by Ma West
Complete silence deafened the room. The once-present energy now lay hidden beneath a shrub of fear. Patient 00 felt it—the call, the actors, and the roles—all unfolding in his mind. The baroness pulled on his arm, and he thought, what the hell do I know about what we’re witnessing anyway?
The captain turned to the two aliens. “Instructions from the ark?” No, it was too early for that. There was still information out there, needing to be known before a decision could be made. And it didn’t take long for that information to arrive. Several new images appeared on the map, and a steady stream of ships flowed, filling the screen with an image too full to be useful anymore.
The reply came: “Captain, instructions from the ark are to comply and surrender, but to do it as slowly as possible. Sir, they want us to provide the distraction as they finish the transverse gate.” And then the energy of the moment burst.
The captain, now showing signs of animation, barked a furious string of commands. “Navigator, set course for the Imperial ship farthest from our position. Defense force, begin sabotage of all external hatchways’ entrances, collapse hallways outside the bridge, and take the shaft lift out of commission. Communicator, tie up the comm channels and try to prevent any new messages from getting in.” He paused briefly. “Medical, start gathering all data associated with the human into a single file.”
The captain then twisted to look at the patients, doctors, and protectors. “I regret to inform you that the empire has claimed you as its property. Despite the enormous unknown potential of your child, we do not have the capability of claiming it from such a large force.” He turned his back to them and focused his attention elsewhere.
The baroness grabbed Patient 00’s hand. “What’s happening now? This place is all so strange.”
He took her other hand, held it in his, and looked into her eyes. “I promise you, I don’t want to die either, and I will find out for you.” The baroness looked less than impressed and pulled away from him. He asked Dr. Fengie, “What is going on, in terms we can understand please?”
Dr. Fergie responded instead. “My dear boy, we have been sacrificed. Oh, what a tragic and merciless universe. As last, we find a great hope in a universe awash in despair and it’s snatched away mere moments afterward, so the last of our days will be full of dread and the knowledge that we were but an hour away from victory.”
Patient 00 glanced at the baroness and raised his finger. “Let’s just try that one more time. Dr. Fengie, in terms I can understand, what is going on?”
Dr. Fengie smiled. “You poor, ignorant fool, how I envy you in such a moment. I am torn as to whether or not I should rob you of such a gift, for the next few minutes will be the longest in our existence.”
Again Patient 00 looked at the baroness and raised his finger. “Really, just one more time, be patient.” He floated his palms down and then turned back to Dr. Fengie. “Doctor, ignorance is a state of mind, not a way of life. Now answer the question!”
A lavender smell accompanied the doctor’s response. “We are going to be handed over to the empire. We will be interrogated and executed. The two of you will be given to their medical experiments division and almost certainly face a painful death as they extract every possible detail from your DNA. I shall pray for a quick death for the three of you.”
Patient 00 looked back at the baroness. “See, told you I would find out what was going on.” He then nodded his head and smiled like a proud child. Again the baroness stepped back and issued a message of disbelief with her face and body language. He marveled at how, the more awkward he felt, the closer and more comfortable she seemed with him, yet the more he tried to lighten up around her, the more she pulled away. He turned back to the doctors, who were comingling tentacles. “Doctors, you have to give us a weapon.”
Dr. Fergie looked at them. “You already have two of our greatest warriors at your side. What good would a weapon do you?”
Excitement started growing in him. “No, we need a weapon to smuggle aboard their ship for use later.”
Dr. Fergie said, “This is a medical ship! We have only basic firearms and ship defenses.”
That sparked an idea. “Doctor, exactly, this is a medical ship, a medical ship that must have lots of germs and whatnot aboard it.”
Dr. Fengie grabbed her mate with her tentacles, and they rushed off to the platform the captain was standing on. The platform lowered, and with a flurried exchange and flapping of tentacles, the captain’s color grew to a glow. The platform rose again, and the captain issued a gust of new instructions. Dr. Fergie began accessing one of the terminals in the cubical next to the captain’s platform. Dr. Fengie returned to the humans and their guardians.
