by Laura Watson
Sarah smiled at Mikel and his heart leapt. He knew he would never let her be harmed. Not ever. He liked this little bean.
Mikel's small ship glided past galaxies that were beautiful to behold, great spiral galaxies, small, densely packed galaxies, oblong galaxies, and millions of stars and planets. Time had no meaning out there in Mikel's ship. Eternities came and went, lifetimes and minutes, they were all the same out there.
Mikel talked happily, going on about a fantastic little moon orbiting around the planet Jupiter, and the fantastic way that the gravity from the large planet kept the ocean on it in liquid form, underneath a massive sheet of ice. He loved the idea of that little moon with its' half frozen ocean and talked about it until they approached a large, dark planet.
Mikel checked his instrument panel, making several adjustments to the brightly lit controls and suddenly became unusually quiet and guarded. Sarah looked to see what it was that made Mikel so quiet, expecting a comet or some other fantastic sight to come whizzing by them at dizzying speeds but saw only the, now massive, dark planet, lit only dimly by a tiny, distant sun.
It wasn't anything extraordinary, as planets went.
She had see many spectacular planets with Mikel, some vividly colored, some almost translucent with light, and this one was dull and dark and ugly in comparison.
Mikel ordered her to get into one of the bio suits, the metallic colored suits with the helmet attached, that protected them from different atmospheres and toxic air.
They were light weight and very flexible. She could see out of the eye sections, but nothing could see in, past the dark lenses there to protect the eyes.
She had the suit on and it had self adjusted to her frame, when she looked around to see if Mikel was in his suit yet. He wasn't putting one on. “Why do I have to wear this and you don't?” she asked a little peevishly.
Sarah didn't like wearing the suit. They weren't the most comfortable of things to have on even though they were flexible and light. The metal scratched against her skin and her feet were already getting scratched up. She wished she had worn some shoes.
“I don't need the suit” he responded, and DON'T
say anything else about wearing that suit.” His tone held a warning that Sarah rarely heard Mikel issue “Or else”
it implied. Mikel only used that grave tone when he was serious.
They descended to the surface of the dark planet.
The air held suspended dust particles and they swirled around Mikel's ship as he landed softly on the dark gray dirt. Mikel powered the ship's engine off and they walked down the small ramp from the ship to the ground. Sarah watched in fascination as the dust particles resumed their former positions, suspended in mid air. The air there was thick with the dust, gray soot like dust that stank. The bio suit's filter did not filter out smells.
They walked towards a distant building. Sarah had never seen anything like it before. Nothing compared to the size and shape of that building, if it could be called a building.
It towered for miles above the surface and stretched out as far as she could see. It was ornately designed with weird alien script and symbols that she couldn't read. Mikel knew what it said but he wouldn't tell her when she asked him. “What is it Mikel... what is this place?”
Sarah began to feel afraid. Mikel wasn't
answering. Something about the smell of the dust and the strange alien symbols seemed familiar to her and she tried to recall where she had smelled that rotten meat, sour milk smell before, where she had seen those lines and dots.
Alarms were going off in her mind. “I am not going in there” she said defiantly, “if you don't tell me what it is and what's in there.” Mikel just kept walking, not replying to Sarah, looking straight ahead of him at that massive structure looming closer and closer.
Sarah stayed in step with Mikel, that uneasy feeling nagging at her mind, churning in her stomach.
After they had covered a distance of two miles, Sarah again asked Mikel where it was they were going, and what that place was. Mikel still would not reply.
“Why won't you tell me?” she asked, growing more fearful with each step they took towards the building. Mikel waited until they were directly in front of the massive structure before finally answering.
“It is a meat plant,” he said quietly. “do not scream,” again with that warning tone. “A meat plant?”
she asked, almost laughing with relief, “why would I scream about that?”
In her mind, Sarah saw a houseplant, made from meat, and thought that it would be the weirdest thing ever to see. Again, Mikel said “Do not scream. Stay by my side at all times, Sarah, do not wander off by yourself, stay with me.” Mikel's voice was strangely ominous.
Sarah was puzzled at why he was being so
serious about a meat plant, but agreed, solemnly, to stay beside of him at all times. Sarah had been many strange places with Mikel and understood that her life depended on listening to him. There were dangers everywhere, waiting for those who were careless, or ignorant, of customs of some of the beings that they had visited.
Death was death, on any planet.
Adam from Crios
Adam searched through the minds of the meat plant.
It was only a matter of time, he knew, before the Grays figured out what he was doing. They weren't the brightest lights in the galaxy, but they would eventually find him out. He had to find a way to get himself and the others out of there. He could get them outside easily enough, he thought, but the problem was that there wasn't anywhere to go once they escaped the meat plant.
Outside of the massive building was only the barren expanse of dark gray dirt of this forsaken planet.
There was nowhere to hide. No one would give them shelter or help. Not even the blue nailed Grays would risk angering their Gray kin to help them. Adam spent his days and nights searching through the minds of the plant, the gray wastelands outside and over the relentless landscape for any sign of life, other than the Grays.
