The Lost Tribes, page 31
A single word, “confirmed,” flashed across the screen.
Yes!
He raised his hand again and coughed the location. Again the compass flashed, “confirmed.”
More scientists stepped ahead of the children and into the beam, quickly dissolving in the milky light. Ben knew there would be no more stalling.
“Children, it is time,” Uncle Henry said. “I wish you a safe journey.”
Ten seconds on the clock.
Desperate and out of time Ben squinted in the light. Two options appeared: “manual input” and “autodial.”
All systems go!
April looped her arm into Ben’s. She took Carlos’s hand with the other. Connected and linked, the friends walked slowly toward the light that would whisk them away.
Take the shot!
Just short of the beam, Ben closed his eyes, said a prayer, pushed the second option on the device …
… and felt himself sucked into a vortex.
CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
Detour
When you follow in the path of your father, you learn to walk like him.
Ashanti Proverb
Whoosh!
Ben landed squarely, but was disoriented. He sank to the ground, caught his breath, then spotted the familiar skeleton and Rongorongo tablet in the corner, confirmation he’d reached the right destination.
“What the heck?” asked Serise. “Is this what your planet calls a Galaxy-class space ship! They had better rooms on the Titanic. Fifty years after it sank!”
“We aren’t on the ship,” Ben said, forcing his eyes to adjust to the low light. “I dialed us to Islas Ballestas.”
“What about tropical paradise did you not get? Hawaii? Costa Rica? Tahiti?” asked Serise.
“I had to think fast. Sorry.” He found the silver rod still lying near the foot of the skeleton, said a silent prayer of thanks and shoved it in his pocket before his friends noticed.
“You couldn’t have dialed us to a place with a bathroom?” Grace said.
“This island IS a bathroom,” Carlos said, staring out the mouth of the cave.
“I wish you had clued us in.” said Serise. “Grace and I memorized some cool codes with hotels and room service. I mean, I’ve got a credit card and we could have …” She froze. “Uh oh! I think we’ve been found.”
The center of the medallion glowed red. Three metal rods materialized out of thin air, floated towards the perimeter of the cave, imbedded into the ground and began to glow.
“It appears you are your father’s son, Ajamu.”
Ben’s jaw tightened as he braced for the beam that would send them to the ship. He wondered why she called him ‘Ajamu’.
“Interesting choice of locations,” Aurelia continued. “You are safe here. Wait one day. By then, it will be impossible for the Sonara to return or retrieve you using teleportation beams. I trust you know your way back to us? One, three, five, four, two, one,” she continued. “No detours to the Libyan desert, please. The landing bay gate has been deactivated.”
The corresponding stones of the medallion glowed on and off confirming her instructions. The silver rods gave off heat and light. A box of fruit, biscuits and drinking flasks appeared above the medallion and floated gently to the ground.
“Aris. Akoosh, vera inna sha ka don fur.”
If Aris understood that last comment, he wasn’t giving any clues. He purred and pulled a biscuit from the box. Ben assumed Aurelia’s message meant, “Aris, eat the food, not the kids.”
“By the way, young warrior. Mitochondria flows at the cellular level from mother to child. You are member of your mother’s clan, not your father’s.”
Ben relaxed the tension in his shoulders and opened a flask of water. Aurelia had heard his pleas all along.
“I look forward to your safe return.” The beam winked out, but the rods remained.
Grace hugged herself tightly and stared at the skeleton in the darkened corner. “I can honestly say that nothing is scarier than how I feel right now.”
“Nothing?” Ben chuckled darkly.
“What’s so funny?” Grace paused.
“Think about the word. You’ll get it in a minute.”
Grace paused. Her eyes brightened in a moment of clarity and then her mouth formed the shape of an “O”. “What is greater than God? Nothing. More evil than the Devil? Nothing. The rich need nothing, the poor have nothing, and if you eat nothing you will die?”
