Sean Ryanis & The Impossible Chase

by Josh Kilen

  Shaker sighed, "You HAD to bring her along," he looked over at Sophia, "What is this, the third time you betrayed him?"

  Ryanis sighed, "The fourth, but who's counting?" He locked Sophia in a steely gaze, “So, you've been working with the Malogans this whole time. But why? Why all the drama? Why not just kidnap her on Martosis?"

  "Why don't you ask them yourself?" and the comms began to blink. Shaker threw the switch.

  On screen, with eyes blacker than any nighttime sky, was Jupiter, grinning an evil smile. "Excellent, now we have everything we need. Good to see you “daughter", I look forward to meeting you in person soon."

  Episode 11

  Sophia removed her contacts to reveal the now trademark black eyes of a Malogan. From the screen, Jupiter looked at her appreciatively.

  "I knew that our dear Sophia would do the trick and bring you here. It all worked out so nicely. Now, Captain Ryanis, I urge you to control yourself, don't do anything rash. Sophia will happily kill you and your friend if you do. But, if you behave, I promise to answer all your questions and give you a gift beyond measure. Besides, your little ship is being towed by a fleet of our ships. You can’t go anywhere."

  Ryanis walked over to the helm and plopped down into his chair. He glanced over at Shaker and smiled to give his friend some confidence. It didn't work.

  The Malogan ships towed the Tiberius into orbit around Atorrax. Sophia motioned everyone down the main corridor toward the landing shuttle. Once everyone crammed into the small shuttle Ryanis piloted to the surface of the planet, right into the heart of the Malogan mega-plex. The whole world was one giant city, everything moving and buzzing with activity. It looked like the Malogans were preparing for something big.

  When the shuttle landed safely, the prisoners disembarked with Sophia leading the way. A hundred Malogan guards filed into the hanger and Ryanis last hope of escape quickly faded.

  "As if things could get any worse..." Shaker whispered out loud as they marched through the city.

  "Come on, things could be a lot worse. We've been in tighter spots before and I've always figured something out." Ryanis said.

  Shaker was stunned, "Are you kidding? They'll probably turn us into mindless Malogans or something. I can't think of anything worse honestly."

  "Remember the Bog Monster on Persephonie 7?" Ryanis reminded him.

  Shaker shuddered at the thought, "Ya, okay, that was pretty terrible. Good call. Do you actually have a plan to get us out of here though?"

  "It's a work in progress my friend, I'll let you know."

  Shaker had to admit that Ryanis had always come through in the past but this was bad, not Bog Monster bad, but still.

  Finally they came to a massive control room with walls that stretched to the sky. Clear tubes hung down on the walls, and in the center of the room was a large machine outfitted with a chair. Jupiter was inspecting the machine when he heard the captives come in. He turned and laughed.

  The laugh sent chills down everyone's spines, and the Princess reminded herself that this was not her father.

  "How wonderful. I'm so glad you all could make it. Allow me to introduce myself, I am the Master." As he walked toward them, they saw his eyes were even darker in person, like black holes that suck you in and never let you escape. The Princess turned her face away, tears filling her eyes.

  The Master frowned mockingly at her, "Yes, I imagine this is difficult for you. You can take solace in knowing that your Father did not go without a fight. In fact, I can still feel him trying to find a way to regain control. I admire that, it's futile but the courage is impressive." The Princess looked up and hope gleamed in her eyes.

  The Master Malogan laughed as he shook his head, "Oh but he is gone. I have full control and do not plan on letting go any time soon. I like this body." And he smiled a darkly evil smile.

  Motioning to the guards he said, "Put them in."

  The Malogan guards put each Ryanis and Shaker into a clear tube, and the Princess into the machine. Jupiter strolled over to the tubes. "Ryanis, I did promise you answers, and while I usually don't keep my promises, in this case I feel the need to gloat. You see my subordinates are very good at taking orders but they can't appreciate this victory, not like you can. Plus you will be infested soon, so you won't remember anyway."

  Shaker turned to Ryanis and said, "See, told you. Infested."

