First up I would strongly suggest that if you haven't read the earlier chapters please do so before reading this one, it will explain a lot of things...
Now, enjoy. BB1212
*****
I woke up aching, but as my memory slowly returned I realised I was lucky to have woken up at all. I tried to appear as if I was still unconscious as I carefully scanned the area in front of me. I was in a double bed that was crammed into a room only just large enough to fit it. The curtains were closed, but the light from around them indicated it was daytime. After a while I looked around the room carefully, and realised there were not any YW's in there with me. Maybe I could escape through the window before they realised I was awake?
Before I could do anything more than think about it, the door opened and Rickson came in. He saw I was awake and smiled.
"Welcome back Josh," he said, and then he turned around, looked outside the room and said "he's awake."
There was a momentary silence from outside, and then the sound of approaching people. Within moments the small room was packed with about a dozen men. All of them were either men I seen in the hall, or men that would have been on the YW's list. Because I was frozen from the time I arrived in the hall I hadn't seen everyone who was there.
There was pandemonium for a minute or so with everyone talking at once, and trying to both greet me and also express gratitude for something I had apparently done. Eventually Rickson called for order and it quietened down.
"What happened?" I asked, and Rickson smiled and then told me the story.
"There were eight YW's, er..., attached to you, "he explained, "and they were, well..."
"I know that bit," I interrupted, and he nodded appreciatively. I had seen it far too often myself and I knew how embarrassing it was just to watch.
"So," he continued, "they all started changing colour, going from blue to purple, and getting brighter as it happened. When they all started going red the rest of them got sort of agitated, and they clustered around each other watching. We were still frozen, but we could feel the hold sort of loosening. Anyway, as the first eight got really bright another eight moved in. They touched the other YW's, but before they could touch you the first eight exploded, all at the same time, and that injured the other eight. They lost some of their tentacle things and they went a really deep green. All the others had some sort of sympathetic reaction, and we were released. Then we..." Rickson paused and then looked around.
"I'll let Commodore Fenhed tell the rest, he was the one who made it happen."
Red Fenhed was the fourth in charge of the Intergalactic Navy, and the two others immediately above him were female, so it made sense that he would have taken charge. He would have been the senior ranking military officer once I was taken out of commission.
"Well Sir," Red said, "with the YW's er, distracted I thought we should make a break for it. I told everyone in the hall to separate into small groups and head in different directions, go a good distance and then find somewhere to hide."
"He also made us all turn our communicators off," Porter Evins, a council member interjected, "I don't know why we have to do that; the people need us out there."
"I did that because I think the YW's must have used our communicators to locate us in the first place," Red explained, "without them we are off the grid."
"Absolutely correct," I said, it was very good logic. Red nodded his appreciation for my support.
"So we picked you up, commandeered a vehicle, and got out of the area. Eventually we abandoned the vehicle and walked for a couple of hours before we chose this place to hide out."
"Good work," I acknowledged, "so what's next?"
"We aren't sure," Rickson said, "we were waiting for you to recover, you have better knowledge of the YW's." I nodded.
"We have been sending people out regularly to find out what is happening," Red said. "The YW's are still, um, attacking the men, but they have also started killing women and children indiscriminately."
I nodded.
"What do we know about their numbers?" I asked.
"We've had people contact Hinchlet, and they tell us the YW's have two huge interstellar ships that are orbiting outside our atmosphere. They were somehow hidden until after we were taken. They also brought at least eight smaller transporters with them that have been ferrying them to and from Earth. We can only guess their numbers, but it could be around ten thousand in total with about half of them here at any given time. Every time one gets, er, pregnant, they are taken back to a mother ship."
"How many have we killed?" I asked, dreading the answer.
"We have no weapons to take the YW's on with Sir," Red said.
"Nothing yet," I agreed, thinking of the MS and the new MSU that had the potential but weren't ready for combat yet, "but we have to make do with what is available. They appear to have a weakness, and that is they all are disabled when one is injured, so we just need to hurt one and we can take out the whole group."
"Well, yes," Red said hesitantly.
"It's all we have," I said bluntly, "but I do have a possible plan B for this situation."
