***
“What a buzz,” she murmured, perturbed, but excited as it felt as if a wall of white fire greeted her body, but no heat was emitted. In eight point five seconds, plus the time it took to recover from slight disorientation, she realized she was on Ahmadeus.
“Shit–just traveled two hundred and fifty million light years.”
Pete grinned as he explained, “In actual fact, the scientists say, your whole body becomes part of the BSP, and it acts like a shell transporting your molecules from solid matter to energy and back to solid matter in a twinkling. Nobody has ever thought of shutting the laser off during transit as that would be disastrous, or so they theorized. We have plenty of back-up generators for power failure.”
The landscape that greeted Kate was breathtaking, no wind, rolling country side, a real artist’s painted vision, bathed in late afternoon sun, with the planet’s two moons both visible. She had visualized two moons! If she had a canvas, she would try to capture it.
They all looked at Kate, who was lost for words.
“Okay, folks,” Tremaine barked. “Our orders today are a quick hello and an even quicker goodbye.”
Their mission priorities were to bring some new information to Sataal, who was getting more paranoid with the growing war situation. Now his scheduled signals to Earth were coming through daily advising grim progress reports of the Trimadian Locum tactics. His sources had sent through data that said a battle of enormous proportions could explode anytime over Ahmadeus.
Pilcher had warned OBF1, any sign of trouble and they were to head back to the BSP as it would be opened every twenty minutes. He had a gut feeling that trouble was looming and Kate should not have gone.
They made their way to the meeting place, half a kilometer from the BSP. Within seconds, the team was surrounded by armed Cantal warriors.
It never failed to intimidate the humans, being in the presence of such tall, muscular warriors that were virtually invisible. Even Tremaine was glad they were allies and not opponents.
Sataal, who usually would greet them cheerily, snapped at them. “There is not much time. The Trimadians are constantly sending patrols around the region and are always dominating our skies, waiting for the Locum more than likely. We must prepare ourselves for the start of the battle. It is now time to get your warriors prepared.”
“And hello to you too, Sataal,” Tremaine said sarcastically. “Actually we thought we’d take a little stroll and smell some of your local flowers.”
Sataal, who would normally ignore Tremaine’s flippancy, retorted angrily, “You have to go. IT IS NO LONGER SAFE!”
“Hey there, friend. I’m sorry,” Tremaine replied, a little taken aback as he had not often seen Sataal lose his temper.
“I am sorry, too,” Sataal quickly relented, a sad look in his eyes. “My brothers are as ready as they ever will be, but I fear this battle is going to take its toll.”
“We have a proposal for you,” Pete chimed in. Tremaine stepped back and folded his arms. Pete was the best PR person in the team.
“Pilcher and the bosses at the S.U.E.P. have a safer alternative for you to consider. Because of the imminent threat, they want you to evacuate your people to a similar, compatible planet. A new world has been located, and you can stay as long as you wish, if you—” Pete stopped when he saw Sataal close his eyes and shake his head.
“No, that is out of the question. We would always stand and fight, never run from our enemy. We are an honorable race.” He stared at Tremaine, “I’m sure you can appreciate that.”
Sataal frowned. “I thought we were going to fight side by side. That is what we all have been preparing to do over the past six months. We have both the Trimadians and Locum to deal with, before they take over everything.”
“Hey, we all agree. Look, we have our bases set up here too,” Pete said. “We know you are an honorable race, but the powers that be have had an emergency meeting and have concluded that the risk is too great. The BSP here on Ahmadeus is our only practical way in and out, and if that gets controlled by any enemy, Earth is compromised. And so the threat spreads.”
“So that is how you all feel?” Sataal looked at Tremaine, Mason, and Pete.
Tremaine said, “No, we want to support and fight with you, but our superiors back home have never met the enemy or observed them in battle. They feel that we will lose, as we do not have enough knowledge or superior technology to support a victory on either front. We’re not cowards,” he added after seeing the expression on Sataal’s face. “There are too may unknown facts. We really do not know enough about our enemies’ weaknesses and their powers. Our men could be captured, and of course, we would never talk, but these Trimadians and Locum could obtain valuable knowledge by other means like mind reading and stuff like…” Tremaine sensed he was waffling and shut up. “Shit, I want to nuke the bastards, but our Earth leaders want us to live to fight another day.”
Pete quickly concluded, “They have weighed it up and don’t like the thought of the Trimadians implanting human hosts, let alone be taken over by robotoid creatures. They, however, still want to help, but at this stage, they feel evacuation is the best option. Though you get to keep all our weaponry,” he added.
The OBF1 team knew how Sataal and his warriors would react, but they were only the messengers.
Everyone had forgotten about Kate, who was standing behind her team, listening intently. Pete felt a tap on his shoulder and glanced back. “Oh, I’m sorry, Kate. We got a bit caught up in the moment there.”
Turning to Sataal, Pete introduced Kate, “She is our new member of the team.”
