by Eurostar
The Murmulan fighter flies across the huge Basilisk ship, with Rhyme Guardian riding it like a cowboy over a mad bull, firing rhyme energy bolts at each wall that comes in his way. Soon, on its tail arrives a squadron of other fighters, some Murmulan and some Basilisk. While most of them crash into the metallic frame of the ship, being unable to fly through the narrow hole opened by Rhyme Guardian, some make it through, and finally one of the remaining fighters centers Rhyme Guardian's ship, firing a missile shot at it, which glances off, disabling the ship with a terrible explosion that nonetheless leaves everyone unharmed. From the fighter, bruised but alive, the heroes flee under the fire of the gray aliens and the humans in modern-day versions of musketeer uniforms.
"Sente, your death-vision, quick!" shouts Rhyme Guardian to the cyborg from the future.
The man-machine remains still. His cybernetic brain processes the difficult choice between fighting for his own safety and leaving all these warriors to be defeated or killed, or to help these newfound comrades that he had come from the future to kill. The task of analyzing the probabilities is so difficult, that Sente doesn't notice a stray bullet passing right through his head. The electronic brain shuts down without any external signs.
"Sente, I said to use your death-vision!" repeats Rhyme Guardian, but the future being doesn't answer. Rhyme Guardian touches him, and the massive metallic body drops to the ground, the first to fall. "Shit! Keep firing, guys!" he shouts.
The massive wave of attackers breaks when they arrive a few feet from the crashed fighter. The combined powers of the heroes keep the alien warriors at bay. Spark makes the water inside their bodies freeze. Exile fries their brains. Rhyme Guardian blasts them with his rhyme energy. And Disco Stave stops their hearts with horrifying visions created by his skills. But the number of alien warriors increases second after second, drawn into the battle from the hundreds of levels of the sunken starship, and soon the four heroes are outclassed and taken prisoners.
Rhyme Guardian, Exile, Disco Stave and Spark are trapped inside a nullifier field that cancels their powers, located on the command deck of the Basilisk ship. The room is huge, like the other parts of the starship. There are many monitor screens and holo-visors, and many thick metallic ropes cross the wide room in every direction. Right in the middle of the vast chamber, floating in mid-air inside a magnetic field, is a sword, a big bronze sword with an obscene hilt.
Far from the sword, in front of a very wide screen the size of a palace façade, are two gray aliens dressed in strange red clothing, very different from the armor of the warriors. The screen flickers, and the image of a human, wrapped in darkness, appears. Only his eyes, of a strange warm yellow, are clearly visible.
The aliens and the mysterious man speak in a foreign tongue for some minutes, and the image vanishes from the screen. The two aliens walk toward the four captive heroes.
"Greetingssss, foolsss!" hisses one of the two gray-skinned reptiles. "I don't know how or why you puny little humanssss have arrived here, but ssssoon you will pay for having dared sssso much! Marasssorsss, torture them, and dissscover why they came here."
"Hey, Mister Alien!" shouts Exile. "No need to torture us. We came on a mission. A rich man, a collector, knew about the Russian-American expedition and sent us here to discover what was buried before them. See? Very simple!"
"Very good. Your execution will take place in half an hour. Enjoy your stay in our humble ssship," says the alien before leaving with his comrade.
Rhyme Guardian turns to Exile and thinks, "I can't believe they fell for that!"
"Why not? It's basically the truth, and I pushed it a little more into their mind," telepathically answers Exile. "I have also picked up interesting notions in their mind. Listen, Rhymer."