“Okay, but we are having that discussion afterward.”
Ziron replied with an uncomfortable nod. They all walked to the back of the shuttle and put on their atmospheric suits. Another of Ziron’s inventions. A smooth oval contraption that resembled a stone was attached to them, which raised a force field, allowing them to breathe.
“Will that be enough oxygen? What if we’re in there for hours?” asked Kevin.
“The device can convert most outside atmosphere into clean air for us to breathe.”
“Most?”
Ziron shrugged. “It usually works.”
Kevin buried his face in his palms. “Why I even ask these questions at this point is beyond me.”
19
Upon entering the ship’s corridor, Kevin reestablished his leader role.
“I think we need to split up into groups.”
“Funny you would say that, ‘cause I thought we should stay together,” said Ziron.
Boomer coughed out, “Chicken!”
“Where?” said Ziron, madly looking from side to side.
“Never mind that,” said Kevin as they arrived at a three-way crossing. He looked at the wrist device Ziron had given him prior to getting into the shuttle. “We can locate each other with these anyway, right?”
“That’s correct. The blue dots will be us, I’ve given our guest another color.”
Lacuna looked over Kevin’s shoulder as he activated the holo-scanner. Three blue dots with the first letter of each other’s first names appeared and one single red dot.
“I don’t know whether to be offended. . .,” said Lacuna, before fluffing her hair in the air. “Or feel special.”
Kevin was getting antsy. They needed to move quickly. He was still haunted by the holo-vid of the princess being held and mistreated by the Kregans. He would do anything to make sure that her current predicament wouldn’t last one minute longer than it had to.
“Whatever works for you,” said Kevin. “You and Ziron go to the left, that should lead you to the bridge. I’ll check the engine room with Boomer.”
“Sounds good,” said Lacuna. “Hey moppy, you coming?”
Ziron hissed harder than usual but complied.
* * *
As Kevin and Boomer advanced toward engineering, a strange creaking noise tore through the silence.
“Hey, Boomer, remember that movie we saw together: Aliens?” Kevin asked.
“Remember? I can’t believe you had me watch that. My shit was moist for over a week after that,” said Boomer. “Just saying.”
“Uh—too much information, pal.”
Boomer raised one of his legs and relieved himself against the bulkhead.
“That’s just gross.”
“Well, have you seen any trees around here?”
Kevin chuckled as
Boomer trotted back next to him.
“What if there’s some Xenomorph on board this ship? What do we do then?”
“Well, you change into one too and kick its ass, that’s what.”
A strong wind and a clacking noise startled Kevin.
“Like this?” said a deep Boomer voice.
When Kevin turned his head to the side, he jumped and fell back on his ass, hard.
“Too much?” said Boomer, in full black-as-the-night quadruped Xenomorph form, it’s second mouth retracting.
Kevin took a giant breath. “Cut it out—you almost gave me a heart attack!”
Boomer morphed back to his Beagle form, his tail down, displaying his best cute look: big, watery eyes and his tongue hanging out. The works. “Sorry.”
“That’s okay, but don’t waste the armor’s energy for jokes that can make me shit my pants, we may need the power later.”
Boomer raised on his back legs and saluted. “Aye, aye, Captain.”
“You’re silly. Let’s go,” said Kevin with a big smile on his face. “Between you and me, I’m a little worried.”
“Why’s that?”
“It looked like the Kregans mistreated Kalliopy. I just want us to get to her before it’s too late, you know.”
“About that—Isn’t it a little crazy that we both risk our lives to save a complete stranger? Even one as cute as Kalliopy?”
“Cuteness has nothing to do about it.”
“Yeah, nor does the kiss she owes you, right?”
Kevin couldn’t hide his emotions from his best friend. And he had told him all about it when he got back from the encounter at the pond, right after winning an interstellar battle. He’d been so proud of himself that he had felt compelled to tell Boomer all about it, of course.
“Kiss or not, this is the right thing to do. Ziron saved our lives on Earth. And he’s protecting our family too. The least we can do is try and help Kalliopy.”
“Not to mention that if the Arcadians lose this war, the Kregan might decide to come to Earth and enslave us all, or worse.”
Kevin stopped walking.
“What’s up?” asked Boomer.
“I hadn’t thought of that. Well—all the more reasons to hurry and get this fleet up and running. Looks like the survival of our species might ultimately depend on us helping the Arcadians win.”
“No pressure, then. I hope that’s one amazing kiss you’ll get, I truly do.”
Kevin activated his comms. “Ziron? Come in? What’s our status?”
“We’ve just entered the bridge,” said Ziron, a little static overlapping with his voice. “Hang on.”
* * *
“What’s taking so long?” asked Lacuna.
“Let me work, I have to try and restore power beyond emergency lights. Not exactly an easy thing to do on a ship whose tech is older than most of my lineage.”
“A little testy, are we?”
“Can I please have some quiet? Why don’t you look around for your precious artifact? Whatever the hell that is.”
“Alright, if you prefer being alone to defend yourself in case an intruder shows up, I’m fine with that.”
