A Warrior's Return (30 page)

Ellanara was doing all this and perhaps a
thousand other things almost simultaneously!

Ellanara had taken over thinking and
reacting for the entire ship.

She was the ship!

Sparky watched as a scarlet drop of red
blood slipped from her nose to splash onto the keypads and the
controls of the ship’s primary control console causing her
fast-moving fingers to spread the blood across the interface as
other drops soon followed, “You can’t do this Ellanara!” Sparky
said pleadingly, as he came to her side.

“I can and I will!” She responded
stoically.

“You’re killing yourself!” Sparky
screamed.

“Even so I must! For my God, my country and
my family I will do anything! Anything Sparky!”

He stared at her, as tears rolled down from
his eyes. He saw a tear mixed with blood seep out from her eyes and
stain her cheek red. Something had to be done, but he feared it was
already too late. If she was already hemorrhaging from her brain
what could be done?

His wild eyes caught Roric’s in desperation
and Roric jumped out of his chair and within seconds was behind
Ellanara laying his big scarred hands on top of her shoulders, even
as Krista’s arms slipped around her daughter’s waist from the
side.

Parents prayed in a language known only to
God and claimed promises given to them by God over their youngest
girl’s life. The bleeding abruptly stopped and Ellanara’s abilities
increased even more so than before.

Sparky’s faith increased that much more as
well, as he watched the Divine power of the God, who had called his
people out of Egypt so long ago and given everyone the gift of His
Son.

Sparky, who was a Jew by birth, was proud to
know and serve God’s Son right along with so many gentiles that God
had mercifully brought into the fold by His great plan of
redemption, available for all those willing to believe in what His
son had done for all mankind.

“Sparky get ready to initialize the beacon
array.” Ellanara said.

“You mean I finally get to do something to
help you?” Sparky said sounding skeptical that she needed his help
at all.”

“You’ve already done a lot to help me
Sparky.” She responded slightly smiling at him, as her parents
still stood closely around her.

Just then Katie’s voice rang out in a
desperate scream that drew everyone’s attention, “Stop that missile
the shield can’t handle it!”

The shield icon was flashing red all over,
and not just in a selected target zone.

“Why is it doing that? We have plenty of
power for the shield!” Exclaimed Sparky.

“Not for this missile! It’s ballistic and it
came from the water. Titus the next missile that pops out of the
water put a beam in that location!” Ellanara said commandingly
taking the lead again.

“Sure thing Miss Ellie!” He yelled just
before letting go with a beam directly at the water ahead, where a
second missile popped free of the water.

Some of my weapon platforms were no longer
working. Their icons were flashing red indicating some kind of
malfunction. Most of them were along one side of the ship. At
Katie’s scream in my ear my eyes redirected out to the huge red dot
that was just now coming onto my screen.

I left all the other targets go unchallenged
and for the first time the bar-Seth began to shake and tremble as
it received weapon fire that slipped past Katie, as there were just
too many strikes all at once to block. What forward guns that were
left I brought to bear on the big target dot, but it wasn’t enough.
The missile was staying together.

Eleanor must’ve seen what was going on,
because she changed the flight angle and peeled off to the left,
which allowed me to bring all my remaining weapon platforms to
bear. Within seconds as the bar-Seth bucked all around me the
missile exploded and cast out a red cloud.

“Full shield Katie!” I screamed.

The shield stopped flashing red only moments
before the wave of red hit. The bar-Seth plowed sideways in the air
from the force of the nuclear blast. Indicator lights and warnings
flashed and blared throughout the ship, but we were still
alive.

“There’s another one Eva!” I heard Talaric
yell.

We couldn’t take another blast like
that!

I was down to just three guns!

Option three!

I glanced up at my top screen and saw that
option three still glowed green and was available, “Get ready to
duck out of here and run Eleanor!” I screamed.

I pushed option three’s button and sonar
buoys pinged off the sides of the ship and quickly rendered the
ship’s outer skin, as they admitted an identical single as the
bar-Seth only stronger.

