by Lee Watts
"The stones," Ra'daq surmised and knew his ship was in trouble. "ALL POWER TO SHIEL-" before he could finish the order the first missile impacted against the energy screens. Coming into contact with the Ramillie power source, the stone exploded with gigatons of force. The ship rocked from the collision but before it could recover the second stone detonated against the flickering shields with equal force, then the third, fourth and fifth. As the sixth rocket slammed into the craft, the awesome power of the blast overloaded the generators and the shields buckled. With nothing to stop it, the seventh missile slammed into the naked hull of the ship and ripped armored panels from it like hurricane winds pealing shingles from a roof. The Tyrannus lurched upward and to the side as the subsequent missiles struck it. One after another pounded the ship and surrounded it in wave upon wave of destructive energy.
Through the smoke-filled bridge of the Dauntless, Balin watched the main screen as it showed the beast time and again enveloped by the billowing and boiling eruptions of power. As the final missile hit, there was a blinding explosion so bright that Balin and the rest of the bridge crew had to cover their eyes or look away to not be blinded. Then... all was silent. The flash of red lights from the emergency warnings reflected on the ship's fog. Balin turned back around to see the fate of his nemesis.
At an odd angle, the Tyrannus sported several internal fires, and its many guns were silent. Slowly, the ship was listing to port, and its mighty engines were dark.
"That did it, Admiral," the first officer proclaimed. "We've killed it."
With his face and uniform marred with black streaks from the smoke, Balin lowered his head.
"You are avenged, Tom," Balin spoke aloud to the memory of his fallen friend and comrade.
"SIR," a crewman cried out as he pointed out the window.
Balin quickly looked up to see what caught the officer's attention.
Flickering, the engines of the Tyrannus sputtered several times, died then flashed once more, at last, coming to life. Internal lights of the monstrous craft came back on, and it slowly began to right itself. Then it turned to face the Dauntless and gradually began moving forward.
"What've we got left?" Balin asked.
"Not much," came the answer. "Our supply of stones is exhausted, weapons off-line, shields destroyed, engines inoperable. Repair teams are on it, but they estimate an hour before the engines are back."
"We don't have an hour!" the first officer insisted.
"We don't have five minutes," Balin added. He tried to think of any course of action to save them. The ship couldn't fire, it couldn't defend against an attack, and it couldn't move. He knew there was only one order left to give... to abandon ship.
"Shall I order everyone to the escape pods, Admiral?" the first officer asked.
Balin hesitated several moments.
"...No," he at last answered. "The Tyrannus will either pick off each of the pods, or they'll reel them in, and the crew will become prisoners, and you know what the Ramillie do with their prisoners. No. We're not done yet. I promised I'd kill the beast, and that's what I'm going to do." Turning around, Balin walked back to the command station and activated the console there. He typed in a quick series of instructions to the computer then looked to his first officer. Seeing what file the Admiral was using, the officer paused a moment before reacting. Knowing it was their only viable option, the officer input his codes, and the self-destruction system began an overload.
On the Tyrannus, the ship's commander received a disturbing report.
"Warlord, detecting a power buildup from the enemy ship."
"Are their weapons coming back online?"
"Negative. Looks like it's from their main generator. I'd say it's a build up to self-destruct."
Captain Crex, with blood running down the side of his head from a wound during the battle, turned to his commander in great concern.
"Warlord, with our shields gone a detonation like that will destroy us."
Ra'daq considered it for several heartbeats then, at last, ordered the communications officer to open a channel. The image of a heavyset man with white hair, beard, and a shaved chin appeared on Ra'daq's screen.
"Admiral Balin I presume."
"Ra'daq," Balin replied in disdain.
"It won't work, Theeran," Ra'daq sneered contemptuously. "You're bluffing."
"Am I?" Balin questioned. "The way I've got it figured I'm dead either way, so really, I have nothing to lose. At least I know I'll take you with me. Our sensors show your sublight engines are at minimum capability, so you're not able to get away in time. Looks like we'll die together, Ra'daq. I would say 'See you on the other side of eternity,' but I doubt we're going to the same place."
