Earthman Jack vs. The Ghost Planet by Matthew Kadish

Author:Matthew Kadish [Kadish, Matthew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: young adult, sci fi, fantasy, ya, science fiction, adventure
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 26

The metal door opened with a hiss and Abraxas stepped through to the monotonous hum of generators. His Dark Soldiers spread out through the room, plasma rifles at ready, searching behind the pipes and any alcove in which the intruders could be hiding.

Rage bubbled deep within the Deathlord’s gut. After giving up searching the Ancient starship for his prey, he’d spent hours organizing the search aboard the mothership, sending troops down as many hallways, corridors, and maintenance shafts as he could find.

The ship is too big, he cursed silently to himself. The intruders could be anywhere, hiding in any number of places, and the longer the search went on, the more vexed he found himself becoming.

“Anything?” Abraxas barked.

“The room is empty, Warlord,” Vishni replied.

Abraxas seethed. Battle he could deal with. Combat he understood. Chasing cowardly prey was another matter entirely.

“Where is the access console?” he grumbled.

Vishni led Abraxas to a computer panel tucked away from the door’s line of sight. Abraxas glared at it.

“It’s been deactivated,” reported Vishni. “If the Acolytes hadn’t detected the unscheduled access, we’d never have known it had been used.”

Abraxas did not know what upset him more - the fact that his prey seemed more than capable of eluding him on his own ship, or that such dishonorable infidels were trying to access their sacred technology.

“And they were able to use it?” inquired Abraxas. “Have they somehow figured out our systems?”

“The Acolytes seem to think so,” responded Vishni. “Of course, it is impossible to tell based on the alert we received. They may have blindly been hitting buttons out of desperation.”

“Have the Acolytes access the data logs from this panel,” ordered Abraxas. “I want to know what they did, what they were looking at, and how long they were looking at it.”

“Thy will be done, my Warlord.” Vishni bowed.

Abraxas turned to leave, making his way for the door before stopping. Standing in the doorway was Zarrod, accompanied by the Vicar General, and a small squad of Dark Soldiers.

Upon seeing the Deathlord Supreme, Abraxas immediately dropped to one knee in deference, as did his men.

“Rise,” ordered Zarrod.

Abraxas returned to his feet. “Supreme,” he said. “To what do I owe the honor of your presence?”

“The Vicar General has delivered to me a troubling report of unscheduled system accesses around the ship.”

Abraxas glared at the Vicar General, whose pale red eyes were expressionless behind his plain white faceguard.

“We believe the companions of the Regal Princess may be attempting to access our ship’s computers,” reported Abraxas. “No doubt they are lost, frightened, and desperate. It is only a matter of time before we catch them.”

“My Acolytes have back-traced a number of unauthorized computer accesses around the ship,” the Vicar General said softly. “This generator station shows hours of unsanctioned activity. It is my belief the intruders were successful in deciphering our systems.”

“Impossible,” growled Abraxas. “No mere infidels could decipher our sacred language in a matter of hours.”

“These are not mere infidels,” said Zarrod. “They repelled your attack on the

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