“I fear I do not know,” Green said sadly. “I attempted to disable them as quickly as I could.”
“I still can’t sense it,” Jack said.
Shanks placed his hand on Jack’s shoulder. “Fear not, Earthman,” he said. “I can.”
Jack looked up at Shanks, hopefully. “You can?”
Shanks smiled, opening his third eye and gazing at the ship. “Your ship was under attack,” he said, “so it did what any living thing would do. It tried to protect itself by hunkering down. Let it know it is safe to return. Do not wait for it to connect with you. Let yourself connect with it.”
Jack took a deep breath. He closed his eyes, focusing on that part at the back of his mind where he always heard his ship talking to him. You’re safe now, Jack said. I’m here, and I’m never going away again. Please, come back to me…
Jack waited for a tense moment until the ship replied, his head tingling in that familiar fashion he’d become accustomed to. Though it didn’t speak to him in words, its message was loud and clear…
It was glad he was back, and it was ready to leave.
Jack opened his eyes and smiled. “It’s okay!” he said. “The ship’s still alive!”
“Praise the Observer!” said Green thankfully.
Jack turned, looking at every member of his team with pride. “I know it’s been a tough ride so far,” he said. “And I’ve already asked for so much from all of you. But right now, we’re the only ones standing between the Deathlords and their victory. I may have been the one they gave the title to, but each and every one of you is a hero. You’re also my friends. My team. I’d have never made it this far without any of you, but I also realize the kind of danger I’ve put you in. You know where I have to go. You know what I have to do. You also know what’s at stake. So I’m asking each of you right now…”
Jack put his hand out before the group.
“Will you join me?”
Green stepped forward and placed his hand on top of Jack’s. “Where you and your ship go, I go,” he said. “I am with you ‘till the end, my boy.”
Grohm then placed his hand on top of the Professor’s. “Earthman give Grohm something to live for,” he rumbled. “Grohm’s life belong to Earthman. Grohm will fight by Earthman’s side. To the end.”
“I’m afraid I’ve never gone on an adventure before, and I’m quite new at all this,” said Dan as he placed his robotic hand on top of Grohm’s. “But I would be quite happy to join you and continue to serve at your side, sir.”
“I, too, will see this through,” Heckubus said, placing his hand onto the pile. “But I just want to make it clear – I’m doing so entirely for selfish, vengeful, evil reasons of my own, and not because I like any of you in the slightest nor have any desire to spare the universe from a terrible fate.”
Scallywag sighed. He placed his hand on the top. “Aside from ya bein’ me only ticket off this planet, I don’t got many friends. True ones anyway…” he smiled at Jack. “I guess what I’m tryin’ ta say is… ya can count on me.”
Then, Shanks placed his hand onto the pile. “Me, as well.”
Jack looked at him, surprised. “I thought you weren’t allowed to get involved in matters of the Empire?” Jack asked.
“I have observed each and every one of you do things you were not allowed to do,” Shanks replied. “And yet, you did them because they were right, no matter what the consequence might have been. I swore the oath I did because I believe Legacy Prime is a force for good in the universe. And after what I have witnessed, I believe you are, as well. You have inspired me to follow your example. If I must break some rules to do what is right, then that is what I shall do. I believe in your mission, and I believe in all of you. But most of all, I believe you can succeed. And when you believe in something strongly enough, you can find a way to make it a reality. We are, after all, the makers of our own destiny.” Shanks smiled at Jack. “And I would consider it my honor, privilege, and sacred duty, to manifest this destiny with you.”
Jack nodded. “I knew I could count on you guys,” he said before turning and walking purposefully toward the Earthship. “Now let’s get the heck out of here. It’s time to say good-bye to the Empire.”
Chapter 58
Starkeeper Cohaagen stood in the technological marvel that was the central control center of Megabase Cygnus, looking at the reports his operations team was forwarding to his station at the room’s sprawling command table. He was still in a state of disbelief over what he was seeing. “Get me the Director on screen,” he ordered.
