***********
I found myself arguing with the Collector over my getting involved with trying to rescue Sarah K from whoever had kidnapped her. Some of the people standing there were frowning at me, but out of the corner of my eye I could see Thornby grinning from ear to ear. At least I had one ally.
"Out of the question, my boy," said the Collector. "I thank you for your concern, but it is really none of your affair."
The Collector turned to another of the small group and began speaking quietly. Thornby took me aside and whispered into my ear.
"Don't give up," he said. "I'm glad you feel strongly enough to want to help."
"Swan," said the Collector to a tall, thin man with a sword strapped to his back. "Tell the mechanics to get the ship ready. I want it prepared for any contingency."
Swan nodded and spun on his heel, walking away rapidly.
"Thornby, send Mr. Darby's alien friends back to their own universe, if you haven't already. I don't know how long this rescue will take. No use making them wait. I'm going to begin a scan for Sarah's whereabouts. If necessary, scouts will be sent out to check the most likely beings to have kidnapped her."
"Sir," said Maxwell. "Which ship shall we board when we are ready to go?"
"Murder Weapon," the Collector said sharply as he turned away with an angry look on his face.
Thornby's grin disappeared and his mouth dropped open. Even Maxwell's emotionless android face seemed to pale as he frowned at the name of the ship. The Collector began walking to the door, his back ramrod straight with tension.
"Mr. Darby," said Maxwell in a low voice. "We may need your help after all. I will speak to the Collector and try to change his mind." With that said, Maxwell hurried after the Collector. I looked at Thornby in puzzlement.
"Somebody's going to get killed," he said in a grim voice. "We'll have to make sure it isn't the Collector." The others nodded in agreement. I looked from one face to another and saw nothing but determined loyalty towards the Collector. That and an intensity usually shared by comrades going into a hopeless battle. "I never thought I'd see the day that Murder Weapon would leave the hanger. If he's ready to go that far, he's thoroughly angry and an angry man makes mistakes. Murder Weapon has too much power to fool around with. Someone will have to stay with him to try and keep his temper under control. He'll keep us too busy, but you he'll keep close by. Maxwell will be able to talk him around, I'm sure. Let's go get you kitted up and I'll introduce you to the rest of the team."
I nodded and looked at the two other people I hadn't met.
"This is Lucas and Fox," said Thornby. "They're two of the Collector's scouts, like Maxwell and myself." Thornby looked at them and nodded. "Let's get to it, gentlemen. We may not have much time." Without a word they turned and left. "Come on, Tom. We've got work to do."
***********
Thornby took me to a room that looked like a cross between a locker room and a doctor's office. After waving a couple of odd-looking instruments over my chest he gave me some sort of injection and a change of clothes. Then we went into a conference room to meet the rest of the team. It's a good thing that being on the flying saucer had gotten me used to aliens because Thornby and I were the only human-looking people there.
"This is Tom Darby," Thornby said to the group. "He may be with us for a while. Tom, this is the Decipus," Guiles said while pointing to one of the aliens seated at a table in the room. "You couldn't pronounce her name if you tried so just call her Dezy. We do." Dezy looked like a giant squid with a few extra arms. She bent at the middle in a kind of bow towards me.
"This is Kerries," Thornby indicated someone who looked like a cross between an alligator and a tiger.
"Norr," Norr looked like a gargoyle right off of a French cathedral.
"Ayear-gaul," a two-foot diameter jellyfish floating in mid-air. It waved a pair of it's two-dozen ropy tentacles at me when it's name was called.
"Miszen-tak-estro-dyain, we call him Tak," a four-armed, blue-skinned shark with legs was my first thought, he stood over six foot tall.
"and lastly, Landerakh," a twelve-foot tall, bright red, barber-pole with four arms and four legs, a gash of a mouth in it's oval head, and beady, evil-looking eyes.
"There are other members of the team, but they are all away on missions for the Collector and can't be recalled without putting them or their missions at risk," said Thornby. "I've got a feeling we're going to wish we had recalled them anyway. People, we've got big trouble."
"Mistress Sarah has been carried away," said Dezy in one of the most beautiful voices I've ever heard. "What could be more troublesome than that?"
"I will rend the flesh of any who has harmed her!" growled Norr.
"It's worse than that," said Thornby. "The Collector is going after Sarah in Murder Weapon."
The silence that followed that statement was deafening. Then everyone burst into loud, angry speech at once. My translator couldn't keep up with all the voices, all I could hear was a roar in six-part harmony. Tak slammed two of his fists on the table at which he was seated. I winced at the noise.
