“They took her?” I asked.
Raj nodded, walking up to me and grabbing me by the head. He wrapped both hands around my cranium and tilted my head down so he could have a closer look.
“Can’t this wait?” I asked, a little annoyed.
“No, as the ship’s doctor, I have to attend to any injuries that I see. If I didn’t do my duties, the Galactics could strip me of my license.”
I started to laugh, bobbing my head slightly as I did so. Raj slapped me on the back of the skull and I stopped laughing. He ummed and urrred a little, but after a few seconds he let go of my head and I straightened myself out.
“Just a flesh wound,” he said, smiling at me.
“Oh goodie. Besides, you don’t have to worry about keeping your license Raj, I think the Galactics aren’t too high on us at the minute, especially given the fact that our own damn race sold us down the river to a maniac society of ruthless bear creatures.”
Raj shrugged his shoulders.
“You know what they say, every cloud has a silver lining,” he said, Dale nodding his head in agreement.
“Yeah, everything’s looking real silvery right about now,” I replied, shaking my head in annoyance. Doing so made my head hurt even more. I stopped in my tracks, the haziness caused by the head injury disappearing a little.
“So where did Jess go? Did they take her?” I asked.
“Yeah, they took her. They didn’t really say anything when they came in. When they brought you back, they dumped you onto the floor and slammed the cell door shut. We’d all rushed over to you to see how you were holding up, but you were out like a light. A few minutes later, the cell door opened again and the Ursines took Jess away. She was kicking and screaming, but they picked her up in a bear hug, subdued her and without saying anything, they dragged her away. You were out for about ten hours before you woke up,” Raj said.
“You’re all caught up now, you know as much as us,” Dale concurred.
I saw Raj shake his head.
“Well, that’s not exactly all true, now is it Captain Flynn?” he asked. I could tell what he was getting at more or less immediately.
“They wanted us to join them,” I said, not feeling up to lying to Dale and Raj. I just didn’t have the energy.
“Join them?” Dale asked, visibly confused.
“Yeah, apparently they have their sights set on Earth,” I said, walking toward the bowl of water on the far end of the cell and picking it up. I took a few sips and placed it back down on the grotty floor. The water was warm and had bits of god knows what in it. I was much too thirsty to give a crap about how clean the stuff was.
“What do you mean they have their sights set on Earth? They don’t have the technology to do so. Plus, they’re thick as shit,” Dale said, I could tell that he was getting rather irate. Just the thought of those creatures attempting such a thing was making the patriot in him mad. But I was far from patriotic. I’d lost my faith in humanity way before they lost it in me and banished me to this planet.
“Well, apparently they aren’t as stupid as we thought they were. I met their leader. He spoke perfect English. No slurring. No broken up words. He was pretty clear in his demands.”
The two men in front of me were obviously unconvinced. I could see it in their eyes. But I wasn’t in the mood to defend my own thoughts on the situation. So I plonked myself down on to my sheet and pillow on the hard concrete floor and closed my eyes.
“Haven’t you had enough sleep, Flynn?” I heard Dale ask. It was officially the first time Dale hadn’t referred to me as Captain. I guess now they could see it as clear as I could.
There was no more Captain. There was no more Alpha Ship One. And there was no more hope. I fell asleep hoping that when I woke up again, Jess would be returned. I was too tired to imagine the many possible things that they were doing to her. But I wasn’t stupid. I’d seen how these things acted and I knew that they were more than likely playing games with us. Trying to get me to buckle on my decision to not help them.
But I was a stubborn man, and it would take a lot more to rattle me. Or at least, so I thought.
***
The hours melted into days. Days with no food, water or contact with our captors. I had slept on and off for the duration of those days. My head wound was getting the better of me, making me feel sick and dizzy, so I figured that the best thing to do was sleep it off and rest a little while I had the chance. That didn’t go down well with Raj or Dale. They’d made it their business to continue questioning me regarding what the Ursines had asked of us. And I made it my business to keep quiet. I didn’t feel it necessary to explain squat to the two of them. They’d seemed to have forgotten their place in this whole mess. I was still their captain, whether they liked it or not. And constantly asking me what the Ursines had said was starting to get on my nerves. Especially since I’d basically told the Ursines no and that’s all Dale and Raj had to know.
