Chapter 9: Oh Crap, Are you gonna kill me?

The final trip to Vancouver was relatively uneventful and we arrived at a motel in downtown, randomly chosen by Shakti, and booked in for 4 days. That was the maximum we had in cash and they wanted a credit card to boot. I was able to use the refillable card, thankfully.

"Maxi suspects it would be better to go have a look at the meeting point."

I agreed it's better to know the area one is going to be in danger at than go in blind. Helaena and Shakti decided to stay with the car, but were going to come with us as far as the park.

"We'll stay close and that way we can pick you up if needed." Helaena added.

"Yep, fast getaway if need be." Shakti quipped.

Parking the car, Maxi and I left the ladies waiting in the car, ready to leave at a moment's notice, and wandered over to the main building. I paid and entered the science center's main area, watching people roam about and examined the hands on exhibits and puzzles. Maxi had a lot of fun solving all the puzzles one by one while I looked at everything. We moved off to the other areas and explored, it had been a while since I had been here, so it was almost like new to me. I kept coming back to the central area and watched the demonstrations in science. Something about this place made me feel uncomfortable.

"Maxi is sensing some unusual energy coming from the upper level" I looked up and saw the pipe like vent at the top of the dome but nothing else.

"Maxi is detecting an energy build-up in the pipe up there."

I ambled over to the wall and pulled the fire alarm quickly. The place was cleared out within 6 minutes and I was the only one left, thanks to Maxi's stealth field.

There was a pulse of light focused on the center of the small stage and there sat Sam, cross legged and bound by some metal ring floating at chest height.

"Maxi still can detect that Sam is OK but Maxi cannot communicate with her, there is interference."

Standing next to Sam was probably the largest hulk in human form, form I say, because once I looked at the face I could tell it was NOT human. No nose, big black eyes with no differentiation in color, one pair of big black eyes. Just above and below them was another tiny pair of eyes, 6 eyes in total.

2 meters tall and looking like he/it was as tall as it was wide. It wore just a simple pair of pants and a jacket-vest.

"Maxi recognizes this live, it comes from a high gravity world so its strength is..."

"Probably able to do lift heavy shit like it was nothing." I mumbled. Maxi did her flutter of searching for info then went still.

"Maxi agrees with Solomon, it is dangerous in combat." She flashed a few images at me that showed this creature fighting, it looked like the effects of a walking bomb.

"Human. You wish for this bug back?" it hissed, literally.

I noticed it had a forked tongue so I suspected it was probably an equivalent reptile species. "You will get bug back if you agree to offer. You die otherwise."

"Aren't you a bit early? This trade is not supposed to happen until tomorrow" I stated.

"Human shows up, trade happens." It stated plainly.

"OK, what is the offer?" I asked, knowing full well what it was.

"The extraction of all pseudo-life form from everyone, and release of all bugs without damage." It responded.

"Do you have a mate?" I asked conversationally.

This seemed to take the creature by surprise and it paused for a moment. "I am mated, yes."

"If I had the power to obliterate you without even blinking, would you give me your mate without so much as a twitch if I demanded it?" I continued, the creature's head twitched twice and Maxi translated that as a no. "What do you think of someone who would be willing to do that to their mate?"

"They would be treated like K'ochk'Akk" he replied with obvious disgust.

Maxi translated, "Directly translated ... the digested remains pushed out the ending orifice."

"Nice. I like the way you put it." I thought to her.

"I agree, that is why I could never give up on my Host-Bond-Mate and just hand her over to you. All my mates are treated with respect and reverence. Nothing less is conceivable or acceptable, and to ask the same of you would be less than honourable."

The behemoth bowed its head. "Then it is unfortunate, I must do this to save my own mate." It started its attack at that point by jumping at me with a lazy sort of motion that belied its capabilities, only I knew what its potential capabilities were from what Maxi had showed me. I did not run or try to cover, I waited until it was almost upon me then bolted at right angles to its attack while remaining outside its reach. It swung its long arm in an arc at me faster than most humans could swing, but I dodged it easily by ducking under it. I stopped next to Sam and quickly glanced at her bindings for a brief second, then returned my attention to my attacker. It had stopped on the other side of the audience area and was hanging on the railing of the spiral stars

"For a low gravity primate you show great speed and agility" it said without any sign of exertion. "This will be a worthy fight."

