The Pyramid Builders (27 page)

Chris looked at her and said, “You know if that Moet attack craft turns and comes back after you and is killed in the process, then everything could be changed in future events.”

Jillian took a deep breath, “I know. It would change history, and being this far back in time, it could have a domino effect into the future. Even so, I have to try.”

“Jillian, I don’t want to lose you.”

“Why, Chris?”

“Because I love you more than my own life.”

Jillian put her arms around his neck and pulled him close. Jillian cried because she knew how much Chris had lost in his life already, and now if she died she knew it would be more than he could bear. She almost said no when she heard him say, “We just have to make damn sure you run as fast as that day you took me to the tablet.”

She knew what it took for him to give in, and she vowed she was not going to die. “We’ll back out twenty four hours and set it up for tomorrow.”

He nodded and she said, “Tonight I want to be with you.” He looked into her eyes and picked her up and walked off the bridge.

Chris sat at his control board and focused on the Jenze as he took the board and weapon out of his ship. “Jillian, we’re fifteen minutes from launch. Are you ready?”

“I have your view on the Ninja’s display. I will be moving forward in ten minutes to the edge of the sensor field.”

“Are you sure you’ll go into the past?”

“Yes, I am. I will open a window that will remain open until you change the view. You must hold position while I’m there or I’ll never make it back.”

“I will. I’ll hold it open until hell freezes over if necessary.”

Jillian smiled, “Don’t worry, Darling. This is going to turn out ok.”

“Just hurry.”

“I will.”

Chris picked up his tablet and looked at the Ninja’s controls. He was glad he had the command protocols downloaded, and he saw that Jillian’s field was now active and surrounding the Ninja. “God, please help her come back to me. Please.” He knew that the Ninja’s force field and weapons were off to prevent the last Moet craft from sensing them. He removed the protocol requiring the three second red button to activate the weapons.

Jillian watched as the Jenze entered the forest’s edge and saw the Moet attack craft as it came roaring in. The yellow bush was directly in front of her ship, no more than a hundred yards away in her display. She set the Ninja’s auto-pilot and moved to the rear port, watching on her tablet. She held the remote in her hand and waited for what she knew was coming.

Chris watched the T-Rex attack the Jenze and turn to go back into the forest. Then he saw the Ninja disappear from beside the Cheops. It reappeared in the clearing, rotated rapidly, and landed. He watched as Jillian emerged from the ship and started searching for the Jenze weapon. He had another display with a wider view of the area Jillian had landed. As she circled the yellow bush, he glanced at the other display and his heart went into his throat. The T-Rex had returned for the top half of the meal it had left behind, and was staring at Jillian. He watched as Jillian found the weapon and turn to run back to the Ninja. She wasn’t going to make it. The T-Rex was moving at full charge and would get to her first. He grabbed his tablet and pushed auto.

Jillian couldn’t find the weapon. She knew it had to be here. She circled the bush and saw it stuck under the bottom in the yellow branches. She wrenched it free and sprinted toward the Ninja. That’s when she saw the T-Rex bearing down on her and knew she wasn’t going to make it. Her first thought was overwhelming sadness at what she had done to Chris. Then she heard a whine and a bright white beam shot out from the Ninja and blew the T-Rex’s head off knocking the body ten yards away. Jillian saw the ground getting darker. She dove into the Ninja’s port and pressed her remote.

Chris watched as the asteroid came screaming in and knew it was going to be close. He hit the weightless button on the tablet and the Ninja shot off the display faster than he could see. He hit the weightless button on the Cheops just as a giant explosion of fire, molten rock, and dust shot out of the screens slamming into the Cheops. He slammed the power button on the screen emitters just as the Cheops was hit by the onrushing explosive material.

