Earth Takes a Stand
Chapter Nine: Captain Thaylen
by Anonymous
Kayne saw the shuttle heading for the ship before anyone else did. He had been watching the scanners for the past hour waiting for any sign of Captain Thaylen. He needed answers. His hatred for the captain had been festering for the entire hour. Homeworld culture and customs be damned, he was going to deal with this like an Arion whether the captain liked it or not!
Immediately after the airlock opened, Captain Thaylen began to speak. Kayne suddenly found himself unable to get a word in edgewise. "Come with me, Kayne. The execution is to begin as soon as possible. You may do the honors. I've taken steps to insure that we will be undisturbed." The captain was headed down the corridor toward the holding cells as he spoke, his four legs moving smoothly like a spider under his dark cloak. Kayne had to take long strides to keep up with him.
"What steps? What the hell were you doing on Earth for the past few hours!? And why are you so certain that we won't be attacked?"
Still headed down the corridor, Thaylen answered him. "I don't like your tone of voice, Kayne, and I especially don't like the emotions you're directing at me. Garritan certainly never spoke to me like that." "Garritan is dead. Bury him and tell me what is going on." "I will overlook your state of mind for now. The Velorian's thoughts included a Terran named Frank, it was a simple task to track him down. Once on Earth, I gassed him, made him sleep. I can easily control an unconscious body with my mind. As I hoped, the Velorian on Earth and her lover, Chris, showed up there to inquire about Aurora. I tricked them into leaving just as one of the armored Terran's scout orbs was passing by the area. When it found them, it led them to the armored Terran and if all is going well, they are killing each other as we speak. Now quickly, the rite of execution will begin as soon as we get to the holding cells!" *
Laura couldn't break Raymond's death grip on her, and the oddly familiar smell of pheromones was starting to get to her. She couldn't think quite clearly, all she knew was she wanted to get out of Raymond's grip. She struggled for all she was worth, but she was in poor condition because of the fight. Damn that armor! It never got tired, it never felt pain, it never weakened until it was destroyed. And where was that honey and wildflowers smell coming from!? She was almost sure it wasn't her.
Despite her raging hatred for Raymond, because of what he might have done to Aurora, Laura found herself torn between her libido and her loyalty to her lover. As a Velorian, she felt an unbelievable level of arousal in the presence of such a strong being, and the scent of pheromones in the air was only adding to it. She felt herself giving in, betrayed by desires she didn't want to feel right now, she felt herself stop caring about what was happening around her.
When Raymond thought the time was right, he roughly shoved her away. She fell sprawled against a pile of metal, and before she could regain her senses entirely, she felt a few sharp, not pains, but sensations, in her legs and chest. Looking down, she saw needles sticking out of her! Needles! "What the hell? How did you get these to puncture my skin!?" She started pulling them out one by one.
"They didn't. Their points are small enough to fit between your skin cells." Raymond pointed a cylindrical weapon mounted on his left arm at Laura again. "They don't need to pierce your skin to inject their muscle relaxants." He fired several more needles into Laura's flesh, far too sharp to cause pain. "Even one of these needles holds enough relaxant to kill a human being. I certainly hope that my friend made them strong enough to affect you."
Apparently, Lisa had done a good job. Laura felt her arms and legs getting heavy. She was pulling the needles out slower with every passing second. Combined with the pheromones, she found herself barely able to move. "One last thing before I attend to your friend." A very large, slightly bent, extremely phallic looking cylinder emerged from his left gauntlet. "I need to make sure you're still here when I get back. Sorry I didn't have time to make this more of a work of art." As soon as it left his arm, it made a sound like a chainsaw starting up, and began vibrating furiously. "I hope you enjoy it, I modeled it after the Arion I killed in the talk show studio. You'll have to tell me later if it's the right size." Raymond plunged the vibrator almost completely into Laura with a single stroke.
After the initial shock, she started to get into it. It was almost big enough for her, not quite reaching those special nerves only a Supremis possesses, but the rest of the sensations were there. Now, not only could she not move, but she didn't want to. Her libido had completely taken over. The vibrator moved within her with a life of its own, able to overpower her incredible muscles in her weakened state, maybe even if she wasn't under the influence of muscle relaxants!
The rest of the world was dead to her as she felt her arousal building. She had completely given up all hope of ever finding a vibrator that would stand up to the demands of her super-body until now. Her legs reflexively wrapped around an old engine in front of her, squeezing with all her remaining strength. Despite the relaxants, she was still able to create two huge indentations in the nearly solid metal structure! She moved her hands down to her sex, using one to rub her clitoris vigorously and the other to move the unbelievable vibrator around inside of her. It felt incredible! Her pleasure was now the center of her entire universe.
