England: Local Hospital.
Hector stared at Heather's face, the tubes that ran into her nose detracted from her beauty. The machines gentle hum and synchronized beat were almost putting him to sleep. He was tired, in the last few days he had hardly slept a wink.
It wasn't fair, he thought. Heather had her whole life in front of her and now it had ground to a halt with no hope of reprieve. He stood and his legs shook, he steadied himself. "More tired than I thought", he remarked to himself. He stroked Heather's paw, there around her finger was the symbol of his love. They couldn't take that away from him; he still loved her and would always. He just didn't know how life was going to go on now that he didn't have her.
He put her paw gently down onto the bed, he didn't want to but he needed something; a drink. There was a drink machine on the floor below; his thirst drove him out and away. It took him awhile to return, seems the machine was being picky about what quarters it would take. He knew he should be with Heather's family out at Ti's parent's home but he felt he shouldn't leave Heather's side right now. He understood that he couldn't stay here forever but his heart felt heavy with regret, she deserved more. As he walked in he was surprised to see two small creatures around Heather's bed, one was green and the other light blue and obviously pregnant.
Afain and Kira both stared in awe at the huge creature that just walked in, they were thankful that it was just as surprised as they were.
"Hello." Hector said, "Can I help you?"
The translation program was working very well, Afain thanked the stars as she approached the large creature that towered above her, "We mean no harm, we are just seeking out our technology."
Hector was confused at what the blue furred creature said, he couldn't place the species. "Technology…I think you have the wrong place, this is a hospital. They care for the sick here."
Hmm Afain thought it seems this creature does not know about the sick creature's dilemma. "The sick creature there", she pointed to Heather, "is in possession of our technology we are here to ascertain the situation."
Why do they keep referring to Technology…Hectors brain started to churn with ideas, "Again they speak as if Heather had some sort of….huh wait…Heather is a genetic experiment maybe she does have something strange inside her." Then another horrible thought entered into his brain. "What if these strange beings were in league with that mother creature? The creature that abandoned her!" Now he wasn't sure what to do. He stared down at the small blue creature "What are your intentions towards Heather?" He queried.
Afain was sure something had changed in its manner, a subtle way as if he was now taking a defensive position. She thought it best to state again that they meant no harm, they were the intruders here after all.
"We mean no harm to the creature, it is most unwell…we may be able to help it." There was no need to go into detail for it would just confuse the matter she thought.
Hector blinked, he couldn't believe what he had just heard, "Help her?" He said quietly.
"If we can, we already have the creator of this creature that is how we knew to look here for her."
"Mother…!" He knew it. He moved quickly past Afain, almost knocking her over. His face turned to one of anger. "You can't have her, she's under my protection!! Mother won't harm her anymore!!!!! She caused this mess, she'll never lay a paw on her."
They backed away quickly from the creature, Afain called Kira to her side, "It seems that our captor was telling the truth, she did a botched job on these creatures; now it thinks we are in league with that one and will continue in that trait."
"We could always stun it."
"Yes but if this creature knows our captive quite well it seems; its not going to trust us. We need to show it we mean no harm, this creature could direct us to the rest. Stay here and don't move, let me see if I can reason with it. If not then we'll stun it and take it with us. Once we show it the ship then it might be more co-operative."
"We mean no harm, we can help it."
"If you're in league with Mother you're not touching her!!!!" Hector shouted and put up his fists in defensive mode.
Kira gulped its fist was as big as her head, "Afain…" she said nervously. "I think we should just stun it."
"I think you're right, Cleo."
Hector watched as the robe on the blue creature moved on its own accord forming something. He did get to see much for there was a flash and the world went black.
Later:
Hector awoke in a room with some sort of pod. His head pounded as he tried to stand. He made his way over to it to find Heather residing inside. He stroked his paw against what appeared to glass, staring back was Heathers lovely face; she looked at peace. His heart sank for he saw no machines attached to this thing; therefore he assumed she was dead. A noise caused him to turn his head as another one of those creatures entered into the room, this one looked smaller, younger perhaps.
