Extinction (Extraterrestrial Empire Book 1) Page 18

  Ivan took out Yogi and tied him to his vest. He then threw his pack and flamethrower tanks down into bushes near the deck. Ace nodded and ran to the other deck. He jumped across the ten-meter gap like a deer on steroids. He made it across, landing a little roughly. He attached a grenade to the rope and threw it across. Ivan caught it like a Major League outfielder and smiled at Tucker. “When Ace throw you ball, don’t drop it because it might go boom boom.” Ivan tied the rope around his waist and ran as fast as he could and jumped. He got about halfway, but Ace was ready. He gave a hard tug with his enhanced arms and pulled Ivan up onto the other platform.

  After untying the rope, Ace threw the rope with the grenade attached to Tucker. Tucker looked like a Little League baseball player trying to make the catch of his life. As the grenade hit Tucker’s hands, he fumbled it. It bobbled in the air for a half-second, but Tucker caught it and held it like a golden egg. He smiled and gave a nervous thumbs up.

  Ivan looked at Ace. “You used smoke grenade, not explosive, right?”

  “For you, Ivan, yes. For Tucker, well … let’s just say it’s a good thing he caught it.”

  Ivan smiled and Ace laughed as Tucker ran across the platform. Ace timed his descent and gave a tug and pulled him up just like he did Ivan. Tucker’s face was pale but he nervously smiled. “I did it.”

  As the men moved along, the DAVs continued to swoop down and shoot at targets, but a crazy with an RPG got in a nice shot and took one of them down, not too far from Ace and the team. Some of the metalized men seemed to be staring at their location.

  “Yogi says we gonna have company,” said Ivan.

  “Shit,” said Ace. “Follow me down this path.”

  The three men jumped down into a wooded and bushy area. Ace looked at his position locator and rushed through the woods. He was careful not to run too quickly, knowing that Ivan and Tucker were having a hard time keeping up. When they came to a clearing, Ace spotted a hill near some mountains. He looked at the map and spoke. “According to Tucker’s map, up over the hill and in that valley should be the FalconX shuttle.” The men continued to walk up the hill. Near the top, Ace pointed ahead toward the valley at a reflection.

  “I see it. That’s it!” said Tucker, pointing his hands in the air. “We just need to get around some rocks.”

  “Keep moving,” said Ace, picking up the pace.

  After ten minutes, they made it to the bottom of the hidden valley. In the distance was the FalconX shuttle shining under the Kabbalah’s orange sun.

  “Excellent,” said Ace. “Let’s get our ride outta here.”

  A few minutes later, all three men stood near the door. Tucker typed in a code and it opened. Tucker turned his head away and smiled back at Ace and Ivan. “We’re good to go.”

  As Tucker smiled back at Ace and Ivan, three shiny, metallic men appeared from the cargo bay door. They’d arrived earlier and were hiding inside. Before they could lift up their laser side arms, Ivan shot at the men, getting one in the head, who fell dead. The two other quickly jumped to the ground, with one hitting Ivan in the head. He fell into a group of rocks, dazed.

  Ace clobbered the first metal man in the head with a crushing blow, denting its head, but the robot-like man quickly turned and swung its metal arm at Ace. Ace blocked it and punched with his right. He hit the chest area, indenting more metal. Sparks erupted and a liquid oozed out. The robot dropped, but the second hybrid robot—or whatever it was—swung and hit Ace in the shoulder. Pain rippled through Ace’s body.

  Ivan, although on the ground, kicked the robot’s feet out from under him and the robot fell next to his dead partner. It gave Ace time to turn and grab the metal man’s head. Ace twisted and twisted until the head broke off. Wires and cables became detached.

  The head rolled over to Ivan, who picked it up like a bowling ball and inspected the face. “I think robot man lose control of his head.”

  Ace looked at the thin, gold-plated wires and the black ooze coming out of the dead robot’s head. Inside appeared to be a mixture of brain matter with glowing crystals and circuits. “That’s some strange shit. Look, we’d better get the fuck outta here.” Ace looked over at Tucker “These guys got our number. I’m sure there’s more on their way, since you gave your hair stylist the location.”

