The Unofficial Biography Of Kimmay

Book 4: The Nature Of The Matriarchy

by G L Hudson

 

CHAPTER 23

 

A helicopter landed on the hospital roof and two airmen came to the arrival door. Kimmay was waiting in the triage area. She barely looked like she was up to a helicopter trip. Her daughter Rocky was by her side. Kimmay walked absent-mindedly to the helicopter and the two airmen helped her inside. She sat down on a bench and one of the men strapped her into her seat. Rocky sat across from her, but Kimmay never saw Rocky. Her mind wasn't on the trip to the naval base. It wasn't on the colony ship. She couldn't get Traci's face out of her mind. "I promise," she whispered.

The trip to the naval base was over in a few minutes. The helicopter landed and the two crewmen helped Kimmay down to the tarmac. They brought a wheel chair to her and she sat down. A midshipman wheeled Kimmay into the hangar and Rocky followed behind them. Once inside Rocky took charge. She didn't wait for any formalities.

"Who is in charge?"

"Admiral Jeremiassen," the man said as he offered his hand to Rocky. "You are Rocky May?"

Rocky and the admiral shook hands. "You are correct. This is Kimmay," and she presented her mother with a wave of her hand. The admiral walked over to Kimmay and shook her hand. Kimmay said nothing.

"Sir, this is going to sound strange to you, but you must trust us. You have to handle this exactly as we tell you. You have in your custody the Supreme Commander of the Kastellian colony ship that is orbiting our planet. They are in the process of staging a massive attack on our planet. Their goal is to kill every human on this planet and then strip our planet clean of every useful mineral and resource that they can reach.

"Right now as we speak, a biological attack is underway. They have dropped over a dozen satellites onto the planet and dispersed some type of contagion. We have mobilized all of the world-wide resources available to our planet. But it will probably not be enough. We know this is a fast acting killer and we have less than 72 hours.

"We have to find this virus or prion or whatever they used, and we have to neutralize it in the next couple of hours. To do that, we intend to take a mobile unit to their ship and get the agent directly from their laboratories." Rocky paused to let that bit of news take its full effect on the admiral.

"If you'll pardon my French Ms. May, that's pretty fucking bold of you." He smiled, "What can I do to help?"

Rocky began spinning the Matriarchy's tale, "Their Supreme Commander is like every other Kastellian, in that she has a chip buried in her brain that controls her actions and allows her to communicate to an extent. We have learned how to control her chip. We will use her as bait to call a cargo ship here and then we intend to commandeer it. We will use the cargo ship to take our forces to their colony ship."

"How can you control this chip of hers?" the admiral asked.

"Sorry," Rocky explained, "but that's available only on a need to know basis. You need to release her to our custody. You have nothing to fear, because we will maintain total control of her. We will allow her access to her ship and she will call for the cargo ship. When that ship arrives, we intend to take control of the crew the same way we control the Commander. However, there is always room for mistakes and surprises. We need to have you prepare an ambush as a back-up. Whatever you do you can't kill the crew. Or at the very least, you can't kill the pilot. But you have to be prepared for a real battle.

"I'll be honest with you Admiral, these people are not stupid. They have already fooled us once and proven that they are a very cunning foe. We have to be prepared for anything. Understand?"

"You have complete control of this woman?"

"You have my assurance of that."

"I'll give you everything you need, Ms. May. I'll have an ambush of biblical, fuckin' proportions planned for you. But I ask for one thing in return."

Rocky rolled her eyes, "What do you want, sir?"

"When we walk that alien out here, I want you to make her get on her hands and knees and kiss my shoes." The admiral gave her his request without the slightest hint of a smile.

Rocky grinned. "It will be done."

"My ensign will give you anything you want," he said. He raised his hand and called over half a dozen uniforms as he began planning the contingent response.

 

The base turned into a frenzy of activity. Two hangars away six Zeus helicopters were loaded with live ordinance. Safety clips were removed and power chips were activated. Crews came running from barracks and met with the admiral in the middle of the hangar. He talked with them for about ten minutes, answered questions and then sent them to their choppers. In no time at all, the choppers were off the ground and headed toward perimeter staging points.

The admiral returned to his command center and called the Pentagon. General Wilder gave the approval for fighter coverage. A half-dozen fighter squadrons east of the Mississippi were staged and prepped with live ammo. Pilots were briefed and fastened down in their cockpits, weapons codes were keyed into on-board systems, and take-off times were punched into control tower computers. When the call was made, fighters would be launched in staggered intervals to allow their arrival in continuous waves, each wave reinforcing the previous.

Heavy armaments were moved into the hangar and adjoining hangars. Men and weapons were hidden and given jam-proof communications. The entire base climbed into chemical suits. Night-vision goggles were strapped to helmets and laser shields were pulled over their visors. The hangar doors were booby-trapped with explosives in case they wanted to trap the aliens inside, or keep them outside. One half of the surface-to-air missiles on the base were armed. In case the aliens could detect powered weapons, the admiral left one half concealed and ready for immediate power-up.

Claymore mines, smoke and concussion grenades, flares, high-decibel grenades and speakers were placed in strategic positions. Field lasers were positioned around the hangar and the airstrip. Holographic decoy projectors were set up and tested. As a last resort, the admiral was given permission to deploy his largest EMP bombs. They would deliver an enormous electromagnetic pulse that could knock out unshielded electronic circuits for a five-mile radius. It was a last-chance, desperation tactic.

Kimmay and Rocky made sure all of the contingency plans were in place and the base locked down before they began their actions. They walked the Supreme Commander of the Kastellian Colony Ship Vertu over to Admiral Jeremiassen. The admiral stood perfectly still as she approached. When she reached the admiral, she kneeled down on the payment, bent over and kissed the admiral's shoes. When she stood, the admiral could see the hatred in her eyes. He smiled at her, and then turned away.

Two full hours had been lost, and now it was show time.

 

Krysallis and Jennifer were in still in Washington D.C. to coordinate communications with the White House. Krysallis kept her sat-phone in her hand to remind herself to use it every once in a while. Rocky and Kimmay were with the Supreme commander and they were dressed and prepped for their trip to the Kastellian ship. Everyone else was in Lissa's apartment. Salindale signaled the group. They all took their seats on the floor and formed two circles. Salindale, Ginger and Melissa held hands and formed one circle. The other circle contained everyone else.

"We're ready," Salindale sent out. "We will persevere."

Everyone else said in unison, "For Traci."

Salindale, Melissa and Ginger walked the Supreme Commander of the Kastellian battle force into her shuttle. She took her seat in the command chair and opened a channel to the colony ship.

 

"Madam Chair, sensors are back on-line."

"We have tactical, Madam Chair."

"Madam Chair, external communications are up."

"Madam Chair … Madam Chair … Madam Chair ..." One after another all of the control captains reported to the acting commander. The woman was sitting above the bridge of the ship. She was seated behind a console one level beneath the Supreme Commander's empty bridge chair. Lights blinked and flickered on all over her consoles.

"How long were we off line?"

"Twenty four minutes Madame Chair."

"I want diagnostics broken down into sub-level …" the temporary commander did not complete her order. Emergency klaxons went off throughout the entire ship. She looked at her monitor and yelled, "Report!"

"Deck Watch, Madam Chair. The Supreme Commander's shuttle is missing. We have a deck-record opening the export field screens, but nothing else. The system crashed and we lost track of everything for the last twenty-plus minutes."

The temporary commander punched several buttons on her monitor. The decibel level dropped in half but did not stop. Additional alarms and lights around the ship erupted. Dormitories emptied as soldiers scrambled to defense stations around the ship. "Com!" she yelled. "Live power on all external sensors. Where is the Commander?"

