by Chucho Jones
She felt proud to have achieved such heights in the process. But she had developed a condition that had caught her attention. Her thoughts strayed from the mandate, and it became difficult to concentrate on the hive. She began to feel layered emotions and confusion.
She questioned the purpose for her human female DNA. It became hard for her to comply with the mandate with such faulty and shorthanded resources with a carbon based strand contrasting her original silicone structure.
She knew her collective grasp had grown weary from the human thought process she recently had accustomed to. She had failed due to her new-found emotions. The Quantum Wielder was lost in space, and they botched the capture of the human cosmonauts. Everything that had been planned with precision was gone in seconds.
Life gave her an evaluation when put to the test, and she had failed. Are humans a virus? she wondered.
She knew to proceed with caution, even though they were a much wilder and more primitive race. Still, her carbon DNA, at best, made her allergic to human contact. The equivalent of saturated fats for thought.
She focused all that much harder to keep her hive at bay, which caused her brain to strain. She was too close to fail, so she pushed through the pain. Her resources ran low. Blood pumped through her veins, and a solution rose.
“Scan all recycling chambers. The humans have used our mercuranium!” she yelled furiously. She singled out an image of the escape pod among the recycled debris displayed on screen.
She elegantly raised her arm and grabbed tight to an alien officer’s shoulder pad, dragging him close.
“Prepare your best assault team. I want them ready to execute an extraction when the humans are found!” she continued to yell in her alien dialect.
Elegant and proud, the alien officer swiftly displayed its squid-like figure across the room as it left to comply. Kha Tse hunched back to the holo screen controls as it displayed the location of the human vessel that had been located.
“The cradle is in recycle chamber number four,” shouted an alien minion.
Kha Tse activated the alarm inside the mother ship. That meant every automated intelligence unit would become hostile at any alien entity out of its containment cells.
Kha Tse looked at the screen once more and realized that GR-3G’s metallic carcass was sent to the same recycle chamber.
It was calling them in.
“The Quantum Wielder is being drawn to its host. Prepare the conduit chamber. Today, we fulfill our mandate,” said Kha Tse firmly as her head began to palpitate.
She raised her right arm to her head and felt the vibrations. She then knew the assault team awaited. She planted her foot, one after the other, as she stormed out of the room.
Kha Tse knew the culmination of the mandate came close. Her hands caressed the side of each one of her armor gauntlets, the mercuranium around it melting and reaching her hands to conform around her fingertips in rings. She gripped the rings tight.
Kha Tse knew her human DNA would alert the ship’s automated weapon systems. Nothing she couldn’t handle. From the edge of the gauntlets, shining silver tendrils came out. She lassoed her lashes, covering herself from the turret attacks.
She took a swift jump and crawled up the hallway walls clutching her feet, and reaching the ceiling. She lashed both her gauntlets at each turret. Her feet hit the ground, and she continued on to the next room right before the debris could hit the ground.
A group of taller, more menacing aliens holding alien rifles and tactical helmets scurried their way to formation at the sight of their Commander.
Their dark, shining armor filled nicely with their mollusk-like muscular structure. Kha Tse felt empowered as each elite squad member cocked its weapon and double checked their gear.
“The Quantum Wielder is in recycle chamber number four. Follow my lead,” she ordered the menacing crew. They stormed through the hallways chasing after their prize.
* * *
Chuggy’s furry hands felt like a soft feather that tickled Victoria’s face. The darkness waned at the sight of the creature hunched over her. The pygmite shook the girl a little, showing concern for her wellbeing.
Victoria regained her strength and woke a little more with every noisy bit of commotion that seemed to be going on outside of their cell. Chuggy began to jump up and down running and pointing at everything happening outside their chamber.
