The Third Craft
Page 57
Before she had taken more than a few steps, she was assaulted with a blast of energy. Her frail body slammed painfully into the doorway.
“Amonda, don’t make me do this,” the queen said. “You and I have a great future ahead of us on this planet. Think girl, think of what you are giving up. I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Hurt me?” Amonda said. “Hurt me, Majesty? Your trickery and sick hatred have almost destroyed me and now you focus on corrupting a planet. You can no longer count on me for any loyalty.”
“Then you are dead in my eyes. Leave my sight. Join your ancestors in death, you ingrate.”
Amonda engaged her protective aura and took a step out the door.
The queen attacked with a flurry of energy spikes. Amonda had never witnessed so stunning a level of raw energy. The queen whipped her tendrils like a whip, snapping and licking at Amonda’s protective aura. She lashed and slashed without let up at Amonda. Instead of diminishing in intensity, after a moment her assault seem to increase to a frenzied state. It was as if the energy required for the assault revitalized the queen.
Amonda spilled out of the transporter, rolling backward, head over heels. The assault was so overpowering, she never had a chance to counterattack.
The queen leaped out of the transporter, landing just a few feet away from the stricken Amonda. In close quarters, her energy attacks were pure punishment. Amonda’s aura was breaking down. Wisps of smoke began to rise. The light-green color began to fade away to a sickly yellow. Moments later, it appeared as if Amonda’s body had caught fire. There was a plume of acrid smoke billowing from her spindly frame.
Amonda tucked herself into a fetal position in one last attempt to protect herself from the queen’s rage.
The queen gave no mercy. “You are dead to me! I will scatter your pitiful mortal remains into eternity!” She stood back dramatically and raised her hands high in the air.
Amonda, crouched low, looked up at her and snarled. “Go to hell, witch of all witches.”
The queen screamed at the insult and Amonda’s body was pitched in the air tumbling over and over. Her clothes caught fire. Her body was a crumpled smoldering mass wedged up against the side of the transporter. She resembled a burnt marshmallow.
“Pick on someone your own size, hag.”
The queen spun around to face the roof doorway. Framed inside were two limping figures, each supporting the other by the shoulder.
“Kor, you miserable whelp. What a pleasant surprise. You survived my little treat.”
“Time to put an end to your miserable existence.”
“You have an army somewhere that I am not aware of?” She looked mockingly about the roof.
“I don’t need one. I can dispatch you myself.”
“You dare compare yourself to me? To me?”
“Pick on any of us, and you face all of us,” Kor replied.
“What’s the matter, Stell?” she said. “Cat got your tongue, you miserable little traitor?”
Stell, still weak, managed a satisfied smile.
“You killed my sister. Prepare to die.”
Using their combined power, Kor and Stell, for the first time brothers and comrades in arms, pushed a rolling ball of energy toward the queen.
Their volley smashed into her and exploded in a wall of sizzling blue flames. Then they attacked again and again. This time she didn’t scoff at them. This time she knew she had a battle on her hands.
Military personnel and workmen – the ones who had dug down and physically rescued Kor and Stell – looked up at the roof atop the Air and Space Museum from the grassy lawn.
Early morning traffic along Seventh Avenue and along Jefferson stopped to watch the display. There was an unholy commotion going on. In the weak light of the early morning, a huge plume of silver-blue light like a massive beacon shot up from the roof. It had to be a hundred feet in diameter and rose half a mile up. Inside the plume could be seen an intense whirlpool of swirling blue light. It was like watching a hundred lightning storms happen at the same time.
The surge of electrical discharge had caused the local area clouds clustered around the battleground to become energized. Soon there were droplets of falling rain. Then the rain became a torrent and poured down upon the scene.
Kor and Stell had maneuvered their way over to the fallen body of Amonda. She was like a burnt, smoldering corpse. But there was a tendril of life still in her. She was resigned to death, but had not lost her spirit to fight to help her brother. They raised her up, and shoulder to shoulder the three siblings fought the queen for over two hours. The air was putrid with the soaking rain and acrid stench of discharged lightning bolts.
Unfortunately for the three of them, the unearthly power of the queen was beginning to tell on them. They were going to lose. They had given it all they had. There were no reserves. The all-powerful queen would win the day.
“Thought you could defeat me did you?” she cried in exultation. “I have lived millennia and I will live forever more. You are all puppies, whelps, guppies compared to my experience and power. You will pay the ultimate price with your lives.”
The hooded figure was racked with laughter. “I can always have more kids, you know.”
Her three children, standing shoulder to shoulder in battle, knew they were facing death, alone, on this planet light years away from home. With no one to help.
CHAPTER77
At around six a.m., a few miles from Washington, Joe and Hawk began to come to. Amonda’s weakened condition allowed the sleep state she had imposed on the twins to withdraw prematurely. It was like any wizard’s spell, strong only while she was strong.
“What a hangover,” Joe said. “I’ll never drink again.”
Hawk agreed. “What happened to us? I remember flying into a cave.”
