“Push,” he yelled.
They lunged into the lid, grunting and moaning. Ozzy cringed, pushing with all his might. Sweat formed on his forehead and temple, and if he looked in a mirror, he figured he’d see his face was red with veins popping out of his neck.
Yet, the lid wouldn’t move.
They stopped for a moment.
Zeld rested against the crate, and Ozzy leaned over with his hands on his knees. He exhaled sharply and picked up the tablet. “Wait a minute. The Athapaskan were—”
“Native Americans that lived on what used to be the Western North American continent,” chimed in Zeld. “They were said to be one of the oldest tribes in the world and once visited by the Lemurians before war destroyed the Lemurian continent and sank it into the Pacific Ocean.”
Ozzy nodded in agreement. She knew her mythology. “Enki must have had an outpost near the Athapaskan Tribes. That’s where Jozi is picking up the energy signatures. Athapaskan is one of the portal destinations on this tablet, and to get to the portal device inside this crate we need to—”
“Do what the Athapaskan did and chant,” Zeld said. “All the cultures referenced on the tablet were well known for chanting.”
“Stop interrupting me.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, gorgeous. Did I hurt your little feelings?”
Ozzy ignored her. “Let’s chant.”
“Well, what in Mars’s dump pit did they chant?”
“No idea.” He pressed his hand against the crate. A bright light blasted from it, shining up and through the long and wide crack in the ceiling.
Ozzy jumped back. “Uh oh.”
The light brightened.
“Turn that off,” shouted Zeld.
Ozzy threw his gloved hands on the crate, trying to block the light from shooting through the hole in the roof and notifying the Dunrakee of their location.
The light slowly faded and turned off.
“You got some magic powers or something?”
Ozzy shook his head. Maybe it was the bloodline coursing through his veins that was activating everything he touched in here.
“Ozzy,” yelled Jozi through his helmet’s com line. “Whatever you did down there alerted the Dunrakee. Their ships have turned around and are heading toward us as we speak.”
Shit.
Now what? Keep pushing on the lid hoping it would pop off?
The ground rumbled.
A light flashed through the opening in the roof, beaming on the floor and onto Zeld and Ozzy.
Their shadows spread far behind them, bending up a rock wall.
A beam of red light targeted Ozzy and was fixed on his radiation visor. He jumped out of the way.
The red light expanded in width and formed a grid, covering Ozzy and Zeld.
It blinked off.
A large cruiser appeared overhead, shaking the ground where Ozzy stood. A portion of the underbelly opened, and a blue haze appeared. Ropes dropped from the belly and hung all the way to the floor.
Zeld went to push on the box’s lid. Ozzy shoved her away. “Wait, I see it.”
On the top of the lid was a hieroglyph he recognized. It was a door laying on its side, and in ancient Egyptian lore, for some odd reason they used that glyph as “open”.
“I think I have it.” He pressed his finger on the heiroglyph. The lid slid off the crate as if pushed by some unknown force. It crashed against the floor.
Ozzy peeked inside. A round device, the size of a baseball, was sitting on a platform in the middle of the box. It was silver with hieroglyphs etched around it.
Zeld gasped loudly and stepped back, grabbing for her rifle. She was staring at the ship’s belly.
Ozzy looked up.
A Dunrakee soldier in a battle suit was sliding down the rope along with several others.
Ozzy’s eyes widened. “Run.”
6
Earth • Earth’s Moon
Ozzy reached into the crate and grabbed the silvery, round device. “You better work,” he told it. “Our lives depend on you.”
The Dunrakee athletically landed on the ground. The bubble-heads unstrapped their rifles from their shoulders and took aim.
Ozzy turned and rushed toward the Eagle. Zeld ran beside him, bouncing in long strides because of the light gravity.
A red flash roared by Ozzy’s helmet. He twisted around and grabbed for his sidearm but dropped the portal device in the process.
“Dammit.”
He continued moving. If he stopped and retrieved the device, he’d be a dead man.
He unholstered his photon pistol and pointed it at a soldier.
