Chrystal Bones (Finding Home Book 1)

by Billie Jo Hanlin

  Jayden said to Sparks, "Go ahead and give it everything we have."

  "You got it boss,” Sparks replied. "Putting the ship in reverse and accelerating. Engines at fifty percent, seventy percent, engines now at one hundred percent with no change in position. Pushing to one hundred twenty five percent. Still no change."

  Jos told Sparks, "Engines are holding, go ahead and push to one hundred and fifty percent but be ready to stop when I say so."

  "One hundred thirty, one hundred thirty five, one hundred thirty eight, one hundred forty three,” Sparks called out as he pushed the engines to give him more power. Just as he was saying, “Engines at one hundred fifty percent.” Jos yelled out.

  "Stop, engines are at critical.”

  Sparks slowly powered the engines down. He looked at Jayden and said, "That is all we have. We are not going anywhere but where the tractor beam to nowhere takes us."

  "This has got to be the same thing that happened to Jabrel seven hundred and fifty years ago. My guess is that we are going to end up in the same place. Meanwhile I am going to take one of the shuttles out and see if I can break free in a smaller ship,” Jayden said.

  "I will come with you,” Idris said. "I want to check and make sure it performs the way I designed it to. We did not have a chance to test all the systems before this mission came up.”

  Jayden eased the small five man shuttle out the bay and slowly circled the Trilleion. This was the first chance he had to try out the craft and he found it to be very maneuverable and comfortable. The seat molded to his body as if it were made for him. With the controls at his fingers he did not have to reach or stretch for any of them. The shuttle had some of the same systems as the bigger ship. The outer shell was designed to reflect its surroundings so it could blend in anywhere on any terrain, right now it was as black as the space around them. The computers like the ones on the Trilleion could be accessed three different ways. Manually and through the use of an interface headset were the most common.

  There were only a few beings who could connect their minds to the computer, essentially becoming one with the ship if they had the correct codes. That was the third and hardest way to get control of the ship.

  Though the people who could merge with the ships were few and far between, the codes were on a constant random system. It would be a fast way to die if an enemy ship had someone on board who could take control of your ship by accessing the computers. The shuttle, unlike the Trilleion, could be remotely controlled if need be.

  It was twelve feet by twenty feet and could be expanded by another twenty feet if needed. It was surprisingly cozy for being so stark. Made for sneaking on and off planets, it was built for short fast trips.

  "Damn Idris, this thing moves like a dream,” Jayden exclaimed. "I know, we made a few changes to the dampers and got rid of a lot of things to streamline it. It is not for long hauls but great for the short ones,” Idris replied absently.

  Jayden flew behind the Trilleion and headed in the opposite way only to come to a complete stop after one hundred clicks. He could not go forward, so he turned the shuttle around and went to the right only to run into the same barrier. Same with the left. The only way he could go farther than one hundred clicks was in the same direction as the Trilleion was heading. He tested the limits of the barrier for three hours while Idris tested the onboard systems. He was happy with all but one and that was a computer programming error that would have to be taken care of when they got back to the ship.

  They had just landed the shuttle in the bay and were

  exiting when the alarms sounded. Sparks announced over the com, ”Sensors are going wild and we have what looks like a ripple appearing in front of us."

  Once again Jayden found himself racing to the control room, At least this time I have my pants on, he thought without any humor. He got there just in time to see the anomaly burst into being. One minute there was nothing but a ripple in space then the anomaly appeared.

  It was as if a small piece of space itself split open revealing a swirling mass of colors. Pinks, greens and purple ribbons swirled around each other in a continuous dance, fading and brighting with no rhyme or reason. It was mesmerizing. It was one of the most beautiful sights Jayden had ever seen and they were headed directly for the center. The only spot the dancing colors did not touch.

  For once Sparks had nothing to say, no sarcastic comment or joke. The control room was completely silent. Not even the sound of their breathing could be heard. They were all holding their breaths watching and waiting for what would come. Several long minutes later Jayden told Sparks to launch a probe. He wanted as much information as they could get before they entered that swirling mass.

  He watched the probe enter the anomaly. One moment they could see and track it, the next it disappeared from sight. Swallowed up by the anomaly it sent no information back to its ship. The Trilleion started to gather speed. They were hurtling faster and faster towards the center.

  Sparks tore his eyes from the view and looked at his console. He gave a low whistle and said softly, "According to this we are not moving."

  None of the men were prone to panic even in extreme

  circumstances. They had all joined the Alliance Combined Space Fleet because each of them had a personal reason to hate the Ragillians and the fleet gave them a chance to kill as many as they could. They were an elite covert group that had worked together for fifteen years.

  Dro’s wife and daughters had been killed when the Ragillians had attacked a peaceful scientific exploration of an unpopulated planet. Sparks and Jos were twins from a planet on the outer reaches of the galaxy, that had been almost destroyed when a biochemical agent had been released into the atmosphere, killing seventy percent of the population. Including their parents, while they were at school on the planet Kasops. Their brother and sister survived but no one was allowed to leave or visit the planet. Their only contact was through ship to planet communications. Vihan had been captured and tortured for three months. He never talked about his time in the hands of the Ragillians but his hatred of them went bone deep.

