Kiya scrutinized Aarik further, after Sorr’s comment, and gasped out loud in shock at the growing pool of blood on the floor next to him, from a gash to top of his head. She wanted to run to him, but instead focused all her anger and sorrow on the bitch standing in front of her. Standing up, Kiya looked down on Sorr and said, “I’d like to say over my dead body, but you would be more than happy to make that happen, so instead I’ll tell you this; karma's a bitch and when I get the chance, I’ll make sure you meet her sooner rather than later.” Pausing to let her comment sink in, Kiya looked at a pretend watch on her wrist and said, “By my calculations, you have less than five minutes before Th’ael shows up. What’s your next move?”
“You do realize I am only trying to save humanity, right?” countered Sorr, as she tried to play the innocent victim.
“And how is that?” asked Kiya, placing her hands on her hips while she waited for Sorr’s excuse.
“By stopping him from executing a P.L.E.E.,” spit out Sorr, slowly enunciating each letter of the acronym.
Trying to distract Sorr from pursuing a cavity search, Kiya pushed for Sorr to elaborate and hoped it would buy her some time to come up with something, “P.L.E.E? Is that supposed to mean something to me?”
“If you live on this planet, it should mean everything to you. The world has seen six Planet Level Extinction Events, otherwise known as a PLEE, since this planet was colonized millions of years ago. Every time we get ahead, they wipe us out and we as a species are forced to start over. I plan on turning the tides and paying them back for all the setbacks the human race has endured. The only thing preventing me from fulfilling that mission is you.” answered Sorr with a sneer.
“Six? How in the world could you know that?” probed Kiya in astonishment.
“Governments around the world have had this knowledge for hundreds of years. We just choose to keep it undisclosed to prevent people from panicking. What use is it for people to know there is a possible threat to humanity if there is nothing we can do about it? Until now. You have the key to help the human race put a stop to the people that would just as soon have us eating daisies,” explained Sorr.
“I don’t have what you are looking for. Go ahead and do a cavity search but, again, you’ll only be wasting your time,” explained Kiya, shrugging her shoulders and holding her hands out for emphasis before she added, “Times ticking, what’ll it be? A pointless search….or perhaps we join forces and take out Th’ael and his men when they get here.”
“I don’t have time for this. Where is it?” demanded Sorr angrily.
“Even if you tortured me, I would never tell you!” retorted Kiya, crossing her arms to make a point.
“I believe you would break in the end, but as you pointed out so graciously, we don’t have time for that. Lucky for me, I have a feeling your loved ones won’t be able to handle seeing you writhing in pain. Which is too bad, I was looking forward to the show,” Sorr replied with a straight face before she pointed her gloved hand at Kiya and said, “Don’t stretch it out too long boys, but if you hurry, you might get one swing in before her family gives.”
Kiya preparing herself for battle, cried out loud when she heard Aarik’s voice in her head, Better late than never is what I like to say, and then she laughed when the men advancing on her froze mid-step. Sorr gasped in surprise and, pulling a gun from her jacket pocket, spun around and fired it toward Aarik.
Kiya screamed, “No!” as she watched the bullet rocket out of the gun in what seemed like slow motion towards Aarik, still lying on the ground.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
AARIK
“You should have killed me when you had the chance,” growled Aarik, as the cords binding them dropped away. Using his voice, he froze the bullet just before it struck him, and then swiped it to the ground as he stood and said, “Because now I’m just pissed.”
“You don’t know what you’re doing. If we don’t stop him or others of his kind now, then we will lose everything. We need to strike before he gets stronger,” pleaded Sorr, with the gun still pointing at Aarik.
“While I can appreciate your need to protect the human race, Killing innocent people, regardless of their species, is not appealing to me. Ever heard the saying...’two wrongs don’t make a right’? Kinda fitting in this instance, if you ask me. Drop the weapon, director. It’s useless against me,” Aarik answered, rising to his full height and taking a step in Sorr’s direction.
