by Luke Norris
The man appeared not to hear him, instead making his way directly towards the water.
There is an object there, he realized A very large object. It took a moment for him to register its size because it had some kind of mirror-like surface, except it, reflected what was behind the object not in front. If Arif changed the angle of his head, so to did the reflection on the object. Slowly he could register its shape and dimensions. It was at least three times larger than the transport wasps, had rounded edges and some protrusions that were hard to see exactly.
“It’s camouflage!” Arif said, truly amazed. “I didn’t notice it until we walked right up to it.
Seth ignored him and spoke a quiet command. A door appeared to open in mid-air and a ramp descend to where Seth stood. It was lit brightly inside. “Get in!”
The first encounters with Seth and Li had been jovial, and what felt like some semblance of reciprocal respect. Had that all been an act? Seth seemed completely detached now when he spoke to him. Should he pull out of this? No. If he wanted to claim back the dynasty he’d built, he needed to be like Oliver. He was outmatched as he was. He had to see this through. These visitors would learn their place once he had what he wanted.
He followed Seth up the ramp into the long narrow room. Strange vertical silo compartments were lining each side of the corridor. Each was a little larger than a person. Arif did a quick tally and counted fifteen either side. The moment he stepped inside the craft the door slide closed behind him. Seth seemed not to notice. He spoke a strange word, and there was a hissing sound. One of the vertical compartments with its convex face slide open.
“That’s your one,” Seth said, nodding to the open capsule.
“You want me to stand there?” It was big enough for Arif to comfortably stand in.
Seth nodded. “But put your clothes in the disposal unit first.” He indicated to a spot on the wall and as if by magic, an aperture appeared.
“You want me to get naked and then stand in that capsule?”
“It's a medical procedure,” Seth shrugged. “Don’t worry we have clothes for you.” He was busy looking at control panels on the other capsules and scrutinizing the numbers.
Are there other men in those capsules, Arif wondered, like me? Men who are being offered this opportunity?
Arif had no compunction about being naked, he often walked around his training quarters naked in front of his men. There was some vulnerability that came with being outside the comfort zone of his fighting pit, but if this jumped up visitor wanted him naked, so be it. They will all learn in good time to respect me, he reminded himself to avoid lashing out.
He took off his sparing clothes and threw them in the disposal bin. Seth did a double take when he saw Arif’s body, clearly surprised at the honed physique. “Excellent, you will make superb driver,” he nodded satisfied, then his expression became perturbed. “If Li’s games don’t spoil things. Alright, get in. I’ve got a full load, we are going straight to the mothership.”
A full load? The other capsules must be occupied with men. What else could he mean? “Other drivers?” Arif asked.
“Some,” Seth replied. “And some will have… other roles.”
“Huh,” Arif grunted. If the man didn’t want to say, that suited him just fine. He stepped forward into the circular capsule. It was wide enough for his broad shoulders to not be touching the walls. He could see the reflection of his powerful legs on the metallic reflection at the back of the pod. Arif turned back to face Seth. “How far away is this place we’re going?”
Seth was fiddling with the panel and looked up at the question. The strained smile crept up awkwardly on Seth’s tight small mouth. “Oh, I think that is the least of your concern.” The door snapped closed.
From the inside it was transparent, and he could see Seth watching him. A stabbing penetration in his side caused him to shout out in pain. Under his rib cage was a small trickle of blood. Whatever it was had penetrated deep. He looked back at Seth. “Hey!” he thumbed the perspex lid. “What was that?”
Seth stared back with an uninterested expression. He doesn’t even see me as a person, Arif realized, he is simply transporting cargo. “Seth! You’d better not be trying anything…” his voice caught in his throat. His fingers were cramping up. He could no longer move his arms or legs. His muscles were contracting, and the paralyzing feeling was spread up to his neck and face. The nerve agent reached his face, causing his lips to pull back tight in a grinning rictus, but Arif’s bloodshot eyes were bulging and wide open, betraying the terrible agony.
Seth watched Arif calmly through the glass to ensure he was completely paralyzed. He rechecked the control panel, then looked at the others briefly as he walked down the aisle. Arif could only move his eyes to follow the man as he disappeared through a door near the front. A feeling of being compressed against the floor told Arif they were taking off. The acceleration increased, but Arif could not move. He was a prisoner in his own body.
How high was this wasp flying? The trip seemed to go on and on. The craft started to shudder violently then it smoothed out, and normal gravity resumed under his feet. A strange sensation occurred as the wasp slowed. Arif felt his body become lighter then float away from the ground. He bounced lightly off the ceiling, and then off the wall. How was he floating in the air? He felt nauseous, but his body was rigid, locked.
After some time, the lid to his pod slid open. Two small floating devices, similar to the one Seth had used in the warehouse, entered his pod. Using small mechanical limbs, they lent him down, so he floated horizontally. In this strange weightless environment, the small robots could easily maneuver his body. They rotated him to face the ceiling, but as they did, he noticed dozens of the small bots, all carrying other naked men. Unlike Arif, the others had their eyes closed and appeared to be unconscious.
