Debra jumped back inside. Getting low, they peered out of the doorway. The lights from the building extended out about fifty feet where they could just make out the outline of two hoverjets. However, there were no signs of any people.

“Probably hiding behind the hoverjets,” observed Will.

“We’ve got five minutes,” warned Debra.

Will started looking around the room and noticed the lights pulsing along the reactor had started slowing down. “They’re trying to shut down the reactor,” he shouted. The lights on the control panel were now flashing rapidly. “They must have a remote connection to the control panel,” guessed Will. He pulled out his blaster. “We need to destroy it.

Debra pulled out her blaster and together they fired at the control panel. It exploded sending out a stream of metal and sparks. The lights pulsing along the reactor began speeding up again. “Now let’s get out of here,” urged Debra. A sudden burst of blaster rifle around the door kept them pinned down.

Will continued looking around the room. “Up there,” he called, pointing at a ladder on one of the walls leading up to a hatch in the ceiling. “See if you can get out while I keep them busy here.” Before Debra could argue, he poked his arm out of the opening and started firing his blaster at the hover jets.

She activated her jetpack and flew up to the hatch and landed on the ladder just beneath it.

“One of the hoverjets is taking off,” radioed Will. “They know we’re trying to get to the roof. They must have cameras in here.”

“Got it,” answered Debra as she pulled the lever that was located by the hatch. It slid open. “The hatch is open. Get out of there.”

The hoverjet cleared the edge of the roof just as Debra scrambled out of the hatch. She breathed a sigh of relief as she saw the radiation levels drop.

There was a short wall along the edge of the roof and a number of square structures about ten feet high located around the roof. The closest one to the hatch was about twenty feet away and Debra ran for it. She dived behind it just as the hoverjet began firing.

Drawing her blaster, she began firing back. All the while, she kept an eye on the hatch. “Come on, Will,” she radioed urgently. “You’ve got less than two minutes.”

The hoverjet was nearly over her when Will shot out of the hatch holding his blaster. He zoomed towards the hoverjet and began firing at its engines. The hoverjet accelerated away, but not before several hits had left one of its engine smoking.

The other hoverjet appeared over the edge of the roof and began firing at Will. He swerved to avoid the fire, but it rapidly closed in on him. Debra activated her jet pack and flew low along the roof until she was under the hoverjet and then shot straight up towards it while firing her blaster. The hoverjet shook as it took several hits and it broke off its pursuit of Will and turned back towards the main manufacturing facility.

“You all right,” radioed Debra.

“Yeah, thanks,” answered Will. “We’ve got four minutes till this thing blows. Let’s get out of here.”

The two of them jetted back to the ship, pushing the jetpacks to their limit. There was barely a minute left when they got back to the ship. Landing on the gantry, they rushed inside, not even bothering to strap themselves in as Will began flipping switches to get them off the ground. The engines roared to life and Will headed the ship away from the power station while activating shields.

They’d just gotten off the ground when the explosives attached to the limiter went off. Immediately, the light pulses along the reactor began increasing in speed until they were a solid blur. The building shook and the containment area around the reactor began to collapse. As the humming from the reactor reached a deafening volume, it exploded. The explosion vaporized the building and everything within two thousand feet of it. Beyond that, the walls of the valley crumbled leaving no evidence that it ever existed. Debris were thrown high into the air as a massive cloud blew outward from the explosion.

“Blast wave,” cried Debra.

The ship shook while the shields sparked and shimmered as debris rained down on the ship. However, the light display didn’t last long.

“Shields down,” shouted Debra as the sound of rubble hitting the exterior of the ship filled the cabin.

Finally the sound subsided and the ship stopped shaking. Debra starting checking on the ship’s systems. “Other than shields,” she reported. “We got through okay.”

Will nodded. “Any other ships around?”

Debra was quiet as she checked sensors. “I’m seeing about ten shuttles leaving the manufacturing facility,” she said while continuing to stare at the sensor display. “The odd thing is that they’re all heading for space.”

“They’re evacuating?” wondered Will. “Let’s get a better look,” he said as he adjusted the ship’s heading towards the manufacturing facility.

“No life signs,” reported Debra as they drew closer to the facility. “I’m getting some unusual energy readings though.” She continued staring at the sensor display.

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“Get us out of here,” she cried. “The energy weapon’s becoming unstable.”

Will swung the ship around headed away from the facility. As he did so, the weapon facility at the center of the complex exploded causing the ground around it to move away like a giant title wave. Buildings were torn apart and thrown into the air as the wave passed. Secondary explosions ripped through some of the buildings as the wave hit them. The wave finally subsided, but every building in the complex had been destroyed leaving only chunks of stone and smashed metal.

Fortunately, the ship was far enough away that it also experienced some minor turbulence.

Debra looked up from the sensors and shook her head. “I don’t understand. Did destroying the power station cause this?”

“Not likely,” answered Will. “The timing doesn’t match up. Clearly Grandle doesn’t want anyone discovering what he’s been up to.”

“Yeah,” said Debra sounding discouraged, “but we still don’t have any evidence to tie him to any of this.”

“Hey,” replied Will, trying to sound upbeat. “At least we’ve kept Grandle from building any new weapons for a while.”

Debra gave a small smile which quickly faded. “There’s that, but I can’t help but wonder if there’s stuff out there we don’t know about.”

