Fury to the Stars (Universe in Flames Book 2) (12 page)

“Such as?”

“Well, you can only cloak the ship for a minute or
two, depending on your energy levels.

Chase shrugged. “More than enough in most
situations.”

“If only it was that simple, I would agree. While
the new prototype fighters also lose most of their shields while in cloak, they
still can maintain about forty percent of them up and even fire while cloaked,
which makes them true predators in battle conditions. The F-147, unfortunately,
cannot. It’s simply too big. It has too many systems and not enough juice to do
everything while cloaked.”

“I see. That’s still an advantage under the right
set of circumstances. We just can’t use it in the middle of a frenzied
firefight with multiple targets in pursuit. Especially if the fact of
de-cloaking means having no shields. How fast do the shields recharge once
de-cloaked?”

“Fast enough. As fast as they would in normal combat
conditions. I’m trying to figure a way to flash charge them so they could be
restored faster, but I’ve had limited success so far.”

“Limited success?” Sarah asked.

“I fried half the capacitors and blew up the other
half during testing.”

“Ah,” she replied, letting the subject drop.

Chase nodded hastily. “Yeah, it would be great if we
get that one day, but for the time being, we can easily say that this new and
improved version of the craft should provide us a definite edge against the
Zarlacks.”

Chase noticed Sarah had become quiet again, which,
when the subject of technology, weapons, and blowing stuff up was involved,
wasn’t really in her nature.

“Don’t you agree, love?”

She barely registered the fact that he addressed her
directly, but after a few seconds, she answered. “I... I’m sorry. I’m suddenly
not feeling very well. Please don’t misunderstand me. This is an awesome craft,
one I want to test very soon, but I think I need to go get some rest. I feel a
little queasy.” She turned towards Chase. “With your permission?”

“Of course. We’ll finish up here and I’ll join you
later,” Chase answered with a smile.

“Thank you.” She turned to Yanis and shook his hand
“Great job on the new ships. I can’t wait to see them in action. Until next
time.”

Yanis nodded and she left the conference room. When
the doors closed he turned back to Chase. “That was a little odd.”

“She lost an uncle during the battle. He had become
kind of a father figure for her after she had lost her parents.”

“Oh... I didn’t know.” His face fell. “I sensed
something wasn’t going well, but I didn’t know what it was.”

“Not to mention what she had to endure while
captive. That took quite a toll.” Chase sighed. A toll on them both. “But she’s
strong. She’ll get through it.”

“Something you’d like to talk about?”

“No, she barely told me about it. It’s probably a
very private and delicate subject, so if she wants to tell that tale herself,
she will in due time.”

“Absolutely, I understand.”

There was a sudden tension in the conference room
and Chase was determined not to let it fester. “So, when will these be ready?”

“The F-147… I should have a couple of them ready in
the next few days.”

“I take it the Prometheus-class ship will take
longer?”

“You’d think so, but both the commodore and admiral
were adamant they wanted this ship and the next ones of their class to be ready
as fast as humanly possible. So we’ve literally built an entire army of bot
droids to build them at an accelerated rate. It meant squandering some quadrinium,
but they both felt that it is worth it. If you ask me, the admiral has
something in mind.”

“So when should I come in and test it?”

“Give me one or two more days. Then it should be
ready to go.”

Chase’s eyes widened. “Are you serious?”

“Yeah, like I said—thousands upon thousands of
builder bots have been working on it relentlessly for days now. It can probably
already fly now, but we have the engineers onboard doing all the testing,
making sure everything is safe and all that.”

“Well, that’s great. We need more ships and soon.”

“Yeah, I think that’s on everyone’s agenda at the
moment; that and trying to repair whatever damage was done.”

Chase shook his head. “On that front, I don’t know
that we really can. But I guess whatever help we can provide in terms of
reconstruction will be welcome. Humanity lost some of its history in that
attack; it must not be easy to deal with that. I’m sure we’ll feel some of
those repercussions—”

A loud explosion cut short his sentence as the
windows in the conference room suddenly shattered into a million pieces.

Ryonna almost fell from her bed when the ground
beneath her started shaking and rumbling. It felt like an explosion. Ronan came
running from his room in alarm.

“What was that noise?”

“I think something exploded,” she answered, going to
the windows to get a better look.

One of the buildings nearby had a column of smoke
rising in the sky. The question now was: was it an accident, or an attack?

“Something bad happened,” she murmured. “Take your
weapons. We need to check it out, and perhaps there are people who need our
assistance.”

“Why should we care?” asked Ronan defiantly.

“Look, Ronan, I know you think you’re already a
tough warrior and you try to be a good Droxian, but let me remind you that without
Chase and his friends, we would both be dead. I have a debt to repay. I don’t
need to tell you how important honor is to our people.” She threw on her
jacket. “And there’s something more than that… they’re our friends.”

The door chimed.

“Come in!”

It was Tar’Lock. “What the hell was that explosion?
I thought this place was safe.”

Ryonna shook her head. “I don’t know, but let’s go
check it out.”