Alien minions sprinted through the hallways, wielding their phatasfas. Chuggy tossed a synthetic rock at the gate to call their attention. Victoria couldn’t understand the situation. Chuggy went rampant and headed towards Victoria. The girl felt a jolt on her scalp as the pygmite pulled her towards the gate by her hair. She shrieked as the pain pulsated on top of her head from each tug.
“Chuggy, what are you doing? Let me go!” Victoria yelled.
She grabbed hold of the creature’s forearms and shoved it away. The furry thing’s collar hit the gate shocking it and knocking it to the ground. The strenuous sounds of the struggle called the attention of two minions.
This time, a third minion approached with even more caution. The gate opened, and Chuggy looked straight at Victoria with a soft grin. The alien baton poked at the furry creature, but it didn’t move.
The girl quickly realized this was a ruse to try and get out again. The guards approached, and Victoria retreated. She took a deep breath and remembered the rules of engagement.
Always be prepared to act in self-defense, she thought to herself.
She grabbed a rock and threw it at one of the guards. The alien managed to knock it out of the way, but Victoria was quick enough to follow up with a kick. She ripped the baton away from the alien’s hand with all her might and bashed its face with it until it was rendered unconscious.
The event served as enough of a distraction for Chuggy to sneak up on the remaining aliens. The furry thing primitively took hold of one of its oppressors and bashed the aliens head on the ground several times.
The third guard held its left arm up and pushed some buttons from a remote control on its forearm armor pad. Before it could finish the sequence, Chuggy crushed the alien’s mollusk-like limb against the armor. Victoria countered with a stroke of the phatasfa. The alien never stood a chance. The girl and the pygmite dashed out into the hallways.
The other alien creatures wailed and made a ruckus at the sight of the fugitives. Victoria was able to recognize a few stone age species among the alien creatures as they ran amok.
“Nanook, nanook”, Chuggy kept yelling.
They reached the main control area where they found Chuggy’s captive friend. The furry pygmite took a step forward. A mercuranium arm with concentric hoops around a tapered rod with a glowing sphere at the end blasted a laser at the two runaways. They took cover behind the hallway’s wall braces.
“They’ve got automated weapons now,” Victoria said to Chuggy in a quivering voice. She looked around the room for a solution. The holo-screens showed images of astronauts on board the mother ship.
“It’s my father!” she yelled. “He’s come to get me. That’s why the alarms went off. We need to get to him!” she said with a smile on her face.
“Nanook, nanook!” Chuggy yelled.
The creature raised its arm like a strong man and pounded on its chest. Victoria realized what the creature meant by those gestures. If they freed the mighty Nanook, the aliens would have something to worry about. It was their chance for freedom.
Victoria and Chuggy saw the turrets firing furiously at anything moving.
“Ok, how are we going to stop that?” she asked out loud.
Chuggy prowled and scurried its way across the room, evading every shot. It then crawled up the walls and grabbed a laser turret, breaking it off. An opening with the circular barrels, provided a way to wear the weapon around his neck. Chuggy forced the apparatus to shoot and destroy the second unit. He then forced it to shoot at the base of Nanook’s cocoon.
The little beast rattled the turret some mor
e and turned it to shoot at the main console, destroying all controls in the room. The room quickly filled with mist and sparks as everything inside of it began to malfunction, the laser turret halting all shots as well.
A wailing klaxon began to echo around the room and the adjacent hallways. Every creature inside its containment unit wailed and flailed out of control by all the ruckus.
Victoria looked around, a bit in awe at all the chaos that had been caused by their rebellious act. The pink energy barriers of each containment unit retracted.
Every creature went rampant in all directions. Chuggy swiftly back flipped and dangled from the top of the hallway right above Victoria. The pygmite stretched its arms out to reach for the girl and pulled her up.
They both looked at the rampaging beasts running amok in the creature-flooded hallways. A half mammal half reptilian creature stomped on a hallway gate, followed by other animals and alien creatures.
The mob made its way towards other parts of the ship. Victoria and Chuggy found enough room to make it safely to Nanook’s containment cocoon. The pod spat mist from the bottom as it began to open.
