The Acolytes of Crane "Updated Edition" (25 page)

A high-pitched static-ridden
voice suddenly seized my mind. It was Nezatron, frantically sputtering through
the nanocom, “My Lord, my Lord. We are losing Theodore. We are losing him….”

A spasm, really, a bolt of red
hot pain, seized my mind. Shrieking, I passed out.

 I do not know how long I was
out, but the next thing I heard was a jumble of shrieks and shouts of alarm. A
woman’s voice rang out.

‘Put the sword down now! My king!
He has Wrath and he is right outside. I will be awaiting your orders,’ she
said, speaking in and out of transmission with Zane.

Her next words were unmistakably
directed at me. ‘I will fire on you! I am going to count down from ten, and if
you don’t drop the sword, you will be killed. You are within the zone of
termination.’

Then, the woman shouted out away
from my direction. ‘Zane, please! He has already destroyed two Ophanims and a
Sepheran Imperial Guard.’

Now I recall thrashing away,
heavy with perspiration. It was as if I was fighting in my sleep, but the
intensity was just as profound. 

‘Theodore, snap out of it!’ cried
out this woman, whom I now recognized to be Shazal, a female Bromel. She was in
charge of protecting the forbidden Garden of Odion, where Zane on occasion
roamed.

I next heard Zane’s booming voice
over the nanocom. ‘Terminate him; he is too much of a liability now!’

Dazed, I looked around and saw
all that was destroyed. What had I done? It was destruction—by my hands, my
rage, and my Wrath. I stood confused and I heard, ‘Ten, nine, eight. . .’

The Bromel in front of me was
counting down from behind a mounted turret cannon: an endgame weapon that fired
controlled bursts of plasma at their targets. Chillingly, there was no switch
set to stun. Cannons of that sort sent people packing on a long trip to
nothing. I would say hell, but it didn’t exist—not now, anyway. An aura of
charging energy accumulated around the cannon’s muzzle.

A voice rang out over my nanocom.
It sounded like King Trazuline. He said, ‘Don’t ask any questions, run to the
west wing, and use your lifters to get there fast and invisible. Now go!’

I bolted, and didn’t look back.
The command to escape was the only shot I had at survival. I didn’t know why I
attacked the Ophanims—or even if it was I who did it. I was worried that Odion
had somehow captured my subconscious, and Zane was furious. He wanted me dead.

I sprinted, with Ophanims tailing
me. The ship was in high alert. Sirens were out in full force, howling with
enough intensity to awaken the dead.

My heart quaked inside my chest,
and fear gripped my limbs so tightly, even as I ran. My labored breathing
echoed through my mind, leaving behind no capacity for thought.

Now at the end of the west wing,
I arrived at what looked like an escape hatch. It led to a two-person scout
ship, one of many that dotted the docking bay. King Trazuline’s voice—if that
was him, betraying Zane—told me to get in this tiny spaceship, and I did. Upon
my hasty entrance into the cockpit, the ship went active and that brought about
another delicate situation, because I knew that waiting for me in space were ten
Dacturon Destroyers, with weapons hot.

I was the traitor and there was
no escaping it. There was no escaping danger. It was like being chased from a
bear cave to a wolf’s den.

I was wedged in an impending
shootout between Urilians and Dacturons. I glanced at the control screen in
front of my seat:
on autopilot setting
. Quickly, I mentally ticked off
what I had with me in the cockpit.

Wrath, my gun-blade, was still in
my grasp, and my other battle gear was still on my body. A vial of some sappy
substance—dephlocontis mucilage, the liquidlike substance that nearly drowned
me the first time I had been transported to the Uriel—sat on the floor, jammed
between my seat and the wall. It could be useful later should I experience
severe injuries later on, alone and unassisted. Looking at a belt around my
waist, I noticed a series of steel balls chained to it. Rolesk—check.

Lastly, and highly useful, was a
holster for Wrath. The gun-blade was heavy, and I finally had a place to hang
it up.

