Earthman Jack vs. The Ghost Planet (17 page)

Plasma bolts impacted the side of the ship as the last
remaining shard made a strafing run.  Jack rolled away from the blasts and came
around onto the tail of the enemy fighter.

“Game over, dip-wad,” said Jack as he opened fire.

One final explosion marked the last of the Deathlord shards. 
Jack had no doubt they’d be sending more the first chance they got, so he
turned and began accelerating away from the Deathlord fleet as fast as he
could. 

Once they were far enough away from the fleet, Jack allowed
himself to breathe a huge sigh of relief.

“Wow,” he said.  “That was intense.”

He turned his chair and looked at his companions.  Green and
Anna were smiling.  Even Shepherd looked relieved.

“I’ve got to admit,” breathed Shepherd.  “That was some good
flying, Jack.”

Did Mr. Shepherd just give him a compliment?  Jack’s chest
welled up with a bit of pride. 

“That? Ah, that was nothin’,” lied Jack.  “Give me something
harder next time.”

“You’d think you’ve been flying a spaceship your entire
life,” smiled Anna.  “I don’t think a trained Imperial pilot could have done
any better.”

“Who knew playing all that
Nova Commander
would come
in handy?” said Jack as he leaned back and locked his hands behind his head. 
“And they say video games are a waste of time.  Pft.”

“Well, I think I’ve done it!” cheered Green.  “I believe
I’ve found us a hyperspace trajectory that can get us into friendly space.”

“Good,” said Shepherd, sounding uncharacteristically upbeat. 
“Input it into the computer.”

“I just need to compare it to the ship’s star charts and do
a few more calculations to adjust for universal expansion over the past fifty thousand
years or so,” said Green.

“Do it,” said Shepherd.  “The sooner we’re out of site of
the Deathlord fleet, the better.”

Jack sat up in the captain’s chair.  “Wait,” he said.  “We
can’t just, like,
leave
.”

“We have to,” said Shepherd.

“But what about all the people on Earth?” asked Jack.  “I
can’t leave my mom and friends down there with the Deathlords all over the
place.”

Shepherd, Anna, and Green all exchanged worried looks.

“We have to go back for them,” insisted Jack.

“Jack,” said Shepherd.  “This ship is impressive.  But it
cannot take on an entire Deathlord fleet by itself.”

“How do you know?” asked Jack.  “Maybe there’s some
super-weapon on here we haven’t found yet.  This is supposed to be the thing
that defeats them, right?  The Ancient artifact you guys were looking for?”

“We need time to study it, Jack,” said Anna, “to figure out
its mysteries, what it’s capable of.  Now is not the time to go rushing back
into battle, especially considering our narrow escape.”

Jack frowned.  She was correct, of course.  Jack had picked
up enough about the ship to get them past the Deathlords alive, but he had a
feeling he hadn’t even scratched the surface of what the ship could do.  And
dealing with more Deathlord shards again wasn’t very appealing either.

“But we’ll come back for them, right?” asked Jack.  “When I
get you home, you’ll raise your army and come back and save the Earth, right?”

Everyone was quiet.

“Right?” insisted Jack.

Shepherd looked at Anna, as though he were waiting for her
cue to say something.

“If you can get us back home,” said Anna carefully.  “I will
do everything in my power to help you.”

“Promise me,” said Jack.

Anna straightened and looked Jack in the eye.  “I promise,”
she said.

Jack relaxed.  He trusted Anna.  He just hoped that the
Deathlords wouldn’t enslave everybody before they had a chance to return and
beat them down.

“Okeydokey,” said Green.  “That should do it!  I’ve
calculated a hyperspace route to Kelmar Uropa.  We should be able to dock at the
Imperial outpost there and get updated star maps for our journey home.”

“Punch it in,” ordered Shepherd.  “Jack, get ready to take
us to hyperspace.”

“Okay,” said Jack.  “Just give me a minute to figure out how
that works.”

“Make it fast,” said Shepherd.

Jack turned his chair back around to the viewscreen and asked
the ship about how it’s hyperspace drive worked.  The computer buzzed the
information right into his brain.

Once the hyperspace route was input into the computer, a
special engine on board called a Brane Accelerator would create a window into
the hyperspace dimension by sending out a wave of energy.  This energy would
vibrate a bunch of little things called p-branes, which were tiny particles that
acted like a membrane separating different dimensions.  The window would be
open long enough for the ship to pass through, at which point its engines would
kick into lightspeed until the ship reached its destination.  Then they could
open another window back into the previous dimension.