 

On Earth, every space monitoring system in the world went berserk. Radar systems were flooded with enough energy to turn them into a useless white screen. Radio astronomers scrambled to turn off speakers as they poured out white noise at the top of their power levels. Radio stations, satellites, cell-phones and every other electronic broadcast system on the planet turned into screaming mush. Almost every electronic system on Earth was hit with the full power of the ventral-scanners from the spaceship. If anyone had any doubt about the Kastellian's presence, that was quickly ended.

"We have the ship, Madam Chair. It's on your screen." The Chair Commander spotted the target on her monitor. It was close to a large inland sea in the northern hemisphere. As she plotted her next move, Salindale began her first move.

"Command Center, this is your Supreme Commander. Return my call!" The voice of the Supreme Commander came over the headphones of the Watch Technician.

"Madam Chair, Watch Technician. I have the Supreme Commander on her frequency."

The temporary commander's fingers flew over her monitor screen. "My Lady, I am Chair Commander Three," the woman announced. "Do you require assistance?"

The Matriarchy circle headed by Cynthia and Maria had picked up the turmoil and alert status on the ship. They had quickly passed along that information to Salindale. Salindale pressed into the Supreme Commander and gave her her orders. "Back down, Chair. Reduce your defense status. I have wonderful news. I have made a discovery that will bring joy to the entire Empire. I need a cargo ship to bring our treasure home. Disburse a Bashore Ship immediately."

"My Lady, what protocol do you wish?"

That question threw off Salindale and her team. Protocol? The damn bitch had deceived them again. They had not pulled any warning of that question out of the Supreme Commander during their pre-mission inspection. Now they had to come up with an answer and they had no idea what to say. Kimmay rushed to the rescue, "I have the secret of the Traveler's inter-dimensional technology. It's very fragile so send me the shuttle as fast as you can get it here." As soon as she finished the sentence, Salindale made the Commander switch off the communication frequency. Salindale's circle along with Kimmay and Rocky immediately plunged into the Commander's subconscious. Kimmay found it first.

"Fuckin' bitch. I should kill her now."

"Admiral," Rocky yelled into her microphone. "It's going to be bad. They're sending an attack and rescue group."

 

Cynthia and Maria's group had begun probing for the ship's biological warfare team as soon as Kimmay had brought the ship and Earth back into synchronous time. They had pulled some information concerning the team out of the Supreme Commander, but they had little information to work with. The Commander knew the leaders of the team, but little else. She barely knew where they were located on the ship. She knew the deck but almost nothing else. The Biological Warfare Team held absolutely no interest for her, so she had discarded almost all the information they had fed her over the years.

The Matriarchy searched through the approximate area of the ship that held the team. They entered one mind after another, working their way through soldiers, technicians and slaves as they looked for the laboratory and the team leader. Ship board alarms went off and the minds they were probing began closing. Automatic protocols on the ship had been triggered and people were being ordered to emergency positions. Embedded chips were being used for communications and that electronic feed controlled much of the minds they probed. The girls pushed harder but got only half the information they wanted.

They jumped through two more minds before they found a laboratory technician who worked in the fermentation lab. She was responsible for providing feedstocks to the culture tanks. She fed the cultures as they grew their virulent viruses. The team was making progress. They now knew that they were battling a virus – much better than a prion. As they poured through her mind they slowly realized what was happening around the technician. The ship was on battle alert!

Cynthia alerted Salindale, but it was too late. They had not fed the correct answer through the Supreme Commander to the Chair Commander, and she had already declared battle stations. Pilots were rushing to their ships. A full tactical fighter wing was scrambled. Two ground assault ships were loaded. Over one hundred elite soldiers were stepping into their battle armor as the ship launched. The Chair Commander also sent one cargo ship into low orbit. If the Supreme Commander had been excited and merely missed the protocol response by accident, the Chair Commander was covering her ass with the cargo ship.

 

"How much time do we have?" the admiral asked.

"We're not sure," Rocky radioed back. "I think between twenty and thirty minutes, but don't quote me on that."

"Fuck no, I'd never quote you," he said sarcastically. "Do you have any fuckin' idea what's coming?"

"I'll get back to you on that," Rocky answered.

"Please do. Inquiring minds want to know!"

 

Kimmay pulled out of the Supreme Commander's mind and reached for Cynthia and Maria. "What can you tell us?"

"Battle stations. That's all we know."

"Well forget the biological attack for now and see what you can find out about their battle stations."

"We did find out that it is a virus they attacked us with."

"Great, but later. Who's in charge and what are they sending at us?"

 

"Admiral, are you listening?"

"Jesus H. Christ, what the fuck you been doin'?" The Admiral didn't like to wait for updates.

"Sorry. They've got 23 fighter-attack ships heading at us. They're ten minutes out. Behind that they've got two ships with over one hundred ground assault troops. The troops will be held back until they're ready for them."

The Admiral spun around and pointed at his communications officer. "Lock into the Pentagon. Are your ground lines still open?"

"Yes sir, we have stable communications up and down."

The Admiral spoke into the open room, "Pentagon, we've got incoming ten minutes away. I need a launch on the fighters."

"One second Great Lakes."

 

The room turned towards General Wilder and the general turned towards Krysallis and Jennifer. Without saying a word, he was asking if he should approve fighter launch. Jennifer spoke first, "Duh?"

The stupidity of the General's unasked question dawned on him as Jennifer's grunt reached his ears. "We have a full go at full force," the General ordered. "Mr. President, I suggest a full release of all tactical forces world-wide."

The President paused for a split second and he too looked to Krysallis. Krysallis stared at him as if in disbelief. The President came to his senses and responded, "You have a full release. Initiate all protocols." The President spoke towards a large screen at the end of the room, "Mr. Vice-President?"

The Vice-President looked out from the screen and said, "Vice-President Kennedy concurs with all protocols. I authorize full release of all tactical forces world-wide," he said formally.

"Liason!" the President called. "Alert all the Ambassadors and Foreign Services; the United States has authorized a full tactical response to a planetary attack. Give them our codes." He looked at Krysallis and they exchanged a worried look.

 

Two fighter ships came flying across the airfield at supersonic speed. The sound of their passing was half a second behind them. Just as the sonic boom hit the field, the blinding white light bathed the entire base and began spreading out. Everyone without a Kastellian chip burrowed into her brain dropped to the ground in a crumpled heap. Every soldier on the surface, and every officer in a bunker one hundred feet under the surface was out of commission. Only two people remained standing upright on the grounds of the Great Lakes Naval Base.

 

The Supreme Commander knew exactly what had happened. Salindale and her partners quickly pulled that information from the Commander. Kimmay checked in and reported that Rocky and everyone around her was down. They were completely alone and defenseless.

Two more fighters boomed as they swept over the field and then climbed at over mach ten. Two sorties had passed by and not one shot had been attempted by the airfield defenses. The entire defense grid was dead. Power chips for every weapon were still intact, the chips were immune from the Kastellian EMP weapons, but not so their interfaces. Radar, laser, radio, infra-red and all the other sensor systems were dead. The fighters were invisible to the automated weapons systems. All of the weapons were armed and ready to fire, but they had no soldiers or electronic interfaces to initiate their counter-attack. The Kastellian fighters now had free reign to begin pounding the airbase.

