“Of all the places . . .”
“I know. Too many memories there. That’s why you left it in the first place.”
“Yeah . . .”
“Please, Chase. I’m sure Argos is after her. He made that very clear.”
“Look, if she’s on Earth, or will be on Earth soon, that’s probably the safest place in the universe right now.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure.”
“What do you mean?”
“She said in the potential futures she saw . . . Well, if you left Earth, most of those futures didn’t end well, for Earth or anyone else for that matter.”
“Here we go again . . .”
“Look, Chase, I know you hate all this. Prophecy, the future, fate.”
“You got that straight!”
“Nevertheless, if she sees chaos and death, I believe it might happen.”
“Not really my problem anymore.”
“I know, but please promise me you’ll protect her. That’s all I ask.”
Chase looked at Ares’ golden energy form and pondered what was asked of him. He didn’t care about anything but killing his brother now. The rest was background noise.
“Chase?”
“Alright, I’ll look after her, but only because of the respect I have for you.”
“Fair enough. Thank you, Chase.”
“You’re going to Elysium now?”
“We’ll see. You might still need my guidance in the coming days.”
“Guidance or emotional blackmail?” The moment he said it he regretted it. “Sorry, Ares, that was low.”
“It’s alright. I understand how you must feel. Thank you for listening to me.”
“Sure. What should I do with your body?”
“I didn’t think about it really. If you don’t mind, I’d like you to commit it to the stars.”
“You want me to space you?”
“My body, yes. From the stars it came; to the stars it shall return.”
“Very well, consider it done.”
“Thanks, Chase.”
“Anytime. See you around then?”
“We shall see.”
The golden aura dissipated, and soon Ares was gone.
5
On board the Iron Fire, Daniel sat in the captain’s chair. Ryonna’s contacts had come through. Apparently she had been right, and Chase had been seen fighting on the Ponos One station. They were about to exit hyperspace on their way there when Ryonna entered the bridge.
“Where’s Tar’Lock?”
“He’s resting. He didn’t get much sleep. Apparently a sound made by the hyperspace engine bothers him and he’s been really restless.”
“What has changed that he sleeps now?”
“I knocked him unconscious.”
“You what?”
“Look, I like Tar’Lock, but after two days without sleep he was driving me insane; plus we need him alert, so it’s a win-win.”
“Hope you went easy on him.”
She smiled. “Give me some credit, will you?”
“Alright.” Daniel was unable to restrain from chuckling.
“What’s so funny?”
“Nothing. I just had a mental image of you knocking him out.”
“He could have dodged. He is infinitely faster than any of us. I think he wanted it.”
“Alright,” said Daniel, still grinning.
“Where are we?”
“We’ll be there in less than an hour.”
“I hope Chase is still there.”
“You and me both.”
“What if he doesn’t want to come back?”
“We’ll make him.”
She laughed.
“What?”
“Do you really think we can make him do anything against his will?”
“I guess not. We’ll ask nicely, then.”
“Yeah, let’s do that, and pray he is in a better mood than when last we saw him.”
“Worst comes to worst you can try clocking him too,” said Daniel with a wink.
“I can try, but I’d rather not.”
“Look at it this way: if he wants to get his ass beaten, who better than you to do it.”
“I suppose there’s some logic in what you say.”
Argos sat on his throne, pensive, when he heard the hiss of his pet snake from within the jar next to him.
“Soon. I still have work to do now,” said Argos towards the jar.
He brought a holo-display to life and placed a call.
“Good day, Master.”
“How’s the subject?”
“Vitals are strong. Nothing to report.”
“Have you made the preparations I’ve requested?”
“Subject is ready for transport.”
“Very well. Make sure everything goes perfectly; I don’t have to tell you what would happen otherwise. I’ve dispatched twenty warships to accompany you to your destination.”
“Absolutely, Master. Thy will be done.”
Argos terminated the communication and flicked the video away. He then brought up a security bulletin. It showed his picture on a warrant, and apparently he was worth thirty-five million credits alive and forty million dead. That made him smile.
The Datalight Thieves Corporation didn’t like the fact that once his engineer was done with their help in cracking the Olympian’s communications encryption, he’d had them blown up. Argos despised DTs, so he’d never had any intention of letting them live, whether they succeeded or failed at their task. As for the warrant, he found it funny. As if there was any bounty hunter in the galaxy capable of stopping him. In any case, it brought attention to him, and perhaps that’s what he needed for the next part of his plan.
Now that his brother Laiyos’ resolve had been destroyed beyond repair, he would be easier to manipulate. Argos wished he didn’t need him, though. That last fight had been a close call.
“I can’t believe how strong he has become. I really need to tread carefully next time.”
Argos’ pride was what had been wounded most during their last encounter. Not in a million years did he imagine his brother would take the upper hand in that fight. It was unexpected to say the least. Ares had obviously trained him well. His own fight with Ares, however short and decisive it had been, clearly revealed a skilled and trained warrior. Qualities he must have passed along to Laiyos. But there was something else, something more, about Laiyos. Argos wondered what that was and how he had missed it before.
