The Children of Time (The Children of Time Trilogy Book 1) Read online

  ***

  On Earth, Lorena couldn’t understand what had happened to the army major, John, her husband, who disappeared suddenly. After a useless wait, she decided to move from the state. She left Arizona, where her husband worked, and moved to Los Angeles to raise her child.

  She didn’t understand what had happened to John after that unforgettable night they spent together. The next morning, he left to work with his usual mysterious behavior. She had no idea what exactly he was doing in that military base, from where he never returned. The army had no concrete news and just informed that her husband was missing. She began to be supported by the government, but she really missed the man she had lost. She was also sorry because she hadn’t been able to make a funeral and give a decent goodbye to the man she had loved, the father of her only child.

  She was very sad, but continued to raise her son, Nicolas. With great difficulty she managed to educate him and now she paid the University where he studied. Some years later, Sophia was born, which was a blessing and she also struggled to give her a good education.

  She was very proud of her kids, because they both were excellent students, didn’t get involved with bad companies and had clear purposes to succeed in life: Nicolas wanted to become a great physics, and Sophia dreamed of being an environmental engineer.

  Despite how much she missed her husband, Lorena had managed to overcome her fears. She raised her kids very well, who were growing up healthy and with good characters. But she still missed a great love in her life.

  – XII. Lorena’s Sadness –

  Twelve years after the disappearance of the major, Lorena met a gentleman who charmed her in a birthday party of one of Nicolas’ friends from school. His name was Robert. Since she had already spent many years alone, she decided to give herself a chance and try another relationship. She was excited at the prospect of loving and being loved again.

  Mr. Robert was a good man. He was a civil engineer, who was always involved in large projects and, as Lorena, was also a widower. He had beautiful green eyes and dark brown hair, wore a mustache, which was already slightly grizzled, and was extremely charming.

  When he saw Lorena, he immediately became fascinated with her golden hair and her beauty. He asked her out and she accepted, because besides being elegant, he was also an educated and interesting man.

  Robert fell in love and did everything to get Lorena, who also surrendered herself to her new love. They both tried to be happy again.

  After two years, Lorena gave birth to a daughter called Sophia, who became her great friend; when she was not at school, she wanted to go with her mother everywhere. Robert also loved his daughter and did everything to please her. He helped her raising Nicolas, advising him and acting like he was his real father. Together they formed a happy family.

  However, Robert died shortly after Sophia’s birth, because of a massive heart attack, which occurred during one of his trips. He worked very hard and was always stressed, although he was almost retiring. That was another pain for the young woman to carry in her life marked by irreparable losses.

  Thus, Lorena became a widow of two husbands. Robert was a great companion, although she hadn’t felt for him the overwhelming love she felt for the major who had disappeared so many years ago.

  Now, besides the pain of losing two men, her son had also disappeared. She loved the boy and was completely lost without him. That was what happened with the major; he simply disappeared and was considered dead. She knew she couldn’t resist the same pain again. At least she had been able to provide a funeral to Robert, saying goodbye and whenever she missed him she could go to her husband’s grave to pray. She needed at least to find the body of her son. She didn’t lose the hope of finding him alive, but she knew the chances were few, because Nick had always been a very responsible kid and would have already gotten in touch if he could do it.

  Lorena did everything she could to try to find her son. She placed advertisements in all the newspapers, informed the FBI about his disappearance and went to the University to seek for clues and understand why her son, who was so dedicated haven’t shown up for a few weeks. She and Sophia were alone, but Lorena found strength to continue to live and to look for her son.

  After several months, she finally received a mysterious email from Nicolas.

  “Mother,

  I love you.

  Don’t worry, I’m fine. But I can’t go back now; I’m involved with a problem related to a friend. Please, don’t tell anyone that you spoke to me. Keep pretending I’m missing. For our sake and little Sophia’s.

  Soon, everything will be solved.

  Kisses from your son who loves you more than anything,

  Nicolas.”

  ***

  Nicolas always knew he shouldn’t get in touch with his mother. From the beginning, however, he tried to think of alternatives to calm Lorena down. After talking a lot with Drako, who was an expert in Information Systems, the two of them managed to create a way to send an untraceable email, so that Merko couldn’t use the message to get to him.

  They still needed a few weeks and many meetings to convince Sivoc that it would be safe to send the email.

  As soon as it was possible, Nicolas managed to send a message to his mother.

  ***

  After seeing that e-mail, Lorena felt a mix of sensations. On one hand, she was relieved to know that her son was alive, but then she was worried about losing him. She decided to wait, because there was nothing else to do about Nicolas.

  She had to trust her son, who always knew how to be responsible. At school, he was a model student with good grades and never brought trouble home. He always made his mother proud with his virtues, morals and common sense.

  Certainly, something very strange was happening. And although she trusted her son, Lorena couldn’t remove all the anguish of her heart, after all, she was pretty worried.

