The Children of Time (The Children of Time Trilogy Book 1) Page 10

  Nicolas was still watching the place of his captivity, when he heard somebody asking for permission to enter.

  “Welcome to Challenge I!” At this moment, Nicolas realized he was a prisoner and that his life could be in danger. The conversation was telepathic and the boy couldn’t avoid listening. “Looks like you really like technology. In the future we have the most powerful computers ever seen. But the telepathy used among us, from Planet Vida, and other powers of the mind that you do not know, can only be used by us and not by machines. It is a power inherent to the nature of our thoughts. To let the machines think can be very dangerous.” He paused for a moment, because he noticed the curious eyes of the young man. “I was forgetting to introduce myself; I am Commander Merko, from the planet Vida. As for you, there’s no need to presentations. We all know you.”

  “I haven’t heard good things about you.” Nicolas replied, frowning, not feeling comfortable with the unexpected presence of his visitor.

  “I don’t intend to please people. I want to have my job well done. Get comfortable, because in a few days, we’ll travel to planet Vida.” His tormentor left the room and the automatic door closed soon after his departure.

  Nicolas was scared. As soon as the commander exited, he felt his capacity was recovered. He had been stunned after the fight in the gym and a bit confused to see himself in a strange place. The shock of the unexpected encounter with the feared commander Merko, but, he cleared his mind. The boy was afraid with his imprisonment and wanted to get out of there anyway.

  He created many plans of escape in his thoughts, but the truth is that he didn’t know the ship Challenge and wouldn’t be easy to leave. Finally, he chose to use telekinesis, which, although it left him extremely tired, was the only trick he had. He concentrated on the objects he saw in the room and made them move to test the powers trained with Tibor. He moved the bed, which was released from the wall, and a table that levitated from the ground. He made them both spin. Then placed them back in their positions and felt himself in control of his mental strength. He looked at the door and opened it. Not very confident, but hopeful, he began to walk through the halls of the ship, slowly and scared, he thought about how he would manage to escape.

  Another door stood before him and, again he managed to open it. Behind the door, however, a tall shadow denounced Merko’s presence, which surprised the boy in time of the escape. He quickly looked at him, holding his arm tightly.

  “How did you escape from the room? The door was programmed for you not to leave.” Said the commander, confused to see the earthling wandering through the corridors of the ship. “Reading your mind I can figure out what happened.”

  Nicolas tried to use his telekinesis to move Merko up, but the commander seemed to annul his strength. He felt Merko invading his mind and was unable to hide his thoughts.

  “I see I’m not the only one who has the power of telekinesis. A simple earthling with such skill, how can it be? This is very strange.”

  The commander continued to analyze Nicolas’ mind, looking for answers, but he found out that the boy knew nothing about the source of his powers. He decided to put him it in the room again, but this time he prepared a prison with laser bars, that wouldn’t allow a new opportunity.

  “Somehow, the earthling managed to acquire the power of telekinesis and almost escaped.” Said Merko to Crom when he returned to the control room, after leaving the earthling trapped in the new cell immune to telekinesis.

  “How is it possible, Commander? I thought you were the one who had this ability.”

  “I definitely don’t know. When we get to planet Vida, I’ll ask our scientists to discover what happened to him. I won’t rest until we find out his secret.” Merko showed great concern over the discovery. He gesticulated a lot and seemed very nervous. He had never known anyone else who had this ability. “From what I noticed in his mind, not even he knows the source of his power. We’ll take him in safety and save our princess, this is our priority. Then, we’ll solve the other problem. I won’t allow anyone to have such power.”

  “The space-time gap will open in three Earth days, Commander.”

  “We need to prepare the ship for the voyage, Crom. Order the computer to analyze and optimize all operating systems immediately.” Merko said.

  Nicolas stood alone and realized that he was a prisoner, and the place wasn’t just a room but a cell. The furniture were embedded on the wall, in niches proportional to their sizes, where they automatically entered after being used.

  Nicolas’ sense of admiration for the ship’s technologies was shared with his fears, and how much he missed Zara and his family.

  “What happened to Zara and my friends? Are they alive?” He pondered.

  Sometimes, during the day, Merko went to the earthling’s room to make sure everything was okay. He worried about his health, because he had to take him in good conditions for the surgery.

  After the escape attempt, he was also interested in studying him, because the power of the earthling surprised him.

  XIV. Waiting for the Trip

  Sivoc, Drako and Zara arrived at the gym and there was Tibor, unconscious and lying on the ground. Around him, several students were unconscious; some of them seemed not to be breathing anymore.

  “Take care of Tibor and the others who are alive, we need to get out of here as soon as possible.” Sivoc said.

  “Why did you take so long?” Tibor asked while standing up. He was still quite dizzy and a little confused.

  “There were two men of Merko’s team watching us. I asked help to Drako and we managed to neutralize them, but it cost us some time that seemed very precious. We used laser handcuffs and imprisoned them in our apartment.” Sivoc replied.

  “Now, what do we do?” Zara asked, feeling anxious.

