Amazed at the strength the human possessed, he gave up on the notion of trying to turn the tables around. Instead, he did his best to keep the human from getting an arm lock around his head. He knew if this happened, his enemy would waste no time in snapping his neck.
Rimsen anticipated the alien’s move a second before it took place. As the officer tried to cover up and protect his head, the human grabbed one of his legs. He secured both arms firmly around his calf. With cat like reflexes, he turned the leg up and twisted it one hundred and eighty degrees. Then he laid his weight down upon the limb, forcing it to spin into a full three-sixty. Instantaneously, a snapping occurred within the alien’s knee socket. This was followed by a brief scream of anguish.
“Get him!” The leader ordered his patrol.
Rimsen knew the officer would be in no position to stand and fight with his leg broken. Before he stood to his feet, he slammed his fist into the alien’s mouth. This caused a cloud of unconsciousness to smother the officer’s head right before he passed out.
He rose up and took a defensive stance as three more soldiers came at him. The first one threw himself in an airborne tackle maneuver. Sidestepping this one, he placed a knuckle sandwich on the back of the alien's skull. This caused it to lose balance. After falling to the ground the alien rolled over the edge and halfway down the slope on the other side.
Rimsen barely regained his stance as the third soldier swung his big lumbering arm in the direction of his head. He quickly jerked his head backward to avoid the impact. If he had recovered from the first soldier’s attack a split second earlier he might have prevented this blow. Thankfully, it was not as horrific as it could have been. He kept his feet firmly planted. The alien was not so lucky.
Rimsen brought his left foot up into a roundhouse. His size ten boot slammed into the side of the soldier’s jaw, causing several teeth to crack under the pressure. As the soldier attempted to spit the bone fragments out of his mouth, the human landed an upper cut to its chin. The jarring made the alien chomp down on his tongue. The dialect tool was severed in half. Falling to the ground, the alien moaned pitifully. Through tears of pain, he patted his hands through the dirt in hopes to locate the missing piece.
Rimsen had to go on the offensive again with the fourth soldier.
This alien stood his ground. Seeing how his comrades went down the way they did, his approach was more strategic. He was going to take the human down at any cost. He was not about to suffer the way they had or be killed at the cost of following orders to bring the human in alive. He was willing to use lethal force to stop the onslaught created by this inferior species.
Rimsen was able to get in close enough to the Lumi before it freed a rifle from off its shoulders. He threw a blow into its midsection, forcing the alien to double over. With its hands in motion to pull the weapon over his head so he could use it, the rifle continued in the same downward motion as the alien’s upper torso from the blow. The human reached for the rifle before the alien could free it up. He gripped it in his hands. Then he turned it around multiple times. All the while, the sling twisted tightly into a huge knot. As the leather turned, it tightened around the soldier’s throat. It became so snug it cut off any possibility for the Lumi to breathe.
In one quick motion, Rimsen jerked the weapon down. At the bottom of the movement, he stopped it with a quick jerk up. This action caused the sling to break in two but not before snapping the alien’s neck.
Rimsen was already in a hand to hand duel with a fifth soldier, before the lifeless body of the previous one collapsed to the ground. Out of his peripheral vision he could see the other three soldiers crest the horizon. One of them used a com link asking for reinforcements.
From somewhere behind his back, the alien closest to him pulled out a knife. This weapon had an enormous blade shaped like a half-moon. Sunlight angled off its sharp edge, which appeared to be more sinister than it actually was. Nonetheless, a blade is a blade. It is a very effective tool in any close quarter scrimmage.
Rimsen was way too fast for the alien. Before the alien realized he had been stabbed, the human took the weapon from him and shoved it into his guts. The blade sliced the Lumi’s stomach with the greatest of ease. Then he twisted it back and forth several times to ensure collateral damage had occurred. Afterward, he pulled the blade free and threw the fatally wounded soldier to the ground.
