Universe in Flames 3: Destination Oblivion (5 page)

Then he heard his
name being called from afar.

“Chase, Chase! Wake
up, Chase!”

He felt some
movement as his body shook. The image before his eyes became garbled and was
replaced by another.

It was Keera. She
was shaking him when he finally came back to reality.

“Dude, you scared
the shit out of me. I’ve been calling you and trying to wake you up for like
ten minutes now.”

There was genuine
concern in her voice.

“Sorry
. . .” said Chase, still a little confused about exiting the
nightmare differently than before.

“What was that?
You were muttering your own name, asking yourself for help. That was creepy!”

“Was I?” Chase
looked down.

“Yeah, it was
like you were talking to yourself in that nightmare of yours.”

“I know.”

“I don’t get it?
How can you know?”

“Not the first
time I’ve had this particular nightmare. In fact, I dread sleeping as a rule
since . . .”

“Since your loved
one died?”

Chase nodded as a
tear fell from one of his eyes.

“Sarah
. . .” he added.

“I’m sorry,
Chase.”

He looked away.

“Are you sure she’s
dead?”

“Yeah, no doubt
about it. I . . . I fired the shot that destroyed her ship.”

“That’s really
heavy. I still don’t understand how you were put into this position, though. Not
sure I could have taken that shot.”

That was
something Chase really didn’t want to hear from anyone, but he couldn’t blame
Keera for saying it. Why had he fired? Why didn’t he kill Argos when he had the
chance?

“I
. . . I was faced with an impossible choice, and . . . she
asked me to.”

Keera swallowed
and stayed silent.

“I wish I would
stop having this nightmare though. I . . . I don’t understand why I
get it every night.”

“And you never
had it before?”

“No. What’s weird
is that Sarah had that same nightmare. She described it to me.”

“Perhaps that’s
why you’re having it. It’s part of who she was, and your brain is clinging to
her via that memory. I’m no shrink but I think it’s normal to cling to memories
of the people we care for and have lost.”

Chase reflected
on Keera’s words. It did make some sense, but then why that one? Why not a real
memory, one that belonged to him? Why would he dream her nightmare day after
day? He wished it would stop.

“How long was I
out and how close are we to the Megara system?”

“About six hours,
and we’re still thirty minutes short of arrival.”

“I wish we could
get there faster. Argos will probably be gone by then!”

“How do you know he’s
there?”

Chase still
didn’t really trust Keera and was not in the mood to talk about his relationship
with the Olympians.

“Alright, then,”
she said, sensing he wasn’t about to discuss the subject. “Want something to
eat?”

“That would be
nice, yeah. Thanks.”

She exited the
cockpit. “Sure thing. I’ll get some rations and bring them back in a jiffy.”

“Thanks, Keera,”
said Chase, after sliding the cockpit door closed.

*  
*   *

Ares ran halfway along
the corridor and stopped suddenly. He turned around and watched Argos running
towards him at lightning speed. He stopped in front of him and grabbed Ares by
the throat. Ares tried to speak but Argos’ grip was too strong.

“Have something
to say before you die?”

Ares looked at
him defiantly.

“Alright, then,”
he said, as he loosened his grip ever so slightly.

“Lockdown,” said
Ares.

A force field appeared
and sectioned Argos’ left hand on the spot. He shouted in pain as blood spewed
from his arm with every beat of his heart.

Ares smiled but
lost no time. He went to a nearby wall, tore off a panel and yanked two strong,
metallic cables from it. The force field went down and so did most of the light
in the corridor. He held both cables at Argos’ temples while he was distracted by
his cut limb. An intense electrical current passed through his body and he
shrieked loudly as more and more juice traveled within his cranium.

