The Fire Crystal by James Lawrence Read Free Book Online Page A

the haze turned darker before his eyes, and it seemed that he couldn’t take much more. Tom was breathing deeply and deliberately, his eyes closed, calm, and resolute, fighting against the effects of acceleration.
    The hull began to glow a dull red. Luckily Calvan didn’t see this, he had blacked out. Then they cleared the atmosphere. Even Tom was uncertain now, as the craft continued to accelerate. At two hundred miles out the engines finally finished their burn. The peace was beautiful – but best of all there was no more crushing acceleration. Tom took a deep breath.
    “Well that wasn’t too bad,” he said unconvincingly 
    “Glad you think so, it nearly killed me,” Calvan said drily.
    They were weightless now, and Calvan couldn’t shake off the feeling that he was moving upwards at great speed. He looked out of the small window and caught his breath. The stars of the Milky Way were spread out before them, like he had never seen before.
    “OK here’s the plan,” Tom said. “We do one orbit of Earth, and see what we can spot. If we draw a blank, I’ll switch the beacon on for a very short time – the SPs are waiting for a signal, so they’ll spot us, and pull us aboard.”
    “How will they do that?” Calvan asked unconvinced.
    “They’ll probably use standard rescue methods, and just beam us back in,” Tom said in a superior matter-of- fact manner.
    Calvan looked puzzled. “But couldn’t the Zaarks do that too?”
    “Of course they could, that’s the problem,” Tom said. “That’s why we are steering this tin can instead of a robot.” 
    They completed an orbit , and saw no sign of friend or foe. It was starting to feel cramped, and both boys were getting bored. “Right here goes,” Tom said. He set the transmitter to maximum power, and hit the send button. “Now everyone knows we’re here. Let’s hope that my people find us before the Zaarks.”
    Two more orbits and still there was no reply to the signal. Tom didn’t speak, but knew that this was the very worst thing that could happen. If nobody found them, then they were stuck in orbit until re-entry and burnout. Then a strange thing happened. They both dropped into a dreamless sleep. Exhaustion had finally kicked in.

12 Enemy
    Sometime later Tom woke up. Had an hour gone by, or a day? He had no way of knowing. Calvan was still in a deep sleep. He switched on the viewer screen, hoping to find something maybe even a message from his own people, just to say that they were not alone in this huge universe. He found this out in the worst way possible. There on screen was an image – the leering face of the enemy. The Zaark thing was laughing.
    “Look outside, you have company,” the thing said. “Don’t be afraid, we want to be your friends. You have a present for us I believe. Once it is delivered , we can all say goodbye,” he laughed.
    Tom looked out of the window. They were being drawn toward a ship. It was massive, almost like a small moon. The Zaark said. “You will have a reward – we will put you out of your misery fast.” He thought this was a great joke. The grotesque face on the screen laughed again.
    “Yes look scared, look very scared,” the Zaark said. “You are of course disposable, and will leave by an appropriate exit – the garbage chute. You don’t have to worry, as your cargo of fire crystal will be put to good use. Your people in the other mother ship will be joining you, in the afterlife – just after we vaporize their ship.”
    He was in a fit of uncontrollable laughter now, and Tom recalled another of the Zaarks defining traits - cruelty. Tom played for time. There was another quality that these creatures had lots of - vanity, and this one obviously enjoyed the sound of his voice own voice.
    “Once this is over we will rename your home planet. Two Stars will become Saarland, he said.” He was really enjoying this and continued, “But don’t worry your people back home won’t all be destroyed, we