“I can hear somebody coming,” Raj said one day out of the blue. I was still lying on my makeshift bed, waiting for time to disappear and dissolve into nothing, much like it had done since we’d been put in this cell. I figured that the more time the bear creatures had to think about their plan, the more time I had to counter it. In my mind, I was running all sorts of scenarios. Scenarios that involved the four of us, Jess included, getting off of this rock. All I had to do was overpower one of the guards, steal their keys, or whatever they used to secure their prison, make an escape with my team, find the ship by tracing our journey to the prison, and hopping on board, making haste, flying into space and getting on with our lives. But what lives did we exactly have after this? The humans would have marked our ship as traitors to the Galaxy, meaning any other human ships that spotted us whilst in flight would most likely shoot us down.
“Heads up!” Raj said at the sound of our cell door being unlocked. At that very moment I realized something. Something that I would probably later come to regret. There was no escape. There was no plan. They had us exactly where they wanted us. Only a stupid person would think that escaping an alien prison was as easy as that. And given our position amongst the stars, we were wanted men. If not by the humans, then by the Ursines. And once you get a bounty on your head, it’s more than difficult to stay alive up there. It’s impossible.
The cell door opened and in stepped four Ursines. Even if I was stupid enough to attempt an escape now, I would soon find out how powerful and menacing these creatures were. If I acted out, the people around me would suffer. And like it or not, they were the only people that I had now. So I stood up and stared at the four beasts in our cell. Three of them were hooded, and the other one wasn’t. The one without the hood was smaller. Nearly as small as the king I’d met a few days ago. It was wearing similar robes, but wasn’t the same Ursine. I’d recognize that bastard beast from a mile away. But the smaller one was probably just as important. He looked regal. Acted regal. And spoke just as clearly as the king I’d met. But what struck me as astonishing was that this particular Ursine didn’t have a translator voice box. There was no strip of plaster on his vocal chords. The guy was speaking natively.
“Have you reconsidered your position regarding your work for our war effort?” the smaller, native-speaking Ursine asked. Instead of the normal robotic, forced voice that usually accompanied their translated slur, this Ursine pronounced the words perfectly, if not a little gruff. There was a slight tinge of a roar every time it spoke, like somebody with breathing problems wheezing. But it was clear enough, and impressive enough for me to nod my head.
“I have thought about it and have come to the conclusion that there is no way out of this, is there?” I said.
The small Ursine chirped. It was amused. His robes fluttered as he stepped toward me. It was about my height, but a lot wider. It rested its giant paw on my shoulder, a move I’d seen two of these creatures use before. They were tactile, or at least pretending to be.
“You come across as a clever human. A hu
man that not only knows its place, but respects the place other races find themselves in. You are doing yourself a favor by working with us. While everybody you know back home will die by our hands, you will be saved, and able to continue your race as you see fit. Under our leadership of course.”
I nodded my head, turning to Dale and Raj who looked like they were in complete shock at the intelligence that was being shown by the regal Ursine in front of them.
“To carry on our race, we’ll need a woman, and the last time I checked, we were missing one,” I said, trying to feel out the creature. It chirped again, an actual smile coming across its snout. I could hardly believe it.
“You are very astute. But you seem to underestimate us. We are not savages. We would not harm you or your crewmate unless provoked. She is doing just fine. We have her locked up in her own personal cell, away from you male humans. We decided that it was the best course of action if we were to avoid her falling pregnant on our planet. We do not condone such a thing between inmates.”
I smiled. It was quite amusing to think that the Ursines believed that we’d have sex with Jess in a prison cell. But I guess they saw us as animals, and even animals in captivity get it on from time to time.
