The Star Collector

by Matthew William

  “They’re trying to kill the music,” Cassandra said with a grin.

  “That’ll probably buy us more time right?” Joe asked looking to Lien.

  “Maybe not,” was all she said, her face worried.

  “The satellite – it’s not essential, is it?”

  Lien just watched her tablet with a frown.

  “Is it?”

  “The shield is designed to absorb damage over a wide area. It wasn’t intended to take concentrated fire.”

  “So?” Joe asked.

  “It’s dissipating fast.”

  “How long?” he asked.

  “Before it’s gone?” she asked.

  He nodded.

  “Ten minutes.”

  “What else have we got?” Joe asked.

  “We’ve exhausted every science experiment we could use,” Lien said.

  “And we’ll be thirty-five minutes too short,” Cassandra said.

  “There’s got to be something,” Joe said.

  “There’s only the space boar,” Lien said.

  “And how can we use that?” Joe asked.

  “We could use pheromones...” Lien began.

  “...And?” Joe asked.

  “I don’t know, the thought ended at pheromones.”

  “Then that’s it,” Joe said. “We’re gonna die.”

  Tammy came marching proudly back into the room. “The turret is done!”

  “Yeah, well, it’s a moot point now,” Joe said, “We’ve got thirty-five minutes to go and nothing left to stop the fleet.”

  “Oh,” said Tammy, her face becoming despondent. “Then I just installed the turret for nothing?”

  “You did it with great speed,” Lien said.

  “Not speedy enough,” Tammy said.

  “It was a stupid idea anyway,” Joe said. “There was no using the turret, not with fifty ships out there aiming at us.”

  “And nobody’s that lucky,” Lien sighed.

  Joe was quiet for a moment, then he began to chuckle to himself as one last stupid plan popped into his brain. “Cassandra, I’m going to need you to turn off your empathy.”

  “That’s not an option,” she said.

  “It’s either that or we all die.”

  Applebottom stood before the window with his hands behind his back. “How far away are we from breaching the shield?” Applebottom asked.

  “Five minutes,” Saburo answered.

  “Champagne time?” Applebottom suggested.

  There was a shot at point blank range straight at the hull of the battle cruiser. The ship rattled uncontrollably.

  “Where the hell did that come from?” Applebottom asked, falling from his chair.

  “I can’t tell sir.”

  There was another blast and the cruiser shook violently.

  “Anything?” Applebottom asked.

  “We caught its location this time, sir,” Saburo said. “It was a mid-sized police cruiser. It flashed up for a second near us then disappeared.”

  “Disappeared? Don’t tell me they have cloaking technology.”

  “Wait a second,” Saburo said. “It just popped up on the other side of the facility and took a shot at another cruiser. How can they be going so fast?”

  “They must have equipped that advanced warp they’ve been working on,” Applebottom said. “But no human has fast enough reflexes to drive within the siege net like that.”

  “Fire!” Cassandra shouted.

  Joe shot the flak turret which had been equipped in the ceiling of his bedroom. A glass dome allowed him to see what he was aiming at. The controls rattled in his hands. As soon as the shot had been fired Cassandra shifted back into warp and flew the ship at light speed to another corner within the siege net.

  “Fire!” she shouted.

  Joe fired again. The constant change in location was disorienting and he was beginning to get dizzy. That was the 93rd shot he had taken, but the plan seemed to be working. The battle cruisers had stopped firing on the science facility and were now trying to destroy the Crown Vik.

  Cassandra flew at light speed to another location and stopped on a dime.

  “Fire!”

  Joe shot at a battle cruiser, right in its underbelly satellite dish. The siege net around them began to flicker.

  “Woah! I think we found the source!” Joe shouted.

  Cassandra began to concentrate her movement around that particular battle cruiser while Joe took shot after shot at the satellite dish.

  Finally there came an explosion, but not from of the satellite. Joe was knocked from the turret and down to his bedroom floor. The fleet had anticipated Cassandra’s movement.

  “Joe!” Cassandra said.

  “Yes?” Joe said, rubbing his forehead.

  “The warp drive’s broken.”

  “Okay,” he said.

  “We have to get back to the facility,” she said, taking inhumanly complicated evasive action as she dodged incoming fire from the fleet.

  Joe gazed out the turret’s glass dome. The siege net was still intact and the satellite controlling it was no longer within the turret’s sights.

  “Lien, we’re coming back in,” Joe announced into his communicator.

  But there was no response from the facility and the doors remained closed.

  “I don’t think she got your message,” Cassandra said. The Crown Vik began to rumble. They were taking more and more fire. “I don’t think we’re going to make it!”

  At that moment, a monstrosity of an animal came galloping out from the facility’s hangar, swimming through space like a pig in water. It was the size of a small house and had explosives attached to every inch of its body. It appeared Lien had unleashed the space boar.

  “Is that thing coming for us?” Joe asked.

  “I hope not,” Cassandra said.

  The animal whizzed right past them and made a beeline for the battle cruiser controlling the siege net.

  “Why aren’t they firing at it?” Joe asked.

  “They probably think it’s just a distraction.”

