Ghost With Cats ~ Book of Eloh #1.Draft

The Admant watched Annie working. He did not know how these primitive people had come to discover the form of energy his people called the Song of Destruction, but it worried him that this was not the first time they had tried to use it. He also wondered about how this female, the first he had seen; she was a contradiction. She knew of the energy and of its power, but wanted nothing to do with it. She had easily killed 4 large males of her species, but did not seem to be threat to himself and his servants.

The females of this world seemed to be as deadly as the females of his world. However, her attitude toward them was almost compassionate. It made him more curious about her and then there was a vague sense of familiarity. He was the highest ranking fleet officer in the kingdom and he was not aware his people had been to this world before, especially not a Regent. He began to wonder what else about this world and these people he did not know. Vanth Tal did not like it when he did not have answers.

After several minutes of intense work, Annie looked over her shoulder at the ‘priest’, who immediately looked down.

She frowned, “You can watch if ya want, I don’t bite. I need to know where y’all need me to signal for ya to be picked up from.” She knew roughly what quadrant in space they were from. When he doesn’t answer, she looked back to Vanth Tal. “Cat got his tongue?”

“Excuse me, I do not understand,” the Admant stated.

“It’s an expression. Why won’t he answer? And why won’t that one even look at me for that matter?” She pointed at the one by the door and demanded. “It is kind of freaking me out.”

“They are not of high enough tier to speak to a female without permission,” The Admant answered.

“What?” She asked clearly confused. “What does a tear have to do with anything?”

The ‘priest’ cleared his throat, and the Admant said, “If she wills, you may.”

“If I will what?” She asked.

“You must give them permission to speak to you,” the Admant explained.

“Ohhhh...okaaaay,” She looked at them like they were insane, “Sure, y’all can talk to me, you too baldy. Okay, we good?”

“My Lady,” the ‘priest’ bowed, “A tier is like a caste level or class system. All females are of 10th tier or higher. I am Talen Vorn, a Cypher of the 12th tier, I gather and analyze information, advise, protect, and serve the master in many other ways, like a butler perhaps. Bries is a Sword Pet, they are like your bodyguards or foot soldiers, he is of the 51st tier. His duty is to protect the master until death. Our master, Admant Vanth Tal, is 3rd tier. He is a warrior, a fleet commander, and a relative of our king, he is One of the 12 Defenders,” the Cypher elaborated.

“Okay then, that’s not confusing at all.” She rolled her eyes then held up her hand when he opened his mouth to explain further. “It’s called sarcasm, Talen Vorn... Well, I am Dr. Anneliese Winters-Dove, most everyone calls me Annie. I’ve been a lot of things in the past but presently, I need to get out of this room in about 10 to 15 minutes and go downstairs, so I really need to send that signal, so y’all can go home.” She explained.

“We are a minimum of thirteen of your days from being able to be retrieved. Our ship was destroyed and our pilot killed,” the Cypher answered.

She frowned. “Well, if I can keep us from all dying tonight, I should be able to get us to my cabin before then.” She pulled a map and zoomed on some mountains to the east, “Can you grid this to your coordinates system?”

The Cypher looked over the maps and the coordinates, and nodded.

"Good, if we get separated, y'all need to get here." She logged into the ASKAP and prepared to send a pulse to a cluster of stars on the other side of the sun.

She had an odd thought, Australia is nice and it’s summer, maybe I’ll got there to hide when this is over.

You should just go, you don’t know them, you don’t owe them or anyone anything. Her fear whispered to her but she shoved it away. She owed Truh, he saved her life

“Type here,” she ordered the Cypher. He searched through her fonts and selected one that looks like aramaic, typed rapidly in symbols and she sent it. “Now your folks will know where to come get y’all if we’re still here.”

She paused and took several deep breaths as if to calm herself.

“Stand over there, please,” she asked him, “The people I am about to talk to cain’t see y’all.” Then she logged into something called the Pentagon as the Cypher went to stand by his Admant.

A window opened up and she scowled at the older man who appeared. “Hello, General.”

“Dammit Annie, I have repeatedly told you, don’t hack secure government systems.”

