Roka tried to grab Jack’s wrist as he went flying through space, but he lost his grip when they ran into a small asteroid belt. A hailstorm of pebble-like fragments pelted Jack’s helmet and body, disorienting him. He tried to grab onto some of the larger asteroids and steady himself, but he couldn’t get a handle on them. His limbs felt heavy and slow. A watermelon-size meteor struck Jack and sent him tumbling head over heels. He tried not to panic, but he knew precious time was being wasted. The Rüstov weren’t going to let him just walk out of here. He had to get himself together. Hardly an easy thing to do when you are flailing helplessly in space. Jack watched an upside-down Solomon Roka use the thrusters in his suit to right himself, and something clicked in Jack’s head. His powers . . . the armored space suit was a machine. Jack opened his mind up to the suit as Roka called to him on a radio in his helmet.
“Use your thrusters! The controls are on your—”
Before Roka could even finish his sentence, Jack engaged his thrusters, spun around, and steadied himself in a right-side-up position. He noticed something off in the distance behind Roka. A wrist cannon on his arm called out to be used, and Jack raised his hand, firing three shots over Roka’s shoulder. All three shots hit their marks, blasting holes in the Rüstov Para-Soldiers that were silently coming up behind Roka.
“That’s better,” Jack said. It felt good, using his powers. It felt even better fighting back against the Rüstov. Jack’s head cleared a little. He remembered how he ended up in Rüstov space. He’d been kidnapped by the Rüstov agent Glave after stopping his plot to take over the Imagine Nation. He remembered Glave’s men pulling his half-conscious body out of a pile of crystal rubble back on Mount Nevertop. The question was, what had happened after that?
Roka raised an eyebrow, clearly impressed with how Jack had handled the Rüstov soldiers. “I see someone found the suit’s blasters. Used this model before?”
Jack shook his head. “I’m just good with machines.”
Roka grunted. “You’re gonna have to be. We’ve got company.” He pointed toward a battalion of Rüstov space-troopers that was flying out of the Apocalypse like hornets from a broken nest. Jack felt a twinge of pain behind his eyebrows, which rapidly grew in intensity. The Magus was angry. He didn’t know how he knew that, but he knew it. Jack winced and reached for his temple, touching his hand against the outside of his space helmet. His right eye felt like it was on fire, and he heard a voice:
“Jack, stop this. My father isn’t going to let you go. Don’t try to be a hero. . . . You’re going to get us both killed.”
The voice put a layer of frost on Jack’s spine. It was Khalix, son of the Magus and heir to the Rüstov empire, talking. Khalix was the alien parasite who had infected Jack years ago, when he was just a baby. He was the dark reflection Jack saw in the mirror whenever he thought about his future as Revile, the unstoppable killing machine of the Rüstov.
“Hey, kid,” Roka said, placing a hand on Jack’s shoulder. “You okay?”
Jack cleared his throat and shook his head, working to power through the pain and shut Khalix out of his mind. “I’m fine,” he said, brushing Roka’s hand away. “I’ve got this.”
Jack reached a hand out toward the Rüstov troops that were coming his way. So much of their bodies were made up of machinery. Everything from the microprocessors in their brains to the metal hinges in their knees was his to control. Or so he thought. He tried to lock up the Para-Soldiers’ joints and jam their weapons, but nothing happened. Jack looked at his hand as if it were a gun that had just misfired. “Something’s wrong.”
“You think?” Roka grabbed Jack and pulled him behind a meteor as the Rüstov opened fire. A salvo of laser blasts pounded against the other side of the rock. “Don’t move!” Roka yelled as he reached over the top and returned fire without looking where he was shooting. He didn’t hit anything, but the kickback from his blasts helped push the meteor away from the Para-Soldiers. Jack leaned around the side and reached his hand out toward the Rüstov attackers. Again, his powers failed him.
“I don’t understand. Nothing’s happening!” He was still trying to use his powers against the Rüstov when Roka pulled him out of the line of fire for the second time.
“I said stay down!”