Ra'daq considered his options and the resolve of his rival as he stared at Balin's image on the screen.
"A worthy opponent after all," Ra'daq commented adding a nod of respect. "Until next time, Admiral." With that, the Warlord closed the channel. The Tyrannus opened a portal to hyperspace and slowly disappeared within it."
With the beast gone, Balin wasted no time in canceling the self-destruct order.
The surviving Realm fighters and assault shuttles proceeded to rendezvoused with the Dauntless. With all repair efforts focused on the jump engines, the super battlecarrier was able to depart the system and limp its way back to Realm controlled space.
CHAPTER 18
"...the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee." - Job 5:23
Three days after the arrival of Birger, the three-meter giant from the nine worlds of the Vanir, the door of the arena cell again opened and two additional prisoners were pushed into the cell then the door closed. Instead of glaring at the guards, the newcomers stared at each other in obvious disdain. One man had oil black hair that was slicked back and sported a cybernetic eye. The other had chestnut hair that was beginning to gray from age, wore a long burgundy jacket, dark grey pants, and had an artificial left hand.
As the two glowered at each other, they began squaring their shoulders. The man with the robotic hand caused it to close into a tight fist. Merrick guessed the metal appendage would feel like a sledgehammer when it stuck. With the two men clearly about to begin fighting, Birger stepped beside them and placed a beefy hand on each of the men's shoulders. Sosimo shifted his focus from Crimson to the person at his side, but when he looked instead of seeing a pair of eyes, he saw a waist. Slowly his eyes went up and up until at last beholding the face of the towering hulk. Sosimo swallowed hard. Not knowing if the man understood the galactic standard language, the pirate uttered the only thing he thought the giant might possibly comprehend.
"Fe-fi-fo-fum?"
In a deep voice matching his gargantuan size, Birger said, "The enemy is the Ramillie. We don't fight in here."
"That's the best news I've heard all day," Sosimo gushed in relief. "I don't like to fight anyway. I'm a man of peace myself. Sosimo's the name. Sosimo Degare Fauntleroy LaRouche the-"
"LaRouche?" Merrick questioned at recognition of the name of his long-departed friend Gareth. He studied the newcomer's face and didn't know if it was the passage of time distorting his memory, or if he genuinely did recognize a resemblance to some of Gareth's features.
"Yes, the Fourth that is – at your service."
"The pirate captain?" Merrick asked having overheard various reports about the man while serving as captain of the Royal Guard.
"The same," he confirmed with a slight bow. "I see you've heard of me, though I doubt you've heard of this piece of flotsam," he sneered as he gestured to Crimson. "Allow me to introduce him, this is Crimson. Crimson the lying, thieving, traitorous, murdering, idiot who is the reason we were caught."
"I could have got my ship out, LaRouche," Crimson growled.
"Like I was going to let that happen?"
"Wait a minute," Birger said. "You're both captains?"
"I'm a captain," Sosimo quipped. "He's a traitorous pig who commands a ship of traitorous pigs."
; "Where are your crews?"
"They put them in the cells down the hall," Crimson said. "I guess they have something special in mind for us."
"Oh, you've got something special coming to you, Crimson. I promise you that, and it's not going to be the Ramillie to give it to you either."
"LaRouche, you're a-"
"Enough," Birger interrupted. "It doesn't matter how you came to be caught, or whose fault it is. All that matters is that you're here, and now you're both prisoners of the Ramillie."
Sosimo looked to the big man and raised an eyebrow.
"Hey, I've been captured by the Hateeg, the Realm, and now the Ramillie. Despite their differences, they all have one thing in common... prisons. And no matter who builds it, all prisons have something in common too."
"What's that?" Merrick asked.
"A way out."
"My thought exactly," agreed Merrick.
"I've told you, it's impossible," said Quisling. "I know this prison inside and out, and there's just no way to escape this cell. Even if you did get out, we're under tons of rock. There's nowhere to go from here."
