Chapter Four
Earth fights back…
The general was sending three of us through the portal. I was going to Los Angeles, his nephew Jake Jones was going to Chicago and Major Dodd was taking the ship in New York. I just prayed I didn’t end up on the bridge again. It was a pucker factor ten.
Jake Jones was psychic like the general, and oh, my, God was he good looking, but Major Dodd, the sourpuss, didn’t have an ounce of telepathy. I cleared my throat. “Ah, I don’t want to cause any problems, but Major Dodd doesn’t have a lick of psychic abilities.”
“I’m a highly trained combat veteran,” Major Dodd stated coldly.
Ugh, and testosterone rears its ugly head. “With my powers, I know when the Tai-Kok are approaching and from what direction. You’re going in blind.”
Major Dodd sneered, “I have been in hand-to-hand combat with the monsters and survived. Have you?”
“Enough,” General Jones snapped. “None of you is to engage the enemy. Just port in, leave the bomb and get out.”
“Yes, sir,” we said in unison.
Uncle Ben gestured at me. “You’re up first, Lexi.”
“The phase coils aren’t glitching anymore?” Call me nervous.
Dad gave my uncle his death stare.
“The portal is functioning properly,” Uncle Ben said quickly.
I stepped onto the portal’s platform and pulled my Glock. “Let’s do this.”
“Give ‘em hell,” Uncle Ben said, and his fingers danced across the control console.
The golden circles of light engulfed me. My body tingled like crazy, and I appeared in a cavernous room.
I stood rooted to the spot, unable to take my eyes off the grisly scene. Gutted corpses hung from the ceiling. Half-eaten bodies littered the floor. The stench of death penetrated my helmet and made me gag. There were hundreds of people crying, screaming, begging not to die.
A Tai-Kok soldier drove his metal claws into a woman’s abdomen, ripped out her intestines and started eating them.
The woman just stood there, staring blankly at him.
An icy rage vibrated through every cell of my body, and I raised my gun.
“NO!” Kaelen shouted in my head. “Do not! Leave your bomb and go.”
My finger tightened on the trigger. “I have to help them.”
“They cannot be saved.” There was a touch of savagery in his voice as the images of melted bodies formed in my mind. “The Tai-Kok sprays their prey with a chemical that tenderizers their flesh. There is no antidote, and none survive the treatment.”
My eyes widened in horror. Tai-Kok soldiers were herding school children toward the ship.
“Go. Now!”
Obeying Kaelen’s mental command, I placed the bomb on the floor and pushed the retrieval button.
Poof! I appeared on the portal.
Dad started for me.
Nausea rose in my throat. Yanking off my helmet. I charged past him and vomited into the nearest trash can. “Oh, God. Oh, God. So many people. I couldn’t save them. I couldn’t save them.” I puked until I was shaking violently.
Dad rubbed my back. “You gave them a quick death, and those monsters will never hurt anyone again.”
“Can you describe the interior of the ship?” General Jones asked.
I dry heaved. “A slaughterhouse with gutted corpses hanging everywhere.”
“Incoming traveler. Incoming traveler,” the computerized voice announced.
I rolled my eyes. Uncle Ben insisted on calling portal users travelers.
Jake Jones appeared on the portal. Ripping off his helmet, he staggered over to my trash can and vomited repeatedly. “Those fucking bastards. The ship’s hold was full of slaughtered children.”
“Children?” A murderous fury flashed across the general’s face.
His voice a broken whisper, Jake replied, “Yes, and babies. So many babies.”
“Babies,” Dad repeated in shocked horror.
“The Tai-Kok don’t consider us intelligent beings. We are food to be harvested. Nothing more. They will not show any mercy,” I interjected.
His lips drawn back in a feral snarl, Jake growled, “I won’t stop until every one of those monsters is dead.”
Uncle Ben held out two bottles of water and some wet wipes. “The monsters picked the wrong people to mess with. We need to find their home world and blow it to hell.”
