held him tightly bound. He felt around and unimaginable fear gripped him. He was bound by claws that were bigger than his body. He struggled, but couldn’t move. The flash on the hill blinded those archers that had the misfortune to step out to fire an arrow, so they got down on all fours and scrambled back into the forest until they could regain their night vision.
Magrum warriors started popping out of doors on top of the hill by the hundreds. Jingo looked at the huge numbers and thought, “This is not good.” Then he heard, “All right everyone, clear the area. Get out of there now!!!”
Timmy and Tesa had taken the ship south from the pitched battle. Tesa turned and went straight up twenty thousand feet to see what was happening at the bunker.
Timmy sat in the second chair beside Tesa and focused the scanner. They saw the charging of the Magrum into the clearing and scanned the hill, discovering more than 10,000 Magrum were collecting ammunition for their rifles and heading toward the exit. “Tesa, the archers don’t have anywhere near enough arrows to stop them.”
“Timmy, the screen is on line and my board just notified me that the second red generator came on line. I thought this shuttle only had one.”
Timmy looked at Tesa and she saw his amazement on his face. “Tesa, we are sitting in history. I’ll tell you about it later, but I downloaded the defense and weapons program for this ship. Transfer them from your board to mine.”
“How do I do that, Tim?”
“Bottom right corner. Do you see the purple slide? It should be on the left; push it to the right.”
Tesa pushed the slide and she saw Timmy’s display panel change dramatically. “All right!” Timmy looked at his scanner and said, “Tesa, we can’t be harmed by the Magrum’s weapons, even their blasters, so don’t get nervous. I want you to come in low over the trees in front of the clearing and slowly fly toward the bunker. When you’re three hundred yards away from it, stop and hover. Do you think you can handle that flight?”
Tesa smiled, “I have an auto-hover control that allows me to remain stationary and use a joy stick to move in any direction I choose. That’s easy.”
“Ok, here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to expand our screen so nothing can hit the woods where the archers are. I also scan several large energy sources in that bunker. I’m going to hit that bunker with a full beam, and who knows what’s going to happen. Are you ready?”
Tesa extended her upper right hand and Timmy reached out and squeezed it. “Here we go.”
Cezee banked hard right and the other Flyers turned left and right and flew away from the hill. Scotty had turned back to the compound at high altitude and saw the black ship come in over the front edge of the forest, hitting the clearing with a bright red beam. The beam then traveled the length of the clearing through the compound and arrived at the bunker, where its intensity quadrupled in size. The entire hill melted, then erupted in a huge explosion. The ship had extended a screen between it and the forest, and the huge blast stopped before it hit the pinned archers.
The former bunker was gone. Half the field behind it was blasted into a glass surface.
The former prisoners had reached the edge of the clearing when they heard the giant blast. They turned and saw the fireball as it rose high into the night sky, illuminating everything. Nighttime turned to daytime for a full minute. The prisoners turned back to Julie with wonder on their faces, and she motioned them into the clearing. As they walked out of the woods they saw archers step out with them. They had turned off the color shifting and the prisoners saw many fanning out between them and the woods. They knew that these beings with the bowguns had protected them on their walk. Suddenly they heard a loud screech, and Vring came zooming in with Scotty on his back. The size of the creature the Human was riding frightened them, and many turned to run in the woods when they heard, “Friends, these are the ones that saved you. You have nothing to fear.” The prisoners turned and saw more than a hundred of the huge creatures start landing in the clearing. Every one of them had a green suited rider on its back. They stopped in amazement and Julie shouted, “The Magrum are gone! They will never enslave anyone again. These friends are taking you to freedom and peace. They are here to save you, and you have nothing to fear. They are here to protect you, and you owe them your lives.”
Greven stepped out of the crowd and ran up to Vring and grabbed his front leg and hugged it. Every prisoner heard him say. “Thank you so much. I hated picking those pods.”
Everyone burst out laughing. Julie looked at Greven and knew that one of the heroes of this night was the slow Spejek. It was he that made it all possible. She walked up to Greven and hugged him. Scotty came off Vring and said, “Now, we have to move you to our home. We’re excited about your joining our communities.” He looked at Julie and knew it was not going to be easy to persuade them to mount a Zord. He looked out at the clearing, pulled his visor down, and didn’t see any in the clearing. “Vring, where are the Flyers?”
“They are not needed, White Hair.”
Scotty heard a noise and turned to see the big black ship landing in the clearing. The landing bay door opened and Timmy stepped out and said, “Taxi, anyone?”
Scotty started laughing as Julie ran up and hugged him tightly, took his hand, and led him to a man and a woman. The woman had the same color hair as Julie. “Mom, Dad, this is the man that is responsible for saving us. He’s also going to be my husband.”
Scotty was shocked. Then he smiled, “It is my pleasure to meet you. I love your daughter very much. It was also her bravery that made all this possible.”
The two rushed forward and hugged the daughter they thought lost, then hugged Scotty. Vring looked down on the four Humans and smiled. Then he remembered Julie’s dream. He didn’t know what to think about that.
Timmy and Tesa came running up to Scotty and said, “It will take three trips, but we’ll transport all of them to the two communities. They should all arrive in less than three hours.”
Scotty shook his head, amazed at the speed the ship would have to travel. Then they heard a sound and turned to Vring, who still had Grang held tightly in his left front claws. Scotty’s eyes narrowed, and Julie saw his immediate anger. Vring looked at Scotty and knew the long flight back with the Magrum in his claws was going to be hard. Vring thought, “White Hair, you must go back with the first group to see they are welcomed. I will bring this one to you in four days. You can then decide his fate.”
Scotty walked up and stared at the obviously frightened Magrum. Scotty looked in Grang’s eyes and the Magrum could see danger. He didn’t move, fearing the Human would order the beast to crush him.
Vring said, “You know I’m right, White Hair.”
Jingo walked up and said, Cezee and I will make sure he arrives.”
Scotty looked at Jingo, “Why don’t you go back and I’ll fly.”
Jingo lowered his head and looked at Scotty over his eyebrow, “Oh, you think I’m better at getting the communities to work together?”
Vring said, “He’ll still be talking to them when you fly in.”
Jingo jerked his head up at Vring, and Scotty saw Cezee look off in different directions like he wasn’t paying attention. Julie burst out laughing and Jingo said, “What’s so funny?”
Scotty tried to control himself, but he started jerking with his restrained laughter. “Ok, Jingo. You bring him in,” he managed to get out.
“Maybe I should go back instead.”
With that Scotty grabbed his ribs and laughed hard, ‘Stop, stop, you’re killing me!”
Jingo looked at the group and said, “What?!?”
They all lost control, and Julie ended up on the ground holding her ribs.
“I don’t get it.”
Even Cezee had to fly away to hide his laughter.
Jingo looked at Joe and Grace Larson, and they looked at each other and said, “We don’t get it either.”
Scotty joined Julie on the ground laughing.
Vring looked up in the trees when Jingo looked at him.
Julie saw Vring look away, screamed, then laughed so hard it hurt.
Vring glanced down and shrugged.
Scotty couldn’t breathe.
The archers at the trees were using the trunks to hold them up, they were laughing so hard.
The former prisoners looked around and wondered what was so funny.
Jingo couldn’t figure it out either.
