Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 51862 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 207(@250wpm)___ 173(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51862 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 207(@250wpm)___ 173(@300wpm)
BANG BANG BANG
On the afternoon of the third day, a panicked hammering at the door rouses us from post-coital slumber.
“ALIEN MAN! There’re soldiers approaching the village on foot, and I think one of those alien ships is up there too, starting its vacuum!”
That brings me out of bed in a single bound.
“Stay there,” I order Emily.
When I step outside, the day is deeply overcast and stormy. Sure enough, up in the clouds, the outline of a Wrathelder vessel can be seen casting a large triangular shadow across the town. But that is not the entirety of our worries. Up on the barricades, I see that a column of military vehicles is likewise wending its way through the wastelands.
“What do we do!?”
The humans are on the verge of panic, and for good reason. There is only one thing we can do. I had hoped to stay here peacefully until my brothers got around to looking for me, but that plan just expired.
With hostile alien ships above us, and hostile human forces approaching on the ground and in the air, we no longer have any choice.
“Everybody into the ship! Take what you can and go now!”
We do not have a formal evacuation plan, but the villagers are not, contrary to recent discussions, actually stupid.
“Emily, take what you can, and we have to go,” I say. “Now.”
“But quarantine…”
There is no time to argue. I can already tell she intends to try to remain behind in the interests of saving her fellow villagers from what might or might not be some kind of city plague.
I pick her up, throw her over my shoulder and carry her up into the bridge of the ship.
“Don’t move,” I tell her.
“I need my ingredients! I need my…”
“Don’t. Move.”
Over the next few minutes, people rush from their homes with suitcases and bags, carrying all manner of strange items. I do not limit them in what they choose to bring. The ship is large enough to stow the entire village several times over. The only limit is time.
I focus my attention on getting the ship ready to leave. It was not designed to be manned by one pilot, though most of these ships have the ability to be handled solo under emergency conditions.
Of course, I have to go back for the wounded human girl as well, which means I must leave the bridge briefly.
“If you move,” I tell Emily. “I will spank you.”
She looks at me with that shocked and wounded expression. She does not like to be punished. I hope the promise of such will keep her where she is supposed to be.
It does not.
By the time I return with the sick human and settle her into the sick bay, then return to the bridge, it is empty.
Emily must have slipped out.
“Don’t be mad!” She calls out from behind me, just as I am getting mad. “I had to get supplies and things. It’s to keep everyone healthy. I have a job to do, Zain.”
“No. You don’t. You are my pet, and you will be obedient to me. I will deal with you when this crisis is over.”
She sits down, sulking.
Fifteen minutes after the initial call to evacuate, the villagers, along with what seems to me to be a fairly random assortment of items and hopefully some provisions, are aboard the Wrathelder vessel.
The one above is somewhat neutral for the moment. They are clearly yet to calibrate their extraction device, and with the villagers aboard my ship, there’s no way to suck them out anyway. They won’t want to descend into the atmosphere. They’ll wait for us to come up and out. That means all we have to worry about is the hostile human force.
By this time, the advance guard of what appears to be a small human army is approaching as the ship’s systems are winding up. I ensure that the shielding is active and then, for something of a joke, I simply let the ship sit. I want these little humans with their big tanks and such to feel how very ineffectual they are. I want to teach them a lesson.
Humans are arrogant, and I cannot whip them all one by one, so this will have to suffice as a means to blunt their egos.
Of course, the first thing they do upon getting into range is deploy weaponry. Their bombardment explodes harmlessly against the shields, which are designed to take atmospheric damage. Their artillery is like a gnat attempting to bite an elephant.
I laugh as I finally initialize take off, sending the ship skyward. Wrathelder’s potential weapons will not be so inconsequential, and I need to put some distance between us and them. I am hoping that they are more interested in reclaiming their ship than shooting me down personally.
I feel so very triumphant, right up until I realize that the other ship was not interested in the villagers. As we rise from the planet’s surface, the human army, small vehicles, and armed soldiers are being sucked up and into the belly of the Wrathelder freighter. This is bad. I just handed our enemies a fully trained and armed contingent of apex human fighters ready to do battle.