  “I did what I had to do,” said Tucker, glumly.

  “Let’s get outta here and back to the Aurora … but we’re gonna need to stay away from that particle weapons or our ass is fried.”

  Tucker inspected the robot head. “We should bring the robots back. I think they’re Dream World technology. They should have a recording in their heads of everything that goes on here. The Aurora … and Earth Command could use the data.”

  “Yogi says it is bad idea. Robot man bad,” said Ivan.

  “I know,” said Ace. “But Tucker’s right, there’s data in those heads. Load ’em up and put them in the shuttle’s containment cases.”

  Ace, Tucker, and Ivan loaded up the broken robots. They then got ready to lift off and head out toward the Aurora.

  The end of one world is the beginning for another.

  — Intergalactic Message from the ‘O’

  16

  _________

  Danger of Extermination

  Kiya couldn’t get the explosion of the EyeStar out of her mind. The grey, oily smoke spewed out like a mini-volcano behind the red sand mountains. It was a constant reminder of how close she’d come to dying herself.

  Oh my God! Did this really happen? Why? What the hell did this?

  Kiya ran in shock, her mind encased in a closed time bubble within her own brain space. She’d entered a new world, a place we all experience some time in our lives when things get real bad. Some called it shell shock, a switch turned on from millions of years of human evolution that triggers a survival “fight or flight” mode. Kiya calmed her primal fear and stopped running, regaining her composure. Feelings of guilt hit her like a rock on a windshield. Even though she knew it wasn’t her fault, she cursed herself for pressuring everyone to scramble out. It was Ace’s orders and the ride should have been safe, but life can bring danger at any moment.

  The destruction and fear reminded Kiya of her grandmother Mieko’s stories and videos of Fukushima, Japan after the earthquake and tsunami of 2011. One day, her grandmother and grandfather were out on the coast, enjoying the beautiful ocean; the next day, her grandfather and others were dead from a sixty-foot tsunami. Grandma Mieko was in Tokyo shopping, so she survived, but in reality you never totally “survive” if you lose someone so close. Mieko moved in with her brother Hideki, who was considered one of the lucky ones, as he lived on a farm in town … until the local nuclear plant, devastated by the ocean damage, started spewing out radioactive gases. Hideki later committed suicide with a simple note that said: “Our farm is contaminated; our vegetables and milk are poisoned. My life is finished.” Hiking back alone to GEN-6, Kiya cursed herself afresh.

  How did I not see the weapons? I should have stopped and taken the time to remote view the situation. Then I would have surely seen the trouble.

  As Kiya made it safely past the dead spider animals, she tried to calm down, to get into the zone where she could see things, sense things. She sat on a hot rock and put her head into her hands and slowed down. She knew fear was the enemy. It made people make rash decisions. It reduced your telepathic IQ and made remote viewing virtually impossible. You had to be one with the world, and relax. Keeping the horrid thoughts of Janice and the others dying out of her mind was difficult. Thinking about the sleaze ball, Dr. Mitchell, didn’t really bother Kiya, but the deaths of the others burned in her heart.

  Relax, use your mind … you can get out of this situation.

  Kiya hit her comm for the second time and got the same result. It was still being jammed. Use your mind, Kiya … use the things you trust.

  Kiya sipped on some lukewarm water. The stench of the dead spider zone gnawed at her stomach, but the water helped. She
was near GEN-6, only about a hundred yards away … but should she enter? That’s where all the crazies lived. Was that really the direction to go now?

  She closed her eyes and remote viewed to see where Ace was going; she had to meet up with him. But she saw in her mind that he was already out of the facility. She was sure of that. There were bombs and shots being fired in the distance, confirming her view into the situation. In the air, she saw a remaining remote drone. It was still looking for targets.

  He must be using a DAV kill-on-command! Oh shit!

