Kleezebee slid his crutches forward, bumping into Lucas’ left elbow. “We’ll take the next elevator.”
“We?”
“You and I need to debrief her. Maybe she knows where they’re holding Drew.”
“Shouldn’t we let them treat her first? She didn’t look so good.”
“That’s precisely why we must talk to her now. What if she dies or lapses into a coma? If she can provide some intel, we’re going to need it. Twenty-four hours isn’t much time to mount a rescue plan.”
* * *
Lucas was standing in the infirmary along the back wall between Kleezebee and Bruno. They were still waiting to speak to the unconscious woman, who was being treated by a male physician and three nurses. Trevor had returned to the Med-Lab at Kleezebee’s behest.
“I’ll be right back,” Lucas said to Kleezebee, before wandering over to the isolation ward’s viewing window. He couldn’t help himself; he needed to check again. He wiped off the glass, using his right index finger as a squeegee to clear a patch of frost blocking his view. The creature’s body was right where it was supposed to be, lying on the table farthest from the window, and it wasn’t moving. He checked, but found nothing slithering down from the table or hiding in the corner of the room.
He’d seen it happen too many times in the movies where the alien’s body wasn’t actually dead, only to suddenly spring back to life and catch the unsuspecting heroes by surprise, usually while they were enjoying a premature victory celebration.
Lucas returned to his colleagues and nodded once. “It’s all good. Still dead.”
“Can we really afford to just keep waiting, boss?” Bruno asked Kleezebee with a curious look on his face.
Kleezebee looked at him, then at his watch, then at the medical team. He sighed and shook his head several times. “No, the wait ends now,” he said, lifting his chin and hobbling closer to the medical team. “Doc, give her something to wake her up.” It was the third time Kleezebee had made the demand.
“Look, I told you before, Professor, she’s not strong enough. Giving her a stimulant now might kill her.”
“We can’t wait any longer. My son’s life is at stake,” Kleezebee replied in a sharp voice.
“No, I’m not going to take the risk.”
Kleezebee grabbed the doc by the collar, pulling the man close to his face. “Give me the damn syringe and I’ll inject her myself.” Kleezebee let go of the doctor, shoving him back a step in the process.
“Okay. Okay,” the doc replied, handing Kleezebee a syringe loaded with a stimulant. The man backed away with his hands out to his sides. “But you’re responsible if she dies.”
One of the nurses used an alcohol swab to sterilize the woman’s neck. While the alcohol dried, Kleezebee held up the syringe, removed the needle guard, then tapped the needle gently while squeezing the plunger until a drop of liquid appeared on the tip. It was as if the professor had done it a thousand times before. He aimed the needle at her neck, inserted it, then pressed the plunger to shoot the load of stimulant into her system. He handed the empty syringe to the nurse assisting him.
“Should only take a few seconds,” the nurse said, looking at the doctor, then back at Kleezebee.
The fingers on the injured woman’s left hand twitched, then her head turned toward the center. Moments later, she opened her eyes and looked directly at Kleezebee, who was leaning over her like a mother hawk ready to feed her young. He spoke softly to her, “What’s your name?”
“Alicia,” the woman answered in barely more than a whisper. “Where am I?”
“You’re in a hospital. My name’s Dr. Kleezebee.”
“DL Kleezebee?” she replied, her words a little more coherent than before.
“Ah . . . Yes. You know who I am?”
“No, but my handler did. I could hear it thinking about you. They’ve been searching the galaxy for you.”
Kleezebee lifted one eyebrow and tilted his head as if he were moderately surprised. Perhaps it was more of a look of pride, knowing he was important enough for his enemy to dedicate years of their lives in pursuit of him.
“Was anyone else with you?” Lucas asked, leaning in to catch her attention.
She hesitated, showing a look that indicated she was deep in thought, searching for something in her memories. Just then, the machinery monitoring her vital signs reacted like an angry child, throwing a barrage of chirps and beeps across the room.
