Spears of the Sun (Star Sojourner Book 3) (23 page)

You think they'll praise you for destroying Earth?

Only the smart ones who know what I achieved with dark energy.

You're even crazier than your lord and master. You're a pair of demented bottom feeders.

I formed an image of his son Lennie walking on an Earth beach.
There's your boy,
I sent. A thousand-foot tidal wave reared up as the black hole dragged on Earth, and crashed down on Lennie. His head floated on waves, with shreds of his neck tangled in white foam. His eyes stared.
Turn the black hole away from our Star System, George! You still have time to redeem yourself and your son.

I felt his sudden anguish. He overcame it through reason.
Lennie is right here beside me,
he sent.
And he is well.

I tried to grab the housing's handles again but the snakes became bloody shark maws that lunged and snapped and I instinctively withdrew my hands.

I imaged the red coil growing. I allowed it to feed on my life energy like a hungry child. When it was spinning, a fierce tornado beating against my skull, I conjured an image of Lennie ripped apart like a puzzle and threw the image at George.
The Alpha fleet is approaching. Save your son! Damn you, cancel the override. Now!
I watched the red button for DIRECT BEAM. “Turn green. Please, Great Mind. Turn green!” It remained red. I increased the red coil's spin until I was afraid I would burn out brain cells. I wanted to squeeze my hands against my burning temples. Instead, I squeezed the helmet.

But as I attempted to throw the coil at George, another wave of dizziness assaulted my mind and my eyes.

Having trouble with your inner ears
? he sent.

I gathered my reserves, conjured an image of Lennie's body burning up in a cannon beam from the fleet, and threw it at him like a small bolt of lightning.
Cancel override. Do it now! Lennie's life is at stake.

His resistance came as a powerful wave that buffeted me.
Do you take me for a weak-minded fool? This is the culmination of my life's work. Within these next minutes I will accomplish what NASA physicists and other short-sighted fools said I could never do. Never again will they laugh and leave the auditorium while I give my presentations on dark-energy weapons!

No,
I sent.
They'll be dead. And so will Lennie.

Or watching the carnage from colony planets,
he sent.

This wasn't going to work.

I had a last ace to play. If that didn't work either, the cards would fall, all right. And so would Earth. When I'd been Rowdinth's prisoner, I had left my body. I'd never forget seeing Shelley executed by a Shaka soldier on the beach. I'd
been
there, if in kwaii state only. Could I throw my psyche into the ship's control room and influence an A.I. biocomputer? Rowdinth's chair was computer controlled and sensitive to nuances of his thoughts and moods.

I closed my eyes and pictured the control room. A loud, humming noise began inside my head, and then that strange separation of body and mind. It scared me and I tried to cling tighter to the pedestal. But I was no longer reading the world through my five senses. Yet I was still in this world, like a vivid dream.
Star Speaker?
I sent.

I was expecting your call. Your body is immobilized but it will care for itself while you make this kwaii journey.

Thanks, Speaker.

I pictured the ship's control room and willed myself to be there.

I was floating beneath the ceiling. Rowdinth sat in his chair, his mouth working, his claw jabbing toward George in another explosive temper tantrum. But his rage was silent to me.

George kept nodding with his back turned to Rowdinth as he studied the computer holo. Lennie slid Rowdinth angry looks that probably escaped the general. Vermakts can't read the subtleties of human facial expressions. The captain and his guards sat at the table, their eyes averted from their general's fury.

George suddenly stiffened and glanced around. I think he felt my presence.

I willed myself into the heart of the biocomputer and felt an eerie landscape of molecular transistors directed by George's mind. I encountered RNA moving along strands of DNA. I felt the computations occurring within living cells. This was a strange and uncomfortable world, as alien as any planet I'd ever been on.

Cancel the Direct Beam Override,
I ordered with my mind and had no idea if there would be any effect.
Cancel the Direct Beam Override
, I repeated and felt an interaction of the computer's cells. I became aware of a green fluorescent protein as an answer.

That's it!
I thought and withdrew.
That's it.

I blocked out the control room and pictured my body, wrapped around the pedestal. Waiting.

I drifted toward it and felt a uniting of consciousness with physical sensations, not all so pleasant. I was confronted with the stinging pain in my ears. The metallic taste of the air in my helmet. The pressure of the suit that kept me safe from the vacuum.

Shannon clung to a handhold and stared at me. “Jules?”

I nodded for reassurance and studied the open panel.

The Direct Beam Override was green!

“Are ye all right? I thought ye fell asleep.”

“No.” I gripped the housing handles. “I'm all right.” I pressed DIRECT BEAM and moved the weapon slowly up. The black hole began to lift above the plane of the solar system.

“We've got it, Shannon. Jesus and Vishnu, we've got it!”

I felt out of breath with excitement as I continued the motion of the housing and watched the hole lift higher. I had no way of knowing if it had already influenced the orbiting comets of the Oort Cloud, but it would not get any closer to the inner planets or the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

And Earth!

