Free The Fire Crystal by James Lawrence Page A

way outside of the event horizon; the point of no return.
    There in the same orbit was a gigantic rig, held together by struts . This was the beam weapon that Amber had told him about. It looked impressive, but at the same time seemed to be hastily put together, and temporary. In fact it was falling apart, and large bits had started to drift out into space.
    The Zaarks saw it too. Instead of being warned-off and jumping back into hyperspace, they fired their fusion motor and dodged sideways in one quick leap.
    Tom was staring out of a porthole. “Those creatures are sloppy, but their reactions seem good” he said grudgingly.
    “It makes them a tough enemy to beat I guess,” Calvan said.
    Suddenly three missiles launched from the Zaarks ship. They seemed to waver at first, weaving their way through space. Two headed for the rig but then the other one found Tom’s ship, and locked on. Immediately alarms started sounding in the ship, as it detected a missile-lock. These were fusion-torpedoes, and this one was heading towards them in a straight line now. It was too late to jump into hyperspace, and they could only watch, as the threat grew closer. There were no defenses for this situation. The torpedo was so close that he could actually see the warhead now.
    Tom said. “This will be painless, sorry for getting you into this Calvan.” He shook hands; they wouldn’t feel a thing.
    Why wasn’t he moving? He nudged Tom, but it was if he had turned to stone. “DO SOMETHING,” Calvan shouted. He woke suddenly in a cold sweat and sat bolt upright, shaking badly. It was early morning, and this had been a bad dream.

16 Decoy
    A shuttlecraft with Tom and Calvan onboard was sent down to Earth. As Amber had explained this was no ordinary craft , and had been fitted with a hyperdrive so that it could jump into hyperspace once the Zaarks started to chase them. They landed below the mountain, and finally managed to find their way up to the cave.
    “Well this looks familiar” Tom remarked, “lets go inside and see the eagles.”
    “But the computer, and the eagles were collected and taken up, last time we were here,” Calvan said.
    “Yes you could say this is version two,” Tom answered. “It’s a bit more simple that the original one, and doesn’t have the power. It’s just temporary.”
    Now they had to explain the whole thing. Tom was impatient – they needed to get on with the job. “No,” he said once again to both of the eagles, “don’t worry, the fire crystal is staying here for now. We will just be taking some rocks, its part of the plan.”
    Calvan added his bit. “Our idea is to make the Zaarks think we have the crystal, so that they will chase us,” he said slowly.
    So both the eagles asked together, “It’s really just a clever deception, so you can lure them to the beam weapon then?”
    “Well done, you’ve got the idea,” Tom answered patiently.
    The made several trips down the mountain carrying some rocks, and made a show of loading them into their small craft , in case the Zaarks were watching this. It was exhausting work.
    Finally they were ready “Don’t forget to come back for us,” both eagles reminded them.
    They lifted into earth orbit, and made an obvious show of avoiding the Zaarks. This of course would not work –and was not intended to
    “The Zaarks will detect us and approach. Then I’ll jump the ship into hyperspace.” Tom said
    “And because they think we have the crystal, they’ll give chase,” Calvan added.
    Calvan had been given the job of tracking the Zaarks ship. “They’re already moving” he informed Tom.
    They both peered out of a porthole. There was the Zaark ship in the distance.
    “It’s drawing closer,” Calvan reported.
    Now for the hard bit,” Tom said. “Lets head for the hub, and introduce those critters to our friends.”
    “I suppose you could say take them to the ‘travel agents’” Calvan said, getting into the spirit of things.
    Tom liked