Chapter 48: Getting Up to Speed-Part 2

Darren POV: Continued...

Ibera started dancing around, saying we really needed to see what was going down on the island. I told her that I really wanted to get Greg up to speed on how the different members of the new ‘Island family’ had really changed their ways.

Just the look on Greg’s face told me that we really needed to do this. He asked, “I take it, some of the prisoners had like an epiphany of sorts?”

I chuckled, “Oh, you can say that again! Let’s go back into that second dimensional area that we were just in and let me get you all way up to speed on everything that’s transpired.”

Ibera giggled, “I’ll be patiently waiting in the kitchen. Thankfully, by waiting there, it should only take a minute or so!”

Greg chuckled, “I’ll try to keep my questions down to an absolute minimum, okay?”

That made Ibera happy, even though she knew that for the two of us we were probably going to be there for quite a while.

It took nearly 6 hours for me to show Greg everything that happened from the time the prisoners were first taken up to Ibera’s jail to where they are right now. I was glad I did, because just from the questions Greg was asking I felt confident he now knew why some of the prisoners were no longer considered the despicable assholes they were at first.

He was very glad to see that Lola and Marcella were now exiled on a different island. I told him that some people just cannot ever be rehabilitated. He felt sorry for the old King Flombay who was now essentially their slave.

We rejoined Ibera who had a portal all fired up. On it, we saw Max and JB, along with several others who looked like they were about to get tested by Tumrik and his girls...

JB POV:

Max and I were pleasantly surprised when Andrew volunteered to let our Gromorik friends test him, like they did Wanda. It didn’t hurt that Wanda assured him it was harmless and actually kind of fun!

We had quite a crowd this time, since Tiny, Blaine, Steve and Naomi also volunteered to get tested.

Tumrik and Braitak were overjoyed to be able to get so many more, ‘new readings’ on psychic abilities. Tumrik, however, seemed to be more interested in seeing just how strong Tiny was, without using his powers, than anything else!

Tiny thought that was hilarious and simply waltzed over, hefted up one of the 500Lb weights and carried it out onto the area where the other weights had been. He didn’t even strain! Tumrik and Braitak were flabbergasted, not to mention our new ‘Wizard’ friends, at such a demonstration of raw strength.

It was even more incredible when, after getting hooked up, Andrew strained to pick it up with his TK! Andrew really freaked out when Tiny then picked up the other 9, with his TK, and set them on the first one.

I was curious, too, and added 5 more to the stack and had Tiny try again. He had no problem, then Tumrik asked Blaine and Steve to try.

As I suspected, they also had no problem with the 7500Lbs of weights. Max just had to try and when he also did it, Naomi tried. She really strained, but did manage to lift it a foot or so. I wasn’t too surprised she strained since she rarely had the need to use her PK like that. Her scan showed she was maxing out her ability, but Blaine gave her a huge hug and told her he was super impressed!

Wanda, Andrew, Maxine and Becca were completely blown away!

Andrew looked at me dejectedly, “Um, JB ... do you think you could give us YOUR version of that ability?”

Tumrik looked intrigued, so I went ahead and gave it to Andrew, first, then had him try the whole stack of 15. It DID wiggle, but never left the ground. I pulled off 4 of them and had him try again. This time he did pick up the stack and moved it about 5 feet. Juules let out a loud giggle and said we needed to see the scans of before and after I enhanced his ability.

It was incredible! The psychic area of his brain, that was brightly lit up during his ‘un-enhanced’ try with just one, was now actually smaller with 11! That meant that my enhancement actually ‘reconfigured’ the psychic center of his brain!

Tumrik and his crew were ecstatic at this discovery.

And so was Andrew! He said he felt much better now, knowing I’d also enhanced their invisibility/protective bubble. Me too, since it’s doubtful that ‘un-enhanced’, even if they had figured it out, their bubble probably wouldn’t have protected them from arrows or laser weapons. Wanda, Becca and Maxine were now looking at me, longingly.

Before they even asked, I went ahead and enhanced their TK, too.

Just as they finished lifting the 11 weights, a loud siren-like horn began to sound.

