Beyond Eternity Read online

  Chapter 13

  Harmony Guards tossed me down on the smooth marble floor of the audience chamber. I really needed to find a better way to travel.

  I tried to get up, but a guard pressed his boot into my back, saying, "Stay down."

  The Patriarch stood next to his throne, in front of the giant black flag. Katrina was at his side, and Erlik held Finn securely in his arms.

  I yelled, "Let him go!"

  The Patriarch glanced at me and said, "I see you are awake, Mr. Stone. I will deal with you in a moment." He turned back to Finn and said, "You have been a very naughty boy."

  Finn was silent, but stood defiantly. His small frame bore the resolve of a full-grown man.

  Erlik spoke up. "We found this on him." He was holding John's holographic memory cube.

  Rexxor said, "I have been looking for that. And to think that you had it all along."

  Edgar rushed into the room and stood before the Patriarch. "Father, they put out the fire in the processing facility, but there's something wrong in the Ambrosia garden. All of the plants are dying and the technicians have no idea what's causing it."

  Rexxor fumed. "What did you do, boy?"

  Finn stood silent and a smile crept up on his face.

  "You little bastard, what did you do?"

  The boy just stood there.

  The Patriarch grabbed Finn by the hair and tore him out of Erlik's arms. Rex drew his hand back and slapped the boy's face so hard that his body flew onto the throne. Finn pushed himself up and looked at Rexxor with a gaze that could bore holes through his head.

  Rex turned away from the boy and stepped towards Erlik. The Patriarch spoke in a low, rumbling voice. "I had such high hopes for you, my Child."

  Finn almost spat as he responded: "I'm not your child and you're not my father."

  "Have it your way." Rex spun around with Erlik's baton clenched in his hand. The startled boy had no time to react. Rexxor struck him in the head with such force that the boy's blood splattered across the giant black flag that hung behind the throne.

  Everyone in the room froze as Finn's tiny body crumpled to the ground. A bestial scream resounded through the room, and I slowly realized that it was coming from me. Any lingering exhaustion drained from my body and was replaced by burning rage.

  I surged to my feet so violently that the guards restraining me fell over. Several others took their places and shoved me down to my knees. One of them kicked me in the stomach and I lost my breath.

  Rex signaled for them to stop. "Robert, I lay a simple decision before you. Serve me, or you will die like your friend."

  I took a few gulps of air, and a dark grin contorted my face. "You're right. It is a simple decision, but not the one you think. You sealed your fate the moment you struck that innocent boy. Before I die, I'm going to make you pay for what you've done."

  "So be it. Erlik, finish him."

  Erlik strode toward me looking self-satisfied. He had finally been unleashed. The bloodthirsty man cracked his knuckles while closing the distance between us.

  Harmony Guards gripped both of my arms, but my pent-up rage finally boiled over. I drove an elbow into a guard's groin and sprang to my feet. He let out a high pitched squeal and fell to the ground. The guard to my left wrapped his arms around me, but I used his momentum, pivoted my hips, and threw him over my shoulder.

  Erlik quickened his pace and began charging. The guards behind me were closing in as well, so I dashed straight at Erlik.

  One of the Harmony Guards reached for me just as Erlik drew his whip, and an odd sensation became apparent. The passage of time seemed to slow down, and the actions of those around me became sluggish, while I could respond as quickly as ever. Almost in slow motion, Erlik let his whip uncoil on the ground and prepared to strike. Time continued to slow, and the lunging guard lingered in a position so off-balance that he should have fallen over. Looking back at Erlik, the tip of his whip was creeping through the air. I grabbed the outreached hand of the guard and spun his body in front of me to catch the snap of the whip. An expression of surprise froze on the man's face as his body went rigid from the paralyzing sting. I retrieved the electrified baton from the guard's utility belt, and tossed the man's petrified body at Erlik with unexpected ease. My nemesis was knocked backwards and a dozen of his guards closed in around me.

