* * *
Boomer cringed as the third of the Arcadian battleships burst into flames. It didn’t explode on the spot and when he thought it would be cool if he could do some serious damage to the pirate fleet if he could have the ship explode in the vicinity of a tightly packed trio of enemy ships. He watched in awe as the ship, still engulfed in fire, micro-jumped right smack in the middle of the enemy.
Next the engines overloaded and took out all three smaller pirate ships, sending them straight to hell.
“Wow!” he exclaimed with three upbeat barks.
That was a very good move, congratulated Mira.
“Thank you, girl.”
Girl?
“Well, you’re female aren’t you?”
I guess you could say that. I never really thought about it much.
The last half-dozen pirate ships backed off even more from the bulk of the battle, but there was something nagging at the back of Boomer’s mind. The Kregan flagship clearly had the power to take on the Osiris, but every time their ship’s shield would approach midpoint, the Kregan dreadnought would just change targets.
I agree, Boomer. This makes no sense. Unless—
“Unless what?”
Unless they don’t want to destroy us.
“Duh, but why?”
To use a human expression, this is the million-dollar question.
Boomer didn’t like it. But right now he had to keep buying time for Kevin. He needed to know for sure, so he had the remaining five Arcadian battleships move out of firing range and he brought the Osiris on an attack vector.
“Are you nuts?” protested Ziron. “We can’t possibly take on that ship, and neither would we want to, Kevin is still onboard.”
“Relax, Zee, I’m just testing a theory, I can micro-jump out of there at any time.”
“I don’t exactly like it when Kevin calls me Zee, but I like it even less when you do.”
Boomer barked and smiled, his tongue bouncing up and down. “Good. You’ll get over it.”
The Osiris approached the Kregan dreadnought and it sprayed lasers from every turret. It only made small dents in the enemy shields, and the Kregans retaliated in kind, but as expected, stopped when the Arcadian ship’s shields dropped below fifty percent.
“We’re missing something here, but what could it be?”
“Okay, you had your fun, now back off, what if they blow us up with a volley of torpedoes at close range?” said Ziron, with no small amount of fear making his voice tremble.
Boomer was certain this would not happen, but perhaps their holding off was a tactic to have them feel like they could do anything and not fear being destroyed. So just to be on the safe side, the Osiris veered away and kept just inside the firing range as it went to hunt for easier targets. One of the pirate ships was just within the limit of weapon’s range and their shields were fluctuating.
“Buh-bye!”
Three quantum torpedoes blew it into a million pieces.
* * *
Kevin arrived on level thirteen of the Kregan ship after a couple more skirmishes with enemy forces, during which he used both a black panther form as well as a jaguar. The tactics in bringing them down differed slightly with each form, but at the end of the day, in terms of finishing off enemies, the only variations he got was from changing the weapon he attached in place of a tail.
He had tried a few flexible blades, titanium tails, but his favorite by far had been the lightsaber tail, which sliced through enemies like a hot knife through butter.
But in the euphoria of using that one he had forgotten that this specific mode was giving the expression double-edged sword its full meaning, as he burned himself slightly during a miscalculated attack.
That had been it for using the weapon, the target here was saving Princess Kalliopy, in the hope she was still alive, and not about him having loads of fun. Sure, it didn’t hurt to get the best of both worlds, but he reminded himself of what happened the last time he let his enthusiasm for the thrill take over both his main objective and his battle focus.
His armor’s power cell still had about half its juice. The ship rocked slightly from the battle outside.
“Everything okay there, Boomer?”
“Yes, we just tested a theory, I’m backing off and pursuing the smaller ships now.”
“What’s our status?”
“We’ve lost three ships. I’ve taken the rest mostly out of the fight for now.”
“Is that wise?”
“Somehow it seems the Kregan are going out of their way not to destroy the Osiris.”
“That makes no sense.”
“Tell me about it. How are things on your end?”
“I’ll be at the holding cells in a minute. Have Ziron get ready to beam us out the moment I give you the word.”
“Sure thing—be careful.”
“You too.”
Kevin morphed back from a snow leopard to a cheetah for maximum speed. He was near the end of his rescue journey, and he could feel it in every one of his bones, even though they technically weren’t really his.
24
Kevin literally dispatched the first three guards at the entrance of the cell area with perfectly lined up headshots from his turrets. The Kregan warriors were dead way before their bodies hit the floor.
That’s when a scent he instantly recognized tingled his cheetah’s olfactory senses.
I would recognize that smell anywhere, the damn thing cost me my first kiss.
In a matter of seconds, Kevin had reached the farthest hall. He stopped running just before carefully looking around the cover to see what awaited him on the perpendicular junction. There were only two guards guarding Kalliopy’s cell. Just before he decided to charge and kill them both, he stopped himself.
His instinct told him that was the wrong move. But why? Thinking things through for a few seconds, he realized that he might need the help of the guard to actually open the cell. Sure, he could just elect to blow the door off, but that had risk implications for whoever was inside the cell.
And he was certain it was Kalliopy. The scent he had detected earlier was stronger than ever now.