Slowly and
painfully, with jerky motion, he grabbed Ares’ left hand, diverting only a
little of the juice through him as he did so. Argos had trouble calling upon
enough strength to yank Ares’ hand away. The pain was excruciating and he
clenched his teeth tightly, electrical sparks and lightning running over his
dentition and between his eyes. Finally he mustered the necessary strength,
yanked one of the cables off and thrust it in Ares’ abdomen, who received the
deadly electrical current and dropped the other cable to the ground.

Ares managed to
swipe away the cable currently juicing him with a swift motion of his hand and
took a few steps back.

Argos’ rage
amplified tenfold. The entire base shook in response. Sparks flew off many
electrical components; paneling bent everywhere around them.

Argos created a
fireball in his good hand and used it to cauterize his wound. While doing so he
felt something hit his face with little force.

“Dropped
something?” said Ares, who had just thrown Argos’ severed hand at his face.

Argos’ red eyes
shone so brightly that the light almost blinded Ares, who put his forearm in
front of his eyes to protect his sight.

Meanwhile, Argos
slashed his good hand in the air vertically and Ares felt intense pain. He
looked for his left arm but it wasn’t there anymore. He saw it impact with the
ground.

“Not so fun, is
it?” said Argos, with pure hate in his glowing eyes.

Blood gushed from
Ares’ left shoulder. He put his other hand on the wound in an attempt to prevent
the blood loss.

“I don’t care. That’s
one hand you won’t be using against Chase when he comes to take vengeance for
Sarah’s death!”

“Sorry to
disappoint, Ares,” said Argos with a smile. He picked up his hand and put it
back on his severed limb. An intense red glow formed between the hand and the
forearm, and soon it was reattached. Argos moved his fingers.

“I should have
cut off your head!” said Ares, with blood now flowing profusely from his mouth.

“Yes, you should
have. Unfortunately, as much fun and surprisingly challenging as this
distraction of a fight has been, your time is up.”

Ares looked
straight into Argos’ eyes and ran towards him.

Argos smiled,
prepared a fireball and threw it at Ares. Using every bit of remaining energy,
Ares deflected the attack, slid to the floor between Argos’ legs and rolled
back up to his feet. He resumed running back towards the communications room.
He shot one fireball at the ceiling, collapsing some of it in his wake. In the
room he went for a control panel in one corner and lifted a glass flap to
reveal a large, red button, just as he heard Argos explode the rubble out of
his way to come running in pursuit.

When their eyes
locked, Ares spoke. “Goodbye, asshole!” Argos understood Ares was about to hit
some sort of self-destruct and shot a fireball at the controls. But Ares’ fist
was faster and it struck the button full force before the fireball hit his hand
and exploded it clean off, sending sparks and blood all around the panel.

“Self-destruct
damaged,” said a female voice through hidden speakers.

“You’ve got to
be—” But Ares never finished his sentence.

When he looked
down at his chest, he saw Argos’ arm impaling it, exploding his heart on its
way through. Everything turned black. Death was upon him now. After millenias
of living, with many good and bad choices, his last breath had finally been drawn.

“Goodbye, Chase,”
he said, before Argos removed his arm from his chest in a swift motion.

Ares’ body fell to
the ground.

Argos snorted and
smiled. He healed his wounds and walked back towards his ship.

*  
*   *

Chase was eating
the flash-unfrozen sandwich that Keera had brought him. It tasted quite bland
but Chase was famished, surely a side effect of the powerful drug he had taken
the night before.

“How’s the food?”
inquired Keera.

“Do you want the
polite answer or the truth?”

“He he, I see.
Sorry I didn’t have time to resupply with better stuff, as I was supposed to
yesterday . . .” She paused briefly. “Can’t believe that piece of
shit tried to . . .” She left the words hanging.

“I’m really sorry
you had to endure this on my account.”

“It shouldn’t
have happened. Tron’Tak was never friendly, but I never imagined this.”

“I should have taken
my ship back by force. It wouldn’t have been difficult.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“I dunno. I don’t
like using my powers since . . .”

“I understand.”

