by T. R. Harris
“No, it’s bone alright.” Jym answered. “But just look how thick it is, easily twice as thick as yours, or mine. No wonder your arm snapped like a twig when this thing hit you. And look at the muscle density. I’d hate to go up against this thing - ever — even with full body armor on.”
Kaylor studied the scan closer. He knew something about anatomy, since operating as an independent mule-driver on the fringe of civilization often meant having to fend for yourself for medical aid. He also knew from these scans that only the most primitive creatures had skeletal structures like this, an animal closer to the lower side of the evolutionary scale. Yes, Kaylor had been incredibly lucky. And he had brought this thing aboard his ship.
“Put a monitor on him. We need to be very careful when he wakes up.”
Jym and Kaylor were in the common area of the ship; Kaylor reclined on a couch, his injured arm resting on his chest, and in the other hand he held a `stick, with its burning end quickly filling the room with a pungent cloud of dense, white smoke.
Jym was seated at the central table, gnawing on a piece of green Filiean bark, which was the main staple of his people. He enjoyed its sweetness and texture, savoring each strand he peeled from the bark as if it were a sexual experience. Even his eyes were glassy, but that may have had more to do with the smokestick in the room than anything else.
It had been about three hours since the meeting in the cargo hold, and Kaylor had taken a shuttle pod over to the big ship and brought back a nav computer unit, a set of calibration tools and a few other smaller treasures he could easily stow in the pod. And now they were discussing their game plan for the salvage.
Between ripping bites of the bark, Jym was complaining. “I’m just saying. Reg 4 will hang us if we’re caught.”
Kaylor took another long drag off the `stick and then blew the smoke into the air with flourish. “I know what Reg 4 says. If anyone asks, we’ll just say the pirates must have taken the equipment before we got there. I just want to make sure we’ll get something for all our effort.”
Reg 4 was the law governing interstellar salvage procedures. What they were referring to was the restriction that stated no items could be removed from a derelict until the salvage was registered and the proper chain of ownership investigated. Otherwise, it was simply piracy. By removing the computer core, along with the other items Kaylor had stored in the pod, they were technically just as guilty as the actual pirates themselves.
“I’ve checked the charts,” Kaylor was saying. “We’ll pass within a million kilometers of an asteroid belt once we get in the Nimorian system. I’ll send the pod down to one of the bigger ones. They’ll never find anything aboard.”
Jym knew Kaylor would be careful; he just liked to complain. All they had to do is keep the creature in the cargo hold from seeing any of the booty and they would be home free.
Almost on queue, Jym glanced over at the screen on the wall above Kaylor where the monitor in the cargo hold was displayed, and noticed the creature begin to stir on the workbench. He was waking up.
Chapter Four: Revelation
The first thing he noticed was the smell. It was some sickly cross between rotting garbage and bad breath, and it almost made him gag. But as a dull consciousness returned, Adam fought with all his instincts to remember his survival training. First, he tried to remain still, learning all he could about his surroundings from the smell and sounds around him.
Yes, the smell was strange — like nothing he’d ever encountered before — but the sounds he heard were non-threatening, just the soft whirl of a ventilation system and nothing else.
Then carefully, Adam opened his eyes, just a little, just enough to get a quick sense of where he was. He was in a large room, crates stacked against the far wall, and three rows of light fixtures set into the ceiling. He was laying flat on some sort of hard surface, facing upwards. There didn’t seem to be anyone else in the room with him.
Next, his training told him to assess his physical condition. He knew his head was injured, not only from the dull throbbing of his left temple, but the fact that he could now recall flying through the air and striking a hard metal wall with more force than he could imagine. Then he became aware of the burning sensation in his chest, and remembered a blue bolt of lightning flaring out at him—
The fucker shot me!
Trying to piece together the fragments of his dream/memory, Adam was at a loss to explain the sensation of flying he experienced as he jumped at the thing in the blue tunic - and just kept going! He remembered all sense of balance leaving him and — it was all too confusing!
