Chapter 13- From Bad to Worse

There stood a stalemate. The three Drej stared at them, giving them the opportunity to move. Korso and Cale froze in their tracks while Gune wasn't anywhere to be found. Korso had his hands up to show he wasn't reaching for his arms. Neither one firing on the other. "Cale, get behind me. I got an idea." Korso whispered to Cale, pushing Cale behind himself. Cale obeyed. The Drej floated in the doorway, still holding their weapons up against them. "When I jump out of the way you open fire, got it?" Korso added. Cale took his shot gun off its sling and pumped it. Tigaj began to get curious as he heard the cocking of his shotgun.

Tigaj took aim with his pistol and fired for Korso. The blue blast screamed down the hall, toward them. Korso gasped as he jumped to the right, out of the way. The blue plasma tore through Cale's space suit and gas began coming out. It was his oxygen supply! "Aaahhh!" Cale yelled as he flew back and hit the wall with an 'ooph!'. There was a hissing sound coming from his suit.

"Cale! You Okay?!" Korso said from a cell that he'd taken cover in. He pulled out his pistol and leaned out from behind the wall to shoot at the Drej. The kick from his gun helped him take cover again.

"Yeah, I'm all right. I'm all right. I should probably get this suit off. It don't do me no good with a hole in it." Cale replied, taking off his gloves. They were large, thick gloves that were colored black. They had metallic cuffs that allowed them to attach to the metallic 'sleeve' of the space suit. Another shot blasted the wall beside Cale. Even more Drej were pouring into the other end of the storage room. There were about eight altogether.

Cale dove even deeper into the cell as they cautiously shot and floated around the room. "Uh, little help over here!" said he. He held his plasma shotgun, trigger in right hand, pump in the left. Cale crept up to the cover of the cell and peeked out. A couple of blue shards of plasma whizzed by his head as he ducked back into his uncertain sanctuary. He gained up his courage and jumped out, hovering across the hall just a few inches above the ground. Pow! He shot and pumped, killing one Drej who flew backward to the wall and disappeared. He shot again, nicking the arm of one Drej taking cover behind an empty gas can that he held onto and floated around with. The drone dropped the can as he held his arm and slowly spun from the blast. Cale fired once more and finished him off.

Korso hid behind a wall and leaned out a few times, hoping that they, Tigaj, Molalah, and Lehedihir, would be open to taking hits. Molalah spotted Cale rather carelessly floating around in the middle of the hallway and figured that it was a perfect surprise shot. He aimed his massive gun at the mortal youth and fired his weapon. He was thrown back into the wall with the loud booming noise that it had. The blast echoed as it raced down the hallway, heading for Cale. It struck Cale in the back and strung his arms out as the shot sent him flying forward. Blue ribbons of energy surrounded him and sank into his suit. Cale loudly groaned in pain as the energy went in bolts into his eyes, mouth, and even through his skin. He floated unconscious with his appendages limply hovering around.

Lehedihir quickly jumped out into the room with both arms out and shot through the air into a nearby cell that was opposite Korso. Korso didn't care to notice him, for he was, again, unarmed. He kept his attention on Tigaj and Molalah. Lehedihir looked around for the Orb it was still in the cell, a ways further. Molalah jumped out into the hallway as well as soon as Korso bucked behind the wall from one of Tigaj's shots. Tigaj saw his attempt at getting the Orb before him, so he shot Molalah. He screamed as his friend vaporized his entire body. He eventually burned up and his energy went away. "No you don't!" Tigaj expounded at his 'friend's' death.

Cale awoke from his unconsciousness with Drej all around him, but firing at Korso and Tigaj. He was startled to see his company and pulled his shotgun forward and aimed it at them. He couldn't fire, though, he saw no reason to as the Drej were firing on themselves! They killed their companions in order that they might get the Orb. Cale smirked at their betrayal of one another and floated toward Korso. "I took a hit back there." Cale announced to him.

"Are you hurt?" Korso asked.

"I'm fine. I don't understand it. I felt a little pain, but altogether it didn't hurt me." he explained. Korso shrugged and turned back to Tigaj, who had advanced out into the room. Tigaj floated and took cover a short way's away from him, in another, adjacent cell. He jumped out, shooting at the two of them, and in the direction of the Orb. Lehedihir took notice of this and leaped out with his hands stretched and tackled him in the air.