He was floated through a small hatchway into a long room, filled with bodies. The small robots carried him in file behind others. Bodies being transported at different heights and directions, like they were following traffic rules. Arif could only follow all of this by moving his eyes from side to side. He was in some warped dream, that was the only explanation.
He felt a hard surface under his back as he was lowered down onto a gurney of sorts. Three other robots zipped into his field of vision. Each had mechanical arms that looked as though they performed different functions, most of which looked like delicate surgical instruments. Where the hell was Seth? He couldn’t call out. Was that… blood dripping from one of them?
The three bots descended upon him taking different positions around his shoulder and head. Arif tried with all his might to thrash. If he could just force his body to move, he could knock one of these little devices clean across the room. There was no moving. He could even yell when he tried just a gurgling sound came from his throat.
The machine on his left began emitting a quiet but high pitched squeal. He suddenly felt excruciating pain at the top of his neck where it joined the base of his skull. The pain grew in its intensity. Were they tearing his hair out? It felt as though the skin was being torn off his head. Surely he would fall unconscious from the pain, but no. Whatever Seth had done to him was keeping him alert, and aware of every sensation.
The machine behind him, supposedly guilty for inflicting the pain he’d felt, emerged holding something in its tiny mandible. A small flap of bloody skin, with his head hair on one side. His head throbbed. Arif just wanted to close his eyes and wake up somewhere else. A second bot sunk below his line of vision, behind his head. Now the sound of a different high pitched drill started up, accompanied by the most intense pain he’d ever felt, as it began making an incision in his skull. He would kill Seth and Li if he came out of this alive. No human was meant to endure such torture, the brain would normally shut down before it let you experience this.
Arif’s mind was writhing in agony inside its bodily prison. He didn’t even notice as a dialysis bot inserted a tube in his leg, connecting directl
y to the femoral artery. His blood was infused with the standard nanites that all Seth’s drivers had. These would attack unhealthy tissue, and combat disease.
Arif was unaware of all of this and endured the horrendous pain of the upgrades as his body and mind were opened by the machines and tampered with. He was strong, and his mind did not break where other weaker men had been driven irretrievably insane.
Finally, the psycho imbuement part of his programming wiped his coherent thoughts blank, providing relief from the torment. At that moment, his mind became the property of the masters, to be chemically compelled to their bidding, and the man that once was Arif Zewka was lost forever.
20
DECISION
Shael finally shut the door, after convincing Eorol that she didn’t need anything. It had been three weeks since she’d been back in the city, and Eorol was still acting like an annoying puppy, so eager to please. His transformation had been astounding. He had become submissive and acquiescent, it was downright frustrating! What had Oliver done to him? Considering Eorol did try to kill him, Oliver was probably within his rights. Instead of killing Eorol, to Shael’s puzzlement, he’d given the man more responsibility looking after people who were close to him. This had seemed like the worst idea, but after seeing the transformation in Eorol, she realized how intuitive Oliver’s psychoanalysis of him had been.
Targon had gone back to meet Oliver almost immediately after collecting his things, but Shael needed time to process events. Targon had come to the conclusion of Oliver’s true identity long before the insane display of ass-kicking Oliver administered at the zewka headquarters. The old man was just as sane and lucid as he’d ever been. That made her feel even more sheepish for having thought he was senile.
Oliver had gone and sent Eorol back to the city, clearly in the hope that she might decide to come back also. He might be an ancient king of legend, but he was still just as frustrating. Now she had to deal with Eorol on a daily basis.
She sat down at the desk again. Finally, I can get some work done, she told herself. Papers stared back at her, but she couldn’t focus on the images and words. Her mind wandered almost immediately. How the hell am I supposed to work? Really? And what is there to work on anyway? All the notes, artifacts around her seemed redundant somehow.
Even the parchment they’d found during the monastery expedition seemed dull and uninteresting, yet it’s importance outranked any artifact Targon had in this entire house. They’d let Ander keep the most important find in the last five hundred years because, frankly, it didn’t really have the same value when the actual historical character was standing next to it. Sweet Verity, this was a strange situation to be in, and sitting at this desk was a farce, and she knew it. Damn that man.
There was something at Shael’s core, something deeper that disturbed her and was the reason she couldn’t concentrate on this work. The answers she’d once sought here in the archaeological findings couldn’t satiate the new hunger she had for truth, just as Oliver foretold when she last saw him. The idea that Oliver really was from somewhere else, maybe not even Laitam, made her heart beat faster. It tantalized her imagination. Humans were elsewhere in this universe. Where did they come from? Looking at artifacts and scribblings from five hundred years ago could not answer these questions.
The reality was, Shael had to go back and get these answers from Oliver. She knew it the moment she realized he was who he claimed to be. Her destiny was intertwined with the man, and his journey. She pushed the papers aside in frustration.
She would go back.
The admission to herself was a release. Suddenly she felt the thrill again. The feeling she’d had when first translating text from a Hajir passage without Targon’s help. The sensation when she’d discovered the stairwell at the monastery. It was becoming clearer to her. Exploration into human origins roused something in her. She felt like she’d been in a room her whole life and a door, she never knew existed, just opened to a world she never knew. Looking at these documents on the table felt like going back into the room when the open door was right there.
