Chapter 47: Chapter 47: Rescue

Author's Note: Hope all who celebrate had Merry Christmas! Back from a short break, and now it's time for a rescue.

 

CARTER

The warehouse, surprisingly enough, hadn’t really been that fixed up by the Tharons. It was still just a big empty warehouse, though they’d moved in what looked to be a bunch of cubicles with what looked to be normal computers and a ton of wires. Carter supposed it wouldn’t do for them to stick all their cool alien equipment in plain view.

Only about a fourth of the warehouse was cubicles and computers. From the door he could also see a small neighborhood of beds, all without sheets, and what looked to be a common area that still had lots of plates and food that didn’t look exactly like food. At least not food he was familiar with. He would swear at least one bit of that food was moving.

No time to think about weird alien moving food right now. He followed the indicator on his suit—the indicator Allison had attuned to Larika with her own body, because Larika was her twin—and reached what looked like a giant hot water heater tank. It was one of only two tanks in the entire warehouse, set side by side, and while they were hooked up to hoses, those hoses disappeared in a featureless black box about the size of a small U-Haul trailer.

The black box didn’t look alien. Not exactly. But it sure as hell looked weird. It likely powered the tanks and suspended their occupants or... their one occupant. The box was what he needed to interface with if he wanted to get Larika out of her prison.

The tank on the left was occupied. The suit verified it was Larika. Carter pressed the palm of his suit to the side of the black box and prayed. “Suit, open the tank.”

Tendrils splayed out from his hand, all pre-programmed by Allison before they’d parted. Tiny motes of light glowed as those tendrils slipped into the black box, and Carter waited impatiently as nothing happened. His HUD didn’t warn him about the Tharon returning, but the single guard could come back at any moment. He had to get this done now.

Behind him, something hissed. The tendrils retracted with no noise, but the palpable snap against his palm assured him they were at least done with the big alien box. Carter hurried back to the tank and watched as it literally melted open in its middle, just like the purple material inside Allison’s ship. Then, Larika slipped out.

As she flopped to the warehouse cement before he could even think of catching her, he didn’t know how he could. Even as impossibly strange as she was, she was beautiful. He couldn’t think of how else to describe her.

It wasn’t human beauty. Not the way humans saw beauty. Even so, there was an ageless grace to her alien form. She was definitely humanoid, slim, light purple, and filled with glowing stars. They swirled gently inside her body, like bubbles floating in a pond.

She did look almost human. She had two arms. Two legs. Even a head, though that head had nothing resembling a face. Her legs had also folded back on themselves in a way that would have broken the bones of any human woman, which suggested that maybe she didn’t have any bones.

The best he could come up with was a female mannequin made of purple Jello and filled with glowing stars. She was an alien, and he had no time to gawk. He had to get her on her feet.

He reached for the other item on his hip. A small vial Allison had filled before they left. He pressed the business end into Larika’s “neck” and pressed the trigger. The vial hissed and glowed as transformative energy rushed out.

Not his. Well... not directly. Allison had filled this vial, and he wasn’t about to think about all the specifics involved. This was her sister, and Larika was unconscious right now. Still... Allison had assured him that there was no way he could get Larika out of here otherwise.

As the vial emptied itself, Carter clipped it to the suit and rose. He glanced at the door once more and found it still closed. Where was that Tharon? Had he gone to the roof? What if he somehow discovered the alien ship parked on the roof?

A small gasp jolted his gaze back to Larika, who was even now changing before his eyes. Her stars glowed brightly before they faded, and then her whole body rippled as her skin changed. Carter only belatedly realized her legs were still folded and frantically pulled those straight. He felt flesh move beneath his fingers and heard bones... form.

Breasts too. Holy shit. Larika was rapidly filling out, and not just in her arms and legs. Her skin was looking more human by the moment, and in another five seconds, she was human. Or looked it. She was a naked, blond, unconscious woman who looked about college age, with boobs close to big as his head. She was also soaking wet.

So this must have been her last form. Or the form she’d chosen now. He wasn’t going to gawk at her. This was Allison’s sister, dammit, and he had to get them out of her, naked or not. Her eyes opened, clear and blue. She sat up at him with dangerously narrowed eyes.

“Suit, play message,” Carter said.

A brief squeal that sounded like a bit like a chittering dolphin repeated itself several times from a tiny “speaker” on the outside of his suit. Allison had recorded a message in their unique syren language. Larika immediately relaxed. Then, she struggled to stand.

Carter knelt and reached out. She gripped him eagerly. He helped her to her feet, doing his level best to ignore her big, wet boobs as they squashed against his chest. His suit was so thin he could feel both the dampness and the heat of her flesh.