“We’re in. Whatever you want from us, we’ll do it. But promise me this, you won’t make the people of Earth suffer,” I said, staring at the Ursine and then at Dale and Raj. I gave them a wink, hoping that they’d understand my angle. I didn’t want them to think that I’d lost all hope. That I was ready to turn on humanity just yet, even if they themselves had turned on us. But agreeing to this would gain us time. Time to hatch a plan. A plan of escape. And once we escaped, we could find a way to seek vengeance on the men that sold us out. But I wasn’t willing to kill the entire population of Earth to accomplish that vengeance.
Dale and Raj nodded. They understood what I was trying to do. I turned to the Ursine in front of me who was staring blankly in my direction.
“So it is done. You shall help us take back what is ours. But in the meantime, there will be tests to ensure that you are capable of working for us. Working with us.”
I stood there, confused. After a few seconds, I shrugged my shoulders. I knew that I’d have to agree to everything they asked if me and my crew were going to get out of this alive. Because that’s all that mattered to me. Getting out alive. No matter the cost. But unfortunately for me, I was being naive. The cost was much greater than I thought. And it would nearly destroy me.
“We’ll take your tests,” I said, unaware of what horrors awaited me and what was left of the Alpha Ship One crew.
Chapter Six
Dale, Raj, and I were escorted into a rather large-dimly lit room. It looked like a warehouse of some sorts. In front of us sat four small tables and four chairs. Three of them were unoccupied. The fourth one was taken and in it was Jess. She looked at us and darted her eyes to the floor. She looked terrified. I felt for her and was about to ask her if she was alright, but one of the hooded Ursines that brought us into the room jabbed me in the ribs. It was as if he could read my mind. I nearly fell to the floor but was pushed forward by another Ursine behind me. The three of us were then prodded and jabbed toward the three tables in front of us and were forced to sit on the chairs. We were not allowed to talk as the dim lights above us brightened, illuminating the four of us. I couldn’t stop looking at Jess. But she wasn’t making eye contact with me. I spotted a bruise on her face. They’d hit her. I felt a very sudden and very aggressive pang of anger run through me. I felt like getting out of my seat and challenging these Ursines to a fist fight. But I remembered where we were, what circumstances we were in and how unlikely it was that we were going to walk out of there alive. So I knew we had to do everything in our power to remain breathing. Even if it meant being run through test after test by the savages that had us captive.
As the four of us sat there in silence, we were each handed a tablet. The Ursines placed the tablets on our table and moved away from us. They then walked toward the middle of the empty warehouse like room and stood there, staring at us through the darkness. The bright spot lights that were shining on us only lit up our immediate area, so the Ursines in the distance were blanketed in darkness compared to us. A buzzer sounded off and a robotic voice came through some PA speakers. It told us that the test was about to begin.
“What do we do?” I asked, staring at the Ursines in the middle of the vast room, about five hundred feet away from me. They didn’t move. They didn’t speak. They just stood there, staring. I couldn’t make out their expressions from where I was sitting, but I knew that they must have been amused. To me, it seemed as if these creatures took some sort of joy in watching us suffer. It made me sick to think that we had to contend with aliens that so closely resembled humans and their wicked ways. It was ironic really. But the irony was lost on me. I was only interested in surviving the tests in front of us, whatever those tests might be. But that’s where I was struggling, and so was the rest of my team. They didn’t get the test, and neither did I. We just sat there, staring at the tablet in front of us. We each had one, and from what I could tell, they were all of the same dimensions. They shared the same shape, and were just as sleek and stylish as each other. They looked expensive, and the screen on them made our faces reflect. But what was being shown on the screen was strange. An image of a human boy building a sandcastle stared back at me on my screen. It looked like a drawing, like old school pre-space travel clip-art. I gathered that my crewmates had the same picture on their tablet screens as well.