The artificially rendered ship peeled off to
the right. The faked image of the ship sped off, as fast as the
limited power sources of the sonar buoys could take it. Eleanor
peeled off to the left and slammed the ship forward sticking every
one against their seats, as she dived for the water below heading
in the opposite direction from the ballistic missile that had
broken off from the bar-Seth and was tracking off after the faked
version of us.

It detonated far off from us thirty seconds
later. Another missile popped free of the water, from a different
spot other than the first two. It was right on top of us and
Eleanor cranked the bar-Seth straight toward it!

“Ellanara read my mind!” Eleanor
screamed.

A second passed by, during which, it seemed
all time came to a standstill and then Ellanara leaped into a
flurry of commands after an initial glance at a monitor.

“Sparky preload the beacon array into the
particle generator and be ready to engage it at a moment’s notice!
Titus prepare a beam focused directly ahead of the ship! Katie turn
off the shield, but be ready to turn it back on at full power!”

Talaric spoke out, “What are you up to
Eleanor?”

The missile was streaking head on with the
bar-Seth and would crash into it within seconds.

“Sort of a crazy-ivan Sir! Everyone hang on
to something!”

Eleanor cut back abruptly on the power and
seemed to go straight upward once again on a crazed elevator ride.
I watched in my screen as the vapor trail of the missile slipped
past us by the barest of margins and then it abruptly went upward,
as it tried to reestablish with its target.

We stopped and I mean stopped and then
Eleanor swiveled the bar-Seth, until we were looking upward at the
heavens and the vapor trail of the missile that had corrected its
course was headed straight down towards us. I screamed, as it
suddenly felt like I had fallen over backward off of a high-rise,
as Eleanor jam the bar-Seth into reverse and headed straight for
the water that still burned with the debris of the ships Titus had
destroyed earlier.

“Sparky start the beacon array up! Katie
flip the shield on!” Ellanara screamed out.

The shield reintegrated around the ship only
moments before we slammed into the water.

Ellanara called out, “Fire Titus!”

The blue beam shot upward and connected in a
terrific explosion with the warhead that had been dead centered on
us in our rapid fall.

The blast of the atomic bomb rocked the area
with its field of destruction, but we were already plunging deep
into the ocean, completely shielded from the blast by the
protective covering of water overhead. Air bubbles streaked past us
from escaping air pockets that the ship had drug into the water
with it.

Several minutes passed by, which felt more
like only seconds when Ellanara said, “Put the brakes on
Eleanor!”

“I am!”

We started coming to a slow and gradual
stop. “Hit it Sparky!”

I gasped, as a cylindrical column of
yellow-green light shot up out around the sides of the bar-Seth
towards the surface above. What was happening?

I glanced at my other screens to find some
explanation for it, which is when I saw the red dots appear in the
distance on my battle target screen.

“Katie are those missiles?”

“No I don’t think so! I think their
torpedoes!”

“I don’t think I can target them with the
way we’re positioned! Will the shield hold?”

“Heck no! I’m barely keeping the seawater at
bay, because they’re sucking away so much of the power to feed the
particle beam generator! Whatever that is!” Katie screamed back at
me.

“Relax girls. Soon you’ll be in my world.
Would you do the honors Sparky?” Interjected Ellanara into our
panicked moment.

“With pleasure my dear! Everyone brace
yourselves, as I’m told this is a brace worthy event. Engaging
water vortex gate now and may God help us!”

That was the last thing I heard before we
hurtled upward through the tunnel of light much faster than we had
ever moved yet.

The skin pressed back into the hollows of my
cheeks and it became hard to breathe. It seemed to last hours, but
finally it stopped as the ship righted itself and we were no longer
staring up at the stars but were traveling through them. I was
passt comprehending any of that now.

The chair had released me and I just lay
there in some of the worst agony of my life.

My head!

Oh God my head!

It was going to explode!

I was going to die! There was no way I could
feel this bad and still survive.