Dammit. Why did she have to come out of that tank both naked and soaking wet?

Larika squinted past her blond bangs at him and smiled drunkenly. “Wow, I sure hope you’re cute.”

“We gotta go right now,” Carter told her. “Sarenia’s in danger.”

That perked her up. She nodded, then glanced past him. “Oh, shitballs.”

The sound of a door opening spun Carter around. He pulled the suppresser off his waist as the Tharon from before walked in and then froze. Carter could swear its brown eyes went at least a size wider. Its “cobra cowls” flared.

Larika cried out as she stumbled backward, clutching her head. She dropped with a thump. Carter, meanwhile, took three shots with the suppressor. He’d practiced with it this past week, on cans and bottles, and he’d always been a good shot... but this wasn’t a hunting rifle, he was shooting from the hip, and the alien was halfway across the warehouse.

His shock and the adrenaline were no help to his aim. The first two red blasts went wide, but the third, thankfully, smacked the Tharon right in the chest. The alien dropped like a sack of potatoes. Its eyes went wide as its tongue darting in and out of its gray lips.

It probably still had no idea why its mind blast hadn’t had any effect on him.

Carter glanced at Larika to find her unconscious, just like Allison had been when she’d collapsed in his shop weeks ago. With only that one transfusion of energy, most of which she’d used to reconfigure herself, she’d been defenseless against mental attack. But she was alive.

He tapped the recall button on his suit, slapped the suppressor against his hip, and scooped Larika’s unconscious body up in his arms. Then, he jogged for the exit. Larika didn’t weigh nearly as much as he expected, so maybe she wasn’t as... dense... as she looked?

He’d parked Allison’s cloaked ship on the roof after manually landing it shortly after the whole Tharon pod tore out of here after Allison. He reached the door to find it locked, then juggled Larika up against his shoulder and gripped the handle with his barely free hand. “Suit, give me strength.”

The suit whirred. The handle crunched in his hand and then turned, and then Carter gave the big metal security door a good kick. It burst outward onto the dark night, and he rushed outside. No more Tharons waited for him.

Above him, he heard it. The syren’s song. It was Allison’s ship. It was Venus, and she had followed his recall beacon. Venus’s tongue appeared just ahead, as did a trace of the back of the ship. The ship had landed itself just ahead.

The door in the back irised open, and Carter adjusted Larika to carry her sideways. He sidled up the tongue and into the interior. He’d done it! He’d rescued Larika from the Tharons!

Now, he had to make sure they didn’t capture Allison in her place. The thought that he could now lose her forever motivated him more than any fear he’d ever felt... save one.

He spoke into the suit, to the ship, as he jogged into the lounge. “Venus, rise.”

The ship sealed itself and rose rapidly. Even if the Tharon he’d shot back at the warehouse managed to break out of the suppressor’s paralysis early, he’d never be able to catch them now. Carter settled a still unconscious Larika in the lounge and then rushed for the pilot’s compartment, which irised open at his approach. Allison had given him full access.

He pulled at the hood of the suit before he remembered. “Suit, hood off!”

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The hood popped off, retracting to reveal his whole head. He could see better without the HUD in front of him. He hopped into the purple alien seat Allison had crafted for him and gripped the pilot stick, which sat between his legs, in one hand.

He then gripped the throttle in the armrest on his left and pushed forward. The ship accelerated as smoothly as it had on every day of the past week, when he practiced flying it with Allison until he knew it almost as well as she did.

This wasn’t a car. It wasn’t anything like that. But it was still a moving object, an object that obeyed the rules of mass and velocity and which he controlled with the very human controls in this seat. He depressed the left rudder panel and banked toward the state park.

Then, he shoved the throttle forward.

There was a noticeable hum. The lack of any other noise hid just how fast this ship accelerated, and with its internal compensators, he also felt nothing of the Gs he must be pulling. He also knew the ship was silent outside save for the wind.

He was probably going too fast to be completely safe, but the Tharons had a ten minute head start, and if that Tharon ship was as fast as Allison thought it was, it could already be on top of her. Or... the location where she’d unleashed her mind blast.

“Venus, let me know if we’re going to hit anything.”

Thanks to Allison’s constant lessons, the ship understood basic English commands. He was tempted to let the autopilot take over, but he wasn’t fully confident it had the urgency he did. Allison couldn’t risk sending her new location—the Tharons would find it—so he just had to head out to the lake as fast as he could and hope the Tharon ship didn’t find her first.

