MILO

Milo was alone in the airlock. The silence gave way for his focus to creep in. Confidence. It was there. His new hook. Just thinking about it made his mind instinctively tug at the deposits and giving them distinction. Yes. It would work. The lightning would come when summoned upon.

He had not told the others about Sam’s secret plan. Maybe he should have. There was still time to call them through the vac suit’s communication array. But no. Splitting the crew with yet another conflict, at the start of their and the world’s most critical battle, would lead them into chaos and their unmaking. Saif would win and that couldn’t happen, was not allowed to happen. Maybe there was some slight truth in what Sam tried explaining, that maybe sacrificing the life of a boy for the chance to save the rest of the Universe, was worth it? A lot more children would be hurt if Saif was allowed to continue un-challenged.

Milo sighed. It still grinded his gears. What was the correct decision? He was not sure and probably never would. Stopping Sam was not an issue. Let the battle play out, let all the cards come into play before that was ever a concept he would accept. Was the murder of a child ever okay? He shook his head, disgusted by his own thoughts.

“Are you ready, Capt’n?” Diego asked through the shared mental channel.

Milo inhaled. “Always. The deposits are distinct. I can go whenever.”

“We are moving into position,” Diego said. “Just a while longer.”

“Crew, are everybody ready? There is no backing out after we have started,” Milo said.

“In position,” Beth said. “Argus argued that he was not ready, but I gave him the hand and now he has shut up. We can go ahead.”

“Ready to deploy the emission cloud,” Birgitta said with Yuri saying something in the background.

“We are suited,” Claire and Sam said.

A dragon roar echoed through the mental channel, Rahgon and Elzrig signaling that they were ready.

“Diego, we are good to go. Birgitta, activate,” Milo said.

Milo imagined the void torpedoes and nukes leaving their launch tubes. The vibrations were numbed by the hardware insulation, making the ship deadly silent. The explosions shone through space and even though his angle towards them were off, he saw them detonating. All that exotic radiation and nuclear detonations were sure to give Saif’s ships’ sensors array a hell of a time, maybe even frying some of them out.

“We can do this. I can do this,” Milo said.

He inhaled deeply and reached for his hook, the deposits grew distinct inside his mind. This was not fake confidence, this was real. He found the adrenaline deposit and focused on that. Its yellowish liquid splashed around the transparent deposit. He needed to be conservative with its use, since it needed to last for him to both cross the distance and to fight Saif.

“Capt’n, the emission cloud is growing. It’s screwing our sensors, so I am guessing Saif’s ships are feeling the same,” Diego said. “Our stealth functions are dissolving, at least the cloud will scramble their sensors as much as ours.” Diego started to say something more, but his attention was diverted.

“Good luck, lightning-in-a-bottle,” Beth said.

“Wait for me to engage them, before you deploy. Their focus will be on me and why I was able to penetrate their defenses,” Milo said. He knew they knew, but it felt good and correct to repeat their plan one last time. It felt like something Sam would have liked.

He reached for the adrenaline deposit, but halted from tearing into it.

“Capt’n is set,” Milo said, placing his hand hovering over the button which opened the outer airlock door. “Capt’n is deploying!”

“Are those stealth ships?” Diego said.

Milo slammed the button and tore into the adrenaline deposit at the same time. Diego’s observation faded away in his mind. The trickle of bitterness ran into his mouth, a trickle would be enough. A surge went through him and his body transformed, he folded into lightning and thundered out into space.

In this form, his mind worked differently. His thoughts were quicker, much, much quicker, but the actual thoughts were more rudimentary.

Space felt numb, everything felt numb.

He had no vision, instead he sensed electrical sources. The emission cloud blinded even that, but his destination was already set.

He passed through the cloud.

Another second passed and Saif’s fleet appeared, a wall of electrical sources. Lights in the dark.

He slammed into a ship’s hull, his lightning form searched until it found an entry. The service panel of an airlock, some of its insulation seals were cracked. His mind darted across the ship’s electrical grid, through computers, access hubs and routers. To the source, the reactor core. This time was different, now his adrenaline deposit was full. The jump across space had not cost him much of it, he had learned to use it at a trickle instead of flooding himself with it and wasting it. His form arrived at the reactor core, the overload protections broke upon his entry and he found his way to the actual core. The core overloaded.

Two seconds passed, but he kept his consciousness awake. He thundered through the core’s overload and nuclear explosions. Flames and electrical surges reached out, but he was too strong, too fast and his body protected within his lightning form.

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He passed by three lines of ships, which were all to be affected by the coming EMP shockwave and all the debris put into sudden motion. The fourth line of ships. One which generated more electrical power than any of the others. He slammed into it, and searched for an opening. But no broken insulation seal or damaged access hub was found. The ship opened one of its launch tubes. Had they already spotted the Final Sight? Or were they just being cautious? No room for him to explore. He thundered into and through the tube, finally entering the ship’s electrical grid. He darted across it, until he found an unfortunate crewman holding open an access hub.

Milo impacted the crewman and electrocuted him on the spot, before he severed the adrenaline trickle.

Milo transformed, his body folded back into its human form. He landed with his boots on the corridor’s metal floor.

The crewman was lying dead beside him.

Now, time for the hard part.

“Saif!” Milo yelled into the mental channel.

If some external person was able to tap into the mental channel he shared with his crew, it had to be Saif. It also worked as a signal for his crew to move ahead with the plan.

