Void Star (23 page)

     They huffed it all the way down until they finally reached a point at the front of the lake.

     Dosh pulled up a section of ground and revealed a small room beneath. "Wait here."

     The ground began to shake beneath them. The water of the lake started rippling and then bubbling up.

     Dosh reappeared. "That'll do it."

     From the center of the body of water, the top of a structure emerged. It came up slowly and loudly. A machine was screaming from underground somewhere. The lake separated itself from the long building that arose.

     "This is the temple. It used to be hidden in the sky, but it was brought down during the Great Valian Rebellion. Our great ancestor Dego engineered a way to hide it again after we lost the war." Dosh motioned for them to follow as soon as a walkway appeared. Stone blocks emerged from the depths of the lake to connect the shore to the temple.

     They sped up their pace.

     Trevor looked over his shoulder.

     He now saw a field of destroyed turrets and a single fighter opening on them. The laser fire seemed to hit a hidden barrier surrounding the lake. They pinged off harmlessly.

     "Don't worry. She won't be able to get us with electronics," Dosh told them.

     Unable to strike at them, the ship spun around and dropped. In a hurry, it landed by the stone walkway. Render popped out when she landed.

     "She's motivated." Trevor turned back forward. The group reached the nave of the temple and went in.

     "I'll need time to activate the device," Trev said.

     "I can help you," Raxus said.

     "I will do my best to seal the temple in time and slow her down if I can." Dosh nodded. "Now you must do your part. You have to stop the darkness."

     "I will slow her down too," Boost added. "I don't see another use for me."

     "You've done admirably, Booster." Trevor patted the scraped-up robot's head. “And thank you too.” He told the Salarian.

     Boost even looked like he was smiling at the compliment. Then, Trev nodded his thanks again to both of them and ran deeper into the unknown.

-o-

     Nathan continued to crawl through the vents. He and his team were able to escape in the chaos, but the Ruverans would have things together by now. Velkas would be under lock and key.

     Stranded on
Razerus
, there wasn't even a slim chance he would survive this. Finally, at long last, his journey would be over. The Void Star promised a closure he would never have expected. He would always love Maura and Arilyn, but his heart had found someone else and they would be together again shortly.

     "It's okay." Nathan heard from up ahead. The musical sound of her voice filled his heart with a new strength to continue forward.

     He crawled through and looked down the crawlspace. Up ahead, Kaida was motioning for him to follow. She had the look of a flesh-and-blood person but with a slight glow, close to what had happened to Trevor had Nathan seen the same thing. She smiled at him to let him know it was okay. "C'mon. I know the way."

     He didn't want to yell, so he merely asked, "How is this possible?" Even though he had seen the future, he still couldn't believe it.

     "Anything is possible." She started down the duct she was near.

     "I'm sorry I didn't tell you when I had the chance," he said, following her. "I'm not one for romance." He paused to catch his breath.

     Kaida giggled up ahead. "I didn't think you were."

     "That night inside my room at the
Helcarion
, I—"

     "I know. Me too." Kaida laughed to herself as she went. "Of course, now you're one to talk."

     Nathan saw her legs swing up an access ladder and go up. He followed.

     "Do you know where you're going?" he asked.

     "Of course. I'm helping you," she said simply.

     His mind went back to what the Void Star had showed him. No matter what he did, he was going to be reunited with his loved ones. He would hold Kaida in his arms again. But there was one more thing he had to try to do before that happened.

     "We're almost there," Kaida said, still climbing.

     Nathan continued to follow and readied himself for his final battle.

Chapter 27

     "Armiger, I have two more…make that three more enemy battleships jumping out of hyperspace. We are cloaked but not for much longer. What are your orders, sir?" Lieutenant Clemons had an open line to the fleet, ready to act.

     "Fire everything, including all X-13's."

     "Did you hear that? Destroy everything we can and use all special weapons!" Clemons yelled.

