Star Viking (Extinction Wars Book 3) Read Online Free PDF Page B

cone-formation battlejumpers had stopped beaming their lasers into their side of the lens. Were they recharging their coil banks?
    More Karg snowflakes moved up. Clinging to them were moth-like ships with glowing nuclear eyes. Those vessels detached from the mother ships. Each craft spewed exhaust as they accelerated toward the Jelk lens.
    The massed cone-shaped formation fired into the lens again. As before, a coherent beam lanced out the other side. It struck a moth-ship. The giant ray encompassed the entire Karg vessel, and it annihilated everything so the craft disappeared like a giant blowing out a match. The gargantuan ray moved like a swath, destroying one Karg moth-ship after another.
    Did I witness a real space battle between the Kargs and the Jelk, fought in the Corporation’s core worlds? In my dream, I believed that to be the case. Yet that would imply the Kargs—or some of them at least—had escaped from their space-time continuum.
    The cone formation with its lens wrecked savage destruction against the Karg vessels. Finally, however, some moth-ships drew close enough to the lens to attack. The eyes on the nearest Karg vessels glowed brilliantly. They seemed to bubble as if made of red-hot lava. Then, a red ray beamed. It touched the gauzy lens. More Karg beams hit it. In a consuming flash, like tissue in a bonfire, the lens vanished, as did the smaller ships at the lens’ edges.
    The cone formation advanced, and the surviving Karg moth-ships gathered in a square. Beams flashed back and forth between the two fleets. Ships exploded, often harming its nearest neighbor. I doubt I’d ever witnessed a deadlier battle.
    Finally, the last Jelk vessel disappeared under a barrage of red rays. The Kargs had won, but at a dreadful cost. Hulks and pieces of starships floated everywhere.
    As I watched from a distance, my fevered nightmare became personal.
    During our invasion of the portal planet, Abaddon had addressed me via screen. He’d shown me how he tortured my sweet Jennifer. For years now, I’d agonized over her fate. Maybe that’s what powered the horrible dream.
    In the nightmare, the feeling of dread grew worse than ever. I watched as Karg moth-ships cruised through the wreckage of battle. More giant snowflakes appeared, with huge exhausts showing they accelerated, traveling who knew where.
    I sped toward one of the snowflakes. Believe me, I didn’t want to go there. Yet, nothing I did could stop my advance.
    No! I refused. I was Commander Creed. I’d defeated the Kargs before. I wasn’t their slave rushing to them at their bidding.
    With an intense effort of will, I halted my dream plunge toward that vessel.
    Then, it seemed that I didn’t float in space anymore. Instead, I stood on a bridge. I didn’t recognize the type of ship. It must have been a newer style. Before me, a baroque screen sizzled. A fuzzy image appeared on it. I couldn’t see the exact features of the thing, but I saw two fiery eyes like the pit of Hell burning at me.
    As I stood on the bridge, the weight of those eyes wilted my resolve. The burning orbs had something to do with Jennifer. Bracing myself, I roared defiance at the eyes. I shook a fist at them.
    “Commander Creed,” said the deadliest voice I’d ever heard. The words rumbled against my chest, vibrating with debilitating power.
    “Abaddon?” I whispered.
    The sizzling worsened on the elaborate screen. The image grew fuzzier, but the eyes became like twin fires. I felt the gaze, which locked my jaws.
    “I see you, foolish mortal,” Abaddon told me. “You are far away, and you are desperate.”
    “This is a dream,” I managed to whisper.
    “How truly dense you are,” Abaddon said. “You think yourself so wise concerning science and reality. Yet you understand little of power and supernatural force.”
    “You’re saying this is real, not a dream?”
    “How can you comprehend? Yes, you dream, but I am indeed speaking to your unconscious mind in the manner of