The Anuan Legacy

by Traci Ison Schafer

  “We have to go,” he said. “But first, I need to take care of something. Kians will not—” He paused. “People of Earth will not respect this technology.”

  People of Earth? Who was this man I couldn’t walk away from? His words told me one thing, but logic told me not to listen to the craziness flaring in my thoughts.

  He let go of my hand and ran to the craft. He pressed the inner forearm of his left sleeve with the fingertips of his right hand like he was punching an invisible keypad. A hatch on the bottom of the craft swung open. Skipping half the rungs, he ascended the ladder on the inside of the hanging hatch. When he was in the craft I kept watch over my shoulder, worried about what would happen if the flood of people he’d spoken of arrived.

  After a moment and without using the ladder, he dropped out of the opening and ran back to the guards on the floor. He pulled something from a side pocket on the leg of his flight suit and touched each guard on the neck with it. “That will keep them out for a while. Just unconscious.”

  Thin gray smoke billowed out of the craft. Its skin bubbled and began to melt. Drops of viscous liquid metal hit the floor with a plop and the craft started falling in upon itself.

  The man grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the door. “We have to hurry. They’re coming!”

  CHAPTER 20 -

  GAIGE

  I slowed my initial pace to keep from dragging her across the floor as we made our way through the larger section of the laboratory.

  She’d come with me freely—no, not really. She couldn’t have made any other choice. She’d already connected and that connection was more powerful than anyone could have anticipated. Too powerful for her to run the other way. I wouldn’t take advantage of that, though. Until she gained the knowledge and the strength to make a truly free choice, I’d look after her and keep her safe. Just like her, I had no choice about what I was doing. When she’d walked back into the lab, I’d felt something. Not just feelings for her, but something around her. Danger. I couldn’t leave her there unprotected. That meant taking her with me, out of that place.

  We reached the door to the hallway and slowly opened it. Fortunately, the lighting had already been dimmed for the night. Seeing no one, we slipped into the hall, closing the door behind us.

  She looked up at me with green eyes that shined like the IC 1295 nebula through her long, dark lashes. Even in the dim light I could see that the excitement had caused the blush of her cheeks to stand out bright pink against her smooth, creamy skin.

  “This way,” she said, pulling me toward the exit. Her brown hair bounced in wavy whirls against her shoulders as we ran. The eyes, the silky skin, the hair. All perfect. She was more beautiful than any of our display images could have ever captured, and moved like poetry in motion, as the Kians would say. I lost myself watching her until her delicate hand squeezed mine, reminding me this wasn’t surveillance. I was right there with her, and I had to control myself. They couldn’t see her helping me. I grabbed her and wrapped my arm around her neck. She tensed.

  “It’s okay,” I whispered in her ear.

  Her tension eased. She understood. This was only an act. No matter what I said, she didn’t have to fear me. And her energy told me that she didn’t.

  “Don’t you try anything sneaky,” I said. “You’re my ticket out of this place. My little insurance policy!”

  “I won’t. I promise. I won’t try anything,” she said.

  Thankfully no one had heard us—except their surveillance devices, that is. We made our way through the halls with no interference and broke free into the dark parking lot. But we were far from safe.

  “That red car is mine,” she whispered. “The one in the back corner.”

  With my arm still around her neck, we maneuvered together through the icy parking lot to the back door of her car.

  “Keys?” I said, holding out my hand.

  “They’re in my purse, back in the building.”

  I didn’t want to frighten her, but we had to get away from the facility. I placed my palm over the door handle and concentrated.

  “I just remembered there’s a spare key in a magnetic case under the front bumper.”

  I pulled my hand away from the door, but not fast enough. The lock released. Before she could ask any questions, I placed her in the back seat, found the spare key, and then sat down behind the wheel.

  “Are you okay?” I asked.

  “Yes, I’m fine. But how—”

  “I have to get you away from here. Maybe for a few days, until I make sure you won’t be in any trouble over this. Okay?”

  She nodded, though a touch of uncertainty had crept into her eyes.

  “Is there anything you need to take with you?”

  She clutched at something around her neck, beneath her sweater, and shook her head. “No, I have everything that’s important to me.”

  “Okay, you should lie down in the back seat, just in case.”

  She did as I said. Of course she did. I started the car and maneuvered us out of the slick parking lot.

  “Hurry,” she said, quietly, her voice drifting up from the darkness behind me. “As long as there are no issues, we’ll be able to leave without being checked. But as soon as the people in my building realize there’s been a breach, they’ll notify security and every gate on the base will be locked down. We’ll be trapped until they resolve the issue—finding us.”

  “Conner, change of plans,” I said, mentally.

  “We’re following, Gaige. We know she’s with you,” Conner replied.

  “Have Pags get me out of here.”

  “We already have something. Turn left at the next light. That’ll be the closest gate out of the base. Then veer right coming out of the gate and get onto the highway going north.”

  “Thanks, Conner. I need to get her away from here and see how things go. I have a bad feeling about something, like she’s in danger. Have Pags and his surveillance crew find a place where she’ll be comfortable until we can figure it out, and let me know the location as soon as possible.”

