“That’s not true,” interrupted Padget, “I saw…”
“Shh,” said Vyleria. “I want to hear him speak.”
“For the past two days, I have been in discussion with one of the Scourge representatives. The negotiations were fraught with difficulty, but we were strong, we laid out our terms, that any deal had to be in the interest of all the citizens of Earth and not just a select few. The Scourge representative was hesitant at first, even hostile at times, but once he saw the steadfastness of our resolve, of our determination to fight on if our wishes were not adhered to, he bowed to our demands and agreed to an immediate ceasefire. That was five minutes ago; and now we have it - intergalactic peace in our time. As for the traitors whose reckless actions began this conflict – Jack Strong and his band of intergalactic criminals - their destruction heralds a new dawn, a new era between us and the Scourge, a fresh beginning amidst the stars…”
Jack couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Stormborn had sold him out, sold them all out, for a paper promise and a fistful of empty promises. Space had never seemed so empty.
Chapter Thirty-Seven: Between Dark Matter and a Hard Place
“Why are you smiling?” asked Vyleria. “You were miserable before, I’ve never seen you look so defeated.”
“Because he played me,” said Jack, looking out of the viewscreen towards Earth. Much of the smoke had cleared, but even now a few days after the Scourge attack several forest fires still smoldered away. “Played them too perhaps.” He looked at his holo-watch. Sighed. “Now I know what I’ve got to do, must...”
“What is it?” asked Vyleria.
“Nothing,” said Jack, trying to take his eyes away from his holo-watch. “At least nothing that can’t be helped. Once we lost the battle for Pluto President Stormborn had to come off the intergalactic fence. He just wants to save his own skin, even if that means making a dreadnut out of everyone on Earth.”
The ship started to shake with tremors.
Jack glanced upwards to see massed ranks of flying saucers and TR3-bs swarm over their position, laser and missiles rattling away.
“What are we going to do?” asked Vyleria. “Fight back, or retreat like you said?”
Jack shook his head, pressing a couple of buttons on his holo-watch. “We aren’t going to do anything; this is a one-way mission.” He kissed Vyleria on the lips. “Protect Earth at all costs.”
Jack looked on as his friends faded away before his eyes. What had he done? What he had to, for all their sakes. He zoomed in on the black hole bomb; it was just above the sea of tranquility now, its huge shadow eclipsing the Moon’s rugged surface. The lunar colonists probably wouldn’t survive the explosion, but it was a sacrifice he was willing to make. He jumped into the pilot’s console, hammered the correct co-ordinates into the star-map, aimed directly for the black hole bomb, let go.
Star-jump.
Chapter Thirty-Eight: A Way Out
Space fizzed, warped, blurred into a kaleidoscope of motion as Jack flew through space like a hammer.
He pierced the black hole bomb, its black putrid mass warping all around him. Ever since his last encounter with the Scourge’s most powerful weapon he had done calculations, performed tests. If he could activate his spaceship’s engines inside its superstructure then it would be enough to destroy it, give them a chance of victory. The problem was that it needed a pilot and there was no way he was taking Vyleria and the others with him. This was a one-way ticket; once the chain-reaction had started there was no way to stop it, no means to escape…
Jack looked around him, felt the dark matter seething and pulsing at his fingertips, desperate to consume, to burn him out of existence. He picked a random planet from the star-map, pulled the spaceship’s cursor over it, thought of Vyleria, his friends, let go…
There was an intense flash of light, followed by a high-pitched whine. For a second, he thought he was dead, that he was in heaven or something, but then he looked around and saw that he was lying on the floor of the spaceship. He looked through the view screen. The dark matter was still there, but it wasn’t moving; it was suspended somehow. Had his plan failed?
“You’re probably wondering what’s going on,” said a girl’s voice behind him.
Jack turned around, expecting to see Vyleria or Kat. Before him was a golden figure, light radiating out from her in all directions.