Dr. Fengie issued Patient 00 orders into a terminal and then took the baroness off to the terminal Dr. Fergie was using. Patient 00’s mission was to help delay the empire as long as possible while the rest of the crew developed and deployed a biological weapon. He was directed to the comm station, where a very active Adrinoleen controlled a litany of interfaces in an awe-inspiring display of multitasking. The Adrinoleen faced him and awaited instructions but finally had to ask him what the plan was.
Patient 00 hesitated. “I don’t quite know yet. Uh, just patch me through to the commander of the enemy fleet.”
A tentacle rose in question, releasing with it a smell both musky and moldy. “What does ‘patch through’ mean?”
“It just means let me talk to him, put him somewhere I can see him.” The largest of the nearby displays immediately altered to solid black, and soon the reptilian face of a Xendorian stared back at him. He took a shallow breath, focused on the excitement, and tried to release his mind, giving a slightly annoyed attitude. “May I help you? Please keep in mind that I am very busy. As you can see, we have ourselves quite the project.”
The reptile hissed his first syllable. “Human, you dare talk to your new master in such a tone. You will be taught quickly.”
He kept the tone and talked without a plan. “Who do you think you are?”
The beast paused for a moment, just long enough to twang his excitement string. “I am the decider of fates, your master.”
Patient 00 signaled for the transmission to end.
The Adrinoleen extended a tentacle and grabbed his hand. “Never have I heard anyone be so brave as to speak that way to such an overpowering force. ‘Stall,’ ‘delay,’ and ‘procrastinate’ I understand, but ‘irritate’ and ‘enrage’ are new for me.”
A very nervous and urgent voice came across as a light on the panel ignited. “Patient 00, we are now being contacted by the Xendorians.”
The pieces in his mind shifted, and new images rolled out in his mind’s eyes. The Adrinoleen asked if they should respond, and with each negative response he gave, the Adrinoleen became more and more anxious. It was several long minutes before the first volley came close—so close, in fact, the power of the enemy ship’s weapons rocked their vessel like a dingy caught in a heavy wake.
Patient 00 now signaled for communication, began speaking the moment the connection was established, and didn’t finishing talking till he had overpowered the reptile’s lambasting. “I already dealt with you. Do you see who I am? I am human. You see that planet down there? It’s a human fucking planet. So I don’t give a damn how many battleships, tinker toys, or misfits you think you have. It’s time for you to leave now. I have Wilde to prepare for, so leave me before I decide to come over there and teach you some damn manners.” Again he signaled for the communications termination.
The Adrinoleen turned back toward the console and shrank down low. Puzzlement crossed Patient 00’s face as he failed to understand the alien’s demeanor.
Chapter 12
Enter the Empire
While the words were directed at her, they clearly failed to relay any meaning. “Baroness . . .” More often than not, she had spent the last two days confused, frustrated, tired, and hungry. Now, whatever this place was, it had everyone scrambling to
stop it from changing again.
She liked Dr. Fengie, or at least she thought she did. Sometimes it was hard for her to tell. Dr. Fergie was always so jovial and kind, but there was still so much the baroness didn’t know that handing over trust was a long leap. Then there were the two giant dog beasts that, shortly after having killed her, now pledged to protect her and her unborn child. Unborn child—the notion gave her a chill. How unfair, she thought, to have to discover her pregnancy mere hours after conception with a man she felt foggy about, at best.
Now she faced yet another difficult decision. Focusing helped keep her from becoming dizzy, but facing the full impact of the words proved too difficult and put her in a state of thought paralysis. The explanation, and anything that came afterward, was simply lost—or rejected, rather, by a brain too busy to accept new information.
She wasn’t sure how long she stood there, but his lips brought her around. Blood pulsed through her lips, across her face, and back into her brain. His arms wrapped around her, and his warmth radiated through her. He looked deep into her eyes. “Don’t be afraid. You are not alone. This is what we need to do.”
