The mountains of Centauri Prime were not especially similar to those of Rizajor---but they weren't terribly dissimilar, either. This was something that Rush took a small measure of comfort in.629Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq6Vzik8wng
"The more things change," he muttered as he clambered up the side of a little hill to try and get a better overview of the terrain. He reached a plateau, pulled himself up onto it, and crept slowly toward the edge. The purple skies matched the color of his eyes.
The region for the Final Challenge had been selected by Bioldyon. When Rush had returned to the People's Meeting Hall, nobody looked more shocked than the offended party, but he had wasted no time in selecting the area of the showdown. But as Bioldyon had been doing the speaking----including a healthy serving of boasting and chest-beating----Rush had never stopped staring at Daeq'b.
He passed within earshot of Daeq'b as he was led past him, and in a voice just loud enough for Daeq'b to hear, he said, "I have no brother."
Daeq'b merely smiled. Clearly he was looking forward to having no brother in the immediate future as well.
Rush kept the sword gripped comfortably but firmly in his right hand as he crouched on the plateau. He listened carefully all around him, remembering that Bioldyon's father had managed to get the drop on him twenty years ago. He was not anxious to allow a repeat performance....although, granted, when Cholsan had performed that rather considerable achievement, there had been a fairly major sandstorm going on at the time. But in this case, all was relatively calm....
And then the ground burst open beneath his feet.
Just like that, the plateau that he'd been situated upon was gone, crumbling into rock beneath him as the entire area shook more violently than ever before. He had absolutely nothing to grab onto. The sword flew out of his hand, swallowed by the cascade of rock, and Rush plummeted, rolling and tumbling down the mountainside. He lunged desperately, twisting in midair, and his desperate fingers found some purchase that slowed his fall ever so briefly. Then he lost his grip once again and hit the ground, rolling into a ball and covering his head desperately as rock and rubble rained down around him.
And from a short distance away, Bioldyon saw it all. Bioldyon, under his feet the ground had suddenly shifted, jutting upward. He had clutched onto it, scrambling upward to avoid sliding into the newly created crevice, and had just barely escaped. But now he saw Rush, weaponless, with an avalanche crumbling upon him. It was as if the planet himself had risen up to smite him.
And Bioldyon, gripping his own sword grimly, waiting until the trembling subsided and then advanced upon the buried Rush to finish the job.
"Evacuate?" Thruro said skeptically. "Because of some earthquakes?"
On the viewscreen, Soleta was speaking with such forcefulness and urgency. "This is not merely earthquakes. You have spacegoing vessels that you use for exploration and travel. Use everything. Everything you have. Get off the planet. We will bring up as many as we can as well. Fortunately enough, most of your population has already left ever since the collapse of..."
"We're not in collapse!" Thruro said angrily. "We'll rebuild. We'll be great again!"
And then Turhi stepped into view on the screen, and said. "No. You'll be dead."
"Are we to listen to you then, 'Lord' Vito Turhi? Traitor! Coward!"
"Save your insults, Thruro. It's nothing compared to the immediate necessity of saving our people. If you really believe that you're acting in their best interests, you'll make known to them Soleta's advice and offer. And you'll do so right now!"
"You cannot tell me what to do!"
"I'm not telling you what to do. I'm asking you. Begging you, if that's what you prefer." Then a thought seemed to strike him and his tone changed into a slightly wheedling voice. "If you like, look at it this way: This is an opportunity to make me look foolish to the people of Centauri Prime. A nattering doomsday prophet, trying to convince them of an end-of-the-world scenario that's merely demented fiction. Those who believe and wish to leave---well, what use would they be to you anyway? They're faint of heart, and they clearly embrace the old ways. But those who stay with you, Thruro----they'll be the core of the new empire that you would build. They'll know me to be a fraud. They'll know you to be resolute and unmovable. I'm handing you the chance, Thruro, once and for all, to be the leader you know yourself to be."
Slowly, Thruro smiled. "Turhi----you had a knack for being persuasive as a prince. Even in disgrace----you have a turn of phrase. I shall consider it."
