Tonwen opened his mouth to render a verbal assault in response to the admiral’s complete lack of morality, but a loud grumble from his stomach did all the talking. At that moment he became aware that he was starving, an observation that did not elude the admiral’s notice either as her eyes focused squarely on Tonwen’s stomach.
“How long was I unconscious?” Tonwen asked.
The admiral took a moment to look over at the guard to her left. “My security forces were a bit over zealous with their settings after seeing their first volley had no effect on that amazingly resilient body of yours. It’s been nearly two days since the incident.”
“I require sustenance, unless your intent is to torture me with food deprivation,” Tonwen said.
“Call down to the galley and have someone bring food up for our guest,” the admiral ordered the guard stationed to her right. She then looked back at Tonwen to explain, “Torture is a deplorable and unnecessary practice. However, after what happened during your last meal break you’ll understand of course that I’m not willing to let you loose on my ship again.”
“Of course I understand. Causing one individual discomfort is going a step too far. However infecting several billion life forms to bring about their extinction, well that is the very definition of high ethical standards. You are to be commended for maintaining your high ideals.”
“Your approval is neither sought nor required,” the admiral admonished. “Your captain has cooperated with my men so far, but there have been unacceptable delays which make me believe he is stalling. Why?”
“You expect me to inform on my captain?”
“Yes I do,” the admiral answered in a matter of fact tone. “He gave you an illegal order and now is your chance to prove your loyalty to your people rather than to this one man.”
“I suspect the captain is awaiting my report on what I found onboard your ship. Two days of silence no doubt strengthened his suspicions about your intentions,” Tonwen answered with all candor.
The admiral stepped closer until Tonwen could feel his eyelashes touching her bald scalp to ask, “If I have to press the issue and assume possession of the Nexus device from Captain Hastelloy by force, what sort of resistance will we meet?”
“Substantial,” Tonwen responded just as the door to the interrogation chamber opened.
“You requested four meals be delivered,” a familiar voice announced to the room. Tonwen glanced with his eyes to confirm that Bellum, his friend from the galley, was the owner of that voice. The familiar Novi stood in the open doorway carrying a covered tray with both hands.
“Yes, place the tray on the floor in front of our guest,” the admiral ordered.
Bellum evaluated Tonwen sitting on the floor with a skeptical set of eyes that followed the blue immobilizing beam up to its source in the ceiling. “Is it safe? Does he have use of his arms? That giant could tear me apart in the blink of an eye if he gets a hold of me.”
“Would I be standing this close to him if he could move anything other than his eyes and mouth?” the admiral said with a heavy dose of frustration in her voice at having to point out the obvious. She backed away from Tonwen far enough to give Bellum room to place the tray on the floor between the two of them.
As Bellum executed an about face and headed for the exit door, the Admiral touched Tonwen on his right arm and declared, “You may eat now,” and quickly backed away several steps to be safe.
Tonwen rotated his arm in a full circle to test his range of motion, which stopped at the shoulder. It was not much, but it was enough. He reached for the tray and tipped the white plastic lid up a few inches so only he could see what was concealed within. It was difficult, but he managed to keep a broad grin away from his lips as he moved his hand under the lid and wrapped his fingers around the tiny grip of a Novi wave blaster.
He flicked the lid up into the air, took aim, and fired at the guard leaning against the wall on the admiral’s right side. Anticipating the move, Bellum fired his own weapon at the room’s other security guard, dropping him to the floor in an unconscious heap. This left the admiral standing there with a dumbfounded look and two wave blasters trained on her.
“What, why, how could you?” she demanded of Bellum.
“It appears I am not the only one who takes exception to your brutal tactics, Admiral. Good day,” Tonwen responded on behalf of the ship’s cook before pulling the trigger.
Bellum moved in quickly to remove the silver glove from the admiral’s right hand and placed it on his. He pressed a few buttons on the sleeve that resulted in terminating the paralysis beam. “The weapons fire will have set off a silent alarm in the central security room. We need to move fast.”
