Hycn (6 page)

They were a few feet from reaching her craft
when laser fire swooshed above their heads.

“Hold it right there. Release Lieutenant
Cooke at once before I kill you woman.” An emotionless female voice
announced.

Xerla froze on the spot, her gun still aimed
at Cooke.

“Who is there?” She shouted back in her
native tongue as if she understood. She cursed silently. She was
not expecting another enemy close by.

“I said release Cooke whore - before I blast
you.” The voice coming from Cooke’s crashed ship repeated.

“Who is there?” Xerla asked again in
Ekcyrien.

“Hand that big gun to Lieutenant Cooke
Hamilton and walk away from your craft alien.”

“I said who is there.”

“Do as I tell you or I will be forced to
you.”

Xerla gave in at last. She let her huge
laser gun drop to the ground. Cooke sighed and relaxed. He owed
Delilah one for saving him. He bent down and picked the gun.

“Wow that was really awesome Delilah, for a
while I thought I was done for. Thanks” Cooke said after picking
Xerla’s gun. He held it casually in his thick, tattooed arms like
it was his. Like a mercenary would. He loved big guns. They
represented power.

“Of course I had to save your sorry ass
lieutenant. I wonder what you would do without me” Delilah
commented. Cooke grunted and shut up. He owed the AI. It saved him
from being taken captive by the alien warrior princess; he would
let this rude comment slide

He started walking towards Xerla’s
craft.

“And now?” Delilah asked him at once.

“I’m taking her craft. I should be able to
steer it without any trouble.” Cooke responded.

“What about me? And your mission?”

“You are an online AI for god’s sake. You
are not even here, you reside in a server somewhere down below.
Initiate the ship’s drive format. Erase everything.”

“I should be able to make it to the Africom
base without any difficulty. Tell the commander I have been delayed
in completing my mission. On second thought, don’t. I’ll call and
tell him myself when I reach Africom.” Cooke told the AI.

“What about her?” Delilah enquired.

“She should thank god I’m not killing her
for blowing Merida to pieces. She can go crawl into a hole and die
for all I care.” Cooke Hamilton paused a few meters away from the
Ekcyrien craft and admired it for a moment. The scorpion had a
black metallic body about 12 feet across and 23 feet long. Its flip
open semi-circular cockpit was placed towards the middle on top of
its sloping surface to give the pilot an unobstructed view around,
and there was a narrow walkway going along the length of the
fuselage to the cockpit. At the front, two huge laser guns extruded
on both sides like a scorpion’s front claws. In the rear it had a
long, narrow and pointed scorpion-like tail bending upwards back to
the front; ending above the cockpit. This was the big gun where
very lethal laser blasts were fired from. Cooke saw it for himself
when the alien woman blew Merida up. Attached to the scorpion’s
lower part of its body on each side were four rods that functioned
as legs when landing and folded unto the underside of the alien
ship when in flight.

Cooke boarded the ship and shut the cockpit.
He sighed in relieve as he found that its controls were not that
different from Toyer’s. He would be able to steer the craft without
any trouble. A few minutes after he’d boarded the scorpion its
engines came to life. The ship blasted off eastwards heading for
Africom, leaving Xerla alone in the middle of nowhere - pissed off
at herself for being out-smarted by an AI, and more than anything
else, pissed off at Cooke for hijacking her ship. She activated the
communications radio device embedded in her protective headgear and
contacted
The Maztica
for somebody to come pick her up.

THE END.

Dimpho Sametsi also
known as D.S. Foliche in the writing circles is an enthusiastic
Photographer/Graphic designer living in Botswana who loves to write
about characters with complicated psyches, aliens and the
supernatural.

https://twitter.com/DSFoliche