His adrenaline started to flow and his strength began to return, "Who are you? Why did you take Heather!!! He pointed toward the thing that housed his mate. "She had a chance and you ruined it." He cried.
"Your mate is not being harmed; in fact she is better in there than she would be in your crude healing facility."
He blinked, "How do I know that?" Hector said.
"You don't, but I can tell you I would not lie to you; she is safe. Think about this, if we wanted to harm you and your mate then you wouldn't be standing here talking to me."
Hector thought about it, it sort of made sense. He finally stood straight up, hoping that his superior size would be somewhat threatening. Although he really didn't have a chance if they shot him again like before. As he stood there he noticed something strange about the way she talked. Come to think about it the other aliens spoke the same way. This one didn't seem very afraid of him, even though he towered over her this one was indeed different from the others.
"You're not talking properly."
"I understand, my real voice is going through a translator. So some of my speech might not make sense in some pretexts."
"Then you are foreigners?"
The translation made her chuckle, "Yes, you can say that. We are from another world far away from this one; our technology was left on your planet long ago. It took us this long to know it was missing; now we have returned to see if any damage had been done by our mistake."
Another world…Aliens!!!! He staggered backwards and promptly stumbled to the floor. Tolare rushed to his side, "Are you all right???"
Hector stared at the young face, the young face of an Alien being. "You're Aliens!!!!!" He said wide-eyed.
"Yes we are and in our eyes you are as well. We need your help, large one."
"My name is Hector."
"Good, I am Tolare; a physician."
A doctor, he blinked "Can you help Heather?"
"Heather?" The name she had heard but it took her a moment for it to register.
He pointed to the pod, "My mate Heather."
"Ah…I haven't done a full scan on her yet. We have other priorities right now and need your help, I'm sorry but she is …frozen so to speak. She will not get any worse than she is now, the machine she is in will see to that."
That reassured him, it meant that there was some hope. "My help, how can I help an obviously advanced race such as yourselves?" Hector stood up again.
"Well, we're not perfect and as advanced as we are we still are humble enough to know when we can use help." Tolare smiled.
Hector sat down on what looked like something soft, his rump hurt. He went down harder than he thought. "So what can I do for you?" This was the most bizarre thing that had ever happened to him, who would ever believe him.
"It seems that one of the creatures that we have on board thinks that you might know where the other of her creations are."
"Other creations!!!" Hector's eyes went wide, "Mothers here!!!!"
"Yes I believe that what she calls herself!!!!"
"Tolare you cannot trust her, she's evil. She tortured these people, Heather and the others. She means nothing but harm to anyone she meets."
"She is under surveillance as we speak or I should say them."
Hector didn't understand and questioned her, she showed him the images of the ones in the room. He didn't know either of them, the furless one was hideous the yellow one looked nothing like how Heather described Mother. He explained this to Tolare and she mentioned that one called itself Swallow. That name he did know but it didn't make sense, Swallow was a shy nice person. Plus she had been missing for a long time, what was going on? He thought about things and it came down to one person who might be able to make sense of who these creatures were; Endora and he knew where to find her.
Later:
The doorbell rang and Martha Kent went to open the door. She was surprised to see Hector standing there with two smaller furs behind him. "Hector dear, it's nice to see you, I see you have brought some friends; come in, come in."
"Sorry Mrs. Kent to intrude at this time of night."
"It's not a problem Hector come in, actually everyone is here. We thought we would make a night out of it; it's been jolly good fun so far." As Hector and the others stepped in Mrs. Kent spoke again, "You should have called lad, we could have picked you up."
"My friends here gave me a lift."
"Well, that was nice of them, so how's Heather, love?"
"Well …that's why I'm here really."
"Oh no lad she hasn't gotten worse?"
"No Mrs. Kent but I just need to speak to everyone. Mrs. Kent I'd like you to meet Tolare and Afain, very good friends of mine."
"How do you do?"
"Greetings." They both said in unison.
