Jesse's Starship (23 page)

• • •

“I know I saw a heat source down there.”

“My system didn’t detect anything.”

“We’re over uninhabited territory here; it had to be an aircraft.”

“Was it moving?”

“When I detected it, it was almost stationary.”

“It could have been a camp fire.”

“If that were the case, we’d see it now.”

“Swing around and come back for another run.” The two Air Force Falcons turned and moved back along their flight path and flew over the forest again. “I still don’t see anything.”

“We’re splash on fuel, I guess it was a false reading; we need to head back.”

• • •

Mike walked out from under the branches and listened; he could hear the approach of jet engines. He moved back to the huge pine’s trunk and heard the two jets roar by overhead. He went to the helicopter and took out the handset. “Major Blackwell.”

“Yes Sir.”

“I need the names of two jet pilots who are in the air right now. I’m on the California/Arizona state line and they just buzzed my location. I’d start at El Segundo.”

“I’m on it.”

“Don’t you ever sleep?”

“I was sleeping at my desk until you called.”

“Where are you?”

“I’m in the War Room. Don’t worry about me; I’m single and until this is resolved, I’ll probably be here most of the time.”

“How old are you, Major?”

“Forty one.”

“I have someone I’d like you to meet.”

“Playing matchmaker now, are you?”

“Trust me on this one; you’ll be the lucky one if you can garner her interest. You’re about the only one I’ve ever met that might stand a chance.”

“Now you have my interest.”

“Let’s hope we can make it happen. Let me know about those pilots.”

“Captain Ed Stilwell and Lieutenant Bob Close; both of them are out of El Segundo.”

Mike shook his head, “Major, you are dangerous.”

“Keep it to yourself; I like the nerdy image.”

Mike smiled and went back and sat in the helicopter. Tilly was alive.

• • •

Mamba stood in front of Jameson with a hard expression, “You’ve failed us.”

“Actually, it’s not my failure.” Mamba glared at him. “Sir, all I have to work with is the ground radar installations and they’ve come up empty. Our assets have the most modern jets in the services and they’ve not been used to find him. They have look down capability and can see heat sources below them. Why haven’t they been used to find that slug?” Mamba’s eyes narrowed and he thought about what Jameson said. He wanted to kill somebody but the Colonel was right. “Sir, I’m going to try something; I don’t know if it will work, but it might.”

“What?”

“I’m going to send a cell phone message with an encrypted signal to see if I can ping his phone.”

“Do what?”

“Every cell phone has a test circuit in it where it pings a local tower to determine if it’s functioning properly. If it pings, I can get a line on the closest cell tower to that phone’s location.”

“Do it and get back to me if you find anything.”

“Yes Sir.” Mamba stormed away and Jameson typed two words in the code used by the Satellite Service. He sent the message and watched his panel. He knew he had to report his findings but he wasn’t worried about Mike being found. He punched a button and said, “Sir, I’ve got a return.”

Mamba came running back into the room and said, “Where.”

“A Sprint tower close to the Arizona/ California state line sent the call.”

“Where on that border?”

“That tower had a three hundred mile line of sight. However, it’s located in Southern California.”

Mamba ran out of the room. The Major was headed toward El Segundo.

• • •

Mike felt his phone vibrate and saw an unknown caller had contacted his phone. He saw an attachment and opened it. It looked like gibberish but he saw a pattern. He stared at it and without thought he applied the code used at the agency; he saw two words. It had to of come from Jameson. He shook his head and pulled the handset out of its bag and punched a button. He fired up the helicopter and moved north. That message made it through; they could have a line on his location.

“I see you’re up early.”

“Major, I’ve just received a message from Colonel Jameson.”

“I thought he was one of them.”

“He is but he must be having second thoughts.”

“What was his message?”

“Two words…Russia and China.”

“Oh Crap!! Tell me it isn’t so.”

“See if you can find any communications leaving our bases that are being sent overseas.”

“I’m on it. I’ll let General Branton know.”

“That would be wise.”

J
ess looked at Elle and shook his head, “You really look different.”

