The Children of Time (The Children of Time Trilogy Book 1) (10 page)

“I haven’t heard good things about you.” Nicolas replied, frowning,
not feeling comfortable with the unexpected presence of his visitor.

“I don’t intend to please people. I want to have my job well done.
Get comfortable, because in a few days, we’ll travel to planet Vida.” His
tormentor left the room and the automatic door closed soon after his departure.

Nicolas was scared. As soon as the commander exited, he felt his
capacity was recovered. He had been stunned after the fight in the gym and a
bit confused to see himself in a strange place. The shock of the unexpected
encounter with the feared commander Merko, but, he cleared his mind. The boy
was afraid with his imprisonment and wanted to get out of there anyway.

He created many plans of escape in his thoughts, but the truth is
that he didn’t know the ship Challenge and wouldn’t be easy to leave. Finally, he
chose to use telekinesis, which, although it left him extremely tired, was the
only trick he had. He concentrated on the objects he saw in the room and made them
move to test the powers trained with Tibor. He moved the bed, which was
released from the wall, and a table that levitated from the ground. He made them
both spin. Then placed them back in their positions and felt himself in control
of his mental strength. He looked at the door and opened it. Not very
confident, but hopeful, he began to walk through the halls of the ship, slowly
and scared, he thought about how he would manage to escape.

Another door stood before him and, again he managed to open it.
Behind the door, however, a tall shadow denounced Merko’s presence, which
surprised the boy in time of the escape. He quickly looked at him, holding his
arm tightly.

“How did you escape from the room? The door was programmed for you
not to leave.” Said the commander, confused to see the earthling wandering
through the corridors of the ship. “Reading your mind I can figure out what
happened.”

Nicolas tried to use his telekinesis to move Merko up, but the
commander seemed to annul his strength. He felt Merko invading his mind and was
unable to hide his thoughts.

“I see I’m not the only one who has the power of telekinesis. A
simple earthling with such skill, how can it be? This is very strange.”

The commander continued to analyze Nicolas’ mind, looking for
answers, but he found out that the boy knew nothing about the source of his
powers. He decided to put him it in the room again, but this time he prepared a
prison with laser bars, that wouldn’t allow a new opportunity.

“Somehow, the earthling managed to acquire the power of telekinesis
and almost escaped.” Said Merko to Crom when he returned to the control room,
after leaving the earthling trapped in the new cell immune to telekinesis.

“How is it possible, Commander? I thought you were the one who had
this ability.”

“I definitely don’t know. When we get to planet Vida, I’ll ask our
scientists to discover what happened to him. I won’t rest until we find out his
secret.” Merko showed great concern over the discovery. He gesticulated a lot
and seemed very nervous. He had never known anyone else who had this ability. “From
what I noticed in his mind, not even he knows the source of his power. We’ll take
him in safety and save our princess, this is our priority. Then, we’ll solve
the other problem. I won’t allow anyone to have such power.”

“The space-time gap will open in three Earth days, Commander.”

“We need to prepare the ship for the voyage, Crom. Order the
computer to analyze and optimize all operating systems immediately.” Merko
said.

Nicolas stood alone and realized that he was a prisoner, and the
place wasn’t just a room but a cell. The furniture were embedded on the wall, in
niches proportional to their sizes, where they automatically entered after being
used.

Nicolas’ sense of admiration for the ship’s technologies was shared
with his fears, and how much he missed Zara and his family.

“What happened to Zara and my friends? Are they alive?” He pondered.

Sometimes, during the day, Merko went to the earthling’s room to
make sure everything was okay. He worried about his health, because he had to
take him in good conditions for the surgery.

After the escape attempt, he was also interested in studying him,
because the power of the earthling surprised him.

XIV. Waiting for
the Trip

Sivoc, Drako and Zara arrived at the gym and there was Tibor,
unconscious and lying on the ground. Around him, several students were unconscious;
some of them seemed not to be breathing anymore.

“Take care of Tibor and the others who are alive, we need to get out
of here as soon as possible.” Sivoc said.

“Why did you take so long?” Tibor asked while standing up. He was
still quite dizzy and a little confused.

“There were two men of Merko’s team watching us. I asked help to
Drako and we managed to neutralize them, but it cost us some time that seemed
very precious. We used laser handcuffs and imprisoned them in our apartment.”
Sivoc replied.

“Now, what do we do?” Zara asked, feeling anxious.

“We’ll remove any trace of our presence here on Earth and return
home, to outline a new plan. In three days, the portal will open near the
planet Jupiter and the Calisto moon and we need to get to planet Vida along
with Merko’s team. Nicolas’ life is in danger, because we don’t know what they
will do after the removal of his bone marrow. Certainly, Councilor Mirov won’t obey
the order of King Zador II to bring the earthling back to Earth safely.” Sivoc
said.

Tibor teleported himself first and was resting in the ship,
recovering from the fight and from his injuries, while the others finished all the
necessary adjustments for the departure.

“Drako, did you manage to warn the emergency services to come to the
academy and help the wounded?” Asked Zara.

“Affirmative, doctor. I have taken all the necessary arrangements. There
is no way to track us and everyone had been advised.”

As they prepared to leave, the Alpha-Omega team entered the academy,
Collin, Ann, and several Special Forces soldiers of the American army. With the
special infrared glasses, Collin had followed the aliens, what led them
directly to the place of the struggle.

