Fury to the Stars (Universe in Flames Book 2) (19 page)

 He blinked again in amazement. He’d fallen in
love with a rather incredible woman.

“Now, tell me what happened yesterday. What did the
commodore want?” She was suddenly all business and he couldn’t help a little
chuckle before he began his recap.

He started with the terrorist attempt on the EAD
Hope
and finished with telling her about the emperor and their plan to blow up
Argos’ secret shipyard.

Sarah’s eyes widened in excitement. “That’s crazy!
So when do we leave?”

“
We
?”

“Yes,
we
. I’m coming with you.”

He bit his lip. “Sarah, I’d really rather you—”

She cut him off with a sweet but dangerous smile.
“And as much as I appreciate the sentiment of whatever you’re about to say,
let’s get one thing straight. I’m pregnant, not handicapped. I
will
be
flying your wing on that mission. Are we clear?”

Chase leaned back and blinked mildly at her tone.
“Yes, ma’am.”

“Good.” She flashed him a sudden wink. “Now come on,
we have at least two hours before anyone needs us to do any big, world-saving
schemes. Plenty of time for a little…”

With a mischievous giggle, she pulled him on top of
her once more.

*   *   *

It seemed as though almost everyone in the whole
Alliance had somehow gathered into Admiral Thassos’ conference room to discuss
the upcoming mission. While Chase may have gone into it with some ideas of his
own, it was clear that the admiral was running the meeting. Almost at once, he
was assigned command of the EAD
Hope
—something he certainly hadn’t
counted on and had mixed feelings about. While he was thrilled with the opportunity
to test out the new class of destroyer, he would have traded almost anything to
be flying one of the brand new F-147s instead.

The emperor had contacted all the Obsidian ships he
knew in the area and was having them meet the Alliance not too far from the
Gatos Nebula near the shipyard, and with the added support of the Droxians,
Argos might just have a fair fight on his hands.

Chase relished this notion as he listened to Thassos
drone on about combat tactics. It felt good to be taking the fight to the enemy
for once, instead of running away.

“People, you leave in three hours,” she concluded.
“Lieutenant Athanatos, you are to take command of the EAD
Hope
immediately. Make sure she’s combat ready before we leave.”

“Yes, Admiral. May I request Yanis to be transferred
to the EAD
Hope
for this mission?”

The admiral turned. “Commodore Saroudis? Any
objection?”

“None. He helped build and design the ship. There is
a lot of new tech that he might need to supervise and make on-the-fly
adjustments. Seeing that the
Hope
will be the tip of the spear in terms
of firepower, I think it’s the right move.”

The admiral nodded brusquely. “In that case, you’re
all dismissed. Good luck!”

*   *   *

Chase and Sarah walked together to the nearest
shuttle and took off.

“So, little announcement.” Chase smiled. “You are to
be the
Hope’s
wing commander.”

Her eyes widened in shock. “Are you serious?”

“Of course I am. You’re one of the best pilots I’ve
ever flown with, and since I can’t fly my own wing, I really want you to do
this for me.”

“What about Daniel?”

“Daniel is the
Destiny’s
wing commander. That
hasn’t changed.”

Sarah beamed and nodded in delight. All this talk
“convincing” him that she was going to be coming along—when he’d obviously
thought it the whole time.

“Make sure you use the new advantages of these
ships, too,” Chase added. “I think the drones in particular should give you
quite the edge in dogfights.”

“And the cloak too.”

“Yeah, about that. Please make sure you’re very
careful with the cloak. Remember that once you de-cloak, you’ll be without
shields. So just… use them with care.”

“Is that any way to talk to a wing commander?” she
teased playfully. But she actually clapped her hands in delight. “I can’t wait
to test the StarCrusher.”

“Oh no, no, no!” Chase interjected gleefully. “I’ve
decided the F-147 will be called StarFury.”

