The Bonding (33 page)

“Sir, we just had an encounter with him
and, ah, well…”

“Don’t fucking tell me he got away.”

“Sir, he caught us by surprise and…”

“You incompetent morons!” the General
screamed. “Find him, now! And when you do, use whatever force you need to stop
him.”

At that moment they rounded a corner and
saw the Annunaki spaceship floating in the corridor. “Shit! Take cover,” the
leader shouted. Immediately everyone moved back against the walls.

“Ah, General, I think we found him, sir,
but it’s not good.”

“Where is he?” the General fumed.

“Sir, there’s a spaceship hovering in the
corridor, and we think the alien may be piloting it.”

The General slammed his fist down onto
the table and keyed the radio again. “Panther leader from base.”

“Panther leader, go ahead base.”

“This is General Redding. I want you to
throw everything you have at that spaceship. I want it brought down,
now
.”

“Sir, we’ve
been
throwing
everything we have, and nothing is penetrating the force field. We’re not sure
how to get through it.”

“Do whatever you have to, but I want that
fucking ship destroyed. Do you hear me?”

“Yes, sir! We’ll hit it with everything,
sir.”

Janet heard the entire conversation and
finally had enough. “You know, General, I really don’t wish to hurt anyone, but
I think you need to learn a lesson in humility. I want you to watch, General. I
want you to watch all of the fighters that are trying to harm me. And they
are
trying to harm me, General. They are actually trying to kill me, because you
told them to. Can you see them, General?”

The auxiliary power generators had
finally come on line and the cameras were operational again.

“Yes, I can see you
and
the
fighters,” Redding replied. He still had a smug and arrogant tone.

Janet touched her console and kularon
beams blazed from every side of her ship, sixteen beams in all, sixteen beams
of death that instantaneously hit every aircraft. The fighters didn’t stand a
chance, and the pilots never knew what hit them. They all died - instantly.

Everyone who could see
a monitor and everyone who was standing on the ground looking up watched in
horror as the aircraft were destroyed.
The only remains were tiny fragments that fell to the earth
like confetti. The entire squadron was wiped out in less than three seconds.

“Oh my God,” the General humbly
whimpered.

Total silence fell upon everyone, who
only seconds before were cheering each time a missile exploded against Janet’s
shield. All faces were expressed in humility, including the General’s. No one
was prepared to witness such unbelievable firepower. All of them realized just
how infantile and futile they were compared to the technology that was hovering
above them.

Janet keyed the small radio one final
time. “All I wanted to do was bid farewell to my parents, General. That’s all.
I wouldn’t have been on the Earth for more than thirty minutes, but you had to
interfere. You had to get greedy and try to force us to do things that we told
you we could not do. Now you are paying for your greed.”

Janet touched her console again and one
final beam shot from the bottom of her ship into the hangar floor, destroying
the huge elevator that was between Tarku and the surface. The whole complex
shuttered from the blast. On the lower level, windows blew out as the cloud of
dust raced through the corridors. The soldiers, who were watching Tarku, saw
the wall of dust coming and dropped to the floor. It blasted around the
Annunaki ship, but didn’t even budge it. When the dust settled, a huge, gaping
crater was all that remained of the hangar. The General felt the blast and knew
that he was beaten.

Tarku looked up at the monitor and saw
the outside light shining in. He began moving the Annunaki ship towards the
opening. The men who were lying on the floor got up to watch him leave as his
ship floated silently down the corridor. But suddenly, the ship stopped and
turned around. The men scattered for cover. Tarku decided that he still had one
more item to settle with the General before he left.

“Janet, I will be another moment. There
is one task that I must complete before we leave.”

“I’ll be here,” she replied.

He guided the small spaceship down the
corridor and stopped it outside the room containing the Quar engine. He touched
the command console and a red beam shot from the front of the ship and blasted
open the wall, exposing the engine. He moved his head slowly from side to side
and briefly closed his eyes as though in a silent prayer. He was sad that he
was about to destroy such a wonderful creation, but also glad that he was
taking it away from the General. He touched the console and the red beam
literally pulverized the beautiful engine. He turned the ship and again floated
down the corridor, returning to the area where he found the Annunaki vessel.
Here, there were several other spaceships. Tarku touched the console one more
time and the red beams shot out, destroying every one of them. When the dust
again settled, Tarku nodded his approval.

