The Loctorian Chronicles Intercept

by Andi Feron

  “I agree with you on one thing. Let’s find your friends and get all of you out of here. First I want you to get some rest in a real bed tonight. The Loctorians have gone to great lengths to make us comfortable. The bed will scan you to calculate how it should best fit you. You can also override and answer a series of questions if the bed guesses wrong.”

  The doors to Talon’s quarters opened, and Seraphine walked in, dressed in a uniform that matched Talon’s. Her red hair was pulled back into a bun. I had almost forgotten that Talon had known Seraphine. She waltzed into his apartment like she lived there. She looked at me, and I could tell she was making a fair attempt at hiding her shock. She shot Talon a sterner look and quickly shut the door.

  “Allie, I’d like you to meet my wife Seraphine,” Talon said.

  It was a good thing I had set down the tea I’d been sipping the minute Seraphine walked in or else there might have been shattered glass spread across the smooth living room floor. I felt as if I was being held uncomfortably in place, like in the Graviton at a carnival. The spinning of my head seemed to emphasize the artificial ride effect that was being generated in my mind.

  “Your wife?” This came out as a gasping mutter. Talon nodded and seemed unsure of the next words he should say. I decided to confront Seraphine. “You pretended to be my friend. I told you things, and it was all a setup? The entire time you were married to my brother?” My anger blasted words at Seraphine. The anger and hurt toward my brother were too deep to acknowledge.

  “It’s a long story, Allie. But I was doing my job. Following orders,” Seraphine said.

  I had so many questions, but I was too taken back and emotionally drained to pursue answers. I went back to my room and picked up the remote Talon had shown me. I allowed the bed to scan me. The bed began to change and mold around me with perfect precision. I was out in minutes.

  I slept better than I had in months. Sleeping in the dorm room was much less welcoming than the bed I grew up in. This new bed seemed to move through the night to keep me in precise comfort and temperature. Getting out of bed would be difficult. I could meld into a contented state indefinitely.

  The next morning, the smell of bacon brought that needed motivation. Talon made pancakes and hash browns to accompany the bacon. Orange juice and milk sat in pitchers next to large mason jars that would be used as cups. I’d missed his cooking, as he had grown amazingly good at it over the years.

  It seemed that Talon was trying to apologize for having a secret wife. It would take more than that, but I was hungry, and the need to be stubborn on the issue could be pursued later. After breakfast, Talon left to try and arrange a flight out for me. I located a computer and hopped on. I found it locked up tight and had no idea what the password would be.

  On the wall next to the computer hung a picture of Talon holding Seraphine sitting in a large black chair. They were looking at each other, smiling. There was another next to it. Talon and Seraphine were standing, and Talon’s arms were around Seraphine. By what they were wearing, I guessed it was their wedding picture. They looked happy.

  I went to check out Talon’s room, but that was also a dead end as he had locked the door. I contemplated leaving. I didn’t want to wait for Talon to take me on that convoy, especially without John and Gabriel. While debating the best avenue to pursue, the front door opened. I slowly turned around, expecting it to be Talon but stumbled back when I saw it was Lucius and three other soldiers. I was furious at him for all the games and lies.

  “Your brother didn’t hide you very well now, did he? He thought he convinced me you were well into the capsulization process, but I knew better than to take his word for it. I’ve become rather fond of you, and I want to promise we won’t hurt you. We’re only going to enhance you.” I used to swoon when I heard his voice, but now it sounded appallingly arrogant.

  My eyes bore into him. “What did I ever see in you, Lucius?”

  “You saw nothing in me. I’m a manipulator. Whatever I wanted, you did, that’s why I was sent. The Loctorian council felt you and your friends were too important to risk you refusing or your brother getting in the way. He’s valuable, too, that’s why he’s not receiving a court-martial for hiding you, but this won’t reflect positively on his service record.”

  I doubted Talon would care. He would simply be angry that they had gotten to me despite all his effort. He said my friends were important, too. I was starting to realize that everything and everyone was being manipulated for what someone thought was our purpose. Lucius nodded toward me, and two of the soldiers moved forward. They grabbed my arms, pushing me out of the quarters and down the corridor.

  I walked quickly but still felt as though they dragged me across the floor. We descended about thirty floors when we finally came to a stop. The room opened, and a large capsule stood in front. A woman with blonde hair and green eyes stood in front of a stretcher, and the men laid me down and strapped me in.

  “Althea, I need you to remain completely calm. There can be no resistance in your mind, so I’m going to give you a bit of a tranquilizer to ensure this goes as smoothly as possible. We need your heart rate a bit slower.” The woman spoke with a calm that gave me goosebumps.

  There was no time to protest as she injected a green substance into the vein on my right arm. I began to shake, and the room spun as everything became blurry. The guards wrapped me tightly in a warm blanket, and they moved the stretcher to a standing position as they wheeled me to the capsule. I saw an orange gas flood everything in my vision. I had no memory of what took place after that for several hours to follow.

  I woke up disoriented back in Talon’s quarters. Confusion fogged through my thought process, making it unclear if Lucius and the capsule had been a dream. Numbness coursed through my body, almost as if all my limbs were about to fall asleep, but I caught them in time. I glanced at the clock; it was two hours after the planned shuttle launch should have taken place.

