The Fire Crystal (9 page)

There in the same orbit was a gigantic rig, held together by struts
. This was the beam weapon that Amber had told him about. It looked impressive, but at the same time seemed to be hastily put together, and temporary. In fact it was falling apart, and large bits had started to drift out into space.

The Zaarks saw it too. Instead of being warned-off and jumping back into hyperspace, they fired their fusion motor and dodged sideways in one quick leap.

Tom was staring out of a porthole. “Those creatures are sloppy, but their reactions seem good” he said grudgingly.

“It makes them a tough enemy to beat I guess,” Calvan
said.

Suddenly three missiles launched from the Zaarks ship. They seemed to waver at first, weaving their way through space.
Two headed for the rig but then the other one found Tom’s ship, and locked on. Immediately alarms started sounding in the ship, as it detected a missile-lock. These were fusion-torpedoes, and this one was heading towards them in a straight line now. It was too late to jump into hyperspace, and they could only watch, as the threat grew closer. There were no defenses for this situation. The torpedo was so close that he could actually see the warhead now.

Tom said.
“This will be painless, sorry for getting you into this Calvan.” He shook hands; they wouldn’t feel a thing.

Why wasn’t he moving? He nudged Tom, but it was if he had turned to stone. “DO SOMETHING,” Calvan shouted. He woke suddenly in a cold sweat and sat bolt upright, shaking badly. It was early morning, and this had been a bad dream.

A shuttlecraft with Tom and Calvan onboard was sent down to Earth. As Amber had explained this was no ordinary craft
, and had been fitted with a hyperdrive so that it could jump into hyperspace once the Zaarks started to chase them. They landed below the mountain, and finally managed to find their way up to the cave.

“Well this looks familiar” Tom remarked, “lets go inside and see the eagles.”

“But the computer, and the eagles were collected and taken up, last time we were here,” Calvan said.

“Yes you could say this is version two,” Tom answered. “It’s a bit more simple that the original one, and doesn’t have the power. It’s just temporary.”

Now they had to explain the whole thing. Tom was impatient – they needed to get on with the job. “No,” he said once again to both of the eagles, “don’t worry, the fire crystal is staying here for now. We will just be taking some rocks, its part of the plan.”

Calvan added his bit. “Our idea is to make the Zaarks
think
we have the crystal, so that they will chase us,” he said slowly.

So both the eagles asked together, “It’s really just a clever deception, so you can lure them to the beam weapon then?”

“Well done, you’ve got the idea,” Tom answered patiently.

The made several trips down the mountain carrying some rocks, and made a show of loading them into their small craft
, in case the Zaarks were watching this. It was exhausting work.

Finally they were ready “Don’t forget to come back for us,” both eagles reminded them.

They lifted into earth orbit, and made an obvious show of avoiding the Zaarks. This of course would not work –and was not intended to

“The Zaarks will detect us and approach. Then I’ll jump the ship into hyperspace.” Tom said

“And because they think we have the crystal, they’ll give chase,” Calvan added.

Calvan had been given the job of tracking the Zaarks ship. “They’re already moving” he informed Tom.

They both peered out of a porthole. There was the Zaark ship in the distance.

“It’s drawing closer,” Calvan reported.

Now for the hard bit,” Tom said. “Lets head for the hub, and introduce those critters to our friends.”

“I suppose you could say take them to the ‘travel agents’” Calvan
said, getting into the spirit of things.

Tom liked to have the last word, and replied; “if we can pull this of
, then we’ll book them a very long holiday - at a mystery destination.”

The navigation had been set
, and all was planned. Tom didn’t have much work to do. He keyed a code into the pad, and told Calvan to strap into his seat. Both boys counted off the seconds.

Then they entered hyperspace. Calvan felt sick
, and made the mistake of glancing out into the darkness. The blur was hypnotic. Tom reached across, and quickly closed the shutter.

“I should have mentioned, don’t look out,” he said “That’s something even I never do. It will make you throw up.”

Then there was a sudden jarring shock, and then they were back into normal space. Calvan didn’t even try to imagine how far he was from home – now they were headed for the Galactic Hub.

As they grew closer to the hub it was possible to make out its center
; a black disk. Calvin tried to imagine a description for it. ‘Negative space’, was his best try. A blazing orb of stars that served to make it look even darker surrounded the hole. Then they saw the faint violet haze around the disc; the point where light bent-back on itself, and warped back into the hole.

Tom pointed, “The edge of the disk is
known as the event horizon. It’s the point of no return, where the wormholes start. No one knows where they finish, unless they take the trip through one. That’s what the Zaarks will do, if they could pull this off.”

Even Tom wasn’t sure how all this worked, but he trusted the scientists from his own planet, and most of all Amber. If it didn’t work out
, then their own battle cruisers would blast the Zaarks from space. This would be all out war and both Tom and Calvan knew they would be caught in the middle - and would be killed.

Calvan was homesick and scared. This was no vacation, and he was uncertain if he would ever be going home.

Tom had read his mind; maybe he was feeling it too. “We’ll be going home soon,” he said with confidence. “We just have a bit of business to do first.”

The craft travelled with rocket-drive now. As it edged them in closer to the hub, Tom worried that they might get caught in the grip of a star.

“Stay alert?” he said. “The Zaarks will be here any second. I made sure that they’d locked us back into their beam, just before we jumped into hyperspace.”

They didn’t have
to wait long. There some distance away, the empty space glowed for a few seconds, as the enemy ship dropped out of hyperspace.

