Chapter Beginnings 5

Old GC Book - Beginnings

Chapter Beginnings 5

-- Peter steered his Suburban down the Freeway and glanced sideways at his passenger. The visitor now wore jeans and a dark red checkered flannel shirt, over it the largest Carhartt Rancher jacket they could find. On his head he wore a blonde woman’s wig, somewhat styled in a somewhat masculine pony tail hairdo and a tan colored Stetson and his eyes behind sunglasses. “I am not sure if I am actually committing a crime here, aiding an illegal Alien isn’t exactly a lawful act, but then I guess we could not ship you back where you came from. “ “You do not. Seven Feathers declared me a member of the Mescalero People and gave me this papers that proof and he says that is enough.” “Well that is cleared then. What did he call you in these papers? I mean what name did he put down?” “Seven Feathers said my Indian name should be Black Cloud and you would come up with a white man’s name if I needed one.” The Ranger shook his head.”We need to work on your disguise as well. You look like an oversized Mr. Clean dressed as a Cowboy wearing a cheap wig and a Hat.” “I shall endeavor to improve on my appearance then.” “Most important if you want to blend in, we need to work on the way you speak. It might not be a big problem to talk like that in Boston at the University. I don’t mean your accent or tone, its more how you speak, but you get used to it eventually. Maybe its best you let me do most of the talking.” “I concur this is a logical approach indeed. I shall limit my verbal responses to an absolute minimum when other humans are around.” “You are not preparing for an invasion and not telling me right?” “If you mean that there are others of my kind and that there is a planned action invading this world then they did not tell me. As I said my knowledge of my own origin is very limited to say the least. However I have the distinct feeling that I am the only one of my kind.” “You mean there aren’t any others like you? Your species is extinct?” “I cannot answer what I do not know. I merely analyzed a feeling of certainty I cannot rationalize.” “It’s alright, and you should start calling me Peter and not human all the time. If you say it, it sounds like someone saying, these hamsters, these horses or these bacteria.” “No insult was intended. I shall call you Peter.” “I somehow believe you. I don’t know what it is about you but Seven Feathers trusts you and so do I. “ “Trust another fascinating concept. You humans have many of these conceptual states of relating to others. “ “Seven Feathers also told you to keep your true whereabouts a secret for now. No one would believe you and think you are a loon.” “This is so. Your uncle has instructed me that I am from the White Mountain Valley as this is where you found me.” Peter suddenly raised his hat and yelled.”Yehhaaa! We’re home!” “You live here on this paved surface for ground vehicles?” “No of course not, we just crossed the State Border and we are in Texas. I really like New Mexico and I spend much of my youth there, but this my friend this is the greatest state in the Union. This is the Lone Star State my Alien friend, this is Texas!” “Interesting very interesting and quite fascinating indeed, neither the air nor the landscape has changed significantly and yet you differentiate this area from the one we just came by imaginary lines called borders.” The Ranger grinned from ear to ear.” Imaginary lines or not, this is Texas and I love her.” Then he took the Suburban of the Highway and onto a smaller country road. “It’s only eighty miles left and we are really home. It isn’t much and I hadn’t planned on any guests so I hope it will suit you.” “Peter I have stood for 34 revolutions of this planet on a mountain meadow. I shall be content with any accommodations.” “Well in that case I prop you up against the wall in the tool shed.” He laughed.”Just kidding of course, I think I have a guest bed somewhere!” “What is a bed?” “A piece of furniture wit pillows and a mattress so you can lie down and sleep.” “I never slept; will you show me how this is done?” “You tell me you Aliens don’t sleep?” “I am telling you that for the time I can recall I have not engaged in an activity that requires lying down.” “This is going to be an interesting time!” Peter hadn’t paid much attention to the rearview mirror. There was little traffic and he wasn’t in a particular hurry so he was keeping the speed limit and had the big Chevy on Cruise control. But something bright caught his attention, there in his rearview mirror, the bright headlights of heavy motorcycles, at least 10 of them. It was just past the noon hour and even though it was close to October it was still blistering hot. Of course it was a good idea for a motorcycle driver to put the headlights on even during the day and it was actually a message his colleagues in the Department of Public Safety promoted in radio and TV ads. However he still had an uneasy feeling about this. More bikes appeared and came closer. He paid almost too much attention to the bikes in his rearview mirror that he almost overlooked the Toyota Camry