Onio

by Jeppsen, Linell

  The females picked up their young and ran back the way they had come. They ran so fast that the small humans that had followed them there, now fleeing for their lives, saw only a blur. The warriors, however, fought on. Onio ran like the wind and picked a small human up in his hands. He threw the soldier so hard he landed in a field thirty feet away and laid still.

  Then the tanks moved toward them. The few human soldiers left standing took off running as the tank’s cannons took aim and fired. Two volleys of cannon-fire killed thirty-two sasq warriors outright, and Onio’s eardrums felt as though they might burst. Smoke filled the air and he cried out in fear.

  When the fighting started, he had picked his wife up in his arms and carried her into an adjacent field before returning to join in the fray. Now, he couldn’t see where she lay. The cannon shot had left the road they were on a broken pile of burning rubble, and black smoke filled the air. He knew that she couldn’t hear his song from so far away, and knew she must be terrified. He was terrified…everywhere he looked he saw dead bodies, big humans and small humans alike. He heard the whine of the tanks’ guns winding up again, and took off running to try to find his wife.

  Sasq warriors were trying to retreat now. Through the smoke and haze he saw the high king being carried at a dead run down the road, but in the distance Onio saw the Army’s grey, flying gunships coming in low. They laid down rocket fire, and the sasq warriors in front of the charge fell dead. Turning around, he tried to spot the field he had taken Melody to but it was unrecognizable. Small fires dotted the landscape and one pinion pine had caught fire, blazing like a torch.

  “Melody!” he screamed. “Mel!” He ran, tears streaming from his eyes, as he tripped over his old friend and mentor Wolf, who lay broken and bleeding on the ground at his feet. Blue Sky lay a little to the left. He was alive but badly wounded. His right arm was broken and shredded, his shoulder set at the wrong angle. He grinned though, as Onio knelt over him.

  “I’ve got her, my brother…Mel’s safe,” he whispered, and indeed, Blue seemed to be lying half on top of his wife, shielding her from the bullet fire and percussion of the tanks’ missiles. Large gray eyes stared up at him, and she said, “Onio, Blue’s hurt. We need to get him some medicine.”

  Knowing that they were surrounded, and hearing the military’s terrible weapons moving closer and closer, he smiled. He moved his friend’s arm and, lying down on the ground, he gathered Melody close and waited for the end to come.

  Then the sky opened up.

  Chapter 37

  A human soldier named Larry Stevens woke up to a bright, blinding light. He had been battling a huge sasquatch, or trying to anyway, when the sucker cold-cocked him. It only took a second for Larry to understand that the beast was holding back in the fight. First, when Larry tried to use his assault rifle, the creature plucked it out of his hands and broke it over its knee. Then he tried his pistol, to the same effect. Then, when it came down to fisticuffs, Larry got in one good shot before the tall, dark haired, handsome sasquatch tapped him lightly on the tip of his chin.

  Now, Larry was waking up to the brightest lights he had ever seen. They pulsed behind his closed eyelids and made him cringe in fear when he opened his eyes to see what was going on. Ghastly beams of white, blue and purple lights emanated from some sort of necklace that lay on the ground by his right hand. He remembered now…he had tried to punch the beast in the neck but only managed to get his fist tangled up in the leather cord it wore. He recalled the necklace coming loose before the monster’s fist tapped him and all the lights went out.

  He was lucky, he knew, massaging his sore chin gingerly. That creature could have torn his head clean off, but for some reason, decided to be gentle instead. Looking down at the dirt-encrusted gem that threw out the pulsing beams of light, Larry thought it was growing less bright now, like its batteries, or whatever, were running low. Then, with a small puff of smoke, the rock jumped slightly and turned to ash.

  Weird! Larry thought, poking the little pile of ash with one finger. He still felt a little woozy, so he lay back down on the ground for a minute to catch his breath. Then his eyes grew huge and his mouth fell open in shock. The storm clouds had parted, and an enormous space ship sat in the heavens above him.

  It was wedge shaped, and had to be at least a mile long. The running lights that ran the perimeter of its outer edge pulsed with blue, white and lavender lights. Its skin was a mottled grey-green metal that seemed to shimmy and warp if observed too closely. A huge hangar door in the undercarriage of the craft was slowly opening. Larry strained his eyes to see if some sort of God-awful, green monsters were lurking on the other side of the doors, but all he saw was a glimpse of a fast-moving transport vehicle, which whizzed from left to right on some obscure mission of its own.

  Larry knew he should get up and run for his life, but it was just too fascinating to leave now. He felt something strange, as though he was being blessed with a gift, a sudden enlightenment, a glimpse of destiny. Hell, he couldn’t have moved if he tried. It was too cool.

  The sasquatches traveled with many dogs. Larry, a dog-lover himself, saw them and hoped they would run when the fighting started. Now though, the dogs that were left sat up on their haunches, pawing at the air and grinning with delight at the spacecraft. Larry shook his head, marveling when some of the dogs started up an impromptu welcome dance.

