2
The Angel

 

 

 

My cabin tilted. I didn’t sway, but the buttermilk soap slipped from my hand.

I growled. Didn’t my crew realize their captain needed a warm shower after a strenuous war and a long journey in space? Were they so incompetent that they couldn’t keep ThunderSong steady for a little longer without me having to take care of everything?

They were a loyal crew, but this was getting tiresome. Every time I was in the middle of taking a shower, some emergency cropped up.

Just as I expected, the intercom in my bath chamber chimed.

I unfolded my wings under the strong spray of water. “Captain Gabriel here,” I hissed. “What now?”

My ship rocked again and I stormed out of the shower.

“I’m very sorry, Captain,” Racer, my first officer, murmured. “We just succeeded in pulling out of an unanticipated storm.”

“You should anticipate everything!”

“That’s true,” Racer said humbly. “But this time it’s different, Captain. It isn’t an ordinary storm, and I’ve found a new planet in this galaxy.”

“We find new planets all the time and you think it worth disrupting my shower?”

“I’m positive, Captain,” Racer said boldly. “It’s best you come to the bridge now. You need to see it for yourself.”

When I arrived at the bridge, fully dressed, the soap sticky on my wet hair and wings, I saw a gray planet through the view window.

“You got me out of the shower for that ugly thing?” I asked incredulously.

“It was cloaked until a few seconds ago,” Racer said excitedly, his white wings arched above his shoulders.

A tiny blue spot on his white uniform caught my attention and it irked me. Tidiness was as important as discipline in my book. As the first officer, Racer was supposed to set an example for the rest of the crew.

I was too lenient. Perhaps I needed to be more like High Prince Seth, so all would tremble in front of me.

“Zoom in,” I ordered.

The hologram showed nothing but gray clouds over the planet.

Could Atlas—the former evil Dark Lord of All Angels—be hiding on that planet? I’d been hunting him for the past three months, ever since we’d left Earth and crossed three galaxies.

I frowned. “You said you uncloaked it.”

“Those weren’t my exact words,” Racer said. “I said we discovered it, although the planet had been cloaked.”

“Yet you failed to show your captain a visual.”

“Not exactly failed, Captain,” Racer protested. “Something powerful is blocking our probe. Do you understand the significance?”

Racer would never dare speak to the High Prince that way. Seth would cut his tongue out. I rapped my knuckles on his thick skull to remind him whom he was speaking to.

“Ouch, Captain. What’s that for?” Racer grimaced.

“I’m the captain,” I said. “I decide what’s significant!”

“Aye, Captain!” The crew snapped to attention.

That was more like it. They knew I was on edge. Seth was waiting for my updates on his father and I had nothing to report back to him.

If Dark Lord Atlas was hiding on this uncharted planet, my hunt would be over.

I rotated the image of the planet at fast speed until my eyes caught a blur above the planet.

A vortex.

My officers leaned closer and drew in sharp breaths. They had never seen anything like that.

“If I’m right,” I said, “we’ve just spotted a time portal.”

Time portals were mythical to many species. It required tremendous power to bring a time portal into existence. I’d seen it only once in the long march of my immortal life.

An eon ago, High Prince Seth had unleashed the Forbidden Glory and created a time portal to send a superior race through the vortex to a bleak dimension, saving our legion in an interstellar war.

But Seth was light years away, so there was no way he could have made this portal. Plus, tearing open the fabric of the universe had severe consequences, and the damage lasted for eons. Seth had vowed never to form another portal. 

“Should we run, Captain?” Ekon, my cautious second officer, asked.

“Angels never run,” Racer said. “We didn’t run from the Dark Lord and his Reapers and Wraiths! Why would we run from this?”

“Maybe we should run,” I said, though a thrill raced through my blood. “However—”

Racer nodded. “We can’t give up this once-in-a-lifetime chance. What if the Dark Lord is hiding on that planet? Who else could have the power to cloak it and generate a portal?”

“The High Prince weakened his father and almost killed him,” another member of my crew said. “The Dark Lord can’t recover that fast, and he doesn’t have the Forbidden Glory. The High Prince has sole custody of it now.”

The vortex vanished from the hologram.

“Captain! Captain!” My crew turned their panicked expressions to me, awaiting instructions.

