Far From Home: The Complete Series (55 page)

Jessica laughed until her own helmet was on and secured. Then she wrinkled her nose. “You’re right. It smells like a Mummy’s armpit!”

The Commander laughed over the internal comm.

Hawk put on his own helmet without fuss, then helped Dolarhyde into his. They fetched their equipment and signalled through to Chief Gunn for her to equalize the pressure with the outside and open the cargo bay door.

Moments later, the red light above the exit ramp changed to green and the door opened. The world outside was a fiery, smoky hell.

“Gentlemen, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore,” King said.

* * *

The pyramid was like a giant, ebony arrow head at the summit of the plateau, its topmost peak aimed at the thinning red atmosphere and the veil of stars beyond. Soon, the rest of the planet’s ozone would dissipate, surrendering to the exertions of the giant red sun it called master. Then it would be yet another fiery, broken world, coasting through the void on an inevitable dance of death. And would the black mountain remain? If it chose to, yes.

“Now, it should open somewhere around here,” Dolarhyde said. He stopped at a small mark at the base of the pyramid and used it to activate the pyramid’s entrance. The door opened to reveal shining white innards.

“Déjà vu,” Commander Greene said.

Jessica tapped her comm. “
Warrior
, this is King. We are going inside the artefact. Expect loss of radio. Continue to monitor. Over.”

They waited a moment for confirmation from the
Warrior
. Then they stepped inside.

* * *

Dolarhyde took a seat at the angular chair in the middle of the vast, white space. The moment he did, all light died. Apart from a solid shaft of light that fell from the roof to Dolarhyde’s helmet-covered head.

YOU HAVE TRAVELLED FAR, a not too unfamiliar voice boomed in their heads simultaneously.

“Yes, we have. Travelled to reveal your secrets,” Dolarhyde said to it. The others remained silent.

If it hadn’t been for their twinkling suit lights, they wouldn’t have been able to see each other in such thick, soupy darkness. There was only the shaft of light, and a suited-up Dolarhyde within it.

DO YOU HAVE KNOWLEDGE?

“Yes I do. And, if you will permit me, I will put it to use,” Dolarhyde said aloud.

AS YOU WISH

Dolarhyde remained perfectly still. Then the light intensified. It grew so bright they had to shield their eyes. The light grew to fill the room. Their heads vibrated with a deep, heavy hum.

Then it was over. The light vanished completely before everything returned to its previous state of clean, white, hospital sterility.

And Captain Dolarhyde was gone. Vanished into thin air.

* * *

They spent over an hour at the pyramid, trying to determine if he was, in fact, somewhere within the structure. But they had no such luck as to have their doubts answered so directly. Before long, Captain King gave the order for them to return to the
Warrior
and try to make some sense of the situation.

“Chief, any sign of Dolarhyde?” Greene asked over the radio as the
Warrior
came into view. It was still a good fifteen minutes’ walk away.

“Yes. He arrived shortly after you left. I wondered where you’d all got to, to be honest,” Gunn said. “I figured he must have turned back for some reason.”

“Wait a minute,” King said. She stopped and activated the suit controls to project the camera feed from her helmet onto her visor. It showed the
Warrior
up ahead. She zoomed in, and sure enough, Dolarhyde was sitting on the access ramp with his arms folded waiting for them to come back.

“I don’t believe it . . .” she said.

“What?” Greene asked.

“Zoom in. He’s there. It must’ve worked,” she said. “I can’t believe it.”

She watched as the Commander did as instructed, his face changing from cocksure to gobsmacked.

“Well I’ll be damned…”

* * *

The cargo bay door slid shut and the atmosphere within the sealed room flooded in from vents in the ceiling. It took a matter of seconds to equalize the cargo area so that they could remove their helmets.

“So, Captain Dolarhyde,” Greene said. He offered his hand. “Congratulations are in order.”

Dolarhyde shook his hand, a smile beneath his shaggy grey beard. “I believe I’ve proven my point.”

“Indeed,” Jessica said. “And now, if you could explain it . . .”

“I’m not sure I can. It’s merely a case of allowing the pyramid into your mind. Offering no resistance. The more you open to it, the more it opens to you.”

“I’d imagine that’s something our friend Carn is struggling with,” Greene said.

