“But we’ve scanned L1 a million times,” said General Stormborn. “It’s one of the first places we looked. There’s nothing there. Not even so much as a wisp of space dust.”
“No, that has to be it. Ros said that he could see the moon from where he was. And the Earth too. They must be evading your scans somehow, ours too.”
“Jack, we’ve only got one shot at this. If we go blazing off to the wrong point in space, they are going to know we are looking for them and then intercept us. You saw what happened to the TR3-b squadron that tried to follow the Scourge agent after the Nevada attack.”
“All too well,” said Jack, seeing the explosions again in his mind. “But we’ve got to take the chance, we’re sitting ducks otherwise. They may attack at any moment.”
“But…”
“I’ll go over your head if necessary, the President…”
“Will listen to me and the Joint Chiefs; this is our jurisdiction. Ours and ours alone.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure of that. Things are changing, even now. Your hold over her, over America and the rest of the world is slipping – it’s our time now.”
The General glared at him like a Pitbull on steroids, eyes boring into his skull, fists clenched.
“Thought so. You know it too, and so do they by the look of it,” said Jack, signaling to the roomful of soldiers, airmen and technicians. “Your time on this Earth is over.”
“We’ll see about that,” said the General.
“Fine, have it your way,” said Jack. “I’ll just make the call.”
“No,” said the General, reaching out for Jack’s arm. “There’s… there’s no need to be hasty. I’ll agree to your request, on one condition.”
“Which is?” asked Jack, looking up at the General. Eyes like ice…
“You agree to host a team of space SEALS on your ship for the duration of this mission.”
“You can’t be serious?”
“Like an atom bomb. You can complain to the Pres all you want, but even she will see the need for some American boots on the ground, particularly when the safety of the whole country is in question.”
“How many are there on this… team?”
“Six. Four men and two women. A standard squad. Plus a liaison officer.”
“So seven then?”
The General nodded.
“When will they be ready?”
“Within the hour.”
“That’s quick. You were planning for this, weren’t you?”
“I considered the possibility, yes. But they are space SEALS, they were born ready. Do I have your agreement?”
“Who is this liaison officer you spoke of?”
“Just somebody who will keep me abreast of developments… or the lack of them.”
Jack nodded. “Okay fine, but I’m warning you if you double cross me I’ll find you wherever you are hiding; you have my word on that.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything else.”
“Just remember, no funny business, okay? If I even sniff so much as an attempt to steal anything, I’ll stick them a space cell so fast...”
“You wouldn’t dare.”
“Try me. It’s my ship, my crew. I’ll do what I like on it. You either stick to the rules or you go home, it’s that simple.”
“Fine,” said the General, eyes smoldering. “Have it your way.”
“I will.”
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Jack stood in the middle of the control room, Vyleria and Jorge next to him, as six camouflaged figures materialised in front of him. He scanned their large bulky forms, faces blurring from one to the next. A seventh appeared next to them, he was a little shorter than the rest, with brown hair, green eyes, that face…
“YOU!” he shouted, violently shoving the boy to the floor. “What are YOU doing here?”
He arched his back and scrunched his fists. He was going to hit him. He was going to pound him to bits. Right here. Right now. The General be damned.
“Jack!” screeched Vyleria. “What are you doing? The mission…”
“But it’s HIM!” he yelled, quivering with rage.
“Who?”
“The boy… the boy who used to bully me.”
Chapter Fourteen: Gaz Finch
“Well if it isn’t Jack Mong,” smirked Gaz Finch. He snarled like a Pitbull, or a rattlesnake or both.
Jack swung for his head. He missed. He swung again. Same result. Then a boney knuckle thudded into his temple, jarring his vision. Gaz punched again, aiming for his nose, then his mouth.
The salty taste of blood flooded into his mouth. He was bleeding. Heavily.
His heart started to race, his chest felt like it was in a vice. Gaz was beating him up again, like he had so many times before, like he had on the day he first came aboard the spaceship.
Not now, he thought. Not again…
Jack fell to his knees, drawing Gaz down on top of him. As soon as he was within striking distance he sprang upwards like a demented jack-in-the-box, his flailing right fist catching Gaz underneath his jaw.
Gaz flew across the control room, hitting the floor with a huge SLAP!
He was about to get up when Jack lunged towards him, his right foot aiming for his heaving ribs.
“JACK! What are you doing?” shouted Vyleria, jumping in between them, arms raised.
“But it’s HIM!” shouted Jack, cannoning a boot into Gaz’s stomach.
“Who?”
“Gaz Finch, the boy who…”
“Oh… But that doesn’t make any sense. What’s he doing here?”
“He’s with us,” said a woman’s voice.
Jack turned towards the Space SEAL who spoke. “You mean he’s a SEAL? In the American army?”
“No, of course not,” she said. “That would take the special out of special forces. He’s here in an advisory capacity only, for General Stormborn.”
“Yeah that’s right,” gobbed Gaz, spitting out a tooth as he got to his feet. “So, you better back off, or… or else.”
“Or else what?” spat Jack, leering towards him.