  Then, as if under a trance, the space boar mounted the battle cruiser’s satellite and the explosives were detonated. There was a huge blast of metal, fire and viscera.

  The siege net around the facility faded to nothing.

  “Why… did that happen?” Joe asked.

  “We laced your ammo with the pheromones,” Lien came in over the intercom. “And the boar was in heat.”

  Cassandra managed to fly the ship back into the hangar and crash land on the floor. The Crown Vik skidded all the way to the far wall before coming to a stop.

  “Are you okay?” Joe asked as he climbed down the stairs from his bedroom.

  “Just a little shaken up,” she answered. “You?”

  “Nothing a cold beer couldn't fix.”

  When they climbed out of the ship they were greeted by the 300 anxious scientists. Joe looked up at the clock – they had lasted 2 hours against the Chinese fleet. More than anyone could have reasonably expected given the circumstances. They were probably still going to die, but they certainly had something to be proud of.

  Joe looked back out through the hangar shield. A few thousand kilometers away he could faintly see the highway exit and the ships that trickled out from it. The jihad was arriving – 583 ships in all.

  Slowly they began to engage with the Chinese fleet, unaware they had the same goal in mind, namely to destroy the science facility.

  “Cassandra,” Joe said. “Make the call to Mr. Alistair Mezza and let him know what the situation is.”

  “Did you get his number?” she asked.

  Joe was quiet for a moment. “Actually, no... I didn’t.”

  “We can fix the broken warp drive on your ship,” Lien cut in. “We have an extra prototype. And then you can get out of here with the artifact.”

  “I think the ship’s taken too much damage,” Joe said. “I can’t fly it like this.”

  “The experimental memb
rane, the one that congeals. We can apply it to your ship and it will prevent the hull from leaking,” Lien said.

  “And that will work?” Joe asked.

  “Theoretically.”

  Joe nodded nervously. “But what about all of you here? How are we going to get you out?”

  “There are only fifteen hours left before the artifact's countdown is complete. We’ll worry about ourselves.”

  Joe watched the space battle outside as the engineers equipped his ship with the warp drive and applied the goopy congealing membrane to the hull. Guilt filled his stomach with acid. They were leaving these scientists to die.

  “All that loss of life out there,” Cassandra said standing next to him, gazing out at the space battle.

  “And all the loss of life in here,” Joe said, looking back at the team of scientists that were fixing it so that he could ride off into the sunset. They must have been realizing these were their last actions. “At least you can turn your empathy off.”

  “But I won’t,” she said, crossing her arms. “Not ever again.”

  “You saved us back there, you know,” he said. “You saved the whole human race.”

  “I remember the last time I turned it off. I said it was the last time then too.”

  “When was that?” Joe asked.

  “When you left Bolstra 5.”

  “We have another problem,” Tammy cried out, approaching them with a sweaty brow and nearly out of breath.

  “I don’t want you to drag my dying ass with you,” Alma said from the other side of the locked door of the sick bay.

  “Come on,” Joe said, banging with his fist three times.

  “I’ve made my decision,” she said.

  “Your ship is ready, Joe,” Lien said, approaching him.

  “We’ve got to go now, Alma,” Joe said.

  “Well, have a nice trip then, and good luck with everything,” Alma announced.

  “Dammit, come on lets go!”

  “Joe, of all the adventures you’ve dragged me into, this was by far the best. But it’s also the most important.. I’m not going to slow you down during the most crucial part of it.”

  Joe sighed. “Alright.”

  “Alright?” Alma asked.

  “Yeah, alright. If you want to stay here, then I’ll honor your wish.”

  “Thank you. Now don’t make this more awkward than it needs to be.”

  Joe put his hand up on the door. “I love you, Alma.”

  Alma sighed. “I love you too, Joe,” she said, without a trace of emotion. “Now get the hell out of here, please.”

  “An incoming call from the Chairman,” Saburo said to Enoch Applebottom.

  The scientist sat in his command chair with his face in his hands. A terrible headache had come on sometime around the moment that 600 spaceships came out of nowhere to begin attacking the fleet. “Put him on.”

  “Words cannot express the mess you have created,” the Chairman said.

  “Catastrophe comes pretty close,” Applebottom replied.

  “Prepare your shuttle. I’m nearly there and I want you on board my ship.”

  “Thank you,” Joe said to Lien, as he stood on the Crown Vik’s on-ramp. “And I’m sorry I couldn't do more to help.”

  “You’re not done yet,” she answered with a smile.

  Joe looked back at the inside of his ship, there was still room for escapees. “Look, I can fit a few of you onboard...”

  “We decided that if we can’t all escape, then none of us will,” Lien interrupted him.

  Joe nodded and climbed aboard his trusty old Crown Vik. He stopped at the door and waved goodbye to Lien, Yao and Tan and all the scientists who were there to watch him leave. Tammy carried the artifact in its new black, gilded box onboard and Cassandra followed.

  That’s when the floor began to rumble. But this wasn’t coming from the fleet. This was coming from something else entirely. Joe looked out through the bay door and his chest began to ache. The highway exit in the distance was being torn open, like a mouse giving birth to an elephant. And out from the portal came the White Dragon, the largest man-made vehicle in history. While the Chinese battle cruisers looked like chess pieces, the White Dragon looked like a white whale. Joe had heard legends of the ship before, but no one believed they were true. A ship that size couldn't exist. A ship that size shouldn’t exist. Nonetheless, there it was.

