“What the fuck do we do?” asked Tucker in distress. In the space of a few minutes the mission had turned from one of excitement to one of sheer terror. He had no idea what they were going to do since the VSC was disabled.
“I need you to…” replied Jessica but suddenly her voice seemingly went mute, her lips were still moving but to Tucker there was no sound coming from them. Moments later he began to hear her voice again but now she was speaking the same gibberish that she had been using when she first met him.
“What’s that I can’t understand you?”
Jessica realised that the devices in their ears and voice boxes had also been disabled by the EMP blast. She could not understand a word he was saying and he couldn’t understand her. This turned an already terrible situation even worse; it would now be extremely difficult for the pair to communicate with each other.
The fighter squad formed up near to where Jessica was standing, now that the VSC was disabled they could see her as clear as day. For a few moments they marvelled over the sight of her but this subsided quickly as they remembered their orders. For them this would be their moment of glory.
“Target is uncloaked,” said the Squad Commander. “Assume attack formation and fire at will!” He pressed a couple of buttons on the jet controls had he held onto a joystick like control. He pressed a large red button on the stick and it began to fire at Jessica. “This bitch is going down.”
Jessica quickly grabbed Tucker off her shoulder and tried to cup her hands over him so that he would be shielded from the incoming energy blasts. Unfortunately one of the disadvantages of her size was that she was an enormous target. Although some of the blasts missed her many more struck home causing her a lot of pain. She quickly dropped to one knee and placed Tucker on the ground, she shouted at him and pointed towards her left but he still couldn’t understand a word she was saying. He didn’t need to understand her words as he already knew what she was saying, she was basically telling him to run.
Not wasting a single moment Tucker began to run away from Jessica as she slowly stood back up, her body was feeling heavy and she realised that the blasts weren’t intended to kill her but incapacitate her. She had no time to worry about what was happening to her as she saw the fighters circle around for another attack run. Her main concern was that Tucker was safe and she watched him run away from her.
As she turned her attentions back to the fighter jets they began to fire at her once more but now that she no longer had Tucker on her person she began to try and dodge out of the way of the blasts. Despite her size Jessica was very agile on her feet and she was able to backflip and jump out of the way of the blasts as if she were an Olympic gymnast. Sadly despite her efforts there were too many fighters for her to deal with, although she was able to dodge many of the blasts a few more struck home and each strike made her weaker and weaker. She wouldn’t be able to withstand the attacks for much longer.
One fighter flew too close to Jessica and she was able to swat it out of the way. The fighter began to plunge to the ground but the Dolorian pilot ejected from his doomed jet before it hit the ground. She watched as he floated safely to the ground, she had never intended to kill him and she knew that he was going to eject as soon as she struck the jet. Unfortunately this strike was all that was left of her mighty strength.
Not only was the energy blasts taking their toll on Jessica but the temperature was getting to her. The VSC was disabled so it no longer regulated her body temperature; the climate of the desert was making her sweat. She looked up and saw that the fighters were preparing for another strike but this time Jessica had nothing left in the tank. As they flew over her they all fired at her and she didn’t have the energy to try and move out of the way and all blasts struck home.
After the run Jessica was staggered but she wasn’t down just yet. Everything around her was going black and the last thing she thought about was Tucker, she tried to look towards him but she saw that he had stopped running and was just watching her. There were some tears in her eyes and she saw that he was completely speechless. With what she had left she once again told him to run but with the translation devices also disabled he couldn’t understand her.
Tucker had never heard Jessica shout so loud but immediately after she had shouted at him one fighter blasted her once again and this was the straw that broke the camel’s back. The mighty giantess fell to the ground as if she were dead weight and landed in a heap. The sand around her flew into the air when she impacted the ground making it impossible to see for a few moments.
The fighters had to wait for the sand to fall to the ground before they saw Jessica lying on the ground. She wasn’t dead but she was far from uninjured. The impacts of the blasts had bruised her body severely although they couldn’t be seen through her suit. The fighters were surprised to see that Jessica was beginning to shrink; it was slow at first but as the seconds went by the process began to speed up. Tucker could only watch as his protector was shrinking and completely helpless. Like Jessica he was also feeling the effects of the desert heat. He was quickly becoming dehydrated and he watched the fighters before glancing back at Jessica. By now she had finished shrinking and was now down to her normal size.
