“Good job, Nya,” he said as Render stood and came around to his side.
Nathan wouldn’t let his mouth drop. The young girl he had known all those years ago was the seed of the worst of his enemies.
“Captain Nathan Sutherland. I thought you were dead.”
Nathan turned away from his snide glare. “Not yet.”
“And who did you bring with you? Let’s see.” Velkas walked gallantly forward to inspect his other prisoners. He stopped in front of Trevor. “Well, I’ll be. The spitting image of his old man, eh? It appears his disease is winding down its descent.” He laughed at him. “If only he had had that cure in time. It’s a shame.”
He continued walking until he was before Glade. “Now, you…how did you get tangled up with the likes of this scum? I will have to pay your world a visit for repayment.”
“My world is gone. My people are gone. I am one of the last that remain.” Glade had his chest out proudly. “I should have died with them when the darkness came for us. Now I can go having fought once more to regain my honor and faced the likes of your evil people.”
“What do you know of darkness?” Velkas hissed. He nodded toward Render, who was off to his right. She fired at the unarmed Asterion.
He tried to clutch his chest from the blast, but his hands were bound. He struggled to breathe as his left lung had been punctured. Deep-red blood spouted out, and then the old Asterion warrior fell away. He closed his eyes and slept. To him, it was a relief; he was ready to join his brothers finally and never wake again.
“Your crew is dropping like flies.” Velkas broke into a hearty laugh. “You lost your wife, your son, your girlfriend…Your nephew is about to bite it in a second here. Now it’s just you, old space dog. I’m glad you survived though. You get to be here to watch this.”
Render handed over the Void Star. It stopped glowing the moment he grasped it with his bony white fingers.
“So much trouble to get this little thing. What secrets are you hiding?” Velkas looked down into it. There came a long pause as he tried to find a switch or panel on the mechanical shell around it. He pulled it and shook it, trying to find a way to open it. Abel had told him to destroy it, even told him how, but he had other plans as soon as he got it open. “I don’t understand.” He motioned for a faceless soldier to come forward. “Get the Salarian out here.”
Velkas continued to struggle with the orb. It held fast. How could you do anything with this thing? It was locked tight.
Nathan continued to look for an opportunity and stopped when his eyes fell on Render. She was leveling her weapon at him, shaking her head. She knew him too well.
The soldier returned with a little Salarian struggling with his bindings.
“I will not aid you!” Dosh yelled.
The green-and-orange scaled creature was brought in front of Velkas and made to kneel before him.
“Oh yes, you will.” Velkas docked the little creature alongside the head with the orb. “Well, that doesn’t work. Now. How do you open this?”
“It will not open for you,” the Salarian spat.
“Oh really? You don’t think I figured that one out?” Velkas chuckled to himself. “And why is that?”
“Only it knows how to open it, and it won’t speak to you.”
“There’s something actually inside it?” Velkas made a show with the little orb. “Must be a small something.” He chuckled. “I have heard a rumor it opens for someone in particular. But who? And what is it supposed to do? What is this thing?”
“It’s the greatest power in the universe,” Dosh said proudly.
“So they say. We’re getting off subject here. Your kind has been hiding it. You know how it works. I can get it out of you by force…but who wants that?” Velkas made a showy gesture with his hands.
“I will tell you nothing.” The Salarian turned away and saw that he wasn’t the only prisoner there.
Nathan saw the look on the little alien’s face and recognized it; he’d seen it before. It was just like the Eckelion Raxus had done when he first saw Trevor, like he had seen Trevor’s face and knew it well. The Salarian turned back to Velkas instead, pretending not to have seen anything.
“So it won’t talk to me, eh?” Velkas began to walk away from the Salarian toward Nathan. “What about this old warrior? Surely a weapon needs a wielder such as this man.”
Velkas motioned to his men. They unlocked his bindings. All guns were on him. Velkas tossed the orb toward him. Out of reflex, Nathan caught it. In one quick second, he saw something. It was just a glimpse of what was about to happen and what he had to do next. The orb remained dim in his hand as though nothing had just transpired.