Victoria gasped at the sight of a pool of Vitro-Plasma draining from the egg-shaped container. A massive albino Neanderthal snoozed inside. Chuggy shrieked with excitement and wiggled the mighty creature’s head.
The creature opened its eyes, and Victoria’s heart pounded hard at the sight of the beast. Chuggy helped him to his feet, as Victoria took a step back from the disoriented creature as it began to flail its arms out in fear.
Chuggy stretched out his hand submissively to the creature. Victoria witnessed how the primitive animals communicated through their body language. The two furry primitives embraced in what seemed like a long-awaited reunion. It was a calm and loving moment among the havoc that was caused by their escape.
Chuggy grabbed Nanook’s hand and brought it over to to Victoria. ’Her heart raced, and she didn’t know if she should fear it or not. But when their hands touched, Victoria felt a rush of happiness.
No human had ever been in contact with two primitive creatures. Among all the commotion she felt part of a great achievement for humankind.
“Nanook, Acoya. Acoya, Nanook,” Chuggy said while it pounded on each one’s shoulder.
Nanook looked at Victoria with a gentle, inquisitive stare. Chuggy jumped on the caveman’s back and gently pulled on his ears in a display of endearment.
“Acoya, Acoya,” the little creature kept screaming while pointing at Victoria.
She giggled and distracted herself from the chaos. The moment was abruptly interrupted as the rest of the room began to collapse. A massive cocoon that towered over the room fell. The giant purple creature inside of the sack flinched. Victoria’s heart felt as though it jumped into her throat, and her blood pooled in her feet, leaving nothing but cold.
“Come on, let’s get out of here and find my father,” she said to Chuggy as she ran towards the hallway.
Nanook took his time. He looked around the room and grabbed a chunk of mercuranium. His hands firmly tore off a piece of cloth from his tail cover rags. He wrapped the base of the metal chunk with the rag for a makeshift club. He swung the massive piece of metal around a couple of times and nodded as he was ready for battle.
The misfit fugitives kept running. They managed to come across a larger hallway. Soothing, indigo lighting dressed the side corridors, and a thick river of Vitro-plasma held round mercuranium platforms serving as a conveyor belt that led in various directions.
They hid in a corner to scout the area. Victoria saw a cluster of aliens chasing down some of the liberated animals. She looked the other way to find a group of aliens running in a stiff formation in a completely different direction, ignoring the animal frenzy.
The alien crew went through a door at the end of the large corridor and into a different hallway. She figured they had an alternative target. My father, she thought.
“Come on; let’s follow them,” she said to the primitives as she pointed to the stale alien squad.
They stayed by the walls of the corridor. As they approached the gate, a colossal mammal with the appearance of a dinosaur obstructed their way.
Nanook stretched its arms in front of Victoria and Chuggy to protect them. The beast taunted the caveman with a roar. It became a standoff. Nanook swung his club with all his might and knocked the creature to the wall. The giant mammal shook its body and quickly retaliated by biting the arm of the mighty Neanderthal. Nanook grabbed hold of the beast’s mighty jaws as it chomped at the caveman.
The battle of the titans called the attention of a group of alien minions. Victoria grabbed a phatasfa tightly and prepared for an assault. The aliens shot their ray guns at the girl and the pygmite.
They swiftly looked for cover. Chuggy grabbed a couple of chunks of debris and threw it at the alien attackers, while Victoria used the distraction to get close and incapacitate one of the alien oppressors with a phatasfa to the side of the head. Chuggy followed by jumping over another and bashing the alien’s head with the third attacker.
Victoria saw Nanook had submitted the dinosaur creature to his control. The girl grabbed and alien and placed its head on a holo-scanner to the side of the gate in front of them. The doors retracted, and they made their way out. Nanook jumped on the creature and stretched his arm out. Victoria took the mount, and chuggy followed.