The second wave of Kastellian fighters were making their approach to the runway. Nine of those Kastellians fighters were referred to as fighter/insertion ships. They each carried a second occupant. These occupants were the best trained, most vicious soldiers in their entire Empire. They were trained for rescue behind enemy lines and they were trained well. Once they were on the ground, Kimmay, Rocky and everyone else was going to be killed. The rescue forces took no prisoners and left no one alive. And they now knew exactly where their Supreme Commander was standing.

 

The first wave of Earth's jet fighters were closing in on the naval base. The two troop ships were acting as command platforms and they picked up the jets immediately. A few seconds later the Kastellians picked up the second and third waves moving in from the north and south. The command dispatcher in the lead troop ship called off the insertion fighters and sent them up for a turn-around. The first wave of fighters would encounter the Earth jets and pull them into a low level chase. The second wave would then pick them off from above. The fighter/intercepts were going to be sent north to intercept the second wave head-on.

The first wave of Air Force jets came in at ground level flying at over mach four. Their C3 command plane was circling at 40,000 feet and guided them to within ten miles of the field. Just as the fighters switched to active radar, the Kastellians took out the C3 plane. The jet fighters were now on their own. The lead wave of Kastellian fighters had been waiting. They dove down over the jets and shot down four jets as they swooped ahead and began leading the chase.

The Kastellians knew they had a tremendous speed advantage over the Earthlings. They were running at a mere four and a half times the speed of sound as they pulled the Earth jets into the trap. As they swept across Lake Michigan the Kastellians made their first tactical mistake; they went vertical. The second wave was now in place behind the Earth fighters and the front leading Kastellian fighters began to climb out of the line of fire.

By going vertical, the American pilots were able to use their newest weapons. The hyper-mach missiles were powered by scram-jets capable of mach 17. They had a very small payload capacity and carried a warhead of only kilogram. But it was a new and very unique one-kilogram warhead. The first three jets were able to launch their HM missiles before the Kastellian chase fighters took out the entire jet squadron.

The lead wave of Kastellian fighters turned on their tales and pushed for the high altitudes. They saw the missiles on their tale and opened their throttles. They were easily leaving the missiles in their wake. But then the surprise started turning to worry. The HM missiles had very slow acceleration until they reached mach six. The conventional jet engine pushed them to a speed where the incoming air reached critical pressure. The high-pressure air contained the requisite oxygen content and temperature to ignite the scram-jet. When the scram-jets kicked in the missiles took off like a bat-out-of-hell.

The Kastellians saw the missile acceleration almost too late. Their tail-point ordered the fighters into full acceleration. The pilots were pinned in positions that prevented them from moving as their fighters pushed to mach ten, then twelve and finally mach fourteen. But the HM missiles kept coming. The fighters automatically ejected a chaff field that should have impacted the missiles and with the high kinetic energy of the chase, wiped out the missiles. But the missiles were too slender and small. Their tiny optical sensors took them through the chaff field and kept them aimed directly at the Kastellian fighters.

As the missiles closed in tighter the Kastellian fighters went into an automatic defensive posture. Acceleration fields flooded the cockpit and immobilized the pilots. They were locked in a protective field as the ships went into extreme maneuvers. In the rarefied pressure of eighty thousand feet the fighters made horrible noises as they used their perpendicular yaw thrusters to turn the fighters out of the path of the missiles.

The missiles had proximity fuses set for one hundred meters. As they passed through the one hundred meter range the fuses activated. The missiles continued to close in on their prey and reached within sixty meters when the Kastellian fighters went into their extreme maneuvers. The missiles couldn't follow and began falling off the trail. As the distance started to increase from sixty to seventy meters the proximity fuses initiated their firing sequence.

Four Stevens energy chips were activated in each warhead, and thin superconducting wires were energized. The chips used Kimmay's energy storage technology, but they had been refined by the great Dr. Howard Stevens. Dr. Stevens had been posthumously awarded several ribbons for his modifications to Kimmay's chips. These chips had been first invented for use in detection systems to monitor the comings and goings of the Travelers. Their enormous power levels had been pushed to even higher levels for use in this specific weapon. There was only one energy storage system in the world that had more capacity than these Stevens chips. Only the Lissa Chips could carry more energy or create more havoc than Stevens chips.

At over mach seventeen, twenty thin ceramic filaments were energized and ejected from the warhead. At that speed the superconducting filaments were vaporized in micro-seconds. But as they disintegrated the wires released a tremendous number of hyper-energized electrons. It was like releasing a huge surge of ball-lightening. The electrons exploded at relativistic speeds and engulfed their targets in a ball of electron fury. They penetrated the fighters and fried every electronic circuit on each ship.

Kastellian engineers were very talented and very advanced by Earth standards. They had anticipated similar weapons, especially in the form of electro-magnetic pulses. Even though the ship had been severely damaged, back-up mechanical systems came on line and should have allowed the pilot to manually bring the ship back to earth for an easy landing. Inside the atmosphere, the Kastellian fighter-attack ships were remarkably aerodynamic.

But all of that required a pilot. The Kastellian engineers never anticipated, nor could they have countered, the energy levels released by the Stevens chips. As the acceleration fields dropped off the pilot should have resumed manual control and coasted her fighter to the planet. But the pilots were dead. The electron flux had been so dense that the embedded tags in the pilot's brains were fried. When the tags went dead, the Kastellians died.

The Kastellians now realized that they were in a real battle. The first actual battle for the planet called Earth had produced casualties on both sides. The Kastellians had eliminated the first two waves of Earth fighters, but they had lost 5 fighters in the process. They were down from 23 to 18. They were still in a strong tactical position, but the fact that they had lost even one fighter shook them out of their arrogance.

 

"What's going on?" Kimmay asked. She had shuffled to the back of the hangar and was hiding behind a reinforced machine gun placement. There were two unconscious soldiers behind her. Rocky was still lying exposed in the middle of the hangar. Kimmay didn't have the strength to pull Rocky to safety. The Supreme Commander was still standing beside the shuttle, frozen in place by Salindale and group.

"We've shot down five of their fighters," Krysallis exclaimed. "They're jumping up and down here."

"Wonderful, but Rocky and I are in a bit of a pickle here. Salindale can you help us?"

"I'm not sure what to do. We've still got control of the Commander, but she's acting too smug. I'd love to end that right now. Cynthia and Maria are still working their way through the ship."

"And we're not having much luck," Cynthia said. "When they went to battle stations they kicked up the control level in everyone's tags. It's taking twice as long to get into a mind and find some answers. We're still looking for the command center or bridge, but to be honest right now were lost."

"Can you move just a bit faster?" Kimmay pleaded. "We might lose control of this situation if you don't get moving faster."

"Kimmay can you put their ship under time-lock?"

"Sure, but that still leaves these troops down here. And if we do get up to their ship, they'll immediately resume attacking when I release them again. Who knows what they're planning to send at us next. Cynthia, Maria and all of you, you have to get control of the current commander on their ship. Hurry!"

 

The intensity of the battle was beginning to heat up. The Chair Commander and her ship were currently on the opposite side of the planet. They couldn't offer any direct help, but she was preparing for a large-scale assault. An entire division of troops was being mobilized. Two dozen troop transports were being powered up and two full fighter-attack squadrons already had the pilots in their cockpits. They were waiting for their launch point.

 

The troop ships already occupied in battle were still shocked at what had just happened. Intelligence had failed them. They had never anticipated the hyper-mach missiles and now they had lost five ships. Tactics had to be changed. They couldn't allow the Earthlings to close in on the fighters. Bait and attack tactics were now unacceptable. They had to hit the incoming jet fighters head-on.

