Virtuosity of the Endeavor
Chapter Four: Interstellar Arrival
Authors Note: I had done a long chapter on this one in order to fill in every detail of what's going to happen in this chapter and later on. I hope ya'll love it! Oh and to Runy, David 8, Brittany K, Mad Hatter, David 8, Dr Moustachio Girl, Mehovik, Dr Moustachio Girl again and yes, David 8 again, thank you all for reviewing! I know that there are some followers to the story which I love to see but I need to know your opinions and feedbacks on this. I might be a good writer but I'm certainly not the best. A special thanks to my Beta Reader (whose name I'll keep anonymous until otherwise) for all of your help! Thanks!
Oh and I must make the clear that the Italics that are used in this story are to infer the use of a different foreign language other than English. Example: "Hello."
Another way this will be used is in thought process in one of the characters mind. Example: What am I doing here right now? She would never know.
Now since we got that out of the way, on with the show shall we? ;D
Disclaimer: I do not profit nor own Ridley Scott's movie and enterprise Prometheus. Wash and his flying skill belong to Firefly and Mission Impossible belongs to Bruce Geller also!
The three of them stood there behind the grand plasma window that viewed over the large bluish grey planet that lay against the back drop of a cosmic landscape. The truly stunning orb was victoriously afloat with the diamonds studded stars as its accents. A rush of awe overcame the three travelers when they realized they had finally made it to their destination. Elizabeth began to tear up with joy and demoralizing fear. There was no telling that what was on the other side was welcoming or not. The fear of them being taken to an undisclosed location on an unknown world with beings that would kill without the slightest of thought, petrified her even more. If they were intelligent as she thinks they are, they would have some form of common sense to communicate first then shoot later. But venturing in to the unknown is unenviable; whatever is going to happen in their mission, no one will ever predict the outcome of what's going to happen at the end of the day. Even if it meant death or decommission for David, the two women were well prepared for the outcome.
Elizabeth's eyes fluttered away the last of her tears. She had to be strong, not just for her but for Tamera. She looked at her friend whose soft features were schooled as usual. Her body was preparing for a war that might happen. The war of survival. Tamera turned her and fanned a grin from ear to ear. Elizabeth nodded and beamed herself.
"We're here." She whispers as if it was her last words to say before death.
"Indeed we are, Ms. Shaw. Shall we prepare our belongings for our landing?" David insisted.
Elizabeth nods, "Yes. They will try to make contact with us as soon as they find our location, then it won't be long before our arrival. I'll leave that to you while Tamera and I gather our own personal things."
Tamera followed Elizabeth out of the control room and down the long stretch of hallways. They didn't bring much on to the ship, only a few survival kits, first aids, and their own personal emergency bags from when they first arrived on to Prometheus. It was a known procedure to make their own personalized emergency kits, including their own clothing food rations and etcetera. This was one of their perks to being on the research and discovery team. All of them stored their stuff inside the engineer's travel bags in order to blend in.
While walking, Tamera brought up her thought to break the silence, "So what's the plan."
"I was hoping you would ask." She luminously punned as she resumed, "I was hoping we could get close to their superiors, every advanced civilization should have one. A hierarchy of some sort. But the problem is that we don't know the geographic landscape of the planet itself. Maybe if we bring ourselves them, they will know that we are serious about our discoveries. That's where you'll come in, love."
The expression on Tamera's face twisted, "What can I do? I'll help but I don't know where I will fall in place into your plan. All I know that giant had a thing for me but I don't know what that was about."
"David told me he only wanted to take you alive. He killed everyone else except you. He strapped you in just about ready to leave the planet, Tamera. I don't know all the facts yet but somehow you were of value to him."
"Yeah, but it was just him. Not them. There are plenty of others down there. David said so himself by the signature readings. The planet is alive with terrestrial activity. Who the hell knows what some of them will act towards me or you guys?"
"Then all bets are on. It's a fifty - fifty percent chance, Love. That's more than enough to hope for."
The paleontologist smiled, "You know in desperate times, you're the only person I know that can still keep a positive outlook on life."
"Thanks Tamera."
"With that said," She said dryly and without an attitude "I'm guessing you want to hit up the source like a cop. Demand answers from mom and pops with a big googly puppy eyes face saying 'Why?' And go from there."
"You make it so comedic. More like a tragic mission impossible. Except Tom Cruise makes it look so easy. "
"Narcissistically that makes me feel better. At least we'll die trying."
"Oh come now, I don't want you talking like that. We will make it through. I promised you that, remember."
"A promise like that is too delicate not break. I don't expect you to sugar coat any of this either."
The two continued to gather their things inside Elizabeth's room, stuffing the bag with whatever they can to survive on. Water, food, hygiene products, anything necessary. After she was all packed up they left their room, blank as I once was before and advanced down the hallway. Not even making a good distance, Elizabeth's communicator went off with the ringing sound of David's voice, sudden and urgent.
"Ms. Shaw."
Elizabeth responds, "Yes David."
"I need you and Ms. Harrison to get down here immediately. It seems that the engineers has identified our vessel and wishes to make a contact landing accordingly." He accurately replied.
"We're on our way."
Tamera looked at her with a worried distress across her face as they took off running to the control room.
"What the hell are they saying?" Tamera impatiently asked when the message was being viewed in the control room. Neither she nor Shaw spoke a lick of the language the engineer spoke and it was up to David to translate. Unfortunately the android was taking too long to process it all.