  – XIII. The Confrontation –

  Merko, Crom and the others from his team reached the position of the ship on the bottom of the sea, in the Gulf of Mexico.

  They positioned the Challenge I beside it and entered the Science II teleporting themselves, but nobody was there. With a paralyzing gun, they left the robot dog, Little Wolf, out of action. Only his eyes were moving from side to side watching the movements of the invaders.

  That was when Merko said:

  “Crom, check in the central computer the last location they were transported from the ship. There must be some record of their position.”

  So, they managed to know what would be the next step: to follow the coordinates of the teleportation position registered in the ship. However, Drako had placed false records of latitude and longitude on the computers boards in order to distract them. Merko and his team didn’t anticipate the intelligence of the Information System’s expert and headed to the places indicated in the ship’s computer, moving away from the ones they were pursuing.

  The trick used by Drako was a way for Sivoc’s team to gain some time and hide while waiting for the opening day of the wormhole near Calisto moon, where intergalactic positions would become perfect for the trip back.

  Merko and his soldiers looked around and realized they were in the Red Square, the tourist site most famous and visited of Russia. The big streets of Moscow starting on this square and were heading to several places. They observed many tourists who admired the beauties of the place.

  The tour guides showed all the buildings around, which were historically important. Merko and the others put the infrared glasses to find signs of transmuted people, but couldn’t see them. They walked through the crowd with their sunglasses and didn’t detect the presence of their targets.

  “Mr. Commander, I can’t understand why they would come to this place so far from home and from the boys country. I observed in other records of the ship, and the places don’t make sense. Istanbul in Turkey, Tokyo in Japan...”

  “You don’t need to continue. Drako had duped us. He’s very smart and I
didn’t think that this hunt would be easy. Let’s go back to our ship and think of some strategy. We need a better plan to find them.”

  ***

  Without achieving success in finding them, Merko again decided to contact Mirov, the organizer and advisor of his mission.

  “Counselor, I’d like to know if you got any other information about the target. We’re very close to it, but your help would be of great value at this time.”

  “Merko, give me a few hours to try to gather as much information as possible. I’ll contact you as soon as possible.”

  “I’m waiting for new information, counselor.”

  After some hours, Mirov returned the contact with good news.

  “Radof only got some information in the Royal Palace. They are in the country where the earthling lives, but that was the only thing I could discover. Certainly they’re hidden.”

  “Understood, Mr. Counselor. I’ll use this information the best way I can. We’ll find the earthling soon and we’ll succeed in our mission.”

  With this, they realized how difficult it would be to find them. They wouldn’t reveal themselves so easily and were certainly taking all the necessary precautions to remain hidden. Merko decided to trace a research strategy to track them.

  ***

  For the luck of Sivoc’s crew, they were all hidden. Sivoc, Drako and Zara rested in the apartment while Nicolas and Tibor trained in the martial arts academy.

  Sivoc was quiet, listening to classical music, which came from the radio and felt like it was penetrating deep into his soul making him relax. It was a symphony of Beethoven. “Simply a magnificent work of art!” He thought.

  The apartment in which he and his crew lived was large, with three bedrooms. The living room had the walls painted in the color of sand, with a comfortable sofa and a recliner. In his bedroom, there was a large window with a wonderful view of the city, where they spend a lot of time watching the frantic “coming and going” of the people.

  Living there, waiting for the days to go by, he never imagined that his rival Merko was searching at all the databases for any information, no matter how small, to look for the place where they were hidden.

  Crom, using regular tools of search, found some news about the episode that occurred in New York with the gang who levitated and remained suspended in a tree. The strange event caught the attention of the sensationalist media and was reported in all major newspapers online. Noticing that this was important evidence, he ran to his commandant and questioned him:

  “Mr. Merko, I think I found some important information about our target. Look at this fact in the city of New York.”

  “Brilliant, Captain Crom. A couple that imprisoned bandits by levitating them. It sounds like telekinesis. But how is it possible? The members of Science II don’t have this power. However, this fact is obviously related to them. Hurry, prepare all men. We’ll teleport ourselves there. I’m sure we’ll find more clues about Sivoc and his crew.”

  ***

  Merko and his team were in New York to try to find Nicolas. As the episode found in the newspapers had happened in Central Park, they decided to start their search there. They were all dressed with a costume that would make them go unnoticed amidst the crowd: jeans, blazers and black shoes. All the information about the clothing of the time and place had been obtained in the database of the ship.

  “Merko, we need to observe how they live here so we can create a capture plan. While we look for someone in the crowd, we can already devise strategies to make the capture as soon as we find them.” Crom said.

  “Okay. I know this is you specialty and I trust the task to you.” Merko replied.

  They spent hours in the park every day, observing the movement of people with their infrared glasses, which would reveal if there were a transmuted among them.

  After several days of observation, during which Merko’s men were positioned in strategic places to get a better reach and a larger view of the park, they saw a man with the red image showing heat and radiation. It was the signal that they needed to detect a transmuted.