Tonwen needed no further prodding. He got to his feet and raced for the door as Bellum did likewise. “When the door opens, you take the guard on the left and I will handle the one on the right.”
Even before Tonwen could finish his sentence, the doors opened to reveal a set of guards lying motionless on the deck with three armed Novi standing over them. He recognized one of them as Pacis, who carried a curious white belt slung over her shoulder. The other two were unfamiliar, but a welcome sight.
“Did you have something like that in mind,” Bellum said while stepping through the doorway. “Introductions can wait, but rest assured everyone here is on the same side.”
A clatter of commotion down the corridor to their right drew Bellum’s attention for a moment before he started jogging in the direction of the lift doors on their left, away from the approaching noise. “Let’s move. Security is already on their way, and we need to reach the loading bay before they can get organized.”
Tonwen’s only difficulty keeping up with the tiny beings running down the corridor was that he needed to do it hunched over on account of the low ceiling hovering a mere five feet overhead. There was plenty of clearance for even the tallest Novi, but far too short for Tonwen’s six-foot frame. When they reached the lift doors, they remained stubbornly closed.
“Security protocols have locked down the lifts already,” Bellum said while he removed a panel in the wall to locate the door’s manual release. “Get that belt on him so we’re all ready to go when I get this open.”
“Is this a repelling harness,” Tonwen asked of Pacis as she worked to fasten the white belt around his waist with straps running between his legs.
“You really are from the olden days aren’t you?” Pacis marveled. While she finished up, Tonwen looked at his new companions and noticed all four were wearing similar belts. He was about to ask for clarification on how the device worked, but was cut short by a loud mechanical screech that announced the lift doors were now open.
“Got it,” Bellum exclaimed in victory as he stood back up and pointed to the other Novi. “The loading bay is twelve decks down. You three go first.”
That was all the instruction they needed. Pacis and the other two Novi jumped feet first into the lift chute and vanished from view. Tonwen dashed forward to the lip and observed that they did not plummet to their deaths. Instead, all three levitated down at a brisk, yet controlled pace.
“Gravity belts,” Bellum instructed over Tonwen’s shoulder.
Tonwen was about to ask how the device worked, but an explosion just above his head distracted his train of thought. He followed the source of the blast down the hall until his eyes focused on a cluster of four security guards charging, with weapons drawn, down the hundred foot long corridor.
Bellum fired a shot down the corridor that sent the guards diving to the deck for cover. Using his free hand, Bellum grabbed Tonwen by the arm and yanked him into the open lift door with a surprising show of strength. In a state of freefall, Tonwen looked back in time to see Bellum dive head first into the lift shaft with three wave blaster beams narrowly missing him.
“Hit the blinking red button on your right side,” he shouted. Tonwen complied and swore he felt his stomach drop out of his rectum as the belt pressed hard against the pull of grav
ity to arrest his descent. He felt safe for a few moments until he realized the belt was doing all it could against his weight, and was losing the battle.
The device configured to hold a Novi body a fourth his weight began to sputter and cut out, sending a wave of panic through Tonwen’s large frame. Bellum caught up to him, wrapped him in a bear hug, and activated his own gravity belt to add additional muscle to the effort.
“It’s not enough. Pacis, Ntu, I need your help,” Bellum called down the lift shaft. Below, the two Novi shot upward and wrapped Tonwen in a tight embrace as the fourth Novi remained below working to open the lift door.
“Oh, you have got to be kidding me,” Bellum complained as the cluster of four continued descending even though the belts were all squealing in their efforts to keep them at a steady altitude. It was fortunate that the rate of their fall was a manageable two inches per second. “For the love of the Republic, would you miss a meal or two every now and then?”
“It should be taken as a compliment by the chef if I am not mistaken,” Tonwen teased while looking down to verify the lift door below was now open. As the cluster neared the doorway, a set of arms helped pull Tonwen through, and his three rescuers soon followed.