Mrs. Kent just smiled; they were sight. She couldn't place the species, not too many creatures had blue fur.
They all sat and listened to Hector, Tolare and Afain. They all had questions and they tried to answer each and every one of them. Afain's demonstration with Cleo put a lot of doubt aside quickly. This was a page out of a Sci-fi novel, one that quickly was turning very real.
Ti was the least surprised to learn that her body contained alien technology. What Mother had done to create all of them was beyond the scope of most modern scientific possibilities; this made more sense. Somehow she discovered how to manipulate this alien tech to push the envelope, in that she made major mistakes.
"Then you can fix us Tolare?" Ti asked not getting her hopes up too much, Mother screwed up royally on them and it was going to take a miracle to undo this mess.
"Ti, I cannot guarantee that I or my associate back on our home world will be able to do anything for you and the others. I do believe that we can help with some of the damage now inflicted upon you. Your arm for instance, I am fairly certain that we could get your body to grow a new one."
Everyone was shocked, growing a new arm; that was impossible or was it?
"How long would we be gone?" Sabrina Johnston spoke up, "I mean space travel is a lengthy process for you, isn't it?"
"Yes, it still is but we have a method of getting you back here to approximately the same time frame you left. I believe Cleo would know more, Cleo?
A subtle but soft toned voice spoke, to the shock of most since it came from the alien's robe. "I have calculated that with the information I have been gathering and sending back to the ship that I believe we could return all here within 3 weeks your time. That is only approximate, it will be no longer than that, I can assure."
"Three weeks, is that all?" Sabrina Johnston exclaimed, "I thought we would be gone for months."
"In truth you would if not for star navigation. It is a form of travel we use infrequently, it allows us to map the stars then return to that place in space where those stars line up. It takes a tremendous amount of power and mapping time. It also can have adverse affects on the crew if exposed to it too many times. So it is used only when deemed necessary. One trip should not harm anyone."
This caused more discussion, one that went on and on. Mrs. Kent got many a refreshment out to help the evening along. At the end it finally came down that they would go and see if there was any hope for a cure. Now all that remained was who was going to go.
"We can accommodate everyone here comfortably." Afain said confidently. She knew the ship was almost totally empty, these few wouldn't make that much different.
They all looked at each other; it seemed that their decision had been made. They would wait until the next morning so that arrangements could be made for them to have someone check on the house and get the mail. In the mean time Hector and Endora had a request of the Aliens.
Canada Early Morning: Home Of Charley Sandrom.
Hector didn't even bother to knock, he just used his key and entered. "Dad, it's me, Hector!!" He shouted into the dwelling, he motioned for Tolare, Afain to stay in the living room.
Hector found his dad struggling to get up, "Hector what??? What's going on??" Charley Sandrom was trying to get his thoughts straight.
"We don't have a lot of time, we need to get you dressed."
"Son slow down, you know I can't move that fast."
"I know but for this I think you will be glad to get up."
"I'm off on sick leave you know that, I don't have anything to get up for." He slowly rose and found a large shirt to pull over his large head. "So what is all this about?"
"Let me just say that I have found a clinic to treat you."
Charley stopped, all the specialists said that there was nothing they could do for him, "Hector there isn't a treatment for me."
"There is now, continue to get dressed." Hector made up a quick travel case as he watched his father finish up dressing. He vanished to do his business but was back quickly.
"Hector, slow down, I'm sure we have time, where is this place?"
"You'll see; looks like we're ready." Hector pushed his dad out into the hall and towards the living room where Afain and Tolare waited.
As they entered Charley was surprised to see the two small furs in his living room. "Hector?"
"Dad this is Tolare and Afain, they are from that clinic I was tell you about."
"Oh nice to meet you." Charley said as he put out his large paw. That was the last thing he remembered doing.
A little while later Endora watched as the pitiful fur that was attacked by Swallow was carefully loaded onto the ship. She was in stasis but would be put in a suspension pod for the trip back to the Zargozian home world.
Tolare saw Endora's concern, "You are greatly concerned for this one?"
