The lines upon lines of crewmen stopped him short and he sucked in a quick breath as the sudden weight and responsibility of his assignment hit home.
“Acting captain on deck,” shouted a man standing in front of all the others. A major by the looks of it. As one, everyone saluted.
“At ease,” answered Chase.
“Welcome to the EAD Hope, Captain. I relinquish command as per instructed by Admiral Thassos. The ship is yours.”
“Thank you, Major...”
“Sparton. Major Sparton, Captain.”
“Thank you, Major Sparton. If you’ll show me the way to the bridge, I want to undock and test some of the systems before we leave for the mission. Please also have someone show Commander Kepler her quarters and then the rest of the ship.”
Major Sparton signaled one of his officers then turned back to Chase.
“Have you selected a second-in-command, Captain?”
Chase glanced at Sarah, but she shook her head a fraction of an inch. Chase got the message. He cleared his face and gazed calmly back at the major.
“You will be my second-in-command, Major. You know this ship better than anyone, I take it?”
“Thank you, Captain. And yes. I’ve been onboard since we had artificial atmosphere and life support working.”
Just then, a shuttle docked on the bay behind them. Yanis popped his head out curiously, before being immediately followed by the emperor and a host of security guards. Chase stepped forward quickly and ordered them to release the emperor into his care.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend, he thought.
“Emperor, I really hope the information you gave us is correct. I’ve been inclined to believe you up until now, but if you have a hidden agenda—”
The emperor didn’t even let him finish. “No agenda. Let’s go destroy Argos’ most useful installation. Then you can decide for yourself how valuable I can be for you.”
Chase was surprised the emperor relinquished control so easily, but he guessed the man didn’t have much choice. “Alright. You stay with me at all times, though, is that understood?”
“Whatever you say.”
He turned back to Major Sparton. “Very well, to the bridge then?”
“Absolutely. Follow me, Captain.”
They all took a lift to the bridge, and soon Chase was in the captain’s chair. As it turned out, it was very comfortable, made with dark-blue material resembling leather. On each of the armrests were controls for most of the ship’s systems. The emperor stood not too far away, his arms locked against his chest as he observed, silent.
“Get us out of space dock,” Chase ordered, “one quarter impulse.”
And just like that… the mission was underway.
20
Argos’ ship entered the Gorialis Star System and soon arrived at their destination. He looked at the view screen, mesmerized by the beauty of the enormous star and its giant solar flares’ eruptions.
“Status?” Argos barked.
“We’re at optimal distance to attempt inter-dimensional communication, Master,” answered one of his officers.
“Very well, establish communication and send it to my ready room. I am not to be interrupted for anything until it ends, understood?”
“Yes, Master, I understand.”
He got up from his throne-looking chair on the bridge and entered an adjacent ready room. The atmosphere between the two rooms was very different. The bridge was well lit and full of computer terminals. The ready room, however, was pitch black, with two small torches on each side of the room that were triggered to light upon his entry. Argos loved the natural light of the flame; loathing the artificial lighting that came in most ships. That’s why he would retreat to this place to think. Even in the midst of combat, he preferred dispatching orders from here.
He slowly kneeled on the floor, about three meters in front of a wall.
Soon, a hologram about five meters tall appeared, but it was quite garbled with a lot of static.
“Rise,” said the voice in a very metallic, grinding and garbled voice. It had a faint echo; and seemed to be coming from the depths of hell itself.
He slowly stood and faced the dark, red-colored holographic projection.
“What have you to report at this time, Argos?”
“My plan is well under way. I will soon have all I need to come and get you.”
“We grow weary of waiting. You promised results, but so far we see none.”
“I assure you all is going according to plan. In fact, there’s been a new variable that may speed things along.”
The holographic shape jittered with a terrible signal distortion. It was clearly humanoid in nature, but too garbled to identify in detail.
“Very well. Make sure you get all you require, as we instructed you. You will be handsomely rewarded. But fail us, Argos, and our revenge will be long and painful.”
His name resonated in the sentence, giving weight to the threat.
“Thy will be done. You will soon be free again.”
The holographic shape only growled in response, and then disappeared back into the nothingness it came from.
Time was running out. Clearly his masters were losing patience. But now that Chase had entered the equation, Argos knew exactly how to proceed next in order to fulfill his mission. He would not fail them.
Instead of returning to the bridge, Argos glowered from his away-room throne. He needed to know what Chase was up to. His newly formed plan could potentially save months of work, but he had to be sure Chase would comply. On that front, he still had an ace in the hole. Still, he’d have to be careful and precise to pull it off. Fortunately Chase was only awakening to his powers, and bore almost no control over them. The fight at Hellstar Prison had been a pathetic demonstration, which worked in his favor.
Yet the Olympians were not to be forgotten; they could help Chase in ways that would be catastrophic. He had to get a hold on that communication line between them and Chase, and yank it off. He would need to proceed carefully, though: the last time Furies tried to attack the Olympians, it had led to their downfall. Argos had no intention of repeating the biggest mistake in the history of his race.