"You do?" Rickson sounded hopeful.
"Yes," I confirmed, "but it is a very desperate plan."
"These are desperate times," Rickson said, and I nodded.
"I need to get to my Stellar," I said flatly. When I had outlasted the YW's again I knew I had dodged a bullet, but now I felt like I was staring at an incoming missile, and all I had to protect myself was a tennis racquet. Without any strings in it.
I told Rickson and Red what my plan B was, and they both were shocked.
"Josh," Rickson said, "I can't allow this, it is suicide."
"With all due respect Sir," I replied, "I'm not asking for permission, I'm telling you what will happen. But if you do happen to have a better idea I would love to hear it."
As we stared at each other, both fully aware of what was now inevitable, a strange chirping noise suddenly appeared in my head.
"What the hell is...?" I started to say, when a man I didn't know opened the door.
"Yw's," he said, and signalled us to be quiet before leaving the room. We stopped talking and waited. The chirping got sort of closer, and then receded. When it was almost gone the man came back in.
"All clear," he reported, and promptly left again. I looked in askance at Rickson.
"At the moment they aren't entering buildings," he said, "but they are taking people from the street. Sometimes they stop vehicles too, so any movement is dangerous."
I nodded.
"It is a risk I have to take."
"I'll come with you Sir," Red volunteered, but this time I shook my head.
"We can't risk two senior officers where one can accomplish the mission alone," I replied. This time Red nodded.
"Yes Sir," he said.
"I don't like it," Rickson said grumpily, "what if..."
"What if it works?" I asked, and he gave up. Unsavoury as it was there weren't any other options.
Half an hour later I left the building and went in search of a vehicle. This wasn't as easy as it sounds. In normal circumstances I could have used my code, or even Rickson's, to commandeer one but I was worried that this would give the YW's a location. Red had considered the same thing, but he had managed to coordinate our escape from the hall when all of the other YW's in the area were disabled, and he had deliberately abandoned the commandeered vehicle a long way from where we eventually went to hide. My plan was to meet up with someone and ask them to let me use their code for their vehicle, but the streets were deserted.
Then the chirping started again, and I ducked into the first doorway I could find. I had guessed it had something to do the YW's, and I didn't want them to find me out in the open on my own. The door was locked, and I pressed the bell, hoping there was someone home.
The chirping was getting nearer and I was searching for other options when the door opened suddenly and I was pulled inside. The door closed quickly, and I looked around in the semi darkness as the chirping peaked and then started to fade. If I was right the YW's had just gone past and I was lucky to be alive. Again.
I looked at my saviour, and it was a woman who I guessed to be about fifty years old. She looked very tired and very scared.
"Thank you," I said quietly, "you just saved me from the YW's." She smiled briefly, but the smile never reached her eyes.
"I can save a stranger," she said sadly, "but not my husband or child."
"What happened?" I asked, and she hesitated for some time before answering.
"They found us just around the corner from here," the woman said. They froze us and took Larry. As they were leaving we were released and Epsilon tried to hit one of them. It just lashed out and..." she burst into tears and I hugged her.
"Nobody survives what they took Larry for," she sobbed.
"I have," I said quietly, "twice now." She froze in my arms and then pushed herself backwards, staring at me intently.
"You're Josh Scabbard," she said in wonder. I just nodded.
"You can't help Larry can you?"
"Sorry," I replied, it was totally up to Larry to sort that out now.
"Can you help Epsilon?"
"Where..." The woman took my arm and led me down a short corridor. She opened a door and we entered a typical teenage girl's room. Epsilon lay on the bed breathing very shallowly. She was a very pretty girl, with a petite frame and short lime green hair.
"It just touched her," the woman explained, "and she collapsed. I had to carry her back here but she has just been getting worse."
"Uh huh," I grunted, and I went to the bed and checked her out. Epsilon had a bubbling rash on her left forearm, which I guessed was where the YW had touched her. When I opened her eyelids the eyes stayed rolled back. Every breath seemed to be a tiny bit shorter than the last one, and she had absolutely no reflexes or reactions to being touched. I guessed she was dying, and it wasn't far away.
"How old is she?" I asked.