There was a noise like someone striking a gong
, and the computer announced: “Intruder in local sector, and closing.”

Tom answered. “Deflection shields up, but don’t cloak the ship. We want the intruder to see us.”

“Now for the chase,” he said, and a hit a key on the pad in front of him. “We have a meeting with Amber.”

Before this adventure had begun Amber planned the possible outcomes, so she could present them to the Elders. They would need to make a decision.

Only the supercomputer could see everything needed
, to make this work. She had run a ‘what if’ scenario millions of times, on the planet’s best machine. With every cycle, the computer had changed the plan just one bit, and tested the results.

“Blue on Blue,” she had murmured many times, meaning that the computer had predicted failure yet again. It had shown the
Zaark’s ship moving away from the Hub, with no opposition. All the friendlies had fallen into the massive black hole, and seemed frozen on its horizon. She would never see Tom or Calvan again; and spend her entire life wondering what had happened to them.

The worst of the simulations had finished with a short clip, showing Tom and Calvan’s ship blasted to bits. Then it showed the inside of the Zaarks ship. All the beasts looked more ugly than in real life. They were leaping around their leader, yelping and laughing.

“Must have a word with the chief programmer,” she said. “This computer is starting to get just a bit too smart for its own good”

Finally! She had the results that she needed. At last the computer had run two scenarios that had led to a correct result
- the end of the Zaarks. One of these results she didn’t want to think about. The Zaarks were blasted out of space, and along with them Tom and Calvan.

The second result was what she looked for. Only the Zaarks were pushed into the black hole, and gone forever. She had carefully plotted stages of this second result into her own pocket computer, and, it would become the plan.

“This is the best we can do, and the plan cannot be simplified further,” she had told the Assembly of her planet’s Elders, “but it’s still more like a gamble than a plan.”

They nodded. Tom’s father addressed the assembly, and then turned towards her his voice filled with authority. “You have permission to go ahead Amber - make it happen please, failure is
not an option for any of us.”

The beam weapon was a mighty device
, and looked as if it had been strung together by a giant spider - and left as a trap. The best that the scientists on Two Stars could produce at short notice.

There were two battle
cruisers of the Two Stars fleet nearby, uncloaked so that they could be seen, but with their shields up. A small fleet of small assault craft accompanied each – little more that computerized cannons.

The trap had been set. All it needed now was Tom and Calvan to join the party
, in their humble shuttlecraft, and of course the Zaarks themselves in hot pursuit.

Amber stood on the sealed control deck of the beam weapon, above the center of the tube. All the generators were humming now. They were as ready as they would ever be. She knew only too well how difficult it would be to pull this off, and had gone ahead of Tom and Calvan
, once the construction had finished.

Leaving
earth orbit from the mother ship had been scary. She had been totally exposed to the destructive power of the Zaarks mother ship.

Amber had
heard the alarm buzz, as their beam weapons locked on, and could see the stubby barrels of the weapons tracking her ship. The Zaarks had watched her craft with impatience, fingers on the triggers, wishing they could destroy it.

“Time to go,” she thought
, - then jumped the craft into hyperspace, clenching her eyes shut and gritting her teeth.

Amber need not have worried. The Zaarks were holding their fire, because if they destroyed her ship now
, the explosion would draw unwelcome attention from the people below on Earth. The creatures had judged that there would be plenty of time for everything, once that got their hands on the fire crystal. They didn’t follow her craft, thinking this was just a coward making a run for it, and lost interest as soon as it disappeared.

Amber’s journey to the Hub had been uneventful
, and now here she was and the game was on. She counted down the minutes, pacing backwards and forwards on the deck. Where are they? She kept thinking. All of her team were feeling the stress, but said nothing. “Come on, come on?” Amber repeated to herself, almost sick with worry now. “Where are you, Tom and Calvan?”

Suddenly when everyone was starting to give up hope, there was a soft glow in the emptiness of space. The scanners saw it first, and locked the image in, quickly zooming in as the boy’s craft dropped out of hyperspace at less than five hundred kilometers from them.

“Hello guys, where are our friends?” Amber said on the scrambled communication link.

“I’m sure they followed us, so they will here very soon,” Tom
answered excitedly.

They didn’t have long to wait. Much closer this time another glow appeared, as the
Zaark’s mother ship dropped out of hyperspace, and appeared nearby. “Find target, lock beam and fire,” Amber said quietly to the computer.

The plan was working
, like clockwork – so far.

A mighty tube swung around on the outside of the construction, and a beam extended from it, bathing the intruder in a hard white light. Suddenly, as if in reply, a beam left the Zaark ship and enveloped Tom and Calvan’s small craft. An opening appeared in the side of the enemy ship
, as a large hatch slid open. Tom and Calvan’s tiny craft seemed to blur as if trying to shake free, but slowly started to be drawn towards the Zaark’s ship. Amber thought quickly. This wasn’t part of the plan; the Zaarks were smart.

“Computer
, lock beam to friendly craft and fire on my command,” she said calmly.

She flicked the link to ON. “Tom and Calvan
- this is Amber, strap yourselves into your seats now, and activate your collision buffers. I’m going to knock you free with the beam. As soon as this happens engage your motors to full power, and GET OUT OF THERE!”

By the time the enemy sees what’s happening, the small craft would be pushed so far sideways that
the Zaark’s will lose track of Tom and Calvan’s craft for a few seconds, she knew.

“Computer, fire on my countdown of five,” Amber said.