“Oh honey!”

It hurt to open my eyes because of the
light, so I only cracked them open slightly. It was Talaric.
Suddenly everything didn’t feel so bad, as he picked me up in his
arms and started walking up the aisle with me.

My head rested against his chest and from
there I peered out at what lay around me. I saw Katie laying on the
floor with Eleanor and one of Roric’s men kneeling beside her.

“Is she all right?” I managed to get out,
but my head punished me painfully for the effort.”

“Hyperventilating, dehydrated, and
completely exhausted, but she’s okay.” Talaric said.

As if from response to my question I saw
Katie arch an eyebrow to see me a little better. Weakly she lifted
a hand slightly with a thumbs-up before her arm fell back to the
floor.

Further on I saw Ellanara laying with her
head in her mother’s lap, who was repeatedly brushing her fingers
through Ellanara’s hair in a calming way as she massaged her scalp.
Maybe she had a headache too.

Krista’s actions looked comforting and I
hoped that Talaric had something similar in store for me. Krista
was saying something to her daughter and then I realized that she
was singing softly. Tears washed down my cheeks. I wished my mother
was here to take away my pain!

Further along I saw Rafael and Roric. Rafael
climbed out of Roric’s lap and came running to me.

“You were amazing mom!” He said his eyes
reflecting the absolute true belief of his words.

I wanted to say something, but the pain I’d
feel in doing so made me hesitate and I heard Talaric say, “Your
mommy needs rest right now Rafael. She’s all right, but she needs
some quiet time. When she’s feeling better you can tell her all
about how truly amazing she is. Okay?”

Somewhat crestfallen, but still hopeful
sounding Rafael said, “Okay.”

We passed by doors and into a hallway and I
thought I saw Levyon up ahead of us.

Briefly I heard Levyon say, “The master’s
chamber is through there. Anything else I can get you?”

“No not right now.”

I heard a door open and then slide shut and
then there was the feeling of being laid down on something soft.
Weakly I reached to grab for Talaric not wanting him to leave
me.

“I’m not going anywhere honey! I’m just
laying you down on the bed.” He said reassuringly and I let go.

The bed was so comfortable. I felt it dip
slightly as Talaric got up onto it somewhere above where my head
lay. I felt him kneel to either side of my head and then his warm
fingers began to gently rub my temples and the rest of my head. I
moaned in pain.

What he was doing felt so good in one way
and yet I still felt pain no matter how gentle his touch was.
Gradually the pain eased away and so did I into a dreamless deep
sleep.

Talaric was having to fight harder and
harder to keep his eyes open, as he kneeled behind Eva’s head still
massaging it even as she slept.

Ellanara had said that they would be in
route to his homeworld for slightly over two days. It had taken the
smaller craft he’d come to Earth on much longer, but then he’d
discovered that the shortened time was because his little sister
had improved some things.

He shook his head at the surprises of life,
of which his little sister’s abilities were certainly one. He
needed to get sleep. Quietly he eased off the bed. He reached out
and felt Eva’s arms gently. She was getting cold.

The bed consisted of nothing but a large
elaborately patterned burgundy cushion. There were no blankets or
even pillows to be seen anywhere in the room. There was a series of
panels on one wall that looked to be drawers.

He got off the bed and walked over toward
them. As he approached one panel slid out toward him with a soft
express of air. Cautiously he peered into it, but saw nothing but
blankets. Did everything read one’s mind on this ship?

He pulled several colorful blankets out and
putting them under one arm he started back for the bed. He came to
a dead standstill and slowly turned his head to look at a mirror
that hung from the wall off to his left.

The mirror itself was flashing a soft white
light and like a moth drawn to a flame he turned and walked up to
it. A beam of green light shot out from the mirror and wrapped
around him in a whirlwind of color from head to toe and then
abruptly disappeared back into the mirror that suddenly went
dark.

This place had far too many secrets and
techno-gadgets Talaric thought to himself, as he turned from the
mirror and headed towards the bed.