Free Vortex of Evil by S D Taylor Page A

the sight of their ship was quite another experience.  The large square sail was filled with wind as it powered the traditional craft with the dragon’s head on the prow.  They were not close enough to see individual faces, but there appeared to be a dozen or so men onboard.  “I hope Arny is with them.  He seemed like a reasonable guy.”  Megan remembered how Arny, as they called him, had tried to understand their situation and where they came from.
    “He was well-travelled and open-minded.  I just wish I could talk to him in his language.  Now that John is dead, we won’t have any way of communicating.  Aside from pointing and nodding that is.”  Tom steered a course between the island and the Viking ship, hoping to avoid provoking or scaring them when they saw the zodiac.  He needn’t have worried.  Megan was looking through the small pair of binoculars and saw Arny on the deck.
    “Arny is waving.  Maybe we should go closer.”  Megan waved back.  Tom steered the zodiac towards a point slightly ahead of Arny’s position.  They would intercept the Viking ship in the passage between the main island and the small, flat island that was a mile to the north.  Tom realized that small island was where the Vikings had relocated their camp after the recent fighting on the main island.
    It was a breezy day with some high clouds and good visibility.  Tom wondered if Doug was right that the best chance to recover their friends was to find the boat where the strange, silent saucer was based.  He wondered what kind of range it had.  Doug thought it seemed like a futuristic version of a helicopter, not meant for long journeys.   He was thinking about how it worked when Megan screamed, “Tom, it’s back!”
    The saucer-shaped craft flew in from the west at low altitude, heading straight for the Viking ship.  It passed over it at about two hundred feet altitude and then turned south in a wide arc.
    “Take over, Megan.”  Tom quickly reached for the antiaircraft missile and opened up the control panel and sight.  The hover vehicle came around and was lining up on a course that led straight toward the Vikings.  As Megan turned the zodiac around and closed the distance between their position and Viking ship, the hover vehicle must have noticed Tom’s missile lock on them because it suddenly turned straight towards them.  Tom had been tracking them and squeezed the trigger on the missile.  With a sudden blast of smoke and flame out the rear of the small tube, the missile shot out towards their saucer-shaped attacker.  Tom had fired out of instinct, seeking to protect Megan and himself, and the Vikings as well. 
    “I hope Erin and the rest aren’t still on that thing.”  Megan watched the red glow of the small missile as it streaked towards its target.  Tom had not even considered if their friends had been onboard.  It was too late to worry about that now.
    Tom saw the orange glow on the front edge of the hover vehicle just in time to grab Megan and dive off the back of the zodiac which raced on without them.  The pulse of energy struck a couple of seconds later and had they not been protected by the water above them, Tom and Megan would have been killed by the blast that destroyed their inflatable.  The missile struck the hover vehicle’s shielding and exploded, knocking the saucer slightly sideways and causing it to wobble noticeably for a few seconds.
    Tom struggled to clear his head, keep his mouth above water so he could breathe and try to rescue Megan at the same time.  Even so, he saw the hover vehicle speeding off to the west and on the far horizon he could see a boat that appeared to be the saucer’s destination.  For now, his priority was trying to keep Megan alive while they figured out a way to get back to shore.  They were at least half a mile from the rocky north end of the island.
    Megan was a dead weight and for a few frightening moments, Tom thought the blast had killed her