CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
COMMANDER CERIK HADE
This was unlike any battle I had ever been in. Usually, we could fight over a large area, with our only concern being to take out as many opposition as possible. But this was different. Our goal was to keep them away from the island. Now we knew that the large ship was carrying the virus and we could not let it over the village. This made it unlike any other battle I had ever been in. Not only was it a battle that meant fighting to the death, but it was one that was about the future of our entire race. We could not let that virus be sprayed on top of the village. It would cause a lot of damage to the females, and it would stop our race, making us have to take hundreds of human females from Earth, but would they be able to come to the village after that anyway? We did not know how long this virus would be active in the village once it was sprayed. It could be hundreds of years, and we would have to completely relocate. All of it was detrimental and there was a lot on the line. That was why my crazy plan had to work; we had no other choice.
“When we are close enough, I am going to jump out of the ship and fly to the large opposition ship. I'm going to take out the windshield and shoot the pilot. I'm going to enter the windshield.”
“Are you insane?” Ravinn said.
“Yes, that is possible. But it is the only plan we have, and we don't have enough time to come up with another. It is going to work. Now listen. Once I take out the pilot, I am going to set the ship on autopilot with coordinates to leave the planet and head toward the moon. Once I do that, I am going to come out of the windshield. Wait until you have visibility on me flying out. I will give you the signal and then you will follow the ship out of the atmosphere. Only when it is a safe distance away from Kelon, hit it with the missiles. Vaporize it in space. Do you understand?” I said.
“Damn, that is so crazy that it just might work,” Ravinn said.
“It has to. It is the only plan we have. Now I'm going to head for the door. Radio to every single warrior not to fire on that ship. Tell them it carries the virus and cannot be shot.”
“On it,” Ravinn said as he got on the communication. I headed for the door and opened it and flew out.
Moments later, I was blasting the windshield on the large ship. I shot the pilot directly; he was dead before I even entered. I jumped the ship through the windshield. A warrior was rushing at me. I punched him and then shot him in the gut. I threw him out the windshield. I turned and saw Ephane. I was shocked that he was on the ship, but then again, this was his plan. He had fear in his eyes, and he ran away from me down the hall. I pushed the pilot out of the seat and began to type in the coordinates and hit the autopilot. It engaged. The ship began to make a sharp U-turn back toward space. I ran to the back of the ship looking for Ephane. I had a feeling he could not be up to anything good. Plus, here was my chance to get rid of him. He was too much of a danger because he had so much knowledge about the village and our ways. I knew that Ravinn was expecting me to emerge from the windshield, but it would have to wait. I only hoped I could get to Ephane and be rid of him before the ship left the atmosphere. Once it left the atmosphere, I would not be able to fly out and survive.
“Come out, Ephane! Come out and face me, you coward!” I shouted as I searched the ship. I made my way down to the cargo in the belly of the ship shouting these words. I heard a ruckus down there and followed the sound. I found Ephane near some tanks pressing some buttons. This could not be good.
“Stay back! Stay away, or I will press this button. I will release a virus into the ocean!”
“Don't touch it!” I yelled at him. I put my hands in the air in surrender, but I still had my gun in my right hand.
“Do you know what this is, Commander? I have come up with a virus that will make all human females barren. They will never be able to produce offspring again. I have these two tanks filled with it. If I press this button, it will be released.”
“Don't do that,” I said.
“I will release it. It is not what I had planned. I was going to release it over the village, but releasing it over the ocean will have to do. It should still have an effect on anyone that enters the water,” he said with a proud smile on his face.
“What do you want?” I asked him.
“I want you to get off this ship. I want to live,” he said.
“If I get off this ship, you will release the virus. If I stay on the ship, you will release the virus. Tell me why I should get off if the outcome is the same?” I said to him.
“If you leave the ship now and let me live then I will not release the virus. We will retreat,” he said.
“Why should I believe you? Take your word for it? I don’t think so,” I said.
“Well, what choice do you have? Take my word for it, and at least there’s a chance I won’t do it,” he said.
