“By not trying to.”
“What? But you just said…”
“It doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing attempt Jack. Try to be her friend first, be nice to her, plan for the long term, not next week.”
“I…”
“Go to her now.”
“What?”
“Whilst there’s still time.”
“But what if she’s with Jorge?”
“Even better. Show her you aren’t afraid of seeing them two together.”
“And then what?”
“Talk to her. Be her friend. Trust me, she’ll thank you for it in the end.”
“Is this something to do with your telepathy?” asked Jack. “Have you read her mind?”
“Something like that,” said Ros, smiling.
“But what about you?”
“What about me? I’m dead Jack, besides you two are meant to be together, you just need your orbits to match that’s all.”
“Thanks Ros,” said Jack. “For everything. I…”
“Just go will you, before it’s too late.”
“I’ll miss you. You know that, don’t you?”
Ros nodded, blew him a kiss. Jack caught it, pressed it close to his heart.
“I love you.”
In an instant the stars disappeared, Ros too. Jack was back in the corridor. He rubbed furiously at his eyes. He tried to transfer to the control room immediately. Blocked. He tried again. Same result.
“Vyleria!” he called out. “Jorge. Are you there? What’s going on?”
No answer.
“Vyleria, what’s happening?”
Silence.
This didn’t make any sense. His command codes couldn’t be overridden. Not unless…
He started to run down the corridor, panic rising, images of dreadnuts and lava men swirling before his eyes. Heart beating faster, faster. Sprinting now. Down the corridor. So short, and yet so long. Desperation. Time. Time. Time. He didn’t have nearly enough if it.
Chapter Forty-Nine: Dark Matter
“What is this place?” asked Vyleria, looking through the translucent wall at a towering black mass of material. It looked like a gigantic crab, its carapace mottled with what looked like lightning.
“The Erebus dark matter nebula. The largest in the galaxy, perhaps all galaxies. My people…”
“Dark matter? But why? Shouldn’t we…”
“Be looking for the Scourge?”
“Yes.”
“And we will,” he said, a thin smile parting his lips.
“But…”
“Don’t worry,” he said, smile broadening. “Everything is taken of. We can look for them later. You do trust me, don’t you?”
“Of course,” she said. How could she not? “I’d do…”
“Anything for me?”
“Yeah,” she said, her cheeks glowing purple.
“Good, good,” he said, eyes like icicles.
“But why here? Why now? What does the nebula have to do with the war?”
“Shh,” he said, taking her into his arms. She felt so fragile there, so weak, like a glimmerfly in a hawkwing’s nest. Her heart fluttered, she was melting into his heart, into his eyes. She was powerless before him. She would do absolutely anything for him now, even…
There was a sudden bang on the door. Vyleria jumped. And again. Louder this time.
“What’s that?” she asked. It sounded like someone was hitting a chair against the door. Over and over. Smack. Smack. Smack.
“It’s Jack.”
“But why? I thought he’d accepted it was over between us, that we… that we were together now.”
“Not Jack. He’ll do anything for you, Vyleria. For all his friends in fact. It’s his one major weakness.”
“But…”
“He’s coming to warn you. About me. About us.”
“I’m sorry, what about you?”
“The truth about me, about the Scourge. I expect Ros told him or something like that. No matter. I have everything I need now, and you’ve been so accommodating.”
“What?”
Something hard collided with her stomach, knocking her off her feet. She couldn’t breathe, purple spots flew from her mouth.
She struggled to her knees only for Jorge to dance forward and punch her once more in the gut. She felt like she’d been hit by a battering ram. Blood dribbled from her mouth.
She raised her head, vision blurry. Another punch and another and another.
More banging outside. Shouting now. Louder, more desperate.
“Do you realise how itchy this skin is, how disgusting?” shouted Jorge.
“But I… I… love…”
Jorge smirked, then laughed. “Do you? Do you really?”
“Yes. Absolutely, completely. With all my heart. I…”
“My mind lock penetrated you a lot deeper than I thought,” said Jorge. “I should’ve realised that Elarian girls were never that easy, never that desperate. And you were so accommodating too… in every single way. Oh well, all good things.”
Jorge clicked his fingers.
Vyleria gasped. Cried. Then finally screamed. Thoughts and feelings flooded back to her. And pain. So much pain. What had she done? What had happened? “Jack, Jack. Oh Jack!”
“Well who am I to reject such a request?” said Jorge, eyes colder than ever.
The door to the control room suddenly opened. Jorge turned to face it. Jack and Gaz were there, fists bloodied, a couple of broken hover chairs in their hands. “It’s SHOWTIME!” he shouted, waving his arms. “Come and get it!”
Gaz rushed forward, fists swinging.
“Gaz, no,” shouted Jack.
Jorge moved like a tornado, slapping Gaz’s wrists aside, before grabbing his head in his hands. “What you lack, my dear boy is vision,” said Jorge, thrusting two fingers deep into the boy’s eyes. They sizzled away, Gaz screaming, whimpering, then screaming again, rolling and flailing on the floor.
