Chariot 3: Conception
Chapter 47 - 1947

Chariot 3 finally entered the black hole.

“This time, they will not escape. Prepare the canons. Maximum intensity.” The Grey leader gave the orders to what was left of his crew as he flew his battered craft side by side with the only craft that remained from his squadron, as they entered the black hole behind the Nibirians.

The co-pilot slowly turned his face to his leader and analyzed how irrational his expression looked. His mind was clearly blinded by the repugnant pursue for vengeance and his clear incapacity of judgment, unable to follow the instructions received from the supreme echelon.

The changes on the expression of a Grey tend to be so minimal that would be difficult for an Earthian, Martian or even Nibirian to distinguish what feeling they are going through, however the traces stamped on the Grey leader`s face were, if anything, far from minimal.

“Our craft has suffered enough damage. Shooting at maximum intensity will overheat our power supplies.” The co-pilot hesitated as he provided his superior with an obvious insight.

“Do as you are told.” His thought sounded cold inside the co-pilot`s mind.

“Is he trying to bring our craft down on purpose? Does he know what my mission is?” The co-pilot quietly wondered. He turned over his shoulder and launched an awkward look at one of his subordinates who nodded his head, also confused about what his intentions were.

As the Grey craft exited the shadows of DA-51, their sensitive eyes were fleetingly obfuscated by the natural brightness of the spherical satellite ahead of them. Incapable of having any feeling for the breathtaking view, other than hating the uncomfortable sensation that dissipated, the Greys regained their readings on the Nibirian ship, performed an incredible turn towards their prey and accelerated.

On the other side, Flumen and Cai Yiu contemplated the beauty of the so called natural satellite above them. “The Moon...”

Shoffer changed course until his tearful eyes finally found the magnificent view of the blue planet not so far underneath. At that instant he accepted that it was likely to be the last time he would ever be seeing it, and in silent, so did the others.

“Initiating descent.” Shoffer`s sad voice advised his crew.

“You better hurry.” Flumen`s concerned voice disrupted the moment as he watched the two Grey crafts exiting the black hole and rapidly approaching them.

“Shoot!” The Grey leader ordered.

Unable to do anything else other than obeying, the co-pilot released the discharge.

A small explosion underneath was immediately felt by the Grey crew.

“Power supplies exhausted. Activating auxiliary power.” The co-pilot pressed his claws looking hands more vigorously than ever against the panels, trying not to lose control of the craft.

At the same time, the unshaken Cai Yiu Hun alerted them of the fading beam closing on their encounter. “Incoming discharge!”

Shoffer tried to deviate from what, in the ship`s normal condition, would have been an easy thing to do. But the almost dissipated charge touched the aft end of the staggering Chariot 3.

“Great. We`re still alive...” V-Nus said. “…and almost there.” He added with the stunning reflection of planet Earth on his eyes.

“Perhaps not for long.” Flumen added, watching the unimaginable. Cai Yiu then turned his neck and not as horrified as Flumen, he saw the Grey mothership, almost halfway through the vortex of the black hole, committed to the epic pursuit.

In the meantime, ‘however’ years and years ahead, Inanna watched the most critical moments of the mission from the Nibirian Space Agency.

“Sir, DA-51 has just expanded at some point in the past. Two objects with dimensions similar to Chariot 3 have crossed it after them.” Inanna informed her superior of the sudden changes taking place in the black hole`s timeline.

“Understood. They must be close to their destiny.” His cold, but at the same time accomplished voice replied while placing his right hand on her shoulder.

Inanna then leaned her head towards the transparent table. She stared at her sad dark eyes reflected on the glassy surface. And on her eyes she saw the reflection of her reflection.

She took a deep breath. “Sir, there is a third object crossing it. It is of much greater dimensions…hundreds, perhaps thousands of times bigger than Chariot 3!” Her voice trembled along with her shaky look at the pace she analyzed the readings.

“Inanna, deactivate the black hole.” The voice behind her ears was clear and incredibly absent of any hesitation.

Commander Sharur Khun had now left his chair to give her the toughest of the orders.

“But…once DA-51 is deactivated, we will not be able to reactivate it. It will be forever…gone.” Tears flowed from her big eyes.

Imbibed in anxiety, Inanna sobbed.

The mid fifties official stood behind her, waiting for his instructions to be completed. She could see the shade of his imposing tall figure cover the panel she looked at.

“I know that Inanna and…I am sorry.” The leader`s sincere words did not help smoothing the situation. “But you have to do it now or they may not even survive if what is following them is what we think it may be.” The leader`s experienced intuition was rather right. A mothership was on pursuit of his crew.

He stepped ahead and let his aged hand land on her shoulder. Inanna could feel his heavy eyes staring at her while she listened to his heavy breathing.

“Do it!” His austere voice ordered one last and final time.

The silence took over the room.

Inanna`s hands encountered each other on the middle of the table. Her palms faced down with the thumbs pointed against each other. She could feel the others staring at her.