sitting on the right shoulder with an open hood and a woman holding a baby waving at him. Back in his mind he felt as if this could be a trap, but off duty or not. Ranger or not, there was a woman and her child in distress. Besides the Bikers behind him might just pass, how would they have known when and where he returned to Texas? Maybe they weren’t even from the same outfit. He wasn’t afraid of the Bikers even if they were out for him; he was much more concerned for the woman and her child. He slowed down and turned on the Red lights on his roof. Then he turned his radio on and called in.” Ranger Baker calling Base.” But all he heard was static. No matter what he tried he got no connection. Same thing with his Cell phone. As he glanced in his rear view mirror again he saw the bikers had stopped behind him as well. All were armed with guns and one was waving a handheld device with antennas. “Those bastards are jamming me.” “Are these humans enemies of yours?” The Alien asked? “Yes, Cloud they are. You stay in the Car while I try to help the lady and diffuse the situation. If push comes to shove I will use Betsy, so no worries I got it covered.” With these words he took his gun out of the glove compartment and a small remote control device, put the device in his shirt pocket and got out. With a loud voice he said.” I am Texas Ranger Peter Baker and I will now assist this lady and her child. If you want to avoid any trouble then I suggest you simply drive on. “ There were at least thirty of them and they all had their guns already drawn and pointed at the ranger. The Lady holding the small bundle looked very frightened and now he saw why! There behind the Toyota appeared the Biker he thought was in jail awaiting his murder trial. He held a sawed off shotgun leveled at the young woman.”You have no idea how glad I am to see you ranger. I suggest you drop your gun or that lovely lady and her brat will look like road kill. Now I know you’re fast, but this is a hair trigger!” Peter had no choice he dropped his revolver. The gang leader laughed.”Very good Ranger. Very good! Now I want your friend to come out of that four wheel monster of yours.” The passenger door of his suburban opened and the disguised alien came out and stepped closer. At first the Biker leader wanted to laugh but there was something that made him stop. “What the fuck are you?” “I am a Visitor and this Ranger man is my friend.” Peter said.” He is from another country and has nothing to do with all this.” “I give a flying fuck, where he’s from. He is with you. I spend a lot of money and pulled an awful lot of favors to find your whereabouts and we waited for you. Now we going to kill you and you can do nothing because you are a stupid Ranger. The bikers surrounded the two, first cuffed the Ranger with a set of steel cuffs and then tried to the same to the Alien. Peter nodded and the huge man let it happen. The woman with the baby started to laugh and threw the baby away, revealing nothing but a doll wrapped in a blanket.” You are a stupid sucker, Cowboy!” One of the bikers smashed a base ball in the back of Peter’s knees, the big Ranger stumbled struggled against the hand cuffs and it took three more hits to get him drop to his knees. Another hit him right over the head his head flew and blood dripped. Now they hit the Alien into the knees and nothing happened. The bikers doubled their efforts and hit as hard as they could one of the baseball bats actually broke and the biker yelped in pain. To him it was as if he had slammed the stick against a steel column. Turning his head to Peter, the Alien said.” Do you still want me to remain inactive? Is this some cultural festivity or custom?” Peter spat some blood and smiled.” If you can do something then by all means go ahead.” The Cuffs that held the big Aliens hands snapped like dry bread. The Biker leader seeing the huge man freeing himself so effortlessly fired his shotgun, blasting away sunglasses, wig and hat, exposing the aliens face and glowing eyes. The deadly shot had not other effect. He grabbed the gang leader by the throat and lifted the man like a weightless doll off the ground. Several of his gang members fired, but none of the bullets stopped or harmed the alien in any way. Suddenly a sun bright lightning like beam erupted from the Aliens other hand and evaporated several bikers and their bikes; all that remained was a long trench of glowing molten sand and rock! Blood ran from underneath his other hand where he held the biker boss by the throat and with a sickening wet tearing sound crushed the neck, the body of the man tore off and fell to the ground while he still held the head! A huge archaic looking, all black battle axe with a half moon shaped blade grew out of nothing into the right fist of the Alien and with it he split a man and his bike in half. All this happened in only a few seconds. This sudden explosion of unstoppable brutal might shocked the remaining bikers to their core and made Peter realize just how alien and how dangerous this alien really was! -- Wulf was still contemplating his unusual situation when BUB interrupted