Dragon Eyes began this bold science fiction adventure. Then Sibyls’ Orb dragged you inexorably into the beating heart of this mystical walk on the wild side of science fiction. But now, this twisted tale of mystical intrigue weaves your mind forever into Aeon Event.
I am Chon ko Gonin, Captain of the Green Jinn. They call me the Dragon Warrior for a reason – I am Evil’s worst nightmare. I am Recon, the tip of the spear. Fate sends me where angels fear to tread. I am no damned angel. Then the desperate plea came in from Kianori on a distant world beyond the farthest reaches of the Union frontier. Even worse, she couldn’t tell us where she was, but that was just the beginning of our woes.
My name is Phoebe. With the help of the Council of the Crescent Moon and my time-space orb, we reached across the vastness of space to find Kianori. Even so, we would have failed but for the quantum power of our Dragon Warriors.
Kianori’s people had come under attack by the Jatarians, evil reptilian creatures from the Gates of Hell. Red, green, yellow and blue, these evil reptiles looked like gargoyles from your worst nightmare. Screeching and howling, they killed their way forward. Even worse, they killed the people only to eat them. To the evil Jatarians, humanoid creatures were nothing more than food. There was no reasoning with the Jatarians. They only take prisoners to eat them later. It was my duty to stop them. I swore an oath to protect and defend the people and that is damned well what I will do. I am Recon flesh and Recon bone.
Akila is my name. I am a Dragon Warrior, but not like Chon. I was marked with a silver dragonfly. Even so, I wonder how I ever got dragged into all of this but dragged in I am. Between the quantum portals and the Anoza Mysticism my head is spinning. But science or not, one more time, I was dragged into the whirling vortex of a battle with the worst evil creatures I have ever seen.
Then, in a dream, Fate called me one more time. He sent all of the Dragon Warriors down into the heat of battle with the evil screaming Jatarians to save one little pair of eyes staring out from behind her hide. He may have sent us all, but this time, Fate called me. He sent me to save little Leah. He sent me to pick her up and carry her back to the Green Jinn. From that moment on, I loved her as my own and she loved me. For me, saving Leah changed everything.
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- Print Length: 165 pages
- Publication Date: August 28, 2019
- Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
- Language: English
- ASIN: B07X128SP3
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
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- Word Wise: Enabled
- Lending: Enabled
- Screen Reader: Supported
- Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
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The paperback is available at Amazon- Series: Tales of the Green Jinn (Book 4)
- Paperback: 155 pages
- Publisher: Independently published (August 29, 2019)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1689324953
- ISBN-13: 978-1689324953
- Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.4 x 9 inches
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SAMPLE CHAPTERS
Prologue
The fire pit at the center of the Temple of Shem Kazat, on a distant Anoza world, burned once more. Incense added to the fire summoned all the members of the Council of the Crescent Moon to an emergency meeting as three of the planet’s five moons rose high into the night sky.
The first to arrive was Khal Tian, the Council’s newest member. The next to arrive was Pronu Agom. They were quick to question Destiny and Phoebe.
“What is the nature of this emergency?” Khal Tian asked Destiny.
“A voice cries out in the wilderness,” she told him as the rest of the members all arrived by way of quantum portals, “desperately in need of our help.”
The Council wasted no time. They gathered around the fire, circling it slowly clockwise seven times. Then Cozmo brought the Sibyl’s Orb to them through yet another quantum portal. He set the Orb upon a force field to suspend it at arm’s height before them. As two more moons rose slowly above the horizon.
The Council circled the Orb now three times anti-clockwise before putting their right hands on it. The Sibyl’s Orb sparkled and glowed with the power of the whole council flowing into it. Time-space around them shimmered.
The image of a young woman appeared before them. She was of a people they had never seen before. Her yellow eyes were as intense as the rest of her was soft. She appeared to be about the size of humans or anoza. Her skin was of many colors as though to camouflage her. Her hair was short and very curly. The tunic she wore was of a fine silk, and she was adorned with gold and silver in a very alien way.
“I am Kianori,” she told the Council. Her words were not in English or Anoza. They were being translated by the very sophisticated AI processors onboard the Green Jinn with Cozmo forming a link. He passed her audio to the Green Jinn, and then passed back the translation. It was all so very transparent that it was as if Kianori was speaking English herself.
