The Blackstar Gambit

by Jan Domagala

  He aimed for a spot on the ground just over a small hillock out of sight of the settlement and glided down to the ground.

  The closer he got he felt the gravity affect him, pulling him, trying to flatten him to the ground. Pain burst through his entire body. It was so sudden he almost lost control of the switchblade.

  Gritting his teeth through the agony, he fought to get the small craft on the ground without crashing.

  11.30 s.e.t.

  The freighter had landed on a pad near the settlement and was instantly covered by a dome for protection.

  Zara was still in her quarters in the yacht, she’d been left alone after her encounter with Visjic.

  As they landed she felt something strange, her body began to ache. Progressively the pain increased until she was in agony, like a million tons of dirt was weighing her down, slowly forcing her down to her knees as the weight increased.

  Visjic appeared in the doorway. He looked at the pain etched across her face.

  “The gravity here is greater than that of your native world,” he told her nonchalantly, as if that explained everything.

  “That explains a lot,” she muttered as she looked up at him. Not wanting to appear weak in front of her captor, she forced herself to stand.

  She had an idea what was happening but without proof, she wasn’t sure. She would need to test her theory and the time for that would come soon, she was sure of it.

  “I would offer you a compensator suit but I prefer you like this, continually aware of your surroundings. It will remind you of the futility of hope,” he told her smugly.

  “I’m not sure I follow,” she groaned.

  “There is no hope of you escaping, the sooner you accept that the better.”

  “For whom?” she asked.

  With a smile he replied, “Why, me of course.”

  Two other figures appeared behind Visjic, both wearing compensator suits. These suits fully encompassed the wearer and had a tank on the back, which pressurised the interior of the suit to ease the pull of this world. Along the arms and legs were supporting rods that augmented the wearer’s strength helping them to perform various tasks more easily.

  “Come with me,” Visjic said as he turned away from her. His confidence made her want to rip his head off but for the moment she contained that urge. She stepped out of her quarters to follow him; the two guards fell in step behind her. The compensator suits worn by them powered their movements allowing them to move freely in the heavier gravity.

  Zara’s movements were slower, more sluggish than normal as she struggled to keep up.

  She followed Visjic from the freighter across an area of open ground towards the settlement. The night air was crisp and clean and refreshing after the air-conditioned interior of the starship. She was surprised by it, somehow she had expected it to feel thick and heavy, almost oppressive, and yet it was completely the opposite. It wasn’t the air holding her down, but the gravity.

  As she entered the first domed structure, she looked around at the interior. Everything was bulky and sturdy to withstand the increased gravity. She looked around to get her bearings; if she were going to escape from here, she would need to know every detail.

  As she looked around Visjic walked over to a wall. Hidden in the wall was a panel that he operated. A door slid across revealing an elevator shaft.

  “Get in,” Visjic ordered sullenly.

  Things had just taken a step for the worse.

  22

  11.40 s.e.t.

  Kurt dismounted the switchblade carefully. His whole body was wracked with pain right through to his bones.

  It had been an effort of unbelievable proportions to make the controlled descent required to land safely, but he had done it.

  Straightening his back against the huge pull of the heavier gravity, he let out a breath. He tried to relax as he listened to his body, tried to hear what he was being told, to learn what was happening to him.

  He felt strange as the pain eased, a feeling of unbelievable confidence swept through him as he realised what had happened.

  With a smile playing across his lips, he made his way to the settlement.

  11.45 s.e.t.

  Zara entered the elevator followed by the two guards and then finally by Visjic.

  She began to feel better on the way down and as the doors opened, she felt fine.

  Visjic was the first to depart the interior of the elevator onto a metal walkway. Zara followed careful not to give away how she felt. She slowly came to stand next to the smaller man.

  “What do you think?” Visjic asked as he swept his arm over the rail to indicate what was beneath them.

  Zara strolled over to the balcony and looked. The floor was at least fifty feet below and was vast. The area she was looking at was as large as two football fields and filled with vats. Each of these vats was as tall as a man and connected via a series of pipes to each other and a large unit at the far side of the room.

  Each vat held a figure attached to a series of wires and tubes. Zara focused in on the nearest vat and saw the figure was that of a man. Each vat held a person immersed in a liquid of some kind, and there were hundreds of vats.

  “These are my family,” Visjic told her proudly.

  11.50 s.e.t.

  Kurt reached the settlement and started to look around.

  The buildings were, as he would have expected on a heavy gravity world, built low to the ground to combat the enormous pull.

  Although it was approaching midday on Earth, here, wherever here was, it was the middle of the night.

  Darkness hid his movements as he inspected the buildings illuminated only by the light from the stars in the sky.

  There were signs of life but not much. It seemed only a few people inhabited this settlement, although he hadn’t actually seen anyone yet. This was strange, he pondered for it was large enough for hundreds at least.

  Finally, after carefully making his way around to where he had seen Zara enter, he stopped. Peering through the windows, he saw an empty room. Not a soul in sight, but his enhanced vision did spot something.

