Chapter Seven

Thirty seconds of falling down an endless black hole and poof! We were standing in an engine room.

"Yikes! Next time, a little warning would be nice." I waved all friendly like at the two surprised Rodan soldiers and slapped a hand on the control console.

The power died and it was suddenly black as midnight.

Twenty seconds later, the backup power kicked in.

I took everything down again except life support. Good thing I had done this a zillion times for my parents and Uncle Ax. A bright red light kicked in, casting an eerie glow over the room.

Yelling something in their language, the Rodan soldiers drew their weapons and opened fire.

To my relief, my armor absorbed the laser blasts. "Get us out of here." The spinning vortex from hell appeared. There was a flash of black and we appeared in some kind of lab. I wrinkled my nose at the stench. It was so bad even my armor couldn't mask it. One wall was covered with cages full of dead and dying critters. Their cries brought tears to my eyes. I hurried over to the cages. "We have to help them."

"We rescue the nestlings first," Chiara insisted.

"Okay, where are they?"

"Through that door."

I mentally scanned the area. There were two Rodan soldiers and one human male on the other side of the door. Their sick and twisted auras gave me the willies.

"You will wait for me before you approach them,"Jedrick snapped.

"Yes, sir." In my mind's eye, I watched him kill the Rodan engineers.Why weren't Zarek, Father Trayon and Shrek with him? I widened my scan. Huh? Adan had ported them to one of the other ships.

"The Rodan commander is opening the nestlings' cage. We must stop him from eating them,"Chiara cried, and the vortex sucked us up.

We appeared in what looked like Frankenstein's laboratory with bloody body parts scattered everywhere. Hordes of insects swarmed over the walls. I got a fleeting glimpse of more caged animals before all hell broke loose. A human male with wild, white hair took one look at me and yelled, "Intruder!"

The Rodan soldiers whirled around and started shooting at me.

I fired back.

"No! You will hit the nestlings,"Chiara cried.

The next thing I knew, we were standing in a room filled with grotesque, two-legged crocodile creatures with metal teeth, long scaly tails, and no clothes. Their swollen man parts were icky. Really icky.

They stared at me.

I stared back.

"Why aren't they attacking?"Chiara whispered in my mind.

I whispered back, "Maybe they're like the Tari."

"Do not move a muscle. I will deal with them," Jedrick commanded.

"Okay."I grimaced in disgust. "Why are their man parts drooling?"

"What are you talking about?" Jedrick sounded a bit mystified.

I flashed him a mental picture of them. "And they really need some underpants."

The door suddenly slid open and a Rodan soldier looked in.

"Sic 'em,"I instinctively ordered.

The crocodile creatures charged through the door and swarmed the soldiers. Blood sprayed in every direction as the creatures tore them apart.

Oh ick! Nausea rose in my throat.

The white-haired human kept punching his commlink. "No! No! This can't be happening."

"I want the scientist alive,"Jedrick growled in my head.

At the same time Chiara urged, "We need to get them away from the nestling."

"Okay, fine."I stunned the human and placed the image of Rodan soldiers in the crocodile creatures' minds. "Kill them all."

The creatures charged into the hallway.

"Well done, Zadie,"Jedrick said as he took out the bridge crew. "Guard the nestlings until I come for you."

"Yes, sir." I walked over to the cage of nestlings and opened the door. "You guys, okay?"

Making chirping noises, the nestlings cringed at the back of the cage.

"They are afraid of you,"Chiara said.

I retracted my armor until they could see Chiara. "The Queen Mother sent us."

Whoosh! I was covered in twittering nestlings. "You're safe now." I petted their scaly hides. "I promise I won't let anyone hurt you."

"Help us,"a little voice cried.

Frowning, I scanned the cages. Most of them were full of dead things. "Where are you?"

"Here."A furry spider leg protruded from the bottom cage door.

I shivered. The spiders on Gliese gave me the creeps and I was always running face-first into their webbing.

"I think they are Tabors, and Coletti allies,"Chiara said.

The image of furry golden tarantulas with eight emerald eyes formed in my mind. They were kinda cute. I opened the cage door and six baby Tabors scurried up my legs.

"We hungry,"they whined.

"Us hungry too,"the nestlings said in unison.