But by now he had no doubts that his brother would be spiraling down into oblivion. He had heard of his fighting on Ponos One, and he had no doubts that his spirit was crushed. It had been so simple to deceive him, though. But what had sealed the deal was when he controlled Sarah’s mind, making her tell him to shoot her ship.
The irony was that she had given him the idea. Her trapped consciousness had suggested it to him so many times, to have her killed. That was the beauty in all this.
Now Argos needed a plan to strike back at the Earth Alliance. They were increasingly becoming a more powerful annoyance. Their new technologies were ahead of those of the Zarlack fleet that had once given him a serious edge in battle.
But they seemed to be growing their new alliance faster than he ever could have anticipated. At least he had acquired some technology upgrades when he was controlling Sarah. Like cloaking. It had proven difficult to cloak a warship, but adapting the tech to the Dark Star proceeded without major issues. If his engineers could find a way to cloak a warship, even for a minute, he could strike at Earth and they wouldn’t even see him coming.
Argos knew he had to make a statement, some sort of show of force, and the sooner the better. His new shipyards were already churning out new ships and he still had more forces at his disposal than the Alliance, even if that snakehead of an emperor joined them.
That one I did not see coming, he admitted to himself.
But the Obsidian were immaterial to his long-term plans, and the Alliance w
ould soon be dealt with, with the help of his brother no less. He couldn’t help but smile.
Soon all he had worked towards in the last decade would come to fruition. It had been a long and difficult path. All of that thanks to his dear brother. His reluctance to help achieve their destinies more than a decade ago was why Argos had to do all of this now. They had never seen eye to eye and probably never would.
But it mattered not, as long as he could manipulate his brother into doing exactly what he needed him to, and to hell with him afterwards. Laiyos was dead to him the moment she died anyway.
Argos did not like the veil of darkness this memory suddenly cast upon his train of thought, so he lifted the jar and let the Kyrian snake bite him. As always, the effect of the beast’s venom was almost immediate. And soon Argos did not think of her anymore, that memory sinking back into the depth of his soul, where it belonged.
Chase returned the F-147 to the cargo bay of the Valken.
As requested he had spaced Ares’ body and observed as it floated in space for a moment, reflecting on everything Ares had told him.
He really dreaded returning to Earth. He worried all the memories of Sarah would rush back and screw with his mind again. But even if he hated to admit it, he was mostly ashamed facing his old comrades-in-arms, his friends. Even more so since he wasn’t exactly proud of what he had done during his time away. How low he had sunk.
He shook the thought away. There was no turning back. He had given Ares his word and he would not break it because of how bad he felt about himself. He just hoped he would find a clue to Argos’ whereabouts there. Because word or not, that was still his mission, his only reason to live at the moment.
I will avenge you both, Sarah and Chris.
The pain in his heart grew exponentially at the thought, and for a moment he wished he had some more Kyrian snake venom. “Anything?” he asked, back in the cockpit where Keera was waiting.
“I would have told you if there was, but I think I saw something for a brief moment at the very edge of our long-range sensors. I could swear I saw a fleet of some kind for a second but then it was gone. Should we investigate?”
“We need to go to Earth. Is it on the way?”
“It’s a little detour but not far off.”
“How much of a detour?”
“An hour perhaps.”
“Alright, let’s take a look first. Drop us there but not too close. I’ll take my cloaked ship the rest of the way. How good is your ship’s stealth engine?”
“Top of the line. I rarely get detected when I make stealth runs.”
“Rarely?”
“Well, no tech is perfect.”
“Roger that.”
“I saw you send . . . I take it that was Ares?”
“It was his request.”
“So he wasn’t dead when you arrived? He died in front of you, I’m so, so—”
Chase cut her off. “He was dead, alright.”
“You’re not making sense.”
Chase smiled, realizing how insane he must sound to others when he blurted out things like that.
“What’s so funny?” She raised an eyebrow.
“Nothing. I’m sorry. He still lives in energy form, so we had a little chat.”
“Boy, my life gets weirder and weirder since I met you.”
“Is that good or bad?”
“Only time will tell; for now, at the very least there’s no dull moment.”
“Right. Shall we go?”
“Entering hyperspace coordinates now.”
The Valken entered hyperspace and stars became lines in the canopy, the intense, bright light accompanying the change of velocity from sub-light to FTL speeds.
Keera put her hand on Chase’s shoulder. It startled him.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you there.”
“That’s alright. What can I do for you?”
She looked at him with compassion. “I just wanted to say sorry about your friend, or mentor or . . .”
“He was my mentor, but friend works too.”
“Sorry, Chase.”
“Thank you, Keera.”
“Want to talk about it while we get there?”
“Not really. Hope that’s okay.”
“Sure, just know you can talk to me if you need to.”
He smiled at her. “Thanks, Keera.”
She smiled back.
