Time Flight – Chapter 7

Jaclyn woke up from her slumber to find out that she was suspended in a bubble that looked much like the shielding that protected Ligell. She also noticed that Gerald was beside her, in his own respective bubble.

“Jacky?” he called.

“Yeah?”

“Where are we?”

“I don’t know. The whole room’s darkened. I can only see you. We’re trapped in these force fields though.”

Gerald sighed, “We’re not dead.”

“No, we’re not,” she realized. Touching her chest, she also realized that her would was completely gone. “Are you still hurt?”

He felt no wound on his chest either, “No. This is strange.”

“Yeah,” she agreed. Turning her attention to any point in the room, she yelled, “Who are you? Where are we?”

Both kept quiet for a while to observe any changes in sound. There was a faint sound of footsteps to their right and they turned. A door opened, allowing some illumination to enter the room. Growing louder, the footsteps became further identified with a silhouette. It was nothing like they have seen before. Earth has never seen any alien life before, and the very silhouette made both pilots uneasy.

Jaclyn subconsciously reached for Gerald’s hand but she was alarmed by the touch of the force fields. The shocking sound of the colliding fields grabbed Gerald’s attention of her attempted action. Thoughts darted through his mind about Rebecca, and then about Jaclyn. However, his thoughts of Jaclyn were more pleasant.

The silhouette had reached them face-to-face, but no one said a word for a moment. It was just then when the silhouette spoke that it struck Gerald and Jaclyn that they were not among a human. Its voice was rough, had a slight buzz to it, and sounded somewhat lizard-like.

“Lieutenant Commanders Andark and Chance I believe?”

Gerald replied, “Yes.”

“Good, you were not harmed in our attack.”

“What attack?”

“We fired on you with artificial lasers that created an image of an explosion around you pod.”

Gerald was full of questions, “Why did you do that? Why not kill us?”

“Because we do not want to kill you.”

“Why?”

“We’re on your side.”

Gerald was filled with even more questions, but this time, Jaclyn spoke.

“What do you mean? This is a Dironian ship, right?”

“Yes, it is. However, we are renegades and the Dironians are unaware of that as of this moment.”

Gerald asked, “Now, what makes you think we’re gonna believe you?”

“Why haven’t I destroyed you?”

“You want prisoners?”

“No. I want friendship with your nation and allies.”

“Is that why our wounds are patched up?”

“Yes.”

“Our allies are the rest of the world. We are merely hoping you Dironians do not wipe out our nations for the hell of it,” Jaclyn stated.

“Well, there are no armed guards in this room, and I am not armed. I’m going to let you out of your force fields, and if you don’t believe me then, I hope you have fun killing me.”

The fields disintegrated from their view and they both stood up. It felt as if they did not stand in days as their legs almost buckled.

The silhouette just stood in front of them, anticipating anything. Neither pilot lunged in attack.

“Alright, what’s going on?” Jaclyn asked.

The silhouette replied, “We are a force of twenty Dironian ships, and we want to become allied with your people. The reason Diron 8 has so much technology at hand is my people. We came from a planet in search of the most suitable and similar planet to inhabit after ours was depleted of its resources. After years of searching and living on crammed ships, we decided that destroying an entire race just to get what we needed was good enough. We did not want to spend years of tedious searching just to find a perfect planet that was already occupied. However, we offered help to those of the Antarctica nation in return for occupation of the planet. We were the ones who supplied their advanced weaponry and machines.

“My crew and I were against this decision so we secretly took your side within the first year of the war. Now, I have recruited twenty ships of our main fleet to join in the fight against the Dironians. We’ve just been waiting for a time to contact you Humans.”

“Wait, you said you’re from a different planet?” Gerald asked.

“Yes. A planet called Quarum and we are a race called Murak.”

“It’s gonna take us some time to adjust to this. Partly that we’re not prisoners and to the appearance of your race.”

“I understand. You won’t feel completely out of place though, there are many Humans aboard this vessel. In the meantime, would you like to go to your quarters?”

“Well, we would rather go back to our ship,” Jaclyn requested.

“Not just yet, if they see us, violence will be inevitable. We need to ease our approach and we’re gonna need your help.”

“I see, well, to our quarters then, mister?”

“Captain Ek’kat. This way.”