Sam and Reegan had fallen asleep when Toido finished analyzing all of the data. All of the signs pointed to them being in danger.
But his mission to protect the Genetic Harp was his top priority.
Toido planned to retrieve the Harp but he also had a strong desire to protect his new friends. He leaned over, waving his hand and released a single nanobot to watch over Sam and the others.
The Genetic Harp had a tracking device that only he could find, with some difficulty he made his way back to the hangar, after having to evade some guards by crawling on the ceiling.
Toido reached the hangar and found that the bay doors were open to the outside, The Wagon was moved outside to be worked on but the engineers had left for a break. Toido ran towards the car and found the Genetic Harp was still sitting on a seat with the spider bot clamped to it. He grabbed the Harp but he realized that he was going to have to remove the spider bot before placing it back in his storage compartment.
Toido decided that since he was outside and would have the best signal strength to send a message, it would be wise to contact Captain Choleska while he had the opportunity.
Because Toido was out in the open and sending a message required much processing power he was discovered by the engineers when they returned from their break.
Soldiers quickly entered the room and lined up with guns aimed at Toido. They had been searching the base for him ever since his nanobots were detected hacking the computers.
"Admiral Gusterson we've found him in the hangar bay, looks like he came back for something in the car," Sergeant Holland messaged over his communicator as he stood by his men who were a slight distance from Toido.
Toido stood still, having realized he was caught, his main priority became relaying the message to Nallany.
Andrew was in the control room underground monitoring the situation when one of the communications officers approached him.
"Admiral Gusterson, Sir! We have detected that the Protolian is transmitting a message."
Andrew became angry and yelled at Sergeant Holland over the communicator "Stop him!" Not only did Sergeant Holland hear the admirals order but the other men heard it loud and clear and began to open fire.
The bullets only bounced off of him, It would take more intense firepower to bring down a Protolian. Andrew noticed that Toido was holding the Genetic Harp in his hands.
"STOP!!!. . . . You fools better not have damaged the device. I am on my way up there now," Andrew yelled at them as he left the control room. Toido heard all of this and he placed the Genetic Harp down inside the Wagon and closed the door where he thought it would be the safest for the moment.
He turned around to finish his transmission.
Just then Toido had more company as the doors on the opposite side of the hangar bay opened. It was Vult Ravik walking into the hangar accompanied by his Growtex warriors Ragurg and Durwip. Vult Ravik turned to Ragurg and pointed at Toido as a command to seize him. The floor shook on each step as this hulking beast ran past the soldiers and leaped towards Toido. Ragurg smashed into Toido with all his might which did very little to the surprise of the soldiers who expected Ragurg to at least leave a dent on Toido. Toido ignored Ragurg as he unleashed a volley of punches at him. Vult Ravik commanded Durwip to aid Ragurg in the assault on Toido. Durwip joined in on the fight which forced Toido to break his concentration from sending his message.
Ragurg and Durwip gave Toido a hard time causing some dents and scratches to his metal exterior but every time they were able to hold him down he proved too strong for them and they were thrown towards the wall. It was clear that they would need more warriors or better firepower to stop Toido from transmitting his message.
A large growl was heard outside.
Vult Ravik sensed a new presence, a smile came upon his small slit of a mouth.
His strongest Growtex warrior had climbed the mountain wall towards the hangar bay. He was easily twice the size of Ragurg and Durwip. It was the warrior Lurkis who had returned from the mission Vult Ravik had sent him on.
Lurkis joined the fight against Toido, He ran towards him.
It was a tremendous struggle but all three of the Growtex were able to drain Toido of enough energy and subdue him in time for the admirals arrival. Toido was held back and appeared to be damaged. He watched as Andrew walked over to the Wagon where the Genetic Harp device was. Andrew opened the door and picked up the device, he looked over it to make sure it was not harmed. Toido thought perhaps there was some mistake and Andrew also planned to return the device to Captain Choleska and that he would use his rank as Admiral to have him released.
Unfortunately he learned this was not the case. Toido watched as Andrew pulled out his red scepter and use dit to command the spider bot. The spider bot jumped off of the frequency device and onto Andrews shoulder.