Ziron’s fur shot up as if magnetized. “Oh—then perhaps you shouldn’t wander too far, then.”
Lacuna smiled as she walked around the bridge.
“I think I got it,” said Ziron.
A humming sound followed by lights progressively turning on flooded the bridge.
“That’s it for power,” said Ziron. “There seems to be plenty of it to fire up the engines, too, which is good. Now, let’s see if I can restore life support.”
“Good job,” said Lacuna.
Ziron shushed her as he opened a comm to Kevin.
“Kevin, I got the power back on.”
“We can see that, good job, Zee. What’s next?”
“Life support, then engines and main computer. The sooner I can access the computer core, the sooner I can try and establish a link with Mira for remote controlling the fleet.”
“ETA?”
“An hour, give or take.”
“You’ve got ten minutes.”
“What? I need an hour.”
“You’re a crappy Scotty, you know that?”
“I’m not sure I under—”
“Forget it, Zee, do your best.”
“I always do. What about engineering?”
“We’re here. Nothing looks damaged, but I don’t exactly know what to do past this point.”
“I told you we shouldn’t have split up. This place gives me the creeps, and you don’t have your armor, so be careful. And for full disclosure’s sake, I might not be able to repair the one you had on Omicron.”
“Now you tell me! Why can’t you just give me another one?”
“I only had two prototypes, and Boomer’s is the older version of the two. So right now he’s the only one who can defend us should we need it.”
“I don’t like it. Any idea where the armory is on this ship? Might as well equip us with some Arcadian badass weaponry at least.”
“Give me a second.”
Ziron entered a few commands on
the old touch controls. He wasn’t used to non-holographic interfaces.
“What’s that pulsating blue line on the ground?” asked Kevin.
“You follow it, genius,” said Boomer over the line.
“Hey,” Kevin complained, “I haven’t slept in more than a day. And when one licks one’s balls, one should be careful about criticizing others.”
“That’s your defense? We both know you’d love to have that ability.”
“Let’s not do this right now, okay?”
“Uh—guys?” interrupted Ziron.
“Sorry—all good.” said Kevin. “Over and out.”
Now back to the engines, thought Ziron.
It took the Sphynx a little over twenty minutes to get both life support and the engines back online to acceptable and stable levels. All that remained was the computer core. But he felt a strong hand grab him by the back of the neck and pull him off the console where he was crouched, working the controls.
“What the hell! Lacuna! Help!”
But when he turned around, he saw it was Lacuna who had grabbed him.
“Thanks, kitty-cat, time for you to take a nap now.”
Ziron hissed and struggled, trying in vain to scratch Lacuna before she swiftly waved a hand in front of his nose and a small pink vapor cloud put him to sleep. She then let an unconscious Ziron fall to the floor.
“Just count yourself lucky that I may still need your help later, or I would have spaced your furry ass on the spot. Now, let’s see how I can get rid of the other two and claim that fleet as mine. These two bozos seriously damaged my position on Omicron, so it’s time to travel the stars in style while looking for better riches elsewhere.”
She looked over the controls for a few moments when her face lit up.
“That looks promising,” she said as she pressed a red button.
20
Kevin looked at his reflection in full Arcadian marine armor before putting the helmet on. He then pressed a button on the chest portion and it tightened around his smaller-than-most-marines figure.
“Wicked! I feel like the master chief,” he cheered.
“Yeah, if the master chief was one hundred plus pounds lighter.”
“Hey! That’s not my fault.”
Kevin checked his weapons next. A handheld gun with two settings. Red and blue. He set it on blue. He then grabbed the blaster rifle and raised it behind his back. The rifle magnetically attached to the armor with a satisfying clang.
“Riiiight,” said Boomer, “after all you’ve been banned from the gym on account of finishing more video games than most people alive by the time you were fifteen.”
“Touché. But isn’t that the reason I was chosen to save the universe?” Kevin said through his helmet’s visor, trying to do his best marine impression.
“Or just being at the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“I prefer to think the right place at the right time myself, but I guess that depends on how you look at it. You know, glass half full kind of way.”
The lights in the room turned red and started pulsating.
“Don’t take it personally, buddy, but I’m gonna stay with my initial assessment,” said Boomer. “Wrong place all the way!”
They both stepped out of the armory and back into the corridor, where a vocal alarm resounded.
“Intruder alert, intruder alert, all security drones to level fourteen.”
Boomer barked sharply three times.
“When you’re right, you’re right,” conceded Kevin.
Kevin opened a comm channel. “Zee, come in? What the heck is going on?”
There was no answer.
“Ziron? Please, come in?”
“That lying two-faced—” said Boomer.
“We don’t know what happened yet.”
“Yeah, but we have an inkling about what could have happened. Don’t tell me the thought didn’t cross your mind?”
“Well, let’s go back to the brid—”
Kevin jumped and grabbed Boomer just before three blaster bolts were about to hit them. He used his momentum and rolled into firing position, grabbed his rifle and opened fire. He shot three flying spherical sentries dead center. They blew up in quick succession.
“What were you were saying about me playing too much X-box?”
“I take it all back, thanks.”
