"That ought to ruin the aim of any pirates that can draw a bead on us," added Lucas.
"Yes," replied Maxwell calmly. "The artificial Black Holes of the drive will alter the trajectory of any incoming beam or missile, as well as negating anything aimed at us. It will soak up the energies of any weapon and leave us unharmed. How are the weapons emitters holding up?"
"The tertiaries are overheating a bit," said Lucas. "I've focused the secondaries down to the same beam width and started using them in order to let the tertiaries cool off."
"Everything is still in good shape," said Fox. "Shields are holding and weapons are well within their limits. We seem to be in good shape- so far."
"And the scouts?" asked Maxwell.
"Everyone is still with us."
"Good. Maintain communications traffic with the drones," replied Maxwell. "The illusion of greater numbers than we actually possess may turn out to be our greatest advantage over the pirates."
"Yes Sir."
"Let me hear the signals from our scouts. If any of them need covering fire have the Krell gunners take care of it."
"Right Maxwell," said Fox. "I'm already on it. Commo traffic routed to the speaker in the Captain's chair now."
"The disabled pirate ships are beginning to add their firepower to their smaller fighters," said Lucas. "Our scouts may need some back-up in the next few minutes."
"The Krell are on it," said Fox. "For a non-violent species, they make damn good gunners."
"They are adaptable," said Maxwell. "As we all must be for Sarah to be rescued safely."
"I have two of them monitoring the Collector's communications frequency," said Lucas. "If he needs us, we'll be there. That's one call I damn sure don't want to miss."
"Have the Medical section standing by," Maxwell added. "Just in case all does not go according to plan. I will be listening to the scouts' transmissions for the next few minutes."
"Yes Sir."
So far, the Collectors forces had not suffered a single casualty.
"This can't go on much longer," Guiles said.
"No," sighed the Collector. "We are stretching our luck very thinly indeed, just to have gotten this far."
"How much longer 'til we can get to Sarah?" I asked. "Any idea?"
"Soon, Tom. My pet is leading us there by the safest path, not the most direct."
A bolt of energy struck the wall next to us. Weapons fire, but from behind us! The three of us ducked, Guiles and myself returned fire as quickly as we could. A harsh, shrieking wail began to sound in the corridors of the pirate flagship. Our luck had changed- the alarm had been given.
"Damn," said Guiles quietly and calmly.
"I agree," said the Collector. "From this point on we'll be facing even greater odds."
"A boarding party?" Akeptzaxodur's slobbering voice was tinged with both amazement and confusion.
"A deception," cried Mordred. "The entire battle was a feint! My Father is here, aboard your ship. Even now he is seeking his concubine. Your fleet has failed."
"Go! Now! Kill the female. She is of no further use to us. My guards will capture your parent. Then we shall rejoice in the sounds of his agonies."
"You haven't captured him yet," said Mordred. "But you are right, the girl is no longer useful."
"Go then, take a squad of my bodyguards and eliminate her!"
"Yes," said Mordred. "As you 'command'. When my Father and his 'toy' are dead I will replace the time-jump machinery and we will continue with our plan of conquest throughout the universe!"
"Enough talk! Kill them, kill them all!" screamed the pirate Captain. "We have come too far to have my plans ruined by your parent. Guards, go with Mordred. Gunnery crew, instruct all ships to fire upon the alien's vessel. Bring all weapons to bear upon it. If we cannot posses it, we will destroy it! Utterly!"
Mordred smiled at the thought. His allies were doomed, useless. They had no chance against Murder Weapon. His thoughts then turned to killing the Collector, and after that- escape. Treachery had always been his favorite stratagem.
Since the alarm had been given, the pirates had found us time and time again. Guiles and I were shooting to disable, but still the dead and wounded were piling up. The Collector was only using a stun-gun of some kind, but the guns that Guiles and I carried were lethal. I guess I was never cut out to be a soldier. I'd already seen enough carnage to give me nightmares for the rest of my life. Another ambush... smoke, the flare of weapons, we return fire and forge ahead across the bodies of alien pirates. Finally the Collector's pet led us to some kind of hazy, black wall that blocked the rest of the corridor.
"This is it," said Guiles. "That's the boundary of the time-shift. Sarah is on the other side of that."
"Yes," said the Collector. "Finally, we're here. Now I have to open a passageway through the time- shifted region." He began punching numbers into some kind of horn-shaped gadget that he'd carried on a strap. It sprouted legs like a camera tripod and he set it down, pointed at the black wall. I could hear a quiet humming from the gadget, but that was it. No flashing lights, no blare of sound, just a hum like white-noise from a guitar amp.