Anger swelled up inside him. Adam had no idea what was real or imagined, as the memories exploded in his head, filled with images of the Afghan mountains, then of a burning white light, and then of a soft bed with warm liquid flowing down his arm.
He awoke to find himself in a canister of some kind, and he pushed open the clear plastic dome and sat up. He was in a large, curving room with dozens of long canisters just like the one he was in, each with a clear, dome-shaped cover. From where he sat, Adam could see into maybe five or six of the canisters. Each held another person, four men and two women, all naked, all asleep with needles and tubes in their arms.
He looked down at his arm. The needles had come out, and a warm, clear liquid was flowing from the tubes. He climbed out of the canister, his bare feet finding a cold metal floor. He stumbled, but caught himself against the side of the canister. His legs were weak, but he managed to regain his balance quickly.
And then came the most bizarre part of his dream/memory. To his left, he heard a high, screeching sound and when he turned to investigate, he found himself staring down at an image he recognized from just about every science fiction movie he’d ever seen. It was about four feet tall, with a long gray head and large black eyes as big as pears. The thing was dressed in a one-piece gray jumpsuit - and it was yelling at him!
The tiny creature was upset, gesturing with its impossibly thin arms, in an obvious fit of temper. Adam had seen enough. Grabbing a sheet from the canister, he turned on his heal and ran off in the opposite direction from the gray creature, wrapping the sheet around himself as he went. He was dizzy and confused, not knowing if this was a hallucination or what. So he ran, past rows and rows of identical canisters, each containing a sleeping person.
There was a doorway to his right, and he bolted through it into a wide, curving corridor. Turning left, he sprinted down the hallway until he saw a single door set in the wall to his right. Approaching it, he could not find a knob, so he placed his hand in a small depression about halfway down the door and it slid silently into the wall on its own.
Adam slipped inside. It was a small utility room, with a single recessed light in the ceiling. Shelves lined three of the walls, all filled with boxes of various sizes. He closed the door and immediately the light went out.
He didn’t panic. The darkness was his friend, giving him comfort from his nightmare. He crouched down and tried to calm his breathing in an effort to hear if anyone - or anything - was following him. But all was quiet.
He must have remained in the room for what seemed like 20 minutes or so, and then just as he was building up the courage to look outside, all hell broke loose!
He was in some kind of earthquake! The floor heaved up, and then dropped out from under him. He fell hard on his shoulder and then the whole room seemed to buck from left to right. Boxes from the shelves rained down upon him and he covered his head with his arms before crawling onto the lower shelf for protection.
And then it was over.
All was quiet again - for a moment.
Next, he heard and felt an explosion reverberate throughout the whole structure, followed quickly by the sounds of running in the corridor, as well as electric popping sounds and high-pitched screams of agony.
Staying perfectly quiet, Adam dared not venture a look into the corridor. The popping sounds soon ended, but he could still hear movement outside in the hallway
. He was in total darkness, yet mentally he tried to prepare himself for the moment the light would pop on meaning the door was opening.
But it never came. Instead, about 10 minutes later, there came more sounds from the hallway. This time there were voices, and frantic ones at that. He didn’t recognize the language, but after half a dozen missions in Afghanistan and Iraq, not knowing a language was not that unusual. Besides, what about the tiny gray creature.
People were calling out to others and there was the sound of running on the metal floor, all in the direction to Adam’s right. Then silence once again descended on the scene.
When all was quiet for another ten minutes or so, Adam slipped out of his hiding place in the shelving unit and felt his way to the opposite wall where the door was set. Feeling in the dark, he found the recessed area again and the door slid open, light flooding in, temporarily blinding him.
He stepped out into the corridor, listening intently for any signs of danger. He knew that people had run down the corridor to his right, so he turned left. After about 20 meters, he came upon a bundle of sickeningly burning flesh that had once been one of the gray creatures. He had seen some grisly things in war before, but he never got used to the acrid odor of burning flesh. It was obvious a battle had taken place, and here he was, unarmed and naked except for a sheet wrapped around his waist.
