Boss 302 - Chapter 14

When the car touched down, Gerry took a deep breath and let it out. He was going to see his mother again. He stepped out of the car and saw two people of Galack’s race walking towards him. “Hello Gerry,” one of them said. “The Matriarch is waiting for you.” Gerry was suddenly nervous. What could a guy say to a dead parent? She’s not dead anymore, you dope, he thought to himself. Treat her like your mother. He followed the two official-looking men out of the docking bay into a large corridor. How long had his mother been waiting for him to arrive? Did she know that his father was dead? She must, he assumed. She had somehow known since he left Earth.

Gerry walked for several minutes before he and the men reached an enormous glass column that housed a bank of elevators. They stepped into one of the elevators and traveled skyward. When the elevator stopped at what he assumed was the top floor, the Minneans led him down a short hallway to a set of heavy wooden doors. “Please step inside,” one of the men said to him. Gerry gulped and opened one of the doors. Three paces inside, his mother stood waiting for him. He couldn’t breathe. She looked just like she had when he last saw her before her “accident”. She smiled. “Gerry. Welcome to Minnea,” she said, stepping towards him quickly and putting her hands on his shoulders. “I can’t believe you are alive,” he said, putting his arms around his mother. “I am,” she said, hugging him back. “I’m sorry about your father’s death, and that we didn’t tell you what was happening before that day. If we had warned you about our plans, you wouldn’t have been bouncing uncontrollably around the galaxy these past few months. I don’t think your father realized the danger we were all in.” They sat on a small bench. “Tell me what this is all about, Mom.” Gerry said.

She explained how she and his father had first come to Minnea. The civilization had been mainly an agricultural one when they arrived. Imagine, she said, if an alien ship landed on Earth. How would peaceful people deal with that arrival? That was how they had been received by the Minnean elders, as highly-advanced beings with technology to share. Their landing on Minnea was not a planned event. They had previously fled from a planet called Rotan, where they first encountered Admiral Latrec and his fascist society of Thorlacks. Latrec wanted to use the gate generator to place his armies all over the universe. He had almost achieved that goal by conventional means, but the time/space machine would allow him to quickly conquer many worlds, including Earth. By shear luck they had escaped Latrec’s grasp. His mother’s face suddenly became stern. “Forget everything you think you knew before arriving here Gerry,” she said. “The Thorlacks must be stopped. You will lead that effort.”

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Boss 302 - Chapter 12

With the car returned to it's previous condition before the water fiasco, Gerry took a quick inventory of his gear and supplies. Straight from the repair shop's doors, he was to take a hard right as soon as he left the relative safety of the refinery and then travel a few miles to the only continent on Minnea. The land mass was due south of his current location. Once ashore, he would need to maintain flight for as long as possible, since he didn't know if there would be a fueling station anywhere around. Galack assured him that the Boss 302 would not be the only vehicle in the air, and it would probably not attract too much attention. The citizens of Minnea had become used to technological contraptions of all kinds since his father's arrival. That was one thing in his favor, at least. Another was revealed when Gerry asked Galack if he knew about the Thorlacks. Galack didn't know what he was talking about. Gerry had finally found a world without Thorlacks! Amazing. That would seem to make his quest so much easier, if he didn’t run into any more problems along the way.

Gerry shook hands with Galack one last time and sped off to find his mother. What a shocker that had been. When he saw that picture of his mother’s face hanging on the wall, Gerry almost had a heart attack. He had been told his mother had died in a car accident a few weeks before Gerry’s last day on Earth. His father had just taken his mother’s car to a repair shop in the days before her supposed death. Was it possible that the car Gerry thought his mother had died in was another gate-jumping vehicle? That must be it. The repairs had been at the hands of his father, adding the gate generating equipment to his mother’s car. His parents had been secretly crossing time and space before he had. They must have come here lots of times and established themselves well, if the Minnean people thought of them as some kind of gods. Of course, with the ability to time travel, they could jump back to Earth on the same day every time, so no one would miss them. His parents had affected a century of this planet’s society in their travels.

