The fire of guns mounted to it began to bloom orange flames and I expected to feel the slice of the hot metal into me in the next instance as I had in my arm, but the bullets didn’t come close to us. They rang out overhead of us and briefly craning my head back to see I watched as the stream of bright lighted death cut the men in black practically in half, as they stood on the platform in the process of taking aim on us.
They were firing on their own men?
What was going on here?
Whatever it was I was grateful, because without the intervention of the mechanical one eyed beast we would be dead, of that I was sure. Gaining the ground floor we reached the others. This strange occurrence of friendly fire was occurring street level as well, as men in mottled green and brown uniforms were firing unmercifully into the dwindling ranks of men in black, who were retreating to the same warehouse we had just escaped from.
Evette answered the question on everyone’s mind as to what was going on outside. “The military is mounting an attack on the Committee forces. They’re trying to take over control of the Federation!”
Larc spoke, “I don’t care what they’re trying to do! What’s important is that there giving us the diversion we need to get away from here! Come on!”
Larc led the way through the warehouse to the far end. Gaining the street side of it we dashed across, hidden it seemed from the larger confrontation taking place around us. Larc ran down a narrow space between two more warehouses that was barely wide enough to fit a man width wise.
Coming out on the other side I saw the dock before us and the ship I had seen earlier. It must belong to the navy because I could see a rather large looking gun sitting above the cab of the ship.
Evette was beside me with a look of determination on her face, “Give me your gun!”
She more or less had to take it from my hand, because I couldn’t lift my arm up anymore. Running past me she snatched the gun out of Larc’s waistband and ran on past toward where the boat was docked. Larc half yelled in surprise and started to run after her, but he stopped as he was holding the little girl that Orhanin had taken to calling Lucy.
Orhanin had been shot through one hand and had a deep groove across the top of the other shoulder. Larc had taken over carrying the girl after seeing the pain on Orhanin’s face caused from holding onto the girl. Orhanin had been reluctant to hand the girl over though and had only done so because of Larc’s insistence.
We watched as Evette raced up the dock towards the boat. The sailor at the gun started to move the gun towards her as she neared. I watched as both of Evette’s guns raised and then I saw the sailor manning the gun fall backward closely followed by his helper. Other sailors were falling like flies left and right to.
Within five seconds the armored patrol boat’s crew of seven were no more. Evette jumped over the side of the boat and disappeared within the boat, but quickly reappeared motioning for us to come. We all started running for the boat. When we reached the boat Evette had already started it and had it idling. She had even cast off the mooring lines.
I’d said it before and I’d say it again, this woman was handy to have around, and deadly too! I tried to step over into the boat, but I more or less fell into it. I pulled myself up to a sitting position. I just couldn’t catch my breath it seemed.
Larc glanced at me and motioned something to Evette. Evette was by my side. I tried to get up, but she pushed me back down, “I need to help.”
“It’s all taken care of and you’ve lost far too much blood for you to do anything other than sit here.”
She said in a no-nonsense way. “Okay.” I said leaning my head back against the railing, as I continued to suck air down.
Evette tore the sleeves off of her shirt, tearing one sleeve in half making two pads of it she pressed one on either side of the wound and then used the other to hold them in place tightly. Evette left and some time passed by, but then she was back holding something up to me.
“Drink!”
It was some kind of bluish fluid.
Was she serious?
She wanted me to drink water that was blue!
Pushing my head back she practically forced my mouth open and began pouring the stuff down my throat. She let me up for a gulp of air. The stuff wasn’t bad at all!
I took the bottle from her and finished it off. Looking up at her somewhat sheepishly I held out the empty bottle, “Is this all there is?”
She laughed softly and held up a second bottle, “You know I really shouldn’t give this to you after what you did to me back at the warehouse.”
I pointed at Larc, who was steering the boat and said, “He’s the one you want to punish. He’s the one who pushed you. What could I have done?” I said indicating my injured arm.
“Right!” She said skeptically, but she gave me the other bottle anyway in good humor and then she moved on to who else needed help next.
Besides Orhanin’s injuries, Thannic had a couple bullet burns and Larc had a deep furrow cut across the front of one thigh. The children and Evette had escaped with no injuries at all.
I lay my head back against the side of the ship and closed my eyes and simply rested, as I enjoyed the swaying motion of the boat, as Larc steered it out of the harbor and down the coast. After a while I heard a loud “ouch” I cracked my eyes open to see Evette kneeling beside Larc.
She was tying a rag around his thigh wound, perhaps a little too tightly. If the saucy grin on her face was any indication I would say I was right about my last thought. Finishing she came back over and sat down beside me.
“Feel better?” I asked.
“Much!” She replied.
Glancing back over at Larc I saw that Orhanin and Thannic were talking with him. It had to be serious because their demeanors and manner of speaking were. I was too tired and comfortable to move. I closed my eyes again; soon it would be nightfall and God willing we would be back on our way home. Home had never sounded as good as it did now.
Chapter Nineteen
Division
The General leaned over the chart table in his private bunker looking at the plan before him.
