by T. R. Harris
A minute is probably all I have. Now get out of here. I’ll hold them off for as long as I can.
Both Sherri and Adam were pale with shock. Could this really be happening?
When two more Sol-Kor entered the atrium outside the bridge and stumbled upon the Humans and their three dead shipmates, Adam knew it was time to go. After he killed these last two, Sherri took a handgun off one of them and reluctantly began to sprint after Adam down the central corridor.
They knew the way to the rear access bay, having arrived inside the ship that way. It took them fourteen seconds and cost the lives of three more unsuspecting Sol-Kor.
All the while, Sherri was crying into her ATD. I’m so sorry, Riyad! We’ll find a way to get back to you. Maybe the portal will close and you’ll be brought back down to the planet again.
Stop your yapping, sweetheart. I can see some monitors from here and it looks like the portal is still working. If you aren’t off the ship in the next minute or so, it could be too late for all of us. This thing seems to be on autopilot, because the actual pilot is firing at me. We’re headed for the portal one way or another.
“C’mon, Sherri, into the escape pod.”
The small launch bay had a couple of shuttles, but it would take far too long to learn the controls just to get the damn things out the door. Escape pods could be gone in a matter of seconds. The problem with pods, however, was that they were barely maneuverable and they carried no weapons—at least Human pods didn’t. He had no reason to believe the Sol-Kor pods would be any different.
When the hatch was secure, Adam quickly scanned the controls. They weren’t that complicated, just a couple of toggle controls and one round, flat button at the center of the console. Adam slapped his hand down on the button.
The pair was thrown back into the huge, alien-size seats, as the scene through the small porthole changed dramatically. They were in space, and the weightlessness caused each of them to nearly vomit from the sudden shift.
We’re free of the ship, in an escape pod.
I see that. An alarm just went off. One of the aliens is trying to get to the console where the alarm is sounding. I’m going to stop him.
Don’t waste your ammo, Adam said.
That changed his mind. Seems to be a standoff here. No one can get to their stations to warn others of your escape, and neither can they change course.
Let them change course, you idiot! That will keep you from entering the portal.
It will also give them a chance to target the escape pod.
What are you saying? Sherri’s voice was a trembling mess.
Looks like I’m about to boldly go where no man has gone before.
Let them change course, Riyad, Adam ordered.
I can’t. The portal seems to be fluctuating now. Whatever Andy is doing on the surface, it seems to be having an effect. If we don’t go through now it may be too late.
But if you go through, and the array is destroyed, you’ll be trapped in the Sol-Kor universe.
I’m okay with that, Sherri. Besides, I’m really curious to see the woman who gave birth to a trillion babies. Talk about stretch marks! Seriously, I’ll try to stay alive long enough to find a way to take over the place. After all, they’ve never had a Human there before. Should be easy pickings…just like the old days.
We’ll come for you, Riyad…somehow, Adam said.
He heard Riyad give out a mental laugh. The funny thing, my friend, is I know you will. Somehow, someway, you will.
Then stay alive, you pirate.
I will do my best. Now something weird is taking place outside. Wow! You guys should see th—
Without having to say another word, Adam and Sherri sensed he was gone. The void left in the electronic conference call was evident. Riyad’s presence was gone, as gone as anyone had ever been before.
Adam placed his hand a short distance in front of him and reached out with a finger. “He’s right here, Sherri. This close. All we have to do is find a way to get there.”
********
“The portal just shut!” Arieel yelled into her throat comm. Far above her, all she could see was the darkness of space where once the shimmering white sheet had flown. “You did it!”
“Any word from Adam?” Andy replied.
Arieel took a moment to search her Gift. Nothing. “No contact, yet I do sense the presence of other Gifts—other devices. Remember, even though I cannot communicate with them, I can still trace the presence of the devices at long distance.”
“So they’re still on this side!”
“Yes they are!” Arieel was ecstatic—until she noticed a simplicity in the contacts. It was different from what she’d detected before. “Something is wrong, Admiral.”
“What?” Andy’s voice changed with that word. It was deeper, more articulated.
“From what I feel now—and what I felt before—I believe there to be only two devices.”
“Whose are they?”
“I do not know, yet the signal is gaining in strength. They are approaching closer.”
“They’re not the only ones getting closer, Admiral,” Howey Timmons said. He had just arrived at Arieel’s hiding place. “It looks like the whole hive is on their way here.”
“George and I are just rounding that huge crane behind the hangar. Looks like we may have to abscond with some alien ground transportation if we want to cut out of here before dinner.”
“I’ll take a peek in the hangar, see what might be around.”
“Watch your back. We’ll be at your location in thirty seconds.”
********
Most of the Sol-Kor at the hangar had left after Vosmin took the prisoners away in his spaceship. Then when the explosions began rocking the base, most of those remaining had taken up arms and ran for the arrays.
As Master Chief Timmons made his way around the side of the huge building, he noticed Arieel was right on his tail. “You should go back, ma’am. The admiral would have my hide if you got hurt.”
“I am quite proficient with firearms, even your loud, heavy projectile weapons. After the events a few years ago, I insisted I learn.”
