Alcantaran 1: Alien Abduction

I want to dedicate this short story to my wife, Linda and my daughter, Jennifer; both, of whom worked so hard to help me edit, encouraged me and kept me writing.

• Chapter 1
  
• Chapter 2
  
• Chapter 3
  
• Chapter 4
  
• Chapter 5
  
• Chapter 6
  
• Chapter 7
  
• Chapter 8
  
• Chapter 9
  
• Chapter 10
  
• Chapter 11
  
• Chapter 12
  
• Chapter 13
  
• Chapter 14
  

The shriek of the radiation alarms was deafening.
 
The lights were very dim and flickering to almost total darkness, leaving the passage-way difficult to negotiate.
 
There was a smell of fear in the air that the Challeka Traders of Elgebar V--or the 'Bugs' as they were better known--gave off as they were scurrying for escape pods on the lower levels.
 
The other occupants of the Bugs' mother ship were left to fend for themselves as they were not allowed unescorted access to the lower levels.
 
Ron Calvin, Tik Michi and 'Gus' Gusissi Ugde Ghaolh inched their way from the cargo bay which held the ancient space ship to the store room.
 
Unlike the 'Bugs' which could see close to the infrared wave length, these three needed light to see.
 
Tik could see better in the dark than the other two, so she was leading.
 
Tik was walking on all four legs with her tail held in the 'fighting mode' and she was urging them to move as fast as possible.
 
They had a limited time to reach the store room and return to the ancient space ship the 'Galactic Antiquarian' --or Auntie as they had started calling her -- to make their escape from the mother ship.

The trio had almost reached the turn by the disposal when a Bug scurried by them.
 
Suddenly it paused and whirled around.
 
The Bug was about four feet high and covered from head to toe in a loose-fitting gray hooded robe.
 
The face shield in the hood was almost clear in the dim light but it was still not possible to see its face.
 
The emblems embroidered in the trim around the hood indicated this was one of the low level supervisors.
 
The Bug started to question where the trio was headed.
 
Tik rushed by and the Bug whirled to see what she was doing.
 
Gus stepped past Ron and smashed the Bug's hood with his giant right fist.
 
It drove the hood, along with the Bug's head in it, down to shoulder level.
 
Ron knew the Bug was dead so he stepped up to it and quickly stripped the robe off.
 
He checked for a communicator, stingerray or other useful items as he watched the Bug ricochet off the walls of the corridor.
 
The Bug was dead, but like earthly cockroaches, its body would continue to move for several hours.
 
The trio could see the Bug walking on two legs but using its lower abdomen to balance while the other four limbs were waving in a completely random motion.

Tik hissed at the other two, "Come on!
 
We've got to get a move on.
 
We have a very small window of time to launch without fear of detection."

Ron replied as he stuffed items in his tool pouch, "We're coming.
 
I just want to see if there's anything useful in here.
 
The stuff one Bug had in its' robe saved all of our lives.
 
Did you forget?"

"I didn't forget.
 
You two are just so slow," Tik snapped impatiently.

"Come on," Ron said sharply.
 
"We have to catch that Bug and hide its body.
 
We don't need to stir the other Bugs up right now."

Tik ran up and tripped it.
 
The Bug fell to the floor on its back and its limbs continued to move in random movements.
 
Gus handed the sack of tools to Ron and grabbed the Bug.
 
He dragged it back to the recycling disposal.
 
He quickly picked it up and shoved it in and then returned to his companions.

Gus quietly said, "If we use the lights now, we can make much better time.
 
If we see any Bugs, we'll just have to turn them off.
 
Right now, we need speed more than stealth."

Ron and Tik agreed, so they switched on their hand illuminators and started toward the store room at a trot.
 
They arrived at the room without any further interference.
 
Tik took the comm unit that allowed her to talk to Auntie's computer.
 
She had used a wireless connection to hook that computer into the mother ship's main control computer.
 
She gave a set of commands and Auntie unlocked the store room door.
 
The trio rushed in and checked to see if anyone or anything was still in the huge room.
 
Tik spoke into the comm unit again and two robots arrived, pushing two grav-carts.
 
Tik checked with the computer to see if the food list and other equipment had been loaded into the carts.
 
While the computer double-checked the list, Tik had it program the robots to take orders directly from the trio.

Ron spotted a locked storage area and asked Tik, "Have Auntie check what's stored in here."
 
He saw some items that looked very similar to everything on Auntie.

Tik replied, "Auntie says it is storage for items believed to belong to the Ancient Galactic Ghost.
 
Some of the things have no classification."

"Have Auntie open this.
 
Use the ID of the Bug we just killed," Ron said as he directed one of the grav-carts to the storage area door.

"Is this really necessary?
 
We don't have much time and we still need to get some things from the cargo bay," Gus interjected in his deep guttural voice.

"I don't know.
 
I just have a feeling that there might be something in here that will be the difference in our survival.
 
Tik and I can ride the grav-carts while you trot behind.
 
