Chapter 31: Using New Toys

Island Day 23-24

Chen POV:

This whole ‘joining’ thing we did is paying off in spades and is helping us in some amazing ways!

Annie is ‘joined’ with that JB and he’s doing something she calls ‘Spirit Walking’ at Ibera’s place. Because of their being joined, he can somehow make it so she can teleport straight to the ‘spaceship’ that he saw another smaller spaceship send our kidnapped friends to.

Holy shit!

I didn’t think it would work, but, we tried it and now all of us are standing just outside this huge building that very well could be a spaceship. We haven’t seen any guards or anything, but, also haven’t found anything resembling a door! We’re all in one big protective bubble, so, hopefully if they DO have detection devices we won’t show up.

Now, to figure out the best way to get inside?

Annie suggested that since she and I ‘knew’ Proud Feather, Hootie and little Rose, we should try and simply teleport directly to them.

I agreed, then we could summon the rest of our ‘posse’ to port in near us.

I remembered something from my time in the Gromorik base back on Earth.

Since they are relatively short fuckers, they tended to have very low ceilings! Some as low as 6-foot high, so porting in ‘prone’ and 3’ above our ‘target’ could be disastrous. Unless ... we did that over little Rose!

I warned Monte and the rest of the guys they may want to ‘duck’ when they ported in, just in case.

Annie and I then turned invisible and went in prone and opted for 2 feet above Rose, hoping we wouldn’t kick anyone in the face!

When we got there, what we saw damn near broke my heart.

This Gromorik bastard had what looked like a cattle prod and was yelling at little Rose to mentally call out to her mother, then zapped her with it when she refused! And her little, partially naked body showed where he’d done this repeatedly.

Annie and I moved just behind this asshole and summoned our posse.

When Maggie and Monte saw this they immediately dropped their invisibility. Maggie screeched, “Stop that right now, you mutt-faced bastard!”

The fucker spun around in total shock, “How, how did you get in here? And WHO ARE YOU?”

Monte then rushed the guy, relieved him of his cattle prod and hit him with it ... repeatedly. There was another guy in the room who I grabbed with my TK and stopped him before he could do anything but scream. Then Annie and I came into view and little Rose smiled, “Wizard Chen! You came to save us!?”

Maggie stifled a giggle, ”Wizard Chen?”

I chuckled, “Hey, it’s the best I could come up with at the time! Cut me some slack?”

Then I noticed my mental captive’s eyes get huge, “Ohhh NO. Are you people Chaemarians!?”

Then I saw him look at a monitor of some kind that had four spots flashing crimson and asking whether or not to ‘nullify’? Before I could do anything, the bastard hollered, NULLIFY, NULLIFY!”

I knew it worked because my captive immediately dropped the foot-high I was holding him up in the air and he scrambled for a stunner laying on a counter in the room.

Unfortunately for him, that nullifier had very little adverse effect on my big friend, Monte! He pulled his ‘confiscated’ stunner out of the waistband of his pants and blasted my former captive with it!

His captive now looked terrified, “You, you’re supposed to be incapacitated!”

Monte just grinned, “Oh, I have a bit of a headache, but I’m still going to twist your head clean off if you don’t shut that thing off RIGHT FUCKING NOW!”

Monte then put the guy in a headlock and only released him so he could hit him with the cattle prod a few more times.

Then I saw Tiny port in and he was in his bubble.

Somehow, even though he was a ‘rookie’, Tiny managed to envelope all of us in his bubble and all of our powers immediately returned!

Since the guard Monte had in his headlock was now also in it, he was now in MY world! I jumped into his head and learned that he had been hoping Monte wouldn’t shoot a box shaped thing mounted up on the wall.

I didn’t even have to ‘tell’ Monte. He just grinned and asked Tiny to drop his bubble.

I just barely felt the effects of the nullifier return as I watched Monte blast that box to smithereens and all was good ... again!

Annie and Maggie quickly freed little Rose and 4 others who were secured to chairs.

I asked Monte’s guy where all the other natives were being held. He acted like he didn’t want to say, then Monte jolted his ass with the shock probe and he said they were all in a ‘holding area’ of some kind.