“What is the nature of your emergency?” Toron asked her.
“Let me show you,” she told them.
From her mind, images appeared. They were frightening beyond words. The images were of aliens that looked like the most ferocious multicolored gargoyles. Even worse, these alien creatures were attacking Kianori’s people, literally tearing them apart and eating them alive. The aliens fought and squabbled over the spoils like animals, but in reality, were extremely intelligent. It was a ghastly scene, sickening to witness. The desperate screams of Kianori’s people tore at the Councils’ very souls.
“They came on starships,” Kianori told them. “There is no reasoning with them. There is only death. They only take prisoners to eat them later. They call themselves ‘Jatarians.’”
“We have encountered these aliens,” Khal Tian told the Council. “Kianori is right. They do not negotiate anything. They invade worlds and take whatever they want.”
“I plead for the lives of my people,” Kianori implored the Council.
“Where is your world?” Pronu Agom asked her.
“I have no way to answer that,” Kianori replied dismayed to the edge of panic.
“Fear not,” Destiny told her. “I will send my Dragon Warrior.”
“But he is only one man,” Kianori despaired.
“He is the tip of the spear,” Destiny assured her.
Chapter 1: Reality or something like that.
For Phoebe to cross the quantum portal and arrive back home on the Green Jinn was like Alice stepping back through the looking glass into reality. The Green Jinn was a state-of-the-art quantum starship. It was modern science, pure and simple. This was not some ancient temple. The Green Jinn even smelled like a starship. Phoebe’s clothes still smelled of smoke and incense. She would have normally gone immediately to take a shower and change her clothes, but that would have to wait for now.
Jin was on the bridge, flying the simulator with little Zemi when Phoebe came in smelling of smoke and incense.
“Where is Chon?” she asked Jin when she looked around and didn’t find him on the bridge.
Jin smiled. “You are still not used to all of this modern technology,” she stated the obvious.
“No,” Phoebe admitted reluctantly.
Jin reached out over the network.
“He is in engineering,” she told Phoebe. Jin lit up the path for her to follow in Phoebe’s Mindlink.
“Thanks,” Phoebe replied as she walked off. Indeed, all of this new technology was like magic to her, but she was determined to learn how to use it.
Chon and Hack were working on the quantum portal generator software with his Aunt Mariah when Phoebe found him. As Phoebe walked up to them, Mariah could tell immediately that she was on an urgent mission, and so she stopped talking and turned directly to Phoebe. It took Chon a second to realize that Phoebe was there and turn to face her with a puzzled look on his face.
“A peaceful people at the far reaches from us is in peril,” she told him boldly. “Only my Dragon Warrior can save them.” She had his full attention.
“But how?” Chon asked her.
“First, I need you to find them,” she told him.
“Me? How will I do that?”
“As we found Khal Tian, so shall we find these people.”
Chon took a deep breath as he thought about it.
“Khal Tian called me to him,” Chon reminded her.
“Kianori and I will work together this time. We will get you there, but it has to be at night so that you can see the stars,” Phoebe was now thinking ahead, but so was Chon.
“Okay, let’s gather the team for a meeting,” Chon decided.
[Jin, please call an emergency meeting of the crew on the bridge, we have a new mission.]
Fifteen minutes later, Phoebe stood on the bridge of the Green Jinn and looked around at the gathered crew. Jin sat in the pilot’s seat with a big smile. She may be artificial, but she was more human than some naturals that Phoebe knew. And, Jin loved little Zemi dearly. Remiatu Kiriarkin, Chief Navigator sat next to Jin. He was Anoza but fit into this crew as though he had always belonged. Aiden, sat in the XO’s seat to the right of Chon alongside Lara, his Yarjin wife. Zemi was their daughter by adoption. Her bridge station was next to Lara. Sienna was not only the Science Officer but also the love of Chon’s life. She was Special Forces heart and soul, tough as nails but loved Chon as much as he loved her. As much as the Green Jinn was built as a state-of-the-art combat ship, it had somehow become a family ship at its heart.
Akila should seem oddly out of place here, but again, this once Merc Commander had been cast by Fate to where she really belonged, with the crew of the Green Jinn. Her tactical skills were second to none.
Hack, the ship’s Chief Engineer, and Cozmo, Quantum Engineer second only to Emma herself, both stood in the back. Both of them were artificial, but you would hardly know it. The bridge was not their usual duty station. However, they were members of the crew, nonetheless.