  Without a transponder, she would become a target. How do I get to him without getting killed by that drone, or the crazies? Kiya knew the drone might reverse around and pick her off on the east side, so she had to act quickly. She couldn’t just hide in the GEN-6 facility, could she? Alone with all the crazies? When the nukes came, the base would be blown to bits. What could she do? As Kiya tried to relax and think, she picked up a strong but strange telepathic communication.

  The internal voice spoke softly, almost robotically: Ms. Kiya, do not proceed toward your friend. It is too dangerous. Enter into the facility and meet me at location you call ‘LAB3’.I will be waiting … and for transparency purposes, I will send you a thought image of my description and my plan. I know you will understand once you see it.

  Kiya suspected this might be a telepathic, infected scientist, yet she knew that human linguistic structure was limited to the specially wired patterns of the brain. During her studies of telepathy and language, Kiya had learned that the human mind was genetically built with certain structures that could not be changed. It was like New York City; you could go east, west, north, or south, but you were essentially on an island, and limited to the roads available. The true telepathic mind was like turning your car into an airplane, in that you could leave your earlier course and travel to New Jersey via air travel—but if you weren’t careful, you might land in a bad section of Newark where people would steal your tires.

  The telepathic alien pushed some deep images into Kiya’s head. She clearly saw a Grey alien, an EBE-C3. He or she (or “it”) sent another image, or a thought pattern, that embedded into Kiya. It explained the situation at hand, according to the alien’s analysis. And that analysis said that she and the alien needed to destroy the base at all costs, and that the infected aliens were growing stronger by the minute. Kiya hoped and prayed that she was not parking in a broken-down section of Newark, and that the link was genuine.

  In any case, she made up her mind and went toward GEN-6. She had the map of where the alien was hiding ingrained in her head from the message and used it to avoid the crazies. But the whispering voices now inside her head were troublesome. The alien virus was creating a group of telepaths, a hive of thoughts, and they were getting stronger and stronger. Eventually, they would find her and the alien.

  Somehow, Kiya had to contact Ace. She would try that soon, once safely inside GEN-6. But like life, Kiya knew things were by no means safe—in fact, if the alien was correct, the Milky Way Galaxy and all her inhabitants were in danger of extermination.

  ***

  Kiya hid under the cover of a reddish sandstone rock formation, eyeing the killer DAV through her auto-magnification technoculars. She watched as it methodically, robotically dropped cluster bombs on moving construction vehicles and groups of armed Nomads. For those not in the open killing fields, the DAV swooped down like a buzzing, mechanical hawk and focused its laser targeting, ten-millimeter gun turret. Ten minutes of terrorizing destruction slowed as the DAV ran low on ammo and targets.

  Eventually, a crazy blew up the DAV with a rocket launcher, which proved convenient to Kiya. She left the cover of the rocks and double-timed it to the broken mountain entrance. The alien map now imprinted in her mind was quite convenient, helping her find shortcuts though cabling and pipe tunnels—a route much safer than the crazy-infested hallways.

  She finally entered LAB3 through an air vent. There was sound up ahead, so she pulled her sidearm and peeked into the dimmed laboratory. In a dark corner was a slender Grey alien typing away on a computer console. He didn’t look back but spoke telepathically to Kiya.

  If I was dangerous to you, don’t you think that I would have set a trap much earlier ... Ms. Kiya?

  “Please, just call me, Kiya. I know you’re trying to be polite, but it’s not necessary… I trust you,” said Kiya aloud, putting away her sidearm.

  We don’t have vocal chords, so you’ll excuse me if I speak telepathically. The alien turned around and slowly stood.

  “I don’t mind, but it’s easier for me to speak and think, as long as you are picking up my thoughts.”

  I am picking them up, so please continue to speak naturally. Allow me to explain the situation to you, Kiya, and how I think we can destroy this base before it’s too late for all of us. We will need the help of the Aurora, as my ship had to self-destruct. Please allow me to push a download of information. It will be quicker, but somewhat painful … we do not have a lot of time. If you resist the download, it will fail, as your mind is strong—not like the other humans we’re encountered.

