As soon as I held Jessie in my arms for a moment, I was recharged and ready to chase down Demarin. I knew that if we let him get away again, there would be more trouble from him. Even if he didn’t continue to try and kill Jessie, I knew that he would create more problems for the Sarceastians who were trying to re-establish the old order. I grabbed Jessie by the hand and led her to the space cruiser that I had stowed away on. Now, the Sarceastian guards had fled in the escape pods and there was nothing to stop us from taking the cruiser and following Demarin’s pod. We took Jessie’s parents along with us.

“Hang on everyone, I am going to go as fast as we can to try and catch up to them!” I said. Jessie helped her parents strap in comfortably and I switched on the radar. It indicated that there were five escape pods. They all seemed to be heading in the same direction. I turned on the boosters and we took off after them. In about twenty minutes, I was closing in on the escape pods. I really didn’t care about Demarin’s guards. I wanted to destroy Demarin’s pod.

“Here, take the controls for a second,” I told Jessie as she came back into the cockpit. Then, I closed my eyes and tried to use my mental powers to find him. My energy-detection capabilities soon picked up on the enormous amount of negative energy he was putting off. I opened my eyes a second later and pointed to the escape pod that was in the vanguard of the other pods.

"There, the first one in the group is Demarin just as I expected. Let's set our sights on that one!" I stated. Jessie maneuvered the ship until we were right behind the pod. Escape pods were not able to alter speed or course- they were preprogrammed for a specific destination. We got within firing range, I took a seat behind the ship's laser cannons and began to send a barrage of lasers at the pod. Unfortunately, all of them bounced off.

"Damn! Their shields are too strong. Let's try some hyper torpedoes! I launched four of them and watched as they exploded on the surface of the pod without so much as making a dent in it.

“We are going to have to try something else. I know what we have to do. Reverse course and head back to Sarceastium!” I commanded.

“But he’s going to get away if we do that,” Jessie protested.

“Trust me on this. What we have to do is find the source of the programmer and change the destination of the pods. That’s the only chance we have of stopping him now!” I insisted.

"Ok, here we go," Jessie said as the ship reversed course and headed back in the direction we had just come from. We programmed our navigator to go back to our place of origin, and soon we were back at Demarin's home base on Sarceastium. The huge glass dome where Jessie had been trapped in the coffin came into view. I looked closely at the layout of Demarin's hideout and found the main control room. We landed the cruiser hastily on the same dock that we had just left from and made our way up several moving walkways to the main control booth. We burst into the room taking the two Sarceastian guards by surprise that had been left behind to man the controls. Jessie and I pointed our laser cannons at them and made our demands.

“I want the direction of those space pods changed right away!” I commanded.

“The escape pods are pre-programmed and their destination cannot be changed,” one of them insisted.

"You had better find a way because your life depends upon it!" I said as I shoved the edge of my laser cannon into his temple.

"Yes, sir!" The guard said. He began to switch on the control panel in front of him. Above our heads, we could see a huge screen that showed the escape pods making their way in the same direction they had been going in. The guard behind the control board heaved a huge sigh and pulled a lever back.

“Where do you want the pods to go, sir?” the guard asked.

"Into the black hole!" Jessie said, suddenly, saying the same thing that I was about to say. The guard looked at us and it seemed as if all of the blood had drained from his face.

“Do it now!” Jessie insisted.

“Very well,” the guard said and we watched as he programmed the coordinates. Soon, the pods began to change course one by one, starting with Demarin’s.

“What is going on?” we heard Demarin ask the control room. “The pods are changing their course. What is happening? Mission control, answer me! This is your leader!”

"Hello, Demarin!" Jessie spoke to the communication board.

“Jessie?” Demarin sounded confused.

“Yes, it’s me. It seems that our conflict with one another is coming to an end. We have changed the coordinates of your escape pod and now you can see for yourself what it is like to enter a black hole,” Jessie stated.

“What? You’re at the control center?” Demarin still couldn’t believe the turn of events.

“Yes, that’s right,” she answered. We both took pleasure in doing a close up of Demarin’s face as he realized his fate. Demarin did not answer. He was trying his best to keep some shred of dignity during his last few minutes. Soon the escape pods came under the tremendous gravitational pull of the black hole. We could now see the empty spot that not even light could escape from. The pods began to shake as they drew closer to the event horizon. After a few more seconds, the last thing we heard was Demarin cry out as the pod was sucked into the opening and the monitor that we were looking at was now blank.

