by Hao Yang
“Boom!” The dragon crashed on the wall and its head crammed into the observation room.
Jason wiped away the blood on his face and struggled to stand on his feet.
The huge window in the room was still intact, but the wall holding the window fell apart. Ceithu was hiding behind a chair and peeking at the dead dragon. He was lucky enough to escape the crash. Liliyana froze on her seat, shocked and scared. Klizan stepped to the broken wall, his black uniform transforming into an armor suit. Right at this moment, Jason climbed into the room through the broken wall. They were facing each other, two meters apart.
“Well, are you ready?” Jason said coldly with a brittle smile as he flashed the blade bone in his hand.
“Whenever you ready.” Klizan said confidently as a dagger popped out of his right fist. He dashed to Jason, thrusting the dagger at his face. Jason leaned backward, swung his body aside and fired his right fist at Klizan’s face. Klizan grabbed Jason’s fist with his left hand and then thrusted the dagger to Jason’s chest. Jason blocked the dagger with the blade bone. Klizan kicked him on the belly and knocked him back. Jason swiftly stood up, his fist hurting like hell. He glanced over at it. It was turning black and the black area was quickly spreading. The armor was poisonous.
Jason darted at Klizan, aiming the blade bone at his right chest. As Klizan leaned aside to dodge the bone, Jason swung his fist at Klizan’s face. Klizan blocked it, grabbed the arm, heaved Jason in the air and plunged him to the ground. Before Klizan could stamp on him, Jason rolled aside and stood up. Klizan shoved the dagger at Jason’s chest. Jason caught Klizan’s fist and stopped the dagger one centimeter away from his chest. But he couldn’t match Klizan’s strength and his right hand was turning black just like his left hand. He suddenly removed both of his hands. Klizan plunged the dagger into Jason’s chest. Just at this moment, Jason grasped Klizan’s neck, squeezing it as hard as he could. The dagger punched through Jason’s chest but missed his heart, sticking into the wall behind him. Klizan struggled to breathe, his left hand trying to pull Jason’s hands away, his right hand restrained by the dagger. Liliyana rushed to Klizan and kicked Jason’s head. Jason passed out. Then she pulled away Jason’s hands. Klizan retracted the dagger and held on to the wall. He stared at Ceithu and Liliyana and shouted, “What the fuck took you two this long?”
“I...I...I thought you could handle it.” Ceithu said, his voice shaking.
“You think?” Klizan snarled.
“I was lost.” Liliyana said sheepishly, casting her eyes down.
“I can tell that.” Klizan let out a long sigh.
They both gazed at Jason. He sat there, his head on his chest, his hands dangling aside, blood spewing out of his chest.
“What about him? It seems he is really the first one who killed a monster on Etitaeg.” Liliyana said.
Klizan knew Jason was not the first one, but he didn’t want to tell Liliyana the truth. He remembered clearly that Relinee, a superace, was the first one.
“Yea, it seems.” Klizan said uneasily.
“He is no longer useful. We can just dump him somewhere.” Liliyana said easily.
“Transport him to Agirue and perform full genetic analysis.” Klizan said firmly.
“Yes, General Klizan. May I ask why?”
“Just curious.” Klizan said as he walked away slowly.
Chapter 35
Lucis held on to a chair and pushed him up in the dark bridge. He looked around and asked, “Your guys are alright?”
“Yea.” Orizy replied as he slowly sat on a nearby chair.
“I am OK. OK.” Idi said listlessly as she leaned her head against a wall.
Titainein crawled to Sayilin and saw his face covered in blood. She kept pressure on the wound and shouted, “Here. Sayilin is hurt!”
Lucis and Orizy stumbled to Sayilin and checked his head. There was a bleeding wound on his forehead. Lucis took out a spray from his pocket and applied some mist to the wound. Erikon ran into the bridge with a bleeding hand and asked, “Anyone got hurt?”
“I think we are OK except Sayilin. Check your hand. ” Lucis said as he threw the spray to Erikon.
“I am all right, just a scratch.” Erikon said easily. He sprayed some mist on his hand.
“Idi, you OK? Can you move?” Titainein asked.
“I can move, but I don’t want to.” Idi said sadly.
“Where are we?” Titainein turned to Lucis.
“I have no idea. We need to get power back first. Erikon, can you do that?” Lucis asked.
“I think so. The auxiliary power should still be alright. But we don’t have enough to move the vessel.”
“Let us solve one problem at a time. First, get power back. Idi, keep an eye on Sayilin. Lucis, Orizy and I will go to help Erikon.” Titainein said calmly, but Idi froze there without any reply.
“Idi, come on! We have to get ourselves together!” Lucis shouted
“OK, OK. I will take care of Sayilin.” Idi said feebly.
Erikon, Lucis, Orizy and Titainein left the bridge for the engine compartment.
After two hours, the power was back and the bridge was now well lightened.
Orizy, Lucis and Titainein dragged themselves into the bridge, their face sweat-strapped and smudged with dust.