A bit flustered, the android configured the language and spoke clearly in translation. "Vessel cruiser two-ex- nine- four-nine-five, what happened? Your fleet hasn't reported in over two thousand years?" The engineer argued.
Both scientists turned to each other stunned by the question. Tamera looked at Elizabeth and whispered, "Shit, What do we say to him?"
Just as Elizabeth was about to answer when Tamera cuts in and whispers, "David, Tell him that 'Most of our fleet had died on the base three point seven miles from our home planet due to a chemical exposure from the disturbance of the bio weaponry's vault. The last of us just woke up from cryogenics and decided to head back due to the casualties and the wreckage of our ship."
While Tamera spoke David accurately translated to the engineer on the other line of the transmission. The holographic image of the being nodded is a strange manner, agreeing with their statement. Then engineer sighed, "This is impossible. We have delayed the mission two thousand years ago. We warned all sky fleet to not engage the weaponry's vault unless there was a technical problem or final preparations for assassination. But that was long ago and forgotten in the ancient history records. Who is this I am speaking to? Why are your holo projections down? I can't even see your face."
"David do you know the name of the officers on this ship?" Elizabeth softly whispers. David silently nodded knowing her plan just before she spoke about it. Luckily the android did some preparations of his own and learned as much about the engineers as he possibly could. From flying the ship to operating the controls, David analyzed it all; including the names of the space jockeys of this vessel.
Still whispering in David's ear, Tamera comes up with another plausible explanation as he translates, "Commander Youme Hi'X sir. Our projections are down due to an over excretion of the engines when we passed through a flux storm."
"How many casualties is there with you, Commander?"
"Two, just two. Me and Lieutenant Sown, out of twenty privates. The rest are dead. We awoke from cryo a few days ago and discovered their deaths."
With a pause his jaw clenched and dryly welcomed with a worried tone, "Unbelievable. You and your other officer have been in cryo for over two thousand years and no one had awoken you?"
David continued to explain in the most accurate way possible, "Yes sir. When we awoke, we both noticed that our cryo capsules gave out, allowing us to wake up. Then we surveyed the area to find most of the fleet dead. When we searched the base even further, we found out that the cause of death was an overexposure to the weapons vault."
The holographic image of the engineer superior showed a sadistic expression, almost sympathetic of the news he heard. But the air traffic controls-man knew the true history of the Xenona Laboratories of the famed planetary moon. There was a lot more than just a chemical exposure that went on there. And for history to be told, they were to never let anyone in or out of that planet. But times were different. These two engineers were probably devastated to find out that two thousand years had passed. Their whole way of life had changed and now. They were alone and needed to go back to the planet they use to call home thousands of years ago.
And with these thoughts, the engineer drained himself with sorrow over hearing this, "All oneness, guide our brothers home. Well, we are glad you all have made it back to home base and came just in time. A lot has happened in the course of two Millenniums. Monarch Huwam and Madame Diyanin have made it clear that the war that has been going on recently is being up on hold. Until then all sky fleet are to return to the Luminaries Hall for debriefing. Afterwards there will be festivities in the honor of our fallen comrades."
David smoothly translated, "A war has happened in our absence?"
"Yes we are going through one as we speak, but before I get into any further details we need to debrief you on the ground. Let's get you on a landing path in Paiothos Air Base near the Luminaries Hall. You have a clearing in ten minutes and you landing coordinates will be thirty degrees east . . . "
After the space traffic control officer gave them the coordinates and the directions to land, David politely ended the communication, "Thank you sir. See you then."
"Good luck. When you land we will give you a proper medical check and screenings. I'm truly amazed that you all are still alive for so long. Over and out, Commander." The engineer finished his statement and terminated the link.
Elizabeth couldn't help contain her stress from the transmission and blurted out, "Did he fall for it.", and walked over to one of the passenger's seat to strap herself in.
"It seems that he did Ms. Shaw. After monitoring his reactions they seem genuinely honest to say the least." David answered as he walked over to the cockpit and settled in to it. The gears came alive as he readied the ship for a steady flight.
"I sure hope he did. Now we know our plans, and we're on in ten minutes. Then it's show time folks." Tamera stated out of whimsy as she strapped herself in the passenger's seat.
The planet looked larger in comparison from a certain relation to Earth as the ship made its way into the atmosphere. It shifted its weight against the distinctive pressures to evenly balance the landing. Wanting to soak in the views was too soon to tell with the planets thickly layered mists that clouded the way. Elizabeth could barely see where they were going but the ships sensors helped with the BFR problem. And with David's initial flight skill simulated amongst the other programs he was designed to do, it was no problem navigating the ship.
A few more moments later and the ship passably made it out of the cloudiness. A settled lightness illuminated the ground as there was a city clustered by a series of buildings that was made out of industrial silver crafted to look like shards of crystal. The city it's self-looked like it was grown from the earth below, with a settled whimsy to it. But the melancholy blues and blacks stretched for miles on out with the veins of soft creams that bleed into roads and pathways. It balanced the darkness quite hauntingly. The planet was melancholy and truly the home of the self-proclaimed, self-tinkered, Engineers.
It wasn't long before they saw the Paiothos Air Base coming into view. The base was swarmed with space vessels of all types, guessing by the security and the modeled insignias of each ship, it was for the military only. It was decorated with light green areal lights to assure the flight patterns into motion. The persistent flickering caused an array of a silent show that brightened the abyss of darkness. David waited for the following air craft ahead of him to land. When it was their turn, David turned on the exterior shield protectors to conceal the evidence of foreign terrestrials operating their own technologies. The shield also lets them still view the outer environment while he steadily hovered the craft inside the elaborate hangar.