Chase couldn’t help thinking how sweet Keera was. This was out of character with the image he had of bounty hunters. It takes all kinds, I guess, no matter the job. There was no denying that her good nature and sweetness reminded him of Sarah. It felt both good and excruciatingly painful at the same time.
He liked seeing Sarah in her. That brought brief, happy memories to the surface; but almost immediately it brought deep and painful scars too. Chase wondered how long it would take for those scars to heal. He had no illusions. They would probably never disappear fully, but he hoped eventually they’d become more bearable.
Then again he didn’t care about living once Argos was dealt with; and it didn’t look as if the pain in his soul would heal before then.
Daniel was surprised how easy it had been getting to Ponos One. They had encountered Obsidian warships along the way but they had been nothing but polite, even going as far as proposing to escort the Iron Fire to its destination. Surely the emperor was behind all the pleasantries. He had entered negotiations to join the Earth Alliance. A concept with which Daniel had serious issues.
Then again, having fought the Obsidian for the last decade, how could he not? Sure, the emperor had helped and provided information about Argos’ secret nebula shipyard—which mostly proved useless. Daniel knew he couldn’t blame him for the trap. Having been their prisoner on Earth all that time he couldn’t have known that Argos would wait for them there, thanks to his hold on Sarah’s mind at the time.
Boy, that whole situation had been seriously fucked. Argos really played us like fools. And I fell for it as well.
Daniel chased the troubling thoughts away. He didn’t like where they were leading. Blaming himself did nobody any good, himself included. So he decided to keep drinking his Vol’Ran beer at the bar while Ryonna went ahead and fished for more information with Tar’Lock. It had been an hour, though, and he started wondering what was up.
“Hey, stranger, mind if I sit here?” said a beautiful, bright-pink-skinned humanoid that barely wore anything.
“Sure. Be my guest.”
“You’re a hot piece of meat, but you must know that, right?”
Daniel spat out some of his drink in surprise. “Beg your pardon?” He wiped his face and the counter with a napkin.
“I’ve been looking at you for a while, from over there.” She pointed at a sofa nearby, where many barely dressed humanoid females sat. Vol’Rans, Brins—all sorts.
“Not interested, but thanks.”
“How would you know? I’m very good at what I do.”
“I have no doubt you are.”
“Look, you seem like a nice guy. You can have the first pass for free.”
Daniel had never paid for sex before and even the idea of a freebie didn’t sound that appealing in his current state of mind. On the other hand, he’d started having a serious crush on Fillio in the last few weeks but he hadn’t had the guts to ask her out. Perhaps having fun with a pro would take his mind off things for a while.
“Free, you say?” as he passed his hand in front of his mouth.
“First pass only, but believe me you’ll want more of me.”
Daniel had converted plenty of quadrinium into credits.
“Let me pay for my drinks first.”
“Okay, big boy.”
The barman droid came immediately when Daniel raised his hand.
“What can I do for you, sir?” said the droid with a steely voice.
“How much for the beer?”
“It’s on the house, sir.”
“What? How come?”
“Obsidian covers your orders. They pay for your tab.”
“Of course they do. Would they pay for her as well?”
“They would if you bring back the receipt.”
“Right. Thanks.”
“No, thank you, sir,” said the droid, before moving on to the next customer.
“Hear that, baby? You can screw me all you want for free, it looks. Should I call some of my friends?”
The mental images from this professional pleasure specialist were getting out of hand and Daniel was aroused.
“Let’s just start with the freebie, okay?”
She smiled and closed her eyes. “Sure, let’s go, champ!”
He accompanied her through a series of corridors. They arrived at a door and when she put her thumb on the lock, the door unlocked and slid open. Light progressively came on within the room. A simple bedroom with a huge bed, illuminated with red and rose light sources from the ceiling. The light predominantly fell on the king-size bed.
“Get in, hot stuff.” She gestured him inside.
What was with this girl and all the cutesy names? he wondered as he took two steps inside. That was his last thought before feeling a sharp pain in the back of his head, and everything turned dark.
When he came to he was in an entirely different place. He opened his eyes slowly, but what became apparent even before his sight was restored was that he was seated and couldn’t move his limbs.
Crap! I should have known better.
He squinted and saw two blue-skinned humanoids. One was very well built and the older one had a seriously crazy look. They were looking at his side arm.
Great! Way to think with the wrong brain, Dan!
“Can I help you guys? I seem to have taken a wrong turn to the toilets.”
The old man growled and threw his gun on a table nearby. They both approached him. “That’s funny,” said the old man, gesturing to the younger one.
He clocked Daniel with a strong right jab.
“Ouch!” said Daniel.
“Where’s your friend? The one named Chase.”
“Who?”
Another jab, this time a left one, sent his head and some blood flying to the other side.
“Gentlemen, I think you made a mista—”
Before he could finish, the younger one punched him in the guts. For a moment Daniel thought he would refund his meal. Instead, he spat some blood on the floor and kept playing dumb.
Universe in Flames – Ultimate 10 Book Box Set: An Epic Space Opera Adventure Page 94