his sulking. “Our sensors just picked up a high directed energy discharge of extreme intensity, twelve kilometers from here!” Wulf put his suit and his body into battle mode and said.” Looking at the scanner result myself I don’t think their weapon technology is stone-age. That looks like the discharge of a very advanced large caliber energy cannon!” His suit placed a Hex-Dim shied around him and he also activated the cloaking field and flew as fast as his Arti Grav propulsion boots could carry him towards the location of the discharge. According to BUB the technology of this time period did not use directed energy weapons. So maybe someone else was also affected by his strange time and space trip. Someone who might even know how to get back. -- Peter strained his muscles struggling against the cuffs. The Alien just lifted one of the heavy motorcycles as with one arm and threw it, hitting a fleeing biker over 10 meters away!” Can you get me out of these?” He yelled. Hoping the Alien would listen, and he did. “Yes Peter.” Even though it appeared as if the Alien had done nothing, his arms were suddenly free! The handcuffs had simply disappeared. With his revolver in his hands he got up. Of the thirty bikers more than twenty were dead, slaughtered, burned or ripped to pieces by the seemingly unstoppable Alien. Peter fired his gun in the air and that made everyone stop. The remainder of the now terrified bikers as well as the Alien.”Everyone, on the ground right now! “ They all listened and went to their knees, including the Alien.” -- “We are not the only ones responding to the Energy blasts.” Said the BUB,”I am certain there are at least four more subspace distortion signatures as caused by Dim Shields of Mali-Tech.” Wulf saw the data as it was projected into his eye nerves. The signatures were quite familiar to him. Nuuk Ta’s gang used Mali-tech Suits! Before him he saw a collection of vehicles and a group of humans. There were several scorch marks in the ground and lots of badly wounded bodies. A quick scan revealed that one of them was not human. He did not scan at all, but he had no time to analyze the strange being as his eyes now in battle mode recognized the characteristic air distortions of six cloaked battle suits approaching fast. -- Peter was still shocked and quite undecided what he should do next. All this was so out of scope for a simple Texas Ranger. There was no manual and no training that told him what to do in a case like this, but he knew it was his duty never the less to do the right thing. The Alien said.” Did I do something wrong? You said I should do something if I can...” Peter shook his head.” The way you did it is something I am still coping with!” “There are seven energy shielded and visually cloaked men approaching. Do you want me to do something about that?” The Rangers face was a single question mark and then all hell broke loose around them! Wulf went to full battle mode and all his reflexes and weapons were completely taken over by the Back up Brain. He fired his arm cannon at one of the cloaked men the same time he targeted and fired at another, while seven beams lashed out to hit him. Five beams slammed in his shield, the cloak collapsed and his shield generator screamed in overload. “Shield down to 60 percent!” BUB said calmly. His Arm Cannon beam depleted his Inner body energy storage to almost half, but the powerful beam cracked the attackers shield and evaporated most of him. The less powerful Tri Beam Blaster disrupted the cloaking fields of the others and weakened their shields. Peter and the surviving Bikers stared in disbelief as eight flying men suddenly appeared around them, fighting each other with sun bright beams of light, one of them was burned right away and parts of him fell to the ground. He fired his revolver at one of the flying men coming closer. The heavy slug of his 50 cal revolver hit the man with several tons of kinetic energy, that and the additional blast of another flying man who was obviously fighting with the five others, was enough to collapse the force field and kill the man. Peter yelled to the Alien.”Are those friends of yours?” “No I do not know them!” Faster than any human being could react, the Visitor stepped before Peter and in doing so deflected an energy beam that was meant for the Ranger. Wulf was hard pressed and his shield was nearly gone, his suit and weapons were far better than those of the Nuuk-Ta gang, but what they lacked in quality they easily made up in numbers. He saw a man firing a primitive but evidently quite powerful chemical projectile weapon at one of his adversaries, the projectile weakened the shield enough for him to puncture through and finish the second one off. Now the Nuuk gang saw the man down there as an enemy as well and before Wulf could prevent it, Nuuk Ta himself fired, hitting the human he could not scan. It was as if shooting a stream of water against a steel plate, the unscannable human was not harmed despite the fact that most of his clothing was burned to atomic ashes and he had no measurable energy shield. Peter screamed.”What is going on here?” He