Far From Home: The Complete Series (48 page)

“Understood. Dana… will you ever return to us?” Jessica asked.

The room started to dim. The white falling to shadow.

“Yes. One day. I have a rare bond with these machines. They need me for the moment. But when they’re safe, I hope to return.”

Dana reached out and stroked the side of Jessica’s face.

“Don’t fear, Captain. The dawn will always break the night. But first it has to get dark,” Dana said.

And it did.

* * *

She opened her eyes. “How long?”

“You’ve been in the chair seconds,” Greene said. “Why? What happened? You were twitching and writhing around.”

King looked down at her hand. Empty. But she understood that the gift Dana had given her had not simply disappeared. It had been knowledge. And it was where it needed to be.

She stood. “We have to go.”

* * *

Jessica explained everything to them as they left the pyramid. No one could have guessed that she suffered from MS at the rate her legs were going. They struggled to keep up with her.

“So he’s coming here?” Greene asked her.

“He’s attempting to access the devices one by one, travelling far and wide to learn what he can from them.”

“They’re very powerful. I’ve had some success over the years in gaining access to the knowledge stored within,” Dolarhyde said. “Though I think you already know that.”

“Yes,” Jessica said.

“That’s spooky,” Greene muttered.

“I need your help in locating the others. Can you do that?” Jessica asked.

Dolarhyde nodded as he kept pace. “If you show me a good star chart of the surrounding space, I think I could give you some pointers. It often showed me the locations of its companions. Though what use it was to me then . . .”

“Well it’s gold dust to me now. You’ll leave the surface with us?” Jessica asked him.

“Of course,” Dolarhyde said.

“Good. Because I’ll need your help getting the
Warrior
back up and running again. Work with Commander Greene and Captain Nowlan to get her operational as fast as possible.”

They neared the shuttle.

“We’re really gonna try and hold him off, huh?” Hawk asked.

Praror activated a panel at the side of the doors and they waited for them to whoosh open.

“He can’t get it,” Jessica said. “He’s one piece away from completing the puzzle. And if he does… game over.”

13.

“Once the shuttle docks, we get to the
Warrior
. Get her back up and running,” King said, her voice tense.

“Understood. If we can nudge her above the north pole, we might be able to hide her from their sensors,” Greene offered. “That’ll buy us time to reactivate her systems.”

“A sound plan,” Praror agreed. “There may be enough time, provided of course you can get the engines online.”

“We can’t let the
Warrior
fall into their hands,” Dolarhyde said. “As I know you’re aware, she’s not your average ship.”

“I don’t think it’s the ship they’re after,” Hawk said.

“No it’s not. But they’ll take it anyway, and I can’t allow that to happen. I’ll set the self-destruct myself before they lay their mitts on it,” King said.

“The pyramid. They’re after the pyramid,” Greene said.

“Of course. Carn is on a quest to unlock their secrets,” King said. “And if he does so, it’ll spell certain doom for all of us.”

“Amen,” Hawk said.

The shuttle coasted through the darkness of space. Praror worked the controls. “We’ll dock in two minutes.”

“As soon as we’re aboard, I want you to send a signal to the
Defiant
. Make it your first priority whilst we get started on the
Warrior
,” Jessica said to Greene. “We need them here. And any help they can bring will be appreciated.”

“Aye.”

“There’s a lot at stake. A ship filled to the brim with volatile weaponry. An alien artefact that could wipe out whole civilisations at the push of a button,” Jessica said, almost to herself.

“Not even that. At a thought,” Dolarhyde said. “One thing to understand, Captain. We don’t know what caused the Big Bang. An act of nature, or an act of God. But one thing we can know for sure now, whoever built these things had a hand in the life that sprang up after. They nurtured. They sowed. They weeded out what they had to.”

He reached out and took her hand in his. Old and young, but still one Captain to another.

“That is why he seeks their power. He sees its potential. A key to the universe, Captain. A key to the universe,” Dolarhyde whispered to her.

She turned to the front of the shuttle. Her eyes fixed dead ahead. They bore down on the Naxor and Union ships stuck to one another, joined at the hip. Praror swung them around to face the docking bay.

“This may well be our last stand,” King said. “And if it is, so be it. I will not let him get what he’s after. I draw the line here. This time there will be no retreat.”

14.

Minutes later, Commander Greene’s transmission reached the
Defiant
loud and clear.

“Commander,” Beaumont said. “Incoming message.”

“Put it on,” Chang said.

She listened to Del Greene. When she reached the end, her hands reflexively gripped the edges of the arm rests.

“How shall I respond?” Beaumont asked her.

Commander Lisa Chang drew a deep breath. “Tell them we’re on our way. And we’ll bring whatever assistance we can rustle together. Tell them… tell the Captain… to hold on till we get there. We’re coming.”

“Aye,” Beaumont said.

She turned to the helmsman. “Rogers, get us there. Maximum speed.”

PART NINE

DEFIANT

1.

Captain Praror’s ship dragged the
Warrior
- still incapable of moving under its own power - toward the north pole of the planet where it would be virtually invisible to enemy sensors.

“Braking thrusters,” he ordered. “Slow to full stop once we reach the zenith, then apply manoeuvring jets as and when needed to hold our position.”

“Yes sir,” the helmsman replied.

Praror signalled through to the
Warrior
, attached to their side by a docking port that resembled the connective bridge of tissue that binds two Siamese twins.

“Captain King, do you read me?”

“Yes. We’re all set here,”
King replied.

“Good. We’ll uncouple once we’re in position. It’ll be up to you to maintain position from there,” Praror advised her.

“Understood. Thank you Captain. For everything,”
King said.

Praror smiled, it made his whiskers lift. “You can thank me over a drink when this is all over, Captain…”

* * *

Jessica closed the channel and turned to Hawk, who was seated at the helm.