Her eyes turned sharp, looking at Kleezebee. “Julie Ann!” she screamed, trying to sit up. She thrashed her arms at Kleezebee, hitting him several times in the face. Kleezebee wrestled with her, trying to deflect the attack. Two nurses jumped in, grabbing her shoulders, and pulled her back down to the bed.
Kleezebee stepped back and stumbled on his crutches when she started kicking her legs at everyone around the bed.
Lucas gasped when her mangled stump of a leg whacked him in the thigh, narrowly missing his groin.
The nurses struggled with her arms but managed to restrain her long enough for Lucas and Kleezebee to lash her down using the leather straps sewn around the bed frame.
“Let me go,” she cried out, pulling at the arm straps keeping her subdued. “I have to find my sister. Where is she?”
“We need you to calm down,” Kleezebee answered sharply, holding her right hand with both of his. “Your sister isn’t here. You’re the only one we rescued.”
The doctor slid in next to Kleezebee, replacing one of the nurses.
She turned her head toward the edge of the pillow and started crying with anger. A minute later, she stopped suddenly, as if something important just caught her attention. She opened her eyes, looked back at Kleezebee, and asked, “Where am I?”
“In a hospital.”
“No, not that. What planet am I on?”
“Earth.”
“No, no, no,” she said, looking around frantically, like she was afraid for her life.
“Yes, Earth.”
“Oh God. Please, no.”
“Everything’s going to be okay, Alicia.”
“But it’s occupied territory,” she replied with panic in her voice. “They’ll be coming for us. We have to get out of here.”
Kleezebee smiled softly at her, rubbing the back of her hand with his thumbs. “No, child. We’re on a different Earth. You’re perfectly safe here. Trust me.”
“Julie Ann,” she said in a sad voice, trailing off in volume as she lay her head back on the pillow. She stared silently at the ceiling with a blank expression on her face.
“Can you tell me what happened to you?” Kleezebee asked her.
She brought her eyes back to the professor. “My sister and I were walking back to our village when those creatures appeared out of nowhere. They took us prisoner.”
“The Krellians?”
“Yeah, sentinels armed with shredder hooks, but we didn’t know who they were at first. We’d only heard stories about them.”
“Then what happened?”
“They took us up to their ship and delivered us to one of their leaders, who stripped off our clothes.”
Alicia then lifted and twisted her torso, revealing a raised scar on her right shoulder, carved into her skin in two sections. The bottom was an infinity symbol and the top was a pair of broken lines, like wiggly sevens, only split at the midpoint. “They made one of the older women do this to me with a hot knife. She was crying as hard as I was. I know she didn’t want to brand me, but she didn’t have a choice.”
“How long ago was this?” Kleezebee asked.
“I’m not sure. A couple of months, maybe.”
“Is that the last time you saw your sister?”
Alicia nodded. “She and I were split up right after. I haven’t seen her since.”
“Did they do this to your sister, too?” Lucas asked, watching her eyes turn sad again when his question landed on her ears. He thought the girl was going to start crying again, but she didn’t. It was clear Alicia w
as fighting her emotions, but somehow she held it together and didn’t break down again.
“For some reason, no, they didn’t. I think she may have been traded to one of the other factions . . . or worse.”
“Other factions?”
“There are dozens of them. Some get along peacefully but some fight over territory and feeding grounds. I think it’s why they brand us. Like cattle.”
“Where was your village?”
“On Colony Twelve.”
Lucas looked at Kleezebee to see if the professor knew the name of the colony. His blank expression indicated he didn’t.
She added, “I found out later they’d already invaded Earth, which is why no one warned us they were coming.”
Lucas tugged at Kleezebee’s shirt sleeve, then nodded for the professor to follow him away from the bed. Both of them moved to the corner of the room, where they huddled together to have a chat.
“What if Earth was already occupied territory when our E-121 module arrived?” Lucas asked in a low voice, not wanting the girl to hear what they were talking about. She was already emotionally unstable and he didn’t want to make the situation worse.