Tumrik looked bothered, then ran to a panel, exposing a large screen and a smallish control panel. He pushed a few places on this small panel and an image of a spaceship showed up on the screen.

Tumrik grumped, “Damn, the Triloks are entering our solar system! Those egg-heads sure know how to foul-up a nice day!”

“How long before they get here?” I asked.

Tumrik shrugged, “About 30 minutes, but they’ll be calling our headquarters before that. They usually like to talk to the Commandant before they start doing their inspections. I’m debating whether I should ignore them or not. I’m wondering if they might think we all left if nobody answers them.”

“Can they find your ship since it’s parked way out here on our island?” I asked.

“Not if I ‘cloak’ it. However, they are usually here for a week or more and the instant I were to un-cloak to enter or leave the ship, their detectors will sound an alarm. Then, when they see we’re on the ground already, they’ll become suspicious and wonder why we were hiding. I’m thinking we’d be better off to just act oblivious to their arrival and see what they do. However, we should hide all of our native friends in your caves right now, before they decide to come and ‘chat’ with us. I don’t believe their personnel detectors can see through that much rock. Thankfully, at this distance, they can’t yet see how many of us there are.”

Blaine asked. “Can their detectors tell the difference between us and the natives? Or, say, you and us?”

“I don’t think so. I believe they only detect the presence of warm-blooded, intelligent life forms, just like ours do. However, one look and they’ll be able to see and hear the difference. You guys speak somewhat differently than the natives do. Not to mention how much bigger most of you guys are!”

Andrew chuckled, “That’s a fact! Besides your ‘accent’, you often use words that we’ve never used or heard before. I think that’s partly why our girls are so ‘intrigued’ by you.”

Tumrik nodded, “Not that the egg heads would hear the difference, since they always use a translating device, even talking to us. It’s that it will be set for Gromorik and this planet’s natives and many of your words will trigger a ‘null’ or ‘unknown’ response. When we see them I was planning to tell them you’re NOT natives and they’ll set it to ‘universal’ translator and it will figure out your version of the language and adjust automatically. That will also help convince them you’re not natives”

“Do you guys speak their language?” Max asked.

Braitak laughed, “NO, not even! I don’t think our voice boxes are even capable of making the sounds necessary to speak it! You know how you struggle to speak our language because of, how did you put it, our ‘guttural’ sounds? Well, their language is like squeaks, titters, beeps and high-pitched squawks. Even with your more advanced and limber vocal chords, I doubt you’d be able to speak it, either.”

“Aaargh, so, if we hear them communicating with each other, we won’t know what they’re saying?” I asked.

Now Tumrik chuckled, “Oh, he didn’t mean we don’t UNDERSTAND their language! We’ve learned it just fine ... to hear and translate it. We just can’t ‘speak’ it! Oh, and, we don’t want them knowing we understand them!”

“Ahhh, I see. Can we learn it with your ‘teaching hat’ thing? I’d sure like to know if they try doing something sneaky.” I asked, then remembered something from watching Bob bamboozle Sintar. “Just before I came here, I watched a friend of mine who had a confrontation with a Trilok, named Sintar. He just got into his head and somehow knew everything he was thinking. Maybe I’ll see if I can join with Linda, since she was there and it may have even been her that figured it out?”

Tumrik shrugged his shoulders, “I have no idea if that would work or not, since I know nearly nothing about how your mind reading or mind control actually works.”

He chuckled, “To be honest, your ability to do that is one of the things that scares the hell out of us the most! If you can join with your friend, I would suggest doing it. Or, we can teach you the language in about 15 to 20 minutes. Since we have eight of those devices, we can teach eight of you at once. That might be even better, unless you’re sure your friend can help you?”

I really didn’t want to bother Linda, so Blaine, Max, Tiny, Naomi, Steve and I decided to ‘get educated’ on how to speak Trilok. Since there were two places left open, after drawing straws, Andrew and Wanda got to experience the other two devices.