An aid came in to report, “Sir the action at the warehouse seems to have been wrapped up with most Committee forces dead or surrounded. No sign of the whereabouts of the strangers, but a navy patrol boat went missing from the general vicinity of the warehouse shortly before sunset.”
“That’s it! There trying to get back to their spacecraft!” Boomed the General.
“Call up the Navy and Air Force I want every available asset we have in search for that patrol boat. And I wanted it done 10 minutes ago. Go! Get to it man! This could be our last best chance to turn what’s left of this country around!”
The aide rushed out of the room to do the General’s bidding. The General tried to quell the excitement rippling through him at the prospect of capturing the alien ship, but it was hard. Opportunities like this didn’t happen every day and that fool think tank of a Committee had almost squandered the entire operation.
He was done with the Committee, or he should say dark humouredly, that the Committee was done for good. His secretary interrupted his thoughts as she handed a cup of coffee to him. He hadn’t noticed her come in.
“Oh thank you Tanya!” Said the General absentmindedly.
The secretary responded, “You’re welcome Sir. Reports are coming in throughout the Confederation. Half of all committee members are presumed dead, while the other half are in custody.”
“Good! Give the order to kill the ones in custody too. We don’t need any loose strings left to cause us problems later.”
“Understood Sir.”
The secretary left the room leaving the General alone. The General took a sip of the coffee, as he stared at the map in front of him. He was really doing mankind a favor by getting rid of the half psychotic crackpots that the Committee was made up of.
His throat burned and then suddenly air to breathe was hard to come by. The General
fell to the floor as he tried to make it to a phone to call for help.
He couldn’t breathe!
The door opened and a man walked in to the room and then over to the General convulsing on the floor.
Committee member Tomlinson smiled good naturedly down at the General, who looked back up at him in horror, as he struggled to get a breadth. His face was turning purple for lack of air.
“Couldn’t have done this without you General. Just between you and me I found it as hard to work with the rest of the Committee as you did. They were how do you say it? Somewhat more conservative than I am. I think the country will benefit from the leadership of just one man, don’t you?”
Tomlinson laughed at the General’s lack of response, “Sorry there wasn’t more room at the top General.”
The General’s weak fingers fumbled at his gun holster.
“A soldier to the end I see. Let me help you.” Tomlinson said leaning down and snatching the pistol out of its holster.
He then proceeded to empty the entire clip into the General. The gun empty he tossed it away and went to the intercom and pushed a button.
Tanya’s voice came through the speaker, “Yes Sir?”
“Can you see about getting me a fresh cup of coffee in here?”
“Right away Sir!”
“Oh and Tanya have housekeeping come by and clean up this mess before the coffee stain sets in?”
“Yes Sir, I’ll put that work order in now.”
Chapter Twenty
Into Glory
We were nearing the spot where the space vessel had dropped us off; nothing could be seen in the gray darkness around us. Would they come?
Had they already left for home? It hadn’t been a full month yet so they shouldn’t have left yet surely. Then farther out to sea I saw a small beacon of light flash a couple of times, it was the signal!
They hadn’t left yet, but they were a good deal farther out to sea than they had been before, when they had dropped us off. Larc responded with the light we had on board and a confirmation signal came back to us in several brief tiny flashes.
Elation rose up in all of us and then we were plunged back into cold reality, when everything around us seemed to break lose all at once. Huge spotlights flickered on from the direction of the beach and lit the patrol boat up like it was day.
The sounds of more of the giant mechanical bugs could be heard coming from the beach as well. Rounding a bend in the shoreline ahead of us was a huge ship made entirely of metal that would have made our biggest ship on our world look like a child’s play toy in comparison. There were other smaller boats as well.
It was awful to have been so close to freedom only to have it seemingly snatched from you at the last second. It was unbearable and I never wanted to be made to feel like this again. Larc and Thannic were busy doing something while Orhanin manned the wheel.
What were Larc and Thannic doing?
They were putting an inflatable boat over the side, how did that help the situation? The big hovering bugs would be on us in seconds, with the enemy ships close behind. Larc fairly threw Evette into the boat and I could see that she was crying.
Why?
Thannic put both kids in the boat, kissing the tops of their heads as he did so. Before I had a chance to consider that, Larc had grabbed me by my good arm and was half throwing me into the boat.
“Here take this!” Larc said handing me the Bible.
I took it and clutched it to my chest unsure of what was going on. Larc shook Thannic’s hand and then he was in our little boat and we were moving away from the patrol boat and out toward the space vessel, leaving Orhanin and Thannic behind.
“No wait! What about them?” I screamed pointing at Orhanin and Thannic.
“They’re staying Zevin. It was their choice.” Larc said with tears in his eyes, as he looked back at the two men standing at the railing of the patrol boat.
“No! You can’t let them!” I yelled half getting to my knees, but Larc pressed me back down.