A blast slammed into the soldier’s chest, sending him tumbling on his back.
“What the—”
He never pulled the trigger.
“Ozzy. Zeld. Get your asses here and fast.”
Ozzy spun around. Jozi was standing near the bottom of the ramp with her helmet and gloves on, holding a rifle and popping off shots.
Another red blast soared near Ozzy, barely missing him.
“Zigzag, dummy,” said Zeld, who was hopping in a sharp turn pattern of her own toward the Eagle and doing her best to avoid the rifle fire. Something was in her hands, but he couldn’t quite make out what it was.
“Right,” he said, moving around a sarcophagus and pivoting left and right.
“Hurry! More are coming down the ropes,” yelled Jozi. She pointed her weapon and blasted more beams of fiery death at the Dunrakee army.
Zeld reached the ramp first and shot past Jozi into the craft.
A blast zipped by Ozzy and blackened the ground. Ozzy holstered his gun and leaped for the ramp. He stretched out his arm, and Jozi grabbed it while continuing to shoot with her other hand.
She was impressive.
She pulled him onto the ramp, and Ozzy bounded into the craft’s lobby. “Get up here, Jozi.”
She backpedaled into the ship. Ozzy slapped the ramp button, and the ramp lifted, closing and shaking the craft as it shut.
Heavy breaths escaped Ozzy as he slumped on a sofa. Zeld, in a nearby chair, was doing the same. The ship’s oxygen sensors activated and brought the craft to normal levels.
All of a sudden, a bang echoed across the craft, startling them. A second bang sounded followed by several more.
“They’re trying to get in,” said Jozi, backing up and pointing her rifle at the ramp.
Ozzy stood and rushed to a port side window. “Not good.” Off in the distance, the Dunrakee cruiser was lowering a massive ground vehicle into the warehouse.
The vehicle held large, double-barreled turrets. It was a damn hovertank. They weren’t going to blast their way inside. Instead, they were going to blow Ozzy and his small crew to bits.
Jozi moved beside Ozzy and stared out the window. The soldiers were clearing the way, allowing room for the hovertank.
The tank progressed forward, its two barrels targeting the Eagle’s engine room.
Ozzy took a step back. “We’re toast.”
Jozi nodded. “You have the portal device, right?”
He took off his helmet and shook his head, not taking his eyes off the tank. “I dropped it out there.”
Jozi also took off her helmet and lowered her chin. “There isn’t any escape.”
“Sorry to rain on your pity party,” said Zeld, “but I happened to pick up this here portal device after you dropped it.”
A slow smile spread across Ozzy’s face. “You’re kidding me.” If she had it, then they had a chance—minimal, but it was there as long as they could figure out how to use the thing.
Zeld held up the device and crossed her legs. “Give me the twenty million auric credits you’re getting from Jonas for this mission, and I’ll get us off this moon.”
Ozzy was getting more credits than that, but the less she knew, the better.
Jozi nodded. “He’ll do it.”
Zeld twisted the top half of the device clockwise and the bottom half counterclockwise.
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Ozzy shot Jozi a look. “The hell I will.”
A huge flash encircled Ozzy, and he dropped to the floor and landed on his side. A strong, stinging energy enveloped him, making him feel as if every cell in his body were being squeezed and daring to rip him apart.
He writhed and cringed in pain, closing his eyes and going into a fetal position, sucking in gobs of air.
His hands shook, and his toes curled as he let out several guttural sounds from deep within his belly. Sharp pains slashed at him, digging into his skin and sending stabbing sensations up and down his spine.
This was worse than a hovertank blowing him to smithereens.
“Stop,” he screamed at the universe and at anyone who could hear him. “This is too much. Stop.”
It didn’t.
7
Earth • Earth’s Moon
“Help,” Zeld hollered. “It hurts.”
There was another flash of light.
The stabbing sensations and the aching pains eased up and calm coursed through Ozzy.
He dared not move. If he did, the throbbing might come back and haunt him yet again.
