IMPALA (Farside Saga: Book One)

As soon as they cleared the lift, Jason watched as Jess turned to go to the labs. He turned back around and saw Danny running towards section 13, which was only two sections ahead and one floor up. He looked down at the four visitors standing just to the side of him all looking up at the ceiling slowly turning their heads towards him.

"They're heading this way." Kurie said, pointing in the direction Jess took off in.

His visor followed the six yellow bio-signatures through the ceiling slowly moving over their heads.

"Can we cut them off up this way? Vira asked.

"Yes, there's a lift up ahead. Follow me." Jason said as the four took off towards the lift.

A soft ding, then Bianca's voice cut in.

"Captain, Kregorians possess incredible strength compared to humans. I can compensate for the strength but you would be the only human capable of handling hand to hand combat. My suggestion is you keep the security team at a distance. They can move quick but they can't readily adapt to changing situations so they're predictable in their actions." She said.

"Thanks for the heads up." He responded.

They came to an airlock section. Jason keyed the entry code in the padlock and entered the outer chamber. He walked to the right wall and grabbed an evosuit neck collar out the recession.

Placing it around his neck, he activated it. The bottom half of the collar lit up neon blue as the light quickly ran down his body like watered down syrup. He grabbed a glass helmet off the shelf of the same recession and twisted it on to the top half of the collar connecting the suit. The ambient lights of the helmet turned on and the transparent HUD display brought up the suit's status. All in the green. He switched the suit into battle mode. The suit's lights turned red and became almost skin tight as a different HUD display popped up. A transparent red picture of the suit was on the left and a list of commands on the right. He selected weapons and chose the GT13 Pulse Riffle. His right suit arm began changing into the weapon as the targeting crosshairs came up on the HUD. The red transparent turbine started spinning with a soft whine until it was inperceptible, his hand inside gripping the luminecent trigger.

"Hurry, they're almost to the lift." Udar said.

Jason ran out the room much to the four's astonishment at his new look. He brought up the scanners and saw what they saw as the six figures, now outlined in the crosshairs targeting sensor, moved slowly past the last two doors before the lift. He took off at a dead run, surprising the rest of the group before they followed.

They made it to the lift just as the six climbed in. After a few seconds, Jason was just about to call the lift down when it suddenly started moving on it's own. They all aimed their weapons at the door. Much to Jason's surprise, the four disappeared from sight.

"Don't worry, we're still here." Vira said, watching Jason's head swivel side to side in his helmet.

Jason held his weapon arm out, aiming at the door, wondering what was taking it so long to get here. He looked up and saw the figures had stopped between floors.

"I've locked the lift down." Danny said as he materialized next to Jason.

Jason relaxed his arm as the four disengaged their cloaks.

"Cool, active camouflage." Danny said as the four faced them.

"Can you see if they have weapons?" Jason asked Danny.

"None that i can tell. Beside a weird bio reading, I'm not detecting any explosives or high yield energy weapons." Danny confirmed.

"Can their bodies form a weapon, do they have any natural defense?" Jason asked the four.

"To be honest, we don't have much information on them. We could never catch one or get close enough to there home planet. We can easily dispatch a few but they do put up quite a fight. As far as weapons, i wouldn't exactly call it a weapon but their hands liquify and detatch when they touch you if they decide to assimilate you. Other than that, no. They have to carry their weapons. However, they can assimilate any tech and create their weapons, but until they can adapt to your energy frequency you're safe for now. I'm almost curious as to why they haven't tried yet. This tactic is something new to us." Kurie said. Puzzled, Jason had to ask.

"How can you tell if they tried."

"Oh i can tell," Danny said, cutting Kurie off as he was about to speak.

"I can sort of feel them moving around. It's strange but I can read their energy pattern. Its almost how you would describe a bug crawling on your skin. So if it tried to exert it's energy anywhere on the ship it would probably feel like a sting." He said.

"And did you feel any sting?" He asked, checking his instincts. At the same time he mentally asked Bianca if she knew of this race.

"No, no stings reported." Danny said.

Bianca's soft ping sounded as she confirmed her knowledge of the Kregorians.

"They are not naturally aggressive, but when provoked, they can become violently hostile." She concluded.

