After the final blast of the thrusters Ernay got up. That blasted John had screwed up again! She wiped her forehead, brushing the long strands of brown hair out of her eyes.
"Tom!" she yelled, "Are you ok? Where are you?"
For a moment she thought he was gone, burned by the ignition. But then she heard him.
"Here." he whispered and coughed.
"You're hurt!" she yelled, forgetting all possible dangers and aliens in the vicinity.
"I think I sprained my ankle and banged my head. I'll be fine." he said, spitting out more sand.
"If I could get my hands on John..." she started.
"No you wouldn't and we've got company." he said, turning her towards the two alien faces that were watching them from a short distance. They were big, maybe 2 meters and light blue. Their heads were rounded at the top and completely hairless. Their faces were dominated by the two big black almond shaped eyes that looked like oily puddles. Somehow they didn't look as violent as the Military Command had led them to believe.
"They don't look violent." Tom remarked.
"No, rather frightened." Ernay said as she sat herself down beside Tom.

Rzk was the first to recover from the painful blast of the Grlp. Quickly he looked around and located Trri. His brother was laying face down in the mud, shivering and praying.
"Trri." he whispered.
The boy kept shivering, though the praying stopped.
"We've got to get back before someone comes to investigate the lights."
Trri got up. Getting caught was scarier than Grlps, seeing as they'd survived the attack and they were still on their own planet. They might not be that lucky when someone found out they were here.
Rzk started walking toward their home, when he saw them. The aliens. These were mostly black with a pink oval head, covered in some strange substance, short black on the bigger one and long red on the smaller one. Rzk snatched Trris arm again and pulled him down. He wondered if his brother would ever trust him again.
The aliens said something to each other and stared back at them. Sitting down they were about half their size. Rzk decided running would be the best solution. He dragged Trri along with him

"Smarg, Ern Grlp."
"Argh Nekgs?"
"Frelm."

Interplanetary Translator:
We're close enough
Should we start the harvest?
Proceed

Lights suddenly lit all around them. Huge bolts of fire seemed to burn in the sky like tiny suns. Both humans and Tervlians looked up and watched as the ship came down.
"That doesn't look like our ship..." Tom said.
"I think I might as well abandon all hope that John is coming back." Ernay sighed.
The ship landed and out came some rather weird looking creatures. They were about 1.50 metres high, with a head that looked like it had been run over several times. Lumps and dents seemed to be randomly put together to form it. Tom felt Ernay shudder and knew how she felt. They were hideous. He had seen many aliens, but none of them had looked like these.

"Frell knp ahhh!"

Interplanetary Translator:
Get in!

Rzk heard the creature yell to get in. He really didn't want to, but what could he do? Maybe if he was an adult, but he was only 16.
He heard the wailing of Trri as his brother was hauled in right after him. Inside the ship it was dark. Rzk could feel the wind howling round the ship. A soft thud was all that alerted him that his brother was in the ship. Two thuds followed. The other aliens.
He didn't dare ask if Trri was ok, if the stories about the Grlp were true, then they wouldn't return ever again. The two other aliens weren't as scared it seemed. They spoke to each other, though Rzk couldn't understand them. He would have to get closer for that, maybe even touch them...

Tom was caught and reeled in. Ernay tried to get away, but it was no use, you couldn't hide in a well lit square. About 3 seconds later she herself got caught in the wires and was hauled up. Before they placed her inside she could make out the insides of the ship in the light outside. The room was cold and empty. Large beyond thinking. Inside only Tom and the two aliens awaited.
For a brief moment she wondered if the aliens would kill them just like they'd feared on Earth, but soon enough she realised her mistake. The aliens that had taken them were a lot smaller than them. heck, they were even smaller than her. Yet they had hauled in the two bigger ones faster than they had been able to haul in Tom and her, and Tom was injured.
"Tom." she whispered.
"Yes."
"I think we can safely say the two we watched aren't dangerous, they were caught before we were."
"Yeah."
"How's your ankle?"
"Sore, but I'll manage."
Ernay heard some soft sounds coming her way. In the full dark of the now closed ship she couldn't see who it was, but it wouldn't be Tom. She felt a soft touch on her shoulder.
"Who's this?" she asked.
"Trri." one of the aliens said.
"Trri, knarp re!" the other interrupted.
"ag, Rzk, el me pir!"

Interplanetary Translator:
Trri
Trri, don't trust them!
Rzk, they aren't the worst danger!