With that, the three of them left the flat at a dead
sprint.

*   *   *

When Chase came to there was smoke in the conference
room. His ears were ringing and it took a few moments for him to regain all his
senses. He called out to Yanis.

“You’re okay, buddy?”

No answer.

He looked around and saw Yanis on the floor, still
unconscious, buried beneath some light rubble. Chase’s heart stopped in his
chest until he saw that his friend was still breathing. He quickly reached out
to check his vitals and slapped his face gently until he regained
consciousness.

“Urgh... What the... What was that?”

“An explosion.”

“Again with the obvious…” Yanis attempted a smile.
“But why?”

Chase’s face darkened. “I don’t know, but let’s go
check it out. Some people might need our help. Can you get up?”

“I think so.”

Yanis moaned in discomfort but managed to get to his
feet. He looked up, pleased with his efforts, but paused at Chase’s expression.

“What is it?”

“Sarah. She barely left. We need to try and locate
her.” Without hesitation he tried his comm. “Sarah, do you hear me? Please
respond?
Sarah!
”

No response.

“We gotta find her!” he said, his voice trembling.

Yanis walked towards the door but it wouldn’t open.
“That’s just great!” he said, letting escape a long breath of frustration.
“Gimme a minute to get this open—”

“No need; move aside.”

“What?”

“Just get out of the way,” Chase insisted. He raised
his hand and called as loud as he possibly could, “Anybody behind the door?”
There was silence. “I’ll take that as a no.”

A bright-blue ball of energy formed in his open
palm. The next second, he fired it at the door. It burst open as if it was made
of cardboard, most of its structure ricocheting against the next wall and
falling to the ground in the now accessible corridor.

Yanis’ expression was a mixture of bewilderment with
a healthy bit of fear.

“Right, you didn’t know I can do that,” said Chase
with a tentative smile.

The engineer’s jaw fell open. “What the fuck, man!
What WAS that?”

“Short version, my Fury powers.”

“
Fury
? I think I need the long version.”

“Sure, but not right now. Let’s try and find Sarah
first. Follow me.”

They took off, running through the corridors. The
damage to the building seemed minimal but it had obviously lost power. After a
minute of running towards the exit, however, secondary power kicked in and
low-powered lights started to fill the corridors. Nevertheless, when they tried
the elevator, there was no such luck.

They went towards the nearest stairway and ran down
ten flights of stairs until they reached a point where some damage had taken
part of the stairway. It was still smoking and some sparks were flying about
from broken electrical conduits around the damage. There was a way across, but
it involved leaping several yards to the remaining stairway.

“I can make that jump. Can you?” Chase inquired.

Yanis looked at the drop and then at Chase with
clear incredulity in his eyes.

“Not a chance, but go. I’ll find another stairway
and catch up with you.”

Chase nodded and wasted no time jumping the
thirty-foot gap, landing easily on the other side. Before Yanis could register
it, his friend was no longer visible.

“
Right
, let’s find another way down,” he said
out loud.

Chase got out of the building and took the way he
thought Sarah would have gone. He was so full of adrenaline that he didn’t
realize how fast he was running. In just a matter of seconds, he saw the smoldering
rubble of the adjacent building—the one the explosion had clearly been meant
for. At first, he was going to give it a wide berth, focused on his mission to
find Sarah, but as he got closer, he spotted a familiar watch sticking up from
beneath the rocks.

“Sarah!”

His heart started pounding, but he was relieved to
hear an answer almost immediately.

“Chase?” Her voice was weak. “I’m stuck. I think I
might have my leg broken too.”

As he approached, he saw that she was trapped under
some paneling and concrete. With almost no effort at all, he threw the
obstructing debris out of the way. When he reached the concrete and lifted it
to the side, she moaned in pain.

“Thank you.” Her eyes were half closed from the
pain. “What happened? I don’t remember anything after leaving the conference
room.”

“I don’t know. Don’t move just yet,” he advised,
helping her lie back.

Casting a nervous glance around, he placed his hands
on the bleeding wound that had torn a hole in her pants. He closed his eyes,
and a second later the wound had stopped bleeding. Another second after that,
and it was like nothing had ever happened.

She blinked in amazement. “Wow, thank you. Guess I
won’t be needing any morphine after all.” She tried flexing her leg and felt
absolutely no pain. “That never gets old,” she said with a grin. He grinned
back.

A second later, they heard running footsteps. Chase
instinctively jumped to his feet and stood in front of Sarah, adopting a
fighting stance. But it was just Ryonna, Ronan and Tar’Lock. Nonetheless, they
stopped dead in their tracks at his reaction.

“Easy, Chase,” Ryonna said, a relieved smile shining
in her eyes.

Sarah got up and dusted herself up. “Hey, guys.”

“Are you alright? What happened?” inquired Tar’Lock.

“We’re fine, and… I don’t know.” Chase looked
worried.

Just then, Yanis came running. He tried to speak,
but settled for frantic hand gestures as he caught his breath.

