Chapter 50: Haunting the Enemy

Darren POV:

Watching everything with Greg and now our ‘East Coast’ friends was truly unreal! And, Greg was getting fully up to speed on EVERYTHING, even what our entire East Coast family was involved in.

Greg understands that what he was seeing and learning could NOT be discussed with anyone back home. Not even Linda, Sarah and Jamie. While Linda might be alright, many things about the aliens SHE was not even totally enlightened about. She made it known to us that she didn’t really want to know any more than what was absolutely necessary.

The only REAL problem, right now, was that ALL of us are supposed to go to a New Year’s Eve party tonight!

When Greg and I first got up here we were unaware that our East Coast brothers and sisters were already here. We discovered that Monte, Sheila and Maggie had joined with Annie, Max and JB to engage the invading Greyzarians and now, the Helgordes!

They told us they did that because they wanted to see for themselves how all these different races REALLY interacted with each other. Not to mention, that with Sheila being joined with Max, they hoped to learn the Helgorde’s language.

Monte told us that they were learning a TON of stuff that nobody in either of their clandestine organizations even knew! Like how much the Greyzarians and Gromoriks really hated each other and how the Triloks have been ‘monitoring’ our planet since prehistoric times!

Or the existence of these Helgordes that our friends were currently chasing.

Rex said there had been another species, who the Greys told them about and were also very savage, called Bargantuans. However, our Helgordes weren’t nearly big enough to be them.

The Bargantuans were 12 to 15 feet tall!

And, that was documented from discovering one of their crashed spaceships in the Mohave Desert that Monte’s secret organization, known as the ‘Extra Terrestrial Collaborative Effort and The Extensive Research Agency’, or ‘Etcetera’ for short, had been involved with. It was said by the Greys that they had been in a battle with another, different alien (Gromorik) spaceship when their craft was hit and crashed.

Jeremy told us that he had confirmed that report, but, that the Gromoriks felt that what the Bargantuans may have actually fallen prey to was Earth’s gravity. Both the Greys and the Gromoriks had ‘confessed’ to their respective organizations that our gravity was over twice as strong as either of their spaceships had been designed to deal with. And the fact that the Bargantuan’s technology was far behind either of theirs. They also felt that a far lesser gravity could account for their large size. On a planet with gravity like Earth’s, it’s doubtful they would have ever evolved to be that size.

While only Rex and Jeremy had infiltrated the Gromorik’s underground facility in Russia, Monte, Maggie and Bruce had not only infiltrated the Greyzarian complex, but were in fact actually invited as being Earth’s ‘Ambassadors’.

Thanks to being members of ‘ETCETERA’, they didn’t have to sneak around, staying invisible or looking like them, like Rex and Jeremy still had to do. That’s not to say they didn’t sneak around a lot, trying to make sure that our alien allies were being honest with us about everything.

Which they weren’t, exactly.

While the ‘Greys’, as they called them, had promised to give us some of their advanced technology, it was obvious that the Greys were holding many things back.

Bruce wondered if they ALSO may have known the Triloks were watching and didn’t want us to advance so quickly it would tip them off.

He added that if not for what they had been learning from watching the prisoner’s interactions with all these aliens, they might never have known or even guessed.

Monte told us they had been spending nearly as much time up at Ibera’s lately as they did at their ‘real’ jobs. Especially when our ‘prisoner friends’ and JB went in to get tested. Tumrik and his small crew didn’t seem to be holding anything back when asked technological questions! And now, with our friends going in to question the now ‘psychically nullified’ Helgordes.

Monte and Rex both told us that the only times they’d ever even heard of psychic nullifiers was from watching our prisoners! Now, Rex and Jeremy were planning to actively look for the boxes that housed them.

Ibera invited Greg and I to join with her, so we would be able to understand everything since we didn’t know any of the languages.

It’s a damn good thing we did, because when we heard the Helgordes talking, we didn’t understand a thing ... at first. It’s amazing how Sheila’s mind works as, slowly but surely over the next few minutes, their language seemed to just ‘come’ to us. I wondered if we were actually learning it, or being joined with Ibera, she was simply translating it for us.