Sataal stared at her, “She…Oh, I remember you mentioned a new trainee with extra sensory perception. I didn’t realize…a female…”
Mason and Tremaine looked at each other; Pete had blatantly disobeyed clear orders.
Pete saw their look and defended himself, “I have not said anything specific about Kate. Just we had a possible new member with a few…”
Kate felt uncomfortable, and not just because these alien creatures were huge and imposing. Sataal, remembering his manners politely bowed to Kate.
Beautiful female.
She heard his thought as clear as if he had voiced it. Kate blushed, not knowing what to say.
To cover her embarrassment, she put her hand out to shake Sataal’s who looked like he was rather taken by her.
As soon as Kate touched Sataal’s hand, she had another vision. It came so suddenly and violently, it knocked her to her knees. The gravelly voice spoke in her head and sounded garbled, like her ears were trying to tune into a radio station and the volume was comparable to sitting against Marshall amplifiers turned to full power.
Catch up! Catch up!
It faded and came back, then faded again,
Then,
GOT YOU…FOR YOU!
Her brain felt like it was being put through a cheese grater.
Gasping, Kate struggled back to her feet, as the others looked on stupefied. The red eyes appeared in her mind, accompanied by a shock like being electrocuted, and she was thrown to the ground again. Sataal had grabbed his hand back as soon as she made contact and looked as if he had just stuck it in a jar full of piranha.
The intensity she experienced was far stronger than ever before; downright violent.
As fast as it had come, it was gone.
Kate, flat on her back, looked up into a group of unbelieving, staring eyes. Her nose was bleeding slightly. She mumbled, “I—I’m sorry, I…” She stared at Sataal. “Saw your men…danger, they were chasing them…a device to detect them has been, ahh…” She began convulsing then fell into unconsciousness.
Pete knelt down beside her to check her breathing, which was very shallow, and her eyes at first looked like she was in the REM stage of sleep, but they were moving all over, like nystagmus. He opened up an eyelid. Her pupil was dilated, and the white was tinged with pink. Not good, he thought.
&
nbsp; Tremaine checked his time, and barked at Mason to get back to the BSP ASAP. “When homebase opens the door, signal back the emergency code and make sure they keep the damn thing open.” Mason went racing off.
“Let’s get her home now. God, she looks awfully pale.”
Kate let out a gasp as if possessed and smiled as if she had just won the national lottery. But her eyes remained closed and moving.
“I think she’s in some kind of trance,” Pete observed.
“Yeah, with her eyes wide shut,” Tremaine said.
“Gene, I don’t really want to move her, but we have no choice.”
Sataal and his men were looking on not knowing what to think. They had never seen anything like this before.
“It is like a spirit has possessed her,” one of Sataal’s soldiers ventured.
The soldier, who had spoken, Manutaai, was, like most Cantals, tall, muscular with long black hair. He turned to his leader. “We should escort them back to the Door of Endless Light, just in case there is trouble.”
“Agreed.” Sataal gave the word and four of his warriors helped carry Kate back as quickly as they could.
“Is your hand okay?” Tremaine inquired staring at Sataal’s hand, which had turned various shades of pink.
“Yes, I think so. I felt an enormous charge of energy emit from Kate. It felt like my hand was being bitten into by sharp teeth.”
“I–I’m sure she didn’t do that deliberately,” Pete stammered. “She has power that we know very little about and obviously seems to be growing more profusely. I have conducted some experiments in the laboratories back home. My theory as to what has just happened may have something to do with the fact that you touched her as she had another vision, albeit a violent one,” Pete added. “And some residue energy transferred to you.”
Sataal, distracted by the pain nodded. “Yes, something like that.” He was clutching at his aching hand.
The men covered the distance back to the BSP quickly.
As they rounded a corner to reveal the clearing where the BSP stood, they took in a shocking sight.
Isaac Mason, down on his knees, head bowed to the ground, a streak of blood dripping from a deep gash to his forehead. Pressed against the back of his head, was a mean looking black, thick instrument that glowed red at the end, like embers. Mason’s face was screwed up in pain as the instrument was ground into his neck.
The area surrounding the clearing was full of armed soldiers, clad in gold and black uniforms with strange symbols on their arms. All held the black instruments, spitting fiery embers, which they pointed at the newcomers.
Sataal and his men sprang into defense mode.
“Stay where you are or he will die, and you will be next!” boomed a fierce looking soldier, who was as large and as imposing as the Cantals. The soldier stared at Sataal and thrust his staff like weapon against his chest.
“Well, here’s trouble with a capital T,” murmured Tremaine under his breath.
“SILENCE!” roared the enemy leader positioning himself in front of Tremaine while his guards surrounded the hapless bunch. Kate was still unconscious, as she was laid onto the ground.
The leader yelled out some orders to his men in a weird language that made Pete recognize who these soldiers were.
The leader turned, his eyes roving over his captives.
“You are now prisoners of Supreme Commander Talokta of the Sotoid Fleet.”
Chapter 10—Trapped