|
Chapter Seven: "Mirage" She couldn't stop trembling....stop screaming...she couldn't help but succumb to the void inside of her that was quickly consuming all her strength and composure. "Tom!" She shouted, "Tom, please help...!!" Never before had she been so out of control, so incapacitated by fear, so overpowered by her emotions. In vain she tried to pull herself together, wrapping her arms around her torso as if doing so would steady her trembling body - and she rocked back and forth. "Okay, Sloan Parker...you're okay," she quietly repeated to herself. "Tom will find you...you'll both get out of here...get it together, Parker, keep it together..." Like a holy mantra she recited, "Get it together, Parker, keep it together....Get it together, Parker, keep it together...." But the memories of recent events played endlessly in her mind - like a newsreel stuck on "play" - and the comforting words she whispered to herself quickly transformed into desperate sobs of denial. "No, this can't be happening!" she cried frantically. "This isn't happening! I'm having a nightmare, that's it....all of this is just a bad dream....I have to wake up, I have to wake up!" But the nightmare continued. "Someone please wake me up! Tom, please wake me up!" She cried hysterically as the nightmare continued still..... So many emotions flooded her being that all she felt was turmoil and anguish - she wanted everything to stop, to go away, for the chaos to cease within her before it consumed her entirely. "Tom!" she screamed. "Tom!!" But the peace never came. Oh, what she would've given for one moment of numbness, one second of feeling nothing, one moment of composure! "Tom, please...." she cried as she continued to rock herself back and forth..... Then suddenly he was there - his arms wrapped around her - her Tom, so strong and calm....she needed his calm, his strength.... "Shhh..." he said to her. "Tom," she sighed between gasps. "They did something to me... I don't...I can't stop....what did they do...." she was clenching desperately to the collar of his black shirt. Black? Wasn't he wearing a grey sweatshirt when they were abducted? Too much confusion and chaos....nothing was clear...nothing made sense. "Tom?" she repeated as she looked into his unusually cold dead eyes. "Tom, what's wr....?" Feeling a sudden sharp pain on her arm she pulled away from him, noticing the syringe he was holding in his hand. The syringe was empty, its plunger fully depressed - its contents just emptied into her vein. "Tom?" she repeated as her surroundings blurred. "Tom, what did you...." Slowly she drifted into a state of slumber .... hearing only the sound of his steady breathing .... seeing only his eyes fixed intensely on her - eyes so cold and so dead. "No," she sighed, "no..." Then the chaos ceased. *************** She awoke in her apartment, in her own bed, wearing her favorite pair of blue satin pajamas. She was right. It had all been a dream....a nightmare...just as she had thought and had convinced herself. Sitting up in her bed she sighed a sigh of relief as she surveyed the familiar surroundings of her bedroom. She lazily rose from her bed and walked toward her dresser, stretching her arms and yawning as she made her way across the room. Picking up her hairbrush, she then slowly and methodically began to brush her curly red hair, combing out all the knots and tangles that had formed during her night of fitful sleep and bad dreams. She gasped at her reflection in the mirror. A pale-faced image glared back at her, one so seemingly older than yesterday. Yesterday? What did she do yesterday? She couldn't remember....... Gently she traced the dark circles that had formed underneath her eyes with her right forefinger. "Gees," she sighed to herself. "I think I need to use my nightcream more diligently..." And she felt strange. Very strange. Fatigued, drained, confused - and she wondered if she had caught some virus of sorts. "Perhaps you're just over-worked, Dr. Parker," she said quietly to herself as she laid the brush back on her dresser. "Maybe a cup of tea would do you good," she continued to speak aloud to herself. "And Tom, of course. Just the sound of his voice would make me feel tons better..." She smiled as she thought about Tom. Like a giddy schoolgirl in love, she sighed as she said his name aloud again. "Tom....my Tom...." The sound of the phone ringing in the livingroom startled her out of her sweet reverie. Turning swiftly from her dresser, Sloan then walked to her phone and sleepily spoke into the receiver. "Hello?" She heard only static on the line. "Hello?" she repeated. "Who is this?" Hearing nothing but muffled noise and static she returned the phone to its cradle. "That was weird," she thought to herself. "I wonder if the phone lines are dead." She picked up her phone and listened for a dialtone....but there was none. "Hmmm...." she said aloud. "Maybe the lines are out...but...." Suddenly, as she eyed her livingroom for the first time since she awoke, she noticed that something was dreadfully wrong. All her furniture