Alpha Rising (40 page)

“
They’re
irretrievable—vacuum-drawn into the shaft,” she said.

Wilde’s voice coarsened.
“Last warning, Star, stop stalling. There’s no vacuum chamber, and
a fuel conversion chamber is a lame ruse. We saw the specs. This
old piece of prehistoric rubble couldn’t even be configured to hold
the full amount of fuel you’d need. Don’t underestimate the
Specter’s army; we did our homework. And in case you don’t know
who
we
are, well,
it’s me and Lavender Rose—Bach’s amorous little pursuer.” He
shouted harshly at Kwan, “Get the fuel!”

Bach’s bloody nostrils flared in anger, but
silence was his only weapon.

Kwan shoved another empty box into Star’s
hands and she began ejecting the chamber’s fuel.

The two Rooks stormed in again from outside
and one yelled to Wilde, “Come, now! We’ve tried everything, but we
can’t control that one!”

Wilde eased his hold on Bach and motioned to
the two. “Get over here and keep him restrained while I handle it.”
He headed into the night with a snort just as a sky-wide lightning
bolt zigzagged through the blackness.

Then came an earsplitting crack of thunder
that sounded like it ripped the planet in half, and the sky let
loose with blasting, torrential rain, as if the floodgates of
heaven had opened.

Kwan handed the boxed fuel to one of the
Rooks and sent him back to their ship, then he grabbed Star by the
back of the neck. “Check one last time, ’cause I’m going to look,
and if you’ve missed any, you die.”

She knocked his hand away, stared at his
bug-eyed goggles, and without saying a word stormed aft.

He chased after her, “That’s it! You
die!”

She opened a cabinet and held out the
iridescent purple box for him to see. “Do you know what this is?”
she coolly asked.

Bach watched in shock. “Star! What’re you
doing? You can’t give him the EMOG. Star, don’t!”

She pushed the small, weighty box to Kwan’s
chest. “Take it! This activates the fuel. It’ll even boost the
power of your liquid fuel if you use it correctly.”

The Rook opened the box excitedly and
fondled the bright blue EMOG. “So, Altemus’s superior solid fuel
was a hoax. The final ingredient isn’t chemical at all—it’s a
device.”

The cabin lights dimmed and warnings
chimed.

Star closed the box while it was still in
Kwan’s hand and blamed the power surge on the rainstorm. “Boy, that
storm sure is powerful.”

He pressed close to her and demanded, “Now
tell me how to use it on our liquid fuel.”

She continued, as if reluctant. “Always keep
it closed so the power doesn’t drain. Then, at liftoff, as soon as
you’re airborne, hold it against your generator.”

“
Excellent! Now we
really
will
be
rulers of other kingdoms!” Still gloating, Kwan pushed Star back to
the cockpit and signaled the accomplice to release Bach. The two
Rooks headed out the door.

Bach yelled at their backs, “What about our
crew? Let them go.”

“
We got what we came for,”
hissed a voice blending into the raging downpour. “Enjoy life on
Ashkelon.”

Bach and Star hurried to the ramp, anxiously
waiting for their crewmates. But when minutes flew by and the four
didn’t return from the enemy ship, the pair’s concerns grew.

Then, through the darkness in blinding rain
and thunder, G.R. raced into the Ark, followed by Lynch and Deni.
Star moved to the cockpit to close the ramp.

“
No!” Deni shouted. “Kaz is
still with the enemy.”

The Arkmates caught glimpses through the
storm with each lightning strike, but there was no sign of Kaz.

Bach automatically started out the door.
“I’m goin’ to get her.”

Lynch grabbed him. “I’ll get her.”

G.R. pulled Lynch back just as Kaz ran from
the Rook’s ship.

She bolted up the ramp and into the Ark
shouting, “Quick, close the ramp. They might come back.”

“
Come back?” Star closed
the ramp.

“
Some jerk named Wilde was
boastin’ about gettin’ a secret device, leaving us without fuel,
and how he tortured Bach, so I delivered him a cruel blow, if you
know what I mean.”

“
Kaz, they could have
killed you!” Deni said with a huff.

“
They won’t be back,” Bach
stated. “They got what they wanted.”

