Universe in Flames – Ultimate 10 Book Box Set: An Epic Space Opera Adventure

by Christian Kallias

  “What happened?” he asked his crew.

  “It looks like the behemoth ship fired a single, concentrated shot of plasma on your remote fighter; it was destroyed from the direct hit.”

  “Son of a...” swore Chase.

  He had been too cocky, not paying attention and feeling indestructible, and Argos had taught him a lesson. That meant only one thing though: he had felt that Chase wasn’t physically present on the ship. He could sense his vital energy somehow. Chase closed his eyes and tried to concentrate on Argos. If his brother could do it, perhaps so could he. He tried to expand his mind and quiet down every external stimuli emanating from the bridge, but instead of calming himself, his mind got agitated, his thoughts went all over the place beyond his control until chaos ensued. He then received three quick flashes in his mind.

  He saw Daniel and Sarah meet with Spiros. Then he saw himself fighting Argos onboard the station. And finally, he saw a StarFury explode in space.

  The power of the images cut the wind from his lungs and he felt a terrible sense of dread and anxiety invade his mind and permeate throughout his body. It was as if someone had stepped on his grave, and no matter what he did, he couldn’t seem to catch his breath.

  “Captain! Are you alright? Should I call a medic?”

  What the hell was that?

  Was it the future he just saw in those millisecond flashes? And if it was, what did they mean and whose StarFury would get destroyed? Perhaps the StarFury was a flashback from losing his own ship a few seconds ago…?

  “Captain?!” said the crewman, even more alarmed now.

  Chase’s breathing became a little more constant, breath by breath.

  “No, thank you, Ensign Boldaris. I’m fine... I think.”

  “Aye aye, Captain.”

  As Daniel and Sarah approached the shields of the Damocles Station, he hailed it.

  “This is Commander Tharraleos. I’m coming to get you out of the station. Can you please open a portion of the shields around docking bay three?”

  “Give me a sec... There you go, you’re clear to land. I’m in the command center on deck one.”

  “Roger that. Hang tight, we won’t be long.”

  Daniel was the first to touch down on the floor of the docking station, followed immediately by Sarah. They exited their respective StarFuries, both drawing out their weapons. For Daniel, it was his service blaster pistol. For Sarah, the weapon she’d acquired on Hathan Prime.

  Then, without exchanging a word between them, they began running for the nearest lift.

  Argos was onboard the cloaked Dark Star when the shields were briefly lowered around one of the docking stations. He positioned his ship right behind the two StarFuries and waited for his moment of opportunity, hovering silently until they exited the bay on foot. Then he landed the Dark Star and got out of the ship. Since he was seeing everything Sarah was seeing, it wasn’t difficult for him to follow their steps.

  When they took a lift to the top level deck, he pushed a mental command so Sarah would send the lift back to him undetected. When it arrived, he stepped inside and selected deck one as well.

  29

  After three minutes of sprinting, both Sarah and Daniel arrived at the command center and were greeted by Spiros, who was in a sparkling good mood.

  “Is this a reunion?” he asked. “Weren’t you also one of my students at the academy?”

  “That’s right,” said Daniel with a smile. “How are you, Professor?”

  “Better now, and please, call me Spiros.”

  “Alright, do you have the data containing your research?”

  Spiros held up a translucent, blue, hexagonal data crystal pinched between two of his fingers. “Right here. We’re good to go.”

  A loud voice boomed suddenly behind them.

  “Nobody is going anywhere.”

  Daniel’s heart skipped a beat when he saw Argos enter the room. He raised his blaster and fired three shots but the man stopped them with a simple wave of his hand.

  “Really?” He cocked his head mockingly. “You think a gun will bring me down?”

  Daniel opened a channel to Chase. “Chase, Arg—” But before he could finish his sentence, Argos had appeared in front of him and punched him in the guts so hard that he lost consciousness on the spot.

  “Daniel, I didn't get your last transmission. What’s your status?”

