In Starcutter’s launch bay, Tony and Linda were ready. They were only waiting for Maurice to lead them.
As he walked down the hallway leading there, Tasha got in his way. He slowed down a little, but only enough to make his point.
“Look, Tasha, we’re gonna hit this thing, and that’s all there is to it. I’M putting you in charge because you have the best skills out of everyone here and you got Kim for back up.” He put on his flight helmet.
“We’ll be back, okay?” he assured.
The door between them closed, then Tasha and Kim went to the control booth. Kim checked the panel. Everything was a go.
They looked down at the starjets on the runway.
Zoom . . . zoom . . . zoom . . . Starcutter belched them into space.
The three circled around the ship, and then they were off.
* * *
A few million miles away and a short warp later, they could see it. It looked destructive, yet in a weird way, surprisingly beautiful.
“Okay, gang,” Maurice said, “this is it!” Just then, his readings on the computers were going haywire. Maurice had trouble stabilizing them.
“Let’s find out a little more about this thing. Nobody will take a shot until we know what this thing is . . . ” He paused. “Try to skirt its gravity until I can see if we have enough thrust to escape it.”
Tony responded angrily, “We need to hit this thing now. I’m not about skating or skirting its outer edge!”
“Tony, don’t be stupid.” Maurice commanded. “This thing is incredible.”
“I’m goin’ in!” Tony yelled. “Yahoo! Cowabunga!”
Maurice tried to say something, but Tony hit his turbos.
He couldn’t catch him. He hung back.
Tony was far ahead now, pretty much alone. He wasn’t looking for a weak spot to plant his photonic torpedoes.
Although he thought, he could start with other weaponry. Now he thought, the trick was to hit the photon ring, the white one. As it moved, Tony fired his ship’s lasers at full. He didn’t wait. He fired the ship’s solar pulses too. They hit their target, but it did nothing. In fact, if this thing were alive, one could say this made it angry. Energy shot out of the photon, and it hit Tony pretty badly. No problem, he thought. He fired more pulses. It was like he was shooting at himself because twice as much energy came back at him. Quickly he hit his shields. The impact almost knocked him out.
“Okay, pal, you wanna play rough? Take this!” He fired his photonic torpedoes. There was a tremendous explosion of white.
Everything seemed to shake and quake, even in the vacuum of space.
This thing was angry. Tony could feel it, but he was out of gas. He thought he heard a demonic laugh, then he blacked out. The comet was pulling him in.
By this time, Maurice and Linda had caught up to him. Linda didn’t know what to do. Maurice did. As rocks, debris, and bits of metal flew all over the place, Maurice activated Tony’s distortion field with a remote control. It surrounded Tony’s spacecraft with a sphere of protection. The distortion field was tricky because it only could last five minutes tops. What it did was temporarily move the ship between normal space and hyperspace. Almost like being here and not here at the same time, suspending time and space for a time.
Then he activated his own distortion field, as well as Linda’s.
“Linda, I want you to merge your field with mine so we can be on the same ship.” Linda obeyed. Her ship and Maurice’s flew at the same speed. Linda flew under Maurice. This was a way for her to get out of her starjet with all the pressure, cold, and dangers of space affecting her.
As the ships docked, Linda climbed into the back seat of Maurice’s starjet. Maurice hit the gravity neutralizer, but they were still being pulled into The Devil’s Comet’s photon from the distance. Linda could see the blue round spheres of her ship as well as Tony’s. The three were pulled down together to hell. Space hell. All three ships crashed and hit the bottom of the photon.
After about one minute, Maurice and Linda came to their senses. It was like all three ships were floating in a sea of energy.
“Tony, come in.” Maurice said. He was knocked out. Maurice activated the extreme filters. He could radar image the area around. The entire area looked like hot, boiling lava or like bubbling boiling milk.
“This must be where The Devil’s Comet generates its energy. The source of its power.”
Linda panicked. “Maurice, we’ve got to get out of here. When the distortion field collapses, we’ll die!”
Maurice could tell she wanted to scream. He pressed some buttons, and then he twisted around in his seat and grabbed Linda’s helmet.
“Linda, stop it! I have the answer. Shut up with that. Tony had the right idea. We can still detonate these bombs and get away alive. You gotta do everything I say. Are you with me?” he commanded.
