Chapter 9

“Artifice!” Waitstate ran over to him. “What happened?”

Artifice did not respond. He was clearly deactivated.

Waitstate picked up Artifice and ran to the Freedom. “Restore, I’ve got an emergency!” Waitstate yelled into the comm.

“I suppose I’m in command now” Admiral Lilwall said to the others.

The others quickly boarded and departed the space station without getting proper clearance. It didn’t matter to them though; they had more important things to worry about.

“Cirrus, lock onto the Doom Gaze and proceed in full pursuit,” Admiral Lilwall ordered.

Cirrus smiled. “We should be in range shortly. They’re running scared this time.”

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Later in the med bay

“I’ve managed to stabilize his life signs” Restore told Waitstate. “Physically I can’t anything wrong aside from a fairly sizable hole in his chest. I know that sounds bad, but this wound certainly couldn’t have caused this much damage.”

“Then it has to be some sort of viral infection,” Waitstate stated.

Restore shrugged. “I’m not sure yet, though it seems to be the only explanation.”

Waitstate turned to Artifice. “Artifice, can you hear me?”

Artifice’s optics flickered. He raised his head slowly, but it fell back down and his optics flickered out.

“Whatever has happened to Artifice is preventing him from tapping into his main fuel drives. He’s living off of his auxiliary power right now” Restore told Waitstate.

“Can’t you transfer his mind to a drone or something?” Waitstate asked.

Restore shook her head. “Right now he’d be too weak to survive the transfer. His internal systems would cut out before I got the plug in.”

Waitstate stood up. “Do what you can for him and keep me updated on any change, no matter how minor.”

“Where are you going? Aren’t you going to stay by his side?” Restore asked.

Waitstate clenched his fists. “No, I’m gonna make sure those bastards pay for what they’ve done.”

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Xaraxus slammed his fist on his control console. “Slag! This is too big of a set back to handle right now!”

“Perhaps you should have sent out the Raptors” Computerscream suggested.

Xaraxus threw his phaser at Computerscream. “How dare you tell me what to do!”

Computerscream dodged the weapon. “I was only-”

Xaraxus cut him off with a menacing scowl.

Computerscream went back to his post and transformed into his computer mode. “He’s even crazier than normal. His fear of the Raptors is becoming more apparent as well,” he thought to himself.

“The Freedom is apparently in pursuit. Shall we engage?” Cyron asked Xaraxus.

“How is it possible? That wretched ship has never been able to lock on us before!” Xaraxus shouted. “I want a full security sweep of the ship.”

“Understood my lord.” Cyron left the bridge to begin on his endeavor.

Xaraxus opened up a comm link. “Zip Zap, how are the repairs to the hull coming?”

“Aside from the fact that this isn’t really what I do, and the fact that I have no clue how to fix your weird Cult ships, It’s going well” Zip Zap replied sarcastically.

“Just feed it some raw metals and join the security sweep when you’re done” Xaraxus ordered.

The comm link cut out. “I didn’t sign up for this” Zip Zap said to himself.

“What are we going to do about the book?” Jupitor asked. “We left it back there on the station, we’ll have to go back.”

“Fool, I know that all too well. We’ll have to shake LONAC first.” Xaraxus leaned back in his chair placing his elbows on the armrests and held his fingertips together. “Meanwhile, the little present I left for LONAC will have to come into play.”