“Who are you?”
She smiled, hair waving around her small face like an eruption of daffodils. “The pilot,” she said.
“But I’m…”
“The crew,” she said, face beaming brightly. “All the functions that you perform come from me.”
“But that makes no sense.”
“Perhaps you should think of me as a highly advanced super-computer. I was implanted into the ship’s mainframe shortly before its launch; it allows you to perform functions that would be impossible for an ordinary ship. This is our main advantage over the Scourge ships.”
“So, you’re from the Galactic Alliance?”
“The last of a vanished race,” she said.
“No, they’re still alive, they exist in black holes now.”
“Yes, I know.”
“How?”
“You told me.”
“I did?”
She nodded, hair golden rain. “I know everything you know, learn everything you do; that way I evolve with my crew, develop; but that’s not important right now.”
“The war…”
“Yes, but the peace too; can you finish what you started and bring order to the galaxy, to the whole universe if need be?”
“I…”
“Because that’s what you have to do if I’m going to help you.”
“Help me? How?”
“Switch places; I can detonate the black hole bomb for you, let you go to help your friends.”
“Sorry, what?”
“But I need your promise, that you will do all you can to restore the Galactic Alliance – not the organisation as it was, that’s dead now – but it’s spirit of co-operation and exploration. Without this the various races that inhabit the universe will just go back to their old, squabbling ways, to their lust for violence and conquest; I won’t allow that to happen… can’t.”
“I understand,” said Jack.
“Do you? Or are you just saying that to save your life?”
Jack looked at the girl intently. Her whole being radiated with warmth, light. “If you truly know everything that I do, everything that I’ve experienced then you know the answer to that question. This war is the result of too many people wanting too many things too quickly at the expense of others. If we are to build a better future then that future must involve everybody, whether human or extra-terrestrial.”
The girl smiled. A golden sea flowing over golden sands.
“I take it that answers your question,” said Jack.
“It does.”
“Then help us!” said Jack.
“And I will, but first I need something from you.”
“Anything; you name it,” said Jack.
“I need you to give me your permission.”
“Permission for what?” said Jack.
“To destroy this ship, to sacrifice myself.”
“What?”
“It’s the only way, Jack; it’s the one chance you have of victory and survival.”
“But you’ll die.”
The girl smiled again. “Perhaps, but it’s the only way my life’s work can come to fruition. If I don’t do this, you will all die, and the Scourge will win. Jack, do this one thing for me, please.”
Jack found himself nodding. He was surprised at how quickly he had gone from acquiescing in his own death to embracing his one chance at salvation. “But then what?” he asked. “How do I fight the Scourge without this ship?”
“Look inside yourself Jack, it wasn’t this spaceship that helped you overcome your fears - it was you and you alone. You helped your friends escape the
grip of the Red Giant Star, survive the Xenti’s repeated attacks, escape from Area-51, and defeat the entire Asvari armada. You’re strong Jack, you always have been, and you always will be.”
“But…”
“Have faith Jack, that which you most desire will soon be in your grasp.”
“What do you mean?”
She reached out, touched his forehead. “What was that?” asked Jack. “My head feels…”
“It will pass,” she said. “I gave you a little help that’s all; something I’ve been working on ever since we first encountered the Scourge.”
“But what? I don’t…”
She swam before him, a glowing ball of light. “Now do you understand?”
“I guess,” said Jack, raising his hand to his forehead. “But why now? Why not earlier?”
“My programming… it prevented me.”
“And it doesn’t now? We could’ve saved so many lives.”
“Because you’ve freed me from my obligations.” She looked towards the huge smudge in space. “I’m finally free to make my own choices.”
Jack was silent for a while. “Before you go,” he said finally, shocked at how calm he sounded, “I want to know why me? Why not take somebody else from Earth? I’m a nobody really, I’m not particularly clever, and I wasn’t that brave when you took me.”