In the same, swift motion that involved the drawing back of the weapon, the human brought his arm forward to throw the knife at the next soldier. With amazing accuracy, the point struck the soldier right between the eyes. The knife easily buried itself to the hilt within the alien’s skull. This one died instantly. The body, still functioning on its neural system, continued on a course toward the human. It ran twelve more feet before slamming face first into the dirt.
Rimsen scrambled to retrieve a blaster rifle from off the ground. The rumbling of an approaching ship could be heard nearing his rear flank. He picked the rifle up and squeezed off a battery of laser fire at the one remaining soldier. The alien turned and ran for his life. As the soldier neared the ledge, he jumped and rolled down the embankment in hopes of escaping death.
Rimsen followed him to the edge. He stopped and aimed. Like a mad man, he continued to mash his finger down on the trigger of the firearm. Several bolts of energy came close to nailing the fleeing soldier. The rifle ceased to fire on its own accord. Looking down at it, he could see a flashing red light indicating the needed another thermal clip. He threw it to the ground.
Meanwhile, the craft made it within one hundred feet of his position. He was in no condition to run. For that matter, he did not have the energy to think about running. There was not enough strength left in him to run back for the cave, especially if this ship was bringing reinforcement troops. A new batch of soldiers with fresh legs would overtake him long before he could reach the shelter. As he gazed upon the craft, he pondered his next move.
Fight until I can fight no more? Surrender and be taken captive? What if it were meant for me to be captured? Is this how I am to get close enough to Malign to assassinate her? The more he lingered on these thoughts the more he tried to persuade himself to not give up. Fight to the end! I must continue to fight. Maybe this is not the time or place to kill her. I must not get ahead of the Master’s plan.
Dirt whisked sharply into the air and away from the bottom of the drop ship as it slowly descended to the planet’s surface. With landing gear extended, the ship touched down. The hydraulics hissed briefly. The door on the rear slid up as a ramp deployed from inside the belly of the ship's fuselage. The echo of one hundred boots jogging down the ramp found its way to where the human stood on the ridge. Two by two, the reinforcements poured out of the transport and fell into the formation.
Rimsen counted fifty warriors who will have one goal. He was positive the orders for this troop would differ from those of the patrol, since he had already proved he would resist and not concede to being captured. Dead or alive would be given. It was at this point when he decided it was futile to attempt taking on this many soldiers at one time. He marveled at how he physically handled eight of them. This however, was going to be too much. Over the past thirty six hours, he had seen several things take place that defined what most humans consider abnormal or irrational. For that matter, even most alien species would have agreed with that assumption. Supernatural is the only way to describe these occurrences. Within a few minutes, if it did not happen again, he would have no advantage.
Rimsen observed the soldiers standing at attention. They waited for the officer to exit from the ship. The wait was not long. The one in charge emerged from the gray and black vehicle.
Rimsen was not proof positive but sure the officer in charge of the new arrivals was the other human he had seen with Malign back at the research facility. Wait a minute, he thought to his self. In his mind’s eye, recalling the scene was as if he were doing so through a stranger’s eyes. In a weird way he did not comprehend, those e
yes were his. It was as if a mirror was reflecting certain spots of his life held spellbound from the inhibitor chip. He saw an image of Telly. As confusing as it was, he realized he had been someone else. It finally dawned on him he had been influenced by an inhibitor chip. How many years? He could only venture a guess.
There was one thing he now knew for sure. The human in Malign’s company was someone he knew. The officer down below was a human. It was Zelo, right? This hooded person was not tall enough for a Lumi. Then he had a revelation. I need to convince this human his mind was manipulated. Why not? We are both human and probably the only two on this alien planet. How hard could it be to get through the cerebral deception?
Rimsen knew the opportunity to talk to the other human would probably never materialize. More than likely, he would die by the hand of one of the fifty first. What little hope was left of these thoughts slowly vanished as each step from the soldiers brought them closer to him. Exhausted and ready to concede, he sat himself down upon the ground. His crisscrossed legs were a reflection of his attitude. Patiently, he waited.
