Prometheus stood up. Athena burst through the door.
"Doctor! It's Aithousa! ..."
Prometheus got up and walked quickly to the lab, followed by Dana and Lance. When they got to the lab, Dana ran out in front of Prometheus and Lance.
Aithousa lay on the lab floor, not moving except for her clearly labored breathing. A yellowish fluid was coming out of one of her nostrils.
Dana knelt down, trying to diagnose what was wrong with Aithousa.
After three breaths, Aithousa stopped breathing. Her open eyes turned from green to black.
Dana paused, then put her head down to the creature's chest. She checked pulse points on her wrists, then her neck. She then put her hand down on a side of her groin.
"It's ... she's dead," said Dana.
Prometheus's face held a look of horror. He knelt down next to Aithousa's body on the opposite side from Dana.
While everyone else's attention was focused on Aithousa, Lance visually surveyed the room, looking for what might start a cascade of computer failures.
Knowing he might only have one chance, he selected a computer bank centered on the wall. If it was connected to the computers on its left and right, making one overload might be enough to make all of them go.
A table on wheels was about six feet away. Lance slowly moved toward it.
He managed to get over to the table without attracting Prometheus' attention. He put his hands on one end.
Suddenly, he started walking with it, then pushed it as hard as he could. The table rolled until it crashed into the computer toward which Lance had aimed it.
A boom, followed by a shower of sparks, was the result.
Prometheus looked up from Aithousa's body. He started running toward the computer banks.
"GET DOWN!" yelled Lance to Dana, jumping on top of Dana and Athena.
Prometheus was a step away when the entire wall of computers exploded. His body took the full blow of the blast. He was knocked clear across the room against the opposite wall.
Lance could feel what he assumed was parts of computers — or maybe parts of the wall — whistle past him. Lance, Dana and Athena all bounced off the floor after an explosion shook the room, followed a few seconds later by another.
The entire wall of computers was now aflame. Smoke quickly filled the room.
Prometheus lay on the floor of the lab. His head and part of his body looked human, but his second set of arms had reappeared. His eyes glowed a sickly green color. There were large black blotches on his skin.
Athena held his head.
"I ... miscalculated," said Prometheus haltingly. "... I thought ... you would ... willing ... perfect ... environment ..."
"To breed a race of conquerors of our own planet?" said Lance coldly. "You didn't study humans very well after all. We've fought for our freedom — we've died for our freedom — for thousands of years. And if your species is coming here, we'll fight them too."
"You ... have doomed ... my species ..."
"Your species may be doomed anyway," said Dana. "Our environment has millions of microorganisms ... bacteria. Life forms on this planet ... humans ... are used to them. Your species is not. That's what killed Aithousa. She died because she got sick. You couldn't filter out the human factors."
Prometheus' eyes changed to black, the same as Aithousa had.
Another explosion rocked the lab.
"If we don't get out of here, we're doomed ourselves," said Lance.
"How are we going to get out of here?" asked Dana.
"That's the part I hadn't gotten to figuring out yet. It's a long swim."
"There's a tunnel underneath the pool," said Athena. "Follow me."
Athena, followed by Lance and Dana, left the lab as another explosion rattled the island.
Dana fell down. Lance stopped, went back, and picked her up in his arms.
Athena shed her clothes as she led them to the pool. She dived in, followed by Lance carrying Dana.
Had it not been for the peril they were in, Lance thought he would have very much enjoyed seeing Athena's ass and genitals right in front of him as they swam downward, Athena's legs opening and closing.
Lance felt Dana's arms around his shoulders.
At the bottom of the end of the pool, there was a dark circle. Athena swam in, followed by Lance and Dana.
The horizontal tunnel ended with a vertical tunnel. Athena swam upward, Lance and Dana following.
The three broke the surface of the water below a ship held in the air above them. They got out onto the walkway around the pool.
Lance actually stopped and stared at the ship. It had a dark gray skin, with sweeping curves from the top of the fuselage flattening where they met the wings. Two pods were mounted on the wings, with small fins on top of them. The wings drooped downward outside of the engines.
Lance estimated it was about 100 feet long, about 50 feet wide from wingtip to wingtip, and about 20 feet from its landing gear to the top of the fins. There didn't seem to be a flat surface on the entire ship.
It was the most incredible ship — plane? Flying thing? — he had ever seen in his life.
Then he knew what it was — a UFO as soon as it took flight. If he could fly it, that is.
"How do you get in?" he said.
Then a door opened on the bottom of the craft.
Another explosion rocked the chamber. Beggars can't be choosers, he thought. He stuck his head in the opening, and got in, followed by Dana and Athena.
The cockpit was one step ahead of the entrance. It had two seats.
"Um ... I guess you'll have to share," he said.
Athena got in the right-side seat first, followed by Dana. Athena opened her legs so Dana could sit between them. Athena's arms wrapped around Dana below her breasts.
In front of the pilot's seat were two cross-shaped controls, with arrows up and down and left and right.
"What I'd give for instructions in English," Lance said.
Instantly the control listings changed from their previous language to English. "PITCH" and "ROLL" were on one control, while "YAW" and "POWER %" were on the other. The green button said "POWER."