Mikel and Sarah were met at an entrance to the building by a small group of tall, dark gray beings. The beings had strange, almost square heads and cold black impenetrable eyes. They had large fang-like teeth that they bore in greeting to them, and long fingers on their large hands that sported long, curled, claw-like nails.
Their nails had bands of color throughout them, purple and red. Sarah recognized them immediately.
They were of the same race of beings that took her to their ship and put her in a container to eat. These were the hunter Grays. Their purple and red striped claws stood out prominently against the dull gray coloring of their skin. Her stomach lurched.
She now understood why Mikel wouldn't tell her where they were going until reaching the plant's entrance, or who was meeting them there. He knew she would have run as fast as she could back to his ship.
These were the same race of beings that hated humans...meat plant. Sarah remembered what Mikel had told her about the Grays' world. A dimly lit large dark planet. Well, this is it alright, she thought, why did Mikel bring me here?
The Grays stooped down and gathered some of the gray dirt, and small pebbles, that lay in small dunes at their clawed feet, in their hands, before going back inside the building, and hungrily stuffed it into their mouths.
Sarah watched Mikel to see how he would act and she mimicked his gestures and actions. Mikel spoke to them in their language of guttural sounds and screeches. Sarah couldn't understand any of what was being said, and Mikel, gesturing to the Grays, indicated that Sarah was sick, and wore the bio suit to protect them from infection. The Grays did not object to her presence there, Mikel told her, as long as she did not remove her bio suit.
Mikel pulled her aside as they walked behind the Grays down a long, broad, dimly lit corridor and told her what he had said. The Grays did not like bright light and even winced at the reflection of light from her metallic bio suit. Mikel scooped up a handful of the foul smelling dirt and rubbed her suit down
with it to dull the reflection.
The group leader offered them something to drink before going further into the plant. Mikel accepted for himself and once again, told them it would be hazardous if Sarah removed her helmet to consume anything. They produced a small flat metal tray bearing containers of different colored liquids. The floating tray hovered by each of them in turn as they chose from the brilliantly colored assortment.
A Gray attached a device onto Sarah's helmet that re sequenced the atoms of the helmet directly in front of her mouth, allowing fluid to flow directly into her mouth through the device. “Don't drink the green liquid,” Mikel whispered the warning in Sarah's mind.
Following Mikel's instructions, Sarah chose, instead, an orange colored liquid that Mikel told her was from a fruit grown on one of the lunar greenhouses in a nearby star system. The flavor of the orange liquid was sharp and sweet and immediately sent an invigorating pulse through her tired body.
It is meckina fruit, Mikel whispered in her mind.
It is one of the rarest fruits that can be obtained in the Universe. Did you enjoy it? He asked. It was sweet, Mikel, she replied silently, and made me feel better as soon as I drank it.
That is because it is a healing fruit, Mikel told her, his voice low and confidential in her mind. That is why it is so rare. It was nearly harvested into extinction by the human colonies before it became regulated and preserved. It can only be obtained from the lunar greenhouses now, and only in limited quantities. You have been afforded a very rare treat today Sarah, remember it well. Sarah savored the remaining liquid, feeling the instant effect it had on her entire body. Her body felt stronger, her eyesight became sharper, her hearing became exquisitely keen and her mind felt clearer.
She drank every drop of the precious liquid and immediately wanted more. It can be quite addicting, Mikel stated, reading her thoughts. The meckina fruit's healing properties are powerful though, and lasting.
Only a small amount is required for healing one as small as you are, Sarah. The Grays are trying to help you. I cannot let them know that you are human, so do not remove your helmet. Do you understand?
Sarah told Mikel that she understood and would not take her helmet off, although, she really did not understand at all. The Gray detached the atom re sequencer from her helmet and placed it back onto the hovering tray, waiting expectantly for Sarah to remove her helmet. Mikel screeched softly to the waiting Gray, and the Gray turned away from Sarah. It gestured wildly to Mikel as it screeched shrilly. It was apparently confused as to why the meckina fruit was not working on her.
Mikel kept his screeching tones soft and low, convincing the Gray that perhaps she had an ailment that the meckina fruit could not heal. “Impossible!”, screeched the Gray. “There are no ailments that the meckina fruit cannot heal.” “There is one,” Mikel replied softly, “and the meckina fruit has no effect on it.”
“There hasn't been a case of pelisangery
anywhere in a millennium,” the Gray stubbornly argued. “I cannot be sure of what it is,” Mikel cautioned the Gray, “but if there is even a chance that she may have it, it is best for her to leave her bio suit on, don't you agree?”
The Gray reluctantly had to agree with Mikel's logic. He knew that he had been bested in the debate.
The Gray stared menacingly at Sarah, hating that he could not see what was beneath the bio suit. He eyed the suit suspiciously. Something was definitely not right about it. He could almost smell it...almost.