Exhausted, Ben nodded and settled in for a long wait. Suddenly he wasn’t so sure this was a good idea. He had broken his promise to get his sister to safety in order to find a random stick of metal on a poop filled island. Now there was no way to get off the planet. His father said one day he’d have to make a choice and to be prepared for the consequences. Had he sealed the fate for his sister … and his friends? He prayed the rod in his pocket was more than just a power source for the simulation. If it was, maybe it would give them some leverage when they returned to the Harbor.
April curled against Grace’s lap and went to sleep. Her eyes were moist but no tears escaped. Grace seemed to welcome the distraction. Serise joined Carlos at the mouth of the cave and stared out at the landscape. They held hands while Serise’s head rested on his shoulder.
“Wonder what to do for a bathroom?” Ben said to the cat. “Go to the back and pee on the rocks? In Rome it angered the gods of the underworld.”
Aris yawned, transformed to full size, then nudged Ben toward the medallion. Before Ben could respond, Aris pounced on the nodes and dialed him to the British Museum.
CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
Out of Hiding
“It is the first step that is difficult.”
Nigerian Proverb
Aurelia’s code returned them to a deserted section of the Xenobian complex. Ben stopped, abruptly.
“Hear something?” asked April.
“A humming sound. It stopped though.” Ben pressed his ear to the metal doors which parted suddenly causing him to stumble inside.
Everyone froze but the sound was swallowed by the cavernous chamber ringed by a balcony. The size and shape reminded Ben of a small arena.
Uncle Henry stood, bare-chested and barefoot, in the middle of the darkened floor, illuminated only by a single light above him. He wore gold cuffs on his wrists and upper arms — the same type of cuffs Ben’s parents wore during the attack in Sunnyslope.
A collective gasp rose among his friends as Ben’s uncle dropped into the splits, rolled, then rose to begin deep lunges from side to side. His massive muscles rippled as he stretched and flexed his arms in impossibly wide arcs, dropping lower with each repetition. He rose, craned his head neck, then shook out his hands and feet. Afterwards he knelt, crossed his arms briefly in prayer, then walked toward a stone wall covered in hieroglyphic symbols.
The wall dissolved revealing hundreds of weapons. Ben’s uncle selected two sabers as long as his arms. He slipped their leather bands around his wrist and returned to the center of the room. After several slow inhales, he raised the swords parallel to the floor and performed a kata against an invisible opponent. The swords swung in wide controlled arcs as he moved across the floor. His expression was passive. He certainly wasn’t out searching for his brother or any of the other parents. Could his heart be any colder?
Ben fumed and checked his emotions quickly, remembering his uncle’s ability to read his thoughts. He wondered how close he had to be before a telepathic link was established.
“Who’s going to tell him we’re still here?” whispered Grace.
All eyes looked at Ben.
“Why me?” Ben whispered as he studied the lethal weapons in his uncle’s hands.
“You’re family. You’re used to him yelling at you,” Serise said. “Don’t worry though. We’ve got your back.” She winked and gave him a thumbs up.
“Yeah, right. Why not April? She’s family too and he likes her better!”
April pointed toward the sword. “I’m little and he’s got weapons. Big ones!”
Carlos wrapped his arms around April’s shoulders. “I’ll stay here and keep an eye on your little sister for you. Remember? Got your back, bro!”
April nodded her approval.
Ben shot his friends a dirty look. “Fine. I’ll take Aris for protection.”
He pointed toward the cat who was admiring his sleek but faint reflection in a nearby surface. Aris shrank to normal size, walked over to April and licked his paws.
“Chicken,” growled Ben. He shrank further into the shadows and waited for an opening.
Uncle Henry’s exercise increased in speed and tempo. At times he was a blur as he spun across the floor, the swords whipping violently about him. Crouching and stretching without interrupting the momentum of the swords. He executed flawless back flips, forward flips and three hundred sixty degree spins. The swords rotated like the blades of a propeller. Uncle Henry moved with the agility of a much smaller person but with the strength of ten men.