The third fighter wave coming from the south had been encountered and a dog-fight was now underway. The Kastellians were using traditional tactics, acting as if the Earthlings had equal speed to themselves. It was the first and easiest tactic to take. They were having no trouble picking off the slower fighters. But then a fourth wave was spotted. The fourth wave arrived in time to offer reinforcements to the third wave. Another Kastellian fighter had been lost in a mid-air collision.

The Earthlings were bringing too many fighters too quickly. The fighter/insertion ships couldn't be spared because they were interdicting Earth jets from the north. That meant that the Supreme Commander was still unsecured. The troop ships had to remain above the surface to provide tactical to the fighters. The commander in the lead troop ship made her second tactical mistake. She ordered her second troop ship to begin the decent to the airbase and the Supreme Commander. To compensate for the lost tactical support, she ordered her ship to a higher altitude to cover a wider area with her own tactical coverage. It was a huge mistake.

As the fight in the skies continued, she climbed into direct line-of-sight of a small, underground facility in the bluffs of the Mississippi River. In the year 2035 the Travelers had exposed themselves to the inhabitants of planet Earth. They had threatened to destroy the human race, and there was no weapon on Earth that could have prevented that destruction. At the urging of Kimmay and Krysallis, a secret program had been started. The goal was to develop extremely high-energy particle and beam weapons. Defensive weapons had to be found, now that the human species knew there were other species out there.

Dr. Howard Stevens had begun the development of his ultra-high energy chips. Those chips had been powerful and effective in the development of many weapons systems. But then Cynthia, Maria and Lissa had come along. In a late night brain-storming session, Lissa came up with a new approach. After several years of work, the girls gave birth to the next, and last generation of energy storage systems. A single Lissa chip took a battery of energy chips three full months to charge. The amount of energy phased into an alternate set of dimensions was beyond the comprehension of any human mind.

Four hundred Lissa Chips were buried one half of a mile under the dry soil of Prarie du Chien, Wisconsin. A free electron laser, twenty billion dollars and forty years of effort were ready to defend the planet. "One hundred percent power," the team leader said. "All systems are ready. Washington, we're ready for your go."

The President showed Krysallis his crossed fingers as he said, "You have a go."

The base commander gave the command. The ground actually rumbled as the Lissa chips released their energy. For one full second, four hundred Lissa chips pumped unimaginable energy into the FEL X-Ray laser located under the bluffs of the mighty Mississippi. The beam of coherent x-ray photons that it released was one and half times larger in diameter than a soccer ball. As it scorched through the sky it turned the atmosphere on fire. A white-hot streak of plasma marked the path of the one half a billion terawatts of x-ray energy. A sonic boom zipped and rippled over the plains of North America, sounding like the echo of a giant hammer smashing the doors of hell. As the plasma slowly cooled, it passed through a rainbow of colors and faded into wisps of beautiful, surrealistic clouds as winds slowly dispersed the remaining after-affects.

The bolt of energy was of proportions only a god could appreciate or comprehend. Zeus himself would have felt humbled by the power unleashed on the Ides of March, 2080. The bolt of energy hit the Kastellian ship with the force of a million lightening bolts. The ship disintegrated under the onslaught. What little bit of mass that wasn't vaporized, was thrown ten miles higher into the sky.

The handful of people who stood in Washington D. C. and Prarie du Chien watching the event on their monitors couldn't believe their eyes. There was no cheering or congratulations. They were each diminished by what they had just seen. Even gods didn't obliterate their enemies the way they had just done.

From her hiding place in the hangar, even Kimmay heard the streak of death. The explosion of the ship was a slight blip in the roar of sound cascading through the atmosphere. The rumble bounced and echoed for thirty seconds – an un-godly amount of time to the millions of people who heard it.

"What happened?" There was no answer. "Someone? What happened?" Kimmay asked.

Minutes after the explosion, the girls in Milwaukee also heard the roar, and they too were waiting in horror. For several seconds they all imagined the worst, and then Krysallis finally answered. In a very sober thought she said, "We fired an X-ray laser." That was all she said.

"That's it? What happened?" Kimmay asked.

"It disintegrated the Kastellian ship. I have never seen anything more frightening in my life."

"Great!" exclaimed Kimmay. "Is it over?" Even as she asked, she heard the response. A dozen fighters went flying by the base, each sonic boom shaking the rafters of the hangar. Dust slowly filtered down from the ceiling joists and lent an eerie shadow to the sunlight filtering in through the hangar door.

The second Kastellian troop ship stopped its descent and froze a few thousand feet above the ground. The commander was in a quandary. Her support fighters needed her tactical support, but she was too low to tell them much. If she went higher she might come into the line of fire of the energy beam that had just destroyed her sister ship. And if she hovered in place, she was a sitting duck for Earth fighters and surface to air weapons. Her only real choice was to move horizontal and she quickly moved several miles out over Lake Michigan.

The commander had no way of knowing it, but she would have been safe going up in elevation. The Prarie du Chien FEL was out of commission and no longer a danger to anyone. The tremendous energy released during the laser firing had cooked most of the hardware in the facility. Fortunately, it wasn't the only over-powered FEL on the planet. Engineers were already ordering other facilities to reduce their power level by fifty percent, and remain on standby.

None of this was of interest to Kimmay. She still felt way too vulnerable. She had Salindale walk the Supreme Commander back into the shuttle and place her next to the communications platform. "Maria? Cynthia? Give me some good news," Kimmay pleaded.

"We're there, we're on the bridge."

"Finally! Take the commander slowly. We want to manipulate her, not control her. Feel her out for the response codes she needs from the Supreme Commander. We can't afford to answer wrong again."

It took only seconds for Cynthia to answer Kimmay, "We've got them. Now what?"

"We play our cards again." With maximum control over the Supreme Commander they contacted the ship.

"This is your Supreme Commander. I want an update on our situation."

"My Lady, are you ok?" the harried Chair Commander asked.

"No! I still don't have that cargo ship. Where is it?"

The Chair Commander became cautious and once again asked, "What protocol do you want to follow, My Lady."

"The protocol where I kill incompetent Commanders." That was a nice touch the girls thought. Then they gave the Chair Commander the correct answer.

"My Lady, the cargo ship is holding in low orbit. There is a battle above you and the Earthlings are fighting better than we anticipated. We have lost six fighters and a troop ship. Our second troop ship is locked down and can't go high enough to provide tactical."

"Why not?" As much as Kimmay wanted to get right to the point, 'Bring the damn cargo ship,' she had to play this cautiously. There was no telling how many other protocols were involved.

"My Lady, they hit the lead ship with a powerful energy beam weapon. Its power was way beyond anything we anticipated. None of our ships have shields that can deflect it."

"Is it powerful enough to damage the Vertu?"

"Possible. We were out of line-of-sight so I don't have full telemetry on the weapon."

"What are you planning now?"

"We're three minutes from launch for reinforcements. I have a full division …"

"NO! I told you that they have Traveler technology. That weapon may be just one of them. Take the ship to the far side of the moon."

"But My Lady, I have to send …"

"Listen to me or I will have you shot! You said you cannot guarantee the safety of the ship from the energy weapon. Your number one priority is to protect the colony. Move it to the far side of the moon and out of sight. Send no more ships until we have a chance to re-evaluate the situation. We can rely on our ultimate weapon to take affect."

'Ultimate weapon?' thought the Chair Commander. That meant the release of the biochemical weapons and the total annihilation of all of the humans. They would lose billions of recordings. These humans were the best torture subjects in the galaxy. She personally had already experienced one of the human torture sessions and it had been wonderful. They couldn't lose this once in a century opportunity. She couldn't let that happen. "My Lady, we can't do that. Not yet at least. Give us a chance to update our tactical and operational plans. With the colony behind the moon we will have time to re-work a better solution. Please My Lady … we don't want to lose the humans before we can use them."

