Aeon Captive

by Amelia Wilson

  “That is a strange thing,” the alien said when they pulled apart.

  “You don’t kiss?”

  “Is that what it’s called? No, we don’t kiss.”

  “You’re so strange to me,” Sarah said.

  The alien seemed to laugh again, his face turning red, the balls on his head bobbing up and down.

  “And you, Sarah, are strange to me.”

  Chapter Four

  More days passed, and Sarah and Henry became closer and closer. They made love often, and spent time talking each day. Or at least, Sarah guessed days were passing, it still was hard for her to tell.

  It was after a bout of sensual love making, slow and orgasm inducing, in Sarah’s case multiple orgasm inducing, and they were lying together, nude, Sarah’s leg thrown over the alien’s torso, her finger tracing lazy circles over his smooth chest.

  “You’re the only one that talks to me,” Sarah said. Not even one other alien had come to see her since she had been in the ship, it had only been Henry, his presence a familiar feeling in her brain. She wasn’t sure her eyes would be able to tell the aliens apart, but her brain could. Henry felt a certain way. Comfortable.

  “It is my job,” Henry said into the young woman’s head. His words stung, and she couldn’t help but keep a hurt look from falling quickly across her face, and a hurt thought from flashing in her brain, easily picked up on by the telepathic alien, though he missed the look upon her face since his species never changed the expression on their faces.

  Was Sarah just a job to Henry? He was fucking her for shit’s sake. Was that his job? She had given everything to the alien, without nearly as much consideration as she would back on Earth (which was strange, she kept yelling to herself from the back of her mind.)

  “I misspoke,” Henry said calmly. His voice was a strange thing, calm and deep, but it wasn’t really his voice at all, since it was only in the young woman’s head. The whole thing was sure to drive her crazy if she gave it any thought at all. “I only mean that I am tasked with taking care of you, though that was supposed to only mean feeding you.”

  Sarah grinned. “You’re going above and beyond the call of duty,” she said.

  Henry ‘laughed’ again. “Yes,” he said. “I am.”

  “So how many… of you are on the ship? Of your species.”

  “We are Aeon’s,” Henry said.

  “How many Aeons are there?”

  “Just under a hundred are on this craft,” Henry said.

  “How did you get this job?” Sarah asked, and she knew right away she had said something wrong, for the alien’s face turned a dark gray. It was obvious he was displeased.

  “I am being punished,” he said. “I wish not to be on this ship. At least, I did not until we picked you up.”

  Sarah reached down as the alien spoke and took the crystal within her fingers. The alien looked at it. “Why are you being punished?” she asked.

  She didn’t think Henry was going to answer her, and Sarah was about to apologize for bringing the question up when he did speak, in her mind of course.

  “My… you call them fathers. My father, he was punished, and when he died, the punishment went to me. That is how we do things on our world.”

  “That sounds awful,” Sarah said. “It isn’t fair.”

  “No it is not, but it is my burden to withstand, as it will be my son’s duty, if I ever am to have one.”

  “We couldn’t… you know… have a child, could we?” Sarah asked. That seemed to amuse Henry, for his face flashed scarlet.

  “I think not,” he said.

  “What did your father do?” Sarah pushed.

  “He refused military service. He was a coward. I wish nothing more than to fight, but I am barred from doing so, and so I was sent to this ship.”

  “You wish to fight? In the military?”

  “Yes,” Henry said. “Warriors are looked upon very favorably on our world. I wish it more than anything, but it is not to be.”

  “You seem almost scared of my necklace,” Sarah said, holding the crystal. “I noticed you are very careful not to touch it, even when we are making love.”

  “It could hurt me,” Henry said, and then his face turned red and the balls on his head shook. “At least that’s what they say. I am not a superstitious being, but I do not want to take a chance.”

  “What is it, exactly?” Sarah asked, looking down at the crystal. “What does it do?”

  “It is a weapon,” Henry said, surprising the human woman. “And it will save us.”

