Chapter Seventeen
A sudden flurry of red beams flew our way as Eel maneuvered our probe skyward at a breath taking speed dodging the assault and returning fire.
'Take the wheel!' he shouted, 'and cover me.'
In an instant he had transformed into a Roti propelling himself out of the moving probe through an opening right above his seat. I had to think fast. Jumping from my seat into the now vacant seat, my heart was pelting within me. I found myself thinking of all the video games I had played my entire life. It was time to prove my skills on a grand scale. I could see Eel through the window front of me in midair spinning. He crashed his body into a black space craft disappearing into it. I rapidly pressed onto the red buttons on the steering wheel aiming for another space craft and watched it explode. I recalled Eel once saying that the universe is at war, he was right because now, war had come home. I shot at three more crafts in quick succession before I saw Eel emerge from the space craft, jumping and vanishing into another. Red, green and blue lights flashed all aimed at me and I found myself spinning, dodging, rotating, angling, diving and returning fire. It was crazy.
I couldn’t see clearly, it seemed as though the entire sky was on fire. Where was Eel?
'Eel!' I called out as I fought my way through explosions and at some point, it really didn’t matter what lay ahead. I simply shot at it.
'Eel!' I called again. I was getting more anxious. Then it happened.
I felt a hard thud strike the back of my probe. I had been hit. It began spinning, smoke filled the cockpit. I had to do something. Focusing on a probe above me, I imagined myself inside it. In an instant I was seated inside it, next to a Rogan. I struck him hard on the head, pulled his fire escape lever ejecting him into the chaos outside. In control of the probe now, I weaved my way through what seemed like thousands upon thousands of probes, shuttles and space rafts. At some point I caught a glimpse of Eel inside another craft. He blast past me headed in the opposite direction. He was it seemed trying to draw fire away from me towards him. He was trying to protect me. What if he got killed? I pondered as I pressed even harder onto the red buttons and in the process bringing down a couple of enemy drones. I felt something heavy drop and tug onto my probe. I spun my probe upside down trying to get rid of it but whatever it was; it just kept fastened onto my craft. Then I heard Eel's voice.
'DS, you keep trying to throw me off this craft!'
'Oh! I hadn’t noticed it was you!' I said in reply relief filling my chest.
He suddenly appeared in the seat next to mine.
'How is it going?' He coolly asked.
'How is it going?' I replied stunned by his question, 'I'm doing my best but they are just so many. Pretty soon we might have to give in or get fried.'
'No DS, we are not yet done by a long shot, look!' He said pointing towards the horizon ahead. I steadied my gaze in the direction he was pointing and behold, I saw what looked like a rainbow stretch across space.
'Don Zsalohah!' I shouted in excitement. 'Xayans! They come to our aid!'
Xuryae and his forces hadn’t expected an attack from their rear and seemed to run into disarray.
'Eelxsis and your strange creature,' spoke Don Zsalohah into our minds. He was standing erect atop a huge golden space shuttle.' I heard you're having some trouble!'
'More like a dispute dear old friend, and I am glad to see you!' Eel answered in reply.
'Do you have my gold?'
'Plenty of it!' Eel stressed.
'Xayans!' He shouted. 'Attack!!'
The massive golden army in their millions came pouring into Xuryae's forces slicing through the Roti with meticulous precision. The Xayans' golden shuttles shot golden arrows striking through steel and metal destroying Xuryae's space crafts. The sun's rays were being blocked by the sheer multitudes of fighters from either side. It seemed to get dark. We fought for hours and just when Xuryae and his forces were beginning to get an upper hand in the colossal battle, out from the left hemisphere, I saw what appeared like a dark cloud stretching millions of miles wide. It covered a multitude of stars and planets in its path. It was headed towards us at an alarming speed.
'Eel! What's that?' I called pointing out through the window as our probe dodged through arrows and rays.
'It's the Morfs, they too come to battle.' He replied, his eyes wide.
'Is it a good or bad sign?' I asked pressing off a round of rays at the craft ahead of us. Xuryae was aboard that craft and I wanted to shoot him down as a matter of urgency.
'When it comes to the Morfs,' Eel answered in reply, 'you can never know DS, you can never know.'
The black cloud enveloped the entire horizon blocking the sun's rays that those on earth must have thought it was an eclipse or we had been defeated and the sun taken.
'Xuryae!' Eel called out. 'Give up now. Let's not shade any more Roti blood.'
'No I will not!' Xuryae replied, 'you stand down and tell your allies to stand down too. I'm a Roti, a Rogan. I was born to fight and only in death's peace will I rest.'