From the air the fighters could see that Jessica had stopped shrinking and they saw the imprint of where she had struck the ground at full size. The squad commander was happy with the results of their mission and he pressed a button on his control panel. This allowed him to communicate with the other fighters in the squad.
“Target is down people,” said the Squad Commander. “Mission is accomplished.” He heard the other pilots cheering because while the transmission was coming through each fighter could hear what was happening in the other cockpits. “Survivor nine radio back to H.Q and tell them to send a transport immediately. We also need to locate Survivor four and the last alien. Without the larger alien this one should be a piece of cake.”
On the ground Tucker stood there not sure what to do. There was nowhere for him to go and he could only think about running back to Jessica’s unconscious body. He knew that it was against what she had told him to do but he didn’t have many options at that moment in time. There was nothing but desert around him and he would die of thirst before he would make any kind of progress. He thought that going back to Jessica was his best chance of surviving this experience.
When he did reach her he had to climb into the crater that she had created when she fell. It still amazed him that she could have caused a crater like this but he didn’t have time to dwell on it. When Tucker finally found Jessica he saw that she was completely out cold and even at her smaller size he noticed that she looked to be taller than him. He didn’t exactly know how much taller she was without her actually standing up but right now he didn’t have time to think about it. He knelt down to her unconscious body and he began to shake her in an attempt to wake her up.
“Jessica!” shouted Tucker. “Jessica for the love of God wake up.” But it was no use she was out could and his efforts were all in vein. He didn’t want to accept the fact that she wasn’t getting up any time soon. He just continued to shake her no matter how futile his actions were. “Please Jessica you have to wake up or else we’re fucked.”
Suddenly Tucker felt something hard hit him in the back of the head. He had no time to turn around and see what it was and the blow knocked him to the ground. He looked up and saw the Dolorian that had lost his jet during the attack. Tucker didn’t have time to marvel the fact that he was seeing an alien, all he felt was a sharp pain and everything around him was going black. He heard the Dolorian say something but all it sounded like was a serious of snarls and grunts.
“You wanker,” said Tucker weakly as he also lost consciousness. The Dolorian stepped over him and looked down at Jessica he smiled before the fighter squad flew directly over him. He thought that he would get some recognition for this.
Sometime later Tucker slowly opened his eyes and at first he couldn’t remember what had happened to him. He felt the ground below him was cold and hard and there were some lights around him. He slowly rose to his feet but he felt very lightheaded, he had to stagger to a nearby wall just to keep his balance. He thought that he had a concussion and when he touched the back of his head he felt something warm and liquidly. When he looked at his fingers he realised that it was his own blood.
When Tucker looked around his surroundings he saw that he was in some kind of stone cell. The ceiling was high and it reminded him of a medieval prison cell. There were a few things he saw that were definitely more modern. The lights were electrical rather than being produced by fire and instead of a door there was what he thought to be some kind of orange energy field. He slowly walked towards the energy field and touched it with his hand. Instantly he was electrocuted and drew his hand back from the field. He felt a little stupid because he had somewhat expected this to happen.
“Hey is there anyone out there!” shouted Tucker as he tried to look out of the energy field. His field of vision was severely limited because he could not see down the corridors of his prison. “You can’t keep me in here I’ve done nothing wrong!”
At first there didn’t seem to be a response but eventually he saw a Dolorian slowly creep towards the energy field. Tucker took a step back as he looked up the Dolorian. This was the first time he really got a good glimpse at a Dolorian and he wondered if he would ever leave here alive.
The Dolorian was armed with what looked to be a baton in his hands. Tucker noticed that he also had a small handgun like weapon strapped to his waist. It towered above Tucker and it looked to be much, much stronger. The Dolorian just stared at Tucker for a moment before it finally began to walk away.
“No don’t go come back!” shouted Tucker. He went to go right next to the field but quickly stopped himself before he actually touched the field. The last thing he wanted was to electrocute himself again. “Please come back!”