On the ships interior intercom, a feminine voice smoothly spoke to David, "Please Identify yourself and your vessel."
"Vessel cruiser two-ex- nine- four-nine-five, piloted by Commander Hi'X." He replied.
"Yes Commander Hi'X. We have been waiting for you. Please anchor vessel at port F-three-six-eight. Over and out." he urgently confirmed.
David repeated, "Over and out."
As soon as the vessel interlocked with the module pad on the port, Tamera and Elizabeth unstrapped themselves out of their seat belts, while David climbed out of the highly seated cockpit. They all made sure no traces of them were left to be detected by others and swiftly ran out of the room.
While running David stops the two scientists in the dark hallway, "Do you both have your halo clips secured on your shoulders and ready?"
Both of them nodded. David smiled and turned his on as the other women did the same. No longer human, a highly respected engineer solider stood like a god, bound to escort two highly illustrious women to a luxurious bash. The young women wore gowns that gracefully flowed from breast to ankles with skin smooth at stone. The threesome was bound to fit in.
David then grabbed the two small luggages and took the lead near the exit of the ship. "And please, do not, and I shall repeat, do not let any of the beings touch you. They will go through the hologram and discover the cloaks."
"Thanks for telling us last minute but I already gotten the gist of it," Tamera tone ringed of sarcasm.
Elizabeth smiled at her dry humor as she whispered with bashful dark alien eyes, "Show time."
Inside the Paiothos Air Base harbored the communications room where agent Kura works as an air traffic controller. Her assignment was to guide the two thousand year old ship that came from the notorious Xenona Laboratories base right outside the Gatticas star system. She had keenly watched the ship dock for more than an hour, expecting the two commanding officers to walk out on to the dock, but something wasn't right. She squinted her eyebrows forward and lifted her head up to see everyone diligently working at their posts. Everyone clean cut and well uniformed greyish blue suits made everyone look like clones to her in the open all white room. But where was her officer?
Right there. Kura sees him leaving another communications officer and strides towards her way when she calls him over, "Sir there is something wrong with Vessel cruiser two-ex- nine- four-nine-five." She urgently said
"What is wrong with it Agent Kura?", said her commanding officer.
The feminine being displayed a look of uncertainty across her face. She had left on a short break and come back to surveillance the docking air craft. Agent Kura been watching the vessel for over an hour now and none of the crew left the ship. Something was wrong.
"The special case you gave me: the Commander and Lieutenant haven't left their craft yet sir. Should we investigate?" She wittingly said.
The superior's body stiffened. He wouldn't want a security beach from some unknown enemies on board who had seemingly captured a two thousand year old ship to corrupt celebration and festivities. Monarch Huwam made that clear as day. The army and the royal agents had tightened security to a peek to secure the safety of the incoming celebrities to the high court's visiting the nation's capital. If he failed in the slightest, it would risk the lives of the most infamous people on the planet, especially in these hostile times.
His harshly blank eyes cooled and blinked out his answer, "Send a search party down to the location. Please make sure there is no unnecessary confrontation. You know this week is very important to our Monarch. If the celebrations are postponed due to this or any incident, we will be up to our necks in retribution. Get it done."
"Yes sir." Kura gets up to leave her post. She had barely made it to the exit when her commanding officer stops her.
"Wait." He commands.
Agent Kura turned around sharply to address him in a formal manner. "Yes sir?"
"Go to the dispatch department. Get agent Norwen. I have a strong feeling this is not going to be some simple affair." His suspicions had got the worst of him. But he had rather be safe than sorry.
Kura nodded, "I will sir."
A while back, the threesome escaped the air craft after the landing. David managed to view the odd surveillance system though the vessel's computerized technology. He was able to detect an opening in which no one would notice the threesome escaping, like a loop whole of invisibility only open to them for just a short minute. The group were in a search to make it to an exit in which they could leave the air base.
Their little project turned out to be quite a sensation with Tamera and Elizabeth wearing the Halo Clips. Both women looked like important women of society while David looked to be escorting two ladies to an exclusive charade.
"Oh crap I knew I forget something!" Tamera harshly whispered.
Elizabeth sharply turns her head, "What did you forget?"
"My cover girl lipstick."
Elizabeth rolled her dark eerie eyes. She remembered her saying that it was her victory token when all plans goes to fail. The scientist recalled, "But I remember you putting it back into your emergency bag, out of all the other things."
"No of course not!" She harshly whispered. "I had it in my suit's pocket . . . I think."
"Shh . . ." She tried to calm her down. Tamera's eyes widened apologetically about her outburst. They needed to keep quiet and reframe from speaking at all so they wouldn't be labeled as suspicious. Elizabeth shook her head, "It's too late to get it back and now's not the time to be talking about this."
As they turned another, a group of space jockeys were casually walking by. To blend in, David casually greeted them with a nod. Unaware of the threesome being of a different origin, a few of them responded in the same gesture. Two of the jockeys sensually stared at the two women, displaying interest in them. Elizabeth turned to Tamera and smiled. It seemed that the militia had a thing for the two women. But that soon passed when the threesome exited out of the eerily sterile all white halls and in to the openness of the city scape.
Elizabeth stood there taking in the sight of the marvelous city before her. The organic building upon builds seemed to be alive with its people flowing through them like blood cells in the body. She couldn't help but admire but the android disagreed with her. David turned around and grabbed Elizabeth by the shoulders, "Maybe when this is done, you will be able to see the sights some more."