Toido shook and then lowered his head in disgust at this betrayal.
An engineer walked up to Andrew to notify him of an urgent matter.
"Sir we detected that a signal did come from the Protolian and it is very likely that it will be received."
"You idiots!" Andrew shouted, he was very angry. He paced back and forth about the room a few times thinking about what to do next. "I want to know exactly what that message was!" Andrew yelled at the engineer and the engineer gave him his data pad for Andrew to read. It appeared to be a distress call with the location of the ambassador and a request for retrieval. Toido was still restrained by the three Growtex when Andrew approached him angrily. "I want you to revise your message. You will tell them not come here!" Andrew ordered Toido.
Toido only gave Andrew a fiery look of defiance in response.
"Lower his head and hold him down," Vult Ravik ordered the three big Growtex.
"If he will not revise his message you will make him do it!" Vult Ravik said pointing to Andrews Spider bot.
"Is this neccessary Ravik?" Andrew asked.
"Yes!" VultRavik replied.
"I fear I cannot stop this Toido, You should comply with their wishes, Revise the message or this Spider bot will be used to override your free will functions," Andrew told Toido as Lurkis lowered his head to expose his antenna on his head to the spider bot.
Toido screamed in defiance and a torch came out of a compartment in his head.
The spider bot crept from Andrews shoulder and quickly moved towards Toido's antenna. Toido struggled but it was no use as the three giants had him firmly restrained. The spider bot moved into position above the antenna. Toido tried to burn the Spider bot with the torch but it had little effect in halting the spider bot's approach.
Toido realized that burning his antenna was the only choice he had to complete his mission, he gave out a tremendous scream as the flame cut into it.
"Stop that. I know a few things about Protolians and I know that if you burn off your antenna you will not be able to access the Protolian Mass Consciousness ever again," Andrew said to Toido. Toido only continued to scream at them.
"Now Toido! You will be limited by primitive communication. Is that a sacrifice you are willing to make?" Andrew threatened.
The antenna fell to the floor and a deep sadness overtook Toido.
Andrew had picked up the Genetic Harp and was pacing back and forth to figure out what he could do next to fix this mess.
As Lurkis continued to hold Toido down, Vult Ravik began inspection and noticed that Lurkis appeared to have a damaged tooth.
"Did you accomplish your task?" Vult Ravik asked Lurkis, but Lurkis bowed his head to show that he had failed.
"Take it away!" Vult Ravik said with disappointment.
After Lurkis had dragged Toido away Vult Ravik initiated a telepathic conversation with Andrew.
"It took three of my finest Growtex warriors to subdue that metal scum. Perhaps we can find a way to hire the Protolians services?"
"Ha I doubt they would work for you willingly!" Andrew replied.
"What do you intend to do about the Ambassador? I cannot allow my leech mine to be exposed," Andrew stopped pacing and stood still and thought about this before he answered Vult Ravik.
"Drug the ambassador and the others as you planned. But! We will also need to alter their memories before we send them back."
"If that does not work then I must take them as hostages," Vult Ravik replied.
"You are a vile creature Ravik. You really should leave this planet. The Poladeans will receive Toido's message and I have no doubt they will find this place. I can assist you with the removal of all incriminating evidence, No I will order it as the superior officer of this installation!" Andrew said but Vult Ravik could sense his hesitation.
"There is no need to fear the Poladeans or anyone for that matter! Once I have done the will of my Masters, no one will stand in their way!" VultRavik said.
"What Masters? Who are you taking orders from?" Andrew asked.
"You will know soon enough." Vult Ravik replied while he walked away.
Rufus had awakened early to brush his teeth. To his surprise Sam who normally liked to sleep in had jumped straight out of bed and followed him out the door. Sam told Rufus everything that had happened during the night as Rufus brushed his teeth and listened. Sam described his adventure through the base as a tiny nanobot flying around. He told Rufus all about the conversations he had over heard and described the zoo like dungeon with the prisoners held in cages.
