Chapter Nine

Lying on his back with a damp naked female across his body was a pleasant way to wake up. Then the lady burst his bubble.

"Where is your ship right now?" She mumbled against his chest.

Sighing, he knew she was one hundred percent military, and she hadn't forgotten she was a member of the group called Transformed. He had to wonder what Grigor Macher did to these people to get such dedication.

"Why, pretty lady, do you need a ride?"

"I will take one some day. Will you give me one?" She raised her head to look at him. It was at that time her comm called her attention. It was over on the cabinet where the whiskey and other liquors were stored.

"Damn." The Commander grunted as she pushed off him, still with the robe on the arms only. She padded over to pick up the comm and tap a few buttons. Whatever it was, he heard her sigh again.

"Did you bring the law with you?" Turning, she began to pull up her robe and look around, probably for a gun.

Sitting up, Keenan laughed. "If the law is here, it is because they are after me. Have your people turned me in for a reward?" He began picking up his clothes, hoping he could find the fucking time for a shower. He smelled like raw sex. Gods, she had been an animal. He would need to feel the earth outside to heal the scratches all over his body.

Next, he heard the sirens, and the Commander was in another room, the door open and running a rag between her legs. It only took her a moment, and then she was pulling out clothes and getting dressed. Okay, that was his signal to forget the shower and get into his clothes. Something was going on that worried the head lady.

Using the closures on his boots, he was looking at the hole in his one as she came out with a full uniform, a gun in one hand. She had the other hand busy trying to get her holster on her shoulders.

"Stay here and out of sight. We will talk more later." With those words, she was out the door. He saw the two soldiers who had been on guard outside the whole time. So much for trust.

"Poly, can you hear me?"

"Yes, Captain."

"Can you determine what is happening outside? What seems to be the problem with the military group?"

"Fire at back, near you."

"Okay, I need to get out of here. I will get up on top of this building, and you can pick me up." What Keenan had to do was search this apartment to find some way to get out above, on the roof. What he did find was a small door in the ceiling of the closet in her room that opened to the attic. Once in there, hardly able to stand, he was between the beams that held the hot flat metal roof.

Carefully standing on the beams that had padding to keep the heat out of the rooms below, he looked at the roof. He finally made his choice and began to pry one of the connecting panels loose. Because of his weak position on the beams, it wasn't easy. Finally, he hung onto the upper roof beams and swung up his feet to kick the panel away. It made a loud noise, but he hoped he would soon be gone before anyone came to investigate.

Standing up to his full height, his head and shoulders stuck out through the square hole he had made in the roof. It now was easy to pull himself up onto the hot metal and look around at the other buildings. This was not the tallest of the structures, but he still thought the crew could get the ship to him.

"Orange light, Captain."

That was the only warning Poly gave him as he turned around to scan the sky. There in the distance, bobbing over other roofs and coming toward him, was the light and the short part of a rope ladder. It was surreal as if the ladder was floating in the air, but it slowed down as it got close. Keenan made a short jump and was climbing the ladder above the invisible portion before anyone watching from the ground saw him disappear.

Climbing up a ladder while a ship is moving over an enemy military camp was not his first choice. Keenan moved fast like a silly child's toy. Looking up, he saw the ugly face of his friend Bruno that never looked prettier. It was at this point that the ladder also began to move upward into the ship.

"I help." It was Poly who was having the ship roll up the ladder into the open side exit. Keenan just hung on and was soon inside with his crew.

"Is Thea on the bridge?" Keenan started pulling off his boot with the holes in it.

Picking up the boot and putting his finger in the hole in the sole, Bruno looked over. "What the hell happened down there?"

"Nothing much; as usual, I took care of fucking business." Keenan hung his jacket on a hook by the inside wall near the door.

Still holding the boot, Bruno stepped back and frowned. "From the smell of you, that word describes what you were doing." With those words, he let out a deep laugh.

Nodding, Keenan did know he needed a shower and change of clothes. He headed to his cabin, as he asked Poly if the ship could see the action below?

Poly was bouncing right behind him. "We are higher. We can see action. Some locals and off-worlders come. They fighting the Transformed troopers."

Shaking his head as he reached his cabin, at Poly's short language, Keenan felt he needed to find out why anyone would rebel against the military Transformed. He also hoped that Poly would continue to learn so that in time it would be able to speak normally.

The hot shower felt great, but he cut it short to get up on the bridge to find out what the hell was happening down on the ground. How close were they to the big guy?

Coming up to the bridge, he found Thea in her favorite spot, the co-pilot's chair.

"I've got the ship floating over the disturbance down below, and we are in full stealth." Thea pointed to a couple of screens that showed what was happening in the fight.

Before sliding into his own Captain's chair, he looked at the beautiful woman who had become part of his crew. She looked too sweet with that turned-up nose and those full cherry lips. Natural blond hair that she wore long and most of the time allowed bits to drop down into her gorgeous blue eyes with long lashes to accent that pale rosy skin.

She was like the beautiful flower that had started on old Earth and was now found on most inhabited planets and known as Foxglove. It was a beautiful flowering plant that was deadly to the touch or in food. Thea was deadly in hand-to-hand combat and could kill with most weapons, including the long slim heels of the black shoes she wore.

