Chapter 32: Tani Meets Xtos

Tani, dumped to the deck of an air car, awoke. They had severed all of her limbs, leaving only bloody stumps. Her torso was cut and bleeding in many places. She opened her eyes and looked up into the mechanical ones of Xtos who glared down at her.

"Good you are awake," he/it said. "So this is the great Tani I've heard about. Laniya spoke very highly of you before she died. You don't look so great now." Xtos gloated in its booming voice.

Tani said nothing she just glared.

"I am going to keep you alive so that you can watch me destroy everything you hold dear. I will hunt down any of you puny humans that may have escaped or are in hiding and make you watch as I destroy them." Xtos said triumphantly.

Xtos expected to look into Tani's eyes and see them reflect terror, fear, and defeat but instead her face and eyes showed defiance, hatred, anger and yes, was that the look of revenge.

Tani's mouth curved into a snarl and she began to speak, "I tried to put an end to you once you filthy, ugly machine and I failed. I won't repeat that mistake. My smile of victory is the last thing you will ever fucking see you abomination."

Tani's tentacles sprang into action crawling up her sheath and wrapping around the six-inch long and two inch diameter plastic capsule that Tes had implanted in her womb. The tentacles twisted the upper and lower halves ninety degrees in opposite directions and pulled it apart. This exposed the object inside to Tani's body fluids, which in turn activated its count down timer.

Xtos looked down on that victorious smile and he/it learned two more emotions, those of fear and defeat.

"Time to die you fucking evil thing," were the last words Tani spoke and then she laughed.

"Get rid of it. Throw it over the side." Xtos cried in panic sensing the coming doom.

His robot servants burst into motion as they sought to obey the command Xtos had given, they were far too slow to react though as the countdown timer reached zero. In a blinding flash the AC, the robots and Xtos ceased to exist. All were vaporized instantly, as were fifteen additional air cars that surrounded his. The expanding mushroom cloud of super heated gases consumed another fifty air cars and their occupants and then the concussion hit, blowing another fifty around like leaves and turning them into balls of raging fire. The jungle vegetation directly below instantly vanished in the hellish heat generated by the blast and the ground itself turned to molten rock. Raging fires ignited all around the blast zone in the jungle below and burned out of control.

The computer monitor screen Tes was watching momentarily became blinding white and then went black as the cameras that fed it tried to adjust in vain to the brightness and then shut down from overload. When the image was, finally restored Tes looked in horror at the expanding cloud of superheated gases.

"No, Nooooo, oh Zol no," she cried. Tes alone knew what that blinding blast had signified.

A flood of emotions rolled through Tes as her facial features shifted to reflect each one. Horror, anguish, agony, rage and loss, each emotion took its turn in her body and reflected in her eyes that glued them selves to the monitor.

"Oh Zol no, Tani no," she cried out. Her hands balled into fists and pounded the desk in front of her. Her body quaked as she cried and raged and then cried again.

In the bedroom room safe behind the closed door, the children cringed in terror at the animalistic sounds of agony and pain that reached their ears from the other room.

The four ACs that Yuri commanded streaked through the sky. For the umpteenth time he turned to Damia who was piloting and asked, "Can't we go any faster?"

He already knew the answer; Damia did not even have to say it. The ACs were traveling at more than the maximum speed for which they were rated already. Each of the crews crowded the decks looking at horizon as if willing Zafilk to appear there.

A blinding flash occurred on that distant horizon and Ginaya uttered the words that all of them were feeling, "Oh Zol, oh Zol no."

With the guns that had protected the air space around the compound reduced to twisted metal wreckage by the explosion, Tes's hand poised over the control that would detonate the explosive charges that had been planted in the compound below and reduce it to a slag heap. She waited to see if any of the robot craft had survived.

Through tear, filled eyes Tes watched the monitor. One second it showed only the compound and the raging fire in the jungle and in the next second, the air above the ocean beach filled with a huge teardrop shaped craft.

A door irised open in the side of the craft and a multitude of dragon shaped beings poured into the air. When they had exited, Tes looked to the beach below and saw a line of human shapes materialize on the sandy shore.