was where she remembered, and it was all her furniture, but the little details that made the apartment uniquely "hers" were all wrong. The pictures of her family, her sister in her nurse's uniform, her graduation picture with Ann....they were all missing. And her bar stools at the kitchen counter were gone...and the firepoker for the fireplace was....but there was no fireplace!!! Feeling panic well within her she turned to face the bedroom in which she had awoken earlier, but much to her shock she found herself no longer looking at her bed and dresser...but an empty room...a cell... her cell with nothing but a black resting slab positioned in the middle. "No, oh, no...." she whispered as she spun back around. But instead of her livingroom she found herself facing a wall...nothing but a wall made of hardened dirt and granite. "New Eden," she gasped as memories of the abduction in the parking lot and of the underground city returned to her consciousness. "It wasn't a dream...my God, it wasn't a dream!" she cried as she flashed on bits and pieces of recent events. She remembered the strange animals she had seen...the evolved canine species....the children in the classroom....injected with a serum, brainwashed, chanting endlessly, 'We will reign in the kingdom of man,'.... Tom holding her, sedating her...no, that couldn't have been Tom....no, it was a trick... all of this was some kind of sick and twisted mirage.... Frantic she ran towards the only door at the corner of her cell, but there was no door knob, no way to open it, no way out.... "Tom!!" she screamed. "Tom!!!" But only silence returned her pleas. "Lewis!" she yelled at the ceiling of dirt above her. "Lewis! I know you can hear me! I remember everything, you son of a bitch! Do you hear me??? I remember everything!!! Whatever you tried to do to me...didn't work...do you understand??!!! It didn't work! And you won't get away with this!" As tears welled in her eyes, Sloan slumped in the corner of her cell and buried her face in her hands. "Think, Parker, think," she said to herself. "There has to be a way out of here...and to reach Tom." Trying desperately to hold back sobs, she then surveyed the small cell around her. "Oh, Tom...what have they done to you," she sighed softly. "Please let him be okay... oh, God please let him be okay....." ****************** In a cell only a few doors away, Lewis and Tom watched as Sloan sat in a corner of her room. Tom was strapped once again to the gurney, but was very much relieved at the sight of the woman he loved, the woman who hadn't forgotten him after all, and who was once again defiant and more like her old self again despite all that his species had inflicted upon her. "You know what I find particularly fascinating, Tom?" Lewis said breaking the silence between them. "Your human woman is amazingly resilient! Notice how quickly she accepted the possibility that she had only been dreaming, but then ever so astutely put two and two together?" Tom glared silently at his former mentor sitting next to him who was holding a clipboard and pen. Lewis had pretended to take down data as he watched Sloan through the television monitor, but Tom knew that the whole thing was a farce created entirely for his torture. "One must truly marvel at Dr. Parker's capacity to recuperate from emotional duress, and at her penetrating intelligence!" Lewis continued. "According to our computers - which not only created the hologram of her apartment in a less than perfect manner, but also recorded her reaction times and thought processes - it took her only 5 minutes after waking up to notice that she really wasn't in her apartment! And since the effects of the black slab and all our sedatives had worn off, it only took 30 seconds after her revelation for her to remember everything that had happened...and exactly 10 seconds after that to regain enough of her anger and courage to curse my name!!! Quite extraordinary, say you not?!!!" He was mocking Tom, provoking him to respond and retaliate - but Tom refused to give him the satisfaction. He glared defiantly but silently at his former mentor. "Well, the orders from the High Council today were very clear," Lewis continued. "This was to be the last of our psychological experiments on Dr. Parker. Tomorrow we begin examining her anatomy..." "You won't get away with this," Tom replied through tightly clenched teeth. "And you'll pay for what you've done...." Walking towards the door and laughing like Tom had never heard him laugh before, Lewis turned one last time to stare disdainfully at his former star pupil. "Oh, my dear Tom," he began. "You truly have become such a disgrace to us all." The television monitor, Tom's only connection to Sloan during the last 48 hours, switched off as soon as Lewis left his cell. Immediately Tom's demeanor changed, his 'tough act' stance replaced by anxiety and frustration. "Sloan," he whispered as he took a deep breath. He shut his eyes allowing himself a moment of calm. He had to get to Sloan before the morning, before they began the next series