“I— I’m sorry for your loss, love. I know Zeus died not long ago. I’m just a little angered that he wouldn’t at least tell you what happened.”
He owed me that much.
“Father has always been very proud, even though he softened up just before the end. I get it that it was wrong of him to hide from all of us that the Furies had been sent to another dimension instead of having them destroyed. But, I understand why he did it. He wanted to protect Oryn.”
“It’s ironic how far we went not to let our union be known to those close to us, and how we feared Zeus would banish you if he learned about it, when, in fact, he too had an affair with a Fury.”
“We definitely would have done things differently had we known this. But I’m surprised you knew about it; when did Zeus approach you?”
“After we had secured the children, but before he sent me on the mission to Asgard.”
“Asgard? What on Olympus did you do in Asgard?”
“In the guise of fixing the weapon, Zeus asked me to convince, or, if necessary, coerce their lead engineer who had helped design the weapon. Knav— Ksan— I can’t quite remember his name.”
“Kvasir?”
“That’s it, Kvasir. Do you know him?”
“Not very well, but he is on board this ship.”
“You don’t say. I guess I have a lot of catching up to do. I’m hoping we can see the boys, too.”
“I’m sure you will. Chase proposed coming along, but I wanted some time alone with you.”
Menelas took her face in his hands. “I’m sorry I didn’t come back. I wanted nothing more, believe me.”
“I know. I’m sorry I lost hope ever to see you again.”
“I love you,” said Menelas softly.
“I love you, too.”
After visiting with Kvasir, Argos decided to see his father. He didn’t exactly know what to tell the man, but after what had happened with Zeus, he didn’t want to be a stranger with him. Especially should one of them lose their lives in the upcoming battle on Erevos.
Argos was sorry he hadn’t had more time to spend with Zeus before Arakan killed him. He had been estranged from his grandfather and didn’t want to repeat that with his own father.
He stopped in front of Menelas’ guest quarters and hesitated before ringing the doorbell.
The door slid open.
“Come in,” said a voice inside.
Argos stepped into the quarters, his gaze meeting with Menelas.
“Is there anything I can do for you, Argos?”
“Yes, I’d like to talk; if that’s okay?”
“I’m surprised you’re the first one paying me a social visit. I expected your brother to be the first to do so.”
“Chase is quite busy at the moment; there are many things we need to work on and very little time to get them done.”
“Chase…” Menelas paused. “It’s going to take some time getting used to that name.”
“I understand; I couldn’t stop calling him Laiyos in the beginning as well. But, you’ll get used to it.”
“How come he calls himself Chase?”
Argos took a long breath before recounting the story of how they started as enemies. Argos felt shame deep in his soul the entire time it took to catch Menelas up to speed.
“That’s heavy, and I’m sorry the two of you became enemies. That’s— that’s probably my fault, and I’m sorry about that.”
“What’s done is done; if I’ve learned anything these past few months is that it’s best to leave the past behind and focus on the present. I will never be able to atone for my past actions, no matter how hard I try. But in the present, I can be a better person, a better brother or uncle. That’s what matters now that hatred has left my heart.”
“Still, I feel responsible for all the torment you went through; if only I had been there.”
Menelas let the words hang.
“I’m not blaming you for my own shortcomings. You’re here now, and since we never know when tragedy will strike, I thought it would be a good time to try and get to know each other.”
Menelas nodded.
“Thank you, Argos. I’m thankful for that. And I want you to know how proud I am of the warriors you two have become. Your power levels are mind-blowing.”
“And yet, we got our asses handed to us from Spectre Arakan.”
“At least we’re all still alive.”
“Except Oryn.”
“Right,” said Menelas with a sigh. “Except Oryn.”
“We need to find a solution to this problem, and fast,” said Yanis. “Our friends need a training center, and they need it now. I’ve managed to stabilize the power flow, and I think the Victory can provide enough power to the training facility, at least when we’re not fighting for our lives. Polarity is still an issue.”
“That’s all well and good,” commented Cedric. “But this is my project, why are you acting like you’re in charge?”
“Do we really need to do this, Cedric? Chase came to me with this, and I acknowledged that you worked on it for a while. But, he put me in charge.”
“Typical.”
“Look, it doesn’t matter who gets the lead. In fact, if it makes you feel better, you can be the lead. What matters is that we get it done, and fast.”
“That’s okay; I don’t need to be in charge,” said Cedric. Then added as a whisper. “But, it’s my project.”
Yanis exhaled in frustration before looking at his wrist device.
“Where the hell is Kvasir? He’s never late, and it’s been half an hour already.”
“Does it look like I’m his personal assistant?” scoffed Cedric.
“Are you going to be like this all day?”
Cedric shrugged. “Like what?”
The engineering doors split open, and Kvasir stepped in carrying an Asgardian piece of technology.
“Never mind; here he comes,” said Yanis before turning toward Kvasir. “So gracious of you to finally join us.”
“Hi, Kvaz; don’t mind him, he’s a little cranky today,” said Cedric.
Yanis’ eyebrows shot up, and his eyes grew wide. “I’m cranky? And, ‘Kvaz’?!”
