Chapter 26: The Enemy Is Coming!

Around the base, the Marines gathered up the Crytherians as they surrendered. They herded them into the large underground hanger. While Jen and her squad of Marines moved through the base to the hanger bay, they passed other Marines gathering up papers, computers and any other intel that they could find. Walking out into the bay, she saw one of their shuttles, where Marines were herding four Crytherians into the bay and put them into chains. Walking up the shuttle ramp, Jen saw Lynn standing there. Walking over, she gave her friend a hug.

"Hi, Lynn, are we ready to go?"

Lynn stood on the ramp watching the Crytherians being shackled. She saw Jenny and three women come out another door, wearing what looked like sheets around their bodies. The four headed towards the shuttle ramp. Lynn wrapped her arms around Jen.

"Hi, Jen. Yes, just as soon as soon as we get the prisoners loaded we will lift off. Nice toga by the way." Looking at the three women again, she asked, "Who are your friends?"

Jen blushed at her friend's comments and said, "Thanks, it was all I could find, the bastards took our clothes. These are fellow prisoners I freed. They helped me fight these slavers or I couldn't have gotten out of there. I was not sure if you would be able to get to me in time, so I freed myself from the cell they were holding me in." Glancing over at the women, she continued, "Let me call them over, and I will introduce you to them."

Jen summoned the three women over to her and she introduced them to Lynn, "Lynn this is Elizabeth Stratton and her twin daughters Katrina and Virginia. They were kidnapped several days ago from the Vegas area."

The three women said hello to Lynn, and Elizabeth turned back to Jenny and asked "Jen, can we get out of here, I would like to get my daughters home as soon as possible if that is okay. They told us that the authorities think we are dead, that we were killed in a car accident."

Elizabeth hugged her two daughters to her, holding them protectively as she glared at the Crytherians. She watched them as the Marines herd them on to the strange ship.

"You know Jen, I just hope your captain put them up against the wall, and blows their fucking heads off."

One of the Crytherians stopped and looked at the human woman as he heard her comments about them. He glared at the women in defiance, which made Elizabeth even angrier.

"Yeah, you son of a bitch, I hope he does. If you get a trial, I will gladly testify as to what you were planning on doing to us, since you bastards bragged about it. How dare you try to sell us as sex slaves you son of bitch, my babies are only fourteen years old and I am their mother. You had no right to put us though what you did. You took us from my husband, their father, who loves them and me with all his heart. We had a life that we loved; now it is shattered because of you. Whatever gave you the right to kidnap us and do what you did to us? Shit, I shouldn't even wait to let their Captain do it! I will kill you bastards myself right now."

Reaching into her wrap, she pulled out the pistol Jenny gave her, and started to aim it at the creature's head. Jenny's hand came down on the pistol and twisted the weapon out of Elizabeth's hand.

"No, let my brother handle these scumbags."

Jen guided the three women up to the passenger deck, and got them tucked away. Behind her, a Marine pushed the Crytherians up the ramp and into the back of the shuttle where they secured them.

Jen knelt by Elizabeth and said, "We will get justice for all of us." Looking at Virginia and Katrina, she said, "Take care of your mom, she needs you both, right now."

Both girls looked at Jen and in unison, they replied, "We will, Jenny, and thank you for rescuing us." The girls leaned into their mother and held her in their arms.

Jenny grinned as the two girls answered in the same way as Tammy and Ted.

"Good girls! Now, I need to go do some work, and we will be taking off soon, so I will say this to you now. You are all in for an adventure. The whole world is going to change for the three of you. If you decide to stay with us, I promise you will not regret it. If you decide you would rather go home, I will make it my personal business to see to it that you get there."

Getting up she patted each of the girls on a shoulder and walked back to where the prisoners were under guard. Standing there, she let her eyes wander over them, and came to rest on the one who was going to say something to them when Elizabeth was getting angry enough to kill them.

"You know, you owe me you bastard. I should have let her kill every fucking one of you, but instead you will stand trial in our courts."

Commander Vkranske watched the human woman as she walked towards them wearing a sheet around her body. She stood there looking at them. Her eyes came to rest on him and he was shocked at her words.

He cleared his throat and said, "It was our job to cull you humans, we could have taken more, but we only took a few from each area of your planet. We had a right to do what we did, your United Nations signed the contract, and now you have broken the contract. It will be worse now that you have broken it. Instead of a few tens of thousand that are taken each year, we will rape your planet completely."

Jen staggered at the words the creature said.

"I don't know what contract you are talking about, but we are humans, not slaves, nor food, and damn well we are not sex toys for your pleasure. We will get our people back! You had better pray we do, or your planet will suffer far worse than what you have put ours through. I so swear it."

Jen turned and left them to talk amongst themselves and went to the flight deck.

"Lynn, get us the hell out of here, I need a shower after talking to those slime buckets."

On the flight deck, Captain Lynn Hanson was going through her flight list, checking instruments and her screens, for any problems when Jenny walked in.

"I heard your conversation with them and I agree, I need one too, just listening to them makes you feel so dirty. One thing, if it is true about somebody on Earth signed a contract; this will destroy every government on the planet. Sit down," Lynn said as she pointed at a chair.

"I know and that is what worries me the most. We still need more people, we need more ships and we need to mass produce them like we did in World War Two." Jen sat down in the spare chair Lynn pointed out, and fastened herself into it, as Lynn started the take-off procedure. Within minutes, they were lifting off and heading for the ship. She looked down on the disguised base, and could see where the landscape was shattered into a field of debris, stretching for almost ten miles.