“Innocent? They don’t deserve to be called innocent people. You do realize they are the reason we are stuck on this planet. If they hadn’t been allowed to wipe us out each time we got ahead, we would be a much more advanced civilization. Take my word for it, we deserve to pay them back for every time they stomped us out,” argued Sorr, as she waved the gun around erratically.
Before Aarik had a chance to start the chant to immobilize Director Sorr, Kiya’s grandmother tapped the obnoxious woman on the shoulder and, when she turned around, proceeded to punch her in the nose, knocking her out. Afterwards she looked over at Kiya and said, “No one threatens my granddaughter and gets away with it.”
Kiya ran toward her grandmother and embraced her in a bear hug before she pushed her back and said, “Not that I’m not thankful and all, but you shouldn’t have put yourself in harm’s way, Grams. She could have shot you!”
“Nonsense. Give your Grams a little credit; I saw she wouldn’t have time to react. More importantly, I also saw the first wave of Th’ael’s men will arrive in the terra Locke shortly. Unfortunately, if we try and fight them off at this time we will not be successful so I have something up my sleeve. You two need time to figure out how you are stronger together rather than apart; which means there is no more time for this childish, petty, fighting between the two of you. Our time is short but know this, regardless of what you hear me say or do, just know everything I do is for you. I love you, child,” replied Grandma Tashina, as she cupped Kiya’s cheek and patted it softly before she turned to Aarik and added, “After we defeat the second wave of Th’ael’s men your energy will be gone. Instead, I need you to save a little in the tank and, on my cue, stop fighting. Then I need you to put your remaining energy into erecting a protective wall. It will ensure we are safe from Th’ael’s antics when he arrives.”
Aarik tried to argue that he had more energy than the last time they faced off against Th’ael and his men, but heard Tashina telepathically say, Trust me on this one. Get everyone behind you and shield them when I step in front of you. It’s the only way Th’ael will let Kiya live. He looked her in the eye and hoped he didn’t regret what he was about to say, “You heard the woman. Everyone get behind me and prepare to fight.”
Searching Kiya’s eyes as she approached him, he removed his flannel and draped it over her shoulders when she stopped in front of him. She shoved her arms into the shirt and, hugging herself, said, “I’ve never been so happy and scared at one time in my life? Are you ok? I mean, besides the lump on your head. Are you hurt anywhere else? Oh, and how’d the director get the jump on you?”
“Since we’re running out of time, I’ll give you a quick summary. Head wounds bleed a lot and look worse than they actually are. So yes, I’m fine. They tased me when we entered the auditorium and I hit my head on a rock when I landed. I feel sorry for the bloke who had to carry me in here.”
“You mean blokes,” corrected Taylor and Anna at the same time. They looked at each other with adoring eyes and out of the corner of his eye he saw their hands clasp together as they walked past him to stand behind him in solidarity.
“What should we do about Sorr and her men? Can we trust them to fight on our side?” Kiya questioned, as she grabbed a few Tasers off the guards and passed them to Taylor and Anna. When she finished, she moved to his left side and waited for the first wave of men.
“We’ll be able to trust them after I do a little mental persuasion. Someone tie up Sorr and lean her against the wall behind us while I quickly tap into the resources aroun
d here and add some muscle to our side,” responded Aarik, before he closed his eyes and entered the AZOK, looking for the right chant to control the guards’ minds’ all at once.
Repeating the words that came to him almost instantaneously, Aarik planted the command to eliminate the Ah’naki at all costs and prayed the decision to manipulate their minds didn’t bite them in the ass when they faced their opponents. He could hear the men approaching from the hallway and, opening his eyes, he faced his friends and said, “Hold nothing back. I’ll try and slow them down, but your main goal should be to incapacitate them as quickly as possible. We don’t want them to use their voices against us or the fight will be over before it even starts.”
