Sunlord (46 page)

His shoulder smashing into the wall Ashian skidded
along the floor and forced his neck forward over his chest. The
floor moved and tilted, the darkness now blazing with yellow light.
A wild crackling filled the air as circuits shorted, an acrid
stench permeating the air.

Neither saw the shadow rise up from chaos of fire and
smoke. Ashian, his head aching with dull pain, blinked a few times.
Thoughts froze in his mind like twisted tendrils of rock, he was
left standing mute and gasping. He saw the outline of the Sunlord
loom up from behind, fast closing upon Capac back.

"Capac!" he bawled, snapping from the icy grasp of
fear. "Behind you!"

A sharp claw slashed the air where Capac's head was a
moment before. Capac rolled and spun about, losing his balance as
the floor heaved again, spinning uncontrollably and falling to the
ground. The Sunlord moved quickly despite its bulk. It's broad
shoulders twisted, muscles bunching, as the broad backhanded sweep
missed its target. It was moving again, quick fluid motions like a
panther in close combat. Capac squirmed backwards, his eyes filled
with sudden fear, his hands and feet slipping on the cursedly
frictionless floor.

A slender thin instrument appeared in the Admiral's
hand. He held it like an accusing wand, the needle gun shaped like
an elongated pencil. The Sunlord cocked the small two shot needle
gun and sighted along its silver barrel. A sharp crack and puff of
smoke erupted from the cylindrical end of the needle gun and an
instantaneous flash of yellow light blazed away the shadows.

The blast caught Capac across the face. He pulled
away just as the projectile shattered into the floor bare
centimetres to one side, a layer of skin peeling away with a brief
backlash of fire, his split second reactions saving his life. Capac
scrambled to his feet, desperately casting about for a weapon, his
eyes never leaving the monstrously huge bulk of the Sunlord.

Admiral Karthorn pivoted angrily as the native
squirmed away from his blow once again. A trickle of blood ran down
the corner of his mouth, his left hand pressed into his wound in
his chest. He blotted the pain from his mind, fury and the lust for
revenge rising, pumping his limbs with a final burst of energy. He
extended the needle gun again, a split second before Capac made his
lunge.

The blunted edge of Capac's broken knife skidded
across the bones of Karthorn's wrist, the force of the blow
snapping his heavy muscled arm backwards, his hand clenching and
triggering the needle gun. The blast cratered the floor at his feet
in a blinding flash of light. Karthorn growled indigence and flung
the now-useless needle gun skidding away into the darkness, pulling
back with his other hand and throwing away the native with a
powerful back-handed motion. Capac's fingers left furrows in the
Sunlord's flesh as he was shaken away, tumbling through the air and
smashing awkwardly into the floor.

Admiral Karthorn advanced, a fist formed, a deadly
sharp claw extended from the back of his hand. He snatched out, and
the native ducked. The Admiral struck like a snake - Capac had
barely pulled away from the sweep when the hand came back again,
grabbing him across the neck.

With a wild cry of surprise Capac was lifted from the
ground, his feet kicking at air, the Sunlord's fingers pressed so
deeply into the flesh of his neck it drew blood. He found himself
raised from the ground as if he weighed nothing. The world was a
rush of shadows and flickering of flame, explosions rupturing the
air like a string of fireworks. His feet hung a metre above the
ground, a grim smile flickering across the Admiral's reptilian
face.

Words spilled from Capac's mouth, his primitive
survival instincts taking over as he spat and scrambled like a
trapped cat. "Ashian! Ashian, help me for scroch's sake!"

Dread filled Ashian's heart as his hands traced the
bulge of the stubby gun tucked into his belt. He seemed to be
outside himself, looking from a distant perspective, as he lifted
his tunic and withdrew the small pistol. Things seemed to be
happening so fast, pieces falling into place as if they had planned
to be all along. He paused momentarily, the pistol held between two
trembling hands, his emerald eyes wide with uncertainty. He faced
the back of the Sunlord - if he had of reached out he could have
touched its back...