“What’s the first clue? Is it my green skin or my sharp pointy teeth? If you haven’t looked, you look different as well.”

“Jess held up his hands and saw the five fingers and two thumbs. “This is a good color. Reminds me of a lizard I nearly stepped on.”

“Are you ready to do this?”

Jess shrugged, “Keep your blaster loose in the holster.” Jess turned and went to his chair, “Pete, are you ready to transfer all the protocols?”

“I am.” Jess nodded to Elle and she went to her chair and tilted it back. “Commencing transfer.” Two minutes later they opened their eyes and Elle said, “Is that all there is?”

“Security is not an issue; where would anyone go?”

“They appear to be rather lax.”

“Compared to your species paranoia, I suppose they are.”

Jess frowned, “What do you mean by that?”

“Do you have external doors without locks?”

Jess thought for a moment, “I guess you’re right. Do you have the photons powering your systems?”

“I do.”

“Then let’s do this.”

• • •

They had waited in the Holding Facility’s star system until the Q ship had left. Now they were going back in and were using a story about Hetzel neglecting to ask the humans some important questions. Pete was of the opinion the story would hold up.

• • •

They arrived at the facility and Pete sent a message to the Neman operating the entrance portal. The portal started lighting up and Pete said, “They accepted it. Just don’t answer any questions about events past or present on the Neman home world.”

“Do you think we’ll get any?”

“These Neman are stuck out here a long time and crave news from home.”

Jess looked at Elle and tilted his head, “Are you ready?”

Elle nodded, “What are we going to do if we find them?”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. Do you have the dark energy personal field?” Elle nodded. They felt a bump and moved out of the bridge to the storage bay. The door slid up and they saw a Neman waiting for them, “Welcome, I’ll take you to the holding space.”

“Thank you. Your assistance is appreciated.”

“How are things back home?”

Jess said, “In our excitement to see your wonderful facility, we left the list of questions in the computer. I can keep them in my mind but not if I don’t focus on it.”

“I understand; follow me.”

They followed the green creature through ten corridors they remembered from the holographic trainer and turned the corner and saw the guards standing outside the doors just like they saw in the trainer. Their guide turned and said, “Hetzel must have forgotten. He spent a lot of time questioning the…what are they called? Elle appeared to think a moment and said, “Humans?”

“Yeah, that’s it.” The guide arrived at the door furthest from them and pointed at the clear window. Jess looked in the window and saw a space that appeared to extend for miles. He had never gotten this far into the facility and he said, “I know how it works, but this is still an amazing view of the space.”

The Neman smiled, “It extends into the moon’s interior. The gravity is controlled so it doesn’t appear abnormal. Do you want to go in?”

“Let me stand here and look at them for a moment. They’re really ugly.”

“Tell me about it. Let the guard know when you want to go in; he’ll open the door.”

• • •

They stared through the glass and saw long rows of doors to each side that extended away from them. In the area between the doors was an open area that had large plants growing and scattered among them was fountains that had water spraying up out of them. They didn’t want to admit it, but it looked beautiful. They watched hundreds of people walking around in the clearing talking to each other and Elle pointed at a woman holding a baby. Jess saw her and frowned. The guard said, “We allow them to breed and have children.”

Jess looked at the guard, “I’ve always wondered if that was a good idea.”

The guard raised both shoulders, “It won’t make a difference. If their planet is destroyed, all of them will be removed. If not, they can go back and continue their lives.”

Elle suddenly tugged Jess’s tunic and nodded toward a young man walking down the row of doors to the left. He went to the fifteenth door, opened it, and went in. Jess looked at Elle and saw her nod. “We’re ready to go in.”

“We’ll be keeping the recorders on you. They know not to cause any problems.” The glass slid up into the ceiling and they stepped out into the space. The people close to the door saw them suddenly appear and they moved away. They didn’t show fear, just a healthy respect. Elle led the way and went to the door from where she had seen the young man enter. They knew the protocols didn’t call for knocking so Jess reached forward and pulled the door open. The young man was sitting in the room at a table with a young woman. She was standing behind him and was hugging his neck. They both jumped up and moved away as Jess and Elle stepped into the room.