“That’s ENOUGH!” yelled Vyleria. “There’ll be no fighting. Not here. Not now. The Scourge are our enemy, not each other.”
“But…”
“Quit it, Jack,” she said, reaching for her forehead. “Stop acting like a spoiled child and proceed with our…”
“Vyleria? What’s wrong?”
“Jack? What’s going on? Where…”
Vyleria stopped as a purple trickle of blood snaked from her nose to her chin.
Jack ran over to her straight away, but Jorge got there first. “It’s okay,” he said. “She’s fine.”
“No, she’s not,” said Jack. “She’s bleeding.”
“She’s just a little stressed that’s all,” said Jorge, massaging one of her elbows. “This war is taking so much out of her; can’t you see that?”
“I…”
“Look, I’m taking her to the med bay, get out of my way.”
“I’ll come with you, hang on.”
“No! Leave us alone, you’re causing enough trouble as it is. Find the greys and then get us out of here.”
“You mean the Asvari.”
“Whatever.”
“You heard him,” snarled Gaz, as Jack watched Jorge and Vyleria disappear down the corridor. Was she stressed? Have I been pushing her too much? This war…
“I said…”
“Yeah yeah, I heard you,” said Jack. “Back off or else I’ll flush you out of the nearest airlock.”
“Need I remind you about the promise you made to General Stormborn,” said the female space SEAL.
“Don’t worry about it Captain, I’ll look after your precious advisor.”
“You better,” she said. “For all our sakes.”
“Do you have a name?” he asked.
“Captain Peresma,” she said, turning to face the rest of her squad, “and this is Sergeant Kim, Corporal K
alski, Corporal Jones, and Privates Welsh and Abbas. If you treat us with respect we’ll repay you in kind, but if not…”
“Fine have it your way,” said Jack. “The sooner I get a billion miles from here the better.”
“Likewise,” said Gaz, wiping a dark red streak from his mouth.
“Right everybody, take a seat,” said Jack a few moments later. “The fun’s about to begin!”
“But there’s nowhere to sit,” said Gaz, snarling like a pitbull. “Or do you expect us to sit on the floor?”
“That’s right I do.”
“What?”
“Try it and see what happens.”
“If this is some sort of jest,” said Captain Peresma.
“I never jest in space,” said Jack.
“Yowzer!”
Jack spun round to see Corporal Jones rise up from the floor, a hover seat wedged underneath her.
“What is that thing?”
“It’s called a hoverseat, Captain.”
“How does it work?”
“All you have to do is think about sitting down and the hoverseat appears. Well I say hoverseat, technically you’re sitting on a piece of the floor.”
One by one the space SEALS sat down on the floor, before they were magically spirited upwards on floating panels of light.
“Your turn,” he said, turning to Gaz.
“No thanks,” snarled Gaz. “I came here to complete the mission, not mess about with your toys.”
“Fine, suit yourself,” said Jack, turning to face the space SEALS. “Right, let’s have a look at what’s going on in Lagrangian One.”
Jack leapt into the pilot’s control; he felt the spaceship rush over his body like a river of cold lead. He felt strong, powerful, free. He could go anywhere he wanted, do anything. The entire universe was at his fingertips. He brought-up the star map on his control panel, dragged the spaceship icon over to the appropriate point on the display, then released his grip.
Chapter Fifteen: Lagrangian One
They flew through space like a hammer.
A million miles passed by in the blink of an eye, their journey near-instantaneous.
Jack looked-out at a myriad of stars, a bright yellow band of gas straddling its centre. It looked like some kind of intergalactic jellyfish.
Then one of the stars began to move, drifting through space like a giant silver wrapper.
It was only when it passed a few feet from his starboard bow that Jack saw the glimmering metal, the twinkling solar panels and a large convex mirror. There were four giant letters printed on its side: SOHO.
Then he saw another point of light as two shards of aluminium and a bundle of cameras drifted past him.
Both of them were pointed at a huge golden ball on the horizon, its surface streaked with molten tongues of fire.
The sun…
Another telescope stared at the bright, teeming cosmos, like an intergalactic birdwatcher. This one had the name James Webb tattooed on its side. They were definitely at Lagrangian Point One, but where were the Asvari? Where was their space station or their space fleet or whatever it was they were hiding in?
He did a scan of the area. Nothing.
He tried one more time. Same result.
Where are they?
He was just about to conduct another search when there was a sudden burst of light as a giant yellow flare erupted all around them, swallowing them up.
First the lights went out, then the engines stopped, then all the systems.
Jack jumped out of the pilot’s control as quickly as he could. His feet strained towards the floor, arms flailing, only for them to slip mid-air as he twirled forwards like an out of control ballerina. He bumped into something large, warm and heavy, before pinging off into a sharp bulkhead. He felt warm liquid oozing from his head to his cheek. He could hear shouting everywhere, screaming.
“Quiet!” he yelled. “We’ve lost gravity. Try to grab hold of something, before…”
“Before what?” screamed one of the space SEALS.
“Did you see that?” asked Jack.
“See what?” asked a woman’s voice. It sounded like Captain Peresma. “What’s going on? What did you do?”