And Capac was screaming at him through the blasts of
the explosions, and although Ashian could not hear them he knew his
friends panic. He saw with clarity the Sunlord holding Capac above
the ground, the other hand raising ready to swipe down in a blow
that would disembowel the native. There seemed to be no choice.

Ashian closed his eyes, muttering a prayer that was
more a rush of emotions than of words, as he squeezed the cold
steel trigger. A thought ran through his mind like a fish fighting
on a fishing line. He was going to kill. He was going to kill.

The blast of the gun wrenched his arms around, his
weakened legs failing under his weight. As he plummeted through the
air he watched in horrendous fascination as the Sunlord's head
disintegrated into a pulp of blood, a warm arterial spray showering
like a water balloon. Ashian collapsed, trembling uncontrollably
now, his heart beating so fast he thought it would beat itself
right out of his chest. The pain he felt as his backbone jolted
against the ground was nothing compared to the overwhelming pain in
his mind...

Capac lifted Ashian's head, peeling back the city
man's eyes.

"Ashian, wake up!

There was no response. Capac cursed and heaved his
companion up, his sweaty and fumbling. With a little difficulty he
managed to drape Ashian's form over his shoulder, his knees
trembling with effort. Already the room was thick with dense smoke,
a smoke that caught on the lungs and made him gag. Sparks flew from
every crevice, hungry electrical flames catching like a forest
fire. Capac thought he heard a distant cry of confusion, a million
different languages combined as one, as Avatar's circuits melted
and fused. The booming voice was lost by a deeper rumbling under
the floor, the massive array of intelligence that was Avatar
crumbling like a termite nest.

The overhead sprinkler systems had activated,
plastering Capac's short hair over his face, rivulets of water
running the length of his cheeks. The mist in the air hissed as it
contacted with the flames but did little to control the fire - it
was too progressed to be so readily extinguished. Instead it
created an environment of chaos blurring the air with mist and
fire.

Escape was the only thought ringing through Capac's
mind.

* * *

When the death blow did not come Shaun raised his
head, blinking hard against clouded vision. The grey metal chest
armour of the warbot resolved before his eyes, its domelike head
tilted at an odd angle and arms frozen like the curved tusks of a
mammoth.

"Shaun! Are you okay?"

He coughed weakly, pushing another gush of blood from
his shoulder wound. The warbot's javelin still had him pinned to
the wall. Myshia was there, faceted eyes wide.

"You're hurt bad."

Eyes glazed and confused, Shaun asked; "What happened
to this pile of junk?"

"It just stopped." Myshia glanced uneasily at the
inert robot as she subconsciously took a step away.

"You didn't do any - " Shaun's words wrenched into a
cry as a wave of pain washed over his mind. Blood pooled at his
feet with alarming rapidity and Myshia knew she had to remove the
javelin tipped arm of the warbot.

Shaun cried out as Myshia pulled away the shaft. The
world swam before his eyes, the flats of his feet hitting the
ground and weak legs buckling like rotten timbers. Myshia was
aiding him to his feet an instant later, gasping under her breath
as she saw the extent of the damage. Shaun's arm was burning with
such numbing pain it felt as if the nerves had been ripped apart
with a molecular-peeler gun. With conscious effort he managed to
prop himself up one elbow.

"What...what made the warbot stop?" The question
plagued Shaun's mind; it would take an accurate and powerful blow
to disable a fully armoured warbot...unless the slave link with
Avatar had somehow been destroyed. He muttered under his breath,
watching from a small part of his mind and knowing that he was
delirious with pain. He was in desperate need of a tablet of NB-3,
a powerful pain killer that would ease the agony that now washed
over the wreckage of his skull. But NB-3 was only available in
Federation flight suit packs, and the closest was more than three
hundred light years away.

It took Shaun completely by surprise when the pain
stopped, as if the foul waters spreading over his mind had suddenly
dried. Startled, he opened his eyes, watching in mute awe as
Myshia's hands moved over his wound in circular motions.

