But this time, the collision had taken off a huge piece of the KosmoVox's nose cone. There was also a giant tear on its starboard fuselage.
"Don't let them get away!" Zoloff cried.
Hunter hit the saucer a fifth time, and then a sixth, both
times on the flight deck again. With each collision, he saw even more damage to the interior of the SSG ship. Just glimpses, quick visions of a nightmare in progress. Control stations covered in bile. Dead SSG crew members sprawled about. McLyx with a ray gun up against his own head, ready to blow his brains out. But at the same time in all this, the KosmoVox was literally coming apart at the seams. There were holes opening up all along its fuselage. The glass in the canopy was gone. Its two huge tail wings had broken away. But the wounds Hunter was delivering to the saucer were even more gaping. He was easily able to tear away long sections of the thinly constructed alien craft. And every time he made contact, there was a huge crack of lightning, a massive discharge of electricity, and a deafening sound not unlike a sonic boom. Hunter's eardrums felt like they were going to burst, this noise was so loud. But of course, he knew this, too, was impossible. Sound waves were carried on air. And there was no air in space.
Something was wrong. All these things that were happening to him couldn't possibly be real.
The evidence mounted. There were so many holes in the KosmoVox now, all of the air should have escaped long ago. Yet the lack of oxygen wasn't having any effect on him. In fact, he felt great. And there was fire all around him too, yet he wasn't getting burned, and neither were Annie and Zoloff. And the ship's artifical-grav dampeners had to be zonked by now, yet Hunter was still sitting firmly in his seat.
He rammed the saucer once more, a massive body blow right on top of the flight deck again. But this time the KosmoVox stayed in place. Driven too far into the circular ship, there was no way it was going to back its way out now. Stuck for good, the two ships were now one, with flames and smoke and sparks and air gushing out everywhere.
I should be dead, Hunter thought. We all should be. But we're not…
He finally turned to Zoloff amid the chaos and said, "It's not real, is it?"
Zoloff just smiled and then shook his head. "Not all of it, no," he said.
Hunter began to panic. He screamed back at Zoloff, "Am I insane? Just like I've thought all along? Or are we still inside the dizzylando, and this is just another ride? More thrills and spills? Axe we in Chase the Saucer Land?"
Zoloff just shrugged. "All of the above maybe? Or maybe it's something else…"
Hunter looked at Annie, this as he found himself involuntarily rising out of his seat.
"And her?" he asked Zoloff.
Zoloff just nodded sadly. "The same…" he said.
Annie was trying to grab Hunter now as he was being sucked out the hole in the top of the KosmoVox's fuselage. But she couldn't quite reach him.
She started crying. "No… don't go!"
Hunter freaked out. This was happening way too fast.
"Please!" he shouted at Zoloff. "Please just tell me she was real at least!"
But it was too late. He went through the hole in the roof an instant later.
Then the two ships, melded by the last collision, both on fire, both smoking heavily, tumbled away from him, quickly fading from view.
"Annie!" he cried. But it was no use.
She was gone.
And Zoloff was gone.
Leaving him alone, floating in space.
12
The StarLiner had been patrolling above the badlands for several days now.
Recent comm interceptions indicated SG ships might have been in the area of Doomsday 212 lately, possibly even showing up in low orbit, if just for a few seconds at a time. These reports had prompted the Star Legion to go on high alert all around their adopted planet.
This particular Starliner was not just a warship though. Atop three of its golden masts were ultra-long range scanning devices that could pick up indications of hostile craft approaching from as far as 10,000 light-years away. They also had devices on board that could detect body heat, movement, even DNA samples blowing in the wind. These things were most helpful when searching for someone on the ground.
It was one of these gadgets that lit up the ship's center mast. This was where two crewmen in gold suits were monitoring the magnificent starship's primary scanning devices. And even though they were out here more to look for any Empire spacecraft that might be lurking either close to the planet or possibly hidden somewhere on the forbidding terrain below, they took notice when their DNA sniffer began blinking.
There was a body down there somewhere. Badly injured, hidden among the putrid smoke, barely breathing.
The scanning crew immediately reported this to the bridge. The giant galleon-like starship did a quick turnabout and headed down to where the body had been spotted. Once they were within sight of it, a landing party was sent down to the surface to investigate.
Two Legionnaires located the body atop a high ridge close to a vent spewing hideous gases. Close by were several large pieces of burning wreckage. They could have been from some kind of Empire ship, though it was hard to say, the damage was so extensive. Farther across the ridge line, there was another pile of wreckage, also burning fiercely, also unidentifiable, though in the short study given to it by the men on the ground, they thought it might have been more of an oval design than the wedge shape that prevailed among Empire ships.
Oddly, their life support equipment told them not to approach these piles of wreckage as they contained aerial agents so intense, they might permeate their battle suits. Such things were not so unusual down here in the badlands. Still, they were wise enough then to stay away.
They concentrated on the body instead. They found it lying faceup on a bed of sharp rocks, a strange red smoke surrounding it. The two Legionnaires approached cautiously, ray guns drawn. They had no clue as to who this might be.
That's why they were so shocked when they drew close enough to see the face — and discovered it was Hawk Hunter.
The first thing they did was check for a pulse; there was none. They immediately contacted their ship, and a rescue beam was sent down to their position in seconds. But still Hunter was showing no vital signs when they boosted him up to the waiting StarLiner.
Immediately flashed to the ship's ultramodern hospital ward, the Legion doctors were finally able to raise a pulse. It was weak, but at least it was there. Hunter was then put inside a ion-barometric chamber, which served to raise his vital signs slightly. Despite this, he was very close to death.
He was rushed back to the more habitable parts of Doomsday 212 and beamed down to a field hospital located close to the cottage that served as the Star Legion headquarters. Erikk and the rest of the commanders of the Legion rushed to Hunter's side. The top UPF officers were also there. They gathered around Hunter's floating bed, horrified at his wounds and utterly astonished that he was among them again.
What had happened? Nothing had been heard from Hunter since he'd left on his mission to the moons of Saturn. In fact, from their point of view, the last they'd seen or heard from him was when the DATT tube disappeared from the cottage dining room not that long ago. Seconds after he vanished, there came a series of very intense blinks, which caused more crazy things to happen not just on Doomsday 212 but throughout the Two Arm and all across the Galaxy. Moreover, a scan of the dining room after Hunter's departure left them with indications that the DATT had malfunctioned somehow soon after he'd left, but they were uncertain if this was due to the blinks or was evidence of a real problem with the DATT.