by Stone,Kord
Eneria began accessing the data from the probe and gave an indrawn breath a moment later.
Jerren’s eyes flew from the monitor to Eneria and asked, “What’s wrong?”
“That was the ships engine core, and it is dark matter reactive, if they have any dark matter down there at this time in their history, it would not be pretty. I think that is the main reason we are here. But even if there is no dark matter currently on the base, we know there will be eventually, and if the two were to be in proximity.” Eneria left her statement hanging.
Jerren smiled at Eneria and said, “It’s a good thing we’re going to take it from them then. With the engine core being matter reactive we can’t put it in void storage because of the dark matter bombs we have secured in there, so what do we do with it?”
“Storing the core will not be an issue. It can be stored in the base mineral storage.” Eneria said with a smile.
“It won’t detonate when it’s dematerialized? ... Duh never mind, I can see it didn’t explode,” Jerren said.
Eneria chuckled and said, “No, the core contains Venitrium, it has similarities to radioactive minerals, in that it emits energy waves, or in the Venitrium’s case gravitational waves, but the Venitrium can be safely disseminated.
“Depleted Venitrium is a common material used in the construction of spacecraft and is safe to be near, but that engine core is unshielded. The lead lined casket it was stored in would not provide protection, I am actually surprised you and your team survived the energy waves, in humanoids it usually causes damage to soft tissues and results in brain cancer.” She thought about it a moment and added, “I would bet you were alright due to the triple helix DNA strand in your pituitary gland, but I doubt if any of the other men that were in proximity of that lead lined casket would have been as lucky.”
Jerren sighed, “Alright, I say we retrieve the core and the Alien at Area 51 first, and then we’ll retrieve the other two aliens and hope we can heal them.”
Eneria nodded and said, “That sounds good to me. We can arrive there in a little over six hours if we increase our speed.”
Jerren agreed so Eneria increased their speed, and created the extra medical beds they would need to care for the injured aliens.
Chapter Thirty-One
Jerren checked on the three medical units for the third time, not that there was anything to be done with them. He was just edgy and needed to occupy his time. He had called over to let his brothers know what was happening, and it sounded to him as if the entire lot of them wanted to drop everything to watch the rescue and retrieval. Jerren had told them they would be arriving in five and a half hours and they were welcome to observe. Jerren was therefore not surprised when minutes before he was to begin the rescue and retrieval, he could hear voices coming from the engine room.
Jason’s voice could be heard above the others as he asked, “Are we late?”
Jerren chuckled and replied, “Not yet, and it’s not as if we will be doing much, just transporting to medical and base storage.” Jerren looked around but couldn’t see his sisters, “Where are the girls?”
Alise said, “What are we? Chopped Albatron?” And Alise motioned between her and Calia.
This statement got the whole party laughing and Jerren said, “You know what I meant.”
Alise smiled warmly at him and said, “They decided to stay on Terrah’s ship and help her… It is not a slight on you. They were told of the Multi-Phasic Neural Associations, and they did not think now would be the best time to try and overcome them.”
Jerren laughed and said, “I didn’t think it was personal, it was just a roundabout way of asking how they were doing over there?”
“About the same, we are still unable to find the reason the ship cannot be reset, or activate the AI.” Alise said sounding a bit forlorn.
Jerren nodded and said, “We still have a few minutes before we arrive, so I’ll replay our probes recording so you’ll get a clear idea of what we’re doing.” Jerren explained what he knew as the scene played out, and just after the ships engine core and the alien disappeared at Area 51, his console gave a beep indicating TDS 5 had arrived in orbit of Earth. Not that he needed the beep. Once in orbit, Jerren could feel they had returned with the rush of anguish he felt.
Jerren took a breath and cleared his mind, then turned to the console and said, “Alright, here we go.” Twenty seconds later he had transported the Alien and engine core from Area 51, then he replayed the HALO jump and after selecting the best temporal coordinates he activated the time jump.
Jerren repositioned the ship to be in a stationary orbit over the crash site and locked his transporter onto the injured aliens in the craft. A few seconds after the Helicopter took off Jerren transported the two injured aliens directly to medical and turning to his audience he said, “All done… See there was not much to watch.”
Justin chuckled, drawing Jerren’s attention and said, “Not much to watch? That was a midnight HALO incursion with minimal visibility and you landed within twelve feet of your objective, then you and your team were gone in about ninety seconds. That was worth the time to watch.”
Jerren felt uncomfortable with the compliment, so he looked at Eneria and asked, “Do we know where they’re from?” indicating the three Aliens aboard the ship.
“Yes, they are actually from Daregon. Why they would have come here I have no idea though,” Eneria said shaking her head.
Jerren closed his eyes a second checking on his patients conditions and said, “The medical unit has healed them, and the healthiest of the three should be able to wake at any moment.” Jerren stood and turned toward medical and said, “Why don’t we go and ask him?” Eneria stood and followed and Jerren called over his shoulder, “Are you guys coming with us?”
Jason laughed and said, “No, it’ll be too crowded in there with all of us, not to mention that they just barely survived an N E E.”
Jerren asked, “a what?”