“I see you found another way out.” Chase grinned. He
pressed his comm. “Commodore Saroudis, please respond?”

There was a crackle on the other end.

“Saroudis here. We detected an explosion on our
sensors shortly after I arrived onboard
Destiny
. Is everyone okay?”

“We’re fine, Commodore; glad you weren’t in the
building. We’ll need manpower to search for casualties and injured people;
there might be some stuck in rubble.”

“I’ve already dispatched helper bots; they should be
there shortly.”

“Good. Thank you, Commodore. We’re all—”

But just then, Sarah fainted out of the blue.
Tar’Lock caught her with his super speed, but Chase grabbed the comm in alarm.

“Actually, Commander Kepler just collapsed. I’m
bringing her to the
Destiny
; have the med-bay ready for our arrival.”

“I’ll let them know you’re coming. Hope she’s
alright.”

“Thanks, Commodore. Chase out.” He clicked off and
turned to Ryonna.

“What can I do, Chase?” she said preemptively.

“I’d like you three to look for survivors and people
who might be in need of help; assist the helper bots when they arrive if
needed.” He took Sarah from Tar’Lock, then turned to Yanis and added, “You’re
with me.”

*   *   *

Onboard the
Destiny’s
med-bay, Sarah had been
placed into an examination bed. A ring-shaped medical device scanned her head
to toe. Then a ceiling-attached, laser-wave scan made some extra readings.

“How is she, Doc?” Chase asked nervously. He had
been watching each scan like a hawk.

“I am not detecting anything wrong with her.”

“Her leg was broken. I healed her.”

The doctor’s eyebrows shot up. “Really? Would you
mind explaining how you did so?”

“I really don’t have a clue. I just put my hands on
the wound, closed my eyes, and everything happened automatically.”

“That’s handy. I have to say, it’s even more
impressive if you say she had a broken bone, as I see absolutely no crack
whatsoever on my scans.” He looked at Chase quizzically. “I would love to study
these healing abilities of yours and see if we can replicate them with
technology. Of course, we can already fix broken bones, but it takes time in
the regeneration chambers and usually there is a tiny trace left when scanning
a patient. For all intents and purposes, my scans indicate she’s never had that
bone cracked. Or any others for that matter.”

“Sure, Doc,” he said impatiently. “But what about
her current condition? Why did she collapse?”

“The only explanation I can guess is that it’s
related to her pregnancy.”

There was a second’s pause, followed by a mild
cardiac explosion.

“Her WHAT?”

“Right, it’s very early. She probably doesn’t know
it either.” The doctor peered down over his spectacles. “But she is with
child.”

Sarah was… with his… but… what?!

“You’re alright, Lieutenant Commander? You look…
flushed.”

Chase flailed his right hand in response and sank
down in the nearest chair. His mind was racing at a million miles a minute, but
he was able to come up with a single question.

“Can you make a DNA scan of the fetus? Can you
detect my DNA in there? Also, can you give me the approximate date of
conception?”

“Let me check... It should only take a minute.”

The doc interfaced with the nearest monitors and
brought up all info on the fetus. He then brought up Chase’s DNA from file and
compared.

“Ninety-nine point ninety-seven percent match that
your DNA is part of the child to be.”

“Shouldn’t it be a hundred percent?” Chase asked
nervously.

“Well... I see a few possible explanations.” The
doctor studied the screen. “Either the DNA is extremely similar to yours,
perhaps a twin brother—”

Chase’s expression became grave but he let the doc
continue with his assessment.

“…or, and this is more likely, our sensors aren’t
exactly calibrated to detect human physiology with the same amount of precision
as our own.”

“Isn’t our physiology the same as the people of
Earth?”

“Mostly, Chase, but we evolved on another planet
with another set of rules. There are still significant changes. Think of it as
a sub-species, if you’d like. Sure, our main double-helix DNA is the same, but
with changes due to environment, different gravity levels, and the like… all of
it’s come together to impact us over the centuries.”

“What about my Fury DNA?”

The doctor’s eyes widened. “Fury?”

Chase ran his hand through his hair. “Right, it
would seem I’m part Fury, Doc.”

“That would explain why your scans are slightly
different than ours on a cellular level. So yes, it could also be a simple
factor explaining that very small discrepancy. That and that strange eye color
of yours.”

Chase scoffed. “It’s not…
strange
.”

The doctor stifled a chuckle. “Not many people with
purple irises, Chase.”

Chase chose to ignore this. “What about a conception
date?”

“The baby was made June twenty-seventh, by Earth
calendar, plus or minus a couple of days.”

That was around the night they’d spent together at
her apartment, their first date. Chase exhaled deeply in relief.

“That’s strange,” added the doc.

“What is?” asked Chase in alarm.

“Well, it’s probably nothing, but Sarah also shows a
slight DNA discrepancy with her previous scans in the database. I can’t quite
put my finger on what could do that. I’ll run some more tests. For the time
being, I wouldn’t worry. She’s healthy, that’s what matters. And perhaps she’s
recently undergone some sort of trauma…?”