

The return to planet Rubius is finally underway. Peder, Dax, Tamara, and Zoey form a rescue mission to save friends and survivors from a small piece of citidome-3 call the lifeboat that crashed on Planet Rubius.

What else is lurking on the planet to challenge them as they take on a huge Benty research ship? Will the assassin posing as Bryanna finally get the chance to fulfill her mission with Zoey for the Benty Empire? How will it all end?

Return to Planet Rubius

By Lawrence Sky

Smashwords Edition

Companion Book Series

Copyright 2015 Lawrence Sky

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this eBook.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

All images in this eBook were Free to use, Share or Modify, and Commercially Usable.

Smashwords Edition License Notes. This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

I would like to acknowledge my cousin Ronald as an enormous inspiration to me in finishing my seventh eBook

Earth from the Moon – Photo by NASA.gov

### CHAPTER 1

### Quickly as Possible

It was a typical spring morning in southwestern Alaska. Traces of snow still lingered on trees tops, and the ground was cold and hard. On a deserted university campus, three postdoctoral students and a professor dressed in white snow gear loaded up the backs of two jeeps.

Bear Expedition Jeeps – Photo by en.wikipedia.org

Electronic equipment went into one jeep and survival gear into the other. No one spoke a word at first, and when they did speak, they were polite and cordial in low voices. After 10 minutes of packing their gear and supplies, they drove out the University's main gate for an adventure of a lifetime; to track, capture and tag a grolar bear.

Ahead of them was 125-kilometers of historic Route 3 heading toward the southern entrance to Denali National Park.

Every now and again the sun poked through the clouds and casted long shadows on the road ahead. Patches of trees lined the two-lane road. Not many cars were out this time of the morning, so the drive was easy. Jamie, a 27-year-old female post-doc with rosy cheeks settled back in her seat. Her rusty colored hair pushed up into a bun scraped the canvas roof of the jeep.

Pieces of their equipment nudged her in the back as she beamed a smile at nature and all its gifts. "I love this time of day in Alaska. Everything is clean and bright for kilometers. I'm glad I was chosen to take this trip with PT," offered Jamie admiring the twisting road and dense stands of pine trees lining the way with the Denali mountain range overlooking all of it.

Road to Denali State Park – Photo by commons.wikimedia.org

"What about you?" she said.

Roger, 29 years old and unmarried looked over at Jamie smiling and said, "Yeah. This place does grow on you. But I need this research to round out my resume. As much as I like Alaska, I need a job, and it's going to take me to the other side of the U.S. to get it. I guess, I should take it all in, while I can," he stated as sunlight washed over his face. He put on his sunglasses and smiled with Jamie under the watchful eye of Denali.

Mt. Denali – Photo by commons.wikimedia.org

Professor Richard Tomlinson or PT was a balding, bearded man. He was average height with an oily face and thick eyebrows. His broad shoulders and slender body build blurred his age of 66. Although his general appearance was quiet, he was renowned for his Zoological work with bears. Sitting beside PT on the passenger side was Donna, a 25-year-old with an athletic physique and sunburnt complexion. She had high cheekbones and a small mouth with thin lips. Most men considered her attractive. Her light brown eyes and long chocolate ponytail down to the middle of her back kept her engaged in many a conversation.

Both jeeps were tightly buttoned down and zipped up to keep the cold out as the sun persisted with a little warmth. Few words passed between the two vehicles until PT called out to Roger.

Roger's radio cackled for a moment. "Don't get too close Roger. I see ice up ahead," yelled PT.

"I see it too," shouted Roger into his jeep's radio and continued. "Jamie wants to know when we're going to eat, PT?"

"Tell her once we get to the halfway marker; until then, she can eat some snacks."

"Sorry Boss, you have the food," Roger's voiced crackled over the radio. "I have some chewing gum. She'll be okay." He finished, smiling at Jamie. She in turn reluctantly held out her hand.

"It's peppermint?"

Jamie persisted with her hand out, and he gave her two pieces of gum, momentarily swerving across the highway's double yellow line to do so.

Finally, Jamie, tall and robust with a deep voice said, "Will this be your first time out tagging a bear?"

Roger looked surprised at her and said, "No, this will be my third. How about you?"

"This will be my maiden voyage. I need the experience for a Zoo position I'm trying to get," said Jamie with a round face and dark brown playful eyes. She carried a smile on her face with small kissable lips. What set her apart were her eyes always looking for something to stimulate her; overshadowing her intelligence as a highly accomplished scholar.

"Do you know how to handle a drone?" asked Roger a little agitated by her response.

"Trust me, Roger, PT wouldn't have picked me if I didn't have some experience in doing something," she said with a mischief grin on her face. "To be serious, I need to learn how to tag and release a bear. I understand, PT is one of the best and having his name on my resume word go a long way to getting me what I want."

"Well, Jamie, you're right, he is one of the best in the business, but this will be his first time tracking a hybrid bear. Things will be a little different, I'm sure. Remember from the meeting these hybrids can display both grizzly and polar bear behaviors. The learning curve will be steep at first. The last thing we want to do is waste our time tracking the wrong bear."

Grizzly Bear – Photo by en.wikipedia.org

With a frown on her face, Jamie offered, "How will we get a lead on one of them anyway?"

"The Rangers know every bear in the park. They will help us find one. Then you and I will spot and track it with the drone. Once we have a pretty good idea which way it's heading, we can set a trap for it."

Jamie frowned again and said. "What type of trap are we going to use?"

"Oh no, it's not that kind of trap. I mean we will ambush it from a safe distance with a dart gun."

"I thought that was a regular rifle, I saw in the back of the jeep?"

"No, the park wouldn't let us in if we had a real gun. The tranquilizer will be enough to bring it down. I guess that's where you come in and help take physical data, blood samples and weigh it before tagging it.

Jamie smiled and turned her head to enjoy the scenery while feeling the excitement building up in her body.

Denali Wilderness – Photo by en.wikipedia.org

# ***

At the ranger station, the meeting didn't take long as one of the Rangers handed PT a sheet of paper.

Ranger Station – Photo by commons.wikimedia.org

The polite conversation went on a few minutes longer, and then they all gathered at the jeeps.

"As you well know," said the head ranger. "The grolar bear is a hybrid from a male grizzly and a female polar bear." The head ranger was a stiff looking female named Morse, dressed in a winter coat complete with a fur collar around the edges of its hood. "This type of mating is not uncommon since their mating seasons overlap between May and June each year," lectured Morse. She was robotically talking to the team, while her mind was someplace else on the Park's mountain ranges.

"How will you find our grolar bear?" asked Jamie in her deep, but feminine voice. A few strains of her hair had escaped from the bun and were now swirling around in the wind. Her dark brown eyes stared at Morse with an air of intelligence. Her robust figure not going unnoticed by Roger, whose blue eyes deliberately followed her every movement.

PT interrupted and said, "Ranger Morse has graciously provided us with sets of coordinates for a male grolar bear. He's been in the park for at least three years and should be suitable for our experiment. These coordinates will give us a picture of his foraging habits in the park."

"What makes you think it's a grolar and not a pizzly bear?" suggested Roger taking his eyes off Jamie for a moment.

Morse held up a thin red finger and said, "A pizzly is a mating between a male polar bear and a female grizzly. The theory is polar bears have been slowly driven south due to the melting ice caps, bringing them into closer proximity with grizzly bears. Remember, they both had a common ancestor some 150,000 years ago. Then there's a matter of characteristics between the two. A grolar bear has a thick, creamy white fur with a wide face and brown patches around the eyes. It also sports a hump on its shoulders too. But, more importantly, they are strong with long, deadly claws. On the other hand, a pizzly bear hybrids or nanulak bodies are slightly smaller with a longer neck and smaller humps on each shoulder."

Grolar Bear – Photo by en.wikipedia.org

"Well said," exulted PT and continued. "But, let's not forget, we are dealing with a dangerous animal, which is why I selected you as a team. Each of you has experience in dealing with large animals or electronically tracking animals. You are all perfect for this little expedition. We will locate the hybrid, sedate it and tag it so we can track it from the lab. Jamie, you and Roger will initially handle the tracking with the drone hopefully locating it at one of these coordinates.

Drone – Photo by en.wikipedia.org

The rest of us, and eventually, Jamie will handle the sedation, sampling, and release of the bear after implanting a satellite-tracking device subcutaneously under its fur. The Landsat satellite will take care of the rest for us. I want to know if these hybrid bears will migrate as far as the northern United States or just hunt and breed in Alaska and northwestern Canada. Our work will answer these questions and perhaps more. And incidentally, the Rangers claim this particular bear is larger than normal which makes it even more dangerous. I want everyone to exercise extreme caution at all times around this creature. Play your cards right, and we may get several journal papers to our credit." Everyone beamed smiles and forgot all about the inherent dangers of working with a large land predator.

"Oh, I almost forgot," said Morse. "A snow storm might be heading this way. So you may want to hurry and get this done as quickly as possible.

Coming Storm – commons.wikimedia.org

# CHAPTER 2

### Let's Go

It didn't take long for the drone to find their hybrid grolar bear. The hybrid was over two meters tall roaming through the forest without fear. PT studied the general path he was taking and found a suitable place to fire his tranquilizing darts. Guessing its size and weight, PT figured no more than two darts would be enough to bring it down. Confident, they set out for their ambush site and waited while the drone silently hovered above.

## ***

The storm was moving fast as the wind rumbled in its wake. The grolar bear crossed paths as PT had predicted, but it took four darts to bring the big hybrid down. Donna, Jamie, and PT all hurriedly gathered data samples and implanted a tracking device under its fur.

Finally, PT spoke, "I think it would be wise to leave the area. We don't want to be around when this bear wakes up. Bears can be very grumpy from such an experience."

Donna looked around and saw dark churning clouds closing in on them. The snow flurries suddenly picked up speed as the wind howled like a demon. "PT," she said. "How far are we from the jeeps?"

He looked up and shouted back, "About 2 kilometers. Roger, secure the drone and let's get out of here."

It took several minutes fighting the high winds before Roger could safely land the drone in the pine stand. He quickly folded and packed it away in his backpack when the first of many grunts became audible from the grolar bear.

"Come on," shouted PT. "Let's go!"

# CHAPTER 3

### Snowy Heaven

The wind roared through the wildness and snow fell like feathers piling up quickly on the ground. They huddled together for warmth as they looked at both jeeps totally trashed by the hybrid bear. The growling continued unabated but stayed its distance. The hybrid had followed them back to their jeeps and outran them to viciously slash the canvas roofs and bite the tires flat on each jeep. They looked on from a distance in horror as he dashed away.

It suddenly became a complete whiteout; the wind blowing relentlessly with no let-up in sight.

Snow Blizzard – Photo by commons.wikimedia.org

The four hugged each other as they kneeled on the ground to minimize the buffeting of the wind and snow bashing them from all directions. If not for wearing snow gear, all of them would have frozen to death. The loud grunts continued over the howling wind as the bear waited in the dark shadows. It waited for the right moment to attack. His strategy was to grab them one at a time. He would bury their bodies in the snow and wait for the storm to stop before digging them up and feasting on their remains.

"It's getting closer," shouted Donna with her hands covering her thin reddened lips to direct her voice towards her colleagues clinging beside her.

"I think so too," yelled PT in the same manner. His face covered with snow and ice froze around his thick beard, mustache, and eyebrows. "If he charges, and most likely he will, I'll have only seconds to take aim. One hit will be useless, though, I'll need time for at least a second shot to slow it down and three to momentarily stop its charge. With any luck, my fourth shot will bring it down. I'll tranquilize him two more times, so we can make it to the ranger station."

"Is there anything we can do?" exclaimed Jamie, tightening her hug around Roger.

"Yeah, pray and hope he comes after us in a cautious manner.

Suddenly, the huge bear roared above the wailing wind. An orange flashed of light caused the snowflakes to twinkle as they fell to the ground.