The girl smiled then for the last time. “We chose you because you had been bullied Jack; your experience at the hands of Gaz Finch and others like him allows you to understand and empathise with others less fortunate than yourself. This was the quality most-prized by the Galactic Alliance and it’s what makes you a true astronaut. You weren’t perfect Jack, nobody is, but in time you and your friends can grow into something greater than the sum of your parts.”
Jack looked her in the eyes. She spoke the truth. He felt it in his heart, in every fibre of his being.
“Goodbye Jack.”
The girl and the ship vanished in a searing explosion of light.
Chapter Thirty-Nine: Battlefield Earth
Jack’s fingers clutched cold, naked steel.
Even as he took in the view screen, the floating chairs and the illuminated panels, he could tell that this was not his ship, that it was different somehow… deficient. He strode up to the view screen and looked out into the depths of space. Beneath him Southern Africa radiated with a golden beauty, its feet girdled by a wide band of rain clouds. Ahead was an endless black expanse, punctuated only by a diadem of stars and a grey cratered moon. That and a black putrid mass, surrounded by a swirl of skull-like ships.
The Scourge.
Suddenly there was a bright silver flash, followed by a wave of light as the black ball cracked open like an egg. The electric tsunami pulsed outwards, incinerating every Scourge ship it touched. It was like all the volcanoes, tornadoes, and nuclear weapons in the world had been rolled-up into one and detonated. The Scourge fleet burned like moths to flame. Hundreds. Thousands. Millions. It was carnage, Armageddon on an intergalactic scale.
Jack watched as the gravity wave continued to spread outwards, carving a gargantuan channel across the face of the Moon, moving onto destroy space stations and satellites, before it dissipated in the upper atmosphere, clouds glowing with blue fire.
The Scourge fleet had been decimated, the surviving ships nothing but blackened husks, soon scattered by the solar wind.
Jack was about to proclaim victory when a few blips of light started to move towards Earth. More followed. Some had been shielded by the blast, others emerged from the depths of lunar craters and the tails of comets. Perhaps a hundred Scourge ships remained. They were moving quicker now, zipping through space like pebbles over a pond.
Jack jumped into the pilot’s console, felt circuitry fold around him, infusing every pore. He activated the sonic cannon, released a white-hot stream of projectiles into the grisly fleet. Half a dozen ships exploded upon impact, flesh and metal raining down on rainforests, deserts and Veldt. But then the Scourge squadrons began to break-up into packs of six, their putrid underbellies dropping an iron rain onto the cities of Earth: New York, Washington D.C, London, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Istanbul, Baghdad, Delhi, Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo. The list was endless.
Jack dived in for the kill, shooting as many dreadnuts out of the sky as possible. But it was no use, there were too many of them, for every hundred he killed another thousand took their place. This was it: the end of the world, a mechanised holocaust on an intergalactic scale.
His body vibrated with motion. He spun around and noticed ten Scourge ships on his tail. The clouds flared with percussion, light. He tried to dive down, weather the storm and shoot more dreadnuts but it was no use he was taking too much fire. An anonymous town beneath him took the bulk of their fire, its streets, parks and houses destroyed in an instant. Smoke billowed like the army of the dead. He pulled-up into a steep climb above the Pacific Ocean and headed back into space. Too many people had died in this war already, he didn’t want to add any more to the total. The vacuum embraced him like a velvet glove. Like a dart, he flew towards the North Pole, to where the Earth and Asvari fleets were waiting, watching mute as their cities turned to cinders and ash.
“What are you waiting for?” said Jack. “The Scourge are attacking Earth; I don’t know how long we have left.”
“Orders,” said a gruff voice in his ear. “From President Stormborn. I don’t expect you to understand, but…”
“I understand the chain of command and the deal he struck, but the Scourge are attacking now - most of the main cities are aflame; surely that’s proof that the Scourge have reneged on the deal and that Stormborn has lied to you?”