This time Jack did as he was told. He leaned back against the meteor, pulling his arms and legs in close as laser blasts raced past him on all sides. It didn’t make any sense . . . his powers worked on the space suit. They should have worked on the Rüstov. What was going on?
“In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve grown a lot stronger over the last year,” Khalix taunted Jack. “You still have your powers, but I won’t stand by and let you use them against my people. We control you, not the other way around. Don’t ever forget that.”
Jack scowled. “Uh-uh, my powers keep you in check. That’s the way it’s always be—” Jack stopped short, realizing what Khalix had just told him. “Wait a minute . . . a year?! What do you mean, a year?”
Roka scrunched up his face. “Who you talking to, kid?”
Khalix’s cackling laughter rang in Jack’s ears. His stomach tied itself into a knot and he looked up at Roka with frightened eyes.
A Rüstov laser blast just missed Roka’s head, and he ducked back down behind the meteor. “We can’t stay here much longer. We gotta move.” Roka looked around at the meteor field and then tapped Jack’s shoulder. “There. Follow me.” He pushed hard off the meteor with his feet and sailed out toward larger rocks in the distance. Jack burned a few seconds trying to decide if Khalix was lying or not before he finally took off after Roka. He kicked himself for wasting even that much time. Every second counted. He couldn’t let Khalix’s verbal jabs psyche him out. That was just what the Rüstov prince wanted. At least, Jack hoped that’s all there was to it.
Once Jack got going, the asteroids provided excellent cover as he and Roka hopped from stone to stone. Jack got a handle on using his space suit and moved through the field easily, even with the Rüstov space-troopers trailing close behind. The real challenge was staying focused. Jack wanted to believe Khalix was just messing with his head, but he couldn’t be sure. He tried to remember yesterday or the day before. Nothing came to mind. He thought about the week before that, or the month even. There was nothing there. No memories. Jack had no idea how long he’d been the Rüstov’s prisoner or what they had done to him during that time. Only one thing was certain. Rüstov technology was off-limits for him. Khalix was telling the truth about that. Jack was completely surrounded by Rüstov machinery, and he couldn’t “feel” any of it. Giant dreadnought warships filled the sky, blocking out the stars. The massive, cone-shaped battleships were rife with exposed wiring, cable, and tubing that wove its way through every inch of their exteriors. Sharp, spiky antennae jutted out at odd angles all along the hull of each ship, but Jack couldn’t make contact with any of them. Bursts of static drowned out any connection he tried to make. His powers couldn’t touch the Rüstov fleet.
What Jack’s powers could touch and feel were the small metal disks that Roka had left behind on key meteors as he made his way through the field. They snapped onto the surface of each rock, magnetically attracted to the minerals inside. Jack scanned the disks as Roka laid them down and saw that his newfound friend was setting a deadly trap for the Rüstov. Jack and Roka reached the other side of the meteor field and took cover behind a giant rock fragment as the Rüstov steadily advanced.
“End of the line,” Roka said as the Para-Soldiers came in, guns blazing. Jack took aim at the Rüstov, but Roka pushed his hand down. “Let ’em come,” he told Jack, holding up a remote control. “I got a little surprise for them.” Just as he was about to push the button, a Rüstov laser blast shot the remote out of his hand. Roka stared at his empty hand in silent disbelief. “Okay, that’s a problem.”
“Don’t worry. This one I really do have.” Jack held out his hand and activated the electro-disks Roka had planted on the meteors. A net of blue l
ightning bolts cast itself through the meteor field, catching the entire company of Para-Soldiers in its lines and frying them. The mummified husks of their hosts’ infected bodies shook violently, and their cybernetic scrap-metal components blew apart from the electric current. When the bolts finally blinked out, they left behind scores of lifeless Rüstov bodies drifting off into space.
Roka raised an eyebrow. “Good with machines, huh?”
Jack shook his head. “Not as good as I used to be.”
A pair of Shardwing starfighters angled on Jack and Roka. Rüstov voices crackled into the open frequencies on their helmet radios. “Halt in the name of the Magus,” the voice ordered. “Surrender or be destroyed.”
“I hope there’s more to your escape plan than this,” Jack said, putting his hands up.