"This is it!" shouted PT.

"Wait! The growling has stopped," cried Roger as everyone strained to hear anything from the bear.

Donna yelled, "Where did that light come from just now. That was weird. Maybe the Rangers have come to rescue us, and we saw their flashlights."

"Maybe you're both right, but how can anyone see anything in this mess?" barked PT.

"I can see the outline of someone coming this way," offered Donna.

Struggling to see through the swirling snow, PT said, "Yeah! I see something too. But I can't make out whether it's a man or a bear."

It's still coming this way. What do we do?" pleaded Jamie.

"I'll shoot first and ask questions later," PT said. But all he could see was a dark outline coming toward them. It seemed to struggle to push its legs through the snow. It was big and awkward as it labored to walk. Finally, it stopped, as a dark figure of a shadow swaying with the wind only 20 meters away.

"Where's his flashlight, shouldn't he be using it to find us," offered Donna.

"I'll try to get their attention. Maybe he...or she can't see us," said PT and began to holler at the top of his lungs. "Hey, we're over here," he said waving his hands as the snow started to build up around them like a little fortress.

The dark figure brought his hand up to the side of its head, presumably to locate the sound as PT hollered again. Slowly, it pushed through the snow in their direction, but his mannerisms were odd. The figure didn't seem to have snow gear on as its powerful physique began to take on a definite form. Ten meters away, they all agreed it wasn't a bear ... or a man! _What was it_ , they all pondered? PT brought the dart rifle up to his chest and took aim and fired. It hit its target squarely in the chest, and the figure reached up and pulled it out. A second dart flew out into the cold snow and hit its target on the arm, and again it pulled it out before the drug could take effect. It advanced about 5 meters more and stopped. Suddenly a bright light came down from the snow-laden heavens and landed not far behind them. A door opened followed by a shaft of bright light.

Benty Scout Ship – Pictures by L. Sky and Wikipedia.org

Another figure waved to them to come on board. Not thinking they did so, believing a helicopter had landed to rescue the team from the dark figure. As the team got closer to the light, the shadowy figure behind them picked up its pace causing everyone to quicken their steps. The flood of light from the craft seemed warm and inviting, except the figure in the doorway appeared more like the figure behind them. Getting closer, they stopped abruptly; it wasn't a helicopter or a human standing at the door. The large Benty behind them pushed them on and yelled something to the other Benty. Both looked carefully at Jamie and then smiled with their jagged teeth as they forced them into the scout ship and shot away into the dark, snowy heaven above.

# CHAPTER 4

### Outside Each Cage

Late at night, one of the several Tuzool capsules encrusted with debris crash-landed on Rubius with a loud thud.

Tuzool Capsule – Photo by space-teamcook.wikispaces.com

No humanoid heard or saw it arrive as the lone Tuzool parasite matured and crawled out of a large crater several hours later to surveys its new surroundings. The Tuzool turning around in its cocoon faced a big head and large beak.

Cretok – Photos by Wikipedia.org

Understanding its need for survival it waited and just at the right moment when the cretok opened its mouth, the parasite jumped in and was swallowed whole. Once inside, it quickly dissolved the digestive track and soft tissues in the immediate area with its digestive enzymes.

The nutritional intake rapidly stimulated the parasite to release larva the size of pickles that quickly grew and multiplied while nursing on the cretok's organs.

Size and Shape of Larvae – Photo by en.wikipedia.org

Meanwhile, scientists and foot soldiers from the research ship in the process of neutralizing the cretoks were caught off guard by the sudden appearance of the parasites. Naturally, the scientists were curious until green slime started flying paralyzing coworkers hit by the oily slime. The cretok had stumbled back to the facility's doorstep before completely overcome by the parasites inside its swollen belly. Like a river, they flowed out through its orifices until finally, its belly exploded with mature parasites running and scattering throughout the facility.

They were in the middle of containing the last few cretoks in the courtyard when the parasites rapidly attacked them. All hell broke loose, and the cretoks got free and overran the scientists and foot soldiers while ignoring the parasites. The hide of the cretok was too thick for the slime to penetrate. Some of the parasites tried to jump into the mouths of the cretoks and failed as they were eaten and swallowed in pieces. At this point, the parasites had no way of stopping the cretok's from rampaging through the facility unchallenged while competing for food. After many attempts, a few parasites landed dollops of slime on the cretok's beak. In turn, the cretoks used their tongues to wipe off the dripping slime, which eventually made its way into their blood stream. After a few minutes, the cretok's fell to the ground paralyzed by the toxin. The parasites then managed to wiggle into their open mouths and other orifices. Much larger in number now, the parasites quickly reorganized when they depleted their hosts. Splitting into two groups, one began following the few technicians managing to survive running back to the research spaceship. However, those that stayed in the facility quickly located new victims. Many of the parasites found cages filled with humanoids from the lifeboat huddling together, in fear for their lives. At first, the humanoids managed to duck or dodge the flying slime. But luck was against them in the end as many dollops of slime hit their targets. Once the process started, the fate of everyone inside the cages was doomed. There were fifty cages filled with humanoids as their screams and cries became deafening. Reddish-brown powder from their remains started to pile up inside and outside each cage.

Powdery humanoid remains – Photo by wikipedia.org

# CHAPTER 5

### Survivors

Peder, Tam, Dax, Zoey, Marten, Sunie and two companions rode inside a double layered cigar-shaped bubble; Ava was the inside layer for life-support; Nia on the outside for navigation and protection. The inside cabin was spacious as Ava made two rows of three reclining chairs leaning back and wrapped around each member to relax them. Electronically, Ava put them to sleep for the long journey to planet Rubius.

Planet Rubius – Photo by en.wikipedia.org

When they arrived at Rubius, Nia went into a geosynchronous orbit over the spot where the lifeboat landed. Once everyone was physically able, they headed down to the surface. When they arrived, the wind was howling, stirring up dirt covering the lifeboat, which seemed eerily deserted. They all stood on the platform's surface searching their surroundings of emptiness. "What are you looking for Dax?" asked Zoey yelling over the wind, looking more and more like her auntie each day with her French-braided hairstyle.

"I was hoping my friends would still be here waiting for us. Wishful thinking, I guess," he answered himself visibly saddens by their absence. He could only conjure up a horrible death for them.

"It's hard to imagine anyone survived this wreck," said Peder looking like Dax's twin as he observed various objects scattered across the deck. He stopped for a second and stooped to get a closer look at an unusual object when Tam screamed at him, "Don't touch it, leave it alone!" she shouted breaking through the thick ominous atmosphere and heightening everyone's fears.

"What!" Peder yelled stepping back feeling almost childish.

"I know what it is, and you're not going to like it," said Tam looking at everyone with her full brown eyes and continued. "This planet may be infested with the parasites I was telling you about Peder. Fortunately, I don't see any powder to suggest they are around here, so our friends probably didn't have to put up a fight. They may still be alive somewhere—unless the wind blew the powder away," finished Tam with a sad face turning to embrace Peder.

"It's going to be dark soon," offered Marten. Let's wait until daylight before we go out to look for them," he suggested, turning to look at Tam's lovely countenance. "In the meantime, why don't you tell the rest of us about this parasite while we wait for first light."

"Okay, but like I said, you're not going to like it. In fact, it all started with a casing just like this one, as Tam pointed a nervous finger. Well...when they hatch, or whatever it is they do, they feed on you until they become adults; the size of pigeons. They use a proboscis to spit powerful green slime at you. The slime contains a high concentration of neurotoxin that paralyzes the body's musculature system in seconds. In the end, the adults' crawl into the host's body to feed on the tissues and organs, while releasing larva until everything becomes a pile of reddish-brown powder..."

## ***

The next morning promised to be a sunny day as Sunie left the safety of the bubbles to greet Rubius with outstretched arms.

Rubius Mountains – Picture by wikispaces.com

Suddenly, there was rustling in the bushes nearby, and Sunie spontaneously remembered Tam's story. He spun around and quietly dashed back inside the bubbles. He panted heavily, waking some of the others as he fought to regain his composure.

"What's wrong Sunie?" asked Marten.

"I heard a sound in the plants down below and panicked. Silly of me, I guess. I'm sure the companions would have warned me of any danger."

"Sure, but let's stay together for now on," said Zoey drinking instant coffee from their supplies.

## ***

Later in the day, they rode inside the companions to the mountain range. Everyone was silent watching the role of nature play out its hand on Rubius. Now and then, an odd plant would stick out, and they would comment on it, but the overall view was ground hugging plants as far as the eye could see. Tam remembered the campsite with the horrible scream, only now she could put a chilling face on the creature making the frightening sound.

"Around this area are holes connected to tunnels going towards the facility," offered Dax. "I would suggest going that way, but we don't know who or what we might run into down there."

"The main entrance to the cave is just ahead," voiced Tam as she surveyed the surroundings for any signs of danger. Knowing what she did about the cretok, she wondered if they would see any of them. Then, as if to answer her question, a cretok's head poked out from the cave. In a flash, it ran down the mountainside and across the sand toward the lifeboat.

Cretok – Pictures by L. Sky and Wikipedia.org

"He was in a hurry," shouted Marten with fear in the pit of his stomach. The landscape to him seemed foreboding, despite the array of colors displayed by the vibrant plants and colorful mountain ranges. Marten spoke again, "I know this place is supposed to be dangerous, but I somehow expected to see more evidence of it. Maybe the capsule on the lifeboat was the only one that survived the journey in space," offered Marten

"No, it's possible that more than one capsule could have survived the journey through space," offered Sunie.

"Marten, there is a saying. It's what inside that counts. There no telling what's going on inside the facility and don't forget the Benty are here too!" exclaimed Dax as he too became a little on edge seeing a fast running cretok in broad daylight.

"What can we do inside the facility if parasites have taken it over? Suppose everyone is gone?" suggested Marten.

Dax looked at the group and said, "Our priority is to find any survivors. They will be the ones running, yelling, and screaming which mean they're not infected yet."

"If anyone is still alive," interrupted Zoey. "You must admit the odds are against them. Besides, like my Aunt said, the parasites will eat each other until they're down to one or two. That capsule we saw could be the last survivor," said Zoey flicking stray strands of hair from her face.

"I agree with you Zoey," said Peder who was silent for most of the trip. "Where do we start looking?"

"Well, the first time we went inside the facility, we didn't have the luxury of a companion to help us. We can safely roam about the facility without any immediate danger to us."

"Don't forget they have a dampening field inside the facility," mentioned Tam moving closer to Peder to feel the warmth of his body through his lifesuit and continued. "Our companions will be blind once we go inside. We won't know where danger is without first physically seeing it. If my memory serves me correctly, there are a lot of rooms in the building." "Okay, we have a lot of work to do," sighed Peder. "I suggest we split into two groups and pick up survivors as we go along." Everyone nodded his or her head in agreement. "Dax, you take Zoey and Marten. Sunie, you and Tam come with me," commanded Peder. "No one is a hero today. This is strictly a search and rescue mission, okay? No one can see us! So, we should be able to get in and out without much trouble. Dax, you should go to the research ship and start your search there. We'll go inside and start our search for survivors."

# CHAPTER 6

### Hoping for The Best

About two hours earlier the Benty retreated to the research ship leaving the survivors in their cages. The basement was overrun with cretoks searching to get out. It didn't take long for them to figure out how to leave the basement and make their way to the lobby. At the time, technicians and scientists were pre-occupied getting the humanoids coded and into cages while the foot soldiers stood and watched with their assault weapons ready to fire at anyone not cooperating.

## ***

Commander Pavo looked out the observatory window as the first survivors and foot soldiers arrived with their powerful weapons, which could bring down a cretok with one shot. Pavo felt good at the sight of them as they destroyed the few cretoks still held up in the lobby. His muscular body was a reflection of theirs as they quickly took control of the lobby. Technicians came in behind the foot soldiers with electrified rods to poke and prod the cretok to make sure they were indeed dead and not wounded. Scientists came in next and began taking measurements and data samples from the carcasses with swift precision.

