Contests and Challenges Book

@NewlyWrittenBooks

Prompt: "This is CODE RED. Repeat, CODE RED! DO NOT LOOK BACK!"

500-1000 Words by Sep 30, 2024

Include in an existing book or add a new story

Title it Code Red 

Dedicated to @NewlyWrittenBooks, thanks for the contest!

Story is 995 words

Laura is from Adia, Scientist and Concert For 13 Galaxies

---

I walked down the white hall. The TV in the Sitting Room had the UN Concert For 13 Galaxies, stage dark and celebrities leaving. Didn't see my sister's holo, but she probably left already.

"This is CODE RED. Repeat, CODE RED! DO NOT LOOK BACK!" Red light replaced the fluorescent pink. I froze. Never had a warning like--

"Don't look back? What does--"

Light and heat came from behind us. I grabbed Sheila's arm and saw her scrunched eyes. "C'mon!" I ported us and everyone in the nursing home to that embassy ship! Green light swirled around us. Warmth, then a cool breeze came from behind me. Sheila's neat braids flew right as we stepped onto the rubbery red-violet floor.

People squeezed together to make room for us. Patients who weren't ambulatory floated to healers' arms, people with white robes. I pulled at the nearest one and showed him what happened. He gasped and took Sheila off her feet. She's new, but I didn't know what could cause light and heat like that!

With my telepathy, I searched the Internet for a news report. "...said that everyone is out of the building. It looks like a battle zone outside the Rainbow Head Injury Recovery Center on Ponce de Leon Avenue. No one was injured, but witnesses said there was a bright beam of light that came out of the sky and melted part of the building! Atlanta City has progs to prevent a lot of disasters, but no one expected this!" 

My workplace was a two-story mansion from the turn of the century. To see the brick melted like that made me sick. I know progs can restore it with historic materials, but it won't be the same!

The healer sang and left my co-worker asleep. He smiled. "Ne concern. She will be well, Laura."

I nodded. "Can I just--stay here tonight?" My voice wavered.

One of Ryee's diplomats bowed to me. "Laura, my liege wishes you to leave tonight."

I swallowed. "Leave Earth? But, I--"

Ms. Riqueti spotted me across the huge, red-violet ship and came over. All the other employees followed her. "I'm sending all of you. We can't stay here! They think slavers did it because you know Ryonne~. My husband wants us to leave, too!"

Everyone behind her, the nurses, the doctors, the housekeeping staff, they all nodded. Some were on their cellphones far behind her. It's time.

Someone came for her and Perdaga took my arm. "Please, Miss Martin. Ryee wishes to see you." His blue eyes blinked at me.

I laid my hand on his white sleeve and walked with him.

Berto walked with us on my other side. "Hi."

He put my arm on his red-violet sleeve but didn't say anything. His blue Elshar eyes were black, like black marbles. The night sky didn't have a moon. He was looking to my right, and I saw that yellow glow in the direction of my work, even brighter than the city lights. I hadn't been back at work long after that concert at the UN ended, the one my sister attended virtually--

We didn't stop at the tapestry of Ryee and Adia that marked the portal. Tried not to flinch as we passed through it.

Adia hugged me. "Laura! Are you all right?"

"Scared, but I didn't get hurt. Sheila was with me and she got healin'."

"Was she injured?"

"There was bright light an' heat an' I think she looked! But Pas wasn't worried."

Ryee hugged us, too. "Laura, I wish to send you all to Alb."

"Not to Ye~. Maybe MarKu, where Molly is. I know I have a clone in Rainbow there, but if Pie wants me, I--so, it's over?"

"My friend, I am happy for you ne to be operative now! We have many. Pirad replaced our operatives with others of Elshar worlds that slavers ne know. All of you leave tonight. You have a new sister who will apply at Grady Hospital, to the Healers' Program."

I nodded. A new sister with someone else's genetics and my memories. Okay. I felt kind of relieved, but sad to leave my friends in this danger. They have to stay until the Unified Treaty Vote next Monday, in a week. "I thought we got new protections with the Alliance Treaty!"

"Earth did, but slavers can yet try to harm. I am happy we ne work at Georgia State."

"I am, too! That gas explosion--but was it a gas explosion, there at my work?"

His orange eyes filled. Both twin-fingered hands grasped my shoulders. "A weapon you ne know, now and in the other future. I fear there may be other incidents." He went pale, so I didn't ask. Ryee was barely alive, in that other future, when Adia asked me for my help. Or, my host who now lives on Ye~.

"Where's Jo? Did he port here?" I looked around, but my pocket computer said he isn't findable. What?

Ryee hugged me and wept. "He ported to find you and we ne see him. I ne feel his mind. O!"

Another diplomat ported in carrying him. I ran to my husband! 

Pas took him and hopped on Ryee and Adia's bed. 

Ryee carried me up there and put me in our leiwege, that wonderful bendable mattress to hold us together. I held him. Watched the old healer's face.

With shaking hands, Pas checked my husband. His fingercorners rested lightly across Jo's forehead, then walked back, paused, then back again, nine times to the back of his auburn curls. "I find ne injury with you, or poisons. What causes this mind pain in you?"

Jo took a breath and smiled up at him. "Our Emperor had a mission for me, and gave me an herb which leaves ne trace. They found me and thought me dead, but I heard their plans. Ba, take my report?"

Ryee smiled.