When they notice the aliens were still there, they began to use
weapons of electrical discharge to try to immobilize and possibly capture them.
Collin and Sivoc began a body fight, and Zara teleported herself holding agent Ann
behind. Drako used a weapon of sound waves he had pulled from underneath his
jacket and the soldiers fell to the ground. Sivoc managed to dominate the agent
who fainted. Then Drako and Sivoc looked at agent Ann, who raised her arms and
surrendered. Sivoc didn’t want Zara to fight because it was risky for the
embryo she carried in her womb. They used a sleeping radius in everyone and a white
smoke covered the environment of the academy while they returned to the ship.

***

Sivoc’s team fled immediately. They knew that the military
reinforcements were on the way. They removed any sign of their presence in New
York and decided to teleport themselves to the ship, where they would finish
the preparations for the trip.

They also needed to verify if the ship had been found by Merko or
had been sabotaged. They took the two soldiers of Merko’s team they had imprisoned
in Sivoc’s apartment and put them in a cell in the ship Science II. They couldn’t
let the m behind on the planet at the mercy of the extraterrestrial capture agents.

“Where is Nicolas?” After ensuring the safety of everyone who was
present, Zara couldn’t stop thinking about him.

They must be waiting for the opening of the wormhole somewhere on
the planet. Our chance to save the boy will be to follow them to the planet Vida.”
Sivoc replied.

“Somehow I feel that he is alive”
,
thought the doctor.

The Science II had been carefully checked, in every single detail,
so everyone’s safety could be guaranteed. Zara was the first to realize that
Little Wolf had been immobilized. So, everyone knew that Merko and his men had
been there.

“Certainly he used the computers of the ship to try to find our
coordinates of teleport. But Drako camouflaged the data, I have no idea how
they managed to find us. What it’s really weird, however, is the fact that they
let us live. It doesn’t match with Merko’s methods.” Sivoc concluded.

Drako prepared the ship for the voyage back to their planet and
repaired the robot dog. He searched for some information on the nature of the
monitors that could show what the plans of Merko were, but there was nothing
important in the records about his presence.

Zara went to her room and began to telepathically focus, hoping to
establish contact with her love. She couldn’t lose hope of finding him alive
and well.

***

Merko’s military ship wasn’t far from Science II. Inside the vehicle,
Nicolas was also focused, doing the meditation exercises taught by Tibor. There
wasn’t much to do as a prisoner and this was his only hope, although it was
small, to get some contact with his friends.

“Nick, can you hear me
?” Zara said, telepathically.

“Yes, I can hear you, Zara! I’m so relieved to get some contact with
you. I was already losing hope, because I’m trying to communicate for hours
.”

“Are you all right, my dear
?
Are you
badly
injured?”

“
I’m fine. I’m not hurt, but I’m locked in a cell.”

“
On Merko’s ship
?”

“Exactly
.” Nicolas confirmed.
“I’m
somewhere on the bottom of the sea. There are fish and marine animals
everywhere. I can’t say more than that. But where are you?”

The communication between the two was difficult due to the presence
of many rocks in place. It didn’t matter to Nicolas and Zara, because they were
both calmer knowing they were fine. However, they couldn’t imagine that
Challenge I and Science II were so close, because Merko’s plan was to capture
Sivoc and his team and freeze them when they were together.

“I’m in the ship Science II
.”

“Zara, are you okay? Is Tibor there with you?”

“
He is Nick. Tibor is still a little stunned, but he had no
serious injuries. We are all fine here in the ship.”

“Zara, I’m afraid! Can you help me?”

“
We can’t know what your exact location is, but we will try to
reach you on our planet. Take care and be quiet, Merko is very dangerous. We
will do everything we can to rescue you, Nick
.” Zara replied.

***

Merko managed to telepathically intercept the communication between
the earthling and Zara and knew that the crew of the Science II had already
arrived.

He immediately called Crom and two other men to invade the ship and
capture the crew. They materialized in the infirmary of the ship Science II and,
with a pistol, they froze Tibor, who was resting and recovering from his
injuries.

“One less, Commander.” Crom said. “Let’s get the others.”

“Crom, proceed with discretion. The surprise will be our greatest
ally.”

They went to the engineering room and turned off the entire
propulsion system of the ship, inactivating it for the flight. They also
released the other two soldiers of their team who had been imprisoned.

“Sir, I programmed the ship to restart the engines in one Earth year,
according to your plan.”

Sivoc was with Drako in the control room when all the systems turned
off. Everything went dark, and the emergency lights lit, leaving the place
dimly illuminated. Drako, realizing that something was wrong, had the brilliant
idea to turn off the Little Wolf for the programmed period of a day. If
anything happened, the robot would return to its active duty on the next day
and could follow the rescue protocol configured on its system.

Within minutes, Merko, Crom and his soldiers were in the control
room. They pointed their guns at Sivoc and Drako, while another soldier pointed
his gun at Tibor, who was taken there already frozen, as a hostage, to persuade
the surrender of the remaining crew of the Science II.

“If you make a move, we’ll shoot Tibor.” Merko said, pointing a
laser gun at him.

Sivoc and Drako stopped and were also frozen. Crom went toward Zara’s
room to catch the doctor.

“What do you want now? Haven’t you got exactly what you wanted? You
imprisoned Nicolas, who was under our care, when our mission was almost
accomplished.”

“You’ll sleep on this ship for one year, doctor. When you get to
planet Vida, we’ll have already finished the mission and you won’t be on our
way. Commander Merko and I will be promoted by saving Princess Isadora.”