"Stupid person!" the Supreme Commander yelled. "It's already too late. Look at the time. The satellites have already been deployed."

"What? How? I never released the order to deploy."

"Look at the time, lurdan!"

"Our black-out was only twenty plus minutes. That was not enough …" As she was talking she received a message from the logistics captain. The Chair waved her hand over her monitor and it switched to a new presentation. Home-world time had just been updated by over three days. "How?" she asked.

"We don't know, Madam Chair," the logistics captain apologized.

The stunned Chair Commander returned to her Supreme Commander, "My Lady. It seems that we have lost over three days somehow."

"Idiot! I know that. I told you they have some Traveler technology. They must be able to control time. While you were sleeping, the satellites deployed. The ultimate weapon is already spreading and multiplying and infecting them."

"But My Lady," the Chair Commander pleaded, "Is there nothing we can do to delay it?"

"Contact the Medical department and tell them the situation. Ask them to do something. I certainly don't want to lose the use of the animals either."

"Yes My Lady, I will contact them immediately. In the meantime, is there something I should do about the lost time?"

"What in the name of the Empire could you possibly do?"

The Commander was embarrassed. It was a stupid question. She tried to recover, "Shall I start a search for this weapon?"

"That's why I'm here on the planet. I already have some of the Traveler weapons and I need a cargo ship to bring them back. Now where is my ship?"

"I can send it down form orbit, but it has limited shields. There are Earth fighters surrounding you. It might not get through My Lady."

"Do you think I am totally defenseless or without intelligence?"

"No My Lady," the Chair quickly apologized.

"Send all of the fighters and the troop ship away from the area. Have them engage the Earth fighters and lead them away from here. Then send the cargo ship down immediately. Understand?"

"Yes, My Lady."

Kimmay stepped out of the Supreme Commander's mind and reached for Krysallis. "We've given knew instructions to the Kastellians. They're going to try and draw our jets away from the base. Tell them to follow. Then they're going to send down a cargo ship for us. Let it through, and let us have a clear passage to Atlanta."

"I'll pass that along," Krysallis answered.

"And see if you can find us a new group of soldiers at Atlanta. All of the troops here are unconscious."

"I'll handle that," Jennifer offered. Krysallis and Jennifer both put their sat-phones against their ear and pretended to be conversing with Kimmay.

Next, Kimmay turned her attention to her daughter. Rocky was still lying unconscious in the middle of the hangar. She ordered the Supreme Commander out of the shuttle and towards Rocky. As they walked across the hangar floor, Kimmay noticed that there was no one moving anywhere. Every soldier in the hangar was still lying unconscious on the ground. They reached Rocky, and Kimmay extended her leg straight behind her as she carefully knelt beside her daughter. Kimmay could feel no pulse and Rocky was barely breathing.

"Is she going to live?" Kimmay probed the Commander's thoughts.

"Yes. You humans are so weak and fragile. Any other species would be conscious already. You are such pathetic whiners. That is why you can't possibly stand up to the Kastellian Empire."

Kimmay looked up at the Commander and with a slight grin said, "That is where you are wrong. That Traveler technology that you think we don't possess; think again. I have a Builder's ship from one thousand years in the future at my disposal. After we destroy you and your ship, we will destroy your entire empire. It is my promise to you. Now pick up the girl and carry her to the hangar door."

One hundred miles away, Salindale, Melissa and Ginger were stunned at what they had just learned. They had no idea that the ship was still intact and available to Kimmay. What else was she hiding?

The Supreme Commander and Kimmay leaned Rocky against the huge iron works of the hangar door and Kimmay sat next to her. She put her arm around Rocky's neck and held her while they waited. They could hear distant sonic booms, but no longer saw any jets or Kastellian fighters in the sky.

While they waited, Jennifer started sending questions to Salindale and Kimmay. "How many soldiers will be on board the cargo ship?"

"Twenty."

"Are they armed?"

"Every last one."

"How many do they need to fly the ship?"

"Three."

"Can you control three?"

"Barely."

"But you certainly can't control twenty?"

"Probably not. Not even with the Supreme Commander ordering them."

"What will you do then?"

"Fake it. We'll be their prisoners until we get to Atlanta. Then you need to supply an ambush."

"You'll have to get as many of them as possible out of the ship and into our line of fire," Jennifer said.

"We'll order them out to pick up the cargo. Keep everyone there out of sight."

"I'll get everything set up with the General. Any idea when you will arrive in Atlanta?"

The Supreme Commander was fighting as hard as she could to withhold information. She had considerable reserves and innate abilities. She had already withheld information from the Matriarchy's mind searches and she had resisted other pushes. She was a formidable opponent. But Salindale would not settle for anything less than full control of her adversary. Salindale pushed so hard that the Commander collapsed to the hangar deck. For a moment they thought they had killed her. Panic surged through the Matriarchy as they all held their breath. Salindale carefully stepped through her mind and found her still alive. She was hurt, but alive.

Salindale was relieved, but she wasn't about to let the Commander know how relieved. "The next time I will kill you," she told the Commander. "Now answer my question."

"You have about forty minutes Jennifer. Better make it thirty just in case," Salindale relayed.

Kimmay heard a distant rumble and looked into the sky. A very large object was descending too slowly to be anything other than the alien spaceship. Kimmay forced the Commander to stand, while she remained seated with Rocky. The ship seemed to move way too slowly for Kimmay as it dropped almost to ground level and then taxied across the tarmac to their hangar. When it reached the front of the hangar, it slowly dropped the final ten feet to the ground. No landing gear were extended, it simply sat on the ground.

The three of them remained in their positions for another two or three minutes before the doors opened in the front of the ship. A group of soldiers walked out with weapons ready. "My Lady, one of the humans is not tagged." The Soldier raised her weapon and aimed at Rocky.

"Stop!" the Commander ordered. "These are special prisoners and I need them just as they are.

"My Lady," the soldier bowed almost parallel with the ground. "Protocol demands tagging of all animals immediately. It is a prime directive."

"Then hand me the weapon," the Commander said. The Soldier obediently handed over her weapon. The Supreme Commander pointed the weapon at the soldier and shot her. She fell backwards onto the pavement and lay motionless. The Supreme Commander pointed the weapon at the other soldiers, "Does anyone else want to quote orders to ME?"

No one blinked. She tossed the weapon to the nearest soldier and began walking towards the ship, "Bring them to the ship and place them in a holding cell." She stopped walking and turned back towards the soldiers, "They're fragile and you had better not hurt them. I'm going to need them at our next stop. Let's move!"

 

 

CHAPTER 24

 

Once again Kimmay was lying on the floor of an ice-cold holding cell. Rocky was still unconscious and Kimmay held Rocky's head in her own lap. She gently caressed Rocky's hair as she waited and listened to Salindale. The ship had skimmed a mere hundred feet above tree-top level as it flew from Chicago to Atlanta at speeds approaching mach ten. Kimmay and Rocky should have been tossed around the cell like rag-dolls, but they felt almost nothing. Obviously the Kastellians had ways to dampen or off-set momentum. They quickly reached the edge of the airfield and were coasting towards the hangars of the Air National Guard.

The Supreme Commander had the pilots push the nose of the ship inside the doors of the hangar before they set down. The ship was too big to fit all the way through the doors, and the hangar was full of containers, trailers and recreational vehicles. At least they looked like RVs. They were actually the self-contained laboratories the CDC would need to perform their field work.