Since we had no idea where that was or the layout of this building, I decided to get in his head and force him to ‘tell’ me everything we needed to know. Including, where the actual Command Center was and what this Supreme Commander dude looked like.

He was desperately resisting my mind probe, but, I still managed to find out the unconscious guy’s name was Puntrak and this fool’s name was Security Specialist, Striktuk. Then, that the Supreme Commander’s name was Rufchaad and he was most likely on the ship’s bridge.

Yes, this ‘building’ was actually the mothership they’d come here in. I had to wonder how a ship this big could land and then ever hope to take off again? Then, I remembered that one thing the Gromoriks specialized in was anti-gravity technology.

It made me wonder whether we could possibly ‘commandeer’ this ship to get back to Earth?

I need to remember NOT to wonder about things like that when Maggie is still nestled in my head!

She started giggling, “It probably could, but, who do you know that could fly the thing?”

I chuckled, “Hey, give me a break? It was just a thought!”

“I know, now, let’s have Striktuk ‘take us to his leader’ and we’ll see if we can’t talk some sense into the Supreme Commanders thick skull?”

“Shouldn’t we free the other captives first?” I asked.

Monte shook his head, “Not yet, too much chance to get discovered with so many people wandering around. They’ll be safer for now where they are. We need to take control of this whole ship while we have the chance. We also need to get these five to just stay here for now, too. George, could you and Annie maybe stay with them? Take that stunner on the counter and just shoot that unconscious asshole again if he wakes up or somebody unauthorized comes in, okay?”

When George and Annie agreed, we had the rest of our ‘posse’ teleport in behind us but stay invisible. That was just Max and Sheila, who’d joined us since she also knew, and would translate, Gromorik.

Tiny returned to Jasmine to continue following the unsuspecting Molokai to the mine, although, I was keeping them abreast of our current situation. They both could be here in a second if we needed them, which I hoped we wouldn’t.

Just as we all started going toward the bridge, little Rose said, dejectedly, “I still can’t hear my Daddy!”

I could see she was forlorn, “We’ll free him and the rest of your people as soon as we make sure we won’t run into more trouble, little one!”

Annie cuddled her in her arms, before she added, “But, I can hear my brothers now!” She said pointing at them, “why can’t I hear my Daddy?”

Ding, ding, ding!

Monte was looking shrewdly at me, “The place they’re being held MUST have another nullifier active in it! We must beware of that when the time comes ... I wonder how many other areas of this ship have those things?”

I shrugged, “I’ve never run into one of them before, so, I guess we just need to be on the lookout for those box-looking things?”

I went over and hugged little Rose, “Thank you for telling us that, Rose. We’ll take care of that soon, so, don’t worry. You may have just saved us from disaster!”

I pointed at my head, “Keep trying and let me know when you can hear him, okay?”

She smiled, “I will Wizard Chen!”

Striktuk huffed, “You will all die for this! Supreme Commander Rufchaad will be most upset that you have invaded his ship!”

Monte zapped the sucker again, “I’m already most upset that you are not cooperating! Take us to your leader before I decide to just shoot you with this stunner.”

“Monte, I know how I would do this, but, how do you think we should approach this ‘commander’?” I asked on broadcast mode, but, silently so our guard wouldn’t hear.

“This is your show, Chen. I’m just here for the muscle in case you need it. We know from the information you got from Striktuk there could be as many as 40 or more Gromoriks on this ship right now. Most are doing mundane duties and half are women in non-essential roles. I’m guessing there could be as many as 10 on the bridge, but, most likely only 3 or 4 right now. So, ‘Plan A’ we should plan on going invisible and the second Striktuk says anything we stun them all, except the Commander. That way we can get him under our mind control and get him to do what we want?”

I grinned at him, “Just about what I was thinking! I’m hoping to simply ‘talk’ him into leaving this planet, peacefully. Somehow?”

“Or... ‘Plan B’, ” Monte snickered, “we scare the living hell out of him and bully him into just doing what we tell him?”

Maggie snickered, “JB and Darren just gave me an even better idea! You need to offer him a ‘BBD’ instead of a threat!”

“A BBD? What’s that supposed to mean?”

