I grab her body before it hits the floor. She’s a beautiful woman. She reminds me of someone from long ago. The memory is almost there. I can almost touch it, but like so many of my memories, it’s just out of reach. I can’t get to it, no matter how hard I try.

I sling her under one of my arms, carrying her easily. I kneel by each guard, checking their pulses. They’re going to be fine. They’re still breathing. I just used the stun setting.

So far, the plan has gone perfectly. Now the only problem is getting out of here, one of the most heavily guarded homes on Earth.

And next, I have to pilot out of Earth’s atmosphere, avoiding whatever fighters they send to intercept me. Not to mention the land-based Earth defense systems, and the satellites that can fire Bakster torpedoes.

But I got here fine, avoiding every missile they sent my way.

No one can fly like me. No human, anyway. My reflexes are too fast, my thinking too sharp.

With the woman slung under my arm, I walk through the remains of the smoke, stepping through the hole that the guards must have blasted through the metal door.

I disabled all the systems when I landed, using an EMF emitter that we salvaged from the human ship sent to Mina Dos.

I leave through the front door, the way I came in. There’s a huge ragged hole in the metal from the home made explosive device.

I step through it, making sure to keep the woman from scraping against the jagged metal.

My space craft lies about twenty meters away. Its nose is buried five feet into the ground—it was a rough landing, but the craft should be fine. I knocked a tree or two down in the process of landing, but that’s to be expected. I may have faster than human reflexes and thinking, but I’ve never so much as flown a space craft before, let alone landed one.

The craft is the ship that the human pilot would use to come to Mina Dos every six months to collect the minerals that we would mine for the humans.

He came like clockwork in his ship. Everything was normal for so long, until this last time…

The ship’s been heavily modified with what we could scavenge from the colony. It may not look pretty, but it sure does fly.

There aren’t any other guards outside. But I know more are on their way. Having analyzed the defenses back on Mina Dos, I know that they weren’t expecting a craft to land. They were expecting, if anything, an attack by land, so the guards are stationed in a perimeter a mile out.

This house is deep in the woods that have grown again in the last two hundred years. The trees are thick and majestic. It’s a shame that I knocked some of them down, destroying something so ancient.

Approaching the craft, I become transfixed by a single tree that stands in my path. I have that déjà vu feeling again. Another memory, something about a tall tree, is so close. Something from my past life. But the guards are coming. They’ll be here any minute.

I tear myself away from gazing at the tree and walk towards my craft.

The hatch opens automatically when I approach the craft.

I strap the woman into the pilot’s seat, so she’ll be secure if the ride gets bumpy.

My hands are working the controls, slamming the necessary buttons, hitting the switches.

The console flashes to life, the holograph display of the surroundings jumping up, and my eyes sink into it. The earth’s orbit appears on the holograph, up and around us, high above. Closer to the ground, I can see the guards advancing, represented as shimmering green 3D graphics. They’re close.

I glance over, checking on her. Her beauty makes me pause, admiring her.

My cock starts to grow hard just looking at her, despite the situation.

Something hits the ship, sending vibrations through it.

She stirs in her seat, opening her eyes briefly, before closing them again.

I can’t worry about her now, though.

Another blast hits the ship.

My hands are flying across the console, dialing us in for take off.

Read! Just in time.

My foot slams onto the accelerator pedal, and my hands take the yoke.

With a tremendous roar, the ship blasts off the ground, lifting straight up. Dirt and rock falls off the nose of the craft.

I bump into another tree on the way up, and a pang of regret hits me.

The guards are below me. I can see them as I make a sharp turn, repositioning the craft. They’re all below, firing their blasters up at us. From this distance, it’s tough; with the shields now powered on, they’re not going to do anything to the ship.

Four of them are setting up a turrent gun, but I’ll be long gone in another second.

The engine is fully powered on now. The noise is tremendous. The ship shakes and vibrates. It’s not exactly meant for atmospheric travel, especially at these speeds, but it can do it, with some minor stress on the chassis.

I fly straight up, the thrust pushing me back in my cockpit chair.

The holograph display starts blinking at me, indicating that a missile from the Earth Defensive System is incoming, approaching us even faster than this ship travels.

Diverting power from the thrust, I power up the shields. There’s nothing to do but wait for the impact.

It hits, throwing us off course for a moment. The entire ship rattles. It sounds like the ship will break apart, but I know it won’t.

The impact wakes up her up.

“Where am I? What’s going on?” she says, looking around wildly.

I don’t answer. There’s no time.

The ship shakes again. The holograph display is flashing warning signs at me. The satellite must be activated, firing its heavy duty long range blaster cannon at maximum potential.