Very scared and shaky, she answered, “Yes . . . Okay, what do you have in mind? I trust you . . . with my life.”
Maurice put his plan into action first. He fired his photonic torpedoes upward, then he detonated the ones from Linda’s Starjet.
“Linda, activate the magnetic grapplers, grab Tony’s ship, and let’s get out of here.” Linda did. The explosions above and below them were tremendous, but Maurice knew his plan was working. Little by little, the heavenly white gave way to the velvet blackness of outer space. Maurice punched it. Soon, with Tony’s ship in tow, they had pulled away from The Devil’s Comet. The further away, the better.
Maurice spoke, “Look back, Linda . . . We’re probably the first humans to beat the devil at his own game.”
The magnetic grapplers were holding pretty well. Tony’s starjet was holding together and being towed just fine. For a long time, no one said anything.
Onboard Tony’s crippled craft, he was finally coming to his senses. He shook and ached. Finally, he cut on his communicator and spoke.
“Hey, guys, what happened? Did we win?”
“No.” Maurice replied. “But we did at least give that thing a black eye. We slowed it down, but it’s still gonna hit Topaz. I’d say we need to get back home and to the lab and come up with something else.”
Tony replied, “I’m down for that, although I was really hoping Victor’s plan would work.”
Sometime later, their radar picked up Starcutter’s precise location. Something was wrong, Maurice thought, Starcutter was not heading toward Topaz, but aimlessly away to nowhere.
As they got closer, Maurice could visibly see their target. Starcutter was on fire, burning in the airless void of space! Immediately he hit the scanners and other instruments. The damage looked extensive, but manageable.
It had been hit by clusters and at least two photon torpedoes, judging by the hits to the bridge and its stern. He opened the channel.
“Starcutter, come in. Starcutter, come in! This is Maurice, can you hear me? Please come in.” For a full minute, there was a silence. Finally, there was a static, then he could hear Joseph’s voice. He was scared.
“Maurice, can you hear me? We were attacked. Please come back,” said an afraid Joseph.
“Joseph, this is Maurice. What happened?” Maurice said.
“Captain, we were attacked. Everybody was captured except me and Steve—”
Tony cut in, “We need to land. We can figure out what to do after we get those fires out and get those systems back online.”
Maurice cut in, “Tony . . . you’re right,” trying to avoid any arguments. “Joseph, are any of the landing bays intact?”
He replied, “Yes, the emergency landing bay, you know, it’s still functional.” Maurice knew what he was talking about—the slot on the ship between both main thrusters.
“Okay, open the doors.” Joseph obeyed. The starjet came through. Maurice hated this type of tight flying. It’s about as difficult as threading a needle.
Both starjets came through the thin magnetic field and skidded to a halt.
Once the ships cooled down a little, Linda and Maurice opened the cockpit and stepped out, grateful to have gotten back safely.
Tony jumped out of his starjet. The four were reunited.
“Where’s Steve?” Tony demanded.
Maurice cut him off. “Tony, you and Linda get these fires under control. I’m taking Joseph to get the life support and computers back to 100 percent.”
* * *
After patching up the ship and getting Steve into a bed to rest, Maurice had a private talk alone with Joseph over lemon tea.
“Okay, Joe . . . what happened?”
“Maurice, we were attacked by a ship that came from Topaz. Their leader called herself Queen Cassi. She was about our age! She took Tasha, Kim, Brian, Natalie, and Terri as prisoners. Steve tried to help, but she just touched him and he’s in pretty bad shape. I just froze in battle . . . I ran and hid in the locker room. She got what she wanted and left. As for the damage, we got hit before we got boarded. I was scared. I’m sorry,” he said with his head down.
Maurice had his hand on his shoulder. “Joe . . . in a battle you can only freeze, fight, or flight. I had a lot of fights won and lost some, but I never froze up. I’m glad you froze up. If you didn’t, we wouldn’t have a ship to go back to, so you made a wise choice. Now let’s go. We have a strike to plan.”
Maurice looked back and noticed Joseph crying. He handed him a towel. “Wipe those tears away. We’re warriors. You have to be strong.”
That message hit Joseph. He thought he had to strengthen himself from within, starting now.