It seemed easy enough to do, but something still felt wrong
about all this.  Jack didn’t like the idea of leaving his friends and family
behind – especially not with a bunch of deadly aliens all over the place.  He’d
never left River Heights in his life, and now he was getting ready to head to
another planet!  He hadn’t even packed a toothbrush.  The whole thing was more
than a little scary.

“The coordinates have been input into the computer,” said
Green.  “We are ready to make the jump to hyperspace!”

“Jack,” said Shepherd.  “Get us out of here.”

“Okay,” said Jack.

Jack was getting ready to activate the Brane Accelerator
when he called up the holoscreen for one last look at Earth.

He sighed. 
I’ll come back, mom
, he thought. 
I
promise
.

Then, just as he was about to activate the jump to
hyperspace, something happened on the screen that stopped him.  Suddenly, the
openings on the bottom of the Deathlord motherships surrounding the planet erupted
with a bright white energy, sending pillars of it to the Earth’s surface.

Jack watched on the holoscreen as the columns of energy
impacted the Earth, and the terrain around them rippled and charred.  Jack’s
eyes grew wide, and his breath caught in his throat.

“Wait a minute…” he said.

Jack made the holoscreen bigger and turned to his companions.

“What’s going on?” asked Jack urgently, pointing to the
image before him.  “What are they doing?”

“Jack, activate the hyperspace window,” insisted Shepherd.

Jack ignored Shepherd and turned back to the holoscreen.  He
was transfixed by the image before him.  Every mothership had opened fire and
hundreds of fiery white columns drilled into the planet like it was a giant pincushion. 
Where they impacted, a ghostly haze spread out, covering the Earth’s surface.

An alarm bell rang within Jack’s head.  He remembered when
Anna had told him about how the Deathlords were devastating the galaxy.  When
she’d said that, Jack didn’t quite grasp what she’d meant.

But now, a horrible realization descended upon him.

Oh my God…
thought Jack. 
Earth… they’re
destroying Earth!

Jack’s thoughts instantly went to his mother and then to his
friends, and he felt an overwhelming sense of panic wash over him as he
realized they were still down there.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Jack turned the ship around and
sped up, rushing back toward the planet.

“What are you doing?” barked Shepherd.  “We need to get out
of here!”

“I have to save them!” yelled Jack.

“Jack, please, there’s nothing we can do…” he heard Anna
say.

He ignored them.  He ignored all of them.  This ship was
supposed to be some sort of kick-butt weapon right?  Maybe he could stop this? 
Maybe there was something on the ship he hadn’t found yet that could wipe out
every last Deathlord in the area.  He had to try.  He had to do
something
!

Before Jack could ask the ship about anything, however, Shepherd
rushed up to Jack and clamped his hand down on Jack’s arm hard.  Jack winced
and looked up at Shepherd.

“Blast it, Jack, you’ll get us all killed!  We can’t save
anyone – we need to jump out of here
now!
”

“I have to try!  My mom–”

“She’s dead!” yelled Shepherd.  “They’re all dead!  And
unless we jump right now—”

“Inertial dampeners OFF!” screamed Jack.

Jack pushed the acceleration of the ship just as the
inertial dampeners deactivated.  The sudden thrust hurled Shepherd back,
tossing him against the far wall of the bridge.  Anna and Green were pinned
against their seats.  As long as the ship was moving, the others were helpless
to do anything.

“Oh, dear…” mumbled Green.

The radar whined as more shards appeared, rushing up to meet
them.  Jack gritted his teeth and accessed the ship’s weapons.  He unleashed a
steady volley of plasma fire to clear the way in front of him.  Dozens of
bright red streaks rushed toward the ship as the shards returned fire, but he
boosted all energy to the forward shields. 

The blasts impacted the shields, sending dull thuds through
the ship, but Jack did not change his course.  He put as much power into the
engines as he could spare and rushed forward, breaking through the wall of
incoming enemy fighters.

As he shot by them, he knew they’d adjust course and come up
from behind.  Jack redistributed the shield power and hoped he was moving fast
enough to give the generator time to recharge before the shards could catch up.

“JACK! STOP!!!” yelled Anna.

Jack paid no attention to her.  All his focus was on getting
to the planet. 
Mom should still be at the Fox Hole
, he thought.
 If
I can get there and pick her up or something, then I could go get Matt, and
Chunk, and Peter, and the rest…

Jack could imagine the look on his mom’s face when he arrived. 
She’d be so happy to see him, so happy her son was able to come to the rescue…

“JACK!!!” yelled Shepherd.