“Let’s worry about that when we have to,” he suggested. “I’m guessing the shuttles have already contacted the frigate that’d been following us and without shields we’re in no condition for a flight. Let’s get out of here.”

Will took the ship into space and set course away from the planet. Once in space they were finally able to remove their spacesuits and strap themselves into their seats.

“We should go to Celentus for repairs,” suggested Debra once they’d left the Audril system.

Will thought about for a moment before shaking his head. “Can’t risk innocent people getting hurt because of me.”

Debra sat back and closed her eyes. Finally, she sat up and looked over at Will. “I understand why you feel that way,” she said is a calm voice. “But there comes a point when you can’t let fear dictate what you do.”

“It’s not fear,” answered Will brusquely.

“Oh, Grandle’s got you pegged,” she answered harshly. “All he has to do is make a threat and Will Power will do everything he can to prevent it.” She paused and leaned close to him. “Even if it means letting Grandle win.”

Will glared at Debra. “How dare you?” he snapped. “I’ve spend my whole life trying to protect people while you …”

“While I what?” shouted Debra jumping to her feet.

Will looked down and didn’t answer.

“While I only looked out for myself,” she continued angrily. “That’s what you were going to say, wasn’t it?”

“Yes,” he finally answered in a low voice. He looked up at her. “And for that I’m sorry. After all we’ve been through together, I know it isn’t true. I was just angry.”

Debra sat back down breathing heavily. “I’m sorry too.”

Will shook his head. “No, you were right. I got so caught up in being the hero, that I forgot what was important. Why didn’t you say something sooner?”

“Because, it wasn’t impacting what we were trying to do,” she answered. “However, this ship needs repairs. We don’t have shields and we can’t even leave the control section because the crew quarters are depressurized. What chance do we have to beat Grandle under those conditions?”

Will smiled. “Now I understand why you hate when I’m right.” He flipped some switches and typed on the control panel. “Course set for Celentus. ETA, four days.”

Being stuck in the control section for the next four days wasn’t the most pleasant experience. They had no change of clothes, couldn’t wash, and had to sleep in their chairs. Will turned up the air purification system to maximum, but it could only do so much about the smell. Fortunately there was emergency water and food supplies in the storage locker.

Without much else to do, Debra spent some of the time going through the remaining data they’d recovered from Gwen’s ship. Unfortunately, she found nothing that would help them.

While eating bland nutrient bars and sharing a canister of water Will and Debra tried to figure out what to do once the ship had been repaired. “

I think we’ve exhausted every avenue in trying to find something to implicate Grandle,” said Will as he forced himself to chew a nutrient bar which had the consistency of cardboard.

Debra nodded as she gulped some water so she could swallow a bite of nutrient bar. “Yeah, there was nothing in the data in Gwen’s ship. Went over everywhere it went and there were no surprises.”

“I guess that leaves just one option,” observed Will in a grim tone. “We have to get to Grandle and stop him.”

“Any idea how we’re going to do that?”

“No,” replied Will. “First we need to find a way to get back on Earth. This ship, would be fired on as soon as it entered the solar system. Then we’d have to get past the security in the Capital Complex to get to Grandle.”

“Oh, I’m confident you’ll figure out something,” answered Debra with a smile. “After all, you did promise me a vacation after this is all done.”

Will chuckled. “Yes I did and I always keep my promises.”

As they entered the Celentus system, Will radioed for clearance to land at the capital and it was quickly granted. As they ship came through the clouds, they could see that a great deal of progress had been made in repairing the capital since their last visit. Many damaged buildings had been rebuilt and the roads repaired. As the landing field came into sight, they saw that the craters which had littered it previously were now gone.

As the ship touched down, the engines went silent. Unstrapping themselves, Will and Debra headed to the door and opened it. Stepping outside onto the gantry, they both took in a deep breath.

“So much better,” exclaimed Debra as the wind blew on her face. “She looked over at Will. “Nothing personal, but you were getting a bit ripe.”

Will smiled. “You weren’t exactly smelling like a rose yourself.”

“Well,” said Debra, slipping an arm around him. “I’m sure a nice bath will fix that. I’ll let you scrub my back.”

Will pressed the button to start the gantry moving downward as his face turned red. As they moved down the side of the ship, Will looked it over. It was covered in dents, scratches, and burn marks plus there were two large gashes in the skin. One was near the shuttle bay and the other was by the crew quarters.

Not far away from the ship sat a hoverjet and two people were waiting for them on the ground. As they got lower, Will could see it was Princess Cintrel and Commander Stelia who’d they met on Thadeus Seven. Reaching the ground, the two women walked over to greet them. They both seemed taken aback by Will and Debra’s appearance, but didn’t say anything about it. Commander Stelia saluted while Princess Cintrel bowed to them.

“King Raphul is very pleased that you finally decided to accept his invitation,” said Commander Stelia.

“Thank you,” answered Will. “I must apologize for our appearance. We’ve been through quite a bit since you saw us on Thadeus Seven.”

Commander Stelia looked up at the ship and nodded. “I can see that. I’m sure the king would be most interested in hearing all about it.”

“Unfortunately, the palace is still under repair,” said Princess Cintrel. “So I hope it isn’t an imposition for you to share a room once again.”

“Not at all,” answered Debra. “We are very appreciative of you hospitality.”

The four of them walked over to the hoverjet and were soon flying towards the palace.