Legacy Ch13

Legacy of the Guardians

AJ Marks

Chapter13

The long sleek, powerful form of the battlecruiser Seydlitz slowly crawled through the asteroid field in the last of the trials before she would be fully commissioned. The last trail was the targeting and weapon systems, to make sure that the systems were running normally.

"Commence firing run!" Admiral George Dinen said he stood on the bridge watching how the ship handled. So far he had been impressed with the handling and speed of the ship. If the weapons checked out then the Seydlitz would be the most powerful and fastest ship in the fleet. He knew that with the new war against the Skartians a reality, the Seydlitz would be a welcome addition to the fleet.

George watched the readouts of the bridge as the ship accelerated and began the weapons run. Accuracy was not being judge, but the weapons of the ship herself were. They needed to know that the weapon system would be able to function with the shield generators and all the engines going at full power.

The Seydlitz' weapons opened fire upon the asteroids around the ship and blew them to pieces. Every gun, from the smallest to the main guns was firing away. This would continue for an hour, to test combat situations and make sure that there would be no power falloff of a prolonged fight. In a battle, it had been learned that the ships with the most energy would usually survive the battle. If a power falloff occurred in any of the major systems during battle it meant that on order to compensate power had to be drained from another system, and that was a dangerous thing to do.

Admiral Dinen looked at his watch to see how long the test had been going on. So far there had been no reports of any problems in any of the systems. The weapon systems were performing flawlessly and were operating at maximum efficiency.

The hour passed quite quickly and before Admiral Dinen knew it the test was over.

"Admiral, sir!" A young technician said saluting the admiral. "We should have the test results back in about an hour. But from what I've seen, the Seydlitz passed this test with flying colors."

"Very well, carry on." The admiral said returning the salute. What the tech said was true George thought to himself. The Seydlitz, from what he saw, not only passed the test, but also surpassed any previous record.

George remembered when he was navigator on a trial run of a ship called the Boston, a chip class leader. The weapon system trial put a tremendous drain on the engines that he could feel. The ship went back into the docks and came out a much more efficient ship. It had seemed that the classes of warships had larger power drains than the ones built during the war, almost as if the designers had forgotten the lessons of war.

The Seydlitz, George thought, was a revolutionary ship. Her multiple systems would allow for over half of the systems to be knocked out and still be operating at almost one hundred percent. She was the most powerful and heavily armed and armored ship in the fleet after her trial runs were complete.

George walked about the ship waiting for the final reports so he would know when he would be able to have the ship join the fleet as the flagship. The quarters on board the ship were quite impressive and compared to other ships of the fleet quite luxurious. The admiral's quarters were even more so then the rest of the fleet and George could not wait to make her his official flagship.

Ahmed felt himself slowly coming to as the bouncing slowly jarred him to consciousness. His head was again felt like a jackhammer had taken up residence in his head and it almost made him nauseous. He groaned a bit and this brought the attention of the guard that was next to him.

"I see that you've woken up." He said.

Ahmed nodded as he opened his eyes to see what was going on around him. It was now dark out and he was not able to make out anything from the back of a van.

"Here's some water." The guard said handing him a canteen of water for him to drink out of. "You're a trusting soul, that won't last long." He said as Ahmed drank from the canteen without even looking like he was being cautious.

"I don't fear death, because I've seen more than you will ever know." Ahmed replied back and smiled watching the guard become uncomfortable which gave Ahmed a small satisfaction. Ahmed also knew from looking at him that the guard was not a Skartian, they were just using him. That thought make Ahmed mad. Those Skartians were twisting his religion for their twisted schemes.

"We'll see." The guard said back to him.

Ahmed got as comfortable as he could and just decided to wait to see what would happen next. He was almost positive that the next stop would be the headquarters of the Skartian base on Earth.

"How mush further?" Ahmed decided to ask the guard, who chose to ignore his question. Ahmed figured that the guard was not suppose to talk to him, or least answer any of his questions so they rode on in silence.

He felt the van slow down and stop then sped back up a couple of times and figured that they were approaching their destination. The van then stopped and the back doors flew open and several armed men stood close by watching the van's every move.

"Get out!" The guard that was next to Ahmed told him.

Ahmed was able to get out without to much difficulty even though he had shackles on his ankles and wrists. However as soon as he got out he was roughly shoved to the ground by a couple of the guards. He was then picked up and half dragged across the compound to where several buildings stood.

Ahmed was led to one of the smaller building and taken inside. Ahmed noticed that his brother and the other three men that he had last seen were still with him and also going into the building.

Ahmed was lead into a room with a couple of chairs and it seemed to be a better environment than the room that he had been in. He figured that he was probably going to be seeing a much higher up person than he had been talking to. The compound, what he had seen, was heavily fortified and he figured that there would probably be some casualties when his people came in. He could only hope that most of the Skartians would be in this compound and not elsewhere.

Ahmed was roughly pushed into a chair and tied down again. He figured that the leaders were thinking that he could be a threat to their organization if they could easily smuggle his parents right out of the country.

