Worlds Without End: Aftermath (Book 2)

by Shaun Messick

  Sean turned back. “I know that, Skip. But I’m not sure this virus will work. I do know that Maggie’s records can be downloaded. And if the virus doesn’t work, we can use this information.”

  The trepidation that had been written all over Skip’s face now turned to anger. “No! We can’t sacrifice Jake for this information!” he cried as he rushed forward, slamming the full weight of his body into Sean.

  Sean stumbled backwards and fell onto his back. Just as quickly as he fell, he jumped to his feet and began to rush toward Skip, who was now trying to pull the recording disk from the slot. Before he tackled Skip, Runa stepped in between them, holding Sean off with his Gnol strength. Runa then pulled Skip away from the server. “Sean’s right, Skip. We need that information. Jake would want it too.”

  The anger on Skip’s face turned to grief. “B-but, Jake. He’ll die.”

  Sean lowered his head. He knew that Skip was right. But these were Jake’s orders and Jake was the commander in charge of this mission. He looked back up with tears beginning to well up in his own eyes. “I-I know, Skip. But these are Jake’s orders. We need to learn all we can about Maggie, then disable her.”

  Skip was about to protest when he heard Jake’s voice. He had been listening to the whole exchange though his comlink. “Let Sean do it,” Jake uttered with pain in his voice. “Let them be, Skip, and come to the payload bay door.”

  Skip nodded and then apologized to Sean. He then stepped out of the server room and darted off to the payload bay door.

  * * * * *

  After Skip arrived at the door, Nichelle and Sage explained everything that they had seen and heard within the payload bay. They explained how Celeste had found Gnolom’s golden tablet. How it was ripped from her grasp as she was flung into the wall. And then how the goddess of light appeared to them. Skip had heard bits and pieces of the conflict through his comlink, but didn’t get the full picture of what happened until Nichelle explained it to him. As a result, they all knew now that Celeste was pregnant, and that her unborn child was what the goddess truly wanted.

  “The goddess is going to hold Jake in place with that arm until he dies,” Nichelle said. “She’s holding Celeste until Koroan arrives.”

  “How long until Koroan arrives?”

  “The goddess didn’t say,” Sage added, “but I suspect he will arrive very soon.”

  Skip pressed the visor of his helmet against the window, looking in. There, in the middle of the bay’s floor, rested the golden tablet of Gnolom. He moved his eyes to his left and saw Jake still pinned against the wall. The bandages that Celeste had used to stop Jake’s wound from bleeding were now blood soaked. Jake was covered in a space blanket that Celeste found and draped over him. Celeste sat uncomfortably on the arm. Her head rested on top of another blanket that was folded to act like a pillow against the back of the claw within the center of Jake’s chest. Surprisingly, both of them had their helmets off. He looked down at his wrist indicator. The oxygen levels outside of the payload bay were only at 9 percent. Somehow, the levels within the bay must have been normal.

  “How are you feeling, buddy?” Skip asked.

  “I-I’ve been b-better,” Jake replied.

  Celeste then looked up, making eye contact with Skip. Her eyes were red and swollen and tears continued to pour down her cheeks. “Skip, listen to me. If the virus doesn’t work, you all need to return to the battle cruiser and return to Terrest.”

  Skip shook his head. He wasn’t going to leave his friends to die at the hands of a maniacal computer program that had gone rogue. “No. I’m not leaving you two. The virus will work.”

  Celeste shook her head in doubt. “Perhaps. But the rest of you won’t last much longer in here if it doesn’t. The radiation levels in here have gone down dramatically. Radiation levels are only at ten millirems.”

  Skip snapped his head down to his own indicator. The radiation levels outside of the bay were still around 32,000 millirems – enough to cause serious radiation sickness, eventually leading to death in a matter of weeks without the protection of a space or radiation suit. Even with a suit, however, an individual wouldn’t last very long in that hot of an environment before the gamma rays made their way through, exposing a person to higher doses.

  Skip looked at his own readings on his indicator. After nearly two hours in the shuttle, his body had already received 12,000 millirems and climbing, way too much for the amount of time he had been in the shuttle.