“Still, let it be
a lesson. I . . . I also was under the influence when I was supposed
to meet you.”

“From the drinks
we had the night before?”

“No, something
called synthetized Kyrian snake venom.”

“Wooooa! This is
like the most addictive and dangerous drug in the universe. You should not
touch this stuff.”

“I’ve been warned
but it . . . it felt good.”

“Yeah, that’s the
point of drugs.”

“Right. I had
such a nice dream when I was under. Sarah was still alive, our son Chris was
with us . . . It was just . . . perfect.”

“Chris, huh?”

“Yeah, I guess
that’s how we would have named him if we had a boy.”

Tears started
flowing.

“I’m sorry.”

“So am I.”

Keera didn’t know
what else to say so she diverted her attention back towards her own sandwich
and took a bite.

Chase heard a
voice in his head. It sounded like Ares. The voice said,
Goodbye Chase
.
Chase knew exactly what that meant.

His blood boiled.

Daniel entered
the room and sat in front of Commodore Saroudis, already sitting at his desk.

“How did your
mission go, Commander?”

“Nothing we
couldn’t handle. A little resistance, but the F-147s have proven far superior to
the Zarlacks in a dogfight.”

“At least we can
take a small comfort in knowing we have superior technology now, even though
we’re probably still outnumbered for the time being.”

“How are the
shipyards doing?”

“They’re churning
out new Prometheus-class ships every week. I’ve also asked for upgrades to be
made to the
Destiny
. It has stronger shields and firepower. It’s not as
strong as the new ships but it should perform better now.”

“Good. Any news
from Chase?”

“I’m afraid not.”

“Look, Commodore,
I’d like to ask permission for something.”

“What is it?”

“I’d like to ask
Ryonna and Tar’Lock to try to locate Chase.”

“I miss him too
. . .” he paused. “But I don’t think he wants to be found.”

“Still, he may
need our help.”

“I doubt that. And
as much as it pains me to admit it, so far we don’t seem to be needing his. There’s
no incentive to start looking for him at the moment. If he wants to come back,
his commission is still open, indefinitely. I haven’t forgotten that the only
reason we’re all alive, and perhaps even looking like we could be winning this
war, is all thanks to him.”

“Do you really think
we’re winning?”

“We sure don’t
seem to be losing that many encounters lately.”

“Perhaps the
enemy is regrouping. It’s been three months. It’s entirely possible they have created
new shipyards and are rebuilding an even stronger armada.”

“I would be surprised
if they weren’t. But in the meantime we’re building one of our own, with far
superior firepower, mind you.”

“Right.”

“Look, we’ve even
entered into negotiations with the Obsidian. They will most likely join the Alliance.
That alone may push the other neutral powers to take sides as well, and soon
the Zarlack will only have enemies. I don’t want to shout victory just yet, but
if you compare our situation with how it was a few months back, I think it’s
one hell of an improvement. In fact, I never thought we’d be where we are
today. Not in such a short time.”

“That has me
worried also. It seems too simple and way too fast. Nonetheless, I can’t help thinking
we could have ended this war if I hadn’t convinced Chase not to cut off the
head of the snake.” Daniel looked down, a pit opening up in his stomach.

“You did what you
thought was right.”

“What good did that
do? It alienated my best friend, and now he’s gone and I don’t even know if
he’s okay.”

“Look at it this
from this perspective: if he hadn’t destroyed Sarah’s ship, Argos would have
gotten his hands on the technological edge we now have.”

“How’s Spiros’
work going?”

“Well, he stopped
complaining about us blowing up his research, but since he’s the one who made
all these advances, he went back to work and recreated the data. He had a good chunk
of it also stored in his mind implant. He’s still struggling with some of his
older work, but in some cases he’s even enhanced his original ideas. It’s all
going well, really. The new ships being constructed now already contain the new
multi-phasic shields and stronger plasma guns.”

“There’s that at
least. I still think I should have let Chase kill his brother.”