Pavo watches with curiosity while glancing back at Corvus's half eaten body lying in an open oven. As he continued to look on, there was a loud knock at the door. Pavo straightened his uniform and walked over to the door and unlocked it. Two heavily armed foot soldiers rushed into the room and looked around; then at Pavo.

"Commander are you all right, sir?" said one of the foot soldiers in a gruff voice and continued. "The ship's commander wants to interview you. Get your things and let's go." Pavo walked back over to Corvus and tore off a piece of meat from his thighbone and stuffed it into a side pocket. The foot soldiers followed his example then rushed Pavo out the room. Faint noises could be heard off in the distance as he walked ahead of his escort to the lobby, his memories painting the walls with his triumphs. He proved to himself once again he was a superior being.

***

Pavo sat in a cool conference room looking face to face at the ship's commander. "We are interested to hear your side of the story commander. Let's begin the interviewed, shall we? ... _Present is commander, Pavo. Helgar, our chief scientist and myself the ship's commander..._ "

Halfway through the interview, which seemed more like an interrogation, Pavo mentioned the incubator again. The chief scientist jumped up from his seat and pushed away from the table racing to the door flinging it wide open for his wide body frame to exit.

"You fool, commander; why didn't you start the interview mentioning the incubator. You were ordered to turn it off. This could be disastrous. We already have your cowardly behavior on video. You failed to use your men effectively in this incident. Thus, you lost them needlessly in battle with the cretok. You put yourself above your team and the team of master technician Corvus. If we have any trouble, containing the cretok, I will hold you personally responsible in my official journal," exclaimed the commander and briskly walked out the room. Pavo sat dumbfounded in his pool of ignorance. He totally forgot the facility was constantly under video surveillance. In a panic, he rushed back to his observatory room for safety and waited for any new developments.

## ***

Bryanna came back to an empty observatory room. Pavo was gone, or so she thought. He was hiding in the airshaft watching her tall figure and long brown hair gathered around her face. She could see everything from the observation window as the parasites poured in and attacked the foot soldiers and cretok. So, she raced back down a secret passageway to get her three prisoners as an insurance policy in case Dax and Tam returned with others. Stealthily, she went to a cage room separate from the other cages. Her friends were kept there on her orders.

"What's going on?" cried Erick rubbing his thinning hair. "What's all the yelling and screaming about?"

"We...they are under attack by some kind of parasites and the cretok. I must get you out of here to safety."

"Why should we trust you? You're one of them," squeaked Jin in her high-pitched voice.

"Please trust me. I had to do it. The Benty was going to kill me if I didn't turn you in. That's the truth. They have been questioning me about you ever since they caught me. They think I know where Dax and Tam are hiding. Do you know where they are?"

"We told you!" spat Kiva. "They leave together in companion to find help."

"So, you're sure?" quizzed Bryanna as she stooped down to unlock the cage door and the three of them rushed out.

"We sure," said Kiva. "But if place under attack as you say, where to go we?" questioned Kiva with her flaming red hair and freckles on her face.

"I've learned a lot about them too! Follow me," Bryanna said and led them into a secret passageway hidden in the wall of their room, stepping into a dark, damp tunnel.

## ***

As the fighting continued in the facility's lobby, Peder's team arrived to find the building in chaos. They sat calmly in their bubble gliding into the facility.

Ava's invisible bubble – Picture by L. Sky

Parasites attacked the bubble sensing its electromagnetic energy. Subsequently, they left behind slime trails like snails on a windowpane, as evidence of their determination to get inside. Foot soldiers, scientists, and technicians were all scattered throughout the facility behind improvised barriers trying to hide from the parasites. Meanwhile, the incubator allowed more cretok to escape and stalk the lobby while fighting off the parasites. Everything was crazy with Benty ducking from the parasite's toxin or fighting the cretok for their lives. The struggle went on as Peder's team continued looking for his friends. He was starting to believe they were all dead looking at powder scattered throughout the lobby.

Cretok fought hordes of parasites latching onto their body's trying to find an entry point for their toxin to paralyze them. In return, the cretoks were smart enough to use their powerful claws to slash the parasites into pieces without eating them.

As time went on, some foot soldiers, technicians, and scientists put on helmets with long face shields, rubberized biohazard suits and assault weapons to ward off the deadly parasite advances. The Benty started to get the upper hand against the parasites until another batch of cretoks arrived and began a new attack on them. The cretok forced everyone to scatter again throughout the facility. Assault weapons crackled as everything became chaotic. In many cases, the foot soldiers couldn't shoot fast enough to take down the cretok. The beasts tore into the rubberized suits and ate large chunks of flesh, leaving the rest for the parasites to infest and reproduce more larva and...powder.

Humanoid cages – Photo by en.wikipedia

No one was safe unless they were inside the research spaceship, which had a large contingent of foot soldiers serving as guards. However, the humanoids from the lifeboat were in the greatest danger. They had no protection in the facility except the guards standing at the cage room door.

So far, the guards were doing good to keep the parasites out until the cretok reappeared in greater numbers and overran the guards who tried to get into the room they were guarding. Survivors locked in cages closest to the entrance became easy prey for the toxin to drip down from the top of the cage onto the survivors. The yelling, growling and screaming during the initial attack was widespread. As survivors started to fall, the larva rushed in and began to feed and mature. The newly matured parasites became trapped inside the cage and released more larvae that crawled into the next cage and so on. Over time, the larva became so many until the floor shimmered like rippling water. Within thirty minutes, a large majority of survivors became powder.

"There must be a flood in the room. The floor is moving," said Tam as Ava glided into the cage room. The lights had gone dim as the screaming continued unabated.

"Give us some light shouted Sunie." Instantly, Ava flooded the room with light, and the horror quickly became apparent. The entire floor was covered with slimy parasitic larva as the mature parasites fired their toxin like artillery to fall on the heads of survivors. As a survivor fell to the cage floor, several larvae rushed in and possessed the body.

Ava sped up and down the cages looking for Dax's friends as described by Nia with no luck, as the situation grew dire.

"Ava, can you do something to help them?" shouted Tam.

" _I noticed the cages are only three sided."_ projected Ava.

"So ..." she said puzzled.

"Of course," exclaimed Peder. "They have hidden doors on the back wall. Open them if you can Ava. Maybe they can get out."

" _I'll try,"_ projected Ava. It took several seconds, but soon the back doors began to pop open, and the survivors rushed out without hesitation. All they could hear was someone yelling for them to "close the door" as the evacuation continued from cage to cage. Finally, what was left of the survivors were finally free from the cages.

The survivors found themselves in a dark tunnel that went only one way. Running for their lives, they unwittingly headed towards the research ship, which quickly took them all aboard.

"Maybe we should do the same follow the survivors," suggested Sunie as they slipped out the door unseen and onto the next cage room, hoping for the best.

# CHAPTER 7

### The Other Team

Dax, Zoey, and Marten inside Nia floated to the research ship. The cretok was gone after failing three times to breach the guard's barrier. Dead cretok laid in piles as Nia navigated around them.

Hovering above the guards, they went inside the spaceship.

"This ship is huge," exclaimed Marten. "How do we find them in time?"

" _We'll use their humanoid energy signal and subtract the Benty's via the ship's computers,"_ projected Nia.

After several minutes of trying to get into the electronics of the ship, Nia finally managed to plug into the computer network.

"Nia, what did you find?" quizzed Tam.

" _There are over 200 humanoids aboard this ship. They span four huge levels of the ship. However, 37 are not Benty but scattered throughout the ship. If we are looking for three or four individuals, I have at least four groups located on each level of the ship. One group has very low energy signatures suggesting they are very close to death. Another group is directly beneath us on the fourth level with stronger signals. It might be the galley section for the ship. The third group is in front of us and equally spaced which suggests cages. However, the last group is strange. They are huddled together in a small room. Wait, they are leaving and heading up the starboard side of the ship."_

Dax thought for a moment and decided, "Let's try the cages first, and then the group that was huddled together. The people in the kitchen are beyond our help. Zoey let's hope that group is not our friends."

"What about the fourth group?" Marten asked.

" _They are heading toward the rear of the ship. It could be them too. If we go up there and attempt a rescue, the Benty could put a lockdown on the entire ship. If we decide to go up there, I recommend we observe only," project Nia._

"Let's try the bridge first and then play it by ear. We don't want them to know we are on their ship. I could imagine they would go crazy trying to find us at any cost. How long will it take to get up there, Nia?" Peder voiced.

" _Perhaps ten minutes."_

"Well time is important," said Zoey. "Come on, let's go since Nia knows what they look like," she offered. Dax looked at her with searching eyes. "We'll be alright darling. It's too bad they dampened the ship. I would have preferred keeping in contact with the other team to know their progress."

# CHAPTER 8

### HALT!

Bryanna had a torchlight leading the way as the others dutifully followed her tall masculine figure down the dark, dank tunnel with an awful smell lingering over it.

"What's that odor, Bryanna?" voiced Jin trying to keep a straight face.

In one word, Bryanna said, "Waste!"

"Oh, know, you don't mean..."

"Yes, that's what I mean. Raw sewage!"

Erick put his hands over his nose and mouth and said, "There could be germs down here. We might not have immunity to them." He muttered something in Chinese while picking his steps carefully as he followed behind the women in their bare feet. In the back of his head, he pictured the Benty experimenting on survivors without mercy. Their bodily waste would run through this very tunnel. He suddenly felt a chill come over his body as his imagination dwelled on his pain and suffering.

"Put on your ..." said Kiva and stopped mid-sentence. The technicians made them take their lifesuit off and gave them paper coveralls instead. They were soiled and unpleasant eyesores.

"How far we go," said Kiva feeling exposed and uncomfortable in her surroundings. She could still hear the yelling and screaming ringing in her ears.

"Not too far now. This tunnel will take us to the spaceship."

"Oh, no not there," cried Erick feeling something soft and mushy under his right foot.

Bryanna stopped and turned around to looked down at him and said, "It might not sound like a good idea, but it's a safe one. The way things are going up there," she pointed. "We may be the only ones left."

"Are the cretok that bad?" quizzed Jin, her frail body showing fatigue.

"The cretok? Oh, you don't know, do you?"

"No what?" demanded Jin.

"The facility is infested with the same parasites we had on the citidome."

Erick, Jin and Kiva looked at Bryanna and in unison said, " **WHAT!** "

Bryanna grinned showing her perfect teeth and dark grey eyes and said, "About twenty-four hours after we arrived, they showed up. We've been fighting them relentlessly to stay alive. The foot soldiers are fighting both the parasites and the cretok. It seems, as soon as we think we have one of them under control, the other rebounds back and attacks twice as hard. It's a matter of time before one of them wipes the foot soldiers out. Right now, it all boils down to numbers.

There are just not enough of us to keep fighting all of them."

"Oh, that's just great," chided Erick. "This is just perfect. All we need now is for a Benty patrol to find us and decide they're hungry from all their fighting," he exclaimed to the others.

"What about the other survivors?" Jin said, turning to hug Kiva for support.

"Last I saw, the cages were full of powder. Not many survived the parasite attack. I'm sorry," offered Bryanna looking guilty. All she could do was turn and continue walking, hoping they would soon reach the ship.

Jin, who was still hugging Kiva for support, looked back down the tunnel and said, "Is that water coming this way?" Everyone turned squinting to see what was coming.

"Yes, something is coming this way, but it's not water," insisted Bryanna followed by,

" **RUN!** "

"What is it," shouted Jin, trying to look behind her as she started to run with the others. Finally, the sound caught up with them, and everyone's adrenaline kicked into overdrive. The adult parasites had found a way into the tunnel and sonar imaged Bryanna and the others.

Sensing their body heat excited them as they ran with a pitter-patter to catch their hosts.

## ***

"I can't run anymore, my feet are raw and numb," cried Erick. "Besides, we left them a long time ago."

