Sun of Zartha/15

It was early morning and the sky was clear, green and bright. Jay and Laura were flying back to the royal palace. They had just attained cruising altitude and speed for the trip back from the Valley of the Mothers, which would take about 35 minutes. Laura again was at the cockpit. Jay leaned back in his seat to take a nap.

"Another two weeks and we start running this place," Laura said.

"I can hardly wait," Jay said with mock excitement, with his eyes closed.

"You know you want to be king, Jay," Laura replied as she adjusted the air conditioning in the ship. She looked over at him, trying to take his nap. She imagined how he looked as a kid back in Louisiana, as Angie tucked him in for the night under the covers.

About two minutes later, a bell began dinging, like the seat belt alarm on luxury cars back on Earth. Then a voice rang out in the ship. "Spacecraft approaching. Spacecraft approaching. Suggest evasive action."

Jay sat up quickly and looked at the radar. Naptime was over. There were five egg shaped ships closing in on them.

"Momma didn't say anything about an escort back to the palace," Jay said wonderingly.

"Neither did Shakita," mused Laura.

Jay pressed a button, leaned over to his left, towards Laura, and spoke into the dashboard. "This is Palace One, come in please."

There was no response. The radar showed the ships still following fairly close behind. Jay and Laura looked at each other with puzzled expressions.

Jay spoke again. "This is Palace One, come in please. Identify yourselves."

There was still no response.

Jay got a sudden look of deep concern. Laura saw that and frowned at him with worried disbelief. "You don't think they'd try to do anything to hurt us, do you?"

Then a buzzer blasted out loudly in the ship and repeated several times, which caused Laura to almost jump out of her seat in shock.

"Incoming fire. Shields automatically activated," said the computer voice.

A meter on the dash showed the external shield level rising to 100 percent.

Then, it happened. The egg lurched forward and downward sharply as it took a hit from a plasma cannon. The shield kept the egg from sustaining any damage whatsoever. Cruising speed was 600 miles an hour.

"I hope these are good shields," Laura said, beginning to focus on keeping the ship intact. She waved her right hand over the control circle in an effort to increase the egg's speed, and pressed a couple of buttons on the dash.

"I think someone's tryin' to shoot us down, baby," Jay said gravely.

Laura was flabbergasted. "But why, Jay? Who would even think of doing something like that to us?"

"Guess," Jay said sharply, looking straight into Laura's eyes, with his, which were beginning to flash red with anger.

"Senator T'Loria'an," Laura said with dark realization.

"Who else on this whole entire planet wants to take us out, Laura?" Jay said. He was mad.

The egg took another hit and the ship reeled to the right again.

"Let me fly the ship," Jay said.

"I'm fine, baby, I can handle it," Laura replied, her eyes trained on the instrument panel.

"Laura, come on now, baby, we're under fire. I know how to do this, I'm a trained professional, now give me the wheel!" Jay said loudly.

"I KNOW what I'm DOING, Jason!" Laura shouted. "I know these ships better than you do!"

"Just move over," Jay said.

Another shot grazed the bow. The ship lurched sharply again to the right, then stabilized.

Jay looked at Laura with pleading eyes. "Are we gonna just sit here arguing like some soccer mom couple from Long Island on their way to IKEA or are we gonna find a way to evade an attack on this ship? I have no idea how long these shields are gonna hold before we get punched with holes from those plasma cannons!"

Laura was silent, then pressed the release button on her harness. "I happen to LIKE IKEA, Jay...Come on then, if you think you're so hot, flyboy!"

Laura and Jay awkwardly switched positions, bumping up, frustrated and frowning, against each other while the ship was in motion at over 800 miles an hour.

"Thank you," Jay said, scowling slightly at Laura, who rolled her eyes at him. "IKEA sucks," Jay interjected.

"I think we can afford some different stuff now," Laura said sharply. Her arms were firmly folded poutingly across her chest.

"That's if we don't get our asses shot down first," Jay said with steely resolve.

Jay slammed his hand on the control circle and waved his hand rapidly over the circle in an upward motion, increasing the speed of the vessel even more.

Two of the enemy eggs came alongside Jay and Laura's egg. These eggs were not silver, but they were black. The diamond-shaped symbol of the S'aa tribe (remember that this is the same design of Laura's charm bracelet) was painted on the side. Jay and Laura could see the pilots of these eggs and they did not have friendly looks on their faces.

"So T'Loria'an sent his thugs to deal with us," Jay said with the slow gusto he was accustomed to as a crime fighter for MIB. "I think I have just a little bit of experience with thugs."

(more to come)

next chapter: Activating the Energy | The Sun of Zartha | Men In Black