“Relax, kid. I do this for a living.”
A flash of light ignited behind Jack, and two large plasma blasts tore through space. The Shardwings exploded, and the resulting force sent Jack and Roka flying backward. Jack used his suit’s thrusters to stabilize his position and looked up as a new ship appeared on his internal radar. He used his powers to quickly scan the ship’s logs and found out it was Roka’s ship, the Harbinger. Jack breathed a sigh of relief as it swooped in above him and dropped its cloak. The Harbinger was a sleek, mid-size warship with a long fuselage and sharp, curved wings that made it look like a bird of prey.
“Nice ship,” Jack said. “Is it fast?”
“Is it fast?” Roka repeated. “What kind of question is that?” Jack used his powers to look through the Harbinger’s systems, taking note of the ship’s powerful twin warp engines. He gave Roka an impressed nod. A cargo bay door opened up on the ship’s belly. “Let’s go, kid, we’re not out of the woods yet.”
Jack followed Roka inside the ship, where Roka immediately sealed the doors, pulled off his helmet, and shouted into the intercom, “Outer bay doors are locked, let’s move!”
“Moving,” a voice called back as the ship surged into gear. Roka grabbed hold of the cargo bay netting to keep himself standing upright as the ship rocketed away. Jack was knocked clean off his feet, but even if the Harbinger’s sudden takeoff hadn’t sent him reeling, the voice on the intercom would have done it all by itself.
“Is that who I think it is?” he asked Roka, getting back up on his feet.
Roka didn’t answer. He was already running through the ship, presumably headed for the bridge. Jack took off after him. The ship tilted from side to side as they ran, taking hard turns and extreme nosedives.
“What’s going on?” Jack shouted.
“They’re not letting you go without a fight,” Roka said as more Shardwing fighters were scrambling to chase them down. Jack got a good look at them through the ship’s windows as he ran. Waves of Rüstov starfighters flew after them in attack formations. Their sharp, irregular shapes made them look like metal splinters that had broken off the larger dreadnought gunships, and they swirled around the Harbinger like a swarm of killer bees. “We’re in it now, kid,” Roka said as he opened up the door to the ship’s cockpit. Jack barely heard him. His attention had been completely hijacked by the sight of the ship’s pilot:
“Jazen!” Jack yelled, his earlier suspicions confirmed. He ran ahead of Roka. Sure enough, Jazen Knight was at the ship’s helm.
“Jack!” Jazen yelled back.
Roka ran in after Jack, motioning for Jazen to let him at the controls. “Up,” he ordered, sliding into the chair to trade places with Jazen, who happily sprang out of the seat to wrap his arms around Jack.
“Thank goodness you’re safe,” Jazen said, clutching him tight. “I can’t believe he got you out!”
“I can’t believe you’re here!” Jack replied. “How did you even know where to find me?”
“What are you talking about? We’ve been getting your SOS signals for a month now.”
Jack furrowed his brow. “SOS signals? What?”
“You didn’t think we’d just leave you out here, did you?” Jazen let go of Jack and took a good look at him, smiling from ear to ear. He tried not to let it show, but Jack noticed a widening of his android friend’s eyes when he saw the Rüstov mark on Jack’s face. Jack looked down at his shoes, and Jazen leaned over to catch Jack’s eyes. “Hey. It’s gonna be okay, Jack. We’re gonna get you out of here. We’ll deal with the rest later.”
Jack ran a hand through his hair and let it drop. “I don’t know, Jazen, I—”
“Jack!” a voice called out from overhead.
“Allegra!” Jack shouted. His face lit up as he turned to look at her. She was busy manning one of the Harbinger’s guns. The young Valorian girl craned her liquid metal neck around the firing controls to smile down at Jack. Her eyes bugged out at the sight of the scar on his eye, and Jack’s smile evaporated.
“No time for hugs and happy reunions!” Roka shouted. “We still have to fight our way out of here. There’s two more guns that need gunners, and a lot more unfriendlies out there.” Roka pulled the ship into a spiral dive, flying through the asteroid belt with the Shardwings hot on his tail. “Jack, you think you can fire a plasma cannon as well as you work a space suit and rig electric webs?”
