"I must find my friends"
"Friends?"
"Those who travelled with me"
"I think that's what Tom wants to talk to you about. We should go see him now, you know enough English" said Amy, still sitting next to Kra'tak.
Kra'tak immediately lifted his massive weight up of the floor with ease, and waited to see what Amy did. Amy got up from the spot she had been sitting in comfortably for the last few hours. She turned towards the library entrance.
Heather and her team all followed them by removing themselves from their own comfortable positions and got to their feet. They readied themselves and each one of them did a quick reflexive equipment check before moving forward to continue their escort of Amy and Kra'tak.
In the last few hours Kra'tak had managed, seemingly easily, to learn English as well as an average 11 year-old human. More than enough to be able to hold a coherent conversation with an adult, and to understand most of what was being said to him. He now had an intermediate knowledge of the English language. With more time Amy had hoped to let him continue to learn at his own rapid pace so that he could raise his language skill up to the same as theirs, but Tom had insisted on seeing Kra'tak as soon as possible.
The group now moved as one towards the exit. Some of the kids stared with a blank expression of awe at Kra'tak while others were thinking about running up to him just so they could touch him to see what an alien felt like. Such an action would be impossible with the only other alien species know of.
Doran, the librarian went back to his duty behind his desk. Dozen's of different thoughts coming into his mind about the last few hours and how amazing it was to have been a part of such an experience.
The few adults around continued to play with the children, reading books, and setting out tasks for the children.
The group of six walked past the two guards at the library entrance. They felt the thundering vibration of Kra'tak's footsteps as they faded the further the group moved away.
----------------------------------------------
Adam's wiped sweat from his forehead. He stood up from his crouched position and walked around in what little room was left to get the blood flowing freely again. The others in the room took quick glances towards him as he did so.
"What now?" Raul asked the question on everyone's mind.
"All we can do is wait" Adam's replied gloomily, now once again looking intently at the security monitors for a sign of something, anything at all.
Baseer, Hartwell, Halden and Knight were leaning against whatever was behind them, wall or consoles. Raul and the other two communications personnel were being kept busy with the constant radio checks.
The combined body heat of the eight people in a room meant to accommodate four at most caused the heat in the room to rise considerably. This combined with the heat from the various electronic equipment made the room almost unbearably hot.
Sweat trickled off Raul's forehead onto a console in front of him. He quickly wiped it away with a cloth, to ensure that the water didn't damage anything. He continued to sip his coffee, entirely grateful for every warm drop that was in the cup he held before him. He felt as if this was the best coffee he had ever had, ignoring the fact that he was already hot, but was extremely tired.
"Pour yourselves some guys" he told the others.
Knight was the only one to move towards the coffee, the others not interested. He silently poured himself a warm cup of swirling dark brown liquid and promptly drank it all in one go.
"You're quiet today" Baseer commented.
Knight turned towards him, his worried eyes telling Baseer his answer. Although Baseer himself was inexperienced in combat, as was Hartwell and Halden, they seemed to be doing well not to show it. Knight, on the other hand, was finding it difficult to control his feelings, much less hide them from everyone else. Soldiers dealt with the problems before them in their own ways, Baseer thought, after deciding not to pursue his comment further.
--------------------------------------
Keitaro was lying in a bed. A heart monitor beeped rhythmically. That was the only sound in the room. There had been a few children in the room earlier for a check up. The sounds of the children playing and laughing had helped the unconscious Keitaro on a sub conscious level to feel better.
He sat up lightning fast when he realised where he now was. The first thing he did was to look over himself in a slight panic for any tubes or wires going into him. He utterly hated needles and to his relief found that he had nothing 'connected' to him in that way, only the heart monitor connected to his finger.
"You do know that such a movement would be very bad had your back been broken" Harlan commented.
This was instantly met by Keitaro then consciously thinking about his back and moving it around to make sure it was fine. He then turned to his left and saw Harlan picking up some charts, smiling ever so slightly.