“Saif!” Milo yelled into the mental channel.

A presence penetrated into his mind, reaching around inside. Moving thoughts and spreading about strange looking seeds.

“You,” Saif said. “You came here alone. No, you didn’t. I see your plan. Your thought stream is vulnerable. The seeds are already rooting.”

“Cut the bullshit,” Milo said.

Milo pulled at his hook and the deposits grew distinct. He tore into the adrenaline and the trickle of bitterness ran into his mouth. A surge went through his body and he transformed, his body folded into light, and he thundered back into the electrical grid. All Saif’s influence burnt away from his human shaped mind as he had transformed. His mind was not physical in this form, it was a stream of electrical tendrils, there was nothing for Saif to control.

Where would Saif be?

The bridge.

The control panels.

The pilot’s controls exploded as Milo surged through them, he severed the adrenaline and folded back into his human form. And he landed into a roll as he hit the floor. The sweetness of the water deposits rushed into his mouth and lightning bolts thundered from his palms, dealing killing blows to all he aimed at. His barrier came up the moment after. He discharged and moved through the bridge.

It was not fair to them, they never stood a chance.

The room fell silent as he stopped, but he kept the sweetness as a trickle, his barrier of electrical tendrils still surging around and across his body. He held his palm extended forward, ready for action. But the room was cleared.

“And here I thought that my blood fueled power was enough, and was hardened towards your lightning. But when you transform, your mind alters and everything I rooted and did were burnt to crisps,” Saif said. “What a clever move. But you must have known that already, why else would you attack my fleet in this manner?”

Milo felt how Saif tried once again, messing around inside his mind. He severed the sweetness and summoned the adrenaline instead. He folded into lightning, but just for a brief moment, and then he transformed back into his human shape. Saif’s investment in trying to seed him was made undone once more.

“Ahh. Repeatable,” Saif said. “How empirical of you.”

“Why are you not at the bridge?” Milo said. “Where are you?”

Saif laughed. “You don’t think me that stupid? I have been at this for quite some time and now I am conquering alien worlds. But I wonder, how many times can you transform versus how many times can I attempt to conquer your mind? A game, of sorts.”

“I am not here to play,” Milo said.

“Not really up to you,” Saif said.

The distinct tingle came back, Saif was trying to seed him again.

Bitterness trickled into Milo’s mouth and his body folded into lightning again, thundering into the corridor. Saif’s seeds and control were burnt to crisps. Milo severed the trickle and transformed back, landing on the floor on his boots.

It worked, but he was limited in how many times he could transform. Luckily, every transformation didn’t drain as much fuel as it used to.

“Argus,” Milo said into the mental channel, but there was no reply. “Argus!”

“Yes, I am here. Calm down,” Argus said.

“Calm down? I am fighting the biggest threat to the Universe and you want me to calm down?” Milo said. “I have a proposition. You are an expert on this mental channel. I need a location on Saif. He has tapped into the channel, his power is mentally based, but you knew that already. If you help me, I will talk Beth out of using your body as a weapon.”

“Yeah, right. As if you ever will keep that promise,” Argus said.

The distinct sound of combat suits on the run. At the end of the corridor, their metal boots kept slamming onto the floor. They were upset.

The sweetness rushed into his mouth and he discharged two lightning bolts in their direction. “Beth, don’t fashion Argus to a weapon. Please. And when this is all over, let him go. Just let him go, afterwards. I need his help, we need it.”

Beth’s sigh echoed through the mental channel. “Sure, Capt’n. I will do as you say.”

A combat suit dared coming into the corridor, its laser cannon’s barrels were already spinning.

Milo’s barrier lit up in blue as the superheated beams impacted it. He turned and went down on one knee, palm extended forward, electrical tendrils came to life and merged before the lightning bolt discharged. It struck the combat suit’s chest, frying all kinds of electrical insulation seals.The soldier in the suit was electrocuted to death.

“Argus! I need that location,” Milo said.

“I am working on it,” Argus said.

The tingling sensation was back. Saif and his seeds.

Milo folded into lightning, burning away Saif’s presence and then transformed back into his human form.

“You are a slippery one,” Saif said.

“Fuck you, Saif. If you stop this madness right now, I promise you that Beth will give you a quick and clean death,” Milo said, moving back to the bridge. It was a better defensible position. The enemy could only come from one direction. For the moment there was pause in the battle.

Saif laughed. “Have you ever seen her kill anyone quick and clean? Do you remember when Elizabeth murdered your dad? I sure do.”

“You think your quest is so noble, don’t you? I understand where you are coming from. Seeing that first video of Tern’s kind, the first contact. It must have been scary. But now you are flying from planet to planet, causing genocide. Murdering civilization after civilization, just because they are not humans. You are not preparing humanity for an invasion, you are on a conquest. That is wrong,” Milo said.

“I was given this opportunity. Humanity will thrive in my wake. It will grow stronger than ever before. We will expand!” Saif said.

Milo shook his head. “You are a madman.”

“We see the world, the Universe and its beings from different perspectives. If you sat in my chair, in my clothes, all of you would understand. But it doesn’t work like that. Rachel gave me this opportunity. I will act upon it,” Saif said.

A vibration permeated through the ship and Milo almost lost his balance. Then came the fire and the explosion. An infernal chaos of melted metal and liquid flames.