Jorge was laughing now. It sounded like the crack of a whip.
Jack walked into the control room, slowly, quietly. He strode straight up to Jorge.
“Are you not going to attack me?” asked Jack, still hearing Gaz’s moans.
“What would be the point? Besides, I have something else planned for you. Something more fitting.”
“I’m correct in assuming that you’ve taken over all the controls?” asked Jack.
“Of course. What do you take me for, sloppy?”
“Well there is one thing that you don’t have.”
“And what is that?” asked Jorge.
“Us,” said Jack, looking at Vyleria and Gaz. “And a galaxy load of patience.”
Jorge burst out laughing. “We shall see. You may find that both are not as durable as you think.” Then Jorge’s eyes began to get brighter and brighter, heat burning off them like torches. Then he was on fire, his skin smoldering and burning, until it was nothing but a black crisp. And underneath it, ripples of lava and pumice. His eyes were bright red now, like comets before they ploughed into planets.
Lava man.
“Jack, how I have longed to greet you thus. And Gaz, the bully you used to be so afraid of. Though you wouldn’t be afraid of him now with a face like that, eh? You used to dream of killing him, didn’t you? And now? Pitiful isn’t he. What a worm of a creature, stamping on him will be a mercy. And Vyleria. The girl I…
“Shut up!” shouted Vyleria, moving over to where Jack was. Dimly, he felt her hand touch and clasp his. If he was to die now, then at least he’d have her with him.
“Together again?” mocked lava man. “If only you could have known her as I did.”
Jack threw himself at lava man, fists swinging, feet flying. His attack ended in a ball of fire, his eyes turned to ash, skin boiling.
Pain rippled his body in great big forks of lightning, then there was nothing.
Chapter Fifty: The End of All Things
Jack looked out at a sea of swirli
ng stars, their depths endless, fathomless. Was he dead? The last thing he remembered was the sensation of his eyes liquefying in an instant, the incredible pain. Lava man…
“No, you’re not dead,” rattled a voice. “At least not yet.”
Jack turned around.
The spaceship hovered above him like a giant silver hawk. What was going on? He tried to move. Invisible bonds stopped him. He tried to fight, struggle.
“Oh no, no, no. There will be no escape this time.” Again, that voice, so cold, yet so familiar.
Lava Man…
“What is this?” asked Jack. “What are you doing?”
“Look over there,” said Lava Man, though he still couldn’t see him.
Jack looked at a cluster of glimmering stars. They flashed with a multitude of colours, like a burst of fireworks. “No, not there,” said Lava Man. “To your right.”
Jack did as he was told. Ribbons of red gas twirled around in space like the tentacles of some gigantic octopus. At their centre something large and round glowed with an eerie light.
“What’s going on?” he asked. “What are you going to do with me?”
“As if you need to ask,” said Lava Man. Even in space Jack could tell that he was grinning, gloating. From somewhere far-off he thought that he could hear screaming. Vyleria…
Jack glanced at the black hole. “Go on then,” he said. “Do your worst. I’m not afraid.”
“No, I don’t believe you are,” said lava man. So cold, yet so fierce.
More screaming, more shouting, begging now.
“It’s okay, Vyleria,” said Jack, not sure if she could hear him. “I got you back in the end, that’s all that matters. Look after yourself, and Gaz too. He needs a friend. You were the best thing that’s ever happened to me. You gave my universe its stars, my Earth its light. I love you. Now and for always. Goodbye.”
Jack moved to speak again but found himself zipping through space. The black hole got bigger and bigger, like a giant space wart, until it was everything that he could see and feel. Jack felt his body squeeze and contort. He was being ripped apart, squashed by the huge gravity. The eye was before him now, like the gigantic pupil of an angry God. Time seemed to slow, dilate. Dizziness washed over him like a tidal surge. He managed one more glance at the black hole, its red streamers looking like gouts of blood. There was one final burst of white noise, then nothing.
The last second of Jack Strong’s life never came.
Epilogue
“The report just came in, Madam President. The rioting in Tampa has subsided and we’ve managed to lift martial law in a few other cities, Dallas is still a mess though.”
“But still,” said the President, rubbing her eyes. When had she last slept, last taken a break? “we’ve gotten off lightly considering the Earth was a fireball just a few days ago and in the middle of an intergalactic war. It could’ve been far worse.”
“Stormborn won’t spin it like that, you know he won’t.”
“I still can’t believe he’s going to run for President after all that’s happened, all he’s done.”
“The Republicans are pretty desperate. Half of their congressman died in the war, many of their donors too. They have no one else to turn to.”
“Other than human scum you mean?”
“Err yes, I suppose you could put it like that.”
“I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about in any case. I’ve faced down his kind of bully before and I can do so again. My ancestors faced worse, much worse.”
“But…”
“Listen Dean, the USA, the Americas, indeed all of the world is on the cusp of change. The Asvari were our enemies but now they are our allies. Their technology, together with the stuff Jack gave us is invaluable. Their humanitarian aid too. They cured Nigeria’s plague in less time than it takes for me to drink a cup of coffee! Things will change for the better, the people have to see that.”
