Star Watch (25 page)

“Can I try it?”

Chapter 35

Dacci System

The
Pacesetter
, Open Space

_________________

The
Pacesetter
’s final phase-shift put Jason and Ricket close enough in to see the distant Sahhrain’s Parlek Orion ship with their naked eyes. The vessel was larger than others they’d seen—closer in size to a meganaught, versus a heavy cruiser.

“Tell me everything you can about that ship and its crew, Ricket.”

“Well … as you can see, Captain, it is a substantially larger vessel. It is named the
Gallium
. Akin to other of their ships, its shields emit variable-spectrum Teclar waves, making the vessel invisible to virtually all far- and close-range sensors. Similar to other Parlek Orion ships, there are five pyramid-shaped superstructures on it, but this huge ship is designed with large flight bays and has a number of vessels moored inside … including the
Assailant
.”

Jason goosed the
Pacesetter
’s drive and approached the large warship. “Is their technology capable of detecting the
Pacesetter
?”

“No, Captain … I have been monitoring multiple
Gallium
comms channels … we have not been detected. With that said … still, we should not get much closer.”

Jason quickly slowed and stopped further progress of the small fighter.

“Captain, a vessel is leaving the
Gallium
… it’s the
Assailant
.”

“The admiral?”

“Still on board the
Gallium
,” Ricket said.

Jason spotted the familiar silhouette of the
Assailant
emerging from one of the pyramid-like superstructures. It accelerated and, within seconds, was gone. Jason wondered if Lord Vikor Shakrim was on board. Had he just missed an opportunity to end the uprising … and to save Boomer?

“Your father is being held within the topmost structure of the ship at its current orientation. If we are going to do something … we … should move quickly, Captain.”

Ricket, already anticipating Jason’s next request, displayed the
Gallium
’s internal schematics. An ever-so-faint blue icon pulsed on and off, approximately midway within the top superstructure.

“There are significant Sahhrain forces all around his position—”

“Yes … I can see that,” Jason snapped, viewing thirty to forty active red icons all around his father’s location. “What about this area here?” he asked Ricket, outlining a circle upon the virtual display with his fingertip.

“That is a sub-reactor chamber. It’s duplicated within each of the superstructures.”

“Large enough to phase-shift into?”

“Individually, or in the
Pacesetter
?”

“Either,” Jason said.

“It would be a tight fit for the
Pacesetter
; but yes, room enough. The problem will be the radiation. There’s a reason there are no life-icons in, or near, this location, Captain. Our battle suits won’t provide us with sufficient shielding, but the
Pacesetter
would … at least, maybe, for several minutes.”

Time was their enemy at this point. They couldn’t bring the
Pacesetter
any closer in to the
Gallium
, and individually phase-shifting from this far a distance in open space—both there and back … while hefting an ailing admiral along the way—didn’t make much sense either.

“Would the sub-reactor’s radiation hide our presence?”

Ricket didn’t answer right away. “Maybe.”

Jason smiled at his reply. “At least you’re honest. We’ll need to try. If I do things right, the Sahhrain will never know I’m there. Before they realize it, the admiral, locked in a cell one moment, has disappeared in the next.”

Jason set new
Pacesetter
phase-shift coordinates and, without any hesitation, they flashed away.

In an instant they were thrown into an amber-hued darkness; the fighter’s running lights illuminated the confined curvature of the sub-reactor chamber.

An alarm pinged. The
Pacesetter
’s AI announced, “External radiation levels are exceeding safe parameters.”

Jason expected to have more time. “You’ll have to take the
Pacesetter
out of here … come back when I have the admiral.”

“Yes, Captain.”

He thought he heard relief in Ricket’s voice. He rechecked the
Gallium
’s
layout once more and his father’s location. “See you later!” Jason flashed away.

* * *

Jason phase-shifted into what seemed to be an onboard brig. The lighting there was intense—so intense he used his HUD settings to make the necessary compensation to his helmet’s visor. He’d landed within the confines of a long corridor, which provided access to multiple prison-like cells. His father lay on the deck of a cell directly in front of him. He was still wearing his admiral’s jumpsuit, but it was bloodied and torn—hanging open, exposing his chest. White chest hair mingled with blood that was caked thick in splotches where he’d obviously been poked, more likely stabbed, with something sharp.

