Chapter 1∩
Smardwurst peered into the dim tunnel as his suit highlighted the tiny scratches left by Ned’s boots on the crystalline floor. Each time the tunnel split, it took several seconds to figure out which branch to take, and Smardwurst found himself wondering if he had waited too long before following. There was no sound from the tunnel ahead. It felt strange, pushing himself forward toward a conflict where he knew he would be outmatched once he arrived. But he also suspected that he would be needed, so he continued forward as fast as he could.
Then a sharp blast echoed back up the corridor, a clear signal that Ned had reached his destination. Smardwurst clipped his carbine to his back, then unclipped the heavy rocket launcher he had been carrying there and continued forward. The echo was followed by others, which grew in volume and brought with them tremors that shook the floor so much that Smardwurst nearly lost his feet twice. Debris from dislodged crystals cluttered the passage, and the light ahead intensified. Then the corridor shook again, and this time Smardwurst stumbled to the ground. The rumbling continued, and sharp flashes of light coiled their way through the crystal walls of the tunnel. Despite the shaking, Smardwurst forced himself back to his feet and continued onward, staying close to the wall so he could brace himself when necessary. The rumbling culminated in a loud cracking sound and then went still. Just a few seconds later, the tunnel ended in a sheer drop-off.
Smardwurst crept furtively to the edge and looked around. The cavern opened into a wide vertical chamber, lit with glowing patches of light and filled with a thick liquid some distance below. Light shone from within the fluid, and Smardwurst quickly picked out two distinct sources. One was bright blue, and the other, far brighter but paler in color, was moving toward the first. Quickly Smardwurst aimed his rocket launcher toward the brighter light and fired. The projectile splashed into the liquid below before exploding, scattering its payload of flammable gel into the lake. The gel burst into flame instantly, and the lake lit up with red light as the combustion gasses caused the fluid to boil. Smardwurst could no longer make out Ned’s position, but he fired again, scattering more fire into the boiling liquid. The gel was self-oxygenated and was designed to burn for a long time, but already the first round was starting to fade as the cold liquid won out against the fire. Smardwurst had just pressed the trigger a third time when a sudden burst of light caught his eye, speeding toward him from a corner of the lake. Just in time he dropped the rocket launcher and sprang for the cover of the wall; white crystal exploded all over the passage opening where he had been standing just an instant before. When the blast cleared, Smardwurst saw that the rocket launcher was pinned to the floor, partially encased in the icy substance. He quickly unclipped his carbine. In his mind he could picture himself cutting through the ice with a few laser blasts and then recovering the launcher, but he quickly saw the danger in attempting that. Instead, he moved back into the tunnel a bit and waited. Those few rockets had probably been all he would be able to contribute here, but he was not quite ready to run yet.
Ned gasped like a drowning man taking in air when the heat of Smardwurst’s first rocket exploded into the lake. A pressure wave drove him back, but all Ned really noticed was that the ether was suddenly free of Rax’s icy hold, and Ned drew all the power he could into himself. His suit’s alarm sounded again as two more rockets hit, but by this point Ned was able to fortify his Plasma shield enough to keep himself stable for the moment. Again he began to propel himself toward the rocky wall, which was closer now thanks to the explosions’ shockwaves.
Then he sensed Rax’s power focusing again, and he looked upward just in time to see the rush of white light speeding toward what he assumed was the opening of the cavern. Finally his mind cleared enough to piece together what must have happened; Smardwurst had followed him down and distracted Rax. But that distraction could not last long, Ned knew. The fire was fading, and there was no fourth rocket burst. He had to act immediately, or he would find himself in the exact same situation as before. He drew as much Plasma as he could out of the flames and vapor and the reached up to create a vortex. It was a risk; he had no idea what would happen if Rax somehow severed his hold of the Vortex Plasma before he was through. But he was out of time. He pushed the opening upward until he could sense the opening of the cavern and then teleported himself clear.
Ned fell to the ground in the dark cavern, feeling spent but relieved at the same time.
“Nedward!”
Ned turned, bracing himself against the wall as he regained his footing. “Smardwurst! You have to get out of here. She’ll be right behind me.”
“This way. I had to drop the rocket launcher.”
