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| Lpnet1-100 The Lost Planet Chapter 1: Accident with an Asteroid Chapter 2: Stranded in Space Chapter 3: Survival in Solitude Chapter 4: The Ancient Temple Chapter 5: A Virtual Reality Experience Chapter 6: The Crystal Records Chapter 7: The Knowledge of Tranqua Chapter 8: The Meta- Hydrovector Chapter 9: The Long, Hard Work Chapter 10: The Project Complete Chapter 11: The Crystal Fantasy Chapter 12: The Key of Vitreos |
The
Lost Planet
Chapter 25: The
Final Cataclysm
The 60 hour ride back to Tranqua, in the company of T’rwani and Venali was far more enjoyable than the desperate race to Mars to retrieve them. Once the Warbird was set on automatic course; I joined them in the midsection. It was still a race against time at Zero minus 70 and running. I hesitated to think of what might happen if we didn't get back in time. The planet's destruction could have any number of drastic effects upon our situation, varying by the close proximity and the speed-reaction of the Warbird's engines to get us away from the shattered flack. T’rwani fixed some food, we ate and got to know each other, and let the time pass. Venali had been kidnapped much in the same way T’rwani had, such slave-taking had been a problem on Tranqua for centuries. It was one of the main problems the Tranquan guardians had to deal with. I made frequent checks into the bridge every 15 minutes, to correct the course whenever necessary. We wouldn't want to 'drift' off course, not even for a minute, under such a tight schedule. The girls were obviously overjoyed by the fact that they were free and on their way back to Tranqua, but I couldn't quite shake something from the edge of my senses. I didn't want to make them worry now, so I kept it to myself. It was just this. Due to the variant differential of the 2 planetary orbital periods, it would take us longer than 60 hours to return to Tranqua. It would take more like 65. That gave us only 3 to 5 hours to spare. When one considered the unknown variables involved in the destruction of an entire planet, 3 to 5 hours was cutting is very close. The first unknown variable was the Martian fleet. According to my calculations, it was already somewhere out in space, somewhere between Mars and Tranqua. Somewhere such as right in our path. The first 50 hours passed easily enough. The girls helped with that little nervous glitch I had in my head, but at Zero minus 18, I was back in the pilot seat again. There were 3 very large Martian Windships, a few hundred kilometers dead ahead. As I sited them, I realized we were gaining on them fast. At our speed, we'd overpass them like a bat out of hell. I told everyone to buckle in, it could get rough. More so if some Martian Warbird- escorts of the fleet decided to hop on our tail-jets. The fleet was only traveling a quarter of the Warbird's speed, so when we passed over them, we left them eating stardust. The Warbird's fusion-drive was just as eager to get home as we were. As was feared, 2 Martian Warbirds quickly pursued us. I had the jump on them, and they couldn't go any faster, so it was a race with the very nerves. Then they decided to try and blast us, probably after getting confirmation from the Windship commander. A couple of close misses set the Warbird rocking and vibrating. I knew we'd be slowed down one way or another, so I decided to give them a fight. I decreased the aft-jets and did a loop maneuver. They passed under us as we followed through, and I zeroed in on one. A shot of the ray hit the back edge of the right wing just as they two decided to copy our move. The one that was hit lost some control and failed to follow through with the loop. The other followed through and almost blasted us. We maneuvered just in time, and fired the torpedoes from the rear. The Martian Warbird dodged 2 and got hit by the third. The other ship was nowhere seen, so I quickly reset the course for Tranqua. Minutes later, we were traveling at top-speed again. I took a rest and told T'rwani to let me know if anything happened. When I awoke, we were just about 2.5 hours away from our destination. At Zero minus 2.4, we bypassed Vesta and went into orbit around Tranqua. I quickly contacted Tranqua and warned them of the Martian fleet. I located the coordinates of the temple and laid in a course. At Zero minus 2, we swept the Warbird into the temple bay high over the edge of the mountains, and parked it in its private garage. I quickly adjusted the temporal controls, told the girls to hang on tight, and pushed the button. At the very second the Warbird began rocking side by side. We were thrown by the force, our seatbelts began to break, then it stopped, and the view-screen was completely black for almost a minute, as the Warbird spun about through unknown space. Quite suddenly, we rephased into the future, but we weren't in the garage anymore, where we had expected to be, we were lost amongst the asteroids. Somehow, we had traveled back to the future; we were thrown away from the temple bay. "What happened?" T'rwani said, as I attempted to regain control of the slowly spinning off-course craft. "Where are we?" "We returned to the future," I said, and took a few minutes to configure what exactly had happened. "But after the explosion on Tranqua, the temple is not where it would normally be, in the temporal continuum. It was misplaced by the cataclysm." As I surmised all this, I realized that my warning to alert the Tranquan Aerospace Guardians had not been enough to prevent it. I checked the chronometer. It was off by centuries. It was probably affected by the explosion. "Are we in the 21st century?" she asked. "There's only one way to be sure," I said. "I've got to try and detect satellite carrier waves. There were none in space prior to the 20th century, so that should narrow it down." I worked at the radio-console, while T'rwani and Venali played pilot and co-pilot, guiding the Warbird through the asteroid field at a slow speed, to match the stones without getting too close to them. It took some time, but I finally figured out where we were. "We're in the 21st century," I said, "but from this angle, I'd say we're quite a distance from the temple." "What'll we do now?" T'rwani almost cried. "Simple," I replied, and began adjusting the real spatial controls. "Jupiter is the most obvious lite in this region of space. So, we'll go to Callisto, as we had planned to begin with." The girls brightened somewhat, but Venali seemed a bit lost. T'rwani was having a hard time explaining Tranqua's destruction by Mars to her. She had to get over the loss, and it wouldn't be easy. She told Venali about our plans to construct a temple on Callisto, and that helped some. Venali had been a simple servant on Zykura before she was kidnapped. She was greatly impressed by the rescue, the Warbird, the powerful ways of the High Amplek, but it would take time for her to get over the loss of her home-planet. I plotted the course, resuming the helm, and fired the jets. "ETA is 180 hours," I said, and hoped there was enough food and water on board. From what I saw in the kitchenette, it was plenty. I relaxed and danced through the great field of space stones, while the girls fixed something to eat. I yawned and smiled, as I listened to their sweet voices, but I turned neutral as I thought about what had just passed in the last 200 hours. My warning had not been enough to prevent the destruction. Should I have done more? If the Warbird could go back again, could I prevent Tranqua's destruction? This question hung about the edge of my relative logistics as we maintained course for Jupiter. One chapter had passed. Would there be another? |
Chapter 14: The Asteroid Miners Chapter 15: T’rwani and Tranqua Chapter 16: The Europan Pirates Chapter 17: A Clone for a Companion Chapter 18: A Skirmish in Space Chapter 19: The Story of Tranqua Chapter 20: Dealing with the AMV Chapter 21: The Tranquan Transverser Chapter 22: The Trouble with Martians Chapter 23: The Martian Consulate, Zykura Chapter 24: Hexnot, Mars Chapter 25: The Final Cataclysm |
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