The commodore stayed
silent for a moment. “Perhaps. We will get him, though.”

“Somehow I doubt
anyone but Chase can deal with him.”

“Argos is only
one man.”

“One Fury, a fact
we should not take lightly.”

“I’m not taking
it lightly, believe me. But right now things are going well, so I’m not gonna
worry about one man; especially since we haven’t seen any actions on his part
that would even be considered dangerous.”

“He has to have
something up his sleeve. I don’t see him letting us retake the universe while
he watches. Something is wrong here. We’re missing the big picture.”

“Commander, you’re
starting to sound like Chase.”

“Perhaps. Still,
can I please task Ryonna and Tar’Lock to search for him?”

“You have his
insistence as well, I see. Look, while I don’t think it’s a good idea, if it
helps you feel better, then sure; but may I suggest you go along with them?”

“I
. . . I thought you’d need me here.”

“I see how this
is affecting you. Your wingman told me how reckless your flying seems to have
gotten since Chase left us. I think it would do you good to be part of this. Settle
your mind, blow some steam. I can spare you at the moment. If that changes,
I’ll recall you.”

“Thanks,
Commodore, I’ll be going shortly.”

Saroudis nodded.

“No unnecessary
risks, though?”

Daniel flashed
the commodore a thumbs up.

*  
*   *

Ryonna opened the
door at the signal. It was Daniel.

“Hey, long time
no see. Is everything alright?”

“Yeah, mind if I
come in for a minute?”

“Sure, sorry,
where are my manners? Please come in.”

Daniel stepped
into the flat and went into the living room. Tar’Lock was on the sofa watching
some TV. He took his feet from the table when Daniel entered the room.

“Hello, Daniel.”

“Hi, Tar’Lock.”

“We’re watching baseball.”

Daniel smiled.
These two had become quite the pair over the last few months. In fact, Daniel couldn’t
remember seeing them apart. With Ronan training to become an officer in the
Droxian army, she was probably glad to have a friend to spend time with. Ever
since they had helped diffuse the near nuclear meltdown a few months back their
help had not been required much. That was about to change, however.

Ryonna followed
behind Daniel. “Can I offer you something to eat or drink?”

“I’m fine,
thanks.”

“Not that I’m not
happy to see you, but what brings you here?”

“I’d like to ask
you two for some help.”

“Finally,
something to do,” said Tar’Lock, straightening up. “Don’t get me wrong. It’s okay
spending time in front of the TV, but I get the feeling my brain is going to
sleep after a while, like I’m getting dumber or something.”

Daniel smiled.

“What’s the
mission?” asked Ryonna, clearly interested.

“I’d like us to
try to locate Chase.”

“Do you think he
wants to be found?”

“I don’t know,
but at this point I don’t really care. I miss him. I . . . I really
don’t like not knowing how he is.”

“I understand.
Any idea where to start looking, though? The universe is a big place.”

“Not a clue. I
was hoping you might have some connections so we wouldn’t just wander
aimlessly.”

“I’ll make a few
calls. Do we know where he went in the first place?”

“I asked Yanis to
track his F-147. Last his transmitter worked he was somewhere deep within
Obsidian territory. But one day it just stopped transmitting. Here is his last
set of coordinates.” He handed her a thin glass tablet.

She studied it.
“He probably disabled it, then.”

“Yeah, that’s
what I think as well. Unless it was damaged.”

“Can’t blame him.
I mean, that’s just horrible, what he had to do. I’m not sure I could have
taken that shot myself.”

Daniel swallowed
hard.

“Yeah, I
. . .”

“Sorry, Daniel, I
know it’s not something you would like to hear.”

“That’s alright. What’s
done is done. No sense worrying about things we can’t change.”

Ryonna nodded and
put a hand on his arm.

“When are we
leaving?” asked Tar’Lock, enthused at the prospect of doing something
productive.