"I don't think I'll be able to see them again." Elizabeth admitted to herself aloud. If things were to turn deadly, it wasn't harmful to enjoy the little things while they still can.
But David on the other hand disagrees, "Now, now, don't think like that, Dr. Shaw. But we still need to keep moving." He pauses again. Another male engineer and his feminine mate walked by them and greeted in a strange hand gesture. Tamera slightly smiled while David perfectly mimicked the same thing. How fascinating, he though.
He watched them passed and made sure no one was around to see or hear them before he resumed, "You see? We don't want to risk us getting caught. The luminaries Hall is a few blocks away."
He then gathered them both in a small huddle to discuss the plan in belief.
"And from there?" Elizabeth whispers.
"Their Monarch and Madame are nothing but a king and Queen to us. Their palace is located within the hall, and from there I'll take you both to it." He replies. Tamera did a simple nod in agreement and began to walk with David in a casual manner. The city wasn't too crowded on the soft stone pathways which made the group even easier to blend in. But above the massive crystal sky lines, various craft silently streamed by like comets in the night. There was something festive going on, Elizabeth reminded herself. The air traffic controller engineer stated little of a war victory that was taking place tonight but nothing more. But who did they go to war with? She thought. Themselves? Or maybe someone else?
This could get interesting.
The space jockeys were suited up as they marched arrogantly through the main corridors of the two thousand year-old vessel behind their leader. They took note of the vessel's wellbeing and found the room's doors ajar and vacant. The appearance of being unattended was evident throughout the ship, one of them noticed. Whoever they were, they didn't want to leave their tracks behind to be traced like breadcrumbs. There were only six engineers in the search. One of them broke off and interred in to the control room, followed by another two scouts. The head agent was fairly modest in height of a normal engineer, but he was immensely on the thin side. But how you may consider thin for a human is quite the opposite for an engineer. In comparison he was well built, solidly statured like a triathlon runner in the Olympics. Unlike his comrades, he had dark tattoos bearing around his right eye and scalp that decorated along to his neck, furthering the evidence of their being more to the tattoo than usual. He also wore an all-black suit with fewer otherworldly details to limited noticeability. It clung to his skin well as he worked out his routine procedures of an investigator.
While the rest of the male-buffs fooled around with the investigation, with their rough handle on things, Agent Norwen took the time to accurately scan the area from head to toe. His fluid like movements waltzed around the room like an interpretive dance until he noticed something. His lungs filled with a whiff of air, testing the changes in gasses. Something didn't smell right to him. The air was to strange to him by the normal standard. It didn't smell like an engineer, not by a long shot. It had a softer quality. More or less like a feminine musk. No one would have picked it up without a very keen sense of smell. Luckily Agent Norwen was there to survey.
One of the men on his team ordered, "There is nothing here sir. We should probably head back now and resume our positions-"
"No." Norwen cuts him off, "The last time I checked I was in charge of this mission, not some hot headed tool who's been pumped up with too much testosterone."
"But-", The engineer insisted.
"We will not leave until I say, understood? Unless you want to bring this up with your superiors, I suggest you . . . " The agent trailed off from his word. Out of the corner of his eye's he see something shimmer slightly in the shadows near the command chair. As he advanced closer, he sees the object come in to view. He bent down with a squat and picked the object up with his black gloved hands. It was a tubular object about the size of his pinky, half black and half gold. The object had some strange symbols etched into it that luckily, he himself, was familiar with. It read 'cover girl lip perfection'. He uncapped the vile, displaying the tip of the fairytale pink lipid like stick. Norwen stood up again, spearing a thin pink like on his glove and sniffing the strange substance. He was familiar with the culture of women beautifying himself with such a bizarre substance here on his home planet and on earth.
The agent recapped the vile and placed it in his suit's pocket and strode out of the room leaving the other space jockeys dumfounded in his wake. In the dust of what he had concluded.
Norwen bursted into the open den where tonight's festivities will be held. The people all ceases. Both maidens and service men alike that were helping with decorating and planning the festivities tonight had all stopped and stared at him as he strode right in. The royal Monarch, who was taken by surprise by the sudden outburst, stopped his conversation with the event planners and his Madame and casually walked up to him. More or less agitated by the constant interruptions. Even the Madame briefly paused to see what was going on.
Norwen stopped the godly king in his tracks and told him about his findings and supporting evidence of the vile of lipstick.
"Humans. Humans have entered our thresh hold! How could this have happened Norwen?" Monarch Huwam scoffed. The last time his people gotten involved with the human race were a couple of thousand years ago. Their ties between each other were long dissipated into ancient myths and legends. Or maybe they had forgotten us all together? "Impossible." The king whispered. How did they find us? Then the king's eyes widened in horror.
"Out! Out. Everyone out! I will have someone call you all in until I'm finished, now, out!" He mightily yelled at the servants and maidens. A couple of the servants turned to each other with wide dark eyes that glistened with concern, but not too much of it. They all knew their highness meant business and wouldn't deify his authority, so they all rushed out, leaving the open room in a disorganized muck.
Norwen waited until the last servant left, but she was taking too long. Then he had recognize who she was. It was Alma, the bakery girl who one of his friends and comrades had a thing for. She was a meek girl whose features reflected her personality. Shy and humble. She was still at one of the elaborate dining tables taking count of the seating arrangements for a pasty convergent per person, when she looked up and saw the kings flustering impatiens. The Monarch sarcastically gasped, "Do you mind little one?"