When the first wave of men approached the threshold of the Portal room, all hell broke loose on both sides. Anna and Taylor took out the first two Ah’naki to enter the room with their Tasers, continuing to electrocute them until they collapsed on the ground, foaming at the mouth with convulsions. Sorr’s men opened fire on the advancing men, who used their voices to stop the bullets and brush them to the side. Spreading his hands like a ninja, Aarik gave a warrior’s cry and commanded four of Sorr’s men to guard Kiya before using his voice to freeze the room.
He hoped that, if he directed his spells towards anything other than the Ah’naki, they would have a harder time producing counterspells. Most people would assume there was only one way to freeze a room, but in fact there were multiple ways of getting the job done. Aarik was banking on that fact and hoped they were not familiar with the quantum mechanics of hydrogen dioxide. Manipulating the water in the air to form a lattice structure in the front half of the room, he was able to immobilize the few guards who had made it through the archway. This left a few free to undo Aarik’s work and free their friends.
Aarik didn’t have much of an offensive arsenal in his repertoire and scrambled to throw up the next spell as the men outside of the room quickly used heat to melt the ice holding their comrades captive and pushed farther into the room. Pulling from his chemistry knowledge, Aarik called for all the nitrous oxide, found naturally in the atmosphere, to gather around the Ah’naki. Encapsulating the laughing gas around their head in a bubble, Aarik couldn’t help but chuckle when the fight drained out of them and was replaced with uncontrollable laughter. As the gas took effect, they were unable to launch a counterattack and started dropping one by one into a deep sleep.
When the last one collapsed into a heap with a smile on his face, Aarik turned to face his friends, to see how they fared in the fight, and was surprised to find Sorr’s men caging Kiya between their arms. At first he feared his persuasion chant had failed, but realized they took his command a little too seriously. Tapping into their connection, he asked them to back off and guard her from a distance. When they took two steps back simultaneously, Kiya gave him the evil eye before she said, “Nice use of our resources! They could have helped you take some of those guys out and saved some of your energy! What was the point of that move?”
“I didn’t intend for them to crowd around you, if that is what you’re asking. I simply asked them to guard you. I can’t lose the love of my life for a second time in one day. It would kill me,” explained Aarik, as he held her gaze to make sure she understood how serious he was and how much she meant to him.
“That’s one of the sweetest things I’ve ever heard. I feel the same way about you, Aarik; but we’re supposed to be a team and I can’t do anything to help you when I’m behind a blockade of armed soldiers. We need to all work together, fighting against our common enemy, or you’re going to burn out before Th’ael gets here,” responded Kiya, with her hand over her heart.
“I make no promises when it comes to your safety, but I’ll be more specific about what I expect them to do if you are not in danger,” clarified Aarik, before he looked around Kiya at Tashina and telepathically said to her, I know she’s your granddaughter but this woman is my heart, so I’m basically trusting you with my life, without knowing what you plan to do. Please tell me you’re a hundred percent certain she’ll be unharmed. Even though I hate to admit it, and will probably never tell her, she’s right about needing everybody focused on the fight. But there will always be a small part of me that refuses to let her go unprotected.
Tashina teared up and with a big smile answered, The less you know the better but, if you follow my plan, she’ll be physically unharmed. Make sure you tell her you love her every day. She’ll need it now more than ever, but especially in the coming days; just as much as you’ll need her.
Her final comment almost sounded like a goodbye, but Aarik didn’t have time to question her further as the second wave of Th’ael’s men rushed towards the doorway, requiring his immediate attention. Calling out a warning he yelled, “Brace yourselves! If my senses are right, another ten men are approaching!” He took a fighting stance and motioned the men forward with his fingers when they came to a halt at the sight of their brethren littering the floor. They threw up a shield blocking the bullets, but when Taylor launched his Taser toward them it connected with the shield and short circuited it.