“Good job, guys, where is Erikon?” Idi asked.
“He was cooking something for us.” Lucis said tiredly as he sunk in a chair. After several minutes, he sat up and leaned over at the navigation screen.
“Anything?” Titainein asked.
“Navigation system was damaged. We don’t know where we are and we may still use manual, but we don’t know the coordinates. It is all stored in the system.” Lucis sighed.
Sharing the same frustration and desperation, Titainein let out a long sigh.
“Should we send out SOS?” Idi asked cautiously.
“I don’t have other better ideas.” Titainein said.
“Yea, go ahead.” Lucis said weakly.
Idi walked to captain’s chair. It reminded her of Jason. She sat on the chair and asked, “If Jason was here, what he would do?”
“He wouldn’t ask for help. He would fight until his last drop of blood was shed.” Lucis said.
“If you let him choose between being caught by Glycans and being lost in the universe, he would choose the latter one.” Titainein said confidently.
“If Glycans captured us, we still can survive. My father could save us.” Lucis said firmly, even though the last time he saw his father was ten months ago.
“What does your father do?” Idi asked.
“He is in charge of Human treasury department.”
“Well then, let’s give it a try.” Titainein said.
Idi pressed a button, located on the chair arm.
Later, Erikon brought in some food he found in the kitchen. None of them ate anything after leaving Eva-1, so everyone was gobbling whatever in front of them.
“So we just wait here for rescue?” Sayilin said as he wiped his mouth with sleeves.
“Navigation is down, we can’t go anywhere.” Lucis said sadly.
“I think there is another way.” Erikon said and rammed a slab of meat into his mouth, his uniform barely holding his swollen belly.
Everyone gazed at him, waiting for him to finish chewing.
“We can use dark engine system.”
“How do you do that?” Titainein asked.
“The engine automatically records where it absorbs dark energy. We can use those coordinates as our destinations.” Erikon said.
“We can manually enter the coordinates.” Lucis said.
“But navigation is down. We can’t match those coordinates with the records. It can be anywhere.” Titainein said calmly.
“For this cruiser, it must go to the places that have something to do with Guardian Fleet.” Sayilin said.
“Very possible.” Titainein nodded.
“Now we don’t know where we are and we only have lim
ited power, so it is possible that we might stop at the halfway.” Erikon said uneasily.
“We are sending out SOS right now. We shouldn’t leave here.” Idi said cautiously.
“We will keep sending SOS when we are on the move. I don’t want to wait for Glycans to pick me up.” Sayilin said
“What about the engine?” Titainein looked at Erikon.
“Partially works. It needs more work. We can’t repair it in space.” Erikon said.
“Well, I guess we have to take the risk.” Titainein smiled reluctantly.
Everyone else nodded. They knew they didn’t have many options at their disposal.
In the next two hours, they fixed as many leaks as possible and replaced some damaged parts. They also rewired some lines and restarted the dark engine.
Everyone was nervous. They could end up anywhere and nowhere.
“Erikon, the coordinates.” Titainein asked.
“20D3, 4AD55, 78QW6, 3AA82, 3RT47, 23S2, 93B6.” Erikon said.
Lucis entered them into the system.
“Well, let’s see.” Sayilin said in a heavy voice and then pushed the throttle forward.
The cruiser disappeared into the darkness.
Chapter 36
Four Glycan soldiers arrested Gloria before she could finish the physical and mental evaluations on planet Arigie. Gloria wasn’t surprised at all. She knew this would happen sooner or later. Right now she was on the way to selection committee on Sylareon.
General Klizan was kicking his right foot on the floor, wondering whether the Human boy arrived at Agirue or not. There was something about him. But he couldn’t figure out what it was. He knew so many soldiers who were much better fighters than Jason, but he only knew one as crazy as Jason. Her name is Relinee, a superace and the commander of super vessel fleet.
General Ceithu walked to Klizan and said, “General, Kalan reported that he got everything ready. He is asking when they should start.”
“He can make decision on this kind of thing.”
“We send somebody else to replace Kalan?” Ceithu asked.
“No. Even if he failed, nothing could go wrong.” Klizan said easily.
“Understand. We have received the report from the combat vessels pursuing the cruiser. They fired at the cruiser and they believe the vessel sustained severe damages. They lost it before a black hole. Right now they have no idea where the cruiser is.”
“It couldn’t go far. Send more vessels to them, search the nearby area especially planets.”
“That will take a lot of vessels. Our budget planner won’t be happy. Why do we pay this much attention to a decommissioned cruiser anyway?”
“Because it was named after my name.” Klizan said firmly. He couldn’t tell him the real reason, because Ceithu didn’t know the project on Agirue.
“Understand.”
“We don’t have any religion. Not even one.” Klizan said in a low tone, lost in his thoughts.
“Where this comes from? Why you suddenly say something like this?” Ceithu asked in confusion.
“If we do have our gods, do you think they can forgive what we have done to superace?” Klizan asked slowly.
