Darbian wondered if Aculpus had betrayed him once again. He thought that Aculpus should have been gone by now, but realized that he did, just as promised, distract Halinkoy from destroying the Earth.
Aculpus engaged the controls of his ship. “My duty is to fulfill my oath to the Rites of Morolith. I’m honor bound to do so. I’ve traded aid to Darbian for my freedom. Goodbye Halinkoy; you’re an unworthy arbiter of justice. You punished me despite my faithful service. Now, I go to seek another way and to leave you to your fate.”
“You filth!” Halinkoy opened his globe.
Aculpus’ ship zipped past the Tammeder fleet and into the depths of space.
“Don’t worry about him metal head,” Darbian said. “And for that matter, don’t worry about me. I may be the last Warden, but that’s not important right now. There’s a boy you need to talk to.”
“It won’t work this time Warden. I’ve made improvements,” Halinkoy stuck his nose in the air.
Darbian dipped his head and smirked. “No, there’s a human being inside your head…and he loves his son. And there’s something about these humans and their sentimentality. It’s something even untold brilliance can’t overcome.”
Halinkoy focused his gaze on Darbian. “This planet is about to die and you with it.”
Darbian looked to Micah. “Talk to your dad, my boy. I’m sure he’s listening.”
Micah walked into view. “Dad, are you in there?”
Halinkoy saw the boy and struggled to maintain his composure. He waved his hands profusely.
“Dad, we’re coming to rescue you. We’re going to bring you back home so you can see mom again, but right now I need your help.” Micah opened his palm and reached toward the screen.
Halinkoy dropped to his knees and moaned in pain. “Fire on the planet! Destroy the planet! Destroy the planet and everything in the path!”
A Tammeder solider swung around from his post. “Supreme One, what about the expeditionary force?”
“Fire on everything!” Halinkoy gripped his head.
Halinkoy’s ships fired on the planet once again; however, this time, the Tammeder pods were in the line of fire. One by one, they were destroyed as they absorbed most of the firepower of the battle ships.
Gregorical evaded every single blast.
“Elizabeth,” Darbian spoke into his communicator. “It’s time, my lady. Activate the Convergence!”
“Goodbye, Mom! I’ll see you again someday," said Micah.
Back on Earth, Elizabeth heard the cry of Darbian and the farewells of her only son. “Goodbye Micah. Goodbye Darbian. Goodbye spaceship. Godspeed to you all.” She pressed the blue button on the side of the Convergence.
Instantly, a bright blue light encircled the planet. It jumped to the moon and encircled it. The light traveled in every direction and consumed every planet, every moon, every asteroid, every comet, and even the sun itself. Within the time it takes for the glimmer of a star to shine down on a planet, the entire solar system disappeared.
The only things left in place were the Tammeder fleet along with Gregorical and his tiny crew.
“What did you do Darbian?” cried Halinkoy. “What did you do? Where did it go?
Darbian threw his arms up. “That’s the beauty of the plan, Halinkoy. I don’t know where it went.”
Halinkoy slammed his fist on the console in front of him and sparks flew as it cracked in half. “Blow them out of the sky!”
In the very next instant, bright flashes consumed the space around each ship.
The light was so intense that not a soul kept from covering his eyes.
One large, vibrating wormhole appeared behind Halinkoy's ships.
Each of the craft were sucked into the wormhole with such ferocity that a simple kite would have had a better chance of escaping a tornado.
Another wormhole appeared behind Gregorical.
He and his crew were swallowed up all the same.
Each wormhole closed and flashes of light leapt through the empty space like a lightning bolt traveling from cloud to cloud.
“Sir, we have a problem,” said Gregorical.
Darbian’s knees went weak. “What in the blazes is happening?”
“None of my sensors are reading anything sir. I would guess that…” Gregorical’s speech became garbled.
“Gregorical, are you there?” Darbian cried.
There was no response.
The Earth and the entire solar system reappeared in a far-flung portion of the universe, but on the surface below, the people were taking stock of the attack they had just suffered.
In the middle of Garden City, a military convoy drove up close to the old Palace Hotel. They stopped as soon as they approached a cordoned off area.
A solider approached the door of one of the trucks, gripped the handle, and opened it. “Colonel Russell, sir.” He saluted.
“What exactly did we find here?” said Colonel Russell.
“We’re not sure what it is, but we think it broke off from one of the spaceships flying around the city. We think it’s been here since last week when the initial invasion by Vinitor occurred,” the soldier said.
The two walked a few yards until they were forced to squeeze into an alleyway. There they looked over a large hunk of white metal.
“Why did it take us so long to find it?” Colonel Russell asked.
“Sir, it moved,” the solider said.
“Moved? Well, who moved it?” Colonel Russell tensed his shoulders. “Are they contaminated in any way?”
“No sir, it moved on its own,” the soldier said.
“What?” exclaimed Colonel Russell.
“Traffic cameras confirmed that, sir. Not only that, but ever since we initially observed it earlier today…well, it’s been growing.”
“Growing? What in the blazes is this thing?” Colonel Russell said as he took a step away.
“I was speaking to Dr. Hendrickson earlier, and she thinks we can reverse engineer it,” the solider said.
Colonel Russell “But can we weaponize it?”
“Yes, we think we can,” said Dr. Hendrickson as she approached from behind.
“Good, it’s high time the aliens, whoever they are, stop fighting over our planet like a child’s toy. Thousands around the world are dead from today’s attack…whole cities leveled.” Colonel Russell became more gruff with every word.
“We need a game changer,” said Dr. Hendrickson
“We need to be ready to fight back,” said Colonel Russell.
To Be Continued…
THANK YOU!
If you enjoyed the book then please consider leaving a review on Amazon and/or Goodreads.
I sincerely hope you did enjoy it and I’d like to thank you for your purchase!
The Accidental Astronaut represents the first installment in the Among the Stars series. The second installment will be published soon! Among the Stars: The Midnight Plot will be available on Amazon! If you want to keep up with the release schedule then follow me over at https://www.matthewkwyers.com
THANK YOU AGAIN!
About the Author
A lifelong fan of speculative fiction, Matthew K. Wyers decided one day to put his overactive imagination to work. He has focused on middle grade fiction because he wants to inspire young people to see the good in the world and in turn embody that goodness so they can positively influence the world around them.
That’s why he writes about classic battles between good and evil. The children need to understand that darkness cannot overcome light, and so they have a choice to make in their own lives. Will they wallow in the darkness or shine a light?
Known to his friends simply as Matt, he is a native of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. There you can find him cheering on the Crimson Tide, exploring country roads, or eating lots of Mexican food.
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