Alien Captured

by Marie Dry

  “They remained hidden, took breeders, and increased our numbers.” It probably sounded like a human story to her. Like the fairy tales.

  “Did you want to go?”

  “Yes, but I was needed here for another job.” Even without the project in space, he wouldn’t have volunteered. From the moment he’d seen Susannah, shortly after they landed on Earth, his place had been here with her.

  “Did it work? Going back in time?”

  “Yes, Zacar put a limit on the number of small warriors each one could have, but instead of fifty we are now thousands.” Azagor tensed. He shouldn’t have talked about small warriors. It would only remind her of Noah.

  “Tell me more.” She said the words, with no interest. The thing that made her Susannah was absent. For every day she was like this, he’d make Joseph suffer even worse than he did in that barn.

  “Only fifty of us came to earth. That’s the number of each conquest team. Zacar was the first to make human contact. That is how he met Natalie.” He talked late into the night, telling her how the warriors found their breeders, until at last she fell asleep. He didn’t sleep, couldn’t while he wrestled with the question if he should tell her the information he’d tortured out of Joseph.

  The next morning, he sat next to her at the kitchen counter. She moved her fork around the food he’d placed in front of her, but didn’t eat anything. Before today, he would’ve forced her to eat, but she appeared so fragile, as if any harsh words would fell her.

  He wrapped her braid around his wrist and pressed his forehead against hers. “I need to go to my leader. I will be back soon. Natalie will come to stay with you.”

  “That’s not necessary,” she said in that voice that had no life in it.

  “I know you are strong, but I would prefer she stay with you. It will give me ease.”

  She shrugged, unconcerned, and continued to play with her food. Even when Natalie came, she didn’t react. Natalie smiled at him and went over to Susannah.

  If his mission was anything but rescuing her son, he’d have stayed with her.

  Azagor went to Zacar and saluted.

  “Your breeder is well?” Zacar asked.

  “No, Joseph told her he killed her son. When I interrogated him, he said the child might still live.”

  “This Joseph is the lazy human who stood around while females worked the farm that now belongs to you?”

  “Yes.” Should he have told Susannah what his mission was? If she thought her son was alive only to have to deal with the knowledge of his death all over again, there would be even less of Susannah in her eyes.

  “Find her son. Wipe out these farmers who would hurt females from the Earth,” Zacar said.

  “Yes, my leader.” They’d killed many of these brothers the previous day, but everyone on the farms should be wiped out. All the males. “I will find Susannah’s small human and kill everyone on that farm. When the send-off in the space project is done, I will personally ensure none of these farms continue to exist. The probes found the location of more than twenty populated farms last night. One of them has a life sign matching Susannah’s DNA.”

  Zacar nodded.

  Azagor clenched and unclenched his hands. He should salute and go to the shuttle.

  “Something else troubles you?” Zacar asked.

  Azagor was ashamed of not wanting a weak human male child in his dwelling. He wanted Susannah to have her child and be happy. He was a Zyrgin warrior. No one had ever had cause to doubt his honor. Until now.

  “I’m battling the instinct.”

  Zacar didn’t ask what instinct. Their planet had been barren and inhospitable many centuries ago. Their race had almost been extinct when their scientists had found a way to make them stronger. They’d implemented strict laws that didn’t allow for any weakness in their race. For many centuries, the weak had been killed in order for the strong to thrive. The present Zyrgin had put a stop to the killing of weak infants three centuries ago.

  Zacar nodded. “I had to battle it as well. We still have the instinct to protect our people from extinction by killing the weak. We also have the choice and the intelligence not to do it.”

  Azagor disliked the idea of having it in his dwelling, but he also couldn’t live with the sadness in Susannah’s eyes. The silent tears she’d cried in the shower last night were worse than being eaten by the rats. “If he is alive, I am going to find him and bring him to Susannah.”

  “Do you know where this farm is?”