Ceithu casted his eyes down. After a long while, he said, “If there is a hell, gods will build another one just for us.”
They both fell into silence.
“General Klizan, Gloria from G family is here.” A colonel called in.
“Bring her.” Klizan said coldly.
Gloria walked in slowly, her eyes focusing on the ground.
“Come closer.” Ceithu said and motioned the colonel to leave the room.
Gloria looked up and saw Klizan. She recognized him right away. He was the one making her family live in shame.
“How did you leave Etitaeg?” Klizan asked coldly.
“Will my answer make any difference?” Gloria said coldly, casting her eyes down.
“If you wanted to know what happened to the Human boy Jason, Yes.” Klizan said easily.
Hearing Jason’s name, Gloria suddenly raised her head, her eyes filled with tears, her body trembling.
“How do you know this name?” She asked nervously.
“If you tell me what happened to you, I will tell you more about him.” Klizan said easily.
“Is he still alive?” Gloria asked nervously, her heart throbbing.
“That depends on your answer. Tell me what happened!” Klizan said loudly, enunciating every word.
Gloria told him how Jason saved her and how she arrived at Arigie.
“Now you know what happened. Please tell me, is Jason alive?” Gloria said in a begging voice.
“No.” Klizan said easily.
Glora busted into tears, but she quickly wiped them away and stared at Klizan in anger. Klizan remembered this look. It was the same look Jason gave him.
“You want to fight?” Klizan asked ironically.
Ceithu looked at Gloria closely, his uniform transforming into an armor suit.
Gloria dropped her stare. She knew her family has had enough trouble.
“You love Human this much, then die with him. Put her in prison and prepare the execution.” Klizan said in a hard voice.
“Thank you.” Gloria said with a grin.
Klizan was surprised at her calm and easy reply. Ceithu shook his head in disbelief. He called in guards and they took Gloria out of the room.
Chapter 37
Jason was lying on a square table. He slowly shook his head from left to right, seeing nothing but white walls. He tried to move his hands but it turned out that the only body part he could move was his head.
“At least I am still alive.” Jason murmured to himself.
Mark was sitting in a room right next to where Jason was kept. He knew Glycans were watching him right now.
Outside of the room, General Kalan, Caytion and Doisgy were looking at Mark.
“I still don’t think this is a good idea.” Caytion said carefully.
“We don’t need to think. We carry out our orders.” Kalan said.
“We have bugged this Human and the alternative Hylocan girl, so we know where they are all the time.” Doisgy said easily.
“Something could go wrong with those tracers. It happened before.” Caytion said in a worried voice.
“We use what we have.” Kalan said coldly and gave Caytion an angry stare.
“I...I...understand.” Caytion backed off.
Right at this moment, Zserie walked in with a big smile and said, “You are not going to believe this. The Human boy is the son of this man.”
“What human boy?” Kalan asked.
“Oh, General Klizan sent us an almost dead Human boy and ordered us to do a genetic analysis. He is in the next room right now.” Zserie said.
“That could be useful.” Kalan said as he glanced over at Mark. Kalan pressed a button and now Mark could see Kalan.
“I will make this quick. Look to your left.” Kalan said coldly.
Mark turned his head to the left and saw a wall transforming to a huge window. Then he saw his son Jason lying on a table. He squeezed his eyes and couldn’t believe what he saw.
“We want you know you can save him as long as you do what we asked.” Kalan said politely.
Mark turned around, his hands trembling, his face twisted. He looked into Kalan’s eyes and said, “I will. I will.”
“Let’s get ready.” Kalan said.
Mark walked out of the room, accompanied by five heavily armored Glycan soldiers. They walked down the hallway and entered another room. A young Hylocan girl was standing in the room. Her dull and lifeless eyes meant that she was a Hylocan girl from the planet Hylocan reserve. Mark knew she couldn’t read his mind.
A Glycan soldier handed Mark a Hylocan communicator and said, “When you reach the outer space, make the call and tell them you have the girl.”
“Why I need to bring this girl with me?” Mark asked.
“You don’t need to know.”
&nb
sp; “OK. I want my backpack.” Mark said and pointed at his backpack on the table.
The soldier grabbed the backpack, opened it and took a quick look. Then he threw the backpack to Mark.
Several minutes later, Mark and the girl were heading to the hangar, accompanied by five heavily armed soldiers. As they were walking close to a fire alarm located on the wall, the girl suddenly dashed to the fire alarm and pulled it. The blaring alarm went off immediately. Three of the soldiers ran to grab the girl. Mark hit the soldier on his left with his elbow and punched the right one with his fist. He ran away and headed back to the room where Jason was held. With alarm echoing in facility, every door opened and groups of Glycans poured out into the corridor. Mark quickly took out a face transformer from his backpack and put it on. He blended into the flow and found the room. Everyone was running for their lives and Mark managed to sneak into the room.
Jason was laying on the table, his chest covered in dried blood, his breath weak and shallow.