Phoebe had taken sanctuary on the Green Jinn. She had never intended to stay, but this starship would always be the only safe place for her. So here she stood, at the front of the bridge. Behind her, on the totally surrounding 3-D display, a smaller screen opened. In it stood Admiral Dallas Blake. Next to that, another window opened. It held an image of Khal Tian. To the far left, a small window opened for each of the three Aurora Attack Fighter pilots. Everyone was present.
“At the farthest reaches of the frontier, there is a species of intelligent exo-nids. They have come under attack by the most frightening creatures – Jatarians,” Phoebe opened the meeting. She turned to Khal Tian. He continued.
“These are the Jatarians,” he told everyone. Scenes of creatures in many colors, all resembling gargoyles and demons appeared. The Jatarians were killing everyone with pulse weapons. The smaller Jatarians dragged off the dead and wounded to be eaten by these horrible creatures.
“The Jatarians are the worst of the worst,” Khal Tian told them. “They kill every living intelligent creature in their path. They take no prisoners except to eat them later. We had to severely defeat them ourselves, both on the ground and their ships in space. They are very crafty and resourceful and need to be handed a severe lesson to keep them away.”
“Our first task is to find Kianori’s planet,” Phoebe picked back up the narrative. “As he found Khal Tian by observing the stars in the night sky, so I would presume to send him to Kianori’s planet to do the same.”
“Pardon me,” Cozmo interrupted her politely. “That is no longer necessary. Captain Chon wears a bracelet with a quantum portal target built into it. Our portal ring can find him anywhere in the known universe.”
“But we can’t send him just to bring him home again,” Phoebe responded.
“Agreed,” Cozmo replied. “We will first have the portal tell us where he is. Then we can get the Green Jinn to wherever that may be in one single quantum wormhole.”
“You will need a lot more than just one ship,” Khal Tian advised them.
“The Green Jinn is Recon,” Admiral Blake told him. “They are the tip of the spear.”
But now the bridge was abuzz with activity as each member of the crew began their preparations for this new mission.
“So, how do you propose to get me there?” Chon asked Phoebe.
“Khal Tian will help us,” Phoebe simply told him.
While everyone else scrambled to C-Deck to get ready, Akila found Cozmo standing silently to one side, just watching.
“I don’t understand,” she said quietly to him. “You are a quantum theorist, a scientist. How do you reconcile that with all of this Anoza Mysticism mumbo-jumbo?”
Cozmo turned to her and asked politely, “An electron. Is it a particle or a wave?”
Akila was a bit confused by his question but answered, “It can be either. It can be a particle, or it can be a wave.”
“You act as though that simple truth means that it cannot be both at the same time. It is not either-or. It is both-at-the-same-time. It is two sides of the same coin. Particle and wave are both “electron.” So it is with science and what you are calling ‘Anoza Mysticism.’”
But now Cozmo could see that she was still in a quandary.
“I am a quantum scientist. While I cannot yet explain much of what I see, I can still observe it to refine my own quantum theories. What I can tell you is this: from what I have observed so far, it definitely follows quantum theory as I know it. So, it may not be as ‘mystical’ as you perceive it to be.”
“So, I would be best off to observe it?” she asked him.
“You would be a better observer if you maintained a neutral position,” he advised her. “Your skepticism could cause you to miss important data. If you watched a technician work on a fusion reactor, you might not understand what he is doing, but you could learn to do that procedure for yourself.”
“Oh, I see,” Akila replied. What Cozmo told her had struck home. “Maybe you are right.”
As far as Akila was concerned, then, she would only be here to observe. And so, she stood silently next to Cozmo to do just that.
C-Deck all around her was busily preparing for what came next. The entire Council of the Crescent Moon had quietly come aboard and just as quietly entered C-Deck. In the middle of the wide-open deck, Hack placed a hastily assembled, steel fire pot. Combat droids brought real cut wood logs and used a blowtorch to start a fire. Jin had to silence the alarms and turn the ventilators up to full to clear most of the smoke.
It began to look somewhat ‘mystical’ to Akila when the lights went off. C-Deck was now illuminated by just the light of the fire. Chon stepped up and stood next to the fire. Pronu Agom, one of the Council members dressed in a gray robe threw a handful of incense into the fire to begin. Then all of the Council members walked slowly seven times around the fire to the left while chanting.
