Seth interjected, “Does anyone know where the boy is?”
“Lower level. Right under us,” Taeger nodded, glancing at the energy signature readout. “He’s not alone.”
“So, as far as possible from our current position,” Greig shouted as he blasted the creature with what should have been a mortal blow.
What he said was true. The ship was long and narrow with two levels of holding cells. There was a primitive ladder on the far end, opposite their position, that would allow them access to the lower level holding cells. Behind them was some kind of elevator, but they had no way to operate it. Like everything on this ship, it was bare of controls systems. No lights. No buttons. It was either operated through the main control room, or the Dark Ones could control everything on the ship with something implanted in their bodies. Or with their minds.
Taeger knew they’d come in on the second floor, but assumed the elevator was only taken one direction…up. The lowest level, where they needed to go, was for cargo. Human cargo.
This vessel was small, a single piece of a greater whole that had been sent to collect ‘food’ supplies and reconnect with the main ship. The few crew members would be eager to rejoin their brethren once they reunited. None of them would bother with the humans they’d collected.
Research led the Knights to believe that to be assigned to the Dark Ones’ harvesting ships was one of the lowest level duties among their people. A punishment. An embarrassment. Interacting with their food was beneath them.
Most of the Dark Ones never made contact with, or even saw, what they were carrying back to their home world to be consumed. The engines were on the lowest level, unmanned unless there was a problem. Elsewhere on the ship, more of the Dark Ones took their leisure, waiting out the trip home. The ship was simple. Efficient. A three-layer construct that needed no guards and a mere handful of crew.
All other species were nothing to them. Lower than microbes in intellect. Simply food. Slaves. Pets. Nothing more. Not for millennia.
Unfortunately, this cargo vessel was full. Of minds. Of terrified people. His people, from his new home planet Mora Five. Or what was left of it. They had destroyed everything. Taken everything. Even the boy they all needed to hold their people and culture together.
Taeger and his men had kept the boy safe and out of harm’s way. Until now. The attack had begun three days ago. He knew the Dark Ones were behind the destruction of his own world. Somehow hiding behind their pathetic allies. Using the Vilitos as servants and shields. Taeger burned with fury. Regret. Pain.
Now, just as before, everyone was forced to flee, evacuate, leave their homes and possessions for the small chance of survival on yet another world. Forced to run. Always running. Always in hiding.
They’d had little hope, would have had none if not for Juliet and Torrin, if not for King Dagan of Caldor and his new queen Sasha, Falden, and the other Lumerian Knights living in secret on Caldor and now Earth, as well. Two thousand years he’d been strong, done what needed to be done to make sure his own people survived alongside the people of Mora Five. The boy should have been safe while he and his chosen teams were on a mission. He’d left good warriors behind. Strong. Capable. Fierce in battle. Now they were gone. Every last one. Pain, fresh and raw, stabbed through him.
He gripped the Sword of Ohm-Ra a little tighter. No one was safe while those creatures existed. And now the boy, if still alive by the time they got to him, would be huddled in fear with the others in a holding cell. The Dark Ones liked the taste of fear. Preferred to taste the terror of their victims in the meat. The fresher the better.
His free hand fisted around another white ring attached to the sling that hung from his shoulder. He carried as many as he could, as many as their people had been able to acquire. The Swords of Ohm-Ra were their only hope of victory.
The Dark Ones existed to kill, and to feast. Nothing else. Blaster fire might kill them eventually, but it would take dozens of shots at the highest power levels. Meanwhile, they were so fast it was difficult to track them with the eye. Stronger than three Lumerians combined. They had no sense of humanity. They were merciless, without feeling or empathy, without joy.
Without life.
The true absence of life. The Dark Ones. The A’nua Na-KI.
Taeger and the others were there to rescue one young boy. Ion. Until recently thought to be their last hope. The others, those weeping and crying with fear and terror nearby, broke his spirit into hundreds of pieces. He couldn’t save them all. His entire life had been about protecting those who cared for his people. Protecting what was left of his planet and his race.
The boy mattered. Not to the feeders. To them, he was one more piece of meat to be butchered and served. But to Ion’s people, to Taeger, the boy represented hope for the future. Survival. They had to get him off the ship alive. To fail him was to fail their entire civilization. Taeger and the other Lumerian Knights would sacrifice everything to make sure he survived. Everything. They’d accepted their fate when they accepted the mission.
They had to
