by Saxon Andrew
Hemon opened his eyes and saw the lights in the ceiling. That vendor had stunned him. Whoever had set up his capture was good. “Are you feeling all right?”
Hemon looked to his right and saw a man in a white jacket. “Yes, I think so. How did you find me?”
“Why don’t you sit up and get your bearings. You’re scheduled for a meeting, and I want to make sure you’re ok.”
Hemon sat up and looked around. “I wasn’t ignoring you, by the way. A couple of our group saw you hiding behind the heavy lifter in Giza and matched your face up with the builder of the Pyramid.”
Hemon frowned, “Why didn’t they arrest me two years ago?”
“They only saw you five days ago.”
“How did they get a picture of the Pyramid’s builder?”
“They also got that picture five days ago.”
Hemon stared at Ben and didn’t say anything. Ben smiled and said, “We looked at the light that left Earth two years ago and saw you. We then looked at the light from five thousand years ago and also saw you. That’s what allowed us to find you.”
Hemon smiled, “Well, it’s been a nice run.”
“You don’t need to worry. My superiors tell me that they want to talk with you and then you will be free to go. If you choose not to meet with them, I will take you back home now.”
Hemon stared at him and finally said, “You’re serious?”
“Absolutely. It’s because of you and that tablet you carved that we have a chance against the Moet, although it’s not a great chance at this point. We’re indebted for what you’ve done.”
Hemon stood and said, “So I’m free to go?”
“If that’s what you want.”
“Then take me home.”
Ben raised his communicator and said, “Lieutenant Johansen, please come and take our guest home.”
The door opened and a young Special Forces Officer came in, “If you’ll follow me, Sir.”
Hemon looked at Ben, “Where did this couple see that light?”
Ben smiled, “Five thousand light years away. While they were there, they found a Moet ship that was following them destroyed. We have one of the ships that were involved in its destruction. You might also be interested in knowing that we are planning to go back in time and hijack a Jenze ship. Please enjoy your life.”
Hemon looked at the young officer and said, “Never mind.” The Lieutenant saluted Ben and left the room. “When am I going to have this meeting?”
Ben looked at his watch and said, “Well, the ones you’re meeting with are currently dancing. I’ll take you there and you can talk with them when they finish.”
Hemon smiled, “You’re serious?”
“Follow me.” Hemon followed Ben out of the room.
They arrived in a huge hangar and found music wafting across the building. “Well, they’ve already started.”
“Started what?”
“Why dancing, of course. As they moved closer Hemon saw his tablet standing in the center of the room with searchlights shining on it. Then he heard Ben say, “We’ve also brought you a dance partner so you can join in.”
Hemon looked at Ben with a deeply furrowed brow; then he saw Sasha stand and come toward him. Hemon stopped and his mouth fell open. Sasha was wearing a black dress that was gorgeous and her hair was hanging to her waist in curls. She was stunning.
“Hello, Hemon.”
He looked at her and said, “You’re beautiful. How did your Father ever allow you to come here?”
“I asked if I could come and they paid him fifty thousand dollars. He wants me to come more often.”
Hemon shook his head, “Why would you want to come here?”
Sasha lowered her head, “Because you were here.” She walked forward and took his hand, then led him to the dance floor and put her arms around his neck. Hemon heard a slow song and started dancing with her. He saw two young couples dancing and he joined them, moving to the music. This was just not what he expected. He knew he should run but as Sasha held him tighter, he closed his eyes and lost himself in the moment. They danced and danced.
After what seemed like a few moments the lights in the building illuminated. Hemon raised his head and Sasha took her arms from around his neck and wrapped them around his chest. He looked down and saw she still had her eyes closed, “I think it’s over, Sasha.”
“I don’t want this moment to ever end. I’ve dreamed of this for so long.” He stared at her and she continued, “I’ve loved you for so long, Hemon.”
Hemon looked at her and softly said, “This is the fastest time has ever moved for me. Thank you, but we can’t do this.”
“No, I can do this. You mean you can’t do this.”
Hemon looked at her and took a quick breath and exhaled quickly, “No, we can’t do this. I won’t allow you to be put in danger.”
A beautiful young woman with blonde hair walked up and said, “We finally meet. You are so much like I thought you’d be.”
Sasha released him and turned with him to face her. Hemon looked at the blonde woman’s dance partner and recognized him as the one who stunned him. Jeff smiled and said, “I’m sorry about stunning you, Hemon.”
He looked at Sasha and smiled, “If it meant I could dance with Sasha for one more moment, you can stun me as many times as you want.” Sasha turned and hugged him again. “
“Why did you bring her here? It’s not safe for her to be with me.”
The blonde said, “She followed you to the market and we had to stop her from coming to your defense. It became clear rather quickly that she has feelings for you. We told her she could come and make sure we treated you well. Let me introduce everyone. My name is Dolly Sierra and my partner is Jeff Garcia.” Hemon shook their hands, and then Dolly said, “This is Christopher Connor and Jillian Gordon...”
Hemon interrupted, “Ah, Nobel Prize winners.”