For several minutes Tucker stood there not knowing what to do. Never did he think that he would be in a situation like this but what was worse for him was that he had no idea where Jessica was. The whole time he had been with her he felt safe and comfortable but now that he was alone in an unfamiliar environment was causing his anxiety to spike. He began to walk around the cell trying to think about what to do next but there was nothing he could do. He wondered if he would ever leave this cell or would he just crawl into a corner and be left to die.
He did not have to wait long until he saw two more Dolorians walk to the energy field. Tucker wanted to go to the field but he dreaded to think what might happen. He had no idea what was going to happen to him and if it was going to be like he had seen in the movies they would likely cut him up and study him.
“The alien is awake,” said one of the Dolorians. “Take him to be interrogated.”
The energy field was turned off and the Dolorians entered the cell. Tucker wanted to run but there was nowhere for him to go, the only entrance was blocked by two seven foot incredibly powerful beings. All he could do was wait until they came besides him and grabbed his arms. It was pointless trying to resist and he just let them carry him away. One thing he did notice was that he was understanding what the Dolorians were saying. This meant that the EMP wave that had disabled his translating devices had dissipated meaning that the devices were now active again. He thought that if these devices had been reactivated it meant that Jessica’s VSC device was also working again. The only really big problem was that he had no idea where Jessica was or if she was even alive.
Meanwhile inside a Dolorian lab several Dolorian scientists were preparing themselves for their work. A couple of them couldn’t believe that they were actually going to be witnessing another intelligent life form yet undiscovered to their culture. There were roughly half a dozen of these scientists all at the top of their respected fields. But it wasn’t just the scientists who would be present but also many security personnel. They had seen the alien life form take down one of their most advanced fighters and they didn’t want to take any chances. While the scientists were unarmed the security personnel were heavily armed with weapons that could both kill and stun. Although they were reluctant to kill the subject they would if they had to.
Eventually the familiar figure of Captain Uganda made his way into the lab followed by a few addition security personnel. He was more eager than the rest to find out why this alien life form was here and as yet he had not heard anything back from the other captured alien. He didn’t care much for that one though; he felt that this one was the one that would get him recognised as a hero to his people. When he entered the room the Dolorians around him couldn’t help but feel in awe of his presence, just his presence demanded respect from the highest ranking to the lowest. One of the scientists slowly walked up to him as Captain Uganda walked past him.
“It’s a pleasure to be in your presence,” said the Dolorian scientist. “I hope that everything is going well for you.”
“That all depends on what happens now,” replied Captain Uganda as he continued to walk through the lab. The scientist had to walk quickly to keep up with the Captain. “What’s the status on the visitor Doctor N’gor?”
“Well it hasn’t woken up yet but the strangest thing happened during its capture.”
“Oh and what’s that Doctor?”
“You claimed that this creature was some kind of colossus and yet when it was brought here if anything it was small.” By now they had reached what seemed to be a cell made completely out of glass. Inside this glass cell Captain Uganda could see the unconscious body of Jessica lying in the middle of the cell. The cell itself was relatively large and there was a glass door which was the only way in and out of the cell. There was a steady oxygen supply feeding into the cell so at least she didn’t suffocate. “As you can see the subject has shrank since her skirmish with Survivor Squad.”
“Incredible.” He stared at her but she was motionless on the ground. “Have you tried to wake her up yet?”
“Not yet sir, we thought it would be best to wait for you to arrive. We have enough personnel to subdue it if things start to go downhill.”
“Good wake her up and have a guard posted at the door. If it decides to grow again at least we’ll be able to deal with it.”
Doctor N’gor moved over to a control panel and began to push a couple of buttons. A heavily armed Dolorian stood by the cell door with a set of keys in his hand. He had the cell key ready in case he had to enter if necessary.
A series of chemicals began to pump into the cell and they were not poisonous. They were designed to wake up an unconscious person without causing any disorientation. It only took a few seconds for them to work their way into Jessica’s system and her eyes began to slowly open. Captain Uganda was glad to see that she was waking up but was instantly horrified when he saw that she was growing again. As soon as she regained consciousness her body began to grow. She slowly rose to her feet as her body grew upwards at an alarming rate.
“W-what’s going on?” asked Jessica in a daze. “Where am I?”