knew the tall Alien had just saved his life and he had done so before as he was kneeling in the dust. Whoever that alien was he could trust him, despite the superhuman powers that man possessed. “Cloud cover me! I need to get into the truck!” An energy beam with the strength of a ship cannon emitted out of the Aliens left fist and evaporated another of Nuuk’s gang. That gave Wulf the chance to discharge both his weapons into one target, killing yet another of Nook’s gang. A hatch opened on the roof of his Suburban and rising on a hydraulic articulated arm came Betsy, the nick name he had given to his Dillon XM134 Gatling gun. Peter behind the gun targeted one of the three remaining men exchanging energy blasts and pressed the button. The six barrels started spinning and a stream of 7.62 x 51 mm full metal jacket bullets mixed at a ration 1 to 3 with tracer rounds pounded the now clearly visible and flickering energy shield. It lasted only for a heartbeat and collapsed and the man was ripped apart. Wulf was even more surprised as he saw the emerging weapon and how fast it defeated a shielded man. There was only one left, Nuuk-Ta himself and if he died he would never know how he ended up here and how to get back. “Nuuk-Ta cease fire and surrender and I will place you under arrest and not execute you.” Peter swung his cannon around targeting the next one, the energy fire had ceased, the two floating men left clearly visible. The remaining bikers stared disbelievingly into the air or covered themselves with both hands. The tall Alien stood there almost completely naked, with just a few burned remains of his clothing, holding the archaic axe in his right fist. He heard one of them say loudly and in a strange accented but understandable English say something about arrest and surrender to the other. Somehow Peter understood that one of them was a law man of some kind. Where ever they came from they seemed to have laws, but this was still Texas and his jurisdiction. “I am Texas Ranger Peter Baker and you are on Earth. I am a law enforcement officer here and you are both to cease any further hostilities. Then you are to land so I can sort things out!” Cloud raised his axe.” If you do not comply with my friends wishes, I shall enforce them.” Both Nuuk Tag and Wulf’s energy reserves and shields were near depleted and both of them saw the enormous energy blasts the strange naked human could produce. Wulf had never seen an arm cannon with that much power. He landed as the Ranger demanded. Nuuk Tag hesitated and raised his gun arm. The Axe flew through the air thrown by the Alien and it sliced through shield, armor suit and arm like a hot knife through butter and returned in an arch like flight path back into the throwers fist. Nuuk fell down only a heartbeat after his arm hit the ground, his shields completely collapsed and his energy reserves drained. Wulf turned to the Ranger who targeted them with his primitive but formidable weapon.” I am like you a Law Enforcement Agent. I am like you from Earth and this planet. However I come from the 56th century, from your far distant future.” He pointed at Nuuk.” This Criminal is responsible somehow that I ended here in your time. Please let me interrogate him so I can find out how to get back!” Peter hesitated, but he believed the strange dressed man.”Alright go and interrogate him, but not too long. He needs medical attention and I need to figure out what to do about all this.” “His suit will give him all the medical attention he needs, Ranger. I thank you for your trust.” Wulf knelt next to the criminal he had hunted for so long. He was half human half Shiss but had more human features, missing the second set of arms and the little leathery wings, but he had the sharp teeth and the scaled skin of a Shiss. Nuuk spat out.” I am going to die but I go into the great beyond knowing that I got you Enforcer!” Wulf said.”Explain or I shall use my Battle nanites in a very unpleasant manner!” “Your threats are empty, Enforcer. I am already dying. You see my Auto Doc injected me with a very good Shaill poison. However I will tell you what you want to know. It will give me my last pleasure that you know it was I who triumphed over you. “You Earth Enforcers are the real criminals of our Galaxy. The Terran Empire forcing its laws on other civilizations and then using you Enforcers to make sure they are kept. No one wants you; your own population hates and fears you. Only the so called Privileged get to have all the health care and all the education and all the good jobs. There are billions and billions who live in the bleakest conditions. Your days are numbered!” Wulf had heard it before and deep down he knew that some of the accusations were quite true, but he brushed them aside and barked.” I know what you think, but why are we here? Why are we on Earth in the 21st century?” “We knew you came close and we ran out of places to hide, but I was able to get two Saresii Tempo Shear warheads and we laid a trap for you. Sabotaging your ships drive was the most complicated part of our plan, but we found that you can buy the services of maintenance