Radar alarms started beeping.  More shards had emerged from
other Deathlord motherships, all moving to intercept him.  There were so many
of them, coming from all directions.  Jack pulled all the power he could find
and dumped them into his engines.  He had to go faster!  He had to get past the
Deathlords and back to Earth!

It was directly in his sights.  The ghostly haze had spread
out over the entire surface by now, making the planet seem to glow.  It almost
looked beautiful in a weird way… until dark cracks began to form around the
face of the planet.

“No…” said Jack, feeling his blood pound behind his eyes.

He was getting close; he just needed a bit more speed, a bit
more time!

The cracks in the surface began to grow and spiderweb all
across the face of planet.

“NO!” cried Jack.

Panic gripped his chest.  His heart was racing, his
breathing rapid.

Red plasma blasts streaked in from all sides as the shards
came into range, thundering on the shields of the ship.

The dark cracks rippled through every inch of the planet and
began to glow with a fiery golden fury.  The surface of the planet started to
char as the atmosphere swirled and blackened.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!” screamed Jack.

And then, with a terrible, thunderous bang…

…the Earth exploded.

As most people know, it’s a very rare
thing for a planet to actually explode.  It would be about as common as walking
down the street and seeing a nearby rock suddenly blow up for no good reason. 
But when it does happen, it isn’t pretty.  It’s not as if there is a massive
explosion and suddenly the entire planet has vanished.

No, when a planet explodes, it tends to be violently ripped
apart, shooting chunks of it with great force every which way imaginable.  Such
was the case when the Deathlord Planetkillers created an antimatter detonation
in the Earth's core causing a chain reaction equal to the force of a hundred
quadrillion nuclear weapons.

But the result is always the same – no more planet.  Just a
bunch of dust, debris, and rocks cluttering up the space where the planet used
to be.

So it’s rather plain to see, the whole process is quite
messy.  But the Deathlord fleet somehow had the ability to remain in orbit
around a planet as it blew up and not sustain the least bit of damage (another
mystery of Deathlord technology whose answer had yet to be revealed at this
time).  However, the same could not be said for the ship Earthman Jack and his
companions were on.

They had not yet reached Earth when the planet exploded,
which was a good thing since if they had, that probably would have been the end
of our story.  But they were close enough that when Earth did explode, the
impact of the blast hit them like a rampaging hukkah beast from the eighth
circle of Levitahn – which is to say, extremely hard.

And had Jack not boosted the power to his shields as he made
his mad dash back to the planet, it’s a very real possibility that their ship
could have been destroyed, along with the Earth.  Luckily, for the universe at
large and everyone in it, this was not the case.  But the ship did incur some
extremely heavy damage.

The Ancient starship drifted among the remains of the
destroyed planet, its engines off, its shields down, and its power barely
functioning.  Inside, things weren’t much prettier.  The bridge of the ship
flashed its red warning lights as sparks flew from damaged computer consoles. 
Half the viewscreen on the bridge was not working, and the other half flickered
as if it were about to go out completely.

With the inertial dampeners turned off, it was not a very nice
predicament for those who were in the ship at the time of the explosion
either.  Shepherd, Anna, and Green had all been tossed around, and even Jack
was hurled from his chair, which seemed to be designed to keep the pilot firmly
in its grasp as the ship flew.

As Jack came to, he could feel the thumping in the parts of
his body affected by the impact, which would no doubt become a fine collection
of bruises in a few hours.  He had a cut on his head, and his knee hurt, but
other than that he was okay.

He heard Shepherd, Green, and Anna stir.  He pulled himself
up and looked at the piece of the viewscreen that was still working.  What he
saw there was an image that would haunt him for a long time to come.

Between the flickering of the screen, he could make out the
Deathlord fleet, stationed exactly where it had been before, but they were no
longer around Earth.  Between them was nothing but a mess of charred rocks,
twisting and twirling as they slowly moved through space.

In that moment, to his sheer and utter horror, Jack realized
that his home – and everyone he loved – had been destroyed.

A cold chill washed over him and he felt suddenly
light-headed.  His brain struggled to comprehend what had just happened.  After
all, losing an entire planet… it was just such a BIG event, anyone would have had
a hard time grasping it.

“Princess,” Shepherd croaked as he got to his feet.  “Are
you okay?”