Ned followed his gaze back toward the opening and spotted the heavy weapon stuck to the floor. “Just a second,” With Rax a little farther off, Ned was able to gather some power around himself, and in a moment he had teleported the launcher clear of the crystal webbing and into his own hands. “It’s a good thing you brought this,” he said as he started back up the passageway.
“I’m not sure how much good it will do us,” Smardwurst said, hurrying alongside him. “I am glad it drove her off, but this entire planet seems to be on her side.”
“If we could just get her outside, the fighters could join the attack. Or-”
“Running again?” Rax’s voice sounded over his com link, but it also seemed to echo throughout the cavern. “I hope you don’t think I’m just going to let you walk back outside.”
Ned tried to quicken his pace, but he knew the entrance was a long way off, and there were any number of connecting passages that Rax could use to cut him off, assuming that she knew a shorter path out.
“Captain Varlon!” This time the message came from Commander Undúvlahuth aboard Green Scorpion. “White Mercury has returned. We are under attack.”
“Kjrvlnk?”
“He is still on the planet, aboard Mandible. He said communications had been cut off, but they seem to be open again.”
She wants us to know, Ned thought. The passage intersected another a short distance ahead, and Ned thought he felt the icy hold on the Plasmic ether intensify. “Wait,” he said, stopping Smardwurst. “She’s not going to let us confront her out there. It’s like you said. The entire planet…”
“You have a plan?” Smardwurst was making no attempt to hide the urgency from his voice.
Ned pressed the rocket launcher into his friend’s hands. “When she appears, fill the passage with fire. Then get out as fast as you can.”
“I only have three left. The fire will not last long.”
Ned started back up the tunnel. “I was the Shield Master. I should be able to handle this.” He pulled at the Plasma around him with all his strength, knowing that he was almost out of time. This was going to be close.
The intersecting passage lit up with white light as Rax appeared, the web of ice already flying outward from her outstretched palm. As Ned reached out with his power to meet her attack, Smardwurst launched a rocket. It struck the icy barrier and exploded in-between them, stressing Ned’s armor with its heat, but still he focused his power forward. The flames freed some of the ether nearby, and Ned managed to force a vortex through the wall that was spreading toward them. The second rocket exploded closer to Rax, spraying her with the burning gel. She called out in anger, but almost immediately the gel had been flung back, and the Ice Master was charging power again. Smardwurst was quick with a third rocket, but Rax was already moving, so the final shot exploded behind her. The whole tunnel was glowing red, but Ned could sense the Ice Plasma seeping toward Rax from all directions, recharging her even as she was under attack. It was just like Smardwurst had said: the planet was helping her.
It was time to put a stop to that.
With every ounce of strength he could draw from the surrounding heat, Ned reached his power out through the ether and wrapped it around Rax. He was not sure whether she sensed what he was doing, but it was not easy to interfere with the tendrils
of ethereal Plasma she was sending out, especially the ones at her feet. But there was fire everywhere, and Ned suspected that Rax had never bothered to interact with raw Plasma the way he had been forced to do in order to learn new abilities. He pressed in on her as she tried to drive her attack forward at him, and finally he felt it complete everywhere except directly between them, where Rax was focusing her attack. Ned jumped to the side, letting the Ice Plasma continue toward him unrestrained for just an instant. Some of it struck him, but the attack momentarily carried Rax’s focus away from the space directly in front of her, and Ned seized the opportunity to complete his spherical hold on the ether. With all his strength, he brought the Plasma into normal space in the form of a shield. He smiled with grim satisfaction as he saw Rax’s eyes widen in shock.
“What is this?” she called out, thrashing her arms to the side. Ned let the Plasma give ground a bit, but he kept the blue light constant all around her as she moved, cutting her off from the source of her power.
“Still feeling impressed?” Ned’s voice came as a shout. Now that Rax was cut off from the energy around her, it was becoming easier for him to draw power from the surrounding rock. He sent a wave of heat into his Plasma shield, using the blue energy as a weapon as well as a barrier. “It’s no wonder Mirana got away from you! You can’t even defeat me, and I don’t even have a Crystal! I’m just a boy!” He sent another wave of blue heat, and Rax flinched backward. She was still fighting the barrier, but her attack seemed to be weakening.
“Stop!” She called, and abruptly she dropped to one knee, holding her hands up protectively. The look of panic on her face almost made Ned let up his attack, but he knew well enough what would happen if he let her go now.