  The canons of the White Dragon went off, instantly disintegrating all the ships of the jihad with ease.

  “There are over 20,000 turrets on that thing,” Lien shouted. “I suggest you get going.”

  Joe ran to the driver’s seat, closed the door and flew out of the science facility as fast as he could. The White Dragon’s canons blasted the base out of existence. The Crown Vik barely escaped the explosion and once it was clear of the debris, made the jump to warp speed.

  Five minutes later, after allowing Applebottom’s shuttle to board, the White Dragon gave chase at warp speed.

  24

  Joe stared out the view screen at the passing white and black subspace. Cassandra sat teary-eyed in an office chair next to him.

  “I can’t believe Alma didn’t want to come with us,” she said.

  “I should have never brought her along,” Joe said. He sort of chuckled to himself. “Five hundred scientists die and here we are talking about our one friend.”

  “It’s probably a coping mechanism,” Cassandra said wiping her eyes.

  “I know a better coping mechanism,” Tammy said, emerging from the kitchen with four hyperion ales.

  “Where did you find them?” Joe asked.

  “I stole them from the science facility.”

  “I’m proud and ashamed at the same time,” Joe said.

  They got up to join Tammy in the kitchen and each cracked open a beer and raised the brown glass bottle in a toast.

  “To those scientists,” Joe said.

  “And to Alma of course,” Cassandra added.

  “Cheers,” Tammy said.

  They clinked their bottles together.

  After taking a sip, Tammy seemed to remember something important. She pulled the old instruction manual from her jacket pocket, put it against her forehead and smiled.

  Joe and Cassandra looked to each other with a grin.

  “Since this might be my last chance to ask,” Joe said. “What’s with the manual?”

  “Oh, it’s nothing,” Tammy replied.

  “Then why pray to it?”

  “It’s...” Tammy began. Instead she sighed and opened to the first page. It was an instruction manual for a model space ship.

  “When I was about ten my dad bought this for me and promised that we were going to work on it together. He was a constable for our little village. And, even though I was only ten, I could sense how important this promise was to him. It was an oath really. But my dad, little did I know, was being targeted by the cartel. And one night while he was out walking the dog they shot him to death and dumped his body in a swimming pool. Instead of the truth, my mom told me he had gone into hiding. And no matter where we moved to after that, I took this manual with me and read it and read it – memorized it basically – so that when he came back, I’d be ready.” Tammy sort of smiled to herself. “He never came back, obviously. But I feel like he’s been watching out for me ever since.”

  “That’s a nice story, Tammy,” Joe said with a smile.

  “And you don’t believe he’s been watching over me,” Tammy said, putting the manual back in her pocket.

  “I believe you believe it,” Joe replied.

  “But...”

  “But it’s not my thing.”

  “It’s never been his thing,” Cassandra said.

  “But it is in a way,” Tammy replied.

  “How’s that?” Cassandra asked.

  “Don’t you find it ironic that, of all places in the galaxy Joe could have been assigned to protect, it was the one and only place that he, at one time, found sac
red?”

  “I didn’t know it was the ruins sector when I applied for the job,” Joe responded.

  “I never said it was you who chose it.”

  Joe nodded thoughtfully. She had a point.

  “Well, hopefully whoever has this vague overarching plan for my life has something to get us out of this situation,” Joe said. “We have five minutes on the White Dragon and once Halle disables the artifact, I can’t think of a single thing that’s going to stop them from killing us.”

  “What if everybody knows about everything?” Tammy asked.

  “How do you mean?” Joe asked.

  “What if we alert the media?” Tammy went on. “Tell them the whole story.”

  “The media hasn’t exactly been covering all the news lately,” Cassandra said.

  “But Halle’s in Coalition space, right? It would be an international incident,” Tammy said. “Don’t you think?”

  “It’s a long shot,” Joe said, reaching for his wallet and taking out the business card he had received from Cameron Payne at Channel 5 News. “But I think it’s the only one we’ve got.”

  He climbed the stairs up to his room to make the call, trying to sum up the events of the past few days into a punchy headline. He took a seat on the floor before his video phone and entered the digits. As soon as he hit dial, the call was hijacked and there on the video screen came the face of Enoch Applebottom. His blue eyes were harsh against his white beard and pale skin.

  “Hello, Joe,” he said, almost as if he was expecting the call.

  “Blocking my calls now?”

  “Where are you headed?”

  “I think you know that already.”

  “Hoping Halle can disable the artifact for you?”

  “Knowing she will,” Joe said with a sarcastic smile.

  “Why put yourself through all this? All the running and dodging death. It’s beneath you.”

  “I don’t think I have a choice anymore, do I?”

  “So here’s the thing,” Applebottom said. “The Chinese Galactic Empire is willing to offer each of you one billion credits, an official government pardon and property rights in the Gansu Province. The only thing they ask is that you hand over the artifact and not talk to the media – end this thing once and for all.”