"I wasn't thinking of leaving from here," Merrick hinted.
The Ramillie tilted his head in piqued interest as he and the others in the cell gave the Guardian their undivided attention.
"During our last time in the arena, I noticed there's no gate to the tunnel where the charuk dogs came out."
"True enough," Quisling answered. "We really didn't think any prisoner would want to go to the place where the beasts are kept."
"I bet the beast's cage is far less secure than ours."
"Right," Quisling admitted. "The animals aren't smart enough to know how to escape. There's a simple lock, but no elaborate precautions…" His voice trailed off as he and the other5s reasoned out what Merrick was purposing.
Before they could talk further, the door clanked and chains rattled as the barrier steadily opened. With rifles at the ready, six armored guards corralled the prisoners into the hallway.
"And just when I was starting to think of this place like home," Sosimo quipped.
"Oh, shut up, LaRouche," Crimson grumbled.
When all the prisoners were herded into the arena the onlookers began to cheer. Merrick guessed there must be thousands, if not tens of thousands of spectators. He was certain Koraden was among them.
As with the previous round, a net full of well used, and ill-maintained archaic weapons were lowered. Birger looked to Merrick who nodded, and each of the prisoners armed themselves with one or more of the crude instruments.
"If it's wild animals I can deal with that," Birger declared, "but I don't do spiders."
"What do you mean you don't do them?" Sosimo asked.
"I..." the big man stammered as his eyes lowered in shame, "I have arachnophobia."
"How bad?" LaRouche questioned. "We talkin' they give you the creeps or do you scream like a little girl and panic?"
The hulking Birger paused sheepishly.
"It's the second one isn't it?" Sosimo deduced then added a grumbled, "Figures."
As the wide and immensely tall gate at the far end of the arena slowly opened, both the prisoners and the audience waited anxiously to see what would come from the tunnel. They felt the beast before they saw it. From the slow and heavy thumps upon the ground, they could tell it wasn't the spiders, but rather something far larger. BOOM, BOOM. The soil trembled beneath the heavy weight of the monstrous form making its way to the tunnel's end. Heartbeats of the prisoners' quickened and fear-induced adrenaline surged through their veins as the floor reverberated with the animal's approach. Merrick squinted as he peered into the shadows of the far tunnel. First out into the lights of the arena was the creature's snout. Tree trunk size, the heavy snout swung slowly from side to side as the head of the beast came into view. With disproportional small, black eyes and covered in a thick, tough bluish hide, the animal stood on all fours and was nearly two stories high. Two giant tusks curved up from either side of its bottom lip and when it fully exited the tunnel, the monster's tail, covered with boney spikes jutting from it, nearly doubled the beast's length.
"O merciful Elder," Birger gawked in awe of the gargantuan creature. "How in the worlds are we supposed to defeat that thing?"
"We're not supposed to," Quisling answered.
Lifting its massive head, the beast raised its trunk.
"What's it doing?" Crimson asked. "Why isn't it charging?"
"It's sniffing the air," Merrick deduced. "It probably has poor eyesight."
With the nearly stagnant creature providing insufficient entertainment, the crowd began to boo. A standard size door at the side of the arena opened and two guards, with weapons drawn, cautiously approached the beast. Then, with speed belying its size, the monster flicked a twenty-meter tongue from its snout. Barbed, the dark pike appendage stuck like a harpoon impaling one of the guards. Puncturing the armor as easily as a piece of wet paper, the tip of the creature's tongue protruded from the far side of the guard. Then, nearly as quickly as the tongue shot out, the creature reeled it back in, but before fully retracting it, curved the tongue downward and deposited the pinned man into its gaping craw. Clamping down with its powerful jaws it held the Ramillie in place as the tongue recessed back into the monster's immense trunk.
As the other Ramillie guard ran, he looked over his shoulder at what was happening to his comrade. Discarding his weapon, the man moved faster than he ever had before as he sprinted back in the door where he had entered.