"What are you doing?! Do you not know that I will get the Orb?!" Tigaj yelled as he struggled to point his gun at Lehedihir's head. Lehedihir combated Tigaj's hand by holding it away from him. They floated in the air, toward the Orb, both fighting off each other's movements.

"I'm... not... going... to let... you... win!" Lehedihir wheezed as he took both of his hands and overpowered Tigaj's. Tigaj took his free hand and punched Lehedihir's head. He winced at his blow and tore the gun away from Tigaj.

"You can't be Queen, it can't happen." Tigaj said to Lehedihir's face.

"Yes, whatever." he replied. Lehedihir head butted him and shot the gun. It ripped through Tigaj's thick, bulky body and pierced the roof as well. He jolted back and flew upward and bounced off the ceiling. Lehedihir threw the gun and scrambled as fast as he could toward the Orb. Tigaj glanced at himself, he was still alive, and sent him self off the ceiling toward Lehedihir. Lehedihir reached the cell where the Orb was and stretched out his arm to receive it. His face lit up as he grew closer to it, but then he felt a strong tug on his foot to see that Tigaj was still fighting.

"Let's just shoot 'em!" Cale suggested. Korso looked at the two, struggling in the air. They looked like two boys wrestling over a toy in a daycare center.

"Amen to that." Korso replied. They pointed their guns at them. Korso with his pistol and Cale with his shotgun. Cale shot slightly before Korso, and hit Tigaj. Lehedihir was thrown from that blast into the cell where the Orb was. Korso's shot missed them both because Cale's threw them in different directions. Tigaj hit a wall in a cell and lay there, near death. He was missing his right arm and had several holes in him all over the place. He lay silent with his head resting on the wall with his body on the floor.

Lehedihir hit the wall inside the cell with the Orb. He was a little confused for he had flown in too fast. He looked around and realized where he was. The Orb was sitting directly in front of him. Lehedihir jumped up from his seated position and flew into it and held it with both of his hands. "It's mine!" he cried. Cale and Korso rushed to the entrance of the room to see Lehedihir holding on to the Orb.

"What's going on?" Cale asked. Korso paused and took in what he saw. He'd never seen this happen before.

"He's becoming a Queen." he replied quite blankly. Lehedihir brought his face close to the Orb. He stopped before it and his face widened. After that he sent the Orb into the void of his face. His eyes disappeared as the ball of energy got smaller and went into his head. Lehedihir's sapphire eyes returned once the Orb was in his neck. Then, a wave of energy burst out from him sent Cale and Korso back due to the immense power. The room became white, Cale and Korso squinted their eyes because of its brightness. Lehedihir's arms became longer and his legs separated into four, long, pointed stilt-like legs that every Queen has. The back legs came off of the front legs somewhere near the back. His neck became long and went upward and then curled down like a Queen's crest. His face turned outward and his cheeks enlarged.

"Ahh, I am Queen, keeper of the Orb, shaper of the Will!" she yelled with a sense of evil joy. Lehedihir was now a Queen. She stood there, too large for the room she was in. Lehedihir saw Cale and Korso on the floor with their guns. She took her arms and threw them at the wall, breaking it down. Debris flew all over the place as she came bursting through the wall. She came out with each step shaking the floor. Lehedihir towered over the two of them. She knelt down before them and let out a horrific, high pitch scream. It was obviously like a battle cry as she had her arms spread and ready to fight.

Korso knew the Queen was way too big to combat here, so he sat up beside Cale and made ready his departure. "We gotta get out of here!" Korso shouted to Cale as he grabbed his shoulder and led his toward the door. Lehedihir thrust his hand into the spot where they were sitting, crunching the metal of the walls. They floated quickly out the door of the storage room and out as Lehedihir came bursting through the wall that the door was on. The fragments of the wall spread wildly around as the zero gravity allowed them to roam freely, crashing into walls.

The white blobs were rapidly swimming about the room as Cale and Korso came flying swiftly through them. The Queen was still lumbering about behind them. Cale used his shotgun to thrust him down the hallway that led to the docking bay. Then, he felt a sharp stinging feeling from inside his suit. The epicenter of the pain at around his left hip. "Aghh!" Cale bellowed, tucking his waist and holding his hurt hip.

"What is it?" Korso quickly asked, turning to Cale's aid.

"There's a pain in my side!" Cale screeched in pain, pointing to his side.