I looked around for a food processor but didn't see one. "What were the Rodan feeding you?"

"No feed us," a dozen little voices answered.

The white-haired human moaned and tried to sit up.

Ballock's balls! I hadn't searched him yet. I quickly stunned him again.

The white-haired human screamed obscenities at me as violent muscle spasms contorted his body. His arms and legs slammed repeatedly against the bloody floor.

"You've got a potty mouth."

"Kill! You! I will. Kill you!"

All that yelling was giving me a headache. I punched him in the throat.

His eyes rolled back in his head, and he made gagging noises.

"Much better." Kneeling on his flailing limbs, I patted him down, and found a laser pistol, two knives, a pressure injector and some kind of communication device. Hmm. Wonder who was on the other end.

"We hungry,"the kids whimpered.

I smacked the human's face. "Where's your food processor?"

"You'll. Die. In agony," he croaked in English.

Yeah. Yeah. If he was trying to be scary, it wasn't working. I answered him in English. "Did you know we have a Katanic shapeshifter with us, and I bet he'll find you yummy."

"You can't. I'm. Important scientist," he rasped.

I surveyed the carnage. "No, you're a mass murderer."

The human switched to mind talk. "My research will change the way wars are fought. With my help, the Rodan will conquer the galaxy, and all will bow down before us."

He was as crazy as Zola. "You do realize to the Rodan, you are nothing but food."

"I'm too valuable to be eaten. Mallox and I have created unstoppable super soldiers."

"You mean those crocodile monsters?"

Pride filled his eyes. "Yes."

"Your unstoppable super soldiers are busy eating all the Rodan on this ship."I climbed off the important scientist.

"What? No! That's impossible. Only I can command them."

I smiled. "What can I say. They obey me too." I pointed to a viewscreen where the monsters were busy eating Rodan soldiers. "I don't think your Rodan buddies are going to be very happy about that."

"You did this? But you're just a child."

"Scary, huh?"My smile got bigger as he stared at me in bug-eyed disbelief.

One of the baby Tabors dropped onto his face. "Me bite. You die."

The human's face contorted with fear. "Get it off me! Get it off me."

"Nah, I don't think so."

Jedrick teleported into the room and plucked the baby Tabor off the human's face. "Did you search Giovanni?" He placed the Tabor on my shoulder.

"Giovanni?"

Jedrick pointed at the human. "Him."

"Oh, yeah, I did." I handed Jedrick the laser pistol, knives, pressure injector and the communications device I had confiscated. "I'm not sure what kind of commlink it is."

Jedrick looked it over and broke into a big smile. "This will lead us to Mallox."

"And that's a good thing?" Whoa!Jedrick was kinda cute when he smiled.

"Yes, a very good thing."

Giovanni made squeaking noises and tried to get up.

Jedrick planted a big boot on his chest. "Move and I will let the Queen Mother eat you."

"No! You can't. I know where all the hidden labs are,"Giovanni babbled.

Something dark and predatory moved in Jedrick's eyes. "Do you?"

"Yes. Yes,"Giovanni sniveled.

A delighted Zarek teleported into the room. "It gives the location of Mallox's bases?"

"It does." Jedrick handed him the device.

Zarek scrolled through the data and a wolfish smile twisted his lips. "I will call a war council." He hauled Giovanni up by the neck and teleported away.

"What now?" I removed a baby Tabor from my nose.

"We go to war."

"Oh. Ah. What about the babies?"

Jedrick eyed the Tabors. "We take them home."

"Okay, but what about the injured critters in the other room. They need help too."

Jedrick lifted a skeptical brow. "They still live?"

"Yes."I hurried into the other room and pointed at the ones that were still breathing. "See."

Jedrick scanned the dying critters. "They are beyond our help."

"Must we let them suffer?"Chiara asked mournfully.

Jedrick exhaled a long breath. "No." Hetapped away on his warrior's bracelet. "Shrek will check on them."

"You promise?"

Heartbreaking wheezing noises came from the last cage.

"I promise." Jedrick walked over to the cage and looked inside.

A glittering blue light sprung up around me. "Noooo!"

Twittering loudly, the kids clung to me.

Jedrick spun around and bellowed his war cry, but it was too late. The room vanished.