LUCIN

Kale knew the ship well and made his way quickly and quietly toward the throne room of the Lucin. Kale encountered a number of warriors as he went, but evaded their notice. Soon, he arrived at the chamber.

He guessed that Tiet and Grod would probably be close to the containment area by now and he had little time to distract Lucin before intruder alarms would sound and they would lose the slight advantage surprise gave them. Kale removed two spicors from his uniform and stepped back enough to throw them into the chamber door. They flashed violently, leaving a large hole through the alloy that comprised the door. Kale was through the door as soon as the energy dissipated.

He dived through and rolled to his feet drawing his blade as he stood. The room was sparsely lit. Lucin was not immediately seen. He closed his eyes and relied upon his mind. Then he found them. “You can come out. I see you,” said Kale.

Kale immediately formed a mental bubble within the hole he had made and blew out the door mechanism with a thought.

“Do you think I will run from you, Kale?” asked Lucin.

“You’ll try to run before I’m through with you,” he threatened.

Lucin laughed. “Pride goes before a fall, mortal. Do you really expect to defeat me, one of the Mithri?”

Lucin approached him, coming into view beyond Kale’s blade. Kale protected himself mentally as he felt the mithrial being apply his own great mental faculties against him.

Lucin was putting tremendous pressure upon him as he searched for a weakness in Kale’s defense, but he could find none. Kale felt the pressure continuing to build as Lucin furthered his attack. He knew very well that he would have been easily overcome by Lucin if he had not been forced to split his attention and power coordinating his warriors on the ground and with the ships still fighting the Vorn cruisers around the flagship.

Kale lunged at him with his blade. Lucin swept out of the way fast. A large piece of equipment flew at Kale from its place in the shadows. He struck the object, cutting it in two.

Baruk warriors could be heard outside the one door to the chamber, but they could not get through Kales kinetic bubble or open the doorway to help their master.

“Have you already summoned help for yourself, Lucin?” he asked sarcastically.

Lucin did not answer him. His form began to change before Kale’s eyes. The human form increased in stature to roughly three times his original human form. He erupted into a monstrous form.

“If it is a physical battle you desire, you shall have it, Barudii,” scolded Lucin.

☼

Grod and Tiet were able to see the massive containment chamber from their perch. They had climbed beyond the walkway toward the mechanism in order to avoid any Baruk warriors that might happen by during the course of their duties. Grod and Tiet climbed quietly along the structure toward the conduits above the chamber. The pipes were huge. It would take a throw of multiple spicor discs to get through those conduits without being instantly covered in the coolant flowing within. There appeared to be minimal personnel in the area at the moment. There was no time to waste.

Tiet removed three spicor discs from his vest. He and Grod moved to a catwalk that would give them an easier escape route. Tiet stood for the throw and aimed at three separate conduit pipes to prevent any rerouting of coolant to the containment system. With deadly accuracy, he threw the discs away toward their targets. The discs exploded as they impacted with the pipes, leaving huge holes in each one and bluish colored coolant vapor spewing forth.

An alarm immediately sounded throughout the ship. Grod and Tiet ran down the walkway toward the transgate. Baruk warriors ran into the containment system area. Then they spotted the pair. “Saboteurs!”

The Baruk fired upon them as they ran down the catwalk. Tiet drew his kemsticks as Grod aimed his plasma weapon. A burst of lightning arced over Tiet and into the approaching Baruk. The warriors tumbled over the sides of the catwalk as the energy hit them full force.

More Baruk warriors were mobilizing, but Tiet and Grod didn’t have time to draw out the fight—according to the wailing security alarms, this ship would implode in seven minutes.

☼

Kale deflected several tentacles flying at him from Lucin’s symbyte form. The mithrial monstrosity screeched as his blade vaporized some of Lucin’s morphing tissue. He couldn’t get past Kale’s defense. Then the ship’s warning system went off.

