Captivity

by Maureen Toonkel

  How could I have not known that Paul was an alien? Could he really have hidden it that well for all these years? Or were there signs that I just overlooked or chose to ignore?

  Josh had always prided himself on being a good judge of character. It was a trait that he felt was essential to being in command of a crew. Now he wondered how good those skills really were.

  The shampoo felt like a luxury as he worked it into his hair and scalp. He reveled in the silky feel of the soapy suds as they cascaded down his body. Stepping out of the shower he reached for a fluffy towel and dried himself off.

  How do I proceed? Josh asked himself as he stepped into a fresh crisp pair of uniform pants.

  Josh left his quarters and headed back to Sick Bay. His blonde hair, shining once again, was gently flying as he hurried down the hallway. Jill Mann met him at the door.

  “Nurse Mann, I need to apologize for my behavior,” Josh said. “It was totally out of character for me. Please forgive me.” Jill nodded and stepped aside so the Captain could enter.

  “That’s much better,” said Amanda as she came through one of the many curtains that were now pulled around patients in their beds.

  “Yes,” said Josh. “Looks like you have a full house.”

  “I know. It has not been this busy for quite some time,” answered Amanda. “It is too bad that Dr. Bartow is not here to help. Especially with Dr. Loring out of commission.”

  “I agree,” said Josh. “Two months ago when UGC asked me if we could spare Nancy Bartow for a while I thought we’d be fine with only one doctor, and I endorsed her temporary re-assignment. I will request Dr. Bartow’s return or the assistance of another doctor. Now, tell me what’s Paul’s condition?”

  “He has a concussion. There is some bleeding in the brain along with some swelling. He may have some confusion and memory loss, but overall he is in stable condition.” She had a sad look on her face, and Josh realized this was going to be as hard on her as it was on him. “If you follow me I will show you to his bed.”

  Amanda led Josh through the maze of curtains. Then she stopped and pointed to the right.

  Josh pulled back the long blue curtain and stepped in. Dr. Loring was lying still on the bed. An IV tube was inserted in his left arm and an oxygen tube was in his nose. He turned his head and looked at the Captain.

  “Say it ain’t so,” Josh said when he reached the bed.

  “I am afraid I can’t,” answered Paul and then he looked away.

  The room was silent for a bit. Josh stared at his friend. He no longer looked like his best buddy. Now he looked liked a stranger. Someone that Josh barely knew. Josh broke the silence.

  “Was our friendship ever real?” he asked.

  Paul turned back to Josh. “I like to think it was.” He shut his eyes for a moment then opened them wide. “Josh, you need to know that I was just doing the job I was assigned to by my people.”

  “And what job was that?”

  “The Tradian Council wanted to infiltrate a United Galaxy Command spaceship. They felt it would be a way to keep abreast of Earth’s space development plans. The Council did their research and identified you as an up and coming candidate for the UGC. I was assigned to befriend you and follow along with your career. We lucked out as you advanced all the way to captain. I was already a medical doctor on Imp, so it was easy for me to enroll at Ohio State University, get through medical school, and be accepted into the Space Academy. There was a couple of years where you and I were assigned to different ships, but I eventually was able to get myself dispatched to the Gladiator where rumor had it that you were shortly to become the ship’s new captain. My job was to relay general and top priority information back to the Council. The Brisula Project was something of extreme interest to the Council since they were secretly engaged in running a very profitable business on the supposedly uninhabited planet. I was under strict orders to do whatever was necessary to get information. I altered the ship’s sensors and hacked into the computer system.” Paul stopped speaking and looked down at his hands. “Josh, you need to understand that just like you are a loyal officer of the United Galaxy Command, I am an officer of the Tradian Galactic Army. I was following commands.”

  “It is not the same,” answered Josh angrily. “The UGC is not deceptive. They are not planting spies around the galaxy.”

