Linkage: The Narrows of Time

Chapter 30

Exchange





Twenty-two minuteslater, the Krellians opened the rift in the same location as before.It started as a pinpoint before growing to full size, sending flashesof light rippling across the walls.

The aliens were righton schedule, adding a sliver of optimism to counterbalance Lucas’growing anxiety. Unlike his colleagues, Lucas refused to pin all hishope on Kleezebee’s passive approach. The professor’s rescue planwas founded on a set of overly optimistic assumptions, most of whichLucas considered unreliable. If he was going to die today, heintended to go out swinging while standing on his feet. He adjustedthe stunner’s position inside the back of his pants.

The elevator bellsounded, delivering seven additional security team members whoscampered out of the lift carrying stunners and traditional 9mmhandguns. They spread out in formation to take flanking positions infront of the portal with their weapons drawn.

Kleezebee slipped thetransmitter necklace over his head, then moved in front of the rifton crutches where he waited for Bruno to join him. Bruno, who wasalready wearing his copy of the pendant necklace, bent down to snatcha one-gallon jug of deactivated BioTex. He carried the container inhis arms, walking swiftly to Kleezebee’s location. Other thanBruno’s Sonic Disruptor vest, neither man was armed.

Lucas joined Trevor atthe remote monitoring station along the front wall. He watched thescreen as his boss and friend made it safely across thetrans-dimensional bridge and stepped into to their home universe. Theportal’s surveillance system was functioning perfectly. They couldsee and hear everything as expected. Lucas raised his left hand, thenknuckle-bumped the elderly video tech sitting to his left. “Greatjob,” he told the tech. He was sure the tech already knew who hewas, but he wanted to know the tech’s name. “My name’s LucasRamsay by the way,” he said, holding out his right hand for ashake.

“I’m ClaudeVandersteen. Pleased to meet you,” Claude said, shaking his hand inearnest.

The monitor in front ofLucas contained the video transmission from Kleezebee’s pendant.Bruno’s feed was streaming live on the other monitor to his right,directly in front of Trevor.

Kleezebee and Brunowere standing inside a sparsely lit room with angled, eight-foot-longwall segments, which glistened like algae-green sheet metal. Based onKleezebee’s earlier description of Krellian ship design, Lucasassumed the room was octagon in shape.

Three Ghost Forcesoldiers were standing with their backs against the visible wallsegments, aiming their grappling hook weapons at Kleezebee. Lucaswondered why their warriors didn’t carry more powerful energy-basedweapons, like phase pistols or pulse rifles. Granted, the grapplinghooks were deadly and reusable, but their range was limited. Then herealized their enormous claws would make it impossible for them topull the trigger on a more conventional weapon.

“Makes you wonder howthey operate their ship controls with those claws,” Claude said.

“Yeah, it must betough for them to wipe, too,” Lucas replied with perfect comedictiming.

Trevor laughed.

Lucas suddenly realizedthat this was the first time he had heard the Swede laugh. Perhapsthe stress of the situation had finally gotten to his massive friendand Trevor needed a release.

The elevator doorsbehind them opened again, delivering another seven-member squad ofmen to the surveillance room. This time two of the reinforcementswere Bruno copies. They joined the other men already standing guardin front of the still-open rift.

When Kleezebee turnedto his left, the video pendant showed a human female approaching hisposition. She was stark naked, in her twenties, and full-figured. Theother monitor showed Bruno turning to greet her, too.

“Looks like the womenaren’t allowed to wear clothes, ever,” Lucas said. Theamber-haired woman was carrying some type of hooded garment drapedacross her arms, possibly a robe. The rust-colored clothing was muchtoo small to fit the creatures. The woman gave the robe to Kleezebeein exchange for his crutches.

“Oh, shit,” Lucassaid, seeing the professor unbutton his shirt. “What if they makeBruno change, too?”

“He won’t be ableto activate the vest,” Claude replied.

“Should I gothrough?”

“No, we’ve got itcovered,” Claude said, typing on his wireless keyboard. “I canremote trigger the vest if Bruno can’t.” A new window appeared onthe tech’s computer screen with a title bar that said REMOTEARMING SEQUENCE. Below that was a red outlined button that saidFIRE.

“Awesome,” Lucasreplied, hoping he would be the one to press the kill switch. “Isthat a touch screen?”

“Yep.”

“What about my vest?”