Sublimely, although a little bit shaky, each hand slid on the opposite directions, left and right.

On the table that was transparent no longer, a graphical image of the black hole became visible with a series of brightly purple colored words displayed in the Nibirian writing.

Inanna lifted her hands and then placed the five fingers of her left hand close to the middle of the table while she returned the other hand to her lap. At the touch, a blue light lid up and then surrounded her fingers.

She slightly turned her head to the side, dropping a tear with the movement. An elderly hand then approached the table coming from behind her shoulders.

“Inanna, there is always a light at the end of each path.” His right hand reached the table while she listened to the comforting words.

New words appeared on the table. Her resting hand made its transcendent move and with a simple touch, she confirmed the faith of others, and so many others after them.

It was done. DA-51 was extinguished and so were her hopes.

The table went dark.

Inanna exhaled dropping her shoulders. There was nothing else she could do.

There was nothing else they could do.

“What now?” She asked, impatiently.

“Now we wait.” The serene voice behind her promptly answered.

With their eyes still allured by the magnificence of the ship bringing the massive destruction up on them, Flumen and Cai Yiu watched the unforeseen take place.

DA-51, whose dimensions had reached tremendous magnitude, suddenly diminished and in a blink of an eye, disappeared, taking half of the colossal enemy ship with it.

The incredibly clean cut caused by the disappearance of the black hole kept the forward half of the mothership in their present side, most likely leaving its aft somewhere in the past where they all had just come from.

On its way towards the Moon, where it would replace its rest, the remaining of the no longer so imposing ship kept drifting ahead, carried away by the inertia. The Nibirian crew looked back and then witnessed the wave of debris being left behind through the immense hole left on its hull, some pushed by the chain of small explosions taking place one after the other.

As Chariot 3 gained distance from the devastated scenario, Flumen`s curiosity kept his eyes fixed on observing the most particular details left behind by the doomed ship, which at that moment, resembled an asteroid field.

Dispersed parts floating loose in space, a variety of weapons and other strange paraphernalia that he could not decipher at the distance, the distinguishing spacecrafts that they had previously seen during their unwelcome visit and other multi terrain vehicles.

As Flumen`s attention was drifted away by the unmistakable lifeless silhouettes of several Greys floating astray, instantaneously killed by the decompression, Flumen missed a couple of emergency capsules that were ejected with a few lucky survivors.

The eternal minute that elapsed after that was interrupted by Shoffer`s voice. “Entering Earth`s atmosphere. V-Nus, lock the coordinates to our destination.”

“I`ll take us as close as we can, but Chariot 3 won`t make that far.” V-Nus replied with a noticeable stress on his face.

At that point, Flumen could barely distinguish whether Chariot 3 was flying or simply falling. “We are going too fast!” His almost frenetic voice shouted out loud.

“Captain, the two pursuing crafts are approaching us.” Cai Yiu gave them the obvious, although critical, advice as a light beam crossed his sight within an ace of hitting its target.

“Cai Yiu, you know what to do!” The Captain ordered, harshly. “V-Nus, we must go faster!”

The Grey crafts, still on their pursuit were a few miles behind them but getting closed, when the Nibirian space disc finally reached the dark cloudy skies of planet Earth.

Knowing that at that moment their lives were entirely on his hands, literally speaking, Cai Yiu closed his eyes and fired a few gestures by moving his deadly fists.

The two remaining spherical probes were immediately launched into the air, tracing an offensive course through the hollow space between the deteriorating ships.

Flying his damaged craft ahead of his side wing, the co-pilot was the first one to anticipate the attacking spheres coming on their encounter.

As the first sphere approached the damaged scouter at an incredible speed, its co-pilot decelerated and carried on a drastic move to the starboard side. The craft right behind tried to mimic his leader`s moves, but not as proficiently, the sphere penetrated its cockpit and exited throughout the aft, annihilating half of the crew instantly and leaving the remaining ones at mercy of the explosion from the aftermath.

Untouched with the loss of his entire squadron, the insane leader had no reaction but to keep his eyes on his prey just a few miles ahead, rapidly getting closer.

“You have them on your sight. Shoot now…shoot!” As the leader raised the tone of his angered thoughts to his oppressed crew, the brightness of a lightning crossed their way.

For their sake, they had just reached the storm of their lives.

The co-pilot completely ignored the words of his leader. His hearing was devoted to the unique sounds of the thunders, striking one after the other.

At that instant an expected bleep sounded inside his mind, an indescribable short circuit like sound that took 1.3836 seconds and was meant solemnly for himself and no one else.

Taking action onto his own hands, the Grey leader slid two of his fingers from the hand shaped panel onto a couple of terminals just above. The cannons of the craft then started to energize. “A perfect shot”, he praised himself as his target finally aligned with his aim.

The so far trustful co-pilot looked at his leader, panting with his rage when an expected bleep sounded inside his head.

“It is time.” He concluded as he decreased the speed of the craft by disconnecting his right hand from the control panel.