“Call off your ship,” Ned ordered in a low voice.
“Promise you won’t kill me! Take me back you your ship!”
Smardwurst seemed to be saying something to Kjrvlnk, but Ned did not dare turn his focus away from Rax. Instead, he took a few steps forward, exulting in the rush of power flowing through him.
“Please, Nedward!” Rax looked truly afraid now, and her voice was practically a scream. “Don’t kill me here! I can help you! I have information about Dark Viper!”
“I… do... not… trust… you.” He could feel her resistance weakening, and his heart quickened as he thought about how quickly he had turned this battle around. “You deserve to be destroyed.”
A look of defiance crossed Rax’s face. “If I die here, your friends will die too. Even without full shields, my ship is strong enough to wipe out everything on the surface, to say nothing of your friend’s crew. If you do somehow survive the attack, you will live with their deaths on your head.”
“You need to finish this,” Smardwurst said, startling him.
The sight of Smardwurst next to him interrupted the euphoria he was feeling, giving him the chance to stop and think. All these people had come here with him to defeat Rax. But Ned had never meant to trade their lives for hers. He stopped attacking, instead using his power to simply maintain his barrier. “Call off your ship,” he repeated. “If you do, and if you leave this planet without resistance, I will deliver you to Green Scorpion, and we can talk about the next step.”
“That also assumes we can contain her,” Smardwurst warned over the com link.
But Rax was already ordering the Vortak to withdraw, and Ned did not want to change her mind by discussing technicalities. A moment later, Güzhmäk confirmed the cease fire. Rax looked at Ned intently as if to challenge his willingness to go through with the deal. Ignoring the insult inherent in her doubt, Ned extended his Plasmic barrier up the corridor, toward the entrance. When Rax began to walk, he moved the barrier’s trailing edge behind her, keeping her trapped in a small bubble of Shield Plasma. It required constant effort, but the energy in the rock around him gave him a steady source of power, and as he walked after his new prisoner, Ned felt that his trap was holding. He had won, in a matter of speaking. With help. While Smardwurst contacted Kjrvlnk and coordinated the Ice Master’s transport to his ship, Ned watched Rax’s furtive movements as she walked and permitted himself a moment of satisfaction.
My world is falling apart, Kayleen thought in dismay. She had been so close. She should have won here; even the pyrogel had merely delayed the advance of her power. But somehow Nedward had used the fire attack to cut Kayleen off from the Plasma Matrix around her, leaving her with only the coldness associated with her own body. Or rather, this transparent thing that was passing for a body at the moment. It was shocking that her victory could be taken from her so suddenly, yet at the same time it could be said to fit in with the way her life had been going lately. Nakmar was gone. Mirana Kelar had slipped away even in the very act of attacking, and now Ned had been rescued by this insignificant frog thing that did not even have Plasmic powers.
If Viper had not shown such obvious and deep-rooted hatred for Ned and Mirana, Kayleen might have thought that the whole thing was part of his plan. But as it was, she had no trouble figuring out what his plans would involve now. If she surrendered or were captured, she would be a huge liability in addition to a failure four times over. It would not matter that she had come close to winning each time. It would not matter that her failure here was due entirely to a weakness to heat that Viper himself had given her. He would want her dead. It would be just like it was before, only this time there would be no fleeing to Palandora. If she did not find some leverage soon, she would quickly find herself facing execution orders from both sides of the war. Her time was running out.
The cavern was growing lighter as the entrance grew nearer, and Kayleen slowed. Once she was out there, she would be vulnerable to weapons fire from space, not to mention the fighters that had been harassing her Vortak escort. She had to assume that all of her insectile companions were dead. That in itself was frustrating, because it seemed likely that even a brief attack might disrupt Nedward’s hold on her long enough for her to break free and escape. She momentarily thought about lunging to one side, maybe knocking that frog to the ground. She could kill him quickly at close range, and then the battle would once again favor her Ice Plasma. But it was too easy to picture the quick end she would certainly face if her attempt failed, and the risk felt too great. Instead, she let herself be marched outside, where the distant sun had now set and left nothing but the starfield to illuminate them.
