“You know our love will remain.”
“Yes,” he groaned. Mecurial was not completely satisfied with the outcome of this debate. At this point, the argument no longer mattered to him. With outstretched arms, he grabbed her behind the head and attempted to pull her down to him once more.
This move on his part came as no surprise to her. She held herself back, not allowing him to lock her in. Seconds later, she ripped free from his grasp. Then she slighted her face and smiled.
“There will be time for this tonight.” She cut her eyes at him. “Right now, I need for you to go to Omphalos.”
“You make it sound as if you want me to leave immediately?” He tilted his chin to the left and frowned.
“Yes, my love. I want you to oversee the final preparations for the welcoming party.”
“Captain Tog-Zing should have everything up to speed.” he said in desperation.
Now Malign was growing impatient with her toy.
“There are times, when I feel like my subjects need to be reminded of the position I have placed them in.”
A feeling of guilt pricked his conscience.
“Forgive me, your Highness.”
This is what she wanted from him, an absolute of obedience. She wanted to be worshiped. To be idolized by her people alone was not enough. Having alien races bowing down at her feet placed her upon a god-like pedestal. The relationship she shared with him was nothing more than a vice to control him.
Playfully, he tried the sad eyes routine. Unfortunately, the Banimpire was not moved by his poor attempt. “Fine,” he said with a child-like attitude. Flinging the covers off of the bed, he sat up. With his back turned to her, he grabbed his clothing from off the floor and put the pieces on.
Craftily, she hid her contempt.
“Do you think you can be up there in thirty minutes?”
“I seriously doubt it. If I am to be the welcoming committee for the incoming guests, should I not be attired for it?”
Malign really did not wish for him to be dressed up in pomp of flaming colors. Procedure dictated that one should dress in their best when dignitaries from other worlds came to visit. To further her quest to conquer, she felt the need to embarrass Mecurial. The plan was to make him feel awkward and out of place in front of the off worlders. The simple outfit he had on when he arrived at her chambers was sufficient.
“You look terrific.”
“You’re kidding?”
“Am I playing the clown?” She folded her arms across her chest and rolled her eyes.
Mecurial had seen this before. For as many years as they had been together, he knew what it meant.
“As you wish,” he said in defeat. After slipping back into said outfit he grabbed his weapon and exited the room. He looked back several times before shutting the door behind him.
7
There was nothing about the interior of the medical clinic that differentiated it from any other. The reception counter was the first thing Sheena and Telly viewed as they entered the facility. A mahogany-colored wood rose up three feet to where it supported a white marble top. Thirty-eight total feet spanned in a semicolon shape with cheaply papered walls behind it.
A brown-haired woman stood behind the counter. She greeted the caregiver and the hurt man with a smile faker than a chemical sweetener. After taking a second look at Telly she stereotyped him. She placed several fingers on her parted lips. “Oh?”
Sheena cordially smiled back.
“Hi.” Telly announced. “I’m Telly.” This seemed to shatter the tension in the room.
The nurse’s demeanor changed to one of professionalism. “Hi Telly, I’m nurse Cali.” She continued to grin. “Look’s like you bumped your head?”
An affirmative nod was all that she received from him.
“Okay.” She shifted her focus back to Sheena. “I checked for his medical records when you called earlier. Apparently, he has never been to this clinic before. So I will need for you to fill out these forms for him, unless of course you have an updated medical chip?”
Sheena dug into her pants pocket. As she pulled it back out, she held the item requested. “Lucky for me,” she joked. “I hate paperwork.”
Telly observed as the woman inserted the chip into a scanner. Within seconds, several layers of information hovered momentarily in midair. This was followed by a flashing message. Up To Date. All of the information was instantly copied from the chip to the computer’s memory drive.
“Awesome.” The nurse handed the tiny chip back. “We’re all set. If you two would kindly have a seat, we will call on you in just a few minutes.”