Chris said, “I didn’t win.”
“You should have.”
Dolly continued, “It was Dr. Connor’s invention that allowed us to discover you were still alive. We were hoping you would talk with us.”
Hemon looked down at Sasha, “How much do you know?”
Sasha shook her head, “They have told me nothing.”
Hemon stared at her for a long moment and decided, “Sasha, I’m old enough to be your great grandfather.”
“I don’t care if you’re older than the Pyramid. I know what a good person you are.”
“What if I told you I was older than the Pyramid?”
Sasha stared at him and smiled, “You can’t buy experience, and it only makes you more attractive. You can teach me.”
“I’m being serious.”
“So am I.”
Jillian looked at Dolly and said, “Hemon, we can talk in the morning. If you would like some time with Sasha, we’ll just leave you to have your discussion.” Hemon started to say something, but the black haired woman continued, “It’s obvious she loves you. She deserves to know everything if you truly care about her.”
Hemon stared at Jillian, then looked at Sasha staring at him. He took a deep breath and smiled, “We’ll see you in the morning.”
Jeff stepped forward and said, “Follow me to the cafeteria, you can have a bite to eat, and then I’ll show you where you’re staying.” Hemon and Sasha turned to follow him, and Sasha took Hemon’s hand.
L’grae had his fleet positioned in green space watching the Moet ships jumping in and out of the cloud his ships had created at the battle. He knew they were looking for a trail to follow. There were at least twelve Moet ships searching, and he knew his fleet had no chance against that many. How to improve his odds? He continued to watch and waited. Surely one of them would go out alone. But how long would it take? He watched and waited.
The Watcher saw that he was not going to be able to keep the ships searching for a trail at their task much longer. His secondary brain thought about it and then made a suggestion to the primary. The prima
ry brain mulled it over and said, “Put it in motion.”
L’grae continued to watch, and then saw something happening. Two ships emerged into normal space, as the other ten Moet ships went in ten different directions from the center of the green swirling cloud. The cloud was far over the head of his fleet and he watched as the Moet ships fanned out. There are two in normal space. He used his lights to signal the other fourteen ships and divided them into two groups. He watched them organize and them the fleet began moving upward toward the two ships being held in reserve to support any ship that found a target. L’grae set the closest ship for his squadron and watched as they approached the location where the Moet ships had entered normal space.
L’grae said, “Start the countdown.”
Ten lights on his hull started going out one at a time until the last one disappeared. The fifteen ships emerged into normal space and L’grae’s ships were less than four kens from the Moet battleship. All eight ships fired simultaneously. It appeared nothing was happening for a moment, but then eight beams penetrated the huge ship’s force field and it exploded violently. The second Moet battleship had a few moments more and it saw the ships coming. It turned its heavy beams on the seven rushing toward it. This was not a cruiser and it targeted each of the seven ships with ten beam projectors. All seven ships exploded more than ten kens from the giant grey vessel. The Moet turned and started moving toward L’grae’s squadron and he ordered, “Jump and scatter now!”
The eight ships disappeared as seventy beams ripped through the space they had just occupied. The eight ships entered green space and crisscrossed each other’s paths twice before they fled. The crisscrossing caused a huge green cloud as the eight ships ran. The Moet sent a distress call and the Watcher turned his full attention to the attack. He slammed one of his six arms on the console and ordered twenty more ships to assist in the chase. He notified the Masters what had happened, and fifty more ships were sent to the scene.
L’grae knew that he had to make a fast exit and headed straight toward a huge black ball. As he drew closer he saw the trail behind him was being pushed away in another direction by the gravity of the ball. “Exit now.”
His ship emerged in a solar system with a giant star. He flew in and landed on a small asteroid that was on a parabolic orbit moving away from the sun toward the outer solar system. He turned off his systems and left only his passive scanners active. He waited, knowing what was coming. It was just a matter of time until they showed up. His crew knew to keep all systems ready for instant power. They waited and listened, hoping that luck was on their side. L’grae was glad he had his ships scout out a place to hide before the attack. He hoped that his squadron would survive. He turned to his navigator, “Do you have the other hiding location locked on your board?”
The navigator nervously nodded, and kept his hand on the jump control. L’grae hoped it wouldn’t be needed.
The Watcher was furious, and he recalled the three ships assigned to escort a comet into a primitive system back to assist the chase. The danger to the Dynasty took precedence over defensive actions.
Hemon and Sasha walked into the building the next morning holding hands. Sasha was blushing and smiling. Christopher watched them approach and smiled. He glanced at Jillian and saw her smiling as well. Dolly stood, “Good morning! I hope you had a restful evening.”
Hemon slowly shook his head, “Not really, I tried to tell her I’m too old for her, but she won’t take no for an answer.” Hemon looked at her and smiled, “I’m glad she didn’t.” Hemon looked at Dolly, Chris, and Jillian, “I think you brought me here to assist you in your plans against the Moet. I will agree to help you on one condition.” Dolly looked at Chris and raised her eyebrows. “You must persuade her father to allow her to marry me. If you can do that, I’ll help you.”