Afterwards, when Tumrik played a few recorded sentences for us to translate, we all got it exactly right. Andrew and Wanda were far more amazed than the six of us. They couldn’t believe how easy it was to learn and Wanda even gave Tumrik a kiss on the cheek, saying how much she enjoyed being his friend now.

Now I was just hoping that I wouldn’t become confused between Gromorik and Trilok, since Max, Annie, Lonnie, Lucy and I had all learned Gromorik, previously.

Tumrik told us that, while we were somewhat unconscious learning the language, the Triloks had attempted communications several times.

We heard them call again, speaking in ‘Gromorik’, asking for any vessels on this planet to please respond. Suddenly, we heard another alarm go off and Tumrik grunted, “Ughhh, they just picked us up on their scanner. The scoundrels already know we’re here, so I better answer them.”

He keyed the communicator, “This is Gromoriks Science Vessel Number One. Who am I speaking with?” He asked, professionally sounding, in Gromorik.

At this point, only those of us who knew Gromorik understood what was being said.

Tumrik grinned at us as we heard, “This is Captain Pootami of Triloks Deep Space Assessment Vessel, Omalet. I am calling for Gromoriks Supreme Commander Rufchaad, would you know where I can find him?”

Tumrik stifled a chuckle, “I’m afraid that he is no longer on this planet or even in this solar system. A short time ago, we discovered another planet some 2000 light years distant that was uninhabited and had far more easily accessible minerals. My name is Commander and Chief Science Officer, Tumrik. My small crew and I were left behind to do some experiments and to make sure order was maintained as we turned everything back over to the natives.”

“I see. Can you tell me why it is that you have chosen to park your vessel on that island in the middle of sea?”

Tumrik grinned, “We wanted to use some of our advanced technology equipment and felt it was better to move here so none of the natives could see what we were doing. We know how you don’t want us exposing the natives to our advanced technology. We’re just trying to comply with what we know are your directives.”

I could sense the guy on the other end was smirking when he come back, “Very good Commander Tumrik. Your consideration in that regard is most appreciated. Tell me, is there anything you would like to report as far as unusual happenings with the natives?”

Tumrik winked at me, “Not that I can think of at this time, Sir. How many da ... um, cycles are you planning to be in the area?”

“As long as it takes for us to determine the natives current state of development and how much disruption your ceasing interaction with them may have caused. Now that your people have all left, it may go faster than it has in the past.”

We then heard some ‘Trilokian’, two different voices, wondering about some ‘psychic problem’ and debating whether to ask Tumrik about it. Tumrik was giving me this look like he had no idea what they could be talking about.

I watched Tumrik checking a second screen and exhale loudly, “Ughh, the Eggheads are scanning us! As you guys so eloquently say it, the shit is about to hit the fan! Let’s get all the natives into the caves! NOW.”

A minute later, right after we moved all the natives, a peeved sounding Pootami was back on the radio, “Gromoriks Science Vessel, Gromoriks Science Vessel, how many crew members are in you’re, so called, small crew!? We are reading over 20 lifeforms in close proximity of your ship! Why did you lie to me?”

Tumrik shook his head, but, grinned at me before answering, “I beg your pardon, Captain, but I was not lying about my crew. There are only four of us! I did NOT say there weren’t other ... beings ... on this island, however. And, NO, none of them are natives of this planet.”

We heard a long series of squeaks, squawks and other high-pitched sounds that, like Tumrik, I recognized as ‘Trilokian’ being shouted in the background. They seemed to be very alarmed that there were other ‘aliens’ here. They were also extremely curious where we’d come from, how long we had been here, what our ‘mission’ was, and how we got here.

The question now was, what story did we plan to give the Triloks? I could tell by the looks on Max and Blaine’s faces, they were wondering the same thing. After a short, ‘private’ telepathic conversation we decided we should basically tell the Triloks the same story we told Tumrik. The one thing we didn’t want them to know was the fact that nearly everybody on this island were sent here as criminals.

Not even Tumrik knew that and there was no sense even bringing it up at this point.

We watched the screen and saw that the Trilok’s ship was now over the island, directly above Tumrik’s vessel. Luckily, we had many of our people working in the big ‘still’ cave, so hopefully their scanners wouldn’t figure out the natives teleported into the caves while some of our people teleported out near Tumrik’s spaceship.