Then he heard a noise, as if a heavy metal box had hit the floor. He moved toward the sound, which seemed to come from the top of a wide stairway on his left. Climbing the stairs silently in his bare feet, Adam found himself in a narrow circular room with what looked like a series of computer consoles to his right and to his left — it was the rear end of someone sticking out of an opening in a tower of equipment modules. Approaching quietly, Adam wasn’t about to let this - whatever it was — fry him like it had the little gray things.
Chapter Five: Introductions
Kaylor and Jym watched the monitor as the creature shook his head, then noticing the straps holding him down, began jerking and twisting, doing his best to break free. Then frustrated, sound came through the speakers, loud and primal, as the creature let out a scream: “Let me go, you motherfuckers!”
Moments later, Kaylor and Jym entered the cargo hold, Kaylor armed with this MK-17 bolt launcher. This time he made sure to set the level at maximum. It would reduce the charge to only five bolts, but he was sure it could now stop the creature, should the need arise.
The creature’s dark eyes flared as he watched the two of them enter the room, his mouth displaying double rows of long, white teeth. Definitely a meat eater, Kaylor concluded, which sent a shiver down his spine.
Approaching the bench, Kaylor rested his good hand on the butt of the launcher and tapped it gently with his fingers. The creature noticed the movement and seemed to acknowledge the fact that Kaylor had a weapon. Not so dumb after all, are you
“Who - what are you” The creature asked in a deep, strong voice. There didn’t seem to be any fear in the question.
“I’m Kaylor and this is Jym. And what is your name”
The creature cocked his head slightly. “I don’t understand. Are you speaking Farsi”
This was strange. Kaylor and Jym exchanged a look, before Jym moved closer to the bench and reached out his hand toward the creature’s head.
“Stay away from me, you stinking freak!”
Ignoring the protests, Jym pulled back the ear of the creature and felt the skin. Nothing. No trace at all. This thing truly was primitive.
Jym hurried out of the room as Kaylor leaned against a crate and watched the creature, who stared back at him with a look of fierce defiance. Go ahead and glare at me, you animal. I’m not about to let you get the best of me again, Kaylor thought. Not again.
The thing was just standing there, staring at him. Adam has already accepted the fact that he wasn’t dreaming; this was all too real. And even if it was a ruse, the makeup and special effects were way beyond what the Taliban or Al Qaeda could do. Besides, why would they bother going through all of this They weren’t known for their subtlety.
So this was real, which meant this was a real alien standing in front of him.
The creature was about his height, with pasty white skin that actually showed the pale purple traces of veins underneath. Its build was slight yet proportional and it didn’t appear to be very muscular. But it was the face that was so - alien. The nose was extremely wide, with hardly a rise associated with it, and the eyes were very narrow and set wide apart. The mouth was small, with thin lips, and when it spoke, Adam noticed upper and lower rows of very small, slightly rounded teeth. On its head was very little hair, grayish in color and mainly at the sides, wrapping around two very small, almost nonexistent ears. And just below the ears dangled two, inch-long fingers of skin, whose purpose Adam was afraid to speculate on.
Going lower, Adam saw two thin arms - one with what was clearly a cast on it - both of which ended with normal looking hands; four fingers and a thumb. Around the torso it wore a white wrap of some kind, tightly fitted over a light blue set of coveralls.
The overall affect was both alien and familiar at the same time. But whatever it was, it had him tied to a table, unable to move. And that made this thing his enemy.
The smaller alien came rushing back into the room carrying a small box about the size of a ring case. It came up along the side of the table, opened the box and took something out. Adam struggled to move away as the creature reached toward his head, and then Adam felt a warm sensation on the skin behind his ear. The warmth quickly turned to a burning, stinging pain that quickly subsided. The small creature backed away.