“I’m all right,” Anna said, nursing her arm.

“Professor,” said Shepherd as he turned to Green who was
wobbling around the frayed and battered consoles.  “Damage report.”

“Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear…” muttered the Professor, his big
brown eyes fighting off the urge to roll every which way.  He forced himself to
focus on the ship’s systems console to get a reading on the state of their
vessel.  “Engines are down, as are shields, and weapons… pretty much everything
is offline except for emergency life support at the moment.  And even that is
precarious.”

Anna saw Jack staring at the viewscreen and looked at the
image on it herself.   A wave of sadness washed over her.  She had not been on
Earth for long, but the time she had spent on it was pleasant.  Everything from
the cool autumn breeze, to the green grass and the blue sky had been beautiful
and peaceful for her.  And all those people who were now lost to them… she
found herself somewhat grateful she had decided not to befriend any of them.

And then she thought of Jack.  He did have friends and
family there… friends and family who were now gone forever.

What must he be feeling now?  What could she possibly say
that would have any hope of comforting him?  She didn’t know, but she
approached him anyway and put her hand on his shoulder.

“Jack,” she said.  “I’m so sorry—”

She felt a shiver run through Jack about a split second
before he turned and sprinted away from her, making his way to the rear
entrance of the bridge and into the rest of the ship.

“Jack!  Wait!” Anna called after him and began to give
chase.

“Princess, stop!” Shepherd called after her, but she ignored
him and exited the bridge as well.

Jack ran down the curved hallway of the ship as fast as he
could.  He didn’t know where he was going or where the hallway would lead, but
he gritted his teeth and ran as hard as he was able to.  He paid no attention
to the lights as they blinked in and out of working order, or the occasional
spark from an exposed access panel, or even any of the doors he passed by that led
to other areas of the still unexplored ship.  His eyes were locked on the floor
before him as he pumped his legs and arms, running, running, running…

Finally, his lungs were burning and his side began to
cramp.  He turned to an open door leading into a small empty room, which could
very well have been some type of storage area.  Tears were stinging Jack’s eyes
and his breaths were ragged as he cried and gasped for air all at the same
time.

A rage-filled scream erupted from deep inside him, and he
turned and punched the wall of the room as hard as he could.  His hand hurt as
it made impact with the shiny metal surface, but Jack didn’t care.  He punched
it again, and again, and again, beating on it like it was a Deathlord, or J.C.
Rowdey, or Mr. Shepherd, or anyone else he had ever hated in his life.

At last, when his knuckles burned with pain and he was
unable to abuse the wall any longer, Jack stumbled into a corner of the room
and slid to the floor, hugging his knees and weeping.

Images flashed into his mind.  He thought of his small room
in the trailer at 7 Eagle Hill.  He thought of visiting his mom at the Fox Hole
and getting a free slice of cherry pie.  He thought about hanging out with
Matt, Chunk, and Peter at Big Jim’s and eating really crappy pizza.  He thought
about school, and the Juniper family cornfields, and all the other things that
made River Heights home.

And then he thought about how he’d never see any of it
again.

Sadness welled up in his stomach, making it feel as heavy as
a bowling ball.  What had happened?  Why didn’t somebody stop it?  What was he
going to do now?

Jack gave in to his sorrow and allowed himself to cry
uncontrollably.  He felt like all this was his fault somehow.  He felt like
instead of joyriding in a spaceship and thinking everything was so cool, he
should have known what was going to happen.  He should have done something! 
Anything!

“Jack?” came Anna’s voice.

Jack looked up and through his tears saw Anna standing in
the doorway.  She walked over to him and knelt down beside him.

“Jack, I’m so sorry about what happened…” she said. 

She reached out to him, but Jack jerked away.

“Don’t
touch me!
” he hissed.

Anna pulled back from him, a look of surprise on her face. 
“I – I just… wanted to let you know that I know what you’re going through,
and…”

An angry laugh escaped from Jack.  “You know what I’m going
through, huh?” sneered Jack.  “But what do you care?  You still have a home. 
You have a place you can go back to.  You’re royalty or something, right?  You
can just go back to you’re big ol’ space-castle and tell all your space-friends
about how you got to see some lame planet blow up before playing space-polo or space-cricket
or whatever the heck it is
your highness
does for fun!”

“Jack–”

Jack pushed Anna away from him.  She stumbled back, a
mortified look on her face.