When they changed direction, Akila felt as though something meaningful had changed. The atmosphere around them turned suddenly so cold that she could almost see her breath. It was as though the walls and ceiling had disappeared and time stopped. Nothing more happened, but something was wrong. Chon was still standing there. He looked at Phoebe with a question on his face.
Silently, Phoebe told Cozmo over the network, [“Please fetch me the orb.]
Cozmo quietly walked away and came back minutes later with a leather pouch. Phoebe removed the orb from it. The orb was already sparkling brightly as all of the other members of the council came over to put one hand upon it. Time-space rippled all around them, but Chon still stood at the center of this hurricane of quantum power.
Then Chon remembered that he had seen this once before, when they had battled Ojunta. So, he knew what to do. He motioned for Sienna and Akila to join him before the fire. Chon held Sienna’s left wrist with his left hand. Sienna held Akila’s left wrist with her left hand. Akila completed the triangle by holding Chon’s left wrist. In a blinding flash, they disappeared.
Chapter 2: Ripples in Time-Space.
Chon looked around in the darkness as his eyes adjusted. He was unwilling to release the triangle of their joined hands, afraid that in doing so, they would return prematurely to C-Deck on the Green Jinn. As Chon, Sienna, and Akila stood there, he could just barely see people around them. The air was crisp and dry like desert air at night. Silence engulfed them.
[We have you located,] Chon heard Rem’s voice by way of the quantum com network. Slowly, Chon, Sienna, and Akila released their joined hands. One of the people stepped forward in the dim light.
“Are you all Dragon Warriors?” Kianori asked them in her native language. It was quickly translated by Sienna’s equipment into Standard Interplanetary English and put on the network.
“I am the Dragon Warrior,” Chon replied. His answer was translated and came out of a small speaker that was clipped onto his neckband. He held up his hand to show her his red dragon tattoo in the very dim light. “I brought with me a golden butterfly.” Sienna held up her hand to show them her tattoo. “Her knowledge will guide me.”
“And I brought with me a dragonfly,” Chon continued. Akila held up her hand to show them her silver dragonfly tattoo. “Her cunning and skills in the ways of battle will help me protect your people.”
“We must quickly run and hide before the Jatarians’ evil bats find us gathered,” Kianori told them as she glanced around worriedly at the night sky, but she was already too late. Overhead, a small drone adjusted its course directly toward them. Chon took the crystal that he wore on a gold chain around his neck and pointed it skyward.
The Jatarians’ bat-like drone tried to take evasive action, but its artificially intelligent electronics were totally disrupted by the ripples in time-space that came from Chon’s crystal. It plummeted to the ground, screeching the whole way. On the ground, it writhed as though in pain until one of Kianori’s people bashed it with a rock. Its wingspan was easily two meters across. It had nasty-looking claws and a very sharp beak with teeth. It was as much a killing machine as it was for reconnaissance.
Kianori looked intently at Chon. “You are not just the Dragon Warrior. You are the Crystal Dragon,” she said as though it was a revelation. “Come follow me. We have a safe place hidden in the canyon.”
~~~
Overhead, in orbit, the loss of the bat-drone did not go unnoticed by a particularly ugly green Jatarian.
“I have a drone gone missing,” he told his equally ugly blue commander.
“Send a patrol out to find it. We cannot have these skribbits shooting them down,” the commander ordered. “Skribbits” to them was a derogatory term used to equate these people to nothing but cattle.
~~~
The crew of the Green Jinn was every bit up to the task of locating Chon, Sienna, and Akila. The data was passed quickly from the time-space quantum portal ring to Rem, the Chief Navigator, on the bridge. Rem set the course.
“What do we call this new world?” Rem asked Jinn.
[What do Kianori’s people call their world?] Jinn asked Chon.
After some delay, Chon replied, [They call it Sha’ohm.]
[Then I will label the star ‘Sha’ohm,’ and the planet will be ‘Sha’ohm-4,’] Rem replied. [That would satisfy the proper Union and Anoza Formats.]
Jin flew the course. She opened a quantum wormhole large enough for not only the Green Jinn but also for the three Aurora Attack Fighters. It ended them up far enough away from Kianori’s planet to observe the three Jatarian ships in orbit as they approached.
