. They squirmed and yelled in protest, but couldn’t move.
A cruel smile tugged at Sinistra’s thin, deep blue lips before she turned her attention to me, the only remaining obstacle in her way.
15
NOW IT WAS just me and my trusty rod-sword against an armored witch with a cape and a super-powered staff. What could possibly go wrong?
Well, for starters, a chair between her and me twitched a bit, then ripped from the floor and flew toward me. I swung my rod-sword upward by reflex and sliced through it, so that the two halves clattered to either side of me.
Sinistra grinned and raised her staff again. The violet stone embedded in its top flared, and then a supply crate, a fire extinguishing unit, and another chair were suddenly in the air and sailing toward me. That wasn’t good.
I didn’t know what to do, so I just swung my rod-sword quickly in an all-purpose figure eight pattern. To my surprise, I managed to deflect all of the random airborne objects, which hit the metal floor with a clang.
“Impressive,” she growled.
Damn right it was impressive—especially to me.
“Let us see how you handle something a little . . . weightier,” Sinistra said with a thin smile.
Her gem glowed even brighter than before, and an entire control station tore loose from the floor with a screech. Then, with a flick of her staff, she threw the whole hulking thing at me. There was no way I could slice through something that thick—at least, not something that was moving so quickly. I leapt to the side, and the control station slammed into the wall behind me.
I whirled around, fearing the worst, but my crew was safe. Well, they were as safe as they could be while pinned against the wall by a jagged metal strip of flooring. The control station had crashed into a section of wall just to the right of them.
I heard several more screeching noises and my mouth fell open when I saw not just one, but three and a half—don’t ask about the half—more control stations tearing loose from the floor and lifting into the air. Sinistra’s dark staff trembled and she pursed her blue lips, but the objects kept rising. A moment later, they were all speeding toward me.
Sinistra’s witch-like cackle didn’t make it any easier to decide what to do next. But seeing her purple gem shining so brightly from her staff reminded me of the orange stone tucked away inside my glove.
Before I could think otherwise, I had reached out my hand, mentally lassoed the airborne objects, and pulled them toward me.
What the hell was I doing? The control panels were flying even faster toward me now—with my help. But that also meant I could help them fly somewhere that wasn’t where I was standing—maybe where someone else was standing?
So I pulled even harder and spun in a tight circle before letting go of my hold on the control panels. Like magic, they pivoted around me and flew back toward Sinistra. I could already picture them splattering her against the wall as I felt most of my strength leaving me.
And, just as quickly as they had sped toward her, they started dragging along the floor with a nasty metallic scraping sound, and finally ground to a halt a few meters in front of a wide-eyed Sinistra. Damn anti-grav field.
I caught her staring at my extended arm, and I looked down to see my hand glowing a soft orange through the glove.
“Give me that stone, boy,” she said, smirking. “You cannot possibly wield—”
But I had stopped listening as soon as I noticed just behind Sinistra—the large glass bulb with bubbling fluorescent pink liquid that was perched on top of the explosive device.
While she was in the middle of her condescending arch-villain speech, I lassoed the bulb with the little power I had left—my internal energy tank felt almost empty—and quickly yanked my extended arm back toward me.
The bulb came loose with a high-pitched snap and crashed into the back of Sinistra’s head, knocking her forward. The container shattered upon impact and sent the still-bubbling bright pink liquid splashing onto her. The dark staff clattered to the floor as she landed face-first on the ground. She lay there, motionless, as the liquid sizzled and steamed around her.
I’d done it—I’d defeated another super-villain! I stood tall and said in the mightiest voice I could muster, “Your days of evil are over, Sinistra.”
I heard someone snickering behind me. Dammit, Walker—you said that out loud.
“Days of evil? Really?” Lopez said while barely suppressing a giggle.
I could feel my face grow red and my rod-sword quickly faded. I reached down, plucked up a nearby crossbow with one cross on its handle and, with gritted teeth, fired glowing red arrows into the few remaining troopers who were scrambling away from the slowly throbbing contraption. They fell quickly, and soon the room was still.
After a moment of silence, someone cleared their throat from behind me. “Good job, son,” Hiller said. “Now get us out of this.”
I turned around and reached out a shaky hand, which was now only dimly glowing orange. I pulled as hard as I could at the sheet of metal that was trapping Hiller, Kovac, and Lopez against the wall. I expected the metal to come flying away, but it only bent toward me. Luckily, it gave my crew just enough wiggle room to slide out from their makeshift prison.
Rand then cleared his throat from behind the piece of metal flooring which held him against the wall, and looked at me expectantly.
I reached toward him and tried pulling hard with my mind, but the metal only trembled a bit, then went still.
“Well, this is certainly interesting,” Rand said.
“Um, Kovac? A little help?” I asked sheepishly.
Kovac grunted before striding over to Rand. He pulled at the metal and, with a groan, it came loose. Rand stepped gingerly to his duffel bag and headed straight for the contraption.