of experiments, before they inserted probes throughout her body. That's what they did. He knew only too well about the process, since he had participated in earlier experiments his kind had conducted on unsuspecting humans. He was only a student then, but he remembered. He remembered watching his mentors cut and slice their subjects' bodies open, pointing to various organs, commenting, instructing, dissecting. He remembered one experiment during which he had been guided to make an incision right in the center of a human subject's head, to severe the corpus collosum that connected both halves of the brain; but luckily his subject had long been dead - unlike many other humans who had been less fortunate. Tom recalled how relieved he was that his subject wouldn't scream in agony. He could never tolerate the test subjects' cries and pleas for mercy. But what did he or his kind ever know about 'mercy?' And those screams haunted him still. Through the years he continued to have nightmares of his early training days, nightmares in which he couldn't stop the piercing screams, couldn't end the agony - the human test subjects or his own - so he ran... and ran - only to find himself in a laboratory run by humans who themselves locked him up in a cage for their own experimental purposes. He always awoke trembling and in a frantic sweat after those dreams. Now his worst nightmare had come true - his worst fear, realized right before his eyes. The woman he loved was being made to pay for his crimes and his sins. His mother and Lewis were right. There could be no worst torture and punishment inflicted upon him. Perhaps had he rebelled sooner, had he refused to cooperate in such unconscionable acts of barbarity on his human ancestors, Sloan wouldn't be facing the dilemma she was now. Perhaps God, who created Homo Sapiens and Homo Dominants alike, would've been more merciful towards him had he fought harder and sooner against what his soul always knew was 'wrong.' But he had been weak. Weak to a fault...until he had met Sloan. But whether he was being divinely punished or not, Tom knew that their only hope now was a miracle...and he prayed for one. Quickly shifting his thoughts from self reproach and chastisement to plans of escape, Tom began to devise some kind of scheme to get himself in the same cell as Sloan's - perhaps to be physically present in the dissection lab when they first began the horrible experiments. At least then he wouldn't have to search all of New Eden for her, and then together they could somehow.... "Tom?" a woman's voice said softly. He had been so absorbed in his own musings that he didn't even hear the door to his cell open and shut. Looking up from his gurney he saw a young woman standing over him. She was petite with very short blond hair that barely touched her ears, and she had a plain and simple countenance. Yet there was something very familiar in her eyes, a gentleness that he had known before.... "Tom?" she repeated. "Can you hear me?" He stared quietly at her for a moment, perplexed, but slowly, and bit by bit, he managed to put the pieces of his life's puzzle together as he gazed into her serene blue eyes. "Kara?" he said finally. "Kara, is that really you?" "Hello, big brother," she said with a smile. "It has been a long time...." Chapter Eight: The Alliance They were only 12 years old when they were separated. Tom was the first to be taken away since he was the first born of the four and because he was one of the chosen. She remembered that fateful day when she had said goodbye to her oldest brother, and the only brother who truly understood her. Lars had eventually come to see things her way, but he had been killed by Lynch's clone the night he went to find Tom to tell him about the Alliance. Now she only had two brothers left; one a cold-blooded killer, and the other a so-called turncoat who was dubbed "the pariah" of their species. Her heart broke the day they took Tom away to New Eden to begin his formal training as a chameleon. She had been forbidden to say goodbye to him, since such sentimentality was always frowned upon in her society, but she had sneaked out of her own conditioning classes to catch one last glimpse of the only brother who ever protected her and who ever stood up for her. She cried that day. It wasn't the first time, but she cried as she hugged him goodbye and as he gently returned her embrace. As the years went by she frequently thought about her brother Tom as she completed her own training, all the while keeping up the 'appearance' of complete submission and obedience to her species' abominable plans to "reign in the kingdom of man." How she grew to hate that chant, "we will reign in the kingdom of man".... and she never believed it. Not for a minute. Even with all the mind control drugs injected into her she managed to hold on to one little bit of "herself," "her own mind," "her own thoughts," .... and to fight. It was a silent and veiled fight, but she had won it. Just like she always knew that Tom would eventually win over his own internal struggle