“Everything okay?” I asked, and they shook their heads.
“We do not expect this to be so bad,” Leo said. “We have never seen ommati behave this way in our world.”
“I know, your scientists did a hell of a job,” I sighed. “These guys have a real taste for human blood lately, and it’s getting worse by the day.”
“They are getting far too cunning,” Kwan said as he wiped blood splatter from the barrel of his rifle. “Today, they made a strategic plan. This hasn’t happened quite like this before.”
“They grow more advanced every day,” Hae-won said. “You must not let them get into the elevator, Appa.”
“I think we need some more barriers,” Min-jun decided as he glanced back at the fence. “This gate will not hold now that they have made their choice. They will do whatever it takes to get inside.”
“They will not get inside,” Kwan growled, and he spat on the ground beside one of the dino corpses.
I knew that Kwan would do whatever it took to make sure nothing got into the base, but I knew it would just take one lucky nudge of a button for smaller dinos to make the elevator work.
They’d already proven they could try as much back in Ravenscar.
“I think more barriers are a good idea,” I said as I looked at the tall fence. “It’s better to overestimate these bastards than underestimate.”
Kwan sighed and turned to look at me as he swung his K2 over his shoulder.
“You need to be careful,” he said, and his dark eyes flickered to Hae-won. “And you need to leave. We will do as much as we can here, but the real mission is up to you.”
Hae-won hurried forward and wrapped her arms around her father’s neck, and Kwan gently stroked her hair and said something quietly in Korean.
“We need to get started with building,” Min-jun said. “Protect my baby sister.”
Min-jun’s voice cracked the tiniest bit as he spoke, and Tae patted him on the back. The burly Korean shook his younger brother off, but then Hae-won broke away from her father and hurried over to Min-jun, and she flung herself into her oldest brother’s arms.
Becka stifled a sob as Min-jun chuckled and hugged his sister back, and Kat discreetly dabbed her eye before she acted like there was a gnat bothering her.
“We should not get so upset,” Sun-hee warned. “This is not a big goodbye, we will see each other again very soon.”
“Exactly,” I quickly agreed. “We’ll be back before you know it. When this is all over, we can throw another party and get to see Kwan’s awesome moves again.”
The underground king smirked, and he looked up at the sky as something in the distance roared.
“I hate goodbyes,” Becka sniffed, and I put an arm around the gorgeous blonde.
“Did you not hear me?” Sun-hee laughed. “Not goodbye, just saying see you later.”
“Yeah,” Kat offered the blonde a smirk. “We have to get back before Becka’s pregnancy cravings start up and annoy the shit out of us.”
Becka giggled as I kissed the top of her head, and she burrowed her face into my chest.
“We will stop the fleet,” Adhara said. “Do not be sad. We have many guns. We will use them anytime we must.”
“I know you will,” Min-jun said as Hae-won pulled away from him with a tear-stained face.
I looked around at the graveyard of dinos and watched their blood drip down and dye the grass red. The dinosaurs in Korea were different from what we had encountered in England, and I briefly wondered what horrific things were waiting for us at CERN.
“It’s time,” I said gently as I stroked Becka’s head. “You guys might want to get these bodies cleared up as soon as possible.”
Sun-hee nodded and ran a hand through his dark hair as he looked down at the corpses.
“Let us go,” Adhara agreed. “We will need as much time as we can get.”
“I will remain here,” Orion announced, and I turned to see the tall alien nod his head. “You have plenty of members for your trip, and I have many more weapons that can be of service here.”
“Really?” I asked, and I was surprised that he even had any concern for humans. His shock over the therizinosauruses seemed genuine, though, and it reminded me just how fucking scary the situation had become.
“We would appreciate that,” Kwan said as he looked Orion up and down. “Your weapons have helped very much already, and another skilled shooter is always welcome.”
“Two spaceships it is,” Kat said. “Come on, guys.”