Now she’s smirking at me, “A ‘Bigger and Better Deal’! Ibera just gave our boys the astrological coordinates of a huge, unoccupied planet that has over 50 times the minerals and crystals these guys are trying to mine here! And best of all, they can use their machines and could just strip-mine the entire planet and not bother a soul! And, it’s only about 2000 light years from here. With their ships, they could be there in about 3 to 4 days!”

Then Monte sneered, “I propose we take a page out of Elmer’s ‘Mafia’ playbook and ‘make him an offer; he can’t refuse!’?”

Damn, Monte’s a man after my own heart.

Just one thing I had to ask, “And what if that doesn’t work and we start a war?”

Monte grinned, “If we do it my way, I swear my friends and I will back you up until every Gromorik here is dead!” He chuckled, “Trust me? Just let me show you and learn, Grasshopper!”

“Go for it, Sensei, are you thinking of doing something like you did to those drug lords in Central America a few years ago?”

He grinned, “Yes, similar, only, after we terrorize him, we’ll offer up the BBD like an olive branch so he realizes he has a much better alternative to resisting us!” He chuckled, “Hell, if we do it right, he might even thank us for our help!?”

We all went invisible with Monte holding his stunner to Striktuk’s back. We needed Striktuk to show us how all the doors in this place worked. We also forced him to show us where the others were being held.

This was a very large ship!

There were three levels and we were on the bottom level before we entered an elevator where Striktuk issued a verbal command to go to the upper level.

The next thing we knew, when the door opened, we were on the bridge!

Monte jabbed Striktuk in the back with the stunner and whispered in Gromorik, “Say a word about us and I’m going to kill you!”

There were 4 people on the bridge and a communication (in Gromorik) was in progress that had everyone’s attention.

Sheila was translating for everyone but me.

Somebody on the other end said, “Sir, we have a most unusual situation here at the Port Loma mine. A single guard, Molokai, is here all by himself and appears to be quite confused. You said a couple ronas ago to expect over 100 new slaves? This Molokai doesn’t seem to know anything about ANYTHING! We asked him why he was here and he acted like he just woke up! We tried contacting Head Guard, Numbals, but, we keep getting no response? What are we to do!?”

The radio operator looked anxiously at another guy, then looked back at the door and they both saw Striktuk.

The one who appeared to be in charge asked, gruffly, “Striktuk, just one rona ago, didn’t you tell me that even though we received that short distress call, you thought Numbals had everything under control?”

Striktuk’s voice caught, “Ugh, not exactly, Supreme Commander Rufchaad sir, I was interrogating the psychic prisoners and wanted you to send a shuttle to check it out. But now, I think we ... we may indeed have a BIG problem???” Monte poked him again and Striktuk cringed.

The Supreme Commander huffed, “No KIDDING? You’d better find that idiot, Numbals, and those slaves at once!”

It was hard not to laugh, as we were all invisible and the four men on the bridge were all looking at Striktuk like he was an idiot. Especially when he blurted out, “But, but, can’t you SEE the problem we have!?”

The Commander yelled, “All I see is that I’m surrounded by idiots!”

Striktuk turned his head and his eyes liked to pop out of his head, seeing that he appeared to be all alone. He gasped when the invisible Monte poked him again.

As this was going on, Max, Sheila, Maggie and I moved to surround the unsuspecting bridge crew. Monte was going to ‘take control’ of Rufchaad and we were all to mentally ‘take control’ of everyone else and just follow his lead.

Monte picked Rufchaad up till his head hit the ceiling, quickly followed by us doing the rest of the crew, causing them all to scream in bewildered terror.

Then, we all appeared and Monte pointed at Rufchaad, yelling, “Are YOU the idiot in charge?”

“I not know what you say!?” He said in broken English

Striktuk huffed, “Our Exalted leader does not know the native language! That statement was the extent of his knowledge, can I translate for him?” He asked, nervously looking at Monte.

“Sure, but remember, we KNOW your language and you’d better translate EXACTLY as I said it!”

Striktuk barked a nervous chuckle, “I will, I swear!”

I don’t know if he realized this was a test! Monte silently told us the rest of his diatribe would be in Gromorik.

Striktuk did indeed translate exactly and that earned him a furious look from his Boss, causing all of us to chuckle.

