Thanks for the feedback, Jambeth, Alienstarburst, and Red-rumm!
Sliding Into Antar
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
The False Regent
Chapter 27
XXVII
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
"No! No, you had to be mistaken! There is no way… no way at all that it could have been him! Maybe it was someone who looked like him."
"I'm telling you, Max, it was Pierce! I saw him with my own eyes… right there on the balcony of the palace!"
Max's fists clenched involuntarily, and his face flushed, but he still refused to acknowledge any possibility that Daniel Pierce could be on Antar.
"How long till we get there," Maria asked, tugging on Max's arm.
"Two minutes… probably less," Max replied, turning back again to Kyle…
"You never saw Pierce before, Kyle. How can you be certain it was him?"
"Like hell I didn't! He came to Roswell pretending to be Dad's new deputy… remember? He called himself Deputy Fisher. I saw him lots of times… I even talked to him several times… It was HIM, Max! It was HIM!"
Max groaned and closed his eyes tightly.
"How long," Maria pleaded.
"We're almost there," Max replied sympathetically…
"How would Pierce get to Antar?"
Kyle shook his head and shrugged. "I don't know… Maybe it's a warp thing in this dimension…"
"No dimension could be that screwed up," Max spat, his tone still betraying his disbelief, as Maria pulled on his arm again.
"We're there," Max whispered soothingly, patting Maria's hand, "Where did you leave him, Kyle?"
"Right under the big balcony on the east side… the one off of the main suite. He fell three floors… God, I hope we're in time…"
Max swallowed hard and brought the ship down closer, so close that it was almost scrapping the roof of the palace. The ship was shielded by numerous stealth features that Varec had developed, including invisibility… but it was too big to land on the palace lawn… even as big as the palace lawn was.
"I can't get any lower, Kyle… not without flattening the palace."
"I don't see him," Maria said, her voice shaking, as she gazed intently into the big video screen that gave them a panoramic view of everything that lay directly beneath the ship.
"He was right there… right below that balcony," Kyle insisted, pointing.
"Where is he," Maria asked, "I don't see him!"
"We'll find him," Liz said, putting her arm around Maria protectively. "Wherever they took him, Max will find him."
Maria sniffed and ran her fingers over her eyes. She was trying hard to be a rock, but she was crumbling… and she knew it. They had all been through a lot together through the years, and the fact that this particular incident had shaken them up so badly… so unexpectedly… was a shock to them all. It could have been almost anyone else in the palace… one of the dupes… Nicholas… even Kivar… and they could have accepted it… well, not accepted it, but at least dealt with it rationally. After all, Kivar was more dangerous than Pierce; Kivar had alien powers. So why was Pierce's presence here affecting them this way? Though none of them voiced that question out loud, deep inside, they thought it… What they were feeling right now was not at all unlike an out and out panic attack… the kind that can occur long after a deeply traumatizing incident, even though it might seem illogical on the surface.
But even if it was illogical, NO ONE was underestimating Pierce. He was crafty, deceptive, doggedly determined… and most of all, soullessly brutal in his quest to destroy aliens. He wasn't Kivar, but he WAS someone never to be underestimated. And worst of all… Michael was injured and it appeared that Pierce had him. That was cause enough for a panic attack.
"I FOUND HIM!" Max exclaimed, locking the scanning device onto the signal emitted by the tiny ID pin inside Michael's shirt. "Let's just hope it's him and Pierce hasn't removed his shirt or found the clip."
Maria closed her eyes and appeared to say a silent prayer.
A moment later, Michael appeared on the bridge. He was lying on his side, curled up in a semi-fetal position, unconscious, but still clinging to life. His shirt had been removed, but he was clutching it in front of himself tightly. Max immediately placed both hands over Michael's head, and a greenish glow appeared for a moment. Then he rolled him onto his back and ran his right hand along just above Michael's body, from head to toe, healing the injuries that had been caused in the fall. Within a couple of minutes, Michael began to come around.
Max let out a deep breath of relief then turned to Maria and smiled… "He'll be okay."
Maria started to say something, but she couldn't find her voice; instead, she unexpectedly broke down and started crying, then she knelt beside Michael on the floor and kissed him.
"Ohhh… that hurt…" Michael groaned, opening his eyes.
"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to…" Maria whispered.
"Not your kiss… the fall," Michael said, sitting up carefully and looking at his bare chest then pausing to see if everything else felt like it was still "all there." With Pierce, one could never be too sure. Satisfied that he hadn't lost anything, he put both of his arms around Maria. "The kiss was exactly what I needed. Actually, I could use another one… to replenish my energy." He smiled, and Maria complied… a bit overenthusiastically.
"Well, that should do it," Max said, grinning. "If that didn't kick-start his heart and repower his batteries, he's already beyond help." The others laughed.
