by Dan O'Brien
Mela drew in her breath sharply and immediately seemed to soften toward James. “It must have been horrible. Are they all as cruel as Xzin?”
“No. In fact, they were very peaceful and cordial. They treated me as one of their own. They taught me the ways of their culture and trained me in their mysteries.”
Mela just stared at Rider as though at any second he would disappear again and be forever wiped from her life. “This makes no sense. I can’t think straight.”
Rider took Mela in his arms again. “Herado, leader of Xeon and father to Hira Xzin, spoke of a great evil that was coming to our universe.”
“Greater than Hira Xzin??”
“He was convinced my role was pivotal in this campaign.”
Heiko came down from the top of the stairs, Lila at his side and staring intently at Mela. The smile upon Heiko’s face broadened when he saw Mela or, as he knew her, Haki.
“I wondered where you had run off to,” called Heiko as he came down the steps with the grace of a nimble dancer.
“Sorry.”
“Well, Rider, it seems as though you have met my beautiful hunter, Haki,” laughed Heiko.
“Who?” A look of confusion spread across James’ face.
“Me,” replied Mela. She looked between the men, trying to decide whom she owed the first explanation. “I am Mela Alvarez, former captain of Alpha Zero. Lieutenant Rider and I served together, and Rider was my fiancé,” she added with a bit of a blush.
Heiko stared.
A large grin came to his face, “Well, I always knew there was more to Haki than beauty and competence. But to think you were connected with my dear friend James.”
James was still looking at her, waiting for further explanation of her new name.
Mela ignored him, and spoke again to Heiko.
“I believe James could use our help.”
“Yes, Miss Felwar has filled me in. I am not sure that I can help. But I do have some information regarding the whereabouts of an old friend of yours. I suspect you know him too, Haki, or should I say, Mela?”
Rider and Mela exchanged bewildered looks.
“I believe I can tell you where to find Jonathon Wei.”
* * * * *
The Quicksilver stood as a reminder of the past, the insignia of the Spacehawks branded on its side. Rider walked ahead of the two women, half-listening to their conversation.
“I can’t believe I am here with Captain Alvarez. I used to hear about you all of the time when I was a kid; we would fight over who got to play Mela Alvarez,” rattled Lila.
“That was a long time ago, and I’m not sure I was that well respected by my contemporaries,” replied Mela with a small smile despite herself.
“Once we find Jonathon Wei, the members of Alpha Zero will be reunited. We’ll have no problem rescuing my father.” Lila turned a bit somber thinking about the capture of her father.
Mela put an arm around the girl.
Rider opened the atmospheric hatch of the Quicksilver and the ramp extended to the ground in its usual fashion. He bowed and gestured for the ladies to board first. Lila managed to hold back her girlish laughter, but Rider was satisfied just to get her to smile again.
Mela laughed as she poked Rider’s ribs when he closed the hatch behind them. “What a gentleman we have here,” she said. He made his way to the cockpit with Mela and Lila no less than a step behind.
“I’m not entirely sure that Wei is going to be the same man we once knew,” said Mela as she made herself comfortable in the copilot’s seat. “He was very near death when we returned from the Baldor mission. They implanted him with cybernetic enhancements. There is no telling what that has done to him psychologically.”
Rider sat back for a moment and pondered “I believe it would take a little more than a computer to change the Jonathon Wei I remember.” With that, Rider turned to the controls and lifted the craft into the blackness of space.
* * * * *
The fourth-floor office suited Heiko just fine, and his success as a businessman was no small thing either. Nonetheless, he often found himself feeling empty inside. What difference did his life make to mankind? He was shaken from his self-centered thoughts when a personal guard approached and informed him of a caller.
“What exactly do you mean by caller, my dear?” replied Heiko with his trademark smile. The guard’s face was generally incapable of displaying anything but beauty, but for a moment she appeared fearful.
“Don’t fret. Send this caller in.”
