Chapter 34

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Chapter 34: Better than Scrubbing Bubbles

The chamber was dark. I went to night vision. I looked around, getting a feel for the room. For all the world, it seemed a lot like an engine room--status displays (now dark) lining the walls, and a large structure near the center, heavily reinforced. The core.

Sellis came down after me. "Flashlight!" he called up, once he realized how dark it was. One of the soldiers tossed a light down to him. He panned the beam of light around the chamber, slow and steady, no doubt trying to figure out the purpose of each display. I didn't see anything that looked like a console, for some reason--no freestanding control panels, no obvious buttons to push.

Jack, I think we've found the Focus.

That's good, because a Koraxian fleet just FVed into the system. They're making a beeline toward Earth.

Can you stall them?

With what? Spitballs? The President is recalling as many ships as she can, but they'll get back just in time to find a conquered planet.

What about the Oolians?

Robert, I think she is prepared to give up the Focus to them in exchange for defending us from the Koraxians.

Fuck that! The Oolians will have what they want from us. We'll have nothing to bargain with. What would stop them from just pulling back and letting the Koraxians have us?

You have a point, but we're low on options here.

Which is why you need to storm her fucking office like you were planning to!

Easier said than done.

You're already on the island, aren't you? Just do it. I'll take care of things here.

You'd better. I don't need to be charged with treason again. Once was enough for me.

I caught Sellis dragging his fingers along the central core, examining it. "Are you going to help?" he asked.

"How?"

"Find a way to turn all this on, obviously!" Yikes. Learn some patience, man.

"I'm working on it. Remember, I can see better than you. Unless you have crazy Koraxian vision or something, that is."

"No, I only see as well as Sellis himself did."

"Ah. Then let me continue scanning. It's kind of a delicate process."

Not really. Just biding my time. Stalling, if you will. I needed to be able to activate the Focus and take Sellis out of commission, all at once. He still had his gun ready--he probably knew I'd turn on him, given the chance. Couldn't blame a guy for being prepared. That's why I needed the distraction of getting the damn thing turned on. He'd "ooh" and "ahh" at all the pretty lights (I assumed) and I could bash his brains in. Such a simple solution, I thought. There was just one problem.

"You need to step it up, Captain," he warned, aiming for my head. "I'll not have you stalling."

Well, maybe two problems.

Robert, the Koraxian ships are coming into orbit. Just heard over the patrol band. They're forming up on the light side of the planet, for some reason.

I think you'd better find out what "reason" that is, Jack. I'm still working here.

I went straight for the core, analyzing as quickly as I could. My eye caught a little rectangular groove, about the right size. "Sellis! I need one of those charms."

He smirked. "Nice try. I'll handle this." He stepped up next to me, took one of the little artifacts out of his pocket, lined it up with the slot, and slid it in.

Nothing happened.

"I think you'd better keep looking, Captain. That one doesn't work," he said confidently.

"You could let me try it," I suggested.

"Why would that make any difference?"

"Think about it. This thing's been in my family for generations. You picked this other one off of a dead me. Clearly, I am tied to it somehow. What's the harm? It'll either work or it won't."

He pulled it out of the slot by its chain, handed it tentatively to me. "Don't try anything," he said, waving the gun to make sure I understood what would happen if I did.

"Don't worry, I won't," I lied.

I pushed it into the slot. It didn't even break contact with my fingers before the entire room hummed to life. Light was no longer an issue--everything lit up. A lot of that light wrapped itself around me, and I found myself unable to let go of the charm.

Sellis tried to push me out of the way. "It's on! I must use it! Get out of the way, Maxwell!"

I was immovable. I looked at him. Even if I'd wanted to move, I couldn't. I was stuck there. I had no idea why--it almost seemed like electrocution, the way it held me in place, but it didn't hurt. It felt... good, actually. I tried to tell Sellis I was frozen, but that was the problem--couldn't even move my lips.

I guess the guys waiting topside decided they'd waited long enough to hear something from us, as a couple of them jumped down to join us. Yeah, they were a little surprised to see me, bathed in a coruscating light, my hand glued to this glowing, blue cylinder. They drew their weapons. "Should we fire?" one asked.

"No," Sellis said. "I don't want anyone shooting in here. You might damage something. Who told you to come down here?"

"Sir, something's happening to the atmosphere," one explained.

"'Something?'" Sellis (and I) needed to know more.

"It should be dark, but it's getting bright out. It's not sunlight. Something else."

Sellis looked at me. "I need to see what's happening. Stay right here. Do nothing until I get back. Understood?"

Well, it's not like I could go anywhere, as much as I struggled against the field that held me in place. I stared at his eyes, communicating my understanding in the only I had right then.

He wasn't gone long, in any case. But he came back, very quickly. Panicked. Terrified.

He rushed over to me, grabbed my shoulders, bringing his face centimeters from mine. His eyes were enormous. "The Cascade," he whispered. "They're using the Cascade. You have to stop them!"

Not that I had any idea what that was, but I couldn't tell him there was nothing I could do.

He let go of me, backed off a little, hyperventilating. "The Cascade... they put a bunch of ships in orbit, facing the sun, soaking up solar energy. They redirect it as a series of energy beams into the planet's crust," he explained quickly.

I blinked. Was he saying what I thought he was saying?

"It wipes clean the surface, Captain! They will destroy this planet!"

Oh. He was.