  The closest Harmony Guard leapt at me, and I easily struck the side of his neck. Then I spun away and let him fall to the ground. The next one came rushing as well, just as clumsy and slow. I ducked as he made contact, and the man tumbled over my back. Another stepped forward, then hesitated. I put my boot into his chest, as if I was kicking down a door, and sent him flying into his comrades.

  I heard Erlik's whip dragging across the floor, winding up for another attack. Time seemed to slow even further while it snapped at me like a snake. I dove out of the way before it could land. As I rolled aside and regained my footing, I snatched a second baton from an injured guard sprawled out on the ground. I tapped the ends of my two electrified batons together and watched sparks fill the gap.

  Erlik cracked his whip at me time and again, but he did little more than stir up the air. Finally, I feinted to the left then dove to the right. His next strike went wide and gave me a chance to close the distance between us.

  He was preparing to lash at me again when I slammed both of my batons into his right hand. The whip dropped harmlessly to the ground. Erlik recoiled, and his eyes darted between me and the handle of his weapon on the floor. I drew back one baton while keeping the other enticingly within his reach. Erlik lunged forward and I tagged him on the shoulder, then swung up at his chin. He cried as electricity surged through him. Glaring at the men surrounding me, he yelped in a broken voice, "Don't just stand there. Get him!"

  Erlik's Harmony Guards regrouped and were closing in on me while he retreated. I spun to face them again, and their numbers only seemed to have grown. The mob rushed me from all sides and I struck at every exposed weakness while parrying incoming blows.

  Something primal had awakened inside me. I roared and unleashed a torrent of strikes that must have seemed impossible to come from a man. More guards poured into the room while Erlik cowered next to his father. Even with a wall of men between us, I felt unstoppable. I was determined to crush anyone in my path and fight my way to the throne. I'd follow through on my promise to make them pay.

  As I neared the rostrum, I caught sight of Finn's body. How could so much blood have come out of such a small boy? I thought I saw a hint of movement, but couldn't be sure.

  As I fixated on the child, I felt a breeze of air, but didn't respond fast enough. A baton struck the base of my neck and sent a surge of pain through me. More blows followed and I fell to the floor. Time regained its normal rhythm, and there was nothing I could do to arrest the flurry of attacks.

  I became numb to the onslaught, and only fought for one more glimpse of Finn's lifeless form. It was all over now. I had failed him.

  Suddenly, explosions shook the room as projectiles tore through the chamber. An entire section of wall was missing, and outside air whistled through the opening. Harmony Guards scattered and dove to the floor, seeking cover.

  I was dizzy from the repeated blows to my body and could barely move, but looked up to see Hazel jump through the hole in the wall and come running towards me. A few guards tried to stop her, but she was as quick as lightning. She lashed out at anyone in her way with a storm of kicks, knees, and elbows. Hazel greeted the final guard who held me down with a boot to his face. Then she extended a hand to me and said, "Come on, get on your feet."

  Harmony guards were lying all over the floor. Hazel pulled me up and prevented me from falling while we staggered towards the opening in the wall. The Odyssey was hovering just outside with the crew doors open. She practically threw me in the front seat, then dove in the back.

  I had just put my helmet on in time to hear Betty say, "Hazel, there are four Enforcers inbound. ETA fifteen seconds."
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  Hazel quickly said, "I have the controls, Betty."

  The first Enforcer was just coming into sight. It was a giant, lumbering cinderblock of a ship, covered with weapons pylons. Hazel dumped the collective and we went into a free fall. I didn't have a chance to buckle in and bounced off the canopy. Then Hazel opened up the thrusters, and I was tossed back into my seat. The Odyssey continued shooting down into the crevice between the skyscrapers.

  We weaved between buildings, trying to keep the Enforcers from locking onto us. I was struggling just to get buckled in when Hazel did a break turn. The ship nosed down, banked to the right, and we picked up speed. We leveled off and I finally got secure. I keyed the mic and said, "Finn is still in there!"

  "What?"

  "He got hit in the head. I don't know if he's alive or dead, but we have to go back for him."