"You winding me up doc?" Keitaro asked Harlan who was now pretending to put his full focus on checking the charts.
"So what's the verdict?" Keitaro asked realising his previous question was going to go ignored.
"You're fine. Looks like that sword of yours saved you again" Harlan replied, this time looking up at Keitaro.
"It did?" Keitaro asked as he moved himself towards the side of the hospital bed with a grunt at the effort.
"It must've acted like a brace for you spine when you hit the floor. It took the brunt of the heavy impact leaving your spine unhurt, for the most part," Harlan said with a bigger smile on his face.
"See. I told ya!" Keitaro replied cheerfully, referring to the many times others had light heartedly mocked him for wearing a sword almost all the time.
He did, after all, take it off to have a wash, although some believed that he even slept with the sword on regardless of how uncomfortable such an act would be.
Keitaro's expression changed quickly.
"Hold on, didn't you say I lost a lotta blood back there?" he asked, worriedly.
"You did" Harlan replied matter of factly.
"Then where's the tube?" Keitaro asked anxiously.
"You've already had it in. I know how much you hate needles so I had it removed as soon as possible" Harlan answered.
"Thanks. I thought I was gonna have to have a tube in now" Keitaro said, relieved.
"Well I gotta go, duty calls. You'll feel a little sore when the painkillers wear of, nothing major. You should be back to full capacity in a few hours" Harlan informed him.
"Just one more thing doc, help me get outta this bed" Keitaro requested.
"Sure" Harlan said as he put the clipboard back down.
With another grunting effort and a helpful hand from Harlan, Keitaro managed to stand on his own two legs and regain his balance.
"Any news of the other one of those things?" Keitaro inquired, as he took a few shaky steps around the bed.
"No, no sign of it yet." Harlan replied, subconsciously placing one hand over the butt of his AM-232 assault rifle.
"I'll go find the others" Keitaro told Harlan and they each went towards a different door.
---------------------------------------------------------
Outside, the day was growing darker, quickly. The bright Sun settling into the horizon ready to come up the next day and repeat its sequence dutifully.
"I don't think I'd ever have gotten used to this" one of Heather's team members thought out loud, referring to the short days on Endora Prime, "back on my colony the days were 34 Earth hours long.
"You think you'll ever get used to him" Heather asked, nodding her head towards the giant figure of Kra'tak, who was following Amy.
The other soldier let out a grunt of laughter and shook his head.
"So what's the plan, Doc?" Heather asked Amy.
"We'll take him to the medicentre. Tom's waiting there for us, he needs to discuss something with Kra'tak" Amy replied.
Kra'tak briefly looked towards Amy as she said this, without breaking his stride. The escort of soldiers where constantly looking around, on elevated alertness, now that they knew just what kind of threat they were dealing with.
The twilight of the day growing darker made now the most difficult time to see. The base floodlights would be on in a few minutes but for now the soldiers had to make do. Night vision was not an option as it was still to bright for that. Their state of alertness didn't help them see in such light well enough to spot what they needed to see.
Back at the civilians building, some children were still playing while others slept. Same went for the adults too, some busying themselves with various activities while others slept either to get some rest or just to pass the time. The soldiers assigned to the building continued the patrols of their designated areas.
There were two covering the entrance to the library, they were stationary, with no need to patrol the area they were guarding. Suddenly a fluorescent light tube at one end of the corridor flicked off followed as sparks simultaneously fell to the floor and disappeared.
"What the..?" one of them thought out loud.
"Joe, you see that?" he asked the other.
"Yeah, you think it fused?" Joe replied, sounding wary, as he turned to look in the same direction.
"No way" he stated firmly, unhooking the radio from his waist.
"Cover my six" he told Joe, "this place let's you walk round in circles."
"Base, come in" he spoke into the radio.
Adams hit the reply button almost immediately. The others listened to the radio closely.
