Chapter 7
Fox was speeding away, hurling along the most direct route to the coordinates Scales had given him. He only realized it was the most direct when he saw Scales' ship coming up fast. Panicking, he slammed his hand down on the emergency brake, stopping so hard he nearly crashed headlong through the cockpit glass.
The ship appeared to be lifeless. Fox noticed that one of the four launch bay doors was blown away, still smoking. He hailed the ship. The screen flickered a few moments, and then Scales appeared.
"Ah, Fox. You have caught up with me. I thought I gave the coordinates for the planet, not my ship."
"Enough small talk, Scales. Where's Krystal?" Fox growled through gritted teeth.
"Well, I'm sure you noticed the smoking launch bay. The girl was in there."
"I don't care where she was. Where is she now?" Fox growled again, his blood rising.
"If I knew, don't you think I would be after her by now? She obviously meant to go back the way my ship had come, back to you. But before she escaped, I turned the ship around. She would be heading in completely the opposite direction now. Towards my planet."
"What?!" exclaimed Fox. "I've got to go after her!"
"I wouldn't advise that. Something I didn't tell you about is that my planet is surrounded by an asteroid cloud. That is, a large asteroid field is orbiting around it. The way to the surface is nearly impossible if you don't know the way."
"Why should I believe you?" Fox said angrily. "You oppressed all the dinosaur tribes on Dinosaur Planet. You tried to kill me. You tried to kill me. And now you've kidnapped my one and only love, and you want me to trust you? Face it, Scales. I can't believe anything you say."
"Come now, Fox," laughed Scales. "I am a beast of my word. And one thing you can believe, if you do not continue on your mission, I will find and kill your wife." His expression hardened. "I do not care about her. All I want... is you.
"So you have two choices, Fox. Either you can stop trusting me and live the rest of your life with the guilt that you condemned your wife to death; or you can take me at my word, and continue on to the coordinates that I sent you. What do you choose?"
Fox sighed. He knew that Scales was entirely capable of killing Krystal. But he also knew that if he went along, he could wind up dead, as well as Krystal.
As long as he went, there was some hope for Krystal. He knew he would even put his own life on the line, if it meant saving hers.
"Scales," he declared, "I will meet you at your planet. And I will kill you." He switched off the transmission.