They definitely would look if Sparks ran into one of their sensors. Since the Trilleion was a prototype and the only one in existence with this stealth field, they should be okay but no one wanted to take the chance. Everyone gave a sigh of relief when they slid past the last enemy ship.
Using a secure whisper line of communication Idris spoke into the com unit, “This is Prince Idris I need you to lower the shield for a nanosecond on my mark.”
A pompous voice came back after a few minutes, “This is Commander Azael of the Shillidon Space Navy. I am in charge of the shields and I will not lower them for anyone. We are surrounded by enemy ships.”
“I understand your concerns Commander but as I stated I am Prince Idris and I order you to lower the shield on my authorization. That authorization is Two Three Ten One Nine Nine Zero Shila Four Bata Ten Three Two Aaliyah. Now lower the shields on my mark.”
“I do not care who you are. I am not lowering the shields on anyone’s authority.”
“I out rank you and I am giving you a direct order Commander. Lower the shields now!” Idris barked.
Instead of answering the Commander shut down the signal from his end.
If the situation had not been so serious Blue would have laughed at the total shock on Idris’s face. He tried for several minutes to reopen the connection but his hails were ignored. That was it. With the shields up there was no way to land on the planet. They were dead. Oh they could sneak back out but no one was willing to do that and leave Shillidon to their fate despite what the King had asked.
While Idris continued to try to get someone to answer him, Blue was thinking. The chrystal at her throat was pulsing and sending information to her. In her Astral form she would be able to get through the shield but that left the ship and her body on the other side.
The chrystal was telling her that she could get the ship through too. She went closer to the forward view screen and made out the faint ice blue glow surrounding the planet. She knew she could get them through it, she just was not sure how. Using instincts she didn’t know she had, she placed both hands on the wall of the ship and concentrated.
Jayden watched Blue walk closer to the view screen and hoped she was not going to do the same thing she had the first time she had done that. Now was not a good time for her to go space flying. She put her hands on the ship and he saw the chrystal at her throat glowing and pulsing in time to her heartbeat. The ice blue glow quickly spread to encompass her whole body.
He watched in disbelief as the part of the ship she was touching also started to glow brightly. The glow spread throughout the ship, encompassing it entirely. Jayden heard her voice in his head.
“Tell Sparks to go through the shield.”
When he hesitated, she added, “Quickly Jayden. I don’t really know what I am doing but you have to trust me. Tell him to go now.”
Jayden looked her, then around the control room. He did trust her with his life, with all of their lives.
He turned to see everyone staring wide eyed at Blue and the glowing ship. “Sparks, Blue says take us through the shield.”
That Sparks did not question him told Jayden that he too trusted Blue enough to do as she asked.
“You have any Idea what she is doing?” he asked Idris.
“No, I can honestly say I have never seen or heard of anyone doing anything like this,” Idris shook his head. “How does she think to get past the shield?”
“You are the one from Shillidon. If anyone should know it is you. You said she was the Chrystal Woman. You know, the one from your legends,” Jayden said with more than a little sarcasm.
“I also told you that there was not much information on what they could do. When she was born my parents had the archives searched for any information they could find. I assure you that there was not any mention of something like this,” Idris said as he waved a hand at his glowing sister who had become almost lost in the center of the bright light. Her strange and beautiful eyes with the pink and blue pupils were swirling with storms while the irises glowed. She looked like nothing any of them had ever seen and they had seen a lot of strange things in their travels.
Vihan’s rough, gravely voice asked, “Is anyone else at all concerned about the fact that the ship is glowing so bright that there is no way the Ragillians are not seeing us along with everyone else?”
“If they are no one is shooting at us yet,” Idris said after checking the sensors. “In fact no one seems to be paying us any attention.”
“Jayden you sure about this? In about ten seconds there will be no turning back,” Sparks broke in. Jayden looked at his men and each of them nodded their heads.
Jos said, “We all have to die sometimes.”
“Brace for impact in three..... two..... one..... impact,” Sparks called out.
Only there was no impact. The ship met the shield and melted into it like a finely honed blade sliding through flesh. The shield flowed over the ship as they moved through, molding to it as they passed then sealing back up behind them. It was smooth and over in less than a second.
Blue felt infused with the energy pouring into her. She was connected to the shield in an intimate dance of give and take. As soon as she felt the ship connect with the planetary shield all the energy she was using to merge the ship with the shield came pouring back into her twofold. She could feel herself growing stronger with the energy pouring into her.
The contact lasted for less than a second before they were through but during that second she became part of it and felt every chrystal that was connected to the shield. Controlling it was easy since she was the shield for that one moment. She bent it to her will and let the Trilleion slide through.
Once she was no longer in contact with the shield the energy coursing through her body was still more than it could hold. She knew she had to release some of it before it consumed her. Concentrating on releasing the energy back to the shield she pushed it through her body into the ship and out in a stream to the shield. She slowly released the extra energy back into the shield. Never having dreamed something like this was possible, she was in awe at what she was doing.