G.R. groused, “And we’re here on Ashkelon
for the rest of our days?”

“
In a ship with assorted
animals ‘n’ people from other planets all havin’ special
environmental needs? This can’t be happenin’,” Lynch
said.

“
This rain will be
catastrophic,” Deni added. “The waterways are already at their
limits.”

“
Well, I’m not going back
to live with that community of women on Ashkelon where I can’t be
with Lynch,” Kaz snapped. She moved to within inches of Star’s
face. “Didn’t you keep any fuel? You weren’t dumb enough to give
them all the fuel were you?”

“
I had to give it to them
or they would have killed us,” she calmly stated.

Kaz wrung her hands and paced. “Death’s
probably better than what’s in store. You haven’t lived on
Ashkelon; you don’t know all the rules and restrictions.”

Star looked out a porthole. White-hot
flashes of light lit up the sky, highlighting the enemy ship as it
ascended into the storm with its high-intensity orange lights
pulsating. The craft was barely airborne when a lightning bolt and
clap of thunder struck with the force of a concussion bomb. A
frazzle of blue-white sparks zipped around the ship’s kite-shaped
framework making it look like a high-voltage skeleton momentarily
suspended in space. When it plummeted to the ground and exploded,
tons of debris propelled hundreds of yards in all directions.

Flaming projectiles hurtled toward the Ark’s
portholes and Lynch dodged instinctively. “Damn! They dropped like
a rock.”

“
Definitely a mechanical
malfunction,” G.R. said.

Star checked stats on a computer, talking to
herself. “Was it the EMOG or lightning that brought them down?”

“
What’s an EMOG?” Deni
asked.

“
A device developed by my
father to detect the death lake’s cycles. But it had a secondary
aspect that was unwanted until now. It scrambled
instrumentation.”

Bach added, “Altemus made a protective box
and put the EMOG aboard. Star gave it to the Rooks and told them it
was the final step necessary to activate the solid fuel. She told
them it would also boost their liquid fuel. Sure enough, their
curiosity did them in. It scrambled more than their
instruments.”

“
That was the plan,” Star
said with a grin. “But I’m not ruling out divine intervention. That
miraculous electrical charge lit up the whole planet. The EMOG may
have attracted a forcefield.”

Lynch looked into the torrential rain, then
signaled Bach and G.R. “C’mon, guys, time to head into the face of
the storm and find our fuel.”

The men headed out with Star reminding them,
“Make it as quick as you can. The Ultimate World’s security will
know their guys are down. When the Rooks don’t respond, they’ll be
out looking for them.”

*****

In the black night, white hot flashes of
lightning struck all around, and thunder rocked the planet like
sonic booms.

Pelted by wind-lashed rain, barely able to
see, the three men scoured the waste-strewn area. Bach yelled from
the right side, “Anybody find anything?”

Lynch’s words could barely be heard from the
left. “No. Rain’s skinnin’ me alive.”

A vertical lightning bolt struck a large
metal shard nearby, sending it twisting through the air. Fiery
sparks flew and the crewmates ducked in reaction.

Crawling and plowing through the wreckage,
Bach found a box of waterlogged fuel. He tucked it under his arm
and crouched at a run to Lynch’s side, reaching him just as another
bolt struck nearby. The mighty, thunderous reaction knocked them
both backwards.

Lynch said something, but his words blew
back into his lungs as a wall of wind slammed the area and a sudden
temperature drop delivered marble-sized hail that bounced a foot
high when it hit.

Bach hollered, “Where’s G.R.?”

“
Don’t know!”

Soaked to the bone, eyes driven shut by the
frigid rain, they searched and yelled for their crewmate, but no
one yelled back. Hunched over, Bach went one way, Lynch the
other.

A blinding flash of lightning fractured the
air, turning pitch darkness into electric gold for a split-second.
Bach and Lynch saw G.R. flat on his back a few yards away—eyes wide
open, and with the stricken expression of someone about to die a
horrible death on his face. They pulled him to his feet and pushed
him back to the ship as he kept repeating that his brother was once
struck by lightning.

