Shadows of Olympus (Universe in Flames Book 6)

by Christian Kallias

  “This is not going to be as much fun as I’d hoped,” said Miseo.

  Chris smiled.

  “You find that funn—”

  But before Miseo could finish his sentence, Chris had unleashed a shockwave that sent Miseo flying upwards, where he hit the high ceiling of the landing bay. On his way down he created a large red fireball and shot it at Chris.

  Chris jumped out of the way and fired a small fireball of his own towards the incoming attack. The resulting explosion turned everything orange for a brief instant before a large cloud of smoke filled the center of the launch bay.

  Miseo landed near the already dissipating cloud of smoke. Chris emerged from it, teeth gritted, and with a ready fist behind his shoulder. He punched Miseo squarely in the face with all his strength and sent the Fury crashing down and skidding on the floor for tens of yards.

  * * *

  When Keera’s ship dropped out of hyperspace, they were about half an hour away at sub-light speed from Tar’Lock’s homeworld. Ryonna joined Keera on the small bridge of her new Alliance ship and sat next to her.

  “Mind telling me why we’re dropping out so far from the planet?” asked Keera.

  “We don’t want to attract unnecessary attention. We can’t repel any sort of assault with this ship’s limited weaponry. Let’s make some long-range scans and see what’s what.”

  “You’re the boss,” said Keera with a smile.

  Keera entered a few commands on her holo-console.

  “It’s gonna take a minute to get a full picture of what’s inside that system. The good news is, short-range scanners aren’t picking up any signature.”

  “That’s good. The moment we have the results of your scans we’ll be on our way.”

  “What if there isn’t any Fury presence? Shouldn’t we try to contact the Gorgar and inquire about their status?”

  “Nope. We’ll come back with reinforcements as well as Argos’ solution to their mind-control predicament. This little detour is just a scouting mission. We get in, get some data, and get the hell out of here. The sooner Argos has his scientist and his snake, the better.”

  “Where’s Tar’Lock? I thought he would like to be here for this.”

  “I asked him to get some sleep. He hasn’t slept since Argos told him about his people.”

  “Don’t you find it peculiar that Argos would need one of the most lethal animals in the universe to help Chris get better? There might be something he isn’t telling us.”

  “It’s Argos. I expect there’s a whole lot he isn’t telling us. But for the time being, Chase asked us to do this for him, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do.”

  “Did your scientist calm down? He seemed very agitated when you brought him aboard.”

  Ryonna smiled.

  “Let’s just say I gave him something to chew on,” she said, holding her right wrist while making a circling gesture with her hand.

  Keera saw dried blood on her moving knuckles. “I see.” Keera chuckled. “Something to chew on. Good one.”

  “I have very little patience with these dumb lizards.”

  “With all fairness, my dear, you have very little patience with a lot of things.”

  “Touché.”

  The console in front of Keera bleeped. “Scans are done. I think you’re right. We should get out of here.”

  “What is it?”

  “There are two Zarlack destroyers around the planet. They’re on the far side of the planet so it’s possible their scanners haven’t picked us up yet.”

  “Then let’s not overstay our welcome. We’ll analyze the data later.”

  Keera nodded as she entered a new set of coordinates into the navigational computer. Soon the ship’s hyperspace engines hummed and their ship jumped.

  C H A P T E R

  XVII

  Cedric and Gaia followed the nurse back to the regen tank room. Spiros had been laid on a medical bed. Multiple devices connected throughout his body.

  “What’s wrong with him?” asked Gaia.

  “The regen tank fixed all the physical damage to his brain, but he’s not waking up,” answered a female doctor. “The automated systems will keep him alive for now.”

  She was a tall, lean, blond female with dark-brown eyes almost hidden behind long bangs.

  “What about his implants?” said Cedric. “Perhaps they’re damaged and it’s preventing some of his biological brain functions from working properly.”

  “We’re not detecting any kind of electrical activity in his implants. But that’s not the worst part. We’re not detecting any brain activity of any kind, I’m afraid. He could be brain dead.”

  Cedric let himself fall on the next bed.

  Gaia looked at him briefly and returned her attention to the doctor.

  “Do you have medical nanites here?”

  “Yes plenty. Why?”

  “Give me as many as you can find.”

  “What good will it do? Medical nanites can’t jumpstart brain activity.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong, Doc. Now quick, give me your entire stockpile.”

  A few moments later the doctor returned with several bags bearing a nanite icon. Gaia grabbed a few bags and emptied them carefully on a nearby table.

  Cedric stood next to Gaia, a dubious look on his face. “What are you doing? Do you have an idea on how to bring him back?”

  “Perhaps.”

  “Can I help?”

  “Nope, please go back in the server room and keep working on what I started.”

  “How will I know what to do?”

  “I’ll send you wireless instructions on the console. Now go.”

  Cedric made a face but left the room.

  The doctor looked at Gaia while she activated lasers from her right hand repulsor. They kept hitting the surface on which the nanites had been laid at various speeds and intensities.

  “Do you mind telling me what you’re doing?” asked the doctor.