“Amen.” I took a bottle of water and looked around. “Where’s Major Dodd?”
General Jones pulled out his satellite phone and punched a button. “What’s the status of the ship in New York, Quinn?” He frowned. “How long ago did it blow? Copy.”
“He didn’t make it, did he?” Dad spat.
The general shook his head.
Why did I have the sudden urge to examine the portal and my surroundings? Shit! Shit! Shit! “Get out of my head.”
Kaelen shot back, “Not until I know how you got through our shields.”
“We are not a threat to your empire. We don’t have spaceships that can travel across the galaxy. Go away!” I threw a mental punch.
He blocked it easily. “Not until I know how the portal works.”
“And I told you, I don’t know.”
General Jones stiffened and he was suddenly in my head too. “I’m General Saul Jones and you are?”
“Battle Commander Kaelen. I serve the Coletti Overlord.”
Jake shot to his feet and joined the party in my head. “What do you want?”
“Lexi breached the shields on my warbird, and you will tell me how she was able to accomplish that feat,” Kaelen snarled.
“Like hell!” Jake hit Kaelan with a burst of telekinetic power.
The battle commander returned the favor, and Jake hit the wall hard.
“Stand down,” I yelled. “Kaelen hates the Tai-Kok as much as we do.”
Uncle Ben stared at us in alarm. “What’s going on?”
“Battle Commander Kaelen hitched a ride in my head, and he wants to know how the portal works,” I replied.
“I’m open to an exchange of information,” General Jones stated.
Kaelen quickly answered, “I am sure the Overlord will be agreeable. Lexi is blood of his blood, and he will want her protected.”
To my surprise, General Jones immediately began negotiating a trade deal. He had Uncle Ben give Kaelen basic information on how the portal worked and in return the general wanted weapons and all the data they had on the Tai-Kok.
Dad pulled me aside. “How does Zarek know about you?”
“Kaelen drank some of my blood and he had his medic take a sample too.”
Alarm flashed across Dad’s face. “Damn.”
“And he said he can find me no matter where I go. Is that true?”
A muscle twitched in Dad’s jaw. “Supposedly, but Zarek never came for your mother. She thought it was because of the Central Molecular Zone.”
“The what?”
“At the edge of our solar system is a ringlike accumulation of molecular fire near a black hole,” Dad replied. “It plays hell with psychic abilities.”
Relief rolled over me. “Then the battle commander won’t be able to find me either.”
“I will find you,” Kaelen said with cool authority.
I snorted. “If the Overlord couldn’t find my mother, what makes you think you can?”
“The general is eager for our help in defeating the Tai-Kok. He will bring me a portal belt in exchange for weapons.”
Damn. That was a given.
The general motioned to my dad. “I need you to get an update from our people in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York.”
‘Yes, sir.” Dad pulled out his satellite phone.
A wave of weariness rolled over me, and I headed for my room. I really needed to brush my teeth, and I wanted some alone time.
“Even battle-hardened warriors find the slaughter ships upsetting,” Kaelen announced.
I placed my hand against the elevator’s sensor pad and stepped inside. “Aren’t you supposed to be negotiating with the general?”
“He is taking a call from his command center.”
God, I hoped it wasn’t more bad news. “Go away and leave me alone.”
“No.”
I swung at him again.
Kaelen ducked the blow. “You are an intriguing female.”
“I’m one of a kind. Just ask my dad.” The elevator opened, and I practically ran for my room.
“The Overlord wants to know how Xara died.”
Shutting the door behind me, I collapsed on the bed and rubbed my aching forehead. “My mother was murdered by a rogue Coletti named Nexon.”
“Was she avenged?” A phantom hand touched my head and the pain faded away.
“My father killed him.”
“I will advise the Overlord.”
“Please. Just leave me alone.”
“It is my duty to care for you.”
A knot of apprehension formed in my gut. “No, it’s not. I can take care of myself.”
“I have taken your blood.”
“So?”