"This is madness!" Kerries hissed.
"I agree," said Ayear-gaul in a thin, piping voice. "But the madness is the Collector's. He is our leader and has saved our lives many times each. We owe him no less than that in return."
"There can be no argument," said Thornby. "The hanger crew is loading your personal fighters into Murder Weapon right now. He cannot be dissuaded from taking this ship out to find Sarah K, our only hope is to find her and bring her home before she can be harmed. If anything happens to her, the Collector may react insanely. He could do anything..."
"Pardon my ignorance," I said. "But what is everyone so upset about this ship for? I want to help get Sarah back as much as anyone, but what's so wrong with using this Murder Weapon thing to get her back in one piece? Someone please explain so I know how I can help."
"It is evil..." said Landerakh in a voice like tearing flesh.
"It is a combination of every weapon from every culture on every timeline that we have visited," said Dezy in her beautiful voice, her tentacles waving in distress.
"The Collector began it as an exhibit," Thornby explained. "He kept adding more and more weapons as we found them. Every ultimate weapon, even those of his own people. The ship grew in destructive power with every addition, on and on and on..."
"Even Maxwell fears it's power," said Tak. "and he can destroy entire worlds, himself."
"The Collector never meant it to be used," Thornby added. "It was a statement on the folly of power, the evil of destruction for it's own sake. There are more weapons built into that ship than there are on a thousand worlds..."
"And we are about to take it into battle," said Landerakh. " Against those who posses the power to attack the Museum, itself, and escape."
"May our Gods have mercy on our souls." added Dezy.
Thornby looked at each of them, nodded his head and began to speak.
"We all must be ready to leave at any time. The Collector is scanning for any sign of Sarah right now. He will want to leave the Museum as soon as he finds a trace of her, so we must be ready as soon as the ship is serviced. Collect your personal effects and board the ship in one hour. Maxwell and I have a plan to try and keep the Collector from doing anything rash, but we'll need Tom with us for the plan to work. Maxwell is working on that now. Tom, let's go finish getting you ready and send your alien friends back home while we still have time. All right people, one hour. Let's move."
We left the conference room and went to the biggest roomful of guns that I've ever seen. Thornby called it the Armory. There was more here than guns, though. I saw other rooms in the Armory that held tanks, armored personnel carriers, and gun-toting vehicles beyond description. I was overwhelmed, this place looked like it held everything on the Pentagon's Christmas wish- list and then some. The more rooms I saw, the more I began to appreciate the real size of the Museum.
Guiles picked out some little black boxes and a gunbelt that he had me put on, then showed me how to use a pistol that looked as if it should be used to hunt dinosaurs. From a control room in the Armory he sent the flying saucer on it's way and let me say goodbye to Captain, Medic and the others. I was glad they were going to get home all right and I promised I'd never forget them as long as I lived. I began to get the feeling that that might not be very long at all.
***********
"Maxwell, this time you go too far!" said the Collector with some vehemence undisguised in his voice. "I shall not let myself be encumbered by baby-sitting this primitive human while Sarah is in danger!"
"Sir, we are most shorthanded at this time. If it were possible to recall some of your other operatives to complete the necessary crew, I would recommend doing so. You, yourself have vetoed this course of action, so we must make do with what personnel we have at hand right now. Tom Darby may prove invaluable to our success in retrieving Mistress Sarah. To put it simply: we may well find that Tom Darby has been sent to us for this very mission."
"Are you suffering from some religious delusion, Maxwell?"
"You know that is impossible, Sir."
"Sent? Bah! Who could have 'sent' him? Do you suggest that the Guardian...?"
"Perhaps someone from your homeworld, Sir?" Maxwell interrupted.
"Hah! If anyone from there even suspected my continued existence, I'd be clapped into a death cell and the entire Museum dismantled in a trice! They would have no mercy upon me for the kind of meddling that goes on here."
"Then your former pupil, the Physician, perhaps..."
"Now there you may be striking closer to the truth, but I fail to sense his hand in this. No, you engage in idle speculation there, Maxwell. He knows of the Museum, indeed, I've given him a laboratory here for his own use. But he has his own destiny to pursue... No, Darby is here by chance, nothing more. I refuse to believe anything else."
"Sir, if we are forced to employ the fighters, you will find yourself alone on the bridge..."
"And that disturbs you, eh Maxwell?"