  “I’m reprogramming the nanites so they can restore basic brain function. Ideally, I’ll try reprogramming certain areas of his brain to stimulate them with known yet incomplete patterns of brain activity.”

  “Wouldn’t you need to have these? You can’t just guess the right patterns.”

  “Who said anything about guessing? I have many of them in my memory banks.”

  The doc lifted an eyebrow.

  “Look, Doctor, I like Spiros. He’s my . . . friend. I’ve scanned him many times as I was curious about what emotions fired in what part of his brain.”

  “I see. Well, I’ve never heard of this technique, but I must warn you, patients with so little brain activity rarely make a full recovery.”

  “I understand what you’re trying to do, Doctor, but I am not ready to give up on him. Were the situation reversed, he wouldn’t either.”

  Gaia grabbed the first set of programmed nanites with the tractor beam settings of her repulsors and closed her fist when she was done. She opened her hand next to Spiros’ ear.

  A few seconds later, she placed her head next to his and whispered in his ear. “Please wake up, Spiros. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

  * * *

  When Miseo walked back into the landing bay, his crimson aura shone so brightly that the edges of the hole in the blasted doors turned red and melted as he walked through them.

  He wore a look of pure hatred. His eyes were bloodshot and his cheek still bore the wound where Chris had landed his previous hammering punch. Half his cheek was cut open and blood gushed from the wound.

  “You’re going to regret ever being born,” said Miseo through clenched teeth.

  “You’ve got it backwards,” said Chris with defiance.

  “Like father, like son. His arrogance was also high before he fell. But this time, I’m not leaving here without your head. I want to see his face when I show it to him. So before I kill that traitor, he’ll know I have taken everything from him.”

  �
��You wouldn’t last a minute against my father.”

  “I’m afraid you’re too young and too impetuous. Full of misguided hope and it will get the better of you. I have bested your father once. I can do it again.”

  “That was then. He’s grown more powerful than you can ever imagine.”

  That made Miseo twitch. “Nonsense. Nobody gets that powerful that fast.”

  “Well, let’s see, I’m just a few weeks old and I’m already kicking your butt.”

  Miseo’s eyes morphed into thin lines, his bright, shiny, crimson pupils still shining through, giving him a look of pure evil. “Then you’re an abomination and I shall have no remorse ripping your heart out.”

  Chris took a fighting stance, his eyes filling with the fire of determination. His aura grew stronger and was a match for Miseo’s, in both size and intensity. “You’re welcome to try.”

  Miseo bent his neck until it cracked several times on both sides. As he then proceeded to crack his shoulders Chris grew impatient and attacked first. He fired a medium-sized fireball at high velocity. Miseo deflected the fireball with a slash of his forearm and sent it flying back towards Chris.

  Chris jumped and kicked his own fireball like a soccer ball with all the strength he could muster. The fireball quadrupled in speed and Miseo barely had time to get out of its path. As the fireball passed near his bruised cheek, it burned the skin around the wound, involuntarily cauterizing his previous wound.

  The fireball kept going and passed through a few walls before it exploded hundreds of yards away, somewhere inside the base. Lights flickered and the main power died. For a handful of seconds they were plunged into darkness before secondary power kicked in, triggering with it an alarm in the form of a loud wailing. Dim red lights pulsated all around them.

  The darkness and the way the crimson light played with shadows gave Miseo an even more daunting look. His gaze was fixed on Chris.

  Is he sizing me up?

  But then it happened all so fast. Before Chris could even see Miseo move, he had sent a powerful shockwave towards the ceiling, causing a cave in, with large chunks of concrete falling towards Chris at higher speed than the gravity should have allowed. No doubt Miseo had a kinetic hold on them. Chris reacted instantly by punching, kicking and disintegrating the largest piece with a column of orange energy shooting from his open palm.

  That’s when Chris felt it, a burning sensation on his back, but it was too late to react. Miseo had fired a fireball at point blank range. It sent Chris flying and tumbling across the floor. Before he could get up, Miseo smashed his face with a powerful hook and sent him crashing further away, head first. The blow was so powerful that Chris almost lost consciousness on impact.

  Chris flailed his right arm in a weak punch but hit nothing but air. At the end of his motion, Miseo grabbed his forearm and started spinning on himself, accelerating with each new spin. Chris saw flashes of dimly lit images of the landing bay before his entire body flew towards the ceiling.

  His head was still pounding but he managed to regain control in midair, just before impacting with the ceiling. At that point seven fireballs with arching trajectories were on their way towards him. He stopped the first five with quick discharges of smaller fireballs, shooting from his hands at machine-gun rate. He then kicked and deflected the penultimate one towards the ceiling. Finally, he used his left hand to block the last one. He absorbed the attack’s energy and the fireball dissolved in his hand.

  He looked towards where Miseo was earlier, but the Fury wasn’t there.

  “You’re too slow, boy!” said a voice from behind.

  As Chris turned around by reflex, another powerful blow hit him between his neck and shoulder, sending him crashing towards the floor. It cracked upon impact and so did Chris’ head.

  Chris jumped back to his feet, his head now throbbing with pain with every heartbeat. He passed his hand through his hair and felt the warm and gooey sensation of his own blood. Chris looked at his open palm. It was coated with the crimson liquid.