“The system willactivate both of them at the same time.”

Lucas saw a partiallyfilled computer graphic, like a meter, on the tech’s controlscreen. The phrase OUTPUT LEVEL was displayed in front of it.“Is that the vest’s power level?”

Claude nodded and said,“Sure is.”

“Why aren’t youusing full power?”

“We don’t want totake the chance that we might overload the disruptor pads, so I’veset the power level to ten percent.”

“Is that enough tokill ‘em?”

“Oh, yeah, many timesover. The vest’s E-121 power supply is a much more powerful than wereally need. When we tested it on the alien corpse, we weresuccessful using only a five percent nominal yield. Ten percentshould be more than enough to kill anything in that room.”

While Kleezebee changedhis clothes, his body kept swaying and so did the pendant. The videofeed jostled and blurred as it bounced around his chest. AfterKleezebee bent down to slide off what Lucas assumed was hisunderpants, the professor’s hidden camera held still long enoughfor Lucas to catch a glimpse of the naked woman standing in front ofhim. She was still holding the pair of crutches. Kleezebee put on therobe and lashed it around his waist. His video feed went black.

“Come on, DL, pull itout,” Lucas coaxed him.

The video screen’simage returned to normal when Kleezebee adjusted the pendant’sposition so it hung outside the robe.

“Good thing you useda pendant-cam instead of a button cam,” Lucas said, watching thestreaming footage sway back and forth repeatedly until the pendantcame to rest. He raised his right hand to shield his eyes. “Damn, aguy could get seasick watching this show.”

Both Bruno andKleezebee faced the woman as she scooped up the professor’s clothesand walked away, giving Lucas a clear view of her shoulder tattoo. Itwas the same hand-carved branding mark that Alicia showed themearlier in the infirmary. Moments later, she returned with anotherrobe, giving it to Bruno. “I hope that one’s a double XL,” hewisecracked.

“Let’s see what shedoes with the vest,” Claude said after a short chuckle.

Kleezebee kept hispendant trained on Bruno as he removed his pants. “God, I hope wedon’t have to see him without his—”

“Too late,” Claudereplied as Bruno removed his boxers.

Kleezebee’s camerafeed turned away from Bruno, providing a panoramic view of theoctagon-shaped room. The wall segment to the professor’s right hadan arched passageway that led into another chamber. Flaming torcheswere burning on either side of the opening, making the room lookmedieval.

“Not exactlyhigh-tech,” Lucas said.

When Kleezebee turnedback, Bruno was dressed in the robe with his pendant hanging outsidethe garment. The woman was picking up Bruno’s clothes.

“Since his clothesaren’t dissolving into BioTex, I assume they’re real?” Lucasasked.

“Ja, realclothes,” Trevor said, breaking his silence. “Vest not fit onuniform.”

The woman put Bruno’svest on top of the clothes, and carried them through the passageway,out of sight.

“Is that going to bea problem?” Lucas asked Claude.

“It depends on whereshe takes it,” Claude answered as the woman walked back into theroom empty-handed. “She couldn’t have gone far, so we should beokay.”

Four gray-haired men,all at least sixty years old, entered the room wearing whiteceremonial garb. Based on their dress and mannerisms, Lucas assumedthey were diplomats from Kleezebee’s planet. At least he knew thatnot all the men had been turned into Kibbles and Bits, giving himrenewed hope that his brother might be returned in one piece. “Lookslike a geriatric toga party,” he mumbled, trying to relieve some ofhis own stress.

The old men stood inpairs, facing the entrance. Two ultra-slender naked females—no morethan eighteen years old—carried in an eight-foot-long banquet tableand put in between the two pairs of men.

“You don’t thinkits dinner time, do you?” Lucas asked his colleagues, worrying thathis brother might be the entrée. Trevor looked more concerned thanthe tech, but neither of them answered.

A Krellian sentinelentered the room with a female hand puppet impaled on the end of oneof its tentacles. Four additional Ghost Force warriors followed inbehind it, then moved to surround Kleezebee and Bruno.

“Here we go,”Claude said.

The sentinel used thefemale translator to say, “SHOW US.”

Bruno placed theone-gallon container of BioTex on the table and slid it close to theKrellian puppeteer. The elder statesmen closest to the creatureremoved the container’s lid, allowing the sentinel to slip one ofits remaining tentacles into the goop.