"Acknowledged, who is this, what is your situation?" Adams asked quickly and firmly.
"This is Tyler and Joe at the library entrance" the whispered reply came in, "a light down the corridor just went out, didn't look like it fused."
"Stay alert, and stay put. More men are on the way"
"Understood" came the calm quite reply.
The radio clicked off.
Adams immediately radioed the teams nearest to the library and instructed Raul to do the same. Within a minute half a dozen teams of soldiers would be converging on the building as well as those soldiers already inside the building too.
Adams checked his rifle, readied it and moved towards the doorway.
"Halden and Hartwell, you two stay here. Baseer, Knight come with me" Adams ordered.
They left the room promptly and made their way towards the library at a rapid pace.
"Damn right stay put, I'm not going anywhere" Joe whispered nervously.
"Quiet, concentrate" Tyler ordered, his gun's safety off.
The light on the other side of the corridor went out. Joe was already covering that area. Tyler turned quickly.
"Shit" Joe said, louder this time.
"Keep quiet" Tyler ordered again, trying to see any sign of movement in the corridor ahead.
Both of them were focused on the same area, Tyler temporarily forgetting to cover his own back.
The first indication Tyler had that something was terribly wrong was when he looked down towards his mid section. Protruding through his body armour was the end of a large spear. The second indication he had that something was terribly wrong was the amount of blood and his own guts that followed the spears journey out of his body and onto the area around him, covering Joe too.
He couldn't feel any pain, nor hear anything. He could only watch in shock and confusion. Unable to do anything about his predicament. He seemed to be just an observer in his own body. He looked back up to see Joe turning, saying something, something he couldn't hear. Only the exaggerated movement of Joe's lips as he brought up his rifle towards something behind Tyler.
It was then that Tyler realised what had just happened, but it was too late to do anything. He could see his rifle laying on the ground before him, covered in his own blood and guts. His limp hands refused to respond to his commands. He could still see Joe bringing up his rifle, in what seemed like slow motion, and firing it. The bright flash of the muzzle next to him, the sound of the rifle unleashing its assault on its target non-existent to him.
The last indication he had that something was terribly wrong were the twin blades that protruded out of his chest exactly where his heart was, or rather where his heart had been, thus ending his life.
By the time Joe fired the rifle Tyler's body had been brought up to protect the creature from the hail of bullets, which now tore into and through Tyler's dead body. Joe momentarily stopped, distraught at having just shot at the body of his team mate. This split second stop was more than enough time for the creature to jam it's twin blades into Joe's neck before he had time to bring himself together. Joe's rifle fell to the floor too, landing next to Tyler's blood soaked one, with the loud clang of metal on metal.
The Predator decloaked completely, satisfied with it's small battle. It then moved purposefully into the library.
Children, who had previously been having fun, now sat terrified and motionless, staring at the huge Predator, covered in human blood and guts. This Predator was bigger than Kra'tak. It walked past the children and adults, completely ignoring them after a quick scan of the group. The Predator moved towards Doran, who like the children stood like a statue, completely shocked. He had been with a similar creature before, a friendly one. And now stood before him was a similar one that had just killed without compunction the two soldiers set to guard the library area. Two humans.
The Predator brought it's masked face closer to Doran's. He could feel the power of the creature in front of him.
"Kra'tak" the Predator said.
Doran was speechless, even if he wanted to he couldn't speak. The Predator looked over him just as two soldiers entered the library. It fully cloaked itself and moved quickly towards the library entrance.
The soldiers had no time to react as they were both easily knocked a few feet in the air into a stand of books.
The Predator knew that Kra'tak had been here earlier. It would now have to escape the humans once again in order to pursue it's objective.
A few of the soldier's had heard the noise of automatic fire and were close to the library now. Many more soldiers were on the way. This was the best opportunity they had of stopping the second of these devastating creatures before it could cause more harm than the soldiers knew it was capable of.
