Earth Under Attack (Chapter 4)

Hidden Forces


Leena’s fingers clutched the side of her desk as she attempted to keep herself from falling. The news of the attack on her father-in-law had really shaken her up. The messenger relayed more of the news telling how Brit was fairly certain that her parent’s and sibling’s houses had been invaded as well. Leena felt her knees begin to shake and as the messenger left the room she lowered herself slowly into her chair.
After all this time someone had picked up her trail and followed it straight to earth and her family. Brit could handle herself she’d always been able to ever since she was 13 and had first come to Imaginess and had been adopted by Leena and Mattim. Leena knew that if Brit was calling for help then the problem must be beyond what her daughter could handle alone.
Her hands were shaking and she clutched them together to keep them still as she turned to the 3 people surrounding her. “Well what do you suppose we do?” Mattim came and put a comforting hand on his wife’s shoulder he was equally shaken by the news on the attack and was barely keeping himself together after hearing of his father’s death.
Alita and Rowel looked at each other and Rowel spoke. “I think it’s obvious that you must do your best to protect your family.”
“But at what cost?” Stated Alita, “revealing ourselves to the humans has never been at the top of any species ‘List of Things to Accomplish.’ Humans are safer in their innocence.”
“That’s what everyone keeps saying.” Leena said. “But I’ve lived with them. They aren’t much different than any of the aliens in the ‘Milky Way’ and they’ll handle it the same way any other species did.”
“So it’s settled then?” Rowel asked “We’re going to Earth?”
“We have no choice. They have my parents and…” She looked in the direction of her husband and decided against revealing her mind. “We’re the only ones who can help them.”
“There’s not much we can do with just the 4 of us.” Mattim spoke up
Leena nodded “We’re going to need Jatar’s help.”

Trine moved silently through the Saturian halls doing her best to still her beating heart as yet another group of the ghostly Saturians passed by. She had to remind herself yet again that her ability to shape shift kept the Saturian’s from recognizing her as an enemy. Even still she couldn’t help but get a little nervous when ever they walked by.
She was on a very important assignment given to her by Uliver himself. Uliver was the High Kong’s adviser and an assignment from him was like getting one from the Kong himself. Trine was trained for these kinds of things she had grown up on the streets picking locks and robbing stores when the Kong the current kong’s father had discovered her amazing talent he had made her promise that she would live a better life in exchange for her services. The job paid well and she was the best at what she did. But this was the most important job that she had ever been or ever would be assigned.
She moved through the halls of the Saturian mothership heading toward the dungeon. That was where her subject’s family was being held and that was where her subject was sure to come. And when she did Trine would be ready she was always ready.

Tyler’s heart was pounding like a drum. The call from Brit had really shaken him up. “I’ve tried calling everyone else but no one answered.” According to Brit he was the only one who hadn’t been caught. All the other homes had been taken and even his own house was probably being staked out.
He had been sitting in a gas-station parking lot for about a half hour now each minute that dragged by adding to the stress. The manager glanced in his direction for the 50 time and he prayed again that the man wouldn’t call the police.
He jumped when Brit appeared in the back seat with Joseph beside her. “You scared me.”
“Sorry.” She apologized as she crawled into the front seat
“So what’s the deal?”
“I checked all the houses. I was right they’re all captives and your house is surrounded as well.”
“So what are we going to do?” Joseph spoke up from the back seat. He’d been through a lot in the last hour but he’d taken it well.
Brit looked back at her brother. He was doing his best to hide his fear and he’d done a pretty good job. But it was a lot to take in, in only an hour. Brit turned back at Tyler. “Tyler I need you to keep an eye of Joseph for me. He’s been through a lot.”
Tyler nodded but Joseph protested. “No Brit, take me with you.”
She looked back at him and sighed. “Joseph you’re not experienced I’ll be able to accomplish more with out either of you. It’s nothing against you I’ve just grown up differently than you and I’m trained.”
Joseph felt the tears welling up in his eyes and he turned to the window so that they wouldn’t see as they continued to discuss plans.

Leena remembered the gas station well. It was a gas station that her and her siblings had gone to many times as kids. It hadn’t changed much and there was Tyler’s car sitting in the parking lot. As Leena and her small group of followers crossed the street she took a deep breath. She still hadn’t let anyone not even her husband know her secret plan she knew if she told them they would never have let her come. But she knew that there was only way to stop these attacks and that was to give them what they wanted…her. They neared the car and Tyler and Brit stepped out.
Brit took in the five figures: Brit and Mattim followed by Rowel and Alita who were both wearing skull caps to cover their hair and Jatar who was hooded to cover his alien face. “The Saturnian’s have everyone.”
Leena nodded. “Well what are we waiting for? Let’s get those aliens out of here.” But before they could even move the thing Tyler feared came to pass as two police cars pulled into the parking lot sirens wailing.
Everyone froze unsure of what was going to happen now as the police piled out of the car “get your hands up.” Nobody moved. “I said get your hands up.” He shouted again.
Leena stepped forward. “We really don’t have time for this. Jatar get rid of them.”
Jatar who had moved closer to the front pushed back his hood and the officer stepped back in shock at the aliens face. “Get back!” The officer screamed waving his gun at them. As Jatar’s nose began to rise the man let out a frightened shout and pulled the trigger. Jatar fell back as the bullet sliced through his shoulder and he fell against the car smacking his face against the side and shattering his half hardened nose. Leena ran to his side and upon seeing his condition turned viciously at the police officer. “Fine you want to do this the hard way?” The officer took another step back as she stood to her feet letting her arms stream out of her sides and pulled two guns and three knives out from under her cloak. The officer gulped and turned and ran for his car followed by the other officers. Leena let her arms drop and shook her head. “We’re sure to be all over the news in less than an hour.” She pocketed the guns and knives and pulled her arms back inside. “We better get moving.”
They moved Jatar into the car and agreed that Tyler would take Joseph and the injured Juptan to a safe place while they rescued everyone else. As soon as they had driven off the rest teleported to the Cuthbert farm.

