Chapter 7
Darial walked out of the unit early the next morning to find Joe’s long, lean, relaxed body leaning against the wall waiting for her; his bag at his feet. He had obviously been ready to leave for a while. Grinning from ear to ear he swept her into his arms and fried her brain with a hot, blistering kiss, before gently pushing her a few inches away in order to speak.
“Well, does that convince you that I’m not still hypnotised?” He grinned at her playfully.
She laughed happily as he slowly released her, before picking up his backpack and turning to leave.
“I thought we had arranged to meet at the hanger after I turned in my hire truck?”
“Yeah well, I wanted to show you that I can be useful so, I arranged to have a mate of mine meet us outside. He’ll follow us to the rental place in my truck and then drop us off at the hanger. When I get back I’ll arrange to have my truck brought to the airport.” He grinned in satisfaction with his plans. “Now I can ride along with you,” he said, as he hugged her close. Ah! Life didn’t get any better than this.
Joe’s friend Pete proved very helpful, especially once he got a good look at Darial’s beauty. Joe’s black frowns constantly warned him off but, Pete was oblivious to the subtle looks and definitely not paying attention, if you counted the amount of smiles and helping hands he offered her. He, finally realised he was treading in dangerous waters when Joe whispered violent promises of retribution in his ear. With a last, good-natured complaint, that Joe would miss their poker night, Pete finally roared away in Joe’s truck.
Joe was now a happy man again.
Darial had one more difficulty to surmount before they could leave; she had to get Joe onto an invisible transporter. Fingers crossed behind her back Darial smiled encouragingly at Joe as she unlocked the door with the com-pad and let them both inside. Going over to the nearest box she sat down and patted the space next to her asking him to sit too.
“Joe I need you to trust me just one more time please, will you do that?”
“Yeah, anything for you honey, what do you want me to do?” Joe was feeling so good now that nothing was a problem for him.
“I need to boost the hypnotic command I planted last night. You need to watch the program again on the com-pad then you will be ready to make the flight. Will you do that now please?”
Joe’s smile in reply was full of love and confidence. “I’ll watch it if you want me to but, I have to tell you I haven’t got any fear left. I’m looking forward to getting on the plane with you.”
Darial melted under Joe’s intensely loving look, but, knew she had to go ahead with the programming. If Joe wasn’t under her control for the next hour he would go running into the street, screaming that the aliens had landed, Hail Hera how she hated deceiving him.
“I promise this will be the last time that you will need to use this program. This time tomorrow you will be looking forward to seeing Halli again.” Darial tapped a key to start the program on the com-pad and then handed it to Joe. “Please watch the video and by the time it finishes our transport will be here.” Darial knelt on a box behind Joe and firmly massaged his shoulders as she had the night before.” Joe was enjoying the attention even if he didn’t need more programming,
“Hey honey, I’ll watch all the videos you want if you’ll just keep on rubbing my shoulders that way.” Darial laughed, relieved that he was taking this latest imposition so well.
“I’m not complaining either, you have really sexy shoulders you know and I don’t mind getting my hands on you.” Joe shouted with laughter, feeling good all over.
Time passed, and slowly Joe opened heavy lidded eyes to see a plane parked right in front of him and Darial sitting at his feet as she had last night. He noted that the boxes and the sled were already loaded.
“How long have I been out of it?” he couldn’t stir up any interest in her answer, but, thought he should ask. Somehow nothing was of interest except getting on the plane and visiting Halli.
“Not long, however, it is time to leave now so, please board the transporter and take a seat.”
As Joe walked ahead of her Darial picked up the box of supplies he had been sitting on and followed him up the stairs. She had no problem carrying the box, Teeronites were born strong.The physiology between humans and Teeronites was identical but, something about Teeron’s atmosphere had made them faster, stronger and they lived longer, with less disease. This was one of the reasons for the Teeron researchers studying Earth’s atmosphere. Teeronites didn’t want to lose their quality of life by making the same mistakes that human’s had.
Darial quickly stowed the box and checked that Joe was safely strapped into his seat. She gave him a tender kiss and a hug before leaving him to go over to the pilot consol and strapping herself in. Darial used the com-pad to open the main hanger door and simultaneously engage the cloaking device. A plane that looked like a very large Stealth Bomber would attract far too much attention in daylight, it passed without notice at night but, not during daylight hours.
Joe looked over at Darial as she taxied the transporter ready for take-off, becoming aware of what she was doing,
“Wow honey, you didn’t tell me you were a pilot as well as a hypnotist, clever girl,” he smiled happily at her, still under the hypnotic commands. “I love you even if you are keeping secrets from me.” Darial shot him a quick smile over her shoulder.
“I promise I will tell you all my secrets very soon, I hope you will still love me when you know them.”
Joe knew that he should be alarmed when he entered the plane. It was not like any other plane he had ever seen. No photo or documentary had ever featured a design like this. Ergo he thought with an inward smile; I should be panicking. But, he loved Darial and if she was on this plane, this was where he wanted to be.
He sat quietly, not speaking and watched her fingers dance over the strange controls. There was no yoke to steer by, no levers or knobs, just dozens of different coloured buttons with strange icons printed on them and a large screen that relayed the view outside. The seats were more like luxury recliners with footrests than airline seats, and they were placed in two semi circles facing each other, six on either side. The circular configuration allowed all the occupiers to face each other; obviously suitable for group conversations.
There was an incredible amount of room in what he had to presume was the cabin of this plane. Yep Toto, he sure wasn’t in Kansas anymore.
He heard Darial speaking rapidly in a foreign language. Who was she talking to? His mind was buzzing with questions but, he decided the best move for the moment, was to sit here and collect all the information he could. When the time was right and Darial wasn’t occupied with flying the plane, he would get his answers. In the meantime he would just watch until they arrived at wherever they were going. He wondered if he should be worrying about Halli.
The rest of the trip passed swiftly and uneventfully. Very soon Darial was docking the transporter on the landing deck of Seeker 5. It would now be up to Callem, her Executon, to take over with Joe. Hail Hera, Darial had completed her mission successfully. She had helped the people who had saved her life. She only hoped that Joe could still love her when he found out that she was from another planet.