"Consider it fast, Thruro. Because, whether you believe it or not, I'm convinced by this woman's words. You don't have much time left."
Bioldyon felt a brief aftershock as he made his way toward the rubble, but it only staggered him slightly. Nothing was keeping the bronze-skinned Senderian from his goal.
He made it to the area where he'd seen Rush go down. The rocks seemed to be undisturbed. It was entirely possible that Rush was already dead, which would have upset Bioldyon no end. He wanted to be the one who ended Rush's life. He, and no other. But he realized that he might have to settle for whatever justice nature had chosen to mete out.
He scrambled over to the rock pile and started digging around. He thrust his hands deep into the rubble, searching, probing, desperately trying to find some hint or trace of where Nicholas Rush was beneath the avalanche. Then he felt something, but it wasn't vaguely living matter. Instead it was hard-edged, rough. He grimaced a moment, for his arm was thrust all the way up to his shoulder, and then with a grunt he pulled it out.
He held up the sword of his father. It glittered in the twilight of Centauri Prime.
And then he was struck from the side. He went down, the sword flying from his hand, and Rush caught it. "Thank you," he said.
Bioldyon, his head ringing, looked around in confusion. "Where.....?"
"I dug myself out and hid, and waited for you, Bioldyon----now that it's just the two of us," said Rush almost conversationally. "I am asking you not to do this thing. It won't bring your father back. All it will do is cost you your life."
"Aren't we the overconfident one," sneered Bioldyon, scrambling to his feet, waving his sword.
"No. No, weren't not. Just----confident enough." And he added silently, I hope.
"For honor!" shouted Bioldyon, and he charged.
And damned if he wasn't fast. Father than Rush anticipated. Bioldyon's sword moved quickly, a flashing blur, and Rush suddenly discovered that he was backing up. Faster, farther, and suddenly there was a cut on his arm, and then a slash across his chest, and he wasn't even fully aware of how they had gotten there.
The son was faster than the father!
Or else Rush was slower.
Yes. Yes, that was the hell of it.
Twenty years ago, he'd been something. He'd been something great, something grand. He had reached the pinnacle of his life. And every activity in which he had engaged since then was a constant denial of that simple fact. He had been great once, once upon a time, at a time when----deep in his heart----he wouldn't have given himself any odds on the likelihood that he'd reach age twenty. But now he felt old, not what he once was. Even though he was "merely" forty, he was old, not what he was. Not what he was at all. A mere shadow of the fighter he was.
Despair loomed over him....
....and there was a slash to the left side of his face. The cut wasn't as deep as the one which had created the scar, but it was deep enough as blood welled from it.
Bioldyon laughed derisively, sneered triumph at Rush, taunted him for not even giving him a decent battle.
And something within Rush snapped. Blew away the despair, burned it off like dew incinerated by a nova.
And Rush tossed the sword down into the ground, point first. It stuck there, wavering to and fro. "Come on!" shouted Rush. "Come on!" and he gestured defiantly, his fury building with each passing moment.
For a split second, Bioldyon wondered if Rush expected him to throw his own sword away. To leap into hand-to-hand combat, voluntarily tossing aside his advantages. Well, if that was the case, then Rush was going to be sorely disappointed, at least for the brief seconds of life that he had left to him. With a roar of triumph, Bioldyon leaped forward, his blade a blur.
Rush couldn't get out of the way fast enough. But he half-turned and the blade, rather than piercing his chest, skewered his right arm, going all the way through, the hilt up to the bone.
And Rush said nothing. Didn't cry out, didn't make the slightest sound even though Bioldyon knew the pain must've been agonizing. Bioldyon tried to yank out the sword.
It was stuck.
Rush brought his left fist around, caught Bioldyon on the point of his jaw, and staggered him. Then his foot lashed out, nailing Bioldyon's stomach, doubling him over. As Bioldyon reeled, Rush gripped the hilt and snapped off the blade. he then reached around, gripped the sword on the other side of his arm, and pulled it the rest of the way through. He was biting down so hard on his lip to contain the scream that blood was trickling down his chin. As he dropped the broken blade to the ground, he flexed his right arm desperately to try and keep it functional, and then shouted, "Come on, Bioldyon! Still have the stomach for vengeance? Had enough?"