  Paul looked up at Josh. “You know that’s not true. UGC has their way of spying on those they view as enemies. Earth has always had intelligence operations like the CIA, KGB, and Mossad.”

  “How have you managed to avoid being detected all these years?” asked Josh. “I mean there were many physical exams that you would have had to take.”

  “Ah, the privilege of being a doctor.” Paul smiled slightly. “I’ve always been able to sidestep exams by getting other doctors to believe me when I told them I was in top shape, and they didn’t need to waste their time examining me. I was even able to bypass the shipwide Bio-Scan here on the Gladiator when we were looking for the spy. No one doubted me when I said I had been scanned.”

  “So, this entire time you were pretending to be my friend just to get information?”

  “It started out that way. But Josh, you need to believe me when I say that you actually did become my friend. You are the best friend I have ever had.”

  “And yet, you were willing to turn me over to the Tradians, and let me rot in that slave pit for the rest of my life!” There was fire in Josh’s eyes as he stared at his former friend.

  “It wasn’t intended to be that way. You were never supposed to be captured. Only Hampton. But then he got the hots for Glenna, and she got dragged along.” Paul paused and shook his head. “I made a crucial mistake when I revealed that the bodies were fake. I didn’t anticipate that you would turn the ship around and go back to Brisula to look for Hampton and Glenna. If you had just left them where they were, none of this would have happened.”

  “Why Hampton?”

  “The Council wanted to know why UGC decided to explore Brisula. They had a hunch that it was more than just to establish a drug research center. When I gave them the information on who would be in the landing party, they asked me who would know the answer to that question beside you. They knew it would be trouble to kidnap a spaceship captain. I didn’t want to give them Andrews, and they knew that Glenna was too new to know anything. Therefore it was either Hampton or Shasta. It was a coin toss, and Hampton won.”

  “A flip of a coin, and you were willing to sacrifice an innocent young naval officer. Can you really be that heartless?”

  “You were always getting after Hampton for one thing or another. I thought that you’d actually be relieved to be rid of him. Besides, Hampton wasn’t going to be killed. I requested that he be considered for rental. He would have been able to live out his days with a wealthy family.”

  Josh could not believe what he was hearing. “Unlike you I have a conscience. I could never abandon a friend or fellow crew member.”

  “I was just following orders. I did what I had to do.”

  Josh stood up. “And I must do what I need to do.” He pulled the satellite phone out of his belt pack and asked to be connected to Security. “Seaman Chase, please report immediately to Sick Bay.” Josh looked down at Paul. “Lieutenant Commander Paul Loring, you are under arrest for suspicion of treason.” Seaman Chase arrived as Josh was concluding giving Paul his rights. “Dr. Loring is under arrest. Please restrain him.” Seaman Chase applied a handcuff to Paul’s right wrist and snapped the other end shut around the side bar of the bed.

  Josh stood by the curtain and looked at Dr. Loring. It was funny, he thought. You had handcuffed Dave Andrews to a gurney and here you are now chained to a bed. How ironic. He ducked out through the curtain.

  Before going back to the Bridge Josh checked in on the other patients: Joban, Fabiana, Dave Andrews, Wayne Shasta, Keith Hampton, and Beverly Glenna. All were doing well. He was just heading out the front door when he felt a tap on his shoulder. �
��Your turn,” said Nurse Rugan.

  “What?” remarked Josh.

  “You need to be examined and given an all clear before you can return to duty.”

  “I don’t have time for that.”

  “Captain, you know it is standard procedure.”

  Josh sighed. She was right. Amanda led him to a bed and pulled the curtain closed. She ordered Josh to undress and put on a hospital gown. After a thorough exam she injected a syringe full of Novocain into his right shoulder where the universal translator was still embedded. Using a forceps she gently tugged on the device removing it from his body. It left a bloody hole. She closed the wound with Dermabond and then applied antibiotic cream to the welts on his back and the cut on his head. Finally she pronounced him fit to return to duty.

