Disclaimer – Own nothing.
AN – So, I decided to post this chapter earlier than I would've because I have a lot of major assignments do for school this upcoming week. Which means my next update won't be till next Friday. Sorry, but I hope you guys like this chapter. Please review and
Enjoy!
Hal waited on his bed for his Dad to come back with Cochise and Weaver. The minute Hal said that Karen had given him something, information, or a memory, something like that, his Dad stopped him. He told him to wait until he got Weaver and Cochise. And apparently, Maggie had been sent on a patrol a few hours ago, so he was left to wait alone.
"Hey." Hal looked up and saw Ben standing in the doorway. There was a small cut above his eyebrow, but appeared fine besides that.
"Hey. You okay?" Hal asked as Ben entered the room and sat down on the bed beside him.
"I'm fine, just a few cuts. What about you? How's your wrist?" Ben wondered.
"Anne says it'll be okay. Should be as good as new in a few hours." Hal replied.
"Good." Ben said, and was to say something else when the door opened again, and their Dad, Cochise, and Weaver came in.
"Hal, how are you feeling?" Weaver asked.
"I'm okay." Hal answered.
"Good. Your Dad says you saw something when Karen was in your head." Weaver said.
"Yeah. I saw two things. I saw what that glowing thing was, the thing in the warehouse where Karen, where I was kept. It was some sort of crystal." Hal told them. Cochise somehow looked more alert than he was before, and took a few steps closer.
"This crystal, was it glowing blue?" Cochise questioned.
"Yeah, it was." Hal responded.
"Was it broken at the end?" The alien continued pressing.
"Yeah, yeah it was." Cochise stared at him, but didn't say anything else, so Hal continued, "And in the memory, the crystal was in a glass box. Karen had this huge wire or something in her hand. She attached it to the box and it started glowing again. A Mech, was attached to the other end of the wire. Suddenly, it just turned on, like she had flipped a switch or something."
"And you're saying this was in the warehouse where you were held, where we attacked." Cochise said.
"Yes." Hal confirmed. Cochise continued staring at him, as though he was trying to figure something out.
"Cochise, what is it?" Tom asked.
"It's a power source. That crystal is what powers all the Espheni technology. Mechs, beamers, spaceships, even the Overlords ability to control their skitters through the harnesses." Cochise informed them.
"What? All that technology powered by a crystal? One that was small enough to fit in my hand?" Hal exclaimed.
"Yes. And if it were to be destroyed, the Overlords would be, basically powerless. A few generations ago, when the Volm first started attacking the Espheni, they did not perceive us as much of a threat. We managed to get to the power source. Our forces almost destroyed the crystal, but they failed, though they did manage to break a piece off. After that, the crystal, and the other part that was torn off all but disappeared. This was the first time it had come up since then." Cochise explained.
"But the building exploded. Wouldn't it have been destroyed in the blast?" Ben asked, remembering what Cochise had told them after they found Hal.
"If only it were that easy. As a matter of fact, we do not even know how our ancestors managed to break it in the first place. You said there were two things you saw, what was the other thing?" Cochise questioned.
"The other memory she gave me, was of a spaceship. It was big, bigger than Karen's. I went down the hall into a room, looked like the main room. There was an Overlord there, he turned around, got down on his knees and bowed. I looked to what he was bowing at, and saw," Hal paused for a moment, before finishing, "it looked like a huge spider or something. Like, huge, at least six times bigger than a skitter. And it seemed way worse than an Overlord."
"Cochise, you never told us there was something more powerful than an Overlord." Tom chimed in, looking at his alien friend in slight confusion that he would keep something like this secret.
"I, I didn't know. Not for sure anyways. It had been, speculated that the Overlords seemed to, worship some higher power, but we never imagined that it was something like this."
"It's the Queen." Everyone turned their heads to the door when they heard Lexi's voice. She stood in the doorway, staring at Hal.
"Lexi, what do you mean?" Tom asked, as he went over to his daughter, and crouched down in front of her.