engineers very easily. After all most engineers are not privileged. “Anyway we knew you would have to limp to Bare Boulder and it was there were we hid the two warheads. You see not all the brilliant scientists are loyal to the privileged. One of them, perhaps the most brilliant temporal scientist of them all, you just killed a few moments ago predicted that the massive quantities of tachyon channeling crystals mined at Bare Boulder, along with your multi dimensional shields triggered by two warheads would cause a Murphy Chaos Field and sent you back in time and the matter of your body would go there where it originally belonged. So that is why you ended up here on Earth. We came back along with you to make sure you die and then to activate a planetary destructor. Because if we destroy Earth in this time then there won’t be a Terran Empire in ours, oppressing others!” “How did you plan to go back?” “Are you so hard of hearing or do you lack the intellect to understand, despite the fact you got two brains? There is no way back. We planned to destroy this planet, there won’t be an Earth in the Future and nothing we know will ever come into existence. I had a Shiss mother but she too was born on earth. Born in one of your Slave Zoos, she was killed by an Enforcer. This is why I am here as well. Even though I carry Shiss DNA, the matter I am made off comes from here. Now my mother will never be born here and neither will I or you.” Nuuk rolled his eyes as black foam bubbled from his lips and he died. There was a sudden hissing sound from underneath the body of Nuuk and Wulf jumped up and stepped back as the body was consumed by a slowly expanding nuclear fire. He turned to the Ranger.” The Criminal activated a Planetary Destructor before he died. I am sorry but we are doomed. I was to slow to stop it.” The tall almost completely naked man stepped in the now fast expanding puddle of molecular fire; instead of being consumed the fire went out and was gone, leaving a shallow crater in the desert. Wulf gasped.”What are you? This was a molecular fire, once started nothing can stop it!” “I don’t know what I am but all that needs to be done to extinguish such a fire is to extract all energy.” Peter came from his truck and said.”I hate to interrupt this alien reunion but I got a bunch of criminals here that need to be booked, two aliens and a host of dead bodies. I wish I could simply send all this stuff far away so no one could find them. If I have to report on (about would sound better to me) all this and when the bikers talk, my life is going to turn upside downAgain the tall Alien spoke.” How far away do you want these bikers and the rest?” Peter threw his arms into the air.”What do I know? They won’t go away even if I wished they be on the moon or something!” There was a surge of air and a popping sound and all the bikers, their bikes, the Toyota, the bodies and parts had vanished! It was all gone! All that remained was Wulf, the Suburban and the tall Alien. Peter looked around wiped his eyes and groaned.”It was all a dream. It was all a dream right?” He could still see the scorch marks and he saw the baby doll lying across the street, then he swallowed.”What did just happen? Where are all the Bikers?” The Alien pointed up.”You wished them on the moon. I thought you meant this planets moon. Did you mean another one?” Wulf was as surprised as Peter at the sudden disappearance. BUB said.” This tall man just released more Psionic energy than 100 Saresii combined.” The Ranger gasped.”You say they are all on the moon? Bikes and all?” The Alien looked abashed.” I apologize if I misunderstood your wishes. I heard you say bikers and all Peter sat down on the front bumper cattle guard of his suburban and slowly shook his head.” Let’s assume for a moment they are really all on the moon, would they not need space suits to survive?” “Why should we assume what is a fact, this is illogical.” The Alien said.” Yes I think humans like you would need protective garments and a supply of breathing air to survive on this moon’s surface. Do you want them back? “ Peter raised his arms.”No I don’t want a bunch of frozen and suffocated bikers. How would I possibly explain that to my superiors?” He then got up and looked at Wulf.”And you are from a different time?” “Yes Ranger. I am sorry but at the moment I am lost.” Peter sighed.” Well it’s not far to my house. We might as well go there and talk and figure out what to do.” Wulf bowed slightly.”Thank you Ranger, my name is Wulf Starr. You can call me Wulf if you like.” Peter reached out and presented his hand.”I am Peter Baker and you can call me Peter.” “What do you call this mysterious friend of yours?” “My Uncle calls him Black Cloud.” “So he is not from here?” “He fell from the sky.” “He fell from the sky?” Wulf climbed into the passenger door while Peter resumed his place behind the wheel. The tall Alien took a seat behind Wulf.” You fell through time and space and you find it curious that I fell from the sky?” Peter grunted as he drove on.” And I feel I fell out of bed, at the wrong side and head first. I must be dreaming all this!”