"Shit! He really did blow up a mountain! I need to talk with my brother about his temper."

Down below she watched, as a transport vehicle picked up three of the mechs, "Lynn, do you have any word on any casualties?"

Lynn pressed one of her screens and lines of words scroll up on it, "Yes, Ma'am, you could talk to your brother about his temper, but at the time, I believe it was warranted. He was worried about you; at least as much as Ted was when he launched the ship without orders. As to casualties, we have three wounded, no fatalities, and one damaged mech."

Jen looked over at Lynn when she heard her words, "Damn, Ted was worried that much to disregard Ken's orders? Whose mech was it that was damaged?"

Looking at the screen again, she responded to Jenny's question, "Matt's mech had some minor damage or that is what was reported. The wounded are three Marines caught by surprise when they entered the Crytherian female dorms. Yes he was, I think Ted loves you, but just won't say it."

"Thanks Lynn, I am glad Matt is ok, and that we have no dead. As for Ted, I guess I will have to ask him out since he hasn't asked me." Jen continued to look out the front window, as the shuttle flew up and the ship came into view. Her breath was literally taken away as she saw the ship in space. Sunlight reflected off of her white hull in a dazzling rainbow of color from her view ports, "God she looks beautiful there. I wish I had been on board for the launching."

"So do I Jen, but if you had been, we wouldn't have known about these slavers." Lynn adjusted the pitch and guided the shuttle towards the stern, where the main landing bay doors were slowly opening for them.

"True Lynn and we will do something about their activities on our planet." Jen remembered the Crytherians threat and continued, "I also think they only understand one thing and that's power and how it is used. Which I pray we don't have to do, I don't want to be remembered as one of those who destroyed a world." Jen watched as the shuttle flared and landed in the bay. Un-strapping herself she got up, "Good flight, Lynn."

"Thanks, Jenny. Thank you for bringing me in on this, I may have given up some things, but you have given me the universe."

Jen looked at one of her best friends and replied, "You are more than welcome. Now go see your love."

Jen walked out the door and onto the passenger deck. Gathering the three women to her, she led them off of the ship to seee her mother and father standing at the door with Amy.

"Ladies, I will be right back for you." Running across the deck, she hugged her parents and started crying as her mom brushed her tears away, "Momma! I was so afraid I wouldn't see you ever again."

Martha stood there hugging Jen with her husband's arms around both of them, "We are here baby. We will always be here for you."

Lynn finished her shutdown and climbed out of the pilot's seat. Picking up her flight pad, she followed Jenny out of the ship. She stopped at the top of the ramp as she looked at her friend hug her parents and tears ran down her face as she speaks quietly to herself.

"At least you have your parents Jenny, and may you always have them there for you."

Jen looked up at her from within her mother's arms, "Amy, I want to say thank you for coming for me."

Amy watched her friend get comforted by her family and felt happiness for her.

"Commander, you are crew and I would do anything I can to save you. But more importantly, you are my friend, and that is what friends do for each other when they are in trouble."

In a whisper, she added, "I wish mine had done the same for me."

Just as fast as the whisper came, it was gone from Amy's memory.

"Therefore, now that you are back, first stop is medical. The Captain wants you to have a full physical in case they gave you something you don't know about."

Jen looked at Amy when she heard her whisper and before she could say anything Amy was off onto something else.

"Amy, what did you say?"

Amy looked at Jen and replied, "The Captain wishes you to have..."

Jen shook her head, "No, before that you said something else."

Amy scanned her memory and said, "I said it is what friends are for." She looked at Jen shake her head. In confusion, she said, "What did you think I said?"

"Amy, I only caught part of it but it was something like. 'I wish mine had done the same.'" Jen looked at her friend, "What did you mean by that?"

"Commander, I have no recollection of what you are saying. I will run some more diagnostics on my programming to find out, but in the meantime, who are your friends?"

Jen looked at Amy, "Oh, I am sorry."

Turning, she summoned Elizabeth, Katrina and Virginia over to her, watching the three women came over and stop beside them.

"Ladies, I would like to introduce you to some people I love. This is John and Martha Thompson, my parents, and the young woman standing here," Jen gestures to Amy, "is Amy, the ships AI, and the one who is responsible of rescuing us from the Crytherians."

Amy shook her head in a negative reaction to Jen's words, "Actually, it was the crew who rescued you. All I did was supply the transportation."

"No, Amy, you played a very big role, but we will talk about it later."

Looking at the Stratton's she said, "We better get to medical before the CMO gets riled. Mom, Dad I will see you later."

Jen led the three women out into the hall and into one of the larger transport tube cars.

"Main medical please."

The tube car shot through the ship and deposited them outside medical. Walking in, she saw Molly attending to a wounded Marine.

Molly looked up and a smile brightened her face as she saw Jenny standing there with three other women.

"Jen, I am glad you're ok. I will check on you and your friends in a minute." Looking down at the woman she was working on, the Marine said something to Molly.

"Yes, that is her."

Looking at Jen standing at the door talking to the three women, she called her over to her.

"Jen, can you come over here, someone wants to meet and say something to you."

Jen looked over at Molly's words. Turning to Elizabeth, she said, "I'll be right back."

Jen walked over to Molly and the Marine on the bed.

"What's up Molly?"

Molly took the Marines hand in hers, and said, "Jen, this is my cousin Jamie O'Neil, she wanted to say something to you."

Molly stepped back so Jen could move in closer.