Jason chuckled and explained, “Near Earthling Experience, get it?”
Jerren doubled over with laughter and when he caught his breath he said, “That was hilarious… because it’s true,” Jerren said goodbye and told them they would be over to help with Terrah’s ship when they were done, then he and Eneria headed into medical.
*****
A few minutes later Jerren was standing by the first medical unit examining the occupant, and Eneria was checking on the other two, when a moment later the alien Jerren was standing by woke up. The alien tried to move, but the medical unit still had him restrained. He began clicking and popping, his eyes were darting from side to side and Jerren spoke, “You’re safe now.” If anything Jerren’s words got the poor fellow even more riled.
Jerren reached over and placed a hand on the alien’s brow in an attempt to calm him and almost instantly he was overwhelmed with imagery. Jerren withdrew his hand and took a deep breath, and when he cleared the muddle from his mind he noticed he could understand the alien.
“What are you doing to me?! Why did you disable our ship!?” the alien clicked and popped out.
Jerren re-approached him and said in the alien’s strange language, “You’re safe now. We rescued you and your people from Earth.”
The alien looked up at him and said, “You… You were the one who pulled me out of my ship.”
Jerren didn’t want to explain the non-linear time thing to the alien so Jerren just agreed, “Yes, that was me.”
The panic rose in the alien once again and Jerren hurried to soothe him, “You’re no longer on Earth. You’re guests aboard my ship until you and your friends are healed. Then we can take you back to Daregon.”
The alien looked over to the medical beds beside his and seemed to calm down after realizing Jerren knew where he was from and asked, “You can bring us home?”
Jerren let out a chuckle and nodded, “Yes. As soon as you’re all healed and awake I can take you home.”
“How long will it take to get us ther
e?” the alien asked.
Jerren held up a hand a moment and called out to his brother over the communications, “Jason?”
“What can I do for you?” Jason replied a moment later.
“This guy wants to get back home, I could bring them on our ship, but it would be much faster to just take them through the master control room. What do you think?
“That’s fine by me. When would he like to be dropped off on his planet?”
“I’ll ask, One second.” Jerren looked back to the Alien, “When would you like to be dropped off on your planet?”
The alien looked confusedly back at Jerren and Jerren clarified, “We can drop you off right after your friends wake up.”
The alien looked even more confused now and asked, “How long were we unconscious?”
Jerren knew there was not much for it so he said, “We’re still in orbit of Earth. In linear time from where we are right now, you crashed about eight hours ago. My brother’s ship is by your planet, we were charging a ship at the pyramids generator and it’s still there. We can transfer you directly to his ship and transport you to the surface.”
The alien looked in awe at Jerren and asked, “But that crash happened days ago… you’re Immourrtium?” he had asked sounding in awe.
Jerren smiled and replied, “It is pronounced I-mor-tum.” and Jerren left it at that hoping that might calm the alien down, but Jerren left the rest of the alien’s statement unanswered.
Jerren heard Eneria say in mind, these two will be awake in a moment; I will be waiting in the control room if you need me.
“Alright,” Jerren said, and as Eneria passed by him she gave him a swat on the ass that made Jerren chuckle.
A second later Jerren heard some sounds from the medical beds behind him and turned to see the other two were beginning to wake. Looking back to the first alien Jerren said, “I’ll remove the immobilization field and let you explain this to your friends… Let me know when you want to head home and I’ll take you there.” Jerren released the field and helped him to a standing position. The alien walked over to the nearest bed and Jerren went to the other, then Jerren released their Immobilization fields as well.
Jerren helped the third alien who looked to be a small female to a sitting position then said, “I’ll be down the corridor when you’re ready. I do have a few questions for you before I take you home though.”
Eneria smiled affectionately up at Jerren as he entered the control room. “You are quite good at this you know?” she said warmly
Jerren chuckled and said, “It doesn’t take much, just a little compassion.”
A couple of minutes later the first alien approached Jerren with the two females following, “We would like to thank you for all you have done for us.” The alien took Jerren’s hand in his and bowed, touching his forehead to the back of Jerren’s hand. Then he did the same thing with Eneria. Jerren noticed Eneria got a momentarily dazed look then stared down at him as he stood back up.
“I’m sorry, I never introduced myself. My name is Spatium, and these are my sisters Viaxe and Viaxar.”
They each followed their brother’s lead and bowed low touching their foreheads to Jerren’s and Eneria’s hands. Jerren was shocked when the girl’s heads made contact and he had visions of their lives. Then Jerren noted it was the same as when he placed his hand on Spatium’s head to calm him down.
Originally Jerren had thought these aliens were just a small race, but now he knew they were actually what he would have referred to as adolescents and teenagers on Earth.
Jerren’s concern mounted, and his protective side came out. Jerren created a few chairs and after the children stood upright Jerren gestured for them to take a seat. Once seated Jerren looked between the trio, and smiling as warmly as he could, he said, “It is nice to meet you,” Jerren gestured to the seat beside him and said, “This is Eneria, and my name is Jerren,” He looked back to the group and just had to ask, “Why even go to Earth?”