"Murder Weapon is not to be taken lightly. It is far too dangerous for any one mind to control."
"I see. You fear I may take matters into my own hands and abuse the potential of the ship, is that it?"
"Sir, I have the utmost faith in you."
"Faith and a bit of money will buy you a meal in a restaurant, Maxwell." the Collector said bitterly. "Your 'faith' may be misplaced if you put it all upon myself. I am only a mortal being, I can make mistakes."
"It may be a mistake not to allow Tom Darby to accompany us, Sir."
The Collector paced the small room, lost in thought for a moment. He idly glanced at the readouts of several recently activated detectors, made a few minor adjustments, and continued pacing. He stopped again and again, fine-tuning the instrument settings. After a few minutes he waved a hand at the massed banks of controls and readouts.
"All of this is getting us nowhere, Maxwell. We need a different approach. Instrumentation alone is not going to find her... I'm going to have to send out something better than scanner signals." The Collector paused again, turned his back on Maxwell, and sighed heavily. "Very well, you may include Darby in the crew, but he will be your responsibility! Do you understand, Maxwell? His well being is now your concern. My only concern will be the safe return of Sarah."
"I believe that Guiles will be willing to help me 'baby-sit' Tom Darby, Sir. He seems to have taken quite an interest in our visitor."
"So, the two of you are in this together? I thought as much. On your own heads be it, then!"
"Thank you Sir."
"Don't thank me! You may both live to regret it!"
"I very much doubt regret will enter into it, Sir. Do you wish me to send some of the Scouts to you for a briefing?"
"No, this may be beyond the capabilities of our operatives. I will need to send something different to continue the search. Leave me now, Maxwell. Get mister Darby ready to board the ship, that is why you chose to argue with me. You have my permission to let him join the crew. I will continue the search from here... I believe that it is time to send out a 'bloodhound' to find Sarah. I need to speak with one of my pets. Make sure that the mechanics and the Krell science team have the ship ready to launch on a moments notice. Now, leave me!"
"Yes, Sir" Maxwell turned and left the room before the Collector could change his mind.
The Collector sighed and pulled a signaling device from a pocket of his jacket. Pressing a control on the signaler and putting it away, he waited for a response. Very shortly, there was a half- audible sound in the room. A sort of distant thrumming grew gradually louder and closer. Finally a slight crackling hum filled the air and a fist-sized ball of light popped into existence to float before the Collector. He reached out to gently cup the light in his hand, almost caressingly. He smiled slightly, as if comforted by the presence of the ball of light.
"Sarah is missing," he said and the light turned from yellow to red in response. "I need you to find her, wherever she may be. Find her and let her know that I am coming to save her, then report back to me. Do you understand?" The light changed color to a emerald green and bobbed up and down twice in the air. "Find her!" the Collector cried. The ball of light spun in a tight circle, changed to a bright blue color, and sped away through the wall, as if the wall were no more solid than smoke.
The search had begun in earnest, now.
"I'll soon be with you, my love," the Collector whispered. "No matter what the cost."
He turned back to the readouts, studying them in impatient, furious contemplation.
***********
Guiles Thornby had taken me back to the Armory for some more practice with the handgun he had given me. I was beginning to get pretty good, but then I had spent lots of time on firing ranges back home. Back home... The way I said that was getting to be almost normal, like I was just on vacation or something. Guiles was checking over the fresh magazines for the gun and telling me about the uses of the other gadgets that were clipped to the gunbelt when Maxwell walked in. "He has relented," said Maxwell.
"I knew you could do it," said Thornby. "Any luck with the search for Sarah?"
"Not as yet. The Collector is sending one of his pets to join the search. He has had no success with the instrument scans. His temper is getting short, I'm afraid that he yelled at me." Maxwell's face lit with a fast grin and then lapsed back into it's customary impassiveness.
"Sending out a pet?" I asked. "Some kind of alien bloodhound?"
"Which pet?" asked Guiles.
"I did not see, but I assume it is one which can access time and space even better than the scanners."
"That narrows it down," muttered Guiles. "Yes Tom, a bloodhound is as good a description as any. I'll guess that it's that little ball of light. Never could figure out just exactly what species it is, but it lives more in other dimensions than in our own. If anything can find her, it can. It seems to really care about her. We should have some clues soon, then we can get down to working to get her back."
"I am instructed to prepare Tom Darby for joining the crew."
"I've been doing just that, Maxwell. He's shaping up into a pretty good recruit already."
