Mae kept up like a champ. It was clear that she had never expected to hear the words that were tumbling out of Shaun’s mouth like a water picket, but she nodded and her face betrayed no disbelief.
“What’s really important right now is that you give me the shards of the Vestige and lay low.”
He held out his hand for the shards. For the first time since he arrived home, Mae looked at him incredulously.
“You’ve got to be kidding,” she said, folding her arms. “I’m not handing those over and leaving you to fight this alien on your own.”
“Mae, you’re not getting what I’m telling you. The shards are acting like a homing beacon — leading Zolyn right here to you, and to my mother and Neil. If you don’t give them up, it’s inevitable that she will find you and hold you hostage.”
Mae remained hesitant.
“Why can’t I just come with you to this Xantherian safehouse?”
“Because, I need you to take care of my mother for me until this blows over. Besides, there’s no point in arguing about this. I’ve already gone up against Zolyn, and if she manages to corner you, those shards will be discovered and confiscated in an instant — and we will have lost your abilities at the same time. There’s nothing you can do.” He glanced at the window again. Still calm. “Xara told me that Zolyn used the same tracking system to find Austin Spencer. She got to him already. That was what that flash of light was, shooting into the distance.”
Mae’s face paled a few shades. Her mouth opened, but she struggled to find the words to say.
“Austin? Why would she go after The Cloak? He doesn’t have the piece of space rock in his arm any more.”
“I know,” Shaun answered. “But there must have been some residue. Lingering energy or something from it. Her plan is to use us all as batteries, and it looks like The Cloak is on her side. When she confronted him, he led her straight to me. That’s how she found me in the restaurant. It was a combination of my energy from defeating Bill Flagrant, and all the info that Austin gave Zolyn.” He shook his head. “This is too much talking. You need to hand over the shards right now and we’ll get through this. I’ll come back for you, but I need you safe. Please.”
He held out his hand again.
Mae glanced over at the living room where Shaun’s mother and Neil were watching the news. She hesitated.
At last she sighed.
“I guess you’re right,” she said. “As much as I don’t want to, we just have to do what we have to do.”
She reached out to take the tiny vial from around her neck with the shards glittering within. Her hands fumbled with the clasp. Shaun held his breath, his pulse racing as he wondered how much time he had left.
The entire house shook with a massive BOOM.
Shaun had barely a moment to register that the wall behind them had been blasted inwards. Pieces of sheet rock, plywood, and dust pelted them like a hail storm.
Shaun tried to dive to Mae, to protect her, but it was too late. The ceiling came collapsing down and landed on both of them. The last thing Shaun saw before he blacked out was the floating line of Zolyn’s alien body wrapping itself around Mae with that horrible otherworldly glow.
17
The Break-In
The first thing Shaun noticed when he slipped back into consciousness was the aching pain in his stomach. Everything happened so fast, but he was positive that part of his family’s kitchen wall had struck him full in the side, almost folding him in half as he flew across the room. Once he reached the end of the empty space his head crashed against the countertop and everything went black.
Now his vision was slowly filtering away the darkness and he found himself in a dimly lit room that he didn’t recognize at all. Between the pain and the seemingly absence of color, as he had experienced in the strange cubed room with Xara, Shaun was incredibly disoriented.
The pain was a constant throb every twenty seconds or so, whether he moved or not, so he quickly dismissed it. He would be healed soon anyway with his abilities.
What he was really worried about was his family and Mae.
He was lying on his back and tried to get up, but something stopped him. He couldn’t lift his arms, chest, or legs. They were being held down by something running across his body. He managed to tilt his head up and saw that there was a massive silver casing that was morphed over his body like a sarcophagus, created by a grid-like pattern of rectangles that glistened with chrome finish. No matter how much he struggled, he couldn’t break free or get the casing to budge.
“Mae?” he called out, his voice cracking and dry from the pummeling he had taken. “Mom? Neil? Are any of you there?”
Silence returned his calls. It was an absolute absence of any sound so that every beat of his heart, every throb of the blood through his veins, and every strain of his body against his restraints was amplified in his own ears.
He tried once more to push the casing away from his body, but it was fruitless. Whatever this metallic material was, it was bolted down tight. Shaun let out a guttural groan as he fell back down in an effort to conserve his energy.
Horrible images flashed through his imagination. Pictures of his family captured and being held hostage. It was a terrible thing to think of when he was completely helpless. Then there was the most chilling image of all in the back of his mind, one that he didn’t want to acknowledge.
His loved ones could be dead.
It was a real possibility. Depending on how the kitchen and dining room had exploded, his mother and Neil could have been crushed or mortally wounded. There were so many ways that a normal person could succumb to death. Human beings were more fragile than anyone really wanted to admit. It wasn’t at all like the movies where a person could be slammed against the wall and get back up as if nothing had happened to them. Being inside a collapsing building was not something that many people walked away from.