“Fine, I will leave. But first, answer me this one question. What did you do to Maria? Did you experiment on her?”
“Oh yes. Your human female mate that you went to Earth to get. The entire reason I caught you. I knew that I should have kept a better eye on you, but I did not know your skills. I had never heard of you and thought nothing of you.”
“What did you do to her?!” I shouted.
“Nothing. She was scheduled to have the virus tested on her, but we only got as far as putting her to sleep and examining her to see if she was fit to be tested. Then you escaped before we could move to the second stage.”
I sighed in relief. I was glad to know that.
“Thank you. But there is something that you should know. I planned on getting caught by you on that space station. We have been onto you for some time. I went to Earth to get a human female in order to make it look real. Then I set the coordinates to cross in front of the area that the space station scouts use. I got on that ship on purpose. We knew that you were planning something big.”
“You did what? Impossible.” Ephane was filled with rage. I could see it in his eyes as he began to tremble in anger. “How did you know of this? Who told you? How did you know that I had a plan?”
“We always know what the opposition is up to. That was why I got caught on purpose. I found your file, the recipe for your virus. We have been planning for some time that you are going to use it. We have been coming up with a vaccine.”
“Impossible,” he said.
“I just thought you should know that before I leave this ship. You kept your word you are not going to release it, and you are going to retreat. I will leave this ship now. I will let you live,” I said as I took a step sideways as though I was going to leave him. In my peripheral vision, I saw him move his hand away from the button and stand up straight.
Bam! I turned quickly, before he could react and shot him. I shot him between the eyes. He fell backward, dead. I rushed over to the console and disengaged the device. The entire console went from being lit up to completely dark. I had done it. I looked at Ephane one more time and spat on his face. “That's for Maria.”
Then I ran toward the front of the ship and flew directly out of the windshield. There was still plenty of blue sky and sunlight, and I knew that I was still on the planet. I saw Ravinn following closely, and I nodded at him. He gave me a signal, and I flew in the opposite direction back down toward the ocean. I flew back into the thick of battle. But I knew that something was different. The battle was not so thick. It was obvious to me that we were on the brink of winning. Then I noticed more ships, opposition ships heading straight for me.
“Shit,” I said. Then I realized they weren't heading for me; they were following the larger ship. They thought that Ephane was still in control of that ship and was retreating. This plan worked out better than I’d thought. I immediately flew horizontal away from the ships coming at me. I only hoped that Ravinn would fly in the opposite direction after he hit the ship with the missile. Because now all of these opposition ships were flying in his direction. I flew toward the village. Then I came around the shoreline flying along it, seeing if any of the opposition ships had made it to shore. I did not see any. But as I approached the shoreline of the village, I saw something that I did not think I would see. I definitely was not expecting it. There was a figure standing on the beach. There was no mistaking that ample figure.
“Maria? What the hell?” I said to myself. What the hell is she doing? Why is she not with Amelia in the bunker? I knew why. Because she was stubborn and fiery. She had a mind of her own and did whatever she wanted. I knew that she probably wanted to watch this battle. She was curious and wanted to see what an alien battle looks like. So she did not go to the bunker and instead came to this beach to watch. She was absolutely dumb, or incredibly courageous. It was funny how those traits went hand-in-hand very often. I looked back out toward the battle and saw that we had sustained a victory. Almost all of the opposition were retreating back into the atmosphere. As I looked up into the sky, I saw a quick burst; it was hard to see in the sunlight, but I knew that it was Ravinn hitting the large ship with a missile. I smiled. “That's my Draqua!” I said. Then I turned my attention back toward the beach. Now that I knew that victory was in play I could handle this situation with Maria. Handle her. In truth, I was sort of glad that she was so close. There was no one that I wanted to see now than her. Now that all the chaos was over and the virus had been taken away, I wanted to be with her, kiss her. I flew close over her and she waved in the air, waving me down. She had a big smile on her face, and I recognized an elder Draqua near her. It was Pila, the village fisherman. I flew straight for her. She was going to need a spanking for being a very bad human.