by Tammy Walsh
Her look of hope would have raised my spirits if it wasn’t for one thing…
“I don’t know anything about their technology,” I said. “It’s way more advanced than anything we have on Earth.”
Stari’s shoulders slumped.
“Are you sure?” she said. “Any assistance you give us would be a huge help. The Changelings have been looking for the resistance since the beginning. One day, they will succeed, and when they do, we won’t stand a chance.”
These people risked their lives to save me. They fought my enemy, the enemy that killed my one true love, Chax. If I could do something that would seed their destruction, I would do it.
“I don’t know if I’ll be any help,” I said. “But I’ll give it a damn good try.”
“That’s all we ask. If you’re ready, I’ll show you to your workstation.”
Stari marched through the doorway. It hissed open as she passed through it. She paused when she didn’t hear me following her. She turned back to the room and waited, just as she had that morning when she was going to lead me to Chax’s dead body.
Dead body…
Don’t think of that now, I told myself.
Stari didn’t say a word as I edged toward the door and that black line that delineated the two worlds. The one I inhabited where I could fool myself into believing Chax was still alive, and the real world where he was gone.
The difference couldn’t have been starker. The tiny cell versus the vastness of the galaxy.
Did I want to live in the past and never let go? Did I want my future to be dictated by a lie I believed, no matter how pleasant it was?
I took a deep breath and stepped over the threshold. Once the first foot was over it, the second followed easily.
Stari smiled at me. It was a friendly, supportive smile that I very much needed to see at that moment.
I peered back at the little room I just left. The memories I had of Chax would never leave me. They would be with me, always, tucked away safe and sound in my mind. Billions of Changelings might have seen our romance blossom and grow but none knew what it felt like to have him touch me, the warmth and strength of his fingertips on my skin, and the shiver he gave me every time his eyes ran over mine.
They hadn’t seen every part of our relationship. That moment in the loft of the dilapidated barn was ours and belonged to no one but us. There had been no cameras up there. No one could spy or steal it from us. I would carry it with me always.
Even they couldn’t take that from me.
I followed Stari through the endless hallways of the underground base. If I could help make the Changelings pay for what they had done to me, I wouldn’t hesitate.
I would pay it back a thousand-fold.
None of the Yayora took much notice of me as Stari led me through their base. Dirt dusted our heads every few seconds from the vibrations caused by the tools the Yayora used to expand the base.
My room was housed along one wall of the largest space—what Stari referred to as “the hangar.” It stretched so far up it was hard to make out the top. Thick girders braced the ceiling.
“We’ll have to bring the ceiling down when we’re ready to attack,” Stari said. “We can’t risk the Changelings finding us down here by opening it any sooner.”
These guys were seriously organized.
“It might be hard to believe now but we’ve always been a peaceful species,” Stari said. “It took the Changelings taking everything we held dear to learn the value of aggression and the need to overcome our enemies, no matter the cost.”
It was hard to imagine Stari letting anyone walk over her. She wore a blaster pistol at her hip. She didn’t seem very concerned with me being so close I could grab it and use it against her.
Stari took me down another tunnel, this one cut into a huge mountain of dirt and rock. Along the hallways on either side were the remains of the stones they’d sliced through to create these vast tunnel networks. Small lanterns hung at regular intervals, much like mining tunnels back home.
These guys were not messing around.
Finally, we came to a circular room buried in the heart of the soil. It had a low ceiling and high-tech computer terminals ran along the outer edges. Yayora sat wearing headsets with a glass visor in front of their eyes in place of monitor screens.
“Grandpa?” Stari said, addressing the man sitting in the middle of the room in a large worn chair. “Maddy is here to see you.”
Her grandpa lowered the papers he was reading and turned a switch. His wheelchair spun around so he could look at me. He was the oldest Yayora I had seen yet. He had a big bushy white beard and so many lines on his face it was hard to tell whether or not he was permanently frowning.
“Maddy,” he said in a deep rich voice.
He extended his hands to mine. I was expected to step forward and repeat the gesture. I did, and he leaned forward and took my hands in his own. He bowed his head but not low enough to touch my skin.
I glanced at Stari, who nodded politely as if this was the usual custom for Yayora to greet each other. After he released me, he held his hands out to me.
“She’s not a Yayora, Grandpa,” Stari said. “She doesn’t know our customs.”
“Sh,” Grandpa said, keeping his eyes on me.
I took his hands in mine and bowed my head the same way he had. I shot Stari a look. Am I doing this right?
She smiled and nodded.
That was a relief. I didn’t want to offend these people. Not after they risked their lives to save me.
“How are your quarters?” Grandpa asked.
“They’re fine,” I said.
“Good. And the food? The quirlatch is a favorite of mine.”
He motioned to his tray sitting to one side, all the green colors had been eaten, leaving the reds untouched.
“I always liked the green flavors most,” he said. “Not the red ones. If you want to live to a ripe old age like me, you want to make sure to steer clear of any red food.”
