Gracie's Touch Zion Warriors 1 (15 page)

Bran nodded grimly. “I’ll work with Cooraan on the programming. Maybe we can modify our own shields.”

Kordon nodded before turning to look at Quan who was staring back at him with grim determination. “We have our mates to get back. Let’s get to work.”

Gracie shivered when she saw the huge dark shape of the mother ship. A sense of déjà vu swept through her causing goose bumps to form on her arms. She let the automatic pilot program take over and watched as it followed the other supply ship through the open door in the side of the huge ship. The inside of the ship was huge!
Beyond huge, really.
Gracie thought in dismay. What looked like thousands of fighters were docked in stacking formation as far as the eye could see. Gracie shivered again as she let her eyes take in everything. Lights flashed along several walls. It looked like some type of lifts. Gracie watched as the first supply ship docked in one of the empty ports. Her ship moved in slowly next to it and she heard the locks engage. The lights in the supply ship dimmed and an arm came out to clamp onto the side. Gracie’s shivering turned to quakes at the strange groaning sounds emitted by the metal reminded her of the sounds from an old haunted house she went through one Halloween. She half expected to see ghost and goblins coming out.

Gracie peeked through the front viewport as a platform lowered on the supply ship next to her. Two creatures moved down the platform and paused turning back to wait. Gracie gasped as she saw two women from the mining colony being shoved down the ramp. A moment later, two other women were pushed out. Gracie bit her lip as she watched them huddle together as the two creatures began prodding them to move. Her gaze swung back to the opening when two more creatures came to the opening. They held a struggling female between them. Gracie’s eyes widened with horror as she saw Mohan hiss at one of the creatures. The creature pressed the same device she saw them use on Delaira against Mohan’s head. A moment later, Mohan collapsed unconscious.

Gracie wrung her hands together trying to decide what to do. She couldn’t let her friend or the other women be used as breeders or die. There had to be something she could do. Gracie stood up and began searching the supply ship. The
re had to be a portable
computer somewhere on it. She tore open storage compartments pulling out
cartons
and opening them up randomly. There were parts, what looked like some type of freeze-dried food packages, and other equipment she didn’t even try to figure out. She moved to another cabinet and tore it open. Space suits like what the creatures wore in the dome city and what they were wearing on the other supply ship. At the top of the cabinet was a portable tablet. Gracie’s hands trembled as she pulled it down.

Gracie quickly powered it on. She would need to leave the supply ship soon or the creatures might get suspicious. She looked up at the suits hanging in the closet and thought about the plan forming in her mind. It was never going to work. True, she wasn’t much smaller than the creatures but it couldn’t possibly work could it? Not giving herself a chance to consider the consequences, she set the portable tablet down and pulled one of the suits out and began dressing.
The prisoners were about to get a new guard,
Gracie thought in determination.

Gracie moved slowly down the platform breathing deep behind the helmet. She could hear the voices giving different commands. It was confusing at first as it seemed to come from so many at one time. It was difficult to filter every conversation. Gracie turned, following the same path she saw the other creatures going. She fought to keep her breath even as several creatures moved towards her. She was afraid her knees would give out from shaking so hard. Forcing herself to continue forward as if she belonged there she was amazed they could
n’t
see her shaking. She couldn’t help the breath of relief that swooshed out of her when the creatures passed her as if she wasn’t even there.

Gracie continued down the platform before stepping into the shadows n
ear a thick row of metal tubing.
S
he pulled the portable tablet up. Gracie quickly opened a backdoor into the computer system creating a virtual ghost. This allowed her to piggyback on to existing programs making her almost invisible. She sent out feelers for the ship’s schematics. Almost instantly, a map of the ship appeared on her screen. Gracie filtered for holding cell or females. A series of code rolled faster than her eyes could follow before it stopped and a map showing a long series of cells showed. Level 824, Section 228, Cells 18-21. Gracie drew in a shaking breath as she counted the number of women – twenty-two. There were twenty-two women being held in the cells. Gracie closed her eyes. She needed to get them off the ship. She could program one of the supply ships to get them off. If Kordon got her message he would know to look for the signal she programmed in and would be following them. Gracie opened her eyes and looked at the map again. She would need to go down. She drew in a deep breath and straightened her shoulders before saying a small prayer for any god out there that might be listening to give her the strength and protection to do what needed to be done.

Kordon looked over the modifications on the shields Bran and Cooraan made. The data found on Gracie’s computer astonished all the men. Her attention to detail, her annotations, and her modifications and programming skills pulled a respect from the Zion
w
arriors rarely found outside their own people. Kordon was learning more about who Gracie really was and his love and respect for her grew. Among the data Cooraan found was Gracie’s personal diary. He translated it for Kordon. Cooraan reluctantly admitted he read the entries. He apologized to Kordon for invading his life mate’s private thoughts explaining he was not sure what it was until he began reading it. Kordon was unable to be too upset after watching the huge warrior actually blush as he murmured he had been unable to stop reading it once he started as he had to know what happened next. Cooraan swore he would never tell anything that he read. It was the look in Cooraan’s eyes that finally got to Kordon and he had to ask Cooraan what was bothering him.