  An elevator? he thought. “They’ve taken her underground,” he moaned.

  This is getting worse by the minute.

  11.57 s.e.t.

  “What do you mean, ‘your family’?” Zara asked stepping back from the balcony rail.

  “Exactly what I said,” Visjic replied with a smug smile. “You should see the look on your face,” he added before turning from her to look over the rail at the vats.

  “This planet is Osiris. The Alliance settled here many years ago and it cost many lives through the generations before they adapted to the environment. We lost many in the first years alone. The Thule Society invested their vast wealth into a project to revive the Master Race on this world when they heard of it. They had tried several times before, most notably during your world’s Second World War. They failed then but they were determined not to fail here, even if it took centuries.

  “Using bio engineering techniques to speed up the evolutionary process we began to adapt. We grew stronger, more muscle mass, thicker, stronger skeletal structures and we thrived. For a time that is. Due to the genetic tampering though we sustained damage at a cellular level. Our life spans began to shorten slowly as we began to age more rapidly. It was something that was beyond our control. Soon we were dying off faster than we could replace those lost. Drastic measures needed to be taken, hence the bio-stationary vats you see below.”

  Zara had listened intently and found she was fascinated by the history he was telling her.

  “Where do I fit into all this?” she asked finally.

  “You are the key to our success. Once you give us what we need we will be able to take our rightful place as Masters of the Galaxy,” Visjic told her with absolutely no hint of awareness of the absurdity of his statement.

  She looked at him, the hint of a smile playing on her full lips. She was having difficulty taking him seriously.


  “Really? Masters of the Galaxy?” she asked with raised eyebrows.

  “Really,” he insisted.

  “How am I the key to your success?”

  “Well it’s not what you bring but you yourself,” he told her. He turned to the guards and said, “Take her to the lab. I want her bled dry and then dissected so that every iota of her body can be used. I want every atom of her DNA harvested.”

  Zara couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Before she could react, hands gripped her arms in a vice-like grip and she was being hauled away towards a fate that filled her with horror.

  23

  12.00 s.e.t.

  Matt and General Sinclair stood on the bridge of the Vanguard, the starship that had been stationed in orbit around Canto.

  The Vanguard had been their transport to the planet from Earth and now, once they had reached the spaceport and the Silver Dart waiting there, they were once more on board.

  “That was a close call, sir,” Matt said as he stared at the forward viewscreen. It showed a hyperspace window forming in their path that they were about to enter.

  He glanced across at the general. Even though his expression hadn’t altered Matt knew he was lost in thought.

  “You don’t think so do you General?” he said.

  “It was too easy, they let us get away,” he replied finally with a sigh.

  Turning to look at the tall man next to him Sinclair said, “I don’t mean to undermine all the hard work you and everyone else did to get us safely on board the Vanguard, but it was too easy.”

  Matt looked around the bridge and back at the viewscreen. The image displayed showed the burst of light as the starship made the jump to hyperspace. He turned his attention back to Sinclair, he could not see the reason behind Sinclair’s hypothesis but he had to give him credit. He was rarely wrong about these matters. The man had an uncanny knack of sensing this sort of thing.

  “Okay, say I go along with this, what would be their reason for allowing us to leave?” he finally asked.

  “They obviously want us to not hold the summit on Canto.”

  “That makes no sense at all. Yes, we went to extraordinary precautions to make the venue safe and secure, but in my opinion if they ever wanted to hit the Security Council that was their best shot.”

  “I know and that’s what worries me. I can’t see their reason for doing this. All I do know is that my gut is telling me something is not right here. We’re being played,” Sinclair agreed with an uncharacteristic pained expression.

  “We still know next to nothing about them either which is frustrating. They could be anyone and we wouldn’t know. It makes our position extremely vulnerable,” Matt exclaimed.

  “I’ll have to reschedule the summit meeting for the alternate venue,” Sinclair finally admitted with a frown.

  “And where will that be, sir?” Matt asked with a raised eyebrow. He was curious because this detail had been kept a closely guarded secret, as had the original venue. Essentially it was for security reasons, the less people who knew, the less danger there was of it leaking to the wrong people, but he was a little surprised that he had been kept out of the loop too.

  Sinclair looked at him; his expression neutral, yet Matt could tell something was going on. Something in his eyes said he was holding something back. There was also a determination there too.

  Finally he said, “Earth, it will have to be Earth but this time we’ll make sure if there’s an attack, we’ll be ready for it.”

  12.05 s.e.t.

  Kurt worked his way into the room through a window; he didn’t want to set off any alarms. By the look of the settlement, though he judged any security measures would be low tech.

  The settlement looked to be in a state of aged disrepair, as if it had been neglected. He just hoped the elevator worked well, if that was where they had taken Zara he would need it to get her back out again.

  His senses told him there was no one around so he walked up to the elevator and inspected the operating panel on the wall next to it.

  It seemed simple enough.

  There was nothing left for it but to bite the bullet and go for it. Sometimes a frontal assault worked best.