"Yes, my daughter attacked her…I don't understand why."
Tolare tried to remember to the conversations back at the home of the creatures. "Your daughter is Swallow correct?"
"Yes."
"I examined an alien called Swallow, it had a strange digestive system."
"Yes, that's her!!!" Endora said excited, "You know where she is?"
"Well, that is a question. Her body is on the ship where we are headed, her mind is another matter."
"I don't understand." This didn't make any sense to her at all.
"Within her body resides two minds, one more dominant than the other. From what Hector described to me on the ship, the one he saw there wasn't your daughter it was someone else."
Endora sat down, she thought and thought about what Tolare had just told her.
"I can show you my interview with her if you wish." Tolare said sympathetically.
"Yes, please I'd like that." Endora sat and watched the interview, her eyes wept as she saw that it wasn't her daughter behind that mask. An evil thing resided there, not her loving daughter.
Cleo tried several times to contact the main craft but got no response. It tried to access its internal sensors but got nothing, the ship was silent; which it shouldn't be. The command codes to the hangar were still operational and Cleo landed the craft with all its new passengers.
After the ship had landed, Cleo confronted Afain.
"There is a problem here."
"What Cleo?"
"The internal sensors of the ship are off line. I could not raise the ship upon our approach, which is when I discovered the problem."
"Then we have to investigate immediately."
"I will go and give you a remote so you may see what I see."
"Cleo…"
"There is a high probability of danger here, you are better off to wait inside this ship. With its shields up no one can enter. You will be safe."
Afain relented and let Cleo go.
What it found was an unconscious crew and a sabotaged ship. It seems someone had tinkered with the environmental systems changing gas mixtures just enough to knock out the crew without setting off any toxicity alarms. It took Cleo some time to get the ventilation system back online and get the atmosphere back into proper balance. Once that was done, it checked the ships crew and deemed them unconscious but alive; they would recover; although if left for too long the gas mixture would have eventually killed them all. Once that was done, Cleo tried to get the ship's systems back online.
It took Cleo some time to finally get some of the ships sensors working again; then, it only got a chosen few working. It was going to need Lyja's help to fix this damage; at this point it realized who had done this, for she did not show up on the sensors.
Cleo returned to the ship and allowed the crew to disembark, Afain knew what Cleo suspected and had discovered.
"So the other shuttle is missing?" Afain double checked.
"Yes plus many other things cannibalized from this ship."
This shocked Afain, "Are we in danger of crashing?" she said in panic.
"No, there are enough redundant systems in the ship, we are in no danger."
"Are both creatures missing?"
"No, only the one, the other is unconscious, it too was a victim. The forward sensor has tracked the ship, it is moving away from us at high speed."
"Can we catch up to it?"
"No… it will take several days I believe to get the main engines back on line."
"What about the shuttle, is it fast enough?"
Cleo was silent for a bit then it spoke, "It might but the other has quite a substantial lead, it maybe impossible for this craft to catch up to it."
"Then we can waste no time, we have to try."
Afain evacuated the shuttle and took off after the creature. Cleo enhanced the drive pushing it to its limits but as they closed in Cleo broke off the chase and the shuttle veered sharply off. Afain immediately noticed the change in course, "Cleo we were catching up."
"Yes that was true but we cannot approach the other ship now, it is too late."
"What do you mean?" Suddenly there was a bright light in the sky one so bright that Afain shielded her eyes. Cleo closed the view plates so that Afain wouldn't continue to stare into the bright light. "Cleo…it exploded?"
"No…it made a star jump."
Afain said nothing for a few moments, "A ship that small shouldn't be able to do that, right??" She wasn't an engineer but she knew that a star jump took a lot of energy.
"Normally not, it has been modified; I was able to get a partial scan of it as it slowed to attempt the jump."
As the ship's course took it back to the mother ship Afain thought, "This doesn't bode well."
End Of Chapter 19
"Where are you going??"
"Back …back to the future."
"A Barbie hoverboard???"