The ship, having severed itself
from the Uriel, had blasted off with such force that my head jerked back to my
headrest. It was now zooming toward the breathtaking Cliff of Divinity. Such a
majestic natural phenomenon was extremely dangerous for even the most massive
battle-class destroyer space vessel, but I had no choice. It was either the
Cliff of Divinity, or a vengeful and all-powerful Zane on the Uriel on one
side, and a formidable army of mysterious Dacturon destroyers on the other
side. It was an easy choice to make.

King Trazuline’s voice blared
over my nanocom, tinged by a note of panic, ‘Press the bright blue button in on
the side of the panel. Press it!’

As my eyes widened in fear, I saw
a Dacturon destroyer ship loom into view. It was as if the Dacturons had found
out about my escape and now were eager to get their phasers on me. Meanwhile,
the alarm on the dashboard beeped, ‘Uriel now charging weapons.’ I saw the
iridescent glow of the cannons accumulating power upon the Uriel.

Oh, great. Just what I needed.
Two mortal enemies with a joint target: me.

I lunged for the blue button,
just as my ship received incoming fire from the Dacturons. On fire, the hull of
my vessel triggered the emergency containment system to shut down the damage
before it spread further.

 Under my command, the ship
accelerated even more, tossing me to the back wall, the sheer force pinning me
there.

The sharp pressure was painful
and rattled the center of my stomach where my solar plexus lay, leaving me
gasping for air. I was flying so fast that the blood in my body pooled in my
outer regions, causing me serious circulatory discomfort.

The Cliff of Divinity, astounding
in its majestic beauty, loomed straight ahead. A deadly black hole pulsated
strongly at the edge of the cliff. My ship was still on auto pilot, and it was
hurtling straight toward this black hole.

Little did I know that the very
center of the black hole was like the eye of a hurricane. It was the only calm
oasis in that monstrosity. Any wrong move into the swirling, pulverizing eddies
around that black hole—any ship would be smashed into a billion pieces.

I screamed as my ship got sucked
in, and my life flashed before my eyes. A reverberating, grinding, rumbling
noise shook my ship to its core, and I prayed.

The fearsome ride on The Death
Shredder roller coaster at Minneapolis’ most enormous amusement park was
nothing compared to that drop I had just experienced. As soon as my ship hit
the edge of the cliff, I felt like I left my stomach behind. We went down, and
into the hole. There was nothing like it.

The star and debris trail slowed,
and I dropped onto the grated floor, exhausted. Blinking, I realized the truth:
I was still alive! I rose from my knees to my feet quick, and strapped myself
into the leather-like captain’s chair. There were panels flickering the words
“Damage Report,” and an audio warning repeating itself. Among the madness, I
heard a voice that I knew I would always recognize.

‘Destroy Theodore now!’

It was Zane. I looked back, still
in view of the black hole that had sucked me in. Five of Zane’s destroyers were
making a move to the Cliff of Divinity, as if barricading a gateway. No one
could go after me without passing through this gateway first. Zane gave the
order to these Urilian destroyers to enter the black hole, which I thought was
most foolish.

As I watched in horror, one after
the other, four Urilian destroyers skirted the vortex, whining mightily against
the black hole, but to no effect. Immediately, there was a series of four
explosions in space, against the dark chilling backdrop of the all-powerful
black hole. Each destroyer was utterly and totally obliterated.

I then remembered Zane’s apparent
about-face, and cheered the wanton destruction of my newfound enemy.

But it was a little too soon to
celebrate. The fifth, and lone remaining Urilian destroyer steered perfectly
into the center of the black hole, well positioned to chase after my vessel.

Just as the Urilian destroyer was
about to crest the Divine Cliff, a Dacturon destroyer aimed its deadly fire
upon it from behind. Apparently the two enemies were not going to cooperate.

The portside bow of the doomed
remaining Urilian destroyer exploded outward into the black hole from which I
had escaped. Shrapnel from the explosion, as well as micrometeorite particles
struck my ship, and continued to shift my trajectory. As the enemy ship
continued to break up, I saw on the starboard side a vessel escaping the
explosion. It was a small ship, similar in size to mine. It must have been a
type of escape pod too.