  Chase’s voice echoed over the comm as Argos caught Daniel’s body before he could fall all the way to the ground. He looked up at Spiros and saw pure terror in the man’s eyes.

  “I’ll take this, if you please.” He snatched the crystal disk out of Spiros’ hand with his mind.

  Spiros was startled to see the disk fly from his hand to Argos’ as if by magic.

  “It’s useless if you don’t know how to open the files.”

  “That’s the last of my worries right now, old man.” Argos smiled.

  Spiros turned in desperation to Sarah, but saw her just standing there. “Why aren’t you trying to get the disk back?” he wailed. “What’s wrong with you?”

  She launched at Spiros and clocked his head with her elbow, smashing his head down on a nearby console before he collapsed to the ground with a thud.

  Argos didn’t even look up. “Thank you, dear. Now open a channel to the Hope.”

  She pushed Spiros’ unconscious body out of the way and entered a few commands. The next second, a nervous looking Chase appeared on the screen.

  “What is it, Sarah?”

  Argos grabbed Daniel by his hair and held him up as he stepped into view next to Sarah.

  Chase’s blood froze.

  “Friend of yours?” Argos asked curiously. “His head seems so fragile.”

  “If you hurt him...”

  “I don’t think you’re in any position to be threatening me right now. I have both your friend and your beloved Sarah here. Oh, and this.” He held up the crystal with the other hand.

  Chase ground his teeth together and tried to stay calm. “What do you want?”

  “Come and get me,” Argos said directly. “You have three minutes or this one dies.”

  As the communication ended, Chase had to use everything he had learned from Ares not to let his rage literally rip the galaxy in half. In a dead sprint, he ran to the door.

  “Captain, where are you going?” inquired Sergeant Sparton.

  “You have the bridge,” Chase called back as he bolted to the launch bays. He arrived just a second later, but to his great dismay, there was no ship. He commed Yanis immediately, glancing up at the clock in terror.

  “Yanis’ genius hotline. How may I help you today?”

  “Don’t we have a shuttlecraft of any kind or a reserve ship?”

  “There should be a shuttle, why?”

  “I need to go onboard Damocles-3, NOW!”

  Yanis sobered up at once. “Lemme check… The logs show it departed while we were still inside the Gatos Nebula. Why don’t you recall one of the StarFury or Omega fighters?”

  “I don’t think I have time anymore,” Chase panted. “Gotta go, thanks.”

  “Sure, any—”

  Chase turned off the comm. It must have been the craft the emperor took when he left the ship. “Think, Chase...Think!” he said to himself, trying to make his brain run faster.

  Then an idea popped into his head. Crazy? Sure. But did he have a choice? No.

  He quickly accessed his inner pool of energy and made a shield all around him. The blue energy coursed effortlessly back and forth as he tested it, making sure it would hold. When he was satisfied, he took a deep breath, said a silent prayer, and dove headfirst off the ship.

  The second he was out in space, he tucked his limbs against his body like a bullet, leaving a small shockwave behind him as he accelerated towards the Damocles Station. In no time at all, he was travelling at a speed faster than a starfighter. He almost collided with a StarFury on his way and could sense it was Fillio’s. He even heard her
train of thought in his mind as he passed only a few feet from her craft. “Holy shit… What the fuck was that?!”

  He was almost upon the station when he remembered about the shields. He extended his hands in front of him and made a diamond shape, linking both his index fingers and thumbs together. A fraction of a second before impact, he unleashed a bright ray of light that made the shields flicker and created a small hole, just big enough for him to fly through. A few seconds later, he entered the launching bays where he saw two StarFuries as well as the black ship that had taken Sarah hostage in his first encounter with Argos in space around Earth.

  He brushed the thought of destroying the ship away, knowing full well he was running out of time and Argos could kill both Daniel and Sarah if he did. Instead, he flew towards the nearest lift, blew the doors open with a fireball, and flew up the empty shaft. Less than three seconds later, he reached the end of the tube where the lift stood and blocked his way out.

