Star Blaze (39 page)

“I mean it,” said Johnny, trying to sound convincing but, before he could decide what to do, the weapon was snatched from his hand and he found himself dangling upside down, suspended by the ankle from one of the Judge's giant tentacles. The wall behind him had once again vanished.

“You cannot escape justice, Johnny Mackintosh,” said the giant brain, “and it must be seen to be done.”

“I don't think so.”

Everyone's heads, including both of Z'habar Z'habar Estagog's, swiveled to face the side entrance. Captain Valdour, a blaster in each hand and a bright orange antigrav harness strapped around his waist, lifted into the air, just as a volley of disruptor fire flashed into the space where he'd been standing. The captain returned fire and three of the Regent's guards were struck down, falling into the moat running in front of the stage.

Valdour landed on top of the raised witness box and crouched for cover. The remaining soldiers encircled his position, spraying the hexagonal platform with more energy bolts so that the air was soon thick with pieces of shrapnel. The captain fired upward and not at them, sending the crane crashing down on his attackers, felling two more.

Still hanging by his ankles, Johnny was powerless to help. He
looked on, horrified, as the witness platform finally exploded into smithereens, filling the studio with a cloud of purple smoke. Nervously, the remaining soldiers advanced through the dust, which slowly cleared to leave them staring nose-to-nose at each other in a tight circle.

“Looking for someone?”

As one, the soldiers' heads swiveled vertically upward to where Captain Valdour hovered right underneath the battered ceiling.

“Kill him!” shrieked Chancellor Gronack.

Before the soldiers could fire, the captain undid his harness to leave it floating above him as he fell. He landed on top of the remaining guards. It was clear none of them would be getting up for a long time.

Z'habar Z'habar Estagog buzzed over toward the debris, hovering a few meters above it, and began to describe the carnage below. Before the commentator had got very far, a single warning shot fired straight up from the floor, narrowly missing its beating wings. The two heads turned to each other, screamed and the creature fled from the courtroom.

There was movement in the pile of bodies and, slowly and awkwardly, Captain Valdour struggled to his feet, blasters now trained on Chancellor Gronack and the Regent. He limped forward toward the group around the stretcher, smiling a toothless smile. It was all too apparent where his extra disruptors and probably the harness had come from.

“Order your Judge to release Johnny Mackintosh,” he said to the Regent.

“It is not mine to command,” the large Phasmeer replied, but Johnny still found himself being lowered, head first and rather too quickly to be comfortable, onto the floor. He stood up as the brain's tentacles retracted into the vat.

“What are we waiting for, Johnny?” said Captain Valdour.
“Haven't you got a planet to save?”

The smile was still forming on Johnny's face when it happened. A single blast came from behind him. The place on Valdour's chest from where Alf had once extracted the metal rod, was now smoking, a new hole burned through it. Johnny stared at the blackened spot and then up to the captain's face. Lifeless eyes, still wide open with shock, didn't meet his own. In slow motion, Captain Valdour's dead body fell backward. In slow motion, Johnny turned to confront his friend's killer. As he did a wall of sticky fluid gushing out from the brain's shattered tank broke over him. The last thing he saw was his disruptor still pointing outward, held tightly by one of the brain's tentacles.

Johnny was tied, with orichalcum-entwined ropes, to a red post fixed not far beyond the top of the steps in front of the Senate House. He could see one long shadow stretching out across Talamine Spaceport. Z'habar Z'habar Estagog hovered above him, with more of the annoying little insect-like cameras in his face to capture his final moments. Alf was tied up and under guard some way away and would be next. After threatening its life, the Regent had ordered the android to be executed as Johnny's Second, since Captain Valdour was already dead.

In the heavily armored transport to the execution site, the android had bitterly explained his earlier collapse—that his positronic circuits must have overloaded. He had realized, too late, that he was unable to take another sentient life except in self-defense. Johnny listened, but felt numb. He managed to tell the android it wasn't his fault. He knew there was no one to blame but himself—Alf had tried to stop him coming here. He'd not listened, Captain Valdour was dead and he, Alf, and probably everyone on Earth, were about to be next.

A dozen blue-uniformed soldiers marched into view forming
a line in front, each carrying a long laser rifle. The Regent, also armed, followed and stood at the end. Only Gronack was missing from the scene. Johnny was surprised the Chancellor hadn't come to gloat, but the evil Phasmeer had been keen to return to the Senate.

Following the Regent's lead, the soldiers lifted the rifles to their shoulders. Johnny ignored the excited commentary above him. He gazed beyond the soldiers, scanning the spaceport, but another ship he didn't recognize was now berthed at the foot of the steps. There was no sign of the
Spirit of London
.

He thought about the first time he'd met Captain Valdour, when
Cheybora
had rescued him and Clara and brought them here to Melania to begin their adventures. It had all started when Kovac had found an alien signal. Then there was the visit to his mum's hospital bedside where, somehow she had given him the locket that now hung forlornly around his neck. He wished he could open it to take one last look at the pictures of his family inside.

The soldiers took aim.

He remembered finding out about Clara, and being taken into orbit with her in the space elevator and, from there, out into the galaxy. He hoped she'd be OK—that she'd be able to look after Bentley and Sol.

“I hold this rifle and stand beside my soldiers as is my right and duty,” said the Regent. Johnny was hardly listening as the Phasmeer's faraway voice added, “I would ask no one to do what I would not do myself.”

