by Jeff Walsh
The three turned a corner and stood in front of an open lift shaft.
“Yup, I do,” Taam answered. “Time to climb.”
“Where are we going?” Bartl asked. The three had climbed two levels up and just exited the lift shaft.
“This way,” Taam answered. “Third door on the right. We're looking for the room marked LV-014R.”
The trio sped down the darkened hallway. If not for the green'ish safety lights it would've been pitch black.
“Is it just me,” Anthony asked. “Or do these green lights actually make it more creepy in here?” Anthony looked around as they approached their destination. His mind playing tricks on him, he heard noises, footsteps and clicks coming from every direction.
“I don't understand what's going on,” Bartl said. “You need to stop, right now, and tell me what we're doing.”
“Why?” Taam asked. He spun and faced Bartl. “Because you think I've been slaved and suddenly you don't trust a thing I'm doing? I told you, I'm fine.”
“Sure,” Bartl answered. “Which is why you're being all secretive. Suddenly the power goes out, doors open, not an alarm or soldier to chase us down, and you know your way around this ship like you've been here for ages.”
Taam turned and walked away. He continued down the hallway and toward the door he sought.
“I'm not being secretive,” Taam said. “But I am screwing with you, there's a difference. The power went out because everything Ellidron told us was a lie. His instructions activated a trap he'd set on his ship. He knew we were being monitored. So everything he told us was a trap for the Attillians. They sprung into action, following his instructions to the letter, and were kind enough to set off his wonderful little surprise. The doors opened because that same trap is being run by an AI he developed, and it's currently running free through the Attillian system. And now you know why we currently have free access like we do.”
Bartl stood dumbfounded. Anthony passed by him, shot him a smirk and caught up with Taam. Bartl snapped from his daze and went after them.
“There's no alarms or soldiers because Ellidron's ship has disabled their security,” Taam continued. “And those weapons Ellidron stole from us, his AI warped them into LV-014R, which is why we're headed there.”
“How do you know all this?” Anthony asked.
“When Ellidron grabbed me he wasn't slaving me,” Taam said. “Physical contact allowed him to info dump into my mind. He'd pulled tons of data from their system before he let himself get caught. He managed to get everything, which included a detailed schematic of this ship. That's how I know where we're going.”
“Let himself?” Bartl asked.
“He wasn't lying when he said he was done,” Taam said. “The Attillians wiped out the Zorg. Nothing, no one is left, and Ellidron was forced to sit back and watch it all happen. Everyone he knew, or ever cared about, wiped from existence right in front of him. His ship isn't built for combat, it doesn't have the fire power to stop the Starfaller, and he couldn't get his ship close enough to shut it down. So, he let himself get caught, uploaded his AI, and warped the weapons someplace the Attillians wouldn't find right away.” Taam paused as he pulled open the door to LV-014R. “He knew we'd come for him; we needed his destabilizer. Knowing we were coming he set all of this up so we can finish this.”
The three came to a door marked LV-014R. Taam pressed an entry pad, and the doors whooshed open.
“Wow,” Anthony said as they entered. The entire room looked just like thearsenal aboard the Platnium. “That's some next level strategy. Did you know Zorg's could PLN you, but without the glowing needles and sparks of terror?”
“Nope, and to be honest it freaked me out a little,” Taam answered. “Now, gear up; it won't be long before the system restarts and every security protocol the Attillians have will be going off.”
“Where we headed?” Bartl asked.
“Hangar twelve,” Taam said. “Ellidron told me how to access his ship. We're grabbing the matrix, the destabilizer, and getting the faruk out of here.”
The three grabbed every weapon they could carry.
“Why not just warp the matrix and the other gizmo in here?” Anthony asked.
“In the off chance he was wrong, and the Attillians discovered his warp, the destabilizer and matrix are still safely aboard his vessel,” Taam answered.
“Smart guy,” Anthony responded.
Bartl made a whispered grunt in response.
“Pay him no attention,” Taam said. “He's just mad a Zorg broke us out of an Attillian cell, and pretty much foresaw all of this long before we did.”