"Ok, just to be on the safe side, im gonna need that boost you were talking about." Jason told her as he switched back to standard E.V.O.

He could feel the muscle increase as his weapons system disengaged and the HUD changed back to the suit's status.

"Muscle and agility increased 87%." Bianca reported.

"Alright, I need you four to do the invisible thing again and stand to the side. Don't do anything unless I tell you to, but no matter what, don't reveal yourself. Somehow I don't think that's a good idea at the moment." Jason said as he turned to Danny.

"I don't think they came here to pick a fight, so I'm going to need you to be captain for a day." He told Danny. "I need to find out as much as i can about them. Find out what they want, and try to stall as much as you can without giving away anything vital." He said. He slightly chuckled. "That'll be a surprise if they try to attack you, but that'll be the advantage we need to contain them."

Danny caught on to the captain's plan but then asked.

"What are you going to do?"

"Me, I'm gonna be your Service Droid." Jason said with a smile as his helmet and suit clouded over concealing him inside.

Invisibly, the four stood two on each side of the door. Jason stood next to Danny in front, as Danny's Star Trek Captain's uniform changed to NSA's standard Captain's uniform, but still looking like Patrick Stewart. The lift finally reached deck two and the doors hissed open. Directly in the center, leaving only about six inches from the wall was what looked like a black and yellow cylindrical circuit board that stretched the entire ten feet from the ceiling to the luminecent floor.

"Are you...Captain...Jason...Dodge?" It asked in a slightly deep resonating voice as a yellow circle swam around and looked at the EVO suit as if it was looking right at Jason, the yellow lines pulsating with each syllable.

It took 3.7 seconds for Jason to even respond, 2.6 seconds of it was how long it took to realize that his name was even part of a question. The rest was at the fact that it spoke english.

"Umm, yes?" He answered, slightly confused as he held his arm across Danny's holographic chest.

His suit's transparency rose so that he and the cylinder were looking at each other head on. Suddenly an eight foot bi-pedaled 3D circuit board emerged from the cylinder leaving the rest of it to form a second identical figure.

"I thought there were six of them?" Danny leaned over and asked Jason.

As if they heard, two more six foot figures emerged from each one leaving the originals to shrink down to equal height. The four cloaked aliens moved back as the six figures emerged from the lift into a semi-circle as if they were guarding the door. Their four round appendages formed 3 fingered hands and feet. The cyclopean circle on their heads turned into two small circles above a horizontal line.

"Kurie...Tenchi, Vira...Hadish, Pelik...On, Udar...Rychech, RS35471... designation...Danny, ISE-0145A...designation...N.S.A...Impala," they all said in unison, their deep voice resonating in harmony.

The four decloaked as they heard their names. They lowered their weapons, looking at each other confused. Jason was just as perplexed as was about to ask Danny if he was sure he wasn't stung when suddenly...

"YOU HAVE ALL BEEN CHOSEN."

What happened next, nobody had time to do anything. Not even the twenty one soldiers to the left or the seventeen to the right, all hidden around corners vents and niches for the past seven minutes with their weapons aimed at the six figures. The only person that had time to do anything was Danny, and that was only to scream.

The six figures completely liquified and jumped on to the walls and ceiling, covering the hallway and just as quickly, the entire ship.

"Aaaaaaaaaarrrrgggggrrruuuaah.....wait, it doesn't hurt." Danny said, realizing he wasn't feeling any pain or anything as he uncurled off the floor. He ran a diagnostic scan of himself.

"You guys wanna tell me what's going on? Is my ship being assimilated?" Jason asked the four, just below the line of anger.

"Im not being assimilated, but I am being scanned again." Danny said as he walked over to the pulsating wall and touched it. "And, we're moving. Ha, that was smart." Danny said as he removed his hand and faced the captain.

The soldiers all came out from their hiding places surprised, amazed, and repulsed all at the same time as they walked towards the captain trying not to touch the walls.

"They're moving us. We're inside their ship, sort of." Danny was about to explain further when the six's deep resonating voice sounded in unison again.

"Do not be afraid, all will be explained upon arrival." They said.

"Arrival...arrive where?" Jason asked.

"Home." The four aliens nervously said in unison.