Green Scorpion hovered a short distance above, and a shuttlecraft had landed several meters down the rock face, where the slope eased up and offered a flat surface. Kayleen thought bitterly that she knew how Mirana would have felt if she had really been captured, paraded into a shuttle like a caged animal. She had almost hoped that Captain Varlon might try to use a tractor beam to get her into space, since that might have required Ned to release his hold on her before she was too far off the ground. But this way was hardly a shock; it was how Kayleen herself would do it – how she had done it. She shook her head in shame.
Then Smardwurst was calling out to Ned, and Kayleen turned to see her captor look skyward. She followed his gaze and saw the cause of the commotion: White Mercury had reappeared. She could already make out its major features against its running lights. She was still trying to decide whether this might be good news when the laser fire started. Columns of red energy burned down into the snow, atomizing the Crilitanion crystal and filling the area with haze. The ground shook as the shuttle took a direct hit and exploded, and Ned must have been forced back, because all of a sudden Kayleen was free.
“Destroy her, now!” Smardwurst was yelling to his crew from somewhere close behind her, and she hurried off to the side. There was a rush of power as the planet’s cold augmented her Ice Plasma, but the laser fire from White Mercury was throwing it into so much chaos that she was not sure how well she would be able to protect herself. No doubt the Vortak’s primary target was Nedward, but Kayleen had no illusions of her own status here. If the Vortak managed to kill Ned, they would turn on her next.
&nbs
p; Evidently Green Scorpion was blocking or intercepting White Mercury’s missiles, because the area had not been vaporized yet, but there was no telling how long that would last. Kayleen turned and used her power to cling to the icy rock face, feeling ahead with her power in an attempt to locate the cave she had just left. But she had gone only a short distance when Ned appeared through the haze, blue fire surrounding his armored body. She turned to face him even as Plasmic fire erupted from his hand.
“There’s no time for this,” she shouted as she deflected his attack. More ship-based lasers struck the ground, and again everything beyond a few meters disappeared in the rain of shattered stone. “I didn’t call them here! They know I’ve lost, and they’re here to kill us both!” Ned’s fire was surrounding her, augmented by the Plasma freed from the cold by the laser strikes. But she pushed back, determined not to release her hold on the cold below her. “We have to disable that ship or none of us will make it out!”
Nedward did not respond, but Kayleen noticed that he was backing away, and she knew what that meant: he was giving Green Scorpion room to fire. The Zalorian ship was much closer to their location than White Mercury, and if its captain had somehow gotten clear, then it would be a simple matter to hit the area with missile or two. Nedward could probably teleport away at the last second. Kayleen was out of time.
Heedless of the blue fire burning away her strength, Kayleen rushed the former Shield Master and wrapped Ice Plasma around him as best she could. Nedward’s fire was pushing her back, but she managed to solidify a few bands of frigid energy around his general position and then tighten them so that the battling pair were locked together by the ice. When she felt certain he was not going anywhere, Kayleen reached her power skyward with as much force as she could gather. Her opponent’s focus was now turned toward their immediate location, so Kayleen was able to direct the Plasmic energy farther away, sending it up in a white column of light. She did not even have to look to find her target; the warm bulk of Green Scorpion left an obvious void just a short distance above them. When she felt her power strike its shields, she forced her face up close to her enemy’s tinted visor. “Do you feel it, boy? Take us there!”
Ned’s thoughts had scattered when White Mercury’s attack had crushed his plans, freeing the Ice Master and once again threatening his friends. He knew the shuttle had been destroyed and felt an immediate sense of loss for its crew, but Smardwurst’s voice was still calling over the com link, shouting to his pricom officers to shield their location and to be ready to fire on Kayleen Rax. Ned had momentarily lost sight of his former prisoner as the laser fire cut up the cliff face, but the rush of power had quickly given her location away. Ned knew that she was not going to be caught off-guard again. But he could not risk letting her escape now. He was going to have to hold her at least long enough for someone to get a lock on her with a real weapon.
The battle had quickly resumed when Ned had found Rax, and he knew better than to waste time reasoning with her. He figured she must be thinking along the same lines as he was, so it was hardly a surprise when she rushed him, obviously hoping to prevent his friends from launching any missiles. But he had been surprised to find that her power was not really pressing against him; in fact, even as he attacked her she seemed to be merely holding on. He was so focused on burning into her icy defenses that he almost failed to notice her face up against his helmet. Did he “feel” what? Take them where?
