The Apprentice Starship Engineer: Book One The Link by Hanks Daniel

Author:Hanks, Daniel [Hanks, Daniel]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Published: 2014-03-15T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8: Kidnapped

With Sandra so close, I wondered if I could go to sleep, but I must have. Margret chimed. Sandra jumped up with a blaster in her hand so fast I never saw her reach for it. I grabbed Margret off the stand.

“Emergency message from Nala,” she said.

“Connect.”

“Help us! Please hurry! Please!” She crumpled to the floor in sobs.

Sandra grabbed Margret. “Get dressed. Hurry,” she said. “Nala, what happened?” Nala continued to sob. “Nala! What happened?” Sandra repeated.

“They took him. The animals came. They grabbed him, stabbed him and pulled him away. I couldn’t stop them.” She started crying hard then. Nothing Sandra did could get a response from her.

“Give me Margret. Get dressed,” I said. “Margret, play back the last ten minutes of video from the command center. Put it on the screen.”

The wall of the living room showed the front of the command center. Sandra came in to watch as she got dressed. God, she’s beautiful, I thought. Something moved at the edge of the trees and several tall men, no, animal things, came slowly forward. One made a motion, and they sprinted toward the door, crashing into it. The force field was off and the door sprung open.

“Margret, is there a video camera inside the hallway? Bring it up. Start at the time when the creatures hit the door.”

The door burst open, and the creatures entered, sniffing and moving cautiously. Ron came roaring into the hall, waving a blaster. One of the creatures made a quick movement, and a dart slammed into Ron’s side. It had a rope attached, and the creature pulled Ron toward it. Ron dropped his weapon and grabbed the rope with both hands. It looked as if he was screaming. The creatures grabbed him by the arms and pulled him off his feet as they ran out the door.

“Margret, run it back slow. Show me the dart in flight,” Sandra said. She walked up to the display and circled the dart, then took her fingers and moved them apart. The picture enlarged. The head of the dart was covered with barbs. “God, that must have hurt,” she said softly. “Margret, show him as he throws the dart.” His arm was a blurr. An underhand throw, but fast and hard. “Show it again. The creature must have had the dart in his hand.” His hand went back and then forward, and the dart flew fast and true.

“Margret, show the outside camera as they leave,” I said. The creatures pulled Ron across the clearing and into the trees. “Mark that spot.”

“You aren’t going,” Sandra said.

“Why?”

“It’s too dangerous for you.”

“The only place safe is next to you. You said that yourself. I have to stay within arm’s length of you.”

“He’s probably dead, but we have to go check. That’s the right thing to do,” she said, shaking her head. She stuck a finger into my chest. “Okay, but you do exactly as I say when I say.”

“Okay. So the rules are I stay within arm’s length of you and do exactly what you say.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.