The vibrator kept going strong as she threw her head back with passion. It was almost as good as Chris ever was on his best days! It shook her entire body with its forceful vibrations, every fiber of her being was affected by her new toy. Her breath came short and heavy as the sensations within her grew, and grew, and she felt herself heading quickly and uncontrollably toward a massive orgasm!
When it finally hit her, her vaginal muscles contracted enough to dampen the vibrator's intensity by about half. This added to her arousal every time she relaxed again. She came again and again, caught in a wild, passionate chain reaction as her contractions releasing around the vibrator only brought on another incredible orgasm! Finally, the sensations began to dim as her sexual appetite was slowly satisfied.
When she was at last able to remove the device and open her eyes, she saw something she did not expect. Raymond, Chris, and a woman she had never seen before were looking down at her. Chris saw she was in the real world again and spoke up. "We figured we'd let you finish." He said with a smirk. "I, ah, didn't think it would be wise to interrupt." Laura looked down and saw that the engine she had wrapped her legs around had been compressed to an hourglass shape, not more than 2 inches wide at its most narrow part. Such was the strength of a Velorian climax, that it overpowered the relaxants injected into her, bringing her back to nearly full power.
Chris helped Laura up, and the other woman began to speak. "Hi, my name's Bacstin, ah... Judy Bacstin. I have some news for you, I think you'll like it."
"First thing's first, why isn't he trying to kill me any more?" Laura glared at Raymond.
"It's all part of the news. I know where Aurora is."
"You WHAT? Where is she!? Is she all right? How do I get to her!?" Laura demanded. Several days of waiting, not knowing, were finally going to end with one more sentence from Judy.
"Aurora was captured by the Arions. She's being held on a ship in orbit right over Chicago. I can show it to you with a high-powered telescope if you want."
"Okay, two things. What about him," Laura motioned to Raymond, "and how do you know all this? And for that matter, if you do know all this, why should we trust you?"
"Let's just say that I hate the Arions just as much as you do. Please don't ask me again how I know all this. I just want you to trust me for now, and let me help you again in the future. And as for Raymond..."
Raymond interrupted. "I have formed a truce with Chris. I want to destroy an Arion ship every bit as much as you want to save Aurora. But the instant we're back on Earth, the truce is over."
Laura glared at Raymond. "If anything happened to Aurora, the truce will be over a lot sooner than that!!"
Raymond mostly ignored her. "You need time to rest. Meet me back here in one hour. I know your healing abilities will have you back to new by then. I need to pick up a few things before I get back here."
"Damnit I'm ready now!" Laura screamed.
"Hold on, Laura, I'm not!" Chris jumped in. "I don't heal as fast as you do. And besides, we need to work out a plan!" Chris didn't want to mention that Laura obviously wasn't ready. She didn't want to hear that.
"Make it half an hour." Laura demanded. She still wasn't happy.
*
"Why can't you just leave me alone?" The police dropped by Lisa Jencott's house for the third time in as many days. "I told you everything I can."
"Everything you can?" Detective Brok finally got the slip of the tongue he was looking for. He made his living trying to read people, and he was sure that Lisa was lying when she said she didn't know Steve or the guy in the armor. He'd been dropping by time and time again looking for a break.
"I mean, everything I know."
"No, you don't. Let's get this straight finally. You know Steve Eewakos..."
"Iwikos." Lisa corrected. She was so used to correcting strangers on Steve's unusual last name that it was a knee-jerk reaction by now. Instantly, she realized what she did.
"Now drop the charade. What do you know?"
"Why are you after him to begin with? And what happens to me and Steve if I do in fact know anything which I haven't admitted yet." Lisa was visibly upset.
"What will happen, is that you, and Steve, and anyone else involved with this will be left alone. We don't want you, we want whoever it is in the armor. We need his plans. We want his armor!"
"For what!?"
"All right. Let's start from the beginning. Do you mind if I make a phone call?"
Moments later, Black Ops agent Smith showed up at Lisa's house. By a remarkable coincidence, Brok was sure, Every Black Ops agent he met was named Smith.
"Good evening, Miss Jencott. Let me start from the beginning. The military isn't too happy about these uncontrollable aliens taking free reign of the planet. We need to restore order."
