Starbounders #2

by Adam Jay Epstein

  “Did you say robots?” Ryic asked.

  “That doesn’t sound like a coincidence to me,” Skold said.

  “I want to know why that creature just lost it,” Kaylee said. “It’s been stuck in that freezer for as long as we’ve been on this ship, and it never made a sound until now.”

  “Something must have triggered it,” Quee said.

  “I didn’t hear anything until right before we jumped through that last fold,” Ryic said.

  “That’s when I blasted those two talons,” Zachary said.

  “So, what’s the connection?” Skold asked. “It’s not like the scorpiosite has any personal interest in the fate of two Binary robots.”

  “Well, nothing’s changed on the inside of the ship,” Zachary said.

  “What about the outside?” Kaylee replied. “That purple sludge on the windshield have anything to do with it?”

  Quee’s interest was piqued and she floated up to the flight deck. The others followed behind.

  “I know what this is,” Quee said. “It’s a pathogen attractor called bactobait. Tenretni authorities would use it on the bottom tier. They coated the streets with the stuff. All the airborne bacteria from above would flock to it so the rich people up high never got infections. Nobody seemed to care if the folks stuck on the lower levels got sick.”

  “Why was Commander Keel’s army carrying giant canisters of it on their fighter ships?” Zachary asked.

  “Apparently, to attract scorpiosites,” Quee replied.

  “How did they know there was one on our sledge?” Ryic asked.

  “I don’t think this has anything to do with our ship,” Skold said. “What if they plan on using it to draw all the viruses out of the Olvang Nebula, and spread them across the entire cosmos?”

  “First of all, there’s no way they could get the scorpiosites past the electron fence,” Zachary said. “And even if they did, they would wipe out every living thing in the outerverse.”

  “Exactly,” Skold said. “Every living thing. They’re robots.”

  Of course. The Binary robots that Zachary had seen inside the Black Atom Society weren’t looking for a cure. They were looking for a way to destroy all life. They were the traitors who were building the kinetic force sink on Luwidix. Olari just hadn’t figured it out yet.

  “So what does destroying suns have to do with the scorpiosite threat?” Ryic asked.

  “Arbez, Lemeck, R-21, and Opus Verdana,” Zachary said. “Any of them located in the Olvang Nebula?”

  Kaylee began spinning the Kepler cartograph, then stopped on a holographic display and searched it. “No, not even close.”

  “Wait,” Ryic said. “Right next to Opus Verdana, practically inside the sun itself, is a fold. I know of it only because they taught it to every Klenarogian in science class. It’s completely unusable. Unless the sun wasn’t there.”

  Kaylee had already adjusted the cartograph and was looking at a projection of the very fold Ryic was talking about.

  “There it is,” she said. “And it connects right back to the Olvang Nebula.”

  All the parts were falling into place. It was never about destroying suns. It was about spreading scorpiositic fever. The Binary robots had built the device to eliminate Opus Verdana and create an unguarded exit for the virus. But first they had to test it on the similarly sized suns of Protos and Clu 5 to perfect it. Once the scorpiosites escaped, the talons would use the bactobait to lead them all across the outerverse. It was the perfect plan for sentient machines: unleashing a deadly plague that they were immune to.

  “We need to get to that sun before Keel and his army do,” Kaylee said.

  “I know,” Zachary said. “But I’ve finally realized something. We can’t do it alone. We need to call for help.”

  The sledge raced through fold after fold as it soared toward Opus Verdana. A grim cloud hung over everyone, most of all Ryic, whose home planet would be the first victim of the scorpiositic fever once its sun was extinguished. As Kaylee flew the ship, Zachary sat before the lang-link.

  “I don’t know when you’ll receive this message, but it’s urgent,” he said. “We’ve learned of an imminent attack on Klenarog’s sun. Rebel Binary robots led by one known as Commander Keel are en route as I speak. Should they be successful in their attempt, we believe they plan on using a hidden galactic fold behind the sun to release the quarantined scorpiositic fever contained within the Olvang Nebula. Contact every Starbounder stationed within five folds of Klenarog to assist.”

