Sacred Trust

by Roxanne Barbour

  “Have you heard of transporters?” I asked.

  “Unknown,” said Eonus. Then his arm circled my shoulders, much to my surprise.

  “What are transporters?” asked Ruen.

  “Ah, ah, well, transporters are devices that can disassemble your molecules to transport them to another location, where your molecules are reassembled. Perhaps that’s how we got here,” I said.

  “That sounds incredible. And uncomfortable,” said Ruen. “Have you ever used a transporter?”

  “No, it’s actually a concept from an old Earth video series called Star Trek. Spock is my favorite,” I said dreamily. “He has the cutest pointed ears.”

  Ruen gave me a disgusted look. For a young person, she acted quite grown up at times.

  “Anyway, we need to find out where we are, and what’s going on. Any ideas on how to do that?” I asked, but before anyone had a chance to speak, the food window opened, and a tray slid out.

  Ruen ran over, snatched the tray, and went back to the bed she’d been sitting on. “The food has been pretty good,” she said.

  “How do you know that tray’s for you?” I asked. It had been a long time since breakfast.

  “Well, it looks like …” With a clunk, another food tray appeared.

  Eonus and I went over to investigate. “This looks like your food,” I said. He nodded, and took the tray away. So I stood impatiently waiting for mine to appear, and shortly, it did.

  I took the tray, and sat beside Eonus. “This is some of the Basilian food I can tolerate. Our captors must have quite a bit of information on us,” I said. Although unhappy with that concept, I started to eat. I was hungry.

  “Loud. Too much,” said Eonus. “Whisper.”

  With our mouths full, we both nodded, agreeing we should whisper. We all suspected we were being monitored, at least audibly. However, we all ate without uttering a lot of meaningful talk.

  “Nara, there is a special tap in the amenities room for drinking water. Let me show you.” The two of us went into the well-equipped amenities room, complete with a shower stall. At least I could have a shower whenever I want one.

  “I’ve been doing some experiments,” Ruen said. “I think our captors only listen to us in the main room, not in here. And I don’t think there are any cameras anywhere.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Not absolutely, but I have been asking for various things in a loud voice—like food items, an extra blanket, items like that. My requests in the main room are mostly answered, but anything I say in here is ignored.”

  “Then you’re probably right. They wouldn’t have any reason to monitor an amenities room. And if they don’t have any cameras, they won’t know when we go into the amenities room to talk. We need Tata in here,” I said, poking my nose out the door to wave him into the amenities room. “Ruen has figured out they don’t monitor us in here,” I told him, “and that there are no cameras in the main room. So we can use this area to have our discussions. What do you think?”

  “Possibly true.” He looked skeptical. Or perhaps it was his scientific mind mulling over the possibilities.

  “Ruen, since you’ve been here the longest, do you have any ideas on what we should do to get out of here or, at the very least, see what’s on the other side of these walls?” I felt so confined, and I had only been here for a short time. I could only imagine how Ruen felt. “Tata, what about you?” I asked.

  “Yes, outside. Help escape,” he said, giving me a hurt look.

  Oops. I’d called him Tata instead of Eonus. I wondered why it bothered him so much, but it obviously did. I’d have to watch that.

  We exited the amenities room as quietly as possible. We didn’t want our captors to figure out where we’d all been and that we’d been plotting in there.

  The three of us sat down on the beds and started studying the room. I wasn’t much of a detective—I didn’t know what to look for.

  Suddenly, a droning sound that seemed to get louder by the second drew my attention to the ceiling. Ruen seemed unfazed by the noise as she’d obviously heard it before, but it was new to me. And to Eonus.

  A ceiling grate attracted my attention. It covered a square opening large enough any one of us could fit through. I gestured the others into the amenities room for another pow-wow.

  “That grate looks like an air duct.” I glanced at Eonus and asked, “Do you still have your multi-purpose tool in your day bag?”

  He nodded the affirmative.