"Understand that I will not take a life." I stated as I prepared my next attack.

"Do what you must, but only your death now will end this fight. Otherwise I will be unable to retrieve my mate." it said just as it launched itself at me.

I braced myself and, as it hit me with both its fist, I grabbed and dropped backwards to the stage pulling it towards me and sending it head first into the concrete wall behind me. There was a horrendous crunch and then it was struggling to pull its head out of a freshly made hole in the wall.

With as much speed as I could muster I rolled to my feel and knife edged the two tendons at the back of its legs, causing it to lock up. I was right on the mark with the information Maxi showed me. I moved quickly out of range of the fast moving arms, and ended up hanging off the upper level railing looking down on it. It had pulled its head out of the hole in the concrete wall and looked up at me.

"I still have the ability to take your life but you will need to get within my range. I suspect that will not happen any time soon, which is a sad end to me." It flopped down where it was and leaned against the wall.

"Maxi detects another power build-up, Solomon!"

I looked to the conduit again and watched as the bean struck the floor again. Some sort of floating drone appeared. A spiked decahedron shaped device that remained stationary 1 meter above the floor. It spun and, using what looked like an inset pair of lenses, scanned the room, focused on me and fired a blue beam from one of the spikes. The beam passed through the right side my abdomen and left a blackened hole in the railing and wall behind me, no pain but I knew it had hurt me. I let myself drop to the floor and rolled to the side using momentum, ending up behind a concrete post. I could see it's reflection in the window of the room behind the stage and it turned and fired a larger blue beam at the creature. I'd had enough at that point and, using all my speed, I ran up the wall at an angle and around the room at high speed until I was at the correct angle, then I leapt at the drone fists first, and with great force pushed it an angle into the concrete ceiling one level. The device slammed into the concrete and ricocheted off it then ploughed into another section of concrete and disintegrated. Now we had a few real fires to worry about.

I hopped down to the floor and walked to it. "Maxi has check out the damage, Solomon will be just fine." I detected the relief in her and sent happy feelings to her.

I moved closer to the creature, Maxi called it K'thlank, and noticed it had a large hole burned in its chest roughly where one of its hearts had been, 3 in total, according to Maxi. It was still alive but, even with the cauterization of the hole, it was not going to live long. Part of its circulatory system was burned to a crisp. It opened its smaller set of eyes while leaving its larger ones lidded closed. "I have you to thank for giving me a good battle. I must make my demand of you now before I expire."

"And that is?"

"Pledge to me that you will find my mate and secure her release from these unworthy K'ochk'Akk that would try to rule us all." It said in a raspy voice. "Declare her Ne'Dganak and protect her where I failed."

"Where can I find your mate? What is her name?" I asked.

"Pledge to me this!" it demanded louder. I could tell it took a lot of energy to do that.

"I so Pledge to you that I will secure your mates release, declare her Ne'Dganak, and protect her against all enemies." I quickly pledged.

"My mate is Tula and can be found on the starship orbiting this planets moon. This is all I can give you, and now I move to the next level to wait." His voice trailed off and a small elongated metallic device slipped out of its hand and clattered to the floor. I never knew what its name was, but it fought well and fairly. I would honor my pledge to it.

"Maxi does not think that pledge was such a good idea, but if Solomon feels bound by it Maxi will not argue." she said with a strange feeling expressed.

We returned to the stationary form of Sam in the ring and examined it. "Maxi recognizes this, Sam is in a stasis ring, and it generates a specialized quantum field which causes all subatomic particles contained to be placed in a static state. Maxi believes that the device Solomon has would release the field."

I looked at the metallic thing and noticed several spots with indentations on it and small symbols in the indents. Maxi translated the symbols carefully for me and I pressed the one she said after pointing it at Sam.