“I’m going to release it,” she was saying urgently, shaking his shoulders even as he attacked her. “Use it to get us up there, now!”
Against what felt like his better judgment, Ned relented a little and reached out with his power to find out what she was talking about. Finally he noticed the stream of Ice Plasma that extended so far upward that it vanished into the night sky. But there were lights up there too, and Ned recognized the bulk of Green Scorpion high above him. Then Rax closed her eyes, and everything made sense. Ned felt her hold on the pillar of Plasmic energy release, and all of a sudden he was presented with a conduit of raw power all the way up to the ship. Maybe it was a trap, but surely it could not be worse than the current situation. “Green Scorpion. Get ready to pull us in.” Then Ned took hold of the power Rax had released and used it to teleport both of them skyward.
Ned had only vaguely been able to sense the ship’s location, so there was no hope of actually getting them on board. They came out of the vortex close to the hull, but immediately they began to fall. Ned was about to attempt a second teleportation when Rax’s hand closed around his wrist. He turned in mid-air to see that she had anchored herself to the ship by a stream of Ice Plasma. Looking into her eyes, Ned saw that she understood what would happen if she attacked him now. “This is Ned,” he called to the pricom. “We’re just outside. Can you open the nearest airlock?”
“Nedward? Is that her?”
“Yes, we’re both coming in. It’s okay, just have guards ready.”
Ned kept a burst of Plasma ready to discharge as Rax bent her strand of Ice Plasma around, but it turned out to be unnecessary; an instant later the pair were standing in the airlock, and Rax let her tether evaporate. Before the door closed, Ned could see that at least one of White Mercury’s modules had reached Green Scorpion and opened fire, accompanied by several fighters. He was clear of the planet but still far from safe.
“We need to finish off that ship,” Rax said as the small room repressurized. “If you can get us close like you did with your missile attack-”
“You stay here.” The inner door opened, and Ned stepped through, then turned in the doorway.
“I can still help you. There’s nothing tying me to Dark Viper now.”
“Don’t move,” Ned repeated, pointing a warning finger. He had not exactly meant to treat her like some rebellious pet, but he was still not sure how likely it was that he could keep her contained now that he was away from the planet’s reserve of Plasmic energy, so he wanted to seem as intimidating as he could. He turned to the guards who were already waiting on either side of the airlock door. “If she tries to leave, or if she summons her power at all, blow her out into space and have the pricom open fire.”
“Nedward! You need my power!”
He turned back to Rax and deactivated his helmet so she could see the earnestness of his decision. “I know I do. And I believe that you want to help. But I also believe you would kill me in an instant if you thought the situation might favor you, regardless of how you might feel now. It’s your nature. So remember this: I am probably the only person on this ship who sees any reason to let you live to see the rest of the day, so don’t try anything.” He turned and left before she had a chance to respond.
Piloting Mandible through the Vortak squadron, Smardwurst was having trouble keeping track of everything that was going on. He was glad to hear that Nedward had made it back to Green Scorpion, although he could not see any wisdom in the decision to bring Kayleen Rax along. There was no time to argue the matter, though, since White Mercury and its escort were already surrounding his ship. Trying to warp away would be useless; even if they managed to break away long enough to avoid having the warp field destabilized by enemy fire, Rax’s ship would have no trouble matching his maximum warp phase, and without the ability to maneuver or use starfighters, the battle would become a simple matter of shield attrition. And even though White Mercury still had some gaping holes in its shield coverage, the side that was covered would definitely outlast Green Scorpion in a direct shootout. It seemed that the only hope was to get Nedward back into someone’s cockpit and take another run at the warship.
“Is Nedward ready for another run?”
“Maybe,” Güzhmäk replied. “But all our fighters are severely weakened, and I think Nedward’s is still on the surface.”
Several fighters were moving in on Smardwurst. “Coordinate with him. Have him recover the fighter. But first, give me some cover fire.”
“I could ask the same of you, Captain. Hold on.”