“Don’t you think I haven’t queried my orders?” said the man. “I’ve asked to intervene on five separate occasions now.”
“And what did Stormborn say?”
“He said not to worry – that he was dealing with it – but that his orders still stood.”
“How is he dealing with it?” said Jack, looking down at North America as a black pall of smoke hung over Chicago, Boston and New York. “Where are the reinforcements? Where is the counter-attack? Where is the cunning master-stroke to end all this? All I see is a bleak acquiescence, a tacit surrender to the Scourge’s will.”
“I…”
“What about the Asvari?” asked Jack. “I understand why the Americans won’t intervene, but why not you?”
“Where they go, we go,” said a voice that spoke in his head. “We stand together, we fall together.”
“But their cities are burning, all your dreams are turning to ash. If Ros was here…”
“But he isn’t,” said the voice. It sounded like rustling leaves in his mind. “This is the decision that we have made. Never again will we be separated from the humans.”
“That remains to be seen,” said Jack.
“What do you mean?”
“I didn’t come alone,” said Jack, looking into the pitch-black distance. “I was followed.”
Ten shadows sprung out of the horizon like sabre-tooth tigers. Earth’s upper atmosphere exploded with weapons fire as half a dozen Scourge vessels arrowed in on his position, trying to blast him out of the sky. He skimmed over the white mat beneath him, returning fire as blue lightning spat from the nose of his ship, cutting two of his pursuers to shreds. Then he doubled back towards the Earth and Asvari fleets, wincing as the first laser rounds skimmed his hull and ploughed into the massed ranks of waiting ships. The TR3bs and flying saucers broke formation straight away, engaging the enemy at point blank range as the upper atmosphere was turned into a shooting gallery. Explosions littered the deep black of space, vessels tumbled to their icy graves, survivors detonated escape pods, finding solace either in a watery grave or else an icy tomb. When it was over smoke twirled from the pack ice like demented party-streamers. Death was everywhere.
Except where it mattered the most.
One last Scourge ship plunged towards the swirling black clouds, only for Jack to
realise that they weren’t clouds at all. The ship was spraying a thick treacle-like material into the Earth’s atmosphere. Whatever it was it was spreading, infecting cloud after cloud. It got thicker and denser, becoming more solid with every passing second. Soon it had spread over the continental United States, then it moved over Central America, then out across the Atlantic and over Europe. Asia, Africa and South America were next. A huge black curtain was being drawn over the world, blotting out all light, all life. The end of days had arrived and there was nothing that he could do about it.
Chapter Forty: Ground Zero
Vyleria zoomed in with her space lens’ at the distant speck of silver as it pierced the black hole bomb, sending gigantic black shards of anti-matter in all directions. Space erupted like a thousand volcanoes; the Scourge fleet boiled away before her eyes. She scanned for what felt like an eternity for a sign of their spaceship. Nothing but the solar wind.
And a million burning ships.
Jack…
Vyleria stared at the spit-grimed pavement. Mute. Motionless. A thousand suns burned within her heart. She could barely breathe, felt sick to her stomach. Why did he do it? Why did he save her and not himself? She was nothing without him, a stray leaf tossed on the wind. Even now she could feel her heart breaking, her soul ripping in two.
What felt like an eternity later a sea of noise and flashing lights infiltrated her vision. She got to her feet, not realizing she had been on her knees; took in the swirling riot of colour, then half staggered, half turned around.
She looked down the barrel of a gun.
“Step to the side Ma’am and then put your hands on the vehicle.”
Vyleria glanced back from the police car to the policeman. His pistol was still pointed at her head. Why this? Why now? She thought about knocking the gun from his hands, stealing his car and then making a run for it. But there was no fight left in her. She was drained, empty. She wanted to go to sleep and never wake up. Dimly, she found herself stepping into the police car, a pair of handcuffs snapping shut around her wrists.
Jack Strong and The Last Battle Page 16