and break free. Although he was always obedient as a child, she knew it was all an act. Tom was the master of self-control and of denial, but she knew that one day he would realize and discover "himself" - his true self. And she was right. After finishing her training, she was assigned to work in the Central Intelligence Agency, or the CIA as the humans called it, as a computer engineering specialist. For several years she not only designed cutting-edge technology that allowed homo sapiens to spy on one another and gather sensitive "top secret" data, but she also hacked into the computer systems of homo sapiens in other continents. There was so much distrust and greed for power in the human governments, more than she had the stomach for - but it wasn't long until she realized that members of her own species were not that different at all. Both species were more alike than anything else. It was her job at the CIA that led to her to the Alliance. She discovered members of this group cryptically sending one another messages through the airwaves - messages that were being transmitted to and from New Eden in a code that only very few Dominants understood...and no humans, so she had thought. But much to her surprise, she learned that the Alliance consisted of humans and Dominants alike who were secretly working together for coexistence. Apparently, leaders from both species had been devising a war for their own self-gain, and had been brainwashing their members against the possibility of peace. She joined the Alliance immediately of course, worked as a spy for the group, gathering important information from both camps, and was so good at her role that she maintained the trust of her fellow Dominants as well as that of her human superiors and colleagues in the CIA. Within a year of her membership in the Alliance her brother Lars joined the cause, and shortly thereafter they heard of Tom's defection and so-called treason against their species. It wasn't a surprise. In fact, she and Lars were proud at how boldly their oldest brother disobeyed not only his orders, but his destiny as well. Tom did it openly, whole-heartedly, without shame or fear. He had been the first of their kind to publicly denounce and turn from everything that he...and they....had been trained to believe and to do. At last the Alliance had a unified Homo Sapien/Dominant voice for coexistence: her brother and Dr. Parker. It was hoped that together they would come to symbolize the Alliance's stand against war and violence, and the group's symbol for peace. Her brother Lars was sent by the Alliance to discuss these plans with Tom, but Lynch's clone snapped his neck in two before he reached Sloan's apartment. Everything seemed to spiral downwards for the worst after that horrible loss, and now Tom and Sloan themselves were in danger. That was why she was sent to New Eden. One of the Alliance's spy in New Eden informed the group of Tom and Sloan's capture and torture, so they immediately devised a plan to rescue them. It was perhaps the most important assignment of her life...to rescue her brother and the woman he loved...and she was determined to succeed. The entire future of the Alliance and its work depended upon it. ************** Quickly unstrapping Tom from the gurney that held him captive, Kara then retrieved two yellow pills from her pocket and instructed him to swallow them. "Here," she began. "This will help counteract whatever drugs they injected into you. You'll quickly regain your strength once these pills take effect." "Kara?" Tom repeated still stunned that he was in fact speaking with his sister. "I didn't think you'd remember me, Tom," she said with a smile. "I know that all chameleons undergo treatments to erase all childhood memories...." She helped him to his feet and handed him a weapon. "We must work quickly. It won't be long before they notice that our operative in New Eden switched off your monitoring cameras." "Operative?" Tom asked slowly regaining his strength and senses. "Yes," she replied. "We, the Alliance, have several plants in New Eden. That's how we learned about you and Sloan...." "You're here to help..." he said still a bit confused. "Yes, big brother, I am." Pulling out a small transmitter attached to her belt, she quietly spoke into the mouthpiece. "We're ready. Another minute and he'll have his strength back. Did you successfully retrieve Dr. Parker?" The anxious expression on her face eased as she listened to the response from her partner. "You've got Sloan?" Tom asked as if snapping suddenly out of a state of delirium. "Yes. She's safe. But we have to hurry. We can't mask ourselves so efficiently for very long, and it won't take much effort for the High Council to figure out who helped you escape. Sloan and the others are waiting for us at one of the entrances to New Eden....we have to hurry." "Let's go then," Tom replied. He was clear-minded again, his strength and sharp senses completely restored, and he was angry....so very angry at his kind for what they had done to Sloan and to him. With Kara