  With a great mental push, he flattened the lift’s cage to a third of its original size like it was made of carton. Sparks flew all over the place as he flew through the now accessible external doors, tearing them to shreds as he finally arrived in the corridor on deck one. The sheer velocity and trajectory of his flight path made him rebound a couple of times from nearby walls, until he managed to readjust his trajectory for the final stretch towards the command center. Upon impact with the closed doors at the end of the corridor he obliterated them and flew in like they weren’t there.

  Argos and Sarah jumped back in shock. But Chase wasn’t nearly finished. He landed just a few feet from Argos, who was still holding Daniel, his eyes glowing purple with rage.

  “This is between you and me. Put him down, gently,” he ordered.

  Argos laughed cruelly but looked genuinely surprised. “You’ve made some impressive progress, brother. Did you just fly over here?”

  “Put... him... down,” Chase repeated.

  “What if I don—”

  But before Argos could finish his sentence, Chase flew over and snatched Daniel’s body away. He lowered it gently to the floor a few yards away, checked for a pulse, and then got up to face his brother.

  “I told you… this is between us.”

  “Impressive speed. But you can’t hope to defeat me.”

  Chase ignored him and looked at Sarah. She seemed unnervingly calm and silent under the circumstances. A faint unease tugged at his stomach, but he nodded in her direction.

  “You good, love?”

  She nodded yes and Chase stared back at Argos with confident eyes.

  Argos threw back his head and laughed out loud. “Love,” he repeated, “would you be so kind and take this.” He threw the crystal disk and she caught it robotically. “Take it away from here. I suggest you avoid the ships outside by using your StarFury’s cloaking ability.”

  Chase turned to her in slow motion and her eyes flashed red.

  It hit him like a battering ram to the heart. A million little questions were finally answered. A million little pieces suddenly clicked into place.

  The sleepwalking, confusion, dizziness, eerie calm. She’d been under his influence all along. She was the spy. Unwillingly, of course. But the spy nonetheless.

  Before he could stop her, she turned her back to both of them and started running down the corridor without even a look behind.

  Chase was shaken, anchored to the spot. He felt a strange tearing in his chest, like she was taking his heart with her, but his feet were unable to move. As the sound of her footsteps faded away, he turned slowly back to Argos. A fury building inside his blood like no other.

  “Come on now, Laiyos,” Argos taunted, “show me these new moves of yours. And this time, give me all you’ve got!”

  Chase gritted his teeth. “Who’s Laiyos?”

  “You are. That’s your birth name, by the way, ’cause I am sick and tired of calling you Chase!”

  In his current frame of mind Chase couldn’t care less what his birth name was. All he cared about was killing Argos, right here, right now. And as much as he’d like to savor the moment, he had to do that fast to make sure they didn’t lose Sarah and the precious disk. Not a single soul in the Alliance could risk that information falling into the wrong hands.

  He instinctively sent a telepathic message to Yanis, hoping he would get it.

  Yanis, please tell me you can find any StarFury even if it’s cloaked! You need to make sure you track the one that will exit the station in a few moments.”

  There was a brief silence before the words On it! echoed back in his mind.

  Argos was impatient. “Well, since you’re not gonna make the first move—”

  He lifted his hand, but Chase answered with two ice-blue fireballs that he sent sailing his brother’s way. Argos raised his palms to deflect them just in time. They crashed into the walls instead, sending sparks and broken equipment scattering across the floor.

  His eyes lit up and he smiled at Chase. “My turn!”

  A red fireball shot through the air towards Chase, who managed to catch it before it ripped a hole in his stomach. The force of it sent him skidding back several feet across the floor, but with a good deal of strength, he was able to slowly dissipate it with his hands. Little red lightning bolts shot up and down his body as he raised his head, his eyes glowing purple.

  “Impressive. You learn fast.”