*
Bacstin was pleased with herself. She was going to deal the Arions a major blow by destroying Captain Thaylen's ship. Thaylen's ship was the most powerful destroyer in the Arion fleet. His race had posed an incredible challenge, in some respects, to the Arions. They had ships more powerful than they were prepared to deal with, and one out of every thousand had mental powers that added to the challenge. Plus, since the race was only semi-humanoid, they couldn't hide out among them and undermine their governments before their assault began in earnest.
Not only would she be destroying the singular most powerful ship the Arions had in the Sol system, but that meant that she would be killing several Arion Primes in the process. Her only regret was that all those Betas had to die, but she would rather think of it as freeing them from their servitude under the Primes. It was easier to deal with it that way.
Plus, she would be paying Raymond back for everything he'd done for her. He freed her from the Arions, he virtually gave her a communications base, and he reunited her with her Kintzi friend Tabral. She hadn't seen Tabral in years. Even though he did all these things by accident, she felt she owed him.
It was extremely fortunate for her that the Arions knew where both Raymond and Laura were. She wondered why they did. A quick glance at her watch told her her half hour was almost up. She went back to the scrap yard to see Laura and Chris already waiting there. Moments later, Raymond showed up. He had a large weapon with him, and a two strange looking headsets.
"Here." He handed the headsets to Laura and Chris. "We can communicate with each other in orbit with these. They have enough air in them for a few messages. And Chris, this is for you." He handed Chris the large rifle. "This is the most powerful hand-held energy weapon my friend could come up with. I expect to get it back before we leave."
"Yeah, great, thanks a shitload." Laura was impatient. "Let's get moving!!"
Bacstin told them where to find Thaylen's ship, and after picking up Chris and getting Raymond's claw cables attached to her, she took off as fast as Chris and Raymond would let her. It turned out that Raymond's armor was pressurized, like a pilot's jumpsuit, and he could withstand almost as many G's as Chris could. Although admittedly, it was extremely painful.
*
Black Ops agent Smith was finishing up his explanation for Lisa. "So all you want is the plans for the armor? And that's it?"
"Well, we'd also want the pilot. We'd need him to train new pilots. In just over a year we think we could start mass production on the armor suits, and shortly after that we could start work on taking back the planet from the aliens."
"And that's it? No tricks, no strings? Nobody goes to jail?"
"You have my word. We want exactly what he wants. The aliens are causing far too much damage and we need a way to control them. But with our resources we could do it faster and better than he could do it alone. Will you help us?"
"I'll... have to talk to some people. I'll get back to you."
Agent Smith turned to leave. "I certainly hope you decide to work with us. We're on the same side here."
*
"Let the execution begin."
*
Laura, Chris, and Raymond were in the upper atmosphere by now. The three, propelled by Laura's incredible power of flight, would be at their destination in no time at all.
"She's an Arion Beta, you know. Bacstin is." Crackled over Laura and Chris's radios. Sealed tightly against their ears and wrapping over their mouths, they worked even in the vacuum of space.
"What do you mean? How can you know that?" Laura demanded.
"All you aliens, except Chris for some reason, emit a pheromone of some kind. It's really quite extraordinary, it's the most powerful aphrodisiac I've ever seen. It's most prominent in you Velorians but it still exists in tiny amounts in the Arion Primes and Betas. She was giving out Beta level pheromones."
"How much else do you know about the pheromones?"
"Quite a bit. I can track you with them. That's how my machines could find you so quickly. It's how I knew Aurora was in the studio when I killed that Arion Prime. Ironic, isn't it? Your greatest weapon turned against you. Heh. I was even able to synthesize them."
A light went on in Chris's head. "The rash I found on Laura after I saw you in the first scrap yard!"
"My sample. I used the synthesized pheromones on you in the scrap yard along with the relaxants."
"So that's where that scent was coming from. So, if she's an Arion Beta, then obviously we shouldn't trust her."
"My thoughts exactly. We need to go into this with some kind of a plan while we still have time to think of one. I suggest a two-sided attack on the ship when we find it."
"That way they can only fire at one of us at a time. That will probably be me." There was more than a hint of annoyance in Laura's voice. She didn't enjoy the prospect of being the sole target of an entire starship.
"She's right. The Arions are scared shitless of Velorians. They'll try to take her out first."
"I see that as to our benefit. She's much faster and far more manuverable in space than my armor is. If they're concentrating on her, we might both be able to board the ship. If you have a better plan, I'm open to suggestions."
Laura had no better idea. "Look, there's the ship." Normally, a cloaked Arion ship is extremely difficult to see. You have to look for a distortion in the stars, and if you don't know where it happens to be, it's nearly impossible to find. However, Laura did know its approximate location, and with her enhanced vision she was able to pick it out without too much difficulty.