The pair crawled to their command chairs and clung to the seats without sitting. They didn’t have the strength to pull themselves into the seats.
“I’m going to puke,” Hawk said.
“Me, too.”
“Computer,” Joe said, “render the recent history, last three hours, onto the main monitor.”
“Done. High-speed scan?”
“Yes.” Over the next several minutes they watched the events of the situation evolve.
“Dad’s at the Space Museum, Hawk.”
“What are we waiting for?” Hawk got to his feet and wobbled over to the command console for support. He held his head. “Give me a minute.”
“Hawk, let’s go to the stall. It will repair our injuries.”
The twins walked, holding each other up, along the passageway. They made their way to the Chamber.
Their injuries were treatable, but it took another hour before they felt like their old selves.
“How’s your skull feel?” Hawk asked.
“Fine. Yours?”
“Fine. We have to get to the Museum.”
“All right. Computer summary diagnostic, damage, and repair.”
A series of images and numbers scrolled across the monitor.
“It’s not great news, but we can fly the ship,” Joe said. “Well, barely. Our anti-matter grid is off line. The ship needs some parts and an overhaul. The containment grid may be breached. There’s other stuff, like our fuselage is breached also, but that won’t stop us from reaching the Museum. We have backup power.”
Joe piloted the craft across the Potomac toward the cluster of Smithsonian buildings. It did not fly well. The craft shuddered and was slow to respond to the helm. Water sloshed up and down the aisles. There was a screeching wind noise through the gaping hole in the ship’s side.
He spotted the Capitol Building and his eyes drifted west to the Air and Space Museum. The commotion was visible from miles away. A strange, quivering, blue-white cone of energy was emanating from the roof of the building. Below, on the boulevard and Jefferson Avenue, gawkers pointed at the spectacle. There was a Channel 10 news helicopter hovering over the scene.
; The wreck of another chopper was strewn on the lawns below the building. Apparently it had got too close to the action and had crashed onto its side.
Hawk and Joe stared at the scene below in morbid fascination.
“It’s hit the fan, bro. There are two spaceships on the roof and the battle of the century underway.”
“The spaceship secrecy is finally blown.”
“Then I guess it can’t hurt for us to join in.” He swooped the ship in toward the battle scene. “We don’t have to worry about discretion any more, do we.”
“Nope. Let’s find a spot.”
Joe pointed excitedly at the monitor. “Look Hawk, those figures, one of them is Dad.”
“Yeah. It looks like the three of them are taking on the queen. I don’t believe it. Stell and Dad are fighting as allies.”
In the rage of the battle, no one noticed the arrival of Alpha III.
The boys felt the pulsing of the battle energy from within the spacecraft. It was all around them, sparks of energy spewed in every direction. It had a revitalizing effect on them. They felt empowered and strong like the energetic feeling one gets during a thunderstorm.
Alpha III settled clumsily onto the museum roof, mere yards from the other two craft.
The boys were greeted with a strange scene as they exited the craft. There was Kor, Stell, and Amonda in a semicircle fighting off incoming thrusts from the queen in all directions.
Their side was done for. Their weakened father appeared in mortal danger. The boys activated their Aura Shield.
Holding hands, they walked slowly, apparently still unseen by anyone, toward the middle of the fray. They walked into the perimeter of a blue sleeve of energy. The crackling force field gave them empowerment. Their hair blew upward away from their skulls.
Kor was down on one knee, his body horribly burnt, ready for the queen’s final onslaught. Shards of energy grounded randomly nearby. She went in for the kill. Out of nowhere Stell leapt in front of Kor and took the onslaught full force. His unprotected chest blew open and he died instantly. His body tumbled away and fell beside his dead sister.
For a moment Kor thought he saw sadness in the queen’s fiery eyes. Her children were dead.
The moment passed and she gazed upon Kor with a pitiful stare.
“Your meddling has ruined my plans, Kor. Your House has always been in the way. Look what you’ve done. You’ve killed your brother and now I will kill you. Finally, I’ve destroyed the House of Narok.”
Hawk lifted his chin upward and his eyes rolled back into their sockets. In his highly elevated fury, Hawk used the Voice like he had never used it before. There were no words as words are known – it was more like a sonic boom. The force was so intense that it moved the nearest spacecraft a few inches.
The combatants were hurled for several feet, slamming into the side of the shimmering blue energy sleeve.
The battle stopped. They stared dumbfounded at the two young men locked arm in arm. The Earth twins weren’t smiling.
The queen recovered her senses. The surprise attack had caught her off guard. All she could manage was a painful hobble toward her newest adversary. “You two! Learned some tricks have we?”
She turned her head toward Kor. “Watch your spawn die before your eyes, tadpole.”
Her eyes narrowed suddenly and her snarl began to recede. She hesitated. There was something about Joe and Hawk that caused her to pause. Together, joined hand in hand, they emitted a primal strength she recognized. She should have recognized it: It was a strength that her ancestors had understood.
She should have recognized it because it was like her own. Except that these bodies were young and strong. And, thanks to Kor, trained.