“Lucky guess,” Bartl said as he cocked a massive four barreled rifle.
Anthony watched as three canisters full of a pink liquid began to glow on Bartl's gun. “That's a MS-XLG Matter Blaster, anything you shoot gets liquefied.”
Bartl smiled.
“Yup,” Anthony said. “Still weird that a cubbyhole with glowing needles shoved all that info into my head.”
“Well, if you're still bothered by it when all this is over we can have the PLN pull it all from your memory,” Taam said.
“Oh yeah, let's have the mind machine take the things it shoved into my brain and rip them out, that sounds less scary,” Anthony responded. He ran his hand down the side of long rifle he was carrying, flicking a dozen switches in the process. The rifle began to hum as varying lights on the gun lit up. He smiled. “I'll just deal with my paranoia by using this X-O Internal Vaporizer on some nasty alien baddies.”
“Nothing like a good 'ole outlawed rifle to give you warm and fuzzy feelings,” Bartl said as he looked at Anthony.
The three stepped from the room. The lights above flickered back on.
“Looks like we're shooting our way to hangar twelve,” Bartl said.
Taam turned and smiled.
The hallway shifted from drab gray to a canvas of white, then again into an entirely new room.
Confused, Anthony's eyes darted around in an attempt to get his bearings.
“What the...” Anthony blurted out.
A silvery, arrowhead shaped vessel was propped up on three retractable legs no more than twenty feet from him. The rest of the room looked similar to the hanger of the Imperium.
A slight movement to his right caught Anthony's attention. At least twenty soldiers were standing guard around the vessel. Before he could react the sounds of combat rang out.
Bartl squeezed off six shots before Anthony found his ability to move. Taam launched off another five shots and Anthony was diving behind a stack of metal crates.
The Attillian soldiers scattered and began to return fire. Bartl and Taam took cover.
“Welcome to hangar twelve,” Taam yelled out.
“How are we trans-warping?” Bartl asked.
“AI,” Taam answered. “Ellidron developed his own. It's been monitoring us since he gave me the entry codes to his ship, which I'm broadcasting through my wrist unit. The AI is set to search for the code. Once it finds it and confirms...” Taam paused.
A gull-wing door lifted on the side of the Zorg vessel.
Anthony jumped to his feet and peered through the large scope atop his rifle. Through it he saw an amalgam of internal organs moving about. He leaned his head to the right peering past the scope, then back down. His scope was showing him the organs of the Attillian soldiers. Anthony squeezed the trigger. A half dozen soldiers just collapsed as he watched his rifle turn their insides into soup.
“Anthony,” Taam yelled. “Move!”
Anthony broke from his short lived victory and saw a group of soldiers converging on him. Taam and Bartl had already darted through the hangar and were making their way to the Zorg ship. Anthony stepped around the crates and came face to face with four Attillians soldiers. A second later they exploded, scattering a blue'ish goo all over him.
Bartl, from the Zorg vessel yelled, “You're welcome, now move.”
Anthony watched as Taam and Bartl pinned t
he remaining soldiers down allowing him to make his way to the ship. A hissing noise from behind caused him to look over his shoulder as he ran. Another thirty soldiers had just entered the hangar followed by dozens of large androids.
From head to toe the androids looked like they were covered in some sort of white plated armor. At the ends of their arms, where hands would normally be, were large pulse rifles. Mounted on their left shoulder was a triangular device that glowed red; on the right shoulder was a rocket pod with a cluster of missiles ready to fire.
Anthony pushed himself faster toward the Zorg ship. He watched as Bartl turned toward the androids and began to fire. Taam continued to give him cover fire from the other side. Anthony dove aboard the Zorg ship; the door sealed itself shut.
“They broke out the Ravagers just for us,” Bartl said with a smile.
“Ravagers?” Anthony asked as he crawled to his feet.
“The droids,” Bartl said. “Mean suckers, built for killing and not much else.”
