THEM: ARMAGEDDON (Book Three)

Chapter One

     Brock sat in a chair in the newly found alien spaceship. Though all of the readouts and screens were now in perfect English, it was still hard to make much sense of things. He was basically giving him a crash course on alien physiology and it was something that was beyond a challenge.

"I think I might have something," Rick said as he walked over, offering Brock a coffee, or the closest thing the alien ship could make to it. "Beginning of something at least."

"I would love to hear it," Brock commented. "For I have nothing, less than nothing."

"Well I was unable to really make heads or tails of the weapon that we found," Rick admitted. "Though I think that I have some semblance of what happened to the aliens, the ones this ship belonged to that is."

"I'd be interested in figuring that out," Brock admitted. "For the aliens that used this ship were pretty advanced, like really sophisticated. How is it they even fell to our opponents?"

"Well, it would seem that they were faced with a choice," Rick continued. "They were pretty safe on their planet and then the nomadic aliens came to their system they didn't much think of it. The nomadic aliens then came to a planet near them and strove to ally themselves with the aliens of that planet. It seemed the nomads were not powerful, not power hungry and just wanted a new home."

"That does not sound like the aliens that attacked us at all," Brock admitted.

"Well, they were apparently hiding their assets on one of the systems moons. The neighbor planet did not know and welcomed the nomads aliens in with open arms."

"But the aliens of this ship knew?" Brock suggested. "They knew that the nomads craved conquest?"

"They did," Rick confirmed. "They could see the massive hidden forces and had a pretty good idea that the nomads were going to take over."

"Did they say anything?" Brock asked. "Did they warn them?"

"Apparently, this was something of great debate for the aliens that owned this ship," Rick explained. "On the one had there was that danger that the nomads represented. However, on the other was the fact that neighbor aliens had put a lot of work not the alliance. The neighbor alien's world though rich in resources was a primitive one where survival was hard. The nomads intended for a full invasion, but they knew the strength of the aliens already there was mighty. They were low on everything needed and their war machine was nearly exhausted. To the aliens watching it seemed that there might be some good to come of it, but also some bad."

"But the nomadic aliens are conquerors!" Brock insisted. "They should have done something!"

"They wanted to apparently," Rick continued. "I found records of a seemingly endless debate over if they should or not as well of if they could. They were always superior to the neighboring aliens and their interference might cause them to think they were jealous. They worried for their forces should the other combine against them. So ultimately, they decided to do nothing."

Brock nodded, sitting in the alien ship that no longer had an alien species upon it. "And then the nomads took over and became more powerful."

Rick nodded. "Yes, and when they came for the watching aliens, they were not ready for their forces. Despite doing nothing, their greatest fears had indeed become true."

"It sounds to me like they were out of luck either way," Brock sighed. "The nomadic aliens were likely prepared for both."

"It looks that way," Rick agreed. "But they left us a lot of information behind. If there is a way to fight them...we will find it."

Things seemed to be going slowly, the group needed some way to fight the aliens and knew it could be found there but there was still much to do.

Thomas and Melissa worked away at another console. Brock walked up and leaned forward. "Do we have anything here."

"We so do," Thomas admitted. "Though you might not believe it."

"Try me," Brock requested.

Thomas brought up some things on the screen. "This is technology from a long time ago but if I am reading this right it would seem there is some kind of site to site matter transporter."

"Transporter?" Brock asked with a perked eyebrow. "You can't be serious!"

"We are." Melissa added. "There is a bay deep within here with a teleporter set up and ready to go."

"Well that's perfect!" Brock stated, his mind going though all of the possibilities. "We could start teleporting out the people in the alien camps right now."

"Well there is a problem," Melissa commented. "And a complication."

"What are they?" Brock asked. "This could be it, the weapon we need to win."

"It very much isn't," Thomas said with a sigh. "First of all, you can't just teleport someone out of somewhere. You need a device on that end to set it up as a co-ordinate."

Brock nodded. "So, we need to send someone back to home base to set one up there. We could always send someone into one of the camps to bring people out."

Melissa nodded. "Those tactics make sense. But there is something else. The complication."

Brock looked at Melissa. "This is when you are going to give me some very bad news right?"

"Yeah," Melissa admitted. "The previous of this place went to great lengths to hide this technology from our opponents. The energy that is apparently released when we use this thing will not go undetected. The notes on the tech show that it can only be used a finite amount of times before the aliens will know precisely where we used it from."

"How many times?" Brock asked. "How many times can we use the teleporter?"

"Four times," Melissa added. "A fifth would bring them right here."

"So, we got this amazing power and can only use it four times," Brock said with a sigh. "All right, we need to be strategic here. I am going to send Rick with the device back to main camp. He will move fast and get there before too long. We will in the meantime learn the technology, so we are masters of it. We then will test it bringing equipment and weapons base camp to here. Then we will use it to bring brighter minds that might actually find us a weapon here. The second two we will save for if and when we know how to hurt the aliens."

Thomas nodded. "I am with you in wishing that we could rescue the people in the camps. From what you say it is a hellish place."

"As much as we want to do that, we have to do what is right for all of us," Brock admitted. "We won't do the captured people and resistance any good should we waste what we got and let the machines finish what they started."