Across the Galactic Pond - Box Set: The Complete FAR BEYOND Space Opera Series

by Kallias, Christian

  “Understood, and I can’t say I blame you. See you both soon.”

  14

  When Ziron arrived at the coordinates where the entire team was supposed to beam out and saw nobody near, he checked internal sensors through a backdoor he had installed on the central computer core.

  Lacuna and Boomer were heading in his direction but were still a long way off to get to this location within the next five minutes and some change.

  Hurry up, please. I can’t change the beam out time or its coordinates, so if you don’t get here on time…

  Ziron never finished his thought, the implications too scary to contemplate. He had faith in his friends; they’d make it. They had to.

  Ziron swallowed hard as he kept looking at the holo-map sensor display. He could now hear exchanges of blaster fire in the distance. Part of him wished he could help Lacuna in the firefight, but Ziron couldn’t even hold a weapon let alone hit a rynosorian beast if it stood two meters from him.

  He made some quick math calculations based on the rate of advance in the past sixty seconds to try to extrapolate the time needed for Lacuna and Boomer to arrive using their current pace. They’d be twenty seconds too late, and to make matters worse, more units were converging on their position. If Ziron didn’t find a way to help them, they’d be flanked on all sides within the minute.

  Ziron brought up his holo-interface but then paused.

  Should I do this? I risk compromising the main mission and Kevin’s life if I do.

  And while he had not forged as deep a bond with Lacuna and Boomer, they were still his friends. No matter how many times Boomer had threatened to eat him.

  He was kidding…wasn’t he?

  Ziron accessed the computer core systems and tried his best to raise a force field to stop the incoming troops in reaching his friends. But he was doing it in a random pattern, in the hopes it could be explained as a system malfunction. And while he had no doubt that this could fool any operator, the burning question was: would Tizon be fooled?

  He would find out soon enough.

  “What’s going on,” Lacuna voice’s crackled over the comms. “There are force fields popping up all around us, blocking enemy forces.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  “Are you out of your mind?” screamed Lacuna. “You can’t jeopardize the mission for us.”

  “You won’t make it in time otherwise.”

  “That’s a risk we are willing to take as long as you save Kevin, or have you forgotten our primary objective?”

  Boomer barked. “For once I agree with her, you shouldn’t have done that.”

  “I know what I’m doing,” Ziron insisted. “Just hurry up now that the path is clear.”

  The truth was that Ziron didn’t know for sure. But he couldn’t tell them that. They needed to stay focused on getting their butts here on time. The last thing Ziron wanted was to make the trip to Myrianna’s planet alone. Not to mention having to explain to Kevin why his friends weren’t there when he woke from his cryo-sleep.

  It’s gonna work, it has to.

  Soon, Ziron heard footsteps approach as he kept an eye on the time. Two minutes left. They could do it. A quick sensor sweep revealed no opposing forces in range. They would manage their heist, and Ziron started to relax and count down the seconds to the automated beam out when he saw Lacuna and Boomer running toward him. They were one hundred meters away, and Lacuna had a smile on her face.

  Fifty meters.

  They’re gonna make it.

  Then lights appeared between them and Ziron’s position, and men beamed in and fired energy lasso weapons at both his friends. They were cut short in their tracks, and both fell hard on the floor.

  “Noooo!” screamed Ziron, revealing his presence.

  It forced him to react instinctively, and he raised a force field in front of him just before a lasso energy weapon was fired in his direction.

  Eighty seconds left, and there was no way he could get to his friends, and even if he tried, then the entire mission would fail.

  Another beam of light brought in one more person near his friends. It was Tizon. He was grinning.

  “You should never have tampered with the force fields. But I’m sure you know that. I have to congratulate you on your frequency scrambler though, it was not easy to crack, and if you hadn’t panicked and used the force fields, I don’t think I would have managed to crack it for hours.”

  Lacuna had been right, Ziron had jeopardized the mission.

  “I don’t care about your congratulations.”

  “It’s good to see you again, Ziron. Even under these circumstances.”

  “I wish I could say the feeling was mutual.”

  “Oh, I know exactly what you think of me; you’re the reason I spent most of my career in jail. So what do you say we dispense with the usual pleasantries? Drop that force field and follow us to the brig.”

  “I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

  “I’m afraid I’m not prepared to give you any other choice about it.”

  Twenty seconds left. Ziron’s mind was still counting.

  “Guards,” shouted Tizon. “Aim your weapon, set to kill on these two.”

  Fifteen seconds.

  “I won’t repeat it, drop the force field, and walk toward us, or your friends die.”

  Ten seconds.

  “You have ten seconds to comply,” insisted Tizon.

  Ziron looked at Lacuna and Boomer. He wanted nothing more than to do as he was ordered, but then everything would be lost. He looked closely at Lacuna and saw in her eyes that she didn’t want him to obey. For good measure, she discretely shook her head.

  “Alright, alright,” said Ziron.

  “Drop the force field, now!” screamed Tizon.