“Evacuate ship—seven minutes to containment meltdown, evacuate ship,” sounded the alarm.

The symbyte creature reeled back from the fight as Lucin realized the imminent destruction of his flagship. He turned his attention to opening the door and breaching Kale’s kinetic force field. Kale moved in to strike again, trying to keep Lucin occupied and imprisoned until the containment field collapsed completely and destroyed them both.

The creature spun on Kale and sent him flying backward with a burst of mental energy. Had Lucin now stopped expending his power coordinating his troops in order to concentrate on saving himself? Kale recovered and flung his blade at the creature. The blade struck and rebounded under mental control to his hand. Lucin howled at him and held Kale in a mental grip that instantly fixed him frozen to the floor.

He knew that he would not get through the force field until Kale removed it. Lucin’s monstrous symbyte form came at Kale and smashed a hardened appendage across his body that sent him to the ground and his blade spinning out of his hand across the floor. Kale heard the warning system stating only four minutes remaining before containment meltdown as the creature stood over him and began to pound away at his body. He felt his bones shattering as Lucin desperately tried to remove Kale’s mental power on the forcefield preventing his escape from the room and the doomed ship.

Kale was in terrible pain, but he blocked it out as much as possible as he continued to focus on keeping the field up across the chamber door until the last possible moment. Blow after blow pounded across his battered and bleeding body. Kale could barely hear over the ringing in his ears. The warning system sounded a muffled cry of three minutes. Kale felt his life slipping away. His body was numb, yet he continued to focus all of his mental energies on the forcefield.

☼

Grod and Tiet leaped away from the catwalk and landed back before the corridor leading to the transgate. Several Baruk warriors met them, but Grod blasted them with plasma energy on his way through.

Grod and Tiet ran hard for the transgate and did not encounter any other warriors along the way. The ship’s warning system sounded out again at four minutes to meltdown as they reached the transgate and ran through. When they came into the domed chamber at Nagon-Toth, Tiet immediately asked the technician monitoring the gate if Kale had already come through.

“No. You’re the only ones to return,” said the technician.

Tiet turned back to the gate as Grod caught his arm to prevent him. “Don’t go back, Tiet.”

“He’s my brother,” Tiet said. “I have to go back.”

Grod looked at him, concern evident in his eyes.

“Keep the gate open as long as you can,” said Tiet.

Grod released his grip on the young man’s arm. He ran back through the gate and was immediately within the flagship again. He had no other way to find Kale except his mind.

Tiet felt for him and found him nearby. He bolted down the corridor. Several Baruk were working on a damaged door to a chamber. He felt Kale inside in horrible pain. Tiet blasted the Baruk warriors with his mind before they even realized he was upon them.

He sent them into the wall with such force that none of them moved after they hit the ground. He saw a forcefield in place over a blast hole in the chamber door. The mad screeching of some beast could be heard coming from within.

Tiet pulled a hand full of spicors and flung them into the wall, blasting a hole to access the chamber. As he entered the room a monster peered up at him. It was a horrific-looking creature—a black mass of writhing tentacles and piercing eyes. Kale’s bloody beaten body lay beneath it. The creature tried to attack Tiet mentally as he flung a handful of spicors at it.

He was knocked down by the force of the beast’s mind as the spicors sailed into it and erupted all over the creature’s large body. The symbyte flailed backwards away from Kale, writhing upon the floor trying to reorganize its form.

Tiet took the opportunity and grabbed Kales battered body up in his arms. He supported the man’s limp form mentally as he made his way back out of the chamber and ran toward the transgate. The warning system sounded again, “One minute to containment breech…”

☼

Estall shifted in his captain’s chair as new information began to come across the view screen. “Sir, there appears to be a large number of escape pods jettisoning from the flagship,” said one of the scan techs.

“Ranul, what’s going on?”

He ran more specialized scans of the vessel. “I’m picking up some sort of gravitational flux onboard. It’s difficult to pinpoint behind their shields, but there is something else odd about it.”