A memory surfaced, one from not long ago and only minutes before the torture that overtook him. He was standing next to Zeld and staring at a crate, reading the glyphs etched on the lid. The first line read Athapaskan lands.
“Athapaskan lands?” he blurted out, not understanding why that memory would suddenly appear in the front of his mind.
A knife-like stabbing sensation dug into his brain, piercing his every neuron. An agonizing lightning streak zipped through his temple and down his occiput.
He groaned and reached out.
Athapaskan, Athapaskan.
Another knife sensation cut deep, this time into his heart. He grabbed his chest and rolled on the floor, his breaths coming heavy and his eyes watering.
His body shook uncontrollably, and alternating cold and hot waves washed over him in quick succession.
Was he dying? Was this what it was like?
“What the shit is happening to me?” He needed help, and he needed it now. “Jozi?”
“I’m here.” She rubbed her hands up and down his back “You’re okay, Ozzy. Everything is all right. Open your eyes.”
Ozzy shook his head. “It’s too bright. Everything hurts.”
“Not anymore,” she replied.
Ozzy shook his head. “No…it…blazing hurts.”
She continued to rub. “Shh. Calm down. You’re fine. Everything is fine. After I opened my eyes, the pain went away. Just open your eyes.”
The light behind his eyes dimmed. The sensations lessened, and Ozzy took in a slow, deep breath.
He opened his eyes and blinked several times. Where were they? Yellow light shined in through the port and starboard windows. It was natural light, not the light from the Dunrakee craft and soldiers.
He slowly rose to his feet, and Enki’s tablet was lying on the floor next to him. He picked it up and placed it on the couch and massaged his temples. “Where are we?” He peeked out the portholes and eyed trees—lots of them. “Is this…Earth?”
He grinned, then felt something hit his foot. He moved out of the way, watching Zeld roll back and forth on the floor, moaning. The portal device was next to her.
Ozzy walked over, picked up the device, and placed it on the couch to keep it safe.
Jozi went to a knee and patted Zeld on the shoulder. “We’re okay, now. You can get up. Open your eyes.”
Ozzy scoffed and squinted from a sudden jolt of pain slamming into the back of his brain. He rubbed the back of his head. “Let her writhe in fear.”
Jozi helped Zeld up.
Zeld sat on the chair, opening her eyes and shaking her head, pounding her helmet with her hand trying to knock some sense back into herself. “I’ve never experienced a portal jump before. Never do I want to experience that again.”
She unclipped her helmet and pulled it off.
“My guess is you get immune to the sensations the more you do it,” said Jozi.
Ozzy went back to the window. “I can’t believe I’m seeing this place. I never thought I’d see it firsthand other than through vids and images.”
He spun on his heels and raced to the ramp. He slapped the “open” button, and the ramp hissed, and its gears whined as it dropped to the grass below.
A fresh breeze swirled into the lobby. He took a sniff. It was fresh…fresh…something. He couldn’t figure it out, but whatever it was, it was fresh and better than he imagined.
He took his first steps toward his real home—Earth—a home stolen from his race.
He’d be the first human to stand on Earth in a hundred or so years.
He took in another deep breath. “Oh my Mars. I can’t believe it.” He stepped one foot after the other down the ramp until he placed his boots on the grass.
“Oooey,” he said quietly and walked out from under the Eagle’s underbelly.
He put his hands out wide and twirled like a little kid out on a sunny day playing with friends.
He was in a meadow surrounded by thousands upon thousands of trees. The sun was at its peak and beating down on him through a cerulean-blue sky. In the distance stood a mountain, and the sound of water trickled to his ears.
Was that a river? A stream? What was the difference? He wanted to see it with his own eyes. No more reading about his race’s home. No more wondering what it would be like.
He heard a chirp. And a caw.
Birds.
One flew over him, landing and perching on a tree limb many meters away.
Soil, grass, and pine scents mixed in the breeze.
He took off his boots, and the cold, lustrous grass curled around his toes. He sat down and dropped his head into his hands.