“It must be siphoninga sample,” Claude said.

“Ja, need totest it,” Trevor added.

The creature withdrewits tentacle and began to speak on its own, bypassing the womantranslator. Its language sounded like a computer modem on steroids asit whined and squealed at a feverous pitch. Lucas figured the alienwas reporting its findings to the others, or perhaps to itssuperiors. There was no telling who or what might have beenmonitoring the proceedings.

Thirty seconds went bybefore the sentinel stopped its communication and then turned to facethe other aliens in the room. Its chest plate lit up like the LasVegas Strip with an array of lights buried deep inside itsexoskeleton. The chest plate gave off a dull hum as the lightsflashed in an irregular pattern. Lucas could see the faint outline oforgans and other tissue inside the towering beast.

Bruno turned his bodyto show some of the other aliens whose chest plates were flashing ina similar fashion. Lucas assumed the Krellians were communicatingwith each other over some form of biological network. He thought theother bugs were receiving data from the sentinel, or perhaps all ofthem were receiving orders from a remote location.

A few seconds later,the sentinel raised its female hand puppet high into the air andsquealed, as if it were celebrating. The other aliens joined in thefestivities with their own rendition of the noise.

It reminded Lucas of aNative American war cry that preceded an all out assault. “I’vegot a bad feeling about this,” he said.

The Krellian sentinelused the female translator to speak to Kleezebee, “SECOND SUBSTANCEMISSING.”

“I want to see my sonfirst.”

One of the otherwarriors approached Kleezebee, opened its right claw, and held itopen just inches from Kleezebee’s juggler.

Lucas looked at Claude,but the tech’s hand never moved. Lucas reached out with his leftarm to position the tip of his finger a quarter inch from the touchscreen’s FIRE button.

Claude grabbed Lucas’wrist, pulling his hand back. “Let’s see what happens.”

“You can kill me ifyou want,” Kleezebee told the bugs, “but we’re not giving youthe activator enzyme until you bring me my son.”

The sentinel titled itshead, then squealed as if Kleezebee’s demand just pissed it off.“HOLD POSITION,” the creature answered through its femaletranslator.

Both Bruno andKleezebee turned their bodies toward the wall opening. Moments later,a Ghost Force soldier armed with a grappling hook device in one ofits claws appeared with Drew wrapped inside its tentacles, carryinghim like a loaf of bread on its side. It raised its empty claw, thenopened and snapped it shut several times, only a foot in front ofDrew’s neck.

“Release him and lethim return to Earth,” Kleezebee demanded. “Then I’ll hand overthe remaining material.”

“GIVE US MATERIAL ORCRIPPLE DIES,” the sentinel replied, as its chest plate flashed andhummed.

The creature holdingDrew hostage raised its enormous stinger, swung it around and held itagainst the side of Drew’s neck.

“Okay. Okay. Justdon’t hurt him,” Kleezebee shouted, as he turned back toward theportal. “Claude, go ahead and send Trevor through. Okay, I did asyou asked,” Kleezebee told the sentinel. “The material is on itsway. Give me my son.”

The sentinel let out ashort squeal and its chest flashed twice. The alien holding its clawaround Kleezebee’s neck backed away to make room for the othercreature to deliver Drew to Kleezebee. Neither Drew nor the rescueparty could escape through the portal; it was being guarded by a pairof Krellian guards. Bruno moved next to Kleezebee and stood behindDrew, who was now sitting on the deck.

Trevor stood up fromhis chair, grabbed hold of the flatbed cart, and rolled the stack ofcanisters into the rift. Right after Trevor stepped into the portal,both video feeds went black, even though the rift was still open.

“What the f*ck justhappened? Get them back!” Lucas shouted.

“I can’t. The feedswere shut down at the source,” Claude said, pounding on hiskeyboard.

Lucas pushed Claude outof the way, knocking the tech out of his chair. He raised the powerlevel of the remote system to a hundred percent, and then pressed theFIRE button on the screen. “Ten percent, my ass,” he yelled atClaude.

Lucas grabbed the stunner from the back of his waistband and pulledopen the Velcro strap holding the other stunner against his ankle. Heran for the portal with both guns in hand. On the way, he motionedfor Bruno’s guards to follow him to the Krellian ship. Lucas yelleda commando scream as he jumped into the rift like Rambo breeching aterrorist encampment.