“That will be the end of Demarin Goldarn,” Jessie remarked. I smiled at her and put my arms around her.

"As for you two- everyone that has helped that awful warlord will be trialed for their crimes!" I stated.

We made our way to the prison level of Demarin’s compound and led the guards in front of us. We put them in a cell and then made our way to the exit.

“You’re not going to just leave us here, are you?” one of them asked.

“Don’t worry, you will have a trial, just like the rest of the executive guard; but you will pay for your loyalty to Demarin,” I told them.

We made our way back to Hilga's building. Already, we were noticing that the streets seemed less decrepit. Many of the buildings that were beginning to decay were being repaired. There was the usual buzz of activity on the street, but the faces we saw seemed to be happy ones, and everyone greeted us as we made our way.

“Look, our saviors have returned!

“Praise to Jessie and Yahn!” the cheer went up. Soon, people were lining the streets and cheering for us. Hilga’s front door opened and she greeted us with a huge hug.

“I am so glad to see the two of you! You should see the changes that have come about since you helped us overthrow the executive!” she said. We noticed right away that many of the poor Sarceastians who were just sitting in rooms dressed in rags were now gone.

“Where is everyone?” Jessie asked.

“Many of my boarders have found some work now that the old regime is gone!”

“What about Yeritus and the others- what has become of them?” I inquired.

"Let me take you to Yeritus- he would be most pleased to see you," she said. We followed her out of the building and down the street where several Sarceastians were still gathered in the hopes of getting a glance at us. We made our way out of the neighborhood and back towards the military complex that we had infiltrated, not so long ago. Only this time there were no executive guards waiting there for us. Finally, we made our way to the entrance of the building. There were guards there, but they wore the common gray robes that most Sarceastians wore. They held weapons, but they had kind expressions on their faces.

"Welcome, Private Jessie and Yahn of Karkast. Commander Yeritus will be most pleased to see you!" the guard said.

“Commander Yeritus?” I said in surprise and delight.

"Yes, since you've been gone, Yeritus has been elected as commander of Sarceastium. We have seen the positive results of his rule already. The poor no longer suffer. They have been provided with work and sustenance. The first action that Yeritus took was to put the wealth that Executive Farfaulus had put aside for himself, to work for the Sarceastians. This could not have been possible without your help," Hilga shared.

We were taken up to the higher levels of the building until we reached the office of the commander. Yeritus greeted us with open arms as we entered the chamber. There were the friendly faces of Sarceastians all around us, wearing the same gray robes as the commoners.

"Welcome, my friends! I'm sure you were surprised to find me here where the executive used to sit, but now we will enter a new era of Sarceastian society- one where there is no executive. The commander will wear the same robes as the other citizens, looking out for their best interests," he said with a smile.

“You don’t know how happy I am to see that this is your fate. The Sarceastians could not ask for a better ruler than you,” Jessie said.

"I will do everything that I can to serve the Sarceastians. I am but a humble servant," he responded with a smile. We stayed and visited for several hours and food was provided to us. Afterwards, we returned to Hilga's to spend the night, but our thoughts were focused on getting Jessie and her parents back home.

The next morning, we said our heartfelt goodbyes to Hilga, although we knew that we would come back and visit before long. There was now no reason to fear the Sarceastians and most of the universe would now enter into a peaceful time. A few of the Sarceastian guards had escaped, and their whereabouts were unknown. However, there weren’t enough of them left to pose a serious threat to Yeritus’s administration. The guards that were left in Sarceastium faced a trial and sentence for their betrayal of the Sarceastian order. Most of them received life sentences.

We returned to the cruiser and began to program the ship to return to Earth. Jessie smiled at me after she entered the coordinates on the control panel. We kissed and held hands as the ship took off from the surface of Sarceastium.

Jessie’s parents came into the cockpit after we took off and sat down.

“Yahn, we wanted to thank you properly for rescuing us and our daughter back on Sarceastium,” her father said.

"It was nothing. All I did was stowing away on this ship. I would sneak around when the guards weren't around and try to free you, but there were too many guards. I had to bide my time and wait for the ship to land," I said, humbly.

“Yes, but if you hadn’t done so, none of us would be here right now heading home,” Jessie proudly stated.

“I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself if I hadn’t rescued you. I would only be half a being without you in my life.” I put my arm around Jessie and her parents smiled at us. I knew then that I had finally gained the approval of Jessie’s father.