  Jayden and Idris hated them for the same reason. Jayden's sister, her husband and their two boys had been killed when the passenger ship they were on had been the target of an attack. Idris well, he had been trying to destroy the Ragillians ever since he thought they had killed not only his sister but his planet’s only hope for survival.

  Now they faced this new challenge with the courage and determination they always showed, even knowing that of the dozens of ships that had disappeared in this area, only one had ever returned.

  They flew straight and true as they entered the twisting mass of colors. The light was so bright Sparks was forced to dim the view screens so they could see what they were flying into. The colorful ribbons did not touch them at all.

  They were flying through a tunnel surrounded by the ribbons but none of them touched the ship. It was almost like flying through a tunnel protected by an unseen barrier. Just like the barrier Jayden had found when he had taken the shuttle out. The sensors were showing nothing. The anomaly did not show up on any of the instruments so they had to rely on their eyes and hope the recorder was at least recording what they were seeing. They could study it later when they had the time.

  Dro spoke telepathically. He could project to anyone but not everyone could respond mentally. Of the crew only Jayden and Idris could. The rest of them could hear him fine but could not talk back to him. Dro belonged to a race of telepaths who had no other way of communicating. “It feels alive." His mental voice was as soft and soothing as it always was with no hint of anxiety. "It is as if there are hundreds of eyes on us."

  Jayden realized that all of them felt the same when everyone nodded in agreement. "As beautiful as this is I prefer the dead zone,” Sparks said.

  "Me too,” Jos echoed his brother.

  They traveled through the tunnel for hours before it opened to normal space as abruptly as it had appeared. The ship slowed down an
d they floated through the opening. The anomaly closed behind them. Leaving no trace that it had ever been there.

  There was no dead space on this side. The sensors sprang to life spewing out information. It was a bit startling and a big relief after days of nothing to sense. "Well that was fun,” Sparks muttered as he got to work. "It looks like we are in the same place Captain Jabrel came out. So far I am finding the data he collected matches what I am getting. Nine planets and only one inhabited. Looks like they have made some advancement in seven hundred and fifty years. There are quite a few man made satellites orbiting the inhabited planet. They don't have anything that can detect us this far out though,” Sparks said after further reviewing the information coming in from the sensors.

  Dro left his station and walked over to Idris. His entire focus was on the chrystal Idris was holding. It was now pulsing almost in time to his heartbeat and the glow had intensified. Dro laid his hand on Idris's shoulder and asked in a soft mental voice, "May I?" he pointed to the chrystal. Because he used his mind to communicate exclusively he could sometimes get impressions from other objects.

  Idris looked up at him and just as softly said, "It feels alive not like the anomaly but alive." He handed the chrystal to Dro very carefully. Dro closed his eyes and focusing all of his attention he immersed himself in the glowing chrystal. Feeling the pulse and letting it flow through him.

  When he opened his eyes he stated with such assurance that there could be no room for doubt. "It most definitely is alive my friend… and so is your sister. This,” he said handing the chrystal back to Idris as carefully as Idris had handed it to him, "Will lead you to her." He then went back to his station. All of them had heard the conversation and each man looked at Idris, giving him a silent promise. They would find and bring his sister back. Even if they had to tear the planet apart to do it.

  Jayden gave out orders that were not needed but he gave them anyway. "We know we have at least seven days to find her and we will. Concentrate on the inhabited planet and ignore the others for now. Dro scan for any known metals from Shillidon. She had to get here in an escape pod and I do not think they have anything like that on this planet. There is no sign that they have the ability to space travel. That will give us a starting point. Idris we need to know the language, how hard is it going to be to get into their systems?"

  "It should not be too hard but I am going to have to build an interface and that will take a few hours. We are already picking up chatter so I am loading that into the translators now. It looks like they have dozens of different languages so we will have to sort through them."

  "Good, get started. Vihan find what you can on their weapons capabilities. Jos and I are going to study the terrain and work up a plan."

  The men got to work, grateful to have something to occupy their minds after days of being able to do nothing. They had a lot to do and only seven days to do it in if Jabrel's data was correct. If they were very lucky the anomaly would reappear and they could go home. If not they still needed all the information they could get.

  Two days later they had enough information to get started. It was not going to be easy to find Aaliyah among the billions of people on the planet. Dro had found her escape pod hidden deep underground in the desert of Nevada in an area commonly know as Area 51. It was in the control of the military and was heavily guarded. That was where they were concentrating their search.

  While the technology was not as sophisticated as theirs, it would get the job done and the people were by no means stupid. They would have to be very careful if they needed to break in, but it was a good place to start looking. Dro was still going through information looking for any mention of a female alien found on board the pod. So far he had found mention of several aliens kept there but none from twenty two years ago to present time, yet.