I raised a finger to stop them from dragging me from my profound thoughts. Three months might have been time enough for Atlas to resurrect and gather his strength.

“That is not good,” I murmured under my breath. 

“This might be good, Captain,” Racer said. My insolent officer just had to defy me at every turn. I’d have to terminate his employment after this mission.

“Think about it, Captain,” he continued, his white wings unfolding. At my warning look, he tucked them in tightly. “First, we get to study this time portal. Then we’ll make it known to every Angel in the universe that we once flew through it under the command of the great Captain Gabriel.”

My hard expression softened.

“Second,” Racer said, waving his hands in the air to stress his point since he wouldn’t dare annoy me again by shuffling his wings, “if the Dark Lord is lurking on that planet, our hunt is over. We can all go home or head toward a new galaxy. And you, Captain, will be remembered as the superhero who caught the Dark Lord of All Angels. All we have to do is to go in stealthily, gather the intelligence, inform the High Prince, and wait for him to get his royal ass here and finish off his father.”

I had to admit, Racer was making sense.

“We’ll do more than just collect intel,” I said, clapping my hands to get everyone’s attention. “Listen up. We’re going to take a look at the gray planet. I’m flying Red Dragon. A-team, take Vixen and Wind-Beast. When I say pull back, you retreat at once. The time portal is not a light matter. If I get lost, don’t come looking for me. Report to the High Prince immediately. ThunderSong must stay out of orbit. Under no circumstance should my ship go near that vortex.” My voice filled with malice and I glared at my crew. “Understand?”

The crew snapped to attention and nodded in unison.

“Captain, let me pilot Red Dragon for you,” Racer said.

“You are to stay on ThunderSong and follow my orders to the letter,” I said. “Don’t ever get into the habit of questioning me again. After I return, I’ll adopt the High Prince’s methods and discipline the hell out of you!”

The crew traded nervous glances. “Aye, Captain,” they said as one, and the A-team hurried off to prepare for the planetary scout. 

With a final glare at my remaining crew, I strode toward the shuttle bay.

~

Red Dragon, my personal space shuttle, pierced through space, heading toward the planet. Vixen and Wind-Beast flanked it.

We passed the coordinates where we had last spotted the vortex. ThunderSong kept a tight watch on it. The data would be extremely valuable. As Racer had said, we were lucky to bump into this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to encounter and study a time portal.

The planet turned flat as we approached its atmosphere. Suddenly, a purple light flashed. Static filled my visual screen. With my super sight, I spotted a belt of asteroids circling the planet ahead of me.

“Space mine ahead!” I warned the scouting shuttles, but there was no response from my away teams. I’d heard their joking and chattering on the ship’s radio half a minute ago.

“Vixen, Wind-Beast, come in!” I ordered as I navigated my way amid the asteroids, my energy beams blowing up the bigger asteroids on my path.

Radio silence. I glanced at the holographic radar map just in time to see the scout ships’ signals shutting off. I cursed and pressed the com device on the sleeve of my uniform.

“Racer! Get them back online!” I called as Red Dragon passed through the asteroids, debris from the asteroids hitting the sides of my shuttle. The shield held, and I was approaching the murky atmosphere of the planet.

“Captain,” Racer’s shaky voice buzzed through the intercom, “we’ve completely lost visual on the planet. Some powerful force is blocking our sight. And we just detected an unfamiliar burst of energy surging toward you—Captain!” The radio crackled, cutting off Racer’s voice. 

The vortex reformed, twirling before me.

“Pull back,” I yelled into the comlink, though I realized it was mere reflex; no one could hear me.

I grabbed the manual gear, trying to veer off the path of destruction. 

The vortex expanded, turning infinite, and sucked the shuttle in.

I hit maximum warp speed to break free of its pull. My shuttle spun like a bug inside a hurricane. Its force was so great and terrible, my muscles felt as if they were being torn from my bones and my eyeballs wanted to pop out of my skull.

The torment seemed to go on forever, and just when I was sure it would be the end of me, a dark current tossed my shuttle out at the other end. I was surprised to find myself in one piece, but my relief died a second later as I noticed my ship’s power was completely drained.

Helplessly, I watched my descent as I plunged toward the planet. 

I manually released the door, but I’d missed the window to fly out to safety. A jungle rushed up to meet me. Red Dragon and I blasted through a thick canopy of trees and crashed to the ground.