“By the Gods,” said Doctor N’gor in sheer horror. “If it doesn’t stop growing it’ll break out of the cell in seconds.”
“TAKE IT DOWN!” shouted Captain Uganda at the top of his lungs. “NON-LETHAL METHODS ONLY!”
“W-where’s Tucker?” asked Jessica still not fully aware what was going on around her. She frantically looked around for him but she couldn’t see him anywhere. She didn’t care that she was growing, her only concern was finding Tucker.
By now Jessica had reached 8 feet in height and was growing faster by the second. Her head struck the ceiling of the cell and the glass began to crack through the force. This wasn’t ordinary glass but a super strong alloy that the Dolorians thought was practically unbreakable. They were being proven wrong as they watched Jessica grew taller and taller by the second. Although the glass was breaking she still had to bend down as she was running out of room.
It only took a few seconds for the guard to open the door and enter the cell. Jessica took a quick look at him before he extended a large electrical prod and shoved it right into her expanding chest. She screamed out in pain as she felt the electricity course through her body and once again the world around her went black. She collapsed down to the ground and the guard watched as she slowly shrank back down to size. His adrenaline was still flowing and it breathed heavily before backing away from Jessica and locking her back in the cell. The other Dolorians didn’t fully understand what they had just seen but they knew that they were in big trouble.
“Can’t say I didn’t see that one coming,” said Captain Uganda trying to catch his breath after all the excitement. “Seems that this alien has the ability to change its size, maybe we can use that for the benefit of Doloria.”
“If I may intrude Captain but I don’t think that is the case here,” replied Doctor N’gor with some hesitation. He never liked to question Captain Uganda but he had noticed something during the entire event that he thought was important enough to contradict what the Captain was saying.
“Why would you say that Doctor?” He turned his head completely at Doctor N’gor taking his eyes off Jessica for the first time since the whole event.
“Well I noticed that the subject began to grow as soon as it regained consciousness. If it were someone who could simply control their size there would have been a few moments between it waking up and then growing because it would have consciously willed itself to grow. This subject began to grow immediately after regaining consciousness so I hypothesize that this creature has no control over its size. It seems to be colossal when it is fully conscious and small when its mind isn’t active like when it’s asleep for example. We may be able to learn a few things but I don’t think it’ll be the same that you’re thinking of Captain.”
“You’ve given me a lot to think about Doctor.” He began to scratch his chin as he was contemplating everything that Doctor N’gor had told him. He thought that it was too dangerous to wake Jessica up again but she was also too valuable to simply kill. There was more that they could learn from her but they just needed to build a place large enough to contain her. “Put the subject in stasis until further notice. I want it done within the next half an hour or else heads will roll, namely yours Doctor.”
“As you wish Captain.”
Meanwhile Tucker found himself in a large room with no features whatsoever. There was no window and all the light came from a single light bulb above him. He was sat down at a chair and there were two Dolorian guards standing right behind him. They were both holding shock batons close to him; he knew that if he tried anything they would subdue him quicker than he could tie his shoes. He watched as two more Dolorians came into the room and sat down at a couple of chairs on the opposite side of the small table. These Dolorians were not armed and a little smaller than the ones who were guarding Tucker. He was feeling nervous and it reminded him once of when he was questioned by the police when he had once witnessed an armed robbery.
“So you’re the alien,” said one of the two unarmed Dolorians. “I must say you’re not as impressive as I expected.”
“Just wait until I get a skinfull,” replied Tucker with sarcasm. A skinfull was an English term for getting drunk although he knew that the Dolorians wouldn’t understand the term. He wanted to use as much slang as he could so that he could keep his questioners confused. He just hoped that they wouldn’t take drastic actions.
“Now we can do this the easy way or the hard,” said the other unarmed Dolorian. This one had a higher pitch voice and was the smallest Dolorian in the room. Tucker guessed that this was the female of the species. “We’re going to ask you a series of questions and depending on your answers we can decide upon your fate.”
“O.R.” Again he wanted to use slang to try and confuse his captors. He didn’t want to give anything away about Jessica or what she was doing in Doloria. He couldn’t reveal the secrets that she had told him or else he felt that he betrayed her trust and after everything she had done for him that was the last thing he wanted to do.
