Chapter 4

Ben and Sarah had only taken minutes to remove David from his camp and re-settle him back in his own cave. That meant that there was still some time before Adam and his crew arrived at the camp and Ben thought it might usefully be used in finding and speaking to Beckie. She was the only other person in the settlement who had heard the voice of God and Ben was hoping to keep it that way.

They found her walking towards the house that she shared with David and their younger children and Ben let her enter the house before speaking to her.

Beckie had just replicated a beaker of chilled water and sat down when 'God' spoke to her.

"Beckie, this is the Lord your God. There are some men approaching the camp who are determined to kill David. I have taken David away to a place where he will be safe, but you should alert your people and make sure no one does anything stupid."

Beckie took a few moments to recover from her surprise and then she set the beaker down and dropped onto her knees with her head bowed.

"Forgive me for questioning you Lord, but why would anyone want to kill David?" she said out loud.

"It's alright my child. The men are led by your natural father. He has never given up searching for you and David and he has thirty years of vengeance in his heart," Ben answered.

Beckie's gasp let Ben and Sarah know that she clearly remembered what had happened when she had been much younger.

"Are we in danger?" Beckie asked.

"Adam is unpredictable and has shown himself to be unstable in the past. I doubt if he will recognise you though and he has no reason to harm any of your tribe. So long as no one antagonises him, everyone should be fine. Now, go quickly and warn the camp, Adam will be here soon."

"Thank you for continuing to watch over us, Lord," said Beckie and then she was up and out of the house in a flash, grabbing her own rifle as she did so.

Ben and Sarah were impressed with what happened next. Beckie pressed a button on the wall just beside the front door of her house and a siren began wailing out over the camp. In response to the siren people began running to and fro in what at first looked like a panic. Ben and Sarah quickly saw that it was quite the opposite however.

Those without weapons were rushing to pick them up and very quickly the entire camp had formed itself into a defensive perimeter. The tribe seemed to be organised into teams of four and the water twins could see that each team was balanced in terms of age, with members from eight or nine years old up to those in their late twenties or early thirties.

The youngest children were swept up by several teams and rushed to one particular house.

Ben guessed that this was a predetermined drill that had been practiced before. It had taken barely five minutes from the point that Beckie had sounded the siren to each member of the tribe being in their allotted place.

"It seems that their love of weapons has stretched into the study of tactics. That was pretty impressive, don't you think?" Ben asked Sarah.

"Absolutely! Way to go Beckie and the Celestialites!" replied Sarah.

They didn't have to wait much longer before Adam and his men arrived on the scene. Two hover vehicles approached in full view of the camp and Ben immediately became suspicious. He quickly raised his perspective until he could look down on things from a little higher up. From there, the twins saw the third vehicle approaching more stealthily, using the cover of the hill.

Ben dropped until they were as close as possible to Beckie and he whispered to her.

"Beckie, there's a third vehicle and it's trying to outflank you by circling the hill."

The voice of God, even so quiet, startled Beckie again. Her adrenaline was in full flow and she was naturally jumpy. God's words were clear nonetheless and she acted on them without question.

The siren was turned off and she shouted.

"Squad seven — to the rear to stop any possible flanking movement!"

A squad of four of the tribe rushed to carry out her order.

"Remember Beckie, don't let them do anything stupid that might get Adam mad," said Ben.

"Listen to me everybody! I want you to hold your fire until I give the order or until we are fired upon. Is that clear?"

There were cries of 'affirmative from each of eight teams of four.

"Let me do the talking!" shouted Beckie.

The two hover vehicles came to a halt about fifty yards away from the settlement and Adam and twenty or so men piled out. It was clear that these men had no military training, as they remained bunched up and standing once they had exited from the vehicles. An easy target if Beckie had wanted to let her people loose.

Beckie had a vague recollection of the man who walked a few paces in front of the others before calling out.

"First of all, we mean you people no harm. We have come for a specific purpose and once we've got what we want we'll leave!" Adam shouted. "We've come for the man called David. Hand him over to us now and we will spare the rest of you!"

"If you're telling the truth — why do you have another squad of men trying to sneak up on us from the rear?" called out Beckie.

Adam's focus snapped towards where the voice had come from. All of the Celestialites were under cover except her, but she was only yards from a berm that she could dive behind if necessary.

"Lillian? Is that you Lillian? It's me, your father! I've come to rescue you!"

"So much for him not recognising her!" commented Sarah

Adam's voice betrayed the emotion the man was feeling and he took a few steps closer, as if being drawn to her.

"My name is Beckie and David is my mate. There is no Lillian here!" she called back, her spine stiffening with pride as she pledged herself so publicly to her mate.

"What foolishness is this? Come on Lillian, it's time to return home to your mother. I know the past thirty years must have been a terrible ordeal, but you're safe now! I'm here to rescue you!"

"Lillian! It's me, Isaac, your twin. It's time to come home. Tell us where we can find David so we can deal with him like the dog he is! Come here, you belong with us!"

