He swam out of the blackness when something struck him hard across the face.
He was back in his time machine.
But then he saw the Eye on the wall and knew that he wasn't home after all.
It was a duplicate of the Helios.
The hand slapped him across the face again and it was connected to Zorrik.Strelky had been right.He had the eyes of a corpse.
"How am I still alive?" he wondered in amazement.
"You landed on top of Krustayshuss.You were just knocked unconscious.The crab is splattered all over the rocks.You have the luck of the Irish, Captain."
He tried to lunge for Zorrik's throat but something prevented him.
His hands were chained to the wall behind him.
"I warned him about you,"Zorrik remarked,"but he wouldn't listen.He didn't understand what we are.That laser burst would have killed anyone else.You are just weakened considerably."
"Why did the girl have to die? She only wanted to go home to see her dog."
The vision of Brail lying in pieces wrenched him horribly and he forced it away.
"I had other plans for her,"Zorrik mused."The crab did you a favor in killing her so quickly.When you watch someone you love die slowly, it's not something you ever forget.Krustayshuss robbed us of the pleasure.That was one thing I was rather counting on.The sight of her suffering the torments of hell before death would have driven you mad."
"You're a monster!"
"You made me what I am, Captain.You go about life fooling yourself that you're the good guy.But actually you are no different than me."
"I'm nothing like you, Zorrik."
The fiend turned away and began to fiddle with something.
It was an open brazier roaring flames.
He took a pair of iron tongs from a peg on the wall and thrust it into the fire.
The greasy Eyeball on the wall stared at him in hungry anticipation.
"What is this place?" the Roman demanded.
"Oh, it's the Osiris, Captain.Do you like it? It's a clone of the Helios.You know what clones are, don't you?"
"Stop talking gibberish,you vile bastard! Why have you done all this? The Time Crystal is a power that you know nothing about.You are tampering with a force beyond understanding!"
"Oh, I beg to defer,"Zorrik answered with a smirk.
The torture instrument was glowing red hot now in the flames and he picked up.
"I learned a lot when I was floating around disembodied in the atomic universe.That's all death is,you know,an interruption.A transition from one form into the next.It goes on forever,and it's terrifying.You only remember blackness before the Telemartian's brought you back.I knew eternity."
"How did they allow you escape the collective? Surely they aren't in league with you?"
"No.... I'm what you could call a black sheep of the family... I'm a half-breed,like you.We are both outcasts.They try not to bring us up at family picnics.We ain't exactly the Brady Bunch, Captain!"
He lowered the glowing hot tongs and shoved them into the Roman's genitals.
The agony made him scream and Zorrik relished it.
"It's only a taste of what's to come,"the mad man laughed at him."The grand finale is waiting for you up there,on the Pinnacle."
Voltek's Peak.
"I swear I will kill you before this is over,"the Roman hissed through his pain."I won't let you dominate the universe."
"Escape from here is impossible,as you know very well.However,once you do, I will meet you on the mountain top.Just don't forget what happened to the cat when he got too curious."
"What cat?"
Zorrik threw the decapitated head of the Cat at his feet.The dealers face was frozen in a snarl.
And then he was gone and Captain Space was alone with the malice of the Osiris.
The time machine would try to stop him but he would deal with it.
He looked at the manacles on his wrists and focused his mind.In a moment his flesh began to smoke and melt.The pain was excruciating but he bore it.
In no time he was free and then he faced the door to the outside world.
The Eye of the Osiris glared at him in hatred.
Fusing through the electromagnetic energy of the time machine ripped him apart and he screamed in unbearable torment as he melted right through it.
Then he was free of his prison and he collapsed to the ground in exhaustion.
Now it was time to get to the mountain and stop a madman.
-
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