leading the way, they quickly proceeded out into the corridor. Tom's stomach turned as he eyed the too familiar walls of New Eden's prison wing, or Section 333 as they called it, and he was grateful to be leaving it. He followed his sister trustingly, clutching the weapon she had given him in one of his hands fully prepared to use it when necessary, while his thoughts centered completely around Sloan. "She's okay, scared but okay," Kara whispered to him as they stopped at the end of one corridor checking to make sure that the coast was clear. Three Dominants were in their path, and Kara quickly pushed Tom into one of the rooms where they hid until it was safe to proceed again. It was late at night, so most New Eden dwellers were resting atop their black slabs....so the Alliance hoped, anyway. "You sure?" he whispered as he glared at the Dominants only a few feet away from him. He was masking himself the best he could, but he knew that Kara was covering him as well. He had never mastered that particular skill, and he was glad that his sister seemed to be a pro at it. "Yes. She'll meet us along with the others in Section 787. She's worried about you too." "The others?" Tom asked. "This assignment will unveil our spies in New Eden. We have to take them all out. After today, the Alliance will no longer have contacts here....but this was unavoidable," she whispered quietly. "Hey, the coast is clear. Let's go." They slipped out of the room and proceeded through cavern after cavern until they approached Section 787. As they neared the most hidden entrance into New Eden Tom sensed Sloan's presence, and his heart quickened at the hope of being soon reunited with the woman he loved. "Oh, Tom," Sloan cried as she saw him turn the corner into Section 787. "Thank God you're all right." She threw her arms around his neck and pressed her body into his. Tears gently rolled down her face. Unable to speak from the emotions flooding his being, Tom buried his face in her hair and wrapped his arms protectively around her waist. Tears rolled down his cheeks as well. There was so much he wanted to tell her, so much he needed to say - but the words never came. Pulling away from her just enough to be able to cup her face with one of his hands and stroke her hair with the other, he gazed silently but ardently into her teary eyes, hoping that the expression on his face would convey to her everything that he could not speak at the moment. Then, as if on cue, Sloan smiled and kissed the back of his hand. "I know," she whispered. "I know. And I don't blame you for any of this. None of this is your fault, Tom." Her words so cut through him like a knife that he began to sob quietly as he once again pulled her close to him and buried his face into her thick auburn hair. He needed so very much to hear her say those words, for her to assuage his guilt, for her to end his turmoil. And she did....like she always did. Kara and the others, seven Dominants also part of the Alliance, were deeply moved at the sight of a human and a chosen so 'one' with each other and committed; but they knew that they weren't completely safe yet. "Please," one of the Dominant rebels whispered. He was tall, over 6 feet, with red hair and light blue eyes. "We have to hurry. Our escape vehicle is waiting right outside the entrance. We need to transport upwards together, or else the portal device won't work." "Lead the way, Nicholas," Sloan said with a smile. "I trust you." Under Nicholas' directions they proceeded to link hands as Kara adjusted dials and buttons on a triangular device. Blue lights and a quiet humming signaled the transport process and the opening of the portal. Within seconds they all found themselves in the world above New Eden....a world that Tom and Sloan thought they'd never see again...the middle of a desert somewhere in Oaxaca, Mexico. Directly ahead about a hundred feet away was their escape vehicle waiting for its passengers. They ran towards the large van, Tom and Sloan clutching one another's hands, while Kara led the way. As they reached the vehicle one of its doors slid open unexpectedly. "Well, well," Lewis said as he emerged from inside the van. "Did you traitors think that it would be this easy?" Other Dominants soon emerged from behind the vehicle, dragging behind them the bodies of the slain Alliance members, humans and dominants alike, who had been waiting faithfully at their post. Tom immediately stepped in front of the others to face his former mentor. "Let us go, Lewis," he said coldly and threateningly. "As you can see, Tom, you're clearly outnumbered here and in no position to make demands," Lewis replied sardonically. "Besides, this little family reunion of yours calls for a celebration, don't you think?" He walked towards Tom until he was so close to him that their noses almost touched. "Let the games begin," Lewis whispered. "Let the games begin." Chapter Nine: No Mercy "Step out of the way, Lewis," Tom repeated. "Let us go and no one else will get hurt." His voice was strong and menacing. "Not only have you become