  “Save you?” Sarah asked, and the alien nodded, and he was just about to answer her when there was a shuddering shake of the ship, and in the distance, a loud boom.

  “What was that?” Sarah asked, sitting up in bed.

  “We’re under attack!” the alien told her telepathically, and then he hurried to get dressed.

  Chapter Five

  Sarah dressed alone and sat on the edge of her bed, terror gripping her tightly. She heard booms and bangs throughout the ship, loud sharp sounds that were almost metallic.

  Without warning, the door in her room opened, and Sarah screamed. She had been hoping to see Henry, but he did not stand in her doorway. Nor did any Aeon. Instead it was a new alien, a hulking gray skinned alien which otherwise looked like a man, a very strong man, where his muscles had muscles. He was a little over six feet tall, his stomach flat and strong with washboard abs. His pecs were large and hard, easily seen because the material he had been wearing as a shirt had been torn away. He had soft features, his eyes a sparkling purple, his hair green and hanging to his shoulders.

  In his hands he held a rifle, and Sarah expected him to raise it and point it her way and to then pull the trigger, but he didn’t. Instead, what the gray skinned alien did instead surprised the woman from Earth.

  “Come with me, please,” the alien said.

  “No!” Sarah said, standing up and backing away. The alien sighed and reached for something hanging on his belt. It was a small metallic sphere, and as Sarah watched her thumbed a button on it, and a red light began to flash. Then he tossed the ball her way. She shrieked and dove back. There was a rapid beeping, and then green gas sprayed out from the ball, covering Sarah’s face, and she closed her eyes and fell into a restless sleep.

  When Sarah awoke the familiar yellow room of the Aeon ship was gone. Instead she was in a gray room, drabby and cold. A cot was in the corner, and a basin full of water. Sarah found she was desperately thirsty, and she went to the basin, finding a cup nearby and filing it. She drank it down and repeated the process three times and was refilling the cup a fourth time when there was a beep and she was reminded of the silver ball, but instead a door opened up in the wall.

  “Is every door a secret?” she asked a confused looking alien, the same one who had abducted her from the Aeon ship.

  “What?” he asked.

  “Nevermind,” Sarah said, looking to the alien. “You speak with your mouth?”

  The alien nodded. “The Aeon’s can be creepy, with all that head talking,” he said. “My name is Gar, I’m a Zaytarian.”

  “You didn’t kill me,” she said to the alien.

  “Why would I?”

  “I thought you were going to,” Sarah said. Her head was hurting, and she closed her eyes for a moment and put one hand to her temple.

  “You’ll feel sick for a day or two,” Gar said. “You were under Aeon influence, and now, without it, you’ll be yourself. But it hurts a bit.”

  “What do you mean?” the human girl asked the gray skinned alien. He was fully dressed once more, his pants and shirt looking something like a uniform.

  “The Aeon’s, they would have been using their powers to calm you, to do what they wanted.”

  “No,” Sarah said, shaking her head and thinking about the sex she had had with Henry. “He didn’t do that.”

  Gar said nothing. He just stood in the doorway, looking at her. He had no weapons on him, and the belt whic
h had held the gas grenade was also gone.

  “What do you want from me?” Sarah asked, trying to push the dark thoughts from her mind.

  “We need your help,” Gar said. “I’ll explain in due time. I wanted to let you know that you didn’t have to stay here.”

  “What?”

  “In this room. You aren’t our prisoner. You’re our partner now. We need your help. You can go anywhere on the ship. There’s an amazing view coming up from the bridge, if you wanted to go with me.”

  Tears were stinging Sarah’s eyes. Had Henry been using his mind powers to get into her pants? She had been so calm about the whole ordeal, she hadn’t been terrified by the aliens, or by the fact that she had been abducted from Earth and taken to space. But there had always been that thought in the back of her mind, the thought that she should be scared, that she should be worried about her life, but it had been suppressed. Had Henry been doing that?