The only explanation Gerry could come up with is that his father sent his mother to this planet alone the last time, most likely when he felt the Thorlacks were getting too close, and he meant for he and Gerry to follow in the Mustang soon after. If not for the surprise attack from Admiral Latrec and his men, the plan would have worked fine. How was it possible that his mother was alive? There had been wreckage and a funeral service. It was too much to contemplate right now. Lost in thought, he had failed to notice that land was coming quickly into view.

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Boss 302 - Chapter 10

Gerry found it hard to miss with the Soul Taker, even if it did kick like a pissed off stud with its nuts in a sling. The Xaclatch had reached the edge of the platform and was just flinging itself into the water when the blast of energy struck it. The impact was a sight to behold. The creature’s entire flaccid body exploded in a spray of grey liquid, but because it was in mid-jump, the eight arms stretching out in all directions hung in the air surrounding the big hole for an instant, like dim sunrays without a sun. Then the remaining ropes of flesh gave in to gravity and plopped in the water. Gerry stood watching this, every muscle in his body flexed tight in response to the weapon’s recoil. A brief smile crossed his lips, and then faded into his immediate exhaustion. He went limp, letting the barrel of the bulky shooter tap on the concrete at his feet. Galack, standing next to him, made a couple of quick gulping sounds. Gerry looked over at him and realized that was his way of laughing. Gerry dropped his eyes to the ground and chuckled for a few seconds himself.

The two walked back into the repair shop. Gerry noticed Galack looking down at the Soul Taker as they made their way back to the Mustang. “You want to have a look?” Gerry asked. Galack looked up at him reverently, then said yes. He handed the gun over to Galack. “Just don’t fire it in here,” Gerry said. “Your bosses wouldn’t like to see a big pile of flaming metal when they return.” Galack seemed to understand as he accepted the weapon. “Where can I get one of these?” he spoke into Gerry’s headset. Gerry thought about it for a second. “I tell you what. You help me get my car running again and show me the way to the shore, and I’ll let you have this one.” The alien security guard looked up at Gerry. It may have been shock that crossed his face, but then it was harder to tell what a different species was thinking from its expressions. Galack handed the weapon back to Gerry. “No,” he said. “I will help you now and you get me one of these later as payment. You need it more than me.” Gerry was surprised by the alien’s selflessness. He held out his hand to Galack. Galack looked down at it, perhaps confused. Gerry moved the hand up and down, miming a handshake. Galack put his hand out and made the same motion. Gerry stepped forward and grabbed the hand and shook it in two slow motions. “That’s how we say ‘thank you’ where I come from,” he said. “Your welcome,” Galack replied. Then the two turned back to face the car, their friendship established. Time to get this ball rolling, Gerry thought to himself. Time to find Dorothy.

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Boss 302 - Chapter 8

Raised by an inventor and mathematical genius, Gerry knew the workings of his prized Mustang inside and out. He knew a little less about the physics behind the updated equipment that had been added to make his life on the run easier, but he was not so worried about how those components would function after being subjected to being dumped from the tunnel into the (luckily) fresh water ocean that dominated this planet. He was sure that equipment would be okay because it had pulled him out of the drink without so much as a hiccup. Now he needed to set about drying out the standard parts left in the Mustang. He still depended on a combustion engine that had been modified to accept multiple fuel types for normal ground travel. That meant blowing the water out of the twin carburetors and distributor in order to achieve ignition. There didn’t seem to be any significant electrical damage to the car. Once the engine was running again, the fuel cells that powered the anti-gravity system would need to recharge for a little while. Fully charged, the cells would be stabilized as long as the car’s engine ran for a few minutes in hover mode. The gear head who had installed the anti-gravity system explained that an auto-ignition sequencer would run the V8 engine when power levels dropped below 80%. It wasn’t the most efficient combination of past and future technologies under normal circumstances, but it was a hell of a lot better than how it had performed during his little undersea adventure, when all of the car’s circuits had been choked out.