&n
bsp; Smardwurst sped toward an enemy fighter, tearing into it with a steady stream of laser fire as he deftly evaded the return attack. It exploded, giving him a second to survey the situation. The module that Ned had crippled was either destroyed or holding back, and the main core was keeping its distance. But the other three sections were surrounding his ship, and he had already lost at least three of his fighter pilots, not to mention the crew on the shuttle. Kjrvlnk, who had somehow dispatched the entire guard of Vortak on the surface, was seated silently behind him, apparently out of ideas. And of course there were more enemy fighters closing in. Something told Smardwurst he was going to have to just hold on and hope Nedward came up with something.
As hesitant as he had been to leave Rax alone, Ned had decided that he needed to be on the pricom in order to fully understand the situation. Telling himself that he could get to her before she reached anything critical, he had hurried to the pricom, where he had quickly learned just how bad things were. The only real good news was that his fighter had been far enough away to have avoided the Vortak’s initial attack on the planet, and now that the fighting was moving back toward space, the little ship seemed safe. But there was no quick way to board it, and its shields were still dangerously low.
Commander Undúvlahuth was giving a running commentary on the dire circumstances. “Our squadron is far more skilled, but we are seriously outgunned here. What do you have planned?”
Ned closed his eyes to think. They needed a Plasma attack to disable the shields or engines on several ships. He did not have enough power to teleport through that much space to a moving target, and none of the fighters seemed strong enough to carry him, especially since any ship he was on would become the primary target of everything out there the moment they knew where he was. There was only one way this line of reasoning could go: Ned needed more power.
He opened his eyes finally, a dark look on his face. “This has to be the worst idea ever,” he muttered. But it was his only one.
“Rax?”
She must have had some kind of communication device on her, because she responded to the same channel as before. “I knew you’d-”
“How well can they anticipate your plans?”
“They don’t anticipate anything. They just-”
“We need to lure them closer to the ground. Can you convince them I’m on the surface?”
Rax was silent for a moment, and several members of the pricom crew eyed Ned suspiciously. “I suppose I could play dumb,” she said finally. “Pretend I don’t know they’re no longer following me. I could say I’ve got you pinned down in a cave, but I need torpedoes launched at specific points to make sure I trapped you. They might come down to the cliff face to fire point-blank. But they’re not going to stop attacking Green Scorpion.”
Ned turned to Güzhmäk. “We need to get as close to the ground as we can. They have to follow us down.”
The commander’s eyes and mustache exuded severe doubt. “What good will that do?”
“We have to lure them down!” Ned repeated, and ran back out the door toward the airlock. If he agrees, he thought to himself, I’m going to have to remember exiting the room as a method of persuasion.
Kayleen was not quite sure what Nedward was planning, but the sad fact was that she had never been so happy to hear someone’s voice as when he had called her. When he had left, Kayleen had been faced with what were looking like an increasingly bad set of options. She could sit here and be destroyed along with the enemies she was sent here to kill, or she could turn on them and suffer exactly the same fate – either at the hands of their weapons or those of the Vortak that were supposed to be her own subjects. Or, if Green Scorpion somehow made it back to the Imperial Armada, she could spend the rest of her possibly lengthy life locked up in some fire-rimmed cell, interrogated for information about a man that she realized she still knew almost nothing about. Breaking free and running away might become a possibility at some point, but how was she supposed to blend into someone’s society with a new identity when her skin was transparent? And that was to say nothing of evading the Plasma Masters that would end up hunting her.
They were troubling prospects on all counts, so Kayleen lit up with an unexpected hope when Ned asked her for help. It made sense, of course. She had told him already – he needed her power to get out of this. She was not sure what Ned was planning on the surface, but it meant one thing at least: he was trusting Kayleen enough to return her to a source of power. She supposed she could not blame him for not trusting her earlier, since she did start thinking of ways to kill him the moment he had ended the com link. But she had already been over this – Ned was her only chance of getting away from this planet alive. At least for the moment. Besides, she had a feeling that she was going to enjoy this plan of his, whatever it turned out to be.
Ned had to seriously question his sanity as he teleported Rax and himself down from Green Scorpion to the surface. It was a short jump; Smardwurst’s ship was just barely skimming the dark crystal surface, ostensibly searching for Ned. The three operational companion modules to White Mercury were close behind, although Ned had heard Güzhmäk say that one of them was badly damaged. Ned tried to find cover under an outcropping of rock while Kayleen called out orders to the ships that had apparently already decided to kill her. They could only hope that the promise of tracking down Ned’s position was enough of a lure to draw them close.