Mae was in the same boat as his mother and Neil. Even with her Aberrant abilities, Mae didn’t possess super strength. Neither of them did. When they were hit, they felt it. The only advantage that Shaun had over her was that he could heal himself — and even that ability was new and unexplainable. He wasn’t sure how it worked and how long he would have it.
If only Mae had the same healing ability…
He turned his head from side to side, as far as it would go, and tried to take in his surroundings in greater detail. The room wasn’t just blank and dim. There were hints that this place had been damaged — sections of the sleek white design that were interrupted by cracks and even bits of the wall that had been broken free and scattered to the floor beneath Shaun’s field of vision. Along the ceiling was a recessed ring of light. There were also barely discernible ventilation grates placed here and there, about chest-high. Were those for oxygen, or some other gas-like material to ventilate through?
Was he on the aliens’s spaceship?
He hoped that was the case, rather than another one of those strange invisible floating rooms. Who knew where he would end up if he had been taken to one of those? They could be hidden anywhere. Being in a ship was also not the best thing either, since those could also be flown away from the planet.
If it’s not too damaged, he reassured himself. This one looks like it’s been pretty banged up, even for the interior. I can’t imagine what the outside of it looks like.
When he strained his ears, he couldn’t hear any sort of hum of an engine or power source, so he took that to mean that the ship was not in operation. That would hopefully mean that it was still sitting in the crater at the waterfront where it crash-landed.
He continued to look on either side of him, and suddenly he was able to make out something very familiar — something that he was both overjoyed and disheartened to see.
It was Mae! Facing away from him, with only a sliver of her face showing from around the edge of the metallic chair she was secured into. From what little he could see, Shaun noticed that the chair was like one that he had seen in
a dentist’s office, with reclining mechanisms.
“Mae, are you alright? Mae! Can you hear me?”
He could see the tufts of the top of her hair poking over the edge of the seat-back, but she didn’t move. She must have been knocked out like him during the blast. He hoped that she was still breathing — that she wasn’t horribly injured.
I’ve got to get out of here, he thought as he started to struggle again. I need to get Mae out of this place and find my mother and Neil.
Another few moments of straining against his confines when someone spoke.
“You can stop struggling.”
Out of the corner of his eye he saw Zolyn step into view. There must have been some doorway that was just out his field of view. She was completely formed as her female figure, and her eyes flashed in triumph as she locked gazes with Shaun. Her lips pulled into a faint smile.
“You’re just wasting your energy. To let you in on a little secret, that’s the last thing I want you to do. We must conserve everything you have.” She glided over to a panel that was hidden behind Mae and fiddled with some unseen nobs and buttons. As she did so, Shaun felt his restraints tighten. It was like he was stuck in a compression machine, squeezing him until he couldn’t move anything aside from his head. The tightening happened with a faint buzzing sound, like a dentist’s drill.
Finally the tightening stopped and Zolyn observed him once more.
“That should do it, I think. I want you to relax, Shaun. Conserve everything you have. You’re going to need it.”
Shaun gritted his teeth, his next words hissing between them.
“What will I need it for? You’re just going to kill me once you have the Vestige. Just get it over with and take the stone for yourself.”
Zolyn looked amused.
“Is that what you think I’m going to do? No, Shaun, I’m not going to kill you. I need you alive. What use are you to me if you’re dead and unable to speak? You have answers for me. Data that only you can provide. You and your friend here have the experience that I need. So I want you alive.”
“Good thing we didn’t get crushed when you blew up my family’s house,” Shaun jabbed back. “Where are my mother and Neil? Did you take them?”
Zolyn shook her head.
“I didn’t need them. They are just normal human beings, hardly worthy of being used for energy. Don’t you get it yet? You and your friend Mae, and even Austin Spencer aren’t like regular human beings at all. You have incredible powers brought on by harnessing the Vestige — the shards of starlight. Not just anyone is able to do that. You of all people should know that. The Vestige manifests itself differently for each person. For some, it does nothing. For others, unlimited power.”
“And how do you know all of this?” asked Shaun. “You aren’t from Earth. How do you know everything that you’re saying?”
“Because it has all happened back on my own home world, the same as here. Well…on a much higher scale. But, it has happened before, as most things have happened in multiple places across space. Your little drop in the pond, so to speak, is not unique.” She stopped to study him, and his expression of fury caused Zolyn to laugh. It was a metallic, electronic sound, reverberating throughout her tiny sphere-comprised body. “You naive boy! You honestly believed that your kind were the only sentient beings in the galaxy, and you thought that having these superior abilities were exclusive to you and a handful of other people possessing the shards? That is very quaint.”
She came around to stand right beside him, staring down at him like a technician.
“I will let you in on the secret that you are not the only one who has had these abilities, not on this planet, and not in the greater galaxy — nor will you be the final one who has these abilities. There are many more that will be needed for what I have planned. You two are just the start.”
Shaun was so enraged at being caught and imprisoned that he ground his teeth together and bits of spit flew from his mouth as he spoke.
“Is this the part where you tell me your entire plan?”