  That was the first time he had seen so much of his own blood. But he pushed the resulting fear away from his mind with a single thought of determination. He looked around, trying to reacquire visual contact with Miseo, but he was nowhere to be found.

  Chris closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He expanded his consciousness all around him, trying to sense Miseo’s next move. His throbbing head and blood dripping all over his face made it difficult to focus properly. But after a few moments that felt like an eternity, he sensed his Fury enemy on approach.

  There you are.

  * * *

  Sarah paced nervously in Chase’s ready room, looking at the planetoid from the room’s viewport. From time to time she would see an explosion and smoke, and these moments did nothing to bring her anxiety levels down.

  She went to the food synthesizer and made herself a cup of scalding-hot chamomile tea. She looked at the planetoid while steam passed in front of her empty gaze. That’s when it happened.

  She saw images of her son being viciously beaten by Miseo, fireball exchanges between them; and the last image to flash inside her consciousness sent an absolute-zero shiver throughout her body. Chris was paralyzed, half his body inside a wall, and Miseo was walking towards him.

  She heard the noise of the cup breaking but didn’t even register the burning hot liquid as it splashed against her uniform at heel level. She hadn’t realized she had closed her eyes.

  She opened them in surprise and found her entire body tensed and engulfed in a purple aura, with luminous balls of energy in both her clenched fists.

  At first she was scared, and both her aura and energy receded into nothingness as a result.

  What was that?

  Was she acquiring Fury powers? She knew all along it was a possibility. Part of her thought that Chris using her powers while he was still in her womb would have consumed the few Fury cells she had acquired during her pregnancy. And if she still possessed powers, she always assumed they would be limited to precognition.

  Even though Sarah was a tough-minded chick, she didn’t really know what to think about acquiring powers. Chase had told her how sometimes he felt he couldn’t control the Fury inside him. That it was like a beast ready to consume his soul and everything around him.

  He had since managed to control this part of him, but Sarah always wondered if this was something that could be truly controlled. Perhaps in moments of desperation or grief, it would overwhelm him again and take over.

  Then came another flash of her son’s head covered with blood. She didn’t know how to use these powers. Perhaps hers would be weak. But her son’s life was in danger and her heart started pounding within her chest at an alarming rate.

  I’ve got to do something! That monster is killing my son!

  She ran from the ready room and shot past the skeleton crew when her tactical officer shouted, “Captain! We have Fury destroyers on long-range sensors!”

  She was only a few yards away from the turbolift when the words echoed and finally registered inside her panicked mind.

  She stopped and turned. “What?”

  Lieutenant Affiniadis was a small man in his forties with scruffy red hair and eyes a peculiar shade of greenish grey.

  “Long-range sensors have detected the signatures of two Fury super- destroyers, Ma’am. They’re headed this way at maximum sub-light speed.”

  This isn’t happening! Not now!

  “How long . . . ?” She didn’t finish her sentence.

  “They’ll be here in less than five minutes.”

  There wasn’t enough time for her to go to the planetoid and help her son before the arrival of the Fury destroyers. They needed to get the hell out of here. One of these ships had taken down most of the Earth Alliance fleet around Earth, and that was with its main weapons constantly firing towards the planet’s shields. The Hope was a fantastic ship, the most advanced in the fleet, but it stood no chance against even a single Fury destroye
r, let alone two.

  She opened a channel to Daniel.

  “How are things down there?”

  There was no response.

  “Daniel! Please respond?”

  “I’m standing by outside the planetoid. I’ve hacked into the base’s cameras. Chris and Miseo are still at it.”

  “What? Why the hell aren’t you down there with him?”

  “It’s a long story. I’m flying just outside to provide cover and pick him up in a hurry, if needed.”

  Sarah wanted to scream her frustration at Daniel for not being there with him. But she knew very well that a human with no powers would just be in the way. And, as it stood, maybe they needed him to provide a distraction so Chris could exit the facility.

  “We’ve got to get the hell out of here, Daniel. Two Fury destroyers are on their way.”

  There was a pause. “This isn’t good. But won’t the ships be attacked by the eternity gun?”

  “No, they’ve jumped out of hyperspace just outside its range like we did. Plus, we have to assume that since Miseo’s destroyer is immune to that weapon, so are the Fury destroyers. Let Chris know that we need to get the hell out of here stat. Go grab him yourself if you have to.”

  “Roger that, Captain.”

  Sarah was about to make another call but then she asked her communications officer to open a channel to the Euphoreon.

  “I’m sorry, Captain, there’s too much interference, coming from either that Zarlack ship or perhaps also the planetoid. Readings are erratic. I can’t make head or tail of them. But we can’t establish a subspace connection at the moment.”

  For a split second she thought about destroying the Zarlack destroyer to see if it would help. After all, it was disabled. But then she remembered that Chase wouldn’t squander any resources on the battlefield. If they had survived so many battles against all odds, it was by thinking outside the box. She could perhaps use that ship to buy a few more seconds.

  She called Yanis.

  “Yes, Cap, what can I do for you?”