Trapped in Time-Extinction

by Saxon Andrew

  “There is a comet coming in at an incredible speed that is going to impact it. The devastation will be beyond what you can imagine.”

  “Is there intelligent life on the planet?”

  “We’ve found structures on the surface and there are beings located at one location.”

  “What about the others?”

  “The others appear to be deserted.”

  There was a long pause and Harmony heard, “The Regent wants to know when the comet is going to hit?”

  “It will hit on the side of the planet that settlement is located during late afternoon two days from now.”

  There was another pause and she heard, “The Regent has ordered the ship to the location of that settlement. How long will it take us to arrive?”

  “We should be there in four hours.”

  • • •

  Harmony contacted Andy immediately, “They’ll be here in four hours!”

  Andy nodded, “What do you know about this weapon?”

  “One of the beings on board their ship said that the ones they killed in three starships appeared to have grabbed their heads and fallen dead.”

  “Tell all the warriors here about that and see if you can tell us the moment that weapon is used.”

  “Dad, are you certain that weapon won’t affect us?”

  “No, but the Time Takers were certain. We’re going to have to trust what they know.” Harmony nodded and sent a warning to Mat.

  Andy looked up at the sky and saw that a layer of clouds was moving in from the east. He smiled and was glad they were coming. If the warriors out in the open had to lay on the ground for an extended time under a blazing sun… He shook his head and hoped the clouds would arrive in time. He heard the roars of a Carnivore in the distance and knew those roars were going to end shortly and he knew he was going to miss them; they were part of a world that was all he had ever known. He sighed and moved to the cliff wall. He prayed his plan was going to work and that the coming aliens did not see the camouflage uniforms. He waited and thought about all that had happened since he was exiled and was surprised to hear Linnae say, “They’re overhead now.”

  Andy yelled and a single drum began beating. All of the warriors out in the fields began walking toward the holy cave as forty others stirred boiling pots. He used Linnae to tell all the warriors hidden in camouflage to remain hidden. Harmony ran out from the central clearing to join Mat’s warriors.

  • • •

  “Regent, it appears all the beings in that settlement are gathering in one place.”

  “What?”

  “There are hundreds of them out in planted fields that are now moving toward the main settlement.”

  The Regent looked over the navigator’s shoulder and saw hundreds of infrared images moving toward the center of the settlement. He looked at his Warrior’s Commander and said, “I’m going to wait for them to gather in one place before I attempt to use the mind weapon.” The Commander nodded and looked over the Navigator’s other shoulder. After an hour, every being on the scanner was gathered around a source of heat between the walls surrounding the settlement. The Regent looked at those on the bridge and put his hands on his head and closed his eyes as he focused his mind. After a few moments he opened them and moved his head forward toward the planet beneath him.

  Linnae sent a thought, “NOW!!”

  Every warrior gathered around the boiling pots grabbed their heads and fell to the ground. Andy felt a pressure in his mind that was similar to putting his hands on the sides of his head and pushing them toward each other. It wasn’t enough to cause pain, but it was incredibly annoying. After a few seconds, it disappeared. He stared at the more than eight hundred warriors scattered around the clearing and nodded. They had fallen to the ground and really appeared to be dead. The warriors chosen to pull off the subterfuge had practiced falling for months and they really had it down to a science. He recalled them playing a game where one of them would sneak up behind another and say, “BOOM!” If the one being surprised didn’t fall immediately, they had to fall twenty times afterwards. He eventually had to stop the game because the warriors were falling anytime someone raised their voice. But their practice paid off, they really did look like they were dead and they had all fallen together. He looked at Linnae beside him and saw her staring at the sky. She saw him looking at her and she put her hand on his arm and shook her head. Andy took a breath and remained silent; he didn’t want to distract her.

  • • •

  “Regent, all of the beings have fallen but my scanners still show physical activity.”

  “What do you mean, physical activity?”