  Then Argos threw himself at Chase with lightning speed, launching a circular kick towards Chase’s head. Chase parried with his elbow and sent Argos flying back where he came from by kicking him straight in the thorax with incredible force. But while that may have been enough to kill a normal person, Argos was back on his feet in an instant. He leapt upon Chase again with a left blow that ended up being a feint for a right uppercut and caught him by surprise, sending him hurtling up towards the ceiling with tremendous force.

  He dented the metal upon impact with an excruciating thud, and on the way back down, he was greeted with a fireball in front of his face. He rotated in midair and grabbed Argos’ arm just in time to affect the attack’s trajectory, as the fireball flew towards a wall nearby, grazing Chase’s cheek and making a small incision on his skin in the process. The fireball exploded on the wall, damaging equipment and creating a flurry of sparks and electrical short circuits around impact. Using his current momentum, Chase then spun around and slammed Argos against the floor, which promptly cracked under the shock. Chase then kicked his brother in the face with so much force he sent him flying and promptly crashing against the nearest window. The glass slightly cracked under the impact, and Argos spat blood from his mouth.

  Argos barely managed to keep his balance, almost stumbling down, but he somehow managed to stay up. When he rose all the way back up he wiped blood from his mouth with the back of his hand.

  “Well, now I’m pissed,” he hissed between bloody teeth.

  He blinked out of existence and re-appeared behind Chase, hitting him full force with an elbow below Chase’s shoulder blade. Chase felt two of his ribs crack and the sharp pain that followed made him miss the upcoming kick to his face. He flew, spinning in the air, as Argos leapt in pursuit—both hands joined over his head as he smashed Chase into the ground in a fluid and incredibly powerful motion.

  Chase gasped with pain as he hit the cold floor. Another rib snapped upon impact, but before he could recover his senses, Argos grabbed him by the hair and hit him so hard in the face, for a moment he lost consciousness. Argos threw Chase away against the nearest wall.

  “You’re going to want to wake up, brother…”

  The words echoed in Chase’s head and made him come to, a second before he would have crashed into the incoming wall. Instead, he was able to flip around and push off with his feet, flying back at Argos with unthinkable speed and clocking him with a powerful blow to the face, followed by a left hook. Using his momentum while Argos lost balance from the successive blows, he threw Argos flying upward with a flying uppercut. The sheer v
elocity and power of the attack sent Chase on the same path as his prey.

  Being in position to strike again, Chase grabbed Argos’ head with both hands in mid-air, and landed four successive knee kicks to his face, one more powerful than the other, spilling his brother’s blood all over the place.

  Chase then promptly grabbed his brother by the throat and he stood there, levitating while Argos’ limbs dangled and blood dripped downwards to the floor of the Damocles-3 command center.

  He tightened his embrace and little by little crushed Argos’ windpipe as he prepared to throw a power punch, but not before making sure an ice-blue fireball engulfed his entire fist. He punched him again and again on the face, each hit bruising Argos’ face more and more, facial bones cracking under the power of each new blow. Chase then released his grasp on Argos and let the artificial gravity get a hold back on his brother once more. Argos crashed to the ground with a satisfying thud.

  Not willing to let go of his current advantage, Chase, who still hadn’t moved, levitating high in the air, unleashed a flurry of powerful fireballs towards Argos at an incredible rate. The successive impacts and resulting explosions propelled Argos in the air once more and his body crashed, face first, against the floor a few yards away. Smoke rose from his motionless body.

  Chase never knew he could unleash so much violence. Never knew he could hit someone so many times and still pull back for more. In the end, Argos’ face was unrecognizable. Almost every bone was dented in and every square inch of skin had been savaged and torn.

  Chase lowered to the ground and took a step back, panting. His power levels were down by more than half, but he used a little more still, putting his hand on his side to heal his broken ribs.

  Argos was slowly regaining consciousness, pulling himself weakly across the floor, but despite the fact that one more fireball could probably finish him off, Chase paused.

  Could he really take the life of his own brother? Argos was evil, mad and needed to be stopped—no question. But in Chase’s moments of unbridled rage, were they really so different, he wondered.