Khal Tian stood on the bridge of the Green Jinn and saw this for himself. He turned to Admiral Blake in a window on the main display. Next to him, Admiral Johnson appeared in another window.
“So, where do we stand?” Khal Tian asked Admiral Blake.
“I have given all of your videos and your sworn testimony to my Special Forces Supreme Court. They have been called into emergency session. We must wait for their decision,” Admiral Blake informed him.
“Every hour that we wait, more of Kianori’s people will die,” Khal Tian protested.
“We are allowed to protect life while we wait,” Admiral Johnson was thinking out loud.
“But then they will know that we are here,” Khal Tian once more protested.
“But they are only three ships,” Admiral Johnson replied. “We can surely handle that.”
While they discussed the matter, Cozmo ran a full planet scan with the new spread spectrum scanner. It located one distinct group of Jatarians on the ground. He fed that scan to Admiral Blake.
“I can handle the group on the ground with four squads of outworld rangers and four full platoons of combat droids,” Admiral Blake told Admiral Johnson.
“Good. Make it so,” Admiral Johnson replied. Her window closed.
For the next hour, Khal Tian paced the bridge of Green Jinn white its quantum portal rings were busy transporting the troops into battle. Amongst the people transported was Admiral Blake, Chon’s father. He came to the Green Jinn to supervise this op himself. He walked briskly onto the bridge and took the station behind Chon’s.
Khal Tian asked him directly, “Will Chon lead the ground forces?”
“No. That will be Tiger. He is a battle-hardened infantry commander. Chon is a highly skilled starship captain. He belongs on the Green Jinn. He is her captain.”
~~~
Back down on the planet’s surface, Chon, Sienna, and Akila followed Kianori into a huge labyrinth of tunnels dug by her people. They followed the tunnels to a huge open space where almost a hundred Keons were gathered. Many of them had ghastly wounds that were just barely visible in the dim light. Both Sienna and Akila went right into action to help treat the wounded.
[I need at least a dozen battlefield medics down here,] Chon linked through his quantum network back up to the Green Jinn, [as quickly as we can get them here.]
[I am marking the spot from your current location,] Rem responded.
[We will do the best we can,] Admiral Johnson’s voice came back to Chon.
Next to Chon, a door-sized quantum portal opened. Doctor Jim and two other combat medics came through on the run followed by a dozen combat droids.
“We are the tip of the spear,” Doctor Jim said to Chon as he passed by.
Sure enough, a steady trickle of doctors and battle-field medics kept arriving over the next hour. They sent a number of the wounded back up to the Green Jinn’s by way of the portal. The whole time, Kianori passed through the group of them assuring the Keons of the doctors’ intentions to help them. When the doctors appeared to have the situation well in hand, Sienna and Akila returned to Chon.
“We should be getting back to the Green Jinn,” Akila suggested to Chon. She was right.
“Yes, I need you both back where you belong,” Chon agreed.
Akila called down a quantum portal. They were gone in the time it took them to step through it. The portal dissolved behind them.
Sienna returned to her station as the Science Officer. Akila returned to her station to help command the troops on the ground. Four windows were open on her display, one from each drone. The scene down before her was like a vision from the gates of Hell as the combat droids led the assault. The Jatarians were a strange admixture of what she would have called different creatures of various colors and sizes but make no mistake. They were a unified fighting force of gargoyles from the Gate of Hell. Again, make no mistake, they were cunning and skilled fighters. Slightly larger than humans and more powerfully built, they could tear a man to shreds with their sharp claws given the chance.
While they had personal shields, just as the Union troops and combat droids, the Jatarians’ shields were far less effective against the Anoza pulse rifles that were now Union Fleet standard issue. Akila did what she had trained her whole life to do. She found their weakest point and had her troops concentrate their efforts there.
As soon as the Jatarians saw they were losing this battle, they pulled back to a large building and hunkered down to await extraction.
“We need to call in an air strike to finish them off,” Akila advised Admiral Blake in yet another window on her display.
“I can’t do that,” Admiral Blake informed her. “Special Forces Supreme Court has ruled that I have to give them the option to retreat and withdraw their forces.”
At this point, Khal Tian was obviously upset.