“What?”

“The other ships are beginning to drift from their protective positions around the flagship.”

“Are they running?”

“No, it just looks like they’ve stopped calibrating their position, like someone is asleep at the wheel. Wait a minute! The waveform I’ve been monitoring has stopped.”

“Can we break through?”

“I would caution against it, the gravitational disturbance is building in intensity. If it keeps up, it will destroy their ship and pull us in as well.”

“Gunner, continue trying to punch through. Maybe we can help them on their way,” said Estall.

☼

Wynn could clearly make out the forms of the Baruk warriors as they began their charge across the battlefield toward their position.

“Ready your guns!” shouted Wynn to his troops through his com-link.

The Baruk were running hard at them now, shouting a war cry as they advanced. And then, suddenly, they began to slow and stop.

“What’s happening?” he asked, peering through his lens.

A number of monstrous worm-like beasts broke through the ground from within the group of Baruk warriors and began to attack them.

“Sonders!”

“Yes, sir,” said the soldier as he ran to Wynn’s side.

“Aren’t those the same creatures that were spotted entering the city before the attack on Tiet’s group?”

“Yes, sir, the same. But why are they attacking the Baruk?”

“I don’t know, but they’re within the range of our guns…. Fire!!”

The Baruk warriors were caught in between their own hurutai, attacking them as the mental domination of the Lucin was released, and the rain of fire coming against them from the Castillian army. Many of the warriors ran in different directions trying to escape while others tried to kill the hurutai that were trying to kill anything within their reach.

“Should we charge them, sir?” asked Sonders.

“No, not yet…. Let’s allow those worms to finish off as many as they will. Something is finally going our way in this fight. Let’s not give up the advantage we’ve been given.”

☼

Tiet’s steps were getting heavier and heavier as he ran toward the place where he hoped the transgate would still be open. The Baruk ship’s computer was counting down the last minute. Tiet was still supporting the weight of Kale’s body with his mind, but he was struggling as the gravitational forces began to build onboard the doomed vessel.

☼

Lucin’s symbyte form recovered itself from the spicor disc explosions. Pain coursed through his body, but that only fueled his anger and desire to escape the ship that much more. The Barudii had seized Kale’s body, but he had left the chamber open as well. With only precious moments to escape, Lucin’s monstrous form moved quickly through the opening in the chamber door.

The computer was still counting down and there was no time to reach any of the escape pods. Then he saw a trailing glimpse of a man with another man across his shoulders, running from the area. Blood trailed behind them on the floor. However they got on the ship, there must be a way they were planning on leaving.

☼

The gravity was causing intense pain in Tiet’s legs as he tried to continue his pace toward the transgate, which he could now see up ahead. Nagon-Toth looked like home sweet home in comparison to this place now. Then he heard something approaching fast from behind.

He sensed the same creature that was trying to kill Kale back in the chamber. It was coming up fast on him, but there was no time for a fight. Only seconds remained before a complete collapse of the containment field surrounding those gravity weapons destroyed the ship.

The symbyte gained rapidly on Tiet as he continued to run. Lucin moved quickly, contorting his terrifying symbyte body to reach for anything he could and pull himself along the corridor. His morphing appendages sprang outward, several at a time, to find anchors with which to pull his gelatinous body along at a swift pace. The computer counted down the last ten seconds.

The portal was within reach now. Tiet ran through with Kale still across his back. His brother’s blood could be felt across his bare neck and was beginning to soak through his own uniform, but he was still breathing, still alive. As Tiet ran through the portal, he saw Grod waiting.

“Close the gate!” he shouted as he ran through.

The technician punched the button as the symbyte monstrosity reached the field and started through. The transgate snapped shut like a light going out. A piece of the symbyte creature burst away as the field separated it from the rest of the body still aboard the Baruk flagship. The lump of tissue landed on the floor, smoldering, but did not move.