13 The Demon Within: The Demon Fleet

The demons started to fire at the ship rocking it back and forth, whilst Kirsteen struggled to get Lindsey out of the room as the control panel exploded. Outside Lindsey began to wake.

"We have to get to the medibay now." Lindsey said in a faint and weak voice.

The leader meanwhile having been burnt from the explosion grabbed one of the guns from his fallen comrades and cornered Lindsey and Kirsteen outside. He could barely stand he was so weak, but much like Lindsey his determination drove him on.

"You've doomed us all."

"Why don't you just pray to your god." Lindsey said mockingly. The leader raised his weapon and Kirsteen got in the way of Lindsey begging him to stop, but Lindsey in response started to push Kirsteen out of the way.

"STOP!" Lindsey said. "If you kill us both now, you'll die and your whole world will die too."

"I knew neither of you would face death with dignity." He sneered.

"We have a medibay with healing magics.. It can patch up your wounds. Either you let us help you, or you die now and fail your false god."

The demon hesitated for a few seconds, more because of the pain it was in than anything else. It almost blacked out before raising its gun again.

"Alright but any tricks and I'll make sure you all die with me."

The Maliak leaders and general had been waiting for half an hour for their god to show up. They always dreaded these meetings. At least a few of them wouldn't make it out alive. Normally when things weren't going to plan, the god would take his frustrations out on a few of the leaders, often just to serve as an example to the others. The god always loved to make his servants wait for long before he turned up. Fortunately for the Maliaks, these meetings were rare due to their diminished numbers. Still now that the war had ended so badly, they all felt they were for the chop.

The god came bursting into the room in a surprisingly good mood for once.

"He must have something really nasty in mind for us to be that happy." One of the leaders thought as she gripped her chair in terror.

"You've all failed me miserably." The god said to his followers. "You'll all suffer for what you've let the demons do to this planet, but don't worry. You may not have the death of your entire species on your conscience. Bring him in."

Two Maliak foot soldiers dragged the Professor in before leaving.

"That feeble old creature?" One of the Maliak leaders said, almost not sure if their god was joking, though he instantly stopped laughing when the god glared at him.

"This creature has an intellect far beyond any on this planet. He can build weapons that can allow even a miserable race like the Maliaks to actually win in a fair fight. Imagine that." The god said mockingly.

"What do you want of us oh master." One of the leaders said sheepishly.

"Oh nothing. That's the point. I just wanted to let you know why you were all being replaced. I only felt it was polite. Now goodbye." A portal began to open in the centre of the room, causing several Maliaks to fall into it. The others scrambled for safety but a magical barrier prevented them from escaping.

"You've heard of the Garisja haven't you Professor." The god said, ignoring the screams and pleas of his followers.

"Its one of the most heinous hell dimensions. I take it that's where you're from?" The Professor asked.

"Exactly. Even for demons it's a hell."

"Please oh lord show mercy." The last of the leaders said as it clung to the edge of the floor over the expanding pit.

"You fool. I'm not a god. I'm a demon. A lower level demon actually from the pit you're about to fall into. In there I was a nothing. Hence why I had to come here to the natural realm."

"No, it can't be you're lying, this is a test of loyalty." The Maliak said.

"I'm afraid not." The false god replied as it morphed back into its original demon form much to its servants horror. The last of these Maliak leaders willingly let go of the ledge and fell into the hell its master had come from. It wouldn't have survived much longer anyway, but it couldn't bare to see that the god it had devoted its life to was nothing more than a phoney. It was a worse punishment than anything the demons below could do to him, and the false god always loved to let its minions who had failed know that before it killed them.

"Now then lets see about you helping me win this war then shall we Professor?"

Lindsey, Kirsteen and the Maliak leader made their way to the medibay. The demons had stopped firing on the ship and were attempting to break their way in.

"I don't know how long it will hold them." Lindsey, who had repaired her leg completely with magic said as she used a similar spell to heal the Leaders wounds. The leader kept his gun on the two time travellers at all times.

"Now that we're alone and since we may only have a few minutes left anyway, why not be honest with us here." Kirsteen said.

"When me and the Professor first met you, you doubted that god of yours. Now you're desperate to prove your loyalty again? Are you just a coward? You don't seem to be one?"

The leader was silent. He didn't seem to even acknowledge Kirsteen before she prodded him again. He raised his gun to her in response.

"I do not have to answer anything to you, I". Suddenly the Maliak started to feel faint. "What have you done to me." He said as he dropped his weapon.

Lindsey grabbed the gun and pointed it at the former leader." Oh I forgot to mention, since we control the magics in here, and they're now fused to your body, I can kill you in an instant if I want."

"You slimy, treacherous, cowardly."

"Relax, I didn't say I would kill you. Unlike you I don't believe in senseless slaughter. It's only if you lay a hand on Kirsteen. Now if you'll excuse me I need to see if the back up control panel is still working. For your sake both of you stay here."

"Wait a minute I saved your life out there, you can't just leave me here." Kirsteen protested.

"Okay Kirsteen. You know how to reprogramme a magic time machine?"