That should speed things up considerably."

The door opened and Ron stepped in.
 
He waved for Tik to come in and look also.
 
They saw several objects that were obviously from the same makers who had made Auntie.
 
They grabbed those and put them on the grav-cart.
 
They quickly looked over the rest and grabbed some things here and some there.
 
The grav-cart was piled high by the time they were through so they found a net to throw over everything to keep it on.
 
Ron and Tik stepped out of the storage area and shut the door.
 
They ran to the other grav-cart and climbed aboard.
 
Tik ordered the two robots to push the carts out into the passage-way.
 
Once in the passage-way, she ordered them to the cargo bay at full speed.
 
Gus had to trot at a very fast pace to keep up.

When they were a short distance from the cargo bay, Tik slowed the robots down and they proceeded cautiously.
 
The trio opened the door to the cargo bay and peeked inside.
 
So far so good, nothing was moving inside.

Ron tensely said, "Tik, get this stuff on board.
 
Just keep the robots on there to save time.
 
Get everything stowed for take-off.
 
Gus, go get as many of those rockets as you can.
 
Just stow them in our cargo bay for now.
 
I'll have a robot get one of those empty energy canisters and roll it down the passage-way.
 
It will spread enough radio-active material to keep the Bugs or anyone else out of here for several hours.
 
I'll grab our space suits and get them on board too.
 
Tik, how long do we have?"

Tik looked at a dial on the comm unit and said, "We have exactly seventeen minutes until we need to be ready to launch."

"Go.
 
Gus, use a robot to help you if you need to.
 
Leave it on Auntie when you're done," Ron said as he rushed for the robot and the empty energy canister.

Tik hurried the robots and grav-carts up the ramp into the space ship.
 
She directed them to take everything forward in the cargo bay.
 
She used nets to secure everything in place and locked the robots down.
 
She quickly moved to the flight deck to monitor the computer.
 
She started the count-down for the mother ship to use a grav-booster to shove Auntie out into space.
 
She double checked all the settings to make sure they would have enough speed, but not so much that the g-forces would crush everybody inside.
 
Tik checked the cameras in the passage-way and saw that some Bugs on the under side of the mother ship were on a transport.
 
She checked the mother ship computer and saw they had programmed the transport sled to head for their cargo bay and it would be there in less than ten minutes.
 
She used ESP to broadcast this to the other two and received confirmation.

Gus had picked up two of the twelve-foot long rockets and was almost to Auntie when he felt the message in his head.
 
The robot behind him could only carry one of the rockets.
 
The rockets were about a foot in diameter and had a very thin shell on the out side.
 
There were triangular fins on the base of the rocket and smaller steering fins about two-thirds of the way to the top.
 
There was 1-inch diameter nodes evenly spaced around the circumference of the rocket just behind the nose.
 
There were matching nodes just forward of the tail fins.
 
The sides looked like there was a door that would open outward, but no hinges were visible.
 
There was a round six-inch circle in the middle that looked like it could be a port or covered fixture to fill or empty the rockets.
 
Ron had an idea what the rockets were supposed to be used for, but he had not shared that information yet.
 
To save time, Gus set the rockets just inside the ramp.
 
He would take them all down to the hold just before take-off.
 
Gus rushed back to grab two more rockets as the robot stayed right on his heels and grabbed one more.
 
They rushed back to the ship to set them down as they tried for three more.
 
As Gus set his two rockets down, Tik used the computer to up-grade the radiation alarm and shut down most of the ventilation as the lights in the passage-ways went completely dark.
 
There would be no more time for rockets.

Ron programmed the robot to grab the empty energy canister and once it was in the passage-way, it would shut off the energy field keeping the radiation contained.
 
He set the robot to race up and down the passage-way twice with the canister over its head.
 
That would spread the radiation to the max and would slow down any interference until someone was in proper protective gear.
 
He set the robot to head to the main computer room where the control computer was located after the second pass and to move around in there as much as possible until someone shut it down.
 
He needed a little more diversion to buy them some more time.

He hurried to the rack and grabbed Tik's and his space suits.
 
It was a big load, but he didn't have much time.
 
He wanted to just throw them into the space ship, but he couldn't afford any damage.
 
They might need those suits in just a short time.
 
He laid them gingerly on the deck and rushed back to get Gus' suit and his protective gear.
 
He tried to lift it, but it was huge and heavy.
 
He beckoned for a robot and had it lift the suits.
 
The robot carried the suits into the space ship and gently laid them on the deck.
 
Ron guided it to the main door from the passage-way and had it stop right against the door.
 
Since the door opened inward, the robot was an effective door stop.
 
Ron ordered the robot into shut down mode.
 
It would take at least twenty minutes to get it started again and there was nothing left in the cargo bay to move it.
 
He went to a smaller robot and parked it against the smaller personnel door and powered it down also.
 
He then sprinted back to the space ship.
 
He saw that Gus was about finished with the rockets and could take care of the space suits, so he dashed to the flight deck.