Raymond suddenly released his claw cables from Laura, spread his wings, and ignited his engines. "This is where I get off. We're high enough in orbit for me to fly under my own power now. As soon as I hear from you that *#(#(O$*^ #E@#$ ()@#&*& #$(@#&#$%(#@"
*
"Captain Thaylen! Two blips are headed for us at supersonic speeds. Both are slightly larger than human sized."
Captain Thaylen did not appreciate being disturbed in the middle of a ritual. Glancing at the communications panel, he entered his code with telekinetic power. "Damn them. They should be killing each other right now. What are they doing here? I'll at the bridge in a moment. Deal with the situation." Then he turned to Kayne. "I will trust you to finish the ritual. Do not disappoint me. She is a worthy opponent and has earned a proper death."
Kayne turned blankly to Thaylen. "As you wish."
*
A particularly quick-thinking Beta at the communications station had decided to take command of the bridge. Captain Thaylen never left anyone in charge when he left, everyone was required to think for themselves despite the obvious problems it could cause in a crisis like this. It was a situation much easier to deal with if your crew was telepathic. Fortunately, this crew was almost used to Thaylen's ways by now.
"They were communicating with simple radio waves. I jammed their signals. Take us out of cloak so we can fire weapons. Assume attack pattern Alpha. Lock all weapons on the Velorian and FIRE!!"
Despite the fact that he could think on his feet in a crisis, he was just barely holding back a severe panic attack. This was a Velorian Protector after all. A bunch of Betas couldn't do much more than spit at her if she ever made it on board. And after Garritan died, there were only five Primes, plus Captain Thaylen, left on the ship.
His only comfort was the fact that this was the most powerful ship currently in orbit around Earth. He'd heard the stories of the Arion invasion of Thaylen's homeworld. It was a hard-won victory to be sure, only the Vendorians had been more trouble. Their ships were far more advanced than they were prepared to deal with. The ground assault was put off for years as the Arions struggled to deal with the orbital defenses. He certainly hoped the stories of these ships were not exaggerated.
*
Outside the ship, Laura was still carrying Chris as Raymond broke off and made his attack run from the other side. They were trying to take the ship from two sides, as their plan.
Suddenly, the ship waved into view. It was extremely... unusual looking. It looked sort of like a curly bracket } attached to a rounded back. Three areas that could be the bridge or observation decks jutted smoothly out from the top section, and the entire ship was an ugly shade of red.
To Thaylen's race, however, this ship was a beautiful work of art. They believed that true beauty could be found in mathematics, and this particular ship was constructed based a parabola and a couple of third degree polynomials. There were no right angles anywhere on the ship, and the point on the front was the only angle of any kind that could be seen.
Finally, the weapons were hidden inside of the body of the ship. There were no bulky cannon muzzles jutting from the ship, or missile racks mounted on the sides. The whole thing was just one smooth, flowing, red object. It looked nothing like any Arion ship ever designed.
The forward weapons on the ship glowed for a moment as the thing turned to face Laura, obviously telegraphing the start of an attack. Thinking quickly, she threw Chris away from her, toward Raymond. With their radios jammed, she could only hope that Raymond, and Chris for that matter, would understand.
Streams of yellow light erupted from the weapons, all at once, in a kind of attack unknown to any race except Thaylen's. Not entirely energy based, but far from projectile. Laura changed direction sharply, but not sharply enough as two of the shots connected with her. The beams pounded and burned her at the same time, powerful enough to eat through the hull of an Arion ship! She definatly didn't want to get hit again.
She saw out of the corner of her eye that Raymond had hooked onto poor Chris with a claw-cable. That was good, Chris had no method of propulsion in the vacuum of space. Given time, he would eventually suffocate but that was still a long way off. Laura decided that she would draw their fire as long as possible to allow Raymond and Chris access to the ship. She was right about their attack strategy, she was seen as the biggest threat and they were concentrating on her alone.
*
"There are three blips! Not two! Two human sized, one slightly larger, the other two are headed this way."
The Beta in charge thought quickly. "Ah, attack the Velorian! Kill her, she's the greatest threat. Worry about the other two later. Continue firing!"
Just then, Captain Thaylen opened the doors to the bridge. "Belay that order. Everyone to their stations. Helm, angle the ship thirty-five degrees away from both targets. Engines one-third reverse. Divide the weapons consoles three ways. You Arions are about to learn how to fight using a REAL ship!"