by James Somers
“Anyway, what else do we have? But if we are not back through the transgate before the ship implodes, the gravity could threaten Nagon-Toth—and of course, we wouldn’t survive either.”
“Then we’ll meet back here at the transgate,” said Tiet.
Kale watched his brother and General Grod as they headed down the long corridor. He would have liked to agree on meeting back at the transgate, but he did not plan on leaving the ship. Given the power of Lucin, he would have to remain to prevent him from escaping when the containment failure alert sounded all over the ship. If Lucin survived then this effort would be wasted and the war itself would likely carry on to the inevitable end with the Baruk dominating the entire planet. Kale was determined to give his brother the chance to be the king he could never have been himself.
LUCIN
Kale knew the ship well and made his way quickly and quietly toward the throne room of the Lucin. Kale encountered a number of warriors as he went, but evaded their notice. Soon, he arrived at the chamber.
He guessed that Tiet and Grod would probably be close to the containment area by now and he had little time to distract Lucin before intruder alarms would sound and they would lose the slight advantage surprise gave them. Kale removed two spicors from his uniform and stepped back enough to throw them into the chamber door. They flashed violently, leaving a large hole through the alloy that comprised the door. Kale was through the door as soon as the energy dissipated.
He dived through and rolled to his feet drawing his blade as he stood. The room was sparsely lit. Lucin was not immediately seen. He closed his eyes and relied upon his mind. Then he found them. “You can come out. I see you,” said Kale.
Kale immediately formed a mental bubble within the hole he had made and blew out the door mechanism with a thought.
“Do you think I will run from you, Kale?” asked Lucin.
“You’ll try to run before I’m through with you,” he threatened.
Lucin laughed. “Pride goes before a fall, mortal. Do you really expect to defeat me, one of the Mithri?”
Lucin approached him, coming into view beyond Kale’s blade. Kale protected himself mentally as he felt the mithrial being apply his own great mental faculties against him.
Lucin was putting tremendous pressure upon him as he searched for a weakness in Kale’s defense, but he could find none. Kale felt the pressure continuing to build as Lucin furthered his attack. He knew very well that he would have been easily overcome by Lucin if he had not been forced to split his attention and power coordinating his warriors on the ground and with the ships still fighting the Vorn cruisers around the flagship.
Kale lunged at him with his blade. Lucin swept out of the way fast. A large piece of equipment flew at Kale from its place in the shadows. He struck the object, cutting it in two.
Baruk warriors could be heard outside the one door to the chamber, but they could not get through Kales kinetic bubble or open the doorway to help their master.
“Have you already summoned help for yourself, Lucin?” he asked sarcastically.
Lucin did not answer him. His form began to change before Kale’s eyes. The human form increased in stature to roughly three times his original human form. He erupted into a monstrous form.
“If it is a physical battle you desire, you shall have it, Barudii,” scolded Lucin.
☼
Grod and Tiet were able to see the massive containment chamber from their perch. They had climbed beyond the walkway toward the mechanism in order to avoid any Baruk warriors that might happen by during the course of their duties. Grod and Tiet climbed quietly along the structure toward the conduits above the chamber. The pipes were huge. It would take a throw of multiple spicor discs to get through those conduits without being instantly covered in the coolant flowing within. There appeared to be minimal personnel in the area at the moment. There was no time to waste.
Tiet removed three spicor discs from his vest. He and Grod moved to a catwalk that would give them an easier escape route. Tiet stood for the throw and aimed at three separate conduit pipes to prevent any rerouting of coolant to the containment system. With deadly accuracy, he threw the discs away toward their targets. The discs exploded as they impacted with the pipes, leaving huge holes in each one and bluish colored coolant vapor spewing forth.
An alarm immediately sounded throughout the ship. Grod and Tiet ran down the walkway toward the transgate. Baruk warriors ran into the containment system area. Then they spotted the pair. “Saboteurs!”
The Baruk fired upon them as they ran down the catwalk. Tiet drew his kemsticks as Grod aimed his plasma weapon. A burst of lightning arced over Tiet and into the approaching Baruk. The warriors tumbled over the sides of the catwalk as the energy hit them full force.