“Then watch my back.”
“That would limit my ability to view potential threats, Mr. Timmons.”
“I mean look behind us, not literally look at my back.”
“Oh. Forgive me. I am usually much better at interpreting Human slang expressions. I must be under some stress.”
“Ya think? All right, here we go.”
As luck would have it, one of the few remaining Sol-Kor was looking right at the very spot along the huge slide-away door to the hangar where Timmons did a quick look-see. The senior chief managed to drop the alert alien with a single shot to the chest, but it was too late. The alarm had already been raised, and with the site’s heightened security, communications were sent out to the central command in a millisecond.
“Follow me!” the chief said as he took off across the wide open volume of the hangar, heading for a squat loading vehicle that looked like an airport baggage truck. Two shots rang out behind him, and he glanced back to see Arieel take out an alien before his two companions ducked for cover.
Timmons was much faster than Arieel, but he didn’t realize that until he had already reached the cart and jumped behind the steering column. She was still a good forty feet behind, and that was when the chief realized the Formilian simply wasn’t built for running. Her ample assets were actually throwing her off balance with every stride. Mesmerized by her gangly gait, Timmons thought it a miracle she hadn’t fallen flat on her face by now.
He took a quick survey of the controls of the cart. No gas pedal, just a lever to his right and a steering bar in front of him. He couldn’t see any on/off switch, so he pressed the lever forward and the vehicle began to move.
Timmons gave it more throttle, and then whipped the cart around in Arieel’s direction. They met up two seconds later. “Climb in the back and stay down. There’s not much cove
r in this thing.”
Arieel hopped in the back, but rather than stay hidden she placed the barrel of the M-91 on the side of the cab and began spraying anything that moved with hot rounds of lead. She emptied one magazine, but had another out and inserted in nothing flat.
The cart actually had good speed, and the pair was out the entrance to the hangar five seconds after Timmons had activated the vehicle.
“What’s your location, Admiral?”
“We’re on our bellies just outside the hangar! Some maniac is shooting at us with automatic fire. Any idea who that could be?”
Arieel heard the broadcast too. “I apologize, Andy. I was caught up in the moment.”
“Get ready, sir. I’m not slowing down.”
As the cart raced closer, Tobias and Owens jumped to their feet and began running in the same direction as the cart. Even as fast as Human were on this planet, the cart was still a little faster. But it wasn’t too much of a chore for the two SEALs to jump into the back cab as the cart shot past.
They were headed for the grassy meadow at the end of the base. The Sol-Kor were becoming organized, and spotters on the arrays and in the tall central control tower had a clear view of the escaping commandos. All forces were being sent in their direction. Even if they reached the meadow before the aliens, it was a pretty good bet the cart would bog down in the mushy soil. The aliens would swarm all over them.
The three people in the cab were dishing out a deadly barrage of automatic weapons fire, running through magazines—and aliens—like there was no tomorrow. It still wouldn’t be enough.
They recoiled from an ear-piercing squeal from overhead. Andy looked toward the source of the painful noise and saw one of the three support legs of the tower where he’d placed his explosives begin to twist noticeably. Already weakened by the explosion, the leg was feeling the brunt of unnatural forces from above, causing it to fold over on itself. The squealing continued and the massive leg buckled inward, striking another of the legs with a deep, thundering bong. The sound rippled throughout the valley, returning to the source three seconds later.
A chain reaction began, and soon the entire middle array was vibrating in harmonic motion, toppling over, bending at the point of the explosion.
For a moment, Andy felt like cheering, at least right up to the point when he saw the gigantic spear leaning in his direction.
“Step on it, Howey! The tower’s collapsing, and it’s collapsing this way.”
“It’s floored already.” Timmons glanced over his shoulder and saw the incomprehensibly tall spire tilting towards them. Then the cart reached the end of the paved station of the facility and flew headlong into the tall reeds of the marshy meadow. Sharp, prickly stalks of native grass began biting at their bodies and the cart was soon covered in a coating of the thick growth.
From behind them came a deep grumbling, as if the entire planet were now a vicious beast, snarling at them. The ground underneath the meadow turned into a liquefied mush as the gigantic tower crashed to the ground, sending huge ripples like ocean waves radiating out from the impact zone.
The cart was thrown high into the air by a rising crest. From his place in the driver’s seat, Timmons grasped the steering bar and held on for dear life. The others in the back were not so fortunate. With nothing to grab, Tobias, Arieel and Owens were cast out of the cart and into the open air.
Andy Tobias cartwheeled several times, and as he did he caught glimpses of the aftermath of the tower’s landing. It had fallen at the very end of the paved section of the base, slicing a swath in the ground over two hundred feet across. Yet that wasn’t the full extent of the damage. For another three hundred feet or so on each side, huge mounds of dirt were thrown out, forming what looked like a horizontal impact crater. The trauma on the planet continued far deeper, and as it recoiled, visible waves of rolling surface tore tarmac and meadowland to shreds.