The Supreme Commander was raised to her feet by Salindale's thoughts. "You two stay right here and prepare for a quick lift-off," she said to the pilots.

"Stop!" Salindale froze the Commander where she stood. "You said you needed three to fly the ship. Identify the third." The Commander mentally pointed out the Nav-Com officer.

"You," the Commander said as she pointed at the correct soldier, "Stand guard over the prisoners. I want you to have them ready to help me identify the correct items. Get them ready immediately."

They now had two pilots and one additional officer separated from the other soldiers. This was where everything was going to get very tricky. The Matriarchy had only three girls who could actually control minds. The other girls contributed additional range and ability, but still only three could channel the ability.

The Nav-Com officer walked back to the holding cell and opened it. Cynthia entered her mind and took control. The officer handed her weapon to the prone Kimmay. She then stripped off her remaining weapons and laid them outside the door of the cell. Finally she helped Kimmay to her feet. Kimmay stepped out of the cell while the Nav-Com officer dragged Rocky outside and leaned her against the wall.

"Be my guest," Kimmay said as Cynthia walked the Kastellian into the holding cell. As soon as the cell door was locked, Cynthia left and returned to the group.

"Ready," she thought. Cynthia then took control of one of the pilots and Maria took the other. Both pilots sat perfectly still and stared straight ahead as Salindale and the Commander gave their next orders.

"Everyone gather at the front cargo doors." When the remaining soldiers were assembled, she ordered the doors open. "You will start with those containers over there," and she pointed across the hangar. "Open them for my inspection. Go." The entire group exited and when they were half way across the hangar the Commander ordered the ship's cargo doors closed. One of the soldiers saw the doors begin to close and started running back.

"Fire." The hangar exploded in gunfire as the Kastellian soldiers were caught in the open. The Earth soldiers mowed down their enemy with a hail of bullets. Four fifty-caliber machine guns cut the Kastellians to shreds as they tried to defend themselves. It was an ugly massacre. The entire firefight lasted less than one minute.

Soldiers ran over to the fallen Kastellians and quickly finished the job with single shots to the head. Then they began pulling them off to the side of the hangar. Technicians came running into the hangar as the space ship's cargo doors opened a second time. Twenty commandos ran into the ship and found Kimmay.

"Do you have a medic?"

"Yes ma'am," a soldier said as he stepped forward. Kimmay pointed to Rocky, "She was hit with some type of stunning weapon in Chicago. Can you help her?"

"I'll try ma'am."

"Ma'am, what's the status in here?" a major asked.

"There are four aliens on board. Three have to fly this ship. One is locked in here, and two are at their seats on the flight deck. The fourth alien is their Supreme Commander. She is also on the flight deck, and her you can tie up. The other three have to be able to fly. Take this one up to the flight deck, that way," she pointed, "and hold her there. Don't let any of them touch anything."

The commandos took the Nav-Com officer to the flight deck. Kimmay followed behind. "Tie her up," she pointed to the Commander. As soon as the Commander was tied, Salindale left her and took control of the Nav-Com officer. Salindale, Cynthia and Maria now had control of the three pilots.

With her mind finally free, the Supreme Commander started screaming and yelling at the Earthlings. No one could understand a word she was saying, but they were sure it wasn't pretty. She began hissing and spitting and yelling in her native tongue. "What's that all about?" the major asked.

"I think she's upset with the flight service. Gag her."

Kimmay sat behind the pilots with her bad leg and its brace stretched out in front of her. She watched the action below as technicians were manning tow trucks and pushing trailers and containers onto the ship. There seemed to be maximum confusion mixed in with organized mayhem, but the job was getting done. As soon as the equipment was onboard, fifteen doctors and technicians, half dressed in biohazard suits, walked on board. The soldiers directed them to the staff bunks one deck below the flight deck. Fifty minutes after arriving, the cargo doors were closed.

"Is everyone ready?" Kimmay asked. The soldiers shouted the question down the deck and repeated the answers as they came back up. Internal communications were down because they didn't want to overload the girls as they controlled their pilots. Everyone was as ready as they could be under the unusual circumstances. "Then let's go."

Cynthia, Salindale and Maria, along with the help of everyone else, began manipulating their targets. The ship rose a few feet off the pavement and glided backwards. Once they were clear of the hangar the ship swung around 180 degrees and quickly accelerated as it headed into space. Kimmay and a few of the commandos watched through the cockpit windows as the blue sky turned into the blackness of space. It was a pretty sight when the moon came into view and they began flying towards its northern pole. The colony ship would be waiting on the far side.

Halfway to the ship, Rocky walked up the steps and sat next to Kimmay. Kimmay wrapped her arm around Rocky and pulled her tightly against her. She gave Rocky a kiss on the cheek as they watched the moon coming up on them.

As two commandos placed the muzzles of their guns against the back of the co-pilot's head Salindale said, "It's time." Salindale returned to the Commander's mind.

"Remove her gag," Kimmay told the major.

The Supreme Commander spoke, "Nav-Com, give me the Chair Commander."

A few seconds later, the cargo ship received a reply, "My Lady, is everything alright? We couldn't reach you."

"I know," she said haughtily. "I was busy collecting treasure. We have it! The Traveler weapons are everything I promised. I want no one near these weapons. Clear the upper starboard berth. I want no one in there when I land. Is that clear?"

"Yes, My Lady."

"Shall I send your slaves to you?"

"Were you not listening to me you slug?"

"Yes My Lady. No one shall be in the berth or waiting for you."

"See to it! Nav-Com, close channel."

Salindale returned to her co-pilot and the Supreme Commander began screaming again. "Major, if you would please?" Kimmay smiled as the Supreme Commander was again gagged. "We won't need her much longer."

Kimmay turned her attention to their next hurdle. "Major, would you help me down these steps. I need to address you and the doctors." The Major picked her up in his arms and carried her below.

As the major carried Kimmay into the lower deck, some of the people were whispering.

"See, it is Kimmay. I told you."

"Are you sure? She's much smaller than I expected."

"Who was that other girl with her?"

"I think it's her daughter."

"Why is she here?"

The major sat her in one of the empty berths where she could address the group. Kimmay had the doctors, technicians and most of the commandos in front of her. "I'm sure you have been given a briefing in Atlanta about our mission. Now let me tell you the details. The extra-terrestrials are here to invade Earth. Their motives are to annihilate almost every human being on the planet, and take the rest for slaves and torture. This is not a species that can be reasoned with. Given just the slightest chance, they will kill every one of you in a heartbeat. Don't ever forget that. This is more serious to them than you can possibly imagine.

"So you had better pay attention to what I am going to tell you. They have released a virus on Earth with the intention of causing a pandemic that will kill every human on the planet. We know very little about the agent they used. We do know it is a virus, it is air borne and attacks through the respiratory system. Its incubation period is about 30 hours and then it kills in about 48 hours.

"Your people told Krysallis that the most critical objective was identifying the virus. We decided the fastest way to get the virus was to go to the source, so we are taking you to the enemy's spaceship. We are going to obtain a sample of the virus from their laboratories, and then you are going to have to identify the virus and find a vaccine."

The doctors looked incredulously from one to another. "That could take weeks if not months, one of them said. "If it is as fast acting as you say, we don't have nearly enough time."

Kimmay smiled, "You have more time than you can possibly imagine. This is going to sound ridiculous at first, but stay with me. While on board their colony ship, we have the ability to control time. We can speed it up or slow it down. Your time will be vastly sped up compared to Earth time. One day for you will be less than ten minutes for Earth. In one hour of Earth time, you will have nine or ten days to work."