“But these Jatarians are the worst, most cunning predators in the universe!” he protested. “They will just outwait you, and when they come back, it will be in force. Their last attack on one of our planets involved twenty ships. It was a surprise attack and cost us thousands of lives. I cannot just stand here and watch you learn that same lesson all over again.”
This argument was far over Akila’s position to join in, so she sat patiently waiting for them to make up their minds. In the meantime, she sent her field commanders the command to hold the Jatarians in place and allow them to be withdrawn. She was an excellent leader who followed the chain of command. Agree or not, those were her orders. Her troops had the situation under control, she could go to the mess and get something to eat. She discovered how hungry she had become in the hours that had passed in the blink of an eye.
Akila sat down in the mess and took a deep breath. She looked up at the menu for lunch and selected a chicken wrap with feta cheese. Portia, Mia’s favorite artificial helper, came over with silverware and a napkin.
“Your wrap will come out momentarily,” she said to Akila with a smile.
Akila smiled back, but her heart wasn’t in it. She was tired mentally as well as physically.
Cozmo wandered by on his way back to engineering.
“What are your conclusions so far?” he asked her.
“Right now, I am too tired for conclusions,” she admitted.
“Humans are funny,” Cozmo shook his head and muttered as he walked off.
“There is the pot calling the kettle black,” Akila whispered to herself.
She could have sworn that someone replied in a tiny voice, but she didn’t understand what was said. She quickly looked around, but no one was near her.
Portia brought her wrap. Akila picked it up and took a bite. There was that tiny voice again, but once more, just beyond her ability to hear what was said.
“There has to be a scientific reason,” she told herself as she finished her wrap and got up. Tired as she was, she should have gone right to bed but headed for engineering instead. In engineering she found Cozmo.
“I think there may be a problem with my Mindlink,” she told Cozmo. “I am just barely hearing a very faint voice.”
“Yes, that may be possible. I will run a full diagnostic on it,” he assured her. “Please have a seat.”
She sat there for the next fifteen minutes while Cozmo ran two different full diagnostics.
“There is nothing wrong with your Mindlink,” Cozmo finally concluded but could see the look on her face when he told her. “Just because there is nothing wrong does not mean that you are not still hearing something.”
“Huh?” Her tired mind just did not grasp what he had just said.
“A perfectly functioning Mindlink is still a very complex device. There may be something else going on that we are simply unaware of… yet. You were chosen by Fate to be the Silver Dragonfly for a reason. Have you considered that?”
“I prefer to view this all from the science side of our discussion.”
Cozmo smiled. “Good. Me too.”
“Thank you,” Akila told him as she got up and headed for her quarters. Now she was exhausted, and tiny voices in her head or not, she could not get into bed fast enough.
Chapter 3: Little eyes are not science.
Akila fell into a deep sleep very quickly. A horribly familiar dream just as quickly totally swallowed her up into it. Terrifying demons were all around her as she hid under something that let her just barely peer out from behind it. She was frozen with fear and trembling as the demons rushed around and about her, screaming and shrieking. Several times, they came close to finding her. Fear gripped her so completely that she almost stopped breathing.
“Step back,” Destiny’s voice came through into her dream. It was calm and serene. Even so, Akila was so gripped in fear that she could not move.
“Step back,” Destiny once more told her. “Don’t think it. Just do it.” This time, Akila felt Destiny take her hand. Despite her gripping fear, Akila took one step back. None of the screeching terrible demons seemed to notice. Akila took another step back. Again, none of the awful screeching demons seemed to notice. Instead, they scrapped amongst themselves over some tasty morsel. Dear God! It was somebody’s arm.
She averted her eyes, not being able to stomach what she saw. That is when she saw two little eyes peering out from the place where she was hidden.
“Dear Lord!” Akila cried out as she awoke.
When she opened her eyes, the Lady in White, Destiny, was standing at the foot of her bed.
“My dearest Akila,” Destiny told her quietly. “Fate saved you and set you aside. You have just found out why.” With that, the Lady in White dissolved.
Akila threw on her clothes and ran for the bridge to find Chon.
“What’s wrong?” Chon asked her when he saw the look on her face.
“Someone down there desperately needs me to save them, but I don’t even know where,” she blurted out.
“When you suddenly disappeared from the Green Jinn, I got an alert. So, I had the portal rings locate you,” Jin told her. We know exactly where you were.”