What Sol-Kor managed to survive the initial impact were now buried under several feet of splashed dirt, and the ground-waves continued throughout the entire compound. Buildings exploded, the two remaining towers swaying to unsustainable degrees. The screeching and popping of the heavy metal support beams echoed throughout the valley and beyond as the towers broke away at points approximately a quarter up their height. Soon the valley was once again subjected to the deep rumbling of the structures striking the ground.
With the light gravity of the planet, Andy had time to realize that he should have fallen back to the ground by now, but he hadn’t. He was pretty much like a leaf in the wind, being cast further and further down range from the array site. But all good things must come to an end, and he was soon tumbling ever-faster toward the meadow below.
When he hit, it was not as he suspected. He landed in water…sort of. It was a thick, muddy mess infused with the native grass, like landing on a water-soaked mattress. It hurt, but it wasn’t deadly. He sank several feet into the quasi-lake before bouncing back to the surface. By now, the ground ripples from the impacts had passed and the vibrations in the ground begun to subside.
Andy Tobias looked over the calming waters of the newly-formed lake, searching for any signs of the team members. He pressed his throat comm on the off chance it was still functioning. “This is Tobias. Anyone, report.”
“Whew, that was a rush!” The voice of George Owens. “I must have been a thousand feet up.”
“Anyone else? Report.”
“This is just great.” To Andy’s relief, it was Timmons. “I think I broke my damn arm holding onto that steering bar. I should have let go, but like an idiot I didn’t.”
“Are you able to move?”
“Yes, sir. Luckily these fancy new uniforms have painkillers built into them. I need something like this when I’m mowing my lawn back home. I actually feel pretty damn good.”
“Glad to hear it. Arieel, can you hear me?” Andy waited a few seconds. “Arieel, report in!”
There was only dead air.
“She’s not built like us,” Owens said. “I mean like Humans—tough, I mean. You know what I mean—the fall could have hurt her a lot more.”
“Roger that. If any of you still have weapons, light off a few rounds so we can get our bearings. She should be within the same area as we landed in.”
Being the instinctive military professionals they were, all three Humans were still in possession of their weapons, and soon three louds pops were heard. Andy looked to his left and saw the bobbing head of Howey Timmons. To his left, George Owens was waving his M-91 in Andy’s direction.
“Start a grid search. We’re all within a hundred yards of each other. Timmons, facing me, circle to your right, George, you do the same. You’ll cover the perimeter. I’ll work the inside of the circle.”
The lake—if one could call it that—was very shallow and thick with the mangled remains of the meadow. Trudging through this mess was time-consuming and energy-sapping, but after ten minutes of searching, it was Andy who found Arieel.
“I got her!” he called out. He took his own M-91 and fired a few rounds into the air, revealing his location. Then he looked back at where he’d spotted Arieel.
In reality, he hadn’t actually spotted all of the alien, just a pair of prominent peaks rising up out of the water. They were unmistakable, yet as he pressed his way through the muck, he was praying her head was above water, too.
Fortunately it was, resting on a clump of floating meadow grass. Andy reached her and quickly placed a hand behind her head. He felt for the carotid artery, and not finding it in the traditional location began to feel all around her thin neck. When this didn’t work, he resorted to placing an ear on her chest, assuming the heart had to be somewhere hidden below, well…all of that.
“Enjoying yourself, Admiral?” he heard Howey Timmons say, as the senior chief arrived on scene.
“I’m checking for a heartbeat, you pervert. I can’t tell if she’s alive or not.”
“Maybe the fact that her eyes are open and she’s sm
iling might be an indicator…sir.”
Andy jerked his head off Arieel’s breasts. Indeed, her eyes were open, and sparkling with a mischievous glint.
“How long were you going to let me stay there?” he asked just as George Owens arrived.
“As long as you wanted, Mr. Tobias. You know I have an attraction to Human males.” And with that she righted herself and shook the water from her magnificent crop of jet-black hair.
“Are you okay?” Andy was angry; he’d truly thought she was dead.
“A little shaky, yet I do not sense anything to be broken or severely injured.”
“Good. Now let’s get serious.” He looked over the stray reeds rising above the surface and saw that they were about two hundred yards from the shattered tree line of the forest. The artificial earthquake had snapped trunks and toppled whole trees, but the damage only seemed to extend a short distance into the woods.
“Hurry, we have to see if the exo-walkers survived. We have to get back in space as soon as possible and locate the escape pod before the Sol-Kor do.”
That was a sobering thought, and the team made great time getting to firmer ground within the forest. It was hard to get their bearings, though, since the landscape had been so torn up. But they were professionals, and soon even the camouflage paint of the walkers couldn’t keep them hidden for long.
All the walkers were intact, even if they were now scattered far from their original resting place. Once recovered, the team raced off toward the starship, hoping that a range of twenty miles out from the towers’ impact zone would have spared it from any damage.
It was there, intact, and a welcome sight.
“Are we still going to pick up that girl?” Timmons asked.
The way he asked the question made Andy smile. “No one said this mission would be all peaches and cream, Chief. Sometimes we have to take the bad with the good.”
“I take that as an affirmative?” He sounded disappointed.
“Try reaching her. If she answers, we do our duty…to God and country.”