"How long will it take?" I asked.
"Just a few minutes," the Collector said. "It has to find the exact amount of the shift and calculate the reversal factor, then apply it."
"Look sharp Tom, " said Guiles. "They know where we were headed and they might hit us again at any time. All it takes is for one of them to guess that we already made it here and we'll be hip-deep in guards again."
"Right," I said, putting a fresh power-cell into my gun. "I'm ready to get this over with."
"You just loaded the explosive rounds, Tom."
"I had too, Guiles. The rest of the power-cells need recharging."
"Right, give them here and I'll plug them into my charger." I handed Guiles the drained cells and turned to look back up the corridor, the way we'd come in.
"When the passageway appears I'll go through and release Sarah," began the Collector. "Guiles, you and Tom..."
"I'm going with you," I interrupted. "You'll need someone to watch your back."
"Very well Tom, thank you."
"It's starting," said Guiles. "The passageway is opening."
"Good," I said. "Let's get..."
"More guards," yelled Guiles.
I fired once, quickly. I wasn't even aiming at anything, I just reacted. The explosive round was deafening in the corridor's confined space. When the smoke cleared I couldn't see any more guards.
"Oh my, " said the Collector.
I thought I was going to be sick. "I never meant..." I mumbled.
"Tom," said Guiles. "It was them or us. They'd have killed us without a second thought. And Sarah would still be their prisoner."
"They didn't feel a thing Tom," said the Collector quietly. "It was over with too quickly. Come, Sarah needs us."
The Collector's pet ball of light floated ahead of us as we entered the hole into the time-shift.
"Roravik's capsule," said the Collector.
"Huh?" I asked dumbly. "Mordred's Time Machine?"
"Exactly," said the Collector as he pulled a gadget out of his pocket, aimed it at the machine, and started punching buttons rapidly. "Quiet now while I pick the lock."
"Right," I said as I looked around so watch for more guards. "What happens if you can't get it open?"
"My boy, before I left my homeworld I used to design these things. Never fear, I can open it. We always designed a way to get into one of these in an emergency. Computer programmers on your world do the same thing with systems that they design."
"I see."
There was a loud click and a hidden door in the machine opened slightly. We pushed it open and went through into a short, un-lit tunnel to reach another pair of doors. These swung open at a touch and we entered a huge room.
"Weird," I said. "Did we get smaller as we came in, or is this thing bigger on the inside than it is on the outside?"
"Another engineering trick," said the Collector. "We aren't actually 'inside' the casing that we entered. The 'outside', where we picked the lock, doesn't really wrap around this area. It's more like a portable doorway than an outside skin."
"I'll believe it, but just because it's you telling me so. Otherwise I'd think we were both nuts."
The room was roughly hexagonal, about thirty feet on a side. I couldn't tell where the lights were coming from, but it was well lit. The room was featureless except for a hexagonal control panel sprouting up from the center of the floor like a mechanical mushroom and another set of doors set into the far wall. "If this is Mordred's time-vehicle, couldn't we just hijack it. Call Guiles inside and zip over to Murder Weapon?"
"Look at the control panel, Tom. Roravik has removed several vital components of the drive controls. No doubt to keep his allies from disposing of him and simply stealing the capsule."
I saw some access panels on the control panel were open. Don't know why I didn't notice them before, but I took the Collector at his word. We had no easy escape that way, then. We crossed the room and passed through the other doors, moving deeper into the time-machine. The Collector muttered something that I didn't understand to his pet and it led us down a maze of hallways and stairways. The little ball of light knew exactly where Sarah was being held. All we had to do was follow.
"Won't Mordred have stationed some guards in here?" I asked.
"He wouldn't have permitted it. Too afraid of his allies, I expect. We should be getting close now."
"Good. This is too easy... All this sneaking around inside the vehicle, I mean."
"I understand completely, Tom."
We came to a door that was locked. The Collector's pet stopped there and bobbed in the air like a captive balloon as it waited for us to catch up. The Collector used a gadget that looked like a cross between a screwdriver and a small flashlight to pick the lock. It hummed like a dentist's drill for a few seconds and then the door popped open an inch or so. I guessed that it must have been a different kind of lock from the one on the main doors outside since he didn't use the same gadget to open this door. When the lock clicked open we pushed our way inside and found Sarah.
She was tied to a chair, unconscious, inside a six by six foot cage in the center of the room. I could see a few bruises on her arms and a nasty-looking gash on her forehead. She had been beaten, no doubt. I didn't think it was possible, but I got even angrier when I saw her condition. She was breathing, though.
