AREA 51: IMORTUM

by Stone,Kord

  Jerren and Eneria finished searching the cells but couldn’t find any trace of the colonel. There was a room at the end that looked as if it had been occupied recently, but other than that there were no signs of anyone on sub level twelve at all.

  Jerren had a sense of unease come over him and said, “We need to find where they took her. Let’s get back to Jason, then we can search each level if we have to.”

  Justin’s voice sounded from behind him. “That won’t be necessary; the colonel is on sub level eleven. That bastard already knew what they’re doing to her. We need to get her out of here, he was only acting concerned in an attempt to get the general to talk about her,” Justin was holding the elevator door as they passed and began to ascend to the next level.

  “Who already knew?” Jerren asked.

  “The fucking CIA asshole! I swear if Justin had not held me back he would be dead right now,” Jason said with a murderous glare.

  “CIA!? That’s where I remember him from. His intel almost got my team killed once,” Jerren stated emphatically, and then he said. “He’s a fucking moron. I knew there was a reason I didn’t like him.”

  “I know the feeling. That asshole’s the reason I was captured and tortured in Iraq,” Jason growled out.

  “Him?” Jerren asked.

  The four of them made it to level eleven as Jason replied, “Yes. We need to go left down the next hall. There are two guards posted outside the surgical suite. We don’t have time to waste. If you see anyone just stun them. Our opening the elevator shaft doors are causing alarms to go off, there was a team sweeping the lowest level when we left. Luckily the elevator was sent up to retrieve another SP team to check sub level twelve. I’m sure they will send another for this level as well, so we need to hurry.”

  Jerren and Jason rounded the corner with Justin and Eneria following closely behind them and sure enough there were two heavily armed guards securing the double doors.

  Jerren and Jason waited for Justin and Eneria to be in position then Jerren and Jason took aim at the guards and fired. Justin and Eneria assisted the stunned guards to the floor as quietly as possible and then they positioned themselves to open the doors allowing Jerren and Jason entry.

  The doors had opened and everyone in the room turned to look at who had opened them. A medical team was surrounding the surgical table and without hesitation both Jerren and Jason opened fire stunning each of them, or so they thought.

  Once everyone was unconscious Jerren holstered his weapon and rushed to the table to check on the woman’s condition. From behind a drape a man stood clad in a shimmering armor similar to the ones used by the consortium that attacked Justin. It appeared to be piecemealed together and only his face was unprotected.

  Jerren heard an indrawn breath and a bellowed “YOU!” from behind him, then a beam of light flashed past Jerren and hit the man directly in the chest. The beam didn’t have much effect on him. It did knock him off balance a bit, but the man soon recovered and laughed. Another more intense beam shot past him this time knocking the man hard against the wall and he dropped to the floor.

  Seeing that the man was getting back to his feet again Jerren snapped out “Justin, Jason, get her out of here now!”

  The man made it back to full height and stood close to Jerren’s size. Jerren went into a defensive battle stance activating his armor, and then prepared to fend him off until his brothers were clear.

  The man smiled, stepped forward and laughing menacingly he said, “Fool! I’ve never lost a fight! Prepare to die!”

  The man began throwing fists and feet in a blur of movement. Jerren blocked the majority of the strikes at first, and got a few good blows in himself. But this man was far better trained and Jerren ended up on the floor.

  If Jerren had not been armored, he knew he would have been dead by now. Jerren got to his feet and repositioned himself for the next flurry. Jerren saw the man perform an unbalanced cross step and Jerren attacked.

  A second later Jerren was experiencing a profound sense of Déjà vu as he flew through the air and collided with the wall.

  Eneria was getting worried for Jerren, she knew who this man was, and after a few seconds of seeing him fight, she knew who had trained him also. Jerren went flying and collided with the wall. He stepped toward Jerren and she knew what he was about to do, and even though Jerren was safe in his armor she still feared for him. Eneria took in a deep breath and commanded, “ANUBISIS HALT!” Anubisis turned to look her way and she stepped back in to her battle stance.