"Yes, unless you want your guest to be hungry without a pastry to fill their stomachs, then it will only take me a minute to configure the rest. Your highness." Her face and words was a solid come back to his comment; she was soft with a more powerful stance on life. It took her years to gather the courage to stand up for herself, even if it was against royalty.
Norwen lifted up an eyebrow. It had seemed as if the shy frail young woman he knew seemed to get tougher and tougher every day.
"Fine. But hurry." Monarch Huwam restlessly gasped.
Alma's smile was bleak in satisfaction. She continued to count and tap her nimble fingers away at the small tablet. As soon as she was done, the bakery girl thanked the king and scuttled across the floor to fine the nearest exit.
After she left, Norwen resumed, "Your highness it is possible that these beings could have gotten the message and decided to venture off to the Xenona laboratories. They haven't been operated in over two thousand years since the quarantine."
The king's eyes beamed, "I see, but they still roam around the city unnoticed? How I cannot fathom?"
The queen delicately strides next to her make and tenderly adds, "We should have known this would happen soon. The Anunnaki made it clear for us to never come back to that planet, but it seemed that it never stopped our children from reaching us some way."
The king's brow line creased, "Diyanin, this is neither the time nor place for this-"
"Yes it is." The queen insisted, "Our past comes to haunt us again. We must do whatever is necessary to aide this situation."
Monarch nods his head and agrees. He turns to his mercenary to instruct him, "Norwen. You must keep this obscured situation hidden. If rumors were to spread right now that three humans have easily entered into our threshold, the republic will be looked upon as weak in the people's eyes in these tough times. We don't need this."
"Yes sir." He bows. He couldn't have agreed more.
The king then leveled his eyes, "Find them and detain them. Hold them in separated viewing rooms and question them. Keep the palace heavily guarded and on the lookout for anything suspicious. In the meanwhile gather a few of our best men and relieve this information to them so they can especially keep a keen eye on things."
"Yes sir" With that said he leaves the room with a new mission to pertain to.
Inside the Luminaries Hall, massive columns held the organic structure to its might peak. It was apparent that the engineers had an act for architecture, considering that they were the builders of their universe. Within the massive wide spread halls, many know royals and celebrities of well-known families walk the halls for the later festivities tonight. It was strange to Elizabeth knowing that two humans and an android had slyly infiltrated in to their elaborate city without them knowing. She didn't know if it was that, or the way she still felt at least two feet short under her holographic cloak. Either way she knew that they fitted right in. But she had to admit it to herself that David did do a great job fabricating these devices for her and Tamera.
But Tamera. As they walked through the hallways, a couple of the soldiers politely admired them at a comfortable distance. One of them even said something to her but she in reverse couldn't comply, so she just bashed her eyes and walked with David as her escort. Elizabeth couldn't help but laugh herself.
The men stood their gawking at the women in their fancy damsel cloths and trinkets, with long translucent hair flowing like waterfalls down their backs. For once, Elizabeth though she was more beautiful in this humanoid form than her native born human one. But now, she realized that she was just one in a few hundreds of women that waltzed around there all high and mighty. She was just like the rest of them. Pretty organic. Artificial personalities that lacked the intelligence. The only things around here she could truly like was Tamera and the lighting. The beautiful orbs of light floated freely from the ceilings and slowly danced from place to place, shinning its starlet like simmers upon everyone. No wonder they called it the luminaries Hall.
David slows his waltz to one of the nearing windows that opened its high views over the city. The reminiscence of what they called daylight was diminishing. The true bitter darkness was claiming the enchanted city whole. Elizabeth gazed through the window until David called her name in attention- "Elizabeth." He severely hints. David's expression on his face darkens to concern. It almost frightens her due to his altered features that transformed him into an engineer.
"You attention, please? Through those doors-" He gestures his head towards another elaborate opening to their left, "- are another series of hallways. A soon as we pass through those archways, I will lead you both further to what they call the Yuma Hofu or the king and queen's threshold. Please stay close and don't let anyone touch you."
Both Elizabeth and Tamera nodded. David accepts their agreements and moves on. They pass through another cluster of crowds before they almost made it through the archways when a few passing guests broke up the group. Elizabeth and David were still together but Tamera was separated by the sea of humanoids.
When she took another step she bumped into a soldier engineer, luckily he bare noticed the hologram's deception. But not just any one of them. It was the one who tried to speak to her a few moments ago. He blazingly smiled at Tamera and said something again in his strange two toned accent. But to her dismay again, she couldn't comply. Tamera tried to smile back and ease her way out of the situation but that wasn't going to work.
She automatically turned her head back to see her two comrades side by side to one another and already occupied with a couple of other chattering entities. Shit. Tamera left her gaze upon them and smiled back at the male engineer. He spoke again with a confused expression on his face that looked as if he was asking her 'why won't you talk with me?', and politely smirks again. Tamera struggled with what to do, until she turned her head around again to hear shuttering gasps fill the air.
Wanting to see what happened, Tamera left the flirting engineer and runs over to the thinning crowd. She tied to avoid being touched by anyone but it seemed too impossible. Eventually she makes to the center of the situation by shuffling her way through body to body. But what she sees at the center of the situation shocks her. Tamera's eyes couldn't register to what she was seeing but somehow her heart knew it, and skipped a thundering beat. At the center of the stone floor, she sees Elizabeth and David with three other engineers in dispute. David was complying with them about something, but she could tell that the other engineer's wasn't buying it. Surprisingly, one of the engineers takes Elizabeth takes by her shoulders. As the engineer pulled Shaw closer, eyes widen in utter confusion. Somehow his hands would not contour with her body; the body that he was supposedly seeing. Strangely, there was something smaller inside this female. Almost as if she was wearing a cloak of some kind.
