“That is a pretty risky maneuver Phash,” Tamika said.
“I will try... No… I can do it!” Phash said with affirmation.
The com channel sounded with Kate’s voice, “What about Uttarak’s ship, the Destiny? It’s got the slipstream and the fire power to knock it out.”
“Yes!” Tamika exclaimed. “Uttarak disappeared and no one has seen him for a while now,” she turned to Phash and asked him if he could fly that ship and if he could break the computer lock out codes.
“Look,” Jhovahkan interjected, “There isn’t much time. We can shut down the computer and drive that ship manually, but we need to act now.”
“Agreed,” everyone said at the same time.
“Tamika, Phash. You will accompany me to the Destiny. Let us get this going.”
Jhovahkan hardly had enough time to finish his sentence when the com channel erupted with another voice.
“My dear friends!” Uttarak began, “Such a valiant effort in stopping the Rune, but you will not be able to shut the core down and drive Destiny in time.”
“Uttarak?” Kate said over the com.
“Yes, It is I and I’m onboard my ship firing up her engines as we speak,” Uttarak said cunningly. “I shall save the day, again.”
“Uttarak,” Jhovahkan said. “You will need to aim very carefully, do not hit the Rune chamber as the force shield is compromised. Any further disruption will likely take the field down for good releasing the Rune.”
“Oh, you do not have to tell me twice my dear uncle,” Uttarak said smiling insanely, “I do not intend to miss my target.”
The crew of the Zeroditha looked out their bridge deck at the once orbiting Destiny and saw the ship leaving orbit and straight to the Sun on an intercept course.
Everyone gave a breath of relief with the reappearance of their savior, who once again, was coming to their rescue.
“Sir,” One of Jhovahkan’s aids reported, “I am getting some unusual readings from those weapon inhibitor canisters that were orbiting Ackturra.”
Jhovahkan turned and faced this officer with a puzzled look, “Explain mister.”
“They are all beginning to fall to the planet.”
“What?!?” Tamika exclaimed.
“I just confirmed. They are all falling out of orbit and are burning up in the upper atmosphere. I thought that only the Destiny controlled those devices,” The officer said.
“Get me a secure channel to that Karillian… now!” Jhovahkan bellowed as they all realized that Uttarak’s mission was not to destroy the Rune, but to ensure its joining with the ancient one.
“This is a secure channel Ackturra, go ahead,” Portov replied.
“Uttarak is a traitor!”
Kate forced herself at the com station to confirm what she had just heard, “How can you be sure?”
“Because when the Destiny left orbit, those weapons inhibitors all shut down and burned up in the Planet’s atmosphere. He set those to protect us from killing each other when he first arrived, but now something has happened on his reappearance.”
“And it’s too much of a coincidence that he showed up at this time,” Tamika added.
“Right when we decided to commandeer the Destiny,” Qiaoshan said as he entered the briefing room. “I have been in meditation and felt the infection when he returned.”
“Uttarak is infected?” Kate shouted back. “That’s impossible! He was immune to the infection, his immunity transferred through me when I was carrying him.”
“There are many things that have changed my dear,” Ghaia said as she too entered the briefing room followed by Luanren.
“Ghaia!” Tamika shouted.
“Luanren!” Jhovahkan said.
“We have made amends,” they both said looking at each other.
“There is more at stake than our petty differences honey,” Luanren said to her daughter.
“Right,” Ghaia said, “If we get through this, we can settle later.”
“Right now, we need to stop that ship!” Jhovahkan said trying to take control of the situation. “Karillian, can you intercept that ship?”
“We have already set our intercept course. My ship is faster and more powerful, we can stop him,” Portov said with confidence.
“Very well! Kate, report to me when you are in range. Jhovahkan out.”
Portov’s continence changed with the pending battle ahead as he pushed the ship to full speed and turned the Zeroditha toward the Destiny. The large ship slowly turned from course rolling thirty degrees as the thrusters fired pushing the behemoth on its new target. The forward windows of the bridge polarized automatically by the brilliance of the sun beaming in on them.