She nodded and went to open the door, but it flew inward, knocking her back against the wall as two creatures shrouded in darkness infected the room.
“Are you Heiko?” rasped one of the men.
“Yes, and who might you be?” inquired Heiko, pulling himself closer to his desk and subtly reaching for his plasma pistol. The man who had not yet spoken cocked his head as he entered the room and looked out the large window that surveyed the haggard oceans of Naulad.
“Where is Starhawk?” the first man asked, but this time he parted his coat to reveal the ’talon strapped across his back.
“I’m afraid you have been misinformed. I am not in the business of head hunting. I am a casino owner.” Heiko struggled to maintain his demeanor.
“Do not lie,” the man commanded. The other man, seemingly incapable of speech, merely stood and stared around the room. “We have been sent by Xzin with orders to return with Starhawk.”
Realizing the futility of the situation, Heiko drew his pistol from beneath his desk and fired three bursts. The attacker dodged and proceeded to strike with all of the strength he could muster.
Heiko’s screams could be heard throughout the casino, but they fell on deaf ears. Everyone within the casino had watched the two men go up and knew exactly why they had done so, but they played on as though they saw nothing, not wanting to interfere with the wrath of Xzin.
* * * * *
The bike screamed against the desolate humid air, and the haze of heat upon the desert floor created a surreal ocean that floated across the land. The cycle came over the crest of the hill, a lonely ghost that glistened in the afternoon sun. No less than a hundred meters away was a procession of armored vehicles and savages that looked as though they had escaped hell and risen up through the desert sand. The Tradnan Cliffs etched a pathway to a bottomless ravine. Those who entered only found solace that comes through their own demise.
Jonathon Wei had no intention of dying on this day. The Crimson Hand had infected mankind for far too long. One way or another, he would succeed.
* * * * *
Mariko Wing looked as if something had run directly over her heart, her dark irises cold despite the sweltering heat that assaulted her body. She knew what she must do and also what she wished to do, two sides of the same coin. Grenn watched her and could see the pain that radiated from her heart.
“Go to him,” he called simply.
Wing looked at him as if he had sprung wings and flown into the sunset. “What?”
“You heard me, lieutenant. You want to be with him, so go.”
Mariko nodded, her eyes focusing far off into the distance as she swung her legs over the side of the jet bike. She slammed her foot against the accelerator and the bike pulled forward, dust spiraling back over the stoic figure of Grenn.
* * * * *
The Quicksilver’s engines hummed back to life and the portal thrusters shut down, bringing them into normal space. Earth III came into view. Even from space, the deserts were the most prominent feature.
Mela and Lila came into the cockpit; the powering down of the portal thrusters waking them from slumber. Mela was still wearing her gown from the casino. Lila was wearing a really large shirt with a cartoon scrawled across it.
“Where are we?” yawned Lila as she rubbed her eyes, trying to extract the sleep from them. Mela raised her eyebrows, mirroring the question.
“We are hovering just outside of Earth III,” replied Rider. Mela a
nd Lila came close enough to gaze out at the world below. Rider took the opportunity to pull Mela onto his lap.
“Hold on there, buster. You’re still under penalty. I haven’t yet forgiven you for missing the last decade,” joked Mela. The pained look on Rider’s face made her wish she could take her words back.
Rider got straight to business. “We know Wei’s energy signal. We should be able to home in on him and land in close proximity. We’ll be back on our way in no time.” His hands moved quickly over the controls and the view-screen quickly displayed the exact coordinates of Jonathon Wei.
“We land right there.”
* * * * *
At the ravine, Wei turned the bike and brought it to a sliding stop. For a moment he could not see them in the haze that scoured the desert plains. As if part of the land itself, they erupted into view, and Wei used the moment to engage his armor and weapon systems.
* * * * *
Mariko pushed her bike hard. The more she thought about it, the surer she was that she would never see him again. Nonetheless, she pushed on. The blazing sun in the distance seemed to fall farther and farther away from her course, a portent to her love with the man known as the Black Rose.