Telly and the caregiver took a seat at the far end of the waiting room. To his surprise, they were the only ones there. Behind his chair he noticed a window. Pulling the blue curtain to one side, he discovered the window was not real.
“Hey Sheena, check this out. The window is phony.”
She did not look up. “That’s nice.” Her attention was upon the magazine in her hands. More directly, her focus was upon the pictures of half- nude men. The article was titled, Hot Men on Puritania.
Curiosity got the best of Telly. There were a total of four windows. Leaping up and out of his chair, he proceeded to look behind all of the blue curtains. Sure enough, there was not one real window in the entire room. He laughed out loud.
“None of them are real!”
Then he stood still. It suddenly dawned on him. There was something behind the drapery. As he peered back into the closest one, he realized there was four to maybe five dozen dried boogers stuck to the wallpaper.
“Ooh,” he exclaimed, “nasty nose germs!”
Again, without losing her place in the magazine, Sheena corrected him. “Telly, you know better than to pick your nose. Go to the restroom and get a tissue.”
Telly glared back at her in disbelief. No doubt in his mind that she had no clue as to what he was talking about. Under his breath he muttered, “You’re a bright one.”
He intentionally plopped down in a seat. This was his way of saying, “I told you so”. The caregiver never noticed.
A door opened at the right side of the counter. Nurse Cali appeared in the opening. “Telly? You can come back with me now.”
Rising to his feet, he walked toward her. He looked back to see if Sheena was coming with him. She still had her eyes glued to the magazine.
“I am sure she will be waiting here for you when you are done,” the nurse assured him.
Down a short hallway they walked. Then she ushered him into a small room. A strong, nauseating odor was present. Since he knew nothing about antiseptics, he assumed something was wrong. “What is that funny smell?”
“It is alright. That funny smell means everything in here is clean.” She then helped him ease into the observation chair. “Soon you will not notice it.”
“I hope so,” he replied with a silent prayer added to the end of it.
“Have you ever been hurt before?”
“Nope.” Telly did not feel comfortable enough with this situation to continue talking with her. Moving his head from side to side, he tried to examine everything in the room he possibly could.
A man abruptly entered the room. He was about an average height and his head was topped with a surgical cap. The man’s most dominant feature was his teeth. Shiny whites gleamed when he smiled. Telly pondered a thought about this man’s best friend being a dentist. This aroused a chuckle from him.
“Good morning, Telly. I am Doctor Darne.”
“Hi,” the patient replied nervously.
“Relax young man. We will have you fixed up in a jiffy.” The doctor flashed a reassuring smile.
All the while, the nurse had been prepping the surgical instruments. “Do not be afraid, Telly. I am going to use this cloth to tidy up your scalp.” She carefully placed the towel on his crown. Gently, she wiped his wound in light strokes, starting around the cut and then moving away from it. Within a matter of minutes, the area needin
g treatment did not look as bad as it had when he first arrived.
“I feel really dizzy now,” Telly exclaimed in a warbled voice.
“It is just the antiseptic that I am applying to your wound.” She assured in a soft, tender tone.
Telly watched as she disposed of the bloodied cloth into a red canister. She then reached for a chrome-colored, rectangle box from off of the counter. Then she disappeared from his view again.
Cali pressed her thumb into the object. The tip of the equipment hovered over the patient’s scalp. This caused hairs to come out by the roots. Painlessly, they vanished into the tool. As the hairs came out, the nurse became more attentive to the region she was working. Momentarily, she stopped to get a closer look. Something about the back of his head had captivated her curiosity. Slowly but surely, as she continued to remove more hair, her eyes were drawn into a startling discovery. She dropped the instrument.
The doctor, who was at the sink sanitizing his hands, glanced over to see why Cali had dropped the hair extractor. By force of habit, he turned back to his task.
Then he realized her facial expression was uncharacteristic. Drying his fists, he turned around to face her.
“What is it Cali?” he inquired.
