Lens of Time: Book 05 - Star Rover-The Worst of Time (8 page)

The farmer saw her getting ready to leave and indicated for her to wait for just a moment. He finally turned and said, “I am sorry for what happened before. I truly meant you no harm. I just love seeing you and found it difficult to let you leave. I apologize for what my behavior caused.”

“You apology is accepted.”

“Just a moment, Gresha; why do you not find me acceptable?”

Gresha turned and was stunned by the question. This beast couldn’t be serious. She then told him of all the cruel things she had witnessed. She finished saying she could never be attracted to one with such an evil heart. His attempt at having her killed by a Master only proved to her how evil he was.

The farmer and Gresha heard a door slam and they turned and saw the farmer’s son waving his arms. Gresha looked and saw everyone was running toward their homes and knew that the Masters had returned. She began to turn to run but the farmer grabbed her arm and held her in a vice like grip.

“LET ME GO!” The farmer saw many of those running away saw him holding Gresha’s arm and knew that he would pay a price for his actions. He gripped her arm with both hands and smiled wickedly at her. Gresha screamed, “You’ll die for this. Let me go!”

“I don’t care if I die as long as you die first.”

Dat looked at the sun and saw that it was too close to the horizon. Gresha would never make it home before dark. He turned and looked at the farmer’s evil smile and drew back his arm and hit him as hard as he could right between the eyes. The farmer’s head snapped back and his eyes glazed over. Gresha wrenched free just before he hit the ground. She turned and started running up the hill as fast as she could but she knew she’d never make it home before darkness fell.

• • •

The Farmer finally regained consciousness and felt himself lifted off the ground. He saw the Master holding him and knew Gresha was not going to die first. His neck was gripped so hard by the Master’s arm that it broke. His death happened faster than he deserved.

• • •

Dat ran behind her and decided to intervene. He extended the field twenty feet in front of him and ran until it was pushing Gresha in the back. Gresha felt someone pushing her from behind and glanced over her shoulder but didn’t see anyone. Her speed picked up and she was amazed at how fast she was moving up the hill. She arrived a hundred yards from her front door just as darkness descended and she picked up speed as she sprinted toward her home. Thirty feet away from her door a Master appeared in front of her and wrapped her up in four of its arms. It lifted her off the ground as two of its arms wrapped around her arms and legs while another wrapped around her neck to prevent her screams. The black creature’s three eyes were glowing red as its small mouth widened. Gresha was paralyzed with fear.

Dat saw the Master move in from the side of the building and knew Gresha was not going to make it. He almost fired on the Master but barely managed to restrain himself. This was a large Master. It had to be one of the largest he had seen in all the scans he had viewed. He didn’t know what made him do it but he moved to the left of the two and leaned an arm out against the building. He estimated he was forty yards from them and saw the Master start lowering Gresha to its chest. Dat turned off the Dark Matter Field and said, “Hey, Blacky!” The Master’s body whipped around while the arms holding Gresha remained in place. Dat said, “Yeah, you.”

The Master’s three eyes all focused on Dat, “You dare speak to me.”

“I don’t know any other way to get your attention. I’ve often wondered if you were all that and now I think I know you aren’t.”

Gresha could barely breathe but felt the powerful arm around her neck slacken just a little. She saw the young male leaning against the building and was just as shocked as the Master at what she saw.

Dat smiled, “You’re big and bad but you’re really not as bad as you think you are. You have to sneak up on those you kill. That’s the only way you can capture them. If anyone sees you coming, you couldn’t catch them.”

The Master’s eyes grew brighter and its body began a slight bobbing motion. “Do you wish to die that much?”

“Well, I guess if you called in the others to help you, I probably would but I don’t think you could do it alone. You’re just not fast enough to catch me.”

The Master forcibly threw Gresha aside and she slammed against her front door. Her father opened it and dragged her inside. Gresha struggled to her feet fighting the pain of hitting the door and put her ear to the door and listened. She had never seen that young man and he had just saved her life. Why would he do it? Her father stood over her and also listened in. Her mother huddled in the corner.