Jack nodded. “I’ll do my best.”
“These two tell me that’s pretty good. Get going.”
Jack ran to the gun turret on the starboard side of the ship and climbed in. Jazen took the cannon on the port side, and Roka took evasive action as the Harbinger’s crew all did their best to outrun and outfight the Rüstov.
Jack went to work blasting away at the enemy fighters. Just like outside with the space suit’s wrist cannon, his powers worked fine with the Harbinger’s weapons. He’d never used a gun like this before, but after a quick “conversation” with the targeting system and firing controls, he became an instant expert. Jack sat in the gyroscope chair, spinning around at target after target, scoring direct hits. He fired relentlessly and took out every Shardwing that came anywhere near his range.
“Looking good, kid!” Roka shouted across the ship. “I’m starting to see what the Rüstov wanted with you.”
Jack grunted. He doubted Roka had any idea. It felt so good to be using his powers to fight back again. It made him feel a little bit more normal. More like himself. Of course, that door swung both ways. It bothered Jack that he couldn’t use his powers against the Rüstov. That made him feel much less like himself, and he worried about what that might mean.
Jack held on tight as the ship rolled to the left, dodging a volley of Rüstov missiles. “Hey, Jack!” Jazen called out. “How ’bout you tell these Rüstov fighters to lay off, so we can get out of here?”
Jack felt a sharp pain in his head and heard the voice of the Rüstov prince. “Yes, Jack, tell them. Better yet, tell your friend over there that you’d blow all these fighters up with a single thought if you could . . . but you can’t. I won’t let you.”
Jack shivered as Khalix snickered at him. He’d never get used to hearing that voice in his head. It shook him every time he heard it. Khalix had always been there, but now he had a real voice. A strong voice with an unbearable personality. Jack felt violated. It was like he had an intruder in his brain eavesdropping on every word he said.
“Jack, what’s wrong?” Jazen asked.
Jack shook his head. “I’ll tell you later.” A nearby explosion rocked the ship. “If there is a later,” he added under his breath.
“Jack, can’t you just take these guys out with your powers?” Allegra asked.
“I wish,” Jack told Allegra. “Gotta do this the old-fashioned way.” Jack spun his chair around to blast five Shardwings in succession.
“I can live with that,” Roka said, clearly pleased with Jack’s deadly accuracy. “Glad you’re on our side, kid.”
Jack smirked. Again, Roka couldn’t have realized how funny that statement was. If they ever got back home, the subject of which side Jack was on was sure to be a hotly debated topic. The Rüstov had been trying to t
urn him into their ultimate weapon ever since they kidnapped him. As Jack was thinking about that, he remembered he had no idea how long ago that really was. He thought about what Khalix had told him. He couldn’t have been gone that long . . .
“Jazen?” Jack called out, still firing away at the enemy.
“Yeah?” Jazen called back over the ship’s radio.
“How long have I been gone?”
“How long have you—?” Jazen stopped himself. “You mean you don’t know?”
“How long, Jazen?”
Jazen’s only answer was silence. After a few moments, Allegra answered for him. “It’s been a year, Jack. They had you for a year.”
Allegra’s words hung in the air like germs. Jack felt like he was sinking into his chair. His lungs contracted. His chest felt heavy and tight.
“Listen to me, Jack,” Jazen said. “It’s all right. We’re going to move forward from here. Right now, let’s just focus on getting back home.”
Jack frowned. That was easier said than done. A whole year of his life had been lost. Khalix was stronger. His parasite was deciding what he could and couldn’t use his powers on now! What did the Rüstov do to me? Jack gritted his teeth as he fired plasma blasts into Shardwing fighters.
“Jack?” Allegra asked. “How do you feel? I mean . . . Are you okay? Is everything okay?”
Jack didn’t know how to answer that. A Rüstov blast pounded the Harbinger, rocking it from side to side. “A few more hits like that and none of us are gonna be okay!” Roka shouted as he struggled to right the ship. “Let’s focus, people!”