  Three seconds left, and Ziron brought up his holo-screen even if he had no intention of dropping the force field until the last second. The last thing he needed was its energy source interfering with the beam out.

  Ziron waited until the countdown reached one second to drop the field, and almost instantly after, he was engulfed in green streaks of light and back on board the Osiris’s bridge.

  15

  “Dammit!” shouted Ziron as he started up the ship’s engines.

  He quickly checked the location of Kevin’s pod, and it was back on board. Ziron tasked bot eleven to reconnect the power. He would go check on his friend shortly, but now he had to get his ship off this planet.

  Ziron had a hard time concentrating, his mind wandered to the friends he had been forced to leave behind.

  I can’t believe I failed them.

  “Perhaps it would be better if I took care of the pre-flight check,” said a familiar voice, “and I pilot the ship.”

  Mira’s hologram came back to life next to Ziron.

  “I take it our friends aren’t on board?”

  “You know about our plan?”

  “I came back online about ten minutes ago. It took me a while to get all my systems working, especially the holo-emitters. While I worked toward a fix, I checked the holo-suite logs and reviewed your plan. At least you got Kevin back.”

  “Then why do I feel so bad about everything else?”

  “Because it’s never easy to leave friends behind. But they both knew the risks.”

  “That doesn’t help me feel any better.”

  “It wasn’t supposed to.”

  Ziron nodded.

  “I need to inform you that Admiral Corso just beamed into his ship and is deploying his fleet to prevent us from leaving the system.”

  “After everything that has occurred, we can’t let that happen.”

  Mira smiled. “We are in agreement.”

  “How do you know he’s back on board his ship?”

  “Your virus has spread quicker than even you anticipated, hacking Arcadia now is a piece of cake. I’m in every system, which should help with our escape.”

  That was the first bit of good news Ziron had heard all day lo
ng.

  “Then why don’t you take the helm and get us out of here.”

  “With pleasure.”

  Ziron walked toward his flying cushion and climbed on it. He was mentally exhausted. And he felt defeated too. Part of him wanted to return and help his friends.

  Perhaps if he beamed back on the planet, now that Mira was operational, she could take care of bringing Kevin safely to their destination while Ziron tried to rescue Lacuna and Boomer.

  He brought up his holo-terminal and looked at potential beaming sites near the brig.

  “Don’t do it,” said Mira.

  “Don’t do what? Are you spying on me?”

  “I am the ship, remember?”

  Ziron sighed. “I know. I just can’t leave them behind.”

  “Not only can you but you must.”

  “You don’t understand; you’re not the one who failed them!”

  “You’re right, I don’t understand, but I can empathize with your situation. And from my holo-vid logs, I also know that Lacuna and Boomer both wanted you to go on if they didn’t make it back to the ship.”

  “That doesn’t make it right.”

  “No, it doesn’t, but it’s the cards we’ve been dealt with. And we’ll make do with them. Understood?”

  “You do know I’m still your captain? Right?”

  “Pulling rank won’t change anything, Ziron. We have to get out of here, for Kevin’s sake, and I suspect for everyone else’s.”

  The Osiris had just left Arcadia Prime’s atmosphere when Corso’s fleet came into view.

  “Can we jump yet?”

  “Technically there’s nothing preventing us, and the lead ship just obtained a firing solution on us. Their weapons are getting hot.”

  “I sense a but coming.”

  “But jumping so close to the ships could damage or destroy them. In fact, at least one ship would be caught in the hyperspace window.”

  Ziron’s face hardened. “I don’t give a crap, jump, now!”

  “Jumping now.”

  The hyperspace window formed in front of the fleet and the ship nearest to it split in two. Corso’s capital ship opened fire on the Osiris, and the ship shook until it entered the hyperspace window.

  * * *

  “Care to explain how you managed to let Ziron escape?” accused Kalliopy.

  “I had no way of knowing he had pre-programmed a beam out sub-routine, as for the virus, it’s one piece of engineering mastery, but I’ve slowed down its progression,” said Tizon.

  “That’s your job, coming up with contingencies, and you had one mission—to make sure they didn’t escape.”

  “We have their friends, maybe they’ll try to come and save them. I’ll be prepared this time.”

  “No, you won’t.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Guards!”

  Two Arcadian guards took steps forward and stopped next to Tizon.

  “Throw that excuse of an engineer into the brig we fished him off. This time, make sure we lose the key to his cell.”

  “But your majesty! I can still help you,” pleaded Tizon.

  “No, you can’t. Take him out of my sight.”

  Epilogue

  Ziron went to see Kevin. Even though his friend could not look back at him, he still held his tiny head low and couldn’t bring himself to look at Kevin’s face. He hovered in front of the pod for what seemed like an eternity.

  “I’m sorry, Kevin. I failed our friends.”

  There was no answer, not that Ziron expected one.

  “It seems all I do lately is fail. I wish you were here. But Mira and I will get you to your destination. No matter the cost. I just wished Lacuna and Boomer were here.”