She didn’t understand, but his confidence pushed her thoughts forward, and her brain finally processed the words Dr. Fergie had spoken to her: “I am going to make you very sick now. I’m so sorry, but this is the least awful of our choices.” The voice carried with it the most oddly coupled smell of lavender and rotten egg.
The captain, now more animated than ever, stood manipulating a 3-D map of the local area. His tentacles twisted, rotated, and zoomed the map with precision. Constantly bantering orders, questions, and information, he demonstrated his multitasking skills.
“Captain, new slip gate opening, placing it on the map now,” one of the aliens at the defense-forces cubical called out.
A station that had so far eluded Patient 00’s attention added, “Sir, the size of the gate is normal, but the energy readings are far beyond any we have seen before. Sir, this could be a new ship class and/or a new slip technology.”
Dr. Fengie grabbed hold of the humans, physically demanding Patient 00’s attention and massaging the baroness’s back. Dr. Fergie, now done at the console, loaded something into the device brought out by the MOP bots, approached the patients, and said, “My dear friends, how short a time to have known each other to be placed in a position requiring such absolute trust.” He paused for a second. “We have prepared the weapon you asked for, but we beseech you not to carry out such an action, for it will take a great toll. Patient 00, we must confess that, of the options available to us, the best one will still leave you with about a one-in-a-thousand chance of death and a certainty of days full of agony.”
Patient 00 nodded. “What about the baroness?”
Dr. Fengie talked this time. “We will be giving her a much milder virus. While she won’t enjoy it, there is little chance of injury to mother or child.”
Patient 00 rolled up his sleeve in a gesture that perplexed the doctors, but it did bring about a change of face in the baroness, who graciously explained its meaning.
Dr. Fergie continued. “Additionally, there are a few things you need to know. In order to make a virus that would be debilitating to the Xendorians, the two of you will have to mix your viruses together. Normally it would take days for the virus to grow properly, but we have not the time, so to make your body a better cultivator, we will have to artificially put you into a state of arousal.”
The baroness hid her blushing cheek behind her hand. “Which one of us are you talking to?”
Dr. Fengie’s hue grew brighter as she released the smell of a musky man. “Both of you, my dears. Now, do include Dr. Fergie in on any mating rituals you might engage in. He is always so fascinated by other species’ mating habits.” Then Dr. Fengie leaned in and spoke gently. “Then he always comes home with the strangest desires. Men, find one worth pleasing, and be grateful if you get pleased.” She chuckled. The baroness only replied with a befuddled look.
Dr. Fergie continued the briefing. “Additionally, once the viruses are mixed and the new virus forms, it will still have to be disseminated quickly to as many Xendorians as possible in order for it to spread faster than they can quarantine. I imagine that you are high value enough that you will mostly encounter Xendorians, but be aware that other species may or may not have any effects from the virus. Once you have successfully distributed the virus, you will have somewhere between hours and days before they discover an antidote of their own or before their immune systems start to fight it and they gradually recover.”
Patient 00 asked, “What are you giving us? I don’t understand yet, how do we mix the viruses?”
Dr. Fergie jumped in. “What excellent questions. You see, in order to hide the virus, we modified a virus found right here on your home world.” Dr. Fergie tapped a display. “Something called HIV, it has an excellent ability to hide from a body’s natural immune system. So that one will be administered to the baroness. For you, Patient 00, I’m afraid we had to go a bit more brutish and nasty. This virus is a spinal infector. It will greatly affect your reflexes, and you may notice that your breathing and other nonconscious functions may start to behave erratically. While there is a larger window to cure and save the baroness, you will need to receive medical care in no less than three cycles of your planet or perish on the fourth.”
Patient 00 swallowed hard and then repeated the question. “Well, doc, you sold me on brutish and nasty, but I still don’t understand how we mix the two.”
Turning a brighter hue and smelling like the gym, Dr. Fergie continued. “Well, yes, you see, your part is spread through saliva.”
Now the baroness openly blushed, yet Patient 00 still seemed not to get it.