"What Karen showed Hal. It's the Espheni Queen. She's coming to Earth. Karen told me about it when Mommy and I were with her. Karen said that the Queen is in charge of them, that she gives them life and takes care of them." Lexi explained, her words sounding strange with her young voice.
"Why didn't you tell me or Mommy this earlier?" Tom wondered, realizing how important this information was.
"I didn't think about it till now when I heard Hal talking about it." Lexi told him.
"If what your child says is true, then this changes everything. Normally, when the Espheni attack a planet, they leave after they've killed out the race on that planet. Never before has this, Queen, made an appearance. That can mean only one thing." Cochise said.
"And what's that?" Weaver asked.
"That the aliens have changed their goal from invasion, to occupation."
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"Occupation. The aliens want to live on our planet? That's why they attacked us and our either trying to enslave or kill us?" Tom wanted confirmation.
"It would appear so. The entire time my race has been fighting the Espheni, never have we learned anything about their homeworld. It is possible that they had to flee and are looking for a new place." Cochise said.
"And they chose ours, great." Tom's tone told them all just how he felt about that. He looked at the faces of everyone in the room, then said, "Ben, why don't you take Lexi to Lourdes's apartment, she said she could watch her for the day. Then track down Matt. I told him I'd get someone to tell him when Hal was awake."
Ben, though he wanted to stay, nodded. He got of the bed and went over to his sister. Taking her hand, he led her out of the room. Once they were gone, Tom turned back to his oldest.
"Did you see anything else?" Tom questioned. Hal shook his head, lowering his gaze down to a spot on the floor.
"Okay, then we need to find out if this Queen is already here, and where she is. Or, where she will be." Tom stated.
"I agree. I shall inform my father, and the other Volm to keep an eye out." Cochise told them, and walked out of the room without another word.
"The best way to find out about the Queen is through an Overlord. Weaver, we should check out those Espheni outposts in the area that we haven't hit yet, see if any are there." Tom decided. If Weaver had an objection to that, he didn't say it. He just took one last look at Hal, then left the room.
Once they were gone, Tom turned back to his son who was still sitting on the hospital bed. He hadn't said much after telling everyone what he had seen in Karen's mind, and was still silent now.
"You okay?" Tom asked, moving to stand in front of him.
"Yeah, I'm good. It's just," Hal stopped mid-sentence, and looked away from his father's face.
"Just what?" Tom pressed and Hal looked down at his lap.
"What happened to Karen's body?" Hal wondered, finally meeting Tom's eyes. Hal's own brown irises were filled with pain, and sadness.
"Um, we left her there, on the street. But don't worry, she's dead. Ben checked, so did Weaver. We don't have to worry about her anymore." Tom assured him, but Hal shook his head.
"She deserved better than that. The real Karen, I mean. She deserved a proper burial at least." Tom was a little stunned to hear his oldest say that, then quickly realized what was going on.
"You're right, the real Karen did. But we didn't have time, and the real Karen, she died a long time ago. I know you feel guilty because you couldn't save her, but it wasn't your fault. She, she was gone the minute the Overlords put that harness on her. There wasn't anything you could do." Tom told his son.
"It's just, I know she was gone, that she had become a, a monster. And I hate, everything that she did, to me, to you, to everyone. But I think, deep down, there still was a part of her that was still there. She gave me those memories, about that power source and the Queen. That wasn't an accident. Why would she do that if she wasn't there?" Hal managed to say. His eyes were filling with tears and his voice threatened to crack.
"I don't know. Maybe she was still there, at least, in the end. And, as terrible as she had been, I think a part of her still loved you. But, from what I remember of her, I think she would've wanted you to stop her from hurting anyone, from helping the aliens." Tom responded, seeing a tear slip down his boy's cheek.
"Come here." Tom opened up his arms, and wrapped them around Hal. The young man didn't even hesitate to return the embrace. The father could feel his son bury his head into his shoulder, his clothes getting wet with Hal's tears.