"Both guards dropped their weapons," Crimson commented. "If one of us could get them-"
"Then that thing will eat whoever tries," Sosimo said. Smiling he turned to Crimson, "I think you should go for it."
"We've got to do something," Crimson spat.
"If we all make a break for it, some of us could make it to the far tunnel," commented Birger. "It's the best chance we have against that crazed thing."
"No," answered Merrick. "It's not crazed; it's frightened. It just wants to go home, to protect itself. I have an idea."
Slowly, the Guardian began stepping forward from the huddled prisoners and started making a soft sound.
"What's he doing?" Crimson whispered in annoyed confusion.
"He's… singing," Quisling answered in surprise.
Merrick was indeed singing. It was an old song, but one sung on countless worlds for generations upon generations. The tune dated back to Ramillie's first empire and the words of the song were older still. Among the books comprising the Codex was a collection of poems. Many of these poems were set to music, and the one the Guardian was singing was among the most cherished passages among Elderites throughout the stars. It spoke of the Elder's control of the universe, of His perfect creation before the fall of humanity. Merrick's voice gently grew louder as he progressed closer. Melody catching the beast's attention, it turned its head toward the on comer. Fascinated by the spectacle, the crowd quieted as the song grew in volume and became unnaturally amplified. Reciting from the holy book, Merrick's song told of the Elder, His love, His peace, His power, and way of redemption for all mankind through the death and resurrection of Elkanah. With the games broadcast throughout the worlds inside The Cloud, the message was heard in millions of homes and businesses.
Finishing the song, Merrick repeated the last refrain in delicate notes that flowed over hurting and hungry souls as cool water over thirsty ground, "…I had a debt I could not pay; He paid the debt He did not owe. He took my place, HE TOOK MY PLACE, PRAISE HIS NAME!"
All was still. Not a sound was heard from the tens of thousands in the stadium, the wind refused to blow, and the beast stood peacefully. Tilting its head, it looked at the Guardian then let out a gentle, low rumble. Kneeling, it lowered itself and lay peacefully on the ground. Keeping his position, Merrick motioned for the others to move, they did so, slowly and quietly as they made their way to the open tunnel where the beast had emerged. Koraden, watching from the elite box of the arena, angrily b
arked orders into the intercom. Before he commanded the guards to seize the prisoners, the captives had already disappeared into the beast's tunnel.
Reaching the far end, they rattled the bars of the door without success in trying to open it. until Birger came and pushed with enough force to break the lock causing the door to swing open. Within half a heartbeat, three guards rushed into the room and were met with wild, desperate men fighting for their lives. The guards managed to drop two prisoners before being overwhelmed. Crimson rushed to make sure he got one of the fallen guard's rifles, while Merrick acquired the other and Sosimo took one of their holstered pistols.
"Where to now, Quisling?" Merrick asked.
The Ramillie Elderite rushed to a computer terminal and hurriedly input commands.
At the end of the hallway is a set of lifts, we can take one to the surface, but first I'm making some diversions."
As he finished speaking, fire alarms started blaring, and the fire suppression system began dousing the room in water.
"That should cause panic and confusion," Sosimo said. "Two of my favorite things to cause by the way."
"It'll make the crowd rush to the exits, which will help cover our escape," Quisling explained. "Plus, since the computer thinks there's a fire, it automatically unlocks all the doors on our way out. Let's go!"
"Not that way, LaRouche," Merrick cautioned as he noticed the pirate heading toward a hall leading the wrong direction. "That goes back to the cells."
"I know, but my crew is down there. I'm not leaving without them. Don't worry, I'll get off-world somehow," he assured him, and the door slid closed.
Shaking his head, Crimson turned to Merrick.
"He's an idiot," Crimson insulted.
No sooner had he finished his statement when Sosimo came back in the room as if he forgot something.
"By the way, Crimson, I still going to kill you." Then he turned and rushed to free his crew.
Prisoners ran in all directions, trying to get to an exit.
"This way," Quisling called to Merrick. "I know where we can go."