Void Star (22 page)

     Trevor gave him a knowing look and couldn't hide a half smile.

     Nathan sighed. "Fine. Yes, it's about revenge too."

     "I figured as much. I guess this is it, Uncle Nathan."

     The gruff old space captain held his hand out. Trevor shook it. "You're a good man. I know why you were chosen for this. I always knew you had potential. Good luck." He dropped something in his hands.

     "Good luck to you too," Trevor nodded.

     They shared one more gruff shake, and then Nathan jumped out and closed the entry door.

     "Ready, Boost?"

     Boost looked at Trevor's blindfold and kept his questions to himself. "I have no idea what is going on."

     "Welcome to the club." Trev looked down in his lap and saw the Nymarian's data pad. The last cipher had already been broken. He opened the last compartment, and a hologram displayed his face. Had his uncle known all along? Is that what Cleph had whispered to him?

     Trevor took the craft's controls, seeing far beyond what his human vision ever had.

     Outside the ship, Nathan ran back to a ventilation shaft and paused to steal one glance back. The ship had blown a hole through the outside of the dome and flown through.

     "Go get 'em, kid." Then he turned back to his own task.

Part Three:

As Darkness Meets Light

     “Rysta, you may have been right.  The capability is there in this human.  But time has run out.  I feel the Dark One coming from all corners of the universe.  We are all that is left.”

     “Mykia.  Remember, he’s a human.  The first thing you should know is they always come through when you least expect it. They love last second heroics.”

Chapter 24

     Trevor brought the controls forward as the way in front of them transformed from a closed door to shredded metal. "Just keep shooting, Booster." They blew through the command center in a fresh explosion.

     Trevor was having difficulty with the controls as they scraped through the last of the opening. This was harder than Nathan made it look, especially without his normal human sight.

     The ship was in open air within the most secure part of the space station. Of course it would be guarded against something coming in, but what about something getting out? The command section had just suffered a massive EMP. Would they be watching yet? Too many unknowns and no other choices.

     Trevor fired at the large bay door blocking their way. They flew into a massive super city. He wished it looked familiar. Unfortunately, he'd been in and out during that portion of his day.

     Feeling so good was taking some getting used to. Whatever energy his father had tried to tap into that powered the star was otherworldly. It was like a supercharged, full-sugar energy drink "go" pill. The parasite was dead. He could feel that much. But that wasn't the only effect.

     In the bustling part of the super city, a Ruveran officer looked up from the crowd. He thought he'd heard gunfire before everything fell dead silent again. He went to put it out of his mind, when the massive wall leading to the military district exploded toward him. Master Velkas's ship blew right through it. Before he or anyone else could react, it was gone.

     "I think we're going to be okay, Boost." Blind to the visual world, Trevor took Velkas's ship between skyscrapers and under the main tramline and then began firing at the next series of blockades.

     "We're nearing the lower section." Boost pointed a few hundred meters ahead. The bottom led back to a view of the galaxy, which meant it was a way out.

     Trev took careful aim at the glass and timed it so the explosion and their exit were one and the same. The autoshield slammed shut behind them as they came through.

     "That was close."

     "I see a lot of defensive turrets on us." Boost was searching the outside structure.

     "They aren't going to fire on their leader's ship." That was more of a hope that the EMP still had them chasing their tails.

     "Incoming," the computer warned in Ruveran.

     "Scratch that." Trevor pulled the sticks over to barrel roll. The ship responded quickly and went into a spin.

     The laser-guided weapons screamed toward them.

     "This could be a short trip." Trev stared at the volley coming right at them.

     Right in front of them, a small fleet of battleships appeared out of light speed. They opened up their lasers on them. The blasts struck everything around Velkas's ship.

     Trevor looked down at his screen and saw the first volley of weapons had vanished from the screen.

     "Thought you could use a hand," Fox came over guard frequency.

     Trev had no clue how they were able to identify it was him and not Velkas. Maybe it was an educated guess after hearing the screamer. Or they had great life scanners. "We need you to keep them off us so we can light-jump."

     "We'll try."

     The Elysian battleships were releasing thousands of little fighters that were already opening up on the
Razerus
. Counter to that, Ruveran battleships were disengaging from the
Razerus
and arriving from hidden points throughout the galaxy. Trevor crossed the threshold of Elysian ships and continued on. They streamed past him going the opposite way. A large space battle was about to begin.

     "Where we going?" Boost dialed up the NAV computer.

     "Where this all started. We're going to the Salarian world of Vale."

     Trevor waited for the drive to max out, and then he engaged the hyper-jump. In seconds, they were gone.

Chapter 25

     The ship lurched as it reached the end of the light jump. Trevor looked down at a world that seemed much like Earth. It had a natural atmosphere, oceans, mountains, lakes, islands, and so on. His heart ached at the thought. He pulled on the controls and shot the spacecraft at it.

     The Salarian joined them inside the cockpit. "Where is Cleph'thera?"

     Trevor grimaced. "He crashed into Aquaria and died later of the injuries he sustained. I’m sorry."

     The creature was unable to hide his sadness. “He was a good friend.” Then he brightened when he put it into perspective. "Well, at least
you
found
us
."

     Trevor flipped the planetary entry gauge down.

     "I will do the rest of my part by showing you where you need to go. I'm Dosh, son to the Guardian of the Temple, Keeper of the Star."

     "That's great, Dosh. Well, we need to land first, and technically, this is my first, so I'd buckle up." The ship began to lurch as they entered Vale's outer atmosphere. A mixture of temperature differential, turbulence, and wind shear tried to pry control away from Trevor.