  Gar seemed to realize that Sarah was going through something, and he stayed quiet. They indeed walked to the bridge, slowly, Sarah fighting back the tears as she looked around. She passed a number of other aliens, just like Gar, though their skin colors were different, some a deep red, some almost pitch black, and not all of their hair was green, Sarah saw white, gray, and a light blue that reminded Sarah painfully of Henry’s skin.

  None of the other Zaytarian’s said anything to her, and they seemed to avoid her gaze, as if they were uncomfortable with having her on board. Gar noticed this and leaned close to her as they walked.

  “It’s not you,” he said with a smile. “Most of us are a bit… uncomfortable with what we had to do, abducting you from your abductors, but we really have no other option.”

  “I don’t understand what’s going on,” Sarah said truthfully. Now that she was away from Henry and his influence on her mind, she felt a constant stream of confusion and even fear flowing throughout her.

  “What did they tell you?” Gar asked. He had wondered if she had been told anything, but the alien could tell that she had obviously gotten close with one of the aliens. He glanced sidelong at her, his eye running up and down her body as he wondered just how close one of the Aeon’s had been. Would an Aeon have found the Earth girl attractive? The three species, Aeon’s, Zaytarian’s, and Earthlings shared more features than they didn’t, and Gar certainly found himself intrigued and attracted to the young woman. They walked on the rest of the way in silence, and then Gar held up short in front of a sliding door. He reached out to a panel built into the wall and pressed a button, and Sarah couldn’t help but audibly gasp, for the door slid open and she could see the bridge beyond. There was a large seat where she ship's’ captain sat, and in front of that a row of chairs where various aliens sat, surely the pilots and navigators. But that wasn’t what took Sarah’s breath away. Beyond the row of chairs was a wide window, and outside of that: space.

  Pitch black with twinkling stars, a rotating bluish galaxy swirling, thousands, millions of miles away but visible to the young woman’s naked eye. “Wow,” she said, and Gar grinned at her. She looked to him and couldn’t help but smile.

  “You smile?” she asked.

  Gar laughed. “Yes. You do too.”

  “And you speak English,” she said, and this made Gar laugh harder. He shook his head then.

  “Not quite,” he said, and slowly he reached a tentative hand out. Sarah didn’t move, letting the alien touch at her ear, and she felt something there then, lifting her own hand up. She felt a soft curved rod along the back of her ear, so comfortable that she hadn't even noticed it before.

  “Take it out,” Gar said, and she gripped the curved bar and pulled it away from her ear. She looked at it, saw that it was clear, a pinkish liquid sloshing within it, and at one end was a small triangular ear piece that Sarah had been wearing without notice.

  “I didn’t even feel it,” she said, looking to Gar. He opened his mouth and replied, but she couldn’t understand him. His language was guttural and harsh, a lot of throaty clicks and clacks.

  She understood quickly and replaced the earpiece, setting the soft triangle into her ear cavity and wrapping the liquid filled tube around the back of her ear.

  “Better?” Gar asked.

  “This is amazing,” she said, and as she watched she realized that indeed as Gar spoke his lips didn’t match what he was saying, she had been so distraught over the realization that her actions and feelings hadn’t been entirely hers with Henry that she hadn’t been paying close attention.

  “Don’task me how it works, I’m no scientist,” Gar told her. They stood for a moment at the back of the bridge, Sarah staring wordlessly out at space, and the large strong alien staring at her. Soon they left and made their way back to the room she had woken in.

  “I can get you other clothing,” Gar told her. She was still wearing the thin dress like outfit Henry had given her.

  “Thank you,” she said. “What I really would like is for you to explain what the hell is going on. What am I doing here?”

  “I think you deserve answers,” Gar said, and they stepped into her room together. The alien sat on a chair and Sarah perched on the edge of the bed. She waited for him to speak.

  “My people and the Aeon’s have been at war for many years,” Gar said. “Generations. They came to us first, and they shared the technology which had allowed them to do so. That was over two hundred cycles ago.”

  “Cycles?” Sarah asked.

  “How long it takes our planet to revolve around our sun. You have another word for that?”

  “Years,” Sarah said.