Hang on tight, Princess, I’m coming.
For some reason, his mind wandered as he still observed the guards from afar. He imagined what nickname he would have after he brought the princess back to her people and in stories and songs that would be written about his exploits.
Kevin, the Lone Wolf.
And just like that he changed into a beautiful wolf without realizing it until he saw his vantage point and vision adjust slightly to his new morphology. He was tempted to change into a Xenomorph like Boomer had, but just seeing the beast had scared the crap out of him. The thought of becoming the beast was too overwhelming.
Plus, the nickname Kevin the Xenomorph had no appeal to him whatsoever. When one of the guards looked his way, he knew it was time to move. When that same guard saw him hurtling toward their position, he aimed his rifle and opened fire. That’s when Kevin thought about how cool it would be if he was not only a wolf but an iron wolf, and his body was instantly covered with highly polished metal that deflected the energy blasts onto the walls and the ceiling.
Upon arriving to the guards’ position, Kevin darted at the first guard, crushing him with the weight of his iron self against the wall, cracking the Kregan’s spine in the process. He turned around as he felt blasts rebound against his backside and ripped away the enemy’s weapon with his teeth.
His eyes lit bright red, which clearly terrified the guard as Kevin smashed the rifle between his teeth and discarded the remains to the side. He added a low growl to increase the fear level to the already shaky Kregan.
“Open the damn door, now!” he growled.
But the Kregan kept shaking. So Kevin toned down his appearance slightly and reverted to a magnificent white wolf with blue eyes.
“I won’t repeat myself. Door. Open. Now!”
The guard put his palm aga
inst the scanner on the side and the cell’s door opened revealing a dark room.
“Lights, if you please.”
The guard keyed another command while Kevin grew armor and a single cannon on his back. He set it to stun and fired it the moment the room lit up.
As the Kregan guard fell on his back inside the cell, Kevin heard a female voice suppress a scream.
Kevin took a deep breath and entered.
There she was, in a fetal position against the farthest corner of the room, shaking like a leaf.
“It’s alright, Princess, I’m here to save you.”
She blinked a few times, with an expression on her face that told Kevin she was still trying to compute if the quadruped animal that entered the room had just talked. Kevin didn’t know if the Arcadians had wolves, let alone talking ones.
“It’s me, Kevin,” he added.
“Kevin? But—How? You sure look different.”
“It’s a long story, one I’ll be happy to tell you once we get out of here.”
Kalliopy relaxed and got up onto her feet. Kevin approached her as calmly as he could, the last thing he wanted was to startle her.
“I need you to inject yourself with a sub-space tracker. Not an easy task for me to perform in this form.”
When a loud alarm blared, Kevin knew they had to hurry.
“How though? Where’s the tracker?”
“Right, duh!” said Kevin.
With a thought, a part of his armor slid open to reveal a subcutaneous injector. “Grab it and put it on your skin. Quick!”
Kalliopy grabbed the device and injected herself, which made a swooshing sound.
Kevin turned back into his Beagle form.
“Why aren’t you returning to your human shape?” she inquired.
“I’ll tell you later, that’s the way my dog looks. Just so there’s no confusion in a few moments.”
But as he said the words and both heard himself and saw the dumbfounded look in her eyes, he understood that he couldn’t have been more confusing, even if he tried.
“Ziron, two to beam out.”
Green light streaks engulfed them both as they vanished.
* * *
Boomer tried jumping the fleet the moment Kevin and Kalliopy were aboard, but nothing happened.
“Uh—guys? I can’t jump the ships!”
“The enemy has erected a jump interdiction field.”
Kevin barked. “Full impulse, engage!”
The ships vectored away from the enemy fleet at maximum sub-light speeds.
Ziron bowed. “Princess, it’s both a relief and an honor to see you again. I—I’m so terribly sorry we couldn’t come earlier.”
Kalliopy smiled, despite being in poor health and her royal attire being mostly ripped, stained, and barely holding to her skin, she still looked beautiful.
“That’s alright, Ziron. Thank you,” she looked at both Beagles. “Thank you all.”
Boomer barked and Kevin spoke. “You’re welcome, we’re just glad we got here in time.”
“Do you have to stay in that form? Mind you, it’s cute, but a little disconcerting.”
“Ziron?” pleaded Kevin.
“Come here, boy,” said Ziron playfully.
Kevin was not amused but ran next to Ziron nonetheless.
“We’ll discuss this later,” whispered Kevin.
A purple energy circle drew under Kevin’s Beagle form and a column of light shot upward, sending Kevin levitating.
“Extraction process commencing.”
Kevin morphed from Beagle to other forms quickly: wolf, panther, tiger. Meanwhile, Kevin was making distorted yet clearly painfully related noises.
“Is that normal? What’s going on?!” barked Boomer.
Ziron scratched his head. “I’m not sure.”
A red light and audible alarm sounded on his console.
“Crap, something is overloading.”
“Do something!” implored Boomer.
“Ziron, don’t let Kevin be hurt,” ordered Kalliopy.