  At first Anubisis looked stunned. That soon turned to amusement and Anubisis barked out, “That old fool taught you? I didn’t think he accepted miniature runts as students.”

  Eneria took in a calming breath finding her center and replied, “Seeing as how he never talks about his students, you would not know that now would you?” Anubisis took a step forward, but she remained steady.

  Anubisis laughed and said, “I never thought I would have the chance to kill another of his students. I will cherish this one for many thousands of years.”

  Anubisis’s taunt had no effect on her. Eneria was focused on what was to come. He stepped into her with a whirlwind kick followed by double cross faced blows, each of which she deflected with ease. Eneria knew this tactic, it was not a full on power attack. It was meant to draw the opponent in with a false sense of superiority, thus leaving them vulnerable.

  Eneria stepped back and reset, and then Anubisis thrust forward with another blurring volley of kicks and fists finally landing one, but it did not have the desired effect. Upon striking her, Anubisis’s armor which had been patched together split apart when the bindings it was encased in separated.

  Anubisis growled in apparent frustration and pain, his left fist looked shattered from where it had come into contact with her armor, and Eneria knew Anubisis would try another attack and she was not surprised when he performed a power roll and attempted to kick her in mid chest.

  Eneria sidestepped and performed a whirlwind kick of her own that landed square in the middle of Anubisis’ back. That kick increased his momentum and sent him flying through the wall, and a second later alarms were sounding off almost deafeningly.

  The moment Eneria kicked Anubisis through the wall and the alarms activated Jerren called to Eneria in mind, We need to get out of here. If we’re caught—

  Yes, you are right. Eneria drew her weapon and vanished.

  Jerren drew his weapon and then proceeded to the elevator, which at this point had guards pouring off and heading in all directions. Jerren knew the elevator would most likely be locked down on the level until they cleared it and he hoped Eneria was right about the suits. As soon as the path was clear Jerren and Eneria entered the elevator and Jerren thought to ascend.

  Jerren came into contact with the ceiling of the elevator and encountered a bit of resistance. It took a few seconds but Eneria and he finally made it through the ceiling and clear of the elevator then proceeded up and up. One second they were in the shaft the next they were in the decontamination room of TDS 1.

  If there wasn’t a dark matter bomb still down on the planet Jerren would have ordered them to destroy the base. Instead Jerren opted for, “If any ship leaves that planet destroy it, make sure there isn’t a dark matter bomb on it first though,” Jerren turned to Eneria, “Are you okay?”

  Eneria nodded, “I am fine. I only wish I could have finished it.”

  The decontamination process completed and Jerren and Eneria made their way to the control room passing the Colonel in medical.

  Jerren smiled and kissed Eneria, “You were doing a good job of it.”

  Justin shouted as they entered the control room, “Who in the hell was that?”

  Eneria answered, “That was Anubisis.”

  Jason looked ready to explode and Jerren asked, “What’s wrong Jason?”

  “He was the one who performed most of the torture on me. What the hell kind of armor was that? And what’s he doing on a US mil
itary base? I fired with a heavy particle beam then I tried to use vaporize, but neither of them work,” Jason stated, obviously frustrated.

  Eneria answered, “Anubisis’s suit was made from the smaller pieces of Imortum technology stolen from the pyramids generator, He and his family have been stealing pieces from pyramids generators for years, and they along with their consortium made armor from it.

  “Anubisis’s left gauntlet shattered apart when he struck me, whatever he used as a bonding agent wasn’t strong enough to hold under the impact.”

  Jerren looked at Jason and asked. “How’s our guest?”

  Jason looked over at Alise and Jerren did as well, and Alise said, “She is doing well. She should be able to wake in a few minutes. They were performing some kind of exploratory surgery on her brain, but she is responding well.”

