Fury to the Stars (Universe in Flames Book 2) (16 page)

“And I beg to differ. Once you learn to fly, it’s
actually more than likely you will be.”

Chase stared at him blankly. “Learn to…
what now
?”

“Don’t play dumb with me,” Ares scoffed. “I have
zero doubt you are able to use a ridiculously minimalistic amount of energy to
lift yourself from the ground and fly.”

A flutter of excitement whipped about in his
stomach. “Will you teach me that as well?”

“I will do my best, but not today.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t want to overwhelm you with too much
information,” Ares explained. “I need to let your psyche integrate all these
concepts you have learned first. Your subconscious needs to know you can access
all of this… well… consciously.”

“I already feel overwhelmed.”

“I know. But before I let you return to your
previous activity—”

“I’m listening…”

“The attack you made: if you ever use something that
powerful, be mindful of what is around you, who you can hurt, what you can
destroy.”

“Well, I’ll try, but what if I fight Argos again?
I’ll need my A-game to even make a dent if he’s half the warrior you say he
is.”

“Yes and you will need to make every shot count.
They’ll need to be concentrated, but you’ll have to summon them using the
technique you’ve just learned today, one you must train on as much as you can.
But unlike our practice, you won’t have seconds, let alone minutes to cast your
attacks; you must learn to cast them in fractions of seconds, milliseconds even.”

“Seriously? Milliseconds?”

“The more you practice, the easier it will become.
Don’t worry about that right now. Whatever you’ve integrated here today will
get assimilated within a few hours. The next time you try, you’ll be amazed how
easily you manage to summon this power. But with power comes responsibility—be
mindful of that at all times.”

“Yeah, I will.” Chase threw up his hands. “I’m
already quite mindful of the fact that you’ve just given me the tools to
destroy everything and everyone I love.”

“Or to save them. It all depends on your point of
view.”

Chase couldn’t tell if the ex-god was messing with
him. In the end, he just shook his head again with a little smile. “I wonder if
I will ever sleep again…”

“Of course you will. Don’t obsess over this now. You
have other things to do. Just remember to practice and not get anyone killed
while doing so.”

Chase rolled his eyes. “What do you mean, I have
other things to do?”

“Well, you know, testing your new battleship,
finding what happened yesterday… Your daily life doesn’t stop just because you
can obliterate a solar system with the wave of your hand.” Ares had an almost
sadistic smile.

“Very funny.”

“Chill.” His eyes flashed with another grin. “I’d
say you’ll age faster if you don’t relax a little, but somehow I don’t feel
like you’re aging at all.”

“About that,” Chase piped up quickly. “How come
Argos seems older than me if we’re twins? Shouldn’t we age at the same speed?”

Ares rubbed his chin. “I can only theorize here.”

“Theorize away.”

“Either you have different sets of powers, which is
more than likely—after all your aura is blue, his is red.”

“Or?”

“Or you possess something different, something that
replenishes your cells day after day, like it does to us. Although that would
mean you’re the only non-Olympian I know who possesses that power.”

“Other species live longer, don’t they?”

“Yes, but only Olympians, and a few other older
races, have unlimited lifespan, barring injury of course.”

“I see...”

Ares shrugged. “I wouldn't worry too much about it.”

“Yeah, I bet you wouldn’t, but put yourself in my
shoes.”

“I understand, but this is a gift. You must use it
to do good. Which leads me to my final warning for the day.”

Chase sighed deeply and braced himself.

“Power is dangerous, Chase, it can consume you. I
know that from experience.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve held the name ‘God of War’ for countless
centuries, remember?”

“Yeah. You don’t really live up to your reputation,”
Chase replied with a chuckle.

Ares smiled back. “Perhaps, and believe me it’s a good
thing. I got consumed with my powers. I thought I could do anything and
everything I wanted. I seeded quite some troubles in the universe for a long
time.”

“What made you stop?”

Ares’ face turned uncharacteristically stoic. “The
realization of the countless lives my power games have consumed, the countless
civilizations I’ve destroyed in a quest for more.”

“I see...” Chase said softly, not really knowing
what to think.

“It could happen to you as well. It’s clearly
happened to your brother, Argos. He’s being consumed by his thirst for power,
and unless he sees the error in his ways, he can become way more dangerous than
I ever was.”

“Nightmares, here we come...”