     Outside the
Helcarion
, the agile Valian fleet attacked the massive space world of
Razerus
. Orange spikes injured the goliath but couldn't bring it down. Their fighters buzzed around the great ship but only looked to pester it. Action filled the screens, but the Ruverans barely noticed their presence.

     Fox looked out the viewing port. Since parting ways with Nathan and his crew, his fleet had jumped nearly into the anomaly itself. From then, they'd been trying to outrun it. Wherever they had tried to move and regroup, there it was coming from another corner of the universe. Until the screamer had been activated, they'd had few places left to go. The dark tidal cloud had them all surrounded, including those on board
Razerus
.

     "What of the anomaly?" Fox asked, refusing to call it what it appeared to be.

     "It has completely surrounded this galaxy cluster. There will be no escape, sir," Clemons responded.

     They were going to find out what happened when the real fox finally caught the rabbit.

     The late Armiger, rest his soul, would call everyone back to be with their families in their last moments. But his father had also wanted them to fight this last fight even if they didn't survive it, and that was what they were going to do. Either from Ruvera or from the anomaly, it was all going to end here.

     For some reason, Fox remembered something Nathan had told him once during the war. "If you knew you were going to die, why not take as many enemies with you? Your fate has already been decided, so you have nothing to lose." Then he'd added, "C'mon, Fox, wouldn't you rather die on the battlefield than as an old man in bed?"

     Now what should
his
last orders be?

     Fox looked far through space and saw the darkness speeding toward them. He went to his intercom and opened a channel to the fleet. Another Valian ship had been hit with a rift cannon and was lost. Nearby Valians opened up on the Breaker that had done it.

     "Attention Fleet, this is your Armiger. I want to commend you on your service. It was a pleasure serving with you these last several years. Trying to overcome our enemy is never a loss. My orders are to take out as many enemies as you can before the anomaly robs you of that joy. I'll see you on the other side, Ladies and gentlemen. That is all."

     He put his com unit down. His forces fought with a stronger vigor. An injured Valian ship used itself to batter into the
Razerus
. When it hit, the thunderous explosion took out an entire wing of the station.

     Fox turned from the battle and watched the darkness come. He thought it funny they were all suddenly relying on the Void Star. He just hoped that it was everything they thought it was.

-o-

     "There we go," Velkas said as his screens came back online.

     A fleet of his fighters were engaged in battle as the mass of black appeared. The thing, if that was even what it could be called, reached out and consumed a nearby planet. In a second, its mouth reached around, and it was gone. His fighters reached the spreading mass and had two moments to fire on it before they just…disappeared.

     Uncloaking, Velkas saw the Elysian command ship was between
Razerus
and the mass. The blackness came at it in waves and hugged it, eating at it, and then it was torn apart. The Elysians were no more.

     He balked at it. Everything was going just like it had told him it would. His thoughts turned to his own self-preservation. So maybe he had tried to double-cross the darkness back there when he tried to open the star and not destroy it, but hey, if it knew him so well, it would've known he'd do that. There wasn't any way to know for sure where his current standings were. He just hoped the thing known as Abel went easy on him.

     Something clanged behind him. When he turned, he saw the last thing he'd expected. It was then that he suddenly remembered he had sent his guards away so he could watch the apocalypse alone. And where was his useless daughter when he needed her?

     "Captain Sutherland? Really?"

     Nathan pulled out the gun he'd picked off the guards. He didn't utter another word before he pulled the trigger and discharged the full capacity of the weapon into Velkas. Velkas took the hit and went flying across the room, slamming into the opposite wall. Nathan tossed the weapon aside and ran to his adversary's side.

     Velkas was a broken mess, already bleeding all over his nice rug.

     "Didn't even…say a word…before…" Velkas looked up; blood was running down his face, pooling behind his head.

     "I didn't want to waste time bantering with you." Nathan pulled himself back up. "This isn't the final scene in a story."