  Larry Stevens sat cross-legged on the ground, staring up at the spectacle in the sky with a dumbfounded grin on his dark face, as did all of the sasquatches and soldiers within the spaceship’s force field parameters. The tank commanders and helo-pilots felt no compulsion to admire the new hostile in their midst, but when they tried to fire their weapons they found the trigger mechanisms unresponsive.

  It seemed like their vehicles were slowly being encased within invisible marshmallows. The chopper blades on the attack helicopters slowed and stopped, despite the pilots’ best efforts, but instead of falling to the ground and bursting into flame, the birds set down as weightlessly as feathers. The tank commanders knew the same frustration…the cannons and guns mounted on their machines were about as useful as spaghetti noodles. The men inside the tanks looked at one another and shrugged helplessly.

  Fighter jets suffered the same fate. When they dared fly close enough to target the spacecraft, it felt like an invisible arm reached out and seized the jet. It also felt to the hapless pilots trapped inside the aircraft that the arm understood gravity and centrifugal force. The captured jets would go around and down a number of times before being placed gently on the ground.

  Twenty minutes later, all the Army’s cars, helicopters, tanks, Humvees and fighter jets were effectively disabled. The freak storm had blown away at the ship’s arrival, and the creatures trapped within and without the ship’s force field saw that the sky was blue and perfect, and the sun’s rays illuminated the small ships that flew out of the cargo bay in the ship’s belly.

  General Liddy sat in the back seat of the Humvee, smiling in wonder. He had always believed in aliens…always. Finally, at sixty-three-years old, he could honestly say they existed. Tears ran unheeded and unremarked from his gentle brown eyes as he watched the little transport vehicles pop in and out of the force field around the space ship and the Army base.

  Onio, Mel, and Blue Sky got to their feet and watched the show in awe. They felt the same fear as anyone else when the alien ship first arrived, but it did not take long to realize that the ship was there to help save the sasquatches. The smaller vehicles that flew from the ship were about as big as Grey Hound buses. They zipped here and there, picking up the fallen sasq, male, female, and youngster, alive or dead.

  The pilots were sasq themselves, at least partly. They looked a lot like Onio and Blue Sky, huge and formidable, but softened somewhat, as if the small human gene was as prevalent in their bloodstreams as pure sasq. At one point, one of the buses flew close to where they stood watching. A human woman sat in the passenger seat and smiled broadly at the asto
nished look on their faces. Then, she tossed a bundle out the window and Onio caught it. It was the healing moss, only slightly different…reddish, glittery. It smelled the same though, so Onio applied it to Blue’s wounds.

  Another of the transport vehicles stopped close to the force field’s perimeter. The pilots had opened a sort of doorway and it looked as though they were allowing any small human who had become trapped within the barrier access to the outside world. Mel saw another small human pilot, a man, talking with the citizens, some of whom clearly did not want to leave. She watched one woman shake her head no, and the man shrugged and handed her a sheet of paper to sign. The woman, grinning broadly, sat down on the ground and began filling out paperwork.

  “Mel, look!” Onio urged, and she turned around to see what he was pointing at. Some sort of platform was emerging from the ship. On it stood a number of sasquatches and small human beings. They were dressed beautifully, and seemed to shine slightly in the sun’s glare. A huge sasquatch stepped forward and placed some sort of clear mask over the lower part of its face. Then she said, “Mighty sasq, please come forward.”

  Onio gaped and Blue Sky murmured, “Stars above,” but Mel smiled and said, “Come on you guys…this is for you!”

  The sasquatches shuffled toward the stage. They looked shocked and frightened, clearly at a loss for words, but the majesty of the female on the stage compelled their complete obedience. The huge female looked almost overwhelmingly joyful, her grin stretched from ear to ear and she seemed to almost dance with pleasure. She waited as the three hundred and fourteen surviving sasquatches made their way to the foot of the stage.

  They looked up at the sasq and small humans on the stage and the looks on their faces expressed equal parts joy and fear for this strange new phenomena. Onio took his wife’s hand in his and tried to hide the tears that fell from his eyes.

  The female on the stage whispered, “My lost children….” Her voice shook with emotion and one of the humans by her side placed his hand on her shoulder and spoke soft words of comfort in her ear. She sagged briefly and then dashed the tears from her eyes.

  “My children, our hearts rejoice to have found you at last!” she managed, and at the look of consternation on their faces she laughed aloud.

  “I am sorry, my name is Leona, and I am your queen. I will try to explain and we will show you ancient documentation, but I know you from the bottom of my heart…this same heart that has been torn asunder with loss until today!”

  Mel realized, with a start, that this female was very old. Her hair was silver, and tiny creases waffled her cheeks. Her brown-green eyes were clear though, and sparkled with life.

