“What have you been up to?” he asked. “Everyone’s been looking for the three of you for days. Your parents are at their wits’ end.”
“We were abducted and held captive, and then I think I got some truth serum or something last night. I don’t feel very well. How are Eonus and Ruen?” I tried to turn so I could see them.
“They’re being tended to, so just relax,” he said, continuing his examination. “You have all the symptoms of anaphylactic shock. I think you’ve had another allergic reaction—possibly the truth serum you mentioned. Lie still now. I’m going to give you a shot to help counteract your symptoms.”
He prepared the vac syringe and administered the medication through my skin just below my left ear. It was virtually painless. “Now just lie quietly for a moment, and let the medicine work.”
I wanted to see Eonus and Ruen, and give them both a hug, but Kevin was correct; I needed to let his ministrations have a chance to work. And I didn’t have the energy to even move my legs yet. Perhaps an exaggeration, but my body protested any movement.
While I rested on the floor, letting the shot take effect, Dad came up to me and put a pillow under my head and a blanket over my body. Then he sat down on the floor and held my hand.
“How are you feeling, baby? The three of you have had us very worried,” he said.
In the distance, I heard Ilandus talking to Eonus and some unknown person talking to Ruen. Just then, Kikess burst through the entrance to our foyer.
“You’re not the only ones who are upset. I didn’t think we would ever get out of that prison,” I said.
“Prison?” asked Dad. My words had not reassured him.
I tried to sit up again but Kevin held me down. “I feel much better,” I protested. “I need to sit up and get my bearings. I need to see Eonus.”
I saw the she’s being stubborn glances Dad and Kevin exchanged, and then Dad gently helped me sit up before wrapping the blanket around my shoulders.
Turning around, I saw Eonus and Ruen also sitting up and talking to their respective parents. I figured the unknown Basilian woman talking to Ruen had to be her mother. After all, she lived right here in the building.
“Eonus, Ruen—are you guys okay? How do you feel?” I asked. From my position, they appeared to be in pretty good health.
“Like I did after my interrogation,” said Ruen. “Just tired.”
Eonus smiled softly at me and said, “Feel fine. Okay now.”
I nodded and then turned back to my father. I knew Kikess would want to question us but I didn’t want to answer his questions here. “I need to go up to our apartment and relax in familiar surroundings. Why don’t you suggest everyone gather up there, and we can tell you about what happened to us?”
The parental devices conferred and agreed to my suggestion.
Chapter 20
After reassuring Iseen, our motherly concierge, of our rapidly recovering fitness, we settled into our living room. Ruen, Eonus, and I sat on the long couch covered in blankets and comforters. Still a little shaky, we needed warmth—especially me, after my allergic reaction.
Dad and Ruen’s mother, Raen, occupied the love seat, and Officer Kikess and Ilandus sat on a couple of chairs. Stools were not something we had in our human home.
Kevin and his wife Sylvia offered to man the kitchen to provide food and drink. Ilandus gave them access to her apartment so they could gather refreshments for the non-humans. From a common root, the Arandi and Basilians could eat the same foodstuffs.
Under our blankets, Eonus slid his hand onto my lap and took my hand in his—I don’t think anyone noticed. His touch comforted me. I glanced at him and saw reassurance and much, much more reflected in his eyes. I wanted to lay my head on his shoulder, but I wasn’t quite ready yet to let our parents know what was happening between us…at least not before I knew exactly what was happening myself.
“Nara, I know you have your own doctor to keep an eye on you, but I want Eonus and Ruen to be checked over at the hospital when we’re finished here,” said Kikess glancing around the room.
“Fine,” said Eonus.
Everyone understood Eonus’ proclamation of feeling fine.
“Yes, you and Ruen do seem unharmed,” said Kikess, “but we need to take this precaution.”
Ruen looked like she wanted to argue with her father but after Raen, her mother, reached over and took hold of her arm, Ruen subsided. She wasn’t going to win this argument with both her parents in the same corner.