"I don't have anything to pick the lock of this damned cage," hissed the Collector.
"I can't just shoot the lock, these explosive rounds would kill her."
"Absolutely- too dangerous. But I think I have a way..." He cupped his pet in his hand and placed it down by the lock on the cage door. With his other hand he pointed and made circling motions around the lock itself.
"Cut here, Fu. Sarah needs you to let her out," the Collector said gently. He spoke as if to a small child, calmly, quietly, patiently. The ball of light changed colors rapidly as he took his hand away. It floated there and seemed to get brighter and swell up to twice it's normal size. My jaw dropped when a beam of light, like a laser, came out of the pet and cut exactly where the Collector had traced around the lock. There was a flash, some acrid smoke, and the lock fell out of the door. We were inside the cage in an instant, cutting the ropes that bound Sarah to the chair. The Collector passed a small, whistling device over her head and body and grunted in approval.
"No internal injuries," he said. "Superficial cuts and bruises, she must have struggled with them for a bit." He gave her an injection from a spray-hypo, waved the whistling gadget over her again and put it away. "Medical Scanner," he said without looking up. "I also gave her a general stimulant. She'll be awake in a few minutes."
"Gray?" she mumbled.
"Or sooner," I said.
"I'm here, Beloved. We need to get you out of this place."
"I knew that you'd find me," Sarah said as she stirred. Her voice was getting stronger and she started to push herself out of the chair.
"Gently, my dear. You've had a bad time of it. Gather your strength and we'll leave this place."
"When Fu found me, I knew that you'd be here soon." The ball of light glowed pinkly, as if it were blushing, and swirled around the two of them like one of those over-protective little dogs one of my uncles owned. Sarah stood slowly and the Collector took her into his arms.
"My Love, I'd move the stars in their courses in order to find you again."
"Gray," Sarah said quietly. "It was Roravik, he's the one behind all of this. He's loose again."
"I know, my dear. We've already seen him. I'll settle with him as soon as I have you safely out of here. Can you walk? We have to get you out of this time-shift before we can teleport over to the ship."
"Yes," she said. "I think so... The sooner I'm away from here, the better I'll feel. But Roravik, you must stop him! He's given the pirates the secrets of time-travel!"
"Maxwell took care of that," I said. "They're not going anywhere."
"Tom, I thought that you'd be home by now," she said.
"And leave my friends when they needed help? That ain't my style," I said.
"My dear, that stimulant won't keep you going for long. I suggest that we get started," said the Collector.
"Fu," I said to the Collector's pet. Now that I knew it's name it didn't seem so mysterious. "Lead us out of here."
The ball of light floated out of the door and we followed.
"Now I have you, Father!" came a voice from behind us.
We spun around. Mordred was standing by the time-machine, covering us with some sort of weapon.
"I have waited centuries for this," said Mordred. "Now you shall die, all of you shall die!"
"No!" I shouted.
Everything seemed to go into slow motion. I could see Mordred's finger tightening on the trigger of his weapon. Without thinking, I knocked Sarah and Gray to the floor, out of the way. I felt something hit me in the chest as I raised my own gun and fired three rounds at Mordred. I could see the flashes of smoke and fire as the explosive rounds struck the time-machine. As I fell to the floor I heard the doors of the time-machine slam shut. I saw little pock-marks appear on the surface of the time-machine. Must be Guiles shooting at it. There was a roaring in my ears.
"Tom!" cried Sarah. "Oh Tom, no!"
The light was getting brighter. I could barely see Sarah and the Collector as they knelt next to me. Sarah was crying. The light got even brighter and I felt as if I were floating. No pain, just floating. There was an odd wheezing and groaning noise in the background. The roaring in my ears got louder. I thought I heard Guiles and the Collector both shouting for Maxwell to do something. I couldn't make out the words, the roaring was too loud. The last thing I saw was Sarah's tear-streaked face as the light grew to bright for me to make anything else out. Sarah was safe, I was content. The light was so warm and I felt no pain. I was so tired... I needed to sleep. We'd saved Sarah, the job was done, and it was time for me to get some rest. The roaring faded as the light got brighter. I fell into the light, seemingly forever.
"Very well," he said. "I will still have that ship or destroy it!"
"Captain, our weapons have no effect. The vessel is too well protected."
"Message the fleet."
"Yes, Sir."
"Prepare to ram the alien ship. It cannot survive that!"
"Message sent, Captain."
"Full power! All hands, brace for impact!"
"Yes Fox?"
"Guiles reports that the Collector and Sarah are safely aboard. Tom Darby was killed aboard the pirate flagship, his body is being processed now."