She chuckled. “I think I heard this name before, but
sure… you’re a Fury—take it to the stars?” She laughed again at her own
teasing. “How did Yanis take it?”

“He’ll survive.” Chase grinned. “It’s not like we
called it ‘Doors’ or ‘Orange’.”

Sarah laughed at the joke. She never stopped to
think about names like “Apple” or “Windows.” After all, they were part of their
society and culture for so long that they simply made sense and it had become
second nature. But from the outside, she understood very well how they could
sound a little silly.

 “Now about your first order of business.
You’ll need to brief your pilots upon arrival.”

“Anything in particular you’d like me to say?”

“I’ll leave it to your discretion. We just need to
blow up that shipyard, so anything along those lines should suffice. They’re
experienced pilots. They know the drill.”

“How many StarFuries will the
Hope
have
onboard?”

“Only three. Yours; I suggest you give the second one
to Jaris. He seems the most apt to use the neuronal interface. And the third
one I want to be in reserve.”

“Of course you do.”

Chase raised an eyebrow. “Am I that predictable?”

She giggled. “It’s all part of your boyish charm.”

“Boyish, eh?” he teased. “For all we know, I’m over
a hundred.”

There was a hitch in her step. “Wait… what?”

He sighed. “I haven’t gotten a chance to tell you
that yet. According to the Olympians… I might have a gene that either makes me
age slow or…

“Or what?”

“Perhaps not at all.”

She turned to him with a sudden frown. “But if
you’re not aging, what does that mean for us? And for… the baby?”

He bit his lip as they neared the ship. “I don’t
know. But we’ll sort it all out, I swear. For the time being, let’s just focus
on getting back in one piece.”

They paused in unison when they reached the shipyard
and stared up in awe at what was to be their home for the next few days.

To say the ship was magnificent would be an
understatement. Sure, it resembled other Alliance battleships in terms of look,
but it somehow looked meaner, more streamlined; a true war machine despite its
slightly smaller size.

Chase gazed up with more than a little hesitation.
When he saw Sarah watching him closely, he tried for a casual shrug. “No
pressure. How bad could it be?”

Then they walked up to the doors and found the
entire crew waiting for them.

The lines upon lines of crewmen stopped him short
and he sucked in a quick breath as the sudden weight and responsibility of his
assignment hit home.

“Acting captain on deck,” shouted a man standing in
front of all the others. A major by the looks of it. As one, everyone saluted.

“At ease,” answered Chase.

“Welcome to the EAD
Hope
, Captain. I
relinquish command as per instructed by Admiral Thassos. The ship is yours.”

“Thank you, Major...”

“Sparton. Major Sparton, Captain.”

“Thank you, Major Sparton. If you’ll show me the way
to the bridge, I want to undock and test some of the systems before we leave
for the mission. Please also have someone show Commander Kepler her quarters
and then the rest of the ship.”

Major Sparton signaled one of his officers then
turned back to Chase.

“Have you selected a second-in-command, Captain?”

Chase glanced at Sarah, but she shook her head a
fraction of an inch. Chase got the message. He cleared his face and gazed
calmly back at the major.

“You will be my second-in-command, Major. You know
this ship better than anyone, I take it?”

“Thank you, Captain. And yes. I’ve been onboard
since we had artificial atmosphere and life support working.”

Just then, a shuttle docked on the bay behind them.
Yanis popped his head out curiously, before being immediately followed by the
emperor and a host of security guards. Chase stepped forward quickly and
ordered them to release the emperor into his care.

The enemy of my enemy is my
friend,
he thought.

“Emperor, I really hope the information you gave us
is correct. I’ve been inclined to believe you up until now, but if you have a
hidden agenda—”

The emperor didn’t even let him finish. “No agenda.
Let’s go destroy Argos’ most useful installation. Then you can decide for
yourself how valuable I can be for you.”

Chase was surprised the emperor relinquished control
so easily, but he guessed the man didn’t have much choice. “Alright. You stay
with me at all times, though, is that understood?”