"Let me see!" Korso said, pulling Cale's hand away from his suit. Korso saw the hole from the laser blast in the side of his suit. It had black singe marks around it as it was hollow. He peered inside the gaping hole and saw a white fluid. Cale continued to holler as it stung him even greater every minute. "I think you've got one of those puddies in your suit!" Korso looked back at the Queen, who was stuck trying to get through a door. "We need to get this thing off, now!" he yelled, as the Queen pounded on the impeding frame.

"Better make it quick!" Cale groaned as he held himself. Cale unbuckled the clips of his massive helmet and tore it from his suit. Then he unclipped the belt that held his two halves of the suit together. Korso lifted the top off as Cale slipped his arms out of the arms of the suit. He then shook off the legs of the suit. Cale was wearing a black, sleeveless shirt and had brown pants on with bare feet.

On Cale's side stuck one of the white blobs. It had lifted up the side of his shirt and attached itself to his skin. Cale held up his arms and looked at himself to see the white blob sucking his life away. It was pulling Cale's bodily fluid through his skin! "Holy God!" he exclaimed as he beheld the malignant thing. He reached for it to rip it off, but he was afraid to touch it. He pulled his hands away from it before he grabbed it. "What do we do?!" Cale yelled, looking back at the Queen who was beginning to free herself from the door.

"Uh, uh, hold still!" Korso said, thinking quickly.

"Why? What are you going to do?!" Cale questioned. Korso cocked his pistol and aimed it at the blob. "Oh, no!" Cale said, not trusting Korso.

"Hold still!" Korso reassured.

"You really think you're gonna be able to shoot a piece of liquid that's eating away at me off my body?!" Cale whimpered.

"Be calm!" Korso said. He held the pistol with both hands and squeezed the trigger. Cale closed his eyes as the green plasma swept by him and burned the pale carnivore from him. Cale opened his eyes and checked his side, it appeared all normal. Cale sighed with relief as he touched his side. It was red and the skin was tender. "We gotta go!" Korso shouted and led Cale out of the room. Lehedihir screamed in a fit of rage as they hurried out of the room. She freed herself from the door and sent herself into the door that was closing. It shut just before she made it. They closed the door behind them to leave the Queen in that room.

"Hey, wait a minute. Where's Gune?" Cale asked, floating outside of his space suit with Korso toward the docking bay.

"Don't know," Korso replied. Just then they heard a scream coming from the docking tube. They hurried and closed the large docking tube door. It boomed as the four corners came out of the walls and locked in the center with a loud clang. They turned to see Gune pounding on the Valkyrie door. Space as well as the rest of the Valkyrie was visible from the inside of the tube.

"Look," Cale pointed, "There he is." They floated over to him and stopped just behind him. Gune continued to pound with balled fists on the door and screeched.

"What's the problem, Gune?" Korso asked, a little confused and yet, entertained. He let out a silent chuckle as he watched him beat the door.

"I want in! I want in!" he squawked as he floated by it.

"Stith, open the air lock." Korso said as he spoke into the com on his wrist.

"Copy that." Stith's voice said from the speaker on his wrist as the door opened from bottom to top. Gune smiled and went in. Korso and Cale followed.

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The Queen, Lehedihir, stayed in the room she'd been locked in by Cale and Korso. By using her deep-space telepathy, she called on several drones to free her from the constrictive space station. They eventually arrived and took her in a large craft to the battleship where they headed back to their star. She was already planning a retaliation on New Earth.

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Cale sat on his bed with his wife, Akima sitting by his side. He had his head resting upon the wall the bed was by as she rested her head on his shoulder. He had his muscular arm wrapped around her and kept her close to himself. "What did the station look like?" Akima asked as she cuddled there with him. She stroked the roundness of her belly that held their child in care.

"It was dark, gloomy." Cale began, "Everything was old and corroded, but there were these white things that would suck a person dry. We think that's the reason why Kronos lost contact with the it."

"Really?" Akima asked, almost in disbelief.

"Yeah, I had one stuck on me. Korso ended up shooting it off." Cale explained.

"Where?" she asked, sitting up from the wall to check him over.

"Right there," Cale answered as he pulled up the side of his shirt, "It started sucking right there." Akima leaned over him to get a better look at the bruised skin. Some of Cale's veins were visible from the creature.

"My God, Cale! Are you all right?" she expressed with concern. It was a little unsettling to look upon his tortured flesh.

"I'll be fine." he replied as he let down his shirt and held her again. She went back into her position and leaned on his shoulder once again. It was quiet just then, as they sat together. Nobody was bothering them, but then Akima broke the silence.

"We have a bigger job to do now that the Drej have a Queen."