“People can be fickle, Madam President.”
“Yes, they can, but not now, not here. I won’t allow it.”
“But Madam President, is this war with the Scourge even necessary? Stormborn will campaign against it and use it against you.”
“I don’t care what he says. That man is obscene, repulsive. He almost got the Earth destroyed with his paranoid, racist delusions. I’ll wipe the floor with him in the election, that’s if he even gets that far.”
“Yes, of course Madam President. That brings me to my next point… Jack.”
“Still no word?”
“Nothing. Perhaps we should consider aborting? The last war was expensive enough as it is, we can barely afford a new one.”
“I’ve told you we will take care of all that,” rumbled a voice in the corner of the room. It oozed out of the shadows like an oil slick. All jet-black eyes and razor-sharp teeth. “When we link our zero-point energy device to your electricity grid all your fears will disappear.”
“I’m still not quite so certain about how we can make any money from something that is free.”
“I think that’s the point, Dean,” said the President.
“Sounds like communism to me.”
“Perhaps it is.”
“Madam President don’t say that, at least not aloud in any case. If Stormborn should get a whiff of that he’ll take you to the cleaners, electorally speaking of course. I mean you’re already…”
“Black? Is that it?”
“Well if you want to be crude about it then yes, and if you’re outed for being an Asvari-loving communist at the same time then it could spell disaster for you at the polls.”
“That’s enough Dean. I know well the dangers. And the pitfalls of governance. But damn it we’ve got to try, got to keep on fighting. Not just for our sake but for the whole galaxy. People are depending on us.”
“But what if Jack’s dead? What if they all are? He hasn’t replied to your last seventeen calls, something’s wrong.”
The President bowed her head, stifling a yawn. “I don’t know, but Jack will get back in touch and lead this fight, I’m sure of it.”
“And if he doesn’t?”
“Then we stand alone,” said the President. “To hold back the dark, against all odds.”
“Never alone,” said the Asvari through gritted teeth. “We are one now; our fate is shared.”
“But…”
“That’s enough, that settles it. Now tell me about the space missions. How are they proceeding?”
“Very well, Madam President. A suitable basecamp has been established on the slopes of Olympus Mons. No casualties have been reported so far, though I heard the winds there are fierce, a dust hurricane if you can believe that.”
“I told you our upgrades to your TR3-bs would be satisfactory,” said the Asvari. “Among other things…”
“Which brings me to the Saturn mission,” said the aide, looking nervously at the Asvari. “Insertion has been one hundred per cent successful. No radiation leaks have been reported. There is now a new addition to its rings, the first spacewalks should begin within the hour.”
“We are becoming an intergalactic species,” said the President. “Soon we will have men and women on Pluto, then onto Alpha Centauri and beyond. There’s no stopping us now.”
“Your ways are ours now,” said the Asvari. “We will assist you wherever you go. One road, one galaxy.”
“Less of that,” said the aide. “Talk like that will be a boon for Stormborn. We need to emphasise our efforts, not theirs.”
“No, he’s right,” she said. “We are one now. No longer will we hide in the dark, strangers to our neighbours. Now we will explore, together, build alliances and form common cause against the Scourge.”
“But…”
“That’s enough, Dean. You are dismissed. I’ll call you should I need you. Right now, I want to be alone.”
“Of course, Madam President,” said the aide. “Whatever you say.”
The President watched the aide leave the room.
He was young that one, always picking faults with her arguments, with her ideas. Sometimes she thought of firing him and hiring someone else, but then if she fired everyone who disagreed with her she’d likely have no aides at all. She chuckled at the thought and then walked over to the window. Hopefully there would be no hidden assassins waiting for her today.
She looked up at the Earth’s new moon, though it was technically a planet, since it was almost the same size as Mars. Speaking of which she’d have to check in with the first batch of colonists soon, that dust hurricane sounded rough. Part of her envied them, out there, billions of miles away on alien slopes, hunkering down in the wind. It sounded brave, adventurous, a necessary step that would help mankind colonise first Mars, then the solar system, and then beyond. But no, her place was here, in the White House, in Washington D.C, in a divided America in an even more divided world. Some people blamed the Asvari for what had happened, others different religions, races, classes, even whole genders. That was what she had to end. She had to stop men like Stormborn and others like him seizing power and turning people against each other. If she could do that then Earth would change for good, perhaps forever. In any case, they would stand a better chance of fighting the Scourge.
The President looked back towards the South West. Her ancestors had been slaves on a plantation in Virginia once. Their lives had been ones of misery, hardship and servitude. What would they make of this? A black woman in the White House and at the head of an inter-galactic alliance? She knew the answer at once. Progress, possibility… hope.
The President looked up at their new neighbour again, it gave off an eerie blue glow in the populous night sky. It was a permanent reminder of the folly of war and the hope of peace. She smiled and then went back to talk with the Asvari ambassador. Everything was going to change now, she was sure of it.
The End
Jack Strong: Dark Matter Page 21