Stari rolled her eyes.
“It’s good for you, Grandpa,” she said in the tone of someone who’d repeated the same thing a million times.
She picked up the tray and extended it to him. He curled up his nose and shook his head.
“I refuse!” he said.
He reminded me of the people in the old folks’ home where my grandparents lived. They never liked doing what was good for them either. They had their habits and beliefs. They’d gotten them this far, so why should they change now?
“Grandchildren always think they know what’s best,” Grandpa said. “And yes, maybe this generation actually does with their warrior ways. But not when it comes to nutrition!”
Stari swallowed one of the red jellies.
“See?” she said. “It’s not going to kill you.”
“Maybe not today,” Grandpa said. “Now, has my granddaughter explained to you what we need your help with?”
“You want to find the location of the Changeling’s TV control room,” I said.
“That’s right!” he said. “If only we still had our engineers. Then we could have learned its location years ago. They killed our smartest people. They believed them to be their greatest threat.”
“I already told her our history, Grandpa,” Stari said.
“For a long time, they were right,” Grandpa said, continuing as if Stari hadn’t said a word. “But they were also wrong. Every creature with a mind to be free is a threat to them. Smart or stupid, like old Grandpa. We’re ready to give them a fight they won’t soon forget. I can promise you, that once we have retaken our planet, I will ensure you return home safely, no matter what it takes.”
“Thank you,” I said. “I hope I won’t let you down.”
“You won’t, my dear,” he said, placing his hand on mine. “I know a good egg when I see one and I don’t think they come much gooder than you.”
I was touched he thought so but there was something I didn’t understand.
> “How will you take the Changelings down when I find what you need?” I said.
“We’ll attack with everything we have,” Grandpa said. “We’ll breach the earth and descend upon them with our ships and our weapons and destroy the Control Room. Once we do that, it’ll be like severing a link in a chain. The other Control Rooms will fall one after the other. Then the other sections will be free to attack.”
That took me by surprise.
“Other sections?” I said. “There are more of you out there?”
“Oh yes,” Grandpa said. “Many more.”
“Every section is as well prepared as you are here?” I said.
Grandpa’s long bushy eyebrows drooped.
“In all honesty, we don’t know,” he said. “We couldn’t risk them discovering us, so we stopped communicating a long time ago. If they find one of us, they could find all of us. We can’t allow that to happen.”
Stari stepped forward.
“So you see,” she said. “We need you. Find their control room and we’ll do the rest. Only then will we have the resources to send you home.”
Discover the control room.
So they can destroy it.
And release an entire species from slavery.
No pressure.
My workstation was located on the other side of the base, back toward the shuttlecraft bay. I had the entire engineering department to myself. The other tables were stacked with boxes packed with replacement computer parts. As their only engineer, I would have worked alone if it wasn’t for Stari helping me as my assistant.
I wasn’t sure if she was there to keep an eye on me and ensure I didn’t run away or to help out. Maybe a little of both. She understood little about electronics and technology, but was inquisitive and seemed genuinely interested in the subject. I went out of my way to show her what I was doing.
I was pleased to have something to distract me from thoughts of Chax. Anything that helped crush the overwhelming feelings of sadness was always welcome.
Every so often, when I couldn’t shake an image of him—a smile, a touch of his hand to mine, or something he said during a moment of intimacy—my nose stung and a hot wad formed at the back of my throat.
I always excused myself and hustled to the restroom. I wouldn’t return to work until I got those images out of my system.
“Are you okay?” Stari always asked.
I gave her a stiff but friendly nod.
“Now, where were we?” I said.
“You were about to tell me how you plan on using the Changelings’ technology against them,” Stari said.
“Right,” I said, and I picked up from where I left off. “My first thought was using the tracking device they installed in the shuttlecraft location beacon we wore on our hips. They were the only device that could have informed the Changelings about our location. They also led us to the shuttlecraft, so it was unlikely we would lose them. Pretty clever on their part.”
“We put the devices in here,” Stari said, placing a hand on a metal box. “The box blocks the signal from getting out. We put it in here when we rescued you.”
“I’d like to open it to work on it,” I said, “but the signal might be strong enough for them to receive it if we do. That will reveal our location and they’ll be on us in minutes. Later, we’ll have to take it to the surface and take it out. We’ll use a machine I’ll build to track where the signal is picked up.”
“So how are you going to build a machine that can do that?”
“With some difficulty.”
We rooted through the broken computer parts until we found what I needed.
“I’m going to use the machine to trace the origin of the signal you guys get for your holo TV shows,” I said. “Have you ever noticed that when you’re watching something, sometimes there’s a delay between you receiving the program and someone else? It might even be your neighbors.”
“All the time. Sometimes it ruins the show when we miss out on the surprise because our neighbors see it first.”
I found it strange that the Yayora watched the Changelings’ TV shows knowing it was only possible thanks to them conquering their planet.