     Dosh could not believe his luck in finding the chosen one. What was odd, he thought, was that it told him to take it off the planet to begin with. But then if he had never tried to leave with it, he wouldn't have used the beacon that involved the Eckelions, which brought in the humans, who routed the Ruverans and then returned to this starting point. There must have been much more to the story. A pattern that had to play out. He turned and watched a red light start to flash.

     "Another ship is tracking on us." Boost pointed to the radar.

     "Nya…" Trevor said to himself. "Let's hope she crashes."

     "Nearing planetary threshold." Boost dialed back the engines.

     "We'll have to perform a rapid-D to shake her."

     "A rapid descent will pull this ship apart."

     "She'll hold," Trevor said.

     "Incoming!" Boost called out.

     The ship took a massive hit that shot her forward. The panels flickered on and off, some not returning. They had taken a killer blow, but paranoid Velkas had to have the strongest ship imaginable.

     "Oh no," Dosh said from the back. A large contingency of weapons clawed at them again.

     "Releasing all countermeasures." Trevor punched several red switches on the middle console. Velkas's ship responded with a bombardment of mines, countermissiles, and walls. They coughed out in a mess.

     "She's disengaging," Boost announced. He paused. "There is a fire in avionics. Should I get it?"

     "No. Just hang on. This is going to be rough." He turned to look at Dosh. "What position is this place at?"

     Dosh yelled the numbers above the scream of the air speeding up to meet them. Trevor typed them in.

     "We're in the outer atmosphere, coming in hot." Trevor pulled a switch on the side console. "I don't think we have a way to slow down. Emergency spoilers out." The ship tried to slow. He paused. "How far to our destination?"

     "We are ten thousand meters from the indicated position." Boost pointed to the guidance.

     They burst through the lower atmosphere. Trevor did his best to float her down.

     At ten thousand feet above ground, they were going too fast to crash land, let alone perform a normal landing. The point on the display now read six thousand meters from their destination and continued to fall rapidly.

     "We're too fast to land," Boost began.

     "We'll be fine," Trevor claimed.

     The ship continued screaming across the landscape. They passed a massive spaceport built on a mountain. They flew over forests, oceans, and ancient remains of cities long lost.

     "We're overshooting."

     "I know." Trevor pulled the guidance computer off the console. "Time to abandon ship!" he yelled. "Autopilot engaged." He unbuckled himself, and the others followed suit.

     As they passed the avionics compartment, Trev, holding his breath against the smoke, reached into the avionics bay and disengaged the power core for the ship's weapons system. He placed it in a case. Boost picked up the still body of Raxus and carried the Eckelion into the escape pod where Trevor and Dosh waited. When they were all inside and accounted for, Boost closed the door.

     As soon as the portable ship display reached below one thousand and the case was tied down tight, Trevor hit eject.

     The escape pod immediately shot out. Even though they were all strapped down, their bodies were thrown toward the max their safety harnesses would go. The g-force pushed hard against Trev's chest and almost made him lose what little was in his stomach. It was hard enough to jolt the Eckelion back to consciousness. He woke up to a surprise fall.

     Trevor tried to get used to his new sight, watching the ground as it sped ever closer. It looked like they were tumbling in an uncontrolled free fall.

     They spun and swirled riding the high winds down until the autorelease on the pod's chutes engaged. It came to an immediate stop and floated gently down.

     When they finally landed in a large grass field, Trevor and Boost popped the pod top and helped pull the others out. When he was back breathing the fresh air outside, Dosh saw the remains of his own ship, which had crashed in the nearby forest. How long ago had that happened?

     The Eckelion was still trying to piece things together. "Where am I?"

     "Glad you're with us," Trevor answered.

     Raxus's fear subsided when he saw the Salarian was there too. "Dosh?"

     "Raxus." The Salarian gave him a quick hug.

     "I intercepted your beacon and was able to get the Void Star back."

     Dosh pointed to the human. "This is the human we've been looking for."

     "I know. The star showed me," Raxus said. He looked to be in as much disbelief as Dosh. "I only have one more task to perform."

     "Me too," Dosh agreed.

     Then a familiar ship reappeared on the horizon.

     "It's Render…" Dosh couldn't hide his fear.

     "Great. Now what?" Trev asked himself.

     He wasn't able to answer; he was too busy watching two smoke trails burst from the craft and speed toward them. They were two laser-guided missiles.

Chapter 26

     Trevor searched the terrain for any sign of hope and found none; the grass valley was hopelessly devoid of cover. There was a riverbed, but there was no way it could protect them. There were odd-looking lightning rods littering the valley; they were basically long metal poles standing around uselessly. But they were nowhere close.

     The missiles closed in.

     The group watched as the first missile burst midair and then, just as suddenly, the second.

     Trevor turned to the lightning towers. They were much higher, with large cylindrical bodies beneath them. They were anti-aircraft turrets.

     "My people must have fixed our defenses," Dosh told them.

     "Clearly," Trev said, though he was thankful.

     "I wonder how they knew…" Dosh let the thought drop. "We're not far." He pointed to a spot where a river spilled into a lake. "My people must be manning the defenses. We'll have to do the rest ourselves."

     They ran down the open field. Dosh led the way with the others on his heels.

     On any other occasion, the green valley would have made for a nice day trip. The weather was perfect, the air cool. The smell of the ocean blew past them from some faraway shore. The smell reminded Trevor of Aquaria.

     The thought brought back multiple images of what had happened since the beginning of all this. The Salarian had been imprisoned for trying to help him. The Nymarian with the data pad, Kaida, Glade—all died for a cause that ultimately centered around him. He couldn't let them down.

     The defensive turrets continued their barrage against the lone Ruveran fighter. Several fiery explosions rang through the air. When Trev looked back, he couldn't see Nya's ship. He didn't think they could hit her. She would never go down so easily.