  Ziron heard steps behind him, and he thought he’d have a heart attack. Then he saw who it was.

  “You’re up?” asked Ziron.

  “Where’s everybud?” asked Darmak.

  “You’re not gonna like this. They’re prisoners on Arcadia.”

  “Turn ship around then.”

  “I can’t.”

  The Domdori growled.

  “Look! There’s nothing more I’d like to do now, but we can’t. If we do, Kevin will die. And Lacuna wanted to be left behind.”

  “Don’t believe you.”

  “Then believe this,” said Ziron as he brought up the holo-recording of their pre-mission where Lacuna and Boomer insisted on the mission’s goal.

  “You should have woken me!”

  “You were badly hurt.”

  “I’m ooookay. I needs a shuttle, dho.”

  “Why?”

  “Darmak going back.”

  “We can’t go back.”

  Darmak shook his head and pointed his fat finger at Ziron. “You can’t go back, Darmak can.”

  “You’ll just get yourself captured, or worse.”

  “My choice.”

  Ziron thought about it, but he didn’t need much convincing. If he had been in Darmak’s shoes, he would have gone back as well.

  “Very well, you can take the shuttle, just be careful.”

  “I will. Tanks.”

  “Don’t thank me. I doubt you’ll get a warm welcome.”

  The ship shook, and Ziron fell off his cushion.

  “What the hell?” he exclaimed. “Why have we dropped out of hyperspace?”

  “Ziron!” shouted Mira. “Come to the bridge now! We have a red alert.”

  Ziron climbed back on his flying cushion.

  “Go to the shuttle, now…this may be your only chance to get out of here. And when you get to our friends, tell them I’m sorry.”

  Darmak nodded and ran out of the med-bay.

  * * *

  Ziron arrived on the bridge, and the ship kept rocking.

  “What’s going on?” asked Ziron.

  “Ships in the vicinity destabilized our hyperspace corridor,” said Mira.

  “Damn that Tizon. It’s his doing, for sure.”

  “I thought the virus would have spread to the rest of the fleet with auto-updates.”

  “He must have found a way to at least slow it down.”

  “I can confirm that, but I’m already working on countermeasures. Now that we’re in range of the infected ships, I can continue your brilliant hack.”

  “Not so brilliant if we’re where we are.”

  “Stop being so hard on yourself, your virus worked, and you got away. But never mind that right now, why am I detecting the shuttle powering up in the cargo bay?”

  “It’s Darmak. He wants to go back.”

  “I assume you told him that was a one-way trip and most likely a suicide mission.”

  “He didn’t seem to give a crap.”

  “Ignorance is bliss.”

  “I’d give everything to be on that shuttle too, you know?”

  “I know, but our mission now is to make sure we save Kevin. He may be the key to everything.”

  “And we will, no matter what.”

  “I’ll hold you to that,” said Mira.

  “No need, I’m done with the Arcadian Confederate. All I care about is saving Kevin and making sure he makes it back to Earth where he belongs.”

  The ship rocked, and a console nearby exploded.

  “Shields down!” shouted Mira. “So are the hyperspace engines.”

  Ziron swore. “I can see that, evasive action.”

  “On it, using maneuver Kevin Alpha Three.”

  Ziron smiled. “Return fire, just make these ships go away, no matter what.”

  The Osiris opened fire with all its laser batteries and torpedoes. Soon, one of the ships in the viewport exploded.

  “Ziron,” said Mira. “We’re not out of the woods yet, and it may take a while to get Kevin there now that the hyperspace engines are damaged, but we will get there.”

  “I know we will, we have to.”

  * * *

  TO BE CONTINUED

  Keep reading for the conclusion of the Far Beyond Saga with Bo
ok 5: Battlestations!

  Book 5: Battlestations!

  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

  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

  0-0-1 (zero-zero-one) - Artificial Intelligence

  Leg’olas – Alien spider

  PREVIOUSLY on Far Beyond

  Book 1: Across the Galactic Pond

  Kevin receives a rejection letter from MIT, and his father loves to tell him how much he’s a failure and a loser at every turn. Having skipped dinner, Kevin witnesses a spacecraft crashing into a nearby lake. Going against his common sense, he swims toward the crashed craft to find a dying purple-skinned alien who implores Kevin to help save his people. All Kevin has to do is put a blinking pill under his tongue. After a short inner debate, Kevin does, and his consciousness is teleported to a far beyond (see what I did there?) galaxy where his thoughts are remote-controlling a deceased alien crew member aboard a super-duper top secret R&D ship with superior firepower. That ship is not only the key but the last hope for the Arcadian Confederate to defeat, or at the very least, repel the Kregan final assault. There’s only one hitch, the ship’s AI, Mira, has been disconnected from her ability to fly the ship, which is about to be destroyed. Kevin’s arrival changes all that, and his extreme compatibility with neuronal interfaces make him an ideal candidate to not only become the ship’s new captain but also save the Confederate.