Keenan had seen the tiny full-figured Thea take out males who were more prominent than him with strange kicks even with bare feet. In a surprise, she had taught girls in a very expensive private school how to protect themselves. She had also been fired from that job for reasons that had never been disclosed.

In a battle, she could use her beautiful looks as a distraction. It would make a man forget to protect himself right before his ass hit the floor.

Not getting distracted by his unusual crewman, Keenan began to study the scenes on the screens of the people fighting. There were some airships, but most of the action was on the ground. He could see a slight demarcation line that the two enemies were fighting over, and his guess wasn't worth anything.

The line was just a place where both sides had finally met in bulk to shoot and fight and brawl. A lot of it was just destruction. With the smoke and fires and the ground bombs, it was hard to tell if anyone was going to live through the battle on either side.

Getting into the comfortable pilot's chair, he heard Bruno come in and find his favorite place on the bridge that was a seat at the console that handled the weapons and other parts of the ship. Poly softly floated between the seats, answered any question immediately in its female voice, but in short sentences.

"Okay, listen up," Keenan looked at the screens with the fighting below. "I need an idea of how it might look like we have helped the Transformed, but without killing any of the people who are fighting them. I'll take anything, no matter how wild."

"Well, we could drop a lot of smoke bombs on the rebels." This came from Bruno.

Thea snorted. "Can't you see all the smoke down there already? We could send out some drones with electric shocks and hit the rebels and knock them out along the front lines."

"But won't the Transformed troops then take the unconscious fighters, prisoners? I don't think that will work. We need to scare off the rebels." Bruno sat back and brought up some schematics of the various weapons on the Adamant.

"Make big noise." Poly floated close to Keenan's chair. "Sound dangerous."

"Silly bot." That came from Thea

"Don't pick on Poly, even if the idea is funny." Bruno always stood up for Poly.

"Wait," Keenan raised his hand. "Poly may have an idea. What would happen if a really shiny strange ship with a huge noise—appeared over the heads of the rebels? Let's say so loud, almost to break eardrums, and so close as to almost touch their heads. What do you think a person would do under that situation?"

"Run" was the answer of both Bruno and Thea.

Looking at the dash and deciding what direction would be the best to come in between buildings, Keenan had a wicked smile. "Poly, get all the outside audios we have pointed downward and at the highest volume. Then search through the Universal Thread for some of the worse and scariest sounds of animals and crashes you can find. Combine them and have something to make the fighters drop their weapons and run."

"Yes, Captain." The bot turned and bobbed out of the bridge to go somewhere that Keenan didn't want to guess, to do as he had requested.

"Hey guys, can we get the ship to look like flames on the bottom?" Keenan knew he could actually put flames out on the ship, but he didn't want to hurt anyone. He could draw in a great storm with lightning, but that would not be attached to the presence of the ship.

"I think I can control the colors in the stealth system. Let me work on this. Hell yes. There is something right here." Thea began working on some glowing buttons. Keenan and Bruno ignored her as she talked to herself, confident that she would not crash the ship. Adamant had a lot of fail-safes built into it to keep it from slamming into anything, even the ground.

"Captain, I make noise." It was Poly speaking to Keenan in the ear contact.

"Okay, Poly. Let's hear it." At that moment, the roar of the worst nightmare filled the bridge, and all three humans ducked, put fingers in their ears, and closed their eyes. "Stop, stop," Keenan ordered.

"What the hell was that? I think my ears are bleeding." Thea was speaking with her head against her knees and her hands on her head. Keenan couldn't even see the big bald head of Bruno as he had ducked under the console.

"I think Poly did too good a job coming up with a noise to scare people." Keenan shook his head, trying to get rid of the ringing in his ears. "Remind me to tell the bot to either soundproof the bridge or get us earplugs."

After things had settled down, Thea nodded. "I have the red fire colors in the stealth system for the bottom of our ship. So, when do you want to go to war?"

All eyes on Keenan, he nodded. "Sooner is fucking better. I have control of the ship, and we are going down. Bruno, watch our top for any possible attacks. Thea, you got the stealth; I will give you the signal when we are in position. Poly, the same signal I give Thea, is also for you and the noise. I hope you have us protected from the sound."

"I understand, Captain," Poly answered as it bobbed in the open space of the bridge.

He began making a swing up and around to lose velocity and speed so that he could bring the large shiny arrow-pointed ship down silently, directly over the battle. At last, he got the ship settled high above the action and cut off everything to allow the Adamant to slowly fall, controlled by the gravity alone. Keenan felt this would kick up no wind and not give away their presence.

He waited until there was actually ammunition bouncing off the bottom of the shield before he gave the signal and turned on the complete engines. This allowed all the heat and wind from the ship to add to the display of the silver ship that was reflecting all the bombardments and explosions. Then there were the flames on the bottom against the top of the people and their equipment. Everything began to shake as the noise from the outside speakers let out the noise Poly had created.

It was only a short blast, but along with the sudden sight of the ship so low and the red flames, it was enough and had the needed effect. There was pandemonium below among the rebels, as they all seemed to disappear suddenly.

No one had been harmed or killed; there weren't piles of bodies under the sight and noise of a view of a silver ship. There was silence as the rebels had retreated. Even the Transformed troops had hesitated and frozen in their tracks. It was an impasse with no one left to engage in the small war.