The second alien moved closer to Tom and touched him. Ernay could tell because he gasped in surprise as he felt it.
"Who are you?" she asked again.
"Trri."
"Rzk."
Ok, so that were their names, not that she could do a lot with that info.
"Tom, do you understand them?"
"Yes."
"Of course." the one called Rzk said, "We speak your language now."
"Do you now what happened?" Tom asked.
"The Grlp took us!" Trri said.
"The Grlp are just a tale to scare kids!" Rzk yelled.
"And where do you think we are? Swallowed by some other metallic beast?"
"Slow down!" Ernay said, waving her hands through the dark until she caught something.
"What tale?"
"The Grlp! Big metallic beasts that swallow boys whole when they go out at night! Boys taken never return." Trri, the younger one Ernay realised, said.
"Hear that Tom, we were spying on some kids." she laughed.
"You aren't younglings?"
"No, not quite, we're adults. We were sent out to observe to see if you were any threat, we mistook you for adults because of your size." Tom said.
"And of course the known fact boys safely stay home at night." Ernay added.
She could feel the reaction of the boys more than she felt it. The younger one was embarrassed, the older one was all rebellious. She knew them! They were just like normal kids. Sneaking out in the middle of the night, facing certain punishment...she smiled.
"Well, we'll need to get out."
"No-one ever returns from the Grlp!" Trri yelled again.
"No boys, we on the other hand are adult humans. And with a little bit of your help we'll get out."
"Really?" Rzk asked.
"Yes, but we'll need to know if there is something special you can do. Aside from that language thing." Ernay said.
"No. We're just normal." Rzk answered.
"Let me be the first to oppose that statement!" Tom said, "You've just healed my ankle."

"Have you felt anything?" Tom asked everyone.
"Not here." Ernay said.
"I felt a crack, but it was in the ceiling." Trri said.
Tom cursed at his own mistake.
"That should have been yell when you find any crack in the walls OR the ceiling OR the floor."
"Ooh! I found a crack!" Trri yelled.
"ok!"
At that moment something shook the ship. Tom fell down, Ernay had to cling to the walls to stay standing, while the two boy-aliens seemed to think it quite normal for a ship to bounce.
"What's happening?"
"The Adults are fighting. The Grlp has been discovered and they'll scare it off."
"How?"
"Electrical pulses."
The bouncing stopped and a change went through the ships. A soft vibration was noticeable through the walls and floor and the loud thudding of the engines had stopped.
"We're in space!" Tom yelled.
"Bad?" Rzk asked.
"Worse. Let's open up that hatch"

Tom looked around. His head slightly over the opening.
"Just as I thought!"
"What?"
"This is a human ship! I recognise it from my training."
"How did they get a human ship?" Trri wanted to know.
"They raided it probably."
"Oh."
"It's old. and no-one's around, let's go up."
Tom helped Ernay up and waited climbed up after her. After they had secured the hallway in both directions they let the boys come up. The two Tervlians had to bend themselves a bit because the ceilings were low. 
"We're in the maintenance section below in the ship." Tom said.
"I doubt humans installed that chamber there." Ernay noted.
"I said this WAS a human ship, they might have changed it...but if they left most of it, the escape pods should be close enough around here." 
"What are escape pods?" Rzk asked.
"Small spacecrafts that can operate on their own. Originally they were used for research, but when they got outdated they kept them as rescue vessels." Tom answered.
He was busy looking left and right in the dim light, trying to remember which way he should take. Ernay was close behind him. Trri was behind her, eagerly learning, yet still somewhat afraid and behind him was Rzk, who even though they looked funny was really starting to admire these humans.

Trri wondered what all these buttons would do, but he didn't dare push one. The Grlps might find out about their escape and he didn't want to get caught again! He knew better than that. These small silly humans were all that could get him out. They were even braver than his brother Rzk, who had snuck out to catch jelly fish. 
"What does this button do?" he finally asked the male called Tom as he pointed at a big green pulsating light.
"That is a direct link to the computer." Tom answered.
Trri looked at the button and wondered what a computer might be. He shrugged, it would probably be complicated. He started watching the other buttons and calculating the sequence by which they lit up. Fun, but somehow not enough now that he had the chance to learn all these exciting new things. 
"I found them!" Tom said.
Trri looked his way and saw two small round openings in the wall. They were marked green and silver. Pretty.
"Won't they see us when we take off?" his brother asked.
"Yes, but that's where the computer comes in." Tom said and turned back to the sequence of lights they had stopped by earlier. Tom opened a hatch and a plate came out.
"Just as I thought." he said.
"It's still the same as 10 year back!" Ernay shouted.

Ernay watched closely as Tom punched in numbers and letters. The screen lit up and a menu appeared.
"The trick is to get past the menu..." Tom said while holding the alt and G key together. When he released them the screen turned bright green and a line appeared:
<commando?
Tom typed like a madman and after 5 minutes he left the green screen and closed the hatch.
"What did you do?" Ernay asked.
"A little trick I learned in training." Tom grinned, "I crashed their sensors."

"This is where our ways part." Tom said looking up at Rzk and Trri.
"Do we have to?" Trri asked.
"Yeah, the lifepods are so small two of us can barely fit and you guys are bigger." Ernay said.
"You take the first, we'll be right behind you." Tom said and gently pushed them in the first lifepod.
Ernay waited for his signal and started the procedure to release the pod. This was the easy part. Getting out with the second would be harder.
The lifepod with Rzk and Trri slowly drifted into space and at about 100 yards from the ship unfolded it's wings and started it's engine.
"Are you sure you crashed their sensors?" Ernay asked Tom again.
"Yes, I told you I did it a few times on those old training-ships. Good clean fun."
"Making your officer mad, you mean." she answered.

Follow Rzk and Trri to Vella Crean
Follow Tom and Ernay to Calyeni Caverns
LANTESSAMA ISLE