“Whatever you say.”

He turned back to Major Sparton. “Very well, to the
bridge then?”

“Absolutely. Follow me, Captain.”

They all took a lift to the bridge, and soon Chase
was in the captain’s chair. As it turned out, it was very comfortable, made
with dark-blue material resembling leather. On each of the arm rests were
controls for most of the ship’s systems. The emperor stood not too far away,
his arms locked against his chest as he observed, silent.

“Get us out of space dock,” Chase ordered, “one
quarter impulse.”

And just like that… the mission was away.

Argos’ ship entered the Gorialis Star System, and
soon arrived at their destination. He looked at the view screen, mesmerized by
the beauty of the enormous star and its giant solar flares’ eruptions.

“Status?” Argos barked.

“We’re at optimal distance to attempt
inter-dimensional communication, Master,” answered one of his officers

“Very well, establish communication and send it to
my ready room. I am not to be interrupted for anything until it ends,
understood?”

“Yes, Master, I understand.”

He got up from his throne-looking chair on the
bridge and entered an adjacent ready room. The atmospheres between the two
rooms were very different. The bridge was well lit, and full of computer
terminals. The ready room, however, was pitch black, with two small torches on
each side of the room that were triggered to light upon his entry. Argos loved
the natural light of the flame; loathing the artificial lighting that came in
most ships. That’s why he would retreat to this place to think. Even in the
midst of combat, he preferred dispatching orders from here.

He slowly kneeled on the floor, about three meters
in front of a wall.

Soon, a hologram about five meters tall appeared,
but it was quite garbled with a lot of static.

“Rise,” said the voice in a very metallic, grinding
and garbled voice. It had a faint echo; and seemed to be coming from the depths
of hell itself.

He slowly stood and faced the dark, red-colored
holographic projection,

“What have you to report at this time, Argos?”

“My plan is well under way. I will soon have all I
need to come and get you.”

“We grow weary of waiting. You promised results, but
so far we see none.”

“I assure you all is going according to plan. In
fact, there’s been a new variable that may speed things along.”

The holographic shape jittered with a terrible
signal distortion. It was clearly humanoid in nature, but too garbled to
identify in detail.

“Very well. Make sure you get all you require, as we
instructed you. You will be handsomely rewarded. But fail us, Argos, and our
revenge will be long and painful.”

His name resonated in the sentence, giving weight to
the threat.

“Thy will be done. You will soon be free again.”

The holographic shape only growled in response, and
then disappeared back into the nothingness it came from.

Time was running out. Clearly his masters were
losing patience. But now that Chase had entered the equation, Argos knew
exactly how to proceed next in order to fulfill his mission. He would not fail
them.

Instead of returning to the bridge, Argos glowered
from his away-room throne. He needed to know what Chase was up to. His newly
formed plan could potentially save months of work, but he had to be sure Chase
would comply. On that front, he still had an ace in the hole. Still, he’d have
to be careful and precise to pull it off. Fortunately Chase was only awakening
to his powers, and bore almost no control over them. The fight at Hellstar
prison had been a pathetic demonstration, which worked in his favor.

Yet the Olympians were not to be forgotten; they
could help Chase in ways that would be catastrophic. He had to get a hold on
that communication line between them and Chase, and yank it off. He would need
to proceed carefully, though: the last time Furies tried to attack the
Olympians, it had led to their downfall. Argos had no intention of repeating
the biggest mistake in the history of his race.

His eyes glowed eagerly as he leaned towards a big
jar, and, after pondering for a moment, he opened its lid. A strange-looking
snake with many spikes and yellow, glowing eyes arose from the half-light. It
turned and spat out a very high-pitched hiss; almost painful to hear. Argos
quietly moved his free hand in front of the snake. It opened its mouth wider,
as three double-tipped tongues started an eye-pleasing circular dance. Venom
drops formed on the tips of its yellow fangs, as its eyes glimmered even more
brightly.