In either case, both Greg and I were astonished.

I should mention that, while Monte, Sheila and Maggie were ‘joined’ with Annie, Max and JB, you would never have known it by watching the three of them here.

Ibera told us that what those pills actually did, was create like ‘super doppelgängers’ that actually bonded with Annie, Max and JB, becoming part of them. Monte, Sheila and Maggie, while still having to pay attention, could allow their doppelgängers to take over as they would have all of their most current thoughts AND abilities! The ‘super’ part meant that as soon as any one of the three saw what was going on and thereby had to update some information, it happened instantly.

What Annie, Max and JB didn’t realize yet, was that they were also joined with Ibera, through Monte. All of our East Coast family had joined together, thanks to the pills that Lars had given them before they went back.

Just like I had joined with Brad and Brenda.

Now, I planned on using the pills I had left to add Jamie, Sarah, Greg and maybe Charlene.

We watched our friends began questioning the Helgordes in their own language. Both Greg and I laughed like crazy when Monte assumed Annie’s body and coldcocked the first guy named Khalid. He was truly an evil motherfucker. When the second one also pissed them off, it was no surprise when Monte coldcocked that sucker, too.

What happened next made all of us gasp, when the other four Helgordes suddenly just up and disappeared.

Being joined like this, we could feel the trepidation that JB, Max and Annie felt as they each picked out one of the Helgordes and immediately teleported after them.

It turned out, that all four of them had teleported back to their own spacecraft.

Monte confirmed that all three of our friends had gone invisible, just prior to going after them. They were also on ‘private mode’ in their telepathic conversations. If not for being joined the way we were, Greg and I would’ve lost track of what was being said.

I’m glad that didn’t happen!

Monte told all three of them that they needed to stay incognito and get as much information as they could about what these assholes were up to. We discovered that there were only four more Helgordes on the ship. The four ‘escapees’ were anxiously explaining to their alligator-looking friends what they’d encountered.

They frantically told them that they were terrified having come up against a group of aliens who were able to strip their powers from them so easily.

The more we listened, it became obvious that General Zeid’s two remaining ships most likely didn’t have any other intruders on them. They lamented having to leave Khalid and the other guy, named Oman behind, but felt they needed to rejoin their battle group immediately to alert them to everything that happened.

Max/Sheila were watching the pilot, a guy named Hassan, intently, as he carefully began pushing buttons on the control panel he was standing in front of. On a different portal, we saw the ship go into hyper-warp and disappear!

Monte said, to all of us, “Oh damn, it’s not going to be long before we get out of range to allow us to teleport back to the Gromorik’s mothership.” He chuckled tightly, “I don’t suppose any of you know how to fly this thing, do you?”

Annie and Max told him they did have some ‘lessons’ about flying a Gromorik spaceship, but hadn’t actually flown one yet. They also said how they’d also been given a full course on Astral Navigation!

What our friends didn’t know, was that Monte was actually asking Ibera. Ibera giggled, “I don’t, but I’ll join with my friend Lars, and he just might?”

It was then that I felt JB wanting to connect with me. When Ibera confirmed that wouldn’t be a problem, I invited him in saying, “Why not, the more the merrier!”

He wanted to know if they were being watched by any or all of us.

I told him that the whole gang was here and that whatever happened, they weren’t going to be alone.

I had to laugh when JB secretly told Annie and Max we were all essentially on board with them. And, that Ibera had joined with Lars and felt that flying that spacecraft would not be a problem. And now with Max and Annie having had ‘lessons’ on flying and navigating a spaceship, should be able to get them up to speed rather quickly.

That seemed to bolster both their spirits and confidence.

Since Maggie was the absolute best at getting into someone’s head, she and JB dropped their invisibility and became visible. There were now only three people on the bridge so Monte took the neutralizer the he had in his waistband and blasted the other two that were on the bridge.