That phantom hand stroked my cheek. “We are linked now, and you will be mine.”
“Like hell and what do you mean by linked?”
General Jones was suddenly in my head, “Lexi, we need you in the control room. A Tai-Kok ship just crashed outside of Tucson.”
“Yes, sir.” Grabbing my helmet, I ran for the elevator. “If it’s still intact we can study it and use their own weapons against them.”
“The Tai-Kok will destroy the wreckage before you can salvage anything,” Kaelen warned.
I slapped my hand on the sensor pad and the elevator doors opened. “Then we need to distract them by blowing up as many ships as we can.”
“There is no need to risk yourself needlessly,” Kaelen snapped.
Stepping into the elevator, I shot back, “I will do whatever is necessary to stop the Tai-Kok from slaughtering more of my people.”
“Even if it means your death?”
The images of the gutted corpses flashed across my mind. “Yes, if I don’t stop them, who will?”
“The Coletti Empire.”
The elevator doors slid open. “You don’t know where Earth is located.”
“Give me a belt and I will bring you weapons,” Kaelen countered.
I hurried into Uncle Ben’s lab. “Too little. Too late.”
General Jones turned to face me. “A squadron of Tai-Kok fighters has been launched from their battle cruiser.”
“The fighters are called Marauders,” Kaelen interjected. “If you can port Lexi into weapons control center on the battle cruiser, I can show her how to shoot them down.”
Uncle Ben and I exchanged worried glances. Who knew where I would end up. “It’s worth a shot. It’s time the Tai-Kok went on a diet.”
Jake’s eyebrows rose in disbelief. “We just destroyed three of their slaughter ships and they will be on high alert.”
“The Tai-Kok foolishly believe they are unbeatable. They do not see you as adversaries. You are food and incapable of defeating them,” Kaelen responded.
Okey-dokey, then. “Where exactly is the weapons control center on that battle cruiser?”
“It is deck nine directly below the engine room,” Kaelen answered.
I shot Uncle Ben a questioning look. “We need to go to deck nine. Can you lock in on that?”
“Sure.” His fingers flew across the console. “We are good to go.”
I stepped onto the platform and pulled my Glock.
“Give ‘em hell.” Uncle Ben tapped the console.
Poof! I appeared in the engine room. The Tai-Kok soldier took one look at me and started honking like Donald Duck on meth.
I shot him in the middle eye.
“This isn’t weapons control,” Kaelen stated.
“Welcome to my world.”
I could feel Kaelen’s stunned horror. “You never know where you are going to appear, do you?”
“Nope.” My psychic senses shrieked a warning. A shit load of monsters were heading my way. I quickly kicked the bomb under a control console.
Sharp claws suddenly dug into my left shoulder. A scream of agony broke from me as I was flung across the room. I hit the wall hard, and I heard my left arm snap. Funny black dots danced across my vision as I crumpled to the floor with a whimper. It felt like my shoulder was on fire.
“Do not pass out,” Kaelen growled, blocking the pain rolling over me.
I struggled to stand. “I think getting to weapons control is a no-go.”
“It is a miracle you still live.”
“Don’t I know it.”
“Return to the lab, I will take control of the Tai-Kok soldiers in weapons control,” Kaelen spat.
“Okay, but this ship is going boom in about sixty seconds.”
A fat Tai-Kok with metal horns quacked triumphantly.
Shit! Shit! Shit! They enjoyed eating their prey alive and that ass was going to give me to his commander as a special treat. The joke was on him. His ship was about to become space debris.
“Go!” Kaelen vanished from my mind.
Fighting to stay conscious, I hit my emergency recall button. Poof! I was lying on the loudly humming portal floor. Oh, thank, God. I was safe. Huh? Where was all that blood coming from?
“Good God, Lexi is hurt,” Uncle Ben cried.
Dad rushed over to me. “That fucking alien didn’t protect you.”
“Not. His. Fault.” I was so tired. I closed my eyes and sank into the beckoning darkness.