“Well, tell your friends don’t have me abducted out of a hotel fire in Denver to fix a Project Pandora problem. Or is Omni-energy research such a private industry now, that I have to save my own scrawny butt! ’Cause one of their mercenaries made it very, very clear, he wanted some quality alone time with me before I was killed, and you know how I feel about that.” She hissed.

“Annie, I don’t know what you are talking about, but we will deal with it,” the general promised and she could see him signaling to someone.

“Well, Paul, you’re as bad a liar as you are a poker player, and unless you can git ’er done in like 47 minutes, the metallic resonance will start the earthquake storms that will eventually solidify the outer core and crack our planet’s inner core. Then our whole dang planet is gonna shake itself apart like an engine with a thrown rod.”

He gaped at her in shock and she waved a hand absentmindedly as she continued. “Look, I am gonna route what energy build up I can through 51′s hub, and the arrays, so and tell HARP and the VLA, they are about to get a big pulse. Sorry about the dishes and lines, but I’m gonna have to fry them like Sunday chicken if I’m gonna have a chance to save our planet, so you better start prayin’,” She drawled as she glared in the camera. The General was raised in Alabama by a hard core Baptist grandparents so she spoke their language to him.

A man she didn’t recognize appeared, “Dr Winters-Dove, I am sure you are over-reacting. There is no indication that... ” Gray Corneliani suit, custom tailoring, Kohr’s shirt, from what she could see. He was more corporate raider that scientist. He’s all about power and money.

She smirked, then drawled, “How is your corporate litigation department? Because I’ll give you four locations: Alaska, Pakistan, India, Japan. And that is why my parent’s research was shelved. Heck, Dr. Tesla himself wouldn’t touch this crap. General, have you read Mr-Suit-and-Tie into Rabbit Hole because I was Alice in that last little fiasco and I will not do it again.” She announced in a snarky tone.

The suit glared at her so she goaded him further, “Oh and Paul, have him explain to you, why everyone else on Mom and Dad’s original team is DOA except Fritz, who I am watching downstairs right now.” She smiled malevolently as they squirmed.

The Texan in her really was enjoying this too much, she missed this person, missed how strong and feisty she was before that week. It was taking every ounce of will to be her again, because the real Annie was a ghost now and truthfully she really wanted to hide in her house and wait for the world to end.

“Fritzgerald exceeded his authorization. Just take care of it Annie, we’ll be there in the morning,” The general said.

She rolled her eyes. “Fine. Bring me a coffee and couple of those sticky buns from that little place by the Jeffersonian. I am going to the elevator now, be a lamb and ring Fritz. And tell Suit-and-Tie, it ain’t Dr. Winters-Dove, it’s just Ms. Dove. I don’t work for y’all anymore. We’re down to 41 minutes, and you might wanna call your grandkids and Selma and tell them you love them, do it now, Paul. It may be your last chance if I cain’t fix this.” She drawled and disconnected the chat.

She got up, tying her robe, and suggested, “You may want to stay here. Or you may want to take one of the vehicles outside and get as far from here as possible because even if I save our planet, this place is going to turn into a crater. Your Cypher can get you to the rendezvous coordinates, there is a cabin there that belongs to my family, you can take refuge in.”

“We will stay with you, my lady,” the Admant declared.

Annie rolled her eyes at him and he noted it seemed to be her favorite expression of lack of confidence in another. “I cain’t walk in there with the three of y’all.”

“Even if we are your guards?”

She frowned, they resemble humans closely enough, but they had very pale skin. She needed to do something about their hair.

“I need y’all to stand still for a moment. Y’all hair is gorgeous but too noticeable,” she complained and she tucked the Cypher’s tight braid down the back of his uniform, put a hat on him, before she up his collar. The Admant’s single length hair she pulled into a low pony tail. He looked like he was Italian-Asian now or maybe native american.

Either way he’s gorgeous, a little voice in her head points out, she told it to shut up. She was actually glad that whoever this Bents character is that he was using mercs because she had seen a couple on the security feeds with long hair. If they stay in the background and if it were darker, it just might work. She quickly accessed the power grid for the entire complex and crashed it. The emergency lights come up, in the yellow glow they looked more human. She also set off emergency alarms all over the base.

