Maker - Michael Jan Friedman [71]
Blue lightnings shot from him, protecting him, staving off the force of Kastiigan’s phaser beam. Then some of the lightnings sought the science officer, trying to strike back at him.
The alien still wasn’t awake—not completely. But he was awake enough to put up a struggle in his defense, and to gradually stagger to his feet.
Finally, one of the lightnings found Kastiigan and sent him sprawling. His phaser fell from his hand and clattered on the stone floor, finally coming up short against a budding stalagmite.
His antagonist disarmed, Brakmaktin approached the Kandilkari, meaning to finish him off. But before Brakmaktin could reach his intended victim, he was attacked from another quarter—because Picard had gotten hold of Kastiigan’s phaser.
Like his science officer, the captain blasted Brakmaktin with all the energy at his disposal. In his still-weakened state, the Nuyyad was driven backward into the ground.
But it didn’t take him as long to recover as it had before. His lightnings swirled around him, shielding him, and then went for Picard as they had gone for Kastiigan.
They were more efficient this time. Within seconds, the captain was whipped off his feet and sent crashing into the surface behind him. His phaser didn’t fall far from him—but before he could reach for it, Brakmaktin gestured and sent it flying into the nearby firepit.
Then he advanced on the sweat-drenched Picard, skirting the pit as he did so, lightnings playing furiously around him—still not fully in control of his senses, but more so with each passing moment.
Soon he would shrug off his malaise completely. The captain would be destroyed, and Kastiigan after him, and after that there would be no one left to stop Brakmaktin.
He and his brood would run roughshod over this world, then over the others held by the Ubarrak. Eventually, Brakmaktin would rule the entire galaxy—and he would do it for as long as he lived.
It was the worst thing that had ever happened, and their last chance to stop it was slowly but surely slipping away. Soon it would be gone altogether.
Stopping in front of the cornered captain, the pit beside him, Brakmaktin raised his hands to unleash a storm of destruction. But for an inexplicable second, he paused.
And in that moment, the words Destroy me shot into Nikolas’s brain.
The last time he had heard them, Brakmaktin was echoing the human’s arrogance, mocking it. Or was he? Even then, the alien may have been plagued by what he had become.
But now, there was no doubt. Part of him, at least, wanted to be destroyed. And he was goading Nikolas into attempting it before his instincts moved to prevent it.
It was doubtless the last chance anyone would ever get to kill Brakmaktin, and Nikolas seized it.
First, without help from his manacled hands, he lurched to his feet. Then he launched himself into a run, reckless and headlong.
Making his way across the cavern in that dead, airless heat seemed to take Nikolas forever. The closer he got, the more light-headed he got, and the more he expected Brakmaktin to turn around and blast him.
But it didn’t happen. Miraculously, Nikolas got within five steps of the monster. Four. Three. Two…
With his last stride, Nikolas lowered his shoulder and slammed into Brakmaktin as hard as he could.
As strong as the Nuyyad was, he could have rooted himself to the ground and turned his flesh the hardness of rock. But when Nikolas plowed into him, he wasn’t rooted at all. He was as vulnerable to attack as any other creature of flesh and blood.
So he went sprawling in the direction of the firepit. But Nikolas had hit his tormentor so hard, he couldn’t stop himself from sprawling as well.
With a sense of accomplishment that far outweighed his dread, the human saw the fiery, spitting surface of the lava rush up to meet him like an immense, savage man….
It was with abject horror that Picard watched Nikolas tumble over the brink of the