  Zachary gestured toward a send command on the screen, then turned to the others.

  “I’ve contacted every Indigo base in the outerverse,” he said. “I also sent messages to Wayfare, even Captain Aggoman. I just don’t know if anyone will receive them in time.”

  “I’ve been doing some analysis,” Quee said from her seat on the flight deck. “I know you said you had some luck with those Binary talons, but I’m not sure we have enough firepower to take out the star-killer. The kinetic force sink will just absorb all the particle blasts.”

  “Klenarog will make any ship in its fleet available to us,” Ryic said.

  “We can’t land and switch ships,” Zachary said. “It’ll be too late by then.”

  “Well, unless we come up with another plan, I say we hold tight until the cavalry rides in,” Skold said. “I know you all have hero complexes, but me . . . I prefer living.”

  “I know a shortcut from here,” Ryic said. “There’s a fold that will take us into a starship hangar underground, just like the one at Indigo 8. There’s no way the gizalith will make it through. It’ll have to make two extra jumps. We’ll beat it there by fifteen minutes.”

  “Lead the way,” Kaylee said.

  Ryic floated over and took the pilot seat from her. He buckled in and immediately deviated from the route on the Kepler cartograph. He was heading for a fold, and from the looks of the updated map, one that would take them directly to Klenarog. The sledge shot forward into the hole.

  “I didn’t think I’d be going home so soon,” Ryic said. “And certainly not like this.”

  The ship emerged through the other side into a cavernous tunnel covered in moss and lichen. A trail of blinking green lights guided them toward an enormous domed hangar filled with starcraft that looked like pitchforks, except these had six prongs instead of three. A giant statue of a teenaged female Klenarogian, with scepter in hand and medallions hanging around her neck, towered in the center of the room. Uniformed Klenarogians, dressed in loose-fitting long-sleeved shirts and pants and armed with photon bows, were running up to the ship.

  Once the sledge came to a stop, Zachary and the others unfastened their harnesses and got to their feet. Zachary instantly felt the effects of the planet’s extra-heavy gravity. It was as if he had gained a hundred pounds, and even the smallest step was a struggle. Kaylee and Quee seemed to be having similar trouble. Skold less so. As for Ryic, he was completely at home. In fact, the awkwardness he usually carried himself with was gone.

  Ryic exited the ship first, hands raised in the air.

  “Don’t fire,” he said. “It’s me, Ryic 1,174,831.”

  The Klenarogians all lowered their bows upon seeing him.

  “Ryic 1,174,831,” one of them said. “What are you doing here? You, who fled your destiny just before being anointed supreme commander?”

  “Yes, it’s true,” Ryic replied. “I was afraid of being made anyone’s leader. I could barely take care of myself. But these last few months have shown me that I’m capable—”

  “Ryic,” Zachary interrupted. “Not now.”

  “Right, sorry. I’ve come to ask for your help,” he said to the uniformed Klenarogians standing before him. “We need a ship. Whatever’s got the most firepower. Opus Verdana is in danger. It’s going to be destroyed, just like the suns of Protos and Clu 5.”

  “Take anything you need,” a Klenarogian called out. “We’ll strap in and be right behind you.”

  K
lenarogians started to run across the floor, while Ryic quickly surveyed the fleet. He eyed a bigger ship parked across the hangar. It was twice the size of a dreadnought, with debris cannons that appeared to be larger than the engines.

  “We’ll take the bison,” Ryic said, eyeing the ship.

  He headed straight for it, and Zachary and the others followed. They passed the large statue, where uniformed Klenarogians were bowing down at its marble feet before climbing aboard their pitchforks.

  “And to think, those could have been my feet they were kissing,” Ryic said.

  One of the soldiers walked alongside him.

  “Exactly what kind of threat are we up against, sir?” she asked.

