Worlds Without End: The Prophecy (Book 3)
Page 32
Skip jumped to his feet and crouched low enough to hide behind half of a wall that was left of the building they occupied. He moved forward and peeked his head above the wall, Bantyr moving beside him.
“Do you see anyone?” Bantyr whispered.
Skip pointed down the narrow street. “There are four lights coming in our direction,” Skip replied in a whisper as well.
“Kevin said there would be four.”
Skip nodded.
Bantyr then held his small flashlight up and pointed it in the direction of the four other lights. He flashed the code he and his uncle had agreed upon to meet. The four lights down the street pointed directly toward them. Bantyr had to squint from their brightness, and Skip readied himself for an immediate attack just in case. After a few more seconds of waiting intently, the same code flashed back toward them.
Bantyr let out a sigh of relief as he turned and looked at Jennifer. “They’re here.” He then turned back to the lights. After a few minutes Kevin, Chris, and two other soldiers arrived.
Bantyr embraced his uncle, happy to see him. Kevin returned his hug but quickly pushed him away with an expression of concern on his face for his brother. “Any sign of Dorange since he last entered the pyramid?”
Bantyr shook his head. “No, but he took a piece of equipment in with him.”
“Probably a device so that he can communicate with Koroan while he is in there,” Chris interjected.
Bantyr’s heart nearly leapt into his throat after hearing Koroan’s name. The thought of his last encounter with Koroan Chast caused him to shudder.
Chris continued, “Do you really think Earth’s gold plate has been hidden in the Pyramid of the Sun?”
“It may be, but that’s not my concern right now,” Kevin responded, referring to Adrian.
“Understood,” Chris said. He then looked at Bantyr. “Let’s go get your dad.”
*****
Onboard the Raqel II . . .
Macaria felt her way along the wall in the darkness as she floated to her quarter’s entrance. Once she reached the door, she felt for the crack of the two sliding doors. With no power, her doors were sealed shut. Using her strength, she ripped the doors open and squeezed through. The bridge was abuzz with commotion, illuminated only with crewmen’s flashlights. Some crewmembers were still floating helplessly about trying to maneuver to their stations. Others were already buckled in their seats behind their stations with no power.
Her eyes darted back and forth, searching for Commander Soren. There he was, buckled in the command chair of the bridge. With his free hand, he pointed his flashlight toward a manual keypad within the armrest. He punched in commands with his other hand. Macaria knew what he was doing. The Raqel II was fitted with an emergency communications system just in case an emergency such as a ship-wide power outage were to occur. The system was battery powered, thus operating on minimal power.
“Commander!” Macaria yelled through the commotion.
Commander Soren looked up and made eye contact with her with black eyes. His battle-hardened face was accentuated by a scar that extended from the top of his forehead to around his left eye, which ended at the base of his nose. She pushed herself off the wall with her feet toward him. As she floated eloquently toward him, he spoke, “My Queen, we have had a ship-wide power outage. Life support systems are working in reserve, and the back-up generators are offline.”
Macaria didn’t respond as she used her telekinetic ability to stop herself, hovering above him as he sat and continued to fiddle with the emergency keyboard. He glanced up at her, doing his best to avoid eye contact. His eyes focused back up the keyboard. A message scrolled across a small screen just above it.
“Our engineers are trying to establish reserve power, my Queen,” Commander Soren announced.
Macaria tightened her jaw and ground her teeth together behind a closed mouth. It was her way to avoid lashing out at the inept commander. Grunting, she turned herself around and looked at the gigantic view-screen before her. It was as black as midnight. Without power, they were floating blindly in space. Where could they have gone? she wondered, thinking about the abrupt disappearance of Koroan and Calum through the small wormhole. Then another thought occurred to her.
She whipped herself around and glared at Commander Soren. He averted her steel-cold gaze again. “What about the power to the brig?”
“The brig?”
“Yes, the brig!” she answered vehemently.
