Starstruck

Chapter 26b: Electromagnetic pulse (part 2)

CHAPTER 26

Electromagnetic pulse (part 2)

"Rigel!" I tried to scream, but my face was in the dirt. Coughing and spitting to clear it out of my mouth, I tried again. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," he said, his voice faint. Then, more strongly, urgently, "How about you? Are you hurt?" He tried to struggle up, obviously still groggy.

"I'm fine. You just lie still for a minute."

I assumed the fact that he wasn't dead meant the others had to use three shots to kill, too, but I didn't dare count on it. I cautiously raised my head to look around and saw that one more of our people had fallen, in addition to Dr. Stuart. But less than ten of theirs still seemed to be attacking. Mr. Stuart was firing like he was berserked or something, and he was a deadly shot. Not a skill I'd have expected from a computer whiz, somehow. Shim was still on his feet, too.

Unfortunately, so was Morven. Standing behind one of his men, using him as a shield, he punched more buttons on his remote-thingy. Shim was the one who finally brought down the bodyguard, but as his man fell, Morven let out a cry of what sounded like triumph--which didn't seem to make sense, since we now had as many people as he did, at least if you counted Rigel and me.

But then I heard a weird whirring hum overhead and looked up to see a silvery orb about twice the size of a basketball skimming the tops of the corn stalks--heading straight for us.

"No!" Mr. Stuart sounded horrified. "That's not possible. That project was mothballed fifty years ago because it was too dangerous."

"How could you bring such an abomination to Earth, Morven?" Shim demanded, as the orb reached the clearing.

Morven's high, derisive laughter made my skin crawl. "Now you know why I fear no opposition. We have half a dozen Ossian Spheres under our control--more than enough to subjugate this entire planet to Faxon's rule. All it will take is a demonstration or two."

I still had no clue what the thing was, but clearly everyone else on our side did. They were staring at the object with naked fear, their weapons now held limply in their hands. Except for Shim, who brought his weapon up in one swift motion and fired at the orb.

The shot had no noticeable effect on the sphere, but it spurred a few others to action. Mr. Stuart fired at Morven, who was now unprotected . . . except that he wasn't. Mr. Stuart's beam stopped about a foot short of its target, as though blocked by an invisible shield of some sort.

Morven laughed again. "As you can see, I've made a few modifications to the original--though believe me, its primary function is still as devastating as ever." He toyed with the remote in his hand. "I recommend that any of you who don't want your nervous systems permanently scrambled move some distance from your Princess." He spat out the word like it was something disgusting. "I have it set to its narrowest, most intense beam but it will still likely affect anyone within a two meter radius. For obvious reasons, I haven't been able to test this setting under, ah, field conditions."

His own few remaining people scrambled backwards, away from me. One or two of those on our side did, too, but Shim and Mr. Stuart stood firm, no more than a yard or two in front of me. Dr. Stuart was still on the ground, but whether dead or stunned I couldn't tell.

I pushed myself to my feet and looked straight at Morven, deciding abruptly that if I was going to die or have my brain fried or whatever that thing was going to do to me, I wanted to face it standing--like the Princess I was. It was the least I could do in return for what these people had done for me.