  Jason said, “Justin healed her enough to move her, and then we got her up here. But she looked a mess; it looked as if she had been being carved on for months.” Jason stated to the group as a whole, “I’m sorry I lost it. After sifting through that prick Smiths head I was angry, and when I saw Anubisis… well, I’m sorry.”

  Jerren walked over and pulled Jason into a firm hug, “Don’t worry about it, we’ll get him.” Jerren said with a determined tone.

  Alise, Calia and Eneria had moved to the corner and Jerren was going over what Jason and Justin found out about the dark matter bomb, and a couple of minutes later Jerren heard frantic whispering from the girls location, Jerren thought he heard, “Are you sure?”

  Then Alise saying, “Look for yourself. It makes no sense.” followed by Calia adding, “She is right, ninety-nine point three percent. She has to be direct. What the…look, there in the pituitary gland. It is a triple.”

  Jerren could sense Eneria was confused about something and heard her speak.

  “Alise is right it makes no sense, Enyali had me do a scan and I never—”

  Jerren wondered what all of the excitement was about so he walked over, wrapped his arm around Eneria and he asked, “Is anything wrong?”

  Jason and Justin joined them and looked questioningly at the girls as well.

  Alise said, “Something is very strange here, we were looking at our guest’s medical report…”

  “And?” Jerren asked.

  “And her DNA matches the three of you before the Ambrose. According to my scan it is a ninety-nine point three percent match, and the markers place her as a direct sibling, the only significant difference is in the xx and xy chromosomes, meaning male or female. Did your father and mother have any other children before you?” Alise asked.

  Jerren looked at Alise thinking she had gone mad, or wondered if she was joking with them, and he stated firmly, “Our mother died the same day we were born and our parents had only met a year before that.”

  Alise sighed and said, “Like I told them, it makes no sense. First off because she never showed up on my DNA scans when we were tracking your family, and Eneria just said Enyali did not see her either. Secondly because chronologically she is twenty years older than the three of you, but temporal aging places her as being born after the three of you. If it is as you said that your parents only met a year before you were born, then something very odd is going on here.”

  Jerren thought about what Alise was saying and asked, “Is she able to wake up yet?”

  Alise nodded, “Yes, but what are we going to say to her?”

  Justin smiled, “How about what’s the haps sis?” and he chuckled then said. “Seriously though, this feels more like a wing it scenario, let’s start by seeing what she remembers,” Justin added.

  Jerren was shocked to hear that they might have a sister, and if what General Green had said to Smith was true, then that meant this colonel wasn’t the only sister. With anticipation building, Jerren agreed and headed down the corridor to medical.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Jerren was standing at the medical unit, with Jason and Justin beside him, and Calia, Eneria and Alise on the other side of the medical unit. Looking down he saw the woman was still wrapped in her medical gown, “Alise, can you dress her in something other than that please?”

  Nodding Alise swept her hand over the woman’s body, and a moment later she was wearing a nice metallic blue Jump suit.

  “Alright, if there are no objections I would like to begin the questioning, I heard the general speaking about her, and what I heard might help with the questioning.”

  Jason and Alise nodded so Jerren said, “let’s do this,” Jerren said, and Alise deactivated the stasis field. And a moment later the lady’s eyes opened.

  The woman looked from side to side frantically and shouted, “What are you doing to me? Release me!”

  Jerren thought it had worked on the girl from Abydos, so he placed his hand on her forehead and said, “Don’t panic, you’re safe now,” Jerren tried to instill a sense of calm on her, and felt a warm soothing sensation flow from his hand into her body and she eased back, “Do you remember what happened to you?”

  The woman seemed to think about the question and answered, “I was being held prisoner. There was an accident, and they kept saying I caused it. The last thing I remember was yelling at the guards then the I.V. machine activated.”