“He’ll master it soon,” Dolarhyde said. “And I believe you yourself have had some experience of interacting with one of those devices.”

“A little bit,” King admitted.

“I believe that if pressed, you could work one of the machines too,” Dolarhyde said. “I merely thought of where I wanted to go, regardless of when. There was a kind of tingling all over my body and when I opened my eyes, there I was. Sat on the ramp. I’d got back to the ship before we’d even reached the pyramid. I time travelled.”

“And if
you
can, it’s only a matter of time before Carn will be able to do the same,” King said. “And who knows what sort of damage he could inflict?”

“If yuh think about it, what’s stoppin’ him goin’ back and leading a Draxx fleet to Earth when it was just startin’ out? Before the foundin’ of the Union?”

Jessica locked eyes with him. “What’s stopping him?
We are.
”

5.

With the ship safely back in orbit, they held a brief meeting on the bridge.

There was coffee all round –
the freeze-dried variety, found perfectly preserved in the
Warrior
‘s stores
 – and they discussed the neat trick Dolarhyde had managed to pull off with the pyramid on the surface.

“So how do we know he won’t come here for this one?” Hawk asked.

“Well, there’s nothing to say that he won’t,” King said. “However, it won’t matter. As far as we know, he doesn’t know about the master pyramid yet. It’s a little advantage we have, which makes a change for once.”

Chief Gunn stood next to Gary Belcher, one hand resting in the pouch at the front of her overalls, the other gripped a paper cup filled with strong coffee, a little too much cream, and a certifiable overdose of sugar.

“Hey, uh, so we’ll be heading straight into the lion’s den on this one?” she asked.

“I’m afraid so, Chief. It’s in the heart of Naxor territory . . . right under the General’s nose.”

“You know, one thing I’ve not worked out yet,” Gunn said. “And that’s why the Naxors are working with Carn. What possible agreement could he have with them, for them to put everything they have at his disposal?”

Jessica shook her head. “I’ve not figured it out myself, yet. I’m sure they have their reasons. Knowing the General as we do, I think we can safely assume it isn’t just an act of friendship.”

“You can say that again.”

Commander Greene nodded toward the viewscreen. “You know, we never did get to see a lot of this galaxy. I know it’s rough down there, but what a view.”

They all turned to see what he was talking about. Below them, the planet around which they were in orbit fell to darkness, the last glow of its giant red sun turning the atmosphere into a smear of ochre against the black. And in the distance, like a ball of fire, its sister planet shone like a small star.

“Hellish, but beautiful,” Jessica said.

A bit like our time here,
she thought.
We may not have done as much exploring as I’d have liked in other circumstances, but we’ve survived. Well,
most
of us have. And that’s not too bad. None of it is.

As she sipped her coffee, and the others chatted amongst themselves, she felt a not too unfamiliar numbness rise up her legs. Like a creeping cold, its fingertips working their way into her muscles. She made her excuses and retired to one of the bunks farther down the corridor to rest in the hope that her illness wasn’t about to rear its ugly head once more.

She remembered Dr. Clayton telling her that it could be triggered by stress. As she lay there with her hands folded on her stomach, staring up at the ceiling, she admitted to herself that she found the idea of what they were about to do frightening. She’d have never said as much to the crew – not even to Commander Greene. But Jessica knew that this was it. The final offensive against a vile enemy, hell-bent on their total destruction. There would be no further chances.

If the General could go back in time as Dolarhyde had, then they were doomed. Simple. He would go back and erase them from existence.

I’ll be damned if I’ll allow everything we’ve been through to stand for nothing,
she thought.
But legs, don’t fail me now. See me through this.

It seemed a good thing to hope for, and yet Jessica knew it was foolhardy.

Everything would pan out as it was meant to.

I just hope we get there before he does.

Presently she got back up and made her way to the bridge, careful not to go too fast. There she gave the order to continue on with their mission. If she had not felt the urgency before, she did now.

“Inform Captain Praror we are continuing with the mission immediately,” she ordered. “Everybody, after that we go silent. Communication blackout. We’re going into enemy territory.”

6.

The
Warrior
cruised through space, all communication circuits disabled for full silence and the cloaking device running at full power. Captain Praror’s ship at their wing, under the guise of just another Naxor ship travelling back into “friendly” territory.