"It's okay, it's okay." Tom whispered, holding his boy closer as Hal finally allowed himself to grieve for the one he couldn't save.
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"Why didn't you guys get me earlier?" Matt demanded to know as he walked beside Ben down the hall towards the infirmary. Once the youngest brother realized that Hal had been awake for at least an hour, he was pretty angry that they had waited this long to come and get him, especially when their Dad promised he would tell get someone to tell him directly.
"Sorry, but when Dad realized what Hal saw, he wanted to get Cochise and Weaver and have Hal tell them. He didn't want to risk Hal forgetting what it was, and he decided that it's something that needs to be dealt with immediately. And hey, you still get to skip math class." Ben explained. Matt nodded, remembering what his older brother told him about what Hal had seen.
Matt looked over at Ben. There was something wrong with him, he was getting a weird vibe. Even though he had apparently already seen Hal, talked with him, knew he was okay, he still seemed worried about something.
"Ben, what's wrong?" Matt asked after a few moments.
"Nothing." Ben replied, keeping his gaze straight ahead.
"You're lying. I'm not a little kid anymore, and I'm sick of you, Hal, Dad, Anne and everyone treating me like one." Matt blurted out, stopping in his tracks. Ben turned around in shock.
Ben sighed and nodded, stating, "You're right. It's just, it's something I don't think Hal would want you to know. I don't think he even wanted me to find out about. I'm just worried about him, that's all."
The shock and hurt that Ben had been feeling ever since he saw what his older brother went through weighed heavily on him. He was hoping that when he went to see Hal earlier, he could talk to him about it, but their Dad had interrupted them when he came in the room with Cochise and Weaver. And after Hal told them what Karen had shown him, everything else got pushed to the side.
Matt accepted Ben's explanation, though still did not look very happy. Ben through his arm around his younger brother's shoulders, and pulled him along towards Hal's room.
Once they got to the room, they found Hal sitting up on the bed. Anne was standing in front of him, taking the brace off his wrist. When they heard the door open, they both turned to see who entered the room.
"Hey, wondering when you two were going to appear." Hal said with a smile coming onto his face. The younger Masons smiled back and walked over to him.
"Hey, are you doing?" Matt asked.
"I'm good. Finally getting rid of this stupid brace." Hal told them.
"You've been wearing this for 12 hours at most, and only been awake for about two. And without your apparently fast healing rate, you'd be wearing an actual cast, and for way longer than a day. I don't think you have any right to complain mister." Anne stated with a grin.
When the brace was off, the doctor place it on the table by the foot of the bed, then turned back to Hal.
"So, how's it feeling?" Hal bent his fingers, then twirled his wrist.
"Feels a little weird, but it doesn't hurt." Hal said after a minute.
"Good. But, I want you to take it easy with that arm, for the rest of the day at least." Anne ordered, "Other than that, you're free to go."
"Sweet," Hal commented, grabbing his jacket that was hanging over the back of the chair in the room, and hopped off the mattress, "I'm starved. Is it lunch yet?"
"Yeah, cafeteria started serving a few minutes ago. Wanna go?" Matt asked.
"Oh yeah." Hal replied, slipping his coat on. Putting an hand on Matt's back, and with Ben beside him, they walked out of the room.
As soon as they got near the cafeteria, Matt ran ahead to get a spot in line while Ben stayed behind with Hal. It finally gave him an opportunity to talk to his older brother.
"So, you sure you're okay?" Ben asked.
"I'm okay. Just, relieved that everything with Karen is over." Hal responded, keeping his eyes on the stairs they were approaching.
"Hal, about what Karen made you see, those memories, I saw them." Ben revealed.
"I know, but, this isn't really the best time to talk about this." Ben couldn't really argue with that as they were almost to one of the busiest parts of the city. Yet, he knew that Hal would avoid this topic for as long as he possibly could, so he grabbed Hal's shoulder and stopped him. Hal turned and looked at him, his face completely guarded.