* * * * *
Rider maneuvered the Quicksilver down through the atmosphere and into the intricate pathways of the planet’s ravines. As he crossed into the gorges by the Tradnan Cliffs, the sensor panels erupted into a veritable lightshow. Mela was the first to recognize the urgency of the flashes.
“If your sensors are correct, there are forty to fifty signatures in Wei’s vicinity. The sooner we get there, the better,” urged Mela.
“I agree.” With a grin, Rider accelerated and they weaved their way through the ravine, careening to a halt directly behind their friend. Rider quickly righted the ship and deployed the offensive maneuvering system.
“Five armored vehicles and twenty to twenty-five jet bikes crawling with scum,” Mela reported as she swiveled in her chair and pulled herself up to another set of controls.
Lila stared, stunned.
“Lila, do you think you can work the weapons systems?” The question came out a little curter than he had intended.
“Yes, my father taught me,” she replied.
“Man the plasma cannons in the rear, and don’t come back until I tell you to.” Lila simply nodded and retreated to the gunnery. Mela gave Rider a sour look, and he merely shrugged.
Mela activated the external comm and began to speak. “Jonathon Wei, this is the Quicksilver, and we are here to assist.”
Wei’s head snapped up.
He craned his neck and took his eyes off the impending forces of the Crimson Hand, trying to make out the insignia on the hull of the silver ship. He recognized the Spacehawks emblem and he shook his head furiously, the anger in him welling to mammoth proportions. Wei pointed his arm skyward and proceeded to unleash an onslaught of energy from his onboard cannons upon the hull of the Quicksilver.
“I don’t know what you are trying to pull, but James Rider is dead and Mela Alvarez hasn’t been seen in over a decade, so if this is one of your tricks, Xzin, I swear I will find you and destroy you once and for all,” bellowed Wei and with that threat he unleashed another powerful array on the Quicksilver.
Mela shook her head and looked back to Rider. They couldn’t hear what Wei was saying. She tried to call over the comm again. “This is Mela Alvarez. We are here to help.”
The control board rocked from Wei’s attack. There was urgency in Rider’s voice. “It’s no use. He’s gone. His mind is too far beyond reasoning.”
“Don’t be so sure,” Mela replied, “Until yesterday, I probably would have shot someone appearing out of nowhere, flying the craft of my long-dead friend, too.”
“So what do we do?”
Before Mela could formulate a plan, James continued with a plan of his own. “Open the docking bay doors. I’ll jump down and talk to him.”
“Jump? You can’t be serious. It is at least seventy meters to the ground. Do you even have your armor chip anymore?”
Rider shook his head. “Trust me, okay?”
Mela bit her lip and opened the hatch. Rider smirked and made his way to the docking bay. The current was causing a vacuum. Without a moment’s hesitation, Rider leapt from the craft to the ground below. Using his Xeonian skills, he slowed his descent and landed as if stepping off the ship only a short distance to the ground.
“What kind of trickery is this?” cried Wei in disbelief.
“There’s really not time now, old friend, but I can assure you that I will explain it all later.” Rider and Wei stood for a moment facing each other.
A blast startled Wei, and Rider took the opportunity to leap, Jonathon in tow, back up to the waiting Quicksilver. The doors closed as the duo made their way to the control room. Wei slumped against one of the passenger benches. His armor dissolved around him and he brought his eyes to meet Rider’s, his gaze confused and drained.
“So, I imagine if you came back from the nexus for something our universe must be in dire peril, and if that is the case, I guess I am involved somehow?” Wei had an incredible ability to state the exact nature of any situation and make it seem as though it was trite.
“I’m not exactly sure how you figure in cosmically, but I do know that our common enemy has kidnapped Dr. Johann Felwar for a virus that will, no doubt, annihilate mankind. I felt that something of this magnitude required the reuniting of Alpha Zero,” replied Rider as if he had rehearsed the speech.