  “We’ll remove any trace of our presence here on Earth and return home, to outline a new plan. In three days, the portal will open near the planet Jupiter and the Calisto moon and we need to get to planet Vida along with Merko’s team. Nicolas’ life is in danger, because we don’t know what they will do after the removal of his bone marrow. Certainly, Councilor Mirov won’t obey the order of King Zador II to bring the earthling back to Earth safely.” Sivoc said.

  Tibor teleported himself first and was resting in the ship, recovering from the fight and from his injuries, while the others finished all the necessary adjustments for the departure.

  “Drako, did you manage to warn the emergency services to come to the academy and help the wounded?” Asked Zara.

  “Affirmative, doctor. I have taken all the necessary arrangements. There is no way to track us and everyone had been advised.”

  As they prepared to leave, the Alpha-Omega team entered the academy, Collin, Ann, and several Special Forces soldiers of the American army. With the special infrared glasses, Collin had followed the aliens, what led them directly to the place of the struggle.

  When they notice the aliens were still there, they began to use weapons of electrical discharge to try to immobilize and possibly capture them. Collin and Sivoc began a body fight, and Zara teleported herself holding agent Ann behind. Drako used a weapon of sound waves he had pulled from underneath his jacket and the soldiers fell to the ground. Sivoc managed to dominate the agent who fainted. Then Drako and Sivoc looked at agent Ann, who raised her arms and surrendered. Sivoc didn’t want Zara to fight because it was risky for the embryo she carried in her womb. They used a sleeping radius in everyone and a white smoke covered the environment of the academy while they returned to the ship.

  ***

  Sivoc’s team fled immediately. They knew that the military reinforcements were on the way. They removed any sign of their presence in New York and decided to teleport themselves to the ship, where they would finish the preparations for the trip.

  They also needed to verify if the ship had been found by Merko or had been sabotaged. They took the two soldiers of Merko’s team they had imprisoned in Sivoc’s apartment and put
them in a cell in the ship Science II. They couldn’t let the m behind on the planet at the mercy of the extraterrestrial capture agents.

  “Where is Nicolas?” After ensuring the safety of everyone who was present, Zara couldn’t stop thinking about him.

  They must be waiting for the opening of the wormhole somewhere on the planet. Our chance to save the boy will be to follow them to the planet Vida.” Sivoc replied.

  “Somehow I feel that he is alive”, thought the doctor.

  The Science II had been carefully checked, in every single detail, so everyone’s safety could be guaranteed. Zara was the first to realize that Little Wolf had been immobilized. So, everyone knew that Merko and his men had been there.

  “Certainly he used the computers of the ship to try to find our coordinates of teleport. But Drako camouflaged the data, I have no idea how they managed to find us. What it’s really weird, however, is the fact that they let us live. It doesn’t match with Merko’s methods.” Sivoc concluded.

  Drako prepared the ship for the voyage back to their planet and repaired the robot dog. He searched for some information on the nature of the monitors that could show what the plans of Merko were, but there was nothing important in the records about his presence.

  Zara went to her room and began to telepathically focus, hoping to establish contact with her love. She couldn’t lose hope of finding him alive and well.

  ***

  Merko’s military ship wasn’t far from Science II. Inside the vehicle, Nicolas was also focused, doing the meditation exercises taught by Tibor. There wasn’t much to do as a prisoner and this was his only hope, although it was small, to get some contact with his friends.

  “Nick, can you hear me?” Zara said, telepathically.

  “Yes, I can hear you, Zara! I’m so relieved to get some contact with you. I was already losing hope, because I’m trying to communicate for hours.”

  “Are you all right, my dear? Are you badly injured?”

  “I’m fine. I’m not hurt, but I’m locked in a cell.”

  “On Merko’s ship?”

  “Exactly.” Nicolas confirmed. “I’m somewhere on the bottom of the sea. There are fish and marine animals everywhere. I can’t say more than that. But where are you?”

  The communication between the two was difficult due to the presence of many rocks in place. It didn’t matter to Nicolas and Zara, because they were both calmer knowing they were fine. However, they couldn’t imagine that Challenge I and Science II were so close, because Merko’s plan was to capture Sivoc and his team and freeze them when they were together.

  “I’m in the ship Science II.”

  “Zara, are you okay? Is Tibor there with you?”

  “He is Nick. Tibor is still a little stunned, but he had no serious injuries. We are all fine here in the ship.”

  “Zara, I’m afraid! Can you help me?”

  “We can’t know what your exact location is, but we will try to reach you on our planet. Take care and be quiet, Merko is very dangerous. We will do everything we can to rescue you, Nick.” Zara replied.

  ***

  Merko managed to telepathically intercept the communication between the earthling and Zara and knew that the crew of the Science II had already arrived.

  He immediately called Crom and two other men to invade the ship and capture the crew. They materialized in the infirmary of the ship Science II and, with a pistol, they froze Tibor, who was resting and recovering from his injuries.

  “One less, Commander.” Crom said. “Let’s get the others.”

  “Crom, proceed with discretion. The surprise will be our greatest ally.”

  They went to the engineering room and turned off the entire propulsion system of the ship, inactivating it for the flight. They also released the other two soldiers of their team who had been imprisoned.