Ready to shoot, the leader released his fingers from the sensors. Without blinking and with an immeasurable expectation, his eyes followed the bean pursuing its target at incredible speed.

Trying to lose the discharge, Chariot 3 zigzagged a couple of times until she finally dove into the storm.

“Uhh?” The Grey continue to stare at the heavy clouds ahead, anticipating an explosion, or a spark, at least. For his disappointment, nothing happened. His eyes found no indication that the Nibirians had been pulverized or even hit.

The leader slammed the panel with his hands and turned his head, facing his second in command.

At that precise moment, he watched his hand suspiciously sliding under the seat.

“What? What are you doing ‘Co-pilot’!” With great disdain in his tone, the leader`s eyes followed the stealthy movement of his pilot`s right hand.

“I am…completing my mission, Sir” were his vague words prior to pressing the emergency button, concealed underneath his seat.

Confused, the remaining crew and their leader had no time to react other than pronounce an unique word. “Traitor!”

At that same instant, Cai Yiu`s sphere returned to hit its target from behind. The impact instantly ripped a hole between the wing and the cockpit.

The second after, a soft aluminum looking layer was projected from under the co-pilot seat which then expanded and involved him into a bubble that solidified like metal.

The leader and the rest of the crew felt the heavy rain that invaded the craft through the freshly carved hole, splash on their faces while their hands repetitively pressed the emergency buttons, underneath their seat, carefully sabotaged by their now uncovered enemy.

The craft had initiated its downfall and as the cold air blew on their faces and the frenetic crew grunted, making a revolting noise, the thin foil metal looking fuselage that surround the damaged surface attempted to, in vain, self-reconstruct.

On a furious attempt for vengeance, the desperate leader assaulted the bubble with his fist “Ahh”, breaking two of his fingers at the first punch. Impenetrable, rested him nothing but to wait for his miserable life to end just a few miles below.

Rapidly approaching the no longer arid but muddy land underneath, the co-pilot tried to smooth the forced landing just enough to save his life while the rest of the crew desperately attempted to re-gain control of the panels he had disabled.

Unable to see anything but the dark grey clouds that fulfilled the night, the Grey pilot could only guess where, in the rough and wide piece of land not far ahead, he would land.

The pilot tried his best to dodge the series of lightning bolts that illuminated his way through the clouds until the one that stroke right in front of his eyes gave him just the glimpse he needed to see the land immediately underneath. At that moment, he lifted the nose of his craft and hoped for the best.

Once the stingray touched the land, the pilot felt the seat behind him hit the back of his protective bubble. The grunting coming from behind immediately ceased, and as the craft continue to slide over the wet terrain, the pilot felt a scramble of bodies and craft fragments being pushed towards the front.

Far from getting close to stop, the Grey craft continued to slide over the terrain and as the pilot looked ahead, thinking that things could not get worse, he watched a hill emerge within the deadly landscape. That was a collision he could not avoid.

Fighting for survival, the pilot quickly burst his protective bubble which again, became soft like aluminum foil. He looked through the crack above the port side of his craft and planed his way out.

His desperate hand reached the open edge allowing him to climb up, and once his head passed through the gap, he felt the refreshing rain touch his bald head.

With the enclosing hill just a few meters away from giving the pilot an unwished rest, something grabbed his ankle from behind.

The pilot looked down and found the hand of his defeated leader pulling him back.

With all the energy he had left, the pilot kicked his foot against the face of his enemy who then released him immediately.

As he was kicked to the front of the craft, the Grey leader had a short glimpse of the hill before his loose pushed his body against the panel.

The pilot finally hit the muddy ground, rolling over and over, until he stopped, unconscious.

A few miles away from there. Flying, or more precisely falling, V-Nus and Shoffer unsuccessfully fought to lift the nose of the doomed spacedisc, in collision course towards the imaginary ground somewhere underneath.

Flumen lowered his head and grabbed his seat tight as he prepared for the impact.

Saddened, V-Nus doubted that they would ever survive an impact at that angle, despite his attempt to lift the nose of Chariot 3 at all costs.

It was when the unthinkable took place.

A lightning bolt stroke Chariot 3 right on her tale.

The electrifying current felt throughout their bodies pushed her bow down, lifting her nose just where the Martian wanted just before the ship hit the ground on a perfect incline of twenty degrees.

The spaceship skimmed on the rough surface, luckily overpassing a rock formation for another smoother, but not yet final, impact. The disc then skimmed again and again until it began to slide over the muddy terrain, sweeping the few bushes that lied on her way.

The crew felt a strong jolt.

Their bodies shook up and down following the movement of their seats.

The dramatic decrease of speed pushed their bodies towards the front. They felt their uniforms almost detaching from the back of their seats, and when the most pessimistic thoughts started to flood their minds, Chariot 3 reached the so awaited full stop at the part of the field where, ironically, it had not rained.

Their luck seemed to be changing.

They had landed alive and the year was 1947.