  The wheels clinked softly on the ceramic tiled floors.

  “Captain, I don’t think I need this,” said Dave Andrews.

  “Humor me,” replied Josh. He steered the wheelchair to the left and arrived at his quarters. Turning the wheelchair around he backed into the room. Within seconds Dennis Pearson was in the doorway.

  There was a tray of coffee and donuts on the small table in the far corner of the room. Above the table on a cork bulletin board was tacked a cloth patch proclaiming the number 1191 C.

  “Help yourself,” said Josh. He bit into a glazed donut and licked his lips. “You do not know how glorious a simple piece of cake is.” He finished the donut and reached for a second one.

  “I take it they don’t have donuts on Brisula,” said Dennis as he watched the Captain devouring a second donut.

  “I saw a bakery, so I am sure they have donuts, but slaves are on a strict diet.” He grinned and picked up his mug of steaming coffee. “Mmm.” Dennis and Dave stared at him quite puzzled by his actions.

  “Gentlemen,” began Josh putting down the coffee cup. “I am quite happy to be in your presence once again. So tell me, how many fights did you two get into while I was gone?”

  Andrews and Pearson looked at each other, and then both said, “None, sir.”

  “Really?” said Josh. “That’s quite amazing. OK. I want to talk about our mission to Brisula and the informant who walked among us.

  “Dave, as you will recall, on May 2 I received a call from Admiral Wilcox giving me the details of a new and highly classified assignment. I spoke with you the next day. and we discussed the project and decided on a landing party. I told you that we were being asked to determine whether Brisula was suitable for human life for the purpose of establishing a research center for Xanthommatin. I met with Paul on May 9 and told him that our assignment was to explore Brisula to see if it was suitable for human life. I told him about the drug research center but not about Xanthommatin. The only information Ensign Glenna had was that we were examining conditions on Brisula to see if the planet could be inhabited by humans. When I met with Lieutenant Shasta I told him what I had told Dave. Keith Hampton was a whole different story. Normally I would confide in my second in command, which of course is you, Dave. But I felt that if I fell into enemy hands, the first person questioned would be you. If you didn’t know anything there would be no harm. The same was true for Dr. Loring and for you.” Josh pointed to Dennis. “I felt that if I confided in someone further down the ranks the likelihood of that person being interrogated was slim. So the person I chose to confide in was Keith Hampton.”

  “What was the rest of the mission about?” asked Dennis.

  “The true plans for Brisula were to develop the drug research center in an attempt to lure the Tradians to Brisula where they could be detained. Sort of like a penal colony. Due to their ability to assimilate so easily into other cultures, they are a dangerous species and a threat to many planets across the galaxies including Earth.

  “As you know Keith and Beverly turned up dead, and we left Brisula. On May 21 Admiral Wilcox called to inform us that the Brisula Project Plans had been leaked to the Tradians. Dave was present during that call. Early the next day I called the Admiral back and learned that the Tradians knew that we were exploring Brisula to determine its feasibility for life and for the drug research facility. At that point they did not know about Xanthommatin or the prospect for a penal colony. Once I got to Brisula and met General Platt I realized that the Tradians did not have any more details. At first Platt was constantly asking us why we were exploring the planet. This made me think that perhaps Beverly Glenna was the spy. She had only limited information, and she was brand new. If Keith had been the spy the Tradians would have had a lot more information. Now of course we know that Paul was the informant. He only had limited information at first. Eventually the Tradians quit interrogating us, and even let Keith and I travel freely through the tunnels. Platt must have been planning to bring Paul in to assist with squeezing the information out of us. Fortunately, both he and Paul underestimated our ingenuity in formulating an escape.

  “Now it is your turn. Fill me in on your activities for the past two weeks.”

  Dave Andrews explained the research they did on Brisula, the Tradians, and the Lake. He told about the computer searches and the Bio-Scans. He relayed the tragic story of the botched diving expedition and the unfortunate death of a crew member.