I walked a few steps over to Lopez, who was rubbing her shoulder.
“You okay?” I asked.
“I’m fine,” Lopez said quickly. “Nothing’s broken.”
“Don’t you have anything you’d like to say to me?” I asked. All I wanted was for her to say that I’d done something right. I’d even settle for a simple “thanks.”
She opened her mouth to answer, but then her eyes got really wide. I spun around just in time to see Sinistra’s steaming torso slightly raised from the ground in mid-throw, and a glowing red dagger sailing through the air.
But before I could react, a blur of dark green leapt in front of me and stopped the dagger’s flight with a loud thunk.
“Colonel Hiller,” I whispered, as his strong body fell limply to the ground.
16
“NO!” I YELLED until the veins on my forehead felt like they would burst. An elaborately crafted dagger handle stuck out from Colonel Hiller’s back. Its red glow faded as Hiller exhaled.
Sinistra clawed desperately for her staff and finally caught hold of it. She raised it slightly toward Rand, who was tinkering with the contraption.
“Rand—look out!” I yelled. With my energy gone, it was all I could do.
There was a burst of indigo light from the end of her staff and Rand went flying backward into a control bank several meters away and dropped to the floor, dazed. She looked to the contraption, said something I couldn’t hear, and made a small circular motion with her staff. The crude machinery came to life with a roar and filled the room with quickly pulsing light.
Artificial light glinted off the dagger handle in Hiller’s back, which made my chest ache
and filled me with adrenaline at the same time. I let out a guttural scream, leveled my crossbow, and emptied every last glowing red arrow I had into Sinistra’s straining body.
She arched her neck so high that her round headdress was standing straight up, and let out a high-pitched scream. By the time she slumped to the floor, the arrows had already faded to an innocent silver.
Inside my head, I began to hear a slow, majestic melody calling to me—a simple, heroic combination of trumpets and trombones—as the shining purple jewel at the end of Sinistra’s staff faded to a dusky plum rock. It would have to wait.
I tossed my crossbow aside, dropped to the ground, and carefully rolled Hiller onto his side. His eyes were squeezed shut and he was taking shallow, ragged breaths.
“Guys—he’s still alive,” I said.
Lopez and Kovac rushed over and helped me sit him upright. Hiller grimaced in pain and kept his eyes shut.
“No need to fear,” Rand mumbled from somewhere behind a control bank. “I happen to be alive, as well.”
The contraption grew brighter and louder.
Hiller let out a pained cough and slowly opened his eyes. “Help Rand . . . send the intel . . .”
Lopez helped Rand up and walked him over to the contraption, while Kovac hauled Rand’s equipment. I started to get up, too, but Hiller squeezed my arm.
“Sir?” I said shakily. “Should I—do I take out the knife?”
Hiller slowly shook his head. “No use.”
He coughed. Then, stoically, “I’m a dead man.”
“Don’t say that,” I said.
Hiller tried to get up, but grimaced again and stopped. “I’ve been . . . in enough battles . . . to know when I’ve lost.”
“Sir—” I said, but he squeezed my arm again.
Rand’s voice came loud over the throbbing of the contraption. “It looks more like an antiquated torture device than an explosive. I’ll need a moment or two to understand its configuration.”
“Son,” Hiller said through his ragged breaths. “I don’t know how . . . or why . . . but there’s something inside you . . .”
He coughed, spraying flecks of blood. “Something special . . . something only you can do.”
Hiller started drooping to the side, so I gently laid him down. His breaths were growing more shallow by the second. He looked up at me and smiled faintly.
“When you’re true to who you are . . . the universe will bow . . .”
He coughed, loudly this time, and blood trickled from the side of his mouth. I clenched my fists and jaw, hard, blinking furiously. He squeezed my arm even tighter and pulled me close. I brought my head down so that my ear was just centimeters from his mouth.
“Be . . . the hero . . .” he whispered, and placed something soft in my hand.
Then, with a deep, gurgling exhale, his eyes closed and he went completely still.
I sat up, choking a little, trying to keep it together. I did pretty good, too, but I couldn’t see much through my blurry eyes. I looked down, opened my hand, and saw Colonel William Hiller’s command glove.
The black and silver woven metal cloth was well-worn and beginning to fray around a few of the circuits. It was an older model—I’d guess twenty years or more—and was probably standard when Hiller had been given his first command. Of course, it still worked for basic tasks like electronic order confirmation and overriding access panels, but this glove was more of a symbol than anything else.
I couldn’t possibly wear the glove. It was what set Hiller apart from other colonels. It represented a lifetime of skill and bravery and being a hero. Basically, everything I wasn’t.
“Colonel!” Rand yelled from the contraption as Kovac and Lopez looked on in gloomy silence.
I tucked Hiller’s command glove into my pocket and stood slowly.
“He’s gone,” I said.
My crew lowered their heads for a moment, but they quickly snapped back up when we heard a series of violent banging noises from the entrance door to the relay tower.