  He looked back up through the window. “How was Maggie able to scrub the payload bay’s environment of that much radiation?”

  Celeste jumped down from the arm and made her way to the window. “I don’t know. This bay must be sealed with lead lining. Even this window,” she said, placing her hand upon the window.

  “I still can’t leave you and Jake.”

  Celeste furrowed her eyebrows. “Maggie wants me alive until my father arrives. There’s enough water and food rations in here to help keep us alive. I can keep Jake alive for the time being ...” She paused, emotion creeping into her voice. “. . .But I fear that when my father does show up, he will kill Jake anyway.”

  Skip knew that Celeste was right. He or the rest of the crew wouldn’t last much longer, exposed to this much radiation.

  * * * * *

  Sean tapped his finger nervously upon the edge of the keyboard as he watched the progress bar hit 98 percent. Nateal Runa stood next to him, waiting patiently. The bar then reached 99 percent. After another five minutes, it snuck up another percent. When the progress bar disappeared, Sean pulled the disk from the slot and inserted the disk containing the virus. He secured the first disk into the pocket of his spacesuit and typed in the commands to begin the virus upload. Another progress bar appeared. It moved faster this time.

  “Will Maggie recognize this?” Runa questioned.

  “Hopefully not. I’ve designed it as a ghost virus, making it extremely difficult for any computer system to recognize; even for a computer system as advanced as Maggie.”

  The two men continued to watch as the progress bar hit 50, 55, 60, 65. When it hit 70 percent, the lights from the servers and computer monitors flickered off.

  “What happened? Did it work?”

  Sean shook his head. Something was wrong. “I don’t think so.” He then tried to turn the power back on to the servers. Nothing. He punched commands into the keyboard. But again, nothing. “Celeste, this is Sean. Do you copy?”

  Celeste’s voice came back through the comlink. “Yes. Have you finished uploading the virus?”

  “I don’t know,” Sean said. He explained what happened and then asked Celeste if the power within the payload bay was still on and if the satellite arms still had Jake pinned to the wall. She confirmed that the power was still operational.

  “I don’t understand. Something’s wrong,” Sean remarked with uneasiness in his voice.

  Suddenly, the lights on the servers began to flash. A voice, the same voice they heard earlier, spoke to them over the loudspeakers. But this voice wasn’t Maggie’s; it was someone or something else. The voice sent chills down his spine. It was guttural and evil. “You don’t think I can see what you are up to, Sean Gibson?”

  The monitor flashed back on. A woman more beautiful than Sean had ever seen appeared on the screen. She had long blonde hair and blue eyes that seemed to look through him. Maggie’s voice returned as she spoke to him. “The virus you have attempted to upload has been disabled, Lieutenant.”

  Sean didn’t know what to do. He was speechless and just stared at the screen. “Y-you aren’t Maggie.”

  The woman gave him a malevolent smile and the guttural voice returned. “No I am not, you fool. I am Macaria, and I serve only one master. Now, leave this ship and this planet or Celeste and Jake will die.”

  Runa stepped forward. “And if we refuse?”

  The woman’s image began to change. Sean stared in horror as her beautiful blonde hair transformed into thin strings, her fair skin
changed to a light shade of gray, and her teeth turned into yellow fangs. Her blue eyes then changed to a fiery red as she spoke. “Then, you will die.”

  As soon as she said it, an electric pulse pulsated up through the servers and out into the chests of both men.

  Sean and Nateal were thrown backwards into the wall. Sean felt his head hit first. His body slid down to the floor and his muscles began to tremor uncontrollably. He was being electrocuted. Just before he drifted into unconsciousness, he heard the maniacal laugh of the woman on the computer screen.

  CHAPTER 21

  Earth Time: 3 days later, August 7, 2042 – Gnolom . . .

  Adrian flew the sleek and silver Wildcat II down through the peaks of the small mountain range of the planet Gnolom, searching for the battle cruiser that Jake and his crew had taken. He looked down at his radar. The red dot, indicating the cruiser’s homing beacon, flashed faster the closer he got to its position. “Almost there.”