Kleezebee’s eyes indicated he was deep in thought. Then he nodded with pinched eyebrows. “If that’s true, then our enemy intercepted it. Not our people. It would explain their sudden appearance here.”
“And their possession of the rift opening technology,” Lucas added.
The professor nodded, hobbling back to the bed.
Lucas followed, knowing his actions caused this innocent girl to suffer unimaginable pain when the bugs impaled her spine in order to communicate. His list of victims was growing by the minute, making his insides ache even more. They’d better come up with a plan to get Drew back, and soon, then figure out a way to end all this suffering across the universe. His shoulders couldn’t support the weight of any more guilt.
“Was anyone else on the ship with you?” the professor asked the girl.
“Yes. A lot of us. All women.”
“No men?”
She started crying again. “They eat them. We could hear their screams.”
Lucas’ face went numb as those words sank in.
“Some of the men killed themselves so they wouldn’t be eaten,” she said through more tears. “The Krellians . . . they like to eat their food alive.”
Lucas’ mind went into frenzy mode, worrying for Drew. He tapped the professor on the arm and waited for Kleezebee to look at him before he spoke. “I thought you said Drew would be safe?”
Kleezebee shook his head quickly without saying anything, then shot a disapproving look back.
Lucas understood the gesture. The professor wanted him to shut the hell up. It wasn’t easy, not with the flashes of blood and guts filling his thoughts, but he held his tongue. For now.
“Why only the men?” Kleezebee asked, turning back to the girl.
“They keep the women as breeders,” Alicia answered, tears streaming down her face.
“Breeders?” Lucas snapped, feeling the knot in the pit of his stomach swell. He wanted to scream and punch something, thinking of what the bugs might be doing to his brother.
Alicia’s voice cracked as she tried to catch her breath between the waves of emotion and tears pouring out of her. “They keep us pregnant . . . so we can . . . provide them with more food. They prefer live children. Oh my God, it’s so awful to watch. I can’t stand it when they come for the newborns.”
Lucas clenched his jaw as he stared at the edge of the bed, wondering how God, if he existed, could allow such barbaric creatures to exist in the universe. His mind spun with a terrifying vision of Drew lying on a table as the main course of a meal, while a swarm of Krellians pulled at his arms and legs, tearing them off at the joints as if they were eating a live chicken.
“If there are no men, how do they keep you pregnant?” Bruno asked from behind Kleezebee. His voice was soft and tender, but Lucas still couldn’t believe the callousness of his friend’s question.
Alicia answered anyway, pushing the words out through her obvious grief. “They farm semen from them before they’re—” she said, stopping mid-sentence. “Those of us who can’t bear children are used as translators or nannies, or we’re thrown into the feeding pit with the men.”
Lucas figured that’s what she meant earlier when she talked about her sister’s fate and used the words “or worse.”
“Alicia, I know how hard this is to talk about, but we need everything if we’re going to help you and your sister. Do you think you can answer a few more questions for us?” Kleezebee asked.
She nodded, wiping the tears from her cheeks. “I’ll try.”
“Can you tell me what happened to your leg?”
The girl gulped as her eyes filled with more despair. She took a few deep breaths before answering. “Sometimes they run low on food and the sentinels decide to ration us. But it doesn’t always sit well with the others. Sometimes one of them will sneak into our cell after dark and drag us to different room, away from the others. That’s what happened to me and another girl one night. We both tried to get away, but the creature kept hitting us with its claw. Then it started on her. Every time I close my eyes, I can still see the girl’s face, screaming at me to help her. She couldn’t have been more than fifteen. I was so scared I couldn’t move, so I just sat there in the corner and covered my ears so I didn’t have to listen to the sound of her bones crunching.” She closed her eyes while drawing in a series of quick, shallow breaths before she spoke again. “Oh my God—the blood—it was everywhere.”