No telepathy. No mental communication of any kind. Those were the rules if he wanted to beat the Tharons to Allison tonight, and unfortunately for those alien bounty hunters, Carter didn’t need telepathy to rescue his partner or to fly her ship. Just some manual controls, a super-powered alien spacesuit, and a little luck.

In a cool three minutes he was flying over the state park, and a minute after that he was cruising across the lake, still cloaked. “Venus! Got a location on that Tharon ship?”

She beeped affirmatively. A floating screen opened and showed the Tharon ship still circling the woods above where Allison had fired her mind blast. The Tharons who’d taken the roads weren’t here yet, which was good. Another warning opened.

“Carrons detected.” Venus’s voice was female and human. She sounded a little like Allison. “They are heading toward the lake. They have her scent.”

So the Tharons had brought their alien hunting dogs. He and Allison had accounted for that too, but the critters were too close for Carter’s comfort and were already following Allison’s trail into the lake. She had no way to hide from them.

What if those Tharons decided that the dogs heading for the lake meant the syren was hiding in the lake? They’d fly right over here. Any idiot with half a brain would fly right over here, so Carter would simply have to hope whoever was flying that ship was an idiot.

Venus, meanwhile, continued to show the “waypoint” he and Allison had agreed upon. Carter reached that point in the lake and pitched the ship straight down. The splash they made was almost certainly visible on shore, but at this point, they needed speed.

“Venus, autopilot to the meet up!”

Carter released the control stick and sat back. They were underwater now, and the ship would pilot from here to where Allison had directed it to be. His part in this was done, so why was his heart still hammering a mile a minute?

Because of Allison. Because of the chance he might lose her. He’d gotten Larika out of her pod and into this ship, and he’d flown back here as fast as he could. He had to believe he’d gotten here in time, because the alternative...

A low hum filled the ship, followed by what sounded like a toilet flushing. Carter hopped out of the seat and hurried into the lounge to find Larika stirring, still wet and naked. He looked around for any clothing to give her, then remembered. “Venus, give me a robe.”

A dark purple robe simply materialized in the middle of the lounge. Carter knelt beside Larika and helped her sit up, then wrapped the robe around her shoulders and supported her. She looked around, bleary eyed, then focused on him. “We’re... in the ship?”

“We are. You’re safe now. The Tharons can’t get you here.”

“And my sister?” Larika stared at him. “Where is my sister, human?”

The door to the back hall irised open, and then a naked and still dripping Allison stumbled into the lounge. She’d gone back to her redhead form, the one Carter had first met.

At the sight of her sister, Allison’s jaw dropped in delight. Larika tensed in Carter’s arms, and then both of them froze for a good five seconds. They must be connecting, mentally.

Carter couldn’t imagine how fast their minds were going or what thoughts, exactly, were flying back and forth. He was thus completely unprepared when Larika snatched his chin and kissed him hard on the lips. She also used a whole lot of tongue.

Before he could really process what had happened Larika hopped up, ran across the lounge, and threw her arms around her sister. Allison hugged her tight and laughed. They were both laughing. They also cried real tears.

Carter hadn’t quite been ready to have his face sucked off by Allison’s sister. They hadn’t discussed that at all. Still, maybe she’d just been... really overwhelmed with gratitude? Also, there was still the hunters to worry about.

“Tharons?” Carter reminded them. He loved how visibly happy they both were now, but no one would be happy if the Tharons closed in while they embraced.

“We’re already away.” Allison beamed at him through her tears. “I took mental control of the ship the moment I came on board. I’m piloting Venus now, and while the Tharons are in pursuit, they’ll never catch us.” She breathed. “We are now cloaked. We are safe.”

“You got me out of the tank,” Larika said reverently. “You saved me, and that’s the stupidest thing you’ve ever done. The stupidest!”

“Perhaps.”

“What if they’d captured and tanked you too?”

“I couldn’t lose you,” Allison said firmly. “That is all there is to it, and I was not alone in my effort to free you.” She looked past her sister. “Carter also risked his freedom.”

“I know.” Larika hugged her tight and sighed. “This is all my fault. I’m so sorry, sis.”

“It is your fault, yes.” Allison hugged her twin close. “But when has it not been, really?”

Larika sighed. “Tough, but fair.”

She tousled Allison’s hair and turned to Carter. The hungry way she gazed at him made him wonder what he’d just gotten himself into here. She couldn’t... could she?

Larika grinned wide as she eyed him up down, then glanced sidelong at her sister. That reminded him that the three of them were now all alone in this ship, the Tharons were nowhere in sight, and neither of these wet and gorgeous woman had any clothes on.

Larika gripped Allison’s hand. “So we’re sharing him, right?”

Allison sighed. “That is a complicated matter we will talk about at length.”

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