Dat watched the huge Master start bobbing faster and suddenly it issued a scream that permeated the entire community. Suddenly, Masters began running in and one of them approached Dat from behind. The large Master shouted, “Do not touch that one! That one is mine!”

The Master moved around Dat and joined the twenty Masters surrounding the obvious leader. The Master squealed to the others and all of them began bobbing up and down. They were obviously excited at what the leader had told them. The large black creature turned back to Dat and Dat said, “Do you honestly think they will stay out of this? If it even looks like I might escape, they’ll interfere.”

The Master’s head turned and it said in the inhabitant’s language, “If any of you interfere in any way with my pursuit of this meal, I will kill you myself.” The large Master looked at the others and they stopped bobbing when they were in his view. As soon as it turned back to Dat they started bobbing again. It was easy to see they were barely able to contain their excitement.

The Master looked at Dat, “If you are easily caught, I am going to kill you slowly. If you manage to make this worth my time, I’ll kill you quickly with no pain.”

Dat took his arm off the wall and turned sideways to the large black creature. One of those beside the Master raised one of its black arms and suddenly lowered it. Dat turned and sprinted down the street. One of the Master’s arms extended at an incredible rate. Three arms on the Masters body disappeared into its body and added their length to the one arm moving at Dat. Dat turned the corner and heard the arm hit the far wall of a residence. He sprinted up the avenue and activated the scanner function in his left ring. He saw in his mind the Master pull the arm back in and move up the street at a speed that was faster than Dat thought possible. It made the turn at the end of the block without slowing down and Dat knew that this was a chase for his life. If the Master had not extended his arm and had started immediately running he might have been close enough to grab him. But Dat was at full speed and he opened a gap between them as he ran up between the buildings lining the street. The squeals of the Masters rang out in the night and the inhabitants hiding in their homes wondered what was going on.

Dat saw in the overhead view of the community that he was rapidly approaching a dead end. He saw two streets moving in opposite directions and he decided to take the left one. A hundred yards ahead on that street was another street branching off that was not a ninety degree turn but a curved path. He turned right and looked over his shoulder and saw the Master had closed the gap. Boy it could turn fast! He sprinted and one of the Master’s arms shot forward and pulled a piece of his shirt away. Dat began opening the gap again as he bore into the curve and sprinted out into the next street. He forced himself to slow down slightly or he was going to be out of breath quickly. He maintained a smooth gait and saw the Master was not gaining on him. However, the next turn was going to be a real problem. He examined the overhead view and saw that just around the corner of one street on the left was a large pile of boxes. He knew the Master would make the turn without swerving and he sprinted left and added as much speed as possible. He heard the Master hit the boxes and he immediately turned up a small alley on the right. He sprinted up to the end of the alley, stopped, bent over, and tried to catch his breath. He watched the overhead and didn’t see the Master. He moved out of the alley into the middle of the street and waited for it to appear. Suddenly another Master standing close by started squealing. Dat looked at the squealing Master as four of the pursuing Master’s arms wrapped him up. Dat wasn’t lifted off the ground and no arm was put around his neck. The Huge Master turned to the Master that squealed and slammed two of his arms into its head which immediately splattered. “I SAID NO INTERFERENCE! I could have found him without your help. The Master put Dat on the ground and said, “You may move to the end of this street and we’ll start again.”

Dat saw the large Master was barely able to control his bobbing. It looked like a giant spider bouncing up and down on eight of its ten arms. Dat turned and walked to the end of the street gathering his strength. He turned and bowed. The Master looked at one of the others and it raised one of its arms and after a moment dropped it. Dat turned and ran.

The chase was now at twenty minutes and Dat knew he wasn’t going to last much longer. He pulled up the coordinates of Gresha’s home and saw it was a quarter of a mile away. He made three turns and each time the Master gained ground. The squeals were deafening but as he made one last turn he yelled, “OPEN THE DOOR!” He sprinted ahead and just as he arrived the door flew open and he dove into the entrance as the door slammed behind him. The Master had closed in and was moving at full speed when it hit the door and crashed it out of the opening and into the room. It pushed Gresha on top of him with the door landing on top of both of them.