“Let’s meet up with my father,” she said to the crew. The mammalian dinosaur beast walked nonchalantly through the thick river of Vitro-Plasma following their alien prey.
23
Chapter 23
The environment was red and dusty. Very little could be made out through the piles of debris. Oliver looked around and found himself surrounded by mounds of rusty assortments of metallic materials.
“Leon, General Banks, is everyone ok?” he asked through the radio but got no response.
He could feel the Vitro-plasma running through his body. He looked at his arm. The smooth mercuranium exterior molded to his will and into a display screen in front of him. He looked around and scanned the environment.
Everything felt natural, but he knew it was the symbiotic arm acting on his. behalf. Alien symbols with information appeared on his forearm, and jarring flashes of light clouded his vision. He felt it was the alien acting up in its natural environment.
He began to regret the decision of setting off to space. I’m just a kid with a medical condition, he meekly thought to himself.
He heard a loud hum inside his head and felt compelled to set forth, despite his wandering thoughts. He gazed at the horizon at a spherical control room at the highest point of the synthetic environment. He figured that’s where his path would lead him.
He walked across the wasteland and came across the escape pod’s remains. His heart quickened at the sight of an astronaut suit in the distance.
It was General Banks tactically taking cover.
He swung his arms around and signaled Oliver to cautiously approach him. Oliver took a deep breath and trudged towards the General.
“General Banks, I’m so glad to see you. Have you seen Leon?” Oliver asked through the radio.
General Banks responded by swiping his hand across his neck and shaking his head. He then grabbed Oliver and switched some nobs from the back of his suit.
“There, son. You gotta make sure the radio is on. These are regular ham radios. Keep sharp,” General Banks said in a comforting tone.
Oliver nodded. “Right, General, sir. Have you seen Leon anywhere?” he asked again.
They both looked around and walked in the direction Leon was sucked out of the pod. The brass piston that supported the general’s bad knee compressed and decompressed with a constant hiss.
Their steady pace shadowed the caution in which General Banks scouted the terrain. Oliver’s heartrate rose. He couldn’t take his eyes off the control room, and he was determined to find a way in.
A squadron of alien minions was coming down a
chute, standing on a thin mercuranium platform. Oliver figured that was his way in, but not before they found his uncle.
Oliver’s thought was interrupted by the general’s forearm across his chest, serving as a barricade. They found cover next to a rusted metal plate.
Oliver stretched his neck to get a glimpse at what they were taking cover from. A hovering metal carcass with a central node and giant metal claws scavenged the area for useful parts.
The red visor of its central node shot a scoped ray that scanned the area from top to bottom and side to side. The floating robot menace closed in on the astronaut hideout.
Oliver stretched his arm out reflexively. The mercuranium surface changed as it displayed alien information about the floating machine. He suddenly knew what they were up against.
A rushing sensation and a burst of knowledge gave him a new revelation.
He suddenly knew everything about their opponent: power level, serial number, batch station, derivative post, and status. The drone thrusted in their general direction.
“General, the drones are scanning for alien life forms. We’re the alien life forms,” Oliver said with concern.
The general quickly picked up a piece of debris and threw it in the opposite direction. The clanking sound distracted the menacing drone for a moment. The general sprinted away from the robot, paused, and turned to Oliver.
“Quick! Follow my lead. The area’s been compromised,” the general said.
Oliver ran behind him and looked behind him just in time to see the robot chasing after them.
“General, it spotted us!” he yelled.
The machine raised its arm, and with a perfect roll on its joint, threw the piece of debris back at the general. Banks evaded the solid piece with a shoulder roll and kept running.
Oliver ran faster, and he saw the general stall due to his mechanical brass knee. Without hesitation, Oliver thought of shooting at the thing. Blue light emanated from his hand and shot an energy beam at the robot. The ruckus caught the attention of two more drones that were scavenging the area.