Just like when Chen and little Zeus opened that device, the effects were devastating. Both of them fell to the floor immediately, grabbing their heads in agony. Within seconds, they were both out cold. The pilot was freaking out and made the mistake of looking right into JB’s eyes.

We heard Maggie giggle, “I got your ass now, motherfucker! You will do everything I tell you, how I tell you and when I tell you, is that understood!?”

His eyes immediately fogged over and he nodded his head, slowly.

Maggie giggled, “Damn, that was way easier than I expected! I could feel him trying to get into my head, but it’s like he had no chance. I don’t think these characters are anywhere near as powerful as your alien friends thought.”

JB chuckled, “Um, my dear, I don’t know if you’re aware of it, but I was giving you my full power, times 10! Do you think that might have had anything to do with it?”

Maggie laughed, “Well YEAH, I wasn’t aware you were helping me that much! Do me a favor, when we try it on the next guy, let’s just do it, ‘au naturel’, okay? Remember, part of our mission here is to see how powerful they are. This poor bastard never stood a chance! JB, you really have no idea just how powerful you really are, do you?”

My friend was blushing up a storm, “Not really? I haven’t had my powers for very long, and when I threw that lightning bolt, unenhanced, at that Helgorde spaceship, it didn’t seem like at had any affect at all. And when it comes to mind control, I’m learning more now from being joined with you, than I ever would have on my own.”

Monte chuckled, “Your friend, Darren said the same thing when he and Maggie went to confront the assholes who were trying to stop the construction of our house! As far as the lightning, that ship probably had its full shields up when you threw the first one. I can’t be certain, but I have a feeling if you had thrown a couple more of the same kind at him, it would’ve taken out all of his systems, at least, causing him to fall like a stone.

“I was watching when Tumrik was testing you. The ones you were throwing into his testing unit were over twice as strong as the most powerful lightning that occurs naturally on earth! What he told you what he felt it would’ve been with your power times 10, is actually far less than he estimated. Had you thrown one of those at that mothership, that you and Max took out with the missile, I believe there would’ve been nothing left to crash to the ground!”

JB’s eyes were like pie plates as he grinned at Monte, nodding his head.

“Wow!” He chuckled, “So, if I have to use one against these Helgordes, who are on this ship, I should probably throttle it back?”

Monte chuckled, “Oh God, yes! Way back, nothing more powerful than the one you used to blow up that nullifying gizmo you did in the castle. We don’t want you punching a hole in the hull of this ship, or we’ll all be dead! Come on, let’s get the rest of these ugly bastards!”

Ibera was helping by showing them how to open all the doors.

They began by systematically checking all of the rooms that they came across. The first couple seemed to be storage rooms of some kind, but the third one must’ve been their communications room.

When the door opened, the operator was stunned looking into three grinning ‘alien’ faces. He immediately put his hands out, and I noticed Max getting psychically shoved backwards. In less than a second, Max put his hands out and the guy went flying across the room, crashing into a bulkhead. JB put his finger in his nose and the fool made the mistake of looking up at him.

Maggie smirked, “I got you now, asshole!”

It must not have been as easy as the first guy she did, since she was quiet for a few seconds before the grin returned to JB’s face. Maggie had to admit that this guy was much more difficult than the pilot. That being said, it was obvious our three friends were significantly more powerful than this Helgorde. She pushed the same command onto this radio operator as she did the pilot. That was at Monte’s suggestion, saying they might just need this guy to give out some false information before they were through.

I looked at Greg, who was grinning, before I said, “I’m glad to see that they’re all thinking ahead. Four down, four to go!”

Greg was just shaking his head, “I know it’s never going to happen, but it’s too bad I’ll never be able to show or even tell my friend Eddie about any of this. He is completely infatuated with science-fiction and this would utterly blow his mind!”

I nodded, “Well, never say never. I’ve become fairly good friends with Eddie and I really like and trust the guy. Who knows, since he’s already been up to your island with you, and obviously knows Ibera, maybe if he’s willing to accept the confidentiality agreement, it might be possible?”