Elle was barely able to contain herself. It was her brother. He was seventeen and had grown up to be a handsome young man. Jess looked at him and said, “What is your name?”

“John Moreland.”

The young woman said, “Mandy Brownlee.”

Jess stared at the young woman and suddenly recognized the young girl that had gone camping with his family. “Do you have any other’s here that have a family relationship with you?”

The young man looked at Mandy and said, “Yes we do.”

“Go get them and bring them here.” They started to leave and Elle pointed at the young man, “You will stay; she will get the others.” John nodded and Mandy left the room. “How long have you been here?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Do you enjoy being here?”

“Not really.”

“Why would you not like the space we have provided you?”

“A cage is still a cage; it doesn’t matter how you dress it up.”

Jess knew they were being recorded and if they didn’t start asking difficult questions, the observers might be suspicious. “If you were ever released from here, would you want to punish those that put you here?” Elle looked at him and saw him shake his head.

“That would be like getting angry at a star for causing sunburn; you’d be wasting your time to think you could do it any harm.”

“If you could harm them, would you?”

John stared at them and his eyes narrowed, “You bet your life I would.”

Elle said, “Do you have all of your family here?”

“No, my mother and older sister weren’t captured and brought here. I still miss them.”

Suddenly the door opened and Elle’s father and Jess’ parents and younger brother entered. Jess felt his heart hammering in his chest and Elle saw he wasn’t able to speak. She said, “Who are you.”

“I’m Joe Rollins and this is my wife Mary and our son Jacob.” Suddenly, the door opened again and Mandy entered with a young boy. Joe said, “This is our youngest son, George.”

Jess couldn’t bear seeing them. He stared at his youngest brother, whom he didn’t know existed, and said, “If just the ones in this room could be released, would you go?”

Joe shook his head, “I would not leave my close friends behind. Either release all of us or none of us.”

Jess stared at them and said, “Thank you for your time.” He took Elle’s arm and left the room. Elle wondered what he was doing but didn’t challenge him. They arrived at the door and it slid up. The guard said, “Now that was an interesting interview. I can see why you came.”

“We’ll be leaving now.”

“Do you know the way?”

“Yes.”

Elle walked with Jess and was starting to get angry but held her tongue. They turned the corner on the last hall and Jess drew his blaster and grabbed Elle’s hand as he started running toward the end of the hall. Jess said, “Pete, get us out of here now!”

“I’m docking with the facility.”

Elle looked at Jess as he activated his personal screen, went to a knee, and aimed his blaster up the hall, “They know who we are!” Ellie pulled her blaster and started to activate her personal screen as ten guards in spacesuits rounded the corner with blasters raised. They saw the single Neman and opened fire just as she disappeared. Jess hoped they wouldn’t use full power blaster beams; it would blow holes in the facility walls.

Elle dropped three guards with stun beams as Jess hit the others. Five guards rounded the corner with a heavy blaster on a mobile platform. Jess saw they were also in space suits and knew they were setting up to fire a full powered beam.

Suddenly the port flew open and Jess and Elle jumped into the landing bay, “Pete, leave the port open on the facility!” The Q ship disappeared and the open port caused explosive decompression. The mobile blaster was swept out the port along with all the guards.

The Q ship backed away from the facility and disappeared. Elle said, “Jess…”

Jess held up his hand and said, “Pete, convert to dark energy and go back to the facility.”

The Q ship suddenly appeared twenty miles from the facility and Elle turned to Jess. “I have ten Q ships arriving.”

Elle jerked her head toward the viewport and saw ten Q ships surrounding the moon. Elle turned to Jess, “How did you know?”

“The monitors in the ceiling; only one of them was active when we entered. I noticed all six were activated at the same time. That had to mean the interview was being watched by more than just those at the facility.”

Elle started shaking. Jess took her in his arms and said, “They now know they have our families.” She stared shivering from the sudden adrenaline rush and Jess pulled her closer. “They’re safe, Elle. They won’t do anything to them that would cause us to react.”