“Anytime. Let’s get out of here before more of those things arrive. Can you—”
But before Kevin could finish his sentence, Boomer already morphed into a large armored white tiger and let out a roar as he made a head move pointing toward the saddle mounted on his back as he unleashed an impressive roar.
“You read my mind, Boomer.”
Kevin climbed on the mount and Boomer sprinted forward.
Four sentries appeared at the end of the corridor and opened fire. Kevin aimed and shot one of them. Upon exploding, it threw the one standing by it against the wall, sparking and falling to the ground.
Two articulated cannons on both sides of Boomer’s tiger-armored shoulder plates came to life and reduced the rest to dust.
“Nice!”
“Well, I learned a thing or two watching you play.”
“Evidently.”
“Ziron?” Kevin keyed over the comms. “Come on, Zee, answer me.”
But no answer came. Instead a panicked Lacuna came on the line. “I don’t know what happened, these things started showing up, I managed to seal us on the bridge, but they injured Ziron before I could do anything. Please help!”
Boomer shook his head from side to side with a growl.
Yeah, I’m pretty much with you, Boomer, but let’s give her the benefit of the doubt.
“Can you disable these sentries that are after us?”
“I’ve been trying, but that tech is too complicated. I don’t know how to operate it. I think I’ve managed to plot a safe route for you to get back to the bridge, though.”
Boomer roared louder.
“What was that?”
“Nothing, Lacuna. Can you activate the guiding system, like Ziron had done before?”
“I think so—hang on.”
A blue line appeared along the corridor.
“Thanks, we’ll be back to the bridge in no time, hang tight.”
“Hurry, Kevin. I’m scared.”
Kevin grimaced and killed the comms.
“It’s a trap!” roared Boomer.
“I know…But knowing it is may give us an edge.”
“I hope you know what you’re doing. She could have killed Ziron already.”
“Let’s hope not.”
“And if she has?”
“Then I guess I’ll do my first spacing.”
Boomer bellowed. “As long as we’re on the same page. I haven’t eaten in a while. Just saying.”
Kevin didn’t enjoy the mental image of Boomer, in this form, eating Lacuna, but he enjoyed the image of a dead Ziron even less. Kevin’s expression turned icy.
“That’s an option, too.”
* * *
Kevin and Boomer blasted through another couple of dozens sentries on their way to the bridge. It didn’t take a genius to figure out the path that Lacuna fed them was overly complicated and much longer than it should have been.
As a matter of fact, Kevin didn’t think they were anywhere near the bridge. But part of him hoped, deep down, that she wasn’t a bad person and that perhaps there was an explanation for her actions. But he couldn’t ignore his instincts, which were firmly aligned with Boomer’s on this, so he mentally prepared himself for the worst.
Boomer ran through the opened blast doors, which promptly closed a second later. At that moment, Kevin knew that they were about to see what kind of trap awaited them. Boomer stopped running. The walkway that would connect them from their current position to the next set of blast doors on the other side of the room actually was disabled and they were looking at a chasm.
“That’s our trap, alright,” said Boomer. �
�And here she comes.”
The opposite blast door opened and Lacuna ran through, shooting at the corridor behind them.
“Don’t trust her set-up,” implored Boomer.
“I won’t.”
Lacuna ran to the walkway controls, the same ones were on both sides of the chasm, except the one on their side had been damaged.
How convenient.
“There you are,” exclaimed Lacuna. “I came as soon as I realized that the walkway controls on your side were disabled,” she shouted over the distance. “Give me a second.”
She interacted with her console and a blue force field walkway came to life between them.
Boomer turned his tiger head and whispered. “We’re not falling for this, right?”
“How is your smart armor, energy-wise?”
“Still some juice left, but I wouldn’t try pulling out a dragon.”
“I’m sure you’ll figure something out.”
“Alright.”
“What are you waiting for?” insisted Lacuna. “There are more sentries on their way!” shouted Lacuna.
“Let’s go,” said Kevin. “Just be ready.”
“I was born ready,” said Boomer with a low growl.
Boomer ran toward Lacuna as Kevin observed her reaction, hoping there was still a spark of goodness in the young girl and that she would not try to double cross them. When Kevin felt gravity take hold, all he saw was wickedness inside Lacuna’s eyes and she mouthed the word “sorry.”
The energy bridge collapsed, and they were plunging to their deaths. That’s when Boomer turned into a winged version of the Xenomorph, and flew back up rapidly as Kevin mounted the saddle. He grabbed his side arm and checked that it was still on blue. As Boomer rose to platform level, Kevin aimed at Lacuna. He fired and shot her in the leg. She lost her footing and fell on her ass.
Boomer landed them nearby. The moment Kevin slid off Boomer, his friend, in Xenomorph form, approached Lacuna, who was immobilized. He bared his metallic looking teeth with semi-transparent viscous drool sliding down onto the floor. As he opened his mouth wider, a second smaller head shot twice toward the girl, stopping just a centimeter away from her forehead.
Across the Galactic Pond - Box Set: The Complete FAR BEYOND Space Opera Series Page 17