Cedric looked at Kvasir, then looked back at Yanis.
“See, he doesn’t seem to mind,” said Cedric.
“Hello,” said Kvasir. “I apologize for my tardiness. But I think you’ll be happy once you hear the reason behind my being late.”
“What is it you’re holding?” asked Cedric.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” added Yanis. “I take it this is Asgardian tech?”
Kvasir delicately laid the device on a nearby table. Green and yellow lights pulsated and blinked around it, casting greenish reflections on the surface of the metallic table.
“It is. We got lucky, in fact. A while back when we regrouped with Athena’s ship, I searched the debris of the destroyed Asgardian destroyer the spider ship took out and managed to acquire this.”
“And this would be?” inquired Yanis.
“It’s a crucial component of our hyperspace engines. A power flow and matter inverter, in fact. I thought we could use it for our project.”
Yanis crossed his arms over his chest.
“Do you even know what it is we are building?”
“A white-hole powered training facility so the Furies on board the Victory can train for months at a time while only days pass outside.”
“Who briefed you? That’s why I asked you to come here this morning, so we can all brainstorm to find a solution to inverting the polarity of the artificial black hole, to allow time to pass faster inside the room instead of going slower.”
“Argos swung by my quarters last night and told me about the project. He’s in a hurry to train with something more efficient than the gravity field generator. I then accessed Cedric’s notes in the main computer, and after a full night of work. . .” Kvasir pointed toward the device with both hands. “Voila!”
Cedric
enthusiastically jumped up from his chair and approached the device. He was looking at it from every possible angle.
“Voila, what?” inquired Yanis.
“This will turn the center of an artificially generated black hole into a white hole. We still need to interface it with Earth Alliance tech, but I’m sure we can achieve that soon enough.”
“Impressive,” said Cedric. “I never imagined we could solve the issue with such a small device.”
“Size isn’t everything,” proposed Kvasir.
“Try telling that to your mate,” said Cedric absently, entirely captivated by the device’s slight humming and pulsating lights that made the tech appear alive.
“What do you mean?” asked Kvasir dubiously.
“Never mind that,” dismissed Yanis. “So, let me get this straight; Argos paid you a visit last night, and you worked and fixed the main roadblock in the project I was supposed to brief you on this morning?”
Cedric walked past Yanis and waved a hand in the air.
“Don’t mind him; he’s just jealous. Good game, Kvaz,” said Cedric cheerfully.
“I’m not familiar with that expression,” said Kvasir.
“It means well done, kudos, congrats; take your pick.”
“Ah…well, thank you,” said Kvasir, before turning his attention back to Yanis. “And, yes, that’s exactly what happened.”
“I still can’t grasp how you could achieve something so complex in so little time.”
“It may appear complex to you, and upon analyzing Earth Alliance tech, I see why you would think this to be a monumental task, but I assure you it wasn’t so hard.”
Cedric laughed.
“I don’t find this funny,” said Yanis. “Why are you laughing?”
“You know why; he just called our tech ‘weak,’ but he did it so politely that you can’t help but like the dude, right?”
Yanis shot daggers at Cedric.
“Or not…”
“Did I do something wrong?” inquired Kvasir.
Cedric came next to him and clapped him on the back.
“No dude; you rock! Ignore Yanis; he usually likes coming up with the solution that saves the day. You stole his thunder, and he’s not used to that.”
“Cedric!” shouted Yanis.
“Alright, alright. I’ll stop teasing you.”
Yanis returned his gaze to Kvasir. “Did you sleep at all?”
“No. Even though I had most of what I needed thanks to salvaging this piece from the destroyer, adapting it to suit our needs was a little tricky.”
“A little? I’m still unsure how you did that. Mind sharing with us?”
“It’s a little complicated. It’s probably best you check the blueprints I’ve left on the computer in your spare time; from what I’ve gathered, this is an extremely critical project.”
“What about sleep? You must be tired.”
“I’m alright; Asgardians can go without sleep for a few days before we need to rest.”
“Lucky you,” said Yanis, yawning. “Very well, then I guess we can forego the holo-presentation I had prepared on the subject. I— I’m sorry, I’m still baffled about how you knew how to tackle this problem?”
“Asgardian power generation is very advanced. And while the Victory is impressive in that regard, it has an inefficient design at the basic level of your components. Your power nodes use only matter to function. Ours use anti-matter and inter-dimensional bridges to draw energy from more than one source. Since I worked on the machine in which Aphroditis was trapped, I know this sort of tech very well. All I needed to do was to find a way to take large amounts of energy, stabilize the power flow, and invert the polarity of the field generated; in this case, generating a white hole instead of a black one.”
Yanis blinked quickly multiple times. Cedric laid a hand on his shoulder.
“That’s okay if you don’t understand, you know? I’m not sure I got all of that ‘dumbing down’ myself. He’s smarter than the both of us; that’s okay, too.”
Yanis gently took Cedric’s hand and removed it from his shoulder.
“Don’t be ridiculous, Cedric. I don’t care about that. In fact, I’m happy that we’re one step closer to achieving our goal.”