  “Let’s just hope they’re alive,” Skyler said from his position in the copilot’s seat behind Adrian.

  A few hours earlier, Adrian and his team, consisting of Scott Hauler, Peter Sanchez, and Skyler Green, had arrived in Gnolom’s orbit in a rickety old Gnol war ship that his maintenance crews had salvaged. Scott and Petey were still on board the ship while Adrian and Skyler searched for Jake’s team. If the battle cruiser that Jake’s team had flown to Gnolom was not operational, then Scott was ordered to land the warship so that they could leave the planet.

  Adrian continued to look around. “I hope they’re alive too, Skyler. They shouldn’t be here. There’s an evil left on this planet that they are no match for.”

  Skyler didn’t respond as Adrian yanked his flight stick to the right, exiting the mountain range.

  “There!” Skyler said. “Your three o’clock.”

  Adrian jerked his head to the right. Down below in a valley at the base of a large mountain peak sat the battle cruiser.

  He veered his fighter to the cruiser’s location, and radioed to its crew, using their known frequencies. “Gnolom 1, this is General Adrian Palmer. Do you copy?”

  No answer.

  “Gnolom 1, do you copy?”

  After a few more seconds of nervous anticipation, he heard his comlink crackle with static. “Adrian? . . .Is that really you?”

  “Roger that.”

  “Adrian, this is Skip. Boy, are we glad to see you.”

  Relief settled in as Adrian smiled, knowing that some of Jake’s crew was still alive.

  Adrian successfully landed the fighter next to the battle cruiser. And within minutes, he and Skyler were inside, making their way to the command bridge. The door slid open and Skip, who hugged each one of them in a tight embrace, immediately greeted them. Nichelle hugged them as well. Skip then introduced them to Colonel Sage Merrok.

  “I can’t believe it. We thought you were dead,” Skip said.

  “No. I’ve got a lot to explain to you. But first . . . where are Jake and Celeste?”

  Sadness and grief immediately fell upon the three faces of the remaining crewmembers on Gnolom 1.

  “What happened, Skip?”

  Skip’s look was solemn. “Jake and Celeste are still alive and are being held as prisoners within the payload bay of Mars I.”

  “What about Sean and Commander Runa?”

  Skip averted his eyes and looked at Nichelle. She had the same grief stricken look on her face. She turned, looking at Adrian. “Sean and Nateal are both dead.”

  Over the years, Adrian had experienced losses of the ones he truly cared about on an unprecedented scale. But Sean’s death carved another hole deep in his heart, almost as big as when he lost Doc. He mourned for Nateal Runa’s death as well. Nateal Runa’s knowledge and skills would be sorely missed. He stumbled backwards and sat in one of the chairs. “What happened?”

  Skip sighed. “I’m sure Scott filled you in on our mission’s objectives, but Sean was uploading the virus to disable Maggie. The virus didn’t work. We found them dead in the computer deck of Mars I. Their bodies were completely burned, almost to the point that they were unrecognizable. Apparently, Maggie electrocuted them. I tried to retrieve the disk that Sean used to download the computer system’s records, but it was destroyed. That’s when we decided to leave. We had already been exposed to too much radiation, and we couldn’t bring their bodies back with us because they were too contaminated … Mars I will be their final resting place.”

  Adrian held back the tears that he felt beginning to well up in his eyes. Turning his anguish to anger, he stood up. “We need to get my son and Celeste off that shuttle.”

  “Forgive me, Adrian, but we have been racking our brains for the past three days, trying to figure out a way to rescue them,” said Skip. “We can’t blow the door open because Maggie has threatened to kill Celeste and Jake the moment we do. We also talked about blowing up the nuke-deck, cutting the ship’s power source, but that could risk a thermo-nuclear explosion.”

  “First of all, Skip, it’s not Maggie controlling Mars I. She’s something else. Something that hitched a ride with us on our original mission to Mars.”

  An incredulous look fell over Skip’s face.