“Can you hear me now” The phrase caught Adam by surprise, not so much from its content, but from the fact that the movement of the creature’s mouth did not match the words he heard.
Hesitantly, Adam responded. “Yeah, I can hear you. You speak English”
“Your language is in the Library, that’s all,” the thing said. Again, the non-synchronized mouth and sounds reminded him of watching T.V. with the sound slightly out of synch. It was unnerving.
“What the hell am I doing here And what.What are you”
The two creatures looked at each other and Adam noticed a mutual reaction from both. The big one then stepped forward.
“Like I said, I’m Kaylor and this is Jym.” The voice came over as strong and confident, if slightly higher-pitched than Adam’s. “Who are you”
Alarms went off in Adam’s mind, and again, his training took over. “Petty Officer 2nd Class Adam Cain, United States Navy. That’s all I have to tell you.”
The big one - Kaylor - gave a look of disgust. “That seems like a very long name. Do we call you Petty Or Officer.or what”
“No, petty officer is my rank. Petty Officer 2nd Class. My name is Adam Cain.”
“Hello Adam Cain.”
“You can just call me Adam.” This was getting ridiculous.
Kaylor’s head bounced from left to right. “Very well, Adam. You’re aboard my ship, the FS-475, and you are safe.”
Adam jerked against the straps holding him to the table, for effect. “If I’m safe, then why am I tied down here” Then he asked the question that was the most monumental of his life: “Are you.aliens”
The two creatures exchanged another look, and then the small one spoke. “If you refer to someone who is not from where you come from and is different from you, then it is you who is the alien, not us.” The tone was sarcastic and condescending.
Kaylor placed a hand on Jym’s arm. “To you, yes, we would be aliens. But the term doesn’t have much meaning to us. Where are you from”
“I’m not tellin’ you shit! I saw what you did to those other.things.”
“I did not do that. I came aboard later-.”
“He saved your life!” Jym blurted out.
If Adam had not already seen the tiny gray beings and the taller silver ones, he was sure he would have been totally blown away with the fact that here he
was talking with two “aliens.” But the shock had passed, replaced now with a seething anger. He was being held prisoner, and that was all that mattered now.
He tried to calm down, closing his eyes for a moment and taking a couple of deep breaths. He would have liked to have spent more time trying to reason with the aliens to release him, but that wasn’t going to be possible, not now. When he had regained his composure, Adam had only one thing on his mind.
“Listen,” he started. “If you don’t let me loose pretty soon, and show me where the bathroom is, we’re going to have a real mess around here.”
“BathRoom” Again, the two aliens looked at each other.
“Bathroom, restroom, head, latrine, whatever you call it. I’ve got to relieve myself big time!”
The two aliens appeared to panic. Adam got the distinct impression that they hadn’t planned for this. Finally Kaylor spoke. “We can’t risk untying you. You nearly killed me before. Is there anything else we can do”
“Like what Give me a bedpan No, you’re going to have to let me loose, and I mean soon.”
Making a decision, Kaylor stepped away from the table and drew his weapon. “This is set for a max bolt. This time it will kill you. Do not attempt to attack either one of us.” His head shook back and forth again, this time in the direction of Jym, who stepped forward and began to loosen the straps.
Soon Adam was free and he jumped off the table. He was light headed, but could still function reasonably well. “Follow Jym. I’ll be behind you at a safe distance.”
Obeying, Adam was led out of the warehouse and into a narrow, dimly-lit hallway. About 10 meters down, Jym slid open a door and Adam stepped into what was a restroom of strange familiarity. There was a bank of sinks and even some dirty mirrors on the wall above them. Against another wall were two seats with holes in them. The aliens used toilets!
Adam quickly slipped past Jym and plopped down on the nearest seat, separating the filthy sheet he still wore as he did so. Then looking at the two aliens, he said, “Do you mind How about a little privacy”