"Well no, but."

"Trust me you're safer in here. Two's a crowd." Lindsey said before swiftly exiting the room and shutting the door behind her.

Kirsteen was furious. "Honestly if she gets shot in the leg this time who'll bail her out."

The Leader just rolled his eyes. "God must really be testing me if he locked me in a room with you."

"Yes about that why are you such a born again? Don't worry I won't tell. We're both probably going to die anyway." Kirsteen persisted.

"What would you understand. You live your life without any reason."

"Well my life hasn't exactly turned out as I planned, but at least I haven't based it around a liar."

"He is not a liar." The leader insisted. He was almost trying to make sense of his god's behaviour to himself more than he was to Kirsteen, who he didn't even bother to look at. "I had a crisis of faith. For my entire life I believed our god that we had been chosen to cleanse the universe of his mistakes. For forty years we always triumphed until this war. When the demons crushed us it was more than just a defeat. Everything we had fought for seemed like a lie. Our god appeared weak. We were weak. All of the enemies we had slaughtered. I started to wonder if they had deserved it. If we were not the supreme beings, who were we to have judged them. Then it hit me. God was testing us. Until now he had given our race everything we needed. We had no reason to be truly loyal except out of gratitude. This was to test our mettle to see if we were truly above the others. We had to stick together, still believe in him even through strife when all of his other races wouldn't. I failed him, but clearly the Maliaks passed his test as now he has delivered your craft which will allow us to win the war."

"I can assure you us coming here had nothing to do with that thing."

"Of course it did. You may not know it, but he guided you here. Why else would you have come at this exact time and place?"

"I just have the worst luck That's why. The fact that I'm on this ship in the first place is proof of that."

"You are part of his plan. We all are. I was a fool not to see it. He clearly favours me, hence why I was also the only one who survived the slaughter of my platoon. That was the final bit of evidence I needed."

"You're a fool. Actually no you're not. You just can't admit that your life has been a waste. When you thought you were going to die it didn't matter but now there is a chance your kind might make it out of this, you can't face possibly years with that knowledge can you?" Kirsteen enquired.

"Shut up."

"It's sad in a way. You've been duped into thinking you're above the rest of us, and none of you have been able to choose your own destinies. You all follow what someone else wants."

The leader tried to strike Kirsteen only to collapse to the floor.

"The magics remember. Our magics kept you alive whilst your god sent you to die. "

Lindsey reached the emergency control panel. It was damaged, but not to the same extent as the first control panel. With a little magic she might be able to accelerate its self repair unit, which was still somewhat weak after their previous battle with the living spaceship.

As she tried to remember the spell, Lindsey was soon distracted by the alarm. Now that it was exposed the demons had managed to breach the ships defences.

The Professor was carried down the hall to the main lab of the facility by the demon/god itself. The Professor made sure the demon had to carry him every step of the way. He dug his claws into the ground when the god tried to drag him. The demons strength dwarfed that of the vampires, but the Professor loved making it as difficult for the demon as he could.

When they reached the lab, the demon beat the Professor for his insolence. "Oh how I wish I could just kill you here and now."

"I have a talent for being annoying. It's one of my many skills." The Professor said before spitting one of his teeth the demon had knocked out back in its face.

"I want you to look at our weapons vampire. Together we should be able to cobble something together to stop those lesser demons above if that bomb doesn't work."

Just then the whole room began to shake, and a Maliak came running into the room. "Master, Master the demons have found us. They're attacking."

"It can't be. There's no way they could have…. What news is there of the bomb."

"We've lost contact with them."

"Well then I'm afraid that is it for the Maliaks."

"What do you mean?"

The god responded by tearing the minions throat out. The Professor meanwhile slowly reached for a crude weapon on the table whilst the demon was distracted.

"I don't always enjoy it you know. Centuries I spent building these creatures up. I genuinely thought they were the ones. I hate to have to do this again."

"You're just a sentimental guy aren't you." The Professor said mockingly.

"Well on the plus side I don't have to keep you alive anymore."

The Professor flipped backwards, and as he did he fired the small gun he had picked up with both of his hands, tied behind his back. The Professor shot the demon in both eyes, before then shooting at his chains. The vampire picked up various weapons from the tables and fired as many as he could at the demon. The weapons drew the demons blood, but all of its wounds instantly healed over. The Professor then threw a bomb at the ceiling and jumped through the hole it created. Whilst the god was stronger, the Professor was faster.

"It doesn't matter. He along with the rest of this world and those demons will soon fall into the Garisja forever.

Lindsey despite the presence of the demons had managed to complete the spell, but just as she was about to fly the ship back to the planet, several of the demons broke their way into the emergency room. These demons were different to any Lindsey had seen on the planet. They were roughly seven feet tall and had black, rock like skin, large green eyes, and parts of their bodies glowed red.

The demons started to fire at Lindsey, who was barely able to dodge the blasts. Unfortunately however the rays instead hit the control panel.

"You idiots, you'll create a rip in the vortex." Lindsey shouted as the ship began to whirl out of control.

To Be Continued