An audible pop and Sam took a deep breath and her eyes opened.

"Maxi is more complete again with Sam!" I heard in stereo from Sam and my mind.

"I'm glad, Maxi, let's get back to the others and figure out what we need to do." I looked back at the dead creature as we headed to the exit. I looked just in time to see it vaporize with a flash from the pipe vent. "Maxi, I think we may need to come back to this place, that Pipe seems a bit more than a normal ventilation pipe."
"Solomon might be right, the pipe is normal but its shape and form lend it to certain usages. Maxi will keep an eye out for similar applicable setups." We were looking up at the pipe conduit when in the background I heard shouting. It was obvious that the emergency services had finally arrived, "we better get out of here or we're gonna have prob..."

"Another power build-up, Solomon!" Maxi warned quickly.

I grabbed Sam by her arm to pull her back but there was a flash from the conduit above us. The room around us disappeared like a melting painting to be replaced with some sort of bare white room. It was so white I couldn't see how big it was or where the floor ended and the wall began, quite disorienting, "You OK, Sam?" She nodded "keep your eyes open, we might have company soon." This was a guess but that's all I had to go on so far.

"Maxi detects several similar life forms headed this way." she indicated a direction to face.

I turned to face the direction and readied myself for anything. Sam tucked in behind me and back a bit to give me room. A square appeared in the while, finally giving me some perspective then split down the middle and an opening appeared. In walked a humanoid form that was obviously not earth origin. Medium height, medium build, no hair of any sort and covered in a white overall. The most generic creature I had ever seen in my entire life. I started to feel a total lack of desire to even interact with it. "It's a Drone, Solomon, They suppress any offensive or violent behaviour," Maxi explained, "they have been known to walk up to aggressive beasts and cut them open with a knife without the beast doing anything at all. Don't let it suppress you, Solomon, or we all die." This was all said in a relaxed and dazed sounding thought.

I stood there and watched the creature pull out a knife handle like object, sans blade, and walk towards me. "Plasma blade," Maxi explained once again, "Sorry, Solomon, we are dead now." I could detect a touch of sadness and regret in her. I watched the creature lift the handle device and a glowing arc blue blade appeared with a snap. It swung the blade towards my neck but got no further as my hand grasped its wrist. It pulled back but I didn't let go, in fact I increased my grip strength until I heard a satisfying crunch and it dropped the blade handle to the floor. I used subtle force and spun the creature around and, placing my foot at the base of its spine, I pushed it forcibly through the opening and it struck something on the other side, I heard it, I just didn't see what it was.

"Maxi is amazed Solomon can resist the Drone!" I felt her relief. "My information about them shows that no one has ever succeeded."

"May I remind you I was never going to let you down?" I added with a grin.

Sam groaned, "Or never gonna run around and desert her?"

I turned to Sam with a big grin and added, "Or make her cry, say goodbye, or...

She gave me a wry smile, "Oh, shut up," she said quietly.

"Actually, Maxi, I did feel a bit of its pressure to give in and just stand there, but I didn't feel forced." I explained more seriously. I could feel Maxi furiously thinking in the background, which eventually calmed down.

"Maxi does not understand why Solomon is immune to them, but this is a good thing, Maxi will watch Solomon closely with the next Drone."

"Where exactly are we anyway?" I inquired

"Maxi detects we are currently at orbital station keeping above Vancouver. This is a small Drone vessel, 5000 cubic meters only. The main vessel must be the one the K'thlank had mentioned orbiting the moon."

"Let's move fast and get our asses back." I said quickly and moved to the door, "The ladies will be going crazy by now."

Maxi and Sam understood that we were too far from the ladies and needed to get back to them soon. I stepped through the doorway into a left/right corridor, accidentally stepping on the Drone I sent flying a moment ago, still unconscious, I looked to the left then the right.

"Maxi detects life forms left of our position."