What had George discovered about black holes and dark energy that allowed them to lock like this? He was a genius, but science can be used for good or evil, and he'd made his choice.

I continued the motion with the housing, pushing the black hole further and further away from Ole Sol. Until the vibration in the housing lessened and stopped. Someone had turned off the system. Probably George.

The fleet was approaching, with a single-minded purpose, I knew. To blow this ship into metal meteors.

The lifeboat! Shannon and I still had a chance, if we could get to the lifeboat and leave the ship behind.

I felt a sudden agony. Not mine.

“For God's sake. No!” the thought came through as spoken words. “No!” I was reading George's mind. “I gave you what you wanted, General. Don't do this! Please.” I felt his sobs. “All
right.
Take me. I'm the one who failed you. But let my son live.”

“Dad! I don't want to die. Keep the gold, General. Just let us both live.”

A darkness of mind came through. Rowdinth. “Take them to the air lock.”

“I'll be remembered as a great scientist,” George shouted. “But you'll go into the history books as a maniacal tyrant. You're a failure, General Ki Rowdinth. And that's how you'll be remembered!”

Their screams echoed in my mind. I lifted shields but could not block them out.

The small delivery lock slid open and George and Lennie were cast out into space. I drew in a breath between clenched teeth as their soundless shrieks echoed in my mind. I lifted mental shields but could not block it out.

“Oh my God!” Shannon cried when she saw their tormented bodies flail in the frozen void.

“Don't look!” I took her arm and turned her toward me. “Don't look.” I closed my eyes and blocked George's last agonized thoughts. “I'll be remembered – “

He had chosen to destroy his own homeworld. Let him go into geth alone.

It was over in seconds. White lab coats ballooned around their lifeless bodies as they drifted toward the solar system, caught in the gravity of an outer planet.

Shannon cried against me.

“C'mon, lass. We've got a ride out of here.”

We climbed into the open airlock and pulled ourselves along the lifeboat to the pilot's door. It was locked. The bastards had locked it from the control room. I unclipped my stingler from the metallic tool belt.

“Do ye know how to fly this raft?” Shannon asked.

“Ah, how hard could it be, lass?”

What was that? I looked around as a seething anger that bordered on lunacy struck my mind.

Here dies a great leader of his people,
I read from General Rowdinth.
I stood at the right hand of Providence, but criminals and villains defeated my sacred mission.

Uh oh.

An iris panel from the inner hatch broke free and flew past us. The madman was venting his ship of air!

I burned through the lifeboat's door lock and threw it open. “Get in, Shannon!”

Fog coalesced behind the missing panel as the ship rapidly lost heat and pressure.

The inner hatch suddenly blew out like the open petals of a metal flower. For a brief second I saw Rowdinth standing behind it with a heavy beamer weapon held in both claws.

Then, as though he'd been kicked from behind, he flew past me like some surreal rat that had taken flight. His skin was black and taut from the sudden, extreme cold and loss of pressure. His eyes bulged. I think he was already dead when he tumbled through the outer door.

“Look out!” I shouted and shoved Shannon into the lifeboat as Rowdinth's A.I. chair was forced through the hatch and exploded into the airlock.

I threw up my arms as it slammed into me. I felt my ribs snap. Pain shot through me as though I'd been clamped in the jaws of a predator. I heard Shannon scream as I was thrown out the airlock door.

Oh, no! Jewels!
Sye Morth sent.

The stars that lit the blackness of space faded until only the blackness remained.

“There's Rowdinth's ship!” Joe Hatch told Chancey from
Sojourner's
pilot's chair.

Chancey stared out the cabin window, where the Alpha fleet headed for the Sol System, and nodded. “I wonder who turned the black hole away from Sol?”

“I wouldn't bet your life on it,” Joe said, “but I'll bet a few creds it was Jules. Who else on that ship would want to?”

Huff stood behind Chancey and pushed against him as he tried for a better look out the window. “Do you think my Terran friend is onboard with the dwarf female Shannon?”

“Back off, Huff.” Chancey nudged him in the belly. “How can anybody know where your maverick friend is at any given moment of the day?”

“There's no way of knowing if he's onboard, Huff,” Joe said quietly.

Doctor Stone, standing behind Joe, bit a fingernail as she watched Rowdinth's ship. “How close must they be, Mister Hatch, before the attack craft will destroy the ship?”

“Not much closer.” Joe's jaw was set tight.

“Agent Hatch,” Commander Ca Prez' voice came over the radio.

Joe jumped and reached for the mic. “Yes, Commander!”

“It appears that General Rowdinth's ship has been severely damaged by an explosive decompression. Alpha has given us a green light to inspect the crippled ship. They are hopeful we can retrieve the dark-energy weapon now that it no longer endangers your star system.”

Joe glanced at Chancey, then sat back in the chair and released a long breath. “That's very good news, Commander. Thank you for informing us.”

“You're welcome,” Ca Prez said. “I thought you would want to know this new state of affairs.”