It seemed to be working, at least at first. One of the ships broke off pursuit of Green Scorpion and started what looked like a search pattern over the general area near Ned’s location.
“That’s the weaker one,” Güzhmäk called through his helmet. I’m going to try to bring the others; you might as well start with the strongest.”
Ned looked over at Rax. “Ready?”
Her eyes were closed, but she nodded eagerly. Ice Plasma was already billowing around them as her power charged, but as before it was not directed as a weapon; it was just there. Soon Green Scorpion passed by again, close overhead. A Vortak ship came close behind, but farther up. We need them lower, Ned thought. He looked around and spotted a cave in the cliff, then sent his power up there. When he had some charged, he fired a bolt of blue energy directly at the Vortak. The shot missed; there was no way he could maintain enough control at that distance. But it got their attention. Soon the ship was moving lower, turning toward the spot the shot had come from.
“Now!” Ned called. As they had planned, Rax directed her energy upward, seeking out the warmest spot on the ship. When her icy beam connected, she released her power, and Ned seized control of the raw Plasma left behind. While Rax’s hold had not been nearly strong enough to actually damage the ship, it was more than enough for Ned to use to open a small vortex. He fired a few missiles from his newly-refilled wrist launchers, and soon the ship above exploded, shaking the valley as it bathed the landscape in the light of its demise.
“Fools!” Rax called to the Vortak. “He’s right here! I can’t hold him off much longer!” Then she added to Ned, “Better move us.”
She released her hold on another stream of Plasma, this one leading higher up the canyon wall. Ned teleported them to the new location, just before another Vortak ship appeared and torpedoed the spot they had been standing just a moment earlier.
“Did they sense the source of the ice?” Ned asked apprehensively.
“That, or they traced my transmission. Try baiting them again.”
Ned stretched his power out again, firing a few shots from the spot that had taken the torpedo hits. The Shield Master would have been able to withstand the attack, so hopefully they would move in for a closer look.
It worked. The Vortak moved lower as the debris cleared, and soon Rax was firing another stream at the ship. It started to rise again, but Ned was quick with his vortex, opening a path to the ship’s interior. He fired a few more missiles, and while the explosion did not completely consume the ship this time, the crystalline vessel did shake visibly in the air. Ka
yleen was just starting to extend another beam of Ice Plasma when Green Scorpion returned. It fired a steady stream of lasers into the weakened ship, and Ned must have destroyed its shields because the ship immediately plummeted to the ground, causing rock to rain down onto Ned and Rax from the tremor it created as it struck. He followed Kayleen’s next beam across the valley just as the cavern they had been standing in collapsed.
Ned was surprised to hear Kjrvlnk’s voice over the com link. “Nedward. They are being ordered to terminate you at any cost. The main ship is to remain behind and report to Dark Viper if the others fail.”
“So there is just one ship left,” Smardwurst observed. “I wonder if they will fall for the same trap.”
The third ship did not approach; Ned could see it high above, firing the occasional shot as its fighters pestered Green Scorpion.
It’s not going to work again, Ned thought. Especially if that main ship goes back and tells the fleet what happened here. He turned to Rax, being careful not to broadcast any signal that might give away his position.
“I think we’re going to have to give them something more concrete before they’ll risk coming closer. Can you charge the whole valley? I have an idea.”
“I thought you might,” Rax said, smiling. She stretched out her hands, and a mist started rising from the valley floor.
Ned was still worried about the Vortak tracking his transmission, but he was going to need help. “Güzhmäk, can you land the ship? Or at least get it close? I want them to see me walking toward you. Maybe that will be enough of a reason for them to come down.”
“It will be impossible to dodge if we do that,” Undúvlahuth growled.
“I think I can protect you if you stay within the mist.”
“That does not sound encouraging.”
“The main ship is moving closer,” Smardwurst interrupted, sounding worried. “If this battle goes back into space, I’m not sure how much longer we can last.”
“Fine. I’m coming.”