"Yeah, maybe you're right," admitted Bryanna stopping to catch her breath with the others while bent over from exhaustion. "Did anyone notice if there were adults or larva?" "I looked as hard as I could, and I didn't see any larva. Why?" said Jin, she was still breathing heavily as her brown soup-bowl haircut gathered around her face.

"The adults spit a toxin paralyzing you. Not the larva."

"What's the difference?" spat Jin.

"It's better than letting them crawl all over us," said Bryanna repeatedly looking back down the dark tunnel. "We should be very close to the ship, now. When we get there, let me do the talking. Remember, you're supposed to be my prisoners.

"What if they are already on the ship, then what?" suggested Erick.

"Darn, Erick, aren't you ever optimistic? If they are on the ship, we hide until they leave. With no new food source, they should go or hibernate or whatever," said Bryanna with a scowl on her face. "Now be quiet. The entrance should be right here..."

" **HALT!** "

# CHAPTER 9

### Okay?

"Who are you? You're not dress like the earthers," bellowed a foot soldier guarding the entrance with his partner. Bryanna was still in her lifesuit.

"I am agent 513-blue-7 on special assignment."

The guard turned to his buddy and asked if he knew about an agent being on the planet.

"I heard something about it. She brought in three earthers. That's all I know."

"She could be an impostor trying to escape," insisted Tuss the first guard.

"True, but her code sounded authentic enough for me."

"She could have heard it somewhere while in the cage room," persisted Tuss, a slightly older than usual foot soldier. He was hungry and frustrated guarding the sewer entrance to the research ship. He eyed the four earthers standing before him and decided to try something else. In a whisper, he said something to his partner and grinned as they looked at each other. "Agent, what is the name of our sub-supreme commander on this mission?"

"This is impossible. Call up to the bridge to confirm my identity."

"Just tell us who it is, and we'll let you pass, or we will take one of you to the mess hall and have something to eat!"

Erick, Jin, and Kiva stared at Bryanna with a doomed look on their faces. Did she know who the leader was? Or was she trying to bluff them?

"Hmm, let me see. How about Sub-Supreme Commander Cetus? No, he died in the Battle of Photopia. I'm not sure who is in charge now. And the mess hall joke wasn't funny either. The sub-supreme commander wants to personally interrogate them," barked Bryanna. Quickly, the two soldiers snapped to attention as Bryanna and her three charges walked passed them.

"Wait," growled Tuss. "The sub-supreme commander is not on this ship!"

"No, he is not. But I assume we will be going to the harvesting fleet. I'll see someone then, voiced Bryanna.

"They're here!" shouted Erick. "Tell the guards to let us in and close the door...hatch, or we'll be fighting them inside the ship."

Bryanna stopped and listened carefully trying to determine how far they were. Satisfied they were indeed getting close, Bryanna turned and told the guards to let them in and close the hatch.

"Why? I don't take orders from you," countered Tuss.

"No, you don't, but the parasites will be here any minute, and you'll wish you had listened to me as they start eating you alive.

Tuss looked at her and heard the pitter-patter getting closer. He didn't like taking orders from a female, but he felt he had no choice in the matter. He backed up toward the hatch with his partner beside him until everyone was inside. He hesitated to see if parasites or something else was coming before he closed the large hatch. His wait wasn't long as the first of several larva leaped for Tuss at the hatchway door. The hatch closed swiftly with a loud report. Everyone gave a sigh of relief.

"I will take my earthers to a holding cell and report to the bridge. Don't let those parasites in or we'll all be in trouble. Understood!" said Bryanna.

"Understood," replied Tuss with fear in his eyes. Then with a cruel grin, he snapped, "Do you need all three prisoners? You could say the parasites caught one. They'll never know the truth."

"Hmm, that is a thought, but I need all of them to complete my mission. Sorry!" said Bryanna sarcastically.

"If you change your mind, we'll be down here waiting for you," said Tuss with a distorted smile on his face.

## ***

They had walked for several minutes towards the rear of the ship when Erick spoke. "What did you mean by completing your mission? And, how did you know they would accept 513 as your identification number?"

"All spies have missions, Erick. My mission is to get you off this planet safely and together find the others. Besides, the guard said it sounded like a real identification number!"

"You don't really think Dax is actually coming back to get us, do you?" said Erick with an angry look on his brow and continued. "The minute they see these parasites, they're out of here, and I don't blame them.

"Between the cretoks and the parasites I sort of agree with you," said Jin. "But I don't believe Dax would just leave us here. I still believe he's coming to rescue us."

"Wishful thinking you, Jin. I like to think he come back, but the way Tam look at him. She could get him to change mind. Right now, I don't know what to believe. But I agree, we must find a way to get off planet if we are going to survive," insisted Kiva with her pressing green eyes.

Following the conversation, Bryanna asked, "Where was he supposed to find you, when he returned?"

"We agreed to meet him on the lifeboat," said Erick sensing a plan coming together.

"The problem is getting passed everyone," suggested Bryanna and continued. "We could get a glider and go out to the lifeboat. The parasites are probably all concentrated here. I'd say we have a good chance of hiding out there."

"We had plenty food stored for the wait," offered Kiva looking wide-eyed and tired. "I think we safer there than here. But how we get there? This ship big, how we find gliders?"

Bryanna put her hands on her hips and said, "That's not the problem. It's going out there and not being followed by anyone or anything is the problem."

Then Erick suggested, "What about guards? Wouldn't they be guarding the gliders?" "Not if they are fighting! I believe most of them are out there fighting...or dying. The gliders are low priority and most likely unprotected. I know where they are and if we stick together, we can do it. Just pretend your terrified prisoners. Can you do that?" insisted Bryanna looking at Erick.

"Oh, we can do that, right Erick," chided Jin.

## ***

The four of them huddled together in an empty utility room stocked with simple supplies. There was a lot of commotion outside the door. Voices were muffled and sounded urgent; something was wrong. Bryanna cracked the door open and through the slit asked what was going on. A rough voice growled, "The parasites are on the ship!"

"How," growled Bryanna.

The reply was swift, "They found an open hatch near the sewer below. Stay in your room."

Bryanna closed the door with a blank look on her face and said, "We're trapped!"

"But not far are the gliders, yes?" demanded Kiva.

Bryanna slowly replied, "No they're not far but to take the chance could be risky."

"I say we take the chance," insisted Jin. "Besides, we come this far, why stop now."

"I agree with Jin!" urged Erick.

Everyone looked at Erick in shock.

"If Erick agrees who are we to say no!" voiced Bryanna. "Let's go for it!"

## ***

"Tuss, you should have insisted on taking a hostage while she went to the bridge. We could have easily eaten one of them while she was gone."

"Yeah, you're right! But I think we'll get another chance to eat soon. Do you hear those things out there?"

"No, why do you ask?"

"Because where there is one Earther we are bound to find another. Come on, let's go out and look." Tuss slowly opened the hatch and poked his head outside. He expected to find and empty sewer, but instead, the parasites were packed on each other waist deep. One parasite was level with Tuss's face when it spit its toxin. He staggered back opening the hatch wider as parasites tumbled in overrunning his partner.

## ***

"Well, this was the last place for us to look. There not on the ship," said a disappointed Tam. Her face showed fatigue looking at dismembered humanoids of all shapes and sizes. The only good thing was their friends were not on the ship and perhaps still alive.

"Let's go back and look around some more, maybe we missed something. I just have a feeling they are still alive. I don't know how, I just feel it, I just know Tam's friends are alive," insisted Zoey.

"Even if they are alive, just how do we find them?" demanded Marten.

"We just keep looking until we do find them," insisted Zoey.

Dax said, "Okay, but I'm telling you, it doesn't look good! Besides, the others are looking for them in the cages right now. If they are unsuccessful, how can we make a difference?"

"We must try, I just know they are still alive!" pleaded Zoey. "Besides, we didn't catch the group heading towards the rear of the ship. It could be them! Let's at least try to see who they are, okay?" exclaimed Zoey.

# CHAPTER 10

### Eat Him Alive

Like a snake, Ava wormed her way through the spacious hallway careful not to bump into anyone. Fortunately, the foot soldiers were well-disciplined in keeping to the right as they walked the long wide passageways.

Finally, they made it to the rear of the ship filled with gliders and other small crafts on the third level of the ship.

" _Ava, can you pick them up?"_ projected Tam.

" _Yes, but we are too late. They have left the ship. What do you want to do?" projected Ava._

"Should we follow them?" asked Peder.

"Who would want to leave the ship anyway?" offered Sunie.

"Someone who is trying to get away," suggested Tam. "But is it from the parasites and cretoks or the Benty or all three. We know there's nothing out there except the lifeboat."

"Yes, the lifeboat!" said Peder. "You promised to meet them there when you returned, and perhaps they have escaped and are going back there," offered Peder subconsciously rubbing the bridge of his nose.

## ***

The hallway was dark with sounds filtering from the lobby into Ava's bubble. Tam reached through the bubble and turned a doorknob; locked with a heavy bolt. Several more doors gave the same response as the hallway went up on an incline. A cretok jetted pass them out of the dark followed by a horde of adult parasites.

"What do you think is up ahead," offered Sunie.

"I guess we will have to find out. I have a feeling that all the humanoids were in the caged rooms. We might be heading towards more cages or administrative offices. Either way, I think everyone is gone," offered Tam.

"Why?" Peder asked.

"It's simple. When they heard the commotion, they came out and joined the fight."

"Fair enough observation," replied Peder. "But we should still search some of these rooms to be sure."

After traveling through the hallway for 15 minutes, Marten finally said, "Let's try this door with the airlock."

"Yeah, it does look out of place up here," said Tam reaching for the thick door handle. It opened without trouble and gave a hiss as the door partially swung open catching Pavo off guard. He looked up startled seeing no one at the door. His thoughts were that a cretok had managed to open the door and now hesitant to venture in right away. Quickly, he scrambled to the air vent and climbed inside, never once looking behind him. Crawling down the shaft, Dax and his team heard his non-stop scuffling as he crawled back to his old destination.

Tam was the first to leave Ava's bubble and walk over to the door to close it. Peder and Sunie came out and walked over to a large picture window. Down below the saw the back and forth carnage each group was inflicting on the other.

The Benty population seemed to be the hardest hit as their numbers dwindled.

Meanwhile, Pavo continued his journey to the safety of the communications room. He arrived exhausted and barely able to pull himself out of the shaft. The room was dark and quiet. The door to the communications room repaired Pavo dragged himself over to close and lock it. Finally, he flopped down on a chair facing the computer.

Communications computer – Picture by Wikipedia.com

He smiled looking at it and tried to adjust his eyes to see more of the small room. Remembering the light switch's position, he pulled himself back up to turn on the lights. Standing by the door, he lazily switched on the lights. He choked and lost his breath with sweat running down his armpits into the waist of his rubberized suit. Nothing could describe his shock and horror at that moment. He shook his head in disbelief looking at a cretok in the corner of the room. Adult parasites with their offspring were slowly dismantling the creature from the inside out. Without thinking, he reached for the door lock when the first splatter of toxin reached him. He ducked just in time to miss it. But before he could regain his upright position several more dollops of toxin were released hitting his uniform. He relaxed for a split second. He knew the toxin couldn't penetrate his suit, so he continued to open the door. To his chagrin, the hallway was crawling with adult parasites. He quickly slammed the door closed and turned to look around the room for someplace to hide. Just as he did so, a dollop of toxin hit him squarely in the face causing him to fight to get it off. He grew weak and fell to the floor like a rock as the parasites eagerly approached him. Pavo watched through tearful eyes as they began to eat him alive.

# CHAPTER 11

### Something Is Coming!

"Who or what do you think that was?" asked Tam.

" _It was a foot soldier. I guess we frightened him away,"_ projected Ava."

"He was pretty quick for his size," admitted Peder.

"Well, he's gone, and that's all that matters right now," countered Sunie.

