The devils grip, p.1
The Devil's Grip, page 1
THE DEVIL’S GRIP
Morris Dolphin
Copyright © 2023 by Morris Dolphin.
ISBN:
Softcover
978-1-6698-6215-4
eBook
978-1-6698-6214-7
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
Rev. date: 01/11/2023
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Contents
Chapter 1 The Other Enemy
Chapter 2 Practice Makes Perfect
Chapter 3 Birthday Party
Chapter 4 Insight
Chapter 5 Direction
Chapter 6 Cassi and Omar
Chapter 7 The Devil’s Comet
Chapter 8 The City of Omen
Chapter 9 The Reflex
Chapter 10 The Kind Stranger
Chapter 11 Joseph’s Dream
Chapter 12 Sandstorm
Chapter 13 The Scout
Chapter 14 War in the Sky
Chapter 15 The Hour
Chapter 16 Oblivion
Chapter 17 New Blood
Epilogue I
Epilogue II
Chapter 1
The Other Enemy
His name was Will, short for William, from the now destroyed Planet Pearl. In his life of fifty-nine years, he had been many things—a scientist, lawyer, politician, president, conman, traitor, and now a survivor. He was the last living human from Planet Pearl, onboard and in command of an enemy starship. The enemy, the Scarriddians, were hell-bent on annihilating the human race. Their campaign was working. The three terrestrial planets in the habitable zone were at their mercy.
First, Planet Jade was destroyed years ago, then his home, Planet Pearl, three years ago.
He had escaped its destruction in a starship called the Horizon, but was quickly overrun by the Scarriddians through his conniving and bargaining skills. He was able to get his life spared, and he tracked down any enemy (human) ships to escape the onslaught that had happened to Planet Jade and Planet Pearl.
There was only one human planet in the solar system left—Planet Topaz. To Will, this didn’t make any sense. Topaz was a planet that was all but destroyed anyway. Ninety-nine percent of its population was wiped out due to its experiments with its super collider. One day, it exploded, throwing radiation and death all over the planet. To his knowledge, only two cities remained—the city of Omen and the city of Kai, which barely covered a hundred-square-mile radius.
It didn’t make sense. What’s more, the Scarriddians were in control of a deadly and powerful phenomenon—The Devil’s Comet. It moved and behaved with the pattern of a comet as it swung out to the back of the solar system with a tilted oval orbit and smashed into planets with its heavy gravity of a neutron star, blowing them up from the inside out. It kept going to its next target. Nothing could stop it.
It had some type of gravity field unknown to science. Anything that got too close to it was pulled to its surface and crushed by its heavy gravity. In a sense, it was the perfect weapon. What’s more, human beings were, by nature, superstitious, and they called it The Devil’s Comet . . . Whatever it was, it was unstoppable until it came across Planet Topaz.
For some reason, the comet had passed through the planet thrice, but the comet hadn’t destroyed it. The planet had become intangible, and the comet kept passing through it. The people on Topaz must have some kind of weapon that defies physics.
On the fourth attempt to destroy Topaz, it had to work.
The other generals, Tavik and Belassco, were becoming more and more frustrated with each passing day. The seven original human races had to be destroyed: Jade, Pearl, Topaz, Earth, Kismet, Kassar, and Skallix.
Only by destroying the human races would the people of Vega, the Scarriddians, eliminate nature’s competition. At least, this is their goal, Will thought.
Deep down Will knew this was flawed, but he constantly feared for his own life. There was no place to run, no place to hide. The Scarriddians were a one-leader-superstitious race under the dictatorship of an evil sorceress named Verronna. In some systems, they referred to her as the Star Queen.
She had magic powers often spawned from the forces of darkness. Somehow, over the scant three years he had been serving with the Scarriddians, he had some type of twisted relationship with Verronna and so did General Tavik—a twisted love triangle. The Scarriddians were very close to human, except they had no hair or solid pigment to their skin. It was like a smooth, solid, light gray color with no fingernails, five fingers, or five toes.
They operated best in dim light, and their lifespans were short, somewhere between twenty-nine and forty years. If one reached the age of fifty, it was like a human being reaching the age of one hundred. They would contaminate their planet to the point where it would be unlivable and would shorten their life spans. Verronna promised them eternal life eventually, but first, they had to kill humanity and find Planet Kismet. It was their destiny.
Verronna was a master manipulator. Her superhuman abilities made it easy for the Vegans (Scarriddians) to follow her. Her dark magic was unbelievable. She possessed superhuman strength. She could regenerate any part of her body, if wounded, and she had the ability to fire from her hands a destructive force called black fire.
It was a type of cold fire the splits matter to pieces and cooks living matter to death from the inside out. It was like being frozen to death and being set on fire at the same time.