Monte, who was sitting next to me chuckled, “I don’t know Ed very well, but if we can get out of here before the party’s over, I’ll talk to him some more tonight and let you guys know. I have a feeling, however, we might be a bit late in arriving.”

Greg squinted at him and asked, “But, since we’re up here at Ibera’s, I didn’t think time would be a problem?”

“Normally, you’d be right. However, since everything we’re watching right now is live and in the present, the time dilation is quite a bit different. Just before you and Darren joined us, everything you did took place in less than a few minutes back home. Now that we’re in the present, the time dilation is more like 1:5, one hour at home compared to five hours here. We’re not late yet, but I have a feeling our friends are nowhere near being finished yet, either.” Monte informed him. “And we really can’t leave until they are!”

Greg just shook his head, grinning at me, “I’m learning something new every minute! Darren, you have no idea how much I appreciate you guys letting me in on all of this. A few days ago, I felt totally lost, not to mention nearly worthless. I hope you all know that if there’s ever anything I can do to get involved and help you, all you have to do is ask!”

Monte chuckled while patting him on the shoulder, “Be careful what you wish for, my friend, we just may do that!”

I love the way my friend was now grinning at me. This morning, I could sense just how down he was about having missed so much, being ‘accidentally’ trapped in that wormhole. Now, he really did feel that he was part of a new team. I knew I could never fill the hole he had in his heart about Charlie and Bob being gone, but at least now, I hoped he would become my new, best friend.

I guess I wasn’t aware just how deeply Greg had been in my head, until I looked over and saw his eyes begin to get red. He put his arm around me and whispered, “Maybe not as close as Charlie and Bob, yet, but you’re getting awfully, awfully close!”

We refocused our attention back on the portal just in time to see the three of them entering a room at the end of a narrow hallway. It must’ve been the mess hall or dining room of the ship, since all four of them were sitting at a table with a plate of some kind of nasty looking food in front of them.

Annie and Max chuckled before yelling, “Now it’s our turn!”

We watched as the two that were facing them suddenly went flying out of their seats, crashing into a bulkhead about 20 feet behind them. The other two, with their backs to our friends, jumped up with terrified looks on their faces. When they turned around, one of them screamed, “How did you get here!??? How were you able to follow us?”

JB chuckled, “The same way you did!” He said in their language. “There’s nowhere you can hide that we can’t follow you! Now you know what it feels like when someone who really does have more power than you, exerts there will on you, right?”

That’s when I realized that these were the same four that had escaped.

It was curious the way the two that were still conscious were desperately trying to get into JB and Maggie’s heads. I could tell by the grin on JB’s face, however, they were only running deeper into Maggie’s mental web. Just as JB’s grin couldn’t have gotten any wider, we heard him say, “Now you two are under our control! You will do everything that we tell you and answer every question we ask with the absolute truth. Do you understand?”

In a much softer tone of their Helgorde voices they said, one after the other, “YES Master, I do!”

That was an interesting choice of words that alluded to the possibility that some Helgordes were undoubtedly more powerful than others.

They were told to sit down just before the other two began regaining consciousness.

Sheila giggled, saying she wanted a shot at one of them.

Now Max was grinning, being joined with Sheila, as Max and JB ‘tag teamed’ the remaining two.

I’m going to have to remember that Sheila must be darn near as good as Maggie when it comes to mental domination. I can only imagine the lessons that Max and JB must be getting, themselves, being joined with these two. When they were finished, Maggie told us that Sheila used a somewhat different method, that was actually scarier than the one that she used.

When Sheila finished with someone, she knew their entire life’s story, too!

It was obvious that both of them were equally as effective.

Now that they had all of the Helgordes under their control, they had to figure out where they were and just how far away they were from the Gromorik’s mothership on the ‘Crystal’ planet.

They forced the pilot to call up a star chart, so they could see where they were in relation to where they had been. Communicating in ‘private mode’ they felt that they were already well beyond the range of their teleportation. They had already traveled more than half of a light year from where they started.