"I wonder where the cretok are coming from. It seems they appear in waves," said Peder looking down into the lobby.

" _It's roughly 32 minutes apart, and they are not adults, only juveniles. My guess is there is an incubator system running that needs to be shut down,"_ projected Ava. _"I think the basement would be the likely place to start looking."_

"Now that you mention it, how do we get to the basement?" suggested Peder.

" _It's probably a hidden door, or the elevator we passed might get us there,"_ projected Ava.

## ***

Several precious minutes had passed before they chose to take the elevator down to the basement level. A door to the basement was impossible to find. But the elevator was a large cargo lift.

Cargo Elevator - Photo by wikia.com

Ava and the team all fit in the elevator with no problems. The further they went down the more the stench became apparent. Nothing could have prepared them for what they were about to see. As the elevator doors opened, a bunch of cretok greeted them. They were standing about waiting for something to happen. One of the larger males was pushing at a panel in the wall that opened and closed each time he bumped it. Eventually, he was able to step inside and run off. The others watching his behavior followed his example to escape from the basement that ran up to the lobby. An identical panel was pushed open on the lobby wall, and the cretoks were free to attack the foot soldiers.

"Well now we know where the cretok reinforcements are coming from," chided Tam. Still floating in Ava's bubble, they examined the place, which was nothing but a large room with embryo sacs hanging from the ceiling by way of an automated rail system. As they matured, the sac they were contained in would move forward and eventually release the creature onto the floor in a pool of putrid liquid. Studying the sacs, about ten more were ready to be released. In the back of the room was a large machine that injected a transparent football size egg into each sac.

Incubator machines – Picture by L. Sky

The machine looked like it could go on forever if not stopped by some outside intervention. Either way, at least 100 more creatures could be released in a matter of hours.

"Peder, do you see how to stop this thing," shouted Tam as they got closer to the egg producing machine. It hummed loudly with life as it continued to churn out eggs like clockwork.

"It must have a power source somewhere," offered Sunie as each member got out of Ava's bubble and walked around the sides of the machine. The machine was huge with a hole that ejected an egg into a sac filled with growth serums produced by a second large machine behind it. "The power source is under the machine. This means a switch is hopefully somewhere in this room and we must find it," exclaimed Sunie.

"Ava, form a wall around us. Something is coming!" said Peder.

# CHAPTER 12

### HALT!

Not all the cretok left the basement. Two females remained behind after hearing commotion in the back of the room. Stealthily they made their way towards the noise; listening for more sounds. Peeking around an embryo sac, the smaller female saw three humanoids standing near the large gray machine talking. Not having any training, the humanoids were nothing more than food for a ravenous cretok. So, without waiting for the other cretok, she charged towards the humanoids targeting Sunie. She rushed up to him and smashed into a solid, invisible wall. Lying on the floor, the cretok shook her head and got back up to try again. The results were the same as she picked herself up again. By now, the second female was standing beside her studying the situation. Without warning, she leaped up to the top of Ava's box thinking that the wall was a fence. Within moments, both were standing on top of Ava looking down at the humanoids with obvious hunger drooling on the square bubble. Tam and the others looked up at the spectacle with amusement.

" _We have 13 minutes to get rid of them before ten more juveniles are released,"_ projected Ava with urgency.

"What if you just invert your box to capture them inside and move them toward the panel to escape?" asked Tam.

" _Good idea. Wait for me here,"_ Ava projected back to them. Carrying the two cretoks inside her bubble, she transported them to the secret panel. Opening one end of her square bubble, she slowly decreased the size of her container until they were forced to push open the panel and go inside. Once inside, they instinctively ran up the hall towards the lobby. Ava waited until they were in the lobby before she returned to the others.

The team quickly dispersed to look for the incubator's switch. Peder rubbed his hand against the metal machine in case the switch might be a bump on its side. He was about to give up when his hand ran across a small raised area. He pressed the soft bump, and the machine made a loud report as it grounded to a stop. Fortunately, the other machine stopped as well. Tam and Sunie ran over to Peder to congratulate him, when someone yelled, " **HALT!** "

# CHAPTER 13

### No Time to Waste

Standing at the elevator door were three battered and bleeding foot soldiers that managed to get passed the fighting in the lobby. Their mission was to stop the machine and kill any embryo close to the end of their cycle. They were inwardly pleased to see the machine turned off but puzzled that Earthers were able to accomplish it. The leader stepped forward and pointed his gun at Peder.

"How did you get down here," Sergeant-Commander Oddgar growled.

"Like you, I took the elevator," replied Peder.

"Where did the other two go?" he growled again.

"They must be on the other side of the machine. I'll get them for you."

"No tricks, I will kill you if you try anything Earther," growled Oddgar

"I'll only be a moment."

The sergeant-commander and his two foot soldiers waited and waited until finally one of them ran around to the back of the machine. To his surprise, no one was there. He came back around and shouted. "They're gone. No one is back here, sergeant-commander."

"What, I just saw him, how," the sergeant-commander stopped mid-sentence the moment he heard the elevator go up. "Quickly, start shooting the embryos before they reach their end cycle. Hurry we have no time to waste."

# CHAPTER 14

### Readied for Bed

Ava floated out of the elevator and into the lobby. It was eerily quiet. The lobby floor was covered knee-deep with reddish-brown powder. Nothing was left alive, only a half-buried tear shaped capsule resting like an egg in the center of the lobby.

"Well, I guess there's nothing we can do here. I'm sorry Peder," whispered Tam as her imagination tried to take in the scope of what she was witnessing. "The parasites must have run out of food, then left," she suggested. "Maybe we should get to the research ship and see how the others are doing."

Feeling downhearted for her, Peder said, "Okay, there's too much death here anyway."

They left the facility without looking back.

## ***

Coming out of the tunnel, Tam's team saw a herd of cretok running freely towards the horizon. They trampled over plants making a dust plume in their wake that blemished the fading daylight.

"Where could they be in a hurry too?" asked Sunie.

"There's nothing out there, right?"

"That was the general idea Sunie, but I'm not sure about anything now. This planet has too many secrets. I don't feel safe here with Tam. Let's find the others and leave," offered Peder.

"The research ship is around the corner, Ava should be able to scan their computers for the others," said Peder not knowing what to expect. The sun was going down, and the silence was closing in on them.

Ava quickly projected, _"Peder I can't scan the ship, they must have turned off their computers with the dampening field. Apparently, something has happened to make them do it?"_

"If they are on lockdown, maybe Zoey's team is in trouble," exclaimed Tam. "We've got to get in there and find out what's going on."

"Not so fast Tam, it could also mean they are looking for them. I'm sure Dax and Nia can handle the situation. If we can't get in, let's go back to the lifeboat and wait until morning to try and find another way onto the ship," insisted Peder.

"Maybe your right. I don't feel anything right now. Perhaps, they are okay after all. Besides, I'm not excited about spending a night out here in the extreme dark," asserted Tam with Sunie shaking his head in agreement.

"Ava will give us all the light we need. We'll be all right staying here," said Peder smiling at the two of them.

"Well, it's settled then!" said Tam. "We'll park beside the research ship were no one can see us. In response, Ava formed two beds and a partition between Sunie and the others. Ava dimmed her lights as they readied for bed.

### CHAPTER 15

### They Are Here!

The lifeboat was quiet as Ava approached. Tam was the first to come out of Ava's bubble and walked on the deck.

"Kiva, Eric," she shouted out in the stillness. Nothing happened. Peder came out of the bubble looking around nervously and walked over to Tam to say, "Perhaps they didn't make it. It was a long shot anyway. It must have been survivors that came out this way and got lost.

"No, they are around here, I can sense them," replied Tam.

"Quickly, you two, Ava says a Benty patrol is coming this way," shouted Sunie. In minutes, a patrol of foot soldiers appeared below the lifeboat staring up at its deck. The leader walked up the makeshift ramp towards the center of the lifeboat. Without warning, he fired his weapon into the air.

"We know you are here so come out now or my foot soldiers will come aboard and start shooting at anything that moves," shouted Sub-Commander Kajus. Without saying another word, he waved for his soldiers to come aboard and start searching the wreckage and the tramcar. They searched for 60 minutes to no avail. No one seemed to be aboard the wreckage. The wind began to stir through the stillness moving small pieces of trash. The sub-commander looked at his soldiers and said, "We must have somehow passed them." He rushed over to the back end of the lifeboat and peered over the edge. Small pieces of wreckage scattered across the lifeboat. They didn't seem to pose any threat. Kajus looked further out towards the horizon and faintly made out the silhouette of an empty glider. He grinned showing his jagged teeth and yelled, "Search again, they are here!"

### Chapter 16

Do It!

"Search every crack!" barked Kajus. "Look under every piece of debris. Nothing is to go untouched," he ranted. He ran over to the rim of the lifeboat to watch two soldiers retrieve the glider. He stared off into the fading horizon tormented with the notion that they were nearby. Down below, the ground was obscured by debris and jagged shadows. Some of the debris was dark and hideous with jagged edges. Nothing seemed real or solid as he looked back at his soldiers scuffling along the deck of the lifeboat repeating their search above and below the levels of the wreckage. The whole time, Kajus was fuming mad at the thought that Earthers could outsmart him.

***

Hovering above Kajus and his foot soldiers, Tam and the others watched with amusement.

"How long will they search? At this rate, they are bound to find them," said Tam.

"You know where they are?" asked Sunie.

Tam gave Sunie a warm smile and said, "Of course, Ava and I both know, but unless we do something fast, the leader will figure it out too."

"We need a diversion. Something that will get them to leave," insisted Peder. "Ava, can you help us?"

" _Sure, I can lead them away towards their research ship so that when they give up, they can just keep going. Besides, it'll be getting dark soon."_

"Okay, do it!" ordered Peder.

### Chapter 17

### The Right Moment

"Sir, look, a glider is heading back to the research ship," yelled an excited foot soldier.

"Quick, after it. Don't lose it this time," shouted Kajus.

The glider had a good head start over Kajus's glider, and the sun was slowly sinking lower into the horizon making a visual of who was driving the device impossible. As the glider went over a high ridge, Kajus lost sight of the small craft. When his glider finally reached the top of the ridge the craft was gone.

"Nooo, where did it go, speed up, go faster. We must catch it before it reaches the research ship," ordered Kajus. "We must find them."

***

Ava reformed her bubble and waited for Kajus to get far enough away before she started back to the lifeboat.

"Well, you want to tell us where they are hiding?" said Peder. Tam looked at him with her brown eyes. With a deep smile on her face, she said nothing. She raised a finger and placed it on Peder's lips to silence him.

"You know I can get Ava to tell me."

"True, but we girls stick together, right Ava?"

" _Right, Tam! Besides, your husband is a good man. He wouldn't spoil the fun."_

***

When Ava returned, a herd of six cretoks was rummaging around the lifeboat.

"We must get the cretoks to leave the area, or it may spell disaster for our friends," urged Tam. With darkness creeping in the task was made more difficult.

Peder looked at Tam and said, "Anyone has suggestions as to how we can do it short of getting out and waving our hands at them?"

"How about Ava making the sounds of the parasites?" suggested Sunie.

Peder and Tam looked at Sunie speechless.

" _That's a brilliant idea!"_ projected Ava. _"I can do it very easily and make it sound as if they are coming in their direction."_

Excitedly, Peder said, "Do it, Ava!"

They watched as Ava made the horrible sounds of charging adult parasites heading towards the lifeboat. As predicted, the cretok looked up and started running wildly in the opposite direction towards the sunset. However, everyone's laughter was cut short. The Benty patrol came back!