She couldn’t sleep, and when Jessica wandered up to the bridge in her slacks and a vest, she found Hawk there with his feet up on the helm.

“Captain Nowlan, I didn’t think anyone would be up here,” she said.

He started at the sudden intrusion. “Jeez! Yuh made me jump, Cap.”

“Sorry. Everyone else is getting some rack time. You should be too,” she said.

He raised an eyebrow. “I think that goes for the skipper too, don’t it?”

She couldn’t argue. “You have a point there.”

The ship was quiet, save for a ticking noise from somewhere and the general thrum of the engines powering them through the void at a speed any primitive race would have found astounding . . .

“Yuh think they’ll be all right back there? The others I mean?” Hawk asked her.

“I think so. Why? Are you thinking about Selena?”

Hawk nodded. “Never thought I’d say this about a gal, but I really do miss her. We’ve got chemistry. Only took me a black hole and half a century to find her,” he said.

“I’m glad for you, Captain,” Jessica said. She sat on the edge of the captain’s chair, her hands clasped between her legs. “You’ll see her again.”

Hawk looked away then. “I sure do hope so.”

Jessica thought about the bonds the crew had made since being catapulted so far from home. Del and the Chief. Hawk and Selena. Then there had been Chang and Rayne… they’d become a true family.

And when the
Defiant
blew up, it was like saying goodbye to all that.

She realized Hawk was now looking at her. “What?”

“You miss her, don’t you?” he asked.

“What d’you mean?”

“The
Defiant
. You miss her.”

Jessica smiled. “Yes. Yes, I do. I can’t believe she’s gone.”

“We’ll get another ship,” Hawk said. “Yuh can call her the
Defiant II
or somethin’.”

She laughed. “Yeah, won’t that be strange?”

“Hey, how come you never hooked up with anyone?” Hawk asked.

She felt her face heat up and had to look down at the deck.

“Sorry if I’m puttin’ yuh on the spot an’ all,” Hawk apologised.

Jessica shook her head. “No, it’s not that. It’s just . . . I’ve not had a chance to. I’ve been so concerned with everything else; there’s been no time for any of that.”

Plus I’m ill,
she thought.
And in all good conscience, I couldn’t expect anyone to have to deal with that.

“I can appreciate that,” Hawk said. “It’s a lotta pressure.”

“Yeah. You could say that.”

Hawk got up from the helm. “You wanna coffee? There’s no way I’ll be gettin’ to sleep.”

She smiled. “Yes I’d love one. I take it we’re on watch tonight then.”

He pointed a finger at her, and she recognised his pose from one of the many posters she’d seen when she was younger. “The Hawk is always on watch.”

She shook her head and laughed. “The poster boy.”

“Always,” he said. “Defending the Union from tyranny, even in my sleep.”

7.

The fact that the battleship was the largest vessel, by far, that he’d ever commanded did not phase General Carn in the slightest. Indeed, it was like throwing fuel on a fire. It made him feel more invincible than ever.

He stood watching the bridge operations with disinterest. What mattered was getting to the planet containing the master pyramid. Nothing else. At the front, one end of the huge room was given to a viewscreen. The starlight flicked past at a steady rate as the battleship’s engines ploughed through the inky blackness. But Carn did not watch any of it.

He was deep in thought, still mulling over the last planet they’d visited. A moon around a blue gas giant, the artefact they found there confirmed many of the things he’d learned already, and educated him about one or two things, too. Namely, the location of the master pyramid . . . and just what he could do with it, if he had the inclination.

The Naxors trusted him with one of their most expensive vessels. And why? Because he had promised the High Vizar a seat at the table.

“Help me,” he’d told him. “And we shall rule side by side. The Draxx and the Naxor, sharing the universe… together.”

But, of course, he had no intentions of sharing anything. The Naxor were worthy allies, but there was no place for them in his plans. As far as Carn was concerned, the only other being going into the pyramid with him –
and into the past
 – resided within the royal egg the Queen had entrusted to him before she died. With that he would rule the Draxx upon his return. The Queen larvae would grow and mature under his guidance, raised to follow his word. To allow him to rule the entire Dominion from behind the throne and not on it.