I moved at a brisk jog with Sam following close behind, and soon came to a door with toggle plate next to it. I pushed my hand against it and the door slid into the wall on either side to reveal what could only be a common area. There were at least 15 of the Drones ambling around in the room doing various activities which I did not care to figure out. I moved into the room and began perpetrating non deadly violence against these creatures. I didn't want to give them a change to retaliate or anything. One or two of them had time to activate the blade things they carried, but I could tell that they had no real skill at fighting, not that I was a great 'Bruce Lee' or anything, but I had at least some skills in that area while they, on the other hand, just had quantity. It got a bit shaky there for a moment when I had them coming at me from all sides, but they only moved at a walk with no regard for their protection, they probably never experienced this kind of violence against themselves before.

"Sam is hit!" Maxi yelled in my mind, and I whirled to find that Sam was standing there while one of the Drones had taken a swipe at her and opened up a nasty wound along her upper chest, about 20cm long and deep enough to hit ribs and her collar bone on the way out. The creature was leaning back for another strike when I arrived and, in my enthusiasm to save Sam, inadvertently ripped it's arm off and struck it too its shoulder using the blade still in its hand. The Drone collapsed face first onto the floor and I caught Sam as she crumpled to the floor herself. The wound looked bad but with no blood, a cauterizing weapon again. There were still a few more Drones coming at me so I left Sam lying on the floor while I made short work of them.

"Solomon, Sam is worse off than it looks on the surface. Her body is going into shock."

I returned to Sam's side and looked at her and her wound carefully, she was well into shock and shivered painfully, the wound was deeper than I first thought. It looked like it had clipped one of her lungs and possibly part of her heart.

"Solomon, I'm not worried about dying here, just don't leave my body for these creatures. Take me home proper." Sam whispered to me. "Even if my body dies, I am still part of Maxi now and forever."

I lifted her piggyback style and continued my way to the control room Maxi showed to me. We moved faster than before and did not pause long when we ran into Drones. At the control room there were only a half dozen of them and I only took a second to remove them, the hard part was trying to figure out what Maxi was explaining when describing quantum displacement beams and parallax and all sorts of other big words that just didn't quite make a dent in my understanding. She finally made the equivalent to a sigh and explained it much simpler, "Put hand there, push that spot there, run a finger up that line there, now release the hand from that spot and press there. Now we can make it back down precisely next to the car with the Helaena, Shakti and Kaytos. This vessel will most likely begin to look for us immediately afterwards, so I would suggest getting out of the vicinity as soon as possible."

We made the dash back to the room we started in and the moment we stood in the center it lit up and flashed twice then the room melted and we were standing next to our vehicle. Helaena and Shakti tried to jump me right there and were quite twitchy, but the moment I got through to them that Sam was injured they were all business. Helaena examined the wound and started shouting orders. Shakti called over the ambulance from where it was over by the museum and things quickly turned into a chaos from there.

"Maxi does not think Sam's body is going to survive this wound, Solomon, We must stay close to her to secure her mind and secure the seed within her body. Make sure that you go with them to the hospital"

Helaena pushed me towards the ambulance, "go with her, she's designated you her common law partner, we will meet you at the hospital and don't let anyone push you out of her sight."

She slid into the driver's seat and Shakti took the passenger seat, I was surprised to receive a worried look from Kaytos then the door of the ambulance closed and we took off like a shot, all the sirens wailing. Apparently St Paul's Hospital is the destination; Sam grabs my arm and pulls me over to her.

"Not going to make it, Solomon, too much damage to the heart."She hissed at me. I can see there is some pain but most of it is blocked by Maxi and Sam Was not in shock any more.

"Solomon, put your hands on Sam's head like this." Maxi showed me where, and I push carefully by the guy's working on her. I put my hands exactly as shown.

"Stand back guy's, this is gonna get really hairy." I said to the attendants, I can see they wanted to stop me but, they knew just from looking at her, she's not going to live to the hospital. Sam smiles at them and rasps out, "You guys did great, nothing could have saved me from this anyway, too much of my heart is destroyed. Thanks for trying, though."