Something snapped, she needed answers from him now, she had been brooding in this house far too long. She stood and strode to her wristband she’d left on the kitchen bench, and tapped Eorol’s code.
“Shael?” he sounded like he’d been asleep.
“We’re going back.”
“Okay,” Eorol said sounding relieved, “he’ll be happy to hear it. I’ll pick you up first thing in the morning, the weather is looking good.”
She realized she had no more trepidation about flying. The extremely harrowing experience on the flight back from Shar had somehow numbed her fears completely. It was the middle of the night and dark outside.
“Weather’s good now,” she said flatly.
Eorol was silent for a few seconds, then said reluctantly, “I’ll be there soon.”
Oliver had worked wonders on the man.
“Did you really mean it?” Shael strode towards Oliver, who was stooped over a tired looking engineer sitting at the desk examining some schematics. It was the small hours of the morning, and they were still working. She and Eorol had flown from the city, and upon landing, Shael had walked straight to the house to find him.
He looked up surprised. “Shael,” he said. “You came back… in the middle of the night.” Then hastily added. “I’m very glad you decided to.”
“You said you would tell me everything. Did you really mean what you said?”
Oliver turned to the engineer. “Can I convince you to finally go to bed Sefus?” he patted the engineer on the shoulder. “It’ll be here tomorrow.”
Shael could see the man was ex zewka. Well, it made sense they weren’t all thugs, like the ones she encountered in the city. It was a huge operation. Shael remembered seeing the complex in the daylight with Targon, all the hangers, the blackstone ore, the warehouses. It made perfect sense that they had engineers, bookkeepers, even doctors. It would be more strange if they didn’t.
“Yes,” Oliver agreed. “I said I will tell you what I know. But I must warn you, Shael, it will open the door for more questions.”
“I’ve already opened that door,” Shael said, “when I opened that sarcophagus you were in. I can’t go back to what I was doing before. I have to understand, Oliver. It will drive me to insanity to know I didn’t pursue this when I could have.”
“I know,” Oliver said, leading her through to a living area adorned with artifacts.
Arif actually had good taste, Shael had to give him that. The room felt spacious, and not too opulent or overcrowded, despite the ancient ornaments. “I will show you to your room, and we can talk about this tomorrow.”
She stopped, “Oliver, I didn’t just fly hours in a wasp in the middle of the night to have this conversation tomorrow.” She sat down stubbornly on the low couch adorned with exotic cushions and didn’t get up despite Oliver standing there waiting. She was being completely unreasonable, considering she had waited three weeks and now she was expecting him to drop everything at this very moment. But she was unreasonable sometimes, he would have to live with it.
“Well, have it your way then,” he said, tiredly sitting down next to her on the Kahlro embroidered couch, and adjusting a pillow to get comfortable. “This may take a while.”
“I need to understand this, Oliver,” Shael said in earnest. “This has shaken me more than you can know. I’m having to reassess everything I thought I knew, everything I’ve been studying my whole life. You couldn’t possibly understand.”
Oliver was silent. That last sentence struck a sensitive note with him. She could see it in his eyes, distant, remembering.
“You don’t think I could possibly understand what it’s like to have my reality shattered, and everything I loved torn away?” Oliver asked. “I had this happen to me in such a dramatic way that I nearly lost my mind. In fact, more than sixty men before me couldn’t cope with the same truth, their minds snapped and they, unfo
rtunately, went insane,” he paused. “They didn’t make it.”
Shael’s eyes were wide. She realized she was leaning in, hanging on his words. “Didn’t make it? What is that supposed to mean?”
“Don’t worry, Shael,” he added upon seeing the horror in her eyes. “The manner that I came to learn the truth was unimaginably traumatic.” He gazed out the dark window and sighed. “But let me start from the beginning.”
Shael could see this meant dredging up painful memories. Verity would be a painful memory for him, but how much more was there?
“Some of the knowledge I am about to impart to you I was told by Verity,” Oliver said. “Other things I’ve pieced together myself.”
She was prepared to hear it. She would listen, and not interrupt...and try not to act too shocked.
“Firstly,” Oliver looked her in the eyes. “Laitam is not the only planet inhabited by humans.”
Listen to the man, and don’t freak out, she told herself. She’d learned her lesson, not to discard the far-fetched things Oliver claimed. She would hear this out.
“There are many, many others,” Oliver continued. “I am from one of these worlds. Its name is Earth, and I long to see it again, Shael.” He blinked away tears. “I didn’t come to Laitam freely, I was brought here against my will.”
This is for real, she realized, looking at Oliver’s face.
“It sounds impossible!” she said gently. “How far away are these places? How did you get here?”
“They are further than you can possibly imagine. There is no measurement comparison I can give you that would allow you to comprehend these vast distances. It would take lifetimes to visit many of them I imagine. I think it took decades for me to reach Laitam. But I’m not sure exactly because my body was frozen, I was kept in a kind of sleep.”
This must have been how Oliver had not aged for five hundred years in the monastery guard tower. “Why would someone force you to come here?”