Vai

The elevator opened on deck 2 and Warpaint and I ran through the corridor towards the labs. I stretched out with my light. Everyone in the labs was down, but that wasn't because of the blast. The labs had filled with a gas that caused everyone - including my dad - to fall unconscious. The 3 humans and 3 Brist were now in the science labs near my father, but they didn't have him yet.

We reached the doors to the labs, but they wouldn't slide open. I looked to Warpaint. "They are closed because of the hole breach," he said. Most of the unconscious scientists had lost focus of their light shields when they went unconscious, but they weren't dying from the effects of space. As far as I could tell as my light touched them, there was still oxygen in the labs and the cold vacuum of space had not touched them.

"Can you override the doors?" I asked my mechatronic.

"I know the code," he said, "but your father said - "

"They will take my father if we are not quick enough," I interrupted. "The enemy is already in there trying to get to him."

Warpaint stepped up to the door control panel and quickly punched in a number. The door slid open. Warpaint and I stepped through and the door slid shut behind us.

There was a white haze throughout the labs. It permeated my shield and I began to feel the effects - hard to focus, hard to keep my eyes open. I used my green light to heal myself as the effects kept breaking through. Warpaint was fine. He led the way to my father's lab at the back.

When the door to my father's lab slid open, the 3 humans and 3 Brist crowded the room. They had not touched my father yet because even though he was unconscious there was an Aether field around him. One of the rings on his fingers was glowing red and that is where the Aether field spread out from.

There was a hole in the wall, but it didn't lead to space. The foreign ship had used it to connect the two ships. A K'thaktra stood at the entrance inside their ship.

All of their heads turned my way when Warpaint and I entered. Pink was in their eyes. They didn't say anything to each other, but the 3 humans stepped into my dad's Aether field. The Corruption was so desperate to get my dad they were willing to kill themselves before I could stop them. And with my light I knew the moment that they died.

The humans grabbed onto my father and lifted him between them. One of them took of my dad's glowing ring and the Aether field turned off. Now that the Corruption was gone from the humans, I touched them with my green light and began to heal them from the effects of the Corruption. They faltered and almost dropped my dad.

"Stop him!" the K'thaktra at the entrance yelled. He pointed directly at me.

The 3 Brist charged us distracting me from the humans. Warpaint stepped in front of me and knocked one of the Brist away as the other two brought out electric batons and began to beat his chrome legs.

"My dad," I said as I maneuvered around Warpaint and the Brist. The humans had carried my father to the hole and were about to board the other ship. "Stop!" I cried out.

I moved to intercept them, but the K'thaktra charged me. My shield kept his barbs away from me. I punched him in the face using my light for extra force. It cracked the exoskeleton on his cheek. He took a step back from the impact.

The humans were now onboard the other ship with my dad. I began to heal my dad with my light. I pushed out the chemicals that had caused him to fall unconscious. He could fight them off if he was awake. He was old, but he was still stronger than any other human I had met.

The K'thaktra recovered and kicked out at me with a hard, barbed knee. I tried to spring out of the way, but just as I went to move, his hand grabbed my cape and pulled me hard to the ground. My shield kept out any damage, but it distracted me from healing my father.

Vai!

I knew from the way Owen yelled at me through the light that he must have been calling me for awhile.

They are taking my dad. Stop them.

I didn't have a moment to check and see if Owen and the others had finished their own fight. I doubted it. I couldn't shake the feeling that this entire episode had been a distraction so that the Corruption could steal my father away.

Where? Owen asked.

The science labs.

Esther and I are coming.

The K'thaktra was on top of me now. He smashed again and again at my shield with his barbs. Some of the Corruption came out of him to help the onslaught against my shield.

I glanced at Warpaint. He had two Brists in each of his hands and he smashed them together so hard they collapsed in his hands. He flung them away as the third Brist hit him again with an electric baton. Warpaint's legs had been damaged, but he could still walk and it wasn't anything too serious.

I looked up at the K'thaktra over me. I turned my light against him. I did the opposite of healing. I used my light to cut off the air to his lungs. He fell away from me grasping at his chest. My light touched the Corruption. I pulled apart their molecules until there was nothing left of them.

