It seemed like some sort of a service corridor, a level below the floor he had escaped from. There were rows upon rows of pipes and tubing with strange looking rivets and valves. There were sets of instructions in a language that comprised of various geometrical mathematical notations and many dots and strings of varying depths of impression.
And then there was a door with a string of bars below it, which made for a very short ladder if any at all. Alex stood under the bars and jumped up, to see if he could reach them. He could barely touch the last bar on his third attempt.
‘I can get better at it with some practice’ Alex made a mental note of it.
He continued walking along this service corridor for another couple of hundred meters and then suddenly stopped as he heard some noises. These noises were distinct from the humdrum of the machinery that had been a constant companion to Alex’s ears all throughout. He listened for a moment and realized that the noise was coming from the level above him, filtering through the crevice that was still running along the roof of the ‘service corridor’. He ran a few feet further to find another door leading into the service corridor. He lunged upwards towards the ladder and caught hold of the lower rung in the second attempt. It had a rubbery feel with grooves built into it, obviously meant to give it some grip.
Alex dangled from the ladder, pulled himself up three rungs, and then swung himself to wedge his right foot into the crevice. Using his footing in the crevice, he pulled himself up higher, hauling himself up on the rungs of the ladder, peering in through the crevice.
He saw an alien monster with its back to him, talking to someone. It was a large, bright room, much bigger than the one he was held captive in. The room had strange instruments on curved tables that jutted out of the walls. The walls in turn had strange panels with tiny flashing points of lights, which displayed a strange yet beautiful script. Alex turned his attention to what the monster was saying and the words were clear, though they did not mean anything to Alex. Alex could not see what or with whom the alien was conversing and he shifted slightly in position to get to see around the alien and his left elbow slipped from the rung in the process.
He gasped and slipped a couple of rungs on the ladder but managed to hold on to the ladder with his other hand, pulling himself back up in the process. The noise made the alien turn around and Alex could see the other person in the conversation.
It was a human being! A bloody freaking, middlingly old, giant bald human being!
Alex freaked out and pulled his eyes off the crevice, just in time before the alien could turn around to look for the source of the noise. The conversation had ceased. After a moment’s silence, the alien said something to which the human replied
‘It is nothing sire. I am sure it is just vermin, which runs down the room below. You should not be too worried about that my master. I shall see to it.’
Alex heard the first words to come out of the human, who was conversing with the alien, in English!
He did not know what to make of it.
He waited for a moment and then the alien started speaking again. He raised his head again into the crevice and his eyes were met by the eyes of the human for a brief fleeting moment. The eyes looked directly into Alex’s and there was that barely perceptible nod which screamed
‘Get down’
Alex immediately slid his face from the crevice and hung full length from the lowest rung, slowly and noiselessly dropping off onto the tarmac of the corridor. He did not understand what was happening. He remembered having been attacked by alien pods just outside of Florida University and now vaguely remembered being picked up by a heavy metal claw and being dumped into the black hollow of the large alien vessel. After that, everything had gone black and he had woken up in a large room full of bodies.
Were those lumbering monsters the aliens that had attacked Earth? It seemed so. He could not make anything of the conversation that the alien was having with the human. A tonsured human, who was dressed in sparse clothes and who understood the alien tongue and conversed back with the alien, in English! What was a human doing there and how had he managed to learn alien in two days? Why was he not in the room, captive with the other humans? Why did he address the alien as master? And above all, he saw Alex and kept his cool, did protect Alex’s life by asking him to duck down from view. Did he want him to wait there? Alex did not know but he decided to wait for a while.
The conversation above was probably over as no more sounds were coming from that floor. Alex stayed hunched under the ladder for a good fifteen minutes, thinking about his wife, his daughter, and what he had to do now to get out of the bind he was in.
The door above the ladder opened with a whoosh and a thin streak of light appeared on the wall opposite it. Alex shook himself out of his reverie and saw the man, he had seen earlier with the alien, slip out of the half open door, and very effortlessly cling on to the ladder as it noiselessly slid down towards the floor. The man was bald, muscular and had a rag like tunic that covered him from his shoulders until his knees, with a pithy hole within the tunic for his head, and a metal belt that held the tunic around his waist.
He was pretty excited to see Alex and grabbed his arms with both his hands
‘Are you from the present day Earth?’
Alex looked at him, dumbstruck by the oddity of the question.
The man continued
‘How did you escape? I am so glad to see you alive.’
Alex did not know what to say
‘Hi’ Alex mumbled ‘Who are you?’
‘Oh yes. I forgot to introduce myself. I am William of Montferrat. I was a General in the army of Boniface I, Duke of the Marquees of Montferrat.’
Alex did not know where Montferrat was and who Boniface I was. That was an odd way to introduce oneself. They had Dukes and Duchesses over in Europe but none that held armies in the present day.
‘I am Alexander Dunbar. I was a soldier too, in the United States Army’ Alex introduced himself hesitatingly and then something struck him,
‘What did you mean when you asked if I am from the present day Earth?’
