Chapter Eight
No one can hear you scream in space…
The golden circles of light engulfed me. My body tingled like crazy, and poof! I was floating in a deep, black expanse. Shit! Too high. I managed to grab the weapons array before I floated away. My heart pounded in my chest. I had forgotten how scary porting into outer space was.
I glanced over my shoulder and my jaw dropped. A pale-yellow planet with faint stripes filled my vision. Saturn’s rings appeared to be filled with chunks of ice and rock. “Oh, my, God! How awesome!”
“Yes, it’s breathtaking. Now get to work,” Uncle Saul ordered.
“Yes, sir.” I could sense him on the farthest ship and Jake was on the battle cruiser behind me. “How are you doing Jake?”
His laughter filled my head. “This is wild.”
“Yep, it gets the adrenaline going.” I lowered my feet to the hull and the magnets in my boots attached to the metal. Walking while weightless was impossible, so I had Uncle Ben put magnets on my boots.
A touch of doubt in his voice, Jake asked, “These ships are huge. Are you sure our bombs will take them out?”
“Worked before.” I caught a flash of movement out of the corner of my eye and turned to study the battle cruiser next to me. Shit! Quinn was flailing wildly about two feet above the hull. “Grab the weapons array, Quinn!”
Quinn lunged for it, spun in circles and floated over the ship. “Fuck!”
Shit! There is an antenna a foot to your right. Can you get ahold of it?”
“Trying.”
“If you can’t, hit your retrieval button.”
Quinn hooked his foot around the antenna and managed to pull himself down. “Got it.”
“The first time I ported outside a ship, I didn’t have magnets on my boots, and it got a little scary.”
Quinn snarled, “Why aren’t there magnets on our boots?”
“NASA spacesuits don’t come equipped with magnets in their boots,” Jake replied.
Uncle Saul snapped, “Attach your bombs and return to base, Quinn.”
“Yes, sir.”
Yikes, I definitely didn’t want to work with Mister Attitude. I frowned. The faint glow of the ship’s shields vanished. “The Tai-Kok just dropped their shields.”
“I noticed that too. Plant your bombs and go,” Uncle Saul ordered.
My psychic radar went on red alert, and I quickly duct-taped my bombs to the hull. “They know we’re here.”
“That’s a big ten-four. Three soldiers are heading my way,” Jake replied.
Quinn announced tensely, “Bombs set, returning to base.”
His presence vanished from my mind.
“Bombs set. Returning to base,” Jake said a minute later.
A hatch opened in the hull and four Tai-Kok soldiers in funky transparent spacesuits climbed out. They were all armed with laser rifles.
“Well, hell.” Out of sheer desperation, I instinctively drew on Kaelen’s power and hit the Tai-Kok soldier closest to me with a telekinetic blast. The soldier was flung out into the void.
Kaelen and Zarek were suddenly in my head, and I felt their shock and anger. “Down!”
I pulled myself flat against the hull. Red laser bolts whizzed past me and vaporized the ship’s weapons array.
“Are you under attack?” Uncle Saul asked urgently.
“I am.” With Kaelen’s help I punched out mentally. The shockwave of energy hurled the remaining soldiers into the endless void.
Uncle Saul let out a grunt of pain as Zarek latched onto his mind. “Who?”
“Don’t hurt General Jones, he needs to set his bombs,” I said quickly.
I felt Zarek’s disbelief. “You think to destroy a battle cruiser with these crude explosives?”
“Yes, I’ve destroyed eleven ships with these bombs.” Fire ants boiled across my mind. More Tai-Kok soldiers were coming.
“Set your bomb and go,” Kaelen commanded.
“What about General Jones?”
Zarek snapped. “I will assist the general. Go.”
“Yes, sir.” I pulled a thermite grenade off my belt, pulled the pin and dropped it down the hatch. “Eat that.”
“Are you mad! Go!” Kaelen shouted.
I hit the emergency button on my belt. Poof. I was standing in Uncle Ben’s lab. “Holy shit, that was crazy.”
Quinn yanked me off the platform. “Maybe that mind meld with the Tai-Kok turned you into a traitor. Who has your loyalty? The monsters or humanity. Wait. You’re not quite human, are you?”
Dad spun him around and decked him with one punch. “Lexi is not a traitor.”
Rubbing his jaw, Quinn got slowly to his feet and sneered, “Prove it.”
“I don’t know what crawled up your ass and died but knock it off.” Jake shoved him back. “Lexi has risked her life time and time again to kill the monsters.”
“So she says and now there are more aliens taking an interest in our planet. Nothing good is going to come of it,” Quinn snarled.
Anger, disbelief and hurt filled me. How could he think I would betray my world?
“Incoming traveler. Incoming traveler,” the computerized voice announced.
Uncle Saul appeared on the platform. He swayed and fell to his knees.
“Oh, my, God!” I rushed over to him. “Are you hurt?”
The general’s face was a strange grey white. “Having the Overlord of the Coletti Empire in your head is quite alarming.”
“More like terrifying. He’s scary as hell,” I replied.
Quinn pulled him to his feet. “Did the alien hurt you?”
“No. He saved my life.” Uncle Saul removed his helmet. “They hate the Tai-Kok as much as we do. Zarek is determined to wipe them from existence.”
A muscle twitched in Dad’s jaw. “If we are to stop the Tai-Kok, we need the Coletti as allies.”
“There will be a price to pay for their help,” Quinn growled.
A faraway look in his eyes, Uncle Saul nodded. “Yes, there will be, but the alternative is the human race will cease to exist.”
I smiled as I felt the Tai-Kok soldiers on the battle cruisers cease to exist. “The ships have been destroyed.”
“I’m verifying that.” Quinn pulled out his satellite phone and stomped off.
What a jerk. “We need to go to Mars and see what’s going on there. I volunteer for the job.”
“No,” Uncle Saul growled. “The Tai-Kok have put a bounty on you. Zarek was very clear. He wants you grounded.”
I stared at him in disbelief. “Seriously? He can’t tell you what to do.”
Uncle Saul held up his hand. “Yes, he can, and I gave him my word. You start the police academy next week.”
I opened my mouth to protest then subsided with a resigned sigh. It was better than being locked in a bunker with Quinn.