  "You know as well as I do that's not an option right now."

  Betty spoke up: "Missile lock, six-o'clock."

  Hazel nosed over, and we came screaming towards the ground. She leveled off just above the surface. Then Hazel pulled hard to the right, and I could feel the shockwave from a missile impacting just short of us.

  The Enforcers were too big to fly between the buildings, but they unleashed a storm of fire from above. Suddenly, a swarm of smaller craft joined the fight and got on our tail. The Javelins were fast and agile, but the Odyssey's higher top end speed kept them just out of reach.

  We came to an intersection and a stream of projectiles cut across our path. Hazel pitched back hard and pulled an armful of collective. Then she increased the thrusters, and the g-forces made it feel like I weighed a thousand pounds.

  Hazel turned back the way we came and shot right past the Javelins. Then she made another hard turn and cut through an alley.

  I said, "We're not going to last much longer like this."

  "I can't argue with that."

  We continued accelerating until the buildings became a blur. Hazel said, "Betty, override safety protocols and get us out of here. You have the controls; just try not to kill us."

  "I have the controls, and I won't kill you, Hazel."

  Suddenly, we shot straight up and passed between two Enforcers when we cleared the buildings. With my back buried in the seat, it was difficult to breathe. I could only get air in short, gulping breaths.

  Betty made a sudden adjustment to our flight path, just before some projectiles shot past us. Then we continued to accelerated even harder.

  "Hazel, we have reached a velocity beyond the capabilities of their guided weapons, and I can dodge any unguided munitions."

  There was no response. I felt dizzy and maintained only a narrow tunnel of vision. It took all of my will to fight the irresistible desire to close my eyes and fall asleep.

  We passed through some clouds, and the sky gradually changed color from blue to black. Stars began sparkling everywhere I looked. My body became weightless, and several scraps of paper floated around the cockpit. I said, "Hazel, this is amazing." There still was no response. "Hazel. Hazel!"

  I glanced into the canopy-mounted mirror, but I couldn't see her. I rotated the knob on my seatbelt, and the straps popped free. Grasping the back of my seat, I turned around and looked through the blast shield between our crew stations. Hazel was slumped in her seat with her head hanging down.

  "Betty, is she okay?"

  "Hazel is fine. She is just sleeping."

  "Are you sure?"

  I wasn't sure if computers were capable of emotion, but Betty almost sounded indignant when she said, "Yes, I am sure she is okay." After a brief pause, Betty continued, "Hazel's heart rate is normal, and her respiration is gradually increasing. She will wake up in a few minutes."

  I should have known better than to second-guess the ship's computer and tried to make it up to her. "Thanks for saving us, Betty."

  "It was my pleasure. Hazel is my best friend. She likes you, which makes you my friend as well."

  "Thanks, Betty. Can you turn the ship so we can see the planet better?"

  "Certainly, Robert."

  She triggered thrusters and aligned the Odyssey so the planet was directly in front of us. The largest landmass was blanketed in shadow, with daybreak approaching the east coast. Lights from a few enormous cities burned through the darkness, but there was a surprising lack of activity between them. I would have thought that such a large area would have been more densely populated.

  Then it occurred to me just how small I was in the big scheme of things. It's one thing to read about the size of a planet in a textbook, but it's an entirely different experience to see it for yourself. I had wanted to become an astronaut ever since I was a kid. But it was one of those dreams that you cast aside when you accept the realities of life. I had long since given up believing that it could actually happen, but here I was, surrounded by the vacuum of space above a distant world. Despite all of my hardship and loss, I was grateful to be here, grateful to be with Hazel, grateful to be alive.

  Finally, Hazel woke up. "What happened?"

  "Betty got us out of there while you took a nap."

  "Oh... were you trying to tell me something earlier?"

  My heart sank. "We left Finn behind."

  "What happened? I didn't see him."

  "The Patriarch smashed his head with a baton and blood sprayed all over the place. If he wasn't dead then, he probably is now. Finn saved me. He put his life on the line for me and I failed him."