  “And secondly, she’s bluffing. She won’t kill Celeste because Koroan and this evil spirit need my grandson that Celeste is carrying.”

  “Evil spirit?” Skip questioned.

  Nichelle stepped forward. “The chosen one. Celeste carries the chosen one?”

  “Yes. All of you better sit down. I’ve got a lot to explain to you before I tell you how we can rescue my family.” He then proceeded to tell them everything that John had told him just before he left Earth.

  * * * * *

  Earth Time: 1 day later, August 8, 2042 – Onboard the Raqel . . .

  The Raqel sped through the tunnel of the wormhole, and immediately flashed through to the other side. It now sat motionless in space, looking out over Koroan’s home world. Koroan took in a deep breath as he peered down upon Gnolom. The view brought back memories. Some were good, but most were ones he didn’t care to remember. The planet looked different now. Instead of it being green and blue, it was desolate, a despicable color of pale red and brown.

  “My Lord?”

  Turning around, Koroan met the pale green eyes of General Lychen, the commander in charge of his precious warship. “What is it, General?”

  “As expected, the hyper drive engines have disabled the ship’s electro-magnetic shields for the time being. And the propulsion systems and missile targeting systems have also been damaged.”

  “How long until they are functioning again?”

  “Our engineers estimate around two hours, three hours at the most.”

  Koroan turned back to his view of the planet below. “Very well,” he said with little concern. What concerned him the most was what secrets Jake and Celeste may have discovered on the surface below. Turning back to General Lychen, he said, “Send a message back to Terrest, informing General Gar of our safe arrival.”

  “Yes, my Lord,” General Lychen said as he began punching in an encrypted message into his computer terminal.

  Just before Koroan left Terrest, he had freed General Gar and put him in charge of the planet during his mission to Gnolom. He also knew that putting Dorange in charge would feed the general’s ego because he, and he alone, apparently knew of the location of Earth’s golden tablet. The telepathic scan that he performed on Dorange even confirmed it. Consequently, Koroan knew that he would need to mend the distrust and disappointment he had in his commanding general for the time being, and putting Dorange in charge would do just that.

  Turning his gaze away from his old world, Koroan began to walk toward his quarters just off the command bridge. “I will be in my quarters, General. Inform me when you get a lock on the location of the rebel ship.”

  “Yes, my Lord.”

  Koroan was just about to enter his quarters when another officer spoke from his computer station at the
back of the bridge. “My Lord. There is another ship in orbit.”

  “Where?” Koroan snapped as he whirled around and headed for his command chair, located within the center of the bridge.

  “Bearing five klicks, directly in front of us.”

  “On viewscreen,” Koroan ordered, sitting down in his chair. The image of the screen changed. Sure enough, directly ahead of them and facing the Raqel was an old Gnol warship.

  “It is a first generation class A warship,” General Lychen added, reading the ship’s data as it scanned along his screen. “It was flagged as missing in action fourteen years ago. Serial number 1A5983W.”

  “Apparently salvaged and repaired by the rebels,” said Koroan as he began to sneer. He loved confrontation and particularly enjoyed blasting any rebel ship to oblivion that dare take on his precious Raqel.

  “This is not the same ship that escaped from Terrest seven days ago. That was a smaller cruiser class B with serial number X987T2C.”

  “Who then has joined our little party?” Koroan asked rhetorically. He stared at the warship a little longer. Whoever it was clearly knew that the Raqel had them in her sights. “Hail them.”

  * * * * *

  “I’m getting drowsy,” Jake said as he fought the overwhelming desire to close his eyes and sleep.

  Celeste jumped to her feet, standing upon the satellite arm that still had her husband pinned to the wall. “Don’t you dare fall asleep. Fight it. You need to stay awake,” she demanded, grabbing his face.

  Knowing she was right, Jake used every ounce of energy he had to fight the desire for sleep. His body was weak. And from the looks of the blood soaked bandages that Celeste kept changing, he knew that he had lost way too much blood, not to mention the fact that he still had a rib sticking out of his left side. He was dying, and if help didn’t arrive soon, he would be dead.