Gradually the energy left her. The glow died down and the ship returned to normal. She felt giddy, almost drunk. She remembered once when she and Riley had decided to get drunk just to see why so many people chose to.
The alcohol had no effect on her but Riley had described feeling like she could do anything. Blue had to keep her from jumping off the cliff because she had been convinced that she could fly. Now Blue wondered if this is what she had felt. If it was she now understood why someone would choose to get drunk.
She felt wonderful. Healing the ice blue chrystal had drained her to exhaustion but this, this was something else. She had become one with the chrystal shield. She had felt the heartbeat deep within the planet’s core.
Removing her hands from the ship she turned around to face the guys. Jayden was the first to speak, “Well princess, you are just full of tricks.”
“Yeah….. This is probably another one we want to keep to ourselves. Right?” she said.
“Not going to happen this time Princess. There is a whole planet full of people who are going to know we got through the shield.”
“But they do not know how we did it,” Idris pointed out.
“That’s right and if no one tells them it will be just another mystery,” Blue said with enthusiasm almost dancing across the room to hug him. He laughed and hugged her back.
“You alright sis?” he asked, puzzled by her behavior but thrilled with the hug. The first one she had given him since she was a little girl. Blue threw up her arms and twirled in place.
“I am wonderful,” she pronounced.
Dro walked over to her and ran a scanner up and down her body. “She is fine. This must be a side effect of whatever it was she did to get us through the shield,” he sent to all of them.
Blue boogied over to Jayden and jumped into his arms. The surprise on his face made her giggle
and kiss him. As always when she was in his arms her blood heated and she whispered loudly, “Let’s go to our room and rock the ship.”
Sparks snickered and Vihan laughed aloud. Blue’s mouth dropped open and she looked at him, “You can laugh.” She jumped out of Jayden’s arms and went to him and gave him a hug and kiss on his scared cheek.
Jayden pulled her away from Vihan saying, “Save your kisses for me princess.” He was just as delighted as Idris was in her open display of affection and hated to put a damper on it.
“Where is my hug?” Sparks said still snickering.
“I’m sorry are you feeling left out?” Blue went to him and leaned down and gave him a hug but no kisses. Jayden sounded serious about that.
“Are you aware that you are still glowing?” he asked her.
Blue looked down at herself to see. Yep, sure enough, she was glowing. Not brightly but more than she usually did after soaking up lightning on Earth. “Wow. That’s kinda cool,” she said. Leo nudged her and she reached down to scratch behind his ears.
“Not to ruin this love fest, but should we not let them know we are here?” Jos asked. Blue sobered up fast and the euphoria left at the reminder of why they were here.
“Is the stealth system still active?” Jayden asked Idris.
“Yes, everything checks out. Neither the Ragillians or Shillidon know we are here. Or if they do no one is saying anything.”
“Leave the stealth on but let them know we are coming in,” Jayden ordered.
Something did not feel right about this whole situation to him. He was proven right when the first of several bursts of laser fire peppered the space around them. Blue gave a snort and said to Idris, “You thought they would be happy to see us. Looks like you were wrong.”
Idris shook his head, “Something is wrong!”
“You think?” Blue said sarcastically.
Getting no response to his hails at the main space port Idris tried the secured channel he had used to send the original message to his parents. No answer there either. He sat back in disgust. “I have no idea what is going on down there but it can not be good.”
Jayden said one name, “Balik?”
Idris looked at him, “You think the little worm is behind this?”
“No, I think whoever is pulling the little worm’s strings is behind this and whoever they are, they obviously have people in control of both weapons and communications. If not the whole space port.”
“It is the wrong time to try and pull off a coup. We are in the center of a war that just started and about to be fired on by more than a hundred ships.” Idris shot back. Not wanting to think any of his people could be so stupid.
“Maybe not,” Blue said.
Both Jayden and Idris looked at her.
“I know you guys are more familiar than I am about how things run down there but maybe that is why the Ragillians haven’t fired yet. What if they know what is going on and are waiting to see what happens?”
“No one from Shillidon would betray us to the Ragillians,” Idris was outraged at even the suggestion.
“Why not? You think all Shillidonians are honest, upstanding people? If that’s the case what happened to Balik and his father?”
She turned to Jayden, “How easy would it be to smuggle clones in and place them in key positions?”
Jayden rubbed his finger up and down his nose. Indicating he was thinking deeply. “Not that hard frankly. Think about it Idris. It could be done. Someone could collect DNA from certain people and when the clones were ready they could switch them with the original.”
Idris nodded his head in reluctance, “It would take years to plan and execute but yes, it could be done.”
“Without a full medical scan there is no way to tell if someone is a clone,” Dro said. “Especially if it is a first generation clone.”
“You are saying you guys think the space port has been taken over by Ragillians and no one knows?” Sparks asked incredulously.
“If that is the case why is the shield still up?” Vihan wondered.
