Earthman Jack vs. The Ghost Planet (51 page)

This time, both Jack and Scallywag hit their faces with
their palms.

“I think the Deathlords tortured yer friend a tad too much,”
mumbled Scallywag.

“I know how it sounds,” said Green.  “But there is a
Deathlord Planetkiller docked right above this silo leading directly to the
unstable quantum core of this planet where those ships are imprisoned.  If the
state of quantum flux is as intense as I believe, I am willing to bet the mothership’s
main weapon will start a chain reaction that will detonate the core and cause
the ‘invincible armada’ to cease to exist.”

“Blowing up the planet in the process?” said Scallywag.

“Yes,” said Green.  “And most likely the better part of this
sector of space.”

“Charming,” replied the pirate.

“Well, it’s just a nebula,” said Green.  “There are no life-forms
here the explosion would hurt.”

“Yer forgetting about us,” said Scallywag.  “I’m pretty sure
we’d
be hurt.”

“Well, how were you planning to escape the planet to begin
with?”

“Uh…” said Jack.  “We were just gonna use the ship’s
Entanglement Engine to jump out of here.”

“Ah!”  said Green.  “Brilliant.  Chances are its coordinates
would take you back to your own space/time, so you’d be able to get off the
planet without a worry.  Good thinking, my boy.”

“Thanks,” said Jack, even though the idea had been Heckubus’s,
and none of them was even sure it would really work.  But bottom line, being
anywhere away from the Deathlords was preferable, even if it meant hopping into
another reality.

“That should work just fine,” continued Green.  “It will
take some time for the chain reaction to trigger and destroy the planet.  If we
can make the jump before it happens, we should be okay.”

“Yeah, this plan was bad enough before adding a massive
explosion into the mix,” said Scallywag.

“It’s really the only way to ensure the Deathlord’s
invincible armada is never unleashed,” said Green.  “The Ancients meant for the
seal to be a failsafe.  As long as the knowledge is contained behind the seal,
it would keep the invincible armada captive.  If the seal were broken and the
armada were released, the knowledge to defeat them would once again be
available to the universe.  If we can destroy the armada AND release the
knowledge, then we just may be able to have a significant advantage over the
Deathlords for the first time.”

“So now, we’re not just supposed to rescue the Princess,”
said Scallywag, “we’ve gotta free the Ancient forbidden knowledge, infiltrate a
Deathlord Mothership, and blow up a planet?”

“Precisely!”  smiled Green.

Scallywag stared at the Professor dumbly for a moment.

“I think I was better off in the bloody Pit,” hissed the
pirate.

Jack sighed and looked at Green.  The alien stared back at
him, his large lips curling around his face the way his human version used to
smile when he was leading Jack to the correct answer during class.

“Shepherd would’ve gone for this plan, wouldn’t he?” asked
Jack.

“Without a doubt,” replied Green.

Jack nodded and looked at his companions.  Scallywag rolled
his eyes.  Grohm just stared stoically.

Jack reached up to his earpiece and activated his comm unit.

“Heckubus,” said Jack.  “We have a change of plans…”

“You have what???” squawked the robot in reply.  “How dare
you alter my brilliantly plotted scheme!  As if any of you nitwits have the
wherewithal to account for all the various details and nuances of—”

“We’re gonna have to blow up the planet,” interrupted Jack.

After a moment of silence, the robot answered.

“Oh, well that’s okay then.”

“Good.  Now listen up because there’s a lot you need to know,
and we don’t have much time…”

After Jack explained the situation to Heckubus, it took the
robot a few minutes to come up with a strategy for the group that seemed
somewhat viable to everyone involved.  After the plan had been formulated,
Scallywag looked at Jack and frowned.

“Remember before when I told ya storming this planet was the
worst plan I’d ever heard?” he asked.

“Yeah,” said Jack.

“I take it back,” replied Scallywag.  “
This
is the
worst plan I’ve ever heard.”

“And yet, the plans keep working,” said Jack, smiling as he
gave Scallywag a chummy slap on the arm.

“Now buck up,” said Jack.  “It’s time to save the day.”

