Commander Zblot and Captain Ree watched the raid dissolve into disaster. Uubee and his assistant watched what was happening from the secondary monitors in the crew quarters. They sat in stunned silence as first the assault team, the landing ship and the high protector all were destroyed in sequence. Their first indication that they were under attack occurred with the lasers smashing into the open viewing and remote sensing ports, burning out all outside communications. The ship's automatics fired a response but the armored doors on three of the eighteen ports refused to close. The second laser volley hit the ship. Then a third.
“Captain Ree. What hit us?"
“According to the readouts it is some sort of phased energy beam. They can't damage the hull of the ship but they wasted the sensing ports."
“Can they be fixed?"
“I am getting damage control reports now ... It will take just a little over three standard time units to finish the repairs. The sensors can be replaced in just under one time unit but the three jammed doors will take the bulk of the work."
“Good. Before light returns to the landing site we can avenge our comrades by blasting the entire region with plasma bombs."
All members of the crew were conscripted to repair the ship or load the bombs in their launch tubes. The last door was being repaired and the last bomb was being loaded when the ship was rocked with an explosion.
“How did they hit us? What did they use? We are days away from their planet with their best technology."
“They must have found out how to use their gravity control."
“What did they use?"
“There is no radiation ... It must be a kinetic weapon. We should be safe. Debon! We are being covered in lava!"
“So what. We are exposed to higher temperatures when we go near a star to travel between space."
“We are in flight then. We shed the energy build up through exhaust ports. We can't shed the energy. The ports are filled with lava."
“Can't we..."
* * * *
Tabby and I were about to run into the woods but Move-over yowled and started scratching at the metal shed that had the flying submarine in it. We looked at each other and thought why not. We climbed into the submarine with Move-over right behind us. I had spent the most time during the YS1's trials with the flight controls while Tabby had worked mostly with the engineers. I climbed into the pilot seat. We
weren't planning on being in the air for long so I pushed the power controls as high as they would work near the ground. We were airborne within 50 feet of the main doors of the shed. I somehow knew that if I climbed we would die so I steered the craft into the valley in the treetops that marked the logging roads that crisscrossed the countryside. The wings of the YS1 brushed the treetops while the body of the plane road between them.
I was just about to ask Tabby where we should go when an owl flew across the front of the plane following a crossroad that headed towards where the sounds of the firing we had heard earlier.
“Tabby, do you think we should follow?"
I heard a faint “Yes."
The owl suddenly banked away and ahead of us was another flying creature. Streaks of light erupted from the creature. What were they? Muzzle flashes? I suddenly knew it was trying to kill something in the woods. Uncle Ben? I jammed the controls to full power while aiming at the creature. The computer read the control settings and adjusted the power to the gravity spheres at the front of the plane to full power and turned off the secondary systems along the surface of the wings. The night became darker and the gravity spheres started to whistle. The creature turned in midair. I could see it trying to bring up what looked like a gun. Just before impact everything to the side of creature faded into black. There was crashing and tumbling and finally we were on the ground.
I climbed out of the plane first. The night was silent. I heard my Uncle's voice. “Dan. There are no bad guys left in the woods. We have some wounded men. Come out and help.” I followed Ben up the logging road. The leader of the FBI surveillance team was sitting up next to a tree trunk, binding a wound on his side and arm. He looked up. “What about Sam and Todd?"
Ben replied, “Sam is gone. I haven't looked for Todd yet."
I said to the man, “Can you walk?"
He shook his head yes. “Up the road a little ways is a yellow submarine. Tabitha is there. We will meet you there with Todd.” The man stared with a blank look on his face. I pointed, “Go up the road.” I helped him up. When I turned, Ben was already making his way over a mass of broken trees. Ben was bending over something by the time I caught up to him. It was a man. Half of his face was burnt away and his left arm was missing at the shoulder.
Flashes of light and a rumble through the ground followed by a roar in the air. Ben looked up. “The farm is gone."
The man was alive. Something had burned the stub of his arm keeping the bleeding under control. Ben finished checking him over. “We can move him. I will take the shoulders you lift the feet.” We picked our way around the dead fall. We had barely started when there were flashes in the sky followed by more explosions.
The FBI man was sitting in the same position but now his back was leaning against the submarine when we arrived with the wounded man. Tabby was looking over what was left of the flying sub. The front sphere looked like it was crushed from the inside and the wings were just broken stubs. “Tabby. We need to get the men out of the woods. Can we use the sub?"
“The back sphere is working and we have two wing spheres left on each side. If we put the wounded on top of the wings and power up the spheres, we should be able to push everything out of the woods backwards."
“Let's get them on."
Tabby was climbing into the submarine to turn the power on to the spheres when we heard the helicopters. Ben listened. “Marines. We should be safe heading back to the house."
I was pushing on the wing next to the man without the arm. Tabby was on the other side while Ben pushed from in back. The yellow submarine moved easily. The vents on the wing spheres started to whistle. Blood from the wounded man dripped down the wing to the vent. Red strings of bloody air vibrated into the night sky. The melancholy sound from the whistling vents brought back a memory from my childhood. My grandmother would visit and tell stories and legends from Finland. One of the stories was about a mythical man who knew everything but was never able to find a wife or have a family. This man, Vainamoinen, would play and sing beautiful sad songs for the gods and all of the creatures of the earth. In my child's mind, I had always thought of the strings on the Vainamoinen's harp being a sad red in color. The harp Vainamoinen used was called a kantele. I knew I would call the gravity spheres kantele from now on.
We were coming close to the edge of the woods. Ben yelled, “Yo. Marines. Coming in with wounded." “Who are you?"
“The wounded are FBI. The rest of us used to live at the farm."
“Come out into the open and stop."
We stepped out of the woods and into hell. There was an orange glow coming from where the buildings used to be. Red flares were marking the road and a landing site for the helicopters. Flashing lights from police cars and ambulances strobed just past the next dip in the road. Dark silhouettes ran across the orange, red, and flashing lights disappearing into the darkness of the surrounding fields.
Chapter 18
Rebuilding
I don't know what woke me. It could have been the throbbing headache or the hard ground. I woke trying to figure out where I was. Soft puffs of warm moist air touched my neck and I knew the warmth coming from my side was Tabitha. I moved, the throbbing increased, and claws sunk into my chest. Move-over had been lying on top of me. I opened my eyes and Move-over stared back. I remembered.