“To the right,” Bellum ordered. Tonwen rounded the corner seeing a set of heavy blast doors slide open to reveal a hangar bay with twenty black, cube shaped ships, ten to a side flanking a walkway running down the center. Rather than resting on landing struts, each craft sat atop its own transparent tube leading to the vacuum of space below. Just above the cube ships was a heavy door with three concentric rings of seals that would drop down over the tube opening when the craft was gone.
“Take the first one on the left,” Bellum shouted as he led the charge to reach the boarding ramp while a set of workers halfway down the walkway looked on. Just to be safe, Bellum squeezed off a pair of shots that dropped two of the technicians and sent the remaining four diving for cover behind parked ships.
“Come on, get in,” Pacis called back to her husband from inside the cube ship as Tonwen ducked past her. Bellum was the last to enter the ship and closed the door behind him.
“If we leave now, will their weapons not target and destroy us the instant we depart from the ship?” Tonwen asked. “Assuming this ship is still positioned behind the moon, we will be outside the range of our Nexus device on Earth. We will be committing suicide.”
“Your Captain Hastelloy is way ahead of you with that line of thinking,” Bellum responded as he produced the blue communications disk Tonwen gave him earlier. He pressed his thumb to the device to bring a miniature rendition of the captain’s head inside a cone of soft blue lighting. “Captain, we are about to leave the ship. Is everything prepared?”
“Affirmative, we’re ready for you,” Hastelloy confirmed.
“Leaving now,” Bellum announced and pressed a button on the pilot’s console that allowed the vacuum of space to suck the craft out of the Novi battle cruiser’s underbelly.
The small ship darted around the moon and headed for Earth in the blink of an eye, which gave Tonwen hope he would live through this ordeal. His elation lasted for the briefest of moments until an alarm announced that four fusion torpedoes were in flight and locked onto them.
Bellum called up a tactical display showing their shuttle in the center with four red blips closing fast from their rear. “Now, Captain.” With no results and the projectiles drawing perilously close, he shouted again, “NOW!”
Tonwen drew a deep breath as he watched the red blips nearly merge in the center, then held it when he saw four red streaks zoom off the screen. He looked out the viewport and spotted four monstrous explosions erupt from the darkened surface of the moon.
“Four more torpedoes are inbound,” Bellum announced as he widened the tactical display to show the Earth, moon and the cruiser chasing after them.
Once again, the projectiles were slapped wildly off course. The tactical display widened in time to show the four blips swallowed up by the sun.
“Captain, how are you doing this?” Tonwen asked.
“The pyramid gravity weapon,” Captain Hastelloy answered. “Valnor managed to perfect the targeting to manipulate objects as large as the moon or as small as a paperclip. Those torpedoes are well within those limits.”
“Twelve more torpedoes inbound, and the cruiser is closing into wave blaster range,” Bellum announced. “I don’t think that whimsical device of yours will do much against those energy weapons, and we’re still out of Nexus range.”
Tonwen watched Hastelloy’s face contort into an expression of extreme regret before he said, “I hoped it wouldn’t come to this.”
Tonwen watched the display as the twelve blips were flung into the sun like their predecessors. This time the battle cruiser serving as their point of origin followed the projectiles into the swirling mass of broiling plasma and crushing gravitational forces. An instant later the tiny shuttle was the only spacecraft in the solar system registering on the tactical display.
“What have you done?” Pacis screamed. “There was no Nexus device in range. All those Novi are gone, just gone from existence. This was not part of the arrangement!”
Her words ricocheted between the walls of the small craft for several heartbeats until Hastelloy’s tiny image broke the stunned silence. “We’re all beyond the point of half measures now. It was either you or them. Your destruction and their survival would then have meant the annihilation of over eight billion humans on this planet. It was for the greater good.”