“Ship-wide communications are down. As far we know, the power outage affected the entire ship.”
Macaria directed her fierce gaze toward the head of security, who had just managed to buckle himself into his own station on the bridge. He happened to make eye contact and then quickly averted his eyes. It seemed no one had the courage to look their goddess in the eye, which infuriated Macaria even more. “Colonel!” she roared.
“M-my Queen?”
“As soon as communications and power is re-established, send a security detail to the brig. Also, send a ship-wide alert that Jake Palmer and Celeste may have escaped from the brig.”
“Yes, my Queen.” The colonel nodded. He then turned to his station and fiddled with it even though there was no power.
She turned back to Commander Soren. “How long?” Macaria questioned with a softer voice.
“I-I am not sure, my Queen. It could be within minutes, it could be hours.”
Macaria cursed as her body began to convulse with rage. Despite the lack of gravity, she was able to use her abilities to control her body. She levitated her body toward her quarters. Just as she reached the door, she turned back to Commander Soren. “Inform me once power and the communications are back online.”
*****
Jake found himself floating in darkness. Everything was black. The only sense he could rely upon was his sense of hearing. He heard the muffled cries of Sergeant Hanjuan, most likely from his injury. He also heard Celeste and Nichelle. But right next to him, he heard Lieutenant Laefwair reaching out into the darkness.
Jake felt around him, his arm brushing against Laefwair’s arm. Immediately, Lieutenant Laefwair clutched his right wrist. Instinctively, he tried to pull his arm away. But before he could, he felt a sharp pain in his forearm. Lieutenant Laefwair successfully jabbed him with the syringe, but he had yet to inject the serum. With his left hand, Jake launched his fist blindly through the darkness. His fist, luckily, landed right on bridge of Lieutenant Laefwair’s nose. A loud crack echoed through the brig, and Laefwair howled in pain, causing him to release his grip on Jake’s wrist.
Jake felt his feet hit the wall. Pushing off, he spun around and over the top of Laefwair. He quickly pulled the syringe out of his arm as Laefwair grasped back at him in the darkness. With the syringe now in his left hand, he wrapped his right arm around Laefwair’s neck. With a violent thrust, he jabbed the syringe into the back of Laefwair’s neck and immediately injected the serum.
Lieutenant Laefwair’s mad grasps for him stopped abruptly and his body went limp in the darkness. Jake checked Laefwair’s pulse. It had slowed to a crawl, indicating that the serum had taken effect.
For a moment, Jake was tempted to snap the Gnol’s neck, but he resisted the temptation, knowing that he couldn’t kill in cold blood. He pushed Lieutenant Laefwair’s limp, unconscious body away and turned, only to be blinded by a flashlight. He was about to thrust his hands outward, when he heard his wife.
“Jake, it’s me,” Celeste said as she shined the light around. Nichelle floated next to her. “I found the flashlight on him.” She then shined the light back to her cell, where Captain Hanjuan floated helplessly in the air. Droplets of blood floated near his injured elbow, and he was unconscious, most likely as a result from the pain.
“C’mon,” Jake said, pushing himself off the wall and through his cell.
Celeste shined the light ahead through the corridor as Jake held her arm and pulled himself through the long hallway. Nichelle followed.
“There has to be some other way out. The Gnols wouldn’t have been that naive not to build an emergency escape,” Jake replied as he turned back to look at Celeste, glancing at Nichelle. “Or wouldn’t they?”
“Look at it as pure ignorance because of arrogance,” Nichelle said. “In what situation would the almighty mother ship of the great Koroan Chast ever be without power or artificial gravity?”
“Point taken,” Jake said, looking back, frustrated as they neared the end of the corridor.
They made their way through the threshold between the corridor and the guards’ station and to the elevator. Still floating, they felt around the smooth black metal panels of the brig’s walls for some sort of emergency exit. Jake pulled himself higher along the wall and continued to feel. As he did so, he felt the flaps of one of the ventilation shafts just above the elevator. “Here,” he said, turning back to Celeste, who was floating below him.