## ***

"I don't know what's going on, but I want everything searched or moved to make sure we haven't missed anything," ordered Kajus. He knew his orders sounded absurd, but he was certain they were hiding on the lifeboat. He also began moving things no matter how small in desperation. His foot soldiers were growing tired searching over the same things for a third and sometimes a fourth time. No one spoke as they recklessly searched the lifeboat. Kajus would stop from time to time and watch his foot soldier perform their duty. The air grew cooler as the sun peaked over the horizon. Suddenly, a cretok jumped onto the back of foot soldier that screamed for his life. Immediately, Kajus's soldiers started to fire their weapons in all directions. But it was too late. The cretoks were too close, and they had enough sense to push the weapons away as they attacked. Fighting hand to hand with the creatures, the foot soldiers began to fall one by one until Kajus gave out the last scream as his life slipped away from him. Two cretok were left standing; badly cut but surviving the fight.

"Ava, pull over to the backside of the lifeboat. Hover over that mound to your right. Now come down slowly until I can dig a hole in the soil," ordered Tam. The two cretok could sense Ava's electromagnetic energy and rushed over to the side to see what was happening. Both were curious but remembered the parasites might be near.

Dirt mound – Picture by wikipedia.com

Tam dug around a plastic tube curled up on top of the mound. She thrusted here hand deep in the loose soil and pulled Jin up into Ava's bubble.

"Whew, what took you so long?" she demanded. "I started to think I was going to have to lay there all night. She shook the dirt from her hair and face and gave a big grin of gratitude.

The cretok watching the ordeal caught on quickly and began running for the ramp to get down the lifeboat. They ran around to the backside of the lifeboat in time to see Kiva lift up and disappear. Sunie was the first to notice the creatures stealthily moving in on the next mound. Without a word from Ava, she increased her energy bubble in time to stop them from jumping on a mound. Without hesitation, Tam helped Erick into the bubble smiling as if he had won the lottery. The cretok searched about for another mound when Ava pushed them out of the way."

Puzzled, Peder asked who the fourth person was to escape, just as Tam pulled up Bryanna.

## ***

Safe inside Ava's bubble the next morning, they all greeted each other again with great joy, except Bryanna. She was a little apprehensive at first. Kiva told about their ordeal and how Bryanna rescued them from the Benty and the parasites. Everyone was excited and talkative when suddenly Ava merged her bubble with Nia's, and everyone burst out cheering.

"What happened to you, Dax?" asked Peder.

"We tried to explore a little this morning before coming back to the lifeboat. We found another deserted facility. Look at these," said Dax.

Ruby gemstone – Picture by en.wikipedia.org

"My God, they're rubies!" exclaimed Tam. "They're huge aren't they," she said holding one up to the light.

"I guess Ryan right about a treasure here. Too bad he couldn't be here to enjoy it " offered Kiva with a saddening face.

"Who was Ryan?" asked Sunie.

"Ryan was part of our first expedition. He wanted to search the research facility for treasure. In the end, the cretok got him," responded Tam.

"Tam, he wasn't a nice man. He would have sacrificed all of us to find it," added Dax.

"What did the other facility look like?" asked Sunie.

"It was exactly like the one we were in, except no creatures infesting it," offered Marten.

"In fact, the entire place was littered with all kinds of gemstones and crystals."

"The crystals could come in handy," said Peder looking at a large crystal in Marten's hand.

Crystal – Picture by en.wikipedia.org

"Well, your exploring paid off," said Zoey to Peder who was wrapping his arms around Tam as if to protect her from some unseen forces.

"We've heard a lot about you guys," said Sunie with a smile.

"To be honest, it was looking like no one was coming back to save us," said Jin with her squeaky voice. "My life flashed before my eyes so many times until I lost count," she added. "If it weren't for Bryanna, we would've died in that awful facility for sure."

"It wasn't anything. Once I escaped from the Benty, it was easy to find you," replied Bryanna.

"Just how did you escape," questioned Zoey. "I mean the place was crawling with Benty foot soldiers."

"The Benty was too occupied with fighting the cretok and parasites, they forgot all about me."

"There might be one more foot soldier still left in the facility. He was in a conference room with an airlock door. He scrambled into an airshaft when we arrived," said Tam.

"I don't know anything about that. I was held in a room on the same floor as the lobby. When the fighting started, they rushed out of the room leaving the door open for me to escape. I went across the hall where I found Erik, Kiva and Jin and the rest is history.

"She be modest," said Kiva. She helped get us to gliders in that huge spaceship. Funny how you knew where to find them."

"Oh, I overheard them talking about the research ship, saying they needed to increase the patrols to the lifeboat. They were afraid the parasites might be hiding in it."

"Well, you guys were lucky," said Peder. "All the parasites are gone or at the research ship. I doubt they would come out here."

"I swear I hear them around here," offered Kiva.

"Oh, that was Ava scaring off the cretok with the sound of parasites," answered Tam. "Hmm, that was a neat idea," said Erick regaining his composure. He still didn't trust

Bryanna but kept it to himself. Something wasn't right about her.

"Zoey, I've heard so much about you. I am so glad to meet you," said Bryanna extending a long arm to shake Zoey's hand. She could feel Zoey's pulse and wondered how long it would take to silence it. She would have to wait for the right moment and perhaps snap her neck. Bryanna felt euphoria building inside her chest realizing her mission would be a success for the Empire. All she needed was the right moment to do it.

### CHAPTER 18

### His Other Side

Nia and Ava formed a double-layered semi-circular tent on the lifeboat. Everyone was spread out as the morning sun raised itself over the crest of the mountain peaks. Bryanna had gotten very little sleep wondering how to best kill Zoey. Occasionally, she turned in the direction of Zoey imagining herself creeping up beside her and strangling Zoey with her bare hands. It was becoming an obsession with her that she had to control. The whole time, Erick watched Bryanna wondering what her thoughts were and why she kept looking at Zoey. Something wasn't right, and he could feel it.

Bryanna felt someone watching her too and turned around in time to catch Erick staring at her. She looked at him with a scowl on her face to show her distaste for him. He, in turn, gave her a faint smile and turned over to his other side.

# CHAPTER 19

### I'm Afraid So

" _Peder, Dax, I can't read Bryanna's mind! Nia and I have both rechecked, and it's definite. We both drew a blank as if she's not even here with us."_

"Oh, no. Not again!" said Dax and Peder in unison.

Dax looked at Peder and said, "Where is she?"

"Zoey and Kiva went with her to the second facility site. Bryanna wanted to see the crystals for herself," replied Sunie.

"How long have they been gone?" demanded Dax. "How long?"

" _It's been over and hour now,"_ projected Ava. _"I'm trying to contact Nia, but so far it's been futile."_

"We all better go, Zoey could be in real danger," insisted Peder.

## ***

"Nia, give us some lights in here," shouted Zoey standing in a pool of darkness in the lobby. Nia radiated light as Kiva went to find the light switch. It was easy because the facility was just like the other one. When Kiva and Zoey turned around, they were both surprised.

"Where is Bryanna?" said Kiva. The room was deserted except for the two of them.

"Nia, where is Bryanna?" ordered Zoey.

" _I can't help you. Someone has turned on a dampening field,"_ she projected _._

"Why would she disappear like that?" said Zoey puzzled at Bryanna's behavior.

"There is something we no tell you," stated Kiva in a low voice. "We thought she was a Benty spy at first. But then she saved us from them and the creatures. I guess, I just pushed it to the back of my mind with all that had happened."

"That may have been a ruse to gain your confidence, and we played right into her hands."

"What mean you?" asked Kiva feeling helpless in the large lobby full of gemstones scattered across the floor.

"Bryanna wants to kill me!"

"Why?" Kiva said excitedly.

"It's something to do with the Benty Empire I suspect. They tried to kill me on Giliesa. If they kill me, they believe they will weaken the spirit of those on Giliesa, so that they can conquer the planet more easily. It's just a bunch of nonsense is what it is. But I'm afraid that Bryanna is dead serious about it. We must figure out how to defeat her before she can strike first."

"She good if she last this long without being caught," offered Kiva. "Why don't we leave this place?"

"Because she could signal the others to come after us full force if we're not careful. The Benty has a weapon that can deactivate companions."

"No, I have been reprogrammed for such an event, but...it could wipe my memory forever. I require special shielding which I don't have yet. However, Ava has been completely modified!"

"So, you are vulnerable to attack?"

" _I'm afraid so, Zoey,"_ projected Nia.

# CHAPTER 20

### The Next One

"We must protect Nia at all cost...as well as me," chuckled Zoey with a faint smile on her face.

"Have I idea to help solve this problem," offered Kiva with a wide grin on her lovely

face.

"I'm ready to try anything about now," replied Zoey looking around. She could see a door to her far right and the long horizontal window above it.

Kiva whispered her plan into Zoey's ear. They both smiled at one another with agreement shaking their heads.

## ***

"I never knew there were so many caves in this mountain. We were lucky the first time to find the right one," offered Dax to the group.

Peder was looking at the mountain and said, "If they have a dampening field, it may take a while to find them, I see at least eleven caves already. It could take some time finding the right one."

"Ava, can you remember which tunnel it was?" questioned Dax.

" _No, they have the dampening field on, and now they all look alike to me,"_ projected Ava sounding as though she was letting everyone down.

"Don't be hard on yourself, we can't remember which one it was either. But I'm against splitting up to search each one. We have no idea what could be in these caves. They could be dangerous.

"All right then, pick a cave," said Dax reluctant to go in without knowing what to expect.

"Let's take the first one we get too," offered Peder.

Ava turned into a cave and slowly cruise forward. Everyone inside her bubble sat on the edges of their seats. It was dark with water dripping from small cracks. Ava went in about a mile before it became obvious that it was a dead-end. She turned everyone's seat around and floated out of the cave and into the next one.

# CHAPTER 21

You'll See

Every few steps, Zoey stopped to pick up a stone and put it into her lifesuit's pocket. Kiva did the same in her soiled paper jumpsuit. Her odor had died down a little, or everyone had gotten used to smelling them.

"If we go to the left, it'll take us to the offices, and I guess to the conference room with the airlock door. I doubt she would hide in the cages down here."

"You may be right Zoey, but remember she know facility's layout better than we do," suggested Kiva.

"Okay, so be careful," replied Zoey and opened the door leading to the offices. Zoey held a small penlight in her hand that guided the two of them down a dark deserted hallway with doors on either side. Some were locked, and others deserted. Kiva stumbled on a crystal and almost lost her balance. The scurrying crystals made a loud report alerting anybody hiding in the dark recesses of the hallway.

"Sorry, I'll try to be more careful," insisted Kiva. After a few minutes, Kiva whispered to Zoey, "Suppose she in airlocked room, then what?"

"She'll be trapped inside, and we can block the door, so she can't get out."

"Will that be enough," said Kiva. "I mean, suppose she has a secret way to get out."

"Think positive Kiva. We'll get the others and decide what to do with her."

Together they continued their trek up an inclining hallway towards the air locked door. Occasionally, a shadow would jump out causing them to flinch back. The penlight only went so far in pushing back the darkness.

Simple Penlight – Picture by Wikipedia.org

It was eerily quiet with the sounds of their feet stepping cautiously between the broken crystals and rubies. Suddenly, they heard a knocking sound and jumped back with fear. It took them a minute to regain their composure and continued.

"What was that noise?" queried Kiva.

"I don't know, but I suspect it's her hiding up ahead."

"I remember now. They have secret passages in this building. She could use one get behind us," whispered Kiva.

"Hey, let's worry about one direction at a time. Just keep an ear out for something coming behind us."

"Okay, I try!"

## ***

"This makes the third cave we've searched with no luck. How did they find the right one?

It could take longer than we expected. Some of the tunnels are deep inside the mountain," said Dax as they headed for the fourth cave. About halfway in the cave, they ran into a large herd of cretoks. It was impossible to pass them without frightening them causing a stampede in the tunnel.

"Let's not disturb them, Peder. Turn around and go back," said Dax.

"No, wait," shouted Sunie. I see something up ahead. Yes, I see a small bead of light."

## ***

Everyone laid flat on their stomachs as Ava compressed her size to fit over the cretok heads. They had traveled almost two kilometers before the beam of light grew to a football size. Several more kilometers and the light took on a definite shape until they found themselves on the other side of the mountain with more mountains behind it.