Something else struck Ben. Other than the swishing sound of the swords as they sliced through the air his uncle’s exercise was utterly silent, no heavy breathing, no sound of feet hitting the floor. He looked to his friends for confirmation. Everyone had the same reaction — Wow! A real opponent would have been sliced into confetti.
The blades rotated with increased fury. His uncle twisted left, then right before spinning again in complete circles, increasing the speed with each rotation.
Ben’s feet felt weighted to the floor. His palms sweat. His heart and lungs beat a symphony inside his chest cavity. How could he have thought he and his friends could help the teams when they had skills like that? What did he have to offer besides a broken promise?
Carlos was right. He would never gain his uncle’s approval. Not now. Not ever.
Suddenly his uncle disappeared.
“Where’d he go?” Carlos pantomimed.
Ben gawked and searched the room. He heard the blades whipping through the air but could no longer pinpoint the direction.
The exercise ended abruptly as the sound of an impact echoed in the chamber like a cannon blast. Ben’s uncle reappeared in the same spot where he was last seen, the tips of the swords now embedded violently in the stone floor on each side of him. He released his grip. The swords remained stiff and upright in the stone. Uncle Henry bowed to his unseen opponent, walked across the room and retrieved his shirt and robe.
Whoa! There was a simultaneous expulsion of air from each of Ben’s friends. He felt a gentle nudge on his back. Serise and Carlos shoved him forward.
“Time to go!” mouthed Grace. She gestured with both hands then pointed. “Tell him!”
“Wait an minute!” Ben was trying to work up his nerve. What he had just witnessed was impossible. No human could move that fast.
No human?
Ben paused as the thought repeated. His uncle wasn’t human. None of them were. They were species from another galaxy and his uncle was a super strong one at that. Ben stared at the weapons imbedded in the floor and pointed to his watch, “Maybe we should wait.”
Grace pointed to her watch and gestured, “No! Now!”
His uncle dressed quickly then pulled something from his pocket.
“Consat!” Uncle Henry spoke brusquely as he reviewed holographic read-outs from a disk in his hand. “Askar makamu Sonara!”
Except for the name of the ship Ben didn’t understand the reference but a control panel near the door lit up.
“Consat! Askar makamu Sonara!” Uncle Henry barked angrily.
The sound of pandemonium crackled from the panel. His uncle stopped in his tracks.
‘Kavera! Aurelia! Seekor comisat?”
There was no answer. Ben clearly heard shouting, alarms blaring, grunting and … fighting.
“Consat! Askar!”
The panel streamed with hieroglyphics and foreign scripts Ben couldn’t translate.
“Jemadari!” A voice gasped on the intercom. “Akoosh Consat. Ebu!”
Uncle Henry looked stricken. He froze momentarily, then tore out of the chamber.
Ben stared at the others in a panic then chased after his uncle. His strides were inhumanly long — and fast.
Despite the language barrier Ben knew where his uncle was going. With Aris at his side, he picked up speed and headed toward the control room.
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
Chaos
Goodness speaks in a whisper. Evil shouts.
. Tibetan Proverb
The control room was in disarray. Equipment had been destroyed. Green liquid was splattered throughout the chamber; on the floors, on the walls, on team members.
He’d expected to find chaos. But, just as it had been the night his parents were attacked, there was a sense of urgency, but no panic. Technicians worked to repair consoles and undo the damage. Uncle Henry consulted with Aurelia and the tribal leaders. The Casmirian leader, sword gripped tightly in his hand glowered at Uncle Henry before dispatching some of his warriors, weapons drawn, into the general complex.
Xenobian guards followed Kavera out of the storage hall. They rushed to the central transport beam. Each carried glowing Van de Graaff-like orbs, ten in all. The guards stood at the edge of the platform and launched the orbs into the beam.
“What are they doing?” whispered April when she caught up to him. “Sending something up to the ship? I thought it was gone?”