Jillian rolled into the Ninja’s entry port and hit her remote. She rolled to the back wall as the Ninja accelerated at high velocity, then she noticed on her remote that the ship had been shifted to weightless. Chris must have enabled the weapons to kill the Tyrannosaurus and put the ship into weightless mode for it to escape. She jumped up, ran to the bridge, and enabled her boards. She brought the Ninja to a full stop and turned it around. The Sensors came on line and she saw a huge black and red cloud expanding a hundred thousand miles in front of her, “Oh no! The explosion followed her through the screen. She scanned for the Cheops and it was not in her scans. “Chris! Chris! Answer me!” Jillian started sobbing uncontrollably. He had saved her, but she had cut it too close. He was right. There just wasn’t enough time. She accelerated forward and scanned the expanding cloud. Nothing. She put her head in her hands and wailed her grief. Chris, oh Chris, I’m so sorry.

“I hope you have some aspirin. My head is killing me.”

“CHRIS!”

“Hey, not so loud. I banged my head on the board.”

“I’m going to kill you. You’ve scared me to death. I thought I had lost you.”

“Look off to your left.”

Jillian extended the sensors and saw the Cheops three hundred thousand miles away. “What happened?”

I had to hold the view until you were clear and the explosion came roaring out behind you. I shut down the emitters, which turned on the force field. The small part of the blast that made it through the screen pushed me out here.”

“Are you ok?”

“No, I have a cut on my forehead that is messy and I’m light headed. Why don’t you come back? I’ll open the landing bay and lay on the floor. I’m really dizzy.”

“Chris! Chris!” Jillian turned the Ninja and accelerated to the Cheops. She took the Ninja through the port and hit the pressurization signal. She stood at the rear port jumping up and down on her toes for what seemed like forever. Finally the buzzer announced the bay had been pressurized, and she raised the port and sprinted through the ship to the bridge. She found Chris unconscious on the floor with blood starting to pool around his head. She tore off her shirt, pressed it on his forehead, and turned him over. She held it tight against his head and rocked with him in her arms. She looked at his calm face and knew she loved him to the depths of her heart. He had to be all right. She couldn’t go on without him. She held him close and kept pressure on his cut as she gently rocked him in her arms.

She held him for what seemed like hours, but it was only fifteen minutes. She was gently swaying and singing the juke box song softly, “….now with every sweet caress, on my darling how I bless, that little jukebox…”

“You look good without a shirt, Dr. Gordon. Is it that hot in here?”

Jillian looked down and saw his eyes were open. She leaned down and tenderly kissed him. “You knew that blast was going to hit you?”

“Yes, but had to do it.” She lifted the edge of her shirt from his forehead and saw the bleeding had stopped. “How does it look?”

“It’s just above your scalp line. We’re going to have to remove the hair and stitch you up.” Chris gave a heavy sigh. “What’s wrong?”

“Now you won’t love me anymore because I’ve lost my overpowering good looks.”

Jillian smiled and said, “You could cut your whole head off and you’d be the most beautiful person in the world to me.” Jillian looked around and said, “Stay here. I’m going to get the Novocain and stitch you up. I don’t want you trying to stand up yet.” Jillian took her pants off, rolled them up, and put them under his head.

Chris looked at her and smiled, “You must be burning up. However, you are just so beautiful.”

Jillian leaned down, kissed him, and ran to the medical storage room. She put on a scrub suit and a mask. She went through the closet and found what she needed, then returned to the bridge. She found Chris sleeping on the floor. She knew one of the symptoms of a concussion was drowsiness. She would have to keep a close eye on him. She prayed it wasn’t serious. She began injecting the Novocain, and slowly used the surgical gun to remove his hair from around the wound. She then stitched the open wound up and covered it with a bandage. She used a gravity gun to make him weightless, then picked him up and took him to the bed. She undressed him and covered him with a blanket. She stayed by the bed waiting for him.

The Moet attack craft was roaring into the atmosphere when the pilot looked in his rearview scanner and saw a small white ship suddenly appear where the Jenze had been killed. “What the..?” He pushed the craft over and tried to level out to go back, but then the asteroid struck so he pulled the nose up and hit full acceleration. The massive cloud of red hot debris shot up into the atmosphere and he saw it was gaining on him. He barely made it out of the atmosphere as the dust from the explosion flew past him. He knew he was dead, but then he saw open space and the two main ships moving toward the planet. “I’m going to send you a recording of something that happened.”

“What is it?”

“I’m not sure. But whatever it was, it’s been destroyed.”