"No shit?" someone asked.

"No shit," Kimmay chuckled. "You were told to bring along enough food for ten days. Do you have that much?"

"That looked about right," one of the technicians answered.

"If we need more time, the Kastellians eat about the same stuff as we do. I have no idea how it tastes, but we will survive.

"Now, there is something else you need to know, and major this really applies to you and your men. The time control will apply only to the hangar that we will be working in. You will have to leave all of your equipment on this cargo ship and work in here. You can go out in the hangar and walk around, but you cannot leave the hangar deck. If you do leave the hangar, you will leave our protected time envelope and you will be on the same time-speed as the aliens. If they catch you they will kill you immediately. Any questions about that?"

"How can we possibly do this?" some exasperated technician asked.

Kimmay carefully peeled back the bandage on her left cheek. "Can you see this?" and she pointed to the round tag sticking in her cheek. "This is how the Kastellians control their victims. The first thing they do is shoot you with this tag. The tag connects to the nervous system and works its way to the brain almost instantly. It drains you of any ambition to defend yourself. You are then at their mercy.

"And let me tell you something else it does. I don't want any of you to under estimate what these aliens are capable of doing. This tag records your emotions and pain. They torture you until death, and all the while they collect your pain on this tag. They use it for entertainment! They will peel your skin off your body, and dissect you like a worm so they can generate the maximum pain for their own perverse enjoyment. These aliens are monsters and don't ever forget that."

The doctors and soldiers sat starring at Kimmay. Their mouths dropped open as they thought about the potential torture.

"They've made a mistake though. It's a huge mistake and we are taking advantage of it. Something went wrong with my tag, and I have access to their computer systems. With that access I can put ideas in their heads and I can confuse them. They all have a similar tag in their brains, although it is used for different reasons. They control their soldiers like robots. I can make them chase imaginary demons while leaving us alone."

"But the time control," someone began, "Does this have anything to do with you and the Keepers?"

Whoops, that wasn't the story that Kimmay wanted to spin. She wanted to make them believe that she was using the tag to control Kastellian equipment, and it was the Kastellian equipment controlling the time. Kimmay changed her story. The truth usually worked better in the long run, "Yes. But I can't say any more about that now."

"But you will speed up and slow down time by yourself. Is that right?" The same girl was asking the question.

"Essentially."

Everyone of the doctors and technicians was confused. "Will we feel anything?"

"No, everything will seem normal to us."

"But we will be moving much faster than normal?"

"Compared to Earth time you will be moving much faster. But among ourselves everything will seem normal."

One of the technicians obviously knew a great deal of information on Kimmay's history. She asked, "Did the Keeper give you this ability?"

"Not exactly, but that isn't important right now …"

The girl interrupted Kimmay, "Is what the Keeper said about you true, then?"

The rest of the group stopped their chit-chat and looked at the girl and then at Kimmay. "What are you talking about?" the chief doctor asked his female technician.

The technician never took her gaze off Kimmay. "Are you a god?"

Kimmay merely closed her eyes and sighed. "What? Are you crazy?" another doctor asked the technician.

"The Keeper said that Kimmay was a … a nexus for time. I think that was the word. And she said that the Builders should have dropped to their knees in your presence. She said that, didn't she?"

Everyone looked at Kimmay. "She said that, but I am no god. That is ridiculous."

A doctor sitting directly in front of Kimmay scoffed, and loudly said to no one, "That's for sure! She is no god. That is a stupid and ridiculous idea. Even worse, it is blasphemy in His presence."

Kimmay couldn't let that comment go without a response. She pushed herself to her feet and walked the couple of steps to where the man was sitting. She looked down at him and said, "You're only half right. I am no god, that part you got right. But what that woman said is not blasphemous. To blaspheme requires that a god actually exist. Your male idol doesn't exist in this universe."

"And you think you would know that?" he asked sarcastically.

Kimmay grinned, "I have opened my eyes, while you still pretend to see with your heart. Yes, I would know that."

The female technician pressed her questions to Kimmay. "You may say that you are no god, but normal people can't control time, can they?"

"Gods don't die, do they?" Kimmay shot back. "They're immortal aren't they?"

"Yes," she answered unsurely.

"Then you have your answer. As soon as we are finished here, after we get back to Earth, I'm going to die." Kimmay hobbled back to her seat and sat down.

The major had been following the conversation most closely. Since he was charged with everyone's safety, he had to ask the question, "Why do you think you are going to die?"

"Because of this tag in my cheek. It is energized by a power grid on this ship. After we return to Earth, that power grid will no longer be energizing the tag. In a couple of days the tag will go dead. When it goes dead, I will die." Kimmay turned from the major to the female technician. "Gods don't die, do they?"

The woman was at a loss for words. She softly mumbled something that sounded like, "Sorry."

"Can we get back on topic, please?" She paused just a moment then said, "We have the advantage of a time-dislocution. We will be able to accomplish several days of work in a matter of one Earth hour."

"How does that work? I mean how do we keep the aliens out of our time?"

"They will appear to be standing still to us. We will be moving so fast that if we walked by one of them they would see nothing but a blur. But this time affect is located in only our hangar. If they get into our hangar, they will move as fast as we do. That would be a disaster. Major, they will attempt to enter the hangar, but as long as they remain outside the hangar doors, they will appear to be standing still to you. You and your men must make sure that they do not get into the hangar. You need to set up patrols, find all the exits and guard them. Understood?"

"Yes ma'am."

"In addition, you have to guard our four prisoners. Three of them will be needed to fly us out of here when we're done. Are there any other questions?"

"When will we get this virus? Who will get it? We have to be very careful and maintain full containment on it."

"That gets even more complicated," Kimmay started. "We will have to go search for the virus. I can take one or two of you to do the search. Maybe three, but no more." Kimmay paused and took a breath. This was going to be difficult to describe. "When we go looking for the virus, we are going to enter the main part of the ship. I can keep a couple of us protected in our time-acceleration mode. When we walk through the ship the aliens are going to appear to be statues. Their time will be much, much slower than ours. We will zoom past them without them seeing us.

"But, and this is a big but, if something goes wrong we will revert to their time. We will be found standing in the middle of the enemy's camp. The results will be worse than death; much worse."

"Are you sure that can you do all of this?" someone asked.

"You're going to have to trust me. Are there any other questions?" Everyone just looked at Kimmay. The entire situation was such a shock that no one knew where to start with all of their questions. The end result was no questions.

"If things come up during our stay, make sure to ask me or Rocky. Don't go off and do anything by yourself; assume nothing! Ok, let's get ready to land."

Kimmay returned to the flight deck and took her seat next to Rocky. "How ya' feeling?"

"Weird. I'm better, but I just don't feel right. It's like I've been spinning around on a carnival ride for hours."

Kimmay gave her a squeeze. "Just take it easy and don't do anything. When we land, stay here and lie down. I'll handle everything for the time being."

Kimmay could hear the pilot speaking. She entered the pilot's mind and listened as the pilot received her landing instructions from the colony ship. A short distance from the mother-ship, the cargo ship went on automatic pilot, and the computer systems began bringing the ship into the landing berth. The command center again asked if someone should enter to secure the ship and shut down all the systems. Under the control of the Matriarchy, the pilot refused.

"Very well, you have an empty berth waiting for you."

As they made their final approach, Kimmay reached back to the Matriarchy. "Have you learned anything else about the virus?"

"Sorry," came back the answer. "We were concentrating all of our resources on making sure you got to the ship safe and sound. As soon as we finish with the pilots we'll start looking again."