  “So, you are the Greys that we read about who abduct people and delete their memories. The ones doing experiments. Can I really trust you?”

  Trust requires time and experience. I don’t expect you to trust me, but when you see that two plus two equals four, you don’t need trust because you see truth. I will slowly try to show you some truth on this computer, and then I will ask that you allow me to upload some critical information regarding our situation. Then it will be imperative that you contact the Aurora and get their assistance.

  “The Aurora is being jammed. I cannot contact them. Plus, some nukes are on their way. In ten minutes, we’ll both be dead, along with this base. So your worries about this alien menace are not necessary … other than we’re pretty much both dead.”

  Ah, but that is not completely true, for this species recently built a laser defense system and will shoot down your missiles. It was used to destroy your shuttle. Although that is unfortunate, you are strong enough to warn your ship and find another method to destroy this place—and you must succeed, or all is lost. Please look at my analysis on this computer and allow me to pass embedded thoughts for our mutual benefit.

  Kiya walked over to the computer and started reading, looking at charts and summaries on the alien virus research. She slowly started to understand. Yes, the alien was correct … they had to work together. “Fine, start your telepathic upload, and if I feel the truth, I will continue.”

  Good, replied the alien closing his eyes and burning a telepathic link into Kiya’s head.

  ***

  As Ace brought Tucker and Ivan onto the bridge of the Aurora, he saw a mind flash of Kiya; she was cold and in a dark room. She looked up at Ace and begged: “I’m still alive! You gotta get me outta here, please Ace!”

  Ace shook his head and got the crazy image out of his mind, then stood quietly outside the elevator deck waiting for the captain talk to him. Karr was only about forty-five, but he looked older. There were stress lines on the sides of his eyes with two dark, tired spots under each eye. Times must have been tough on the Aurora, too.

  Captain Karr looked over at Ace and the men and put up his pointing finger, asking quietly for a moment while he finished a conversation with the XO. The “conversation” looked more like complaints about the speed of repairs. Ace overheard that some unknown, land-based particle weapon took out the orbiting nuclear cruise missiles. If sending in the nukes from orbit proved ineffective, the Aurora would instead have to send in a team of fighters to drop the nukes—but with the alien particle weapons, it might be a suicide mission. Ace was frustrated by the situation, and he was sure the captain shared the feeling.

  Losing Kiya and the team really hit him hard. We should just destroy this fuckin’ place. It was just like losing his mother again, but this time it felt worse. He felt like he could have really done something about Kiya. It was a strange feelin
g, but there was something about her.

  Something told Ace Kiya was still alive, just begging him to save her. It was all crazy thoughts, but Ace felt he could “sense” her. Stop the crazy thoughts or you’ll end up in sick bay.

  Karr walked up to Ace and forced a stressed smile. “We knew this would be a bugger. Glad to have you guys back. It’s a real tragedy about the others. I really don’t look forward to the calls back home to the families.”

  “Sir, I’d like you to put Chip Tucker under arrest for endangering my men and for lying to us about this mission. He’s a BOT spy and tried to sneak out the virus.”

  Tucker cut in. “That might all sound treasonous, captain, but I can assure you that I was under Earth Command’s instructions. We have a Dream Land base. It’s top secret. Please confirm with them before locking me up. We didn’t plan on endangering this ship. I had my own way off the planet so you wouldn’t get involved.”

  “Get involved? What the hell? You had some side mission that you couldn’t tell me? I’m captain of this ship and in charge of the mission. Is what Major Archer is saying true, Tucker?”

  Tucker looked like he was grinding his teeth in frustration. “Listen, Captain, if you check with Earth Command, you’ll see that I’m under orders—secret orders.”

  “Security, put this man under arrest until I—”

  “You’re making a mistake! We need this virus to save us from the Greys!”

  “Security, take this man away!”

  Tucker tried to pull away from two stocky security officers, but soon gave up and was on his way to the brig.

  Karr pointed to his captain’s lounge. “We need to talk.”

  Ace and Ivan followed the captain to his private quarters.