The Starlight Prophecy; pgs. 150-151
Chapter 25
TAAYA’S ATOMIC BLUEPRINT glimmered into existence and then disappeared from the gen-time window. Commander Kroton of the Nebula Star fleet gnashed his teeth and thundered, “What the hell . . . Lieutenant Taul, is there a problem?”
“Commander, I don’t think so—just electromagnetic interference from a stellar explosion that sent a blast wave of super nova energy that has temporarily overridden her encoded genetic matrix . . . wait a moment.”
Beads of sweat formed on Commander Kroton’s craggy brow as he squinted into the gleaming genetic-time window, fearfully looking for any sign of the Star Commander. The thought of losing her made him nauseated, as a ghastly feeling of unreality besieged him.
“Are you sure we didn’t lose her?” “I’d bet my life on it.”
Kroton, not convinced, screeched, “Where is she?” “Commander, her signal is incoming, but weak.” “Taul, do something. Don’t fail me.”
“If anything fails, Commander, it’s our Matom technology—all we can do is wait, nothing more.” Kroton cringed at Taul’s blunt assessment, wringing his fleshy hands, uttering a curse. The curse hardly parted his lips when Taul said, “Good news, the signal grows stronger. She should be here about now.” Tense moments passed while the super nova’s blast of plasma energy that disrupted the gen-time transfer degenerated. Taaya’s signature matrix came back online, and her image flickered and vanished.
Kroton bellowed, “Taul?”
“Commander Kroton, I . . . I . . . I think we lost her.” “What? Do something, Taul, do it now.”
Taul waved his hands like a master magician through a maze of colorful light beams controlling the gen-time Space Portal and Matom programs, trying madly to save the Star Commander.
“Got her! We didn’t lose her,” he said, as sweat glistened on his drained face. “Commander, she was caught in a gravitational time ripple that I now control. Her matrix signal was knocked out of phase with current time.”
Kroton mopped sweat off his granite face, gasping for breath,
thankful that Taul’s quick actions saved Taaya from a Time Quirkton that would have left her stranded in an unknown space-time. He grumbled, “The most advanced teleport system is not fail-safe,” when he realized his protest futile.
“Taul, is she back on gen-time?”
“Yes, her signal is being reconfigured and downloaded as we speak.”
She suddenly materialized before their anxious eyes. Taaya looked at the ashen face of Commander Kroton and said, “Commander is there something wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” He mopped his brow and stared at her with his uneven-set blue and green eyes. His odd gaze struck her as funny. She did not know what to make of it.
Nonetheless, his strange eyes and rugged stature gave him a magnetism she liked.
Kroton broke into a broad smile. “Is something wrong? No, Commander, not now. Only a slight glitch in your teleportation, but your presence makes our concern unnecessary. So welcome, the Nebula forces are at your disposal; and you can thank Taul for making your gen-time journey nearly uneventful.”
“Taul, thanks for the interstellar ride.” She stepped forward and gave Kroton a hug, whispering, “Kroton, you are a sight for starry eyes, but you worry too much. Take me to the command center and brief me.” He led her to the command center, where his intelligence officers waited with the latest Star intelligence.