Chapter Twenty One
Raw
I sat panting heavy in my seat in front of the control panel with its symphony of flashing lights and images not really seeing any of it, I was too lost in the scene of what had happened on the surface only minutes before.
My hands were shaking and I was overcome by the desire to kill the enemy unmercifully, while at the same time I wanted to hide in a darkened room and fall apart emotionally, where no one could see it happen and think the less of me.
Torren, who was sitting beside of me monitoring the autopilot journey of the vessel towards the beacon array, reached a hand out and laid it over top of mine and gripped it tightly.
Moments later Corrigan’s hand closed tightly over my other hand. I forgot the emotional mess of my mind for a moment. It was good to be in the presence of men, who were like brothers to me again.
I wasn’t going to let them down and the conscious decision not to, steadied my nerves and I quit shaking and they seemed to know that they could let go now and they did.
Looking at the screen in front of Corrigan I could see the proof of the fact that we were not alone out here in the deep ocean blue.
There were other contacts all around us, with more coming on to the screen all the time, but for whatever reason they seemed to be unaware of our presence and our passage right through their midst.
The material of the vessel or some technology of our ancestors had to be keeping us from their view. I wondered what would happen though when we engaged the energy beam. We would surely be visible then as we waited for the upsurge of seawater needed for the journey to be complete.
Would the enemy ships swarm down on us like an enraged hives of bees and take from us our ability to escape from this world?
I hoped not for we were so close to victory. I said as much to Corrigan.
Corrigan smiled mischievously and glanced across me at Torren, “Should we tell him?”
“Nah let him find out!” Said Torren jokingly.
“Tell me what?” I asked.
Corrigan began, “Abby only told us the basic how to instructions to operate the ship, fearing that if she told us too much we would not be able to cope with the complexities and make a mistake. Me and Torren have had a good bit of time though to figure out things.”
“Get to the point Corrigan!” Larc said heatedly from behind me.
He had overheard the conversation and his fears were much the same as mine had been. Corrigan quickly spilled out the knowledge that he and Torren had been withholding.
Pointing to the display above him he said, “The vessel has weapons and this display controls them. In particular there is a weapon array that shoots out concentrated beams of light that cut through anything in their path destroying it in the process. It’s referred to as the crystal zalinger array and it’s the only one of the ship’s weapons I recommend that we use.”
“Why?” I asked.
Corrigan looked uncomfortable, “Let’s just say it appears to be the most stable and safest of the available weapon platforms to use. The other systems are more complex and have a bigger impact so to speak. This ray of focalized light system, all you have to do is push a button, the system is completely automated after that, you just have to make sure you turn it off before....”
Corrigan trailed off seemingly not wanting to finish the sentence.
“Before?” Intoned Larc questioningly.
Torren completed the sentence, “Before too much energy is diverted from the ship’s power supply, which if it happens could weaken the energy beam output, which could weaken the water vortex field causing the ship to drop out into space somewhere along the way.”
“Or cause us to crash into the surface of our planet, which could be disastrous given some of the properties that this ship is made of and contains.” Corrigan finished.
Things just got better and better on this mission. I looked from one to the other, “I vote that we don’t use the little flashing lights!”
Corrigan ignored me and said to Larc, “Eight seconds, eight seconds is how long we can have the weapon on without taking too much energy from the beam generator.”
Larc studied him for a long moment, “We will use it if we have to.”
Corrigan turned back to me and I didn’t want to hear what he was going to say, “Zevin you’re going to have to tell me when to turn it on, as you will be the best one to know when it will be the most effective going off of the screens in front of you.”
I looked away from him back at my screen. I felt a drop of sweat run down the bridge of my nose. At the stress level that I was working under lately I’d be lucky if my heart kept working past the age of 18. I half laughed and when I did both Torren and Corrigan looked at me askance.
That had been a positive thought, believe it or not. I had lived two years longer in that scenario anyway.
There were no contacts on Corrigan’s screen a few days later as the vessel began to elevate into its vertical takeoff position, after the ship’s cultured female voice told all the passengers to buckle up.
I heard Evette mutter under her breath, “Oh God!”
Amen I thought, Amen.
I glanced off and over to my right and saw that Ileyano was strapped in. Ileyano had come out of the deep sleep he had been in, but everything hadn’t come back with him. He could function, but that was about it and sometimes he needed help to do just that.
Larc had given him the Bible to hold and he clutched it to himself, as if he drew some comfort from its presence.
It was the strongest emotion he’d yet shown since coming back from the deep sleep. It was something that was at least somewhat positive. I turned back to my screen.
The vessel clicked into place atop the beacon array and I initialized the particle energy beam. The vessel shook as the bolt of energy shot up from the vessel and through the sea above it.
The water began to boil, as it was sucked up the water vortex channel. I glanced at Corrigan’s screen, still no contacts other than our own symbol glowing brightly.