  Jerren nodded then explained, “You were being held in a cell on sub level twelve. When we arrived, you were no longer in there. My brother’s Jason and Justin,” Jerren pointed to them in turn and continued, “Found that they had moved you to Sublevel eleven.” She grimaced at hearing that and Jerren proceeded. “When we arrived, they had you in a surgical suite and they were performing a surgery on your brain,” Jerren felt the panic as it arose in her but it receded almost immediately, “We got you out of there and healed you aboard this ship.”

  Jerren could feel her calm down a bit, and the woman seemed to look hard at each of them in turn, “I… I know you…” she stated.

  Jerren looked at her stunned and was about to ask where she knew them from, but Jason beat him to it.

  “Where do you know us from?”

  “The Air Force, your eyes are different but you look and sound the same as you did when I saw you last.” She looked at them in apparent puzzlement then continued. “I was told to FastTrack his AFSC to 71sx.” And she pointed to Jason.

  Jerren could see she didn’t want to say that and a second later Jason spoke.

  “Who told you this?”

  The woman seemed to be having an inner struggle and finally lost it when she said, “The voice… She said it needed to be done or countless lives would be lost,” The woman then looked toward Justin, “She had me intervene when you broke some code.

  I don’t know who was pushing for it, but you were almost shipped off to Gitmo. I was told to persuade the special operations commander that you were a savant with codes. You were tested, and luckily you did well. The last I heard you had been transferred into crypto, and sent to a listening post in the Aleutian chain.”

  The woman then looked up at Jerren, “You almost died when the Alien and the piece of debris from the crashed craft in Nepal disappeared… the order came down from the DARPA liaison to have your team detained and sent to Bias U’san’s interrogation level, but the voice said ‘save them’.

  “I had only been stationed at Area 51 for three days, but the commander was off of the base and I was the highest ranking officer on base at the time, which made me temporary OIC. So I gave the order to intimidate and release your team before Bias U’san could arrive.

  “There was a push by U’san to have me court-martialed, but Pop- I mean General Green took the blame saying he had ordered your release. He lost his position as the Medical Director due to that.”

  Upon hearing that, Jerren was a little more inclined to believe what General Green had been saying to the spook Smith, although Jerren still felt General Green was not being completely honest at the time either.

  She went on to say, “My friends at the Pentagon later told me that you and your team
were watched closely over the next two years. They never heard any of you say anything about what had happened so you were spared.”

  Jerren looked from the woman to Jason, “Inola?” He asked out loud.

  “How…How do you know that name?” the woman asked sounding startled.

  Jerren looked at her a little shocked, “Did you have an imaginary friend growing up?”

  She looked at him hesitantly, “Yes, only my sisters and I could see her, but we grew out of it. Her name was Inola, come to think of it, the voice that told me to save the three of you sounded a lot like hers did. But despite thinking I was going schizophrenic hearing voices I did what it said none the less.”

  Jerren was going to test a theory, “What’s your name?” He asked in the ancient Imortum language.

  Her face showed the shock and she answered, “Terrah…Terrah Tones. How do you know how to speak that language?”

  Justin said, “That message I deciphered… it was in this language. We think we were taught it by our imaginary friend. Her name was Inola also. She was the one who told us to save you. We were on the base for another reason altogether—”

  “The ship?” Terrah looked at Jerren, “Why are you holding my head down?”

  Jerren looked at Terrah apologetically and said, “Not exclusively, and I’m sorry, but it was the only way I could think of to keep you calm while we talked to you.” Jerren withdrew his hand and he could feel her trepidation rise a little, “Would you like to sit up?” he asked. Terrah nodded so he helped her to a sitting position, where she seemed to examine her hands, and then she ran them over her face and neck.

  Terrah looked around the room from person to person. Finally settling her gaze back on Jerren Terrah asked, “Where are you from? And why were you in the Air Force?”

  Jerren let out a laugh and said, “We,” he gestured between his brothers, “are from Earth, the same as you.”

  Terrah looked disbelievingly at him and said, “I’ve never seen anyone on Earth with glowing eyes like yours.”