“Because thanks to the disagreeable Commander Azael we know that they have not gotten that far yet. If they had control of the shields they would be down,” Jayden said.
“True,” Idris said. Maybe the arrogant commander had done them a favor in not lowering the shields. That was not going to stop him from tearing a strip off his hide for insubordination though.
“If we land here we can work our way onto the port. Idris will be able to get us in and from there we will make our way to the main control tower,” Jayden said pointing to a landing zone a few miles from the port.
“How are we suppose to tell the real thing from the clones?” Jos asked.
Jayden looked at Blue and replied, “Blue says they have no emotions. She can tell when she comes across one because they are a blank spot to her. She will let us know.”
“Don’t forget Dro is also empathic so he should be able to tell too,” Blue said.
Dro protested, “But my empathic senses are nowhere near as strong as yours. There are a lot of people I cannot read.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Blue insisted. “If you can feel anything coming from them at all they probably aren’t clones. If you are not sure incapacitate instead of killing them.” Blue shrugged ready to get this over with.
She wasn’t bloodthirsty but enough was enough and she had developed a powerful hate for Ragillians. It wasn’t the clones. It was the Doctor who had started all this with his megalomaniac need to rule everyone and the atrocities he performed in reaching that goal. If the clones could be saved that would be a bonus but she wasn’t going to cry over them. The sooner she could get this done and if she survived, the sooner she could go looking for him.
Chyrstal Bones Billie Jo Hanlin
Chapter 32
Blue took in the lush brilliant green vegetation and colorful trees. Shillidon was filled with all the colors of the rainbow and some colors she had never seen before. Everything was perfect.
Too perfect she thought as Sparks flew over the land. It was pretty as a postcard with its well tended winding paths and flowing water fountains. But it was the three tall spiraling towers of solid chrystal that dotted the landscape that caught and held Blue’s attention.
They called to her on a deeply personal level she couldn’t explain or brush away. She wanted to, no needed to touch them. To embrace them with her whole being. Which was a stupid thing to think. Idris came to stand next to her.
“What do you think?” he asked.
“It’s pretty,” she said when she couldn’t think of anything else to say. She could hardly insult him and tell him that the perfection bothered her.
He gave her arm a friendly bump and said, “Do not worry. The other side of the planet is not so tame.”
“Oh thank goodness because the perfect paths kind of give me the creeps,” she said in relief.
He laughed, “Most of our people choose to live here or in the cities but some of us choose not to. You, we actually grew up on an estate which our parents left mostly in its natural state. But I will warn you there are pretty paths there too.”
“That’s okay. I am sure I will get used to it. It’s just everything looks so clean. On Earth this would be destroyed in a matter of days with graffiti and trash.”
“Then they do not care so much for their planet?” he asked puzzled at the thought.
“No, not so much. Some do but most don’t really care.”
“That is too bad,” Idris was baffled at the thought of people not caring for the planet that sustained them.
“Yeah, it is,” she said sadly.
Sparks landed the ship smoothly just a few miles from the port in an out of the way spot Idris directed him to. Once they had gotten through the shield surrounding the planet there was very little security to detect and prevent unauthorized landings. Blue thought that was stupid and told Idris.
He sputtered with indignation and told her that they did not
need more security because once a ship was allowed past the shield they were tracked until they landed then were escorted to the port.
“Ha,” she said “And you call yourself an expert in security. Anyone can sneak through if they are determined enough. If anyone should know that it should be you, given what you guys do for a living.”
“We have security,” he reiterated. “No one can sneak in.”
“What do you call what we just did?” Blue shot back at him.
Idris threw up his hands in exasperation, “No one can do what you did.”
He told Jayden, “You tell her.”
“Do not try to pull me in the middle of it. She is your sister. Besides I think she is right. You do rely on the shield too much. That is the problem with all of the Alliance worlds that have the chrystal shield. You act like it is all you need.”
“Haldairia has a chrystal shield,” Idris pointed out.
“Yes but we also have secondary security measures in place,” Jayden said thinking of the dragons that patrolled the planet’s skies.
“Just what would you suggest?” Idris asked Blue.
They spent the next while discussing her ideas with all of the guys putting in their own suggestions as they hiked to the port. At one point when Blue had just finished explaining her idea for a laser grid encircling the planet they all stopped and just stared at her. Vihan said with awe in his voice, “You are one scary, paranoid woman. Are you sure you will not consider leaving Jayden and come be my love?”
Not entirely sure he was joking since all of them were a little bit in love with her, Jayden cuffed him on the back of his head.
“No trying to steal my girl.”
“Hey just letting her know she has options,” Vihan retorted moving quickly out of Jayden’s reach to avoid another blow.
The byplay made the hike go by fast and before she knew it they were nearing the perimeter of the port. Like all ports a large city had sprung up around it. Tourist shops, restaurants and hotels were the businesses of choice. Not any different than the airports of Earth. Only instead of planes this was an airport for space ships.
Chrystal Bones (Finding Home Book 1) Page 26