Portov’s eyes dimed and he furrowed his brow feeling the adrenaline flowing through his Karillian blood. His body burned with fire as the emotions of his home world being destroyed no longer could be kept at bay, he finally had a genuine target to fire at and he was not about to let this one get away.
“Helm; full speed ahead,” Portov ordered, “Weapons hot, shield to maximum.” His crew effectively carried out his every command and soon the ship was battle ready. The bridge deck lighting was cut and transitioned to a dark red contrast to give the crew enhanced vision. In a short time, they had caught up to and were gaining on the Destiny as they dropped out of slipstream. It was apparent that Uttarak was not aware of the Zeroditha in pursuit as he made no attempt to alter his course and his shields were down.
Uttarak locked weapons on the transport that carried the Rune and opened fire, destroying the transport with one shot. The debris field spread out in all directions carrying it past the bridge of the Destiny. Some of the ship parts impacted on Uttarak’s ship ricocheting off in different directions. His main objective was to clear the Rune from the Transport and then fire another single shot at the floating chamber to destabilize the shielding and release the Rune matter.
Uttarak locked his weapons and fired his shot while at the same time the Zeroditha locked weapons on the Destiny fired.
The torpedo spread from the Zeroditha impacted on the rear left side of Uttarak’s ship, knocking out the port engine. The Destiny rolled in an uncontrolled spin and Uttarak had been so engrossed with freeing the Rune, he was caught by surprise at their attack.
“Direct hit sir!” Portov’s weapons officer reported with glee.
“Now wait just a minute,” Kate begged, “That is my son on that ship, I would prefer you not killing him!”
“Madam, he is corrupted by the Rune, he must be taken out!” Portov insisted.
The weapons fire from Uttarak’s ship hit the Rune chamber dead on, causing the shield generator to destabilize releasing the Rune matter as Uttarak had planned, but his ship was now out of control. He struggled with the manual controls attempting to stop the uncontrolled spin his ship was in by the port engine being hit, but the Destiny continued to hurl toward the Sun.
The Rune matter quickly gathered itself together into one body and continued on its course to the Sun and was absorbing the solar energy which began to increase its size.
“Portov, please do not fire on his ship!” Kate implored, “Can’t you see his ship is already damaged, we need to help him!”
“Madam,” Portov said pointing to the scanner, “We have a bigger problem at hand. The Rune matter has been released!”
Uttarak opened a com channel, his voice sounded desperate, “Mother!? I need you!”
Portov answered his call with coldness in his voice, “Your destiny is being handed to you.”
“You must help, my ship has lost its port engine and I am unable to regain control.”
“Help us stop the Rune first!” Portov insisted.
“No!” Uttarak answered with a slight change in his tone, “Do you not understand? The Rune must be allowed to join with the Crystal Entity; that is its destiny.”
“Sir,” Portov’s helm reported, “We must turn from our present course or we will also be caught in the sun’s grav
ity well.”
“What about the Rune?” Portov asked in a panic, “How can we stop this thing?”
The com channel still active, Uttarak answered for the helmsman, “There is no way to stop it now that it’s released from its chamber; it’s too late…”
Uttarak took a final attempt at keeping them from harming the Rune, returned fire on the Zeroditha.
“Evasive! Turn hard starboard!” Portov shouted, “Full power to engines!”
The Zeroditha turned and fired all its thrusters and directed all power to the reactor in order to try to miss the volley. She turned away from the Sun’s gravity but didn’t get out of the way in time from incoming missiles which slammed into the ship’s hull shaking them violently.