“Your life mate is a unique and incredible female.” Cooraan responded softly. “I have never heard of one so strong and determined. There was much fear but she never give up. Once you read it you will understand. I…I could only hope to find a life mate such as her.” Cooraan said. “Your Gracie is very special.”

Kordon’s jaw clenched at Cooraan’s softly spoken words. “Yes, she is.” Kordon said before turning to the console.

“We will bring her home safely. I swear this on my own life. I will do whatever it takes to help you bring her home.” Cooraan said fiercely before turning to leave.

Kordon stared blankly at the screen for a few moments before taking a deep breath and opening the file containing Gracie’s diary. Soon, he was lost in her world over eight hundred Earth years ago. The first sentence tightened the pain in his chest around his heart as he became one with the frightened little girl who cowered in the dark subway tunnels in a long ago city.

Today is June 14, 2015. My name is Gracie Jones. I am 12 years old and all alone now. It all started yesterday when we were having dinner. Mom and Dad were talking with me and Violet about a new project mom was working on when the explosions started. Dad ran to the window to see what was happening. Mom pulled me and Violet under the table because stuff from the ceiling was falling down. When dad came back he looked real scared….

Kordon read entry after entry lost in Gracie’s retelling. He learned that she got separated from her sister and parents when they were fleeing from their neighborhood. The Alluthans were destroying house after house forcing the residents out into the streets where they began rounding them up. During the confusion, Gracie fell and rolled under a car so she wouldn’t get trampled. She saw her parents and sister being taken. She huddled there for hours not moving. Once darkness fell, she returned to what was left of her home. She was able to get a few clothing items, her laptop, and some other items which she stuffed into her school backpack. She ran when she saw fighters flying low over the neighborhood. She ran and hid throughout the night until she finally made her way down into the subway access a few miles from her home. There were a few people hiding there. By morning, the Alluthan warriors were searching the subway systems. Gracie ran up the tracks. She crawled under an overhang and discovered a covered stairwell. Following it down, she found herself in an old abandon section of the subway. It was there that Adam, Adrian, Mark, and Chance found her almost six months later barely alive. She was painfully thin as finding food became harder and harder without venture further afield. She talked about how she spent most of her time playing on the computer trying to find out any information she could about the creatures who took her family. She made notes of their language and the sounds and began piecing it together like a puzzle. Both her parents were linguists who used to play games with her and her sister making up languages or using ancient languages to create messages. Gracie was determined to find her family again. When Adam first found her, she was hiding in an old maintenance room behind an old plaid couch. Gracie wrote about how scared she was of the huge man. It was Chance who finally talked her out with his quiet looks, gentle eyes, and sense of humor. He finally convinced Gracie they would not harm her. That was the first night in six months that she actually ate until she was full.

Kordon read of the following years of struggle. The five became known as the Freedom Five. Gracie began giving daily updates and messages of encouragement to survivors and those fighting against the Alluthans. She also became instrumental in deciphering their language and breaking into their computer systems giving the rebel groups a continuing edge. Throughout the diary she mentioned her growing love for Chance and her belief he would never see her as a woman. She talked about her heartache at finding him in a passionate embrace with a woman from another rebel group. She had been so heartbroken she had left the safety of the tunnels. She was wounded and captured when an Alluthan warrior found her hiding in an old building two days later. If not for Mark and Adam, she would have been imprisoned. They were able to kill the Alluthan by electrocuting him. They carried Gracie back to the tunnels but it took months for her to regain her strength.

Kordon finally got to Gracie’s last days on Earth. She was able to finally break through the programming codes and took over one of the supply ships two months before. When she discovered a way to bring the shields down it was a turning point. The problem was that in order to bring down all the shields at the same time, she needed to be on the mother ship to launch her virus to prevent the Alluthans from counteracting it. Since Gracie was the only one to know how to interpret their programming, she was the one who had to go.

Kordon’s fists clenched as he read about Gracie’s regret that her night with Chance was not to be. She knew deep down she would never see him again but hoped to have that one last memory to take with her. Her last entry talked about her shame of being afraid to die alone and her regret she would never know what happened to her friends and family. Her diary ended abruptly after that.

The door to his office open and Quan looked at Kordon. “We have a visual on the mother ship.” Quan said grimly. “It is a huge bastard.”

Kordon stood up and pressed the console to close Gracie’s diary. He would not let her die and if he had anything to say about it, she would never be alone again. It was time to claim his life mate.

Gracie was breathing almost normally by the time she made it to the level holding the women. She found if she just listened in and did not react in any way she was ignored. She mimicked the movements of the other creatures. She was only stopped once and a message flashed in across the vision portion of her helmet requesting assistance in moving some equipment. Fortunately, it was small containers that were relatively light. Once the task was completed, the creature giving her the order turned and disappeared as if she didn’t even exist.

Gracie moved down the corridor stopping in front of a set of doors. She stood there for a moment wonder if some special code was needed when a scan came out asking her to input her identification. Gracie almost panicked until she realized the inside of her helmet contained an identification code. Gracie punched the code in and the doors slid opened. Gracie took a step inside and moved towards the console. Only one Alluthan stood at the console. Gracie moved forward and stood to one side.

“Request permission for recharging.” The Alluthan asked in a disembodied voice. “Permission has been granted. Replacement is in position.”