Chapter 8

Once we reached the shade cast by the UFO we could start to make out the features of the other creatures standing near the ship. One was sort of humanoid, but with four arms instead of two. The other looked like a squid or octopus at first glance, more than anything else. It had an almost spheroid top something like a head, with a cylindrical shaft under the sphere, and a bunch of tentacles hanging down below the lower end of the shaft.

It appeared to be wearing an elaborate cuirass covering most of the cylinder, and its most striking feature, despite all of that other stuff, was that it was floating in the air with about a foot between the end of its tentacles and the ground. Its body was a dark cream color all over, at least the parts that we could see. There were two of the squid-like creatures, and they were both holding something that looked like a short shaft with a large ruby at one end.

One of the squids sort of barked out something in a language that we could not possibly understand, and it pointed the ruby end of the staff at a humanoid holding a different kind of staff. The humanoid seemed to answer the squid, and suddenly a red beam jumped from the ruby to the head of the humanoid. That humanoid fell to the ground, and the squid pointed its staff at another humanoid as it barked out some more words which sounded very similar to what it had said to the humanoid lying on the ground.

The second humanoid did not hesitate, but pointed the staff that it was holding at the squid. I now could see what looked like a large emerald at the end of the staff, and a green beam jumped from the emerald to the squid. The squid exploded! The humanoid quickly pointed its staff at the second squid and shot the beam at it. The second squid exploded.

To my surprise, the humanoid dropped its staff on the ground and raised all for hands into the air. The humanoid then said in somewhat accented but perfectly understandable English, “Please help us. We are slaves of the Octrons and beg you to help us gain our freedom. We can see that you carry the powerful weapons that can destroy the fizwars. Please use them on the Octrons to break us loose from their control.”

“How many of the Octrons are there?”

“Those were the only two who were active. The 13 others are sleeping.”

“How did they control you?”

“The Octrons have a mental hold that they can put on virtually any other sentient creature. For some odd reason, you are immune. Somehow, by being near to you, I was able to break loose from my master’s control. I shot him before he could regain control. I shot the other one, too, before he could gain control of me. My friends are under an automatic lockdown until they are controlled by another Octron. Please approach them and see if you can break them loose from their involuntary servitude.”

Four of the humanoids were standing together, and I walked toward them. Suddenly, all four seemed to wake from a trance. They all rushed toward me and babbled something in an unintelligible language. The humanoid I had been talking to shouted, “SPEAK ENGLISH, YOU FOOLS!”

That was enough to break them completely loose from their controlled state, and they began to babble in English how wonderful it was to be free of the Octrons and to thank me for freeing them. They ran down after a few minutes, and I asked, “What are you called as a group, and how many of you are there associated with this ship?”

“We are called Homlins, and there are 123 out here and within the ship. Please hurry, we must kill the Octrons before they wake up and regain control of us.”

“You all have those staffs. Can’t you kill the Octrons yourself?”

“Of course we can. How foolish of me. I must still be controlled by my old habits. Come, Friends, let us free ourselves of those monsters who have controlled our people for who knows how many years.”

“When you finish, please come back here and talk to us.”

“Okay, I will be back shortly.” With that all five of the Homlins simply vanished.

“Ann, please go back to the RV and tell the people at home what has happened so far. We will wait for you here.” Ann took off at a dead run to make her report to Buena Vista.

The rest of us took a seat in the shade to wait for the Homlins to return and for Ann to finish her radio report. Two Homlins popped into view beside us just as Ann returned from the RV.

I asked, “Do you have individual names? That would make it easier for us. I am called Jim. That is Ann, Samson, and Bob.”

“I am Arsofadermantu, but I can tell by the look on your face that you would prefer something shorter to call me, so I will answer to Arso and this is Hemlo. Are those names acceptable?”

“Absolutely. They are short enough for us to remember and use conveniently. Thank you for allowing us to use the shorter version of your names.”

“Oh, joy! That is the first time I have ever been thanked for doing anything. If all of your other people are like you, it will be a pleasure to associate with you. Now, what can we do for you?”

“If possible, we would like a short tour of the ship. Our curiosity is killing us.”

“Sure, just follow me.” Arso and Hemo suddenly disappeared and left us standing in a stunned silence. They returned a few seconds later, and Arso asked, “Why didn’t you follow us? Is there something wrong?”

“How do you transport like that? We can’t do it, and have no idea how to go about it.”

“Oh, I beg your pardon. I forgot that you do not have one of the transporter kits. Please wait. Hemlo, please fetch four of the belts like we made for the Octrons. We’ll wait here for you to return.”

“While we are waiting, please fill us in on some details about the Octrons. Especially, we would like to know why we were attacked.”

“We discovered your resistance to the Octron mind control a few years ago during our investigation of your people. You people called them ‘alien abductions.’ That was how we learned the languages of you humans and found out your resistance to the Octrons. Unfortunately, we were not able to prevent the Octrons from learning about that, too. That was the reason for their desire to kill off your race.

“The Octrons control most of this galaxy and eventually plan to control all of it before expanding to other galaxies. The initial investigation of you humans began about 400 years ago when much smaller spaceships than this one began visiting your planet to learn about it before taking it over. It was a real puzzle to them as to why they could not take you over. That was the reason for the later abductions.

“We Homlins were the inventors of virtually all of the technology used by the Octrons, and we piloted their spaceships. We are an ancient race, approximately 3 million years old, and the last million has been as slaves of the Octrons. We have been trying to break away from Octron control from the first moment of their domination, but we could not do that.

“We had to do everything that an Octron ordered us to do, but we did have a small amount of independent thought and action while the Octrons ignored us. That was enough to keep alive our longing for freedom, but there was little that we could really do to advance that goal. Those of us who know about you humans hope that you can help us and the other enslaved races to break away from our masters.”

“Of course, we will do what we can. I think that most of us left alive hate slavery and would like to erase it wherever it might be found. We can discuss that in detail later, for I see that Hemlo is back.”

Hemlo said, “Jim, here are four of the belts that we made for the Octrons. They will allow you to do everything that we enabled the Octrons to do. Please stand still while Arso and I put them on you.” These were the things that looked like a cuirass to me when we first saw them. They were somewhat uncomfortable, so we needed to make some adjustments in them before we considered adopting them permanently.

At the moment, all we needed was the ability to teleport, and Hemlo showed us how to key our controls to those of Arso. That way, we could follow him automatically as he jumped aboard and around the UFO. We spent the rest of the day touring the UFO and meeting all of the other Homlins. Needless to say, we were the heroes of the hour.