  “I see,” Gar said, and he pushed on with his story. “We were friendly with one another for some time, but one hundred and twenty cycles ago war broke out. The Aeon’s are a warlike species, where we value intelligence and art.”

  Gar must have seen the surprise on Sarah’s face, for he paused there and grinned. He flex his arm in such a way which made his muscle bulge and Sarah laughed.

  “I know, it may be hard to believe, but please let me assure you that I am telling you the truth. Our people, we are not fighters. We have seen very few wars on our world. We value other things, we think fighting barbaric. But the Aeon’s, they do not share that view. They have made practice of war. On their own world, and on others. When they found us, I think, they saw us, saw how we are built genetically, saw how muscular, and thought they had in us a kinship. But they were mistaken and they turned hostile.”

  “The messed with my mind. One of them. He… he befriended me, he made me feel bad for him, he made me care for him. It was in my head. I wasn’t frightened, I wasn’t freaking out over being abducted by beings from another planet.”

  “Are you now?”

  “I’m not frightened,” Sarah said. “I can tell that you are telling me the truth. I can tell that you are kind. You cannot see into my mind, you cannot control me, and I can feel that you are not lying to me.”

  “They are an evil species,” Gar said, nodding.

  “They wanted my necklace,” Sarah said, pulling it from her shirt. Gar nodded.

  “May I see it?” he asked, holding his hand out.

  “Yes,” Sarah said. She handed the necklace over and the gray skinned alien took it into his strong hand and held it to his eye.

  “What is it? I think it brought the Aeon’s too me,” Sarah said.

  “Yes, it called out to them, when they got close enough. They have no doubt been looking for this for some time. Now, I am not an expert on Aeon history, but I can shed some light on this for you. The crystal is from their own planet. It’s a mineral that I wager you’ve never seen on your world, for I’ve never seen it on mine. As far as I know, it is native only to the Aeon world. The thing about that particular crystal however, is that it has been weaponized.”

  “It’s a weapon?” Sarah asked, taking the necklace back and looking at the crystal.

  “I don’t know the exact method of how it happened, but there was a revolution on the Aeo
n homeworld, and we’re talking a millenia ago, and an Aeon warlord made a weapon. The crystal is the key to that weapon. It was sent away from the planet, and it ended up on your Earth. The Aeon’s have been looking for the key in hopes that they could transfer the weapon to our world and use it against us.”

  “They’re horrific,” Sarah said, and Gar laughed.

  “Yes, I agree,” he said, and despite the smile still on his face a dark shadow passed over his features. Sarah could tell Gar had personal experience with the Aeon’s, and she found herself interested in his story, but she also didn’t want to push the matter. She was decided on whether or not to say anything when a siren began to wail, and red lights flashed harshly inside the room.

  “What is it?” she asked, standing.

  Gar stood as well. “We’re under attack,” he said.

  Chapter Six

  “Stay here!” Gar said, and then he turned and ran from the room. The ship shuddered, and Sarah couldn’t help but be reminded of the attack on the Aeon ship which had led her to become in the charge of Gar and his Zaytarian kin.

  Gar was back quickly. “We’ve been hit. They will board us, you must come with me. It is my duty to keep you safe. Do you trust me?”

  Sarah didn’t know why, but she trusted the alien with everything she had. She nodded and took the hand he had held out to her. His fingers were strong and closed over the Earth girl’s hand as he turned and led her from the room.

  “Here!” he said as the ship shuddered again and a burst of steam erupted from a pipe which burst through the ceiling nearby. There was a small hallway off to their left, and Gar pushed Sarah down it. They came to a small hatch which slid open as they neared it.

  “It’s a shuttle,” Gar explained as they stepped through the hatch and into a small room that Sarah realized was another ship, large enough for three or four people only. There was a chair in front of flashing buttons and a control stick, and Gar took that. As he sat a screen in front of the chair came to life, showing space, but it wasn’t an actual window, just a screen. She sat in another chair, and worked the buckles so she wouldn’t go flying when they moved.