Chon and Sienna both stood up.
“It will be a hot location,” Akila told them.
“We are with you,” Sienna assured her.
They all grabbed weapons as they ran into the ring room.
Lara told them, “It will be a three-ring portal using my poof protocol. You will suddenly appear at the spot. They drew their pulse pistols and… poof.
~~~
The three dragon warriors suddenly appeared right in front of the spot where two little eyes were peering out from behind a large metal locker hastily shoved into a corner. They were surrounded by red, green, and yellow gargoyle-like reptilians – Jatarians. It was a vision from the Gates of Hell. The evil creatures were arguing and scrapping over the remains of the people that they had killed. Their evil screeches and growls were nothing shy of demonic. They were literally tearing the people apart and eating them. Without warning, the dragon warriors just began firing fast and furious at all of the Jatarians. Thirteen Jatarians fell before the last one returned fire while running out of the building. He made good his escape.
In the sudden silence, Akila turned to the little eyes peering out at her.
“It’s okay,” she said as she extended an open hand. “It’s safe now. We came to save you.”
A long silence passed before a little girl, appearing to be only three or four slowly emerged. Unlike the Keons, she had light tan skin and long flowing almost-blonde hair. Her ears were between pointed and not. Her eyes were more green than blue and almost human in appearance. In fact, she looked so human that it was almost scary.
Akila offered her open arms. The little girl came slowly into the shelter of Akila’s arms. Then she nuzzled into the warmth of her. She was trembling. Akila picked her up and cuddled her. The little girl put her head on Akila’s shoulder.
“You are safe now,” Akila assured her.
But not for long.
“They are assembling forces outside,” Chon whispered.
[Lara!] Sienna called up [Poof us back now!]
~~~
Poof. They were suddenly back in the in the Green Jinn’s ring room.
Lara looked at the little girl in Akila’s arms and asked, “Who is this?”
The little girl was fascinated by Lara’s pointed ears. She reached out to touch one.
Lara laughed. The little girl looked around but clung even more to Akila.
“It’s okay,” Akila assured her. “This is our home. It is a safe place.” The language translation came out the tiny speaker clipped unobtrusively on her neckband.
“No monsters here?” the little girl asked.
“No monsters here,” Chon assured her.
“What is your name?” Akila asked her.
“Leah,” she whispered back to Akila.
“Can I set you down, Leah?” Akila asked her.
“But you won’t let go of me?” Leah asked back with a panicked look in her eyes.
“No, I won’t let go. I will hold your hand,” Akila replied.
“Okay.” Leah got down from Akila’s arms but held tightly to Akila’s hand. Her simple gray dress was filthy, and so was Leah.
“I have to get back to the bridge,” Chon told Akila.
“Me too,” Sienna added.
They both walked off and left Akila with Leah as Cozmo walked up to her. He handed Akila a small box and opened it. It held a thin white bracelet.
“Phoebe thought you might need this for the little one,” he told Akila. “It’s our latest model. It includes a temporary Mindlink and a portal tracker.” As he explained that to Akila, Leah took it out. She held it up and looked at it. Akila showed Leah her own bracelet.
“It is beautiful,” Leah decided, “like yours.”
“Yes,” Akila agreed with a big smile, “just like mine.”
That was good enough for Leah. She put it on. The bracelet adjusted itself to perfectly fit her. Leah looked at her new bracelet and smiled.
“Should we go get cleaned up?” Akila asked her.
“Okay,” Leah replied cautiously and took Akila’s hand once more.
Akila took Leah to her quarters.
“This is our home?” Leah asked.
That was a funny way of putting it, but Akila answered, “Yes.”
While Leah looked around, Akila called Portia, [I need some help. I need to get some clean clothes for Leah.]
[Please look at her so I can measure her,] Portia responded. [I will make that happen.]
“Should we get you a nice hot shower?” she asked Leah, but only got a big scared stare back in response. Okay, lead by example, Akila thought. So, she took off her own clothes and then helped Leah take off hers. Leah took Akila’s hand and followed her into the shower. That much worked. Akila showed Leah how she washed with soft white soap. Then she helped Leah get washed. Leah had a number of bruises and scratches but nothing major. Her flowing soft brown hair washed up nicely with some shampoo.