The emotions were too much, and he did his best to hold in a cry, but his heart wouldn’t allow it. He wiped away several tears from his cheeks with his forearm and wept.
The sound of boots crunching the grass floated to his ears. Jozi sat next to him, placing her arm around his shoulders. Tears dripped down her chin.
Vrooooj!
Ozzy straightened in a start. He turned, gasping. “What the—”
The Eagle had changed from beautiful white and blues to the color and look of green meadows. How in Mars did it do that?
He stood and jammed his feet into his boots. Zeld moseyed down the ramp, wiping her hands together with a smirk on her face. “Bet you didn’t know it could do that.”
“Camouflage?” Ozzy put his hands out. “Why didn’t you activate that in space?”
“It’s not effective in space because of the Eagle’s boosters. In fact, it’d be easier to see the Eagle if you camouflaged her in space. You’d see a black shape with ionic rockets thrusting it forward.” She snorted. “It’d be like a fish out of water.”
Zeld placed her hand on her holster. “You still good on the twenty million auric credits you owe me?”
Ozzy dismissed her comment with his hand. “Whatever floats your boat.” His job here was to get the crystal sphere and use the Ark of the Concordant to end all Dunrakee life on Earth so he and his race could take the planet back. He couldn’t wait to do it—to do something positive for humanity…on purpose.
They heard a limb crack in the forest. Jozi stood and aimed her rifle to the trees beyond. More cracking sounded. A shrub moved where Jozi was pointing.
Ozzy whistled, getting Jozi’s and Zeld’s attention. He pointed to the trees on the other side of the meadow and away from the snaps and breaking of twigs and branches.
More rustling could be heard, then Dunrakee clicks and clacks—the way they spoke—echoed throughout the meadow.
The Dunrakee grunts were advancing. They must have been notified by the small Dunrakee fleet on the moon that humans had entered Earth’s sector. But how would they already know Ozzy’s and his crew’s exact location on Earth? They had gone through a portal, essentially teleporting to this location. There wasn’t
anyway of tracking that, so perhaps Dunrakee soldiers were now crawling everywhere, all over the world, looking for any sign of invading humans. And Ozzy just happened to pop in on this location at the wrong possible time, just when a Dunrakee scout team was looking for any sign of a human presense.
Perfect.
He rolled his eyes and grabbed Jozi’s hand while resting his other hand on his sidearm. He pulled her toward the forest, doing his best to be as quiet as possible.
Zeld followed, holding her own rifle.
The clicks and clacks grew louder.
Ozzy walked past the tree line and eyed a thick and sturdy tree nearby. “Jozi, you climb. I’ll be right behind you.”
She jumped to the lowest branch and pulled herself up. The pine-covered limb moved up and down, making too much noise.
“Keep it down,” he whispered.
Zeld found another tree and leaped up, climbing it like she had been a monkey in a past life. She managed to climb near the top, her boots resting on a thick, red branch, and her body almost veiled via the thick pine needles and limbs.
Jozi climbed higher, and Ozzy pulled himself up on the first branch and moved to the next one and the next until he was near the top and looking down on the meadow. He was on the same thick branch as Jozi.
She pointed her rifle at the forest floor, and Ozzy aimed his gun.
“Here they come,” she said.
Emerging on the other side of the meadow and through the tree line were several Dunrakee infantry. They weren’t wearing their usual battle suits but were wearing black uniforms, black snow-like caps that hid their bubble-heads, and all were holding giant double-barreled rifles.
“I count thirty-two,” whispered Jozi.
Ozzy nodded. More were coming out of the forest, and the ones in the lead were only steps away from the Eagle—if that’s where the Eagle was. He couldn’t tell anymore. It was camouflaged almost too well.
He held his breath as a Dunrakee stepped closer and closer to where he thought the ship might be. If they ran into a landing sled or the extended ramp, they’d know humans were somewhere nearby.
That’s if they discovered exactly what it was they bumped into.
Martian Quadrilogy Box Set Page 63