As the elevator slowly rose, she had to shut off all the cameras on the surface. “We are going to need a vehicle to get off this base,” she mused aloud.

“Land or air,” The Admant asked.

“Air would be faster. Daddy was Air Force and I can fly anything.” She answered. He said something to his Cypher and Sword Pet in a language that sounds like ancient Aramaic.

“Go, just don’t look anyone in the eye, Your eyes will give you away for certain,” Annie warned. They nodded and went outside into the evacuation chaos, heads slightly down under their hats.

The elevator door pinged, it opened, and she handed Tal a pair of tinted glasses she took off of Jake. “Here, this will help hide how different your eyes are,” she tells him as they step in, she pushed a lighted square on the wall and he could feel them sinking.

“Why are you helping us?” He asked.

“Because I wasn’t the only one promised this research wouldn’t ever be used again, your people were too. I have to fix this because everyone else ever involved with Pandora, including my parents, are dead, and I nearly died stopping it seven years ago. Two years ago, it killed thousands and they are still trying to use it.” She said shaking her head as she, staring down at her toes.She wiggled them in her fuzzy socks. There were blood spots on them.

Tal noticed she trembled at whatever she was remembering, she felt terrified despite her bravado.

A tear fell on her sleeve, she inhaled and exhaled suddenly, and wiped her cheek. Her fear was trying to overcome her, she couldn’t let it. The whole world was depending on her understanding of her dead parents’ research to save it again.

“Are you injured?” Tal asked concerned. Suddenly, she seemed very vulnerable.

“Only in my soul,” Annie murmured.

“Why did you call the energy Pahndorah?” He was curious.

“My mom named it that after the myth of Pandora’s box. What does your people call it?”

“My people call it the song of destruction, Pahndorah is the name of the spirit or angel of... of misfortune.” He struggled with the translation.

“Well, either fits it. That energy is the devil’s work. It promises light and brings nothing but death.” She described it like it was a living thing, a thing she hated with all her soul, so he didn’t asked any more.

Before the door pinged and opened, she whispered, “Stay in the shadows by the door and look bored, if anyone asked, the general told you to stay with Dr. Winters-Dove. Don’t look surprised at my outburst.”

She stomped out, swearing loudly, “Fritz! I hate you with my soul! Why cain’t you just quit trying to steal other people’s research and do the work your gawddaang self!”

A short, balding man rushed up to her, speaking in a Germanic accent, “You have no reason to be here, Anneliese. This is my project now and is going well.”

“Well enough that in 39 minutes our entire planet is going to start shaking itself to bits, you dang fool!” she yelled at him. “What is the reading on the theta?”

“89%, ma’am,” the terrified tech answered.

“And global seismics went from 4.0 to 6.0 in the last hour?” she asked.

“Yes ma’am.” the same young man answered, glancing uncomfortably at Fritz.

“Iz coincidence thatz all...” Fritz insisted.

“Was Pakistan’s 8.0 a coincidence? Alaska’s in 1969? How about India’s Tsunami? Or Japan’s a two years ago? No, they weren’t. We are too dang close to the western seaboard, even if we don’t crack the core or the crust, we still could lose everything from Vegas west to the coast and north to Anchorage. You idiot!”

An alarm started buzzing, she glanced at the control, in a deadpan voice, “And you underestimated the amount of hydrogen build up too. Jeezus! Fritz, are you trying to end the world?” While the German stuttered, Annie turned her attentions to the others, “Prepare to route the energy build through the ground defense lines to the VLA and HARP, and I already have clearance to blow through 51′s hub into the central and eastern power grids. Lotta people gonna be replacing light bulbs and appliances tomorrow. Everyone who doesn’t need stay here and doesn’t want to die, leave now!” she ordered. “I need two to stay and help me.”

Tal admired how she handled removing almost every person; fear of death was a powerful motivator. The young technician was the only one who raised his hand, she swore under her breath and grabbed the one she calls Fritz and forced him in a chair, “Oh no you don’t, cowboy. You started this rodeo, you’re finishing it.”