Lopez backed away quickly from the door. “That’s it,” she said. “We’re galactically screwed.”
“Not galactically,” Rand said over the throbbing of the contraption and the pounding on the door. “Just orbitally. We have a decision to make.”
“GODDAMMIT RAND, is that seriously an important distinction right now!?” I exploded.
Rand shrugged, then continued loudly, “I should be able to disarm this device. And I’m confident I can use the Faraday capacitor to amplify the system’s signal enough for us to send our intelligence to HQ. But we most likely only have time for one of the two!”
“Stop the bomb?” Kovac said slowly.
“I think I’m with the big guy on this one,” Lopez said. “We can’t do anything if our atoms are scattered across this stupid moon.”
Rand twisted the large wrench in his hands. “However,” he said, “there is a good chance the Dominion soldiers on the other side of that door will accomplish something similar.”
Then, all of a sudden, the three of them looked over at me, expectantly.
Aw, hell. Apparently, heroes did have to make big decisions for their group, whether they liked to or not. And I definitely did not.
“Um, I don’t know,” I said as I shoved my hands into my pockets, stalling or time. That’s when I felt Hiller’s command glove and stiffened.
“Hiller said we had to prioritize intel over everything.” I looked down at Hiller’s lifeless body. “I think he’d want us to send a message, medieval torture bomb be damned.”
Then, looking at Rand, I said firmly, “Get us an open channel to HQ.”
Kovac lowered his eyes and Lopez opened her mouth, but then closed it quickly. Nobody wanted to argue with the memory of their departed colonel.
“I’ll require cover if they bludgeon their way through the entrance,” Rand said before he rummaged through his duffel bag, pulled out a the fist-sized cylinder he’d taken from the station, and moved toward a nearby bank of control panels. It looked like Rand’s damn equipment was finally about to come in handy.
Kovac and Lopez took up defensive positions, but they didn’t look happy about it. I went to join them, but as I passed Sinistra’s staff, I heard that slower, brassy-sounding melody inside my head and looked down. The indigo jewel wasn’t glowing anymore, but I knew it was still somehow alive.
I bent down and took off my suit’s right-hand glove—the glove that didn’t already have a magic gem stuffed inside. I wasn’t sure what would happen if the two stones touched, so I wanted to be on the safe side.
When my bare finger touched the purple stone I heard a single deep, resonant note and felt an intense tingling run through my entire body.
The sound and the tingling quickly faded and the stone popped out from where it was embedded on the dark staff. I snatched it out of the air before it could hit the floor. I dropped the stone into my suit’s empty glove and put it back on.
I was about to join Kovac and Lopez, who each had a plasma weapon in hand, but I heard a loud static hissing noise from behind me and turned to see a blurry, light-blue holovid image taking shape in the air above Rand.
The hissing gave way to a scratchy mumbling, then turned into a metallic-sounding voice. But the blurry image didn’t sharpen.
“—have seized control of your planet’s chief village and your primitive communication channels. Resistance against our Grand Magus is futile and will be punishable by death. Long live Craniax and long live the Dominion,” the voice said.
Unfortunately, the voice, once more, sounded familiar.
The image disappeared. So did the voice. Rand slammed his hand against the control panel he’d been working on.
“They’ve hijacked the only functioning inter-system channel. That was all I could do.”
Rand shook his head slightly and looked at me. “This may sound strange, but that voice sounded familiar to me.”
I could feel my eyes growing wider. “Wh
at? You, too?”
Rand nodded slowly and was about to say something when Lopez yelled over the noise of the contraption.
“I hate to ruin your bonding moment,” she yelled, “but the light from that machine is getting brighter!”
17
THE EXPLOSIVE DEVICE was definitely getting brighter, and its throbbing sound was picking up pace. That would have been bad enough on its own, but the violent pounding from outside the relay tower door was getting louder, too. It was like being stuck between a six-headed monster and a giant whirlpool.
Lopez narrowed her eyes. “Why don’t they just get it over with and blast through the door? Are they so dumb that they forgot how to use that stupid canon they used on us earlier? Twice?”
“I think their weapons lost power as soon as I killed their leader,” I said, nodding toward the lifeless form of Sinistra sprawled on the ground and with a forest of arrows sticking out of her.
“Well, we certainly need to abandon this location,” Rand said, staring at the contraption.
As I was looking at Sinistra’s body and thinking about how much she resembled a disturbingly attractive hedgehog, I glanced at one of her fallen sword-wielding troopers and saw his sword sheath sticking out from his armor. That would be an upgrade from my makeshift rod-sword sling, so I approached the sheath as my crew kept talking.
“Let’s get out,” Kovac grunted.
“I’m in,” I said as I bent down and worked on unbuckling the sheath, which was a lot harder than it needed to be. They obviously had terrible fashion designers where these guys came from.
“Wait,” Lopez said. “Go where? This was our final destination last time I checked.”
“Pluto,” I said distractedly as I fumbled with a large buckle. “We’ve got to get HQ our intel on how these stones work.”
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