Ned looked into Rax’s eyes, trying to gauge her commitment. She seemed genuinely invested, and Ned could not see any reason she would try to switch sides now. “Keep the power flowing,” he said. He briefly thought to follow that up with a threat but decided against it. Instead, he teleported himself a short distance into the valley, where Green Scorpion was already lowering toward the ground, returning fire to the ship above that it could no longer dodge. Its shields were glowing, and Ned did not need to be told that they were already weak. “Lower,” he prompted, then teleported forward again as the Vortak’s fire began coming in his direction. Soon he was standing right underneath Smardwurst’s ship, with Ice Plasma billowing past him to curl around the shield bubble. As he had requested, Kayleen was releasing a constant stream of energy to him from around the whole area. He reached out and took hold, then directed it upward.
Ned’s light wrapped around Green Scorpion’s shields, focusing in a thick layer at its top. Ned supposed that this was how Trelan Thendrak had worked in the old days, feeding raw power to the other Plasma Masters. Even without the Shield Crystal, Ned found that the constant source of power allowed him to absorb a large amount of the weapons fire raining down on the ship above him. The Vortak had to be getting worried.
“You fools,” he heard Rax taunt. “He’s right below the ship! Get down there!”
Then suddenly something changed. Ned felt the drain on his Plasma shield drop off abruptly, and a second later he saw what was happening. The Vortak had ignored Ned and Green Scorpion and were firing at Rax. They had either traced her call or noticed the ice that had preceded the explosion of the other two modules. But either way, Ned’s plan was in danger.
“The main ship is right there,” he heard Smardwurst call, just as the rain of weapons fire resumed, stronger this time.
“Get out of here,” Ned called. The power feed Rax had been giving him was dying down quickly now that her power was focusing on blocking the incoming attacks; evidently the Vortak did not have her exact location, or he supposed he would have felt her power fizzle out completely by now. He used everything he had to teleport to Rax’s position, realizing in the process just how vulnerable he was making himself. But Rax looked relieved to see him. “two quick beams,” he said.
Rax seemed to understand. She extended her power a short distance away, and Ned teleported them there, gathering a bit of extra power to himself. Now that the Vortak’s fire was some distance away, Rax was free to charge another burst. Again Ned was painfully aware of what would happen to him if that burst came his direction, and he tried to brace himself. But apparently Rax’s fear of the Vortak outweighed her thirst for conquest, because soon she was unleashing the Ice Plasma toward the remaining module. It was farther away than the other two, and Ned was aiming blindly as he tried to place the vortex somewhere inside the moving ship. But he kept firing, repositioning his vortex as best he could, and finally there was a flash from the ship above. Smardwurst’s crew must have seen it, because Green Scorpion immediately joined the attack, and a moment later there was a huge explosion as something breached the Vortak’s shields and finished the ship off. Ned waited, half expecting the main ship to start bombing the entire planet. His helmet display pinpointed the ship’s location, but before he could say anything there was a flash of light, and it was gone.
“White Mercury has jumped to hyperspace,” Güzhmäk Undúvlahuth confirmed.
“That will have been the warp booster,” Kayleen said. “It has been charging for a couple of days; they won’t be able to make it back any time soon even if they want to.”
Ned was not sure what she had meant, but he felt too weak to care. He dropped to one knee, exhausted. Beside him, Rax was bent over, somehow looking paler than usual but with her face practically cracking with a huge smile. She laughed a little and brought her hand up to her face as if in disbelief. “We did it! We destroyed three starships from the ground! It was just like with Markan, Nedward! That was amazing!”
The mention of Markan Dren did not lighten Ned’s mood. He stepped back, unsure of where this left their little truce.
Rax was pacing excitedly. “They’ll be ready for that next time, but we can come up with new ideas. And next time, we’ll be ready for them.”
Ned could hear Smardwurst preparing his crew to take Rax aboard again, and Ned felt that they could not arrive soon enough. “Rax,” he said sternly. You need to power down and wait for transport. You held up your end of the deal, and now I’m going to go through with mine. But you have to cooperate.”
She looked at him in obvious disappointment. “I understand,” she said as her expression hardened. “Your friends are anxious to get me off this planet. But you and I are going to have to talk again before we reach Marnax.”
Ned was grateful to see Green Scorpion pulling up close overhead, relieving him of the necessity of responding. He backed away so the ship’s tractor beam could get a clear lock, and he was glad his visor was hiding his expression. Because he found that look Rax was giving him troubling. He was not sure what she could possibly be planning, but he had a feeling he was not going to like it.