"Friends?"
"Those who travelled with me"
"I think that's what Tom wants to talk to you about. We should go see him now, you know enough English" said Amy, still sitting next to Kra'tak.
Kra'tak immediately lifted his massive weight up of the floor with ease, and waited to see what Amy did. Amy got up from the spot she had been sitting in comfortably for the last few hours. She turned towards the library entrance.
Heather and her team all followed them by removing themselves from their own comfortable positions and got to their feet. They readied themselves and each one of them did a quick reflexive equipment check before moving forward to continue their escort of Amy and Kra'tak.
In the last few hours Kra'tak had managed, seemingly easily, to learn English as well as an average 11 year-old human. More than enough to be able to hold a coherent conversation with an adult, and to understand most of what was being said to him. He now had an intermediate knowledge of the English language. With more time Amy had hoped to let him continue to learn at his own rapid pace so that he could raise his language skill up to the same as theirs, but Tom had insisted on seeing Kra'tak as soon as possible.
The group now moved as one towards the exit. Some of the kids stared with a blank expression of awe at Kra'tak while others were thinking about running up to him just so they could touch him to see what an alien felt like. Such an action would be impossible with the only other alien species know of.
Doran, the librarian went back to his duty behind his desk. Dozen's of different thoughts coming into his mind about the last few hours and how amazing it was to have been a part of such an experience.
The few adults around continued to play with the children, reading books, and setting out tasks for the children.
The group of six walked past the two guards at the library entrance. They felt the thundering vibration of Kra'tak's footsteps as they faded the further the group moved away.
----------------------------------------------
Adam's wiped sweat from his forehead. He stood up from his crouched position and walked around in what little room was left to get the blood flowing freely again. The others in the room took quick glances towards him as he did so.
"What now?" Raul asked the question on everyone's mind.
"All we can do is wait" Adam's replied gloomily, now once again looking intently at the security monitors for a sign of something, anything at all.
Baseer, Hartwell, Halden and Knight were leaning against whatever was behind them, wall or consoles. Raul and the other two communications personnel were being kept busy with the constant radio checks.
The combined body heat of the eight people in a room meant to accommodate four at most caused the heat in the room to rise considerably. This combined with the heat from the various electronic equipment made the room almost unbearably hot.
Sweat trickled off Raul's forehead onto a console in front of him. He quickly wiped it away with a cloth, to ensure that the water didn't damage anything. He continued to sip his coffee, entirely grateful for every warm drop that was in the cup he held before him. He felt as if this was the best coffee he had ever had, ignoring the fact that he was already hot, but was extremely tired.
"Pour yourselves some guys" he told the others.
Knight was the only one to move towards the coffee, the others not interested. He silently poured himself a warm cup of swirling dark brown liquid and promptly drank it all in one go.
"You're quiet today" Baseer commented.
Knight turned towards him, his worried eyes telling Baseer his answer. Although Baseer himself was inexperienced in combat, as was Hartwell and Halden, they seemed to be doing well not to show it. Knight, on the other hand, was finding it difficult to control his feelings, much less hide them from everyone else. Soldiers dealt with the problems before them in their own ways, Baseer thought, after deciding not to pursue his comment further.
--------------------------------------
Keitaro was lying in a bed. A heart monitor beeped rhythmically. That was the only sound in the room. There had been a few children in the room earlier for a check up. The sounds of the children playing and laughing had helped the unconscious Keitaro on a sub conscious level to feel better.
He sat up lightning fast when he realised where he now was. The first thing he did was to look over himself in a slight panic for any tubes or wires going into him. He utterly hated needles and to his relief found that he had nothing 'connected' to him in that way, only the heart monitor connected to his finger.
"You do know that such a movement would be very bad had your back been broken" Harlan commented.
This was instantly met by Keitaro then consciously thinking about his back and moving it around to make sure it was fine. He then turned to his left and saw Harlan picking up some charts, smiling ever so slightly.