Aarik tried to take advantage of their surprise, attempting to suffocate them with laughing gas again, only to come up empty. He must have used up all of the natural nitrous oxide in the area and unfortunately didn’t have any ammonium nitrate to make more. Not wanting to waste energy on another lattice freeze, Aarik super cooled the air in the tunnel outside of the Portal room. The super cooled air was enough to turn the gaseous water molecules surrounding them into a liquid state, causing a microburst flash flood.
The Ah’naki were swept off their feet, and struggled against the flow of the water as it carried them away from the fight. Before they had a chance to recover, Aarik yelled, “Tasers won’t do any good in the water. Use your guns.” As they thrashed about, making them hard to hit, Aarik solidified the water, and prayed it would encapsulate most of them in a coffin of ice, leaving the rest to be picked off easily. Sorr’s men proved to be excellent marksman once they were frozen in place and they took out the remaining three with head shots.
Aarik thought they had cleared the second wave quickly and when Kiya’s friend, Audrei, walked toward the door, he didn’t think twice to stop her until it was too late. She turned to face Kiya with a crazy look in her eye and cackled before she picked up a knife from one of the fallen Ah’naki and slit her throat. Kiya screamed out in sorrow, “No! Why?” as she watched her new friend drop to the ground. When Audrei realized what she had done, the panic in her eyes drained with the ebbing of her blood. Kiya moved to run to her side, before Aarik instinctively pulled her back into his arms, just as an Ah’naki female walked into the doorway, kicking at Audrei as she passed, and said with a purr, “Traitors like her deserve no less. It seems you’ve been busy in here. I’m sure Th’ael would be impressed. Not as much as he’ll be with me when I single-handedly bring him the crystal.”
Aarik threw out all of the offensive chants he knew to stop her from advancing towards them, but nothing seemed to work, she was using a defensive shield and had no plans of stopping until she was close enough to cut them down with the long sword gripped in her hands. Without warning, Tashina stepped in front of Aarik, distracting the woman’s attention when she held up the crystal and then placed it under her boot heel and said, “I have what you are looking for, but I’ll destroy it right now if you take another step closer.”
Aarik, completely amazed at the guts the old woman portrayed, completely forgot to put up a protective shield until Tashina interrupted his thoughts when she gently reminded him to not put her granddaughter at risk, My plan will only work if you do what you were told.
Aarik erected a protective shield and held Kiya tighter as she struggled to get to her grandmother. Looking up at him she said, “What are you doing. Your shield doesn’t include my Grams. Push it out further!”
Tashina looked back at Kiya and said, “He’s only doing as he was told; which proves he’ll be a good man for you. I appro
ve. I love you, Kiya.”
She turned back to the Ah’naki female and said sweetly, “Maybe if I strand you and your people here for eternity, you’d want to work with us towards advancement instead of world annihilation since you wouldn’t have another way. Maybe not. Just a thought.”
“Hand it over, old woman. Trust me when I say I’d have no problem killing you before you were able to do any damage to the origin crystal.”
“You willing to risk it? I’m pretty sure your boss would be disappointed if you were the cause of the crystal’s destruction. I could be wrong, but I doubt it. Why don’t you ask him? He just arrived in the terra Locke and will be here momentarily.” countered Tashina, resting her hands on her hips in challenge.
Kiya beat her fists against Aarik’s chest and said, “Let me go. You don’t understand. She’s all I have left.”
“No, that’s not true. You have me. Do you think she would really sacrifice herself? She said she saw everyone coming out of it alive if we followed her lead. Do you trust her?” responded Aarik, and when Kiya nodded her head yes and placed her arms around his neck he added, “Let’s give it a shot and if she’s wrong then I’ll pull her back through the shield, but you said it yourself….she’s never wrong. Right?” Aarik whispered into Kiya’s ear.
“Not yet at least,” replied Kiya quietly.
“And I won’t fail today either,” added Tashina, over her shoulder, before she stood to her full height when Th’ael entered the room dramatically.
Cities of the Forgotten Page 17
