The End Result... (Chapter 20 - Too Good To Be True)

[dragondream]

The End Result

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Chapter 20 – Too Good To Be True

Robert stood over Harold and stared intently at his severed neck that was identical to the one that Terry had. A doctor was busily treating the wound and covering it in bandages. The doctor ordered a nearby nurse to take over his task and then after rinsing his hands spoke to Robert.

“You were right,” he told Robert. “We found an identical chip placed near the top of his spine. It was connect to the entire network of nerves and even had the access to Harold’s unconscious as well as conscious thoughts and actions.”

Robert still gazed at the wound. “This means a serious security leak. Is Harold still unconscious?”

“We gave some anaesthetic, both to avoid causing him any pain and to keep him unconscious until he was safely spared from the Xenon mind-controlling abilities. He should be coming to round about now.”

The doctor was correct at his assumption. Robert saw Harold slowly reviving from his unconscious state, first with slowly, subtle movements, and then with more profound body motions that you could expect from a man awaking from a deep sleep. Robert leaned in closer and spoke in a low tone to Harold so that he would not be audibly heard outside of a few meters.

“Harry, you ok?” Robert asked concernedly.

Harold rubbed his eyes with the palm of his hands. “Wow,” he said, almost whispering. “What a nightmare.”

“I’m afraid it wasn’t quite a nightmare. What was the last thing you remember?”

Harold frowned in a thoughtful way. “We were in some cave when we were overpowered by Xenon land troops. Something jabbed me hard in the neck and that’s the last thing I know. After that – and it’s very vague to me – I had some vision of sabotaging our own Fighter. Can you believe that? And, Terry died in my dream, right before –”

“Terry’s dead,” Robert said solemnly, pointing to the adjacent hospital bed that was only a couple meters away.

Harold twisted his head to the same direction and fell quiet. His eyes glistening with the first tears, but his face registering a different emotion: realisation. He tried to sit up but Robert pushed him back down into his bed.

“Impossible,” Harold said, but hardly believing his words. “How? W-why?” His eyes opened wide open in shock. “Oh no, Robert! I would have killed you!”

Robert dismissed the comment with a wave of his hand. “Look, Harry, you weren’t even in control of your own body. As far as I’m concerned, you were only a temporary victim of the Xenon’s clever scheming.”

Harold pushed his head back further into his pillow. His eyes shut closed in attempt to wake up to a different reality. When he opened them though, he was still staring at the cold white ceiling of the medical room.

Robert lowered his voice further. “We found it.”

“Found what?” Harold asked, trying to sound interested, but his mind was still in shock from the reality of events he had experienced.

“The C.L.I.M.A.X., what else?”

“How?” Harold’s voice now displayed genuine curiosity.

“Terry – for some strange freaky reason that I don’t yet know – while he was still under Xenon influence, actually modified the Savior’s Jumpdrive to jump us right to the C.L.I.M.A.X.” Robert paused to give Harold a chance to swallow the new information. “Harry, we’re not even in our own galaxy anymore.”

Harold shook his head disbelief. “No, that’s not possible for a Jumpdrive. No Jumpdrive has ever been able to jump to a new galaxy or even unchartered systems.”

“No, not by default,” Robert reassured him. “But somehow Terry – I mean the Xenon – managed to do it.”

Harold sat up, this time not being halted by Robert. “Bob, just explain something to me. Why would the Xenon, send us right to the only weapon – the only weapon in the universe – that can destroy them? I mean, do you even know if it’s the real C.L.I.M.A.X.?”

“We got a scrambled message when we got close by. It was identified as being one hundred percent the Old Ones. There’s no doubt it is, especially considering the size of the structure matching what I heard from Keldak.”

Harold’s head dropped down to his chest, still shaking his head. His eyes closed again and he sighed long and deep. “That still doesn’t explain why the Xenon would help us out by giving us the only key to destroying them forever. The only logical reason I can come up with is that it’s a trap.”

“Oh, I have no doubt that it is,” Robert said laughingly. “But as seeing that we’re here, we may as well put in our best effort to grab the only chance left to destroy them once and for all. Besides, I don’t really see what other option we have. We won’t survive long in a new unknown galaxy, I can tell you that.”

Harold nodded his head understandingly. “So you know it’s a trap then?”

“Of course I do.” Both men smiled coldly at each other.

* * * * * * * * * *

Robert punched the ignition and throttle simultaneously of the Thor and catapulted out of the Savior’s hangar. It always gave him such pleasure and freedom when he was once again behind the controls of his own Fighter. Harold, however, was not in the Thor, as he was still too unwell to act as Robert’s turretman.

Robert gazed at the stars, gently sparkling against the black, velvety background. Although they were unknown stars to him, they nevertheless had the same charm as the ones he knew. Great big fiery furnaces, nonstop burning a variety of gases, yet appearing as only white twinkling specks to the naked eye. They spoke to him. Whispered to him. Promised him yet a bright hopeful future for him and his people. At least his people. His thoughts diverted to Saria. He longed to be able to see her one more time and enjoy her company, her warm gentle smile. But that promise remained absent from the whispering twinkling stars in the dark void. He tightened his hands round the Thor’s flight controls.