  I turned my attention to Ruen. “If you’re up to it, Eonus can stand on the bed and lift you up. Then you can remove the bolts on the grate and hand it down to me. If all goes well, we can see what’s up there. What do you think?”

  “Yes, I can do that,” said Ruen.

  It took her a few tension-filled minutes as she balanced on Eonus’ broad shoulders to figure out how to loosen and remove the bolts. Thank goodness our captors apparently hadn’t searched Eonus’ day bag or we’d still be looking for something we could make into a tool to remove the grate.

  When Ruen finally passed the ceiling grate down to me, Eonus boosted her up into the opening. Ruen was small, so hopefully she could crawl a short ways and get us some intelligence to work with.

  Sounds like a spy novel, I thought. But then I realized that was exactly the kind of thing we were involved in.

  Shortly, Eonus helped Ruen back down and we put the grate back—but with the bolts only finger tightened. I could tell something was up with the excitable Ruen. She had obviously found something of note.

  We tiptoed into the amenities room, where Eonus silenced us with a finger to his lips until he turned the water on in the sink to provide additional background noise.

  “What did you find?” I asked Ruen, unable to contain my curiosity any longer.

  “So many strange things I do not understand,” she replied, a huge grin on her face.

  “Describe,” said Eonus. A man of few words, he still wanted all the details. And, of interest to me, I realized I had begun to look at Eonus as an adult, no longer a teenager.

  “Certainly, Tata. I am known for being observant—a scientist, you understand. I fathomed at least three distinct purposes for the tunnel area above us. It’s quite large. The outside third of the area has what looks like tram rails imbedded in the floor and the rails go as far as I could see in both ways. The center area accommodates what are probably power cables, electronic conduits and plumbing pipes, that sort of thing.

  “On this side of the area, there are two slow-moving walkways, one going in each direction. There are dim lights embedded in a very high ceiling and I could see what looks like daylight shining in through the inside wall at intervals further along. This access point…” Ruen pointed upwards. “…brings us out into a small area in the middle of the conduits and piping. I had to crawl through the twisting pipes and tubes to see both sides.”

  “Anything else?” I asked.

  “Yes. A perception. Everything looks like it is all made from the same construction material—something lightweight like plastic, but it has to be much stronger. Even the pillars bracing the ceiling are made of it. It is all very strange. I did not want to go too far without at least one of you with me.”

  Ruen looked a little pale. I understood her fear; she was, after all, the youngest of us.

  Once again, we heard the approaching drone of what Ruen guessed was a tram. As it passed by overhead, we experienced no vibrations and only heard a quiet swooshing. If our notion of a tram was correct, it probably ran on a maglev system or something very much like it.

  “Okay, I think we all need to go up there. Eonus, you should be able to shove Ruen and me up through the opening, and then together, we can pull you up. Ruen, is there room for all three of us up there inside the cables and pipes.”

  “Yes, but we cannot go,” said Ruen. She looked at her timepiece. “At this time anyway.”

  “Why?” I hoped she wasn’t too scared to come with us. Come to think
of it, even as anxious as I was to see what Ruen had discovered, I wasn’t feeling all that brave myself.

  “Because right about now a snack should arrive and then in half an hour, the lights will go out. According to our captors’ schedule, bedtime is approaching. We do have control of the lights during the day—there is a switch on the wall in the main room. But it does not work during our alleged sleep time. So tomorrow after breakfast would be a good time to do our exploring.”

  Chapter 15

  The next morning, we were all anxious to embark on our first recon mission. Okay, I was being a bit dramatic calling it that, but we were being held captive. I looked forward to outfoxing our captors, whomever they may be. Although we weren’t being starved or harmed in any way, we still wanted to get out of this place and go home.

  Our breakfast arrived at the time Ruen expected. Arandi and Basilians tended to have the same number of meals as humans, although the intervals between them were strange—at least in relation to my normal schedule.

  But since our captors were most likely albinos, it made no sense. Neither Tata nor Ruen had ever seen albinos until recently.