  “Their bodies are still alive.”

  The Regent looked at the red images on the monitor and said, “I want to see them. Take us down close enough to get a visual.”

  The Navigator looked at the Commander, who nodded, and began pressing buttons on his panel. He gripped the steering wheel on his panel and pushed it forward as he turned the wheel to the right. The large starship began spiraling toward the planet’s surface. Linnae looked at Andy, “They’re moving to take a better look but they haven’t decided to land the ship.” Linnae watched the view of the monitor in the Navigator’s mind and as it moved toward the community she quickly sent a thought to Harmony, “They’ll be coming from the north. If they’re going to land, it will be south of the community.”

  Harmony looked at Mat and said, “South.” Mat nodded and raised his arms. He began running with Harmony following him, and his Warrior Group came out of the trees and ran along the sandy clearing south of the community. They spread out in the tree line and waited. Harmony took his hand in hers and squeezed it. Mat looked at her and quickly kissed her on the cheek. His warriors watched the community and prepared to move. They knew the most dangerous part of their mission was getting under the alien starship just before it landed. Harmony had learned about force fields while listening to the alien’s thoughts and the Stealth Warriors were going to have to be under the ship so as to be inside the force field when it landed. They waited and watched the sky. Soon, they saw a shape that was growing in size by the moment. Mat shook his head; that thing was huge.

  • • •

  The Navigator moved the ship below the cloud level and activated the external cameras. He manipulated his controls and the view of hundreds of bodies lying on the ground moved in closer. The Regent stared at the bodies and looked at the Navigator, “You say they’re not dead?”

  “Their bodies are still functioning.”

  The Regent shook his head and the Commander said, “It could be that only their higher thought processes are destroyed.”

  “The Jemli were all dead when we examined them.”

  The Commander shrugged, “Perhaps the mind weapon affects different species differently.”

  “Could they be stunned and not damaged?” The Navigator and Commander looked at each other and they both shrugged at the same moment. The Regent shook his head and looked back at the monitor. “I have to be certain. Take us down and Grandel, take your warriors and collect some of the bodies for study. Make sure you’re armed in the event they’re just stunned. We can take some of them with us and I’ll practice on them later.”

  Grandel was going to suggest blasting the bodies but the Regent made a good point. Finding an intelligent species to use the weapon on wasn’t easy. He left the bridge and sent a message over the intercom for his warriors to meet him in the landing bay. The Navigator looked at the Regent, “Do you want to land the ship or break out one of the landers?”

  “There’s a comet coming this way and I want to be out of here with time to spare. Getting a lander ready isn’t worth the time. We’ll land, collect some of the bodies, and get out.” The Navigator nodded and moved the ship over the wall and began moving the ship down close to it. He lowered the landing legs five hundred feet above the ground; it had been a very long time since he had landed a starship on a planet’s surface. His caution was going
to cost him; when the landing legs dropped, the force field under the ship was deactivated. It took him thirty minutes to slowly maneuver the ship to the surface. The Regent watched the slow careful landing and closed his eyes. He was going to have the Navigator practice landings when they left this planet. But he didn’t say anything critical to him while he was landing. That would come later. He looked at the scanner and saw it had gone back to electronic. The bodies were still lying on the ground. The antenna that had been extended a hundred feet above the landed starship sent red images to the monitor.

  He felt the ship move slightly as the ramp was extended from the landing bay to the ground. He looked at the wall monitor and saw Grandel exit the ship with four hundred warriors, all of them were carrying heavy blasters. He saw the force field drop as they moved away from the ship and then snap back in place once they were clear. He turned back to the Navigator’s monitor and watched as they moved toward the entrance to the settlement.

  • • •

  Mat held Harmony’s hand and watched the white ship moving toward them. He saw the shimmering field around the giant ship and sent a thought to his warriors, “If that shimmering below the ship doesn’t disappear, get out from under it!” His four hundred warriors moved under the slowly descending starship and saw the shimmering field moving toward them.