  “Officer Jackson Greene was convinced that the Lake was the key to finding you. He was right of course. We had determined that the Lake was fairly shallow at 134 feet, and I thought it was safe to dispatch a diving team. Now that we have more information, it is estimated that the underground part of the Lake descends to a depth of at least a thousand feet. That is how the Brisulan spacecrafts could be hidden,” concluded Andrews.

  Then Dennis reported their work on trying to determine who the spy was. He reported on the transmissions that were intercepted and the attempts to analyze them. Dave Andrews interrupted him.

  “There is something I need to confess,” he began. “I wrote three of those transmissions. The ones to UGC dated June 2. I made up some fake messages and signed them PL, DA, and DP. I was hoping these counterfeit messages would shift suspicion to me and thereby unnerve the real spy or cause him or her to become over confident. My expectation was that this might result in the informant slipping up. I was trusting that my upstanding reputation would lead the committee members to assume that the spy was trying to set me up. Those messages were never actually sent.”

  “Well, I’ll be,” remarked Dennis. “I would never have guessed that you of all people would do something so sneaky.” The Captain and Andrews chuckled loudly.

  “We worked hard on trying to ferret out the spy,” continued Dennis. “For a while everyone was convinced it was Keith Hampton. But Diane and I did figure out that it was Dr. Loring. Only by then it was too late. Loring had escaped to Brisula taking Andrews with him.”

  “What led you to believe that Paul was the traitor?” asked the Captain.

  “Dave’s pink skivvies,” Dennis exclaimed. Dave and Josh were flabbergasted. Dennis laughed and told them the story of the underwear.

  Amanda had avoided treating Dr. Loring once he gained consciousness. She had instructed Nurse Mann to monitor the doctor’s vitals and keep him comfortable. Even when he was unconscious it pained her to look at him lying so still. Now it filled her with despair to see him with his hand shackled to the bed and security guards posted nearby.

  How can life continue to be so cruel to me? she thought as she stood outside the curtain in front of Paul’s hospital bed. Lately Amanda had been reflecting on her purpose in life. She grew up on a farm in a small rural town in Nebraska. When she was just a toddler she became quite ill. She had a high fever and nausea for several days. At first the doctors were quite puzzled by her symptoms, but eventually they found a diagnosis. Despite the fact that spinal meningitis had pretty much been eradicated from Earth, in Amanda’s case the vaccination did not work. Somehow she had contracted the dreadful malady. With a regiment of antibiotics she was able to overcome the disease, but it left her with a severe hearing impairment. She began wearin
g hearing aids and had to endure the constant teasing and ridicule from the other children she went to school with. Unfortunately the ostracism continued throughout her teenage years and into young adulthood. Amanda never let her disability hold her back. From childhood on she had a penchant for wanting to help others, so it was no surprise when she told her parents that she had applied to nursing school. She finished top in her graduating class and was recruited by the U.S. Space Academy. Amanda saw the Space Academy as a way to finally be accepted for who she was. She looked at the U.S. Navy as an escape. And although she would never admit it to anyone, she saw the heavily populated male Academy as a sure way to meet the man of her dreams. She thought she had met that man when she began working with Dr. Loring.

  I can’t put this off any longer. She hesitated for a moment before ducking between the curtains.

  Dr. Loring heard the swishing of the curtains and looked over to see Amanda standing in his room. She looked forlorn. Amanda, he thought. I forgot how hard this must be on you.

  “Hi,” he softly greeted her.

  “Hi,” she said back. She inched closer to his bedside. “How are you feeling?”

  “I was hoping that I would see you. I am doing well under the circumstances. I do have a terrific headache. But that is to be expected. Those shovels were pretty nasty.”

  “How did you get hit with shovels?”

  “I was running from a mob of angry slaves. They caught up to me and slammed me with their shovels. Ouch.” He smiled at Amanda. “I guess a lot of people around here feel that I deserved it.”