The engineer felt a lump on her shoulders and squeezes it out of curiosity. The halo clip automatically shuts off and reveals Elizabeth and her human self again. The crowd goes still and frighten with astonishment. Not even a gasp fills the air. One of the engineers orders the other to do the same with David and before she knows it, David is back to his perfect blond highlights, pale skin, and cool blue eyes.
Within the crowd, the paleontologist freezes. Both of her allies were captured and taken away by the small army.
When the flanking group left, everyone went back to their normal festivities with more chattering than before over the sight of seeing two humans. Tamera was left there by herself to figure out how or what she was going to do next. But then it had hit her and she regretted even thinking about doing it but it needed to be done. The scientist gathered the courage and left her position and followed the path where the engineers escorted David and Elizabeth. They made it past the door ways where David said the King and Queen's threshold would be located.
She was them a few paces in front of her and continued to pursue them cautiously. She intently observed Elizabeth struggling within the tight grips of her captures while David wore a mechanically blank expression. But Tamera wasn't the only one keeping a close eye on the two. A few well known and wealthy individuals walked by with a surprised look at the group. It made her wonder, when was the last time they saw or possibly heard of a human?
Then Tamera thought of something. She needed to distract them somehow in order to get Elizabeth and David away from them but how? She had no weapons, knifes or anything, but a small pocket knife. Like that would do any damage against one of those giants.
But the paleontologist had something better than that.
As she walked closer to their group she shouts, "Hey!"
The flanking group stops to a halt and stares at the lovely woman before them.
Tamera pressed the button and turned off the halo clip. She exposed herself to the soldiers and everyone else around her. Elizabeth broke her silence in hasty gasps, "No. No! Why the bloody hell would you do this?"
Tamera looked at her and shrugged, "I'm sorry Ellie."
One of the engineers, who was escorting David and Elizabeth, left his post and furiously marched over to Tamera. Shit, what the hell are you going to do? You haven't even thought about it this far, she wildly thought. True to this she hadn't figured that out just yet. Tamera's fear penetrated her to her bones, making her immobile as the engineer closed in on her. The only thing she did in the moment was to rub the aqua pendant of hers and say a quick prayer.
Then he stopped and angrily spoke to her. Just as he was about to grab her by her arms, Tamera balled her fist and struck him across the face. The solider stumbled a little before he looked back at her in bewilderment as she yelled at the top of her lungs and ran towards the group in fury.
"Fuck it! Run!" Tamera screams as she tried to dismember the group. Nice distraction, she sarcastically thought, you're such a fail. But to her dismay, this took the group of engineers by surprise but not in a total incomprehension. As a couple of them broke away from the group to chased after Tamera, the remaining few tried to keep the two other aliens from escaping.
But, David wasn't going to let this happen. The android had other intentions.
"David! Do something!" Shaw orders.
"Yes Dr. Shaw." The android's tone struck out more murderous than before. David, on command, breaks loose of the engineer's grip, sending the being into excruciating pain and fractured his arm. He moved as if he was a flash of lightening when he grabbed the engineer he injured and thrust his body against his comrades. David then dragged Elizabeth's body forward as they ran for their lives.
Meanwhile:
Shit. Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! was all she could ever think. Her feet lightly and rhythmically thumped against the stone floor as she flew from one winding hallway to another. Her mind was in utter distress over what happened. How could she have left Elizabeth with David? She tried to create some sort of diversion to mislead the engineers to follow her so they could escape. A few did. Tamera checked again and turned her head back to see that a large group of them in high pursuit. Well more than a few now.
While running, Tamera saw the terrified gasps of people walking to their destination. All strange and eerie gawks, gasps, and streaks fill the open and casual silence, now disrupted by a human they had only heard in stories told by their grandparents. It was almost as if the whole world was out to get her.
But by this time the one in all black was right on her tail, using his agility to leave his other comrades in the dust. The look on his face was so similar to a human's, Tamera could tell he was determined and was agitated by her antics. But not determined enough. Tamera ran faster with all of her strength and sharply turned down another hallway. From there she saw that the hallway was empty and ran down to the end and made another sharp turn. She finally lost them, but only for a few minutes.
Coming up to her left, was an enclosed room where she thought was vacant. She held her hands up and bursted through the double doors and darted right in to a balcony in the middle of an elaborate party. Her heart shuttered a beat and as she whimpered a curse, "Oh fuck me."
Tamera wanted to stop but couldn't with the band of engineers trailing behind her. She paused to catch her breath but couldn't stop completely. She can still hear their deep and cryptic voices inching their way closer. Tamera then turned to see if there was an exit somewhere but nothing came conclusive. Her only way was up or down. She continued to observe the edge of the open balcony to see where she could jump off to, but the high was to make a safe landing. Then she looked up at the ceiling. A few inches away from her was a banner of white fabric used to decorate the high spaces. As bat shit crazy as it seems it was her only option to possibly survive. They came so far now; it wasn't time for her to give up just yet.
Tamera quickly climbed on to the balcony's ledge and tried her best not to look down. The heights almost made her head woozy, causing her to wobble a little bit, but then she grabbed hold to the drapery to hold on to her stability. Tamera went right to work on detaching the white fabric, which was sturdily attached to its posts. Luckily, this was a good sign that the fabric posted on the other side was sturdy enough to hold her weight. She decides to take out her pocket knife she had kept on her person and slashed away at the satin textile.