a disgrace, Tom," Lewis replied, "but you've also become stupid." He drew a weapon from one of his coat pockets and aimed it at Tom. "Now..." Lewis began. "You will all accompany us back down to New Eden so we can pick up where we left off...." Tom didn't move...didn't flinch. No one did. Like toy soldiers, immobile yet fully positioned for battle, they stood bravely facing each other in what seemed to be the final showdown. "You heard me," Lewis repeated as he shifted his gun and pointed it at Sloan. "Move...." The sound of approaching choppers broke the tension and silence between the opposing groups. Surprised and sensing the presence of other Alliance soldiers, Lewis immediately began to open fire hitting Nicholas instantly in the shoulder. As the others began to fire their weapons, Lewis ran and took cover behind the van as all chaos broke lose. Tom, attacked from both sides by Dominants, lost hold of his gun and struggled to overcome his assailants with his bare hands. Five shots brought one of his attackers down, and as Tom looked up he noticed Sloan, with Nicholas' gun in hand, still aiming it at her target whom she had just lethally wounded. Quickly she then ran for cover behind a large rock and continued to fire at Lewis' men. Next to her were Kara and Nicholas, safely shielded from the spray of bullets. Kara had pulled her wounded friend away from the line of fire and worked frantically to stop the bleeding from his gunshot wound, while the others continued to fight....Dominant against Dominant....Eden's Heirs against the Alliance. From above them bullets ripped through the air as the choppers rained ammunition down on Lewis' men. "It's Mark," Kara said as she applied pressure on Nicholas' wound. "It's Mark Ward." Sloan continued to shoot. "Tim and Maria must've been able to call for back-up before Lewis killed them," Kara continued. She had done her best to help Nicholas for the moment, so she too began to shoot at her enemies from behind the large rock. Tom, who had retrieved his weapon, was firing from behind one of the van's open doors. There was no sight of Lewis. "The Calvary," Sloan said. "Thank God...." "Two humans are on board one of the choppers," Kara said as she reloaded her weapon and Sloan's. "I sense them...." "Who?" Sloan said retrieving her weapon from the young woman to whom she hadn't yet been introduced. "Attwood and Petersen," Kara replied. "Att...?" Sloan stuttered. She was unable to fire the gun anymore. She just couldn't. "Yes...they've been in contact with Mark..." Then in an instant, as quickly as it had begun, the gunfire ceased. Kara and Sloan looked at each other in hopeful disbelief but kept their weapons cocked and positioned. "Sloan!" Tom cried from a distance. "Sloan! Are you all right?! Sloan!" "Tom!" Sloan replied. "I'm here...we're here...." Within seconds Tom was in sight and crouching beside Sloan and his sister. Sloan immediately threw her arms around him. Kara turned her attention back to Nicholas. "Are you okay?" Tom whispered to Sloan as he gently brushed his lips against hers. "I couldn't see you, and I was worried that you'd been shot..." "I hate guns," Sloan replied. "What?" Tom asked. "I hate guns," she repeated as she rested her forehead against his. "I've always hated guns." "Where's Lewis?" Kara interrupted. "I saw him run for cover as soon as the gunfire began and the choppers came, but I lost track of him." "I don't know," Tom answered. He looked worriedly at Nicholas lying unconscious beside them. "We lost four of our men." Kara said nothing. Looking up she noticed that both choppers had landed, and that David and Miles, the only other survivors of her rescue team, were heading towards them with Lewis in their custody. They had apprehended him as he tried to return inconspicuously to the 787 portal coordinates once the gunfire had ceased. "It's over," Tom said to himself and to Sloan. "It's over." The smell of gunpowder filled the air as the sun began to rise....dead bodies were sprawled everywhere. "We need to get Nicholas back to homebase immediately," Kara said. "I've lost too many friends here today....I'm not about to lose another." Voices from a near distance, those of Petersen's and Attwood's, caught their attention suddenly. Standing to greet them, Sloan quickly handed Tom the gun she had been firing and ran immediately towards Attwood. "Thank God you're all right," Attwood said as he hugged his friend and colleague. "When Mark told us what had happened, we thought we'd never see you again!" "Good thing your getaway drivers were able to send out an SOS before Lewis' men ambushed them so mercilessly," Petersen added. "Lewis wasn't as smart as he thought he was...." Sloan proceeded to tell her friends about the nightmarish details of the previous days but stopped mid-sentence as she watched David and Miles escort Lewis to one of the choppers. Her stomach turned at the sight of him. But the satisfaction she was feeling over Lewis' capture quickly turned into shocked disbelief as she witnessed Lewis break free of David's grasp