It was crazy, Shaun knew, but he swore he could see
the fibres of his muscles pull back together, reknitting like film
played in reverse. Finally the outer skin spread back over the
healed shoulder, moving as if connected by strings to Myshia's
hand. It was long moments before Shaun dared try move his arm,
thinking his delirious mind must have imagined what he thought he
saw. But it was no hallucination - the bones in his shoulder moved
easily without the jarring and splintering experienced moments
before. The muscles were numb but the stiff discomfort was nothing
like the pain proceeding it. Clenching and unclenching his fist
Shaun raised his head.

"What did you do?"

Without a word Myshia just bowed her head, her chest
heaving.

Thoughts raced like wild fire through Shaun's mind,
trying desperately to find a rational explanation for what he had
seen. A small whisper escaped his lips. "That is an incredible
power."

"It is not that simple. In healing you I impart some
of my power from my soul. Such power does not come from
nowhere."

Suddenly the pieces fell into place in Shaun's mind
as the question that had haunted him in the back of his mind
suddenly came to the fore. "You healed yourself when that Hartrias
sniper shot you! So Ashian wasn't dreaming when he swore your wound
was far worse than it had seemed."

Myshia breathed deeply. "My powers are growing
stronger with every passing hour. I...I cannot explain it."

Shaun pushed himself upright, using the wall for
support. "If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes I wouldn't believe
it." The lights overhead dimmed without warning and an
earthquake-like shudder gently shook the walls. Hunched
instinctively over, Shaun's eyes narrowed. "We'll discuss this
later. Come on, I think we can squeeze through that gap."

The gash in the door to the comm lab was narrow and
sharp where the warbot had smashed through, allowing enough room
for Shaun to pull himself through. Finding himself in a darkened
room Shaun moved cautiously with outstretched hands.

"The computer must be out," he remarked to himself.
"The entire security system is just dead."

"Will you still be able to get the message out to the
Federation?"

Shaun nodded. "In most ships the jumpdrive operates
independently of other circuits. With any luck that system will
still be running."

Shaun at last spied the cushioned chair in the
semi-darkness and slumped into it with a sigh. Set before a
crescent shaped console he found more knobs and dials before him
than on a flight chair on an intergalactic starship. Through the
thick flexiglass of the octagonal viewport Shaun saw a breathtaking
backdrop of stars, bright and unwinking. Just below was the faint
glow of reflected light from the planet.

Turning his attention to the console Shaun noticed
many of the lights were still activated. He flipped switches to
power up the communications machine, trying to remember the classes
he had attended on the principles of comm-pods.

Vast distances involved in interstellar journeys
rendered messages travelling at the speed of light, such as
electromagnetic radiation, far too ineffective as they would take a
matter of years just to send a transmission from one star to the
next. So message pods were developed; small devices not unlike
miniature spacecraft that would enter jumptunnels and, guided by
computer, reach their destination within seconds. The small torpedo
shaped craft were the stellar equivalent of messages in a
bottle.

Shaun was tapping into the broad keys of the Hartrias
keyboard as he spoke. "I'll send our current co-ordinates to the
Federation. I'll bet they're looking hard for the critical point -
the hole where all their battleships seem to be disappearing into -
but the Hartrias Command is no doubt keeping it close to their
chests." Shaun grinned. "We'll blow their cover open wide. Once the
Federation knows where to strike the war is half won."

Myshia nodded disinterestedly. "As long as it
cleanses my world of the Sunlords I care not for anything else that
may go on up here in the stars..." Her voice died in her throat as
she moved closer to the viewport, her eyes wide. She found herself
speechless with the sheer scope and enormity of space. Shaun noted
her amazement.

"Its beautiful, isn't it?"

Myshia could only nod. A faint quiver threatened her
stomach as she looked down the drop of blackness stretching away
into infinity, broken only by the specks of distant, cold stars.
She tore her gaze away with visible effort and was stepping away
when the floor leapt beneath her.

Shaun's right arm smashed against the console as the
chair lurched forward. He cried out in surprise and pain as the
wheeled base of the chair skidded sideways and a great rumble of
explosion rocketed the superstructure.

"The ship's falling apart!"

"What? How?"

Shaun winced as he straightened his chair. "I don't
like this at all. It felt as if something collided with us - a
docking craft or something...and why is security disabled?