Time was drawing in closer to haunt her. Tamera heard another voice, but this time it was closer to her position than before. She needed to hurry or else . . .
There. One of the engineers spots her and rushes on to the balcony, ready to arrest. Just as he's about to grabs her, Tamera fell off the balcony ledge and into the air with a swoosh!
Her eyes close on a blindsided faith that she was light as a feather or a leaf in the wind, as Wash would call it. Until she came to the realization that she needed to land somewhere. All around her she viewed the festivities taking place. A few people glorified at the sight of some aerial act they had mistaken for her and began to applaud while others continued to dance to the strange but vibrant music. As she was coming closer to the other side, Tamera sees a table a few feet away.
As she came closer to the top of the table she lets her hands free from the life hugging grips and tumbles on to the table top. It didn't hurt as much though. Maybe it was because there was a lack of food or decorations to land on and severely burse her. But if she were to wake up in the morning the next day alive, Tamera was going to feel the burn from this.
After her brief pause from exertion she still had to keep going. She looked around to see the familiar gasps and sickened looks that form a quarantined circle around her as if she was some hideous diseased creature or something. She knew she had to move quickly for she saw movement in the crowd from all sides. The soldiers were closing in to take her away. As she gathered enough strength to get up, she noticed that an engineer woman had stood up and towered over her.
The older woman's eyes were settled and warm, but full of strength and determination. But she was different from all of the other women she saw earlier. Her evening gown was more extravagant while she wore a crystal like head piece that connected to her necklace and hair that flowed more graciously than the other women. She looked at Tamera with concern that gradually turned to a sensitive gaze. Then the woman said something to her. Even though Tamera couldn't understand their language, there was something in her two toned voice that gave her chills as the woman reached for something of her.
It was her necklace. The woman delicately touched the aqua stone pendant and looked up at her. The woman plucked the pendant away from Tamera's neck and beamed with an unsettling, sickly look on her face. Suddenly a male engineer appeared to the side of her, as equally decorated and that looked to be the same age, if not older than her, grabbed the woman and snatched her away.
Afterwards, Tamera slid her nimble body off the table and stood with a slow wobble. She was about to find a way out when she realized that she was heavily surrounded by guards all around her from side to side with no way to escape. Not this time. The same engineer who wore all black had a slight grin of satisfaction on his face. He swiftly grabbed her by the arms and cuffed her with what seemed to be some plasma like cuffs that forms a translucent bond. The engineer grabbed her by the shoulders and took her away.
The older woman watched in the comfort of her lover's arms as her soldiers escorted the caramel colored human to the investigation rooms for criminal proceedings. But this was no ordinary criminal.
Everyone engineer looked to their king and queen in shock, but in order to keep the comfort of the night the king cheered, "We shall not let this situation interrupt our victories! Celebrate! For our lost brothers of the war and our love for all of Pasiphae!"
The crowd cheers for their king as the music started up again as well as the intoxicating wines. The festivities are a good distraction for what happened but not enough. Everyone was her. The Monarch and Madame the politely excused themselves and leaves the wakes of the party to their loyal friends and subjects.
The royals are escorted by their army of guards to the criminal investigation facilities just to the other far side of the city, when the queen whispers to her love, "There is something strange about that human girl."
The king regretfully nod but knew it to be true, "I know Diyanin. I feel it just as you do."
Tamera watches the solid white room with and eerie shaking feeling in the pits of her stomach. In the middle of it all, she twirls around scanning each wall to see if there could be away out. No hope. It appeared as if the room itself was one big blob with no seams at all. As she sat in the modernly sleek chair, she tapped her nimble light brown fingers against the oval table before her. Everything seemed to collapse in on her. The whole plan they knew it would work of fail. And for that matter, Tamera bitterly sucked in the reality of what just happened and prepared for her end. The paleontologist silently thought, I hope Elizabeth got her questions answered, because I'm sure as hell want to know.
Then her head snapped in the direction of the door as it slid open and an engineer in an all-black suit interred. Her eyes narrowed when she realized it was the same engineer that she tried to get away from in the lobby like area. He walked closer to the table and sat in the other empty chair. His eyes beamed with a sharp wittiness that made Tamera stiffer when their gazes met. She noticed that he was a bit smaller than the other space jockeys in this capital but had the height and the physiques to make up for that. The being also had tattoos that decorated his head and eye made him creepier than he actually was. Out of staring of a moment's more, he smiled from his eerie gaze. Tamera blinked and looked away.
"You know, there aren't too many things that separate us; between me and you." He slowly blinked and leaned closer. Shocked, Tamera face was unmoved by his accurate discourse of English despite his strange two toned accent. His voice a settled and deep like a soothing ocean.
His wavy thin lips twitched when he noticed her discomfort, "Don't worry you pretty little face. I won't hurt you; at least they are not my orders to do so, so far. You see, there aren't too many differences between your women of your planet and mines. Speaking of pretty little faces, I do like that color on your lips. It's sweet and luscious like a unilia lotus. It's a pretty flower actually, where I come from it grows in the ponds in the spring time where I use to play with the fish as a little boy. It actually reminds me of this thing I found."
The being then pulled out a vile in his left suit's pocket. Tamera's eyes wobbled. It was her lipstick. Still conscious of her reactions, Agent Norwen pulled of his glove and uncapped the vile to smear the stain on his porcelain white hand, then places the cap back on and continues to speak, "There was a vessel that arrived here a few hours ago, that ended up empty with no evidence of there being anyone aboard, except for this." The agent's gazed at the vile that stood upright against the table.