Monte, who was ‘joined’ with Sheila, continued (in Gromorik), “So, you ARE the idiot who has ordered all of the psychic natives to be rounded up and tortured?”

Rufchaad’s eyes widened as Monte lowered him and stood nose to nose with him. (His feet were still nearly a foot off the ground!)

He was trembling, “No!”

Monte hauled off and bitch-slapped him, “You lying piece of alien excrement (shit), are you saying you’re NOT in charge here?”

Rufchaad was panicking, “Okay, okay, so I did! What business is it of yours what I do!?”

Monte slapped him again, even harder, causing dark blue blood to trickle from his nose, “These natives are my friends! They have never caused you any harm, yet, you capture and persecute them ... EVEN THE LITTLE CHILDREN. Just like you mistreat all of the slaves you force to work and die in your mines! They are ALL my friends and I am pissed off about it! You WILL stop it right now and release all of them or my friends and I will kill every Gromorik on this planet!”

Rufchaad was sniveling, “But, I CAN NOT do that! The Ultimate Leader of my people will have me killed! We desperately need the crystals and other minerals that are now becoming harder and harder to find here. And ... we have a ‘Prime Directive’ to capture psychics so they can be studied for our defense! As you can see, enemy aliens like you are far more powerful than we are?”

Monte scoffed, “We WOULDN’T be your enemies if you’d just release our friends! We know about your deal with the Triloks! That’s a sorry excuse for making slaves out of all of the natives.”

“You should just kill me then, I’m dead no matter what I do!” Rufchaad lamented, totally defeated.

Monte released Rufchaad and he dropped to the ground, “What if I make you a deal, you can’t refuse? I know of a planet that has nearly 50 times the resources, especially the crystals, Di-Lithium and Tri-lithium, than were ever on this planet! And, the planet is uninhabited, so you can use your automated machines and not bother anyone!”

Rufchaad gasped, “And where is this planet? On the other side of the galaxy?”

Monte grinned, “Nope, it’s only about 2000 light years from here. You will have to live on your ship or underground in a place you’ll have to build. That’s because this planet’s atmosphere is very low on oxygen and high on helium and other non-breathable gases. But, I know in many places you have self-contained outposts so, that shouldn’t be a problem. Right?”

Monte had us set our ‘captives’ down as an act of friendship.

I was holding my breath, hoping nobody would do anything stupid.

Do you know what they say about that? Yeah, hope in one hand and shit in the other and see which one fills up first!

The instant I set Striktuk down he yelled, “Nullify, NULLIFY RIGHT NOW.”

Maggie instantly reached behind her back, pulled her stunner, set it to maximum and blew a box on the wall clean into the next room before it could do anything! She never hesitated and blasted Striktuk next, instantly vaporizing him! Then, by being joined with Sheila, she shouted in Gromorik, “That is what happens to anyone who tries to double cross us!”

Holy SHIT. Remind me never to piss her off!

The rest of the bridge crew were now frozen in fear, obviously having never witnessed any of their own come to such a rapid demise.

The Commander shouted, desperately “I order my crew to stop resisting, shut up and stay still! Striktuk could have gotten ALL of us killed! Mr Giant, please don’t kill any more of us? I did not want that to happen. I will do what you say! WE WILL ALL DO AS YOU SAY. Can we just talk about how we might comply with your... ‘deal’?”

Monte winked at me, then calmly told Rufchaad, “Yes, first thing ... do I have your word that you will not try and retaliate against us or any of the natives? Understand this, we do not wish to be your enemies! We know of your dilemma and are sympathetic to your mission, as far as needing the minerals you’ve been mining. This planet I mentioned is indeed only 2000 light years distant from here and is somewhat closer to Gromorly than you are here. I will give you the exact astrological coordinates once we have an agreement.”

The Commander nodded, “You have my word. Would it be permissible for us to send a ship to check it out before we all leave here on our mothership? We have an interceptor that, using maximum hyper-warp could make the round trip in less than two cycles. That would give us the time we need to get everything packed up and be ready to depart. I do not think we could leave much faster than that, anyway?”

Monte looked at me for confirmation. I smiled and nodded.

“Very well. That is acceptable. Next, I want you to immediately release all the prisoners you have working the mines. That is not negotiable. You have my word that the planet I told you of is real and is indeed located exactly where the coordinates I will give you is located. As a show of good faith, I’d like to witness you giving the order to release the slaves?”