Bioldyon didn't say anything beyond an inarticulate scream of fury, and then he charged. Rush took a swing at him with his left arm, but the semi-dead right arm threw him off balance and he missed clean. Bioldyon plowed into him and the two of them went down, tumbling across the craggy surface of Centauri Prime.
All around them were new quakes as the ground started to crack beneath them. But they didn't care, so focused were they on the battle at hand. Bioldyon intent on putting an end to his father's killer, and Rush....
Rush was looking beyond Bioldyon. Fury poured from him, savagery as intense as anything he'd ever felt, and it was like the return of an old and welcome friend. Suddenly new strength flowed into his right arm, seized him and drove him, and he lifted Bioldyon clear off his feet, tossing him a good ten feet. Bioldyon crashed to the ground and Rush charged toward him. The Senderians swung his legs around just as Rush got within range, knocking him off his feet, and the Fleet officer was down as Bioldyon pounced upon him, grabbing him and trying to get his fingers around Rush's throat.
Rush twisted his head around and sank his teeth into Bioldyon's arm. Bioldyon howled, his blood trickling between Rush's jaws, and Rush tore loose of Bioldyon's grip. He slammed a fist into Bioldyon's face, heard the satisfying crack of Bioldyon's nose breaking. Bioldyon was dazed and Rush shoved Bioldyon back, leaped to his feet, and now he was atop Bioldyon, driving a knee into his chest, and let out a roar as he drove blow after blow into Bioldyon's head. He was totally out of control, and part of him cried out in joy for it.
And then it seemed like the ground all around them exploded.
Chancellor Thruro appeared on the screen of the Universe, and there was an air of controlled frenzy about him. "I am----a man of my word," he said with no preamble. "I've relayed your message to the people of Centauri Prime and..."
Suddenly he staggered as the ground shifted under him. The picture wavered, and then snapped back as Thruro---acting for all the world as though nothing had just happened---continued. "And some of them have decided to take you up on your offer. They are gathering in the Great Square----Vito, you recall the location?"
"Yes, I do." Immediately he headed over to Vanessa James's station, describing the location in relation to the People's Meeting Hall so that she could feed the coordinates into the ship's computers.
Thruro continued, "Then you may direct your vessel's transporter beams to start bringing people up. Others are leaving by their own transports. You," and he began to grow angry, his pointing finger trembling. "You've frightened them, Turhi! I'd hoped that they would be made of sterner stuff, but you----you have filled them with nightmare fears and they flee! They flee for no reason!"
"Transporter rooms all! Thul this be!" the Malon security chief was saying briskly. "With Lieutenant James coordinate beam-up immediately of Centauri coordinates at which specifying is she."
"Thruro, we'll bring you up, too," said Turhi. "For all that's passed between us, nonetheless this is your chance to save your life...."
"My life is not in danger!" shouted Thruro. "I will not fall for your trickery, or for you..."
And then something sounding like an explosion roared through the palace. The last sight they had of Thruro was his still declaring his disbelief, even as the roof collapsed upon him.
The ground around them fragmented, tilted, and then oozing from between the cracks Rush saw----to his shock---magma bubbling up beneath them. It was as if something was cracking through to the very molten core of the planet. The ground continued to crack beneath them, like ice floes becoming sliced up by an arctic sea---except that in this case, the sea was capable of incinerating them.
Rush and Bioldyon were several feet away from one another, and then the ground cracked between them, heaving upward. The ground beneath Rush was suddenly tilting at a seventy-degree angle. Rush, flat on his belly, scrambled for purchase and then he saw, just a few feet away, his sword. It skidded past him and he thrust out a desperate hand, snagged it, and jammed it into the ground.
It momentarily halted his tumble, but the impact tore loose his comm badge. Before he could grab it with his free hand, it tumbled down and away and vanished into a bubbling pool of lava.
The gap between Rush and Bioldyon widened, and Bioldyon took several steps back, ran, and leaped. He vaulted the distance and landed several feet above Rush. He shouted in triumph even as he pulled a dagger from the upper part of his boot. He started to clamber toward Rush....