"Just, just promise me, that if does start to affect you more than it is right now, that if it gets worse, you don't just bury it or express it as anger. I did that, and it didn't end so well. I don't want you to go down that road. You can talk to me." Ben told him. Hal sighed, and nodded.
"I'm fine. You don't have to worry about me." Hal said.
"You two coming or not?" Ben and Hal turned at the sound of Matt's voice. He was standing at the top of the staircase waiting for them, looking very impatient. Hal smiled and came over to Matt. Together, they started heading down the stairs while Ben followed behind, keeping an eye on his older brother.
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"So, it actually was a power source." Kadar stated. Tom nodded, looking at around the doctor's lab.
"That it is. It powers all the Espheni technology. If it is destroyed, all of the spaceships, beamers and Mech will cease to function. They'd be quite vulnerable." Cochise, the only other occupant in the room told him.
"Then why do they use our fuel for the Mechs, and possibly the beamers?" Kadar questioned.
"The crystal, while powerful, doesn't provide fuel. It sends out powerful energy waves that give the technology the ability to function, but without the fuel it does not work. One of the most complicated problems with the stone, is that it need to connect, or bond, with the technology first. Once it has done that, the technology will be able attract and pick up those waves of energy, powering it, and giving the Overlords control over it." Cochise explained.
"The Overlords are connected to it too?" Tom wondered.
"Yes, they are exposed to its energy while still in their fetal stage of development."
"So, it's like watching TV. In order to watch cable, you have to first have a dish set up, otherwise your TV won't pick up the satellite rays." Kadar put in layman's terms.
"You said that this also is used to power the harness, and the fluid they release which is how Ben connects with them. Hal has something akin to that fluid in him as well, and those brain surgeries. But how is he stronger than them though?" Tom asked.
"The explosion, that went off in the building. When the bomb went off, it hit the crystal with a powerful, destructive force. The crystal unleashes its own power to protect itself. Hal was exposed to that. It's probably what saved his life in the explosion. He received an extremely higher amount of its energy than what the Overlords normally use on themselves. That also makes him the best person to find it." Cochise informed the father.
"What do you mean?" Tom questioned.
"Like your sons can feel when skitters and Overlords are near, they should be able to sense the stone as well. It is the source of their strength and abilities. Because Hal was exposed to a much higher degree of its power, he will have a much stronger connection to it than Ben." Cochise told him.
"And if we destroy it, what will happen to Hal, and Ben?" Tom pressed.
"Ben's spikes will most likely stop working and in all cases, die. Hal will probably be unable to communicate with the Espheni, and his healing rate will go back to normal."
"What about the skitters and the Overlords?" Kadar chimed back in.
"The Espheni have used the crystal so many times that for them, they now have it connected to their DNA. Destroying the stone will not kill them, but it will destroy their ability to communicate over long distances, and the Overlords will not be able to control their subservants over a long distance as well. The skitters, unless they are within close enough range of the Overlords, will be not be controlled by the Overlords. They will be as they once were before they were harnessed."
"If we find this power source, and destroy it, we can finally get ahead of them. We could finally weaken them enough to end this war. We need to find it." Tom decided.
"Except, we have no idea how to find it. And even if we do, we have no idea how to destroy it. How are we going to get past that?" Kadar asked, looking at the President.
"I'll take care of finding it. You two, focus on finding a way to destroy it. Cochise, you said that the Volm almost destroyed it before. Can you get information on what all happened?"
"Yes, it might take a few days, but I can." Cochise answered.
"Do it. I want all focus on finding this power source. Once Cochise gives you the information, I need you to find out all you can about what happened, and how to destroy it. Also, I want to be updated if you find anything at all about this Queen." Cochise nodded, then headed out of the dark lab to the Volm compound.
"Do you really think we can do this?" Kadar questioned once the alien was gone.
"It's our best bet, maybe our only bet. We don't have a choice."