Rufchaad looked at one of his crew, “Comstuk, call all mine supervisors and issue the order to immediately release all of the natives working the mines. Be sure no harm comes to any of them and as they leave, distribute whatever food supplies you may have left for them. Tell them that is an order and to begin making preparations to depart this planet, immediately!”

We watched the guy nervously make the calls to over 20 mining camps. He had to field several questions as to the validity of the orders, and Rufchaad repeated the orders personally.

Monte smiled, “Now, if you’ll call up an astral map, I’ll show you where this planet is located!”

I knew Ibera was probably in his head as Monte called out the coordinates. This large screen then zoomed in to a 6 planet solar system and one planet glowed green.

Rufchaad had Comstuk lock the planet into their system and estimate the distance. It was 1989 Light Years, just as Monte said.

Rufchaad was almost grinning when he asked Monte, “May I send some of our scientists to check the planet’s suitability as far as possible colonization sites and just to confirm its mineral contents?”

Monte nodded, “Of course. I’d expect nothing less.”

Rufchaad opened an internal coms link, “Prepare an interceptor to go on a geological exploration mission. Inform Science Specialist Rokspour to outfit the interceptor with all necessary equipment to search out the minerals and crystals we need to mine as soon as possible. I will send you the coordinates when you are ready. Make sure you take enough supplies for at least 10 cycles (days). Your destination is only 1½ cycles distant at maximum hyper-warp, so 10 cycles supplies should be sufficient. Keep me informed as to your progress and findings. Commander Rufchaad, out!”

A reply came back, “This is Rokspour, should I clear this with Science Director Tumrik, Commander?”

Rufchaad chuckled, “No, Tumrik is on his stupid sailing trip and I have half a mind to just leave him, and his bleeding heart, here! My authorization is all you need. You can take as many of your assistants as you wish to expedite your search. With any luck, we’ll be getting off this planet shortly after you return or possibly sooner if you find what I expect is on that planet.”

“Do you know something I don’t know sir? We’ve searched out many other planets and found nothing worth mining?”

“Well, Rokspour, perhaps we were looking in the wrong places!? I have it on good authority this planet could keep us busy for 10 sun cycles (years) or more. And best of all, we’ll be able to use our automated mining equipment and won’t have to deal with those pesky Triloks!”

“That sounds great, sir. We should be ready to depart in one rona (hour) or less.”

The call ended and I knew another question needed to be asked. I had a feeling Monte would if I didn’t, so, I didn’t want to let him down.

“Commander Rufchaad, there is something else we’d like you to help us with, in the spirit of cooperation. It seems three of our friends were captured from a planet that is called Q-917. We know that they were transported to a Gromorik ship and we would like your help to get them back!”

Rufchaad looked confused, “Could you give me the coordinates of this ‘Q917’? I’m afraid I’m not familiar with that designation.”

Monte grinned at me, then gave him the coordinates, which I’m sure came from Ibera.

The Commander had his guy call up those coordinates and he gasped, “Wow! That’s over 300,000 light years from here and over 400,000 from our home planet! I don’t believe any of our mining operations would ever go that far from Gromorly? Is there any way you could tell me the kind of ship that was used?”

Annie came into my head, linked to JB, who was at Ibera’s. She showed me a ‘picture’ of the vessel in question. I had Rufchaad show me all of the Gromorik’s current spacecraft. Unfortunately, none were an exact match, although one was close. I said that and Rufchaad had his guy call up some of their older, ‘retired’ vessels.

Bingo!

I pointed out one that was an exact match.

Rufchaad gave us the Gromorik equivalent of a sigh, “These vessels have all been retired and sold to our well-to-do citizens and other businessmen to be used for trading and exploration. You wouldn’t happen to have the numerals on the aft, port side of the craft, would you?”

I relayed Annie’s response, “No. There were no markings of any kind anywhere on the ship.”

Rufchaad nodded, “I am not surprised. Many of the less scrupulous purchasers don’t want their ships to be easily identified. Those ships DO all have transponders on them, but, we retired over 200 of those vessels! Without knowing the exact ship, I’m sorry, but, I’m afraid I cannot help you. I can tell you this, those ships have old hyper drives on them and if they did capture your friends, a trip to Gromorly from there would take over 3½ of this planets sun cycles to reach!”