  So, based on our meals, who are our captors? I asked myself. They must be either Arandi or Basilian. Another topic for the three of us to discuss in the amenities room.

  And that’s where we gathered after dumping our breakfast trays on the shelf—the remnants always disappeared, if made available to the food slot.

  “Okay, what’s the plan for today?” I asked. Our confinement made me twitchy and anxious—and sad. Dad must be frantic. I would be, in his place. I needed action, and soon.

  “I think our plan should be to sneak out this morning, and be back before the midday meal,” said Ruen. “We need to be here to pick up our trays, so no one becomes suspicious.”

  She had a good point. “Okay. Ruen, you’re in charge of keeping track of the time, since you know our meal schedule better than we do. You need to give enough warning for us to get back here before anyone becomes suspicious.”

  Ruen checked her timepiece. “I understand.”

  She did a little hop, and I had to laugh. We were all short of exercise, especially our energetic Ruen. “We do not have a lot of time. We need to hurry,” she said, reminding us to start moving.

  Quietly, we went into our main room. I flung my day pack over my shoulder and slipped my arms into the straps. Eonus lifted Ruen up to remove the grating, and then boosted her up through the access point as I laid the grate on Eonus’ bed. I was next, and then Ruen and I helped Eonus pull himself up. There was no easy peasy about it. He was surprisingly heavy but, fortunately, his strength compensated for our weakness.

  Hmm, interesting, I thought, as I realized how much muscle mass Eonus had gained in the last few months. He had turned into a sexy hunk right before my eyes and I hadn’t even realized it.

  “You go. Check out,” he whispered, pointing me in the direction of the tram side of the tunnel.

  I nodded my understanding as I tried to set aside my thoughts of his blossoming male physique. At least for now, I had to put my mind on other things, but before I could turn away, he gave me a funny look, and I knew my face had given something away. I felt my cheeks redden as I turned to slip through the tubes, cables and pipes.

  Eonus, I knew, did the same on the other side, just as we’d planned, while Ruen waited for us, hidden in the mass of pipes and conduits. We wanted to make sure we found out all we could about our location without being seen.

  The tunnel’s dark grey walls on the tram side stretched as far as I could see—in both directions. No trams were in sight and no one wandered the line or waited at the stations visible in the distance, in either direction. I wanted to investigate them, however I needed to return to see what Eonus had found on his side of the tunnel. The three of us needed to decide what to investigate first.

  I was promptly outvoted. Both Eonus and Ruen wanted to check out the moving walkways, although I argued we were more apt to run into others on that side of the tunnel. Eonus and Ruen wanted to investigate the sunlight coming in through what we guessed had to be windows bordering the walkways. I went along with their convincing arguments. We flipped a coin to decide whether to go right or left on the walkway. The coin landed heads up. To the right it was.

  After a few moments of silent travel on the moving walkway I was confounded as to why we hadn’t run into anyone. Where was everybody?

  When we heard the drone of another approaching tram, we peered through the center mesh of cables and tubes to watch the bullet shape flash by so fast we couldn’t tell if it had windows, much less if anyone was on board. I reckoned there must be, since the walkways were entirely deserted. Perhaps only repairmen used the walkways.

  Suddenly, the tram braked and came soundlessly to a stop in mere seconds at the station ahead of us. I imagined the passengers slamming forward in their seats since it stopped so quickly. No one got on and only two people exited and disappeared into the station through sliding doors that whisked open. They were both albinos and didn’t look any worse for wear from their sudden stop.

  “Amazing,” said Ruen. “Let’s ride one of those.”

  “Wait,” Eonus said, showing his tendency toward caution as he placed his hand on her shoulder. “No jump frying pan before see hot,” he said.

  “Eonus is right,” I told Ruen. “As much as I’d like to check out one of the tram stations, the more we know, the better we can plan our escape. We need to continue down the walkway since it seems deserted.”

  Sighing, she agreed. “Let’s continue.”