  The field was just fifty feet above them when it suddenly vanished. All four hundred warriors had moved to the outer edge of the ship’s shadow but moved back under the ship when the force field disappeared. They moved under the six huge landing struts that extended below the vessel and waited for it to land. The landing wheels flexed as they absorbed the giant’s weight and many of the warriors were forced to fall to the ground to avoid being hit. The wheel struts straightened and the Stealth Warriors moved directly under the center of the ship and waited. After ten minutes they heard a whine on the right side of the ship and they rushed over toward the source of the noise, as a long ramp began extending from the hull. Mat raised his arms and his warriors remained behind the ramp. Six warriors rushed out from under the ship toward the ramp.

  Harmony watched the four hundred aliens marching down the ramp and recognized their leader. All the other Stealth Warriors were shocked at the alien’s appearance, but she had been seeing them for months and they no longer seemed strange. Like Humans, they varied in height and size. Some were over six feet tall and others slightly over five feet. Some were thin, other fat, and most of them lean muscled. The also had two arms and two legs, although the hands had a thumb and three fingers. They were light brown in color and looked the same shade as some humans of Spanish descent. They had black hair but it was short and only covered the top of their heads, ending at the level of their two small ears. Their eyes were round, without lids, but didn’t seem to be out of place. The nose was just a slight bulge above their mouth, which was more of a lipless line. From a distance, they could be confused with humans. She watched them march toward the city in formation and decided that it would have to be a long distance. Their walk was not like a human’s. It was like…she couldn’t think of an analogy.

  The last alien walked off the ramp and the shimmering appeared around the ship. Six warriors had run up the ramp along the ramp’s outer edges as the aliens marched down it and entered the huge landing bay before the last alien warrior had left. They gathered at the door with their camouflaged red blasters raised. One of the aliens standing at the door controlled the ramp and door. As one of the Stealth Warriors moved close to him, the other five scattered out into the landing bay. Zam watched the alien lift his hand toward a panel of blinking lights and he put his blaster against the alien’s back and pulled the trigger. The alien staggered and Zam grabbed him and held him up. Darn, he weighed more than he looked. He stared over his shoulder out of the landing bay and saw sand moving at the base of the ramp. He felt air move as the rest of the Stealth Warriors rushed on board past him. Gordon moved with his command to the right toward the stern of the starship as Olivia moved with another group of warriors toward the aliens working in the landing bay. Mat moved to the left with Harmony and ten other warriors.

  Harmony had been in the alien’s mind as it had reached to raise the ramp and close the door. She sent the process to Zam and he pushed a gold colored button on the panel in front of him. The ramp began moving into the ship and once it was in the hull, a yellow light started flashing. Zam pressed it and the huge landing bay door began closing. There were forty aliens working in the landing bay and thirty of Olivia’s stealth warriors moved out and stopped close to where they were working.

  Harmony closed her eyes and began sending directions to Gordon’s Warriors as they moved toward the stern. They moved out of the landing bay and scattered through the ship. She looked at Mat and turned right as she left the landing bay. Mat and the ten warriors followed her as the other members of Mat’s unit went left to seek out any aliens in the bow of the ship. Mat and ten other warriors followed Harmony and ran to keep up with her as she moved through the ship toward the bridge. Mat hoped his warriors weren’t discovered before they could reach the bridge. This ship had intruder defenses that could spell disaster to him and his warriors if they were discovered before they arrived at the bridge.

  • • •

  It was Rory that discovered the red blasters could be used to stun instead of kill. There was a juvenile Raptor that had slipped into the fields and was feasting on the small herbivores that came in at night to eat the delicious plants. Rory didn’t want to kill the juvenile but he knew that it would grow to be deadly pretty fast if he left it alone. It would run from humans because they were so much larger, but that wasn’t going to hold it back much longer. It had actually been an excellent tool at controlling the plant eaters but it was just too big to ignore any longer.