Before long, Casgor’s image appeared on one of the large visual displays mounted over the command table. “Do you have something to report, Starkeeper?” Casgor asked.
Cohaagen frowned. “I’m afraid I do, Director,” he said. “Alpha Force 5 is down.”
Casgor blinked, as though not believing what he’d just heard. “Down?” he said. “What do you mean, they’re down?”
“All readings on their powersuits went dark, sir,” Cohaagen replied. “We tried radioing them multiple times with no response. I sent units to their last known location, and they found them completely incapacitated.”
Casgor leaned forward, toward the screen. “Incapacitated?” he said incredulously. “Are you telling me an entire squadron of the most highly trained and advanced super-soldiers this Empire is capable of producing was just taken to the cleaners by a child and his merry band of misfits???”
“It would appear so, Director,” Cohaagen responded, feeling as disconcerted about the situation as Casgor appeared to be.
“HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE!?!?” Casgor screamed, causing almost every man in the control center to glance at the screen uncomfortably. “You know what? Never mind! What is the location of the Earthman and his group now?”
“It would appear they somehow made it past the orbital defense rings in the Earthman’s spaceship,” Cohaagen said. “We finally have been able to get a bead on their vessel and are tracking them now. Our calculations show they are moving to make a hyperspace jump out of the system.”
“Under no circumstances are they to be allowed to leave this system!” Casgor barked. “You are to take them out, immediately!”
“Take them out, sir?” asked Cohaagen. “Director, despite recent events… the Earthman is still a Hero of the Empire.”
“The Earthman is a terrorist and a traitor!” Casgor sneered. “Now allow me to make my orders absolutely clear to you so there is not even the slightest possibility you misunderstand me. I want you to launch every available fighter to pursue them. I want you to fire every last weapon at our disposal at them. I want you to drop the full might and fury of the entire Imperial military directly upon them! I want you to set fire to the heavens and bring the sky crashing down around them! I WANT YOU TO DESTROY THAT SHIP!!!!!”
“There we go!” said Green cheerily as he removed Alabaster’s datastick from the navigation console where he was sitting. “The Great Seal’s location has been entered into the navigation computer. Now all we need do is make the jump to hyperspace and be on our way.”
“About how long will it take us to get there?” asked Jack from the pilot’s seat.
“A few hours, best I can tell,” Green replied. “The good news is that it will take Armonto Virtuoso time to get his machine set up and prepared before the Great Seal can be broken. Hopefully, we’ll be able to make the journey before he’s able to complete that.”
“I’d feel better if we could just use the Entanglement Engine to jump right there,” said Jack.
“Oy, I’d feel better ta use it just ta jump right out o’ here this very minute,” said Scallywag.
“Yes, the Entanglement Engine malfunctioning is dreadfully annoying, not to mention horribly inconvenient,” stated Heckubus. “Admittedly, not even one as brilliant as I fully understands the engineering behind such a device. But from what I was able to gather during the month I was forced to live aboard this insufferable vessel, there doesn’t appear to be anythin
g wrong with it.”
“If there were nothing wrong with it, it would be working,” said Jack.
“Well, no point fussin’ over it now,” Scallywag said. “We’ll just have ta work with what we got. That means the sooner we clear the hyperspace security zone, the quicker we can be on our way and away from here.”
Suddenly, a series of beeps rang out from the Professor’s console. Green looked at the data he was receiving, a worried expression forming on his face. “Oh…” he said, “oh, dear…”
Jack glanced over at the Professor. “What? What’s wrong?”
“I fear we’ve been discovered,” said Green. “We have multiple sensor locks on us, and it would appear Megabase Cygnus has just launched fighters to intercept us.”
“You gotta be kidding,” mumbled Jack as he brought up his sensor screens. “How many did they launch?”
Green glanced up at the others, giving them a nervous and overwhelmed stare. “Um… all of them?”
The group looked at the holographic sensor screens as seemingly countless red dots indicating fightercraft began streaming out of Megabase Cygnus. Scallywag’s eyes grew wide as he looked at the screens.
“That’s… that’s definitely not good,” Scallywag muttered.