“I…I think you should take a look at this,” she stuttered. She pointed a finger at what had dumbfounded her.
Stepping toward her and the patient, Darne crouched down to pick the instrument up from the floor. He stood up and readjusted his trousers. Moving in behind her, he gazed on as the nurse pointed at the oddity. Overwhelmed by what he was staring at caused him to loosen his grip upon the instrument. It rendered into several pieces as it crashed to the floor for a second time.
The sound of plastic and metal cracking behind Telly startled him. “Is everything okay?” he asked anxiously.
Both of the medical personnel unintentionally ignored him. Cali continued to point with a shaky finger. “Is that what I think it is?”
“I do not believe it, but yes…it is!” Doctor Darne raised his hands in disbelief. “How can this be? This is impossible?” He raised the question but had a feeling he knew the answer.
“What are we going to do?” Cali asked.
“Let’s get his head stitched up and get him out of here.” Then he leaned over and whispered into her ear. “When we are through in here, you go and erase his medical records from our files.” He paused to catch his breath. “I want no one to find out he was ever here.”
She nodded. “You want me to collect on his insurance?”
“I could care less about the credits for this one!”
Hurriedly, the two began the task of stitching up the wound. The nurse used a long-handled clamp to press both sides of the cut back together. Every time she pressed a new section together, the doctor used a laser instrument to stitch the tissue. The procedure was moving along at a steady pace.
Suddenly, the door to the room slid open with a swooshing sound. All three occupants were startled. The doctor peered over the back of Telly’s head to see who might have been there, after it appeared no one was going to introduce themselves.
Cali stopped her task and went toward the door. She peaked through the door. To her amazement, no one was there. “Beats me,” she said as she shrugged her shoulders.
“That spooked me,” Darne said laughingly, trying to play down his anxiety. “Come on, Cali. Let us get this done.”
The door closed. All three experienced a slight scare once again.
“Door sensor must need to be cleaned,” the doctor mused. “No need to be alarmed.”
As the doctor began to put his hands back to the task, the door opened again. Seconds later, it closed. The doctor’s countenance became more perplexed. As he was ready to move the medical instrument up the seam once more, he noticed the nurse had not clamped a new section of skin together.
“Give me some more clamp, Cali.”
The woman did not respond to his request. Her head tilted back and stared up at the ceiling. A bead of sweat trickled from her forehead down the bridge of her nose. Slowly and methodically, she gulped. A look of horror pasted on her face.
Everything transpired so quickly. For Mr. Darne, time seemed to slow. He tried to react but could not. With eyes anchored on his assistant, he watched as a trickle of blood appeared on the left side of her neck.
“Did you poke yourself?” he asked.
Her lips were pursed together as to answer but the reply never materialized.
Darne became increasingly terrified. “What is wrong!” he exclaimed.
From out of nowhere, a new cut appeared upon her neck. Horizontally, the red line tracked a course from left to right. A steady stream of blood squirted out as the laceration journeyed across her jugular. The warm, vital flow sprayed upon the Doctor’s smock. Her lifeless body crumpled to the floor, twitching in a pool of its own blood.
Telly could not understand what was going on behind him. It seemed to be a lot of commotion for a simple procedure. To the best of his ability, he tried to remain still. The loud crashing noise caused by Cali’s body impacting with the floor made his stomach leap within him. Reflex prompted him to jump up and out of the seat. Telly wheeled around. What he viewed caused him to wet himself. The doctor was no longer sporting his pearly whites. Instead, blood oozed out of his mouth. His eyes filled with shock.
Doctor Darne died the same death as his nurse.
The patient screamed and bolted for the door. Thousands of unintelligible thoughts raced through his mind. There was only one thing that did make sense to him. He knew for sure he was going to die. His heart pounded so hard he believed it would rip out of his chest. He ran incredibly fast.
He could hear heavy footsteps following closely upon his heels. Turning his head, he looked back to see what was behind him. No one was there, yet the sound of footsteps was evident. This terrified him even more. He ran faster.