.....and suddenly the ground shifted beneath them once again, thrusting forward onto the lip of another chunk of land. Just that quickly, the land they were on was now twenty feet in the air. There was an outcropping from another mountain that was within range of a jump, and it would be a more tenable position than Rush's present one----if he could get to it!
Bioldyon started to get to his feet, to come after Rush across the momentarily semi-level surface---and suddenly the ground jolted once again. The cracks radiated as far as the eye could see, as if the landscape of Centauri Prime had transformed into a massive jigsaw puzzle. In the distance, the great city of Centallus----once the center of commerce, the seat of power, of the Centauri Empire---was crumbling, the mighty towers plunging to the ground.
The jostling sent Bioldyon off balance and he was tossed toward the edge of the precipice----toward it and over. With a screech he tumbled, and the only thing that kept him from going over outright was a frantic, one-handed grip that he managed to snag on the edge. A short drop below him, lava seethed, almost as if it were calling to him. He tried to haul himself up, cursing and growling....
.....and then Rush was there, fury in his eyes, and he was poised over Bioldyon. It would take but a single punch to send Bioldyon tumbling down into the lava. To put an end to him. The savage within Rush wanted to, begged him to. And he knew that there was absolutely no reason whatsoever to save Bioldyon....
.....and he grabbed Bioldyon's wrist.
"Hold on!" he shouted down to Bioldyon. "Come on! I'll pull you up!"
Bioldyon looked up at him with eyes that were filled with twenty years' worth of hatred.
And then he spat at him. "Go to hell," he said, and pulled loose from Rush's grip. Rush cried out, but it was no use as Bioldyon plunged down, down into the lava which swallowed him greedily.
Rush staggered to his feet, then grabbed up his sword and prepared to jump to relative safety on the outcropping nearby.
And then there was another explosion, even more deafening than the previous ones, and Rush was blown backward. This time he held on to his sword and prepared to jump to relative safety on the outcropping nearby.
And then there was another explosion, even more deafening than the previous ones, and Rush was blown backward. This time he held onto his sword, for all the good it was going to do him. He was airborne, flailing around, unable to stop his motion, nothing for him to grab onto except air. Below him the lava lapped upward, and in his imaginings he thought he could hear Bioldyon screaming triumphantly at him, for it was just a matter of seconds as gravity took its inevitable grip and pulled the falling Rush into the magma.
Then something banged into him in midair, and he heard a voice shout, "Emergency beam-up!"
His mind didn't even have time to fully register that it was Johansen's voice before Centauri Prime dematerialized around him, and the next thing he knew they were falling to the floor of the transporter room. He looked around in confusion and there was Johansen, dusting herself off and looking somewhat haggard. "Nice work, Rita." Baldwin tossed off a quick, acknowledging salute.
"Where the hell did you come from?" he asked.
"I was there the whole time. We monitored you via your comm badge until you were brought to wherever your surging testosterone demanded you be brought to so you could slug it out, and then I had myself beamed down to be on the scene in case matters became---in my judgment---too dire." She tapped the large metal casings on her feet. "Gravity boots. Comes in handy every now and then, particularly when the ground keeps crumbling under you." She pulled off the boots and straightened her uniform.
"You saw the whole thing?"
"Yep." She took a breath. "It was all I could do not to jump in earlier. But I knew you had to see it through." She headed out the door, and Rush was right behind her. Moments later they had stepped into a turbolift.
"Bridge," said Rush, and then he said to Johansen, "You did that even though I gave you specific orders to stay here. Even though I told you, no matter what, that you weren't to interfere. Even though the Prime Directive would have indicated that you should stay out of it."
"Well, you see---someone once told me that sometimes you just have to assess a situation and say, 'Dammit, it's me or nobody. And if you can't live with nobody, then you have to take action.'"
"Oh, really. Sounds like a pretty smart guy."
"He likes to think he is, yes."
Rush walked out onto the bridge and said briskly, "Status report!"