  “Onio…Daughter!” Mel turned around and saw that Rain, Petal, Hunter, and Bouldar approached. Mel let out a cry of joy and threw her arms around her new mother, while Onio placed a hand on Blue’s shoulder in acknowledgement of his loss.

  “Please, let me explain,” Leona continued, “Many thousands of years ago, a ship full of protectors left its home planet, bound for the planet Tridee. It never arrived…the ship’s log records indicated that it was caught in a meteor shower. The only sign remaining of the ship itself was the Herculean stone, which was found recently, activated, and used, by us, as a homing beacon.

  “We have traveled fast and far, through many galaxies and space tunnels, to find our lost sons and daughters. Rejoice the day, mighty sasq, as we welcome you back into our hearts and prepare to take you back home to the planet of your ancestors!” She stopped talking and let out a howl of triumph.

  Every sasq in attendance let out a reply and watched as small floating trays circulated through the crowd. They held cups of the steaming, bubbling, noxious smelling brew known as Fire Root tea. The sasq looked at the abundance of the sacred, ceremonial mixture, and tears ran down their faces.

  Humans walked through the crowd as well. They held pots of water and some sort of punch. They smiled up at the sasq and down at Mel. They were much bigger and taller than their counterparts on Earth. Mel took a taste of the punch and smiled at the young woman who offered it. The drink, somehow, tasted like sunshine.

  After the refreshments were served, Leona placed the sound amplifier over her mouth again, and said, “We must go now. Our shuttles are seeking out all sasq on this blue world, but it takes time, fuel and energy to operate with shields up. We will go to this planet’s moon and wait until all the sasq have been recovered.”

  She stood still for a moment, gazing down on them with such love and compassion in her eyes, it made Mel’s throat seize shut with emotion. Can I come, too? Would I even be welcome? She wondered. As though the queen had heard her worried thoughts, Leona smiled and added, “Human beings live with us on Sasquereen as well. Any small human who wants to make the journey with us is welcome…just know that it is a far journey…one we will not make again for a long time to come.”

  Onio took her hand and Mel fell into his arms. Looking up at her husband, Onio, First Son, she saw that his mossy green eyes were alight with joy and excitement. He searched her eyes, and saw her answer. Then he turned and walked with his wife and his family to the ship that would finally take him…all of them…home again.

  The End

  About the Author

  Linell Jeppsen is a writer of speculative fiction, science fiction, and fantasy/paranormal romance. Her vampire novel, Detour to Dusk, has received over 14 four and five star reviews.

  Her latest book, Story Time, a science fiction, post-apocalyptic novel has been touted by the Paranormal Romance Guild, Sandy’s Blog Spot and nine other reviewers as a five star read, filled with terror, love, loss, and the indomitable beauty and strength of the human spirit.

  Her first short story, The Gag Gift, won third prize for the best science-fiction short story of 2011. It is featured in two different books; The Last Astronaut, and Mixed Blessings.

  Ms. Jeppsen is the sole proprietor of New Voices Books, in Republic, Washington. This is a new and used book store, and perfumery. Once a month she is proud to feature a new or independently published author. She hosts the “Writer’s Slam” writer’s workshop, and is pleased when authors such as Judith McDowell and S. Evan Townsend do book signings and readings for the delighted citizens in town. She expects many more authors to promote their work in 2012.

  Ms. Jeppsen is currently working on a western ghost story, and has another whole new paranormal fantasy epic planned for 2013 as well.

  Afterword

  Tirini, son of Triku, stirred within his golden cocoon. His long, delicate antennae twitched slightly within the embryonic jelly as a soft chime echoed through the spacecraft. The ship was entering atmosphere, and it was time to wake up.

  His delicate proboscis probed the shell of the cocoon, tearing the membrane, letting the gel escape and filtered oxygen enter. His wings fluttered briefly, and he smiled.

  He left the protective shell and hopped to the craft’s small windshield. Looking out at the blue and green marbled planet on the horizon he thought, I must remember what my father said.

  Triku told him that the Earth planet was a precious jewel, set against the black velvet of this small galaxy. It was a glittering gem, but like so many faceted jewels, it held many sharp edges.

  Triku had spent the better part of his life protecting the lost tribe of the Sasquereen. Now it was Tirini’s turn to protect a lesser species.

  He went to a small desk and flipped a switch. A holographic image rose into the air, reflecting against the bug’s galaxy-filled eyes. He studied the images raptly, calling upon his years of study, and the racial memories buried deep within his subconscious mind.

  “Fairy…,” he whispered, and vowed that if it took a lifetime, he—Tirini, son of Triku—would do his best to protect this fragile species, just as his father had protected the mighty but vulnerable sasquatch.

  Tirini folded its wings, rolled into a ball and braced himself for the sickening free-fall into one of the universe’s most beautiful but dangerous planets.