They forced the pilot to turn around and head back, at best available speed.

When Ibera calculated how far they had already traveled, she figured they were indeed almost half a light-year away and had to be going nearly Hyper-Warp six. When JB asked how fast they were traveling now, at max speed, he was told they were at Warp eight.

Ibera confirmed that was significantly faster than even the fastest Gromorik spaceship. JB looked at the pilot and asked, “Just where did you guys get this ship from, anyway? We know that your people didn’t build it!”

Now all six of them were looking at each other, very nervously.

JB scowled and yelled, “THAT wasn’t a request, you butt ugly mother fuckers! You will tell me the truth or I’ll kill all of you right now!”

The pilot stammered, “We stole it from a race known as the Shallocks. They live in the Andromeda galaxy. It is one of their fastest interceptors.”

JB nodded, then grinned, “How far away is the fleet that you were attached to?”

He only hesitated for a second before dropping his head and saying, “I am not sure, exactly. We were told to follow the three fleeing vessels back to their home planet so we could make plans on how to take them over. We are supposed to contact them on subspace frequency 2117 with that information. Then they will give us their location to meet back up with them.”

“Were you aware that the planet that those three ships went to, wasn’t their home planet?” JB asked.

“Not at first, it wasn’t until we figured out how the scanners on this ship worked before we could tell that there was very little life on that planet. Because of that, we used that General to try and determine who it was that they had met up with.

“We found it quite curious that they had attacked the lone ship that was on the surface of the planet. It wasn’t until Khalid was able to infiltrate that general’s brain that we discovered there were actually three different species of beings on that small planet. We were hoping to get everyone there under our control as discovering where all of their home planets were, would be an extreme coup to our Ultimate Master.”

JB looked puzzled, “Weren’t you monitoring all of the communication that was going on during that battle?”

The pilot was looking sheepishly at his friends before shaking his head, “It would not have done us any good, since we didn’t understand any of the languages that were being spoken.”

Annie started giggling, then really freaked them out when she asked, in Monte’s voice, “Don’t you fools have any kind of a translating device?”

“No, we’ve never had the need for any. When we use our superior mental powers on someone, it doesn’t matter what language they speak. Normally, before we attack someone, we jump into their ship, make ourselves look like them and get one of them under our control. Then, we force them to do all the talking for us. It usually works quite well!”

The way Monte and his friends were grinning at us and shaking their heads, was comical.

Even Greg picked up on what was going on and said, “Wow! These guys must be way behind the Gromoriks, Triloks and Greyzarians when it comes to technology. What this idiot is telling us is they have to physically run across someone before they have any idea what’s being said over open communications? It’s hard to believe they don’t have any kind of translating device, like all three of your new ‘alien’ friends have.”

Rex nodded, “Yeah, and the rumor we heard about most of their spaceships being stolen is also probably true. Something tells me that we might be able to simply scare or intimidate these ignorant, simpleminded fuckers into getting the hell out of our galaxy!? It’s obvious that the six remaining Helgordes are scared shitless with everything that has just happened to them. I suggest we have our friends put the fear of God in them and tell their superiors they might want to think about getting the hell out of our galaxy while they still can.”

It was obvious that JB, Max and Annie also heard everything that we’d just been talking about.

We watched Annie go up to the pilot, push him out of the way and start fiddling with the buttons on the control panel, eyeing the monitor closely. JB chuckled and asked her what she was doing.

She giggled, “I have no idea! But, this nice Lars guy is in my head and he wants to check some things out?”

Our ‘Monte’ was chuckling and telling us what Lars was doing.

As Annie/Lars kept rapidly pushing buttons, she was also reading a small monitor. We learned that Lars was trying to get a handle on the intricacies of what this spaceship could do and assess the technology of the ones who built it. He was hoping they had used ‘universal’ symbols for the most important control functions.