“All Wings, get into Delta Formation.” Sgt. Banks’ voice came over the comm. with much authority. He normally was giving orders from his comm. station in the hangar, but this time he was flying his heavily equipped Fighter and leading the rest of the Wings to the entrance spot of the C.L.I.M.A.X. that the Old Ones’ encoded message had provided. He was also to lead the scouting party once aboard the C.L.I.M.A.X.

Robert put his Thor into autopilot, something he very much disliked, and it immediately steered him into the given position. The entire fleet then split into two groups. The larger group of Fighters swarmed like a swarm of bees round the Savior in case of attack, the smaller squadron stayed on course towards the given coordinates. It was a flawless process, as the autopilot was often claimed to be. The metallic giant loomed ever so greater of Robert, making him feel as if he was shrinking instead of getting closer. Unexpectedly, the autopilot lost control over the ship and Robert was about to disengage it when Sgt. Banks’ spoke over the comm. again.

“Don’t worry boys,” the voice crackled over the speakers. “It’s only the structure’s tractor beam that’s pulling us in. We should be onboard it no time.”

Robert stretched back into his seat, but kept his eyes sealed for anything unusual. The ship spun and shuddered because of the clumsy capabilities of the tractor beam, but somehow it still managed to keep it going in a neat straight line towards a tiny opening in the C.L.I.M.A.X.’s hull. A circular blue flash symbolized the shield’s being temporarily disengaged to allow the Fighters access and then moments later flashed again as it engulfed them safely within the shields boundary. For a complex almost the third of the size of an average planet, it had an excruciating amount of intricate detail that covered almost every inch of the entire hull. The carvings, openings, doorways, ventilation shafts, hangars, cabins, windows, plating and engraved artwork amounted to an almost dazzling figure that no human-built structure could ever amount to. The Old Ones had built a truly beautiful ship that had been doubled up as an anti-AGI weapon.

Robert felt the ship come to a sudden halt and unbuckled himself from his pilot’s chair. He clasped his Polarized Weapon firmly with his right hand and emerged from his Fighter’s cockpit. After the other pilot’s had done the same they collected round Sgt. Banks for further orders.

“Make three groups,” he told them. “I take one, Robert takes one, and the third stay here and protect the Fighters. Stay in constant radio contact. Don’t do anything crazy or stupid, just stay in line and scan as much of the structure – ship, whatever – as possible and report if you find anything interesting. Anything interesting out of the ordinary, of course. Ok troopers, do you need a fanfare? Go!”

Robert quickly handpicked several pilots, all armed with weapons and guns, and embarked on a thorough search of as many passages, rooms and decks as possible. Sgt. Banks led the conducted the same search, but in the opposite direction. Entering the first level, Robert noted that it was incredibly dark and misty and ordered everyone to turn on the flashlights. The flashlights, however, could only penetrate a few meters through the dense cloud that hung over them, which was accompanied by a strong smell. Robert carefully checked each room, each one being entirely unique to the others. As they went further along the passage the dense cloud had become denser and the smell had become almost overwhelming.

“I can’t take anymore of this,” one of the pilot’s said.

Robert ignored the comment and pressed on, determined to find the cause of the mist and smell. Eventually, they came to a room which was filled with chemicals and toxins.

“Let’s go, quick,” said Robert.

The squad of armed pilots quickly followed Robert to the next level, coughing from the deadly gases of the first level. When reaching the next level Robert put his hands on his knees and sighed of relief.

“Thanks goodness we left we did. I felt I was going to pass out any minute.”

This level was very different, it was brightly lit and contained many more, but cramped rooms to explore and search. From the looks of the design and layout of the room, Robert determined that they were mostly cabins for the residents of the ship and continued on to the next level. This time, it was a massive deck that they arrived at. The entire space was filled up by a cluster massive apparatus and equipment. Robert split the group up into smaller sections which in turn explored different parts of the deck and examined all the equipment.

“Something’s not right,” Robert said after recalling his squad of troops. “There’s no window, no glass screen, no way to see outside, so it’s certainly not the main deck to control the ship’s course, steering or course. There is a generator, but no engine control systems, so it’s not a normal generator room. It could be connected to a turret or main gun array, but the equipment is way too complicated for it, in my opinion. What else could it be?”

The rest of the squad were silently coming up with a possible solution. One of the pilots made the first suggestion.

“It could be just one big massive weapon,” he suggested . “Like a planetary weapon or something?”

Robert shook his head negatively. “Nah, that’s –” He was cut short by a sudden revelation and focused his vision back on the generator and a long wide tube that emitted from it and disappeared into the ceiling. A cold chill went over his entire spine; the second one of that day.