  “Pags is already working on finding a location. We have the same feeling here. The commander wants you to stay with her until we know what’s going on. I’ll get back to you with a location as soon as Pags has something. Oh, and Gaige—she has a cell phone in the car. It’s sending out signals like a Terigon Beacon.”

  “Got it, Conner. I’ll take care of it. Have Pags find a place in the next few miles, where I can pull off and get rid of the phone—somewhere secluded. I want to talk to her about it first.”

  She was quiet now, probably catching up with everything that had happened. I knew when she did, the questions would come.

  I could see the gate up ahead. So far, traffic was flowing out easily, with the gate guards either in the guard house or on the other side checking the people entering the base. As we approached—the next to exit—one of the guards stepped out of the building, blocking my lane.

  “Why are we stopping?” A shaky voice asked from the back seat.

  “I’m not sure. Just stay as low as you can.”

  While the guard stood in front of us with his hand outstretched in a hold position, another guard came out of the building and lifted a metal post from the ground blocking off our lane. I felt no anxiety from these guards so I stayed patient. The second guard returned to the building while the first motioned for our line of traffic to merge with the other. Evening traffic control.

  “We’re moving,” she whispered. “Are we out yet?”

  “We’re exiting now. They were just reducing the traffic flow to one lane for the evening.”

  “Ahhh. Yes, they do that.” She paused for a long while before continuing. “So, the guards, back in my building. What did you do to them?”

  The questions had started, like I knew they would, floating up to me from low in the back seat, quiet and hesitant.

  “Pressure points the first time,” I answered, getting onto the highway. “Before we left, I u
sed a medical device that would keep them unconscious long enough for us to get away. I didn’t want them to alert anyone.”

  “So they’ll be all right then?” she asked.

  Her soul trusted me, but her Earth upbringing hadn’t quite reconciled with it. She’d be conflicted for a while. I had to do what I could to make her feel secure, to point her toward what truly resonated within her versus what she’d been taught in order to survive in this volatile Earth environment.

  “Yes, they’ll be fine. I wouldn’t have hurt them. Not unless it was absolutely necessary to protect myself, or you. We don’t like violence.”

  She was quiet then, but wanted to ask more questions. I could feel it.

  “When you say we,” she finally said, “what do you mean by that?”

  CHAPTER 21 -

  TORI

  I lay in the backseat of my car, waiting, but the man made no quick attempt to answer my question. “We don’t like violence,” I repeated. “As in, your family doesn’t like it? Your nation doesn’t like it? Who? Who doesn’t like it?”

  “Search your intuition,” he said, “and trust what it tells you. Trust all that it tells you.”

  I sat up and for the first time, took a good, long look at him without the running and hiding to distract me. As much as I could from behind in only dashboard lighting, anyway. Big. His head barely cleared the top of my car. Strong jawline, dark hair, tanned. Like any other nice-looking guy from the U.S. Or Italy, maybe. Spain? But the flight suit. An iridescent white, not the green of our Air Force flight suits. So not U.S., then. The material looked odd, similar to a soft vinyl, but with an unusual sheen. I looked in the rearview mirror to get another glimpse of his face. He glanced back at me in the mirror and an oncoming car’s headlights illuminated his eyes like aqua jewels. My heart rhythm stumbled and my mind raced through the bits of information from the past half hour or so: the craft that was like nothing I’d ever seen before, even in the black world; his comment, People of Earth; the clothes he wore; those eyes.

  What my intuition told me couldn’t be true, could it?

  But it could. Statistically speaking, it could be true. His craft wasn’t from here. His flight suit wasn’t from here. And his eyes, those aqua-blue eyes weren’t from here.

  “Is it true? Are you an alien?”

  The rearview mirror framed his alien-blue eyes, which glanced back at me again, kind and patient. “Yes, I am alien to your world.”

  Even after hearing him admit what I had suspected, I still felt safe with him—this alien. But should I? Ted Bundy’s victims must have felt safe with him too, until they became part of his serial killer statistics. I reached under the front seat, searching for a screwdriver or anything else I could find to defend myself—just in case I needed to. Finally, my fingers found what I’d been searching for. I gripped the screwdriver in my fist. It felt foreign and wrong.

  “I promise you, I won’t hurt you. You can put that down.”

  “How did you . . .” I squeezed the handle. I didn’t want to hurt him. I knew I couldn’t hurt him.

  The man pulled the car to the side of the road and turned off the ignition. I held on to the screwdriver, barely feeling it in my hand anymore.

  “Search within yourself and you’ll know I won’t hurt you.”

  I disconnected from my here and now, and went searching somewhere inside myself. There, I already knew the man’s words to be the truth; he wouldn’t hurt me.

  “We’re okay?” he asked.

  I dropped the screwdriver. “We’re okay.” I took a deep breath and prepared to face a new version of reality. “How did you end up in our lab?”

  “My shuttle had some issues and your government found me before I could make the necessary repairs.” He restarted the car. “I can answer any questions you have, but we need to keep moving. Okay?”