“This is
your fault!
” screamed Jack.  “They came
looking for
you!
  I wish I’d never helped you!  Maybe if they had gotten
you at that diner, they’d have left, and they wouldn’t have blown everything
up!”

Jack’s words cut into Anna.  “Please, Jack… you don’t
understand…”

“I don’t care!” snapped Jack.  “I don’t want to understand! 
I have nothing anymore!  NOTHING!  My mom, my friends, they’re all dead because
of
you!
”

Anna was about to say something when she heard a voice at
the door.

“Princess,” said Shepherd.

She looked up to see the armored Paragon standing in the
doorway.  He was looking at her with that look he so often wore, the one that
said, “
I know what’s best for you
.”

“Leave him be,” he said.

“Yeah,” said Jack.  “Leave me be.  Get out of my sight. 
Both of you.”

Anna got to her feet and joined Shepherd in the doorway. 
She glanced back at Jack as he buried his face in his knees, right before
Shepherd closed the door.

When they got back to the bridge, Professor Green was busily
rushing from one console to another, trying to interface with the ship.

“What’s our status?” asked Shepherd.

“Improving!” said Green cheerily.  “The ship seems to be
repairing its systems and hull quite nicely.”

“How?” asked Shepherd.

"Hard to say exactly without further study.  From what
I can tell, the ship is somehow able to regenerate anything that has been
damaged or destroyed - everything from its hull, to its engines, to its
computer systems.  It's really quite fascinating."

"Regenerate?" asked Shepherd.  "Are you
saying the ship is able to... regrow parts that have been lost?"

"Exactly!" said Green.  "It's not like there
is a nanobot repair system that's rebuilding the ship like the Imperial Fleet
uses.  The repairs almost seem... well, organic for lack of a better word.  Much
like the way one's body can heal after an injury.  However, it’s far more
advanced than that.  I'm unable to determine where the material the ship is
using to repair itself comes from, and there seems to be some artificial
intelligence associated with how it chooses to prioritize its repairs.  If I
didn't know any better, I'd say this ship was... well, alive!”

“A living ship?” said Shepherd.

“In a sense,” replied the Professor.  “I haven’t had much
time to analyze it, obviously, but there is an unmistakable stamp of
intelligence here, what with how it's able to interact with Jack and adjust
itself to suit his needs.  Then there's the whole idea behind how it's able to
use Entanglement - which, by the way, is still in the process of blowing my
mind.”

Shepherd's own mind raced at Green’s revelations.  There was
a lot about the ship that intrigued him, as well, but as much as he would have
liked to have dwelled on its wonders along with the Professor, the direness of
their situation had won out over his intellectual curiosity.

“How long until she can fly?” asked Shepherd.

“Hard to say,” said Green.  “It depends on when it gets
around to the engines.  Right now it seems to be focusing on life support and
hull integrity.”

Shepherd looked at the viewscreen.  The image had stabilized
enough so that he could see Deathlord shards spreading out, slowly moving
amongst the debris.

“They know we were caught in the blast and they’re searching
for us,” said Shepherd.  “It’ll only be a matter or time before they find the
ship.  If our engines aren’t repaired before then, we’re not going to have a
chance.”

“I will see if I can re-prioritize the repairs,” said Green.

“While you’re at it, see if you can unlock the flight
controls.  Someone other than Jack needs to be able to fly this thing.”

“That might be a bit tricky,” said Green.  “Keep in mind,
dear Paragon, this ship is something most of my ilk would trade their entire
lives to study.  It’s the single most advanced piece of machinery I’ve ever
seen.  Asking me to interact with it is one thing, but to actually re-program
it?  Alter it?  I wouldn’t know where to begin.”

Shepherd grimaced.  “Just see what you can do,” he said.  “I
don’t want to rely on Jack to get us back to Imperial space, do you
understand?”

“Of course,” said Green.  “But he’s proven to be quite a
capable pilot.  The boy was only trying to save his family…”

“I’m well aware of what he was trying to do,” said
Shepherd.  “And as courageous as it was, it was also foolish.  He may have just
given us up to the Deathlords after all.  I don’t want to trust him with the
safety of her Royal Highness unless absolutely necessary.  Are you in agreement?”

Green nodded.  “I will do what I can,” he replied.

As Green went back to the computers, Shepherd turned and saw
Anna standing by the captain’s chair, looking at the image on the viewscreen. 
He walked up to her and put his arm around her shoulders, attempting to comfort
her.

They stood quietly for a few moments looking at the
destruction spread out before them until Anna finally spoke.