Jack stared at the screen with the same look of dread and surprise as Scallywag. “All that… for us?” he squealed. “We’re just one ship!”
“One advanced ship credited with destroying an entire Deathlord Planetkiller fleet,” chimed in Heckubus. “And considering the fact that we just held an entire city hostage and assaulted the sole Director of the Empire, I do believe a large response is justified. But yes, they may be overdoing it just a tad.”
“We’re not gonna survive this encounter if they’ve been given a kill order,” growled Scallywag as he hopped into the seat at the Earthship’s weapons station. “Not even this ship has a chance against that many Imperial fighters!”
Jack eyed his sensor read-outs nervously. “We… we need a plan!” Jack exclaimed. “Heckubus, quick! Think of a plan!”
Heckubus twiddled his fingers. “Um… run?”
“Run? RUN???” shrieked Scallywag. “That’s the best plan ya can come up with?”
“Well, excuse me Mr. Non-Genius,” shot back the robot. “Would anyone care to share any better ideas?”
“Fight,” interjected Grohm. “It will be a glorious death.”
Scallywag glared at Grohm, then Heckubus, then finally looked at Jack with a resigned gaze. “Best get ta runnin’, lad,” he muttered.
“Way ahead of you,” replied Jack as he kicked the engines into high gear and began flying away from the oncoming Imperial spacefighters that were quickly approaching. “How far from the planet do we need to get before we can enter hyperspace without running into the defense arrays?”
“Too far,” said Green. “The entire planetary system is re-enforced via hyperspace to prevent Deathlord incursions. We’d need to make it past the fifth planet in the system before it would be safe to merely enter hyperspace, and even then, we’d have the outer patrols to deal with, which would surely try and intercept us.”
“And judging by the rate these fighters are closing in,” said Scallywag as he monitored the ship’s sensors from his console, “we’ll be lucky if we ever make it that far.”
Jack gritted his teeth. “Heckubus, Professor,” he said, “the only way we make it out of here alive is if we jump. I need you guys to fix the Entanglement Engine, fast!”
Green and Heckubus exchanged a look that communicated if that were the case, no one would be making it out alive. “I fear I’ve had the exact same results as Heckubus in my attempts to repair the engine,” Green said. “I don’t know if we can figure out how to fix it in time–”
“Please, for the love of God, would you both just try???” snapped Jack. “It’s either that, or you can stay on the bridge with the rest of us and twiddle your thumbs as we get blown out of the sky!”
“The Earthman has a point,” muttered Heckubus as he absently tapped at his chin. “Perhaps our combined intellect might be able to decipher the problem?”
Green looked at Heckubus nervously and then nodded. “Very well,” Green said. “Let us make haste, dear fellow! As usual, time is not on our side.”
“Now that you mention it, not much of anything ever appears to be on our side,” Heckubus added as he and the Professor rushed off the bridge toward the engine room. Shanks watched them go, appearing to be the most calm and composed person left. He quietly observed Grohm grunting with agitation as the Rognok glared at Jack’s screens. Dan was looking around, unsure of what to do with himself. Both Jack and Scallywag looked flustered as they made their preparations for the upcoming battle.
“Is there anything I can do to be of assistance?” Shanks asked.
“Yer a monk, ain’t ya?” said Scallywag as he frantically powered up the Earthship’s weapons from his console. “Pray.”
Starkeeper Cohaagen paced along the row of consoles from which his operations team monitored the mobilization of the Megabase forces. “Drone Wings 321 and 402 have been deployed,” one of the technicians reported.
“Fighter Wings Arcturus and Sonturon have been deployed,” another technician said.
“System patrol squadrons Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow have abandoned patrols, moving to intercept,” said another.
“Lock all hyperspace rings down. Re-orient all defense matrix clusters near the Earthship’s trajectory to bring them within range of their cannons,” ordered Cohaagen. “Enable full safety measures on every matrix cluster. I don’t want us accidentally blowing one of our own out of the sky.”
“Acknowledged, sir,” responded one of the techs.
“Do we have Starbase Sirius on the comm yet?” inquired Cohaagen.