A natural at interrogation, Kikess continued the discussion. “My, I mean, our first question is how did you all disappear? And where did you go?”
“Have you found any albinos?” I asked.
Kikess shook his head. I knew I’d confused him by not directly answering his question.
“Well, we were abducted by albinos, one at a time. Ruen was the first, then Eonus, then me, as you know. We all ended up in the same place, so it must have been the same albinos.” Although not completely logical, I was convinced of my statement’s accuracy.
Studying their faces, my irritation grew; they weren’t believers yet. Lighten up; you may be surprised. These are intelligent people, I told myself.
“How did you get to this place where you were held?” asked Kikess. Skepticism infused his voice.
“We have no idea how we got to our cell, and we have no idea how we got back here. My best guess is…” Okay, here goes. “…by molecular transporter.” I cringed, knowing what their responses were going to be.
“Transporter?” asked Ilandus.
The only people not confused by the word transporters were the humans, and Kevin tried hard to contain his laughter.
They aren’t taking me seriously! I couldn’t quite decipher the look on Dad’s face, but he was a seasoned diplomat and knew how to hide his reactions. However, I needed to continue with this narrative.
“Transporters are devices that operate by taking your body apart all the way down to molecules—or any object for that matter—and reassembling the molecules in a different location without any harm to the transported individual or object.”
Okay, I had to agree that sounded a little spacey. It was no wonder no one said anything for the next few moments, while they digested my bizarre but nonetheless true explanation. I supposed transporters were a little too fanciful for immediate acceptance.
Kikess was the first to speak. “Do humans have this device?” he asked, looking at my father and then at me.
“Not yet,” I said. “So far, it’s only a theory.”
“Perhaps you are mistaken in how you arrived at your destination,” Kikess said.
“Not likely. Some device that acted like a transporter deposited us in our holding cell after we were abducted by the albinos. And when we were individually taken away for interrogation, the method to remove us was again the same,” I said. “Each one of us materialized as if out of thin air. We saw it happen and Ruen remembers experiencing it.” I folded my arms across my chest and gave each parental unit a steady look that invited, yet brooked, no argument.
“Okay then, tell me about the location where you were all held,” said Kikess, trying to defuse the brewing argument.
I looked at Ruen, thinking she should probably jump in here as no one seemed to believe me. She got my message.
Kevin gave me a warm cup of tea and also distributed beverages to Ruen and Eonus before taking a seat to listen to what Ruen had to say.
“We were held in a room with an adjacent amenities room. There were three beds, a table and three stools. That was all we had. Our days quickly became boring so we asked out loud for paper and writing instruments. And our captors supplied a stack of useful items. We wrote notes and letters to everyone, and made some games to play. Otherwise, we would have been sitting around all day doing nothing while we waited for our three meals and evening snack to arrive,” said Ruen.
Ruen looked at Eonus and me, and we smiled at each other. We had not been that bored
.
“Okay,” my father said skeptically, “what did you three get up to? Your not-so-secret smiles are telling me you’re not telling us everything.” The glances between the parents clearly revealed that none of them thought the three of us would have been happy sitting idly by, waiting for something to happen.
“Explore,” said Eonus, before anyone else had a chance.
“Explore?” asked Ilandus.
Between the two Arandi, it would take a year to have a discussion, so I interrupted. Perhaps diplomacy didn’t come naturally to me, but I wasn’t getting any younger.
“The three of us are pretty bright, as you all know, so we figured out our options. We unscrewed the ventilation screen in our ceiling and sent Ruen up for a look. She was the lightest for Eonus to lift. When she came back she told us about the tunnel above us, so we decided to explore it. Ruen, being the first abducted, had already found out our captors could listen to us in our main room, but not in the amenities room. That’s where we did a lot of plotting. We calculated the time between our meals. Using our timetable, we went exploring. We needed to be back for each meal to pick up the food trays that arrived one-by-one by way of some sort of automated dispensing system. We knew if we weren’t there to pick up the trays, our captors would figure out we weren’t in our cell,” I said.