Akila discovered that Leah’s bracelet was working perfectly. She could speak to her in English and Leah heard it in her native language in her head. Conversely, when Leah spoke, Akila heard it in her head by way of her own Mindlink.
After the shower, though, exhaustion caught up with Akila. She threw back the covers on her bed. Leah jumped right up. Akila climbed slowly into bed. Leah cuddled into her as Akila pulled the covers over them. Leah was asleep in Akila’s arms in seconds.
“What was that all about?” Jin asked Chon when he and Sienna got back to the bridge.
[Apparently, Akila was called by Fate to rescue a little girl. It was ugly. Those demented beasts were actually eating the people that they slaughtered,] he whispered to Jin over the network so that Zemi didn’t hear it.
But now Chon was thinking. Leah was nothing like Kianori’s people. What was with that? He called down to Tiger’s men that were guarding Kianori. It took another ten minutes for them to find her and get her on the com. Chon put up a picture of Leah on Kianori’s screen for her to see.
“Oh. She is a Krian. Her people suddenly appeared on our world about a hundred years ago. They are a peaceful people and have very large families. We have lived in harmony with the Krians ever since they came.”
“What do you mean by ‘came?’” Chon asked her. “Where did they come from?”
“According to what they told us, the evil devils, the Jatarians, brought them here in starships and dumped them off,” Kianori told him. “There was about a thousand of them. Many would have starved that first year had we not fed them. It was the Krian villages where the Jatarians first attacked us this time.”
By this point, Khal Tian had walked back onto the bridge and heard the conversation.
“Dear Fate!” he exclaimed when he heard that. “Now the evil creatures are breeding their own herds of people to eat! Fate save us all!”
Sienna gasped at this horrible revelation. What made this even more horrifying to her was how much the Krians looked like humans. Had these evil beasts invaded an ancient Earth and taken some humans to breed them like cattle?
Chon and Khal Tian made a call to Admiral Blake to explain their latest finding. A window opened on the main display for him. Next to that window, another one opened. Admiral Johnson would hear their report for herself.
“This most certainly is a game-changer,” she told them. “I will have to get a vote from the whole Special Forces Supreme Court.” And with that, her window on the main display dissolved.
“Humans!” Khal Tian humphed. “Everything is decided by committee when time is of the essence.”
~~~
However, true to Union Fleet’s sworn mission to protect and defend the people, three Allied battlecruisers and their entire battle groups entered Sha’ohm-4 near space. The USS Coral Sea led the force with the USS Oklahoma and the Anoza battlecruiser Kilka Mesch flying his wing. They quickly deployed their respective battle groups to confront the three Jatarian ships but sat there, nose to nose with the Jatarians. Not a single shot was fired. The Jatarians were now faced with a real dilemma.
~~~
True to everything that Khal Tian had been telling the humans, Gar’jot, the Jatarian commander, had not been one to miss a trick nor underestimate his opponent.
“They are stronger than we are,” he quickly observed the obvious, “but they hold their peace. They know how much stronger than us they are.”
“They are trying to frighten us off,” his First Officer rightly concluded.
Now it was time for Gar’jot to consider his position. He was not lacking courage in battle. On the other hand, neither was he foolishly reckless. He was obviously facing a superior force.
“We will live to fight another day,” he concluded.
“How many of the skribbit-nas did you bring me?” he asked Ka’kin, his field commander.
“We recovered 59 breeding pairs,” Ka’kin answered evasively.
“No cubs?” Gar’jot questioned him further, but now Ka’kin wouldn’t look him in the eyes.
“You ate them all?! What?!” Gar’jot demanded to know.
“No,” Ka’kin once more lied. “The skribbit-nas were in league with the natives here and got their cubs away. We pursued them, but none were recovered.”
“So, then you ate the natives that helped them,” Gar’jot concluded.
“Yes, we did,” Ka’kin admitted.
“And how many breeding pairs are we leaving here, then?”
“We gathered 97 breeding pairs,” Ka’kin replied, “but why would we leave them here? These humans came to their defense, and they are considerable foes.”
“That may be true, but they are stupid and short-sighted. We will let them drive us off. I will willingly retreat. I will vow to never come back. They will think that they have won. Eventually, they will leave. In a hundred cycles, we will return for an easy harvest, but then we will know to come silently, strike quickly and be gone before they can respond. We are smarter than they are – we negotiate nothing.”
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