“Why do dangerous things put a smile on your face?” Anthony asked. “Seriously, you need to get help.”
Taam chuckled. “That he does, and we need to get out of here,” he said. “Ellidron brought us this far, now lets finish it.”
“Agreed,” Bartl said.
The three made their way through the ship and entered a small cockpit like bridge. Bartl took one seat, Taam took the other.
“It's cool guys,” Anthony said. “I'll just stand.”
The two ignored him.
Taam flicked a few switches and the ship's power roared to life. The main console lit up as did a dozen other screens.
“Gah,” Bartl exclaimed. “Everything is sticky. Did he ever clean this thing?”
Taam jostled his feet and kicked a pile of empty cans and bottles. One rolled toward Anthony's feet. He reached down and picked it up. Surprised he was able to read it, he saw that it was an energy drink called Zap. Anthony tossed the can back to the ground and looked around. Wrappers and half eaten bags of snacks were littered everywhere.
“Computer,” Taam spoke out. “Access command Ait-Ellidron-7337, password is eald thiw ti.”
“Command codes and password accepted,” a female voice said. “All controls have been transferred. Hello, Taam Heezarian.”
“Wonderful,” Taam said. “Now, where are my engines?”
“I'm sorry sir,” the computer replied. “The Attillians have used some form of tech we aren't aware of, which is currently keeping our engines from spooling up.”
“Can you trace it back and disable it?” Bartl asked.
“I attempted to do so, but the Attillians were slightly faster than we anticipated,” the computer said. “They reestablished their safety protocols using back-up power. They locked me out of the system. I did all I could, but retrieving you into hangar twelve was my last available action.”
“Blatnard!” Taam cursed out and struck the Zorg vessel's control column.
Anthony just stood quietly for a moment; there was no point in asking the obvious.
Bartl disagreed. “What now?”
“How am I supposed to know?' Taam replied. “I don't want to pull the matrix and destabilizer unless we can get out of here, and as of right now we're stuck.”
Anthony watched on the screen as the Ravager droids and Attillian soldiers began firing everything they had at the Zorg vessel.
“Shields are holding at 98% sir,” the computer said. “Estimated time of breach is roughly four hecatryls.”
Anthony cocked his head slightly, how do I know what four hecatryls are? He thought to himself. “About three hours,” Anthony blurted out.
Bartl and Taam glanced at Anthony then back to the screens. Neither said anything.
Anthony looked at both of them, their lack of response confirmed something was going on that he'd not been made aware of yet. He chose to allow the situation to pass, and focused on the task at hand.
“We have three hours before the ship's shield drop and what?” He asked. “Boarded? Blown up? What happens in three hours?”
“We have three hours with the ground troops shooting at us,” Taam responded. “We'll have far less time once they get anti spacecraft weaponry set up in here. Once that happens, we'll have about a minute, then any and all of the above is possible.”
Bartl was working a console, Anthony watched as screen after screen was flashed by.
“Well, I'm glad to be of help,” Anthony said sarcastically.
“Rest up,” Taam said. “If they choose to board, you'll want all the energy you have to fight back.”
Anthony remembered the state of the Zorg, all the bruises, cuts and gashes. His mind flashed and he recalled that the Zorg was even missing fingers.
Anthony leaned back against a wall and slid to the floor. He kicked away another dozen or so cans and bottles, all of which he could read.
Bartl slammed his fist down on the console. “Gah! Nothing. There's nothing in here we can use. This ship was used to hack Platnium IV, the Attillian lead cruiser, and who knows what other faruking system. But we can't access anything.”
“Not true,” Taam said. He jumped to his feet and sped down a corridor. Bartl followed and Anthony jumped to his feet and chased them both.
Taam had stopped in front of a plain looking panel, his right hand at the top corner and his left at the center. Anthony watched as Taam slowly rotated his fingers.
Click.
The panel shifted its appearance revealing the face of a large vault.
“That's a boom box,” Bartl said.
“A what?” Anthony asked.