His eyes glowed eagerly as he leaned towards a big jar, and, after pondering for a moment, he opened its lid. A strange-looking snake with many spikes and yellow, glowing eyes arose from the half-light. It turned and spat out a very high-pitched hiss; almost painful to hear. Argos quietly moved his free hand in front of the snake. It opened its mouth wider, as three double-tipped tongues started an eye-pleasing circular dance. Venom drops formed on the tips of its yellow fangs, as its eyes glimmered even more brightly.
Argos made a sharp move with his hand. The snake flew at his arm in a flash, thrusting fangs deep into Argos’ forearm. The resulting jolt of pain that followed was both excruciating and extremely pleasurable to Argos, almost orgasmic. The snake didn’t release for a while, but hung limply from his skin. Argos didn’t seem to mind, enjoying the venom’s burn as it flowed through his veins. He closed his eyes and leaned back, exhaling slowly. The burning pain and toxicity traveling his system was easily countered with his Fury powers. But for the high to be pleasurable, it needed to hurt a little.
A few minutes later, Argos mumbled in a satiated whisper, “That’s enough for today.” He tried to get the snake off his arm; but instead of retracting as it usually would, it tightened its grip. Such feeble creatures thinking they can impose their will onto me, thought Argos, permitting himself a smile. He started flexing and tightening all the muscles in his forearm so strongly that the fangs were forced from the holes recently made in his skin. The startled snake released instantly, swinging his head back and hissing wildly, its three tongues flailing about.
The beast was clearly agitated, yet afraid at the same time. You are right to fear me. But when primal instinct overtook fear, the snake turned and flew at Argos’ throat, which did not go well with Argos. He caught the snake in midair with crushing force,
grinning. Sheer terror could now be read in its dimming eyes. He opened the palm he’d closed over the creature, and the snake exploded all around Argos’ throne, spilling yellow blood and guts on both his throne and himself.
Argos sighed and stood. He cleaned himself up by levitating every particle of splashed snake goop, incinerating them in a flash. Soon there was nothing left, not even ashes. At that moment he received an incoming transmission from the bridge.
“What is it?”
“We’ve received very interesting intelligence from the sensors you placed on the subject, Master. We have audio and video files you need to watch right away.”
Finally, some good news.
“Thank you,” he said, waving the holographic comm to the side to turn off the call.
He summoned another holographic projection with the intelligence data mentioned. He sifted through videos of new weaponry the Alliance had been working on, as well as a meeting with a female admiral. On one side of the table stood the emperor, giving the Alliance very specific information.
“That snake… I knew he would rebel eventually, but so soon?” he murmured at the screen.
The meeting outlined a mission to destroy Argos’ shipyard: a perfect setting to put the next part of his plan in motion. The universe always seemed to help him achieve his goals, if only he waited long enough. He hastily assembled a response: he had no problem with them crippling his current means of ship manufacture. Argos had plenty of ships in reserve. The target had strategic value to him, of course, but instead he saw ripe conditions for a trap. All that mattered to Argos was that Chase and his precious Sarah would soon be stumbling into his grasp.
He opened a holo-comm and commanded, “Get us to the shipyard, and recall all ships from the Xyrion sector to these coordinates. Their orders are to destroy any Obsidian ships they encounter there—” He verified and pronounced the coordinates of the Obsidian Empire fleet rendezvous with the Earth Alliance strike force, with anticipatory relish.
“Yes, Master.”
“Oh, and clone another Kyrian snake. Have it sent to my ready room.”
“Understood, Master.”
Argos waved the comm off with a flick of his right hand.
With the plan to ambush the strike force boiling in his mind, he rejoiced at the thought of teaching both Alliance and Droxian what it cost to defy him.
“Let’s have some fun, shall we?” he cackled, with a smirk on his face.
Onboard the EAD Hope, Chase arrived at Jupiter and meticulously tested each of the ship systems. It was ready for battle. The ship had dispatched training probes with incredible ease, even though they had their level set to maximum threat. He also tested the redundancy of all systems, main and secondary weapons, torpedoes and shields. All tests provided very satisfactory results. However, he still found himself longing to be in a starfighter, no matter how empowering it was to captain the most lethal warship the Alliance had ever built.
He decided to act on his impulse. He got up from the captain’s chair, looked at Major Sparton, and gave him the bridge without explanation. He took the lift to go visit Yanis in the engineering room: which on the EAD Hope was a thing of beauty. The dual quadrinium cores emitted a soothing hum.
“What can I do for you, Captain? I didn’t expect to see you here so soon. All systems are working perfectly—” Yanis began.
“I know, but I wanted to ask for a favor.”
“Haven’t I already designed the perfect ship? What more can I do?” he said, throwing his arms in the air.
“Relax. I wondered if you have time to install a remote neuronal link for me, perhaps to interface with my chair?”
“Why would you want to pilot a destroyer with your mind? Of course, in theory I could devise a way for you to fly and shoot with a link…”
“Can a neuronal link remote control two space craft?”
“Let me guess... You want me to link it to the F-147s as well?”
“Yep. Can it be done?”
“I don’t see why not. Since they all come with their own neuro-interface, it’s just a matter of installing a network remote control routine. But why would you want to do that?”