Christopher woke and opened his eyes. He saw Jillian lying on the bed beside him asleep, and he reached up and felt his head. The bandage was there and he knew he must have slept through the stitches. Well, score one for me. His body hurt all over and when he looked up at the ceiling, the room started spinning. He closed his eyes and it stopped. He opened them again and saw Jillian staring at him. “How long have I been out?”

“Only about six hours. You’re coherent, so you must not have had too bad a blow.”

“I feel like my worst hangover ever.”

“Do you want to go to sleep?”

“No, I think I should stay awake. I’m experiencing vertigo, so I don’t think I can stand up.” Jillian looked at him and slowly shook her head. “What?”

“You did all those things to the Cheops and Ninja because you anticipated what would happen. It was the controls on your tablet that saved me. I wondered why you made all of those modifications, but you knew I was going to make the attempt even back on Earth.”

Chris closed his eyes and said, “You do have a way of getting things done your way.”

“That’s true, but you were taking care of me even when I didn’t know it. You saved me.”

“You’re welcome.”

Jillian smiled, “You were also willing to sacrifice yourself as well. I will never question your decisions anymore.”

“Are you saying that if I say no to putting yourself in danger, you’ll listen?”

Jillian smiled, “I will if you will.”

“Hey that’s not fair. You’re one ahead of me. I get at least one to catch up.”

“We’ll see.”

I want to try and stand up.”

“Why?”

“We need to get back. I suppose you retrieved that Jenze blaster?”

Jillian jumped up, “I completely forgot about it. It’s on the Ninja.”

“Hey, where ya going?”

“To bring it to the bridge. I’ll also bring the gravity gun to make sure you don’t fall.”

“That’s a good idea.”

Hemon and Sasha were on board the EG Ship Alexandria headed out toward the orbit of Neptune. They were still thirty minutes away traveling at three quarter light speed, and he was going there to trial the new communications system. “Dolly, we’re approaching the orbit of Neptune. Do you still have a good contact?”

“You’re coming through loud and clear. I’m amazed that you’re almost four light hours from us and we’re communicating with no loss of time.”

“I guess if you trick the universe, there are things that can go faster than light.”

“We still need to know if it will work in Sierra Space. Check in with us before you jump out.”

“I will.” Sasha looked at Hemon and flipped on the force field. “Why did you do that?”

“Because you never know when an enemy ship might show up. Out here there’ll be less warning if they do appear.”

“You’re right. Thanks for being on your toes.” Hemon watched his board and saw that they had crossed the orbit of Neptune by six thousand miles. “Dolly, we’re jumping.”

“Go ahead. As soon as you’re out of normal space, give us a call.”

Hemon hit the jump button and the Alexandria disappeared. Green featureless space surrounded them and Hemon looked back and saw the green space was boiling and turning in on itself. “Dolly, we’re out.”

“Well, it looks like the system works. There is no measureable delay in your transmissions.”

Hemon looked at Sasha and said over the communicator, “We’re going back into normal space and come home.”

“Good idea. Hustle and we’ll meet for dinner.”

“Keep it warm.” Hemon hit the jump button and the small ship disappeared from Sierra Space.

Out in deep space between the galaxies a giant blue ship stopped, spun, and turned a broad dish shaped structure on its surface toward a distant galaxy. It spun again and turned it toward another galaxy. The ship began rotating rapidly searching for the source of the signal it was receiving. Nothing. The giant ship continued to receive the signal intermittently but could not determine the place it originated. It seemed to fill the universe. The huge dish turned back toward a distant galaxy and a message was sent. Somewhere there was a competitor.

C
hris sat in his command chair and held his head for a moment.

“Do you want me to drive?”

“No, I need you on the weapons console.”

Jillian looked up from her board and stared at him, “Why would you want that?”

“I need to know what the heart of the Alliance is really like.”

“That’s why you wanted to tell that Alliance Commander that we were going after a Jenze weapon?”

“Yes, and they may not be cooperative when we return.”

Jillian turned her display back to the recording of the Alliance Battleship, “That’s a huge ship. Can we stand up to it?”