  “Sir, I programmed the ship to restart the engines in one Earth year, according to your plan.”

  Sivoc was with Drako in the control room when all the systems turned off. Everything went dark, and the emergency lights lit, leaving the place dimly illuminated. Drako, realizing that something was wrong, had the brilliant idea to turn off the Little Wolf for the programmed period of a day. If anything happened, the robot would return to its active duty on the next day and could follow the rescue protocol configured on its system.

  Within minutes, Merko, Crom and his soldiers were in the control room. They pointed their guns at Sivoc and Drako, while another soldier pointed his gun at Tibor, who was taken there already frozen, as a hostage, to persuade the surrender of the remaining crew of the Science II.

  “If you make a move, we’ll shoot Tibor.” Merko said, pointing a laser gun at him.

  Sivoc and Drako stopped and were also frozen. Crom went toward Zara’s room to catch the doctor.

  “What do you want now? Haven’t you got exactly what you wanted? You imprisoned Nicolas, who was under our care, when our mission was almost accomplished.”

  “You’ll sleep on this ship for one year, doctor. When you get to planet Vida, we’ll have already finished the mission and you won’t be on our way. Commander Merko and I will be promoted by saving Princess Isadora.”

  “You’re crazy. Don’t you know that the adviser Mirov is not a trustworthy person? He’s selfish, wicked and will certainly sacrifice the earthling. Please, Crom, don’t do it. You and Merko will regret for delivering a helpless earthling to Mirov like a worm.”

  “You don’t know what you’re saying, Zara. The purpose of our mission is to save the princess, and Mirov himself will take care of it. We won’t hurt the earthling.”

  After that, Crom pointed his cryogenic gun at Zara and froze her within seconds. He put his hand on her and they teleported to the control room, where all the crewmembers of Science II were already frozen. Merko and his team took everyone to the cryogenic chambers, which were used for long trips to preserve the bodies and keep them alive until the arrival. They scheduled the unfreezing and the revitalization of the crew for a year and, so, they also planned Science II for the trip.

  Merko and the others returned to their ship.

  ***

  Nicolas tried to speak with Zara again, but with no success. He didn’t know that from now on he was alone and unprotected, but he felt a little pain in his chest as if something was wrong.

  Crom took Challenge I to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean in a place known as Mariana Trench, more than eleven thousand meters deep. There, any team that could be looking for them wouldn’t reach them, and it would be possible to wait for the right time for the long-awaited return to their planet.

  Merko asked Crom to contact his master on the planet Vida and tell him they were on their way.

  ***

  Mirov was anxious. Everything was happening as he had planned. He would sabotage the bone marrow transplant that would save Princess Isadora and would kill the earthling during the procedure blaming the surgeons. With the death of Princess Isadora, the King would go into depression and would be weakened. Then, he would ask to his servant, infiltrated on the personal service of the king, to poison him. So, there would be only Kenan as an obstacle, but this one wouldn’t cause him trouble, because he was old. He would let the counselor rot in a prison and would take all the power for himself.

  Nobody knew Mirov’s plans, not even Merko, who was loyal to Zador’s Kingdom and he believed he was only efficiently following the orders of the King.

  Despite eliminate his opponents in his mission, and leave no traces of this presence, Merko always wanted to perform his jobs effectively and with responsibility. He had qualities like honor and respect, and devoted his life to his King. He planned to freeze and postpone the trip Science II’s crew to avoid obstructions to his plan and to immobilize his rivals in that mission. He couldn’t imagine, however, that he was helping a traitor.

  – XV. The Arrival at Planet Vida –

  The ship Challenge I emerged from the sea and flew at a super speed towards the ope
ning timeline that was formed between the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy. It traveled in propulsion, with the engines of space warp.

  In the control room, Crom said:

  “Mr. Commander, we achieved a good pass and approached our planet. Let’s prepare for the arrival.”

  ***

  Nicolas looked through a window formed by a material similar to glass and contemplated the wonders of the Universe. When they approached the planet Vida, the boy gasped admiring the solar system, which was the new home of mankind.

  He saw how the planet Vida was similar to Earth.

  “They always said that there were planets similar to ours, but this is too equal, even with water in abundant quantities. I see forests, waterfalls and different birds flying between the trees; flowers of many qualities and beautiful mountains creating landscapes like the ones in Earth and the ocean surrounding the continent. And that’s weird... apparently the continent is only one, like in the early days of our planet.”

  He shared feelings of fear, anguish and admiration in his mind and heart. He didn’t know what would happen from there, because Zara was no longer at his side with her friends to protect him. He was alone and feared what the future would hold.

  ***

  In the ship Sicence II, one day after the freezing of the crew, the bright eyes of Little Wolf lit a red light. He searched for Drako throughout the ship and didn’t find him.

  The smart robot dog launched a holographic image with radar that came from his muzzle and saw the signs of the presence of the four-crew members of the ship in the laboratory. He went there and the door opened. He observed them frozen in their cryogenic chambers for a few seconds. He looked at Drako, groaned and pressed the button to open the chamber with his right foot.