Zolyn’s eyes flashed.
“I’ll do better than that,” she said. “I’ll show you. Have a front row seat.”
She pushed something beneath the bed he was lying on and it started to lift him up vertically. It was like being locked into some sort of crazy amusement park ride. His weight shifted, and he felt the metal that covered him securing him in place. It was practically molded to his body.
The bed continued to lift until he was standing upright, and the entire thing rotated so that he was now facing Mae head-on. She was still unconscious, seated facing away from him.
Shaun’s platform came to a stop and he watched as Zolyn did the same thing to Mae. A few dials and buttons were manipulated so that Mae’s confines were also rotated to give Shaun a better view. She now faced him, and he saw that she had been battered and cut up from the explosion.
With Shaun now upright, he also got a clear picture of the room they were in.
It was some sort of laboratory, although it appeared like one that a minimalist would have designed. There were no snaking wires or silver instruments here. Everything was white and clean with crisp lines and slender forms. Definitely extra-terrestrial as far as Shaun was concerned.
There were three different platforms, like great white granite pedestals, holding what looked like virtual reality wands. They were made of single cylinders with spheres attached to one end that were the size of ping-pong balls. These spheres glowed a menacing red. Shaun spotted one set of these instruments on each of the three platforms.
Zolyn glided over to the nearest one and picked up one the set.
“I have many of these, don’t you worry,” she said. “They are the entire reason that I have been traveling. Originally it was myself and Xara together, but you see what happened between us.” She came to a stop beside Mae and locked eyes with Shaun. “It’s all for the best, really. Now I will have all the energy for myself, and I can recreate our people as I see fit. Now, watch closely.”
As if Mae was being administered electro-shock therapy, Zolyn brought each of the wand-like instruments up so that the spherical ends were pressed upon either side of Mae’s forehead. They continued to glow red, though when they made contact with Mae’s skin they began to pulsate like some sort of alarm system.
The wands continued to pulsate, getting faster and faster until it appeared that they were merely flickering with light. The red was quickly replaced by a bright orange, which then morphed into a dull green. With every passing moment the light got brighter, both in intensity and color.
Even in her unconscious state, Mae was groaning with pain. The lights on the wands turned mantis green. Only then did Zolyn take them away from Mae’s skin so that she could turn to face Shaun. Her grin was nefarious.
“Even though she’s not as powerful as you,” Zolyn explained, “your little friend here is a great addition to my collection. She will last a long time, I think. And you don’t have to worry. All of you humans are so concerned with life. You will live...just not in the way you are accustomed.” She continued to speak as she admired the two siphons in her grasp. “You will have food and rest. Those are the most important things for you to be back at full energy. And just think of it! You won’t be alone. You will have each other. If anything, I’d think you should both be happy with this arrangement.”
Shaun couldn’t bring himself to say anything back, so instead he raised his head as far as it would go and he spit in Zolyn’s direction. The alien was stopped in her tracks, giving him a stunned look.
“You have plenty of drive. Amusingly enough, all of the things that you humans desire — power over everything else — is going to be your downfall. Perhaps if I show you a little of what your friend just experienced, you won’t be so insolent. Especially when I’m in charge of your very existence from this point onwards.”
There was a crackle in the air between them. A foreboding settled in Shaun’s stomach, and he
wished he could shy away. There was no chance of that. He was going to suffer whatever Zolyn wanted him to suffer. The thought sent a shiver down his neck and back.
“Before I deplete you into a stupor,” Zolyn said as she returned the two energy siphons to their pedestal. “I have to have a little chat with you. There are some things that you know that are quite useful to me — and to us, if you choose to cooperate.”
The siphons connected to the flat platform as if with magnets, snapping into place. Once they did, the spheres on the ends pulsated with light once more, this time in green. Presumably this was to signal that they were charged up.
Universal symbols, thought Shaun. For all of their physical differences, humanity and these Xantherians were not so different in their needs.
With the energy contained, Zolyn turned her attention fully to Shaun, sweeping across the room to stand face-to-face with him. She paused to see if he would speak. He did not, so she continued.
“Where is your father?” she asked.
The question would have caught him off guard had he not already had a conversation with Xara about his father and Jeffrey’s importance to Zolyn’s mission. His father was the catalyst to all of this human harvesting. It wasn’t an act when Shaun narrowed his eyes at Zolyn and shot back his response.
“You’re not going to find my father. He’s dead.”
The answer gave Zolyn the same shocked reaction that Xara had displayed. Zolyn fell back, her features betraying her confidence only briefly before she got them to return to their calculated stare.
“You’re lying,” she said. “He can’t be dead. We were not alerted.”
“Because you were keeping such a good eye on him?” Shaun laughed. “I know more than you think. Your little plan to keep him under supervision had a glitch. Between then and now, my father was killed. I inherited everything from him, but his energy is long gone — and he wouldn’t have handed it over to you anyway. Neither will I.”
The Aberrant Series (Book 4): Super Invasion Page 11