  As Ryic began to answer her, Zachary couldn’t help but be amused upon hearing someone refer to his normally less-than-confident friend as “sir.” But here on his home planet, Ryic acted differently, self-assured and bold. He wasn’t just directing this one soldier, either. Others had gathered around him, and now Ryic was briefing the entire squadron on the specifics of their mission. They were nodding respectfully, and Zachary could see why Ryic had been chosen to be supreme commander.

  The domed roof of the hangar began to open, revealing the red-tinged sky above them. As Ryic led his friends onto the bison, the first fleet of pitchforks took off, slowly rising through the hole in the ceiling. Once inside the enormous ship, Zachary and his companions passed through the main cabin.

  “Skold, Kaylee, why don’t you man those gunnery stations?” Ryic said, pointing to a pair of seats inside the turrets of the debris cannons. “Zachary, Quee, come with me.”

  He took them to the command deck, where a Klenarogian soldier was already harnessed in before the control panel, making instrumentation checks.

  “We’re prepared for takeoff, captain,” he said to Ryic.

  Ryic gave a nod and buckled himself into one of the two pilot seats. Zachary sat in the other, while Quee brought up the Kepler cartograph. Ryic gestured for liftoff, and the bison soared upward, the deck window passing alongside the statue of the supreme commander—first her chest and neck, then the head, until the ship had departed the hangar.

  Zachary got his first glimpse of the surface of Klenarog. It was covered in trees, although instead of a single trunk, each one had many, presumably to support the extra-heavy weight of the branches and leaves. Streams and rivers crisscrossed the land, and bridges connected the hundreds of thousands of tiny islands. Amphibious cars swam across channels and rolled over the islands, while large barrack-type buildings dotted the landscape. Zachary thought about all the people of Klenarog going about their business, not realizing that the sun above them could be extinguished at any moment.

  The bison traveled higher, and soon the only thing Zachary could see below was the lush green of the trees and vines blending together with the blue waters in a swirl. Gravity was beginning to weaken as well, and a moment before arriving in space, Zachary felt like he was back on Earth, no longer tugged down by the oppressive weight of Klenarog.

  Just then, the command deck’s video lang-link came alive and a face appeared. It was a girl who looked about the same age as Ryic, and on second glance Zachary realized she was identical to the figure depicted in the statue standing in the space hangar.

  “Jengi 1,174,830,” Ryic said. “I see they made you supreme commander in my place. Congratulations.”

  “Thank you,” she replied. “I just received word from Fleet General Aria 1,613,552 that you’d returned. Of course, you have all our resources at your disposal.”

  “I’ve missed you, predecessor,” Ryic said.

  “And I you, successor,” Jengi said. “Although this is not how I pictured our reunion. I thought I might be of some assistance.”

  “Unfortunately, there’s little you can do from the Central Tower,” Ryic said.

  “Who said I was in the Central Tower?” Jengi asked.

  The video lang-link adjusted to reveal that she was sitting in the pilot seat of a starcraft. A moment later, a golden pitchfork shot across the bison’s bow, and Zachary could see Jengi saluting from the flight deck.

  Ryic shook his head and smiled. “Good to have you back at my side.”

  As Zachary and Ryic guided their ship farther from the planet, it wasn’t just Jengi backing them up, but close to fifty pitchforks piloted by Klenarogian soldiers. Opus Verdana was shining just a few million miles away, the circle of blinding white light too bright to look at.

  “If the squadron can create a perimeter around the sun, the robots will have to blast their way through us first,” Ryic said. “By then, hopefully, reinforcements will have arrived.”

  The bison and accompanying pitchforks raced through a thin asteroid field that encircled the sun. Once they reached the other side, Quee pointed toward the edge of a galactic fold opening between them and Opus Verdana.

  “Look,” she said. “The gizalith!”

  The tip of the giant pyramid-shaped spacecraft was emerging through the hole in the outerverse. The gizalith pushed through, still carrying the star-killer behind it. What looked like a thousand Binary talons poured out from the fold as well. Either they didn’t see the bison and pitchforks chasing toward them, or they didn’t care, because their path never wavered from their target.

  Commander Keel was leading his army straight for Klenarog’s sun.