“I’m glad you have a sense of humor about it.”

Chase stayed silent for a while.

“Or not,” Ares corrected with a small smile. “So how
about it, Fury? Any last questions?”

“Yes, one actually.”

“Go ahead.”

“Can I use my powers in space?”

Ares paused. “Well, theoretically nothing is
stopping you doing so, but I advise strongly against it.”

“How come?”

“You are part of that universe, so when you use
these powers, you drain some of it from within but also the universe itself—as
much as it allows you, as much as your pool allows. But since yours is very
strong, you could actually tear the fabric of space if you tried.”

“As opposed to when I’m on solid ground? What’s the
difference?”

“Think of it as a spider web.”

“A spider web?” Chase felt genuinely puzzled at the
comparison.

“Where two strings meet on a web, the hold there is
stronger. It’s a fixed point of matter, stronger than the single string. The
more intersection, the stronger the whole web. If the universe is a web, then
planets are the intersections. Their place in the universe is anchored more
strongly than the vacuum of space. If you pop an intersection, the web still
holds… But if you unleash fire in the web, you risk its entire collapse.”

“Okay...” Chase’s head was spinning. “I’m not gonna
even pretend I understand exactly what you meant right there, but I get the
message. I should avoid using my powers when I’m flying a ship.”

“I would, yes. You could most likely destroy an
entire fleet with a wave of your hand, but you take the risk of creating black
holes and other tears and anomalies in space and time. Trust me, you don’t want
that.”

“You did it yourself, didn’t you?”

Ares’ jaw tightened and he broke eye contact. Chase
was quick to move on.

“Alright, I guess I still need to blow up ships the
old fashioned way.”

“You wouldn’t know it, but you’ve probably already
used your powers instinctively to dogfight. They give you an edge—reaction
time, precision, inventiveness…”

“That would explain a few things.”

“It would, wouldn’t it?” Ares smiled.

“Yeah...” Chase let the word hang.

“Well then, bye for now.” Ares waved two fingers
away from his temples as if to enhance his goodbye, and disappeared into
nothingness.

A moment later, Chase opened his eyes to find
himself back in the cemetery. The world around him was drenched in rain and he
was still holding Sarah’s hand. As a delayed shiver ran through his body at
everything he’d just been told, he squeezed it a little tighter.

Argos was resting in
his spacious quarters when the annoying buzz of an incoming message jolted him
out of his current reverie.

He waved a hand to answer the incoming message,
audio only.

“What is it? I thought I had made myself clear when
I said I didn’t want to be disturbed.”

“I know, Master, I apologize,” came the crackling
voice. “But there has been a new communication matching the signature you asked
us to look for.”

Argos jumped out of his bed in a fluid motion. “I’m
on my way to the bridge.”

Finally
, he thought as he
exited his quarters in a hurry.
Finally some good news
.

The return of the Fifth Star Alliance Fleet had
thwarted the plan he had for Droxia. He knew very well that the Droxians
wouldn’t be easy to defeat, but still, had the damn Star Alliance and his
brother not intervened, the forces sent could have taken care of the defenses
around their main world.

He jumped into the lift the moment its splitting
doors opened and said, “Bridge.”

He had analyzed the logs of that battle very
carefully and had noticed that the ships from the Fifth Fleet seemed more
resilient, with heavier weaponry and some sort of short range cloaked fighters
to boot. That would make the next engagements more difficult, but much more
interesting at the same time.

The doors opened a second later to reveal the bridge
of the Zarlack ship
Kollassi
, Argos’ newly finished battleship. It was a
similar class vessel as the
Dragon’s Claw
, but now that the emperor was
gone, either dead or taken prisoner, he had appointed a new acting emperor
whose first order had been to have a new behemoth-class destroyer constructed.

Argos stepped purposefully onto the bridge of his
new ship. All the officers rose and saluted him before getting back to their
previous activity. He walked towards the communications officer, a rather small
lizard man for a Zarlack, but Argos knew better than to judge someone based on
their appearance. Commander Tsur’lan was a wizard when it came to digital
communications, encryption, and hacking.

“Report,” he demanded.

Tsur’lan turned. “We received a transmission that
seemed to last only a few moments. The proximity of the sensor we’ve installed
on the subject allowed us to get a very clear signal; she must have been close
to him when he received it.”