"Damnation!" shouted Lucas. "What are those fools trying to do now?"
"Report."
"All of the pirate ships are closing on us at full speed!"
"On screen. Back us away, Fox."
"Yes Sir."
"They're coming too fast! We can't make it!"
"Stupid. So stupid," said Fox.
"They never had a chance," added Lucas.
"Agreed," said Maxwell. "Fox, recall the scouts. All hands, stand down from combat stations. Lucas, take us home."
"Yes Sir."
"I thought I was dead," I gasped.
"You were," said Guiles, grinning at me.
Sarah hugged me as the Collector patted my shoulder. Maxwell looked at me and one of his quick smiles lit his face, then vanished just as quickly.
"What happened?"
"You have one of my insubordinate scouts to thank for your return to the living," said the Collector.
He looked at Guiles, who didn't even have the decency to blush.
"You remember the medical exam I gave you?" asked Guiles. "The injection that I said was for your health?"
"Yeah," I replied. "I thought it was a vaccination."
"It was a resurrection transponder," he said. "I thought you would need it before too much longer."
"Well, I did."
"You saved our lives," said Sarah. "Roravik would have killed Gray and myself if it weren't for you."
"What happened after I... died? Did Mordred get away? And the pirates, what happened to them?"
"They... committed suicide," said the Collector with difficulty.
"And Mordred?"
"He may have escaped, but it is unlikely. His capsule was damaged. Remember all of the components that he had removed to keep the pirates from stealing it? As we were teleported to Murder Weapon, I saw that he was trying to escape in it, but I didn't see whether or not he succeeded," said the Collector.
"What happens now?" I asked.
"Now? Now you rest," said Guiles. "Later, we send you home."
"Home? I can still go home?"
"Of course, my boy. Why-ever should you not be able to return to your home? I promised your alien friends that I would return you," said the Collector with a twinkle in his eye.
"But what about this transponder?"
"What about it? I'm afraid," said Guiles. "That you'll just have to learn to live with it." Then he laughed.
"But then I'll never really die, " I said.
"My boy, you earned it. You saved Sarah. You saved myself as well. I will send you home, never fear. Home, for you to live out the rest of your mortal span as any other of your species does. And when that span has run it's course, you will die. Just like all of your species does. The only difference will be that after your death as an old and honored member of your kind, you will reawaken here in the Museum. With the body you now have, I might add, and all the memories of your life intact. Then you may take your place among my scouts. The place that you have earned. I do not give this gift lightly. Rest assured that you have earned it. Now rest, regain your strength, and dream of home."
I lay back and did just that. Before everyone had time to leave the room, I was asleep.
The teleport shimmered and faded away. I was on a back road, on my motorcycle, and the familiar smells of a warm spring night tickled my nose. I was home, and a familiar curve of road stretched out in front of me. I could see the tail-lights of a motorcycle receding before me 'til they passed around the corner. Instinctively I gunned the throttle of my bike and rode around the same curve. There was something that I had to see, and I didn't want to be late.
I rounded the curve and saw a faintly glowing disc stretching across the road. I heard a crash as the other motorcycle rammed into the flying saucer and it's rider tumbled through the air to land inside a familiar cargo bay. I waited. Before too long I saw a tall alien shape step out into the open cargo bay. It was Captain, I was sure. He waved at me. I'm sure he knew that it was me, both in his sickbay with Medic and here outside the flying saucer. He just wanted to make sure that the Collector had managed to get me home safely. Captain went back inside and closed the hatch to the cargo bay. The flying saucer glowed brightly and rose silently from the road. It zoomed off into the night sky as I watched it recede from sight. I wiped a tear from my eyes and headed the motorcycle back the way I'd been going. I needed to get back to my house and make up with my girlfriend. It had been a stupid argument that had sent me off into the night in the first place. It was my fault, I'd started it because I was frustrated with my nowhere job. I just hoped that she'd forgive me.
I looked up into the night sky one more time. I'd come full circle, back where the adventure had begun. Back when the adventure had begun, too. Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew that some part of me would always be caught in what the Collector had called a time-loop. I would be forever caught up in hitting the flying saucer, seeing the Museum, rescuing Sarah, and coming home the same night. Somehow, it didn't really matter. I could think of worse ways to spend my time, and I still had my whole life ahead of me.
Matter of fact, I had several whole lives ahead of me, but right now I had an apology to make, a relationship to salvage, and a woman to cherish. If I could get her to take me back after the way I'd acted. I revved the throttle of my bike, let out the clutch, and headed for home.
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