Dolly looked to her right and Jeff stepped up to the table, “Do you think you can make that happen?”
“I’ll just tell him that a very rich man wants her as a wife.”
Hemon looked at Jeff, “That’s not true. I am not a wealthy man.”
Dolly looked back and said, “You are now. You’ve just been given ten million dollars to plan your wedding. If you need more, let me know.”
Hemon and Sasha stared at Dolly, “Are you serious?”
“Yes, I am. I need you to give us your complete loyalty and attention on this effort. I think you will help us immensely.” Dolly turned back to Jeff, “Give her father three hundred thousand to prepare his family, and anyone else he cares to bring, for travel to Sydney.”
“Better make it five hundred thousand.”
Dolly shook her head, “Make it an even million. Use my account to pay for it.” She looked at Hemon and Sasha, “You can use the ten million for the wedding.”
Jeff laughed and turned to leave.
Hemon looked at Sasha and saw her amazement. He smiled and said, “Ok, what is it you want to know?”
Jillian looked across the table at Hemon, “We have been discussing the best way to handle the Moet threat and we’re considering going to the planets that are fighting them for help.”
“You’re talking about approaching the Sheera or their allies?”
“Yes. We’re also going to go to the other construction site in Bolivia at Puma Punku and see if the one trained by the Sheera there left something for us like you did.”
Hemon smirked, “I don’t think you’ll find anything there and I wouldn’t count on the Sheera or their allies for help.”
Jillian looked at Chris and Dolly then said, “Why not?”
Hemon took a deep breath and shook his head, “I chose not to mention this on the tablet because I didn’t know if the Sheera would ever return. It’s also the reason I’ve always refused to have a relationship with anyone since they left.” He looked at Sasha and then turned to Jillian, “The night the Sheera left, I managed to take two gravity guns. You have one of them. I left their ship and went to my tent to hide them, but found my younger brother in the tent sleeping. I made him leave the construction activities in the afternoon complaining of a very upset stomach. He was really sick and I didn’t want to wake him, so I went and slept in his tent.
The Sheera had left during the late afternoon in one of their small runabouts to gather their cutting tools from the quarry. Later that evening they returned to load them on board their ship. I snuck outside my tent to see what they were doing; I stayed on the ground so they wouldn’t see me. Just before they lifted, Yelt left their ship and came over and stood outside my tent, raised a hand weapon, and fired a bright beam at my brother thinking it was me. My brother and the tent burst into a very hot blue flame, and in less than ten seconds nothing was left but a scorched place on the sand. Yelt entered his ship and they left. I don’t know for certain, but I suspect the other assistant at Puma Punku wasn’t as lucky as I was.”
No one said anything while they considered what Hemon said.
“I was initially outraged at what they did. Later, I thought about what happened and there are several things that really bothered me. First, why did they take the time to go retrieve the cutting tools if they had to rush to escape the Moet? Second, why would they kill the ones that they trained? Third, just what was the Pyramid really intended to do?”
Dolly leaned forward in her chair, “They didn’t want us to advance too quickly.”
Hemon tilted his head and gave Dolly a salute, “That’s how I see it, and that doesn’t make sense if they were there to protect us. I’m not at all sure just who the bad guys are here. Both parties have demonstrated a total disregard for our survival.”
Christopher scratched his chin and said, “So you don’t think we can receive help from either one? We’re alone on this one?”
“How could you see it any other way? If they did help us, what would the price be? The Sheera must have had an agenda that they didn’t share. I now suspect that so called screen would have made our planet a prison.”
Jillian turned her he
ad and looked out the window for a moment, then said, “Why did you wait so long before you made your tablet known?”
“I kept hoping that humanity would give up its warlike ways. How can I give that kind of technology to a nation that would then conquer the planet? It was after the last nuclear exchange when the world formed a government, that I felt safe enough to reveal it. Even then I’ve been worried, but time is short. I decided it was now or never.”
Dolly looked at Chris and Jillian and they nodded, “Come with me, Hemon. I want to show you something.” Dolly stood, and the group followed her out of the building and boarded a transport. She lifted and flew across the Sydney spaceport, landing next to a giant steel building. Hemon could hear the construction noise coming from inside more than a hundred yards away. He followed Dolly through a heavily guarded door and entered a giant room. He looked across the room and saw a huge starship. He stopped and immediately saw the front third of it was burned away. He looked at Dolly, “This is not a Moet ship.”
“How do you know that?”
“Their ships are grey.”
“You’re right. This ship was killed in a battle where a Moet ship was also destroyed. We’ve been taking it apart and examining it for anything we can use in our defense.”
“What have you found?”
“If the Sheera are part of the Alliance that this ship comes from, they are not very smart.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because they have the gravity guns and this ship doesn’t use gravity to propel it. Their reactors are nowhere near as powerful as ours, and their force fields are a hundredth the power of what one would be using our reactors.”
Hemon smiled, “That explains them training an assistant. Someone had to tell humans how to use their tools.” Hemon turned to look at Dolly, “What about the weapons?”