I tried to spot whether or not I could see what they were looking at, since we were all seated in a row, only a few inches separated us. They were in touching distance from me. Jess was to my right, I was in the middle, Dale to my left and Raj on the end. But before I could even have a look at what Jess was doing, a partition wall shot up from the floor, raised to my head level, stopped and enclosed me into a booth. I assumed that the same had happened to my crew, as I could hear a similar sound repeating three more times. I gathered that the sound I heard was the same walls forming a booth around them. I could see what was going on now. The Ursines were taking the test very seriously. I mean, they were erecting walls for Christ’s sake! Whatever this test was about, it obviously meant something, so I decided that I was going to take it seriously too.
I stared at the clip-art image of the boy at the beach, building the sandcastle and wondered what I had to do. But after a few seconds, I spotted that the tablet I was holding had two buttons on the bottom of the device. Each button had a symbol. The symbol on the left was a tick, and the symbol on the right was a cross. I guessed that the tick meant something positive, whilst the cross meant something negative.
I consider myself a smart person, but I would be lying if I told you that I got the aim of the test straight away. It took me a good few minutes to gather any sort of clue as to what I was supposed to do. But after those few minutes, I came to the conclusion that the tick meant good and the cross meant bad. So I decided that the test was asking me if the clip-art picture of the boy made me feel good or bad.
“Good,” I said, pressing the tick. As I did so, the image on the tablet changed. Now a dog sticking its tongue out stared back at me. This was also a clip-art image. Some sort of cartoon. I looked at the dog and stared into its eyes. Man’s best friend. A loyal creature. Still to this day by mans side.
“Good,” I said, pressing the tick.
Another image popped up. This time it was a photograph. A real-life photograph. Probably one of the most famous pre-space travel photographs on Earth. Hiroshima. August 6, 1965. A picture that we’d studied at flight school ten years ago. A picture that summed up humanity before we realized our potential. It was a picture that stood for something. A bloody stain. A smear. One of many bloody stains in the history of humanity. The picture was of the A-bomb going off and the mushroom cloud that engulfed the Japanese city of Hiroshima. It sparked some sort of sadness in me, but I wasn’t too sure wheth
er or not it was a tick or a cross. What context was I supposed to give the picture?
You could say that the picture and the act of dropping the bomb had not only shown the power and destruction that humanity was capable of, but it also made sure that something like that never happened again. And with that understanding, came first contact with the Galactics. And with first contact, came the end of all Earth’s civil wars. We were now a peaceful colony. But then again, the picture sums up death and destruction. So even though I felt good about how far we’ve come, could I really associate a tick with this devastating image?
“Bad,” I said, pressing the cross.
The next picture was another famous image. It was an artistic drawing of a man on a cross. That man was well-known on Earth. Or at least, he was back before we were all-knowing like we are now. The man’s name was Jesus Christ of Nazareth. He was what many believed to be the son of God. It’s a concept that a lot of people do not agree with now, God, that is, but a long time a go when humans were un-cultured and ill-travelled, they believed in this sort of stuff. This Jesus fella wasn’t the only one they believed in. You see, many people believed in many different things. And all of these beliefs caused discord between countries, cities and regions, resulting in war. The visit from the Galactics made sure that all of the wars over dead men believed to be prophets representing a God soon ended. People became enlightened and the only pursuit that results in arguments between men now is the one of human progression. So I didn’t really know how to feel about the Jesus image on the tablet. Just like the A-bomb image earlier, there were good and bad points to the image. But deep down, I knew that it made me feel bad. Even though I am one of a very few who believe in something among the stars, I cannot and will not let that get in the way of what I know.
“Bad,” I say, pressing the cross.
The last image was a surprising one. It was one of Earth. Big old Blue as I’d call her. But this particular picture of Earth had been doctored. And in it, Earth was being split into two, while a battlecruiser war ship shot nukes at my home planet. I immediately realized what they were testing here. My willingness to help was being questioned. If I’d pressed the cross and signified that I felt bad toward that image, then maybe they’d feel as if I wasn’t able to help them and execute me and my crew. Obviously deep down, I knew that I would never help an alien race in destroying my people or the planet I was born on, but I needed them to think I was willing, so I could hatch a plan and escape this rock. So without so much as a second thought, I pressed the tick.
Stasis (Alpha Ship One Book 1) Page 4