The fact that Rush was bruised, battered, and bloody didn't draw any comment from any of the bridge crew. They were too busy trying to survive. Wren was at hish engineering station on the bridge, someplace that s/he didn't normally occupy. But with the rapid changes needed in the ship's acceleration, s/he wanted to be right at the nerve center of the decisions so that s/he could make whatever immediate adjustments might be needed.
"We're at full reverse, Captain!" Greer said. "I couldn't maintain full orbit; the planet's breaking up and the gravity field was shifting too radically!"
"Take us to a safe distance, then," Rush said. "Soleta, what's happening down there?"
"The planet is breaking up, sir," Soleta replied, "due to---I think---stress caused by something inside trying to get out."
"Get out?"
"Yes, sir."
The area around Centauri Prime was crammed with vessels of all shapes and sizes, trying to put as much distance between themselves and the shattering planet as possible. The confusion was catastrophic; at one point several ships collided with each other in their haste to get away from Centauri Prime, erupting into flames and spiraling away into the ether. Fortunately enough most of the pilots were more levelheaded than that."
"Status on the current population?"
"Most of them have managed to clear out in private vessels, sir," said Soleta. "Some chose to remain on the planet and...."
"Foolish. Dedicated but foolish," said Rush.
"Evacuated we one thousand of people the Universe onto as well," said Thul.
"A thousand?" gasped Johansen. "Maximum capacity for this ship in an evacuation procedure is supposed to be six hundred."
"Asked we them all stand sideways to."
"Good thinking, Thul," Rush said dryly. He turned to Johansen and said, "Looks like we'll be taking Jetitea up on their offer sooner than anticipated." Then he noticed Turhi standing off to the side, very quiet, his attention riveted to the screen. "Are you all right, Ambassador?"
He shifted his gaze to Rush and said, "Certainly not."
It seemed a fair enough response.
"Sir, energy buildup!" announced Soleta.
"Take us back another five hundred thousand kilometers, Mr. Greer. Wren, have warp speed ready, just in case we need to get out of here fast."
"Perhaps it'd be wiser to vacate the area now," Johansen suggested.
"You're very likely correct. It'd be wiser. However, I think I want to see this."
She nodded. Truth to tell, she wanted to see it as well.
On the screen, Centauri Prime continued to shudder, it's entire surface ribboned with cracks. Even from the distance at which they currently sat, they could see lava bubbling in all directions. The very planet seemed to be pulsating, throbbing under the strain of whatever was pushing them out.629Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQzDztRoHI4
And then, all of a sudden, something thrust up from within.629Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡujPXtd848O
It was a claw. A single, giant, flaming claw, miles wide, smashing up through what was once a polar icecap. Then another flaming claw, several hundred miles away, and then a third claw and a fourth, but these at the opposite ends of the planet, and they seemed even larger. The screen adjusted the brightness to avoid damaging the eyesight of the bridge crew.629Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLT0hw582Qi
The process begun, it moved faster and faster, more pieces breaking away, and then the planet broke apart in a stunning display of matter and energy. Centauri Prime erupted from the inside out....629Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0lMW5Il6Ui
.....and there was a creature that was not like anything that Rush had ever seen.629Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMrIKeon1oL
It seemed vaguely avian in appearance, with feathers made of roaring flame and energy crackling around it. Its talons of flame flexed outward, and its massive wings unfurled. Its beak was long and wide, and it opened its mouth in a scream that could not be heard in the depths of space. Incredibly, stars were visible through the creature. It was as if it was a creature that was both there, yet not there.629Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDAUd7eSX2i
"I don't believe it," said a stunned Rush. "What the hell is that thing?"629Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaAuTOnyTUQ
"Unknown, sir," replied Soleta. "In general physicality, it seems evocative of such beasts as the ancient pteranodon, or the ethon of Cabrichi IV. But its size and physical makeup....."629Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLZPPlQlHKa
"Oh, my God," said Wren in slow astonishment. "It can't be. Don't you get it?" s/he said with growing excitement.629Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPorlJbL9la
"What is it, Renny?" asked Johansen, who was riveted to the screen as any of them. 629Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlHGQfaJiXc
"It's---it's the Great Bird of the Galaxy!"629Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6YIcMCyCWl