They didn't expect this from her, and I could see the sadness in their eyes. I cupped her head tightly again and closed my eyes, "Picture the flow of energy through her head, Solomon. See the energy flowing from the seed and into the brain. Let your energy flow into her and push the flow, return the energy flow to the seed." I could feel and see the flow. It felt like gelatine. I pushed gently and the flow backed up and the energy returned to the seed increasingly faster, until there wasn't any energy outside the seed any more. "Grasp the seed now and let the seed come to you, let it be drawn to you." I felt the seed tug at me, then gradually I pulled the seed with my mind until if floated in front of me. I opened my eyes and there it was. A 2cm metallic diamond shaped 'seed' floating in the air above Sam's head. I reached out my hand and it settled into the palm of my hand then sank into the flesh until I had absorbed it entirely.

I glanced at the attendants and they were wide eyed, gaping at me. I looked down at Sam and she was no longer alive.

"Sam is with Maxi and Solomon now." I felt a stronger centralized presence of Sam in my mind, and she sent me cocky grin feeling, "Yes, I'm here and I'll be your conscience from now on", she chuckled.

"I'm doomed," I thought at her, I dropped my head in defeat "I'll never be able to have sex again."

"Nope, never again, any your penis will fall off too." I could smile at this as she was in good spirits, figuratively speaking, even with her lifeless body laying on the gurney in front of me. I felt sad that she would never be able to feel the things she felt in the body she had.

We arrived at the hospital, were processed, questioned by the police, arrested, and then released without charges after a quick consultation with the doctors. The ladies were handling Sam's death better than I was. They were chipper and upbeat and it made me sad.

"Maxi does understand your feelings, Solomon. Maxi agrees that all life is precious, but when life is about to end because of circumstances outside your control you do whatever you can to help. With Maxi, Sam's life can be saved even if Sam's body cannot. A body can be replaced, but the mind of Sam is irreplaceable."

"See! I'm special!" Sam responded enthusiastically.

We gathered at the front desk and requested the usual burial service simplicity, cremation of the body and return of the ashes to Sam's parents, then, after all paperwork was resolved, we left.

"Where should we go now?" Shakti asked, looking back at me.

"Let's just go for a drive right now. I have to think about a few things first," I said with mild melancholy. "I made a promise to someone to save their mate. I have to figure out how to get to her before I can do that."

"You feeling a bit sucky as a knight in shining armour?" taunted Sam lightly in my mind.

"Kind of hard to get to the orbit of the moon without NASA backing you up, don't you think?" I responded. "I came close to achieving that but needed to bring you back. Sorry about failing you, though."

Sam snickered quietly and replied, "Between you and I and Maxi, I was dying anyway. Stage 4 breast cancer, I only had about 6 months or so to live. This is probably the best thing that could have happened to me, because now I can truly be with Helaena full time."

"Did she know about this?" I asked.

"Naw, I was gonna tell her but it just never came up. I guess I should tell her now though, eh?"

I felt her presence grow distant, Helaena perked up noticeably and began a quiet conversation with Sam and Shakti. I sat in the back seat of the car feeling much better than earlier. Kaytos sat next to me smelling excited while trying not to move or, I'm guessing, draw attention to herself. I noticed this out of the corner of my eye along with many other things too. Helaena pressed the brakes to slow down at a light, causing Kaytos to rock forward. I smoothly moved my hand under her rump and slid it far enough forward that I had a handful of something damp and hot. She let out a squeak and then a whimper. I began to work on her again, stroking and caressing her. She buried her face in the back if the seat in front of her and emitted an almost continuous purr. I caressed and stroked her until she was almost in a frenzy then stopped, leaned back in the seat, crossed my arms and faked going to sleep. I listened to her quietly whimper and cry next to me, but I steeled my heart and just let her.

"You are a heartless bastard" I heard Helaena tell me through Maxi's connection.

"Maxi thinks Solomon is the most perfect evil person, Maxi loves Solomon."

That was the first time I heard Maxi say that, and it made me smile bigger than I had ever smiled. It made me feel better than I had ever felt. "I love you too, Maxi." I added quietly in my mind.

I could see in the rear-view mirror through half lidded eyes the look of surprise on Helaena's face, Shakti spun and looked at me with a surprised glance and her mouth wide open.