  “Yes, they put infants born out of wedlock and females who have sinned on this farm. They think they are evil and will bring bad luck.”

  “We will find all the farms and ensure that no woman or child is ever again abused,” Zacar said. “The project in space is complete. You will be freed from all your duties until you have found Noah.” He moved around the desk and briefly clasped Azagor’s shoulder. “For our race to survive, we had to make hard decisions. We do not openly acknowledge it, but those decisions turned us into a parasitic race.” He turned away from Azagor and went to stand in front of the wall where different probes showed an image of the Earth slowly turning. “In the time before we lost all honor in our treatment of our females, we had family units that functioned much like humans do now.”

  Azagor frowned at him. “I have never read this in our history archives.”

  “It is in the palace archives. I figured how to get inside shortly after my second change. Our ancestors only went through one change, their skins were not as tough as ours, and they rarely lived beyond eight hundred years.”

  The time before a third change was the only time a warrior would have time to break into a secret database. The blood of The Zyrgin didn’t receive special treatment. A warrior spent his time training and working, no matter a warrior’s blood connection.

  “I never realized we were altered that much.”

  “The experiments were only stopped a century ago by The Zyrgin.” Zacar stood with his legs firmly planted. “Do not speak of our past. Take your breeder’s son to her. Your willingness to accept him into your dwelling does you honor.”

  Azagor saluted. “Thank you, my leader.”

  “When he reaches maturity in the human way, you will bring him before me. I will give him the option to be a warrior.”

  “The Zyrgin would execute you,” Azagor argued.

  Only Zyrgins were allowed to be warriors in their empire. This was why Azagor had requested to join Zacar’s warriors, why he tolerated being part of the conquest of a planet with no fighters who would give them a glorious battle.

  Zacar had accepted the impossible. He had never defied The Zyrgin head on, but he always pushed the boundaries.

  “I will deal with The Zyrgin. The human male in your dwelling will be inconsequential when the project in space is discovered.”

  They’d been lucky so far. Soon The Zyrgin would feel the threat to his rule. No leader ever tolerated a warrior that could grow equal in their strength or stronger. “Does Natalie know?”

  “Do you need assistance bringing the weak male to your dwelling?” Zacar obviously wasn’t going to talk about Natalie’s feelings about her son leaving.

  Azagor was about to say no when he remembered Zurian offering him money to change his small human’s diaper. He and Zacar had taken two babies from orphanages to please their breeders, and Zurian had to look after the baby alone for a few days. Azagor had to deliver a lot of equipment to Zurian.

  “It is a year and four months old. I will require equipment.”

  Zacar’s lips pulled back from is teeth. “Small humans require much equipment if they are not to smell. We stocked the armory when we acquired Alissa and Mirabelle. The warrior on duty will be able to assist you.”

  “Thank you, my leader.”

  Zacar bowed his head slightly. “You sacrificed much to complete the project in space. I am in your debt.”

  Azagor saluted again and went to the armory where Zanr was on duty.

  “I n
eed equipment for a human baby.”

  Zanr turned from where he’d been scanning nerve grenades. They kept careful inventory of all their weapons.

  Each warrior signed for any piece of equipment taken from the ammunitions room. “You have a small human?”

  “My breeder’s son is alive,” Azagor said.

  Everyone knew that the humans had tried to lead them into a trap and that Susannah’s child was believed dead.

  Zanr nodded. “I would do the same for Rose. I wouldn’t like a human in my dwelling, but I’d tolerate it for her. It’s next to the human grenades.” They had quite a collection of the primitive human weapons. Zanr cocked his head. “I would insist it is female. Maybe Susannah can exchange him for a female.”

  “Human females are not that logical.” Azagor walked to the shelf where he found much more than he wanted to take on a mission. “Human equipment is inefficient,” he told Zanr.

  “It also takes a lot of space because it doesn’t shrink,” Zanr said. “When Alissa and Mirabelle were smaller, Zacar and Zurian came for provisions every day. I had to restock every week.”