Rubius Mountains – Picture by wikispaces.com

"Turn around, let's go back and start again!" voiced Dax with frustration.

"No, I have an idea!" said Marten. It's simple. We now have an idea where to look. Why not see which ones go through the mountain like this one. Perhaps this could narrow our search.

"Okay, Marten, let's try it," offered Peder.

They flew about a half a kilometer out and turned around to look at the mountain. Three of the eight caves went straight through the mountain.

"Now we're getting somewhere!" exclaimed Dax.

"I've been thinking," said Erick. "What if Bryanna knew about this other site. She could have easily steered them to it to save time.

"Yes, that's possible," said Peder. "Let's hope Zoey is resourceful enough to figure it out.

"Yeah, she's a smart girl, she will figure something is wrong," said Dax looking hopeless at Peder.

Tam put her arm around Dax and said, "Don't worry, she can take care of herself, you'll see.

# CHAPTER 22

### Found Something

Zoey was leading the way. The airlock door was just up ahead. There was a shuffling on the floor. Bryanna popped out of a dark corner and plunged a sharp knife into Zoey's chest.

Knife – Picture by commons.wikimedia.org

To be sure of Zoey's death, she tried to pull the knife out of her chest and stab her again. But the knife was stuck. It wouldn't budge. Kiva had no time to react because of the swiftness of the attack. All she could do was watch with horror on her face as Bryanna ran to the airlock door and sealed it shut.

"Oh, Dios Mio, that was horrible. She struck so fast my legs couldn't move fast enough to do anything."

" _Kiva, your freezing may have saved your life in this case,"_ projected Nia pulling the knife from her chest and throwing it on the floor. Nia then had second thoughts and picked up the knife and thrusted the blade into the airlock door. It went in beneath the handle, so Bryanna couldn't open the door. _"Let's hope this will keep her locked in,"_ projected Nia to Kiva both smiling at each other.

## ***

Traveling down another tunnel with a dead-end, everyone sat with their minds preoccupied on what they might find. Finally, the tunnel opened to a wall and a double doorway. They looked at each other elated that they reached the second facility site. The pyramid was equally impressive with Zoey sitting in front of its double doors. Ava became transparent, and everyone waved.

"You're safe!" shouted Dax jumping out of Ava's bubble. "I thought I'd never see you again."

"You almost didn't, if not for Kiva's bright idea to have Nia impersonate Zoey as they searched for Bryanna. Nia made it, so I could see everything. She tried to kill me with a knife a few moments ago. Now she's in the airlocked room."

"Are they still at the door?" Peder asked. "Remember, one Benty was able to use the airshaft to get away. She might try the same."

"Nia says they can't hear anything," voiced Ava to everyone. "There could be a secret passage in the room all the same which means she's probably slipped away. I'll tell Nia to go inside to be sure she's gone."

Several long minutes passed until Nia said, " _She's gone and not through the airshaft._

_There must be a secret passage in here. Hold on. Kiva has found something._ "

# CHAPTER 23

### Just Stared

"I found secret door and stairway that might lead to lobby. Be on the lookout for her," said Kiva through Nia.

Dax looked around and said, "Zoey, get into Ava's bubble and wait for us. We're going in to find her."

Without any hesitation, Zoey ran into Ava's bubble.

Slowly, all seven of them filed through the front door and then another door leading up to the offices. Dax leading the procession turned on the lights to reveal an empty hallway littered with precious stones. Erick quickly stopped to pick some up while Kiva was waving from the balcony window to catch their attention. Everyone waved back gleefully except Sunie. He noticed Bryanna peeking from a doorway, and then ran down a hallway towards the cage room.

"I saw her," shouted Sunie. "She's heading towards the cages."

## ***

Tam remembered all too well how she stared death in the face inside the cage room. She was behind Peder, and her heart still raced with the thoughts of the cretok trying to eat them. The layout was a little different in that there wasn't a center cage, only cages on the sidewalls. On the center wall was a flap panel doorway in the up position. Inside, the chamber room looked dark and spooky.

Jin hesitated for a moment when she saw the flap open. Erick following behind Jin bumped into her and dropped a gemstone that rolled under one of the cages, causing him to frown. He simply wanted to find Bryanna and leave the place with his small fortune of gemstones. But, in the back of his mind he to wonder what would happen to her. They couldn't let her get away. Their fear was she'd tell the other Benty on the research ship, causing a search to begin for them. Nia deeply contemplated losing her memory and found the need to find her quickly. But what to do with her was the mystery no one was able to solve.

Satisfied, Bryanna wasn't in the cage room. They had to consider the long chamber rooms Jin talked about earlier. They stood mystified, mentally unwilling to go inside.

## ***

Ava and Zoey remained outside the facility waiting for the others to return. Finally, she napped but was quickly awaken when the double doors opened. Bryanna quickly dashed out with another knife in her hand ready to stab Zoey again. This time, Zoey was sitting on the ground inside Ava's bubble. As a natural reflex, she threw her hands up to deflect the knife. Bryanna brought the knife up and behind her head to have as much force behind the knife as possible when she stabbed into Zoey's chest. Screaming as she rushed Zoey, a bubble formed around Bryanna, stopping her in her tracks. She struggled to get passed the invisible wall separating her from Zoey to no avail. Trapped, she had no way of getting out. Zoey, on the other hand, got up and walked over to the bubble separating them to look Bryanna in the face. Neither of them said a word, just stared at each other.

# CHAPTER 24

### An Easy Meal

"Why Bryanna or whoever you are? Why do you want to kill me?" said Zoey breaking

the silence.

"You are a threat to the Empire."

"What kind of threat?"

"You might know things that your companion may have told you. Perhaps something that could upset the balance of power between us. Your species is dangerous. So, they sent me and others to stop you from saying anything you might have learned," explained Bryanna, staring into Zoey's brown eyes.

"My companion is gone, lost in the fighting. He told me no secrets that I know of that could have stopped you from hunting us."

"Good then, you're still in the dark about your species. Don't expect me to tell you. I may not achieve my mission, but at least I'll die knowing our secret is safe."

"Ava, do you know what she is talking about?"

"No, not unless she gives me more details," voiced Ava.

"Peder will have the companions read your mind and find out what you are hiding."

"I doubt that! The only reason you were hiding out here is because your little machines can't read me. I have a device in my head that blocks them from reading my thoughts. If they try to remove it, the device will explode killing everybody within range of its blast."

"My husband will think of something," chided Zoey trying to stay positive.

"Well, he'd better hurry up!" chuckled Bryanna pointing behind Zoey as a large herd of cretok came charging their way.

" **Ava!** "

## ***

Twenty cretok rushed into the building and throughout the facility looking for food. Two of them went into the cage room and found it empty. Listening carefully, they heard the telltale signs of humanoids talking. Stealthily, they walk towards the chamber room with anticipation of capturing an easy meal.

# CHAPTER 25

### Little Chat

Standing inside the first chamber, Dax and Peder were trying to figure the best way to search the chambers when a cretok stuck its head into the room. Everyone jumped with fear seeing the big-headed creature so close.

"Nia, form a shield to separate us," calmly ordered Dax. Panicking would only cause the cretok to react as it tried to come in but was too large causing it to squawk loudly. Instantly, they heard scratching on the wall beside them.

"Don't worry, we're okay, but we can abandon searching the chambers for now," announced Dax. "I just hope Zoey is okay?"

"Don't worry cousin. Ava will take good care of her. I think we should concentrate on how to get rid of this cretok," offered Peder rubbing his curly black hair in contemplation.

"How do we get him or it to leave," squealed Jin walking up close to the cretok to get a better look at it. Her voice, however, caused the cretok to back away.

"Well," said Erick. "Your irritating voice has finally come in handy!" Jin made a silly face at him in response.

"Nia, can you imitate Jin's voice?" Dax asked his companion. "Actually," he had a second thought, "Just her high pitch is all we'll need."

Nia found the right pitch and the cretok backed away in proportion to the duration of the sound. The cretok was forced to move several meters away so that everyone could come out of the chamber and enter Nia's protective bubble. Just as they did so, the second cretok came swiftly from their right side and just as quickly backed away.

"Let's go check on Zoey," ordered Tam.

## ***

The lobby had six cretok wandering about as if waiting for something to happen. When Nia's bubble floated into the lobby, they immediately rushed towards it. The cretok could sense the extra energy given off by Nia. A few of them even tried to jump on top of her bubble but slid off after each attempt. It was comical at first, but anyone watching the spectacle would have thought otherwise. This was the case when ten heavily armed Benty foot soldiers entered the lobby chasing behind the herd of cretok. They couldn't grasp the situation and started firing their weapons wildly at the cretok. Nia was careful not to hit anything as she floated passed the soldiers firing chaotically at the cretok. They slipped out the front door and were surprised to see Zoey and Bryanna inside Ava's bubble.

## ***

"Who are you really Bryanna?" Tam asked the assassin standing in front of them behind Ava's bubble.

"I'm one of you," she replied innocently.

"You're not one of us that's for sure," said Jin. "You must have gone through some type of genetic alteration. How long will you remain like this?"

"Long enough to see all of you on the dinner table at my celebration."

"Oh, what celebration is that Bryanna?" inquired Peder. "It must be painful for you to retain the shape of a human. How often do you take something to hold it all together?"

"I take one pill a day."

"How many pills do you have left?" asked Tam showing some interest. The science was almost beyond her comprehension.

"I have enough pills left which are more than enough to finish my mission and celebrate your demise."

"What makes you think you can still complete your mission?" inquired Zoey standing with the others.

"Because you are human, and humans make mistakes. You think you are safe from me. Actually, this is an ideal situation for me. This facility is unique in that experimental weapons are stored here. One of these devices will allow me to disable your companions and kill you, Zoey. I have a small device in my pocket that once activated will disable Ava and Nia. They will be useless to you. I also have a second device that will wipe their memories clean, so even if you do get them back online, they will not know you or anything else for that matter."

"Well, you have us at a disadvantage," conceded Dax. "What do you want?"

"Safe passage out of here and of course I'll take Zoey as a hostage. She'll be my insurance that you won't interfere."

"Where will you take her?" asked Dax thinking all the while.

"I'll take her to the research ship. That will give you enough time to leave the planet before my foot soldiers come after you. If they had so much as a hint you were on this planet, we wouldn't be having this little chat.

# CHAPTER 26

### Coming This Way!

"What's to stop you from using the devices anyway," voiced Peder.

"I have learned a lot from all of you these past few days. I will give you my word that I won't do anything until I'm sure we're safe. I owe you that much."

"And Zoey? What are you going to do with her?"

"I'm sorry, but your wife is not going to fair well from all of this. She must make the ultimate sacrifice. My superiors will accept nothing less.," replied Bryanna. "Come on Zoey, let's leave before the Benty come back out."

Everyone had forgotten the cretok and foot soldiers fighting in the lobby. Just then, a cretok stuck its head out the door and looked around.

Cretok -Picture by L. Sky and Wikipedia.org

It saw nothing but felt the high-energy displacement. However, the smell of the foot soldier's meat forced it back inside to feast with the others. Meanwhile, Ava released Bryanna and together Zoey walked in front of Bryanna into the dark tunnel fearing a cretok attack at any moment.

"Nia! Block the door, so the cretok can't get out," said Peder. "We must give them time to clear out of the tunnel."

"It's a long shot. I just hope she keeps her word.

"Suppose more cretok come through the tunnel?" blurted Erick. "What do we do, then?"

"We just have to hope Bryanna can get back to the ship safely. Nia can form a barrier for us as we go through the tunnel so that we don't get attacked from the rear."

"Then what do we do?" suggested Jin.

"We wait at the lifeboat," said Dax. "And hope that Zoey can somehow escape."