She had white hair with a few violet and pink streaks in it, with the appearance of a woman in her early forties. She always wore a black cloak and black gloves and black boots.
She carried a sword on her right side. The blade was transparent and made out of diamond. She always kept a gun on her left hip. In anger, her blade would burn with black fire. She was ruthless.
Will was thinking about this constantly. There was no place to go.
A signal went off. It was time to start the meeting.
This time, the planet would be destroyed.
He then headed for the shuttle to meet with the other officers onboard the space battleship Aries.
Chapter 2
Practice Makes Perfect
The armed guards escorted Will to the shuttle. He knew what he was in for. He knew he was never allowed to wander the battleships alone or hold any firearms. He had so little freedom.
As the shuttle took off to ferry him from the space battleship Mons to the battleship Aries, the pride of the Scarriddian fleet, he couldn’t help but be in awe every time he saw these ships from the outside.
Mons, his battleship, and the Phobos and Deimos were all two miles long, while the Aries was five miles long. All ships carried at least two hundred missiles and fifty fighter ships. He couldn’t see how a total of ten thousand surviving warriors could even conceive of a freighter-sized ship like Starcutter as a threat, especially if it’s piloted by a bunch of kids.
But in his days, he had seen what magic could do. Never underestimate the power of magic, he thought.
He got to the meeting and sat down. Everything discussed was his thoughts on the way over. Two destroyed planets and three failed attempts to destroy Topaz.
To himself, he thought, Whatever was going to happen, it was going to happen soon.
Verronna ended the meeting.
“Go back to your ships and await further orders.”
Tavik and Belassco did so. He could feel the tension from Tavik.
“Will, I want you to stay behind,” Verronna ordered.
The jealousy built up.
When Will and Verronna were alone, she put her arms around him. He knew she needed strength. Her grip was strong. Like being caught in a vise grip, her touch was scary. With no choice, he hugged her back. She looked into his eyes.
“I’m counting on you for victory, Will.”
“You know only I can give it,” he responded, but deep down he was afraid of her.
“Good. Nothing like a human to get rid of a human.”
He kissed her ice-cold face with confidence, and she let him go. To him, it was like paying a toll to a troll. Although beautiful, she was still a ruthless, repulsive killer, just like himself.
As he was trying to gather his wits, Tavik thrust him back into the room with another low-ranking soldier.
“Your Excellency, we have captured three survivors from Planet Jade. We want you to interrogate them personally,” said Tavik.
He knew what he was doing, thought Will while constantly trying to show him up. Well, if he only knew how stubborn Jadeians co uld be . . . good luck getting any information.
* * *
Onboard Aries’s bridge, the three prisoners stood bound, shackled, and dirtied from trying to flee from their enemies. Verronna, Tavik, Will, and at least fifty other officers stood ready to torture them to death. They were afraid. Their names were Uco, Hyia, and Shim. Only one of their starships escaped the solar system, but no one, not even the three of them, knew where it went. That was Verronna’s first question. She asked Shim, but he said nothing; then Verronna, hands aflame with black fire, grabbed Shim’s face. He screamed and was consumed in a cold yet fiery death in one minute.
Her attention went to the female with the same question. Again, she got nothing.
This time, she drew her diamond sword, and it ignited with the black flame.
“Make it quick,” Hyia said.
Verronna did. In one instant, Verronna chopped Hyia’s head off. Her body froze and burned.
This is getting us nowhere, thought Will. “Let me talk . . . human to human,” he exclaimed. “Uco, I know you were from our neighboring planet, Pearl. Do you have anything to tell me? Human to human?”
Uco reacted in anger and spat in his face. Will wiped it off. Uco spoke, “All I have to tell you is our last ship made a successful jump to Planet Kismet. Yes, Kismet. Will, you know what that means, don’t you?” Those were his last words. Verronna stabbed him in the heart and he was burned alive.
She was angry with herself but excited to know what direction their last ship went.
Now Tavik was angry. His best torturers couldn’t get a word from Uco, but this other human got more useful information than him.
“We now need to defeat the Karpenters more than ever. They are in possession of the magic carpets, Duhbe and Merek. They might not know it yet, but the carpets have the route to Kismet on them.” Verronna had to calm down. She also knew the carpets were indestructible. Even if Starcutter gets blown up, they will magically survive.
Yes, she thought, the best thing to do right now is wait.
Chapter 3
Birthday Party
In his quarters, Maurice was getting ready for the party. He was feeling a little dizzy and groggy from the long trip. The crew had spent almost two Earth years in hyper-sleep. It was just a side effect from awakening from so long, but that feeling wasn’t fancying him so well.
It was actually Joseph and Tasha’s birthday (they were twins), and it was Tasha’s idea to set the awakening sequence right before they were supposed to reach the Mergez System.