  “I need to book a shuttle as well.”

  Zanr held up a strange object that almost looked like a human thumb. “What do I write in the register?”

  Azagor shrugged. “I have no idea. Look on the database.”

  Zanr accessed the database and then looked up and his lips curled in disgust. “It’s called a pacifier. They stick that in the mouths of infants to force them to be quiet.”

  Azagor put the thing back. No one would stick unpleasant instruments in Noah’s mouth and force his small human to be quiet. Zanr signed everything out, and it took some time for both of them to figure out all the items and enter it into the register.

  “Join the brave warriors of our empire and conquer worlds,” Zanr mocked while he scanned something called baby powder out.

  “Honor and adventure is yours for the taking,” Azagor grunted, the words drilled into warriors during training.

  “They should’ve told us that, instead of glorious battle, we’d spend time registering strange equipment with pictures of weak little humans on it.”

  “Then where would they find warriors for their conquest?”

  Zanr held up a plastic bag with a picture of a small human crawling, an ugly smile on its face. “Why does this one have a picture of a small human without teeth?”

  “They are born without teeth.” Azagor had heard Natalie and Julia talk about human babies. He didn’t let Zanr see how much that toothless smile unnerved him.

  “Disgusting.”

  He deposited the bewildering amount of paraphernalia in a storage unit in the shuttle. He had a sense of urgency. What Joseph had told him of the treatment of infants considered unclean meant that, every hour he delayed, Noah’s chances of survival lessened.

  Even with that sense of urgency gripping him by the throat, he couldn’t leave without seeing Susannah.

  She and Natalie sat talking, Susannah still with that dead tone in her voice. When he entered, Natalie smiled at him and quietly left them alone.

  He crouched in front of Susannah. “Are you well?” He didn’t know what to say to her. Didn’t want to tell her she might have her son with her by dark fall and give her false hope.

  She stared down at her clasped hands. “I’m unclean. I caused the death of my baby.”

  He sat down next to her and placed her in his lap. “You are not unclean. You told me that love can never be wrong. If Noah were alive, would you teach him that love can be unclean?”

  She was silent for a long time. Then she sighed. “No.”

  “Always remember that you are a sea-faring frog,” he said.

  Susannah laughed. It was a soft, rusty little laugh with sadness in it, but she’d laughed. “You don’t even know what that means.”

  “When I get back, I want you to tell me.”

  “You are leaving?”

  “I have to go on an important mission, but I will be back tonight.”

  She nodded and, pressing his forehead against hers, he left. While he went to the shuttle, he contacted Viglar. He should’ve done it before now. If Noah was in bad condition, and he was sure that was the case, he’d need a doctor.

  While he ran to the shuttle, he asked Natalie to look in on Susannah again.

  “I need you,” he told Viglar.

  Azagor started the shuttle engine as Viglar came at a dead run. “You believe this infant may be mistreated?”

  Azagor nodded. Viglar sat next to him and went through his equipment. Azagor wasn’t fooled by his calm attitude. Viglar was a warrior who didn’t tolerate injustice. Before they came to Earth, Azagor would never have thought Viglar would be good with alien children, but now all the warriors teased him about his popularity among his small human patients.

  “These farmers allow the children to die from neglect,” Azagor said. “I picked up a DNA signature that matches Susannah.”

  They both knew that they could get a signature from a grave as well.

  Chapter 20

  “How many humans are there on this farm?” Viglar asked.

  “The probe counted four hundred,” Azagor said.

  After the probes had pinpointed the six farms that were active and operated by the brothers, they’d scanned for small humans. Four of the farms had small humans, one farm none, and the sixth farm had registered DNA that matched Susannah’s. He was headed to this farm. Susannah worried about recognizing Noah, and Azagor was determined to verify his DNA.

  “Are you sure we’re going to the right farm?” Viglar asked.