Hugo and his buddies stayed with the native girls while we had George, Lolita, Meredith, Margo, Mario and Enrico also hide out in the caves as our ‘backup’ in case we needed them. There were additionally some more of us, like Sonny, Markus and their girls, who stayed in our houses, out of sight.

Pootami called back, “Science Director Tumrik, please meet me outside your ship and tell all those ‘non-natives’ nearby I wish to talk to them. I have some ... questions that I need answers to.”

“That sounds reasonable. Would you like the rest of my crew to join us?”

“They can if you wish. It’s you and the ‘other aliens’ I’m most concerned with at this time. I will be needing to speak with you, privately, after our first meeting.”

We decided that Max, Annie, Blaine, Naomi, Tiny and Lonnie would join Tumrik, Leena and me. Braitak and Juules would stay behind, watching everything on monitors inside the ship.

We decided that, for the time being, we would pretend that none of us understood Gromorik. Tumrik explained that would go with what the Triloks knew about how secretive they were about teaching their language to anyone.

He also suggested that because of what we heard about some unknown ‘psychic problem’ we should all refrain from using any psychic abilities, including telepathic communication. He said something about what we all heard was bothering him and since we knew the Triloks had the ability to create a psychic nullifier it would be best not to tip them off, especially at this point. They very well could be scanning for the presence of psychic phenomena and we wanted to keep them as calm and unsuspecting as we possibly could.

We all exited Tumrik’s ship and within a minute, three Triloks appeared preceded by a beam of light. The Captain, Pootami, was just barely distinguishable from his two companions. His spandex like uniform was a slightly different color and had a somewhat different insignia than has two companions. They were much taller than our Gromorik friends, standing just over 6’ tall.

Pootami spoke first, addressing Tumrik, arrogantly, in Gromorik, “Greetings Commander Tumrik. I do believe we’ve met before? Weren’t you in charge of finding and rounding up all of those native people with psychic abilities?”

Tumrik nodded, solemnly, “That is correct. However, I wasn’t informed that you were aware that we were doing that?”

Pootami smirked, “Were you not told of the deal we made with your Supreme Commandant?”

Tumrik glanced at me, surreptitiously, before fixing his gaze on Pootami, “No sir. As a matter of fact, I oftentimes wondered if what we were doing wasn’t going to adversely affect the native’s natural development? Therefore, I did not make an issue out of the very large number of them we had captured.”

Pootami grinned at his two companions before replying, “Then, I may as well inform you of our deal. We allowed your Commandant to use as many natives to help in the mines as he needed, as long as he helped us by capturing and ridding this planet of all of those possessing psychic abilities. Can you tell me, was he able to get rid of ALL of them prior to his departure?”

It was very hard, at this point, not to start a telepathic communication with Max and the others.

I could tell by the confounded look on Tumrik’s face that he had no idea his old boss had this deal with the Triloks. What he told Pootami was essentially what he had told me and all of our friends. That he often wondered if they weren’t violating the ‘no tampering with the native’s natural evolution’ policy by capturing and sending to Gromorly so many of this planet’s psychics. Now, it was very apparent, the Triloks had essentially ‘hired’ them to perform that task!

I almost wondered if Tumrik wasn’t reading my mind when he gasped, “Why, may I ask, if you are so particular about not tampering with the native’s natural evolution, would you so blatantly tamper with it yourselves by wanting to get rid of all of its psychics? You must’ve been told that, with a few exceptions, most of those that we discovered and captured were very low level as far as psychic abilities.”

Pootami appeared to be flustered, “That is none of your business!” He said very loudly, before continuing, “Perhaps we can have this discussion later, in private.” He said, now looking around at the rest of us, who were all trying very hard to appear as though we did not understand anything that was being said.

Pootami pointed at us and asked, “Can you tell me what language these aliens speak, Commander Tumrik? It does not appear that they understand Gromorik?”