Galack waited patiently just outside the shop’s bay doors, facing the endless horizon of water. Gerry had a lot more questions for him, but he knew there would be time for that later. He pulled two large industrial fans close to the Mustang’s front end and turned them on pointed at the engine. He pulled apart the distributor cap and wiped it dry by hand. He then went to the trunk to check the condition of his provisions. After the near-catastrophe he had just avoided, Gerry needed some fuel of his own. Water slowly drained from underneath the trunk as he opened it. Besides being a little damp, the food packets seemed unharmed. He grabbed an energy bar and juice packet and closed the trunk.

Just then, a fleshy, spiked appendage slapped the concrete near his right foot. Gerry quickly stumbled backwards as another tentacle lashed out at him from under the car. The two visible arms pulled a translucent, bulbous creature into view. Gerry’s eyes widened as the beast rolled once on the floor and came upright on two of its eight formidable arms, the rest of them whipping menacingly in the air. It seemed that Gerry had picked up a hitchhiker on his way out of the water. This hitchhiker wasn’t going to say thank you for the ride, he surmised.

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Boss 302 - Chapter 6

A tunnel birth always blinded Gerry for a few seconds after snapping into normal-space, so it was with scorched retinas that he tried desperately to understand why everything looked so blue and shadowy. As his eyes adjusted, his heart began to beat rapidly. He had emerged from the tunnel underwater! Frantically, Gerry engaged the anti-gravity system to try to bring the car to the surface. He only had a second or two to react, because when the car stalled, the fuel cells drained very quickly in flight mode. An instant after that thought crossed his mind, the Mustang sputtered and died. He watched the power gauge begin a rapid descent from 10 green bars to 8. He leaned against the window and looked up. His view seemed to be getting brighter. Seven bars. Six. The Mustang’s floorboard was filling with water and the upper seals on the windows were springing leaks. Ford Motor Company never intended to build a Mustang that was water-tight. Five green bars. Four. Water was now up to his lap. In another two or three seconds it would come up to the special equipment his father had installed, and there was no telling if it would survive. Without the gate generator, he would be stuck on this planet. He began to wonder about his own survival just as the Mustang spouted from the water. It was an ocean, in fact. One giant fucking ocean that covered 90% of this world.

Once in the air, Gerry opened his driver’s side door to let the water out. All the important equipment on the inside had been spared, but that was beyond the point now. His power meter was down to two bars and falling fast. He knew the car’s engine wouldn’t possibly start after being underwater, but he gave it a try anyway. Nothing. He looked in all directions for some sign of a landing spot. When he glanced into his rearview mirror, he saw some kind of structure arching out of the water not far behind him. He spun the car around and surged for it. In about ten seconds, his anti-gravity pads would run out of power and perform a controlled shut down. That meant that it would essentially drop from its current position at a gradual pace that would prevent a deadly crash. One power bar left. The enormous structure quickly filling his view looked like some kind of refinery. If he made it to the concrete platform underneath the monstrous edifice, he would set down unharmed. If not, he would laugh to himself and think about Davey Jones’ locker as he bailed out of the car and tried to swim the rest of the way to the platform. The nose of the ‘Stang dipped under a steel girder just as the hover pads gave out. He made a slow descent to the concrete base of the gigantic factory and touched down, maybe for the last time.

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Boss 302 - Chapter 4

As Gerry began to relax at the thought of getting the hell out of Dodge, his gate map went blank. Autopilot dropped off immediately and a warning message appeared on the mapping screen indicating that the gate’s location had been cleared from primary memory. Shit, he thought, glaring at the display. This goddamn thing better not be damaged. Now was not a good time to spend precious minutes reloading the gate request. He would need to set down in a good hiding place for a while to run a diagnostics check.

Gerry sped towards some cliffs to the west. In a few minutes he reached a sizeable cavern with sufficient cover and glided the Mustang towards it. As the tires touched the ground, a message appeared on the screen requiring a hard reset of the entire system. “I cannot believe this!” Gerry roared, slamming his fists on the steering wheel. Gerry grabbed the meta-tester from the passenger floorboard and got out of the car. He popped the hood and turned on the tester. The gate generator’s CPU was located against the firewall on the right side of the car. He connected the tester via the XAN port to the CPU.