I knew this equated to over 4¾ Earth years and told everyone. I was hoping for more information that could help find Bob, Mary and the little CJ, but, it looks like we’d hit a dead end.

I wanted to make sure, so I asked, “Tell me, would the bounty for three very powerful psychics be worth that long of a trip?”

“If they are as psychically powerful as you people, most definitely. They might even be able to trade them for one of our most modern spaceships!”

That proclamation made me nervous. I just knew if this bastard had the chance he’d try and capture all of us.

For that kind of bounty? Hell, I’d turn on my own mother!

I then watched Maggie saunter up to Rufchaad. She put his head in her tender hands and ‘captured’ his eyes, “You wouldn’t try and double cross us for that kind of bounty, would you, Big Boy!?”

He smiled then gasped, now fully under her mind control, “NO! Um, well, not anymore? I admit ... I thought about that, but, now ... I wouldn’t do that to my new friends who just made it possible for me to convince my superiors to get me off this planet! I have never liked it here. The native population all hate us and we rarely go out, just because of our stupid agreement with the Triloks! You have my word!”

Maggie had us each take one of the bridge crew and impart the same ‘thought’, that we were their friends and there was no reason not to trust us. OR, go after us!

Maggie continued, “I want you to know this, Commander, we ALWAYS stand up for and protect our friends! Do YOU and your crew wish to be our friends?”

Rufchaad looked at his crew and they were all wide-eyed and nodding rapidly!

It was comical! You could just imagine all of their mutt-faced tails wagging! (If they had one?)

“Yes! I give you my word. From this moment forward we will never attempt any aggressive actions towards you or the natives of this planet. Does, does that mean if the Helgordes were to attack us on our new planet, we could call on you to help us!?”

Damn, I looked at Monte and he grinned, “Yes. And we would call on OUR friends, the Chaemarians, and they would also help! Our Chaemarian friends are most curious about these Helgordes, too. As you know, they abhor violence and if these Helgordes are as you say, they too want to put a stop to their actions!”

I about shit myself when the Supreme Commander freaking hugged Monte, thanking him!

Maggie and Sheila were fighting back giggles and Max had his face in his hands, failing to stop laughing.

I wondered who Monte knew that were Chaemarians? Are they even more powerful than Ibera? Maybe SHE knows some Chaemarians?

Somewhere in my head I felt Annie, JB and that Darren guy, laughing, too. JB assured us that Ibera was indeed ‘onboard’ with Monte’s statement. So, I have to assume she does know them!

Just as Monte and Rufchaad parted an urgent message came into the Command Center.

“Comstuk, inform the Commander that there has been an incident at the Port Loma mine! Supervisor Braitak was going into one of the mines to tell the miners they were going to be released when there was a cave in. It is unclear what caused the cave-in, however, there is speculation that some of the native guards purposely caused it. What do you want us to do?”

Rufchaad looked at us, shocked and frightened. Monte assured him we would get to the bottom of it and would give them all the help that we could.

Rufchaad said into the communicator, “Be advised, we must do everything in our power to rescue the supervisor and all the prisoners. Do not be afraid when you encounter our new friends who will be coming to assist you. Capture all those you feel were responsible for this heinous act and hold them for now. We’ll get the truth out of them one way or another.” He smiled at Monte, who winked back at him and nodded.

A voice came back over the intercom, “um, Commander? It appears those native guards in question are all somehow being held up very high in the sky. I am not sure how they got there, but, if they were to fall they would most certainly be killed. I do not think they will be getting away!”

Jasmine came into our heads, “Tiny and I saw these bastards do it, Chen! Why in the hell were they trying kill their own people? Some of the miners even pointed at them and were accusing them of it. We picked them all up just as much for their safety as to keep them from getting away.”

“I have a feeling they were afraid of what might happen to them when all the people they’ve been brutalizing were suddenly set free. We’re porting to you as we speak, so just keep holding them there for now, we’ll see you in a second.” I told her.

Rufchaad was shaking his head, “I swear we were not trying to double-cross you!”