ALPHA AND OMEGA: BOOK 3 - THE PRICE OF FEALTY (NASEDOS' CHRONICLES)

Part 1

(August 20th, 1947)
(Eagle Rock Military Base)

Sodan stumbled into the moonlight, quickly looking around for pursuers, and not seeing any, he sprinted for the line of trees a few yards away. When he reached the cover offered by the foliage, he allowed himself to look back at the building that had been his prison for the last few weeks.

While they had been performing their experiments, the scientists had kept him drugged, trying different combinations, attempting to keep his powers in check. But in the last few days he had pretended to be more affected by the drugs than he had been and they had lowered the dose, allowing him to build his power enough to escape.

Sodan did not think they would miss him until the morning but he continued moving as quickly as he could. He did not know what had happened to the others, if they had been captured or not, but he headed straight to the pod chamber to make sure the Royal Four were safe and hopefully find the others.

As he made his way, he constantly checked around him to make sure he was not leading the humans to the Royal Four. When the humans discovered him missing, he suspected they would go to the main crash site to look for him. It was a couple of miles from the pod chamber, and even though he was on foot, he hoped their misdirection would give him some extra time to reach his destination. He had been injured during his incarceration but he ignored the pain and traveled quickly all night, using extra bursts of speed Antarians are capable of, as often as possible. And as the sun started to rise, he finally reached the pod chamber.

Sodan carefully let himself inside and sealed the door behind him, igniting a light above his head with an upraised hand. The chamber appeared as it had the last time he had been there and he released a tension – filled breath. He brushed a hand over the softly glowing pod closest to him and examined the embryo inside. The Royal Four and Antar's hope for the future were still safe.

He looked around the chamber carefully, noting that the healing stones and book were exactly where they had left them. Strange, he thought to himself, it appeared as if no one had been in the chamber since the day he was captured. What if the other shape shifters had been captured too? He briefly thought of the others being subjected to the same treatment he had received at the hands of the humans. If they had been captured, Sodan did not want to consider what was happening to them but there was nothing he could do to help. They would have to take care of themselves.

Now that he was free, he couldn't risk leaving the Royal Four without protection.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

(August 21st, 1947)
(Eagle Rock Military Base)

Agent Lewis turned to the scientist in charge. "Dr. Cantor how was the alien able to escape?"

"The technicians were afraid they were giving it too much sedation," Cantor explained, "and lowered the dose. Apparently it was only pretending to be incoherent and when the dose was lowered, it built its strength up enough to escape."

"So it burned a hole in the cell and killed Riley," Lewis said. "But the guard on duty at the door reported that Riley left last night so it must have taken his form."

Dr. Cantor nodded his agreement. "The one that escaped was particularly uncooperative and would not even speak to us, but the other has been more helpful. Its name is Letras. It has an excellent command of the English language and it has been telling us about its shape shifting abilities. It can take the face of any human."

"We had suspected as much," Lewis said. "That is why they escaped so easily the first time, they just used the faces of the doctors they had killed to get out of the base undetected." Lewis paused and looked at the papers in front of him. "Has the remaining alien, Letras, told you what it is doing on Earth?"