Tumrik chuckled, “You are correct. If you notice, these aliens look very similar to the natives of this planet. It was quite a surprise to discover that they also speak nearly the same language as the natives, but to them, they call the language ‘English’. That is why we do not have to use translators when speaking to them, since nearly all of us understand and speak the native language.

“They do, however, use many words that the natives are not familiar with and we often have to have them explain the meaning to us. You might notice, they are about 20 to 30 percent taller than most of the natives. We have also discovered, they are far stronger, physically, than any native of this planet. They say that the planet they are from is more than twice the size of this planet, with a gravity more than twice as strong as it is here. I believe that is why they are stronger. Why don’t you set your translator to their language, and you can ask them questions yourself?”

Pootami nodded, “I’ll do that. If you want to ask me something that you don’t want them to hear, just use your language.”

Tumrik nodded at him then said, in English, “Attention, my Earth friends. This is Captain Pootami. He and his crew are the ones who monitor this planet to observe the native’s natural evolution. I told you about them and that was why I have forbidden you from going to the mainland. He needs to ask you some questions. I would appreciate it if you would answer him as ... truthfully as possible. Go ahead, Captain, ask them whatever you would like!”

Pootami slowly looked around at all of us. Then he asked, stoically, “Which one of you is your leader?”

It was comical the way everyone instantly looked at me!

So, I raised my hand, “I guess that would be me? My name is Jim Bob Hornsby, but everyone just calls me JB. Tumrik told us some of what you are trying to do on this planet. We would very much like to make friends with the natives of this planet, especially since we were told they speak our language. However, for some reason, he said you would not like that. Perhaps you could tell me why that is? We are not here to cause any trouble. To be honest, when we came here, the ones who sent us didn’t know this planet was inhabited.”

Pootami’s big bulbous eyes squinted, “How did you get here? Where have you parked your ship?”

I took a step back, feigning ignorance by shrugging my shoulders, “Umm ... we have no ship. Or, at least, not one that is capable of traveling through space. A group of scientists from our planet, Earth, were experimenting with something called wormholes. A bunch of us volunteered to come here, as part of that experiment. We discovered, unfortunately, that something went wrong and now we are trapped here. They can, and have, sent us things from our planet to try and make our lives more comfortable, but, have discovered they do not have a way for us to get back. To be quite honest, all we know for certain is that we’re about 80,000 light years away from home.”

Pootami’s eyes seemed to get even bigger, “You came that distance ... through a wormhole?! I have a hard time believing that, since we have been laboring for over a century and have yet to figure out how to make one viable. You say you’re 80,000 light years from home, a planet you call Earth? Do you know your planet’s astrological coordinates?”

I shrugged my shoulders again, but surreptitiously winked at Tumrik, “I’m afraid that I have no idea what those might be. You see, my friends and I are not scientists. We are just everyday folks who happen to know a little bit about surviving in the wilderness. From what Mister Tumrik has said, our planet is much larger than this one with nearly 100 times as many inhabitants. Our planet has five main landmasses, that we call continents and many oceans or seas. Imagine our surprise when Tumrik told us that the natives of this planet spoke the same language as we do, English? On our planet, there are more than 4,000 different languages along with nearly as many dialects that are spoken. As you can imagine, communication can sometimes be very difficult?”

Pootami, speaking Trilokian, asked someone on his ship to see if there were any planets approximately 80,000 light years away that were among their ‘sponsored’ planets. He was totally oblivious to the fact that many of us understood everything he just said. After a few seconds, someone answered him, saying that there was indeed one planet, that the natives there called Earth!

It was also one of their seeded planets!

They also told him that it was nearly impossible for Earth’s technology to be anywhere near ready to even begin experimenting with wormholes. They added, that Earth’s technology was just beginning to get into space exploration and other than a couple manned expeditions to their moon, had only sent crude satellites to other planets.

At this point, I knew that Pootami recognized which planet we were probably from. It was going to be hard for us, having heard and understood the conversation, to act in such a way that Pootami would think was normal for not knowing what was said.

I was also curious what direction our conversation was about to take.

The idea that these aliens might be responsible for our ‘creation’ made me want to ask some questions of my own!