The silence in our living room unnerved me. Digesting my words obviously took our parents some considerable time. Eventually, Raen and Dad leaned forward on the loveseat. “So what did you find?” my father asked.
I looked at Ruen, and said, “It’s too bad we don’t have your game board. It would be so much easier to explain with a diagram. So we’re going to have to make another one.” Ruen nodded. “Why don’t we do that? Can someone get us some big pieces of paper and markers. Then we can draw everything out as we explain our experiences.”
We cleared the dining table and gathered supplies.
The diagram of our living area didn’t take long to produce—beds, amenities room, table and stools, and food slot—that was about it. Then I started drawing the details of our excursions. Apparently my artistic ability apparently left something to be desired, according to Eonus, as he quickly took that task from me while Ruen and I explained his more suitable drawings. At least I used more words than he had in explaining my scribbles.
Getting the proportions correct proved difficult, but we did our best. I pointed out the herd beasts—the hippos were my favorite over the camel, chicken and pig-like creatures. Of course, only the humans knew what I talked about when Eonus drew rather comical renditions of the animals.
“Pretty close to human animals,” said my father. “Ruen, do you agree with Tata’s pictures?”
“Yes, they are accurate but, of course, we have different names for them,” said Ruen.
“Hostage on Basili?” asked Ilandus.
The three of us looked apprehensively at each other. “We don’t know…for sure, but…we have an idea we might have been held on a…a spaceship. A really big spaceship.”
Obviously stunned, our parents stared blankly at us. Not one of them uttered a word.
I finally cleared my throat and launched into some of our discoveries. “It seemed like the facility…or ship, as it were, was self-contained, with the housing devices, cooking facilities, greenhouses, protein sources and such all right there on site.” I looked over at Eonus for his help.
“Spaceship. Aliens,” he said, dropping the words like bombs. Our parents’ eyes widened and Ruen and I both looked at him, wondering why he always had to be so darned direct.
“Uh, we aren’t exactly sure about that,” I added. “But we did see what we think were spaceships, a fighter style ship and a shuttle like they had on Star Trek, docked in a repair or construction bay inside the facility. And whatever the facility was, it came to a point like the bow of a ship.”
“On our last exploration,” Ruen said, quickly jumping into the explanation before any of our parents could question us about Eonus’ input, “we found a tube-like elevator at the bow. Since the tunnel seemed to run the length of the…” She licked her lips. “…the ship, we figured there were several more levels, each with their own tunnel. But, I think because of Nara’s allergic reaction, we were returned before we could explore any of the other levels. It must mean they don’t intend to hurt any of us.”
“Still, I’m rather glad Nara had an allergic reaction,” Dad said. “If those albinos are indeed aliens, they may not have returned you had they found you using that elevator and in possession of their secrets, no matter their original intentions.”
“Indeed,” said Officer Kikess. “You have certainly given us much to think about.”
“Then you believe us?” Ruen asked him hopefully.
“I believe you believe what you saw was an alien spaceship,” Kikess said.
My shoulders slumped and Ruen’s lips thinned into an irritated line. “Figures,” she said, slumping back against the sofa.
“No anger,” Eonus said, reaching in front of me to grasp Ruen’s forearm, “Hard believe.” He gave her arm a reassuring squeeze. It was enough to elicit a small smile from her.
“Daughter, I will look into this.”
Kikess hadn’t given the impression he totally believed our story. However, with the three of us agreeing on what had happened to us, he obviously knew he had to put aside his skepticism. But being a police officer made that difficult.
“Rest,” said Ilandus.
Such an astute observation. I really did like Eonus’ mother.
“Yes. You all look pretty exhausted,” said Kikess. “Nara, I do not imagine you are feeling that well from your medical problem.”