It wasn’t that Uliver didn’t trust Trine to succeed in her assignment but even still he couldn’t help but follow her. She wasn’t aware of his presence that much he was sure of. After all, he had done enough experiments in the last few years and had discovered that he was the only alien on the planet of Mars that could not be recognized by smell.
This skill served to his benefit since he did not want to Trine to recognize his presence. He had too many other things occupying his mind to worry about Trine finding him. He was on a mission of his own. A mission that was much more important the goose chase he had sent Trine on. Sure Trine’s mission was important but it wasn’t Leena that he truly wanted. It was her husband, the albino.

The 8 Cuthbert’s and 3 Gerard’s and Maria had all been brought to the Saturian mothership where they were led down countless halls and thrown in a cell. Mary could see the fear in her family’s eyes and tried to encourage them. “Don’t worry you guys Linda will rescue us.”
“Since when has Linda cared about earth?”
“Don’t be like that mom we’re her family.”
“Some relation she turned out to be running off and becoming queen of some planet never bothering to come and visit. It’s her fault we’re in this mess.”
“You can’t blame her mom for wanting to live with her people. She may be busy but she’s never been too busy to send a letter and a box of flower-nuts and she’ll certainly not be too busy to rescue us.”
Tannia crossed her arms and grunted turning her back on her daughter and walking away.
Mary watched her mothers receding back and glanced over in the direction of the rest of her family. Jasmine was sitting in a corner holding Micah to her chest and crying, Trevor was doing his best to console her. Jenny, always the restless one, was pacing back and forth like a caged tiger ready to jump on the first person who opened that door. Mary’s father had followed his wife to another corner and was now arguing in hushed voices. Tom sat in a third corner his legs spread out in front of him and his head against the wall, his arms crossed in front of him.
To all appearances Tom looked half-asleep but Mary knew better than that. She followed his gaze to the forth corner where Kyle and Maria sat. Maria was sitting in front of Kyle and leaning back against his chest. His arms were around her and one hand stroked her face gently as he whispered calming words into her ear.
The poor girl had been scared out of her mind as they all had but Mary had never found the need to tell Kyle about his alien aunt making the two teenagers the most scared of them all. Kyle had done his best to put on a brave face for Maria but when they had been reunited in the cell Kyle had run into her arms tears threatening to spill over and had begged to know why they were there. She had explained the best she could then Maria had joined them and Kyle had pulled her into the corner before his mother had a chance to blow up.
Mary sat down beside Tom. “What’re you thinking?”
“You know what I’m thinking.”
“You’re right I do. But it helps when you put these kinds of things into words.”
Tom sighed and looked at his wife then back in the direction of the two teenagers. “What is she doing here, Mary?”
“I don’t know, Tom.”
“If the aliens went to the house then they wouldn’t have captured Kyle. Unless…unless they were both at the house.”
Mary pulled her legs up to her chest and put her chin on her knees, staring down at the ground. “I know. I’ve thought the same things. But somehow I think there are more important things to worry about then the two of them. We need to focus on getting ALL of us out of here. Then we can worry about what to do with Kyle.”

Trine wasn’t stupid. She knew a familiar smell when she smelled it and Uliver’s was deffinetly familiar. He thought she couldn’t smell him but a lying thief was what she was paid for and she had her fair share of prized secrets.
Wouldn’t she couldn’t figure out was why he was here. She had quickly realized that he wasn’t following her. His patterns seemed to have a more sinister purpose. More sinister than making sure she was doing what she was supposed to.
It made her wonder if maybe there was more to this assignment than she had at first thought.

The house was empty, completely and utterly empty. There were signs of struggle throughout different areas of the house adding to the complete silence that surrounded the place it gave the whole farm a kind of eerie feel.
Leena shivered and moved to close an open window. Mattim reached down and picked up a broken picture frame studying the old picture of Leena and her family before placing it back on the shelf where it had fallen from.
“We’re too late.” Stated Alita breaking the silence.
Leena looked around the room one more time before speaking. “They must have taken them back to the mother ship already.”
“So now what?” Asked Rowel moving to stand next to Alita.
“We get on that ship of course”
“Are you crazy Leena?” Mattim spoke up moving to stand in front of her. “You’re just asking to get captured if you want to board the mother ship of all things.” That was when Mattim noticed the look in her eyes. “No, no Leena you can’t.”
“I have no choice Mattim. The only way to be sure this sort of a thing doesn’t happen again is to give them what they came for.”
Mattim grabbed her shoulders. “I won’t let you do it, Leena.”
Leena pushed his hand away and took a step back. “It’s too late.” Then before they could stop her she’d pressed the button on her belt and disappeared.