A painful death in an unknown place. Even Hunter had to admit it had a certain ring to it.
Now, in his last hours, he could do little more than tally up the damage. His quest to overthrow the Fourth Empire was gone. There had been no good-bye to his friends, Pater Tomm, Erx and Berx, Calandrx, Zarex, Klaaz, Agent Gordon. The fact that they were now all dead was what weighed the heaviest on his heart. In many ways, they had been fighting his battle when they'd been killed. Caught up in his passion to make all things right in the Galaxy again. He laughed, sadly, whenever he thought of them. Brave men, and characters all. But were they just fools as well to listen to him? To follow him on his mad quest? At that moment he would have given just about anything to drink a bottle of slow-ship with Erx and Berx again, or to share a campfire meal with Pater Tomm, or a discussion about the ancients with Calandrx.
He would never see Xara again, never feel his chest fill up with the good stuff just looking at her, never even get to kiss her just once!
Never to fly his flying machine again, never to find out what he was doing here, in the 73rd century. Never finding out exactly who the hell he was.
Regrets?
Yes, he had a few.
His cell door opened. Hunter was expecting that this was his last meal, though he wasn't the least bit hungry.
But instead of his slight, mean-spirited turnkey, a rather imposing figure swept into the cell, several huge Star Rangers in tow.
Hunter allowed his eyes to adjust to the light.
Only then did he realize it was Joxx.
"They've chosen to put the gun in your hand?" Hunter asked, legitimately surprised to see him. "Or did you ask for it yourself?"
Now it was Joxx's turn to ignore Hunter's questions. He was very conscious that the Star Rangers were still on hand. They had traveled all the way up from Earth with him, again on a swift-moving scout ship, to catch the ShadoVox on its dark and secret flight. Joxx made no attempt to dismiss them now.
"As you know," Joxx addressed Hunter, "the Empire holds a special place for condemned souls. Sometimes it is very difficult to tell exactly who is the hero and who is the criminal. But that does not mean heroes escape the executioner's song."
The coterie of guards nodded in agreement, even though it was apparent they didn't have the slightest idea what Joxx was talking about. But Hunter did.
"I am here only to give you comfort for what you will be facing soon," Joxx went on. His eyes were still bleary. "I owe you that at least. As for myself, when I leave here, I will finally see the Emperor, and after that, only destiny awaits…"
As he was saying this, Joxx pulled back his cape, and Hunter saw that he was carrying a silver dagger on his belt. It was in the shape of a cross.
"History never stops," Joxx concluded. "It just seems that way sometimes."
With that, he dropped something on Hunter's bunk and then went back out the door without another word. The guards slammed the cell hatch with an especially loud bang, plunging the tiny cell back into darkness again.
Hunter crawled over to the bunk and found the object. It was a box. Making his way to the tiny sliver of light coming in below the cell door, he was finally able to see what was inside.
His jaw dropped.
It was a holo-girl capsule.
He could just barely read the inscription on it: "Echo 999.9, Transdimensional Test. Top Secret. Activate Immediately."
The waves were high and beautiful.
It was almost sunset, and the glow upon the ocean was incredibly warm and inviting.
The crystal-blue water would come rushing in, leaving clouds of soft, white foam to momentarily linger on the gemstone sands before retreating once again.
Hunter took Ashley in his arms. The girl he'd met so briefly back on Planet America was now magically standing before him again, looking even more beautiful than he remembered. He lowered her to the wet sand and kissed her. She laughed. He kissed her some more. He was suddenly down to his bare essentials. She had removed her top.
"Why didn't you just rescue me when you had the chance?" she whispered in his ear.
"I thought I did," he replied.
She laughed again. It echoed across the waves. Hunter gently lay on top of her. More kissing, she with an especially probing tongue. Some of the waves crashed on the high rocks nearby. Others came closer. One came right on top of them, soaking them in their moment of desire.
"Can we?" she asked Hunter.
"Should we?" he asked her back.
"I thought that's why we are here," she told him.
"Then there is nothing standing in our way," he whispered back to her.
Passion flowed like the waves now, in and out, each one stronger than the one before it. Hunter felt like he was inside a dream, which, in a way, he was. The setting became even more perfect, the sun even warmer. The sky more beautiful. The water. The waves. Ashley was stunning. Her body wet and glistening. They were just moments away from completing the act, when…
Hunter looked up and saw two people walking on the beach toward them.
"What the f…" he said. This did not compute. This couldn't be part of the program.
He stopped what he was doing and concentrated on the two approaching figures. They weren't holo-girls, that much was for sure. They were two soldiers, in uniform, one slightly taller than the other, both squat, muscular, and very, very bald.
"Damn," Hunter breathed. "Am I going crazy?"
It was Erx and Berx.
What the hell are they doing here?
They walked right up to him.
"Brother Hawk!" Erx bellowed. "We have found you!"
Hunter didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He scrambled to his feet; Ashley was soon up beside him, silent, but not bothering to cover her chest.
Hunter didn't say a thing. Instead, he put his hand on Erx's face, his arms, his chest. He was thumping him, expecting his hand to go through him. This had to be a screw-up in the holo-program, right?
"We are here," Berx told him simply. "All of us. The whole gang. The whole fleet."
Hunter just looked back at them in astonishment.
"We've been hiding here in the thirty-fourth dimension," Erx tried to explain. "All safe. All happy. Waiting for you to arrive."
"But how?" was all Hunter could mumble.
They didn't reply. They just pointed over his shoulder. Hunter turned around — and found Princess Xara standing right behind him.
"I'm the one who arranged for them to come here, Major Hunter," she told him very formally with a distinct chill in her voice. She eyed Ashley, who was simply standing by, free-spirited and open, listening but not speaking. She was the only nonreal thing here.
"And this is actually a military operation, Major," Xara went on. She was dressed in a very skimpy outfit herself, almost amazon-like. Hunter's eyes were glued to her. "It might be wise to turn your own thoughts in that direction."
But Hunter was still astonished that all his comrades were alive.
"But how?" was all he could ask again. He was completely bewildered.
Xara liked that, of course.
"Let me explain it to you quickly," she said, pulling him aside from the rest. "I won't dare ask if you've ever been inside one of these holo-things before. But your friends told me that when battling the Bad Moon Knights on Planet America, you used an escape device based on a Twenty 'n Six field?"
Hunter nodded numbly. They had combined the forces of four Twenty 'n Six devices to create a transdimensional field. During a series of guerrilla actions, which opened the war on Planet America, the American Forces harassed the BMK invaders inside the big cities, disappearing at the last moment through this Twenty 'n Six window. It made for the perfect escape route just as long as the BMK soldiers never caught them before the last man went through and collapsed it, sealing it off forever. By the time the BMK figured out what they were doing, it was too late.