“If we track the delay all over the base, we can triangulate the signal tower’s position,” I said. “My machine will make the reading much more accurate.”
When I switched the channel, I saw there were hundreds of channels. Each one was a different TV show. Here, a cookery show using real alien body parts. There, a late-night adult channel, featuring alien species. They were chained up and forced to perform with each other. And there, a racing show where the machines were loaded up with powerful weapons and they were forced to fight to the death.
Nothing came close to this on Earth television.
Not even Japanese TV shows.
Over the following few hours, we carried out my experiment. It worked. Stari was very excited about it and was about ready to lead a team to destroy the signal tower.
“Wait!” I said. “The signal tower isn’t going to be where the Control Room is.”
Stari looked crestfallen.
“Then what was the point of all this?” she said.
“Because now we know my machine works,” I said. “Now we can use it to triangulate where the tracking device sends its signal.”
“And that will be the Control Room?”
“Probably, yes,” I said.
“Only probably?”
“There’s no guarantee the tracker will communicate directly with the Control Room, but it’s where I would place my bet. You wouldn’t want the signal to get mixed up with the regular transmission signals.”
Stari nodded.
“That makes sense,” she said. “So what happens now?”
My stomach performed a backflip and I felt sick.
“Now I have to take the tracker up to the surface and open the box,” I said.
It meant revealing my location to the Changelings, who would make an immediate beeline for my position.
Stari shook her head.
“You’re too valuable for us to send to the surface,” she said. “If it doesn’t work, we’re going to need you to try again.”
I tried to argue that I was the most qualified person for the job but it was only half-hearted. I was unlikely to avoid the Changelings on this alien planet, and they knew that. Instead, they decided to send a female soldier from their ranks.
The soldier’s name was Cik-A. She was tall for a Yayora. She saluted to her superior officers—Grandpa and his three top generals. The salute involved her placing her hands together and pushing something invisible toward them. The superior officers performed the same action but in reverse.
“You’re doing a very brave thing today,” Grandpa said. “May you live forever in peace.”
Cik-A took the metal box containing the tracker in one hand and the device I’d made in the other. It would send a signal to its sister device on my desk along with information on the Control Room’s location.
“After you open the box,” I said, “you’ll need to leave as quickly as possible. The Changelings will be after you the moment they pick up the signal.”
Cik-A saluted and then left.
Stari, her Grandpa, and his three top generals sat watching me as we waited for Cik-A to get to the surface.
I was so nervous, I couldn’t sit still. Stari took my hand and held it between hers.
Grandpa’s radio hissed and made me jump.
“I’m in position,” Cik-A said.
Grandpa looked at me. I nodded.
“Open it,” Grandpa said.
“Mission complete, sir,” Cik-A said. “The explosive device has been installed. Now I’ll make my escape.”
The explosive device would blow up in five minutes, destroying the tracker and, more importantly, the machine I built to track the Control Room’s location. If the Changelings got their hands on it, it might be possible for them to backward engineer it and discover the base’s location
.
I watched the machine and waited to receive the signal.
Any second now…
“Why aren’t we receiving the signal?” Grandpa said.
“My machine’s scanning for it,” I said. “The moment it finds it, we’ll get the information here.”
“Uh, guys?” Stari said.
She placed the holograph cube on the front table. The constant reruns of my relationship with Chax were still playing. I’d seen them so often by now that they no longer had the shock factor they once did. Then they cut off and Quus stepped onto the desktop.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” he said soberly. “We’ve just had word of a new development. It turns out the female human known as Maddy is still alive. She was not destroyed at the shuttlecraft site. She was abducted by the vile Yayora creatures. Iron Hoof had no chance of defending himself when an entire army of the disgusting monsters descended upon him. He fought valiantly and took out a hundred of their number before he made his escape. We assumed her body was burnt to a crisp in the fire. Now we learn she’s alive. We’re closing on her position now.”
My eyes widened and I shot up onto my feet.
They were coming! They were coming here!
But none of the others appeared concerned.
The holograph flickered to show two military shuttlecraft descend in low over the land toward the signal. A devastated Yayora city.
Cik-A must have chosen one of the evacuated buildings to open the sensor I gave her. It was surreal to be watching it happen live.
I fiddled with the settings on my machine but there was still no signal. There was nothing I could do until the tracker transmitted.
I ground my teeth, wondering what was happening. We should have locked onto it by now!
On the TV show, Cik-A came running out of the building. My heart was in my throat when I noticed what she was wearing.
A replica of the old contestant uniform I’d been forced to wear.
“Wait,” I said. “Wait. Why is she wearing my clothes? And why is she wearing a wig?”
I turned to Stari. She looked away from me.
“You’re sacrificing her?” I said.
“It’s the only way,” Grandpa said. “If we can make them believe you’re dead, they’ll stop chasing you. And that means the base will be safe.”