“I’m a fighter pilot. We are going on a critical mission to destroy a very important target. I don’t want to miss this battle for the sake of luxury.”
“You’re like a child, you know that, right? You’re captaining the most advanced ship of the fleet, perhaps even the most advanced ship ever created, and you still want to play hotshot?”
Chase didn’t answer, pondering. Was he? Was it so bad, wanting to fly the new F-147?
“Look... I just want to be part of the wing when we get there, and since I can’t be in two places at once…”
“It’s okay, you don’t need to justify yourself. You want to fly my StarCrusher, and so you will.”
“Yanis?” said Chase, raising his voice.
“Oh, did I say StarCrusher? I meant StarFury.”
Chase smiled.
“The jump to our destination will take thirty-five hours. Will that be enough time?”
“Plenty. No worries, Chase, I will have the modification made to your chair within the next few hours. But I think I’d better give you some commands on the Hope as well, so you can at least dispatch orders mentally while flying the starfighter with the neuronal interface. It will make it simpler for you to interact with your crew, while still receiving visual sensors and telemetry from both the Hope and F-147. Though I can’t be sure how your brain will react to you controlling two systems at once; it might be too much. Since the F-147s are already pre-loaded with your scripted commands, you may want to set it on autopilot from time to time, if the dual link becomes too stressful for you to handle.”
“Understood. I’m sure I’ll be fine, but thanks.”
“My pleasure. Now go play captain and let me tend to my ship.” Yanis laughed, waving Chase off with his hand.
“Your ship?”
“You know what I mean. Now go!” said Yanis with a wink.
Chase decided to go check on Sarah next, but she wasn’t in her quarters. Perhaps she hadn’t finished her tour of the ship or, better yet, maybe she went to see the F-147? Chase leaped at the golden opportunity. Once arriving at the launching bays, he started looking for the F-147, a huge grin on his face. He arrived before two of them parked side by side, right after the four Omega fighters the admiral had been kind enough to provide for their important mission. Indeed, the new model was quite a lot bigger than the original F-140 Thunderbolt. Then it hit him: there were supposed to be three F-147s. He activated his comm.
“Hey pal, it’s only been fifteen minutes since we last talked. What now?”
“Weren’t there supposed to be three StarFuries on board?”
“Yes. So?”
“So I’m in the launch bay now, and there are only two!”
“What? Are you sure?”
“Yanis, I think I know how to count to−”
But then something strange happened. A shape started to appear next to the other two ships, something blurry and distorted at first. It flickered for a few seconds until it took a more solid form, and finally became a fully formed F-147.
Chase exhaled and answered. “Never mind. It’s here.”
“Of course it’s there! Are you feeling well?”
“I’ll catch up with you later. Sorry for the interruption. Chase out.”
“No worries. Catch you later.”
The cockpit of the StarFury opened, and Sarah waved towards Chase with a big, radiant smile.
“I love this thing. It’s wicked!”
“You scared me! I thought we lost one of the ships.”
“You thought we lost it? I just climbed in to check it out, and tested the new neuronal HUD. I thought about becoming invisible and it happened! Didn’t mean to startle you, sorry.”
“That’s alright. I guess I’m a bit on edge. I was actually about to go rest in my quarters. Care to join?”
“I’ll come shortly. I’d like to go for a run first, if you don’t mind.”
“Sure thing. See you in a few?”
“You betcha,” Sarah said, beaming back a warm smile.
Chase entered his quarters, completely exhausted. There was just an hour left until the battlegroup would jump out of Earth space, and he hoped for a quick nap before Sarah would join him. He set an alarm for fifty minutes, so that he could be awake and ready to go on the bridge for the jump. He relaxed and let himself fall on his bed.
But instead of hitting the soft mattress, his body impacted with water. He jumped back to his feet, and realized he no longer was on board the Hope. He was somewhere else entirely.
He stood up in water reaching his thigh. The view was breathtaking. The planet he was on had three suns. Two of the stars emitted a yellow-orange glow, while the third one, hovering over the horizon and about to set, was blue; casting a cold, icy reflection on the translucent, pink-tinted water.
“Think fast!” he heard from behind.
As he turned he didn’t see anything but a growing shadow on the water. Finally, he looked up, and there was Ares arriving full force with both his hands joined, ready to smash him to smithereens. He barely managed to avoid the attack, though the huge splash and resulting shockwave still knocked him off balance, sending him flying into the water. He got up and assumed a fighting stance. It took a few seconds for the commotion and water spray to splash all the way down and clear, but Chase had already lost visual contact with his foe.
He closed his eyes and brought to bear his inner power. He focused first on gauging his energy levels, and becoming more mindful of his surroundings. Soon he felt a presence coming at him at very high velocity, from behind. He reacted instantly, jumping high in the air and firing a quick fireball where he’d just stood. Water once again flew upwards, stopping Ares in his tracks. Using the momentum of his jump, Chase launched an arching kick towards Ares who barely managed to block the attack. Chase smiled as Ares regained composure.
“Very good,” Ares said, smiling back, clearly surprised. “You’ve been training.”
Universe in Flames – Ultimate 10 Book Box Set: An Epic Space Opera Adventure Page 67