Celeste shined the light up to the shaft and then floated up to Jake, followed closely by Nichelle.
“My guess is this shaft leads straight up, following the elevator shaft,” Jake said as he grasped both hands under one of the flaps of the vent.
“Well, it’s a good thing there’s no gravity, because we don’t have the strength to levitate ourselves up it, let alone climb it,” Celeste added as she placed her hand on her husband’s shoulder. “What about you? How are you feeling?”
Jake looked at his beautiful wife with compassion. She looked absolutely exhausted. “I’m not as strong as I could be, but my abilities are beginning to come back.”
Celeste smiled and nodded in agreement as she moved out of the way, and Jake placed his feet on the wall just under the vent. Using every ounce of strength he could muster, he ripped the vent from its bolts and tossed it aside. It floated helplessly to the other side of the room, clinking against the wall.
“We need to find out where Calum is,” Celeste said, giving Jake a concerned look.
Jake nodded. “He is most likely with your father or Macaria; either in their private quarters or on the bridge.”
“Most Gnol mother ships that I know of have the private office and living quarters of the commanding officer right next to the bridge,” Nichelle added.
Jake nodded. “All right, then, that’s where we’ll go. Maybe in the darkness and confusion, we can surprise them,” he said, moving to the side. “My guess is this elevator leads up to the top deck, which would be the bridge.”
Nichelle and Celeste nodded in agreement.
“Okay,” Jake continued, “you two go first. I’ll follow just in case the gravity comes back.”
“Are you sure you can hold us if it does?” Nichelle asked.
Jake smiled at her confidently. “Don’t worry. I will catch you, both of you.”
Nichelle entered the shaft first, followed by Celeste and then Jake. As they floated upward, they saw lights flashing back and forth through vents above them. As they passed a vent, they heard voices. After floating for a while, the shaft abruptly turned to the right. They floated about another one hundred feet before stopping just short of a vent below them. Celeste waved for Jake to come forward. He floated over the top of the vent across from his wife, making sure not to clank against it. Nichelle floated beside Celeste. They were now looking down through one of the ventilation shafts into the bridge. In fact, they were looking down directly upon the commander’s chair where the ship’s commander typed frantically into a keyboard on his armrest.
Jake made eye contact with his wife. He could see the determination in her eyes. She wanted to get her son now. Jake shook his head, not wanting to speak just in case he was heard. He couldn’t communicate with Nichelle telepathically because of the chip inserted at the base of her skull. But he could communicate with his wife. He sent a thought her way. Now, we wait.
*****
Macaria felt bogged down by the body she possessed. Yes, she was more powerful than she could ever imagine, but the body felt like hard clay molded over fine crystal. As a spirit, she possessed the ability to travel anywhere within the realm or world to which she was attached. While she couldn’t travel the vastness of space, or from planet to planet, she could basically go where she wanted with just a thought, but not anymore.
In her private quarters, she held herself down on the bed within the darkness because the artificial gravity was offline, controlling the rage that was boiling inside of her. “Where are they?” she muttered under her breath, referring to Koroan and the child.
Despite the fuming outrage within her, the darkness was the only thing keeping her from losing control. Blackness, to her, was comforting; she craved it. But the long wait was becoming too much. The delay was already well over thirty minutes, a failure in Commander Soren’s duties to get the ship back online, which caused the rage to boil to the surface.
Another thing that added fuel to her fury was the fact that the power outage might have given Jake, Celeste, and Nichelle a chance to escape. She had little faith that Lieutenant Laefwair and Sergeant Hanjuan could keep them in the brig, even if they didn’t have their abilities. After tightening her jaw and grinding her teeth, she let out a bellowing holler. Once finished, she pushed herself through the door of her quarters into her private office.