“I didn’t do anything,” said Jack. “There was a brilliant burst of light like we hit some kind of space mine and then this happened. There it is again.”
“What is?”
“I thought I saw a shadow moving up there… on the ceiling.”
Someone screamed.
“Private Abbas,” yelled Captain Peresma. “Report!”
Silence.
“Private…”
Then another voice rang out, shriller this time.
“Corporal…”
“Captain Peresma, what’s going on?” asked Jack.
No reply.
“Captain Peresma?”
Nothing but the cold night.
“Gaz, are you still there?” Part of him hoped that he wasn’t, that he’d been scooped-up by some giant space spider and slowly devoured.
“Y-yes.” Small mercies indeed… “I think we are under attack.” He sounded terrified, no doubt ably assisted by thousands of Hollywood movies.
“What from?”
“I don’t know. There are shadows moving all around us. I can’t see them clearly.”
“Can you see any of the space SEALS?” asked Jack.
“No, they’re gone… something… something took them.”
“Okay, forget about that for now…”
“But…”
“Listen to me, I want you to come over to where I am. By the sound of it I’m just a few feet off to your right. Follow my voice.”
“What good will that do? I’m getting out of here right now.”
“No. We can work together. Two minds always work better than one.”
Seconds ticked by like knives. “Gaz?”
“Okay fine, I’ll… I’ll do it.”
“Great, now get moving. We don’t have much time. Use the sound of my voice to guide you… Gaz?”
“I’m here,” said Gaz, almost bumping into him. “Now what? I can barely see.”
“Now we escape,” said Jack.
“Where to?”
“Down the corridor.”
“And where’s that clever clogs?”
“Just to your right.”
“How do you know that?”
“It’s my spaceship, remember. I could navigate my way around here blindfolded, which of course I almost am. Now go on, move. I’ll be right behind you.”
“It’s almost like swimmin’,” gasped Gaz as they flapped about down the dark, lonely corridor.
“Yes, I suppose it is,” said Jack. “Just watch out for the sharks…”
Movement. Behind them. Jack reached out for his space pistol, but his hand remained empty. He tried to summon it again. Same result. “Quick! Faster,” said Jack, cursing to himself. “They’re almost on us.”
“Who are they?” asked Gaz.
“We’ll find out soon enough.”
“It’s not some kind of space wasp, is it? Or a Xenomorph from that film Alien.”
“Not likely,” said Jack.
“What’s that?” said Gaz, pointing into the darkness.
“I…”
A dark grey figure approached them out of the oily gloom, eyes as black as death, teeth as sharp and as white as tombstones, claws bared. It looked cold, murderous…
“Ros? Is that… you?”
Ros answered like a wild boar, with his teeth and with his claws, ramming Jack into the wall behind him. The wind rushed from Jack’s chest like a tornado. Suddenly Ros was holding him down, stomping on his head and chest, gouging at his face, tearing at everything he touched. Jack tried to resist, but Ros flicked his hands away like they were flies. Then he was over him, on top of him, banging his head against the floor like a child’s rattle. He heard something crack, then he lost consciousness.
Chapter Sixteen: Padget Soars
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br /> Padget exited star jump with a burst of blue fire, narrowly swerving to avoid a blood-red gas giant, its ring of asteroids looking like a dirty grey beard.
Passing a stormy water world, he zeroed-in on a black silhouette as it transited the sun. As he got closer one half became a turquoise blur, the other as black as the vacuum that surrounded it.
Home, he thought as he passed between a satellite swarm and headed towards the lush green carpet beneath him.
A sea of grass, trees and flowers flew by in seconds, interspersed with the occasional mountain range and the odd lake. Rivers crisscrossed the plains like a spider’s web. It looked like paradise. How had he not seen all this before?
Probably because you were too lazy, he said to himself. Always playing the latest VR game or else just eating banquets with my buddy-bots.
Padget was surprised at how empty Paldovia was. There were no towns or cities anywhere, just occasional mile-long compounds, their walls and fences lined with anti-personnel lasers and the odd landing pad for returning space transports. It all looked so… boring.
Padget was just going to investigate a two thousand foot waterfall on the edge of a huge plateau when a rain of dirty, grey machines sprang out from behind a mass of clouds, a stream of red projectiles spitting from their teeth.
Explosions cackled, thumped and whined. Streaks of smoke filled the sky. Engines purred, revved and sputtered to the ground.
Padget wove in and out of the drone fleet and cut them to pieces, sonic cannon set to rapid fire. No sooner had they been wiped out when a mass of metallic arms and legs plunged out of the sun, lasers set at maximum.
Soldier-bots. Paldovia’s finest.
But they hadn’t reckoned on Padget, or this spaceship.
They plunged to the ground in pieces, a melted mess of broken and charred limbs.
It was a massacre. A rout. Never had warfare been so easy.
Now for the real prize…
Padget nudged down on the accelerator as his spaceship whooshed over the turquoise tapestry below.
A voice crackled in his ears.
“Padget! Stop this insanity now. I order you to land your ship immediately and to surrender to my guards.”
Jack Strong: Dark Matter Page 7