  They observed the man, who entered into a food store and it was Drako. He looked everywhere and, although he was using his infrared glasses, he couldn’t distinguish his tormentors in front of an intense crowd.

  At the same time, the men of the Alpha-Omega team were also setting up a stakeout in several places of the city, but only the agent Netil had the glasses, a unique pair they had stolen from Silion, the alien captured years earlier. Even using reverse engineering they weren’t capable to copy the equipment. Thus, Alpha-Omega team had greater difficulty in the search for the aliens, because with only a pair of glasses, they couldn’t scan a very large area, so they would need to wait for some extraordinary event to reveal the presence of visitors from space.

  With a distance, Crom followed Drako for several blocks, taking great care not to be seen. He realized that he also carried the glasses and he had to be very cautious in his pursuit. Still hidden, he saw Drako entering a building, probably the apartment where he and his team were hiding.

  Crom reported to Merko, informing the location. After a brief meeting, during which an alien continued to peek the building, they decided that the best thing to do was to observe that place day and night, because it was certainly Sivoc’s hideout, so, they would find Nicolas there. It would be necessary surveillance of twenty-four hours, so all the movements could be detected and they could trace all the details of the routine of the residents of the building.

  After a few days, they knew exactly what the routine of every member of Science II was. Merko didn’t want to wait much longer, because he knew that in a few days they would have to cross the space-time passage. He left two soldiers guarding Sivoc, Drako and Zara, and decided to invade the gym where Nicolas and Tibor were, along with Crom and another soldier.

  ***

  One of Merko’s soldiers had already followed Nicolas and Tibor to the gym which they attended every day and had the coordinates of the location. After making sure that everything was right and informing its plans once again to Crom and the soldier would go with him, Merko and his companions teleported to the place. He saw the earthling entering the academy of fights, followed by Tibor.

  When Nicolas was training, Tibor came to him and said:

  “I’m having a bad feeling, boy. Whatever it is, if there is a problem, try to teleport yourself next to Zara, because she’ll know what to do.”

  Some seconds after Tibor’s warning, the three men invaded the academy. Alex approached one of them and asked who they were, but Merko, without listening, struck him in his throat. He moved away and continued to fight. Tibor asked Nicolas to get away and soon he was facing Crom, while Merko didn’t take his eyes off his main target, the earthling whose special defense cells were interesting to the inhabitants of the planet Vida. Tibor quickly sent a telepathic signal of danger to everyone from his team and started fighting with Crom. The fight seemed endless because of their mutual capacity.

  Tibor managed to immobilize Crom with a technical arm lock, a blow often used by the police to immobilize and knock out their opponent. Crom fell unconscious on the floor.

  Nicolas struggled with one of the soldiers and also managed to knock him down, but Merko got rid of Alex and quickly got to the earthling. When the young man grabbed him by the arm, the experienced soldier reversed the advantage by bending his arm and holding his neck with two fingers of his right hand, leaving him unconscious.

  “Tibor, you should be one of my officers!” Merko said.

  “I don’t agree with your methods.” Tibor replied promptly.

  The two of them approached, after Merko laid the unconscious Nicolas carefully in one of the closest walls.

  First, the commander tried a Kung-fu blow in Tibor’s throat, but his defense of Karate-do with the top of his right hand, threw a blow in Merko’s stomach.

  Despite the great skill of his opponent, Merko prepared an attack that no one had managed to
escape before. It was an advanced blow, Aikido style.

  Tibor tried to hit him at the height of his liver, but his opponent turned around holding his arm, making him to hit his head against the wall and fall unconscious.

  Meanwhile, the members of the academy watched it all, perplexed, and thought it was a workout or some demonstration. They only noticed realized that the attacks were serious when Merko looked at them and pulled his laser gun, scaring them all and making them flee in terror.

  “Commander, we’d better stop now.” Crom warned Merko when he saw that everybody of the academy was running for their lives. He was getting up slowly; still dazed by the blow he had received. “The situation is already under control and we can’t catch even more attention to our existence. We need to get out of here quickly.”

  They used only the paralyzing rays to immobilize those who were present and to avoid major problems.

  They synchronized their watches to get out of there soon.

  Merko was furious because he didn’t like to leave witnesses to his actions during missions, but he remained silent. He, Crom, and the soldier who came as a support, teleported themselves to the ship carrying Nicolas as prisoner.

  The boy woke up inside the ship, on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. He looked through the window of the living room where he was and saw sharks and stingrays swimming around. He woke up a bit confused, but gradually began to remember what had happened in the gym.

  The air in the room was very clean; it seemed composed only of oxygen, which provided him a good sensation when breathing. Soon, however, his attention turned to the place where he was and he could notice that it was some kind of compartment of the ship similar to a bedroom. There was very few furniture, with only one place to lie and another one to sit, both with the shape that allowed the perfect fitting of a person.