Argos made a sharp move with his hand. The snake
flew at his arm in a flash, thrusting fangs deep into Argos’ forearm. The
resulting jolt of pain that followed was both excruciating and extremely
pleasurable to Argos, almost orgasmic. The snake didn’t release for a while,
but hung limply from his skin. Argos didn’t seem to mind, enjoying the venom’s
burn as it flowed through his veins. He closed his eyes and leaned back,
exhaling slowly. The burning pain and toxicity traveling his system was easily
countered with his Fury powers. But for the high to be pleasurable, it needed
to hurt a little.

A few minutes later, Argos mumbled in a satiated
whisper, “That’s enough for today.” He tried to get the snake off his arm; but
instead of retracting as it usually would, it tightened its grip.
Such
feeble creatures thinking they can impose their will onto me
, thought
Argos, permitting himself a smile. He started flexing and tightening all the
muscles in his forearm so strongly that the fangs were forced from the holes
recently made in his skin. The startled snake released all at once, swinging
his head back and hissing wildly, its three tongues flailing about.

The beast was clearly agitated, yet afraid at the
same time.
You are right to fear me
. But when primal instinct overtook
fear, the snake turned and flew at Argos’ throat, which did not go well with
Argos. He caught the snake in midair with crushing force, grinning. Sheer
terror could now be read in its dimming eyes. He opened the palm he’d closed
over the creature, and the snake exploded all around Argos’ throne, spilling
yellow blood and guts on both his throne and himself.

Argos sighed and stood. He cleaned himself up by
levitating every particle of splashed snake goop, incinerating them in a flash.
Soon there was nothing left, not even ashes. At that moment he received an
incoming transmission from the bridge.

“What is it?”

“We’ve received very interesting intelligence from
the sensors you placed on the subject, Master. We have audio and video files
you need to watch right away,”

Finally, some good news.

“Thank you,” he said, waving the holographic comm to
the side to turn off the call.

He summoned another holographic projection with the
intelligence data mentioned. He sifted through videos of new weaponry the
Alliance had been working on, as well as a meeting with a female admiral. On
one side of the table stood the emperor, giving the Alliance very specific
information.

“That snake… I knew he would rebel eventually, but
so soon?” he murmured at the screen.

The meeting outlined a mission to destroy Argos’
shipyard: a perfect setting to put the next part of his plan in motion. The
universe always seemed to help him achieve his goals, if only he waited long
enough. He hastily assembled a response: he had no problem with them crippling
his current means of ship manufacture. Argos had plenty of ships in reserve.
The target had strategic value to him, of course, but instead he saw ripe
conditions for a trap. All that mattered to Argos was that Chase and his
precious Sarah would soon be stumbling into his grasp.

He opened a holo-comm and commanded, “Get us to the
shipyard, and recall all ships from the Xyrion sector to these coordinates.
Their orders are to destroy any Obsidian ships they encounter there—” He
verified and pronounced the coordinates of the Obsidian Empire fleet rendezvous
with the Earth Alliance strike force, with anticipatory relish.

“Yes, Master.”

“Oh, and clone another Kyrian snake. Have it sent to
my ready-room.”

“Understood, Master.”

Argos waved the comm off with a flick of his right
hand.

With the plan to ambush the strike force boiling in
his mind, he rejoiced at the thought of teaching both Alliance and Droxian what
it cost to defy him.

“Let’s have some fun, shall we?” he cackled, with a
smirk on his face.

*   *   *

Onboard the EAD
Hope
, Chase arrived at
Jupiter and meticulously tested each of the ship systems. It was ready for
battle. The ship had dispatched training probes with incredible ease, even
though they had their level set to maximum threat. He also tested the
redundancy of all systems, main and secondary weapons, torpedoes and shields.
All tests provided very satisfactory results. However, he still found himself
longing to be in a starfighter, no matter how empowering it was to captain the
most lethal warship the Alliance had ever built.