  The Malogan Master continued, "You're probably wondering what the fair Princess is doing in that chair. You see, we need her memories. Many years ago, the Alliance found an ancient station somewhere in the galaxy. From what we pieced together, the station feeds on the energy of every sun in the galaxy and send out a blast that destroys all life in the galaxy. Not very useful if you ask me, but my top scientists think it will be possible to change the frequency of the beam to serve as a mind wipe. Imagine it, using the station’s immense power we can turn every non-Malogan in the galaxy into a mindless zombie. It will be our greatest achievement."

  Ryanis looked at him in horror, "But why do you need the Princess? Shouldn't Jupiter have all the information you need?"

  "Very good thinking, you will make a useful addition to our forces. Yes, he had the information about the station but not the location. Very inconvenient as you can imagine. Every Alliance member who knew the location submitted to a voluntary memory wipe, so no one had the coordinates. However, Jupiter did know who had the information, his lovely daughter."

  The Princess spoke up, "I don't know anything and even if I did I would never tell you!"

  Jupiter laughed, "Yes, I'm sure you would hold out to the bitter and very painful end, but we have special ways of making you talk. The machine you are sitting in is a memory extractor. It hurts, a lot, but it gets the job done. It will be a pleasure to hear you scream."

  "Father, if you can hear me, please! Don't let him do this!" the Princess cried out.

  "He can still hear you, I feel him trying to come to your rescue but he can't help you anymore." With that the Master in Jupiter gave his minions the signal.

  The machine began to stir and a light beam penetrated the Princess' head. She screamed out in pain while Jupiter looked at her in delight.

  Meanwhile, over in the tubes, Ryanis and Shaker weren't fairing much better. Two long slimy blobs, Malogan soldiers, were wiggling their way down the tubes, eager to infest new bodies. In a matter of moments Sean Ryanis and Shaker would be no more.

  Episode 12

  The Malogan soldiers were descending into the tubes, eager to infest Ryanis and Shaker. Ryanis looked around him for anything he could use to fight back. All his weapons, even the one's in the secret places, had all been confiscated. At least his hands weren't tied, but it probably wouldn't help anyway. Punching slime rarely has the intended effect.

  Ryanis looked down and saw his belt, the one he got from the Boss as payment. He never noticed it before but on the top was a little button. "Why not?" he thought to himself, and pressed it down. Suddenly a warm glow shimmered around him.

  The Malogan in Ryanis' tube reached his destination first, crawling onto the back of Ryanis' head. But it slid off harmlessly.

  "The Boss had a force field, now that's handy." Ryanis thought.

  The shield protected him as he smashed out of the tube. He grabbed a spare metal rod to break the tube containing his friend. Shaker jumped out as the Malogan descended unsuccessfully.

  Jupiter was overseeing the memory extraction from a control module 30 feet off the ground, but looked over when he heard the tube shatter. To his horror, the prisoners were escaping.

  "Guards!" he yelled, spit flying from his mouth, "Kill them now!" The Malogan guards converged and began to fire. Ryanis used his shield to block Shaker from the fire, but he could see the shield start to weaken. They jumped behind the memory extractor, and Ryanis checked on the Princess while Shaker studied the machine.

  The Princess was rigid as a board, mouth agape, and her eyes were wide open. They stared out with an ethereal glas
siness that made her look crazy. Ryanis reached in and pulled her out of the machine.

  Jupiter yelled out, "Don't let them escape," then turning to his chief scientist, "Did you get it?"

  The Scientist nodded, "Yes My Master, you have the coordinates now."

  "Excellent.” Looking down toward the memory extractor the Master called out, “Prisoners, I will give you one more chance, simply because I think your talents will be extraordinarily useful to our empire. You may join us and become a Malogan or you can be one of the first to receive your mind wipe. It is your choice."

  Ryanis looked around for something, anything, to fight with. If only they had a… "Princess, wake up. Princess!" Ryanis shook her.

  She slowly came to, "Wher 'r weee?" she asked in a slurred voice.

  "No time," said Ryanis, "Do you still have your personal teleporter?" Her eyes opened a little more and she nodded.

  "Good, I need it." Ryanis said as he began to search her for the device.