It was time for me to go—to
escape as far as possible, away from the Urilians and the Dacturons, as they
could still attempt to track me. When I pressed the propulsion controls, the
ship remained limp and unmoving. Gnashing my teeth, I started to cry and to
panic. My ship floated helplessly, rather than fly as it should. I was
officially stuck. I glanced around the cockpit to figure out the ship. I sat
upon my chair and began to erratically press every button in sight.

From the chair, I saw through the
observation shield nearly a hundred scattered meteoroids lurking around. Three
hit my vessel, but none of them had the size to do damage. My knuckles grew
white as I realize I might not survive my newest predicament.

There were meteoroids ranging in
size from a basketball to a tour bus. I was in a maze of floating space rocks,
and as my eyes scanned my surroundings, I perceived two clear paths leading out
the minefield—a fork in the road. I had no clue which way to go.

I kept struggling to figure out
the unfamiliar equipment. Exasperated, I settled on a purple lever. Grabbing
it, I pulled it all the way. A door in the wall behind me miraculously opened,
revealing a cubby space about two feet tall and about one foot wide.

A warm orange light emitted from
the dark grey innards of the cabinet behind of me. I heard gears clicking.
Something was about to come out. Unnerved, I unstrapped myself from the chair
and tumbled to the floor, trying to evade whatever was moving from the opening.
I peeked from the captain’s chair saw a mid-size robot.

‘What the heck? Don’t come any
closer!’ I hissed, grabbing the handle of my gun-blade Wrath and flexing its
blade straight at the alien creature. I said, ‘Don’t come near me, or you’ll
turn into a pile of scrap metal!’

The figure walked closer, as I
was about to unload Wrath onto the tin-man, he said, ‘Hello, I hear you speak
English, a language that is common on one of the heritage planets, Earth.’

‘You are a robot? You can
understand me?’ I asked, still not certain if Zane was now giving it
instructions to terminate me.

‘I am a robot. I am named Ed. I
am knowledgeable as to the operation of this ship. I was placed here in the
event my passenger ever needed assistance. You seem like you definitely need my
help. You are so . . . emotional,’ he said. If a robot could peer like a human,
he was definitely doing so.

‘Okay, okay. Ed, I need you to
take this ship on a course toward one of these—exits. Do you know where they lead
to?’

‘I am not a map,’ he said, ‘I
have not been programmed with the necessary information to navigate this ship
to an unknown destination. However, I can navigate this ship to a destination
of your choosing. Awaiting response.’

‘Okay, okay, take me on a course
to that exit.’ I raised my hand to point at the left outlet of the black hole.
It was giving off a grayish-green aura.

‘As you wish, sir. Can you please
tell me the nature of your emergency evacuation?’ Ed asked.

‘That is none of your business, Ed,’
I growled, as my nerves were still badly shot. ‘I need you to try to get this
ship to a place of safe refuse. We may have an enemy ship following us.’

‘I must make you aware sir: our
ship has no advanced weaponry. We are limited to small arms, situated port side
and starboard. Our best interest would be to evade and to hide.’

‘Wait, do you mean this ship can
cloak, camouflage itself or anything like that? If so, turn it on now!’ I
shouted.

‘Aye-aye captain,’ he said
awkwardly, ‘that is why I asked about the nature of your evacuation. I need all
variables to produce a sound outcome. Thank you.’

Ed activated the cloaking system,
and our course was laid in to head toward the grayish-green detour that I had
selected. Ed informed me that we were on course toward the Valeon Galaxy. As if
I knew where it was.

My newly acquainted companion was
skinny, mechanical, and he had a large ‘R’ upon his chest. He looked like a
miniature version human, but with glistening metal skin. He was half my size.
His eyes were bright orange, and his back had a conveniently located slim
compartment that ostensibly functioned to store items of strategic importance.
He was nowhere near the technological level of Nezatron, but he did look sleek
and sophisticated.