Reading Novi features was still new to Tonwen, but he had no difficulty interpreting the body language of his four companions as the craft descended into the Earth’s atmosphere. All four understood the necessity of Hastelloy’s action, but could not emotionally come to terms with it.
Chapter 20: Lesson Learned
“It’s dark enough now for you to make your landing approach,” Tonwen heard Valnor’s voice report from the blue disc communicator. “We’re holding the rear loading dock at warehouse C open with an infrared strobe to guide you in. Just be sure and keep your descent at a reasonably slow pace near the surface; that way there will be no sudden wind gust accompanying your arrival to draw attention.”
“About time,” Bellum sighed as he moved into the pilot’s chair to initiate their descent. “This planet has exceptionally long daytime cycles.”
Tonwen nodded his head in agreement remembering the first few years on Earth being quite difficult for his circadian rhythm to catch on. “You get used to it.”
Through the viewport, Tonwen watched the lighted outline of the North African coast come into view as their craft approached from over the Indian Ocean. Bright yellow, green and red lights from cities, towns, and villages gave form to the otherwise dark landmass as clearly as if he were looking at an actual map.
As the cube-shaped craft drew closer, the mass of lights began to separate into distinct clusters with lighted roadways running in between. A dark gash that the Nile River cut through the landscape heading north served as a good navigation point for Bellum to follow.
Near the end of the river, three giant pyramids illuminated with white lights from ground level stood tall and proud over the Giza plateau. The Sphinx stood watch next to them with a set of lights giving it a deep orange hue.
“Our target should be about three miles east of the pyramid formation,” Tonwen announced. Bellum acknowledged by angling the craft that direction. “Can you set the view screen to see light in the infrared spectrum?”
Bellum punched a few keys on his control panel, but nothing seemed to change on screen. Several seconds passed until a bright flash caught everyone’s attention.
“There,” Pacis said gesturing toward the point of origin with her right hand. Five seconds passed before another flash confirmed the landing location. The pulses continued on that interval until Bellum brought the black cube over the top of an industrial warehouse park. In all, there were ten good-sized structures with one
comparably small building near the southwest corner of the complex.
“The smaller building hides a subterranean tunnel leading to our command chamber that houses the Nexus device,” Tonwen instructed.
“Our approach has been almost silent so far, but what if one of these humans working a night shift in this industrial park looks up at the wrong moment? Or what if in the day time one stumbles upon our ship inside this warehouse ‘C’?” Bellum asked as he eased the twenty-foot cubed craft through the rear loading bay doors.
“We have faced that exact risk for thousands of years on this planet with the threat of our tunnel entrance being discovered at any time. We have found the most effective strategy is to hide in plain sight to eliminate curiosity and suspicion,” Tonwen answered. “We own this entire warehouse district and the companies that operate them. I imagine the captain has given everyone in the complex the next few days off as a thank you for their hard work and dedication, or something along those lines.”
“That is a fine temporary solution, but we may very well be here for a long time,” Bellum cautioned on his way out of the craft’s exit hatch once the bay doors were safely closed behind them. Tonwen and the other three Novi followed his lead to step out into an expansive warehouse building that was completely empty. “Setting aside the issue of humans discovering our ship, the four of us will not blend in quite as well as you. Hiding in plain sight is not an option for us.”
Tonwen nodded his head in agreement as he walked over to a storage rack near the building’s rear door. He rummaged through the contents tossing hardhats and work boots about until he got his hands on four bright yellow rain ponchos. He turned around and tossed them over to his Novi companions. “No, hiding in plain sight it is not an option. Lucky for us you will soon be in the most secure structure on this planet. Now put these on and follow me.”
He waited with great patience for several comical minutes watching the four Novi attempt to adorn the oversized garments. The ponchos were large and loose fitting even for most humans. A Novi half that size had no hope of making it look like anything other than toddlers set loose in their parent’s closet trying on random clothing.
Origins: A Greater Good Page 12