Ben shrugged and pressed his fingers to his lips. “Shhh.”
The overhead displays came back on line. One showed a beam of light arcing out of the planet. Solar flares lapped at the beam near the point of impact, then receded. The orbs were instantly incinerated.
Danine knelt beside a Casmirian warrior. She touched her hand to his wrist as if taking a pulse and felt his forehead. The warrior nodded, clasped her hand for leverage and returned to his feet. He flexed his muscular arms then bowed before joining the cleanup effort. From what Ben could see, there were no casualties.
The Xenobian panther crept up the staircase. As it neared their location, Aris pressed closer to the wall to conceal himself. Ben scooted backwards, pulling April with him.
Aurelia scanned the balcony with narrowed eyes. “Bastet! Akoosh!”
The cat sniffed at the air, growled, then turned and descended. Ben let out a sigh of relief.
Kavera grasped Uncle Henry’s hand and held it for a minute, then retrieved a palm-sized device from an open crate. He returned to the transport platform with Volari. Spikes pulsed on the virtual display as the device sprayed a triangular beam of light in front of them. The beam alternated red, then gold as it illuminated everything in its path.
Joined by four other leaders, Uncle Henry rushed to an undamaged console in the center of the room. The Casmirian leader barked commands at the control panel. Lights winked on around the globe. Ben looked at Carlos for confirmation — the Casmir Array. Additional lights activated on planets across the solar system.
A new hologram appeared above the men as they stood back-to-back on the platform. It expanded in scope until it engulfed them. The Sonara.
Massive.
Gleaming.
A triangular shaped ship with wide thick fins on the top, bottom and sides. A sphere in the center glowed like an iridescent pearl. The transport was flanked by several smaller ships.
An entire city traveling at near the speed of light in space! It must be awesome inside.
“Sonara! Askar!” shouted Uncle Henry.
Planets whizzed by as the Casmir array beamed three-dimensional images of the ship to the Harbor. If Ben were interpreting nearby schematics correctly, the Sonara had already cleared its first jump gate and was approaching the second, putting millions of miles between it and the Earth.
“Sonara! Askar!” Uncle Henry repeated.
Static — then a faint answer, weak but proud and defiant. “Askar, Jemadari.”
“Sonara! Seekor comisat?”
Static.
“Sonara! Akoosh Consat!” Uncle Henry’s booming voice reverberated throughout the control room. “Akoosh Consat!”
The Sonara’s captain responded with a single word, understandable in any language.
“No.”
A flash of light appeared.
A ball of fire.
Wreckage … burning … floating in space.
Another explosion. Blinding light.
Emptiness … blackness … stars turning on again … twinkling.
Ben clamped his hand over his mouth to mute his gasp.
“Was that the ship?” asked April, her panic-stricken voice barely a whisper.
Ben nodded.
“That could have been us?”
Ben nodded again and blinked back tears.
April shivered and huddled closer to him.
With the exception of Kavera and Volari, everyone in the Control Center stood silent and transfixed as the scene played out over and over in three dimension. The ship was gone. Uncle Henry rotated the images after each playback zooming in on every inch of the ship and its escorts before they were destroyed. He remained expressionless even as he stood engulfed by the holographic catastrophe.
A loud beep rang out.
A splash.
Kavera crouched alone at the edge of the pool and waited. Seconds later Volari emerged, silver liquid dripping from his scaly, turquoise skin. He held up his webbed thumb and forefinger pinched tightly together and dropped something in Kavera’s hand before diving under the liquid again.
Seeing the disturbance, Uncle Henry left his console and joined them. Kavera examined a tiny object in the light of the transport beam before handing it to him. Ben’s stomach lurched.
A black stone.
From the Peruvian cat collar.
Ben’s uncle twirled it between his fingers and studied it for several seconds, then erupted in a violent rage. He pitched the jewel into the beam. Something materialized before being sucked into the vortex. It was less than a second but Ben could swear he saw something towering, gray —