Hae-won hovered close to her brothers, and her bottom lip stuck out slightly as she hesitated.
“On you go,” Kwan said sternly. “My daughter needs to go and help save the world. She does not have time for being sad.”
Hae-won sniffed, but she nodded in determination as she turned toward me.
I let go of Becka and gave the Korean men a final handshake each before I headed to the clearing where the ships were parked.
Becka laced her fingers into mine, and Hae-won clung onto my other arm as we started to make our way over to the crafts. Kat and Adhara strode ahead, and Leo walked behind us.
I heard Kwan put the others to work immediately, and his gruff voice barked orders in Korean.
It was a short walk to the ships, and they glistened under the morning light. The hazy force fields were only barely visible, and the clearing was still.
“We’ll see them again soon,” I reassured Hae-won as she wiped her eyes. “You know that they’re going to be just fine.”
“I know.” the Korean beauty nodded. “It is just hard to leave them. Especially right after our wedding.”
“I’m so proud of you,” I said. “This is really fucking hard, but we’re doing it for our family. For our kids.”
“I will fly in my craft,” Leo announced as he broke off from the group and headed for his ship. “We will meet back up at the location.”
“You know the way?” Kat asked, and Leo raised an eyebrow as if it was a stupid question.
“The map knows,” he replied. “So I know.”
“Of course,” Kat replied. “I forget your tech is better than ours in every way possible.”
“Yes, it is,” Leo agreed as he headed around the back of his ship.
We made our way to the entrance of Adhara’s craft and waited by the door as she jumped through the forcefield.
I wrinkled my nose as an unpleasant, burning smell wafted through the air, and I realized Kwan must have started using the sharp guns to disintegrate the dino bodies. I hoped that they were able to get through the process without attracting any others, but when the forcefield buzzed off, I knew it was time to refocus on our work now.
I let the girls head inside in front of me, and once I stepped into the spaceship, we headed through the sleek metal corridor to the control room.
Adhara had hit the button already to raise the spare seats up from the floor, and we each grabbed a spot as the control panel lights flashed.
“Everyone ready?” I asked, and the girls nodded.
Adhara sat in the pilot seat and started to hit buttons and twist dials as the spaceship burst into life. The floor rumbled, and I prepared to be pushed back into the comfortable seat with the ship’s safety system.
The sky outside still had a warm glow, and I was pleased to see that there weren’t any more dinos sneaking around the clearing.
“We are leaving,” Adhara called. “We will be there soon.”
“Let’s go save the world,” I muttered as I leaned back in my chair, and the ship suddenly rocketed upward with a low hum.
“Woooo,” Kat cheered, and all the girls’ faces lit up for a moment.
As we started to sail over the dense trees, everyone seemed to forget about their problems for the moment as we watched the sea of green fly underneath us. The smiles of my lovers stoked the fire I had inside me, and I knew I wouldn’t stop fighting until they wore those smiles every day.
All we had to do was use the Ha
dron Collider to create a black hole, get on board an alien ship mid-flight, and convince the leaders to stop the fleet from destroying the whole of humanity.
How hard could it be?
Chapter 4
The flight to CERN was breathtaking, and we spent the first couple of hours being relatively silent since the view was more than enough entertainment. I watched endless fields, mountains, and cities fly by, and the spaceship hummed quietly as we made our way to the Hadron Collider.
At first, I had been concerned about the ship being spotted from below. Not necessarily because of regular people who would just get a shock, but there could be government officials watching with enough weapons to blow us out of the sky, and we’d already had enough bullshit over Adhara already.
The beautiful alien had once again proven her species’ superiority, though, and when I asked her about the issue of visibility, she explained that the ship had mirage panels on the bottom. Apparently, this basically made us invisible to anyone underneath. It would just look like a strange cloud passing over, and the onlookers would have to be trying incredibly hard to notice the shimmer of light at all.
Which made me wonder if all the conspiracy theories about aliens visiting our planet might actually have been on to something. I couldn’t even count the number of blurry, cloud-like blobs I’d seen images of since I was a kid.