“Much appreciated, Commander.”

“Over and out,” she said.

Joe stared through the window. “If Jules and Shannon made it into BioSuits, they might still have a chance.”

“He has guardian angels that watch all over him,” Huff said and nodded at Joe. “I have heard him talk to them in the air. I will keep a flame lit within my soul that he is in a BioSuit.”

“Keep one lit for Shannon, too.” Chancey chewed his lip as he leaned on the instrument panel and squinted out the window.

“Agent Hatch,” Commander Ca Prez said over the radio.

“Agent Hatch here, Commander.”

“We have just located bodies drifting toward the solar system. Two of them are wearing Terran laboratory coats. The other five are Vermakts. We think a naked one might be General Rowdinth. But one other is wearing a Terran BioSuit.”

Joe sat up. “Have they identified that one?”

“No. Search and rescue detected the body from the white Terran BioSuit. We don't know yet if the person is alive. Would you care to have
Sojourner
join S and R?”

“We're on our way!”

“I'll go don a suit,” Chancey said. “Tell them to look for a second Terran in a white BioSuit! I'll pick up the one they located.” He slammed the door behind him as he hurriedly left the cabin.

Huff slid to his haunches and pressed a paw to his chest. “Ten Gods of Ice and Land and Snow, those who vanquished Lord Vorlof to the Fiery Pit, hear the prayer of this wretched creature. Save my Jules Terran friend of the Rammis tribe and I will sacrifice two fat fish at the Portal of Your Den.” He hung his head. Oh, and if it troubles you not too much, save also the Terran female of the Leper Clan.”

Doctor Stone went to him and stroked his shoulder. “Keep your paws crossed, Huff.”

He nodded and wiped tears on the back of her hand.

She drew away her hand and brushed it on her pants.

Joe watched Chancey move away from
Sojourner
through the cabin window. Search and rescue had told Chancey where to look.

Doctor Stone sat beside Joe in the co-pilot's chair and bit a fingernail. She studied the chewed nail. “I haven't done
this
since I was ten years old!”

Joe wished he had his pipe.

Minutes later Chancey's voice came through the mic. “It's Shannon. She just waved at me.”

“That's great news, Chancey,” Joe answered and grinned at Doctor Stone.

“I don't think she knows how to use the maneuvering system on her pack,” Chancey remarked. “She's all over space and hell!”

“She's probably never been in space before,” Joe said. “And by now she's had a taste of hell.”

“Joe,” Chancey called, “she says Jules went out the ship's airlock before her. I'll look for him closer to the system. Alpha S and R says they're going to leave Rowdinth's body and the dead Elite Guards. They found the two rogue scientists, too. Both dead. They figure it's more important to search for the living. If there are any left. Shannon wants to come with me to look for Jules.”

“I'm on my way to your position,” Joe said and started the engines.

“Good. I don't want to waste time bringing Shannon back to
Sojourner.
”

“Oh, let him keep the time!” Huff exclaimed.

“Is she all right?” Joe said into the mic.

“She appears to be,” Chancey answered. “She's more worried about the maverick. She says he's hurt. Got hit by a chair.”

“A chair? All right.” Joe glanced at Doctor Stone. “Then take her with you.”

“How could Doctor Rammis get hit by a chair in space?” Doctor Stone asked.

“General Rowdinth had a chair,” Huff offered.

“Only my former son-in-law could manage that,” Joe said. “I'm going to have a heart attack before this is over.”

Doctor Stone bit another nail. “I thought lab work was stressful.”

Joe nodded. “I thought my undercover work for W-CIA was stressful.”

* * *

“Is that
him
?” Shannon yelled into her mic and pointed at a speck of white with sunlight glinting off a clear helmet against stars.

“Damn! Could well be. Hold on.” Chancey had tied them together on a short buddy line.

Shannon wrapped an arm around Chancey's waist as he jetted them toward the white speck. “How in the Vegan Ten Holies did you manage to pick him out?” Chancey asked.

“I was lookin' a might hard.”

“Joe,” Chancey called as they approached the white figure and he realized it was Jules, “We got him!”

“Is he alive?” Joe asked.

“Can't tell. He's not moving. I'll let you know in a few minutes.” He heard Huff sobbing. Shannon caught her breath and he felt her body tremble against him. “Will you tell that fur ball to stop sniveling, Joe? He's got Shannon all upset here.” He let go of her when they reached Jules and turned him face up. “He's breathing.”

“Pray heaven!” Shannon held Jules while Chancey extended the buddy line and tied it around his backpack. “C'mon in, Joe.”

Sojourner
approached and fired retro rockets to match Chancey's speed. The outer airlock door opened. “There's a medical ship in the fleet,” Joe told Chancey. “The Star of Mercy. I told them to send an ambulance.”

Shannon nodded. Her green eyes were wet with tears. Her delicate mouth quivered. Her red hair, tied back, was a blossom around her alluring features. “An' so will I.”

Chancey studied her and shook his head.
I don't know how he does it.