     Outside, the massive dark force reached the
Razerus XIII
. The defenses didn't even react. Technically, there wasn't anything there to react to, it being the absence of existence. It hit the station. Nathan saw it tearing through as each camera screen blinked off.

     It was ripping through the station like a starving lion.

     Nathan could hear laughter below him. He looked down to watch Velkas coughing up blood. Between bouts of bloody spit, he giggled in raspy tones. "You have no idea who you're up against."

     "You know what it is?" Nathan crouched over him.

     Velkas gasped for air. "A force of unspeakable evil. An unstoppable entity. That which cannot be overcome."

     The lights were going out in Velkas's eyes. Blood continued to flow from his open mouth, but his stare went blank.

     Nathan had done it. Even at the premature end of his life, he had killed the ruler of the Ruveran Empire.

     After the last fight outside Earth, he’d been inches from taking out Velkas’s ship but allowed him get away. The shock of watching his planet torn apart had sent him into a mad daze. He’d ordered the retreat. He had pushed his ship to its limit and crashed outside Bastion where everyone was gathering. He had gotten more of his men killed and lost his leg in the crash landing. Then he’d gone on the run with his nephew. Until this moment.

     There lay Velkas at last. Dead by his hands. Was it revenge or redemption? Did it even matter? It felt too good to not be revenge.

     Something odd caught his eye in that moment. Nathan leaned down and picked up a simple piece of dirt Velkas had been holding. If he wasn't mistaken, it was a piece of Earth. There was no way to be sure, but it somehow felt like it was. He tossed it aside. There was no need to lament his home anymore when so many had been lost.

     Suddenly, the walls disappeared, and he was surrounded by the dark mass. It was swirling like a vortex around both him and Velkas’s dead body, as if they were the last two objects in the universe.

     Out of the darkness came a lone figure in dark robes. He ignored Nathan as he knelt by Velkas and put a hand on his chest.

     "You're not going to die yet. You have just begun serving me." The figure told the dead body.

     The blackness entered into Velkas, and he became something…else. He screamed as he returned to life, enveloped in shadow.

     "It's time to go home." Kaida appeared again by his side.

     “I failed.”

     “It’ll all work out.” She grabbed onto him and held on. He could smell her and feel her against him. He kissed her cheek and clutched her tight.

     Then the darkness swallowed them all.

-o-

     Boost stood on the other side of the walkway and waited for Dosh to activate the door.

     "There's just not enough power. We used the last of it to bring the temple up out of hiding!" Dosh cried.

     Boost visually broke down the opponent coming at them. She was armed with an old-style diamond blade. She had ditched all other weapons. She walked forward as though nothing could stop her.

     "We have to give him as much time as possible," Boost told him. He went over everything his master Nathan had taught him about fighting. His focus rested on the woman's helmet. Besides hiding her disfigurement, there were life-support components to it. It would do.

     Dosh came out from behind the door with crude-looking weapons. "We have these."

     "That will work," Boost said, arming himself.

     "Strange. This is where my vision ends," Dosh admitted.

     Boost had no idea what the Salarian was talking about, but he had learned enough about social behavior to answer the creature's statement. "We're good."

     Dosh gave him a confused look so Boost shrugged. He had tried.

     Boost looked up fast enough to see the sun of this galaxy get swallowed by the darkness. They had a handful of moments before they were swallowed up into the mass too. This could be the last bastion in the universe.

     Dosh and Boost zeroed in on the oncoming enemy. Boost picked the spot Nathan would have told him to go for and attacked.

Chapter 28

     Trevor left the nave and entered the main chamber. It was a circular structure with a platform in the center. Metal circles were perched evenly near the room's ceiling, resting in deep, recessed tracks. Looking at it, he wasn't sure what it did. In the center was a stone platform covered in light dirt. Odd statues of aliens he had never seen before highlighted the walls. The place smelled of wet sand. The walls and floor ran with water from the lake it had rested under.