and quickly thrust a knife that he had tucked away underneath his sleeve into Miles' thigh! With lightning speed Lewis disarmed David and shot a whole right through his chest, while Miles lay on the ground clutching his punctured limb. "Nooo!" Kara cried as she withdrew her own weapon and took aim. "Mark! Tom! Look out!!!" Attwood and Petersen quickly pushed Sloan behind one of the choppers. A gunshot, coming from their left, hit Lewis in the abdomen...bringing him to his knees. Tom, who had fired the shot, walked towards his wounded mentor. "Tom...don't..." Sloan cried as he walked past her. "Stay here," Tom replied. "Attwood...make sure she stays put." Another gunshot resounded as Tom fired yet another bullet that struck Lewis' right shoulder. But Lewis, still clutching David's gun in his left hand, glared smugly at Tom. Standing over his former mentor, Tom marveled at how insignificant and pathetic he looked on his knees....bleeding. Hatred welled within him. "Aren't you going to finish the job?" Lewis asked arrogantly. "Or are you too compassionate now...too sentimental and merciful...." "No..." Tom replied as he remembered how much Sloan was made to suffer. Memories of Sloan tied up in the back of the car when they were first abducted came back to him...the ropes had been tied so tightly that her wrists bled...and he was rendered paralyzed and unable to help her. He took aim of Lewis' other shoulder....and fired. Propping himself back up to his knees, Lewis grinned...still arrogant, still provoking, still threatening. He struggled to point his weapon at Tom, and without hesitation he pulled the trigger....but the cartridge was empty. "Looks like you're time is up," Tom said as he kicked the gun out of Lewis' hands. Rage filled his entire consciousness. He thought about Sloan on the black slab....her state of painful oblivion that resulted from the slab treatments...and then her hysteria.... Without flinching He fired a fourth bullet into Lewis' chest. "I know no mercy," Tom said coldly to his dying mentor. "You made sure of that." With deliberate aim he fired a final bullet that struck Lewis in between the eyes. Standing over Lewis' then lifeless body, Tom dropped his weapon as tears began to fill his eyes. Then as if coming out of a daze, he turned towards the others who had been standing silently behind him. "Sloan?" he whispered. "Sloan?" In an instant she was in his arms, holding him, comforting him. "It's okay, Tom..." she sighed as she wiped away his tears. "It's okay." "I'm sorry," he sobbed. "I'm so sorry...." He was trembling. "Shhhh....shhhh..." she said. "It's all right...it's over now." She held him protectively, lovingly....reassuringly...ending his turmoil....like she always did. ********************** Not a word was spoken as Kara, Attwood and Petersen left with the wounded in one of the choppers. Mark Ward called for more backup to quickly and clandestinely take care of the dead bodies before the rest of them took the second chopper back to Pasadena. "We'll be dropping you off on the roof of the University," Mark said breaking the silence. "Dr. Tate will be meeting you there. The Alliance will contact you in a few days...after you've both gotten some rest." "Nicholas told me a little about the Alliance, but not much," Sloan said. She had been resting her head on Tom's shoulder. "Yes. It's a bit more complicated," Mark replied. "We'll fill you in on all the details later. We just finished briefing Attwood and Petersen when we got the call about your need for backup...." "The High Council will wage full out war now," Tom interjected. He was more like his normal self again, although still a little shaky. "No doubt," Mark answered. "We've just exacerbated the hostility between our species, I'm afraid. War may be inevitable now." "And they could've stopped us," Tom added. "We were right outside New Eden....they could've easily sent up reinforcements and annihilated us." "But they didn't." A worried expression settled on Mark's face. "They're up to something...there's some master plan..." Tom said almost in another daze. "And we can be sure that the Heirs will strike soon...and in full force." "War," Sloan whispered. "We're headed inevitably towards another global war...." "Not if the Alliance can help it," Mark interjected. "Unfortunately, Kara, our primary source of information, can no longer return to her position at the CIA. Her cover's blown. We'll have no way of finding out what the Heirs are planning....and when." "Kewley's Comet..." Tom said as he glared knowingly at Mark. "Yes," Mark replied. "Whoa, whoa...wait a minute here," Sloan interrupted. "What are you guys talking about? Am I confused, or have you guys begun speaking Greek?" She sounded like the unrelenting scientist, passionate, stubborn, and dedicated, that Tom adored. "And who's Kara? Is she the young lady who helped us escape?" Tom smiled as he peered into her bright green eyes that were once again so full of life and hope. "Yes," he answered. "She's my sister. She's my younger sister...." |
To be continued?? 