Jason stepped closer and was immediately halted by an energy field of some kind. He phase-shifted to a position two feet inside his father’s cell. Worried, Jason thought the admiral looked dead. Jason watched for some movement of his chest, to see if he was breathing. He let out his own breath, seeing on his HUD that the admiral’s life-icon, dim as it was, was still there—but was blinking on and off—indicating his life signs were fading. Jason had little time to save his father.

The admiral coughed and his eyes opened. “Get out of here … go!” the admiral ordered, his voice barely above a whisper.

“That’s not going to happen.” Jason quickly retrieved a SuitPac device from a pocket compartment at the side of his thigh. He affixed it to his father’s stained and bloodied belt and squeezed the two side sensors. Within two seconds, his father’s body was covered from head to toe inside a battle suit and, most important to Jason, was being medically attended to by the suit’s advanced Caldurian life support functions. It was no MediPod but it was something. Hopefully it would keep him alive until Dira could physically attend to him.

His father’s voice, sounding stronger now, said, “They’ve taken my ship … they have the
Assailant
.”

Jason helped him stand, supporting him with his arm under his father’s arm and going around his waist. “I know that. We’ll worry about that later.”

His father looked from side to side. “Where’s your team?”

“There wasn’t time … Ricket and I pretty much stumbled upon this ship and on you. For now, we’re on our own.”

“You’re an idiot … you know that, right?”

“Uh huh … I’ve been told as much.”

Jason hailed Ricket. Nothing. He brought up his HUD’s long-range logistic layer and looked for the
Pacesetter
. “Holy crap!”

“What is it?” the admiral asked.

“It’s Ricket … he’s piloting the
Pacesetter
in open space. He’s got three bogies on his tail … being fired upon … looks to have taken damage.” Jason continued to watch the unfolding scene on his HUD.
Why not simply phase-shift …?

“Captain!” Ricket’s voice was faint behind loud static.

“Go ahead, Ricket.”

“
Pacesetter
is damaged … th as ap … repe … this … a trap.” The connection went dead.

Enemy life-icons were quickly converging toward their location. “We need to get out of here,” Jason said, looking into his father’s visor. The admiral’s eyes were half-closed and unfocused.
Shit!
He brought up the ship’s layout again on his HUD and looked for a place to go.

Sahhrain forces were now within the brig’s corridor and heading their way. Jason glanced in the direction of noisy running feet. He’d seen the Sahhrain once before—in his inner vision. In actual life they were no less imposing: tall and muscular—they wore their hair swept up and back in some kind of bun affair. Surprisingly, they were bare-armed and wore breastplates similar to those worn by ancient Roman warriors. Each held on to a long speared weapon and had a small shield, like Capri’s and Boomer’s, affixed to his opposite forearm.

The brig cell’s energy force field vanished as the warriors approached. Two Sahhrain raised their shields toward Jason and his father. Jason initiated the phase-shift a half-second too late; first seeing the violet distortion waves and then feeling their painful effects, Jason and his father flashed away.

* * *

Jason awoke fifteen minutes later, feeling as if he’d been run over by a truck. Weightless, floating in open space, he tried to remember where he was … what had happened. It all came back to him in a rush …
the Sahhrain soldiers … Ricket … my father.
Jason abruptly turned, first left then right, and saw the admiral’s battle suit floating mere feet away from his own. He reached out and pulled the prone figure in closer, turning his own body around to look into his father’s visor.

“This was your rescue plan? To phase-shift us out into open space?”

Jason’s relief was written all over his face. His father attempted a weak-hearted smile. “Yes, I’m still alive, son. What do we do now?”

“Hang tight for a moment, Dad.”

Jason turned around again and found the
Gallium,
far off, in distant space. He tried again to hail Ricket.
Nothing.

Something caught his eye—a fleeting reflection of light—perhaps from the not-so-near sun. Jason magnified the area of space around him with his HUD. Wreckage. Two … no, three separate clusters of wreckage. Two fighters—both of alien design, with no life forms present. He zoomed in on the farthest-out cluster of wreckage and immediately recognized pieces of hull—dark red pieces of hull. It was the
Pacesetter
, no doubt about it. Jason looked for a life-icon within the same area—but didn’t find one. He spoke to his battle suit’s internal AI. Not liking the sound of her voice, it was something he rarely did. “AI … scan for Ricket’s DNA, as far out as your sensors permit.”