“They’re only doing what you would do on behalf of them Zevin. Besides right now is not about them or us! It’s about getting what’s in your arms back to the people of our world. The survival of our people and perhaps much greater things than even that depend on us getting the words of the Creator to our people! If it costs us our very lives to do so it would not be too big a price to pay. Honor them Zevin and remember them as they are right now because too few men have had the courage and the selflessness to be like they are in this moment. And if one day it’s demanded of you like it was of them today, then answer it with the same dignity that they are now!”
The significance of Larc’s words weren’t lost on me, but all I could do right now was feel. I felt loss. I had already lost my big brother for perhaps forever and now I was losing two men that I had grown so close to that they had seemed, as if they had always been my brothers too.
At the top of my voice I yelled out my farewell to them. I saw Orhanin briefly raise his bloody bandaged hand in acknowledgment that he had heard me, as the patrol boat sheared off away from us diverting the attention from us.
Evette continued to steer the little air boat out through the choppy seas, her face awash with tears, as she headed towards freedom that had been paid for dearly.
Thannic made his way up to the upper platform and slipped into the gun harness, as Orhanin manned the wheel.
Thannic’s voice rang out in an exuberant yell as spotlights lit up the scene, “Let’s ride, big brother!”
Orhanin smiled wryly, his younger brother had always been the more vocal of the two of them and he obliged him now by thrusting the throttle all the way forward. As the engines roared the boat jumped forward like a horse singed by a lightning bolt.
The roar of Thannic’s war cry was only drowned out when the double machine cannons he manned spurted to life, as they belched out twin flames of molten fire.
Heavy caliber tracer rounds weaved brightly across the night sky like a butterfly from flower to flower. The parallel lines of destruction touched first one and then a second low-flying helicopter. They burst into flames and crashed into the sea below.
Orhanin steered the charging patrol boat through the burning wakes as Thannic shot the tail rotor off of another chopper sending it on a long arc towards the sea. With guns blazing he kept the other two choppers at bay.
Before the water grew to shallow on their approach to the beach Orhanin threw the wheel over bringing the boat into a tack parallel to the beach and its angry searchlights. As the boat plunged alongside of the beach Thannic with one long squeeze of the trigger let loose a stream of uninterrupted hell on searchlights and man alike.
As searchlights went out and vehicles blew up into fireballs of light and sound, men went running for cover, as they forsook the fight. Throughout the approach small arms fire pinged off the patrol boat like a horizontal hailstorm. Pulling away from the beach the boat shook as heavy caliber rounds ripped into it from above, as one of the choppers roared by overhead.
Thannic swiveled and laid down fire in its wake and the chopper blew into a thousand pieces, even as the remaining chopper held off to coward to join the fight. Streaming back out into the bay Orhanin headed for the big ship kicking up waves, as it raced onto the scene as fast as its ponderous bulk would allow it to. Smaller ships joined the fray and the little patrol boat started to unravel at the seams and trail black smoke that was lost in the darkness of the night.
The hammering of the big guns overhead ceased as Thannic let go of them, as there was no more ammo left to fire. Crawling out of the harness Thannic fell off the platform to the deck below and managed to crawl up to Orhanin at the con.
Orhanin helped him to his feet and listened as his brother said in a slurred tone, “It’s been a good fight! I hate to leave it so soon, are you coming along brother?”
“Yes, I’ll be along soon Thannic.”
“We’ll talk about this battle for all eternity big brother!”<
br />
“I’d rather talk about something else with the Creator Thannic, but if you want to, you go ahead.”
Thannic patted Orhanin’s back slightly, “No, you’re right. You’re always right. We’ll talk about something else.” Thannic said finishing softly as he slumped down against the con and Orhanin.
Orhanin let him slip to the floor, as gently as he could and then straightened back up difficultly as a trickle of blood eased out of the corner of his mouth, from a lung that had been punctured by a stray bullet. He was bleeding from half a dozen other wounds as well, but he stood in front of the wheel like an oak planted on sure ground in a time of flood, as waterspouts from enemy shells landed in the water all around the patrol boat, as he steered it straight for the biggest ship in the bay.
The words of his Creator still hot on his mind he thanked the Creator for the ability and privilege to be where he was at this critical time in his nation’s history. That his life should have such a meaningfulness to it and that out of this hard moment of sacrifice an everlasting significance would be measured in the number of redeemed souls in eternity helped made possible, because of his actions this night.
As his life had been a life worth living, it had become even better to now give it up. The patrol boat was literally being shot to pieces all around where Orhanin stood, but he continued to hang on to the wheel. Some indomitable force of will from within enabling the body to do what it could not normally have done.
Reaching with his bandaged hand into his open bloody shirt front he pulled out a gold necklace that had belonged to his wife.
“Not long now Esme. You to Lucy. Daddy is coming home!”
The patrol boat plowed into the cruiser’s side shearing the armored skin with its momentum and possibly the force of will of the man behind its wheel.
The patrol boat’s fuel exploded touching off secondary explosions within the cruiser, which triggered one of the ship’ s magazines to go off and within moments the entire cruiser was an exploding fireball that lit the night sky up, as it reverberated thunderous echoes of its own destruction across the waters of the bay.
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