Then the blast of a weapon and an agonizing yell echoed around the chamber. Jason pulled himself up, and when the light returned, there between he and the workstations, was Private Utkin laying in a heap with a scorch mark on his chest.
Nash broke free and ran over to a spare workstation. Jason darted toward him, but before he got close, his friend pointed his weapon at him. He had one eye on his console and another on Jason.
“Move any closer, Cassidy, and I’ll pull the trigger.”
Everyone else gathered themselves from the deck and eyed him warily while another blast reverberated beneath them.
“I’m saving your lives as much as I am this ship,” Nash said frantically.
An ominous hum filled the chamber, and the sphere flashed orange.
“What are you doing?” Jason tiptoed ever nearer to him.
“He’s distributing the energy from the sphere to the weapon emitter.” Kione stared at an adjacent console. “But you haven’t even tested it yet!”
Nash smiled sadistically and activated a large hologram above their heads, revealing the battle taking place. “No time like the present.”
The conduits throbbed with the power from the six-million-year-old artifact and a brilliant bright-blue beam launched toward the Seeker ship from the enormous emitter.
Then nothing.
The Seeker vessel didn’t move a millimeter.
Jason narrowed his eyes. “Well, that was underwhelming.”
The Seeker ship then throbbed and trembled. It became smaller and smaller. From the size of four carriers, it turned into something no bigger than a cruisier.
“It’s as if it’s disassembling,” Marquez said.
With each passing moment it got continually more minute until it was the size of a transport pod. And then as if a dandelion blown in the wind, it vanished, little more than vapors amongst the blackness of space.
Silence filled the chamber as everyone tried to understand what they’d just witnessed. The smile returned to Nash’s face along with a smug satisfaction.
Jason inched closer toward him as delicately as he could without being shot. “What just happened?”
Nash clutched his weapon. “What the Seekers had hoped. Torpedoes. Tritonium warheads. Like pop guns to a child.” He pointed at the sphere. “This is true firepower. And now we’ve harnessed it.”
An alert klaxon blared around them and Nash peered down at the readings. His smugness once again faded.
“Something the matter?” Tai said, coming up beside Jason.
“The ship…we took too many hits.”
“The ship’s reactor has failed,” Kione said. “We have only minutes before it blows.”
“That’s it.” Althaus studied Kione’s station. “It’s time to go!”
“No. No one is going anywhere. Especially not you.” Nash’s eyes pierced Jason’s. “I should have done this when I first saw you on Orion V. How could I have been so blind?”
He pushed his weapon forward. His arms shook, and his fingers twitched. It seemed he was fighting a battle within himself.
“You can’t pull the trigger, can you?” Jason walked to him. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Marquez bound toward Nash and bundle him down as if he were a linebacker from the Hyper Bowl winning Holden City Pioneers. The two tumbled to the deck in a tangle of arms and legs.
But Nash still had the gun. A volley of blasts launched from it, sending everyone ducking for cover. Marquez knocked it from him and tried to lock him down. But Nash was too quick and regained his feet, finding his weapon. He pointed it at Marquez who raised his hands in defeat.
“I may not be able to shoot Cassidy, but there’s nothing stopping me from killing you.” His hand steadied, and he squeezed at the trigger.
A blast fired.
Marquez’s eyes closed, but he didn’t fall. He reopened his eyes and stared across at Jason who had the smoking gun in his hands.
Jason’s hands shook.
What have I done?
He looked across at Nash who had a scorch mark on his chest. His knees buckled and he fell to the deck. Jason hurried to his side and held him upward. He coughed up blood, and it dripped down his face. Gone was the air of superiority that had been so prevalent. He was the Nash Jason remembered.
“You know what you said on Orion V?” he said to Jason.
“What?”
“That you were sorry for letting me go instead of you.”
“Yeah?”
“I forgive you.” The grin returned, and Nash’s head fell backward. It was as if he’d died all over again.
This time at my hand…
“She’s been hit!”
Jason turned to his brother’s voice ringing around the chamber. Over at the adjacent workstations, the others huddled over a fallen body. He rushed over to find Doctor Tai laying on the deck.
Captain Marquez rushed toward her and kneeled down, trying to comfort her while applying pressure to the wound on her right leg. Jason assumed she’d been hit when Nash and Marquez had tussled over the gun.
Damnit!
“How…does…it…look…?” she asked Marquez, gritting her teeth at the end of every word.
“A glancing blow. We’ll get you back to the Argo and patched up in no time.”
The ship boomed around them once again. The screech of metal bending and splitting echoed throughout the chamber.
“We have to leave now!” Althaus bellowed, charging toward the central elevator.
Tyler put a hand on Jason’s shoulder as he peered across at his friend. “If we don’t go, we’ll die here with him.”
Everything around Jason seemed to slow down. Kione, Higgs, and Burns lifted Tai into their arms and hurried to the elevator while Marquez and Tyler bolted over to far side of the chamber to grab Private Utkin’s body.
An almighty bang erupted, bringing Jason back to normality. The ship groaned, and the deck began to tear. Metal burst upward, splitting the chamber into two, forming a gigantic chasm.
Through the sparks, Jason eyed the other side. Tyler and Marquez stared back at him. There was no way they’d be able to jump it without falling to their deaths.
“It’s okay!” Marquez yelled, as calmly as possible. “You get down to the hangar deck. We’ll find a way to the Maybelle and meet you on the Argo!”
Jason hesitated for