“Get ready for them to release us,” she said.

“Aye,” Hawk said. His hands keyed several controls as he prepared to take over control of the
Warrior
. “Ready when you are.”

They slowed to a stop, then seconds later a loud thud boomed around them as the old ship was unfettered from Captain Praror’s command.

“Holding our position,” Hawk said. His fingers ran across controls with the lightest touch possible, just enough to keep the
Warrior
where she was. “The old girl should stay put for a couple of hours.”

“I don’t think we’ll have that long,” Jessica said. She got up from the command chair and came face to face with Dolarhyde.

“Captain,” Dolarhyde said. “I think we’re nearly ready. There’s some rerouting to do, but nothing that should take more than half an hour or so. Commander Greene is up to his elbows in wiring right now, getting it done.”

“Excellent news,” King said. She looked back at the command chair. “You know, it seems a bit strange to be sitting in that chair, Captain. Especially when its owner is standing in front of me.”

Dolarhyde shook his head, looked down at the deck. “It no longer crosses my mind. This command of this bridge is as alien a concept to me now as becoming a permanent resident of that planet was when we first arrived. I can recall every system on this ship… but I doubt I’d remember what to do as her skipper. The minute I’d sit in that seat, I’d go blank. The years here have washed it all away. Now I’m just a man.”

Hawk turned around. “Yuh never lose it, pal.”

Dolarhyde didn’t say anything.

Jessica cleared her throat. “Captain, I was about to go see the engineering section. See if there was anything I could do to help.”

“I’ll lead the way,” Dolarhyde said. He turned back through the entrance and left.

“Yuh want me to hold the fort?” Hawk asked her.

“If you wouldn’t mind. There’s little I can do up here until we have this ship up and running,” she said. “In the mean time, use what scanning capabilities the
Warrior
has to keep a tab on our visitors.”

“Aye,” he said.

“I can only hope the
Defiant
is en route to join us. And perhaps Chang has managed to rally up some Krinuan support. We’ll need all the help we can get to keep Carn’s hands off that pyramid…”

2.

Captain King could hardly have known just how prophetic her words were. Commander Chang had arranged for a sizeable fleet of Krinuan ships to join the
Defiant
in answering Commander Greene’s call for assistance, though they would still arrive a little late to the party.

“How long till they reach us?” Chang asked Rogers.

The helmsman checked a readout at the side of his station. “Two hours.”

Chang cursed under her breath. She opened a comm. channel to engineering.

“Chief? What’re the possibilities of opening her up a bit? Give us some extra power? I want to get there as soon as we can. I don’t think we can afford to wait for our Krinuan backup.”

* * *

Meryl Gunn rolled her eyes as she hit the reply button on the comm. panel.

“Believe it or not, I am trying everything I can down here,” she said sarcastically.

“I know, Chief, but we need more.”

“She’s in rough shape,” Gunn said. “I can only push her so far.”

“With all due respect, Chief, if it means pushing her till she flies apart then that’s what I’m going to do. Whatever it takes to get the Captain and Commander Greene out of a jam,”
Chang said.

Gunn ran a hand over her face. The mention of Commander Greene had stopped her in her tracks, reminded her of the panic that fluttered in her stomach when she heard the distress call. She didn’t know if she could deal with anything happening to Del. Not after all they’d been through. The Chief took a deep breath. “Understood. I’ll do what I can. But you’ll have to trust me on this. I wanna see them safe, too.”

“I know you do. Keep me posted,”
Chang said and closed the channel.

Gunn felt a hand on her shoulder. It was Belcher.

“Are you okay, Chief?” he asked her.

Gunn straightened up, puffed her chest out. She gently removed his hand from her shoulder and patted his arm. “Come on, we’ve got a ship to fly to pieces.”

* * *

General Carn stood with his hands clasped behind his back, legs slightly apart, as he took in the forward view. The cosmos raced around them, a blizzard of stars against the darkness. His breathing was slow and measured, though his mirrored visor gave no sign of that fact. It hid every aspect of whatever was happening on his face – if indeed he still had one. Many had tried to determine why he wore the mask, and what he looked like beneath it. And they would never know, not while he still had a heartbeat: albeit the pumping of an artificial one.

Remarkably, the General felt at peace. His ship – a Dreadnought class borrowed from the Naxors – raced toward the location of one of the pyramids.
It could very well be the pyramid he’d been searching for all along. And its location may well be guarded by Krinuan forces
. He knew he could be headed toward a fight… and yet it did not phase him. Battle never had.

Such cool, logical calm had little to do with whatever artificial organs kept him alive. It came from instinct. True, his skill with a blade and his tactical prowess had won him battles. But it was his nature – that of a killer – that had kept him alive.

And he knew it was that same killer instinct that would see his mission through. No matter what, he’d find the pyramid that would unlock the universe for them.

The Draxx Dominion, the one power in the galaxy to which he’d sworn allegiance. And not only the Dominion as a whole, but the Queen herself. At the same instant his thoughts turned to her, the General heard movement behind him. He’d ordered he be left in peace on the observation deck. Not to be disturbed.

Except by one.

“General,” she said.

Carn turned, bowed his head. “My Queen.”

“What is our progress?” the Draxx Queen asked him.

The monarch of the entire race stood twelve feet tall with a long, green body that snaked behind her for twenty feet. She had several legs, two pairs of arms and could almost have been mistaken for a kind of giant insect. But there was no mistaking the reptilian face and eyes. Nor the rattle at the end of her tail, or the forked tongue that flickered from her mouth every few seconds. She wore a crown of twisted metals set with precious stones. And all the while, almost unnoticed by her, a series of smaller creatures clambered all over her body, cleaning the Queen’s leathery green skin and moisturising her joints.