Characters | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Epilogue
Chapter 12: Rescues and final fights
Being helpless in a tin can is the best descriptor I’ve heard for living in space. But being trapped in your own ship, you can’t pretend you have any sort of power. We all sat there; assassin, immortal doctor, child prodigy, pilot extraordinaire, and three Sun Speakers. Each more useless than the last.
I considered playing I-spy but since the panic room was also my quarters, and I hadn’t had much time to clean, I decided it was a bad idea.
Finally, I heard the rumble of the ship being surgically cut to pieces by the Venusian mothership. They cut out just the panic room and pulled it to their ship while blasting the damned void-beasts that still crawled all over us.
Once in their cargo hold, we opened the doors and piled out. “Thank you for the save, Gwin. You owe me a ship if we get out of this.”
“If? We’re just mopping up the leftovers and we’re good,” she said, exasperated. She wasn’t arguing with me, she was trying to negotiate with the universe, and she knew she was going to lose. That’s why she barely paused before grumpily saying, “Fine. Where do you need to be?”
“There’s a last planetship that’s coming. Take us to the edge of the solar system,” I said, causing both Gwin and Suzie to gasp.
Suzie was the first to say, “That far out you’ll be almost powerless, especially with the micro-suns completely depleted.”
Diamond put his hand on Suzie’s shoulder and said, “It’s what has to be done.” He said it with such charisma and conviction that she didn’t remove the hand from his arm. I was impressed.
If the planet-ship got too far into the solar system it would start nudging the orbits of the planets and that would be devastating to those who lived on them. We needed to stop it quickly.
As we travelled to the right place, the doctor insisted I eat something. Apparently my body needed fuel. That would explain the headache and weakness.
“I’m tired of you almost dying. Can we take a relaxing vacation after this is over?” Suzie said, holding my hand like it was going to run away from her.
“If I find a way to survive this one, I will take you to Earth and show you what a real beach looks like,” I said, smiling. Despite the terraforming and millenia of living on the other planets, beaches didn’t have the same quality as the pristine beaches of Earth.
Our snuggling moment was interrupted by Zuri cooing and saying, “We’re going with you. The vision only showed you so maybe we can do it together?”
“That would only leave the converted Sun-Speakers to take care of Sol,” I said knowing it was a weak defence.
They gave me identical stubborn looks and I laughed saying, “I hope I look half as cute as the two of you when I do that.”
Suzie shook her head and said, “She’s adorable, he’s sexy, and you’re just barely tolerable.”
“Love you too!” I replied and kissed her passionately.
The planet-ship was more of the same writhing masses of void-beasts. That didn’t make it any less horrifying. I don’t think I could ever get used to that view and that’s probably for the best.
“So what now? How do we stop that?” asked Gwin, annoyed. She probably hadn’t rested since the war started.
“We are going to crash a shuttle in the planet-ship, and then take over its propulsion, sending it into the black holes at the centre of the universe,” I said with complete confidence.
Zuri added, “If we blow it up, we’ll disrupt the gravity in the system and that’s a bad idea.”
I got a kiss from Suzie, a stimulant from the doctor, a hug from Gwin, and a dirty look from her husband. All very reassuring.
“If these are my last words, I want you to remember that I died protecting humanity, not because it loved me but because I believed there was good in us.”
“Nice,” Diamond said.
“Little sappy,” said Zuri.
We got into the shuttle and they let me pilot, probably because they weren’t used to the controls. Both of them were better pilots.
Part way there, they both asked, “What’s the real plan?”
“Crash the ship and figure it out there,” I shrugged.
We crashed through into what the scanners had told us was the largest cargo hold.
The ship was so massive that it kept its atmosphere with gravity alone, which meant our ship piercing the walls did nothing.
The room was large enough that we could have put half the Venusian fleet inside with room to spare, but it was empty except for a large stone semicircular gate with alien sigils on it.
We stepped out of the shuttle and I walked toward the gate. In the vision from Sol, I died horribly in front of that gate, killed by a void-beast five times the size of a regular one.
When we were close enough, the large beast appeared and spoke in a raspy voice, “You are foolish to come here. I will kill you!”
“Foolish is definitely my strong suit,” I said.
Both Zuri and Diamond’s eyes flickered like they were getting a vision. I was jealous for a split second before I realized I was the distraction.
“You can talk. Why can’t the others?”
The beast growled and said, “We can all talk but not in your disgusting language.”
“Great. I’m guessing you’re a sun speaker?”
Its eyes grew wide and it moved forward like a cat about to pounce. It wheezed, “Yes.”
In my vision, this is where it pounced on me and played with my entrails until I died. I waited and at the last second threw myself forward and down. The beast flew over me and landed elegantly on its face.
“No!” it bellowed. I thought it was talking to me, but a quick glance back showed Zuri and Diamond holding the gate and forcing plasma energy through it with their powers.
I rushed to the beast and grabbed its head. I tried to cleanse it the way I had other Sun Speakers, but it wasn’t just loyal, it was part of its god.
My goal was to slow it down and not let it attack or call the other beasts to attack.
Suddenly the gate opened and connected to a black hole. “Now!” I shouted into my coms and we were teleported away.
The black hole turned the planet ship inside out and devoured it. When the metaphorical dust settled, there was nothing left but the gate floating in space.
We were finally done.
While you wait for the next chapter, check out the previous serial stories:
- 2025 – Scarlet Thread Irregulars (Urban Fantasy)
- 2024 – Red Day, Ere the Sun Rises: A Sun Speaker Story (Space Opera)
- 2023 – The Suns of War (Sci-Fi, Epic)
- 2022 – Birth of the Aetherverse (Fantasy)
- 2021 – Diamond Stars and the Galactic Heist (Sci-Fi, Heist, Romance)
- 2020 – Point Zero (Superhero, Sci-Fi)
- 2019 – Seren Plentyn and the Secret of Hokulua Station (Sci-Fi Adventure Mystery)