He decided to act on his impulse. He got up from the
captain’s chair, looked at Major Sparton, and gave him the bridge without
explanation. He took the lift to go visit Yanis in the engineering room: which
on the EAD
Hope
was a thing of beauty. The dual quadrinium cores emitted
a soothing hum.

“What can I do for you, Captain? I didn’t expect to
see you here so soon. All systems are working perfectly—” Yanis began.

“I know, but I wanted to ask for a favor.”

“Haven’t I already designed the perfect ship? What more
can I do?” he said, throwing his arms in the air.

“Relax. I wondered if you have time to install a
remote neuronal link for me, perhaps to interface with my chair?”

“Why would you want to pilot a destroyer with your
mind? Of course, in theory I could devise a way for you to fly and shoot with a
link…”

“Can a neuronal link remote control two space
craft?”

“Let me guess... You want me to link it to the
F-147s as well?”

“Yep. Can it be done?”

“I don’t see why not. Since they all come with their
own neuro-interface, it’s just a matter of installing a network remote control
routine. But why would you want to do that?”

“I’m a fighter pilot. We are going on a critical
mission to destroy a very important target. I don’t want to miss this battle
for the sake of luxury.”

“You’re like a child, you know that, right? You’re
captaining the most advanced ship of the fleet, perhaps even the most advanced
ship ever created, and you still want to play hotshots?”

Chase didn’t answer, pondering. Was he? Was it so
bad, wanting to fly the new F-147?

“Look... I just want to be part of the wing when we
get there, and since I can’t be in two places at once…”

“It’s okay, you don’t need to justify yourself. You
want to fly my StarCrusher, and so you will.”

“Yanis?” said Chase, raising his voice.

“Oh, did I say StarCrusher? I meant StarFury.”

Chase smiled.

“The jump to our destination will take thirty-five
hours. Will that be enough time?”

“Plenty. No worries, Chase, I will have the
modification made to your chair within the next few hours. But I think I’d
better give you some commands on the
Hope
as well, so you can at least
dispatch orders mentally while flying the starfighter with the neuronal
interface. It will make it simpler for you to interact with your crew, while
still receiving visual sensors and telemetry from both the
Hope
and
F-147. Though I can’t be sure how your brain will react to you controlling two
systems at once; it might be too much. Since the F-147s are already pre-loaded
with your scripted commands, you may want to set it on autopilot from time to
time, if the dual link becomes too stressful for you to handle.”

“Understood. I’m sure I’ll be fine, but thanks.”

“My pleasure. Now go play captain and let me tend to
my ship.” Yanis laughed, waving Chase off with his hand.

“
Your ship?
”

“You know what I mean. Now go!” said Yanis with a
wink.

Chase decided to go check on Sarah next, but she
wasn’t in her quarters. Perhaps she hadn’t finished her tour of the ship or,
better yet, maybe she went to see the F-147? Chase leaped at the golden
opportunity. Once arriving at the launching bays, he started looking for the
F-147, a huge grin on his face. He arrived before two of them parked side by
side, right after the four Omega fighters the admiral had been kind enough to
provide for their important mission. Indeed, the new model was quite a lot
bigger than the original F-140 Thunderbolt. Then it hit him: there were
supposed to be three F-147s. He activated his comm.

“Dude, it’s been fifteen minutes since we last
talked. What now?”

“Weren’t there supposed to be three StarFuries on
board?”

“Yes. And?”

“And I’m in the launch bay now, and there are only
two!”

“What? Are you sure?”

“Yanis, I think I know how to count to−”

But then something strange happened. A shape started
to appear next to the other two ships, something blurry and distorted at first.
It flickered for a few seconds until it took a more solid form, and finally
became a fully formed F-147.

Chase exhaled and answered. “Never mind. It’s here.”