"Get us out of here," Max said, turning to Varec, who immediately sat down in the pilot's seat and took control of the ship, taking it quickly back into space, as the palace… and then Antar… disappeared behind them.
Michael looked at Kyle and adopted a scolding look on his face. "I told you not to let Max come back for me… to get him out of there!"
"Have you ever tried to make Max do anything?" Kyle retorted. "I told him what you said."
"You didn't try hard enough."
Kyle smiled guiltily.
"You could have been caught," Michael protested angrily, turning to Max. "I gave an order. You shouldn't have come back."
"I over-ruled you… General," Max said, grinning, "I've wanted to do that for a long time!"
Michael rubbed his head. "Why didn't you, then?"
Max shrugged… "You were usually right."
"I was right this time."
"No, you weren't!" Maria said, kissing Michael again. "I wasn't going to let anybody leave you. You know that."
"Ah… the real power," Michael said with a slight smile. Liz chuckled and nodded.
"What'd she do, Max, kick you in the shins and make you turn the ship around?"
"Now you know," Max replied with a sober face.
"Well… we'll talk about it later," Michael said, looking around the room for a couple of moments. Then he looked back at Max and smiled… "Thanks."
"Don't mention it."
The truth is, Michael knew from the moment he gave Kyle the order that Max would never follow it. It's why he had grasped his shirt so tightly to himself and curled up around it as he had passed out on Pierce's operating table. He knew full well that Max would return for him… and when that shirt beamed onboard, he wanted to be with it.
"Pierce! Of all people… Pierce!" Michael muttered, shaking his head in disbelief.
Max shook his head, too… "What I want to know is what was he doing there… on Antar? And how did he get there?"
"The granolith," Michael replied, suddenly remembering something, "I was carried into the palace by two guards, Doryth and Boklo."
Max looked surprised. "I know Boklo. He's an honest person… a good person! I can't believe he'd cooperate with Pierce!"
"Pierce has them over a barrel. Boklo told me a few things quietly… before Pierce came in. Pierce controls the granolith. It protects him… from anyone. He's basically all-powerful. The Antarians are scared. Boklo was apologizing to me… but he was scared to death… for his family mostly."
Max nodded, understanding… "I got the idea that these Antarians didn't know much about Pierce… that he was a mystery here… never came out in public or anything."
Michael shrugged then nodded. "That may be true out there in the general population… but he has a small private circle of terror around him… and he's expanding it. He has the palace guards and a few other people who know what's going on bowing and scraping and eating off the floor, literally, if he tells them to. He has the families of all the palace guards and a few important people locked up. They can't see them. They don't know if they're even alive, but they do whatever Pierce says… ever since he… he… dissected a couple of Kivar's guards… as a lesson… to show them how painful their loved ones' deaths could be… in his hands."
Max closed his eyes and took a deep breath, and Liz put her hands over her face. Maria turned white.
"He's a monster," Michael continued, "WHEREVER he is."
Max pounded his right fist into his left hand in frustration… "But how the hell did Pierce learn to control the granolith? WE never even knew all the things the granolith could do… not until years later, after we were on Antar."
"His cronies in the FBI succeeded in translating the book."
"The Destiny Book?"
Michael nodded. "That one… and apparently another one that we never knew anything about. Pierce had it."
"Oh, God…" Max groaned. "And the granolith protects him now?"
"That's what Boklo said. He's invincible."
"He can't be invincible," Max protested, his mind starting to go places that Michael wasn't sure he liked.
"Max, whatever you're thinking, stop it!"
"It's Antar, Michael… Antar!"
"I know, Max… I don't like it any more than you do, but maybe the Antarians here need to fix it themselves."
"And if they can't? Michael, you as well as anyone know what Pierce is capable of."
"Yeah, that's why I don't want you down there. He wants you, Max… on his trophy wall… with a plaque under your head that says, 'King Of Antar… VERY DECEASED.' "
Max looked at Michael, and Michael sighed and nodded… "We're going back, aren't we…"
"Do you really want to leave those people's fate to Pierce?"
Michael shook his head. "I knew you'd do this, Max… but I had to warn you against it."
Max nodded. "I know. You've done your duty, now can we do this together?"
"I'm always with you, you know that, Max. I want to whip Pierce's fraudulent royal ass and send him packing back to where he came from as badly as you do. No Antar deserves to suffer through that. It's enough to make Antarians start their own alien task force."
"It would be justified in their case… after meeting Pierce," Max agreed. "Varec…"
"It's already done, Zan. We're heading back."
Max looked at Liz and Maria… then at Tess, Kyle, Jim, Alex, Isabel, and Rayylar. To a person, they all nodded.
"We've got more guts than brains," Michael said, smiling. "Somebody remember to put that on our epitaph. We'll be fighting the granolith's powers, you know."
End of Chapter 27
tbc…