Time has come to the time-locked prison. The newborn devil reaches for it, slow as glaciers moving. The corruption touches the edges of the Negamatrix, at the point the visitors entered. It begins to seep outward, like water. Gradual. Harmless. Inexorable.
The five travelers emerge aboard a familiar looking starship. It’s not the Love Bug, but it’s definitely a Blockhead ship. In fact, Adam recognizes the vibe immediately. It’s the ship, the one that came for him when Sol Gamma-2 first joined with him.
There’s two problems. First, it’s fully crewed by the alien Blockheads. Second, the ship is in the middle of a pitched space battle with an unknown enemy fleet.
Adam has only seen the Blockheads once before. He isn’t even sure what they call themselves. He knows the aliens are basically energy beings, with that energy confined into polyhedral shapes like squares and triangles. Those containers are then mounted on or attached to robotic bodies. Some of them are humanoid. Some are built more like spiders, or centipedes, or tanks. Some are very weird indeed. Their ranks and functions are distinguishable if you know what to look for on their robot bodies, but Adam also knows the real sign of importance is the shape of their “heads”.
Kirk, one of the Rainbow Warriors, dubbed these aliens the “Blockheads” in “Every Star a Battlefield”. The Love Bug is also the ship the Rainbow Warriors fought when it came for their Shard(s). – Ed.
Those members of the crew who aren’t busy at their controls turn toward the travelers. “Dull surprise” is all you might get out of their body language, but Adam can read more. Surprise, fear, anger, confusion, and other emotions radiate from the crew.
“Destroy the intruders!” roars one of the Blockhead commanders.
William Eddison is first to pick up on the situation. Excalibur flashes into existence, just as the Blockheads draw their blasters and start beaming. He leaps forward, catching beams on the blade, and charges into melee with the nearest of the aliens.
Adam is next, having had some inkling of what the Blockheads were like. His shields snap on and catch the beams before they strike the more vulnerable members of the party. “Don’t destroy too much!” he shouts. “This is the ship that took me. We need it intact!”
That may be easier said than done. The ship is suddenly rocked by an incoming attack from the space battle.
Jaycee yelps out an impulsive, reckless idea. “Piracy! Take over the ship and fly it outta here.”
The shared vibe is immediate. Everyone’s on board with this idea.
Keri launches herself out of the bubble. Punch after incredible punch lands on the Blockhead’s robot bodies. Although the artificial bodies are made of super-powerful technology, Keri is a conduit for cosmic forces and she can knock a hole in them with a single hit. Their blaster fire makes her cry out in pain when it hits, but it doesn’t slow her down much.
Space Bug also rushes out of the bubble, their own blasters at the ready. They tumble under the legs of the big blocky crew members, firing blaster shots up and about as they scurry toward the bridge.
Adam is torn between escorting Jaycee to the bridge behind Space Bug - he’s confident she can help take over the ship’s controls, given the amount of time she spent watching and learning from Space Bug - and staying behind to shield Keri from more attacks.
Keri, perhaps sensing his hesitation, calls over one shoulder. “Got these guys. Get going.”
William Eddison is swinging his own sword about with startling speed, blocking beams and severing artificial legs or arms as he does. When he needs to go defensive, he sidesteps or flips over an attack with an agility and confidence born of constant training. “We’ll cover you!” he calls out.
Much as Adam hates to admit it, it would be handy to have Peri here.
They arrive at the bridge as a trio. Adam gasps when he recognizes the ship’s commander–
“Cracklesnap!” he shouts.
The Blockhead’s robot body is taller and more imposing than those around him. He turns at the voice. Although his “head” is merely a pyramidal shape, Adam can feel the equivalent of a raised eyebrow from his emotional radiation.
“The host of that errant Concordance Shard that escaped us. Yes. I remember you.”
Adam points. “I grew up, and I’ve learned a lot. This time the fight’s gonna go a little differently for you.”
Cracklesnap’s smug boast may not be as clear to his friends as it is to Adam, but to him it comes through loud and clear. “I too have improved since that time.”
He gestures, and two of the aides flanking him transform unexpectedly. Their heads flatten out and flow into distinct shapes. They attach themselves to Cracklesnap’s two robotic hands, and lines of energy reach up along the arms.
Adam can tell immediately what has happened. The Blockhead leader is now equipped with two energy axes, but they are steered and operated by two independent minds. Space Bug and Jaycee can’t hope to battle this thing on an equal footing - and they’ll be too busy trying to take control of the ship. This battle will be three on one.
Adam knows his blasts worked before. Perhaps they’ve done something new? It can’t hurt to find out.