  Azagor nodded. He knew, deep in his gut, that this was the right farm. The surveillance showed that the women were treated worse than slaves, their clothes old and falling off their bodies. The conditions didn’t seem to be any better than the raider camps the Zyrgins destroyed. “I am sure this is the right farm. The probe picked up only one small human. I suspect this is the farm they sent all their sinners.”

  “Sinners?”

  “Anyone who questions their lifestyle or breaks their rules. Mostly it is females who are sent here.” From what he’d seen on the probe recordings, the females were treated like the ones in the Raider camps.

  “Why would they send a small human to such a place?”

  “Susannah did not marry the human she made Noah with. They consider that a sin.”

  “Like a warrior not giving his breeder a first knowing?”

  “Yes.” Azagor landed the shuttle far enough away from the farm to ensure the humans didn’t stumble across it by accident, but close enough that he could get Noah back to it fast. He had to work on the assumption that it would scream and cry when it saw him. And it might object to being taken away. “If he is injured, you will have to prepare him to travel. I want to get in, take Noah, and get to the shuttle. I will return later and deal with these humans.”

  They camouflaged and walked past fields toiled by women so thin they were nothing more than skin and bones. Their clothes looked like rags. Several brothers sat on chairs, and one leaned against an ancient machine. All of them had weapons.

  “What is that?” Victor growled.

  “It is a tractor. It is their primitive method of working their fields. On some of the farms, they have no machinery.” Normally, he would explain the workings of these ancient machines in detail. He’d studied all the technology on Earth from the moment they landed on the planet. Now he couldn’t work up any interest, his focus on finding Noah.

  “I will return with you,” Viglar said softly in Zyrgin.

  They passed several rectangular dilapidated buildings, and he heard Viglar sneer at the humans. They found kitchens and bathrooms with plumbing that didn’t work and, in the barns, rusted equipment stood abandoned. A strong sense of hopelessness hung over the farm. The decay was appalling.

  “All of this could’ve been kept in working condition with regular maintenance,” he muttered under his breath.

 
; “A whip on the back of those fat lazy humans sitting around with guns will solve the problem,” Viglar answered, also barely making a sound.

  Using his scanner, Azagor found the DNA signature. Still camouflaged, they went to the building and entered through the door. No one noticed it opening and closing. This building looked like the structures where the humans slept, but it had no rooms and bathrooms and seemed to be used for storage.

  Viglar scanned for the DNA signature again. He’s here,” he said.

  Following the heat signature on their scanners, they found the small human. Azagor had his sword in his hand before he even realized he reached for it. It took every ounce of self-control he had not to go outside and kill all those evil humans sitting around. He put away his sword and looked down at the small human who had caused such upheaval in his life. He lay on straw in an empty space between dirty wooden crates and tangles of rope. It whimpered softly and, for one moment, Azagor’s instinct whispered to him, told him it was weak, would cause their people to die if he was allowed to live.

  Throwing off the urge to end the weak human, he studied Susannah’s son. Painfully thin, he had Susannah’s brown eyes and black hair. Even without the DNA scan, he would’ve recognized him. His eyes slanted upward exactly like Susannah’s. Unlike Susannah, who always smelled fresh and like the fruit on Earth, the small human smelled like feces and death.

  It whimpered again, softly, as if the sound was torn from its emaciated body, as if it knew it wouldn’t receive any attention if it cried. “Susannah will cry if she sees him like this. Make him healthy before she sees him.”

  Viglar dropped his camouflage and held up his medical scanner. “I can help with the injuries, but he needs balanced nutrition over a long period.”

  Azagor dropped his camouflage as well and went down on his knees. Big brown eyes stared up at him. Seeing Susannah’s eyes in that small sunken face hurt something deep inside him.

  “I have come to take you to your mother, small human. You will not cry. You are a small sea-faring frog.” He still didn’t know what that meant, but it had helped Susannah when he said it.