Beckie remained calm. She couldn't deny herself that the appearance of Isaac pulled at something deep inside her. The man standing only fifty or so yards away really was her twin and there was some part of her that reacted to that. Still she kept her resolve and chose God, David and the tribe.

"I don't belong with you! I belong first to the Lord our God, second to my mate David and third to this tribe — the Celestialites!" she shouted defiantly.

"We know you've been raped, we know how you must have been treated. Return now to the love of your family!" Adam tried again.

"What are you talking about? There has been no rape here and the Celestialite family give me all the love I need," Beckie replied.

"I've had enough of this. Seize her and search the camp until you find David," Adam ordered.

"Warning shots only!" cried Beckie.

The Stellarite men started forward only to find the dirt at their feet kicking up. It was clear that shots had hit the ground in front of them, but eerily no sounds of gunfire could be heard.

"Don't come any closer or we will be forced to fire on you. I suggest you return to your vehicles and leave," Beckie called out.

Adam turned his back on the camp and slid his communication unit from his belt. Using his body to hide what he was doing, he contacted the commander of the third vehicle.

"Kenneth, this is Adam. I'm authorising you to engage and kill these people as soon as you're in position." Returning the unit to his belt, he spoke softly to the men around him. "On my command I want you all to spread out and find cover. It's time to stop talking and show these people we mean business. On my count then — three, two, one, GO!"

Ben and Sarah watched Adam and his squad split up and head for whatever cover they could find. Things weren't going at all as Ben had expected.

"Fire at will and shoot to kill!" called out Adam. "Make sure you don't shoot Lillian."

Beckie heard his orders and responded in kind.

"You heard him, let's show these idiots how to fight. Battle terms of engagement are in force," she called, even as she leapt for cover of her own.

Ben and Sarah were appalled to hear Adam give the order to kill the Celestialites.

"The man has gone mad, completely mad! You have to do something Ben, there's going to be a bloodbath!" urged Sarah.

Ben was thinking furiously. The engagement was playing out below them and he could see that the Celestialites were demonstrating just how superior their training was. Adam and his men were effectively pinned down and unable to move.

A look to the rear showed the third vehicle pulling to a stop and the ten men tumbling from it. These men didn't know how badly their comrades were doing or how good their opponents were. Without any training, the commander led his squad at a rush for the nearest of the houses only to find himself flat on his back with an agonising pain in his side.

Looking down the man saw his body armour had been shredded and blood and the raw flesh of a wound were visible. He realised he had been shot.

"I've been hit! Shit, I've been hit. Help me someone, help me."

When he turned his head he saw another man lying beside him. He wasn't moving and his eyes were open, but lifeless. The remainder of his squad were nowhere to be seen, having turned tail when their commander had gone down.

"Ben! People are dying. You have to do something and do it now!"

The sight of the two men being shot had frozen Ben's thinking, but Sarah snapped him out of it. He reached down with his mental strength and lifted the injured commander. He did it much slower than normal so that both sides could see the man rising up into the air and then float over to the hover vehicle before descending until he was once more on the ground. The sight seemed to halt all thoughts of shooting on both sides as all of them watched in amazement.

Once he had the man out of harms way, Ben searched for Adam and focused on him. Adam panicked as he felt himself being lifted from behind the wall where he had taken cover. He struggled, but there was nothing he could do to stop himself from rising up into the air.

"Don't shoot!" cried Beckie to her squads.

Adam found himself hovering fifty feet up in the air above the Celestialite camp. He could see everything clearly, including the fact that several men were down, one of them almost certainly dead.

Ben held him above the very centre of the camp and then used his 'God' voice to speak so that everyone could hear him.

"Adam, I am the Lord your God. I command you to end this fighting now and explain to me why you are attacking these people!"

Adam was visibly shaking, but he was nothing if not courageous as he had shown even at an early age when he had fought and killed a mountain lion. He was unrepentant even though he was suspended high up in the air and apparently on the receiving end of God's wrath.

"Who are you? Who's doing this?" he shouted.

"I've already told you, I am the Lord your God. Who else would have the power to lift you from the ground like this? Now, order your men to lay down their weapons and return to their vehicles or I really will lose my temper. You don't want that."

Adam remained silent. He was frantically trying to work out what was going on. Not for a second did he believe in God, but he was stumped for any other explanation for his current predicament.

"Very well, you leave me no option," thundered Ben.

His own anger at Adam's actions and continuing obduracy were translated into mental strength. One by one he flicked over the men of Adam's squad and launched them through the air in the direction of their hover craft. Adam could only hang in the air helplessly, watching his twenty men being flung around like rag dolls.

The men were unsurprisingly in a panic and after slamming to the ground in full view of Beckie's squads, they bundled into the vehicles and sped away — leaving Adam behind. The men from the third vehicle dragged their injured commander on board and then they too sped away, leaving their dead comrade lying face down in the dirt.

"What are you going to do with him now?" Sarah asked.

"Send him home — that seems like the best option, don't you think?"

"I'm not taking bets that he simply won't try again. Maybe you'll need to give him a harsher lesson."