More Baruk warriors were mobilizing, but Tiet and Grod didn’t have time to draw out the fight—according to the wailing security alarms, this ship would implode in seven minutes.
☼
Kale deflected several tentacles flying at him from Lucin’s symbyte form. The mithrial monstrosity screeched as his blade vaporized some of Lucin’s morphing tissue. He couldn’t get past Kale’s defense. Then the ship’s warning system went off.
“Evacuate ship—seven minutes to containment meltdown, evacuate ship,” sounded the alarm.
The symbyte creature reeled back from the fight as Lucin realized the imminent destruction of his flagship. He turned his attention to opening the door and breaching Kale’s kinetic force field. Kale moved in to strike again, trying to keep Lucin occupied and imprisoned until the containment field collapsed completely and destroyed them both.
The creature spun on Kale and sent him flying backward with a burst of mental energy. Had Lucin now stopped expending his power coordinating his troops in order to concentrate on saving himself? Kale recovered and flung his blade at the creature. The blade struck and rebounded under mental control to his hand. Lucin howled at him and held Kale in a mental grip that instantly fixed him frozen to the floor.
He knew that he would not get through the force field until Kale removed it. Lucin’s monstrous symbyte form came at Kale and smashed a hardened appendage across his body that sent him to the ground and his blade spinning out of his hand across the floor. Kale heard the warning system stating only four minutes remaining before containment meltdown as the creature stood over him and began to pound away at his body. He felt his bones shattering as Lucin desperately tried to remove Kale’s mental power on the forcefield preventing his escape from the room and the doomed ship.
Kale was in terrible pain, but he blocked it out as much as possible as he continued to focus on keeping the field up across the chamber door until the last possible moment. Blow after blow pounded across his battered and bleeding body. Kale could barely hear over the ringing in his ears. The warning system sounded a muffled cry of three minutes. Kale felt his life slipping away. His body was numb, yet he continued to focus all of his mental energies on the forcefield.
☼
Grod and Tiet leaped away from the catwalk and landed back before the corridor leading to the transgate. Several Baruk warriors met them, but Grod blasted them with plasma energy on his way through.
Grod and Tiet ran hard for the transgate and did not encounter any other warriors along the way. The ship’s warning system sounded out again at four minutes to meltdown as they reached the transgate and ran through. When they came into the domed chamber at Nagon-Toth, Tiet immediately asked the technician monitoring the gate if Kale had already come through.
“No. You’re the only ones to return,” said the technician.
Tiet turned back to the gate as Grod caught his arm to prevent him. “Don’t go back, Tiet.”
“He’s my brother,” Tiet said. “I have to go back.”
Grod looked at him, concern evident in his eyes.
“Keep the gate open as long as you can,” said Tiet.
Grod released his grip on the
young man’s arm. He ran back through the gate and was immediately within the flagship again. He had no other way to find Kale except his mind.
Tiet felt for him and found him nearby. He bolted down the corridor. Several Baruk were working on a damaged door to a chamber. He felt Kale inside in horrible pain. Tiet blasted the Baruk warriors with his mind before they even realized he was upon them.
He sent them into the wall with such force that none of them moved after they hit the ground. He saw a forcefield in place over a blast hole in the chamber door. The mad screeching of some beast could be heard coming from within.
Tiet pulled a hand full of spicors and flung them into the wall, blasting a hole to access the chamber. As he entered the room a monster peered up at him. It was a horrific-looking creature—a black mass of writhing tentacles and piercing eyes. Kale’s bloody beaten body lay beneath it. The creature tried to attack Tiet mentally as he flung a handful of spicors at it.
He was knocked down by the force of the beast’s mind as the spicors sailed into it and erupted all over the creature’s large body. The symbyte flailed backwards away from Kale, writhing upon the floor trying to reorganize its form.
Tiet took the opportunity and grabbed Kales battered body up in his arms. He supported the man’s limp form mentally as he made his way back out of the chamber and ran toward the transgate. The warning system