"Thanks, Guiles. That's good to hear," I said. "I don't want to be babied, I want to pull my weight and be able to be counted on like everyone else."
"We will need to replicate a fighter for you, Tom Darby," Maxwell said. "For emergencies, and there is another precaution I would wish to take."
"Already taken care of, Maxwell. I took the liberty, myself. I wanted to make sure nothing could happen to Tom," said Guiles mysteriously. "But you can still take care of the fighter 'cause I haven't had the time to do that."
"Good," said Maxwell. "Weapons are my specialty. Let us see what we can work up for you, Tom Darby."
Maxwell led us to a massive control panel in another room of the Armory. He sat down and started pressing buttons and moving slide controls, then he began typing something so fast that his hands were a blur. He talked while he was typing and seemed not to be distracted by either activity.
"I suggest that we begin with a control system that will already be familiar to you. I have studied your vehicle most thoroughly while I was making the necessary repairs to it last night. The handgrip controls will be most familiar to you and will speed your becoming accustomed to the craft."
"You mean it'll handle just like my motorcycle?" I interrupted.
"Basically, yes. Now I will add the cockpit enclosure, drive systems, weapons and power systems, shield generators, onboard computers, and so forth..."
I watched the monitor as a blueprint rapidly took shape as Maxwell typed.
"Now for some aerodynamic control surfaces in case you have to enter an atmosphere."
"Better put in a limited time-jump capability," added Guiles. "Just in case he has to get back to the Museum on his own. In case we're all temporarily- um, indisposed, and he winds up alone."
He means dead, I thought.
"Yes, I had already considered that," said Maxwell. "Now to bring the craft from the drawing board into existence. Tom Darby, look over into that area just ahead of us."
I looked from the screen to the place that Maxwell was pointing to and gaped as a cloud of tiny sparkles began to coalesce into being. I kept looking from the screen to the sparkles as they got denser and more solid-looking. After about two minutes the sparkles were gone and on the floor ahead of us was the reality of what had been just a drawing on a screen. It looked like something from a TV show about war in space. It was slim, fast, and somehow deadly-looking. I tried to find something to compare it to, but only wound up at a loss for words.
"Care to give it a name?" Guiles asked with a grin on his face.
"Widow Maker," I said after a moment. It did kind of look like the F-104 Starfighter that I was thinking of right then.
"I'll take that as a compliment," said Maxwell. "Now I'll have it transferred to Murder Weapon and we can set you up in a simulator for a little bit of practice. We may not have too much time left before we receive news of Sarah's location."
***********
Time passes so slowly when you wait for news of a loved one. The Collector's thoughts hung heavily, almost audibly in the air of the scanning room. He wondered if he could remain sane if anything had happened to her. Again and again he thought of her, in terms anyone would use when thinking of their lover.
"If she is harmed, my vengeance will be terrible to behold," he said aloud. "I will wring the last breath of life from all who have taken part of her abduction."
Quietly, a humming sound began to be perceptible in the air. Gradually the sound got louder, closer, and intruded upon the Collector's thoughts. He began to look about the room with hope in his eyes replacing the insanity that had lately been there. It had been many hours since the Collector had sent his pet in search of Sarah. Countless foes from his past had been scanned and dismissed from consideration, for none of them showed the slightest sign of having perpetrated the daring assault upon the Museum and the Collector's lover. Each dismissal increased his agitation as the search grew more and more protracted. As each minute passed, Sarah's safety grew less probable.
At last, the small ball of light that was the Collector's pet serenely passed through the solid walls of the room as if they did not exist. It hovered before him, changes of color flashing from one to another rapidly, throwing odd shadows on his grim but hopeful face.
"Have you found her?" he asked of the light. "Is she unharmed?"
The light bobbed in mid-air and assumed a steady yellow coloring. It floated gently over to a control keypad and hovered there. Tiny beams of light lanced from the iridescent glow and played over the keypad in a complex rhythm. A screen lit, filled with numbers and symbols and the Collector studied it intently.
"She lives," he breathed in a quiet voice tinged with relief. "We have a chance then."
He studied the odd symbols further and discerned their meaning. His mouth formed a grim line as their import registered to his worried mind. He typed in a command and another screen lit in response. It showed Sarah, bound in chains, in a small chamber many lightyears distant from the museum. Rage bubbled up inside the Collector like lava inside a volcano about to explode in mindless fury.
"So, they dare to pit themselves against me," he said. "But I shall show them the price of their folly!"