Spatium seemed to shy away at the question and one of the sisters said, “It was on a dare, we were just going to skim the Atmo, but we lost power and crashed.”
Jerren could tell it wasn’t the complete truth and with a raised brow he asked, “What’s the real reason?”
Spatium was tight lipped for a moment, but he finally said, “It’s all my fault. I heard the message and I talked my sisters into going with me.” Spatium paused a moment as if to school his thoughts then said, “The message said Earth was no longer off limits, and I wanted to check it out.”
“You received this message, and it came from Earth?” Jerren asked, and when Spatium nodded, Jerren turned to Eneria, “I thought there were redirecting beacons blocking signals from entering or exiting this solar system?”
Eneria took hold of his hand and said, “There are, but we know Anubisis is on Earth at this timeframe and he may have disabled some of the beacons to set a trap. That may be how they were obtaining all of the alien technology. We took care of Anubisis, so we can go back to just after that time and repair the beacons.”
“Why not repair them now?” Jerren asked a bit confused.
“The armor Anubisis was wearing is made of Imortum tech, I do not know exactly what the suits were capable of. But if we were to change events he may become aware of any alterations, so I think it will just be best if we do it after we know Anubisis is taken care of,” Eneria gave Jerren’s hand a slight squeeze as she said that.
Jerren sighed; he understood what they had to do. The kids were innocents on a joyride and they were too young to comprehend what danger they were truly in. Jerren said to Spatium. “I’ve a few more questions for you, and then I’ll take you home. First off, when and where exactly did you hear this message?”
Spatium seemed to think about it a moment and said, “It was the fifth day of Jual-non on our calendar a little over a month ago. I was in our father’s ship in orbit watching a… how did you pronounce it? I-mor-tum ship recharging or something. The ship was only there for an hour or two. I heard my father talking to someone and he said they detected them in orbit. I never saw one of the ships before so I… uh ‘borrowed’ my father’s ship to see it firsthand. The signal came in and a few minutes later the I-mor-tum ship vanished.”
Jerren had a bad feeling about this, his brother had mentioned paradoxes and now he thought he may be party to one. Sighing Jerren moved on to his second question, “How long would it take you to travel from Earth to Daregon?”
Spatium smiled and said, “My father’s ship is one of our fastest. It only took thirty cycles,”
Spatium’s situation must have just dawned on him because he turned paler than before, and he muttered, “My father is going to kill me.”
One of Spatium’s sisters, Viaxe Jerren thought her name was, said, “No, he’s going to kill all of us. I don’t think his Insurance policy will cover us taking his ship to a banned planet.”
Jerren had to laugh inwardly. He and his brothers had taken an old unregistered car of their father's on a joyride once and caused damage that his insurance policy wouldn’t cover, and they had to pay for it by working for the lady whose house they had crashed into. But somehow Jerren thought a space ship would be a lot more expensive than a picket fence and a radiator.
Jerren just nodded and said, “Is there anyone I should look for who would’ve come to Earth looking for you?”
The poor kids looked on the verge of tears and Spatium replied, “Nobody knew where we went, so they wouldn’t know where to look.”
Jerren sighed and nodded in understanding, he decided to make sure their family knew they were in danger, and planned on informing them of what happened, if only to save them from doing this again.
Looking to the trio Jerren said with a stern voice, “I want you to know this, you got very lucky today, all of you almost died… if you ever get the urge to do this again, I want you to remember what could’ve happened and try to think of what your family would have gone through if we weren’
t here to help you.”
Jerren saw the despair in their gazes and he felt a great need to see to the children’s. An idea came to him, and he summoned three life monitors and handed one to each of them, “I would like you to put these bracelets on to remind you of what could’ve happened and promise me you will never remove them.” They each nodded and placed the bands on and Jerren said, “You need to follow me. I will take you home now,” Jerren stood and they followed suit.
Jerren was about to lead them out when Eneria said. “I will remain here, our probe is having issues and I am performing a diagnostic on it. Once it is complete I will probe Earth as we planned.”
Jerren bent down, kissed Eneria and replied, “That sounds good, I’ll be back in an hour maybe two tops,” Jerren made it to the engine room and he called for the archway, and signaled for them to step through.
The youngest child looked amazed and asked, “Is it really only going to take us one to two hours to get home from Earth?”
Jerren had to chuckle and said, “No, you will be back home in minutes. I’m estimating two hours to explain what happened to you, to your parents.” To the children’s stunned expressions Jerren said, “Let’s just get it over with, waiting only increases the trepidation,” and Jerren escorted them through.
*****
The youngest child Viaxar was giddy as all get up when they entered TDS 1. She looked around the room and said, “This is just like the other ship.”
Jerren chuckled, “Yes they’re the same, follow me.” He gestured for them to follow as he headed to the control room.
Jerren and the children were greeted in the control room by Jason and Justin. Jerren introduced them all and noted the same glazed look that befell Eneria when she came into contact with the children.
Viaxar took a look at each of them and she asked a bit excitedly, “Are you clones? Or Nefas…”
Her brother instantly snapped, “That was not polite Viaxar.” And the little girl bowed her head in embarrassment.