Then he began to pray. There had been a million prayers he had prayed in his lifetime but this one was strangely different. For reasons he could not explain, he found himself speaking with an alien dialect. Words he did not understand but knew in his heart were accurate and real rolled off his tongue. A fire welled up inside his abdomen. The odd sensation continued to grow. Imagine the pressure created between an ocean floor and the body of water it contains.
Awareness surged out of his spine and raced up. At the tops of his shoulders the startling shiver branched off into three different directions. The paths traced down the outside of both arms and one ended at the base of his skull.
Rimsen opened his eyes. Unbelievably, both his arms glowed with a magnificent red-clay colored energy. The fingers on both hands clenched into fists. A bright, orange and white hue radiated from his knuckles. It was as if the power generated by many suns were being harnessed within that glow.
He rose to his feet. Standing at the edge of the ridge he could see the oncoming troop. Even though he did not have a true understanding of what was going on within his body, he was positive he was in control. There was an excitement that consumed his conscious thought.
His arms felt as if they were going to explode. Somewhere in the back of his mind, decades of information came to life; the knowledge of something greater than himself.
Oh, my God! Is this you?
Both arms vibrated to the point of muscles being out of control. Feeling like he could not withstand the phenomenon another second, he stretched forth both arms out in front of him. As he did so, he regained control of them. Now he realized this power could be disciplined.
Suddenly, there was a jolt between his shoulder blades. When he placed both of his hands together, palms touching and fingers extended, the energy seemed to funnel itself in the direction his fingertips pointed. Like a child shooting a high-powered rifle for the first time and not mature enough to control its stability for an exact shot, so did his arms sway back and forth. He felt compelled to focus down the line of sight to his fingertips and train them on the soldiers.
Then suddenly, like the power of a star going supernova, the extended arms released an enormous blast of energy. A stream of power, the diameter of a softball, exited the combined limbs. From his place above, he watched on as the beam blasted down and impacted directly in the center of the advancing soldiers. The recoil caused him to lose his footing for a moment. There was a huge explosion. A showering cloud of rock, dust and alien body parts filled the air.
Rimsen viewed the spectacle in utter amazement as both his arms dropped to his sides. A feeling of total fatigue consumed them. He tried to lift them but struggled to do so. After several attempts, he gave up.
A couple of minutes passed before the larger particles of earth settled down to the ground. The finer molecules lingered, which caused a cloud of obscurity to envelop the scene of destruction. More and more of the target area became visible with every passing second. Before long, visibility was eighty percent. Streams of sunlight streaked through the remaining particles. In turn, this caused the larger pieces of dust with cut angles to shine brightly. The spectacle would be fascinating to see if not for the seriousness of the situation.
The charm of it dissipated as he looked around for the soldiers. They were gone. All fifty had been obliterated in the explosion. The only thing left of the area was a crater, and the other human. The ear shattering explosion had forced the human onto his buttocks. He was sitting on the ground where he had been standing. His knees were drawn up and his head was in his lap.
Large chunks of displaced earth fell to the ground within a seventy foot radius of the newly made crater. A very thin haze of the Terra fir-ma lingered but not as thick as it had been immediately following in the wake of the explosion. The view was astonishing. On the other side of the chasm the slick walls billeted straight down. The ledge of the crater nearest the officer was within inches of where his feet rested on the ground. Pieces of rock and soil could still be heard sliding into the abyss.
Rimsen squint his eyes. He could see the smoldering remains of the troop carrier. For a moment, it teetered on the ledge. Once enough rock had slid out from under it, the badly damaged craft slid in and flipped end over end to its grave. A tremor occurred as the wreckage collided with the bottom of the pit.