  "It's only meant for one person over short distances," the Princess became more alert, "It's not meant to do what you're thinking of doing."

  "It's either this or become slaves to the Malogans. The master over there will probably make you his wife or something, but that's your father, and that's weird. It's your choice, you don't have to come."

  The Princess pursed her lips, "If we huddle all together close enough, we'll have a better chance of surviving."

  As they huddled closer, the Malogan guards and infected Sophia stepped around the machine with guns drawn. Ryanis hit the button, activating the teleporter, taking them all back to the Tiberius. Or so they hoped.

  Episode 13

  Ryanis hit the teleporter button and he, Shaker, and the Princess transported through space to the Tiberius. With a loud plop, the three travelers tumbled behind the waste recycler.

  "Everyone okay?" asked Ryanis.

  The Princess plugged her nose, "Oh! That smell again. I swear this is exactly where the teleporter dropped me last time."

  Shaker stood up but put his hand against the recycler to steady himself, "It must be some kind of system memory,” he said, “Does everyone have all their pieces?"

  Sometimes teleportation can put you back together in funny ways. They all checked each other out and no one had any extra or missing parts.

  Ryanis held his head, "Ugh, let's not do that ever again. Shaker, we gotta get to the cockpit." Ryanis moved unsteadily to the front of the ship, Shaker and the Princess followed slowly behind.

  Sitting in his captain's chair, Ryanis tried to think of what to do next. "Alright, it'll take them a moment to figure out what happened, but you can be certain that this is the first place they'll check. We have a least a few minutes."

  Shaker was looking at the scanners,"Guess again. Malogan ships approaching, gun ports open."he said, "We have, maybe, thirty seconds."

  "Nuts," Ryanis tapped his finger on the console, trying to think of a plan, while the other two just stared at the monitor. "Shaker, plot in a course for a random jump into dead space, that way Sophia won't be able to follow us."

  Shaker's forehead creased, "We also won't know exactly where we'll end up. At best it might take us weeks to figure out a new course, or worse case we’ll end up in a star by accident."

  "If we don't do this then we're finished," Ryanis reminded him.

  Shaker nodded his head, "Good point. Plotting course Captain,” Shaker's fingers were a blur across the navigation computer, “Random heading locked in, ready to jump."

  The Malogan ships closed in and the lead frigate fired a "Ship-Ripper" missile.

  "Here goes nothing," said Ryanis as he engaged the hyperjump. The Tiberius disappeared just as the missile was about to strike.

  The ship rocked back and forth as it hurled through hyperspace. Without clear navigation points, the Tiberius' computer wasn't sure which way to go and tried to move in multiple directions at once. Just as the ship felt like it was about to tear itself to pieces, Ryanis pressed the emergency stop and the ship went deathly still.

  Shaker turned and said with a half smile, "Princess, welcome to dead space, next stop… well, we don't know exactly."

  "How you feeling Princess?" Ryanis asked.

  "Like I just had my head probed with a laser beam, but I'll be okay. Where are we?"

  "Nowhere, technically. Usually we plot coordinates based on known planets and stars. But we've stopped in the in-between space right now. So we have to map the stars we can see, compare with charts of the known galaxy, and see what matches. Could take hours, could be weeks, we just don't know where we ended up. But then again neither do Sophia or the Malogans."

  The Princess' face fell, "We don't have weeks. We have to warn the Alliance so they can stop the Malogans from wiping the minds of everyone in the galaxy."

  Ryanis became serious, "And what exactly will we tell them Your Highness? We know what the Malogans are up to but we don't know the location of the base. Well, you do, but fat chance we have of getting it."

  Shaker looked thoughtful, "You know, I saw the Malogan memory extractor up close. I could probably build something like it. I can't guarantee that it'll work, but I'd do my best to make sure it doesn't melt any brains."

  Ryanis considered what Shaker said, "I’m not sure we have other options. Princess, what do you think?" Ryanis asked.

  "Do I have a choice? We need the location, and I want my Father back. Build the machine, I'll help where I can."

  "It's settled then. Shaker, you and the Princess start building the machine, I'll deal with the navigation. Now, off to work, both of you."