“Good. As I suspected, she may prove more useful to
us this way.”

“Yes, Master.”

“Can you interpret the message?”

“That’s where it gets tricky. It’s clearly a sort of
holographic video projection. That much I can figure out. But it’s garbled or,
most likely, encrypted with an algorithm I’ve never heard of before.”

Argos’ eyes narrowed in an icy glare. “I thought you
were the best when it came to deciphering any sort of encryption.”

“I’m flattered, Master, and I am very skilled in
such matters, which may not be good news in this case. While it is still early,
I am unable to even crack the surface. And from the looks of that data stream,
it has a multi-layered, adaptable, and phasing encryption. Cracking it, if even
possible in the first place, will be a long and tedious process.”

“What can I do to help you?” Argos asked
practically. “Do you require more calculation power? Feel free to network with
the entire fleet and use as much CPU as you require.”

“Thank you, Master, surely that will help somehow,
but still… I’m afraid a full decode is less than likely, especially in a short
time frame.”

“What are we looking at here? A day? A week?”

“While I need to run more tests on the data stream,
I’d say unless we find the nature and access codes for these ciphers, more like
one or more years.”

Argos made a noise that made everyone on the bridge
very uncomfortable. A flash of fear streaked through his communications
officer’s eyes, but the man didn’t back down. He was simply telling the truth.

“I... I believe however, Master, that if we could
enlist some help, and the more signal we intercept as well, we could, perhaps,
at least try and get some of these signals’ properties within a shorter timeframe.
Much shorter.”

“You want me to hire Datalight Thieves?”

“It would help.”

Argos thought about it; he didn’t like the idea. DTs
were known to be the most skilled hackers of any sort of digital system in all
of the universe, but they were also a scum organization—one that couldn’t be
trusted. And if there was one thing that Argos didn’t want, it was to be hacked
by DTs. He had too many secrets that needed to stay secrets.

“I won’t have any of these data junkies onboard any
of my ships...”

The communications officer bowed his head. “I
understand, Master.”

“However...”— he paused and the lizard looked
surprise— “use our base of communications in the Zeta Sector. Invite them
there. But before you do, backup all data with quadruple encryption and send it
to the fleet. Then wipe the data there except for just the bare minimum you
need to work on decoding this message. This is a priority mission. You’re now
in charge of it; do not disappoint me.”

“Thank you, Master. Please understand the best I
think can be achieved is to either get you the source of the message, or, at
the very least, get the encapsulation method and perhaps, if we get lucky, some
of the data. I wouldn’t count on full holographic data streams, but perhaps
some audio.”

Argos smiled, an incredibly rare event.

“If you manage to get some audio and the
encapsulation method for this message, you’ll be promoted on the spot; if you
get me the source location of the message, I’ll give you whatever your heart
desires. If you fail at both, I will wipe you out of existence, understood?”

“Yes, Master.”

While Argos didn’t need threats or even really like
using them, he noticed that with small-minded creatures, it was a very
efficient motivator. While he wouldn’t want to lose such a skilled
communications officer, he had trust that he would deliver something of use at
the very least. And he definitely didn’t trust anyone else to shield him from
these damn DTs.

“Keep me informed as soon as you have anything to
report.”

“The second I have something, you’ll know.”

Argos nodded in agreement. “Oh, and one more thing.”

“Yes, Master?”

“Once you’re done with the DTs help, make sure none
of them survive.”

“Understood.”

Argos then proceeded to leave the bridge of the
Kollassi
.

*   *   *

It was Chase’s first ever funeral. Well, his first
ever Earth funeral. The Alliance didn’t put dead bodies in the ground; they
jettisoned them in a militaristic fashion to the nearest star. So to say that
it had been an enlightening day—between the ceremony and Ares—was putting it
mildly. As he and Sarah walked around the wake that followed, he learned that
“funerals” in the human sense were more a celebration of life than anything
else. It was actually a rather beautiful way to gain some kind of closure, and
as Sarah mingled with family and friends she hadn’t seen in a long
time—introducing Chase all the while—he hoped it was working.

Everything was going smoothly until his comm made a
noise. He quickly exited the little house and went outside to take the call.

“Lieutenant Commander Athanatos.”

“Lieutenant Commander, I need you on the
Destiny
,”
Commodore Saroudis said with no other preamble.