Then his stained hand reaches for Tamera's face and smudges the makeup over her light brownish yellow cheek. She flinched in reaction.
"Oh look," He began to speak, "A perfect match . . . How . . . Lovely." The stain on her cheek matched the color of her plump lips.
Norwen smiled and narrowed his eyes even further, pressing the issue against her, "Now would you like to explain to me how you got here? Maybe your testimony can help your friends, ah, what are their names again? Yes, David and Elizabeth. It amazes me how this small stick of 'cover girl lip perfection- fairytale pink' perfectly etched in English, a language which none of my people knows how to speak, is on an federation warship that is two thousand years old."
Unfazed, the scientist boldly tares him down. He knew she was going to be a tough one, but his orders were to go easy on her. For what reason, it is beyond him at this point. Then Norwen's jaw clenched. He needed to know how two human females and a robotic humanoid got here on his home planet, pass their security, and jeopardized the security on the capital's monarchs.
"Do you know who I am?"
She shakes her head, "No I do not."
"I am an intelligence agent. But not your typical agent. You see, I'm the type of agent who investigates cases and protects the Monarch Huwam and his Madame Diyanin from any harm at all cost. If it comes down to it death can be of use. People say I'm the king's assassin with extraordinary benefits, both in gifted skills and privileges; to get the job done. But, I'd like to think I am a man of specialty. Protecting, observing, and carnage are my specialties. In which I do them well. Since you are human, which you have no right nor clearance to be here in the Luminaries Hall you and your friends,"
Then he pulled a colorful hologram of both David and Elizabeth in separate rooms like the one she's in, on the table's control panel, and then a moment later he closed it down. "- are breaching security regulations which threatens the existence of both the Monarch and Madame." With his eyes still scanning hers, he goes in for the kill, "Now I have a question for you . . . ? I'm sorry I haven't gotten your name Ms.-"
"Tamera."
"Right, Ms. Tamera. Would you care to tell me how you and your friends have gotten here?"
For a moment's more, Tamera holds her patients for the last final time. She knew she didn't want to tell him not one damn thing but didn't want to endanger the life of her friends just because she didn't talk. Another minute had passed with his cold dark blue and black eyes staring back at her, pressuring her to talk. To say anything in the compelling silence, with nothing but her thoughts to eat her up in the inside. Then enough was enough. For the next fifteen minutes Tamera broke her silence and told the agent engineer of their mission to explore the moon Prometheus and their haunting discoveries.
Norwen sat their soaking every detail in possible of the shorter female's tales. When she was done he asked her another question, "So I see. Now I will ask you this though, how did you come into possession of this item?"
Tamera was confused and thought he was still talking about the lipstick until he pulled out her necklace the older woman took when she landed on the table. The aqua trinket on a thin gold chain dangled in a circular motion as he continued to question, "How?"
Stunned by his devious move, she gasped, "Give it back to me! You don't understand; my father gave that to me on the day I was born!"
"Then you'll get it back as soon as you explain to me how you owned this necklace."
"What did 'my father gave that to me on the day I was born' didn't you understand? I just told you that what more do you want-"
"Then explain. Who is your mother? Your father? Who are they and how did your father begot this piece of jewelry?"
"My mother is Mabel Harrison and my father is Audrey Yvonne. My mother is African American and my father was French. My mother worked as a college professor in literature in San Francisco when they meet. He was working in the CIA at the time when they married and I was conceived. Like I said, and I'll say it again, he gave this necklace to me after I was born. A few months later after I was born, he was killed. They never found the killer or his body. It was one of the largest mystery homicides in the area."
He did a curt nod and stood up. A communication device around his ear silently went off. He spoke secretively in his native language to the other person on the line then hung up accordingly. He smiled at her and wistfully said, "Maybe your questions will be answered, Tamera."
Norwen walked closer to her until they were face to face. Without taking his eyes off her he took out a small beige cloth and delicately whipped the lipstick off her cheek. Then he took the necklace and hooked it back on to her neck, letting the pendant gracefully drop around her collarbone.
"I will be back soon. Don't be afraid." With that said he left her in solitude.
Meanwhile on the other side of the glass, Monarch Huwan sat valiantly with his wife and queen of Pasiphae, Diyanin. The watched and listened to the interview take place with agent Norwen and the famed human Tamera.
"What do you think about this, my love?"
The queen looked at her mate from the holographic screen and sighed, "This could be her, Huwan. I think . . . it's time to have a meeting with these humans. They have longed for answers . . . maybe . . . we can provide their disclosure. Do you feel the same?" Her voice cracked up with emotions.
"I'd hate to admit it, but you are right. We need to get this over with.", Monarch Huwam agreed and nodded with his mate. For the longest time the queen stared at the caramel colored human, whose skin off set the well familiar necklace of hers. The question of how this human gotten hold of her necklace seemed unclear at first. But, the answer had hit the Madame long before the young human woman and her other companions were caught and hauled into imprisonment. As soon as this, Tamera, landed on the dining table and corrupted the mists of the party, as soon as the queen saw her necklace around her neck she knew it was her all along.
"Ozvera," Madame Diyanin called to one of her personal guards, "-get agent Norwen to escort these three beings to our den. I would like to have a private meeting with these humans."
~ To Be Continued
Thanks and I hope you enjoyed where ever you are and don't worry; All will be explained in due time. ;D