Lucas couldn’t imagine what this young girl had been through—nor did he really want to. But he couldn’t ignore her. Her plight infuriated him. It was more than any human should ever have to endure. His empathy for her galvanized his resolve. His brother was in the hands of these heinous creatures and hearing Alicia’s story fueled his internal drive to save Drew at all costs.
She let out another round of tears before looking up at Kleezebee. “When it finished with her, it came after me. I wished I was already dead. I almost passed out when it started on my leg, but one of their sentinels showed up to stop it, then it took me to another chamber where it burned my leg to stop the bleeding. A few minutes later, I was moved to a room filled with some fancy equipment, where my handler put its tentacle in my back.”
The room fell into an emotional silence. Everyone’s eyes were focused on the girl, as was their compassion, Lucas assumed. He imagined the collective hearts of Kleezebee and the rest of his crew were now beating with the force of a thunderous herd. His was; why should theirs be any different?
Kleezebee unstrapped Alicia from his side of the bed. Lucas did the same on the other side, wondering what else he could do to help this girl.
Alicia sniffed a few times as her tears slowed, using her forearm to wipe her nose. Lucas spun and found a box of tissues behind him and gave it to her. She blew her nose and thanked him.
Kleezebee asked her, “When you were connected to the creature, do you remember what you said to us?”
“Yeah, I think I remember most of it.”
“Do you know if my brother is still alive?” Lucas asked.
She nodded, then reached over and touched his hand. Despite all she’d been through and all the pain she was in, she still had compassion for Lucas’ situation.
His heart reached out to her. He admired her strength and courage. If she could handle captivity, he knew Drew could handle it, too. “Are they going to give him back if we hand over the BioTex?”
“No. They’re planning to invade as soon as you turn over the stuff they want. They’re never going to pass up such a rich feeding ground. You have to get everyone out of here.”
Lucas looked at Kleezebee and then at Bruno, hoping for some indication of what to do next.
Bruno seemed distracted, standing a few feet away, touching his finger to his ear. A few moments later, he touched his watch, and said, “10-4,” before wa
lking up to the professor and tapping him on the shoulder.
Kleezebee turned, allowing Bruno to whisper something in his ear. When Bruno was finished, the professor smiled and said, “Excellent. You know what to do.”
Bruno nodded, then quickly left the infirmary.
“What’s going on?” Lucas asked, figuring the only course of action was to storm the rift when the creatures reappeared. Maybe his earlier suggestion to attack wasn’t so idiotic after all.
Kleezebee didn’t respond. Instead, he asked Alicia, “If we can get you back on their ship, do you think you’d be able to show us where they’re holding my son?”
“No way. I’m never going back. I’ll kill myself first.”
“What about your sister? She could still be on the ship,” Lucas said, hoping to change her mind. It was a lot to ask of the girl, but they really didn’t have a choice at this point.
She sighed, then sat quietly, gently shaking her head while staring off into space. She might’ve been considering his request, or resigning herself to the fact that Julie Ann was long gone.
“Can you at least draw us a map?” Lucas asked, wondering if the girl’s connection to the sentinel’s thoughts had provided her with access to the ship’s layout.
She looked at him for a few seconds, then answered, “Yeah, I think so.”
Lucas smiled, then ran to the medical table and picked up a red pen and clipboard. He turned the medical paperwork over to check the backside of the paper—it was blank.
He hustled back to the bed and gave her the pen and paper. “Here, draw on this.”
TWENTY-EIGHT
Lucas handed Alicia’s map to Kleezebee, then followed the professor back to the elevator and rode with him down to the surveillance room, where they met up with Bruno and Trevor.
“Sir, we confirmed the data and their ship’s spatial coordinates,” Bruno reported, handing a report to Kleezebee.
Kleezebee looked over the paperwork for a minute, then replied, “Nice work, gentlemen.” He gave the report back to Bruno, who passed it to Trevor.
Linkage (The Narrows of Time Series Book 1) Page 38