“You tell me.”

“As soon as I’ve
made a few calls. But from the location on that star map,” she said, gesturing
at the tablet, “I imagine he might have gone to one of the Ponos stations.”

“What makes you
think that?”

“Last I saw Chase
he was reckless, on edge, wanting to find a way to dim the emotional pain.”

“I don’t think
there’s a way to dim that kind of pain.”

“I beg to differ.
When my husband died . . .” She paused. “I wanted to cover the
emotional pain by replacing it with physical pain. I started fighting for
pleasure, just so that I could think of something else.”

“Chase fighting
strangers? Not really in his character.”

“Believe me, you
reach a point when you actually would do
anything
to forget or distract
yourself from the pit inside your soul, eating at you day after day.”

“If that’s the
case, he might leave a trail of bodies behind him. I mean, who could take on
Chase?”

“Probably. Look, he’s
hurting, and like you I want to help him, so I’ll call my contacts on one of
the stations, see if he can dig something up. Give me an hour or two and then
we should get going.”

“Thanks, Ryonna. Both
of you, actually.”

“He’s our friend
too. We wouldn’t be alive if it wasn’t for him. We’re glad to help. And, like
Tar’Lock said, we’re getting a little tired of TV programming on this planet.”

Daniel attempted
to smile, but he was too worried to make it convincing.

“Alright then.
I’ll pass by later and pick you up with a shuttle. Commodore Saroudis allowed
me to take the
Iron Fire
. It’s been retrofitted with better shields and
weapons, and a few StarFuries as well.

“We’re no starfighter
pilots.”

“I know. I’ve
already programmed them with Chase’s automated flying scripts. I’ll fly them all
if we get into trouble.”

“Sounds like a
plan. See you soon.”

Daniel waved goodbye
to both of them and left.

When the door
closed, Ryonna looked at Tar’Lock, who shot her a dubious look.

“What is it?” she
asked.

“I got a bad
feeling about this. I don’t think Chase wants us to look for him.”

“Perhaps, but to
tell you the truth, it’s been a long time since he left. I have been hoping to
hear from him. I dreamt of him the other day, so perhaps I thought it might
mean he was coming back.”

“There’s nothing
but bad memories for him here. I don’t think he’s ever coming back.”

“I know. I miss
her too, you know.”

“Tell me about
it,” said Tar’Lock, exhaling deeply. “She was such a sweet soul.”

“That she was
. . .” Ryonna let a tear roll down her face.

*  
*   *

Chase returned to
the cockpit of the
Valken
and sat next to Keera.

“How long before we
arrive?”

“Another few
minutes. That’s the third time you’ve asked in the last two hours. Why is it so
time sensitive?”

“Actually, we’re
most certainly arriving too late.”

“Too late for
what exactly?”

“Argos was
there.”

“How do you know
this?”

Chase cursed
himself. He didn’t want to give her too much info at this point. He needed to
see if he could trust her first.

“I just know.”

Keera looked
skeptical.

Chase tried
changing the subject. “What about Argos? I’m curious who ordered the warrant on
him and why.”

“Datalight
Thieves.”

“Who are they?”

“The best and most
dangerous hackers in the universe.”

“Why do they want
him so bad? And do you know why they’re paying more for him dead than alive?”

“He must have
pissed them off. They didn’t say why on the warrant but I called my agent, and
she dug a little more. It’s not every day that such a warrant becomes
available. Apparently he hired some of their men, top hackers in their field,
to do a decrypt job for him. When they were done he killed them all.”

“Sounds like dear
brother alright.”

“Yeah, except DTs
are a powerful bunch of people, and they take this kind of thing very seriously.
Hence my presence here; hence our meeting, in fact.”

“I must admit I
found it weird how we first met.”

“About that
. . .”

Chase raised an
eyebrow. “Yes? I’m listening.”

“Well, I wasn’t
one hundred percent honest at the bar.”