Chapter 14

"I still say this would be a lot easier if we had external sensors." Kemom grumbled.

"I'm telling you, they were off!" Leander insisted.

Yeave sighed. Try as the might they had not been able to reboot the complete external sensor array after going through the Omicrom belt. They'd rigged one scanner to find cromantum but otherwise they had to fly blind. So she's planted the ship at the pole, set the controls to run a search pattern that followed the light, and closed the viewscreen filters to keep out the radiation this close to the star. "It doesn't matter; we're not going to run in to anything up here."

"How do you know?" Kemom asked.

"Because when the royal cartographers got here a hundred rotations ago they barely had atmospheric flight going. They were still using preserved fuel for it. There's no way an isolated civilization could progress that fast." She sighed and looked over toward the bunk where Sarai still lay motionless. "Anytime you want to wake up and help us, princess."

She wasn't surprised by the lack of reply.

"What do you think they did to her?" Kemom asked.

"I don't want to think about that right now." Yeave replied. But Sarai had lost it, bad enough to destroy an entire freaking slaver ship, trash all the Meks and literally implode their Olan masters She did not want to think about what might have shattered her friend that much.

Leander, bless him, tried to make light of it, "Never thought I'd be flying the Royal barge around."

"Hey, stow that, man!" Kemom told him. "It's just Sarai. Knowing this doesn't change anything."

"I was just joking!" Leander insisted.

"Hey, guys." Great, now her crew was hitting the stress line. "Just relax, all right. You're right, it's just Sarai. She never wanted to be anything special unless she could do something good with it. But if we do get my uncle and the King on board try not to act like idiots."

Kemom flashed her a smile. "That's asking a lot from Leander here." Leander promptly turned in his chair and popped his friend in the arm. "Well it's true." Kemom went to pop him back but he flinched away. "What?"

"It still hurts. I need to get it back to medical or something."

All of a sudden Yeave flashed on a way to distract them. "And another thing, the royal cartographers said we should be biologically compatible with the natives here. Try not to let it distract you."

"Why would it?" Leander asked.

"Oh shit!" Kemom said. "The Omicrom cloud kills any active circuitry."

"So?" Leander's eyes got wide. "Oh shit, our implants!"

Yeave chuckled. Welcome back sex drive. Granted it would take her a little longer, but the guys ought to be revving up any time now. "No chasing the native girls." They were both quiet. Too quiet. No way. "Or the native boys," she turned to find both men hunched over their instruments, so neither noticed how the other one was turning red. Oh this was going to be just fantastic.

A moment later Kemom grinned. "Bingo Captain!" He crowed. "I've got a cromantium signature, loud and clear."

Yeave turned to his board to have a look. "Where is it?"

"Looks like it's in an urban area…and it's in motion."

Yeave felt a warm, true smile growing. Her father had died alongside the rest of the men in King Eldrak's court, her mother had succumbed to her grief not long after the Queen Mother had succumbed to age, she'd thought neither she nor Sarai had anyone left but each other. But now… "Hello, Uncle Dhai." She whispered. Then she cleared her throat and got control of herself again. "Reconfigure for maximum biomass and find a patch as close as you can get that will allow us to land and hide the ship." She pulled the ship into a turn and started heading back around to that signature and losing altitude. "Let me know when we're far enough into the atmosphere to drop the filters, I'm going to have to sight land this thing."

"How will we be able to get off again?" Leander asked.

"Uncle Dhai's forgotten more about flying than the three of us know, he'll get us home."

"I wonder why he never came back."

"I don't know."

They packed up the team, large trucks that would provide all the gear they needed for bio-containment, military to provide security and god only knew what else. But they couldn't move to the location until the thing landed.

Once the ship was down far enough the two fighter jets the General had launched took up position on either side. "What do you see, pilot?" The General asked.

"I'm not seeing anything that looks like any kind of weapon on it, sir." The pilot replied. "I see a windshield but it appears to be covered. I can't see inside the ship. They don't seem to be reacting to our presence at all, sir." There was a pause. "I might be seeing some kind of damage to what looks like some kind of detection equipment on the outside, it looks like something has been broken off there."

"Maybe that's why they don't see is." Someone said.

There was a pause, long enough to get everyone edgy, and then the pilot spoke again. "Sir! They're raising the cover on their windshield! I can see two…no, three figures in their cockpit."

"Alright, filters going up." Kemom said.

The screen over the shield lifted, allowing Yeave to get her first view of the planet below them. It was green, the most beautiful green she'd ever seen and the sky was a perfect crystalline blue, just a little more blue than home, and those were intact cities down there that had never seen a Mek bombardment and people who had never run in fear of the slavers. It was practically a paradise.

"Uhhh , Captain…" Leander's voice was shaking.

Yeave turned to look at him, then turned to look where he was looking. She'd been looking out the front of the viewscreen, when she looked to the sides she spotted what had to be fighters, boxing them in. "Oh shit!"

"Can't progress that fast, huh?" Kemom snapped.

"Stow it!" All right, change of plans. Was there any way they could pull out or out run them or…

"Yeave, I think that one's trying to get your attention."

"We're attempting to establish communication sir." The pilot said, while in the background the other pilot could be heard trying to hail the ship. "They can't seem to hear us; trying visual communications."

As Yeave watched the pilot pointed to her, pointed to his eyes and then waggled his controller to wiggle his wings up and down. Great, they weren't getting out of this. "Okay, new plan." She said. "Those ships have to come from a landing field somewhere. Since we're not hiding from them I'm going to head for the nearest landing field to the signature, then when it's dark I'll sneak out and find my uncle. You two stay here and guard Sarai."

"We guard Sarai?" Leander asked. "What if they try to come suck our brains or something?"

"Just keep the hatch locked and you should be fine. If all else fails there are pulse rifles in the storage bay. Kemom, find me a landing field." She looked over at the pilot, who was repeating the gesture for the third time. "Okay here we go." She waggled her wings to let him know that she did indeed see and understand.

"Sir, we have achieved visual communication!" A sharp thrill went around the room. "Am attempting to indicate that they should land."

"See if you can get them to Langley pilot." The General said.

"Yes, sir."

The pilot of the fighter pointed to her and pointed to the ground. "Okay, I think they want us to land." Yeave said. She waggled her wings in encouragement. "Why do I feel like I'm being herded?"

"You are." Kemom said, "They're pushing us off course. Here." He sent a flight plan to her station. "That will get us to what looks like the closest landing strip. There are ships like that on the ground there."

"All right, more power to the shields. Time to show them what the Sulaco has in her."

"Sir, they're changing course. Looks like they're heading for DC proper." The pilot said.

"Try to crowd them!" The General said.

"I'm trying sir, but there's something pushing back against my plane."

"They might have some kind of force shield." Someone said. "It would keep the fighters from getting too close."

"Are they still losing altitude?" The General asked.

"Yes, sir."

There was a tense time while the ship descended, but then. "Sir, they appear to be lining up on approach to Andrews."

"Andrews!" Everyone turned to look at the map. Andrews Air Force Base was almost in the center of Washington. "Oh god!"

"Yes, Sir."

"Contact the field there; implement the protocol."

"Yes, Sir."

In the background they could hear the pilots in the escort telling the tower that they were landing, going through the approach procedures. In those last long, tense moments Spencer and Emily just looked at each other. Could this really be happening?

But after much holding of breath they finally heard it. "General, the bogey is on the ground at Andrews. I repeat, the bogey is on the ground at Andrews."

Emily just swallowed. The aliens had landed.