Tasha and Tony worked vigorously to make the storage area look and feel like the beach. The pool was ready and there would be food and music.
They even had solar collectors to mimic the California sunshine that Maurice missed so much.
Well, let’s get this show on the road, Maurice thought. He was wearing his favorite knee-length blue shorts and a blue tank top.
“You look marvelous,” he said to himself. He flexed and posed and stretched in the mirror.
“You look okay,” another voice said.
Maurice turned around suddenly to see that Terri had said that. His heart was beating fast.
“Don’t you know it’s not nice to stow away in the captain’s quarters? I hope you weren’t watching me get dressed! What’s your problem?” he exclaimed.
Terri grabbed some towels and then sat on Maurice’s bed.
“Maurice,” she said. “I know we’re far away from home, but I keep having these nightmares. It keeps bothering me, most of the time when we were in hibernation. It’s my grandfather. I have a feeling he’s sick on earth. I really want to go back home. When we came to Los Angeles, he was the only family I had left. I feel I must go to him. Please understand how I feel.”
She began to cry a little. “Terri . . . ” Maurice said. “I don’t know what to do . . . But I tell you what, when our mission in the Mergez System is over, I’ll make sure we send you home.”
She began to cry more. “Okay, please, I can’t take losing him. He’s the only family I have left.”
Maurice took one of the towels from her and wiped her tears. Most of his crew of ten rarely talked about life back on Earth, but seeing Terri was the youngest, it was understandable that she would crack first.
“Come on, now.” He grabbed her hand and pressed for the door to slide open. “Right now, we have a party to attend.” As they walked down the hallway, they ran into Linda and Natalie.
Linda looked amazing in her black bathing suit, with a towel wrapped around her neck.
“Is this your new girl?” she said.
“Enough,” said Maurice.
“I can’t wait to have some of Tony’s barbecue,” said Natalie.
Maurice cut in, “He’d better make enough for everybody. I’m hungry.”
When they got to the end of the hall, Maurice was impressed with the decorations. It was amazing. The table was loaded with food and everybody was there. Starcutter could fly itself with automatic pilot, he thought, even though he preferred to fly with at least one human pilot.
He had to shake off those thoughts and try to enjoy himself. After all, the party was necessary to boost morale. Not only that, the pool’s water had been treated with a chemical agent that would speed up recovery from hyper-sleep. That meant everybody had to get into the pool, even him. With his phobia of water and all, Maurice tried to shake off his fear of the water. He dipped his foot in and glanced at everyone else. Everybody had dipped into the pool. He was the only dry one in the house.
“You can dive in at any time!” said Tony. Maurice got scared. He didn’t show it, but he was jealous because Tony was an excellent swimmer.
“Can I have your attention!?” Tasha broke a tense moment as she spoke on the mic. “Everybody to the table for the cake cutting!”
Everyone gathered around. Joseph put on this really old song called “Birthday Party” as he and Tasha got next to each other.
“Make a wish, but don’t you two wish for the same things” said Kimberley.
Together they blew out the candles. Secretly, Tasha wished she had a boyfriend like Steve was to Kimberley, and Joseph wished to become famous when they got back to Earth.
Tasha handed Maurice the knife. “We’d be honored if you cut the first piece.”
It was a rectangular red velvet cake with vanilla frosting. He cut a big piece out the of corner and walked away as the music resumed.
He kind of wanted to be alone while he ate his cake and to try to gradually slip his body into that pool so he could feel better.
He ate fast. He started to choke. Out of nowhere, Tony rammed him into the pool, into the deep water!
“Everybody into the pool!” Tony said.
In no time, Maurice panicked. He coughed. There was nothing to grab onto. He sank like a battleship.
Linda wasted no time. She dived into the water, followed by Steve. Together they dragged him out of the water.
He coughed, but there was no response.
“Get Natalie over here! He’s dying. Hurry!” Linda exclaimed.
Joseph brought Natalie over to Maurice. Linda prayed that Natalie’s healing powers could save the captain. With both hands, Natalie pressed against Maurice’s chest. The water began to come out of his mouth and nose. “I’m losing him,” Natalie said.
For a split second, Maurice opened his right eye. And then everything went black. Steve and Joseph lifted up his body and put him on a gurney. Then Natalie and Terri followed them to the sick bay. They had to save him.
Tasha went over to Tony. She didn’t have words. She slapped him. “You ruined my party!” Then she headed to the sick bay, crying.
Tony felt guilty. He wanted to hit her back, but he was completely in the wrong. The best thing to do now would be just to go to his laboratory. He had to think about what he had done.
Chapter 4
Insight
Maurice was not dead nor was he truly alive. Wherever he was, he could hear the beeping and buzzing of machines, but nothing else. I had to be somewhere, he thought.