Annie’s smile reflected Lars’ joy when he said they did! He added that whoever these ‘Shallocks’ were, they were most likely slightly ahead of both the Gromoriks and Greys when it came to propulsion technology.

Lars let out a ‘whoop’ just before saying that he had just found the key to understanding the Shallocks’ language.

That would make discovering everything else about this spaceship, much easier now.

While he and Annie continued searching through all of the ship’s systems, Max and JB were consulting with all of us about what they should do next.

JB said that his first thought, now that they had the Helgordes under their control, was to simply send them back to meet up with their brethren. Then, use a hard ‘push’ to impart a dire message, urging that they leave our galaxy and to never return.

We all agreed that that would be a reasonably good idea and couldn’t really see any downside, except for the fact they would still have this spaceship and it was perhaps one of their fastest and most advanced ones.

Monte suggested that it might be a better idea to get just close enough to the Helgordes’ battle group, then force our captives to teleport back to their mothership. After doing that, then simply put the ship into maximum warp and disappear, knowing that the Helgordes could never keep up with it. He also felt that if they could turn this spaceship over to his earthly, Greyzarian friends, they would see it is a very important and valuable token.

Then he chuckled, “The only problem would be, I’d have a hell of a time explaining where I got it from! If I were to try and do that, I’d be forced to reveal, to at least the Greyzarians themselves, that I was much more than just a ‘human’ ambassador. At the moment, they don’t even suspect that anyone on Earth has the kind of psychic abilities that we have. And, from all of my interactions with them and now hearing everything about how those abilities scare both the Triloks and the Gromoriks, I can’t help but think that would probably scare the hell out of them too. The thing is, depending upon what Lars discovers, this ship could very well help my ‘earth friends’ design a new ship that they’ve been trying to develop. They might even be much more willing to give us a whole lot more of their ‘Top Secret’ technology, that we’re currently not getting.”

Ibera giggled, “Well, Lover, you know you could always push a confidentiality spell on them, don’t you? That or have Maggie help you get into, whoever it is you have to tells’ head, then, simply make him forget what you end up telling him about how you got your hands on this?”

Just then, Lars, who had also been in on the conversation, added, “I hope I’m not speaking out of turn, but from what I’ve discovered, the people that built this ship also have extremely strong gravity. I can see where further studies of this ship might send you in directions you never could have foreseen. I also wanted to let you know, that it’s cloaking system is far more advanced than anything I’ve seen with the exception of our own spacecraft. If you guys could just find some safe place to park it, and leave it cloaked, no one would ever find it! This ship uses an interesting combination of nuclear fusion and Crystal technology, and with the exception of tri-lithium, you wouldn’t have a hard time getting fuel for it.”

When Greg started chuckling, Monte asked if he’d like to add something.

He just grinned, “Well, you know ... I just h a p p e n to have about 40 acres that I don’t think we have any plans for. You could always park it there until you figure out what to do with it?”

Suddenly, the entire room got quiet as everyone was now staring at Greg, deep in thought.

Monte’s eyes lit up and he slapped Greg on the back, “Damn buddy, that would be perfect! I can envision scenarios where I could even convince my special group that ‘someone’ just discovered it, so I wouldn’t have to explain where it came from. Now the only problem is, that would mean that our two prisoners and JB would end up back on Earth. I’m not certain how difficult it would be to convince them to get back in Ibera’s wormhole and go back to their island?”

Ibera gave him a hug, “I’ll bet it wouldn’t be as hard as you think. That is, unless JB really wanted to go back to Earth, permanently. You could even talk to Lenny and possibly get Annie and Max special dispensation so they wouldn’t have to face any charges. You have to admit, from everything you’ve seen, both of them have earned it?”

We knew they were getting closer to the ‘Crystal’ planet, so whatever was going to be decided had to be done quickly.

I personally felt that it would be cool to have a spaceship parked in our backyard!

We had that huge area just north of where we were building the house that would be perfect, since it was just rocks, and was perfectly flat. If the ship was invisible, nobody would ever know it was there.