“Hey, aren’t you going?” a man in a guard uniform asked him.

“No,” Vanth Tal says trying to copy her accent, “General says I gotta stay with her.”

The guard shrugged, “Good luck, man.” And he went up in an elevator full of people.

Only Fritz and the young technician remained behind with Annie. Tal watched as the three work over the next half hour to save her world. The whole time Annie is muttering loudly about how much she hates the man she calls Fritz and insulting his intelligence.

“Ma’am, there is still too much energy left. The counter-resonance frequencies you input aren’t dampening the reactor’s core enough to shut it down completely, we are losing stability and containment, hydrogen containment is venting.” The tech revealed, he sounded frightened.

“Welllll, shooooot. It is going to blow and there is nothing we can do to stop it, except vent it skyward and hope it doesn’t cause too much damage or too big an earthquake. I’m glad there’s no fault lines close by. Go on, git outta here, son. Hey, soldier boy, what is waiting upstairs for me?”

He realized she was talking to him so he mimicked her accent, “A helicopter holding for you, ma’am.” He hoped he was using the term he heard the young man use properly.

“We will go with you,” Fritz said.

“No, General’s orders are Dr. Winters-Dove only,” Vanth Tal responded.

“My parents’ research, my responsibility. Go on, Fritz, I’ll stay and keep adjusting the harmonics as long as I can.” Annie leaned back in her chair, rubbing her eyes tiredly, “Get the kid outta here.”

By the elevator, Fritz stared at Tal as they get in. He was standing in a shadowed spot, but he had the distinct impression that the scientist recognized him, even though Tal had never seen him personally.

Vanth Tal walked over to where Annie was sitting, “Is there another elevator, we need to go now.”

She looked up at him, and shook her head, “What’s wrong?”

“I perceived that Dr. Fritz recognized me.”

She exclaimed harshly, using words that his implant didn’t translate. She quickly accessed the security images and turned back on the surface cameras. “Can we warn Bries and Vorn that they may need to disappear?”

“I already have,” Tal announced. She looked at him surprised then shrugged.

They watched as Fritz was yelling at guards that they must go back down. They have 6 and a half minutes left and the elevator was on the way back to the bottom.

“Okay, then we will ride up, when they want to come down,” she decided.

“But will they not see us when the doors open?” he asked surprised.

“Only if we are inside,” she smiled, and she stopped the elevator the floor below.

She set the program to auto run a security drill: the elevator will go back to the top once more then back to the bottom and stop for 1 hour. If Fritz and the guards run the stairs, they could still make the surface and escape.

Tal forced the doors open and held them. She hit the resume, ran, and jumped into the shaft.

“You really are quite clever,” he smiled at her as they ascend.

“It’s only clever if it works,” she winked. The world could end in 5 minutes and she was flirting with an alien. Maybe her therapist was correct, she had been isolated too long. Or maybe she had finally just cracked from the stress.

“It will work, my lady,” he sounded more confident than she felt.

At the first floor they stepped off onto the ledges around the shaft, they could hear Fritz and three guards get into the elevator and go back down. Moments later, Bries’ bulky form pried the doors open barehanded. He held them easily as Annie and then Vanth Tal dropped onto the carpet.

The Tech stepped out of the break room,his jaw hung open, eyes wide. “Omigawd, it’s the aliens.” he blurted out, shocked.

“Well, yep,” Annie declared nonchalantly, “Aren’t you glad they are on our side and rescued me from Fritz’s mercenaries before they killed me, so I could stop Fritz from trying to blow up our planet again? That man really is a menace.”

“Really?” he questioned. “But I thought they were invading.”

She laughed, and drawled, “Son, you’ve seen too many movies. We ain’t got nothing they want.”

“Four minutes, Lady Annie.” Vorn reminded.

“Come on, son. We’ll drop you in the city, but you cain’t tell anyone I took the Admant and his boys. Last thing our messed up planet needs is an interplanetary incident because some greedy industrialist decided our wars were enough of a profit margin for him.” She said as they ran to the helicopter Vorn and Bries had secured for them.

Please like, follow, comment. Have a blessed day.

Thank you, Mama Magie