The Grayer twins walked ominously and effortlessly toward her. They were fearless. Their feet seemed to glide an inch or so off the ground. They knew her limits instinctively. They pushed her with their combined strength. She tumbled over backward in her battle-weary state. The queen went to fire a shard of energy at them but she was painfully slow.
The brothers raised their free hands palm up. Thick billowing arcs of green energy burst from their hands and exploded into the queen. Her shield wobbled and then collapsed. The twins pushed again against the defenseless woman.
She screeched in agony and humiliation. Her robes burst into flame. Ignoring the fire, she whirled and went to attack the twins. She met a solid wall of aura energy that redirected her own power back against her.
The queen rolled over and over on the ground, snuffing out the flames. On her knees, she looked up from her tattered and smoldering rags.
“You wouldn’t hurt an old woman, now would you?”
The queen struggled to her feet.
The battle was done.
“You boys have a great power when you combine it,” Kor croaked.
The twins kept their aura activated and but smiled at their father.
“I guess we just needed that big push to fully activate our Gift,” Hawk said.
The normal hustle and bustle of downtown Washington seemed to have come to a halt. An ominous quiet seemed to settle on the surreal setting. The smoke had drifted away and the energy sleeve dissolved.
“What do we do with her?” Joe asked the unspoken question.
“Good question,” Kor said, and then addressed the queen: “What should we do with you, witch?”
She looked a mess. She wobbled unsteadily on her feet. “I can see I am unwelcome here.” The deliberate understatement underlined her defiance even in defeat.
She hobbled a few feet away from them, her back to everyone. “Picking on an old lady. You should be ashamed.”
She was bent over, her features and body hidden in the tattered black robe.
Suddenly the mumbling old lady voice was replaced by a strong warrior voice. “My descendants roam this planet, whether you like it or not,” the voice said. “My blood courses through your veins, my genes are your genes, never forget that. I am not defeated. How can I be defeated when my family has been triumphant? Let it be known that I have conquered death.”
Those were the last words she was heard to say.
Maybe it was a trick of time and space, or maybe she had tricked time itself. Whatever it was, she disappeared in front of their eyes. They all had a sliver of a memory of her spaceship activating, rising off the roof, and hovering in front of her for a brief millisecond. The next instant, both the queen and her ship were gone. It was all a blur.
A memory.
A legend.
CHAPTER78
How cruel fate can be sometimes. Even in victory, there was the pungent odor of defeat. Stell and Amonda were both dead. Kor never had the chance to rekindle his relationship with Stell. The three Grayers were survivors of an epic battle that few on Earth would ever be fully aware of. None would know how close the planet came to be enslaved by the Abishot.
Joe and Hawk stood outside their Colorado ranch house. The time had come to say goodbye.
The sun shone brightly against the impossibly deep blue of the cloudless western sky. They wore reflective aviator sunglasses to protect themselves from the glare.
The twins held the reins of their favorite range horses. The beasts snorted and pawed at the dusty gravel as Kor came over. The horses bristled at the sight of the alien. Hawk patted his horse’s thick, taut neck and cooed in his ear.
“It’s time,” Kor said. “I have calculated that I can catch up to the fleet in about sixty years. Thanks to the vigilance of Asunda, the fleet is safe. Gamma I and II await. I’ll take the transporter to Gamma III and join the fleet.”
“You’re welcome to join me,” Kor added.
“We’ve got work to do here. There are Abishot mutants all over the planet. Someone has to hunt them down,” Hawk said.
“Besides, what if the queen comes back,” Joe added.
“The queen seems to be gone,” Hawk said.
“So it would
seem,” Kor said as he looked skyward.
There was the inevitable awkwardness of the final moment. No one wanted to depart. But they had to. No one wanted to say goodbye forever. But they had to.
No one wanted this moment to end. But it had to.
The twins strode toward Kor. They hugged hard.
Human hands patted Kor’s bald head and Kor’s alien hands ruffled hairy heads. They fought back tears. There were hugs again.
“Take good care of this planet, boys,” Kor said.
“We know what to do,” Joe said, looking at Hawk.
Stories may end, but Life is on an eternal continuum. What goes around comes around, and around, and around. Like the surface of a ball, there is no beginning and there is no end.
Well, there is always the illusion of …
AN END
APPENDIX
© 2008 GOOGLE EARTH IMAGE – SANBORN
© 2008 GOOGLE EARTH IMAGE – DIGITALGLOBE – TELE ATLAS – EUROPA TECHNOLOGIES
© 2008 GOOGLE EARTH IMAGE – SANBORN – TELE ATLAS
© 2008 GOOGLE EARTH IMAGE – SANBORN – BUILDINGS © DISTRICT OF COLOMBIA (DC GIS) & CYBERCITY
© 2008 GOOGLE EARTH IMAGE – DIGITALGLOBE – SANBORN – BUILDINGS © DISTRICT OF COLOMBIA (DC GIS) & CYBERCITY
© 2008 GOOGLE EARTH IMAGE – SANBORN – TELE ATLAS