I could see the pain and anger in Eel's eyes.
'It's no use Eel. You cannot change him.' I said, 'He is what he is and you are what you are.'
As those words left my lips, I turned to see the dark Cloud of Morfs collide into the Xayan and Roti armies.
Eel turned to face me.
'Do you still have those rocks?' He asked looking at me sternly. He looked drained. I quickly noticed he was wounded.
'Eel,' I said, 'you are not going to die today.' I wanted to help him. He was bleeding from the torso area.
'Ds, don’t let go of the steering wheel.' He commanded. 'I am not going to die today if you do exactly as I tell you.'
'Grab those three rocks in your hands.' He seemed to be struggling to breathe.
'But you said they were useless!' I yelled back.
'Yes they are, to you and me but not when it comes to Xuryae. Take my hand,' He said. I did. It felt warm. 'You can defeat him.' he said before closing his eyes. 'Eel!' I called panicking 'Eel!' I cried, 'Grandpa!' but he didn’t respond, Eel was dead.
My heart pelted, anger swelling inside me and as I looked at the three rocks in my palms wondering what to do with them, my probe collided head on into another probe sending me and the rocks flying out of the probe into space. Xuryae's craft had crashed into mine. He too, I could see, was in midflight stretching out his scaly lizard-like hands trying to grab at the floating rocks. I had to get to those rocks before him even though he was a foot or so a head of me. In a desperate attempt, I grabbed at his tail just before he reached the rocks pulling him towards me. His two massive black eyes blinked at me as he swerved his powerful tail hurling me a distance away into the midst of a raging inter-galactic war. At first, I thought I was going to suffocate since space is a vacuum. But, to my utter shock, I seemed not to need air at all to function. Eel, I sadly recalled, had said to me 'You are able to do things even Xuryae can only dream about, a super hybrid solider, a protector. All you have to do is believe in yourself and your abilities.'
I thought of the rocks and there they were in my freezing palm.
Xuryae turned staring strangely at me floating in space with the rocks in my palm.
'Who are you Creature?' He asked in Roti language.
'I am Daniel Snow, a chef from San Francisco.' I replied coolly.
Missiles and space-rafts flew past. The fighting was even more intense seen from the outside of a craft.
'Give me those.' He said stretching out his scaly hands in a receiving gesture.
'Come and get them.' I answered in reply.
In a flash, he was upon me raining powerful blows all over my body as I tried to duck, shielding my body from his razor sharp claws and vicious tail. I found myself returning swift blows at lightning speed and surprisingly, matching his every move and skill. We fought hard plummeting into the darkness below past planets and stars. Roti versus Humanoid, a battle of two species. He was unrelenting, but so was I,
and as we changed trajectory, we ascended still locked in an epic battle I'd only previously seen in fiction movies, but now, I was in one.
As we went at each other, I kept wondering why these rocks were so precious to Xuryae. Eel had said they could be of use when it came to Xuryae, but what had he meant? Eel was dead now so it didn’t really matter whether I lived or died at this point but, like he had said, 'at least die trying.'
I determined to do just that as Xuryae and I fought back into the thick of the storm raging above us between the Roti, Xayans and Morfs. I grabbed tugging at Xuryae's neck and in one sweep with my right hand; I smashed all three rocks into his gill-like openings on the left side of his elongated neck. What happened next was truly spectacular. A very bright light shot out of Xuryae's neck at the place I had logged the rocks as he let out a shriek trying to hold firmly with both his scaly hands as if trying to prevent the light from escaping. His entire body wriggled violently before exploding into a bright plum of greyish blue gas. Immediately, all Roti forces, to the surprise of their warring partners, one by one, they all began to explode and vanish into space. The Xayans and Morfs were left staring at floating gas debris.
I couldn’t believe I had managed to kill Xuryae ending the war for our sun. I felt sad Eel wasn’t around to see my triumph, our triumph. He had died on the battle field, a brave warrior, and as I entered an abandoned floating probe to head home, a voice came in my head, it was Don Zsalohah.
'You are one brave creature, me and all my kind salute you.'
'I salute you too' I said in reply.
'My advice to you creature,' Don Zsalohah said, 'is you take Eelxsis' remains back to your planet and give him a proper burial.'
'And who is planning on burying me before my time?' I heard Eel's voice sound inside my head.
I gasped.
'Eel!' I yelled in astonishment, 'you are alive!'
'Yes, you guessed right DS, I am alive,' he said in reply, 'over here inside this damaged probe.'
'Alright' Don Zsalohah chipped in, 'now that we've done away with Xuryae and helped save your sun and race, let's talk little about the matter concerning my gold.'