“Sir! We have taken major damage,” the helm reported to Portov, “We are now caught in the Sun’s gravity, the ships engines are beginning to overheat… we may not make it…”
Uttarak looked forward out the bridge viewing windows at what appeared to be the sun spinning in an endless circle, but actually was the Destiny in an uncontrolled roll. The ship’s hull began to glow red the closer he got to the solar system’s star. His ships phosphorescent shielding, now at full strength, was still no match for the incredible heat of the sun.
Kate looked on her viewer at the Destiny in horror, “My Son!” she cried out in tears, “No!”
“I’m sorry madam…” Portov said in a feeble attempt to comfort a distraught mother. “…but it is too late for him.”
Kate put her hands to her face and covered her eyes. Milanaka grabbed Kate and turned her from the screen and buried her head on his shoulder as he patted her gently on her back. Tears fell from their eyes as he felt sad for Kate with the loss she was about to experience. He had come to know her fairly well on this voyage and hated to see her in such pain, “Don’t look Kate… it will all be over in a moment,” Milanaka said trying to comfort her the best he could.
The Destiny began to break up starting at the bow and began to crumble as the bow melted and burned away. The ship slowing disintegrated and finally ignited in a final burst as the reactor exploded in a flash of light.
The Destiny left no debris field from the resulting destruction; every fragment consumed by the intensity of the sun.
Kate was inconsolable as she looked up at the Karillian who had caused his death. “You murderer!” She screamed. “We could have tried to save him!”
Portov seeing her as distraught as she was finally felt the emotion of the moment and broke down himself, “I am truly sorry for your loss madam. It was never my intent to cause you this pain. My emotion of losing Karillia was far too great for me… I would never intentionally cause such pain to another.”
“I know, Portov.” Kate managed to choke. “I’m sorry…We all have suffered great loss.”
The Zeroditha continued to struggle against the powerful pull of the Ackturrian sun.
“Sir, I hate to interrupt, but if we don’t get more power to our engines, we’ll suffer the same fate,” the helm reported.
The Zeroditha groaned and creaked at the stress not being able to break free from the sun’s gravitational pull. The ship rocked to and fro with the engines straining against the powerful tug of the star.
“Transfer all available power from the reactor to the engines and shields!” Portov ordered.
“They are at full power now sir! I can’t seem to break free.”
Portov held still for a moment trying to think of a way out of this situation when more trouble was reported, “Sir, now our shields are buckling…We’re having catastrophic failures on all systems from those torpedoes. We can’t hold out much longer!” his first officer yelled over the noise from the hull bending and creaking under the stress.
“We’re losing the battle sir!” Portov’s first officer reported, “We’ll burn up in minutes.”
The Zeroditha’s com channel crackled to life, “This is Panru of the Telenian. We just arrived in system. Our scanners indicate your ship is in distress, do you require assistance?”
“Yes!” the entire bridge crew answered at once.
“I think it’s too late, we’re going to break up any moment now.” Portov yelled out of dread.
“Panru, don’t come any closer!” Kate screamed. “You’ll get caught in this pull as well. Fly to Ackturra and out of this Sun’s disruptive field, get a message to the council of our fate.”
Panru fully understood that there wasn’t anything more he could do and ordered his helm to jump into slipstream and come out seconds later at planet side.
“It’s a risky jump sir,” Sagrit commented.
“It’s their only hope, I have a plan! Do it! Do it now!” Panru ordered.
Tamika and Jhovahkan waited in the palace control room for any sign of the Zeroditha. The suns interference kept them from scanning what was taking place, which also meant there would be no communications until they were farther away from the distortion field the Sun was causing.
They intently monitored for any and all communications coming from that region when a small static voice begun to be heard, but the signal was garbled.
“This is Tamika, come in. Is this the Zeroditha?” Tamika intently responded, but again, only static was returned.
“They must be on the fringe, give them another moment or two,” Jhovahkan said. “That signal should clear up soon.”
“I do not like it!” Luanren said with concern, “I do not feel right… something is wrong...”
“I will have to side with Luanren on this one,” Ghaia hesitated.