"You winding me up doc?" Keitaro asked Harlan who was now pretending to put his full focus on checking the charts.
"So what's the verdict?" Keitaro asked realising his previous question was going to go ignored.
"You're fine. Looks like that sword of yours saved you again" Harlan replied, this time looking up at Keitaro.
"It did?" Keitaro asked as he moved himself towards the side of the hospital bed with a grunt at the effort.
"It must've acted like a brace for you spine when you hit the floor. It took the brunt of the heavy impact leaving your spine unhurt, for the most part," Harlan said with a bigger smile on his face.
"See. I told ya!" Keitaro replied cheerfully, referring to the many times others had light heartedly mocked him for wearing a sword almost all the time.
He did, after all, take it off to have a wash, although some believed that he even slept with the sword on regardless of how uncomfortable such an act would be.
Keitaro's expression changed quickly.
"Hold on, didn't you say I lost a lotta blood back there?" he asked, worriedly.
"You did" Harlan replied matter of factly.
"Then where's the tube?" Keitaro asked anxiously.
"You've already had it in. I know how much you hate needles so I had it removed as soon as possible" Harlan answered.
"Thanks. I thought I was gonna have to have a tube in now" Keitaro said, relieved.
"Well I gotta go, duty calls. You'll feel a little sore when the painkillers wear of, nothing major. You should be back to full capacity in a few hours" Harlan informed him.
"Just one more thing doc, help me get outta this bed" Keitaro requested.
"Sure" Harlan said as he put the clipboard back down.
With another grunting effort and a helpful hand from Harlan, Keitaro managed to stand on his own two legs and regain his balance.
"Any news of the other one of those things?" Keitaro inquired, as he took a few shaky steps around the bed.
"No, no sign of it yet." Harlan replied, subconsciously placing one hand over the butt of his AM-232 assault rifle.
"I'll go find the others" Keitaro told Harlan and they each went towards a different door.
---------------------------------------------------------
Outside, the day was growing darker, quickly. The bright Sun settling into the horizon ready to come up the next day and repeat its sequence dutifully.
"I don't think I'd ever have gotten used to this" one of Heather's team members thought out loud, referring to the short days on Endora Prime, "back on my colony the days were 34 Earth hours long.
"You think you'll ever get used to him" Heather asked, nodding her head towards the giant figure of Kra'tak, who was following Amy.
The other soldier let out a grunt of laughter and shook his head.
"So what's the plan, Doc?" Heather asked Amy.
"We'll take him to the medicentre. Tom's waiting there for us, he needs to discuss something with Kra'tak" Amy replied.
Kra'tak briefly looked towards Amy as she said this, without breaking his stride. The escort of soldiers where constantly looking around, on elevated alertness, now that they knew just what kind of threat they were dealing with.
The twilight of the day growing darker made now the most difficult time to see. The base floodlights would be on in a few minutes but for now the soldiers had to make do. Night vision was not an option as it was still to bright for that. Their state of alertness didn't help them see in such light well enough to spot what they needed to see.
Back at the civilians building, some children were still playing while others slept. Same went for the adults too, some busying themselves with various activities while others slept either to get some rest or just to pass the time. The soldiers assigned to the building continued the patrols of their designated areas.
There were two covering the entrance to the library, they were stationary, with no need to patrol the area they were guarding. Suddenly a fluorescent light tube at one end of the corridor flicked off followed as sparks simultaneously fell to the floor and disappeared.
"What the..?" one of them thought out loud.
"Joe, you see that?" he asked the other.
"Yeah, you think it fused?" Joe replied, sounding wary, as he turned to look in the same direction.
"No way" he stated firmly, unhooking the radio from his waist.
"Cover my six" he told Joe, "this place let's you walk round in circles."
"Base, come in" he spoke into the radio.
Adams hit the reply button almost immediately. The others listened to the radio closely.
