Trapped in Time-Extinction (29 page)

He felt the ship move slightly as the ramp was extended from the landing bay to the ground. He looked at the wall monitor and saw Grandel exit the ship with four hundred warriors, all of them were carrying heavy blasters. He saw the force field drop as they moved away from the ship and then snap back in place once they were clear. He turned back to the Navigator’s monitor and watched as they moved toward the entrance to the settlement.

• • •

Mat held Harmony’s hand and watched the white ship moving toward them. He saw the shimmering field around the giant ship and sent a thought to his warriors, “If that shimmering below the ship doesn’t disappear, get out from under it!” His four hundred warriors moved under the slowly descending starship and saw the shimmering field moving toward them.

The field was just fifty feet above them when it suddenly vanished. All four hundred warriors had moved to the outer edge of the ship’s shadow but moved back under the ship when the force field disappeared. They moved under the six huge landing struts that extended below the vessel and waited for it to land. The landing wheels flexed as they absorbed the giant’s weight and many of the warriors were forced to fall to the ground to avoid being hit. The wheel struts straightened and the Stealth Warriors moved directly under the center of the ship and waited. After ten minutes they heard a whine on the right side of the ship and they rushed over toward the source of the noise, as a long ramp began extending from the hull. Mat raised his arms and his warriors remained behind the ramp. Six warriors rushed out from under the ship toward the ramp.

Harmony watched the four hundred aliens marching down the ramp and recognized their leader. All the other Stealth Warriors were shocked at the alien’s appearance, but she had been seeing them for months and they no longer seemed strange. Like Humans, they varied in height and size. Some were over six feet tall and others slightly over five feet. Some were thin, other fat, and most of them lean muscled. The also had two arms and two legs, although the hands had a thumb and three fingers. They were light brown in color and looked the same shade as some humans of Spanish descent. They had black hair but it was short and only covered the top of their heads, ending at the level of their two small ears. Their eyes were round, without lids, but didn’t seem to be out of place. The nose was just a slight bulge above their mouth, which was more of a lipless line. From a distance, they could be confused with humans. She watched them march toward the city in formation and decided that it would have to be a long distance. Their walk was not like a human’s. It was like…she couldn’t think of an analogy.

The last alien walked off the ramp and the shimmering appeared around the ship. Six warriors had run up the ramp along the ramp’s outer edges as the aliens marched down it and entered the huge landing bay before the last alien warrior had left. They gathered at the door with their camouflaged red blasters raised. One of the aliens standing at the door controlled the ramp and door. As one of the Stealth Warriors moved close to him, the other five scattered out into the landing bay. Zam watched the alien lift his hand toward a panel of blinking lights and he put his blaster against the alien’s back and pulled the trigger. The alien staggered and Zam grabbed him and held him up. Darn, he weighed more than he looked. He stared over his shoulder out of the landing bay and saw sand moving at the base of the ramp. He felt air move as the rest of the Stealth Warriors rushed on board past him. Gordon moved with his command to the right toward the stern of the starship as Olivia moved with another group of warriors toward the aliens working in the landing bay. Mat moved to the left with Harmony and ten other warriors.

Harmony had been in the alien’s mind as it had reached to raise the ramp and close the door. She sent the process to Zam and he pushed a gold colored button on the panel in front of him. The ramp began moving into the ship and once it was in the hull, a yellow light started flashing. Zam pressed it and the huge landing bay door began closing. There were forty aliens working in the landing bay and thirty of Olivia’s stealth warriors moved out and stopped close to where they were working.

Harmony closed her eyes and began sending directions to Gordon’s Warriors as they moved toward the stern. They moved out of the landing bay and scattered through the ship. She looked at Mat and turned right as she left the landing bay. Mat and the ten warriors followed her as the other members of Mat’s unit went left to seek out any aliens in the bow of the ship. Mat and ten other warriors followed Harmony and ran to keep up with her as she moved through the ship toward the bridge. Mat hoped his warriors weren’t discovered before they could reach the bridge. This ship had intruder defenses that could spell disaster to him and his warriors if they were discovered before they arrived at the bridge.