“Star Commander Qualen is on the line,” the communications officer replied.
The image of a man with a long face and pale eyes appeared on the visual display over the command table. “Starkeeper Cohaagen,” Qualen said. “We’ve received your alert and have begun mobilizing Sirius forces. Awaiting your orders.”
“Transmitting data of our target over to you now, Star Commander,” Cohaagen replied. “Intel suggests the ship has independent hyperspace capability. Bring all patrols to the projected coordinates. Increase all gravity signatures of the defense matrix clusters in the area to prevent the fugitives from accelerating to light speed if they should be foolish enough to enter hyperspace in an attempt to escape.”
“And if they should be foolish enough, Starkeeper?”
“Our orders are clear, Star Commander,” Cohaagen replied as he stopped before his normal position at the command table and set his eyes upon the holographic representation of the Earthship on the table’s map of the star system. “Every measure is to be taken. No mercy is to be shown. You are to terminate the target with extreme prejudice.”
“Understood, Starkeeper,” Qualen replied. “Consider the Guard Dog off its chain and ready to attack.”
“Go for the throat, Star Commander,” Cohaagen ordered. “Let the Earthman feel the fearsome power of our bite.”
Jack eyed the sensors nervously as he watched the mass of ships creeping up on them. “Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap…” he muttered to himself, wishing his ship would somehow find a way to move faster.
“Tha fighters just entered firin’ range,” Scallywag announced as he kept a close eye on his console. Sure enough, no sooner had Scallywag finished speaking than every squad of fightercraft in pursuit unleashed a volley of plasma blasts.
“Everyone, hang on!” cried Jack as he took the ship into a dive, hoping to get under the bombardment of plasma fire streaking toward them. He corkscrewed the ship just as the blasts caught up with its location. The ship got past the initial attack with only a few hits to the shields.
A sensor-lock alarm sounded as the maneuver took them too close to a defense matrix cluster, which immediately opened fire. Jack banked the ship as the
heavy plasma blasts streaked by, but one hit it dead on, causing the ship to rock from the powerful impact.
“Dang it!” Jack complained as he tried to maneuver back out of the cluster’s range. No sooner had he cleared that, than another sensor-lock alarm sounded as two more defense clusters began to fire.
“We got bandits on our six,” warned Scallywag, firing the ship’s rear plasma batteries. “’Bout half o’ them are turning ta pursue. The others are movin’ ta cut us off. They’re tryin’ ta box us in!”
Needles of red light began to shoot by from behind as the fightercraft on the Earthship’s tail opened fire. Jack rolled the ship and pulled up to a new trajectory. A couple of the Imperial fighters streaked by as he made the maneuver. Scallywag was able to catch a few of the fighters with the Earthship’s weapons, causing quick red explosions as the attackers succumbed to the blasts.
“Be careful!” Jack shouted at Scallywag. “Try not to shoot them!”
“What do ya mean ‘try not ta shoot ‘em’?” demanded Scallywag.
“I mean, don’t fire on the manned fighters! If you can, just focus on the drones!” Jack said. “We gotta keep in mind these are the good guys! We can’t just go around killing them!”
“This ain’t a blasted videogame where ya have the luxury of picking and choosin’ yer targets, lad!” Scallywag argued. “If they’re shootin’ at us, we gotta shoot back, it don’t matter who or what’s piloting the thing that’s firing!”
“If we have any hope of ever coming back to the Empire, it can’t be with the deaths of Imperial fighter pilots on our hands!” replied Jack. “Don’t shoot them! Just keep them off our tail!”
Scallywag grumbled to himself as the ship was rocked again by more fighters strafing past, peppering it with plasma blasts. Multiple sensor-lock alarms rang out as more defense clusters came into range, firing. The fighters that had split off from the ones pursuing Jack now descended, turning to intercept him. Before Jack knew it, everywhere he turned the ship, the viewscreen was filled with fightercraft – all of which were opening fire.
Earthman Jack vs. The Secret Army (Earthman Jack Space Saga Book 2) Page 68