William replied, almost chuckling
‘Oh that. I forgot to mention that…’ William paused and then continued
‘I am from what you refer to as year 1202 A.D.’
Chapter 10
Surrender
Secret Service Hideout
Maryland
25th January 2019
The people around the room had a varied reaction. While many rejoiced and gasped a sigh of relief, a few had concern written on their faces. President McGee was one of them.
‘What do you mean, it disappeared?’
General Marshall stuttered with his words
‘Madam, the ship is not there anymore. Not over Nampa anymore.’
‘What does that mean? Was it destroyed?’
‘That I cannot say for sure, madam. Before the attack, the ship was there and after the attack, it simply is not there. Not destroyed, not listing and not crashed to the ground…no...It simply isn’t there. No debris, nothing.’
‘You mean to say it has disappeared. How can it do that? Disappear into thin air?’
‘I don’t know how, but that is what it seems to have done. Disappeared into thin air it has.’
There was silence all around the room. Those who were rejoicing moments ago were not anymore.
The General cleared his throat and continued
‘Today at daybreak, two of our F-22 fighter planes took off from the Mountain Home Air Force Base, both loaded with an AIM-9X air-to-air missile tipped with a nuclear device. One of the planes was a designated standby and it hovered on while the other raced towards its target. The missile was fired at 0700 hrs and it was tracked until an alien laser beam intercepted it. On interception, it exploded within two hundred meters of the alien ship. There was a visual blackout with the explosion and when the dust settled, the ship had vanished.’ he looked around the room, pausing his narrati
ve for a couple of seconds
‘However, the ship was on radar monitoring the whole time and it just vanished from the radar screen.’
That stunned everyone. There were murmurs all around the room. Those last words confirmed the worst fears of those who had been uneasy until now.
Sienna had listened to the entire discussion silently. The General had no more info to share. People around the table deliberated on the information received but no one was sure what to make of the ship’s disappearance. It was clear that the nuclear strike had been in vain. They had killed thousands of American citizens, all for nothing. The alien ship had sensed danger and had simply vanished from the spot. The bomb had gone ‘boom’ over empty space. There was nothing more to do. The meeting was dissolved and the General promised to get back once he had any fresh information.
After the meeting, Sienna decided to try her luck at the radio room but she could not persuade them to let her contact Susan. She had no idea how her daughters were. She was worried about Alex too. She held out hope for him and her mind refused to entertain the more morbid possibilities. As long as she did not know either way, she had to assume they were fine. No not fine, but alive, somewhere.
***
Capitol Building
Boise, Idaho
25th January 2019
The alien ship had appeared at 0700 hrs over the Capitol Building on the Boise skyline all of a sudden. It was the first new appearance of a large alien ship over any city since the ships first appeared a couple of days ago. The ship was damaged, a chunk blasted of its edge, black fumes billowing out of that hole. It stood its place on the sky though, looking even more menacing.
Many refugees from Nampa, had assembled in temporary shelters provided for by the Boise administration and the moment the ship appeared on the Boise skyline, it triggered a rush of panic. Those who had witnessed the carnage in Nampa went berserk, stampeding out of their shelters and unto the road, piling their belongings on their trucks, ready to flee Boise too. Those who had not seen the ship earlier caught on to the panic of the Nampa survivors. In an hour’s time, there was a mass exodus of people from Boise, outwards on the I-84, towards the Salt Lake City. The roads were choked and people in turn choked the Boise river, heading towards the Lucky Peak State Park. There was a ship over Salt Lake City and many people took to the smaller hamlets of Fairfield, Gooding and Shoshone.
The Boise ship started attacking at about a quarter to noon.
This was nothing like what the ships in other cities were doing. Swarms of smaller alien planes swooped down on the buildings of Boise, firing their weapons in a blistering and relentless attack. The ferocity of this attack had not been seen in any city before. The buildings crumbled, and the steel within the buildings melted. Fires raged around the city and thousands holed inside the buildings were instantly incinerated. The alien harvesters roamed the skies of Boise, piling up bodies and people within.
There was a difference though. Most of them were dead, listless and mutilated beyond recognition. But the alien harvesters did not seem to mind. The plunder and the pillage continued unabated. The US armed forces tried to interfere but to no avail. Conventional warfare simply had no bloody effect on the alien machines. They shot down every bullet, bomb and missile directed at them. The nuclear strike at Nampa had taken its toll on the ground. The city was destroyed and all life in it. The most conservative of estimates put the number of dead at a forty thousand at least. In addition, there was no confirmation of the hit. The ship had simply vanished and almost instantaneously, a ship had materialized on the skyline of Boise, with a big hole on its side. The ship spewed violent rage at the hapless citizens of Boise and the US government looked on, helpless and paralyzed in defeat.
Things went south after 1500 hrs. The other ships appeared to have picked up on the ferocity of the attack in Boise and stepped up on the attacks in their own cities. The tenor of the attacks saw a sea change and the ships, which were hitherto firing lasers and harvesting people outdoors, started pulverizing buildings and bridges and reaching for people within them. The intra-day death toll across US climbed from hundreds to thousands and was close to a million by that evening.