Ziron worked on his holo-controls at light speed and the rate of transformations that Kevin was going through eased up as he morphed two more times until he finally returned to himself.
Kevin panted heavily.
He stepped out of the column of energy and the moment he did, Ziron’s console blew up and sparked and the column blinked out of existence.
“Damn! That was close,” Ziron said.
“What happened?” asked Kevin, holding his head.
“I don’t know, but I think this armor is toast too,” his sight still locked onto where Kevin stood a second earlier.
Kevin turned around to look at it and saw a puddle of liquid metal boiling and bubbling.
“Yeah, that doesn’t look good.”
Kevin felt a soft hand on his shoulder. “It doesn’t matter, you don’t need it anymore,” said Kalliopy.
“Oh man!” exclaimed Boomer. “That was my armor.”
Kevin smiled and then looked deep into the princess’ eyes. His heartbeat exploded and he thought for,sure everyone would be able to hear it. Even after all she had gone through, she looked so stunning. Kevin had to fight the urge to kiss her right then and there.
“Kevin,” she said. “Looks like you saved me again. That’s twice now.”
“I didn’t realize we were keeping score.”
She chuckled. “Everyone, if you don’t mind, I need to talk with Kevin in private.”
“Your wish is our command,” said Ziron.
Boomer just shrugged, but watched Kevin and Kalliopy leave the bridge.
* * *
Kalliopy was feeling a big pit form in her stomach as she led Kevin away from his friends. Would he ever see them again? She wondered. She hated this, but she had no choice.
She would have gladly perished to not have to do this. But that wouldn’t save her innocent sister from her fate. And she simply could not let that happen.
“You have no idea how much we had to do to rescue you,” said Kevin.
“I can imagine, you look tired.”
“I’m exhausted, I’m looking forward to taking a well needed shower and crash on a bed.”
Kalliopy poorly attempted a smile.
“Are you alright, Princess? What’s the matter?”
“Please, call me Kalliopy.”
Kevin smiled. “Very well, Kalliopy.”
“I’m also quite tired. But before we both get the rest we deserve—” she paused, trying her hardest to suppress coming tears. “I think I owe you something.”
Kevin’s face lit up and the dumbest yet happiest smile appeared. Kalliopy grabbed something in her pocket as she approached Kevin. She truly wanted to kiss the hero that had defied the odds and surmounted many challenges to come to her rescue. As a matter of fact, she had been disappointed the first time around when they didn’t get to kiss.
This time though, it wouldn’t have been a kiss by proxy. But she couldn’t kiss him now, not with what she was about to do to him. She did, however, hope from the bottom of her heart and soul that the day would eventually come.
He swallowed hard and closed his eyes as she drew near.
She delicately applied the small circular device on Kevin’s neck. Three metallic claws pierced through Kevin’s skin.
“Ooow!” he yelped, snapping his eyes open from the pain.
Kalliopy’s eyes were full of tears. She hated herself in this moment and was deeply ashamed by her actions.
“I’m so—so sorry, Kevin, please forgive me.”
Streaks of red-orange light rained around Kevin.
“Son of a b—”
* * *
Kevin’s world changed as he opened his eyes. He saw Kalliopy’s beautiful face in tears as she apologized and asked for his forgiveness.
In that instant, he wondered why that was. But it was only when he saw the streaks of red light engulf him that he realized what was happening. Though his brain couldn’t compute t
he enormity of it all.
“Son of a b—”
But he never finished his sentence, and everything around him changed as he beamed away from the Osiris and arrived to a much, much darker place.
“Bitch,” he ended up saying inadvertently to some men now standing in front of him.
“What’s that?” said a tall man with a large scar running down his nose. “Not that it matters.”
Before Kevin could say another word, the man raised a gun at Kevin and fired.
And then everything turned black and just before Kevin lost consciousness he wondered. . .
Why?
—== End of Book 2 ==—
To Be Continued… keep reading Book 3: Make it So!
Book 3: Make it So!
Dramatis Personae
Earthlings
Kevin - 17-year-old human
Boomer - Kevin’s dog, a beagle
Arcadian Confederate
Princess Kalliopy - Leader of the Arcadian Confederate
Ziron - Cat-like alien species (called a Sphynx), Engineer, & Inventor
Athala - Kalliopy’s sister
Corso - Admiral in the Arcadian Fleet
Mira - Artificial Intelligence
Pirates
Altanor - Pirate leader
Kregans
Xonax - Banned Kregan, the emperor’s son
Yxantion - Kregan Emperor
Zbilus - Xonax’s first officer
Forlon - Xonax’s chief medical officer
Others
Lacuna - Humanoid (race: unknown)
Darmak - Lacuna’s associate (race: Domdori)
Myrianna - Humanoid Tech Sorceress (race: unknown)
Orion 8-3-9-6 (eight-three-nine-six) - Artificial Intelligence
Leg’olas – Alien spider
Previously on Far Beyond
Across the Galactic Pond - Box Set: The Complete FAR BEYOND Space Opera Series Page 20