“Nah. Nothing,” Velkas noted. “Let’s have it back now.” He held out his hand.
Nathan went to hand it back and pretended it had slipped from his hands. The Void Star hit the ground and rolled. It hit the unconscious body of Trevor and stopped.
What power was left in the star expanded. In moments it arose until it was blinding. The light was shooting across the room from the white-hot center.
Velkas couldn’t hide his surprise. “Well that’s something.”
Though he was deep in fever, Trevor’s fingers weakly touched the edge of the orb, and then the whole thing disappeared into his hands.
Nathan saw his eyes flutter open, burning white light emanating like new irises. Then he closed them again. Nathan questioned his own vision when something incredible happened.
-o-
Trevor was floating in a world of bright lights. He felt better than he had in years. No more sickness. No more pain. He was at one with the universe. There was peace at last.
“You will be the first,” a voice told him from the blinding light.
He couldn’t see anyone else. Then the light looked to rise up around him to form a familiar setting. Light made up the floor, the walls, and the ceiling. Though none of it seemed to be real, it did look beautiful.
“What?” He asked.
“You have been chosen.”
“For what? I’m dead.”
“Not quite.” Out of the light, a familiar figure materialized. It was his father.
“Dad?”
“In a way…yes. I’ve come to relay a message, Son.”
“But how?”
“I tested the energy on myself before I was going to use it on you. It’s the same energy that powers the star. A piece of me remains connected through the plasmatheric field.”
Trevor wanted to run to him, but he couldn’t move. It was like he was just there to watch. He stood waiting in the room of light.
“I don’t understand this.”
“You will. What you need to know now is important. The fate of existence sways in the balance. Many have sacrificed, and many more will. Everything that has occurred has been for this purpose as messy as it appears. Even the parasite was used to secretly prolong your life until you could find the star. The parasite was fighting off a cancer that would have killed you as a child. But the parasite has served its purpose. Now, on to other matters.” His father held out his hand, and a creature of light appeared beside him. “You have been chosen by this Avari. Its name is Rysta. He is the leader of his kind. You will be the first to become one. Together you will face the Dark One.”
“The Dark One? Do you mean the darkness? The anomaly?”
“What you have seen is not an event in space. It is a type of entity. It is not known how it broke into our world of existence, but it seeks to end it, and in a way, it will. You are the last hope for the future. If you succeed in what you must do, you will be the only one in the universe to survive this.”
“How will I know what to do?”
“I will show you what is going to happen next.”
“But what can I do now? I don’t know how to fight. I’m lying on the ground in the center of Ruvera’s capital dying, and I’ve lost my vision.”
“The orb is using the last of its energy to help you until you can unite wi
th it.”
“This is too crazy. I’m hallucinating.”
“You’re fine, Son. Now pay attention.”
-o-
Trevor heard yelling and suddenly realized it was his own voice. He shook it off, momentarily dazed. He was in a space station with a glowing orb in his hands. The pain was gone. He was alive, and he felt great. Healed.
Everyone in the room was staring at him.
“Well, I know you’ve seen how to use it.” Velkas strode toward him.
Trevor shrugged as he looked around with his blind eyes closed. The scene was pretty close to what his father had told him it would be.
Velkas sighed and made to grab the Void Star when Trevor pulled back.
“Now. I don’t want to remind you what happens when you resist me.” Velkas nodded toward the crumpled body of Glade. Render was toying with the gun in her hands, shaking her head.
Trevor lamented the fallen warrior. He hoped Glade had found his peace. He put the star in his jacket and removed a piece of his shredded coat. After tying it around his eyes, he turned back to Velkas. “You’ll never touch it again.”
Velkas laughed. This kid had gall. “Oh really? Watch this.” He was just about to give the order to have him killed…
Then, something hit the floor. It was followed by a metallic rolling sound, like a metal bowling ball. It thumped into a wall away from the main crowd of people and continued on.