***
Secret Service Hideout
Maryland
25th January 2019
Gloom had descended on the people assembled in the hall for the evening briefing. The President presided over a bunch of hunched over and defeated people. General Marshall had just finished his report, reporting the loss of cities like Nampa, Boise, Salt Lake, Vegas, Philly, Chicago and Washington. The reported death toll was close to a million and a half and still rising at a horrendous rate. It was clear that they had managed to piss the aliens off with the nuclear strike and now they were facing their wrath. There were a few suggestions about a concerted nuclear strike but the President shot down those proposals with a firm hand.
No one had any other fruitful suggestion, none that the table could come to a consensus on, anyway. And in that hopelessness, all Sienna could wonder was
‘Why us?’
Many had talked about it but no one had any answers. Why had the attack been on U.S soil? Why were the other nations spared? Why were the ships parked all over the world but why had none been attacked?
President McGee reported the failure of US efforts to get NATO and other U.S allies to engage the alien ships. Nations across the world had seen the U.S humbled to its knees in front of the aliens and none dared to take on a losing fight. The ships hung on their own heads as the fabled Damocles’ sword and some leaders even refused to talk to President McGee. Some secretly rejoiced in the destruction of an imperialistic US whereas others like Iran and Palestine publicly thanked Almighty God for bringing U.S to justice. The Korean Central News Agency of North Korea went on to claim that their Supreme Leader played a major role in engineering the alien ships and that he was a friend and mentor of the Alien race. China, Russia and most of Europe studied the U.S war closely, secretly arming themselves for a possible war and securing national treasures out of harm’s way.
However, no one came forward to the aid of US.
The outcome was inevitable. There was nothing else that could be done and which had not been tried. Then President McGee said what needed to be said but which none had dared to. None could actually. As the Commander-in-Chief, it was something that only she could do or say and she did
‘We have to surrender. We have to cease all hostilities from our side. If they can get pissed and raise the tenor of their attacks, I guess the reverse can happen too and that they can understand our surrender too.’
Chapter 11
A Slave who was once a General
Alien Mother Ship
Between the Earth and Sun
‘What?’ Alex’s jaw dropped when he heard William’s answer.
‘Oh yes!’ William looked at Alex’s surprised countenance and quipped
‘Imagine my shock when I found out I was in AD 2018. I did not actually get over the shock for a good couple of days.’
Alex raced the numbers in his head
‘How did you get here…eight hundred years ahead of your time?’
‘I do not know. One moment I was on a battlefield, war-paint on, shield and an axe in my hand and the next thing I know, I was on this monstrosity. It was just like that’ he winked at Alex, ‘in the blink of an eye. When I got here, I found myself paralyzed on a bed, with my battle gear on, with these extraordinary looking beings hovering all over my body.’
‘You just vanished from your battlefield and appeared here?’ Alex was still unconvinced.
‘I do not know how else to describe it. I guess that, to those in line behind me on the battlefield, it would have appeared so. I would have just vanished…into thin air, right before their eyes. And look at me now, a General of an Army now reduced to a slave to their beck and call.’
Alex looked up at the door
‘Are they the aliens who we’re fighting against? Are they the m
onsters attacking us?’
‘Well no. These slow slobs are but slaves to the alien masters.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Well, like us they are a conquered race. Their planet had been attacked and had been conquered, just like ours is being now, and they work here on the ship, scraping crap after their masters.’
William felt silent for a moment and then repeated
‘In fact, I am a slave to these slob-slaves. I was the General of my Army and now I am a slave – to the slaves.’
Alex could see a glazed memory in William’s wet eyes. That was some sight. The big, hefty, hunk of a man with tears in his eyes! Alex looked up at the door and then at the corridor that stretched on, on either side.
‘Where does this lead to?’ Alex pointed to the corridor, pulling William off his reverie.
‘Umhmm…I should get you off this corridor now. They have patrols running here every now and then. They will be coming this way soon.’
Alex nodded his head as William pressed a button in the shadows, getting the ladder down. He stepped on the rungs and asked Alex to follow.
Alex followed William as he pushed the door into the floor above. It was the same anteroom where William was talking to the Alien slob some time before. There was nobody there then.
William held Alex by his hand and tiptoed his way down the anteroom to a lighted corridor a few meters away. William looked both ways on the corridor and once he was sure that the coast was clear, dragged Alex by his hand across the corridor to a door a hundred meters away. The door was barred by a row of metal cylinders, which slid away when William touched a pad on the side of the door.
The first thing that Alex noticed on entering the room was the stench, the stench of human excreta. He immediately covered his mouth.
William saw him covering his mouth and sniggered
‘Welcome to hell. Welcome to the slave quarters. Here we wallow in our filth.’ William laughed a derisory laugh.
Exodus (The Domus Series Book 2) Page 8
