The
War – Chapter 2
*~*~*
Da'an sneaked through the normally
deserted corridors of the mothership. Time and again he crouched down in dark
corners. The Jaridians had made short work with most of the volunteers. In many
corridors lied bodies. Da'an had watched how Zo'or and T'than had been marched
off to the security cells of the ship. All Taelons who had stayed on the ship
had been captivated. Da'an knew that many of them would try to kill themselves.
He knew, too, that Zo'or would fight. The Ship was in the hands of the enemy.
He would try to destroy it. The stored data and the technology were too
dangerous to be allowed to fall into the wrong hands.
Among one of the enemy groups Da'an had
recognized Ter'kozz. So there was hope that the Jaridian resistance would try
to sabotage the plans of the military government. The members of the resistance
hoped as Da'anhimself did, for a peaceful solution to the longstanding war
between their peoples. The military wanted to eliminate the Taelons, no matter
how. It looked like General Fa'loth was leading this attack. Da'an had to avoid
him at all cost. Fa'loth had tortured and questioned him back then. He would
not cease until he had found out how Da'an had escaped and who had helped him.
Silently he sneaked on. If he could make
it to the portal he could possibly escape again. He knew his chances were nil;
the portal would be guarded heavily, but his fear of Fa'loth helped him to keep
his hope.
The portalroom was only a few meters
away, when Da'an was spotted.
That was it. If he would try to escape
now they would possibly kill him quickly. With the power of despair he
struggled against his guards.
"Look who we have here. I think we know
each other, don't we?" a smug voice spoke behind him. A voice Da'an recognized
all too well.
The Jaridians who held him forced Da'an
to face Fa'loth. The General seemed to take great pleasure in Da'an's panicked
expression.
"You recovered well, Taelon. How
pleasant! The more you will able to stand. It will be fun to talk to you again.
You do remember our conversations, don't you? DON'T YOU?" he bawled at Da'an
when he didn't answer.
He slapped him hard across the face.
"I remember..." Da'an whispered.
"Good boy! Take him to my ship and guard
him well. Don't give him the opportunity to kill himself or you will pay for
it." Fa'loth smiled benevolently at his soldiers. "I'm sure we understand each
other, don't we?."
Resigned Da'an submitted to his fate.
*~*~*
"...lost contact to the mothership. In
Earth's orbit five alien vessels have been sighted, who have attacked the
Taelon mothership. The Taelons who are staying on Earth have entrenched
themselves in their embassies. By statements of the Companion Agents the
attackers have been identified as Jaridians. Da'an, the North American
Companion and Zo'or, the synod leader were aboard the mothership during the
attack. Nothing is known about their current whereabouts. The aliens haven't
attacked any facilities on Earth so far. The population has not burst into
panic. We'll keep you updated on any changes. Syfyman for News Broadcast."
Augur turned off the television.
"My computers show that the mothership
has been severely damaged. Looks like the Jaridians have taken over the ship. I
can tap the mothership's systems only to a certain extent. They are partly
offline.
"What about Da'an?" Lili restlessly
walked up and down. "Do you know something about him? Is he alive?" She shot
Augur a begging look.
"I'm sorry, Lili. I don't know."
"We have to do something!"
"I have no idea, what. We don't know
about the intentions of the Jaridians. Perhaps they just grab the Taelons and
vanish. Then we would have killed two birds with one stone. I'm sorry, Lili.
Even if Da'an is still alive, I have no idea how we can contact him.
*~*~*
In the Washington embassy hell had broken
loose. Liam and the remaining personnel tried all ways to contact the
mothership. The portals stood under strict guarding. But until now nothing had
come up.
"Do we have contact to the other
embassies?" Liam asked Gaeriel, one of the technicians.
"Yes, Sir. Everything is quiet there,
too. Companions who have remained on Earth report about a major wave of deaths
aboard the mothership. It looks like the Taelons who hadn't died during the
attack are killing themselves now. They can't say who is alive and who isn't.
The commonality seems to be totally messed up."
Liam was very worried about Da'an. With
his own weak connection to the commonality he was not able to locate individual
beings.
The only thing he could do was to hope
and pray that his friend and mentor was still alive.
*~*~*
Da'an was accommodated in a well-secured
cell aboard the Jaridian flagship. Every 30 minutes a soldier controlled him.
Fa'loth hadn't had the time to concern himself with Da'an, yet. Again a guard
entered the cellblock.
"Da'an!"
Wearily Da'an looked up. „I am awake."
The guard pushed back his hood.
"Ter'kozz!"
"Not so loud! I want to help you to
escape. If Fa'loth can lay his hands on you the resistance would be in danger!"
Ter'kozz put up a small device on the
force field generator. „With this thing enough energy will be drawn off to make
the other devices think the field is still intact. I have prepared a shuttle
that will take me back to your mothership in about one hour. You know the
controls. Good luck! And give Lilimy best.!"
Da'an's relief was plainly visible on his
face. "I do not know how to thank you, Ter'kozz. Try to get a global. By
555-24675 you can contact Lili."
"Good. Down the corridor is a uniform
closet. Take one of the capes. Perhaps you won't be recognized immediately with
it. And now hurry!"
Da'an stepped out of his cell and thanked
his friend with one last handshake before running down the corridor and
disappearing in the closet.
In his disguise Da'an forced himself to
walk with firm steps and self-confidently to the shuttle hangar. Behind he
could hear Ter'kozz ordering soldiers around. Actually he made his way to Ter'kozz
shuttle without being noticed. But then one of the maintenance personnel sound
the alarm.
With the shuttles weaponry Da'an blasted
a hole into the hangar's hull, then raced into space at full speed.
The pursuers weren't far behind. Da'an's
shuttle wasn't equipped with an ID-drive and the strange controls did their
share to let the other ship catch up.
Near the
American East Coast they opened fire. With a loud bang and a rain of sparks the
helm controls said goodbye. The ship pancaked and started spinning. After
another direct hit the small vessel caught fire. Shortly before it crashed to
the sea Da'an managed to bail out. He hit the surface hardly. The cold water
immediately started to paralyze him. Behind him the shuttle sank into the
waters. Desperately Da'an tried to orientate himself and surface. Gasping for
air he emerged from the sea. The same second the shuttle's engines exploded.
The shock wave pulled him down again and he lost his last bearings before he
lost consciousness.