Anna was beginning to have trouble
feeling her legs as she marched down the hallway beside the Deathlord Supreme. 
It was almost as if they were asleep – she knew she was walking, that her feet
were touching the ground and swinging back and forth, carrying her along with
them – but she did not feel it.  She did not will it.  She did not want it. 
She was no longer in control of her own body.

If she were, she’d be running away, struggling against her
captors, doing everything in her power to resist their will.  Instead she
walked, and kept on walking dutifully by the side of the creature that planned
to use her and discard her after it had taken all it could from her.

She looked around, her mind racing, as it seemed to be the
only thing left that she had any control over.  Even that, she felt, was slowly
slipping away as she found her concentration waning, making it hard for her to
organize her thoughts.

She didn’t know how long they had been walking.  It seemed
as if the hallway they were marching down were growing bigger.  The footsteps
of her and her captors echoed as they walked, bouncing off the walls like the
beat of a drum.  Finally, they came to a place where many different hallways
merged into a semi-circle, and before them was a long, narrow passageway, its
entrance buttressed with ornate designs, as if to signal that they had reached
some important destination.

Zarrod entered first, and she followed behind him, with the
three remaining Dark Soldiers bringing up the rear.  The passageway they walked
down was simple and free of any of the ornate symbols and decoration of the
hallways leading up to it.  The walls were made of old, crumbling yellow brick
and pressed in on them narrowly, making the hallway just wide enough for two
men to walk down it side by side.  The ceiling had no arch; it was just a flat,
oppressive plane that lorded above them.  It glowed slightly, giving a warm
yellow hue to the hallway as soft as though it were torchlight.

At the end of the hall was a simple door made of the same
stone that comprised the walls.  It was wide and rectangular, stretching up to
the ceiling, engraved with the Ancient writings of Old Solar.

Anna tried to read what was there, but the figure of the
Deathlord Supreme blocked her vision.  He stood before the door, as though he
were standing before some ominous foe that was challenging him to battle.  With
the flick of his arm, he sent a screaming blast of ghostly white fury at it,
and the door cracked, spider webbing from corner to corner like a pane of glass
that had been impacted by a rock.  Dust seeped from the door like blood from a
wound, and a large “crunching” sound echoed down the corridor like the cry of a
dying beast.

Zarrod raised his hand again, a ball of death energy
swirling between his claws, growing louder and more violent with each passing
second.  Finally, he released his hold on it, and it shot forth like a
cannonball, tearing through the door and setting off an avalanche of rock and
dust.  They hit the ground in bits and pieces, thick dust spewing into the air
and crawling along the ground like snakes seeking to escape a cage.

Anna’s eyes watered, but she was unable to lift her hands to
rub them.  Her body stood still, not able to move no matter how hard she tried
to make it obey.  Zarrod turned and looked at her, as though he knew of her
struggle and found it amusing.  She could almost imagine the hideous smile his
horrible helmet hid behind it.

“You three,” he said, referring to his guards.  “Stay here. 
What lies beyond is for me and my captive only.”

The three Dark Soldiers nodded in submission.  Zarrod
stepped aside and extended his arm toward the opening, as if inviting Anna to
enter first.

Anna moved forward, her legs obeying in the same manner a
marionette obeys the puppet master who holds its strings.  She wanted to
scream, a flurry of anger, frustration, and helplessness swirling within her. 
But she held her tongue as she approached the doorway.  There was nothing but
darkness beyond its frame, but as she got closer she could see a series of
stone steps leading downward – to what, she did not know.

She descended, and the Deathlord Supreme followed close
behind her.

Scallywag stood at the controls of the Deathlord hovervehicle
with Green beside him as they made their way up the tunnel.  The Professor
scratched at his wrists.  The bindings around them had disappeared, but he kept
them crossed to try and make it appear as though he were still a prisoner.

Scally looked up at the ever-encroaching Deathlord
Mothership as the craft continued to climb toward it.  “This is insane,” he
mumbled aloud.  “Bloody insane.  There must be somethin’ wrong with me brain to
agree to go along with this.”

“Courage, dear friend,” said Green, a bit too cheerily for
Scallywag’s liking.  “I am confident we can succeed in our task.”