“Can it wait, Commodore? Kind of in the middle of
something at the moment.”

“It would be best if you came onboard ASAP. We had
another attempt, this time on the shipyard. Fortunately we diffused the
situation, but I thought you’d like to be here for the interrogation of the
suspect.”

They’d found a suspect?

Chase bit his lower lip. He indeed wanted to know
who was responsible and why these terrorist acts were happening, but he didn’t
want to abandon Sarah in a time of need.

“I’ll do my best to get to the
Destiny
as
soon as possible, Commodore.”

“Very well. If you’re not here within the hour,
we’ll start the interrogation without you. In the meantime, I’ve sent a team to
investigate the nature of the explosive and a sweeping team to make sure there
aren’t any other surprises left on our brand new battleship.”

“Thanks, Commodore, see you soon. Chase out.”

The transmission ended, and as if on cue the door opened
and Sarah joined him outside.

“Everything okay?” she asked with a touch of
concern. “Do you feel uncomfortable being here?”

“Not at all,” he reassured her quickly. “The
commodore called, something happened...”

“Another explosion?”

“Fortunately this time the attempt was thwarted, but
Saroudis would like me to be there when we interrogate the perpetrator.”

“You should go, Chase.”

“No, I said I would come and be here with you today.
This is more important.”

She cast him a beaming smile. “No it’s not, Chase,
and you know it. Besides, you are here. You came, the funeral is almost over,
and I have all my family here. So really, I insist, go take care of business.”

He took her in his arms and held her tightly against
his chest.

“I love you so much,” she whispered. “Thank you for
being here for me.”

Chase’s heart ached at the thought of leaving her.

“I love you too, and I’ll get back to you as soon as
humanly possible.”

“I know you will.”

She kissed him softly on the lips and returned
inside as he used his comm to call a shuttle.

*   *   *

On board the
Destiny
, Chase hurried off the
shuttle then rushed to meet the commodore on the bridge. Upon arrival, he was
surprised to see Tar’Lock and Ryonna were there as well.

“Hey, guys, what are you doing here?”

The commodore answered. “I thought it could be
beneficial to have a Droxian at the interrogation. They are imposing by nature,
and perhaps she could be of use.”

“I can be very persuasive if need be,” Ryonna said
gravely.

“And I had nothing better to do, so I came along,”
Tar’Lock added cheerfully.

Chase smiled at the remark. “So tell me more. What
happened?”

Captain Saroudis selected a view from the
holo-display that showed the new battleship, the EAD
Hope
. He pointed to
a blinking red dot.

“A worker on the new battleship planted a bomb near
the quadrinium chamber, here. If it had detonated, not only would that have
destroyed the ship, but it might have seriously damaged multiple cities in the
once United States of America from the fallout debris.”

“Has he talked?”

Ryonna shook her head. “No. She doesn’t seem like
she will be easily intimidated either.”

“She?” Chase was surprised. “Who talked with her
until now?”

The commodore passed his hand over his face. “For
now, only the security who caught her in the act. Had they arrived a few
minutes later, it might have been too late.”

“Do we know anything about her?”

“Yes, we managed to gather some basic information.
Nothing special, no history of violence. She really doesn’t fit the profile of
a criminal.”

“Should I… Should I go talk to her?”

Commodore Saroudis nodded. “She’s in the brig. We’ll
monitor from here.”

*   *   *

When Chase arrived at the brig, he got a quick
debrief from the security officer who tried to interrogate the perpetrator
after her arrival. She’d barely said a word, not even her name—it was found
later by accessing some of Earth’s databases.

Age thirty-seven, Caucasian with brown hair, blue
eyes. Named Nina Greenhurst. Widow, mother of one daughter, no previous
problems with the law, a real clean slate on paper. Yet, she had tried to blow
up a destroyer in orbit. Something didn’t add up.

When Chase arrived at the cell, the security guard
lowered the protective force field. It was reinstated the second he stepped
inside.

The woman sat with her back to the wall, her arms
secured at the wrist, on a standard, sturdy, metal, brushed prisoner’s chair.
When she saw Chase come in, she held his gaze unapologetically until it was
actually him who glanced away.

“What’s your name?” he asked tentatively.

She didn’t even blink, let alone answer.

“So you’re a nameless criminal who finds blowing up
people and property fun, is that it?”