• • •

It was Rory that discovered the red blasters could be used to stun instead of kill. There was a juvenile Raptor that had slipped into the fields and was feasting on the small herbivores that came in at night to eat the delicious plants. Rory didn’t want to kill the juvenile but he knew that it would grow to be deadly pretty fast if he left it alone. It would run from humans because they were so much larger, but that wasn’t going to hold it back much longer. It had actually been an excellent tool at controlling the plant eaters but it was just too big to ignore any longer.

Rory went into the fields wearing his camouflage and began hunting the Raptor. He finally found it resting under a tree near the edge of the field. He saw it was close to six feet long and raised his red blaster. The young raptor rolled over on its back and stuck its feet in the air. Rory found this incredibly funny. He shook his head and had a thought. He took out a small blade and put it in the notch on the bottom of his blaster and turned it all the way to the left to its weakest setting. He raised the blaster and fired it at the Raptor. The Raptor’s feet fell instantly to the ground and it didn’t move. “What the heck?” Rory called for help and five other warriors came out of the field and joined him at the Raptor.

Sam looked at the Raptor and shook his head, “What did you do to it?”

“I shot it with my blaster on its weakest setting.” The six stared at the Raptor who was breathing regularly and lying on the ground with its eyes closed.

Sam shook his head, “Well, you didn’t kill it.”

Rory stared at the young carnivore and said, “Give me a hand.” The six carried the Raptor to the wall and put it down on the ground outside the gate. Rory closed the gate and went to the top of the wall to watch the Raptor. The warriors went back to work and Rory waited. After three hours, the Raptor opened its eyes and tried to stand. It took a few minutes before it could get to its feet and another minute before it could run away. Rory watched it disappear into the forest and went to tell Andy what he had discovered; the red blaster was also a stun device.

• • •

Zam turned around and leaned against the wall with his arms wrapped around the alien’s chest. He took a deep breath, it was starting to really get heavy. He slid along the wall until he moved out of view behind some large containers where he dropped the alien gently to the floor and stepped out to watch the landing bay. So far, none of the aliens working in the bay had noticed what had happened. He prayed no one would miss him before Mat arrived at the bridge. Then, his fear was realized, a large alien was walking toward him from across the landing bay. He was obviously walking with a purpose and he had to be coming to check on the missing alien. Zam shook his head and stepped away from the containers and waited for it to arrive.

• • •

The work supervisor looked at the landing bay door and said, “Where is that lazy Megit?”

Another alien looked across the bay and shook his head, “He might be taking a break.”

“When we have warriors on the ground. I’ll break him in half!”

The alien shook his head and knew Negle had messed up big time. He went back to work on the converter while shaking his head. The supervisor arrived at the door and looked around. He didn’t see Negle until he looked over behind the power packs. The lazy Megit was taking a nap! He walked over and grabbed Negle by the front of his uniform and immediately collapsed on top of him. Zam holstered his blaster, moved the big supervisor off the top of the first alien, and prayed for Mat to make it to the bridge. Another alien was standing up and looking toward him.

• • •

Harmony was scanning the ship as she led Mat toward the bridge and so far nothing had gone awry. She glanced at the landing bay in her mind and saw trouble was about to happen. She raised her hand and motioned forward as she started sprinting up the long corridor. She raised her blaster to stun three aliens who were in rooms just off the corridor as she passed. Mat and the ten Stealth Warriors ran behind her and they arrived at the entrance to the bridge just as an alien was going through the portal. Harmony rushed in behind him and fired her red blaster at the Navigator. Mat shot the alien that had just entered the bridge as the other warriors ran in behind them and fired at the other twenty members of the bridge crew. The only one left standing was the Regent and he looked around in shock as the crew fell out of their chairs to the floor. Harmony sent a thought out to the other warriors on board, “We’ve taken the bridge!”