“Now what is this?” Velkas called. “I hate surprises.”
Render went toward the sound. From a dark corner, she came back with an odd-looking metal ball. “I’m not sure what it is.”
“Boost,” Nathan whispered unconsciously.
A scream burst from the little contraption. Glass shattered throughout the room as eardrums fought to stay intact. Everyone in the room dropped from the screech. Then a shock wave burst from it. All the computers, lights, screens, anything electric exploded, cracked, or blanked out.
Nathan had had the layout memorized since arriving. He grabbed both little aliens, Dosh and Raxus, as the room opened with laser fire, just as his vision said to.
In the powerless dark, he could see just a glimmer from the Void Star and was happy to see it vanish up ahead. Even though Trevor couldn’t see, he knew where he was going too.
They both clamored down the hall. The vision Nathan had witnessed had been clear on what to do. They turned before they reached the long hallway toward the private ship bay. The emergency lights came on.
“You know where you’re going?”
“I think so,” Trev answered from in front. He was looking around like he could see. They burst through another hallway.
They continued through until they breached a guarded post. The soldiers were scrambling in the secret chamber they were in.
Trevor took them both out so quickly Nathan didn’t even think it was a human moving. He caught the orb as it fell back into his waiting hands. Since when did he know how to fight? How can he see?
Nathan chased after him as they entered the hidden ship bay. It was just big enough for one ship: Dacian Velkas’s personal ship.
The engines fired up, and the door opened for them.
Trev and Nathan ran up the entry stairs. Trevor jumped into the pilot’s seat. “Good job, Boost.”
Boost was worse for wear, but still in relatively decent shape for something that had been blown up, and had made his way back onto Render’s ship before it left.
Nathan released the little Salarian, who gratefully buckled up. He looked like he was just happy to get out of the Ruveran’s clutches, no matter who was releasing him. He laid Raxus down and strapped him in too and then made his way back to the cockpit.
Boost started to get up as usual, when Nathan stopped him.
“Captain?” Boost was motioning that he needed to take his seat.
“I’m staying.”
Trevor turned to face his uncle. With an eyebrow raised, he asked, “Time to level the score?”
“It’s not just about revenge anymore. I saw something when I touched it. Everything that’s happened since Aquaria was foreseen: you finally growing up, me finding love again, Glade finding his honor. It’s all part of some greater plan. Now, I have one last part to play. I have to kill Velkas before something terrible comes to pass.”
Trevor gave him a knowing look and couldn’t hide a half smile.
Nathan sighed. “Fine. Yes, it’s about revenge too.”
“I figured as much. I guess this is it, Uncle Nathan.”
The gruff old space captain held his hand out. Trevor shook it. “You’re a good man. I know why you were chosen for this. I always knew you had potential. Good luck.” He dropped something in his hands.
“Good luck to you too,” Trevor nodded.
They shared one more gruff shake, and then Nathan jumped out and closed the entry door.
“Ready, Boost?”
Boost looked at Trevor’s blindfold and kept his questions to himself. “I have no idea what is going on.”
“Welcome to the club.” Trev looked down in his lap and saw the Nymarian’s data pad. The last cipher had already been broken. He opened the last compartment, and a hologram displayed his face. Had his uncle known all along? Is that what Cleph had whispered to him?
Trevor took the craft’s controls, seeing far beyond what his human vision ever had.
Outside the ship, Nathan ran back to a ventilation shaft and paused to steal one glance back. The ship had blown a hole through the outside of the dome and flown through.
“Go get ‘em, kid.” Then he turned back to his own task.
Part Three:
As Darkness Meets Light
“Rysta, you may have been right. The capability is there in this human. But time has run out. I feel the Dark One coming from all corners of the universe. We are all that is left.”
“Mykia. Remember, he’s a human. The first thing you should know is they always come through when you least expect it. They love last second heroics.”
Chapter 24