  Jayden was in his office reading all the reports his men had gathered. It was his job as leader to put all of the information together and come up with a plan. He was a brilliant strategist. He saw patterns where others saw random facts. Connecting one fact to another seemingly unconnected fact and coming up with the right conclusions.

  Several clear patterns were emerging from the information he was reading. One pattern showed that ships from all over the universe had been crashing on this planet for hundreds of years. The survivors had been able to blend in and influence the shape of society. Most people, no matter what planet they were from, had the same basic humanoid shape. Some looked more alien than others and those had hidden from the main population instead of blending.

  There was a large colony of Mermaids living deep in what was known as the Pacific Ocean. They remained undiscovered by most of the population, but rumors and stories of them were spread across the planet. The aliens who were able to blend in had and had done well for themselves. It was only when a ship had crashed ninety eight years ago, with obviously alien occupants that this world had became dangerous to aliens.

  The planet was broken up into several countries each with its own government. No one worked together. They were too busy spying on and bombing each other. For Shalla's sake every major country had nuclear bombs and they were one step away from blowing up the planet. He saw evidence of alien influence and leaps in technology here and there that were obviously provided by outside forces.

  The first computers were primitive versions of their own. The Russian satellite Sputnik and the US Explorer 1 were launched into space within a year of each other and both had alien technology onboard. This world the natives called Earth was in no way ready for contact by any aliens. Which was too bad; it really was beautiful. Unfortunately the majority of the governments had a shoot first mentality. They would have to be careful not to give themselves away. The new stealth tech was going to get throughly tested on this mission.

  Jayden had just finished reading the reports and putting a plan together when Dro walked in. He was angry, very

  angry. Jayden had never seen Dro like this before. He paced back and forth in front of Jayden’s desk before speaking. "I found her, or I found where she was."

  “That is great,” Jayden exclaimed standing up.

  Dro put up a hand to stop him. "She is not there anymore. She was captured at the same time her escape pod was. She was taken to the same place, Area 51. There are laboratories there where the Earthers experimented on her. They tortured her Jayden. They tortured a child in the name of science."

  The only time Dro showed any emotion other than the serenity his race was known for was when children were in danger. Especially female children, they reminded him of his dead daughters. He visibly fought for control and when he had gained it he continued. "They had her for two years before she managed to escape and they have been looking for her ever since. They have been hunting her for over twenty years. How do I tell Idris his innocent sister was tortured and is even now being hunted?"

  Both men were silent thinking of how Idris was likely to react. They knew how they felt about it and she was not their sister. He was going to want to kill everyone involved. "Keep digging. Find out who did what and how she escaped if you can. Send me what you have now and I will tell Idris," Jayden finally said.

  Jayden felt sickened after he read Dro's report. It would be so easy to hate these Earth people. What they did to a child was beyond anything he could imagine. They had literally cut her open when she was awake and attached probes to her heart shocking it over and over. Once they found out how fast she healed she was sliced, burned and beaten along with a whole host of other atrocities just to see what incapacitated her for the longest time period. It was a wonder she was still alive. The records were incomplete and Dro had been lucky to find this much information on one of the scientist’s private systems. Every other record of Aaliyah had been wiped from the computers.

  He looked up as Idris came in.

  "You wanted to see me."

  "Yes I did." Jayden looked at the man who had been his friend since they had joined forces to bring down a slave ring on a b
ackwards world run by a vicious despot years ago. He delivered the blow hard, fast and bluntly, "Dro found evidence that Aaliyah was held and tortured in a government laboratory for two years before she was able to escape."

  Idris's face went blank then bone white. "What? What did you say?" he demanded in a hoarse whisper.

  Jayden handed the data pad to him so he could read it for himself. Idris took it with hands that shook slightly. Jayden sat and waited. It took Idris a while to read through all the reports. When he was done he sat there, not moving, just staring at the data pad.

  Neither man spoke and when Idris looked up a long time later there were tracks from tears on his face and a hard look of hatred in his eyes. In a voice as cold as the space around them he said, "I will kill them all and then I will destroy this laboratory."

  Jayden nodded in agreement. He had been expecting this. He also had every intention of helping his friend do it.

  Idris and Dro worked throughout the rest of the day and night tracking the scientists and Aaliyah through the computers. Three of the four scientists working at the laboratory during the time Aaliyah was held, had been killed in the last ten years. Several lab technicians had also died unexpectedly.

  None of them from natural causes. Idris was not going to have the pleasure of killing them himself. Someone had already taken care of that for him. That same someone had placed a flag notifying him every time certain files were accessed.

  Aaliyah was proving to be more difficult to find. There was several files mentioning the ongoing search for a female alien with a description of her but no pictures were found. A few years after Aaliyah escaped, a virus was introduced into the computers that wiped out the majority of information on her. The only records they could find were the ones they already had and a few notes here and there found on the private computer of one of the technicians. That man was still alive and thriving.