“Any one of the twelve steps it takes to open this thing can set off a ship wide destruction if entered incorrectly,” Taam answered. “But Ellidron was never one for ordinary. Instead of just blowing up his ship, he's wired this thing into the slip drive. So, on top of being blown up, anything within a thousand dranecs gets pulled and scattered across three systems.”
Bartl groaned. “And now we're hoping that the same Zorg who stole all of our stuff didn't give Taam false steps just to set off this thing and end the Attillians all on his own. Need I remind everyone that this is the same Zorg who who virused Alvin, and watched his entire species get exterminated. You know, just in case you forgot about all of that.”
“I have no reason to believe he'd do that,” Taam said.
“Except for all those reasons Bartl just gave,” Anthony responded.
“What do you two want me to do?” Taam asked. “This is it for us. We're stuck, and once the Attillians realize we're stuck, they're going to drop everything they have on us. We don't have three hours, we have a few more minutes, at most.”
“Faruk it,” Bartl said. “Let's get blown up.”
Taam looked to Anthony.
“Can I at least know what's going on?” Anthony asked. “You two know something I don't. How is it I'm reading alien energy drink cans and understanding your weird space time all of the sudden?”
Neither Taam nor Bartl said anything. Silence hung in the air for a few moments. Anthony looked to Bartl, then to Taam. Still, neither said anything.
“I hate you two,” Anthony exclaimed. “Blow us up.”
Taam turned and worked the sequence Ellidron had given him. His hand hovered for a moment as he prepared himself to tap “Confirm” on the screen.
He breathed deep and exhaled,then motioned forward.
“Seriously,” Anthony blurted out. “We might blow up and you won't say anything?”
Bartl flinched at the sound of Anthony's voice and Taam jumped slightly. Anthony watched as they both snapped a nasty glare at him.
“Fine,” Anthony said. “But if we live through this, I'm going to keep bugging you about it.”
Taam looked over the sequence he'd punched in one last time and tapped confirm.
A series of clicks and buzzes sounded, followed by a loud buzzer.
All three jumped at the sound.
The face of the boom
box dissolved away and there within was a tablet containing the matrix code, and a small square box with circular markings engraved across its surface.
“Well,” Bartl said. “That's the matrix, but is that--”
“This is it; let's get the faruk out of here,” Taam interrupted. He snatched both items from the box and darted back toward the bridge.
“And how exactly are we doing that?” Bartl yelled out as he and Anthony chased after Taam.
Taam plopped back into the chair, flipped a few switches and swiped at a screen. Bartl saddled up next to him.
“Engines are down, and power is running at a bare minimum,” Taam said. “Shields are running on their own energy supply. When Ellidron mind dumped me he gave me the exact coordinates of the Platnium. I thought it was weird and dismissed it.”
“But it's important now?” Anthony asked.
“Yup,” Taam said. “He wanted me to know that the Platnium is thirty dranecs directly in front of us.”
“What good does that--” Bartl said, but stopped short.
Taam flipped one last switch and the sounds of something coming to life came from above.
“What was that noise?” Anthony asked.
“Ellidron wasn't a fighter,” Taam said. He punched a button and the ship's main display shifted to a targeting screen. “But even he needed weapons.”
Taam grabbed a hold of the ship's control column and squeezed two triggers nestled therein.
Two pulse canons had risen from within their housing and powered up. Blast after blast of over-charged plasma crashed into the opposite wall. A second later the hull of the Starfaller was breached. Soldiers and Ravager droids were sucked out into the cold black of space.
A moment later the Zorg vessel jostled slightly. Then it jostled a little more.
“Here we go,” Bartl said as he smiled.
The Zorg ship began to slide across the hangar as it was sucked into space. Directly ahead of them was the Heezarian ship known as the Platnium IV.
Anthony's feet lifted from the ground. He looked around and saw that cans, bottles, and wrappers all began to flutter about weightless in the cabin.
“Whoops, should've told you to hold on,” Taam said to Anthony. “You might want to brace yourself before we crash into the Platnium.”