Pootami pushed a spot on his translator and a hologram appeared of Earth! It was like a huge translucent globe, rotating slowly.

“Is THIS your ‘Earth’ planet?” He asked before eying me suspiciously.

I nodded, “Why, yes, that’s it! Are you familiar with my planet?”

“Yes, I am very familiar with it. That was one of the planets I was assigned to observe before the distance made it difficult for me to observe it as closely as it needed to be. One of my ... colleagues ... now observes it for us so I would not have to travel that distance and because the planets I now observe are much closer to this planet we are on now.”

I was watching his hand as he pushed another spot on his communicator and suddenly the area of North America lit up in green. I know my eyes lit up when that happened and when I looked at Pootami he seemed to grin, “Tell me, Mister JB, is this the area of the planet where you and your friends are from?”

I took a second and looked around to see the expressions on Tumrik’s and my friends’ faces. Tumrik looked at me, more out of curiosity and confirmation, while Max and the rest of my friends seemed to be stunned.

I decided to try and look as stunned as possible before I asked, “Just how would you know that?”

Now Pootami smirked, “Like I told you, I know much about your planet. While there are other areas on your planet where the primary language is English, I can tell by the way you speak this would probably be where you came from. Even though it has been several Sun cycles since I have been there, that is why I must question whether or not you truly got here through a wormhole?”

After a short, high-pitched squeak, that I took as a chuckle, he finished, “Please tell me, truthfully, to the best of your knowledge, have any other ... species ... been involved with this wormhole experiment you tell of?”

Now I really had to act ignorant. He totally wasn’t buying my story, so I furled my brow and slowly shook my head, “Do you mean, like aliens!? Like Tumrik and his people, and you? Until I met Tumrik and his crew, I had never met anyone from any planet other than Earth. To be honest with you, while there was much talk on Earth about UFOs and possible aliens, most people there don’t believe it. Even our government has repeatedly told us there was no such thing as UFOs or aliens. So, to answer your question, no, I do not believe that the scientists who came up with this wormhole idea were helped by any aliens.”

My act must’ve been convincing, since Pootami took a very long time thinking about what I just said. Pootami then took a long look at Tumrik before asking, in Gromorik, “Have you or your people ever been to this planet, Earth?”

Tumrik shook his head, “As for me, and the people I was here with, the answer would be a definitive no. Our team’s only mission was mining for the crystals that we need for our spaceships’ control and power plants. If this earth is as densely populated as my friend has said, then it is highly doubtful we would ever have gone there.”

Pootami looked Tumrik closely in the eye, “Do you believe what these earth people have said about getting here through a wormhole?”

Tumrik shrugged, “It is hard to believe, I will admit. However, as you well know, we monitor this area around the planet for any alien spacecraft. They claim to have only been here for less than three moon cycles. Unless their technology was extremely sophisticated, I highly doubt they could’ve come here in a spacecraft, without us noticing it. From what you have said, about what their current level of technology is, I agree that it does make the idea that they were able to construct a wormhole highly doubtful. That being said, I do not think my friend, JB, is lying to you.” Tumrik chuckled then continued, “I have caught him not telling the truth and he has a hard time hiding it. His face turns bright red and he begins perspiring on his forehead. Like you, we Gromoriks have also been working on creating wormholes. And I am guessing, that like you, we have been mostly unsuccessful in that endeavor. I honestly do not know what species would even be able to manufacture one? Who, in this universe, would you imagine has the capability of doing that?”

I kept having to look away from them in order to hide the fact that I understood everything that was being said. It was also becoming extremely difficult not to talk to my friends, telepathically. Especially knowing many of the ones that were here also understood most of what was just said.

I did notice that Max, Tiny, Annie and Blaine were all grinning at me!

Pootami finally said, “I have no idea. I have heard rumors of a species, called Chaemarians, who have come many millions if not billions of light-years from a planet that is not even in this galaxy or the next two closest to this one. Almost nothing is known about them other than the fact that they are a very friendly species. And, that their technology is many thousands of Sun cycles more advanced than ours. Have you heard of them?”