  Knowing our time was limited, we began walking as fast as we could down the moving walkway. We only got off at an access/egress break in the walkway when we approached a window. Silently, we stood there trying to decipher the scene before us.

  A compartment with a grass floor stretched to a wall hundreds of feet away. A low wall broke the area into two separate paddocks. The nearest contained animals with two humps on their backs. But their resemblance to camels ended there. With a greenish tinge to their hide and the longest, droopiest ears I’d ever seen they looked like cartoon characters from a Disney video.

  The far paddock was dotted with muddy ponds almost completely covered in what looked like water lilies, but instead of white, their flowers were a variegated red and yellow in color. My eyesight wasn’t the greatest, but I thought I saw fuzzy brown hippos submerged in the ponds, munching away on the lilies.

  “Wow. Have either one of you ever seen critters like that before?” I couldn’t take my eyes off them.

  “No. Never.” By the breathy sound of her voice, Ruen was as astonished by these creatures as I was.

  “Look. There.” Eonus pointed to what my imagination saw as several two-story high greenhouses. Internal lighting emanated through the almost opaque walls; any possible plant life inside was impossible to detect. What we had thought was sunlight came from special lighting in the ceiling that only mimicked sunlight.

  Ruen broke my reverie. “We need to get back. It is time.”

  Eonus and I didn’t argue. Quietly, we returned to the ceiling access to our cell and dropped down on Eonus’ bed. Ruen put the grate back with Eonus’s help, and we rested for a moment, all three of sitting on our beds, staring at the floor.

  “Lunch should be here soon.” said Ruen, a distracted tone to her voice.

  Obviously, she was wondering the same thing I was.

  Where are we?

  “You know, Ruen, I’d like some paper and writing tools. I miss my father so much, and starting a diary might be therapeutic.”

  “I understand. Even if we cannot be with our family, at least we could write our thoughts down. Being occupied might relieve some of the stress we feel.”

  I wasn’t sure that would be a selling argument for our captors, especially since we didn’t know who they were. Then I had what I considered a bright idea.

  “Our days are a little long,” I said. “Perhaps we could make u
p some games to keep us occupied. I know a number of games I could teach you guys, and if I only had some construction paper and writing instruments, I could make the required items easily.”

  “That sounds like fun,” said Ruen, with a knowing glance at me.

  “Games interesting,” said Tata.

  “Yes, you haven’t experienced human games, Eonus,” I said. “You might learn a lot about humans.”

  “Worried,” said Eonus.

  “About what?” I asked.

  “Lose.”

  “Well, you can’t expect to win the first time you play a game.”

  “No. Worried you lose,” he said, folding his arms across his chest and looking rather smug.

  I couldn’t believe it; Eonus had made a joke. It released the tension knotted inside me, and I smiled back at him, grateful for the moment of levity.

  Our lunch arrived at the expected time. Ruen had accurately figured out the correct meal schedule.

  After eating, I couldn’t stifle a yawn. “You know, I’m a little fatigued from everything that’s happened. I think I need a nap. Anyone else interested? If so, we could kill the lights for a while.”

  “I am also tired. An afternoon rest would be good,” said Ruen.

  “Yes,” agreed Eonus. He turned out the lights, and we settled down. I hoped our requests would be fulfilled as we slept. We had further plans to make once we awoke.

  I was awakened when I heard a thump. We all stirred, and Ruen turned on the lights. Before us, sat a pile of paper, writing utensils, an odd looking pair of scissors, and small containers of something that might perhaps be glue. Or maybe paint. It was hard to tell.

  “Oooh!” Ruen bounced up and down while clapping her hands. “This will be fun! I love exploring piles of stuff.”

  “Captors satisfy needs,” said Eonus.

  “Then they should let us out of here so we can go home,” I said. Perhaps not the most diplomatic statement I’d ever uttered.

  “In the meantime,” interrupted Ruen, with a disapproving glance for me, “let us design some games to occupy our time, and perhaps start writing journals. I need to release my stress, if only on a piece of paper.”