“Confidence don’t shield ya from plasma blasts, Greenskin,”
grumbled Scallywag.

“Neither does complaining,” replied the Professor.

Scallywag glanced down at his hands.  The sight of the black
talons being there as opposed to his normal five red fingers still  freaked him
out a bit.  When the Professor had handed over his hologuise emitter turning
Scallywag into the very image of a Dark Soldier, his pirate instincts told him
that at the very least, he had some type of cover should things go wrong.  But
looking like a Deathlord still put his teeth on edge.  After all he’d been
through, it just felt wrong.

The controls on the hovervehicle beeped, signaling that the
Mothership had noticed their approach.  Scallywag transmitted a signal that the
Professor had set up for him, requesting permission to board.  Within seconds,
a panel to a docking bay opened high above them, like a terrible mouth ready to
swallow them whole.

“Well, here goes nothing,” said Scallywag.

“Remember,” said Green, “try not to talk if you can help
it.”

“I’ll be quiet as a tunnel rat,” replied Scally.

“No sudden movements, we don’t want to give them reason to
be suspicious.”

“Slow and robotic, gotcha.”

“And don’t let any of them get too close,” said Green.  “We
haven’t exactly tested the effectiveness of the hologuises at close range.”

“They won’t even notice I’m there.”

Green nodded and cleared his throat nervously, gazing up at
the opening as they approached.  It grew bigger and bigger until their craft
passed its threshold and entered the hanger.  Though it seemed small from the
outside, above them hung numerous shards, docked in individual hangars high
above the opening, ready to drop and spring into action at a moment’s notice. 

Scallywag looked around.  The bay was long and rectangular,
possibly a hundred yards, more likely a little longer.  Catwalks high above
them stretched out, crisscrossing the area, leading to the various shards that
were docked there.  As far as Deathlords went, he didn’t see any, and that made
him breathe a sigh of relief.  Far to the left, he spotted an area containing
similar circular hovervehicles and started to make his way toward it, assuming
that was where he’d have to park.

He landed in an empty alcove designed to house the vehicles. 
Both he and the Professor looked around nervously. The hanger was quiet.  There
was no sign of movement at all.  For a moment, Scallywag dared to hope that it
was as simple as that.  There was to be no greeting party, and the Deathlords
were not expecting any trouble on the planet, so security was not to be an
issue.

“Well,” said Green.  “That wasn’t so bad.”

As if on cue, a door to the bay slid open, revealing two
Dark Soldiers marching toward them.

“Ya had ta say something, didn’t ya?” mumbled Scallywag. 
Green kept his mouth shut.  Scallywag wasn’t sure if the look of fear and
misery on the Professor’s face was part of an act, or just an honest expression
of how he was feeling.

The two Deathlords stopped before the vehicle, looking up at
Scallywag on the landing platform.  The pirate stared at the new arrivals, a
tad too long, as though some unpleasant odor hung in the air between them. 
Green’s large eyes shot nervously from the soldiers to Scallywag and back
again.  The Visini stood still, unsure of what to do next, but his brain was
screaming at him that he had to do something.

“Greetings!” he said, holding up his clawed hand.  “I am
here under the orders of the Supreme.”

The soldiers looked at him, unmoving.

“He wanted me to bring the prisoner back to the ship,” he
said.

The soldiers glanced at the Professor, who smiled at them
weakly.  The Deathlords betrayed no sense of any type of expression from behind
their helmets.

“So, uh… that’s what I did.  Brought him back.  As ordered. 
By the… uh, Supreme.”

Scally’s voice trailed off awkwardly.  The two Deathlords
slowly turned their heads to look at each other, and then back to Scallywag.

“Ah, blast it,” Scallywag mumbled, before making a sudden
move to the rail of the vessel.  He leapt out, tucking and rolling toward the
Dark Soldiers, who instinctively took a step back. 

“An impostor!” one of the Dark Soldiers called out, seeing
through his hologuise.

They made a move for their weapons, but Scallywag already
had his pistols out.  Rolling up to one knee, he leveled his weapons and fired
at point blank range before the Deathlords had time to react, dispatching them
both in a puff of dust.