He unleashes an energy beam at Cracklesnap, who doesn’t even try to dodge. The blast strikes an invisible shield around the Blockhead, and Adam can see and feel the energy dissipated. No - not just dissipated. Absorbed into the robotic systems.
While Adam is caught in the moment by surprise, Cracklesnap brings one of the axes down in a vicious blow. Adam raises his shield at the last moment. To his continued surprise, the axe-head bites into the shield, and starts siphoning power away from it. Lines of energy trail up the mechanical arms like rivulets of white glowing blood being drawn out by a hungry vampire.
Adam snaps off his shield in shock, and the axe pulls back. The glowing bits on Cracklesnap’s body shine with renewed intensity.
“Our Shard collection apparatus,” Cracklesnap explains. “We have improved it. Generalized it. Equipped every ship in the fleet with it. Even our bodies are proof against your weapon.”
Adam spares a glance at Space Bug and Jaycee. Cracklesnap catches the look, intuits the importance of Adam’s friends, and suddenly aims an axe-head at where they stand at a console.
“Look out!” Adam calls in urgent warning.
Jaycee and Space Bug dive left and right as a blast emanates from the axe-head, and reduces the console to smoking ash.
Space Bug returns fire with their improved blaster, but Cracklesnap catches the blast on one of the powered-up axe heads. It ricochets away, striking the ceiling of the bridge and leaving little more than a scorch mark.
So much for that.
More axe-swings are incoming. Adam can’t shield himself, but he can fly. He takes off from the deck, darting about like Peter Pan as Captain Cracklesnap tries to dice him up.
“We go elsewhere!” Space Bug calls to Jaycee. “Follow, accompany, escort.”
The two leave the bridge rapidly. Cracklesnap aims an energy blast after them. Adam, hoping his shields will still work against something like this, throws one up in the path of the beam. Sure enough - the shield handles it just fine. His friends dart down a side junction, leaving Adam alone with the Blockhead leader.
He reviews his options quickly, desperately. Space Bug’s blaster didn’t work. Jaycee carries a couple as well, probably in her backpack at the moment. There’s no point in asking for a spare blaster.
He could call in Keri and William. But they’re busy fighting off the entire rest of the crew - and it’s not going well from the sound and feel of it. He chances a glance down the corridor, and sees damaged Blockhead crew re-equipping their robot bodies with spare parts, then getting back into the fight.
Besides, if what Cracklesnap said was true - and it felt True - Adam can’t take effectively take their place.
To get the answers he needs, he might need both Cracklesnap and the ship. Damn.
Enora Dralis and the Champions of Night took back the Continuum Sword he’d obtained. It wasn’t his, sure, but it was nice to have.
He needs a weapon - some kind of weapon - any kind of weapon - fast.
Space Bug and Jaycee run and jump and dodge. Most of the Blockheads are distracted by the heavy hitters on the team - William and Keri - but a few notice the pair, and come after them.
Jaycee tosses her rucksack in front of her. As they run, she reaches into it and grabs, purely by feel and memory, the two weapons she packed away. She dives into a roll, firing the weapons from upside down back along the corridor at the approaching aliens.
She’s not a talented shot, and she doesn’t expect to hit anything, but she hopes to slow them down. Sure enough, they slow down, but only until they realize the weapon isn’t doing significant damage to their armored bodies.
Her face screws into a look of fear, disgust, and regret as the Blockheads pound down the corridor at her. And then–
A blast from behind her, more powerful by far than her own, has pierced through one of the beings’ metal chests, leaving a smoking hole. Jaycee can look through the gap and see the other Blockhead hesitating. She looks back.
Space Bug is standing tall. They hold their new blaster in two hands, and use the other two to hold onto a cable that snakes out of the handle of the weapon. The cable connects to some kind of plugin on the ship itself - a power connector, Jaycee guesses.
In the time the Blockhead has taken to make a decision whether to attack or retreat, Space Bug blows a hole in its chest too.
Jaycee turns quickly. “We gotta get back and help Adam with that thing.”
“Cannot,” Space Bug explains regretfully. “Engineering outlets not available on bridge. Also, the blaster will fire maybe ten more times before exploding, detonating, igniting.”
The cable is already sparking slightly. Space Bug must have rigged this up somehow, Jaycee thinks. It’s not supposed to work this way.
“Alright. Well what do we do now?” she asks.
“You hold weapon. Fire at all uncooperative intruders,” the Bug explains. “I will patch override. We will steal command codes from bridge to this engineering console.”
“You’ve done this before?” Jaycee asks in surprise.
The bug is already halfway into the guts of the engineering section. They answer without looking away from the work. “Not even once. That is why I am so eager to begin. I am very curious whether we will die or not.”