He stabbed a button viciously with a lean finger and began to speak into a hidden microphone. His voice rang out into the Museum to every level and chamber.
"She has been found! Report to Murder Weapon and prepare for immediate launch. Our enemy is now known- and shall be made to suffer for their crime. She is alive! We go now to avenge and release her. And may their Gods have mercy upon their souls, for I shall have none!"
He shut down the machines, turned to leave the room, and called to his pet.
"Come, you are needed," he said to the glowing ball of light.
***********
I was deep into flying a simulation of my new toy when the Collector's call came through over the intercom. Guiles and Maxwell lost no time in shutting down the flight-sim and getting me back into my gunbelt and a small backpack.
We hurried to a nearby room and stood there for a moment. I was about to ask what we were doing standing around when I heard a sharp whistle and felt really strange. I could see sparkles of light dancing in front of me, blocking my vision. Then I felt a stomach-churning lurch, as if the floor had been yanked out from under me. When the sparkles faded I could tell that we were in a different room. Instead of the Armory I could see the Hanger, that huge room full of ships that had been my first glimpse of the Museum.
There was a vehicle waiting for us, looking like a cross between a golf cart and a big sled. It didn't have any wheels and I was unsurprised when we got into it and started flying. We weaved between hundreds of parked spaceships, some sitting on the floor and the rest floating above it. The room was even bigger than I had first thought. The ranks of ships went on and on with no end in sight. There were more shapes, sizes, and colors of spaceships than I could possibly describe. One thing I did notice, though, was that they seemed to arranged so that the smaller ships were closest to where we had started from. Now we were going through some really big spaceships and we went further they got bigger and bigger.
"There," said Maxwell as he pointed to a vague blur on the edge of visibility. "That is Murder Weapon."
Guiles told me little details about all the ships we were passing, but when we got close enough for me to get a good look at Murder Weapon, I forgot every word that he had said. I don't know if I can even begin to describe that ship. I'm going to try though.
From one angle it looked like a naked woman jumping off of a diving board at a swimming pool, then as we moved to approach it broadside and got even closer it began to look more like a long-bodied squid with only four short arms. We kept getting closer and closer and it kept getting bigger and bigger. Guiles later told me that it was nine miles long and the main hull was two miles in diameter. The arms were spread outward and ahead of the ship. I could see so much detail as we approached, but finding words to express it in seems hopeless. I can say that it was the most beautiful and the most dangerous thing that I had seen in the museum.
Our vehicle finally came up to the great curve of it's hull, a door irised open before us, and we floated inside. I looked back over my shoulder and watched the huge door iris closed and shuddered. For some reason I was getting scared. As we got out of the vehicle, Maxwell had to help me 'cause my legs had seemed to turn to rubber. After a few steps I was all right again, but butterflies were still flying around in my stomach. Guiles stopped at what had to be an elevator door as Maxwell went inside. He looked at Guiles and pressed a button, the elevator door closed and left Guiles and myself alone, waiting.
"Don't worry about it," he said to me. "This ship affects everyone that way. I can barely keep my knees from knocking, myself."
"Thanks Guiles," I said. "What do we do now?"
"We go to the Bridge and wait for the Collector, if he isn't here already."
The elevator door opened again, we went in, and Guiles pressed a button. Without any feeling of motion, the elevator took us to the Bridge. I watched the elevator door close and then it opened right back up again. We stepped out into a room as big as a football field with desks or control panels scattered across the floor. The Collector was there already and so were the aliens I had met earlier in the museum briefing room. Lucas, Fox, and Swan were there too, seated at control panels. The Collector was sitting in what had to be the captain's chair, Maxwell stood on his left side, and the Scouts were each at their own seats at different control panels. Maxwell waved his hand at a pair of seats to the Collector's right and then sat down. Guiles and I went to the indicated seats and sank into them. I blinked in surprise when a small ball of light rose up through the floor and began to hover over the Collector's left shoulder. This must be the pet that Guiles and Maxwell had talked about.
"Fox," said the Collector. "Take us out through the main portal. When we are in normal space I shall give you coordinates for our course."
"Yes Sir," Fox said as he touched several controls in rapid motion.
I felt a slight throb through the soles of my feet and looked at the huge screen hanging in midair in front of us. I could see that we were in motion. The rescue of Sarah K had begun.
"I'm on my way, my love," I heard the Collector mutter under his breath. No one else acted as if they could hear him. "I will let nothing get in my way."
The end of part two.
Copyright 1996 by Dan L. Hollifield