She was about to go and kill Commander Soren for his incompetence and to set an example to the rest of the crew, when the lights within her office flickered. Then, in a flash, they were on. The ship shuddered once again, and the artificial gravity came back online. She fell to the floor rapidly, but landed with grace on one knee.
Standing to her feet, she took a deep breath to keep the raging monster within at bay. She charged through her door as the gigantic view-screen flickered on with the image of Earth, its moon, and the vastness of space in the background. “Where are they?” she more demanded than asked.
“Who, my Queen?” Commander Soren asked, obviously confused.
Macaria held her tongue from lashing out and turned to the view-screen. “Lock on to Lord Chast’s bio-signature and the child’s. Their disappearance was the reason for the power outage.”
“Y-yes, my Queen,” Commander Soren responded. He then turned and repeated the order to another soldier at her station on the bridge.
Soon, the image of Earth began to rotate, showing the African continent. Macaria took a few steps toward the view-screen as the image magnified into present-day Egypt. “I should have known,” Macaria whispered to herself.
The image continued to magnify down to the three pyramids at Giza. Within the largest pyramid, known as the Great Pyramid, were two red and orange glowing images, one large and the other small.
“They are inside the pyramid, my Queen. How did they get there?”
Macaria turned her vengeful gaze toward Commander Soren. “Never mind that! Summon Dorange Gar.”
“Yes, my Queen,” Commander Soren said as he began punching commands into his terminal.
Macaria walked to the center of the bridge and stood. After a few minutes, the life-size 3D holographic image of Dorange Gar appeared.
*****
Underground Pyramid under the Pyramid of the Sun, Teotihuacan, Mexico . . .
Dorange stepped back from the holographic table he and Major Washantu had just finished reassembling right next to the obelisk in the center of the hidden pyramid. Major Washantu held the gold plate of Gnolom in his hand. Dorange glanced behind him at Adrian, who was sitting up with his back against the wall. Adrian just stared at the stone floor, obviously distraught over losing another one of his Gnol allies.
Dorange turned his gaze back to the holograph table and smiled. Suddenly, old emotions swept through him like a river, causing his thoughts to drift back in time.
When he first met Adrian Palmer, Dorange was known as Donald Garrett, a brash Air Force pilot. He had been in the NASA astronaut-
training program a year longer than Adrian. But when he first met Adrian, he was not impressed. Yes, it was true that Adrian was a skilled pilot, but to him, Adrian’s leadership style was something he questioned. Adrian Palmer was always the type of leader that let his subordinates offer suggestions and even make difficult decisions. To Dorange, these weren’t qualities an effective leader should possess. On the contrary, he felt that a leader should always make the decisions, in addition to keeping his subordinates subject to his will.
This was the primary personality difference between Adrian Palmer and Dorange Gar, which caused the two to have several run-ins with each other while training. Then, when he was passed over to command the Mars I mission in favor of Adrian Palmer, the animosity he had toward Adrian grew to absolute disdain for the man. His doubts about Adrian’s ability to successfully command the mission came to fruition when the mission failed, stranding them on Terrest. Consequently, he could not remain with Adrian or the crew.
Now the two were on the opposite sides of an age-old war of good versus evil. But from Dorange’s perspective, it didn’t matter what side he served, so long as his desires and needs were met. And now, here he stood inside and ancient underground pyramid about to retrieve an artifact of untold power. His newfound queen and dark master would surely reward him with power and riches for his part in the battle. In fact, as he stared at the table, he could feel the presence of the dark prince. His power was great, something he craved. He didn’t know what he was about to enjoy more, the power of Earth’s gold plate in his hand or the look on Adrian Palmer’s face, knowing that he, his lifelong nemesis, had finally won.
As he thought about it, his thoughts were pulled to the latter part of the question. Yes, in a matter of minutes, he would finally have his revenge, which would soon reach its climax with the killing of Adrian by his own hand.