They followed the group of Grays to an enormous room that seemed to have no end, to Sarah. In this room was a collection of machines, some gargantuan and some microscopic in size. A table stretched out long and narrow down the length of the room. From where Sarah stood, she saw white objects piled up and moving along the table towards machines that loomed over it in the distance.
Sarah watched as a small hovering machine
picked up one of the white objects and placed it in a metallic colored container. The machine then placed it back on the table where another hovering machine placed a clear film over the top of the container and sealed it.
The group of Grays, along with Mikel and Sarah, walked around the cavernous plant as the Grays showed Mikel their machines. Sarah stared in wonder at the table and the machines silently hovering over it, busily packing and sealing each white object in turn. The Grays explained each machine's function to Mikel as he examined them. As he looked under a microscope at the smallest ones, Sarah walked away from the group. She wanted to get a closer look at the white objects moving along the long table.
It took a full minute for what she was seeing to register in her mind. She stifled a scream as it was escaping her lips. Mikel had warned her not to scream.
Adam huddled together with the other children.
He talked to them softly, telling them stories of his home on Crios. He was in the middle of one of his favorite stories, when he registered the presence of two very different beings approaching. “Mikel, what is it?”
he heard a girl child ask. There was no reply from this “Mikel” she was talking to, or... was he was unreadable? “I'm not going in there”, she, Sarah, continued. Still no reply from Mikel. Cherish tugged at Adam's shirt. Adam didn't notice it, his mind was tuned in to the conversation taking place outside of the meat plant's entrance. “Adam”, the little girl on his lap complained,“What happened next?”
Adam had been telling them a good story and had stopped in mid-sentence, his eyes half closing, his head turned to the side as if he were listening. The older children looked at the glass front of the enclosure, fearfully, expecting to see a Guardian approaching.
They knew when Adam tuned out like that he was sensing their approach. They stiffened in fear, but no Guardian appeared. Adam was teaching them to read the Grays minds, but they weren't as good at it as he was. Adam always knew when they were coming.
“What is it Adam?” Jacob, a boy of almost
eleven, asked. Jacob was from Adam's world, taken at the same time he was. Jacob knew that Adam had kept them both alive with his uncanny ability to know when the Guardians were coming to pick one of them.
Jacob wasn't sure how Adam was able to
influence the thoughts of the Guardians. He knew that he definitely couldn't do it yet, but Adam insisted that he could do this too. Adam practiced with him and the other older children everyday, showing them how to project images into other minds. They practiced on each other, sending pictures of themselves bruised and cut and unhealthy in appearance.
Jacob had memorized the steps to mental
projection. He recited them to himself at least a dozen times a day. Step 1-Imagine that you are looking into a mirror. Step 2-Imagine that your appearance in the mirror is bruised and cut and sick. Step 3-Push the image into the forefront of your mind. Step 4-Push the image into the Guardian's mind.
Jacob had been able to accomplish each step, but he wasn't as adept at pushing the image out of his mind the way that Adam could. “Practice, my man,” Adam whispered to Jacob. “Keep practicing. You'll get it.”
Jacob hoped Adam was right. It was the only way they could avoid the selection. They each had to learn how to do it themselves, in case Adam wasn't able to. It was how they had survived so long. “Are they coming?”
Jacob asked.
Adam didn't answer. His eyes were unfocused.
His face was expressionless as he listened.
A Walk Through Hell
The white objects that Sarah now beheld were the arms, legs, feet and hands of human beings. The rubbery appendages had been stripped from the bones but retained their shape, cut cleanly and expertly by the automated machines hovering over the table. They were piled as high as she stood, around four feet tall. Sarah stood frozen in place.
Mikel looked around in time to see her faint, and ran to catch her before she fell. He made those strange guttural noises and gestured to the Grays. Sarah knew he was explaining this to them. They looked at Sarah with those cold,
horror eyes and turned away.
Mikel stood her up on her feet and urged her to walk, and told her not to look at the table anymore.
Sarah tried, but she was horrified and mesmerized by the grisly load on that moving table. She couldn't not look at it now. Mikel saw the Grays looking at Sarah, and sternly this time, told Sarah to stop staring, to follow him and not to look at the table. Sarah turned around, facing away from the horrible sight and struggled to keep from puking in her bio suit.
Sarah's mind was reeling from the horrific sight.
Where were they getting those people from? Get out of here, get out of here, I've got to get out of HERE!!! her mind screamed. Mikel heard her thoughts and placed his small hand over hers. He soothed her terrified mind with a touch. Like a cool, soft balm, this gentle gesture let her know that he would take care of her, he wouldn't let them hurt her and that everything would be alright.
Sarah regained her composure and averted her eyes from the table and its' morbid contents. She followed Mikel, her mind numb to everything going on around her. The Grays were leading them on, through the massive meat plant.
Hour after hour they walked through the meat plant, the Grays showing Mikel each machine in turn.