The three of them sat there looking at one another. Mela was the first to break the silence. “Why would Xzin want to kill more people? He basically controls everything already. What is his motive?”
Wei pondered the answer.
It could be a lot closer than they imagined.
It might even be within their grasp.
“During the fall of the Bel’tara Empire, Chaos rose again to contaminate Prima Terra. The Seven Lords of the Shadow attacked the land of Arantania, which fell without remorse. The soil rotted, the rivers ran with the poisoned blood of the shadow, and the lords of darkness tore down the walls of man.”
-History of Prima Terra, Volume 3: Dark Ages of Chaos
The water world of Naulad was dark, as if a blanket had been thrown over the entire planet and condemned it to an eternity of paleness. The Quicksilver quickly wove through the mountain paths. Within the cloud cover was just as pale and bleak as outside.
“Why is there no activity? Where is the security force?” murmured Lila. There were no flashing lights from the grand casino.
It appeared, without fanfare, before them.
The Quicksilver docked.
The atmospheric hatch opened and the musty odor of casino permeated the thick air. Rider was the first off, followed closely by Lila. Mela and Wei took up the rear. Wei motioned for Rider to stop.
He moved close and whispered, “Rider, something terrible has happened here. The air is disturbed.”
“Something is definitely amiss.”
Rider looked at Mela.
Lila was looking around feverishly.
“We’ll go in together. Stay close, got that everyone?” called Rider. Mela and Lila gave slow nods. He didn’t even bother to look at Wei for response.
They moved forward through the casino doors.
Lila covered her mouth, but not in time to suppress a scream. Heiko’s body was propped up on a cross, and Wei immediately set about taking him down. Mela held the child while she sobbed.
“Who would do such a thing?”
“Something is not right here,” spoke Wei quietly.
“What was your first clue, the dead bodies or the stench?” Mela’s frustration and anger came through in her voice.
In Wei’s gentle hands, Heiko coughed roughly and tried to move. Rider quickly moved to his side. Heiko’s eyes fluttered and opened slightly.
“They – were looking – for Mela.” Heiko coughed hard, a bit more of his life es
caping. “They said that they – needed the – Dark – Compendium.”
“What is the Dark Compendium?” asked Mela.
“Well, if you must know, it is what this little ploy was all about,” replied Lila. She stood up and drew her ’talon to Mela’s throat. “See, I needed to get to you, and once I heard that a man matching James Rider’s description had been seen, I knew he could lead me to Starhawk. I thought the good doctor’s kidnapping might bring you all together. Now, I’ve managed to achieve what Xzin’s greatest hunters have not.”
They looked at the girl, dumbstruck.
“Why?” asked Rider incredulously.
“That, as well, is very simple to explain.” Two men leapt down from the balcony and landed beside the imposter. “I am Edge, and my silent partner here is Hocher. The young one, Rione, works for Xzin, like us. He wants Starhawk, and we always deliver.”
“We should take them as well,” interrupted Rione, bringing her ’talon around her back. Edge looked back at Rider and Wei, their gazes full of hatred.
“You aren’t leaving here alive,” called Rider coldly, his aura fluctuating around him; the clear emerald tainted with hints of crimson and black. Wei came up beside him, his armor forming around him. The modified Spacehawks armor was a deep black, but his blue aura resounded just outside of it, a strange contrast to Rider’s.
“We, unlike you, did not come unprepared,” mocked Edge, his sword brandished across his chest, the point directly at Rider’s frame. The far doors opened and a regiment of Baldorian soldiers burst through, their rifles drawn and leveled at the duo.
Mela struggled beneath Rione’s grasp, and as she turned to break free, Edge smashed the hilt of his blade at the base of her neck. Mela’s body slumped forward and Rider moved instinctively, his anger rising and evident in the flux of his aura.