He remembered the day, much later, in the Krun base masquerading as St. Catharine's Hospital, when his mum revealed herself to be the Diaquant, one of the galaxy's first ones—when she had taken his human dad and they had left. She'd said they had to take different paths. When he died, Johnny wondered if that would be it—or would he somehow
then take the road his parents were now on. He was clutching at straws—and it would be terrible for Clara to be left behind. He'd still not told her about Nicky and now he never would.

“Johnny—we've landed. I found Bram—we're coming. We'll be there in a moment.”

“Fire,” said the Regent. Clara was too late.

Ruby-red beams from all thirteen laser rifles converged on him and Johnny couldn't help but close his eyes. It didn't shut out the light, which was the brightest he'd ever seen, searing through his eyelids. A burning in the middle of his chest spread through his body and a whining started in his ears, quickly becoming louder. He was surprised it was taking so long to die.

“Johnny!”
It was Clara again. She was screaming in stereo—through the earpiece and because she must be somewhere close by.

He didn't want her to see this. He opened his eyes and was nearly blinded by the white light surrounding him, shining like the brightest star in the sky from the center of his chest—from his locket. The beams from the laser rifles were still targeted on him, but couldn't penetrate a sphere of whiteness that was surrounding him and growing. The high-pitched whine was also coming from his chest. It was as if the locket were absorbing all the energy being directed at him, but Johnny knew that couldn't last much longer.

The noise stopped. For a moment there was utter silence.

Johnny wondered if his eardrums had burst but then, with a whoosh, thirteen golden beams shot from the crystals in his locket, returning the fire it had soaked up and burning huge round holes straight through the bodies of the soldiers and the Regent. For a second, Johnny could see the spaceport through their chests; then the dead bodies crumpled to the floor.

Clara ran into view and sped toward him with Bram striding imperiously behind, followed by members of the Imperial
Guard. She reached Johnny and flung her arms around him, even as he was still bound to the post.

“Johnny—are you OK? Johnny?”

He couldn't speak. Nothing made sense.

Clara struggled to untie him, still asking if he was all right.

Johnny looked skyward. Z'habar Z'habar Estagog hovered five meters above, unscathed from the shootings. “Murder …
murder
,” screamed the two heads. “The Regent is dead—
killed by the Terran.
”

Bram reached Johnny and Clara and, instantly, Johnny's bonds fell away. He sank to the ground. The sound of marching footsteps warned of more soldiers approaching.

“Listen to me,” said the Emperor, placing an arm on Johnny and Clara's shoulders. “I regret deeply that I could not return to stop the trial, but I knew, long ago, that your locket was a personal shield—from the time you returned the fragment of my own soul to me in Atlantis. Nothing else could have contained such a thing. You were not in danger as the evidence is now clear for all to see.” Briefly, Bram looked round at the fallen bodies. Behind them, Alf was being freed by the Emperor's soldiers. “Wear them always—both of you. They are a precious gift from your mother. But, even so, Melania is not safe for you. The Empire is fractured and needs healing—my hold on it has grown weak. My own quests and obsessions made me blind to the oppression of my people and the actions of the Regent and its Chancellors.”

“Captain Valdour …” said Johnny.

“Died as bravely as he lived,” said the Emperor. “As your Second, I thought him safe. The fault is all my own. I will honor him and
Cheybora
will do his memory proud.”

Alf rushed over to join them. The android was unscathed.

“Earth?” Johnny asked.

“Survives … just,” the Emperor replied, looking between
Johnny and his sister. “A fleet will follow you, but remember what I said on Titan. You are the lawmakers now. I have no doubt that, together, you will save your Sun—it is for you to believe it too.”

Hordes of soldiers in blue Regency armor reached the top of the steps, spilling out into the space above. They stopped and stared at the bodies on the ground and the ring of troops surrounding the Emperor. Z'habar Z'habar Estagog began talking above.

“Go now,” said Bram. “There isn't much time.”

Clara nodded and an archway opened leading to the
Spirit of London
. As she pulled Johnny through, he saw more blue uniforms on the bridge.

Bentley lay bleeding near the captain's chair, but lifted his head and barked weakly as Johnny, Clara and Alf appeared. The android collapsed, his bowler hat rolling across the floor.

“Hello, Johnny … Clara,” said Sol, ignoring the four soldiers busy encasing the Plican's tank in a strange red foam (smelling of air freshener) and the several others performing different tasks around the bridge.

All of them turned, clearly puzzled by the sudden appearance of the unlikely trio before them. At least five had bite marks showing on different parts of their anatomy. The one in charge stepped forward, saying, “I don't know who you are or where you came from, but this vessel has been impounded by order of the Regent. You will come with me.”

“What have you done to our Plican?” demanded Clara. Her face radiated anger and power.

It wasn't the response the officer expected and he backed away as the girl half his size marched toward the tank. “Come any further and I'll shoot,” he said.

“No!” screamed Johnny. He was finding it hard to think after the events of the last few minutes, but the one thing he was sure of was that he didn't want any more killing. He grabbed hold of Clara and shouted, “Sol—force fields.”

Blaster fire reached halfway across the bridge before fizzling out against an invisible wall.

“Do that again and you'll all be dead,” said Johnny, as Clara fought to break free from him. If she did, Johnny was sure the force fields wouldn't hold.

“Sir,” said another of the soldiers. “The Regent—it's … it's dead. All troops are ordered to report to barracks.”

“What?” said the officer, his face quickly losing color. He took a couple of steps toward Johnny, Clara and the prone android, but was stopped by an invisible wall. Clearly flustered, he said, “Don't think you've heard the last of this. It's impossible for you to take off but, should you try, your vessel will be destroyed.” With that he clicked his heels and led his men to the lifts.