Star closed the ramp just as Ashkelon’s dams
and spillway gates gave way. With oceans and seas cresting in
forty-foot waves, the Ark’s landing site quickly flooded from
rapidly rising water and was in the danger zone for a washout.

Deni and Kaz treated G.R. for shock while
Bach and Lynch headed to the flight deck with the box of wet
fuel.

“
Just one box.” Frustration
hung from Bach’s words.

With rips of thunder sounding like
explosions, and blinding lightning dancing around the craft
incessantly, there was little time to explore how to get the meager
ration of wet fuel to work. Star and Lynch focused on the data
center; Bach tried to figure out how to dry the fuel fast.

Challenged by the dilemma, Star grabbed a
pen and touchpad. Her hand flew across the surface writing dozens
of formulas. A maze of statistics flickered on the glass panel. Her
whisper spoke volumes, “No … no! Oh, come on!”

“
Can I help?” Lynch
asked.

“
We need a
miracle.”

Lynch moved to Bach’s side. “What about the
ingredient Altemus added as the last step, can you add more of
that? It might promote combustion.”

Bach shook his head and talked as he worked.
“It’s not an ingredient.”

“
It’s not? Then how did he
activate it?”

“
There’s a catacomb under
the Skyprisms with dozens of passageways. Altemus used his
hovercart to navigate through the burial plots to an exit near the
holy hill. Then he’d ride to the summit, place the fuel in the
light and pray for the Creator’s blessing. The fuel is powered by
the light.”

Lynch gulped. “The last ingredient is power
from the light?”

“
Yep.” Bach pecked on the
keyboard and flipped an overhead switch. “Endowed by the Creator,
and foolproof because the Specter won’t go near the
mount.”

“
We could use that power
now,” Lynch replied.

Deni, G.R., and Kaz watched tensely as Star
tackled a blitz of calculations on a computer. She wrote on the
touchpad. Data flashed on the electro-brain panel. She studied the
statistics, then wrote some more. “That’s it! Our miracle!” she
announced.

Bach slid across the bench and looked over
her shoulder. “Miracle?”

“
The fake chamber with the
liquid in it. It’s not fake.”

“
It’s full of brown slimy
stuff.”

“
That slimy stuff is a
propellant. It’ll significantly extend the solid fuel’s burn
time.”

“
Extend the burn time? The
fuel’s wet,” he complained. “And the briquettes don’t fit in that
chamber.”

“
They’ll fit now that
they’re wet. Load it.”

“
Star, if it doesn’t work,
we’ll never get it back out. We won’t have another
chance.”

“
It’ll work,” she
said.

Bach reluctantly slid the briquettes into
the liquid-filled chamber.

*****

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

Frozen in silence, the crew watched as
energy from the fuel cell steadily grew in intensity. Then a
roaring vibration indicated ignition of the propellant
cocktail.

“
Lift her off,” Bach yelled
to Star.

The Ark ascended over the rising seas of
Ashkelon with a strong, steady thrust.

Star calculated the distance to Dura against
the sparse measure of fuel and brown slimy stuff now critical to
their survival. They’d have enough fuel to make it if no additional
demands were made on the engines.

During the flight, the crewmates ate,
checked on the passengers and animals in the modules, and slowly
unwound. Deni curled up in a wall hammock and massaged her neck
with a sigh. “I’m so tired. It seems we’ve lived a lifetime since
leaving Earth.”

The mention of Earth got Kaz’s attention.
“Hey, Bach. We’ll be going back home soon, right?”

“
That was my original
plan,” he replied.

“
Original plan? What’s
changed? With this technology we can make it back to Earth, can’t
we? We can’t be stuck here forever. We’ll never survive here;
things are too different.”

G.R. spoke up. “Think about it Kaz, it’s not
that different.”

“
I’m not staying here. I’ll
find a way to go home.”

Lynch put his finger to her lips. “Shhh.
Let’s talk about it later, honey. It’s a long way off.”

Bach wrestled with whether or not to share
something with his crewmates, but his good news couldn’t wait. He
stood and announced, “I have a secret in my back pocket!” He
flashed a knowing smile and waited until the crewmates focused on
him. “When we rebuilt these ships to the Creator’s specifications,
I slipped in a spec of my own.”