Scallywag got to his feet and glanced around, weapons at the
ready, but there was no sign of any other danger.

“Boring conversation anyway,” the pirate muttered.

“I say,” said Green as he got out of the hovervehicle.  “You
did exactly everything I told you not to do.”

Scallywag holstered his weapons and deactivated his
hologuise, looking at the Professor with just a hint of insolence.  “Yeah,” he
said.  “I’ve never been good at following directions.”

Green nodded.  “Well, my guess is they were sent to greet
us, assuming we were coming back from the Deathlord Supreme’s party.  I do not
know how long we have before they will be missed.”

“Then we’d better get a move on,” said Scallywag.

“Agreed,” replied Green, smiling.  “Now, let’s go find us a
terminal to hack.”

Jack ran down the hallway as fast as he dared, sticking as
close to the wall as possible.  He felt his heart thumping in his chest and
looked around nervously, as though expecting the Deathlord Supreme to pop out
of one of the adjoining hallways at any second.

Jack had spent half his youth playing video games where the
object was to run through corridors and shoot bad guys, and now he was
practically living one.  Unfortunately, the reality of “running and gunning”
was far different than it had ever been on his
Gamerbox 3000
.  Time was
of the essence, but he couldn’t just haphazardly rush ahead, guns blazing. 
This was real, and his life – as well as the lives of his friends – was on the
line.

As he made his way down the Ancient corridor, Jack could
feel the hulking presence of Grohm close behind him.  Though the Rognok smelled
like a cross between a wet dog and a sweaty gym shoe, his behemoth presence was
the only thing that was giving Jack some sense of safety.  After all they’d
been through, Jack knew if there were one person he could rely on to watch his
back, it was the massive alien by his side right now.

“Hey, just in case I don’t get a chance to say it later,”
said Jack.  “Thanks.  For coming here and backing me up.  I appreciate your
help.”

Grohm grunted.  Jack wasn’t sure if that was his way of
saying “You’re welcome” or not.  He still had yet to learn how to read the
Rognok.  “I mean, I know this is crazy.  By all rights, we probably shoulda
done what Scally suggested and run away the first chance we got.  But I think
we can actually do this!  We’ve made it this far, right?”

The Rognok was silent.  Jack figured he should probably be
quiet as well, but talking helped keep his mind off how nervous he was.  He was
about to say something else when suddenly he saw something further down the corridor.

“Whoa, whoa, hold up,” said Jack as he quickly crept up
behind a large pillar to the side of the main walkway, motioning Grohm to
follow him.

Once they were safely tucked away from view, Jack peeked around
the side of the pillar.  From there, he could see that the corridor down which they
had been running ended in a half-circle area.  Two Deathlords stood guard on
either side of a small entrance on the far wall, with a third one pacing back
and forth around the area, glancing down each hallway in turn.

“Crap,” muttered Jack.  He turned to Grohm.  “There are
three Deathlords down there – two guarding some entrance, and one patrolling
around.  My guess is Anna was taken in there.”

Grohm leaned out and took a look, snorting at what he saw.  Jack’s
mind raced.  If this were a video game, there would be cover to hide behind as
they made their way down the hall, allowing them to hop to-and-fro while
picking off the Deathlords who were out in the open.  However, the pillars
ended too far from the opening, and the area between the end of the corridor
and where the Deathlords had taken up position was too far.  If either he or
Grohm tried to take them on, chances were the Deathlords would cut them down.

“We need a plan.  There’s gotta be a way past them,” mumbled
Jack.  “Think, think… maybe there’s a ventilation shaft we could crawl
through?”  Jack looked around briefly.  “Who am I kidding?  There aren’t any
vents in this place.  Not that you’d be able to fit in one if there were.”  He
looked down at his side and saw the grenade belt.  “I guess we could toss a
grenade down there, but that would make too much noise.  If the Deathlord
Supreme came out here, we’d be toast.  Maybe we could double back and head down
another hallway and flank them?  One of us would need to distract them while
the other opened fire.  Can you make any bird noises?”