“Scanning now …”

“Never mind, AI … his life-icon just appeared.” Approaching at high speed, Ricket’s life-icon was moving forward on a direct intersecting vector. In the distance, a small ship, an alien fighter, was fast approaching.

“What the hell?” Jason muttered aloud.

The fighter was mangled to such an extent Jason wondered how it was capable of maintaining space flight. Deep, blackened craters pockmarked much of the vessel’s hull; its canopy was gone, and one wing had been sheared off. Sitting within the cockpit was a lone inhabitant.

“What the hell did you do to my fighter?”

Ricket stared back at Jason—his large eyes visible behind his battle suit’s visor. “I’m sorry, Captain. I did my best to save the
Pacesetter
… but Sahhrain fighters took me by surprise. All communications and phase-shift capabilities suffered damage.”

Jason looked again at the wrecked ship Ricket was sitting in. “How’d you get in there?”

“Before the
Pacesetter
exploded I phase-shifted into one of the attacking, although heavily damaged, fighters. As you know, upon phase-shifting two organic beings cannot occupy the same space. The pilot was ejected into open space—his body thrust up and out through the now-destroyed visor. Ever since, I’ve been searching for you … hoping you had phase-shifted somewhere near the proximity of the
Gallium
. How is the admiral?”

Jason, impressed with Ricket’s ingenuity, looked over at his father. “He’s stable for now. But he’s really in need of medical attention soon.”

“Prior to the
Pacesetter
’s destruction I was in contact with the
Minian.
Billy and his team are en route—should be close by now.”

Chapter 36

Dacci System

Planet Dacci, Glist Processing Plant

_________________

Lord Shakrim listened as they walked together. The dark hazy mist, swirling below their knees, obstructed their feet from view—as if they were walking through a deep black cloud. Although unseen, Shakrim’s Chosen Spear guards were close at hand—never far from their master.

The Dacci man, the foundry plant’s general administrator, was tall for a Dacci and surprisingly confident. Shakrim let him prattle on because he was pleased with what he was hearing—pleased with the evident progress made here and back at the mines—two hundred miles to the east.

“Bulk extraction of Glist is ahead of schedule, my Lord. Yields are excellent.” Together, they continued to walk side by side between towering ion furnaces, stoked to burn blazingly hot and bring the raw Glist into a molten state.

Up ahead, magnificent great vats, shaped like ladles, brimmed with glowing blue, liquefied Glist. One after another they tipped over, pouring down the molten form of the mineral into multiple rows of V-shaped troughs. Thousands of tiny energy bolts, like azure-colored lightning, continued to travel up and down the molten metal, until the vats were emptied out; then, tipping back into an upright position, they were ready to be refilled.

“I am quite pleased with your progress, administrator. You will be rewarded handsomely for your good work here.”

The plant administrator continued walking, slightly bowing his head to show his gratitude.

They’d reached Shakrim’s favorite part of the foundry. The shield molds. It was where the amazing material, Glist, took shape—already combined with rare, exotic, catalysts which would, eventually, bring the now-molten material back into a hardened state. Here, they stopped and stood before a massive, waist-level metal block—upon which were square, individual molds. Lord Shakrim stared at the hundreds of empty molds before him. Then he saw the Glist. Small veins, previously undetected, now glowed blue as the Glist traveled toward its intended targets. Like a giant circulatory system coming alive before his eyes, the shield molds began filling. This part of the process was slower and necessarily so, in order for the molded shields to harden correctly. As he watched, Lord Shakrim let his mind wander back to his recent time spent with Admiral Reynolds. He’d learned much from the Allied forces commander. More than that human probably realized. He’d learned that the writings were, in fact, true—that the
chariot in the sky
would be delivered to him.
That singularly amazing ship … the
Minian
,
which traveled in an alternate dimension, an alternate realm, would soon be his. Only then would he be able to bring forth his Sachem,
Rom Dasticon
. Only then, together, could they spread utter darkness to the farthest reaches of the universe.