"So, who am I going to meet this time?" Ahmed asked knowing that he probably would not be answered.

"Shut up!" One of them said and backhanded him across the face. "We'll be asking the questions around here." He said and Ahmed recognized him as one of the Skartians from earlier. The alien left the room and the only ones left was the guard form the van and his brother.

"You always did have a smart mouth brother." He said.

"At least I still have my honor and my mind Aziz." Ahmed said to his brother.

"Yeah, working for the infidels in America." Aziz replied.

"You really don't understand at all, I don't work for the US government at all." Ahmed replied looking right at his brother. "The people I work for are much higher up, they know many things and have no country allegiance at all."

"You always were full of grandiose ideas and schemes." Aziz taunted Ahmed back. "You used to stare up at the stars at night and wonder if there was intelligent life out there, well dear brother the answer is no there is not, you've wasted your entire life on a foolish pursuit that got you nowhere."

"That's one person's opinion." Ahmed replied, knowing that his brother was almost totally brainwashed by what the aliens had been telling him and who knew how many others.

"Yes, you're right about that." His brother said as he walked toward the door. "I guess I was thinking to much that you would be able to see what we are trying to do." He said and walked out the door leaving Ahmed with just the guard.

'If only you really understood who you were following Aziz, then you might see the truth.' Ahmed thought to himself. A glance at the guard and Ahmed was satisfied that he was not Skartian, but he looked like he was not going to be talking any time soon.

Sam made his way down the street looking for his hotel in Egypt. He was on a vacation, a strange time for one to be granted a request for a vacation considering that war with the Skartians was highly likely at ay moment and things up at Independence Station were real tense. He had managed to get a hotel close to where he wanted to go the next morning.

Ever since his dream he had been thinking of nothing else but what he saw in his dream. He had spent the last hour just staring at the building. It was almost as if the building was trying to speak to him and he could not understand the message.

Sam was too wound up to sleep, even though that was why he was granted a vacation in the first place, to allow him to rest and relax. His commander had thought that the pressure of constant duty was getting to Sam and that he was about to crack.

Sam knew that it was his psyic abilities that concerned his commander and thought that the lack of sleep was interfering with his abilities. Sam did not have the heart to say that when he was sleep deprived his abilities seemed to increase, almost as if he was more in tune with his surroundings. He almost laughed as he thought about it, most people thought that the psyic powers drained him, in fact it was almost the opposite, he usually felt revived after a long psyic spell.

He decided that he would at least lie down and read the literature he had picked up earlier in the day from the local souvenir shop. He had three books and several other pamphlets and maps that he decided to study. He never noticed when he fell asleep.

Sam's eyes popped open when he felt another presence in the room. A quick look around and he noticed the figure standing right next to the bed looking at him, like he was waiting for him to wake up.

The time approaches, be ready to act! He heard the voice of the stranger say before the figure disappeared.

Some time later Sam woke up and looked around the room, only to find it empty. He wondered if he was going crazy, he was obsessed with the building and some stranger kept talking to him in his sleep. He needed to get to the bottom of the mystery, and fast before he went insane.

"How are you liking our hospitality?" A man said walking into the room that Ahmed had been put in.

Ahmed looked at the man a while before answering him. This man was also a Skartian and Ahmed noticed that several people were behind him. They looked like his guards because of the way they carried themselves and the weapons they carried.

"I've been in worse places." Ahmed said with a smile and watched in satisfaction as the slight smirk that had been on the Skartian's face disappeared.

"You fool!" He said and struck Ahmed in the face with his fist. "You'll learn what everything is about soon enough."

"Can't wait!" Ahmed said sarcastically trying to clear the ringing he felt from the hit only to be struck again for his comment.

"I can't wait to get you one on one." The Skartian said his eyes on level with Ahmed's.

"I bet." Ahmed finally said after the ringing stopped. Ahmed's eye's showing no fear at what the Skartian had said. Ahmed was beginning to wonder if he should call in the troops, or if he should just wait a bit longer and see if he is lead to the leader of the group. It seemed to him that he would be having a visit from the leader real soon, whether it was bin Laden or someone else Ahmed felt it would not be long now.

"We shall see what you have to say, like it will be anything important." The Skartian said with a sneer on his lips.

"I think it will be you who will be impressed." Ahmed said under his breath as the Skartian got up and walked to the door.

"Bring him!" The Skartian said as she reached the door.

Ahmed was roughly grabbed by the guard and forced to stand up. He was able to walk out of the room and to the area where there was several people waiting for him. Ahmed looked around and noticed that Osama bin Laden was among the group and started to look very closely at him. Ahmed noticed that the man did not look to well, and thought that he might be sick.

"You will kneel in front of the masters pig." The guard said forcing Ahmed onto his knees.

Ahmed looked around the group when he was being forced to his knees. He noticed that bin Laden did not appear to be an alien like they had though, but there were several Skartians in the area. He touched the small microchip underneath his fingernail and slightly touched it twice for the signal to come to his location.

End Chapter 13

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