The man stood to his feet. For a moment, he remained where he was. The close proximity of the ledge did not daunt him. He stared up at Rimsen as he dusted the dirt from off his clothes. As if he had no care in the world, he treaded the lip of the crater to the other side.
Rimsen watched on, as the man he believed to be Zelo closed the gap between them. He was too exhausted to fight and too tired to run. At first, he hoped the other human would be shell-shocked from what he had witnessed. Rimsen himself was. He hoped it would give him an advantage.
Now that a mere ten feet separated them, he discounted any hope for advantages. The expression on the officer's face said it all. His luck had run out. One of two things would transpire within the next couple of minutes. Either he would die by the hands of this man or would be taken into his custody. Still, he did his best to bluff.
“My god has shown he is stronger than you.” Rimsen tried his best to look serious. “He has guaranteed me victory over my foes.” He hoped this angle would work.
“Your god had better have more strength left in him than you do,” was the defiant reply.
“Would you like to find out the hard way?” Rimsen continued to push the issue. What else could have caused the surge of power that pulsated through his body? This was more than static electricity he experienced. He waited for the man’s reaction.
“I saw you fire your weapon. Never before have I seen anything like it in my entire life. There was no slight of hand involved. Nor did my eyes play a trick on me. The weapon fired came from inside your body.” His face was expressionless. “I don’t buy your god nonsense.” His voice was salty. “Are you equipped with some form of biotic technology?”
“Do you see any equipment attached to my limbs?”
“Maybe they are implanted?”
“Do you seriously believe that?” Rimsen was ready to get straight to the point. He believed he could bring him to the understanding of his true identity.
“Our god spared your life.” Rimsen approached him as a peacemaker. “Makes me believe he is not finished with you.”
“Our god?” The officer’s patience was tilting toward madness. “There is no God! I do not believe in the Lumi’s god either.”
“Okay, then.” In his mind, Rimsen mulled over what to say next. His intentions were pure but the words came out wrong. “It sounds to me like they whacked your brain really bad.”
The expression on Mecurial’s face changed immediately. His hand went for his weapon. After pulling it free from its sheath, he placed the head of it under Rimsen’s chin. He pressed it deep into
his skin, causing the area of his neck around the weapon to turn snow white.
Rimsen remained perfectly calm. There was not an iota of alarm on his face. Not a muscle twitched. His respiration and heartbeat performed at a normal rate. If the physical threat performed was to spark a reaction from him, it did not work.
“Just do it,” Rimsen said. “I'm ready to lay my head down.”
“Oh, don’t worry. I am not going to kill you yet. However, when the time comes… I will.” Ever so slowly, the man removed his thumb from off the weapon's power button.
“I am assuming this means I am to be your prisoner?” Now he felt confident this was all part of the grand scheme to get him close to the Banimpire.
“Not unless your god has some more tricks up your sleeve?” His tone was sarcastic. A strong and deliberate emphasis placed upon the word, god. “The way I see it, your biotics would need time to recharge. You look physically drained. I should have enough time to restrain you and take you in before you can use them again.”
He placed a hand upon Rimsen’s shoulder and spun him around. From his utility belt he retrieved a set of shackles. He secured both hands behind his back and led him down the slope. With one hand on the prisoners back, he used the other to retrieve a communication device from his pocket. At the bottom of the hill they stopped and waited for the transport he called for.
28
Kwin and Teron found the group they were looking for when they entered the medical facility. Mister Jorke was dressed and supporting his weight on a pair of crutches. He was at the admissions desk arguing with the clerk. The lady wanted him to sign a release form. No matter how hard he tried to bump heads with her, the woman would not budge.
“Are all you Earthlings this stubborn?” She snorted. He finally picked up a pen and put his signature to the document.
Kwal stood twenty-feet the other side of his father. A nurse stood next to him listening to his “come on” speech. She had no interest in him whatsoever. She rolled her eyes and stormed off after he attempted to make a move on her.
Matakeo: Echoes of the Future Page 19