Either way, even without any worry of being spotted, Adhara flew so quickly that everything below was slightly blurred, and Leo’s ship kept up the pace beside us. The beautiful alien’s hands flew expertly over the control panel whenever necessary, and one hand rested on the square steering column as she stared out at the world.
The adrenaline had really started to kick in for me, and I tapped my foot as I watched the gorgeous alien pilot her ship. I had no idea what to expect when we arrived, and I could only hope that there was an easy way to access the Hadron Collider. For all we knew, it could be completely abandoned, and I didn’t even know if the way inside would be hidden or not.
Becka had her eyes closed, and I wasn’t sure if she was actually asleep or just resting. Her hands were clasped over her stomach, and blonde hair fell over the side of her face as the ship moved.
Hae-won was resting as well, and her slow breathing told me that she had definitely taken a little nap. She was probably emotionally exhausted after leaving her family in such dangerous circumstances, and I was happy to let her rest while she had the chance.
Kat had her eyes fixed on Adhara, and she sat on the edge of her seat as she watched the alien twist dials and flick levers. The pretty soldier looked adorable as she studied the alien’s every move, and I just knew she was dying to leap up and take over flying.
“You want a shot?” I grinned, and the curly-haired soldier nodded enthusiastically.
“I miss my Jeep,” Kat said. “I want to drive something cool.”
“Ask Kwan for one of his cars,” I laughed. “If we save the world, I’m sure he would be happy to lend you one.”
“What cars?” Kat asked with a puzzled expression, and I realized I hadn’t even told the girls about the gift.
So much had happened in a short span of time that Kwan giving me a Porsche hadn’t really come up.
“Uhhhh, so…” I grinned. “Kwan gave me a little wedding gift. He took me down to this secret basement full of sports cars, and I got myself a brand new Porsche Turbo Cabriolet.”
“Shut the fuck up,” Kat said, and she slapped me on the arm. “He didn’t.”
“He did,” I laughed, and Kat just stared at me with her mouth open.
“I want a go at driving it,” the soldier announced. “Actually, fuck that, I want my own car. Do you think he would let me have one?”
“If you save the world, then I absolutely think he would,” I chuckled.
“Oh, my god,” Kat groaned. “We need to hurry this mission up. I want to look at the shiny toys.”
“Porsche can fly?” Adhara asked over her shoulder. “Or maybe be underwater?”
“Afraid not,” I admitted with a smirk. “It’s just a vehicle that’s fast and really fucking gorgeous.”
“Not as good as ship, then.” Adhara decided. “Do you want to know how to do the flying?”
“Hell yeah,” I said as I shot up from my seat. “I want to be able to help out if there’s an emergency.”
Kat stood up so quickly that she stumbled and grabbed my arm to steady herself as we walked over to join Adhara.
“Easy, soldier,” I laughed. “I haven’t seen you this excited since you blew stuff up with a blaster for the first time.”
Kat nudged me, and I looked down at the vast array of controls. There was no denying that it looked complicated as hell, but if I had a chance to fly an actual alien spaceship, there was no way I was about to turn that down.
“This is how to do direction,” Adhara said as she tapped the steering column. “Like human vehicles, yes?”
“Sure.” I nodded. “Steering wheel, or rather, steering square. Got it.”
“It only needs tiniest touch,” Adhara said. “Very sensitive to movement. Then this is how to do fast.”
The alien pointed to three black dials on her right.
“Like gears?” Kat asked, and Adhara shrugged.
“I do not know what is gears,” the alien said. “But this one is for very slow. Helpful for landing. This is for medium speed, and this one is for the fastest.”
“What speed are we at now?” I asked as I looked down at the sprawl of houses down below. It was hard to tell exactly how quickly the ship moved, but it was definitely faster than a regular plane.
“This is medium,” Adhara said, and I raised an eyebrow.