  “You need to get a lot closer if we’re going to have any chance of hitting them,” Kaylee said over the flight deck intercom.

  “Yeah, we’re working on that,” Zachary replied.

  “Are these ships fast enough to catch up?” Quee asked the Klenarogian soldier manning the control panel.

  “We could divert power from the camouflage shields and distortion sensors to the engine,” he said. “Of course, that will leave us more vulnerable once we get there.”

  Zachary and Ryic shared a look. Sure, it would be risky, but what other options did they have?

  “Do whatever you have to,” Zachary said. “And tell those pitchforks to do the same.”

  The Klenarogian gestured to the control bay and immediately the ship began to pick up speed. The distance between the trailing talons and the bison shrank.

  “I’ve got one in my sights,” Skold called out over the intercom.

  But before he fired off a blast, Zachary watched as several Binary talons looped off course, which seemed to signal a third of Commander Keel’s fleet to do an about-face. Soon, hundreds of talons had broken off from the herd and were now charging right at them.

  “What now?” Kaylee asked from her gunnery station.

  “Try to clear a path for us,” Zachary said. “We have to get to the gizalith.”

  “Activate a mass lang-link,” Ryic said to the Klenarogian soldier, who motioned a command to the control panel. Once the communication went live, Ryic continued, “Remember, aim for the metal canisters on the sides. That’s their weak spot. Use your particle blasters, but save the full force of your debris cannons for the star-killer. That’s the only target that matters.”

  The two opposing squadrons were on a collision course. Then a flurry of explosions ignited from both sides, and the bison flew directly into the fray. Kaylee and Skold were unloading cannon debris at any talon that crossed their path. Another enemy ship popped up in the bison’s blind spot, but it was quickly blown out of space when a particle blast obliterated one of its canisters. Zachary glanced through the deck window to see that Jengi’s golden pitchfork had delivered the killshot.

  “She’s always had a flair for the dramatic,” Ryic said.

  Zachary knew they didn’t have time to dodge out of the way of every talon in their path, so instead he decided to plow through them. He pointed the nose of the bison forward and flew, battering the claw-shaped ships and leaving dented metal in its wake. Wave after wave of Binary robots continued to come at them. Ahead, the gizalith had slowed before Opus Verdana and begun rotating itself, aiming the star-killer at the sun’s core. Now that they had
flown closer, the shock of light emanating from the orb was so intense that if it hadn’t been for the bison’s thick, tinted windshield, everyone on board would have gone blind.

  “We’re never going to make it through,” Ryic said over the mass lang-link. “There’s too many of them.”

  “Well, maybe we can help even things out a little,” a synthesized voice replied. It wasn’t a Klenarogian soldier. In fact, it sounded familiar to Zachary. Then a face appeared on the monitor. It was Captain Aggoman. “Usually I don’t respond to distress calls from custodial runaways. But in this case, I figured I’d make an exception.”

  Then, out from the same fold that the gizalith and talons had exited, emerged Aggoman’s starjunk, along with a fleet of Indigo 8 battle-axes following in tow. They flew into the heart of the firefight, shredding metal as they blasted their way through. And they didn’t stop there, continuing to carve out a path for the bison as they raced closer to the gizalith.

  Through the flight deck windshield, Zachary could see that the Binary mothership was in position, the star-killer charging but not yet activated.

  “Kaylee, Skold, is the device within range?” Zachary asked over the intercom.

  “Almost,” Kaylee replied.

  “My finger’s itching,” Skold added.

  The gizalith turned its voltage rocket launchers in the direction of the approaching bison.

  “This is why draining power from your ship’s defenses can be a very bad idea,” the Klenarogian soldier said from the control panel.

  The first rocket struck the outside of the bison, causing all the electronics inside to flicker.

  “Fire back!” Zachary yelled over the intercom. A moment passed, but the ship’s debris cannons remained idle. “What are you waiting for?”

  “The voltage rockets must have shorted our entire weapons system,” Kaylee replied. “It will take a minute to recharge.”

  “We don’t have a minute,” Zachary said.