Good!
Maybe we wouldn’t have to use Corrigan’s power eating little flashing lights after all. The minutes ticked by and my water meter ran full and after I gave it a few extra seconds I engaged the launch and the vessel moved off the beacon array on the sea floor and into the vortex channel.
As we crested the seawater level and moved into the air warning indicators flashed all over Corrigan’s screen as it fairly lit up with fast moving icons. They were moving too fast for ships, they had to be more of the peoples of the Earth air vessels like the big bug eyed ones we had seen at the wharf.
More alarms went off as smaller icons were approaching us faster than the bigger ones were. That had to be weapon fire.
“Zevin when do I push the button?” Corrigan yelled frantically.
“We’re out of the water and the beam is already formed! Push the dumb button anytime!” I yelled back at him.
Corrigan slammed the button on his upper console down, as the fast moving icons were coming up fast upon us. From one of the views that I could see of the exterior of the ship in the sky around us I saw the drama take place.
Something like faceted red crystals broke out of compartments all along the vessel and stuck out about 6 inches. Focused beams of red tinted light shot out of each of the faceted sides of the crystals. The base then swiveled in a circular motion and the crystals themselves spun in their sockets.
Split segments of focalized light shot outward in every direction from the vessel, as it made its way up the vortex channel.
I couldn’t see it, but at approximately 500 feet off of the sides of the vessel the light rays converged to make a solid wall nothing bigger than a nail could have passed through.
What missiles that didn’t make it through the gauntlet of outward radiating light segment streams were disintegrated on impact with the wall of focused light.
The gaps between the light segments increased as they went further out, but they maintained a sufficient enough cross indexing pattern to take out most of the fighter jets that had been deployed by over five different Earth factions.
The few scattered remaining planes were hopelessly left behind by the space vessel’s rapid ascent to the upper atmosphere and then space itself.
I got out of the seat I was in and smacked Corrigan’s shoulder.
He said, “That was....!” Leaving the rest unfinished.
“Yeah, close!” I said.
The vessel was on autopilot mode and after a few blessedly boring days, with nothing exciting happening we would be home. I was planning on laying down and sleeping away at least a day of the journey to start out with.
Larc held up a hand to stop me as I was walking by, I simply held my hand up, as if to say back off, no more missions or duties right now, and Larc stepped aside.
“Sweet dreams Zevin.”
I merely grunted in response as I moved past.
Larc smiled as he watched Zevin go down the hall. It was hard to believe he was only sixteen. This mission wouldn’t have been a success without him, of that Larc was sure.
Zevin didn’t know it now, but Larc bet this mission had only been the start of something great that the Creator was going to use that young man to accomplish.
Larc turned back to the room and saw that Evette was still sitting in her chair strapped in. He made his way over to her and sat in the chair next to hers.
She had the look of someone trying hard to take it all in, but failing to do so because of the magnitude of everything there was to consider.
She looked at him and smiled wanly and said, “Space!”
“Didn’t ever think that you would be in it?”
“Can’t say that I did!”
“Scared?”
“No, not really.”
“How about of living on my homeworld?”
Her head nodded slightly, “A little.”
“Well I have to tell you, you might be asked to do something that you might not like at all.” Larc’s face was completely serious.
Her eyes scanning his face and with her voice full of apprehension Evette asked, “What?”
“They might ask you to.....” Larc paused looking as if it pained him to tell her what he was about to, “They might ask you to wear a dress.”
Nothing happened for a second and then Larc was rearing backwards laughing, as Evette tried to swat him.
Giving up she had to laugh at herself for the way she had been had.
“I think I can manage that.”
“And I’ll help you manage all the rest.” Larc said completely serious this time.
She gazed into his eyes for a moment and then looked down, “About my father and...”
Larc cut her off by placing a hand over onto her arm and said, “That’s strictly your business and up to you to tell or not tell anyone. Me and Zevin won’t breathe a word about it. You have my word on it.”
She smiled softly at him, “I know. Thank you Larc for everything!”
“It’s been my pleasure.”
A few moments went past and then Evette asked, “Can I have my own horse?”
“Why yes you may, but only if you wear pants when you ride it!”
Evette burst out laughing and Larc stole a moment and looked at her, while she was unguarded and laughing. He thought that it would be fair of him to say that he felt a physical, spiritual, emotional whatever you wanted to call it ache inside himself to see her laugh, to smile, and just love life in general and be there every moment of the way with her.
“Larc you’re staring at me strangely.” She said half smiling.
He refocused his eyes and smiled, “Sorry I got blinded there for a moment by the sun and I couldn’t think of a better thing to do than keep looking into your eyes.”
She smiled deeply, her eyes sparkling, and held out her hand and he took it as they sat there watching space go by.