All he could think about was getting as much distance between the evil and him as quickly as possible. He darted through the waiting area and fumbled with his footing. Fortunately, he retained enough of his balance to keep on going.
What has gotten into him? Sheena was flabbergasted. “For God’s sake, what is wrong with you?”
When it was evident she was not going to receive an answer from him, nor was he going to stop running, she took off after him. He was out onto the street and gone.
Something out of the ordinary happened to her as she made her way to the door. Suddenly, it was as if a herd of Trankers knocked her to the floor. Her head filled with dizziness. That’s weird, she thought. As she lay there, it felt like more than one person was trying to push themselves up off of her. However, no one appeared to be there.
At that moment, two creatures materialized right before her eyes. She tried to catch her breath. One of the aliens recovered to his feet quickly. The one, who was still in the process of regaining his composure, spoke to the other in a tongue unknown to the woman. The first one up acknowledged with a nod and then exited the building, turning invisible as he left.
The caregiver began to hyperventilate. In between her gasps for breath she pleaded with the alien, who was now towering over her. On her hands and knees, she crawled backward.
“Please. Please do not kill me.” Tears streamed down her face. “I beg of you!”
She watched on in terror as the monster reached into a pouch attached to its utility belt and pulled a strange item out. The item produced resembled an orange gumball. It was three inches in diameter with a dozen or so green-colored nubs protruding out about its circumference. The object appeared tiny in the alien’s massive hand.
Placing his left foot firmly under the young lady’s chest, he flipped her over onto her back. With one quick motion, he flicked his wrist from side to side. The orange-colored object shot from his hand like a bullet and found its victim.
Immediately upon sticking to Sheena’s throat, the nubs extended into long spikes. For every second the parasite was l
odged in her skin, it continued to expand in size.
Sheena’s first reaction was to reach for the parasite. The thought was there. Unfortunately, her body was now paralyzed from the shoulders down. A neural poison penetrated her system as soon as the spikes had taken root in her. An allergic reaction caused her throat and face to swell. The swelling never reached a cutoff point. Perpetually, it became worse.
The last thing her moist eyes viewed was the one responsible for her inevitable death. Motionlessly, she observed the alien as it touched a small device around its abdomen. Instantaneously, the creature disappeared. Then the room became a white blur.
8
Darius waited for more than the ten minutes requested of him. There was still no sign of reinforcements. Grinding his teeth, he decided to wait no more. As he stood to his feet, a man exited the medical clinic in a hurry. Wailing at the top of his lungs, it looked as if he had seen a ghost.
Darius made a beeline across the street toward the clinic. As he neared the building, the door appeared to open and close on its own. Bursting into the lobby, he caught a brief glimpse of a strange-looking alien a split second before it disappeared. Invisibility? A Legion? He had never seen one before but recalled a brief study about them during his days at academy. The lesson consisted of a crude illustration and three paragraphs of description.
Straight away, he drew his echo blade from its sheath. Before he could activate it an invisible fist uppercut him under the chin. The unexpected blow propelled him twenty feet across the room. Crashing onto the floor knocked the wind from him lungs. The weapon bounced out of his hand. As he reached for it, the Legion picked him up by an arm and leg. Twenty feet later, a searing pain shot through his lower back as he collided with a magazine rack. Before Darius could recover, an enormous foot connected with his jaw. “How disgusting,” he grunted. I have to find a way to turn this in my favor.
The alien lifted him up off the floor once again. This time however, he did not throw him. Darius could tell his enemy had both of his hands firmly gripped about the front of his shirt. Legion held him face to face with Darius’ boot heels two feet off the floor. Even though he could not see the alien, he knew its mug was really close. Catching a whiff of the others breath, Darius provoked his cloaked assailant. “Holy crap, I thought your foot smelled bad!”
Matakeo: Echoes of the Future Page 5