"Acknowledged, who is this, what is your situation?" Adams asked quickly and firmly.
"This is Tyler and Joe at the library entrance" the whispered reply came in, "a light down the corridor just went out, didn't look like it fused."
"Stay alert, and stay put. More men are on the way"
"Understood" came the calm quite reply.
The radio clicked off.
Adams immediately radioed the teams nearest to the library and instructed Raul to do the same. Within a minute half a dozen teams of soldiers would be converging on the building as well as those soldiers already inside the building too.
Adams checked his rifle, readied it and moved towards the doorway.
"Halden and Hartwell, you two stay here. Baseer, Knight come with me" Adams ordered.
They left the room promptly and made their way towards the library at a rapid pace.
"Damn right stay put, I'm not going anywhere" Joe whispered nervously.
"Quiet, concentrate" Tyler ordered, his gun's safety off.
The light on the other side of the corridor went out. Joe was already covering that area. Tyler turned quickly.
"Shit" Joe said, louder this time.
"Keep quiet" Tyler ordered again, trying to see any sign of movement in the corridor ahead.
Both of them were focused on the same area, Tyler temporarily forgetting to cover his own back.
The first indication Tyler had that something was terribly wrong was when he looked down towards his mid section. Protruding through his body armour was the end of a large spear. The second indication he had that something was terribly wrong was the amount of blood and his own guts that followed the spears journey out of his body and onto the area around him, covering Joe too.
He couldn't feel any pain, nor hear anything. He could only watch in shock and confusion. Unable to do anything about his predicament. He seemed to be just an observer in his own body. He looked back up to see Joe turning, saying something, something he couldn't hear. Only the exaggerated movement of Joe's lips as he brought up his rifle towards something behind Tyler.
It was then that Tyler realised what had just happened, but it was too late to do anything. He could see his rifle laying on the ground before him, covered in his own blood and guts. His limp hands refused to respond to his commands. He could still see Joe bringing up his rifle, in what seemed like slow motion, and firing it. The bright flash of the muzzle next to him, the sound of the rifle unleashing its assault on its target non-existent to him.
The last indication he had that something was terribly wrong were the twin blades that protruded out of his chest exactly where his heart was, or rather where his heart had been, thus ending his life.
By the time Joe fired the rifle Tyler's body had been brought up to protect the creature from the hail of bullets, which now tore into and through Tyler's dead body. Joe momentarily stopped, distraught at having just shot at the body of his team mate. This split second stop was more than enough time for the creature to jam it's twin blades into Joe's neck before he had time to bring himself together. Joe's rifle fell to the floor too, landing next to Tyler's blood soaked one, with the loud clang of metal on metal.
The Predator decloaked completely, satisfied with it's small battle. It then moved purposefully into the library.
Children, who had previously been having fun, now sat terrified and motionless, staring at the huge Predator, covered in human blood and guts. This Predator was bigger than Kra'tak. It walked past the children and adults, completely ignoring them after a quick scan of the group. The Predator moved towards Doran, who like the children stood like a statue, completely shocked. He had been with a similar creature before, a friendly one. And now stood before him was a similar one that had just killed without compunction the two soldiers set to guard the library area. Two humans.
The Predator brought it's masked face closer to Doran's. He could feel the power of the creature in front of him.
"Kra'tak" the Predator said.
Doran was speechless, even if he wanted to he couldn't speak. The Predator looked over him just as two soldiers entered the library. It fully cloaked itself and moved quickly towards the library entrance.
The soldiers had no time to react as they were both easily knocked a few feet in the air into a stand of books.
The Predator knew that Kra'tak had been here earlier. It would now have to escape the humans once again in order to pursue it's objective.
A few of the soldier's had heard the noise of automatic fire and were close to the library now. Many more soldiers were on the way. This was the best opportunity they had of stopping the second of these devastating creatures before it could cause more harm than the soldiers knew it was capable of.