Five hundred aliens scattered aboard the starship were immediately hit by red stun beams. Two aliens that were in the ships eating facilities were confronted by a warrior who pulled his head cover off and pointed a blaster at them. They screamed as all the other aliens in the huge room fell to the deck. Harmony sent a thought to the two aliens and said, “If you want to live, you will come to the bridge immediately. We don’t want to kill your mate but if you refuse to come, we’ll do it.”

The female and her son looked around and saw fifteen other heads suddenly appear in the large room. The strange being pointing an obvious weapon at her, pointed toward the entrance to the huge room, and she stood up, took the small alien’s hand, and walked out.

• • •

The Regent was shocked and moved toward the Navigator to see what had happened to him. He suddenly heard in his mind, “Don’t move any closer or I’ll be forced to stun you!”

The Regent stopped and looked around the bridge. “Who are you?”

“We’ve taken control of your ship. We’re going to need you to help us but I will stun you unconscious if you take one more step toward that chair.”

The Regent’s eyes narrowed and he felt his anger rise. He focused and swept the room with the mind beam. He waited a moment and then heard, “Your new weapon doesn’t have any effect on us.” The Regent suddenly saw a head appear ten feet from him and then ten others a moment later. The first head suddenly showed a body as the being pulled something down off its chest. It was one of the beings from the settlement. He was going to make a rush for the chair to activate the intruder defenses when he saw his mate and son enter the bridge followed by one of the beings holding a weapon on them. “Regent, we don’t want to kill you but we will do it if you force it on us. The first ones to die will be the two that just entered the bridge.”

The Regent’s mate and son ran across the bridge and wrapped their arms around him, which prevented him from being able to move. He looked at the being and shook his head.

A
ndy watched the four hundred aliens entering the gate and was feeling his frustration start to rise. “Where was…”

“Dad, we’ve taken the ship!”

Andy blew out a quiet breath and looked at Linnae sitting on the wall beside him. He raised both arms over his head and lowered them. The four hundred warriors lying prone on top of the walls saw him and picked out their assigned targets.

• • •

Grandel led his warriors through the gate and pointed left and right. The aliens ran into the clearing and surrounded the human bodies lying on the sand. They quickly formed a semi-circle around them as they covered the bodies with their shoulder blasters.

Andy waited until the alien leader motioned one of them forward who was not carrying a weapon. The four hundred alien warriors were obviously nervous and on edge. The alien stepped forward carrying a metal case and when he was twenty feet from the human warriors lying in the sand, Andy raised an arm and quickly lowered it.

On the wall behind the aliens, Rory and Johnathan moved behind a large stone ball that was covered by camouflage material. They put their shoulders against it and pushed. The ball slowly moved forward and then fell off the wall toward the ground ten feet below. Rory and John fell prone on the wall and kept their heads down.

Grandel heard a loud thump behind his warriors and every alien in the line whipped around and fired their blasters in the direction of the noise. The two hundred fliers on the wall with Andy and Linnae raised their red blasters and fired on the four hundred aliens. They fell to the ground in an instant and didn’t move. Andy stood and yelled, “Everyone up. Disarm them and move them against the wall.”

Andy looked at Linnae who nodded, “They’re unconscious.”

Andy nodded and thought, “Harmony, what’s your status?”

“We have the Regent and his family still conscious. All the others on board have been stunned.”

“I’m sending warriors to assist you in moving them to the wall with the ones we have here. Please escort the leaders here.”

Harmony looked at the Regent and thought, “You and your family will come with me.” The Regent stared at her and she could feel his rage. “I don’t intend to harm you or your family unless you force it on me. We could have killed you earlier but we didn’t. No one on your ship has died and I hope we can keep it that way. However, you will follow my orders.”

“Or what?”

Harmony shook her head, “Why does it always have to come down to threats?” Harmony looked at Mat and he walked forward, pulled the young alien away from his father, and carried him screaming out of the room. The Regent snarled and Harmony said, “Why don’t we follow your child.” The Regent felt something pushed into his back and his snarl disappeared when he saw his mate pushed slightly forward as well. “Follow me, please.”