“I am coming out,” he said to Janet.

She moved her ship away from the hangar.
“I’m here, Tarku.”

She saw his ship move into the opening
and rise to the same level as hers. He looked up at his monitor.

“Are you ready my love.”

“Not quite.” She touched her console
again and kularon beams simultaneously blasted every building. They hit with
such force that the underground caverns came crashing down, destroying all of
the facilities. The General looked up in horror as the blast shattered his
window, cutting him to shreds.

Tarku watched in silence and nodded his
approval. Janet did what he had wanted to do. She inspected the total
devastation below, and a tear rolled down her cheek. She never wanted to hurt
anyone, but these weren’t her people anymore. She was only an Earthling by
birth. In her heart, she was now a Zintandian. “There is one more thing that I
must do,” she said. “Please, follow me.”

Both ships rose into the sky and
disappeared. Within five minutes the ships hovered over the street in front of
Janet’s parent’s house. Janet lowered the elevator and Tarku lowered the
landing legs. They stepped out onto the street and their eyes met as they
smiled. They ran to each other, embraced, and kissed a kiss of enduring love.

“I have missed you until my heart ached,”
Tarku said.

“We will not be apart again, my love,”
Janet replied.

Then they noticed that the neighbors were
coming out of their houses and lining the sidewalks. Janet’s parents stood in
the front yard watching them kiss and hug. Gayla was also there and ran over to
Janet, wrapping her arms around her.

“Thank you so much, Gayla. You saved our
lives.”

“You would have done the same for me.”
Gayla had happy tears rolling down her cheeks.

“Tarku, this is my best friend, Gayla.”

Tarku extended his huge clawed hand and
Gayla put her tiny hand into his. “I am pleased to meet you,” Tarku said.

“Not as pleased as I am to meet you,”
Gayla replied.

Janet’s mom and dad walked over and
hugged and kissed Janet. “We knew you’d be okay,” her mom said, wiping away a
tear.

Janet’s dad shook Tarku’s hand. “Tarku,
please take care of my little girl.”

“I will cherish and protect her every day
of my life.”

Janet’s mom walked over and looked up at
Tarku. He looked down at her and smiled. She reached up and put her hands on
each of his cheeks and pulled him down to her. She wrapped her arms around him
and kissed his cheek.

“I love my daughter more than anything,”
she said. “Thank you for coming into her life.”

“I love her as I love life itself,” Tarku
replied. “She will always be safe with me.”

Janet’s mom smiled. “I believe you.”

Janet’s dad gave her one final hug and
kiss, and Janet placed a small item into the palm of his hand.

“Dad, you must never let anyone know that
you have this. It is a communicator from our ship. Anytime that we pass the Earth
I will call you to say hello. And, since Tarku and I were originally on our way
to a planet in this sector of the universe, I imagine that we will pass by
quite often.”

Her dad looked it over and Janet quickly
showed him how it worked. “Don’t worry, baby, no one will ever know about
this.”

“Mom, dad, I’m sorry, but we need to go.
I’m sure that the police and military are already on the way. Tell them that we
just stopped to say good-bye. Better hide that communicator for a while dad.”

He gave her the thumbs up sign. Janet and
Tarku waved to all of the neighbors. They were so confused about what was going
on that they didn’t even know
who
they were waving to.
Tarku and Janet returned to the ships. Tarku retracted the landing legs and
Janet raised the elevator. The ships gracefully lifted into the blue sky and
disappeared in the blink of an eye. Gayla and Janet’s mom and dad walked into
the house while all of the neighbors continued staring up at the heavens.

Far above the Earth Janet and Tarku looked
at each other on the monitors.

“Looks like we’ve inherited another
spaceship,” Janet said.

“It’s an old one,” Tarku replied. “But
everything works fine. It would be a great deal for someone who is a first time
buyer. We should be able to get a good price for it.”

“I’m sure we will. I believe that we were
heading for the planet Searce in the Paktuan galaxy before our little detour,”
Janet said. “Shall we continue?”

“I think we shall, my beautiful lady. You
lead the way, and I shall follow you to the ends of the universe and beyond.”

They touched the consoles and the ships
vanished into the stars.