"After we arrive, I am going to put us in accelerated time. I'll make sure everything is situated here before we go looking for the laboratories. I'll contact you again in a few of your minutes."

The cargo ship was brought into the berth and the outside force fields and hangar doors closed. The pilots began shutting down the ship, and it turned out to be more difficult than they anticipated. They spent fifteen minutes sitting in the ship. Then the second-pilot had to go outside and manually shut down the systems normally handled by the prep-crew. The major had to send two commandos to help pull lines and couplings around the ship and plug the cargo ship into the colony ship. Fuel lines were bled and grounding lines were attached. Kimmay sat on the edge of the cargo door and relayed messages from the Matriarchy to the commandos, as they helped secure the ship. Everyone thought that Kimmay was hacked into the computer system and getting her information that way. A normal twenty-minute shut-down took almost one hour. But in Earth time it was less than one minute.

The time wasn't wasted. The doctors began prepping their labs, and calibrating their equipment. By the time the ship was secured, the doctors were ready to go looking for viruses.

Kimmay addressed Chief Doctor Brinson, "Are you ready to go find the virus?"

"Let's do it."

"Who's going?" Kimmay asked.

"Me and my best field agent, Dr. Brandt."

"Are you sure that you want to take your best field agent? We're going to be searching through their laboratories," Kimmay said.

Dr. Brinson thought about it for a moment and then yelled back at the shuttle, "Yo! Adrienne! Send out Anderson."

A couple of moments later someone stepped out of the cargo ship, "You looking for me?"

"Yea," said Dr. Brinson. "You and Brandt get in suits. You're coming with me on a bug hunt. Get all of your stuff, and bring an extra suit with you." Brinson looked over Kimmay and then said, "Make it a small."

While they were waiting for the other two doctors, Kimmay found the major. "Have you located all of the entrances to the landing berth?"

"Damn if I know," he answered honestly. "I've never seen anything like this. We think we've found the entrances, but there may be more. I've established regular patrols to go by the ones we've found, and I'm also installing motion detectors to warn us if they open. But I honestly don't know if we've got all of the ingress routes covered."

"Then you better make a second and a third check. If any of the Kastellians get in here we're in a world of trouble. What about our prisoners? What have you done with them?"

"I'm using that holding cell on the ship."

"You know it's ice-cold in there?"

"Yea, I gave them some blankets."

"Not that I care if they suffer, but we can't afford to lose any of them. They have to fly us out of here when we're done."

"I understand fully," the major said. "What do I feed them?"

"As little as possible. I don't know how long we're going to be here, and I'd like to make our food last. We can go looking for food if necessary, but the less we leave this hangar, the better off we're going to be."

"Ok. Looks like our prisoners are going to lose some weight," and he smiled.

The three doctors came walking over and handed Kimmay a suit. The doctors had their suits on, and two of them helped Kimmay with hers. Because of the brace on her leg she had some difficulty getting it on, but they eventually managed. After they were suited up the chief doctor asked, "Now what?"

Kimmay turned to the major, "Do you have some rope or string?" He nodded. "Cut off some lengths and tie a five foot distance between each doctor and me."

"Why?" one of them asked.

"Because when we walk out of here, we're going to be going through the rest of the ship. The other parts of the ship are in a different time speed than we are. I can keep the four of us in our current time, which will protect us from the aliens. But, and this is a big but, I have limited range. If any of you wander more than ten or twenty feet away from me, you may slip into the time speed for the rest of the ship. That means they will see you and you will be at their mercy. Trust me, you wouldn't want that to happen. I've had first hand experience."

"What happened?"

Kimmay glared at the doctor, "Later. Do you have all of your equipment?" The doctors made a quick inventory check. The commandos finished tying ropes around everyone and pronounced them ready. "Follow me. Don't get in a hurry. We have more than enough time to do this. I don't want to get pulled two different directions at once. I don't have the strength to play tug-of-war with you guys. Major, would you show us the way out?"

The four suited and hitched searchers stood to the side of the door. The major had five commandos armed and ready to fire. The major hit the door switch and … nothing happened. He tried a second and third time and it still wouldn't open. "Now what?" he asked with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Get one of the prisoners," Kimmay instructed.

The commandos brought back one of the pilots. Kimmay looked at the major, "I don't like doing this. I can't explain why, but I'm going to have to put us back on regular time. We'll be in the same time speed as the rest of the ship. That means that one of the aliens could walk in on us at any time. Tell your men to be ready."

The major spoke into his command radio and then nodded to Kimmay. There was no perceptible change to any of the people in the hangar. Kimmay changed the time and no one was aware of it. Immediately she reached Salindale and told her to have the pilot open the door. At the same time, Kimmay asked Cynthia and Maria if they had any more information on the virus. It had only been a minute since Kimmay had last spoken with the girls. They had nothing new to report, but they were able to give her the directions to the laboratories.

The pilot put her hand on the pad beside the door and it slowly slid to the side. As soon as it was open Kimmay changed back to time acceleration. One of the soldiers used a mirror to peak outside and saw two Kastellian guards frozen in place. They were looking towards the door.

"Major, we will have to leave the door open until we return. I can't do two things at once. My abilities are rather limited. I'll have to leave you and the Kastellians on the same time rate. We should return before they can take a single step, but you can't afford to take any chances with my abilities. Keep out of sight. Whatever you do, don't let them know you are here. And watch every single door. Whatever you do, do not step outside this door. We're going to be gone for a couple of seconds I'll guess. But don't even think about coming to look for us if it is longer. Make sure everyone here stays inside and safe. Got it?"

"Yes ma'am," he said. He gave her a short salute and smile as she headed out. He was about to say something about luck, but she and the doctors walked back in immediately…

 

Kimmay led the group into the hall. They began walking and found out how awkward it was going to be. With their equipment in their hands, and full size backpacks for air purification, they were continuously bumping into one another. Out of exasperation, Kimmay finally stopped the group. "You," and she grabbed Dr. Brandt. "You walk in front of me. I'll tell you which way to go. You other two get in single file behind me. Put your free hand on the front man's shoulder or rump or back-pack. Whatever works, and try to fall in step." They all shuffled around to their new positions and the train began moving again.

It was still clumsy, but it worked better. Kimmay called out instructions and Dr. Brandt led them down tunnels, and halls and ramps until they finally reached the medical level. Kimmay continued to use the information she received from Cynthia and Maria and brought them to the first laboratory. The door had the same hand pad on the side.

"Shit," Kimmay whispered.

"What is it?"

"The door has a hand pad. We can't open it."

"What do we do?"

"I'm not sure. Go to the next lab." They continued walking down the hall until they reached the next door. It also had a hand pad. So did the third door and the fourth and the last door on that hall. What was even worse was that every door was a series of two or three doors forming an air lock. Most likely, the second door wouldn't open until the first door was closed. And to make everything just perfect, there was room for only two people at a time in the airlocks.

"Now what?" Dr. Brinson asked.

"I don't know," Kimmay answered. "I guess we go back and regroup.

"Then this was all a waste of time," Brandt whined.

"Then give me a better idea," Kimmay snapped. She was as disappointed and angry as the others. "Come on, I'm listening." Brandt said nothing. "Dr. Anderson, Dr. Brinson do you have any ideas?"

"Nope."

"Then I see no alternative. We go back and regroup." It was a very quiet walk back to the hangar. When they returned the major and his men were still standing beside the door.

"Were you successful?" the major asked.

"No. Bring the pilot back here and we'll close the door."

 

(continued)

  

  

  

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