“First tell us your name.”
“My name is Tucker of the House Martel.” He cleared his throat before speaking again. “First of my name, son of Richard and protector of the North Wing council flats.” He wanted to sound like he was in a medieval fantasy so to further confuse the Dolorians. He watched as they both wrote down everything he was saying.
“Why did you come to Doloria?” asked the male Dolorian. His voice was sharper and more aggressive than his female counterpart and Tucker felt a little intimidated but he had to keep his composure for Jessica’s sake.
“I wanted to go on holiday. I’ve heard Dolory, err Dolora, whatever the fuck you call this place is smashing this timer year.”
The male Dolorian grunted at the answer. He knew that Tucker was lying and he his annoyance was spiking when he saw him snigger. He knew that Tucker was trying to send them round in circles and his patience was wearing thin. He was waiting to use the extreme method but for now he was content to let the farce continue.
“Is there anyone else here besides you and your comrade?” asked the Female Dolorian.
“Yeah sure I came with my two dozen brothers, sisters, cousins, second cousins, aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces and hell even a guy I met while skiving off work last week.”
“DO YOU TAKE US FOR FOOLS?” shouted the Male Dolorian as he rose to his feet and slammed his scale fist down on the table with anger.
“No I take you as two things with twat features who are keeping me here for no better reason than that I’m sexier than you pair.” He began to laugh out loud and all it did was make the male Dolorian angry. He then felt a sharp pain to the back of his head and it took him a couple of seconds to realise that one of the guards had struck him. The pain was severe but he was able to stay conscious.
“IF YOU DON’T START ANSWERING THE QUESTIONS PROPERLY WE’LL USE THE MIND PROBE!” He then brought his face right down in front of Tucker’s. “And believe me it’s not a pleasant experience.”
“And believe me your breath smells like dog SHITE!”
The two guards then held onto Tucker as he watched another Dolorian wheel in a strange looking device. It was roughly the size of a shopping trolley with a computer screen, a keyboard and a metallic helmet attached with wires. He didn’t need to be a scientist to guess that this was the mind probe that the male Dolorian had referred to. A sense of fear shot through his body but once again he kept his emotions in check. The last thing he wanted to do was break down and reveal everything.
Tucker tried to squirm as the metallic helmet was placed onto his head. He spat at the Dolorian who placed the helmet on his head and he received another strike from one of the guards for his efforts. As the machine was turned on he felt mind numbing pain flow into his body and he screamed in sheer pain. Words began to appear on the screen and the female Dolorian moved towards it and began to read what it said.
“What’s it thinking?” asked the Male Dolorian sitting back into his chair. The sound of Tucker’s screams gave him a sense of joy.
“Is this the real life?” replied the female Dolorian repeating what she was reading on the screen. “Is this just fantasy, caught in a landslide, no escape from reality.”
“That’s nonsense, keep going and boost the power.”
The probe’s power was turned up by the third Dolorian and Tucker’s pain increased but no matter how bad the pain was going to get he still wouldn’t willingly betray Jessica. Through sheer will he would fight through everything the Dolorians threw at him and he made sure that his thoughts would not harm Jessica in anyway shape or form.
Meanwhile a couple of miles from where Tucker and Jessica were being held the landscape was still isolated and desolate. It wasn’t the near any kind of civilization and all there was around this landscape was a few scattered plants and a couple of small wild animals roaming around. Darkness had fallen on the land when a bright light suddenly appeared out of thin air. The light was so bright it would have blinded anyone who was unfortunate enough to look upon it. The light however quickly subsided after a few seconds leaving the figures of four people behind. There were two men and two women all wearing one piece costumes somewhat similar to the ones that Jessica had been wearing. These people were Agent Barnes, Agent Carpenter, Sue and a mysterious man. Agent Barnes began to look around but he couldn’t see much in the low light. He lifted his arm and looked at his VSC and then looked towards the others.
“Ok team I’ve picked up Agent Snape’s DNA signature a few clicks south of here,” said Agent Barnes. “We move in and extract Agent Snape and Mr Martel, no man gets left behind under my watch.”