## ***

Bryanna and Zoey walked down the mountain in silence. It was quiet with a slight breeze stirring the loose soil beneath their feet.

"If I am going to die, you can at least tell me why?" said Zoey.

Bryanna sighed looking at the back of Zoey's head and said, "Your species is too dangerous to remain free to roam the universe. Your past is rich with history that your species has long forgotten. There was a time that I wouldn't dare approach you without fearing for my life. Now, you are meek in your ways as humanoids that are a mere shadow of your former self."

"I'm not following you. What are you talking about? What history do I have that is so powerful? I thought we were fledglings in the universe. What history do we possess that would make you cower at the sight of us?"

"You were created from an ancient race of beings called the Annunaki."

"You mean the Enac?"

"No, the Enac and the Annunaki both learned how to create civilizations millions of years ago. The difference between the two of them is that the Annunaki weren't interested in populating the universe. When the Enac came along, your species was pretty much on the way to becoming sentient. You are a direct product of the Annunaki, and you possess genetic traits that could be activated to make you my superior in every way. I envy you for that. But with you gone, this secret will die with you – for the time being at least. I don't think the Enac will tell you for fear that you might even surpass them. Your DNA has a pile of genes waiting for activation into super humans with all kinds of specialized traits making you a type II civilization (Kardashev Scale)."

"Zoey hide behind these rocks! A herd of cretok is coming this way!"

# CHAPTER 27

### Goodbye, Zoey Weaver!

"Be silent, they are sound sensitive," revealed Bryanna. The cretok came within three meters of them but kept moving to the next tunnel.

"That was a neat trick," voiced Zoey.

"Just standard spy training."

"You don't have to do this, Bryanna."

"Yes, I do. I must complete my mission," offered Bryanna motioning Zoey to continue down the mountain. Halfway down the slope, Zoey spoke again, "Bryanna, what will happen to you, if you can't complete your mission?"

"Dishonor and shame. I will be reduced to a foot soldier and sent to some distant planet

until I die or get killed.

"What about your pills? Will they give you more?"

"No, and to be honest, I don't know what will happen to me."

Zoey looked at her with compassion and said, "The last assassin I encountered didn't fair well. She became a lump of flesh with nothing resembling a humanoid."

"That may be my destiny, but at least I will have completed my mission. The Empire won't have to worry about _you_ anymore."

"You would do this even though your future is unsure?"

"It is my duty."

They rounded a corner, and the research ship loomed high above them.

"Bryanna or whoever you are, I feel sorry for you. I wish you no harm. We are both soldiers in a way. I too have my duty to serve and protect."

"What are you talking about?"

"I have been modified to counter your new weapons. Go ahead, activate your devices." Bryanna quickly brought out a slender handheld device directed towards her and pressed a button. It had a short range, and nothing happened to Zoey. Try the other one; see for yourself that your weapons are useless against me.

Bryanna pressed the second device and again, nothing happened. She smiled and said, "You almost had me, I thought you were a companion. But my knife will prove you're just flesh and blood. Goodbye, Zoey Weaver!"

# CHAPTER 28

### A Long Ride

"Sir, the parasites have taken all the lower decks of the ship and making their way to the bridge. We don't have enough soldiers to stop them."

"We will be all right. We can seal this level; nothing will get in. Try to get everyone to the bridge before we seal it.

"Yes, commander!"

The young sergeant-commander did the best he could under the circumstances. Many of the survivors were hiding or afraid to come out. The foot soldiers that were left were wearing full combat gear with assault weapons giving them plenty of protection. They marched in front of a small crowd of non-military survivors killing parasites as they made their way to the bridge. Finally, they made it to the bridge cheering with relief, but the doors were sealed. No amount of banging would open them as the parasites closed in.

Somewhere deep below in the ship, the engines started to whine up. A slight vibration permeated throughout the superstructure as the research ship prepared for takeoff. Many of the parasites finding no more food began eating the larva. Eventually, the parasites started eating each other until only two were left. Instantly, they started fabricating cocoons for a long ride.

# CHAPTER 29

### Until Her Pills Ran Out

Bryanna drew her knife and then plunged it deep into Zoey's back. Zoey turned around as Bryanna withdrew the knife for a second chance. This time she stuck it into Zoey's stomach and stepped back. Zoey's image pulled out the knife revealing she was a companion. Bryanna quickly took out her two devices and started pressing their buttons simultaneously with both hands. Ava snatched them out of her hands and crushed them in hers.

"How did you switch? I kept my eyes on you the whole time."

" _In the tunnel, remember it was dark. I switched with her then, and you never noticed the difference,_ " projected Ava. " _Zoey is safe with her husband and friends and probably on their way to the lifeboat where I will meet them._ "

"What are you going to do with me?"

" _Nothing! And for the record, I will tell Zoey about her heritage. I now remember this information._ _Thanks_ to you!"

There was a whooshing sound, and the research ship lifted into the clouds and flew away.

Bryanna watched it disappear and lowered her head in defeat.

"What are you going to do now, Bryanna?" voiced Ava.

"I guess I'll go back to the research facility and wait it out. Maybe someone will come back to check for survivors.

"I'll walk you to the facility."

"I'd rather walk alone but thank you. I'll be safe with this lifesuit. At least the parasites wouldn't get me."

"They're called Tuzool; I looked them up."

"Hmm, who would have guessed someone lived long enough to name them."

"I'll inform the others of your decision. Good luck Bryanna."

"Tell Zoey it was never personal."

"I'm sure she knew that, but I'll tell her just the same."

Bryanna slowly turned to walk away looking up into the clouds and headed for another tunnel. She pulled up her helmet and began walking. It took her almost an hour to get to the courtyard. Wading through the powder, she felt the spattering of the toxin on her back. Paying it no attention, she went into the building and up to the observatory. She looked around as her memories rushed back to her. Everything was the same as she had left it. Using the building's intercom system, she said, "Is anyone still alive?" She waited a moment not expecting a reply when suddenly murmuring voices clinging to life assured her that she had food at least for a little while until her pills ran out.

# CHAPTER 30

### Earth

"Ava should have been back by now," said Zoey.

"Give her time. She'll be here and with Zoey," replied Peder.

Twilight was coming, and a cool breeze stirred. Everyone was resting inside Nia while cretok roamed about the lifeboat in search of food. Periodically, a cretok would jump onto Nia's bubble and slide off just as quickly. They watched the research ship streak through the darkened sky like a shooting star.

"That's the end of the Benty for a while," offered Erick as Jin and Kiva shook their heads in agreement. "I never thought I'd see this day. I'm truly grateful to you Dax and Tam."

Just then a big cretok jumped on the bubble and unceremoniously fell off with a loud growl of frustration. Sunie jumped back for a moment from the suddenness of the act when seats started to sprout from the floor in preparation for space travel.

"Hello, I'm back," said Ava in her audible voice.

"Is Bryanna okay?" said Peder.

"Yes, she went back to the facility to wait it out."

No one said anything but nodded their heads in acceptance of her decision.

"Shall we go," said Marten to everyone with relief filling up the empty spaces as the double bubble lifted off a tiny planet called Rubius heading for Earth.

The End!

Also read:

Book #1: Alien Sinkhole

Book #2: No Turning Back

Book #3: Cefon-5: The Plantimals

Book #4: Planet Rubius

Book #5: Photopia

Book #6: Battle for Giliesa

Book #7: Return to Planet Rubius
Easy reading for:

Train Stations – Trains

Airports - Airplanes

Auto Road Trips

**Acknowledgements:**

Wikispaces.com

Wikimedia.org

Wikipedia.org

Razzle Dazzle Design for

the Companion and

Book Cover.

ABOUT THE

AUTHOR

My Shadow

Lawrence Sky became interested in UFOs as a young man. His desire to know more about them officially started when he read the controversial UFO crash in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947. During his career, he has witnessed UFO sightings in 2005 and 2014 in North Carolina, U.S.A. Since then, he has been committed to understanding the truth about UFOs.

Lawrence holds an undergraduate degree and two advanced degrees in the biological sciences. As a result, his writings reflect many years of research on the UFO phenomena.

Currently, Lawrence Sky is calling his work _Science-Fiction Infotainment eBooks_. He wants to educate and entertain his readers about the UFO phenomena using the rich canvas of eBooks.

BACKGROUND

INFORMATION

Hancock, Graham. _Finger Prints of the Gods._ NY. Three Rivers Press. 1995. Digital File.

*

Doran, Mark D. _Alien Invasion: and the origins of Mankind._

Smashwords Edition. 2012. Digital File.

*

Good, Timothy. _UNEARTHLY DISCLOSURE: Conflicting Interests in the Control of Extraterrestrial Intelligence._ London. Arrow Books. 2001. Digital File.

*

Dolan, Richard M. _UFOs, and the National Security State: Chronology of a Coverup, 1941-1973._ VA. Hampton Roads Publishing Co., Inc. 2002. Digital File.

*

Colonel Corso, Philip J. _The Day After Roswell_ **.** NY. Pocket Books. 1997. Digital File.

*

Bibliotecapleyades.net. _A-Z of Alien Species active in Earths Evolution._ Date Unknown. Digital File.

*

YouTube video: **UFOs and the National Security State - Richard Dolan LIVE**. 2010. Video File.

*

YouTube video: **The Secret Space Program and Breakaway Civilization - Richard Dolan Lecture**. 2014. Video File.

*

YouTube video: **Richard Dolan, UFO speech, Best speech ever,**

**Citizen Hearing on Disclosure, Rich Dolan, IMU.** 2013. Video File. Video File.

*

YouTube Video. **Extraterrestrial UFOs are real: Ben Rich Lockheed Skunk Works CEO admits on his deathbed.** Oct 12, 2010. Video File.

ADDITIONAL

INFORMATION

Companion Technology

Companions produce a bubble with zero-point energy taken from their surroundings (the Universe). They can manipulate their interior to any desired configuration. The bubble is impermeable to any outside forces. Invisibility is a result of shifting the electromagnetic spectrum outside the visible light spectrum necessary for humans to see it.

Factually speaking: It is also known as the quantum vacuum zero-point energy, which is the lowest possible energy that a physical system may have. In other words, it is a motion that exists even at absolute zero. Another term is vacuum energy.

Benty

A race of beings enhanced by the Enac. The Benty, as an advanced civilization practices cannibalism. Their insatiable hunger for humanoid flesh has driven them to overpopulation. They now hunt humanoids around the galaxy to keep pace with their ever-growing demands for more food.

Citidome

I have given my personal rendition of a Citidome. Obviously, it's like a cruise ship, but much bigger with more creature comforts. Oh yeah, its travels between stars. Ahh, but what a ride! Would you be willing to leave Earth to travel to some distant planet to restart your life? I think I'd say...yeah!

Enac

The ancient Enac were the first within the Milky Way galaxy to compile the book of life or the complete interpretation of DNA. They compared DNA of potential species with theirs and made the necessary changes to their genes to get the desired results they wanted. Their decision for which genes to change came from the planet's natural conditions, such as gravity, climate, and the overall diversity of life.

The DNA virus is artificially created by the Enac to produce a second and the third evolution of pre-humans. Keep in mind that the original DNA sparked the first natural human evolution.

Lifesuit

The lifesuit is not real. This suit is entirely imaginary, right? The closest thing to it right now is a military exoskeleton suit.

UFO Organizations

Below is a list of my favorite UFO organizations for studying the phenomenon:

Mutual UFO Network (MUFON)

An American-based non-profit organization that investigates cases of alleged UFO sightings. It is one of the oldest and largest civilian UFO-investigative organizations in the United States.

National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC)

This organization is in the United States that investigates UFO sightings and/or alien contacts.

British UFO Research Association (BUFORA)

A United Kingdom organization dedicated to investigating UFO phenomena in the British Isles.

Zeddi

Zeddi is an imaginary alien race from the planet Zeddi. Zeddi is an imaginary alien race from the planet Zeddi. They are similar in appearance to humans with the exception of a long forehead.