“That just kills you, doesn’t it?” Luanren snickered back.
“We shall settle our score later!” Ghaia sneered, “Use your crystals to boost their signal!”
Tamika and Jhovahkan both concentrated on the Zeroditha when the incoming signal became audible enough to understand.
“This is … … of … Telenian. Urgent … … … …Zeroditha … … help ... … out … … destroyed,” The com channel transmitted the partially garbled message.
They all looked at each other wondering what this message was about, they knew then that Luanren and Ghaia’s intuition was correct by the words urgent and help, but they were dumfounded by Telenian, as that ship had been missing for weeks along with the Bane.
“Can you repeat your message?” Tamika said into the com channel, “We are having trouble understanding.”
The static silence was finally broke by a distinguishable voice of Panru, “I repeat… this is Panru of the Telenian… Urgent help needed... Zeroditha has been damaged and is caught in the gravitational pull and cannot get out. They have minutes before they are destroyed.”
“Panru, we received your message! Jhovahkan acknowledged.
“You must use your crystals to save them,” Panru pleaded.
Tamika and Jhovahkan quickly took action and joined forces to open a large vortex on the bridge of the Karillian ship.
The Zeroditha began to crush at the extreme pressures on her hull as the shields now only held at ten percent. The engines gave out under the stress and the ship began to fall backwards into the pull of Sun, no longer being able to sustain their current position.
The ship began to melt apart like the Destiny had, causing parts of the rear section to separate and split off from the main hull falling backwards which disintegrated into vapor with no trace.
The Zeroditha continued to collapse around the crew until finally there was nothing left of the ship. The massive Karillian ship sections vanished into the Sun as the last remaining power from the reactor exploded. The last remaining parts of what was left of the ship turned sideways and tumbled into the Sun’s corona, being completely consumed by the energy.
The Rune matter collected the energy from the ship’s explosion and the sun. Now that it had been delivered from the Chamber the Zelinites had placed it inside, it was finally free. Then it began growing in size with its new mass before the Rune turned toward the sun where it would gather even more
energy before the Runic headed back for Ackturra. The Runic knew they would be unstoppable and could join with the ancient one, where they would become part of the power crystals essence; this was their destiny.
The palace control center was lit up by the extra-large vortex that both brother and sister had formed.
The crew of the Zeroditha was lost by the crushing force of the Sun, but the bridge crew came through the vortex, never the worse for their wear, followed by Portov, Milanaka and, finally Kate, who stayed behind the longest to ensure everyone was through. That was simply her nature; she had to save the others before she would save herself.
Luanren wrapped her arms around her daughter-in-law and wept with joy that she was alright.
Ghaia was never happier to see Kate, despite all they had been through, but still despised the Zelinite. The thought of this creature stepping foot on the palace grounds was enough to make her sick to her stomach.
Kate was just as pleased to be seeing her face as well, that meant that she had made it out alive.
“That was too close for comfort.” Kate said wiping the sweat off her forehead.
“Yes, it was,” Milanaka said with gratitude.
Jhovahkan pointed at Milanaka, “You are lucky I allowed you to be brought back. If it was not for your knowledge of the Runic, you would have been left behind.”
“It is a good thing you did save him Jhovahkan,” Kate stated. “We have bigger problems on our hands now. The Rune has been released and is free to join with the main Rune that’s about to enter our system.”
“How long do we have?” Tamika asked Kate.
“A few hours, less than a day, if we’re lucky. But now that the Rune we extracted from the Crystal Caverns is free, we need to act fast to stop it!” She answered.
“Stop it?” Milanaka said with haste, “We will not be able to stop it now.”
* * *
Chapter 15
Face of the Runic
Ackturrian Province
Year: 1983
Jhahnahkan and Uttarak exited the vortex to the place where Uttarak was raised as a child as they made their escape from twentieth century Earth. Their plan was a simple one, but they knew it would take some years to complete; time was something they had plenty of… for now.
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