Hunter slowly got to his feet, his blaster up and ready. Through the murk he discovered that, quite unexpectedly, he’d cornered what might have been the last four of the mysterious spacemen. They were frozen in place, obviously confused or frightened or both. Their hands were up, but were not pointing at him in a threatening manner.
Hunter raised his weapon — and that’s when it hit him. He knew when he’d seen types similar to these characters before: flowing out of the Blackship… during the attack on the BonoVox.
And, it seemed, no sooner did that thought come to his head than the four spacemen turned to each other, raised their hands — and blasted each other into oblivion…
And suddenly Hunter was alone in the strange control room.
Or at least he thought he was.
A voice was suddenly in his ear: Get out, Hawk!
He was so startled he spun around, thinking someone was standing behind him. But no one was. He was alone.
Was it normal to be hearing voices in one’s head?
He didn’t know, but this one sounded a lot like Xara…
Get out Hawk… now!
He needed no further prompting.
He sprinted out of the smelly control room, back down the curved, soft-metal hallway and finally through the original green door. He hit this hatchway running, blaster rifle up, quite aware that if he was now back in his time, he would be very visible to anyone who would want to take a shot at him.
But he could hear no soldiers running through passageways below. No footsteps, no noise at all. The big xarcus was still frozen in place. Hunter began moving faster — he felt like he was running through a ticking time bomb.
Which was not too far from the truth.
He finally reached the top of the turret.
The wind was not howling anymore, and the morning sun was not blazing brilliantly over his shoulder. In fact, it was almost as dark as night, even though it was still early morning in the supershort day. That’s when Hunter realized that two enormous objects had appeared in the sky while he’d been inside the xarcus. They were two huge spaceships; their combined size was enough to block out the sun.
He pulled out his long-range viz-scanner and swept the battlefield below him. That’s when he saw an unforgettable sight.
It seemed unreal at first. Everything appeared frozen, as if all time had stopped, which it had in a sense.
All of the Nakkz soldiers on the battlefield, in front of the north wall, and even atop the battlements, were not moving, as if they were stuck in place. Yet he could still hear these people screaming, shouting.
Wailing.
Then it got very strange, for this still life was not totally still. There was a legion of soldiers making their way through the paralyzed Nakkz troops, killing them wherever they stood, either by ray gun blast or electric sword. The enemy soldiers were completely defenseless against this army of newcomers — and these new soldiers were slaughtering the Nakkz with a kind of indifferent efficiency, which made it all the more gruesome.
What was going on here? Who were these new soldiers, and how were they able to freeze the Nakkz in place so they could kill them all at leisure?
Hunter turned his scanner skyward — and there he found his answer.
The ship hanging in the air directly above Qez he recognized as a Series 7 war cruiser, a vessel roughly on par with a Space Forces M-Class ship. It was triangular in design, of course, but significantly different from the comparable SF ship.
But it was the second vessel that finally solved the disturbing riddle for him. It, too, was triangular in shape, but from its outward appearance it didn’t seem to be a military vessel at all. Only the bright red bubble just behind its control deck gave it away. He was able to see a faint crimson glow emanating from this bubble that seemed to be encompassing the surface of the tiny, war-torn moon for an area of five miles or so.
Hunter knew immediately what kind of ship this was; he’d seen one just like it in action before, above a planet called Vines 67.
It was a Kaon Bombardment ship.
That’s when it all fell into place. The Kaon ship could freeze time—to paralyze any opponent on the ground so its accompanying troops could mow them down with ease. That’s what happened on Vines 67, and that’s what was happening here. Hunter felt a strange sensation in his throat. Sure, this was war, and certainly the people of Qez were fighting for their very existence.
But there was something inherently wrong about how the Nakkz soldiers were being dispatched without having a chance to fight back or maybe even run away. Wasn’t there?
That’s when another question popped into his head: If everything around him was frozen, why could he still move? Why was he not affected? He had no idea. Did it have to do with the creeps downstairs knocking him ahead in time? Or maybe whatever was allowing the killing angels to move freely through the battlefield was allowing him to remain unfrozen as well?
Or was he still stuck back in the second blue screen of the Earth Race, meaning nothing at all here was real?
Either way, he knew at last the terrible secret behind the Kaon Bombardment ship.
But who exactly was doing all the killing?
He turned his scanner back toward the battlefield below. He keyed in the telelens and zoomed right up to a group of soldiers who were cutting the throats of frozen Nakkz troops like a farmer would cut hay.
Closer still, and Hunter could see the insignia being worn by these ruthlessly efficient soldiers.
Two lightning bolts: the sign of the Solar Guards.
I should have known, he thought grimly.
Get off this thing, Hawk… now!
This time Hunter didn’t question his sanity or wonder just who the female voice in his ear belonged to.
His own inner sense was telling him the urgently whispered advice was right-on, no matter where it came from. He had to get off the xarcus.
He took the small box from his pocket, activated the twenty and six, and his flying machine appeared again. He quickly climbed inside and ran his power plant up to full throttle.
That’s when an enormous explosion went off right below his feet.
No time passed. None at all.
When the second sonic ripple went through Qez, it happened at the exact same moment as the first.
And just like that, everything started moving forward again.
“Time shifter!” Erx yelled to Berx as soon as they were able to talk again.
Thousands of soldiers had suddenly appeared around them. “Courtesy of our friends the Solar Guards,” Berx said bitterly.
They looked around them and saw the results of the horrifying slaughter. Dead Nakkz soldiers were simply everywhere — on the ramparts, hanging halfway off the wall, filling the city square below, covering the trenches out on the battlefield. Everywhere was the smell of new death.
Erx and Berx were stunned. Their lives had been saved, but they were repulsed by the means of their salvation. Some of the Solar Guards who had participated in the operation were standing nearby, cleaning the gore from their electric swords.
Erx grabbed one. “Who is your commanding officer?” he demanded of the man.
The soldier was at first startled, but then a cruel smile spread across his gnarled features.
“Look behind you,” was all he said for a reply.
The two explorers turned around and found a man of short stature in a shimmering Solar Guards officer’s uniform standing right behind them.
It was Jak Dazz, the Solar Guards’ first commander himself.