“You may want to tell that to your face then,” said Cedric with a chuckle.
“Are you certain that’s what you want to do, Chase?” said Emperor Altair.
Chase’s face filled the Emperor’s holo-screen.
“Yes. We don’t have a choice; we can’t only react to this war, and with the latest development, I feel we don’t have the luxury of morality anymore, either. With this new foe added into the mix, we have to make sure we have enough ships ready for the final assault, and to protect ourselves should this Spectre have more of those spider ships.”
“I’ve reviewed the sensor logs and reports on those; they’re impressive, to say the least.”
“They are, and we don’t even know how many the Spectre has under his command. I know how you feel about this, Altair; believe me, I do. But that’s one of the calls that needs to be made, and I’m making this an order.”
“Very well, Chase; we’ll take the Gorgar home world by force if we have to. Thank you for sending reinforcements.”
“That’s only a handful of ships, and I doubt those are enough for a full-scale assault on the planet. Use Argos’ tech and just order them to comply. We do this for them as much as we do it for the rest of the sentient species out there. Perhaps they’ll hate us, but we can no longer worry about that.”
Altair didn’t like it. This was precisely the kind of decision that he was accustomed to doing in the past within his empire. The end justifying the means logic. The needs of the many and all that. But having heard Chase describe their new foe, he understood why Chase was ordering them to do this. Altair had no problem following orders, and even if they weren’t entirely aligned with his own moral compass, he knew that Chase wasn’t taking this issue lightly. At the end of the day, Chase would take responsibility for whatever consequences arose from his orders. Altair had no idea what they could be; he just hoped Chase could live with them.
“Understood, Admiral.”
Altair could tell Chase understood why he had addressed him by rank this time. A subtle yet unequivocal way of underlining the fact that the emperor was okay following an order, even if he partially disagreed with it.
“Thank you, Altair. Chase out.”
The holo-screen turned off, and Altair reflected on their conversation. He had his hands joined in front of his mouth, pondering.
After a few minutes of deep thinking, he pressed a control on his desk’s holo-console, which opened an audio channel.
“Altair to Ryonna; can you please join me in my ready room?”
“On my way,” answered Ryonna.
Chase, Menelas, Chris, and Argos left the turbo lift just as the ship exited hyperspace on orbit to Earth.
They walked to the center of the Victory’s bridge. Chase sat next to Sarah.
“Let’s scan the planet’s core,” he proposed.
“You won’t detect anything,” said Menelas.
“Let’s focus the scans at maximum resolution; I’m still curious to know if a deep scan would have revealed anything.”
The tactical officer keyed commands on his holo-console. Then showed the results of the scan on the main holo-viewer.
“Readings are inconclusive,” said the tactical officer. “We can’t seem to penetrate a small area that is dead center in the planet’s core.”
“That’s one impressive hiding place,” commented Argos.
“I’m glad you think so,” said Menelas.
“How does the transport sequence work?” asked Chase.
“I’ve been implanted with a small tracker; the facility inside the core will detect it and beam everyone in.”
Chase got up.
“Or I could teleport us in,” proposed Chase.
“No, that would trig
ger the intruder alert, beam the ships into space, and they would scatter in different corners of the universe.”
“We sure don’t want that to happen,” commented Chris.
“No, we don’t,” said Menelas.
He walked toward the tactical officer and keyed a few commands on the crew member’s console before returning to the center of the bridge.
“Hit transmit on my mark,” said Menelas.
The tactical officer nodded.
“It’s time.”
“Wanna come?” Chris asked Sarah. “You saw yourself piloting one of the ships in your vision.”
Daniel entered the bridge and hurried toward his friends.
“Permission to take the conn?”
Sarah shot her son a look. “Your doing?”
“I thought you’d like to come with us.”
Sarah smiled, got up from the captain’s chair, and gestured Daniel to take her place.
“You have the conn,” she said.
Daniel smiled and nodded. “Have fun.”
Once Sarah and the others all touched Menelas’ arm, orange scanlines traveled through their bodies, and they were beamed off the bridge.
3
Spiros tried to regain control of the stolen ship, but his wireless access had been completely cut off. A strong tractor beam grabbed the ship and brought it toward the dreadnought.
“We’ve got to get free of that tractor beam, or we’re toast,” exclaimed Spiros.
“According to these readings,” said Gaia, “I don’t see how that is going to happen. That tractor beam’s power is simply too strong. Even if we managed to boost the thrusters beyond their limits, it wouldn’t make the slightest difference.”
Spiros hit the console with his fist, slightly cracking the glass layer.
“Anger is not going to help in this case, either,” said Gaia.
Spiros knew he was responsible for their current predicament. And if they didn’t find a way to get out of there, they’d both be dead within minutes; if they were lucky. Otherwise they could be in for hours or days of torture at the hands of that Morgor smuggler; a prospect Spiros couldn’t even fathom. No doubt he’d kill them anyway. No, they needed to get the hell out of there, and fast.
Into the Fire Part II: To End All Wars (Universe in Flames Book 10) Page 4