We're in Big Trouble (Part 83)

As we walk towards the dormitory building named after a former Supreme Court Justice, I get the sense we're being watched. We are. Even in this small parking lot, Yal-hune is getting more stares than a giraffe at the zoo. I tell myself the two of us together cut an imposing presence - something impossible to ignore. However, I know full well who the stares are for. But there's something else. Something about the deja-vu I had when I found out we were headed to San Diego instead of Sedona. Something happens here. I've found all my deja-vus seem to coincide with particularly meaningful events. I think they are moments when I have two paths and these events are known to me from an abstract level - a timeless, spaceless component of my own soul that is infinite and contains all this knowledge and history within it. I know it's hard to understand. It's even harder to explain. But there was something - a glimpse of an event - something important.

"You know where we're going?"

"Yes. Encyclopedia is staying with his younger brother in his dorm room."

"That's right. He has a younger brother out here. I forgot all about that. Are they there now?"

"Yes."

"If he resists..."

"I won't participate in his apprehension."

"I knew you were going to say that."

"I've got the latest stun gun technology here, but it's not that kind to the body. I'd prefer not to have to use it."

"Then you will have to subdue him with reason - use your mind."

"With Isis caught, he will be jumpy and desperate."

"Wait..."

Time travels into slow motion again. I have another deja-vu and it's not a good one. I turn around and it seems an eternity from the time my brain initiates the turn and my shoulder even gets twenty degrees and my head turns with it.

I see him. It's Lal-atha. He's appeared next to our car. He's not alone this time. There are at least a dozen heavily armed men with him and none of them are disguised in human clothing. I can feel Yal-hune slow down time even further, or actually I guess she's speeding us up. It's amazing I feel so much slower. My mind has a tough time keeping up with this level of acceleration. A dozen or more disintegration rays are already heading towards us in slow motion. I know what they are because Yal-hune knows what they are and her mind is linked with mine.

This is a blatant assault. A 'hit' and we're the targets. I start a leap to the ground and in the corner of my eye I see Yal-hune break in the other direction, her arm extended. We're moving two hundred percent faster than they are now - another fact gleaned from Yal-hune's consciousness. She's accelerated us to a speed even faster than normal speed for Htra-deg. I pull out my stun gun, instinctively, as I roll. I aim at the nearest hostile and fire from the ground. Yal-hune is firing at the troops with her arm. Something emerges similar to what she used back at the Home Depot. Only this one is not a disintegration beam, merely a stun blast like mine. I see her take out 3 soldiers before my electric charge blast even makes it half way across to its target. However a red field has gone up around Lal-atha and Yal-hune's bolts are now not penetrating the shield.

She turns to me, "You need to disappear from here."

Before i can even think a response I see a white flash all around me. As it dissipates I see glowing silver-blue walls and I am in the exact same position I was on the asphalt outside the dormitory.

"Let me give you a hand."

It is a Yal-hune lookalike extending her pink hued arm to me and smiling. I realize at once we are on board the Confederation vessel.

"Where's Yal-hune?"

"She is assisting the Confederation security forces in apprehending Lal-atha. Our vessel is presently under attack from negative forces."

I want to be afraid, but I can't. The shielding here prevents the lower emotions from emerging. All I muster is a sense of concern and attentive curiosity.

"Is this vessel returning the attack?"

"We do not attack. We respond."

"Are we responding?"

"Yes.

She lifts me up almost effortlessly. "Follow me, please."

"Certainly."

I hear a hum and feel vibrations. When Lal-atha threatened me that the Confederation did not possess the highest level of technology in the galaxy, I was concerned. While the Confederation databanks report that Lal-atha's world is comparable in technological development, I never gathered the impression they had superior technology.

I hear a louder hum. I can't help but think of all the movies and television shows that represented battles in space. Now I, finally, am experiencing a real one firsthand and it is hard to even discern it is occurring.

I remember Encyclopedia and the other four Atlantean texts. Is he safe frozen back in Earth slow-motion? Are the texts secured? And why on Earth doesn't Lal-atha just beam out the texts? Why the needless confrontations and battles? And why does he always do it when someone who will try to stop him is around? It makes no sense to me. I gently ask my question of my guide and she opens up an area in her consciousness to converse in.

"Lal-atha is limited by certain energy moments."

"Energy moments?"

"Yes, when a cycle of energy opens up and permits teleportation to Earth. He can't do it just at anytime. It is not a coincidence he arrives when you or Yal-hune, or both of you are nearby - your presence actually helps facilitate the teleportation process to Earth because of your own field structures."

We enter a room where a dozen aliens are working white consoles. I get the feeling this is one of the command centers of the ship - the 'bridge' if you will.

"Yes. This is a command center of sorts. These engineers are monitoring the ships many fields of energy. This craft and all aboard it exist as a set of fields. The attack upon it consists of other fields of energy. These fields many manifest as many types of weapons, but basically these things are all simply types of energy."

"And so it is all about balancing and countering the attackers energy fields?"

"Yes. We have an advantage because we are on equilibrium with our consciousness at all times. Our attackers are not. It is this same imbalance which makes them weaker and makes their attacks ineffective."

"Equilibrium...that's the key, right?"

"Yes. Energy that is in balance is stronger and more coherent. An imbalanced signal is easily defeated and cannot perpetuate. A balanced signal can perpetuate infinitely."

"Surely they must know this?"

"There is a large gap between what one knows and what one has the strength of mind to put into practice."

"And what of Lal-atha? He keeps breaking Confederation rules and now has tried to assassinate one of its emissaries and destroy Confederation ships. This must constitute a formal declaration of war on the Confederation, right?"

"Lal-atha, as you are aware, is a galactic criminal. These acts are merely the latest of many such negative acts he has committed. He grows more imbalanced with the passage of time. He was much more dangerous when he just began to degenerate. As someone descends and loses that all important equilibrium, they keep strengthening the imbalanced components of their field structures. These imbalances grow and corrupt the remaining fields. Soon, each action revolves around and contains these imbalances."

"The force teleport works on imbalances, doesn't it?"

"Yes. It can latch on to those imbalances and use them to lock the field for an incoming signal. Already four ships have been force teleported back to their homeworld. The final one has almost defeated itself."

"And what of Lal-atha himself?"

"He has just been successfully force-teleported back to his planet, as have his troops. There are other conflicts, but they are not occurring in your planet's orbit. Follow me again. I will take you now to Yal-hune."