"They forced the prisoners to drink something weird they were putting it the water!" Sam explained and this began to deeply worry Rufus. He put down his tooth brush and thought about everything that Sam had just told him.
"Perhaps we should not eat their food . . . . . The Food-E device can sustain us for the remainder of our stay in this place Samuel," Rufus suggested and Sam nodded in agreement.
"What if Reegan hasn't figured this out? We should go warn him!" Sam shouted.
He ran out the door as Rufus had produced water from his Food-E to rinse his tooth paste instead of using water from the tap.
Rufus caught up to Sam and as they rushed through the hall they saw what looked like kitchen staff leaving their room. When they walked in it appeared as though their breakfast was already delivered on a floating tray.
It smelled great in that dull grey room and Reegan had already eaten a plate full and drank the juice and coffee that was served with the meal.
Rufus and Sam did not know what to say to Reegan and just stared at him. June was awake but had not eaten any of the food, she looked at it as if she were not very interested in the meal. Rufus decided not to trust the food and immediately produced some french toast and glasses of water for everyone.
But June only drank a few small sips from her glass of water.
"Why aren't you eating anything?"
"I don't feel hungry," she replied.
"Should we tell Reegan now?" Sam turned to Rufus and asked him.
But just before Rufus could answer a few soldiers walked in. Sam noticed that one of the soldiers had something odd in their hands which looked like a flashlight with a flat book shaped rectangle in the front and what Sam thought looked like a microphone protruding from the bottom of the rectangle.
"Hey guys quick question do you know where my friend Toido is?" Reegan asked cheerfully as he was enjoying the breakfast he was eating.
The soldiers seemed to dodge the question.
"Has everyone eaten their meal?" They asked.
They looked around and could see Reegan had eaten and that it looked as though the children had food in front of them as well. The soldier with the device pointed it at Reegan's head. He then pointed it at the others heads one at a time.
The soldiers observed them as Reegan appeared to be in a trance while the others just stared at them with a confused look. They appeared to be satisfied with whatever it was they had done because they left the room.
"June there's something we should tell you." Sam said.
"Juniper we suspect there is some form of psychotropics in the nourishment!" Rufus added "Huh?" June said. "He means don't eat the food or drink the water we think it's poisoned!" Sam added to clarify things for her.
"I'm not hungry anyway," June said with sadness.
"HAHAHA eat up you guys don't be sooooo paranoid!" Reegan bellowed all of a sudden and ate some more of the food. He seemed to have snapped out of whatever that device had just done to him.
"Perhaps it would be wise if we feigned our lack of ignorance," Rufus whispered.
"Huh?" June whispered.
"Play along!" Sam whispered in reply.
More soldiers walked in to observe their behavior. Reegan gave them an empty stare so the children did as well.
"It's a good thing the mind control is working on the kids! I'd hate to have to put them in the dungeon, but you know orders are orders," One of the soldiers said to the other.
The door opened again and into the room walked five smaller creatures to take the food away. They looked like little green scaly skin men with oval shaped heads and large black eyes. They wore shiny grey uniforms and introduced themselves.
"Greetings we are the Underlings."
June pinched her nose because of their unpleasant smell.
"Ugh Virillians!" Rufus commented with disgust but he quickly changed his expression when he noticed the soldiers took interest in his reaction. Virillians were very cruel creatures on Earth, the stuff of nightmares in legend only recently discovered to be real and living below the surface. Although these Virillians seemed less monstrous, Rufus and the other children would not be quick to trust them.
"Oh goody Virillians yay!" Rufus said and looked to Sam and June who put on a fake smile across their faces. They began to lead them out of the room and into the hall where they were met by Sam's Uncle Andrew and cousin Kenneth.
"I can't call my Mom did you hear anything?" June asked Andrew but she was only met with strange looks and awkward silence.
"You will come with me! We have activities planned for your day!" Andrew commanded and pointed down the hall for them to follow.
"I like activities," Reegan replied and followed them joyfully. Rufus leaned down to whisper in June's ear. "Do as Reegan does or we could be in big trouble."
"Ooh activities!" June shouted jumping up and down with a big fake smile.