As the test scan initialized, Gerry thought of his father. Thanks for cursing me with this hunk of junk Dad, he thought. His father had died trying to keep his invention from the Thorlacks. The night Admiral Latrec’s special forces killed his father, Gerry narrowly escaped the same fate. Gerry’s father dragged him out of bed and out the garage door, telling him to get away quickly even as the front door exploded and the troops stormed into his home. Gerry raced away as gunshots erupted from the garage door, cutting his father down and pinging the pavement in the Mustang’s wake. Only as he turned a corner, his brain awash with adrenaline, did Gerry notice the new equipment in his car and a note on his front seat explaining what was happening. Even though Gerry didn’t want to believe most of it, the reality of the situation demanded that he accept it. That had been six Earth months ago.

Gerry’s memories were broken by a faint hissing sound. He leaned into the engine compartment to investigate the noise and the tester began to squawk with interferenece. Something in the CPU was transmitting a signal. It must be how the Thorlacks were tracking him! Gerry punched a few buttons on the testing unit. His father had left the archive transmitter on. Gerry performed a hard reset from the testing unit and confirmed that all network transmissions were turned off.

“Catch me now slimeballs,” he said, slamming the hood and climbing back into his Ford. The gate generator readout had already given him a new destination, the planet Minnea, a deep space system. It was a name he recognized from the last line of his father’s note:

“Find Dorothy on Minnea. She will tell you all.”

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Boss 302 - Chapter 2

“Not this time, assholes,” Gerry spat as he reached under the ZM Microwave Radio and flipped the switch for his newest and most expensive toys: two stealth-mounted, .70-cal uranium-piercing photon guns with A.I. zero-point accuracy sensors he had picked up at the Titan Moon Base Echo artillary station. His pretty babies materialized above the Stang’s front fenders and hummed to life. Gerry smiled and tilted down his visor to block the glare of the impending assault. He knew the Thorlacks didn’t care about casualties and that they would not return much fire. They, and their supreme commander Admiral Latrec, wanted his car more than anything, even if it cost them a thousand lives. They would use every means at their disposal to trap him and the 302 unscathed. The son-of-a-bitches had assault teams on every rock in the galaxy, apparently. He had yet to jump to a place where they didn’t seem ready for him. Was it possible that they somehow knew where his future tunnel jumps would lead? That meant that they were close to developing their own gate-mapping apparatus. The key component, the ion detector that could sniff out less than .01 nanons of flux existing in a future gate location, was still out of their reach under his hood. It was going to stay there, if he had anything to say about it. Gerry keyed in the code for takedown confirmation. This trained the guns to completely immobilize each targeted Thorlack grunt before moving on to another. Gerry quickly estimated that about twenty soldiers sat behind blast shields on either side of the road. He slowed the Mustang down to 50 KPH.

He pressed a button on his center console that kicked his MP7 player on. His favorite band, Fire Appointment, blared from the dashboard. “Surprise sweethearts!” he yelled above screaming guitars. If Thorlacks had eyes and mouths in the usual places, he would have seen several dropped jaws and horrified orbs looking back at him when his wonder twins began to spray. Crimson beams of light tore through Thorlack nerve centers in flawless pairs. Panicked soldiers dove and rolled for cover, but there was no place to hide from his murder machines. He brought the car to a full stop a second after the first four Thorlacks were cut down. I’m going to send a message to Admiral Latrec with this one, he thought. I’ll kill them all. Gerry crossed his arms and watched the guns do their work. They pivoted 270 degrees horizontal and vertical, dropping jelly-heads with one or two shots each. The guns even made a couple of bank shots, bouncing deadly beams off of the blast shields at precise angles. It was a bloody, beautiful sight. Just then, a Thorlack sergeant aimed a charge killer at him from a secure position twenty yards to his left. If he didn’t make a quick maneuver, an engine-melting electric pulse would put his car on the ground for good.

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