I had to agree. “Yes, I’m fading quickly. I just want to sleep in my own bed, for a change.”
“So I think we should let the children have an early evening, while we digest everything they have told us,” said Kikess. “Before everyone leaves, though, I do have a proposal. I would like to have Nara, Ruen, and Tata receive a tracking device under their skin. That way, if they go missing again, we can locate them a lot quicker. Worried parents are something to be avoided,” he added, with a genuine smile.
The parental devices conferred and agreed to the tracking devices.
Annoyed, I said, “Do you not think that we, the intended recipients of said tracking devices, should have a say in this matter? After all, we’re adults—university students,” I said.
Four guilty faces looked back at me.
Chapter 21
Actually, getting tracking devices was a good idea—considering our recent experiences—but our parents weren’t going to get off that lightly, at least with me. “Since the issue of our albino captors—whether they’re aliens or not—hasn’t been resolved, I agree some enhanced security is needed. However…” I looked purposely at Kikess. “…Ruen, Eonus, and I are not the only ones you should be concerned about. If the children of diplomats are abducted, then the diplomats could be next.”
“I don’t think …” said Dad, but Kikess interrupted him.
“What are you proposing?”
“I think our parents should have the tracking devices implanted too—as a safety measure. After all, they’re diplomats, and if they happened to be abducted or harmed, all hell would break loose, especially within the police department.” Okay, that was a bit snide, but my point may just get Kikess’ attention.
Ruen covered her mouth with her hands. She was trying to smother a giggle.
Kikess studied me for a moment, and then glanced at his daughter and Eonus. I didn’t have to ask; I knew Ruen and Eonus well enough to know they would agree with my proposal. “All I’m saying is,” I added, “it would be a good cautionary preventative to take.”
Kikess nodded. “Additional protection for ambassadors is not a bad idea, until we know what is going on,” said Kikess. “Tracking devices will be arranged for all of you here, along with the other ambassadors and their offspring.”
“Don’t forg
et; you need a tracking device, too,” said Ruen.
Kikess smiled. “I have had one ever since I joined the force. Policemen are always getting abducted.”
The look on Ruen’s face led me to believe she’d never heard of this contingency. She appeared horrified by the thought.
Glancing at each other, Ilandus, Raen, and Dad conferred silently. Diplomats could be obtuse and hide their thoughts, unless you were related to them.
Finally, Dad voiced their decision, “Okay, we agree to have the tracking devices implanted, but just until this crisis is over and we find out why your abductions happened.”
For once, my father had agreed with one of my suggestions. Would wonders never cease?
I leaned back and closed my eyes; the day had been long and stressful. Ruen had grown quiet as well and was curled up on her end of the sofa, her head cradled in her hand, supported by her elbow on the arm of the sofa. Even Eonus seemed to be feeling the effects of the day’s adventures, his eyelids beginning to grow too heavy to hold open.
Kikess obviously noticed our fatigue. “Eonus and Ruen, if you two are feeling all right, I think we can postpone your exams until tomorrow, after you’ve had some rest.”
“Sounds good to me,” said Ruen.
“Fine,” said Eonus.
Kikess nodded. “Then, unless anyone objects, I think we will get together tomorrow to have your tracking devices implanted.” He walked over to the dining table. “I will take these drawings with me and study them tonight. Perhaps I can find someone who knows where this place is.” He rolled up our scribbles and then spoke to Ruen. “I will be busy tonight. It would be better if you stayed with your mother, rather than alone. She needs you, and I am sure you need her. Daughter, I will call you later.”
“All, Father,” she said, nearly ready to fall asleep where she sat.
Kikess left our apartment, with Eonus and Ilandus saying their goodbyes as well. Surprisingly, nothing was said when Eonus kissed me on the forehead before they left and went upstairs. After Kevin took my temperature and studied my eyes, he and Sylvia also disappeared. Apparently, I was recovering nicely.
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