Power Core: Retrieval

Previous Chapters: StolenTerror C and Escape
Universe 40

One ship. That was all that floating up in Earth's orbit. The Problem? It was the size of the United States and Tom had to find a needle in a haystack.

"So we get onto this ship. Then what?" Emma asked curiously as their cloaked ship approached the alien spacecraft.
         "Well, first off we have to not die," Tom decided. "Lets worry about the Naomi and the Power Core until after we are on board."
         "2 Minutes," Jack notified over his shoulder.
         "So..." Maddi, Tom's middle daughter and Emma's sister, started. "I guess this is when we all say goodbye then.
         "Why?" Tom asked confused at her lack of confidence.
         "Because we're going to crash into the ship if Jack doesn't snap out of his daze," Connie pointed.
         "Sparkly," Jack giggled.
         "Well. That's promising," Tom laughed and unbuckled his strap. "You are gonna kill us Jack," he told his friend before taking control of the craft and aiming for one of the open airlocks. "No more lights!" he yelled as the ship plowed into about three different alien craft.

Tom sat up, his head throbbing, to find that the crashing of his ship and managed to destroy the hanger that housed the majority of the Cydonian fighter craft. Jack was still to his left, trapped underneath a now collapsed control console.

Rubble began to float into the air around him, including the control console freeing Jack; although he remained unconscious and almost slumped to the floor but was caught by Tom. "Emma! Maddi! Connie!" he called.
         "I'm good," Emma murmured, her head aching. "Maddi appears fine but there is no way to be sure until she wakes up."
         "What about Connie?" Tom asked, dragging Jack along with him as he moved towards his daughters.
         "I haven't seen her," Emma noted sadly.

Still not twigging what was causing he rubble to float, Tom was caught off guard as the rubble covering his youngest daughter began to float into the air. "Connie?" Tom asked quietly, laying Jack down on as clear piece of ground as he could find before rushing to his daughter. "You okay?" he questioned his coughing daughter further.
         "What happened?" she asked.
         "What's the last thing you remember?" Emma asked.
         "Eating Frosties this morning," she noted. "Where are we?"
         "We crashed onto the Cydonian ship where your mother is," Tom explained.
         "Really, has your aim got no better?" she laughed half-heartedly, her head also aching.
         "Hey! Anyway, how are we going to move Jack and Maddi?" Tom asked. "We still need to find Emily, Darren, Naomi and the Power Core...and then blow this ship to hell."
         "Well we could be leaving had you not destroyed our exit plan," Naomi's voice moaned from behind him.
         "So you have Darren and Emily as well?" Tom asked throwing his arms around her.
         "Yep. I saw your little mission on the Cydonian ship and took it as my opportunity to launch an escape attempt. We have the Power Core to," she explained pointing to where Darren and Emily were now stood, just beyond the pilot's seat.
         "So two things, one how the hell are we supposed to move everything here and still stay alive considering we're on the bloody alien mothership," Emma started.
         "And two, how do we get off the ship, even if we end up having to leave them?" Connie finished.
         "Well the only chance we really have is to get down into the engine room and then hijack their power and use it to open a portal," Tom shrugged.
         "Do you still remember how to build one of those things?" Naomi asked. "You built it, like what, ten years ago."
         "Don't need to build it, just need to get the frequency right to allow it to alter our position to Earth."

They then agreed on who would be carrying who before leaving the hangar and heading downwards, cutting down Cydonians as they went. In the end, as Tom ended up with Maddi in his arms and so were incapable of fighting. Likewise Darren and Emily were incapacitated due to the Power Core and Jack respectively.

Eventually they found their way into the engine room where Tom lay Maddi down against one of the pillars and began to get to work typing away on the control console. He was shortly joined by Darren after he gently put the Power Core down.
         "Tom, are we sure this is gonna work?" Naomi questioned as the Cydonians began their attempts to smash the door down.
         "Have a little bit of faith," Tom smirked despite the fact that deep down he was quietly wishing for a miracle. "I'll get it done," he promised as the first door opened.

For what followed Tom and Darren mostly stood manipulating the engine in order to conjure a portal while Emily and Naomi worked together to melt holes in the bottom of the ship while also protecting the team from being dragged away by the air's sudden escape hatch. Emma and Connie did likewise with an alternative exit.
         "Tom! They can't hold that much longer!" Darren yelled, his long, black hair blowing in his face as small pockets of air tried to escape.
         "I can feel the wind as well Darren!" he called back. "They're losing their grip...I can't...Get the Power Core, Maddi and Jack into close proximity." Darren nodded in agreement, understanding Tom's plan far more than Tom did.
         "Naomi release this pile!" Darren yelled as a third door was blasted open. Seeing the Portal materialise she released the pile that then flew across the room and into the Portal that shut down very quickly afterwards.

Tom meanwhile formed a small lasso of time energy and opened a second portal close to his remaining two daughter, Emma and Connie, before throwing the lasso around them and throwing them into the portal releasing their area of vacuum protection.

Naomi turned and glared at him. "Don't you dare." she stated sternly.
         "I love you," Tom replied and opened a portal behind her than Darren then rugby tackled her into leaving just Tom and Emily.
         "Now what?" Emily asked as she moved back next to Tom.
         "Plug the holes," Tom suggested as he set to work on opening a fourth portal.

Emily then set to work launching fireball after fireball after fireball, burning every alien that even attempted to enter the room while also pooling lava into shaky columns in the two doorways with holes to space on the opposite side of them in order to stop the fleeing air.

Tom finally managed to get a portal open but discovered that if he released one of the levers then the portal would shut. "Emily!" he yelled as she caused a mini-explosion splattering blood from the now deceased aliens everywhere. "You've got to go!"
         "What about you?" she asked as she backed away from the newly opening doors.
         "I can't go anywhere, if I let go of this thing then the portal collapses," he explained as she formed a spear of fire and began using it to repel the onslaught of alien attacks.
         "I'm not leaving." she stated. Tom sighed and released a lever and formed a ball of temporal energy and launched it straight at the doors, disintegrating any aliens unfortunate enough to get caught in any stage of the explosion.

The two of them then backed into the middle of the room, back to back and spears at the ready. "Lets bring down as many as possible," Tom smirked.
         "Lets," Emily nodded in agreement and turned to face the thousands of aliens that now awaited her.

Meanwhile on Tom's lawn, Naomi looked around frantically searching for any sign of Tom or Emily. "Where are they?" she turned to Darren.
         "Emily...no idea. Tom. Still on the ship," Darren announced. "We were using too much energy, the lever had to be physically weighted down in order to keep the Portal open."
         "So...Daddy stayed behind to save us?" Connie asked.
         "Basically," Darren nodded. "And considering how stubborn your aunt is, I reckon she is probably staying up there with him." Naomi fell to the floor in a heap and began to cry as the realization sunk in.

Suddenly, as if to add insult to injury, the Cydonian ship that was visible in the sky sudden exploded in a light display of green, yellow and red. "At least it's over," Darren stated solemnly.
         "No Uncle, it's just getting started," Emma warned as hundreds of smaller Cydonian ships materialised as well as what appeared to be a whole fleet worth of motherships.
         "Yep...we're screwed," Darren gulped watching as more and more ships continued to materialise. "Definitely screwed."

And that is it for the first series of Power Core. I like the Universe and characters so have decided that there will be a sequel series to this at some point in the future that will start in August and likely end in October. Look out for another Blog post with more information.

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