The enemy ship closed itself off from the Shadow and drifted away. The hole in the labs was now open to space. The vacuum of space began to suck out the equipment in the lab. Warpaint opened his chest and enclosed himself and the hole with his Aether shield effectively shutting out space.

I used my okulus to call the captain as I walked into Warpaint's shield.

"Status," she said as she answered.

"They have my father," I said. "Owen, Esther and I are going after them." Warpaint shook his head even as I said the words. I put a hand on his chrome shoulder.

"There is a hole breach in his lab," I said to the captain. "Warpaint has closed it off for now, but a repair crew needs to be here ASAP."

"Noted," the captain said. "Get your father back. The Corruption cannot have him."

I ended the call and picked up the ring they had taken off my father.

"Stay here, Warpaint."

He shook his metal head before I had even finished speaking. "No, sir. I must always be by your side."

"You're the only thing stopping this hole breach at the moment. When the repair crew gets here and has it under control, you can come to me."

"But, sir, everyone on board now has the light. Space won't kill them."

I moved passed him and stood at the lip of the hole.

"The scientists in there have lost consciousness and don't have their shields up. They will die. I don't have time to heal them. I have to save my dad."

Warpaint's head swiveled to look behind him to the labs outside my dad's door. I stepped out and floated in space. Owen and Esther arrived at my side.

"I'm not alone, Warpaint. Trust me and my friends."

"Sir," Warpaint pleaded, but he didn't follow as I floated away with Owen and Esther.

"Was this all a trap?" Esther asked as we chased the ship. "Just to get your father?"

"Looks that way," I said.

"How did that small ship get passed the Shadow's sensors?" Owen asked.

"I don't know," I replied.

My light surrounded my dad once again. He was about to come awake when the Corruption touched him. They tried to get inside him and he didn't have the light - or his ring with the Aether field - to keep them out. He came awake screaming from the pain.

I pushed the Corruption out of him, but there was so many of them that more quickly filled the space. It was a never ending cycle.

We arrived at the small ship before it could reach one of the bigger K'thaktran ships. Esther used her pink power to push the doors open. For the briefest of moments everything inside the ship that wasn't bolted down moved toward the opening before their backup field went up.

Owen stepped onto the small ship first. He used his fire to burn the small pink cloud above my dad's head. That destroyed enough of the Corruption that I could push out the rest that were in my dad and healed him as Owen took care of the rest of the Corruption.

The humans and the K'thaktra that wasn't piloting rushed at us as I picked up my father and lifted him onto my shoulder. Esther used her pink light to push them back. I made sure my green shield surrounded my father as I led the way back into space and back towards the Shadow.

The small ship turned around to chase us, but Owen filled the inside with fire as we left and Esther used her pink light to push the small ship far away from us.

I felt it as those inside the small ship burned, but I didn't heal them. Instead, I stretched my light back to the Shadow and used my light to heal those inside the labs just enough to come awake.

Warpaint met us in space as we neared the Shadow.

"The repair crew arrived," he simply said.

I nodded and we changed directions to enter at the docking bay as the hole in the labs was already covered. The K'thaktran ships jumped away.

I waited to wake up my dad until we were all safely back inside the docking bay. His dark eyes fluttered open. I handed him his ring as he sat back up. "What happened?" he asked.

"The Corruption tried to steal you away from me," I said. "I realize now that every time they came after me they were really after you."

"Yes," my dad simply acknowledged without looking at me. "Partially."

"They had a small ship that the Shadow's sensors couldn't detect," I said.

My dad finally looked at me. He didn't seem surprised.

"You know of a ship that can do that?" I asked.

He nodded. "There are many things I was working on. I've been afraid what might turn up after I heard the miasmids raided the Mars military storage. I had many inventions there."

"The ship was one of your inventions?" Shel asked.

"Not the ship itself, but its ability to be undetected, yes."

"What other inventions might they have?" Minmin asked.

My dad looked at me. "They were hoping for my Laumalie preserver and more clones, but I never had those there. Those are too precious and are always near me. Always."

"Why would they want those?" Esther asked.

"If they know my process, they can make a never ending army of clones that will have the miasmids in them from the very beginning. There will never be a battle of wills. There will never be a battle for control."

"That can never happen," the Awakened One said in his rumbling voice. "We must never let that happen. I will contact my people again with this new information. Maybe they will finally agree to help."