“Why don’t we use the fastest one?” I asked.
The alien laughed, and her gills fluttered.
“You would have to sit down for me to show this,” Adhara said. “You would fall. It is too fast for going to place you have not been before.”
Kat stared down at the final dial, and I knew she was dying to try out the fast mode of the ship. The pretty soldier even inched slightly closer to the dial, but when her gaze flicked to mine, I sent her a stern shake of the head.
“Fine,” the Corporal muttered.
“Next,” Adhara said. “These buttons are for outside lights. You try.”
She pointed at a row of dark green buttons, and I pushed one of them down. Because it was daylight, the wide beam of light that came from the front of the craft was only barely visible. I hit another one of the buttons, and the lights in the craft, including the beam outside, suddenly all went off.
My stomach dropped for a second as I worried I’d somehow turned the entire system off, but the ship didn’t drop out of the air, and Adhara’s calm motions reassured me that we were fine.
“What’s going on?” Becka mumbled. “Why is it dark?”
“Jason hit stealth lights,” Adhara answered. “You press this if you do not want to be noticed.”
“I mean, we’re still in a spaceship.” Kat said. “It’s still pretty noticeable.”
“Some ommati like the light.” Adhara shrugged. “This helps.”
She hit the button again, and the lights immediately turned back on with a gentle pop.
“Are we nearly there?” Hae-won asked, and I turned to see the Korean beauty curled up on her chair like a cat.
“We must be,” I replied. “The trip will be a bit shorter than when we came from England.”
“Did you know Kwan gave Jason a Porsche?” Kat asked, and Becka went from half-asleep, to bolt upright with wide eyes.
“A Porsche?” The blonde blurted out. “Ohhhhh, my god. Jason, you are going to look so fucking hot driving a Porsche.”
“Convertible, too,” I snickered.
“Ohhhh, fuckkkkk.” Becka sighed. “My panties are so wet right now. We better save the world fast.”
“My father must really like you,” Hae-won chuckled. “I cannot wait until you can drive us all to the beach
.”
“And to brunch,” Becka added excitedly. “This is the best thing to come out of this whole fucking apocalypse. Uh, apart from all of you, of course.”
“Thanks for remembering us,” Hae-won snorted.
“Holy shit!” Becka gasped. “Wait, I’m married to a man with a Porsche. We’re married to a man with a Porsche. We’re fucking badasses.”
“I think we’ve officially won the game of life,” Hae-won giggled.
“Shhhhit, you need to see this,” Kat suddenly announced, and she took a step forward as she pointed out of the window.
Then I whipped back around to see a flock of flying dinos coming right toward us.
They were smaller than all the flying beasts we had encountered so far, but they had sharp beaks with a curl at the end. Their wingspan was about eight feet, and they looked the same in length. Dark reddish fur shone under the sunlight, and as they got closer, I could see the golden tint in their eyes.
I glanced down at Adhara, and she didn’t seem concerned as she continued to fly straight ahead.
“Is the forcefield on?” Hae-won asked as she got to her feet and hurried over.
“They’re going to knock into us,” Becka added as she rushed to my side.
“Do not be worried,” Adhara replied. “Forcefield is on. They will fly around.”
It felt strange to be looking straight on at a dinosaur and not be holding my weapon ready to fire. As they got closer, it was obvious that they really didn’t care about the ship, and they lazily flapped their wings to head around us.
“They don’t look as scary when they’re not trying to kill us,” Becka said as she peered outside.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “It’s nice to go a few hours without anything trying to eat you.”
The ship made a beeping sound, and then Leo’s voice hummed through the radio. He gave a short message, and Adhara replied with a single growl.
“Nearly there,” she said. “Jason, hit the slow dial.”
I slowly turned the black control, and the ship smoothly slowed down as we drifted over a mountain range with snow on the peaks.
“So, how do you actually start the ship?” I asked, and Adhara pointed to two red buttons next to the speed dials.
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