  He couldn’t see any scanners to detect his presence but that didn’t mean anything, they could be hidden anywhere and be any size. He had to assume they knew he was here. If their recent actions were anything to go by they were expecting him anyway, they wanted him here.

  It was time to give them what they wanted.

  He entered the elevator and sent it down.

  The doors opened out onto a balcony that overlooked a huge chamber. He sensed the presence of others nearby and he turned to see Visjic standing, arms folded across his broad chest as he leant nonchalantly against the railing. A smile played across his lips as he looked at the new arrival and Kurt knew he had stepped into a trap.

  “Welcome Captain Stryder, we’ve been expecting you,” Visjic said.

  12.07 s.e.t.

  Three guards all wearing the compensator suits dragged Zara towards her fate.

  She was on the floor of the huge chamber faced with all the vats filled with the inanimate bodies of Visjic’s family.

  She shuddered at what she saw.

  The grip on her arms was powerful and tight and she knew the third guard was behind ready to enforce the first two if needed.

  Up above she heard the elevator doors open and Visjic greet someone. When she heard Kurt’s name she knew it was time to make her move.

  “Sorry boys but I’ve changed my mind. I don’t want to do this anymore,” she said and she stopped in her tracks.

  The two guards holding her carried on walking for a step until her stopping pulled them up short.

  She brought her arms around in front of her dragging the two suited guards with them to smash into each other.

  Her action was so powerful the guards were momentarily stunned and released her.

  The one behind her was also caught off guard. He collided into her but as he stepped back Zara spun into him ramming an elbow into his face.

  Blood erupted from the guard’s smashed face and he flailed back to cover up.

  She turned on the others, punching one in the side of the head and the other a kick to the side of the knee crippling him.

  “Kurt watch out, it’s a trap,” she shouted as two of the guards left able, jumped on her.

  12.08 s.e.t.

  Kurt heard the shout from below just as Visjic started moving towards him.

  The warning stopped the shorter man in his tracks. Kurt saw him glance over the railing and the look of surprise on his face told him all he needed to know.

  That’s my girl, he thought.

  “Didn’t see that coming did you?” Kurt told him.

  Visjic turned to glare at him his anger forcing his eyes into mere slits.

  “The outcome will be the same I can assure you,” Visjic retorted.

  “You think you know us, you think you know our capabilities. Well let me tell you, we don’t even know the extent of our capabilities yet, so you have no idea what will happen next,” Kurt told him confidently.

  “I don’t need to know what you can do, I just know what I can do and that’s enough,” Visjic said with a smirk. What he saw in the man before him though made him do something he never thought possible. Kurt’s confidence and steely determination made him doubt himself.

  “We’ll see,” was all Kurt needed to say to reinforce that doubt.

  Visjic waved a hand and the guards standing behind Kurt along the balcony came at him.

  Kurt’s motions went into a blur he was moving so fast.

  He struck the first across the throat with a ridge hand strike then as that one dropped he moved past to strike the next. He hit that one with an elbow strike to the side of his head caving it in and again moved on to the third and final one who he took out with a palm strike to the centre of his chest. The blow caved in the ribcage even beneath the compensator suit.<
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  As the first one hit the floor Kurt was done and had turned to face Visjic.

  “You were saying?” Kurt asked.

  “How could you move so fast? The gravity should be almost crushing you? At the very least you should find it impossible to move,” Visjic threw his hands up in exasperation.

  “What can I say, I’m gifted,” replied Kurt with a smirk.

  He walked towards the smaller man watching for the slightest movement from him. He had deduced that if he were a native of this world his physical strength and speed would be greater than that of a normal human. He was prepared for any eventuality.

  Visjic threw a punch at Kurt that a normal person wouldn’t even see. Kurt caught the fist in the palm of his right hand.

  “We need to have a chat,” Kurt said as he twisted the hand around and down to his waist. This action forced Visjic’s arm against the joint and sent searing pain up his arm to his shoulder.

  As the smaller man was turned around, he rolled forward quickly forcing Kurt to release his grip. Visjic was on his feet in seconds.

  “How is this possible?” he asked staring wide eyed at the smiling Kurt.

  “Like I said, I’m gifted,” he replied again.

  “You may be fast but you’re not faster than light,” Visjic said as he pulled out his pistol and fired.

  24

  12.10 s.e.t.

  Zara felt the two guards rush her grabbing her arms once more.

  One of them held on with one hand as he brought the other back to strike her.

  Zara twisted in their grip and pulled her right arm free from the one hand holding it. She struck out at the guard with her free hand hitting him across the throat with a chop that dropped him like a stone.

  With the same hand, she grabbed the other guard’s shoulder then turned into him as she rammed a knee into his solar plexus. The air rushed out of his lungs as he doubled over unable to breathe. He released his grip on her as he went down. She punched him to the side of the head to finish the job, lights out.

  She ran for the elevator that had brought her to this level and climbed aboard.

  As she reached the top and the doors opened, she heard a gun being fired.