  My imagination ran wild with what the government might do to an alien being. Every Hollywood extraterrestrial movie I’d ever seen came rushing back to me. The scenes that flashed across my memory weren’t good. But this wasn’t a movie. What would they do, in real life, if they caught him? Would they experiment on him? Would they allow him to suffer? Could they hurt another living being? Some could, unquestionably. I knew it firsthand. The person who killed my parents could. But I had the power to stop it this time. And this time I would.

  “Yes. We need to go. We can’t let them find you.”

  CHAPTER 22 -

  GAIGE

  I pulled off the highway into a dark, desolate parking lot far away from any other businesses. “We need to get rid of your phone. Your car is old enough not to have all the traceable electronics. But your phone will lead them right to us.”

  Still in the backseat, she leaned forward and opened the console, pulling out her cell phone.

  I left the car running to keep her warm. “This won’t take long,” I said, holding out my hand for the phone.

  She clutched it to her chest. “What are you going to do?”

  “I need to get rid of it.”

  “But what about my pictures? Pictures of my family? Can’t we just turn off the GPS?”

  “These things can put out signals that aren’t always able to be turned off. Maybe, if I had more time, I could—”

  “No,” she interrupted. “We don’t have time.” She laid the phone in the palm of my hand. “I might be in legal trouble, but if they catch you . . . Go ahead. I have copies of the important ones on my computer back home in Florida.”

  “Thank you.” I got out of the car, hating that I was about to destroy her piece of home, the link to her family when she couldn’t be with them. “Conner, have Pags upload the information from this phone as fast as you can.” I walked slowly around the car toward the open field behind the building, giving Pags time to make the transfer.

  “He’s got it, Gaige.”

  The car door opened and closed. Victoria’s footsteps grew louder until she stopped right next to me.

  I hesitated.

  “Destroy it,” she whispered. “They’re only pictures.”

  Her energy said so much. The pictures of her family were important to her, because her family was important to her. She missed them, even the ones who’d been gone for so long.

  I closed my hand around the phone, willing energy into it. The electronics hissed and the screen dimmed. It was dead to the world, or anybody trying to track us. I pitched it as far into the field as I could and turned to see the look on Victoria’s face.

  “How did you do that?” Awe had replaced some of the sadness she’d had in her eyes over the loss of her pictures.

  “The mind is a powerful tool.” What else could I say? It was as simple and complex as that. “I’m sorry about your pictures.”

  “I know. But it had to be done.” She shivered in the cold.

  Without giving it any thought, I put my arms around her. She gripped me tight, pressing her head into my chest. I breathed in the scent of her hair—like freshly bloomed Kinwa flowers from back home—and never wanted to let her go. But I had to. Being that close wasn’t good for either of us.

  I took a step back. “I need to get you a coat and some supplies.”

  She laughed. “No, I’m covered there. I have a ridiculous coat perfect for the arctic, bottled water, crackers, protein bars, hand warmers, and a bunch of other stuff. I even have a bag with a few personal things—toothbrush, face wash, stuff like that. It’s all in the trunk. My Dad worried about me getting stranded in the snow up here. He watched too many of those How I Survived kind of shows.”

  “I’ll get them.” I reached in the car and popped the trunk. “Why don’t you wait in the car?” I opened the front door for her. “Sit up front with me?”

  “Sure.” She smiled and got into the car while I pulled a few things from the trunk—the coat, a bottle of water, and two of the bars.

  I got in the car and handed the items to her. “I’m Gaige, by the way. Gaige Ardessa.”

  “Tori Spencer,�
� she said.

  “Tori? Is that a nickname?”

  “Yes. My real name is Victoria, but I go by Tori.”

  Her beauty beamed from inside and out. The chopped off nickname didn’t capture her whole, true essence. “Why not go by Victoria?” I asked.

  She looked puzzled. “I guess Tori is just quicker to say.”

  “Well, Victoria is a beautiful name and worthy of the time it takes to say it.”

  She tipped her head down, blushing. “Thank you. I guess Victoria will be fine, if you don’t mind taking the time to say it.”

  “All right then, Victoria it is.” I held out my hand to shake hers.

  She smiled and took it. “Nice to meet you, Gaige, the Alien.”

  “Nice to meet you, Victoria, the Earthling.”

  She pulled her hand away and rubbed her palm. I’d felt it too. The warmth. The connection. I looked away, putting distance between us and the moment.

  “We need to go,” I started the car, but didn’t drive away. I had to make sure Victoria was all right with my plan. “I’m taking you someplace where you’ll be comfortable. Probably a motel. But I won’t leave you there alone. Will that be okay?”

  “I’m fine with that.”

  I felt an excitement in her. Whether it was because of me or the adventure, I didn’t know, but I had to be careful not to confuse her.

  “Conner to Gaige,” Conner’s voice rang in my ear. “Be aware the military convoy should reach the lab in about half an Earth hour. It won’t be long before they know you’re gone.”

  I thanked Conner mentally. Victoria could probably handle knowing I had others helping me. Maybe it would even make her feel safer. But for now, I had no spare time to explain things. When the convoy discovered I was gone and the shuttle destroyed, measures to reconcile what had happen would ramp up to maximum levels. I had to make sure Victoria was far away from the reach of that chaos by then.