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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Capellan" data-source="post: 1838868" data-attributes="member: 6294">"Space Tomb" - Part 15Xinthon races into the waiting elevator, with S'Ondra only a few paces behind.  He slaps the console, and barks out the single word:"Close!"The doors slide shut in S'Ondra's face.Growling under her breath, the Princess pulls her heat lance back and slams it into the join of the doors.  With a grunt of effort she forces the doors far enough apart that she can get her fingers in between.  This done, she wrenches them open: the doors give way with a sound of tortured metal.The elevator shaft is dark and empty, the lift car itself carrying Xinthon up and away.S'Ondra throws herself at the dangling drive cables and begins to swarm up hand over hand, pursuing the retreating D'Bari.  Minutes later, she bursts through a hatch in the floor of the elevator car.  Scrambling to her feet, she catches sight of Xinthon as he reaches the pyramid's airlock.Without pausing, the alien thumbs open the inner door, steps through, and allows it to slide shut behind him.  Again, S'Ondra is a few seconds too late - she literally bounces from the airlock door as she tries to hurl herself through the closing gap.Far too enraged to think about the consequences, the Princess levels her heat lance and fires repeatedly at the door.  After a few blasts, the metal barrier explodes inwards.  Beyond, the outer door is also open, with Xinthon nowhere in sight.Snarling in frustration, S'Ondra stalks forward.  A light wind ruffles her hair as she emerges from the pyramid, and she sniffs at the air, as if trying to find her quarry by scent alone.Maybe she actually smells something, or maybe some other sense alerts her at the last minute, for the Princess ducks just in time as Xinthon lunges out of the shadows, hands reaching for her throat.  She fends him off with her heat lance, but the momentum of the D'Bari's charge sends her stumbling backwards."You stupid primitive!" Xinthon snarls, as the two warriors strain against each other, each with two hands on the heat lance, "I have brought an atmosphere to this entire asteroid!  I have evolved myself to a new level!  I offered you a chance to rise to that level with me, and you refused it!"S'Ondra's only response is a guttural howl as she hurls the D'Bari back.  Xinthon drops into a crouch, and the two fighters begin to circle each other.And then the camera pulls back, and we zoom out into space.  Below us, the combatants shrink to the size of dots ... and then become dots, circling each other on the black display of a radar screen.Fury's hands fly across the control panel of Xinthon's ship as he flicks switches, presses buttons, and watches readings climb on all the gauges."Are you sure about this, Captain?" Archie asks.  The massive robot holds Gustav's limp body in his arms."Positive, Archie.  There's nothing in space I can't fly." Fury doesn't spare the time to turn around, so absorbed is he in his flight preparations, "Get the Doc out of here.  Take your new friend with you." He pauses, "Have you taken a copy of all Xinthon's notes?  We'll need them to help S'Ondra, when all this is over.""I have it all, Captain," Archie nods.  He turns to leave, then pauses: "Good luck, Captain."At the robot's words, Fury does spare a moment to look back,"Keep the luck for the Doc, Archie.  I've got this covered."The robot leaves, still cradling the Doctor, as Fury finishes the last of the flight checks.  As he listens to the whine of the ship's planetary drive building power, the Captain closes his eyes and takes a deep breath,"Hang in there, baby."It's not clear if he's talking to the ship, or to the dots on the screen.</blockquote>

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