  Rory went into the fields wearing his camouflage and began hunting the Raptor. He finally found it resting under a tree near the edge of the field. He saw it was close to six feet long and raised his red blaster. The young raptor rolled over on its back and stuck its feet in the air. Rory found this incredibly funny. He shook his head and had a thought. He took out a small blade and put it in the notch on the bottom of his blaster and turned it all the way to the left to its weakest setting. He raised the blaster and fired it at the Raptor. The Raptor’s feet fell instantly to the ground and it didn’t move. “What the heck?” Rory called for help and five other warriors came out of the field and joined him at the Raptor.

  Sam looked at the Raptor and shook his head, “What did you do to it?”

  “I shot it with my blaster on its weakest setting.” The six stared at the Raptor who was breathing regularly and lying on the ground with its eyes closed.

  Sam shook his head, “Well, you didn’t kill it.”

  Rory stared at the young carnivore and said, “Give me a hand.” The six carried the Raptor to the wall and put it down on the ground outside the gate. Rory closed the gate and went to the top of the wall to watch the Raptor. The warriors went back to work and Rory waited. After three hours, the Raptor opened its eyes and tried to stand. It took a few minutes before it could get to its feet and another minute before it could run away. Rory watched it disappear into the forest and went to tell Andy what he had discovered; the red blaster was also a stun device.

  • • •

  Zam turned around and leaned against the wall with his arms wrapped around the alien’s chest. He took a deep breath, it was starting to really get heavy. He slid along the wall until he moved out of view behind some large containers where he dropped the alien gently to the floor and stepped out to watch the landing bay. So far, none of the aliens working in the bay had noticed what had happened. He prayed no one would miss him before Mat arrived at the bridge. Then, his fear was realized, a large alien was walking toward him from across the landing bay. He was obviously walking with a purpose and he had to be coming to check on the missing alien. Zam shook his head and stepped away from the containers and waited for it to arr
ive.

  • • •

  The work supervisor looked at the landing bay door and said, “Where is that lazy Megit?”

  Another alien looked across the bay and shook his head, “He might be taking a break.”

  “When we have warriors on the ground. I’ll break him in half!”

  The alien shook his head and knew Negle had messed up big time. He went back to work on the converter while shaking his head. The supervisor arrived at the door and looked around. He didn’t see Negle until he looked over behind the power packs. The lazy Megit was taking a nap! He walked over and grabbed Negle by the front of his uniform and immediately collapsed on top of him. Zam holstered his blaster, moved the big supervisor off the top of the first alien, and prayed for Mat to make it to the bridge. Another alien was standing up and looking toward him.

  • • •

  Harmony was scanning the ship as she led Mat toward the bridge and so far nothing had gone awry. She glanced at the landing bay in her mind and saw trouble was about to happen. She raised her hand and motioned forward as she started sprinting up the long corridor. She raised her blaster to stun three aliens who were in rooms just off the corridor as she passed. Mat and the ten Stealth Warriors ran behind her and they arrived at the entrance to the bridge just as an alien was going through the portal. Harmony rushed in behind him and fired her red blaster at the Navigator. Mat shot the alien that had just entered the bridge as the other warriors ran in behind them and fired at the other twenty members of the bridge crew. The only one left standing was the Regent and he looked around in shock as the crew fell out of their chairs to the floor. Harmony sent a thought out to the other warriors on board, “We’ve taken the bridge!”

  Five hundred aliens scattered aboard the starship were immediately hit by red stun beams. Two aliens that were in the ships eating facilities were confronted by a warrior who pulled his head cover off and pointed a blaster at them. They screamed as all the other aliens in the huge room fell to the deck. Harmony sent a thought to the two aliens and said, “If you want to live, you will come to the bridge immediately. We don’t want to kill your mate but if you refuse to come, we’ll do it.”