  Hazel's voice broke, but she tried to reassure me. "Robert, there wasn't anything you could do against those Harmony Guards. They had you outnumbered."

  "They may have had me outnumbered, but they didn't have me beat. Actually, it was almost as if time slowed down for a bit. I could see what they were doing and react before they even knew what was happening. If I hadn't let myself get distracted, I could have cleared out that whole room." I got choked up and said, "Finn was a good kid. He didn't deserve this. He didn't deserve to die in a pool of his own blood. Finn wouldn't have even been there if it wasn't for me."

  "No, he didn't deserve to be murdered by the Family, but the Patriarch did this, not you."

  "Hazel, there's one more thing. They got John's holographic memory cube. Finn had it all along. Now the Family has everything they need to invade my world."

  "They're not going to make it to your world, because we're going to stop them. We have to tell my parents what happened."

  "How are we going to get to them? I bet the city is swarming with ships."

  "My parents are safe. I got them out right after you went missing. My dad can help us find a way to destroy the portal and stop Rex's army."

  "Hazel, look at that." An aurora slowly danced across the ice cap on the planet's north pole. Streams of green and purple light rippled through the sky. It was the most spectacular thing I'd ever seen.

  "That's beautiful, but we don't have time for sightseeing. We have work to do. Betty, I have the controls."

  "You have the controls, Hazel."

  I rushed to buckle up before she engaged the thrusters. The planet quickly grew as we descended, and it didn't take long for the ship to bite into the atmosphere. We were coming in hot. Any air defense systems would have trouble targeting us at the speed we were traveling.

  Although darkness engulfed the land, everything was as clear as day in the Odyssey's sensors. We screamed towards the ground, and Hazel pulled up with only moments to spare. The ship skimmed the surface at incredible speeds. Any lower, and we would have been brushing the treetops.

  "Where are we going?"

  "Do you remember the city ruins to the west of the Capitol? I brought my parents to a hideout there."

  Terrain passed like a blur. It wasn't long before we entered the outskirts of the ruined city, still only feet above the ground. Hazel barely climbed enough to avoid rubble and the abandoned vehicles scattered about. Finally, we began slowing near the base of what was once a great building. Bombs had torn it apart, and there wasn't anything
left above the first few floors.

  We turned in to the entrance of an underground parking garage and began descending. Some of the cars that remained inside had blown out windows, while others were completely burned down to their charred metal frames. Level after level passed by until we reached the bottom. Hazel set the Odyssey down near a heavy vault door that lay behind a crumbling cinderblock wall.

  "Betty, we need to be ready to go at a moment's notice. Please run a post-flight diagnostic and wait for our return."

  "Yes, Hazel."

  We climbed out of the Odyssey and stood before the massive door. Hazel spun a locking mechanism until the door broke free, and the hinges screeched as we tugged it open. The passage inside was only dimly lit with emergency lights. After a few steps, we had to descend a steep staircase. The stairs must have gone down over two-hundred feet before we reached another equally massive door. Hazel pounded on it with the palm of her hand, barely making a sound. Moments later, we heard someone spin the lock free from the other side.

  The door opened and Anson stood in the passageway. He looked worse than the last time I saw him, as if he was carrying some unseen burden.

  "Welcome."

  I said, "What is this place?"

  "This was the last resistance stronghold when Rexxor swept across the world with his army. As you can see, it's long since been abandoned."

  A cheerful voice approached in the background. Glinda said, "That must be Hazel? Does she have Robert and Finn with her?" She wore a smile on her face that instantly faded once she saw that her boy was absent. "Where is Finn?"

  I said, "I'm so sorry. I failed to keep him safe. The Patriarch struck Finn down, and I couldn't save him." My eyes began watering, and I choked up. "It's all my fault."

  Glinda turned away and rushed out of the room. Hazel glanced at me, then went to comfort her mother.

  Anson put a hand on my shoulder and said in a tired voice, "Son, I can see from your bruises that it wasn't from lack of trying. You mustn't blame yourself for the evil done by others."