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Chapter 54

Chapter 54

February 1st, 2158 (station time)

No one in the common room was breathing.  Instead all eyes were fixed on the holo in the center of the room.  The red goliath moved closer and closer to Eamon's static mech.  Gantulga was still too far away to help Eamon.  Everyone hoped beyond hope that the large creature would wonder on bye without noticing the alien that was less than a hundred meters away.

Closer and closer the goliath moved, ninety meters and then eighty.  Logan felt a nearly uncontrollable need to yell at Eamon, to warn him, something.  But then a miracle happened.  The goliath began to change its course.  Instead of moving towards Eamon, it turned ninety degrees and began to move farther away.  Eighty meters again, and then ninety.  The goliath continued to move at it's normal pace.

"Gantulga," Taavi said and waited for a reply.

"Go ahead," returned a breathy voice.

"The goliath has changed its course, and is now moving away from Eamon."  Taavi said.  "Slow your pace, the last thing we need is for you to alert the goliath by moving so quickly."

"Got it."  Gantulga replied.

On the holo, Gantulga's mech slowed to forty percent of its previous speed.

"Taavi, I'm geared up and headed out the door," Mike announced over Taavi's DNAC.

"Good," Taavi responded.  "The goliath has turned and is headed away from Eamon.  It looks like we may have..."

"Taavi," Josh said in alarm.  "Look at Eamon's mech!"

Eamon's mech was brighter than it had been.  Now with reds, oranges, and bright yellows, Eamon was powering up his mech.

Less than a hundred meters away the orange highlighted goliath slowed to a stop.  It most likely was sensing the electrical output of the mech powering up.  It took a couple hesitant steps towards the location of the mech.  Then it paused, most likely to figure this new sensation out.

Somewhere in the back of Logan's mind, he wondered how strange it would be to rely on a sensor that picked up electrical output from other living things.  Then one day, there is something new.  A new something that produces a high level of strange electrical output.  It must be confusing and uncomfortable.  With more and more of these weird things that produce so much electricity, the feelings change to fear.

"Change of plans," Taavi said into his DNAC.  "The goliath knows Eamon is there, get to him as soon as you can."

"Affirm..." Gantulga's voice was cut off by static.

"What was that?!" yelled Josh.

"Electrical feed back," said a soft voice belonging to Manuel.  "Feed back received by Gantulga transmitted to us, and interpreted as static."  Manuel paused to take a breath, "Eamon has activated his transmitter."

Looking back to the holo, Logan could now clearly see the goliath staggering back away from Eamon.  It then turned and took several running steps away.  The goliath was too far away to be mortally wounded from the transmission.

On the holo, Eamon's mech suddenly switched from showing up in infrared to being highlighted in orange.  The change indicated Eamon reconnecting to the communications grid.

"Can anyone here me?" Eamon's voice came over the comms slightly frantic.

"Eamon," Taavi said, "we can hear you.  Gantulga is on his way."

Eamon didn't respond, but turned and headed toward the general direction of the base.

"God Damn it," Taavi said to himself, before speaking once again into his DNAC.  "Gantulga, Eamon is on his way to you."