Dr. Fengie finished the conversation as only she could. “And we believe you’re capable of rising above your numerous limitations.”
Screaming is a universal sound, and when the lights dimmed and sparks zapped out of the walls, the shouts of terror echoed in, around, and from all directions. The captain proudly barked orders and regained the crew’s composure. “Engineering, report.”
An additional advantage of the translation stone was that focusing on a sound made its clarity rise dramatically, as well as the underlying emotional content. And in this case, the crew was scared and nervous. Patient 00 focused on the bridge and captain while Dr. Fengie examined his extremities. “Warnings across the board, we are dead in the water, captain. No actual contact with engineering.”
“Medical, report.”
“All life-support systems are offline. Gravity will lose momentum in seven minutes. No numbers yet, but we expect casualties.”
With a loud thud, the spinning ceased. The display map turned into a view screen, which exhibited a slick, green, circular spacecraft. Waves in the hull raced around and around, giving it a sporty, suped-up feel. The view zoomed out, revealing that the ship on the display was barreling toward a stationary object: their ship.
“Captain, new class of Imperial starship is on a direct intercept, traveling at an amazing half light speed, sir, intercept in thirty seconds.”
“Darn it, Patient 00, I asked you to delay them. Instead you just pissed them off? What kind of delay was that?” The captain turned back toward the assembled doctors. “Dr. Fergie, how much time do you need?”
Dr. Fengie, having collected something out of the machine brought out by the MOP bots, approached and inserted it with a stabbing motion directly into Patient 00’s left thigh, inducing a dog-like yelp. Dr. Fengie then informed the captain that Patient 00 was ready, yet Patients 01 and 02 would need special equipment from a lab on a lower deck.
Without a word, the great beasts who had been silent now gathered up the baroness and her doctors, as a parent would a toddler, and trotted out of the room. The captain lowered his platform and signaled for Patient 00 to join him. As the platform lifted, the captain spoke. “She will need you very much, the baroness. In her is a great hope for the future
. A hope that is nearly extinguished might yet still burn bright in her womb. Only, I won’t be there to witness it, so I am going to ask you to be more than you are. Whatever your ceiling is, it must now be higher. That which you can accomplish must now be more. I have faith in you, father of hope.”
The ship screamed in pain as its metal flesh was punctured. The ceiling crumbled, replaced by the body of a new ship. An extension reached to the floor, a door opened, and a single Xendorian emerged. He examined the room, faced the captain, brought out a weapon, and fired quickly, dropping the captain’s body to the platform floor.
“We are the Xendorians, your masters. You will comply immediately, or you will face the consequences.”
Chapter 13
Time to Shine
It was both comforting and humiliating to be carried like a toddler. Yet the baroness tried to embrace the moment by taking deep breaths and clearing her mind. While new circumstances required much thought time to analyze her situation, she presently had only minutes. So instead of starting something she couldn’t finish, she pushed it all out, felt around for a good feeling, and then focused on it.
She thought to herself, why did it have to be him? Patient 00—God, she didn’t even know his real name. Yet her memory of his embrace on the rooftop was warming. He had been so nervous at first, but she’d stayed with it and let him come around. Once his primal urges were satisfied, she felt him free to express emotion. Now that he was no longer confined to a secondary need, she could feel Patient 00’s heart and soul creep along her limbs as he let down his walls.
The baroness was jostled by a shift in terrain as Aragmell now leaped from ledge to ledge while they circled a vertical tubular passageway. The Annomites displayed absolute grace, agility, and perceptional acuity, so it was clear how and why this species had become the physical guardians of this culture.
Aramethel carried both doctors with him as he matched Aragmell step for step. The doctors’ tentacles became a wild jumble of weaving mass, bouncing with the force of their hosts’ movements. Coming to a halt, the great beast Aragmell announced that the next few ledges had been damaged in the attack and that they would need a moment to secure equipment. Aramethel tapped on his wrist console, and the baroness talked with the doctors. “You can cure us of anything you give me, right? When you said HIV, my heart nearly stopped.”