Dat rolled over and saw the Huge Master standing in the doorway. The Other Masters had joined it and were surrounding the opening. Gresha’s father stood at the back of the room holding his wife and they all knew they were moments from death. Suddenly the Master started bobbing and shaking. Soon the others joined him and all of them looked like they were standing during an earthquake.

“You think I’m going to coming in and feed on you.”

Dat looked at Gresha seeing her fear and turned back to the Master, “It is what you do.”

“Ordinarily, I would do just that but you have earned another day. I haven’t enjoyed myself this much in more rotations than I can remember. We will do this again after I prepare myself for another chase. Three nights after the full moon I will return and we’ll try this again.”

Dat shook his head, “You really don’t need to do that. I was incredibly stupid. You are much more than I ever thought and only luck allowed me to survive. I admit that you are the most deadly of all creatures.”

“I’ll consider that when I catch you but you will run again.”

Dat thought furiously and said, “If I escape, will that be our last run?”

The creature stared at Dat and began bobbing, “You know just how to make it entertaining. Yes, and I’ll not allow any of those on my ship to harm you if you survive as long as we are here. I’ll even tell you when we leave. Of course my replacement will not honor any of my agreements.”

Dat stared at the Master, “You really don’t expect me to escape?”

“I’ve never had to run like this. It’s something I need to work on. However, no, you will not escape again.”

Gresha’s father said, “Will we be allowed to witness this event?”

The Master squealed his laughter, “Of course. I want you to see my victory. You may do it from the roofs. They will be off limits to us during this event. No one will be harmed that one night.” The Masters turned and walked away all of them bobbing their excitement. Their hoots and squeals could be heard all the way up to the moment they boarded their shuttle and closed the port.

G
resha’s father lifted the door off them and Gresha rolled over, sat up on her knees, and slapped Dat so hard that his head spun. “What was that for?”

“We could have both died! Never risk your life to save another from a Master!” Dat rubbed his cheek and Gresha wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him full on the mouth. Dat stared at her and she said, “That’s for saving my life.”

Dat looked at her father with a stunned expression and he shrugged, “Don’t try to understand. I gave up years ago.” He extended his hand and helped Dat stand up. Dat’s legs cramped and he was helped to a chair. Dat was rubbing his calf muscles and Gresha knelt down and began massaging them. The huge man said, “My name is Grest. I suppose you know my daughter, Gresha. This is my wife, Kyley; now who the heck are you?”

Dat sighed and tried to decide what to do. “Give me a moment.” Dat linked to his ship, “I thought you were going to seek authorization to save me?”

“No one could make up their minds so your orders stood. They’re still arguing about it.”

“Tell them I survived.”

“I did, now they’re fussing about not making a decision quickly enough.”

Dat shook his head as the three watched him. He decided to open the conversation where the others could hear it, “Stein, how did that shuttle get here without being seen?”

The three in the room looked at each other wondering who he was talking to. They sat down when they heard, “It jumped in just above atmosphere and that was the first time we detected it.”

“I guess the jump track was too small.”

“It was.”

“Stand by and we’ll discuss what to do next.”

“There won’t be much discussion. Fleet has decided to pull you out now.”

“And if that causes this planet to be burned?”

There was a long pause and then they heard, “Hang on. I’ll find out.”

Gresha continued rubbing his legs and stared at Dat, “What did you just do?”

“I spoke with my ship.”

“Are you talking about a spaceship?”

“I am.”

Gresh shook his head, “You’re not from this planet?”

“No, I’m actually not from this galaxy.”

Gresha put her hand to her mouth and said, “I kissed an alien?”

Dat shook his head, “It wasn’t that bad.”

Gresha smiled, “No, it wasn’t.”

Gresh blew out a breath, “What are you doing here?”

“I’ve decided to be open and honest with you but you must agree that whatever I tell you stays with just you and will not be repeated to anyone else.”