  Two days passed. Ryanis poured over star charts while Shaker built the machine in the engine room. With each passing hour the Princess became more nervous. The longer they took, the closer the Malogans got to mind wiping the entire galaxy. Even her sleep was restless as her dreams were filled with thoughts of mindless zombies serving the Malogans.

  The Tiberius' engine rattled and the hyperdrive clicked on just as Shaker put the final touches on the machine.

  Ryanis sauntered into the engine room, "We're on our way to the Gormat system, uninhabited as far as I can tell but at least we have a heading. We'll find our way from there. How's the machine coming?"

  "Almost ready," Shaker wiped some sweat onto his sleeve, "Just have to connect the main power coupling and it should theoretically work."

  Ryanis cocked an eyebrow, "Theoretically?"

  Shaker gave him a sheepish grin, "I didn't factor in the necessary power requirements to properly run this kind of machine. I have no idea how the Malogans pulled it off, but we would have to use the entire power supply in the Hyperdrive, plus all the extra power on the ship just to get the thing started. With what we got now, I'm just don't know how we can do it."

  The room became very silent. It wasn't fair to come so far, only to be stopped by some giga-joules of power. Then Ryanis snapped his fingers. "Shaker, do you remember Old Bartelby?"

  Shaker nodded, wondering where Ryanis was going with this.

  "You remember that story he used to tell about the stranded ship, the supernova, and the Altreesian Maid? Think that would work?"

  Shaker still looked confused, "Old Bartelby told a lot of stories, I never actually believed any of them. Besides, the Princess is hardly an Altreesian Maid."

  Ryanis rolled his eyes, "Not that part, the other thing. About the power generation."

  Shaker finally got it, "Ohhhh, you mean getting power through the hull? That could work, but we'd need a lot of friction and heat." The Princess was completely lost by now.

  "What exactly are you two jabbering about?" she asked.

  Shaker cleared his throat, "It's technically possible to fly a ship at a sun and convert the heat on the hull into power. In this case we would be able to power our makeshift memory extractor. But it's dangerous, you run the risk of getting caught in the sun's gravity well and burning up. Now, we might be able to escape by hyperjumping through the sun, bu
t that has a tendency to make suns go supernova, so we'll try to avoid that. That and the burning up part."

  "I'm sorry I asked." the Princess sighed.

  "Come on, it'll be fun." Ryanis teased.

  The Princess could only manage a weak smile.

  Three hours later, power coils snaked throughout the Tiberius, all connected to the memory machine. Ryanis piloted the Tiberius close to the Gamot Sun, just in range of the first thermal blasts.

  "Ready?" Ryanis called down.

  The Princess took a deep breath, "Ready as I'll ever be. My life is in your hands you know."

  “It couldn’t be safer sweetheart, here we go!" The Tiberius shot straight towards the sun.

  Episode 14

  The Princess screamed out, the memory extractor burned into every fiber of her mind.

  Shaker watched the monitor and held her hand, "Hold on Princess, just a little bit longer."

  The temperature inside the Tiberius grew more unbearable by the second.

  Ryanis watched the approaching sun fill his screen. The Tiberius' hull temperature was rising fast and the shields were taking a beating from the intense heat pounding down on them.

  The memory extractor started to smoke just as the Princess's screams were getting more faint. Shaker adjusted the control and squeezed the Princesses hand tighter. The memory was harder to find then he first thought.

  The Princess's grip slipped from Shaker's hand.

  Alarms sounded in the cockpit and Ryanis slid over to the monitor. The readings indicated that the sun's gravity had them now, they couldn't just fly away. The only way to escape was to hyperjump through the sun.

  Ryanis called down to the engineering room, "Shaker, what's her status? The Ship's not going to last much longer."

  "Almost got it, stop buggin' me"

  "Just wanted to make sure that you appreciate the gravity of the situation we're in."

  Shaker stopped, "We're in the gravity well?"

  "Ya," Ryanis said sadly.

  "Okay, I'll hurry."

  The memory extractor strained as Shaker probed deeper into the Princess's mind. Everything was in there, all her memories of childhood, growing up, first experiences, heart breaks, but Shaker only cared for one thing. The coordinates.