We continued to drive around for a while until I finally felt I had thought it out enough.

"Maxi, what is the likeliness that the vessel would still be accessible from the science museum?" I thought.

"Maxi suspects that it might possibly be there for at least another day until they can clean up and have their injured crew returned to stations."

"So if we were to arrive tomorrow at the museum as early as possible, we would be able to bypass the crowds and access the stage area before it becomes too crowded." I explained out loud, "We can all take the trip to the vessel, correct, Maxi? And then go from there to the main target." I finished.

"Maxi thinks it is a good plan with only a few possible faults. If there are any people in the staging area then they will also arrive at the vessel with us. We may need to pull the alarm again to clear the area."

"I doubt that would work a second time. If anyone is there then we'll just force them to go elsewhere." I grumbled.

I looked at Kaytos and decided she needed something a bit more conservative to bring her into the building with us. We stopped by a thrift shop and picked up a flimsy looking black trench coat, then I made her remove all clothing except her shoes and wear the coat, sans buttons, tied shut with the belt that came with it. If she was not careful about how she moved she would display herself to everyone.

"Let's go rescue someone then" I rubbed my hands together with a grin.

Shakti glanced at Helaena, "He's a bit too pumped if you ask me"

It was decided that we'd show up at the end of the day, just before closing, and attempt to see the last show then wait for everyone to clear out of the way. We arrived and it took some work to convince the cashier to let us in to see the last show, we used Shakti as an excuse, something about a homework assignment that needed to be taken care of. We watched a fully entertaining demonstration of explosive gases and such, and then, once it was complete, faded into the woodwork to hide. I was almost discovered twice when staff marched by looking for strays, Kaytos had stayed with me, well actually, I had dragged her with me and once we had hidden I committed myself to tormenting her more. I felt she had been left untouched a bit too long. We had hid behind a black curtain in a seldom used area.

I stood behind Kaytos and snaked my arms around her and into her trench coat. My hands touched bare skin quickly and I heard a quick intake of breath. I ran my hand lightly up and down her body like I was playing a harp. Her breathing became hurried and urgent, while she tried to press her breasts into my hands and grind her ass into my crotch. I heard her quiet whimper, felt the urgency in her motions. I played her until she reached her limit, but stopped before she could orgasm. She tried to push it further but I grasped her tightly, placing my hand tightly over her mouth and whispered into her ear. "Someone willing to take the life of another does not deserve release. You must learn that lesson first among many other lessons. You've used and hurt an uncountable amount of people during your life, haven't you?" she remained motionless for a while then nodded agreement slowly. "You will have to atone for every one of those people before you will ever feel the joy of release." She stiffened at that and started to struggle, trying to turn around, I locked her arms and body in place. "No!" is hissed harshly in her ear, "No release until then." She struggled for a time and then she slumped, I could tell she was crying silently. I snaked my hand down the front of her again and stroked her lightly, providing just the slightest stimulation while she half-heartedly tried to alternately get more then stop me. I didn't let her have either. I worked at keeping her at a simmer while we waited for the staff to leave.

"Maxi detects only one person left on the premises other than Helaena, Shakti, Kaytos, and Solomon. We can safely move to the staging area and proceed."

I released Kaytos and she dropped to the floor and slumped there. "Get up, we're leaving now." I grasped her hand and helped her to her shaky feet. Through the link I thought to everyone, "Meet me at the staging area, we're all leaving now."

I noticed Kaytos's surprised look but didn't think anything about it.

We moved quickly to the spot in the middle of the demonstration area and waited for the others to show up. They arrived without incident a few moments later and we gathered under the conduit.

"Maxi's initiating the transfer signal." The room melted away to be replaced with the familiar all white room. We moved to the wall section and Maxi activated the hall door. I had been using augmented vision the moment we had arrived at the science center, so I reached out and strong-armed the drone that had stopped at the door. It bounced backwards, impacted the wall and dropped unconscious to the floor. I could see down the corridor another small group on its way towards us at the usual pace of a normal walk.