  Talon must have let me sleep. I didn’t remember going to bed. This bed was so comfortable, and I didn’t know how they ever got people to leave their beds to be productive. The blankets seemed to regulate my temperature, and I felt neither cold nor hot while I remained under the covers. I heard a knock on my door.

  “Come in,” I said.

  Talon peeked in the door. “You sick?”

  “No, I’m fine. Just love the bed.”

  “They are great beds. It looks like you are stuck here another night. I wasn’t able to get a shuttle covertly. I would have been back sooner, but I had to make sure no one was on to you being here. Hopefully it wasn’t too boring. Guess maybe it was if a nap seemed appealing. You’ve never really been into those.” I ignored his words, and he tried some more, “You still mad, Al?”

  “I’m angry, hurt, upset, sad, disappointed, and betrayed… Should I continue?”

  “I can’t fix that this happened. I wish I could take all of it back but I can’t. I have this entire life that I built here. I couldn’t tell you, it had to stay separate.”

  “If you were so against me being a part of this, why would they have chosen your wife to recruit me?”

  “That was Lucius’ choice. I think he thought it would be funny.” Talon tensed at the mention of Seraphine. I could tell he was struggling more with the subject of her than he was letting on.

  At this point, Talon no longer had my confidence. I was cautiously accepting of his answers only because it was hard to throw away the last thirteen years of him taking care of me.

  “I’m still tired. I think I’m just going to call it a night.”

  My words were my way of being nice, of not falling into sectors of extreme. I could scream and holler and be outraged, or I could walk out and surrender myself to this supposed silly war. Instead, I let the intense draining win. Sleep came too quickly for having already slept the day away.

  *

  “You hungry?” Talon stood in my doorway.

  My brain beat against my skull, creating rhythmic wa
ves of pain. I responded the best I could. “Surprisingly no. Maybe just a drink would be nice.”

  “It’s morning. You got to get out of bed at some point.”

  I pushed the perfection that entailed blankets and propped myself up on the side of the bed. I must have sat up too quickly because dizziness overwhelmed me. Talon left to the kitchen, and I was glad he missed my struggle for composure. I stumbled out of bed and grabbed the nightstand, then collapsed to my knees. I stood up but my gait wobbled as the floor seemed to consist of Jell-O.

  “Pancakes work?” Talon hollered from the kitchen.

  “Sure! That would be great!” I hollered back, not wanting Talon to check on me. He worried too much. I couldn’t imagine his blood pressure if something was actually wrong with me. I crawled to the door and shut it, then stretched my arm up to push the door lock. I sat against the door with my head in my hands until Talon knocked on it.

  “You okay, Allie?”

  “Yeah, just changing.”

  “Breakfast is ready when you’re done.”

  I had slept the night away as well. I imagined a hangover and my current state resembled each other. I pulled myself to standing using the doorknob and found myself much more steadied. It must have been a drop in blood pressure after sleeping so long. A little weird but not unheard of.

  I strolled down the hall and to the table. My feet felt as though I was pushing through mud but nothing I couldn’t handle. Talon’s back was turned as he placed food on a plate for me.

  I was grateful that he missed my slouch into the chair. The room spun around me, and I ate breakfast the best I could. Talon didn’t seem to notice. He wanted to know about my classes. After everything that had gone down, it seemed weird to talk about casual things.

  I answered being careful to sound as normal as possible. Talon cleared the table, and I excused myself to a shower. I made it through my shower and put my clothes on. I went to brush my hair when my body began to shake uncontrollably and I hit the ground, knocking the caddy of hygiene products down to scatter throughout the bathroom.

  I couldn’t seem to move intentionally, and reality was off. I thought my body was moving, but if so, I was not in control. I heard Talon yell my name but I couldn’t answer. He pounded on the door. He must have heard me drop. Everything went black again before I woke back up in the glorious bed. I must have been in some sort of weird dream loop. Maybe Talon would offer me food again. A monitor beeped and I watched the lines move across its screen.

  “Althea? I’m Dr. Monroe. I’m a good friend of your brother’s, so you can call me Jasper. Are you able to understand what I’m saying?” A doctor wearing green scrubs stepped into my view.

  “Yes.” I cleared my throat, trying to make it feel less scratchy.

  “Good. Why don’t you rest tonight? I’ll be back in the morning.”

  I nodded. I could see Talon leaned against the corner, and his hand covered his chin.

  He followed Jasper to the door. “I’ll be back, sis. Right now get some sleep.”

  I would give no arguments. My eyes were half closed, and I was out. I woke up with chills. I saw Talon and Jasper talking, but they sounded as though they were behind a TV screen.

  “I should have stayed with her. They activated her and thought it would be some kind of joke for me to find out this way. Sometimes I feel like letting them all die off.” Talon’s face wore the same stress it always did when I was sick or hurt.

  “She seems to be fighting the gene activation, probably because she went in unwilling, or could be because it was a second attempt.”

  “She’ll be fine, though?”

  “Most likely, yes. I’ve seen others react this way and most come through fine. This doesn’t mean the gene won’t activate, it simply means her body is having a harder time accepting the change. They call it gene therapy like some gentle massaging of your genetic code, but really it’s an assault on the brain at the molecular level. It’s surprising that things don’t go wrong more often. These were genes humans were never intended to have, let alone have activated.”

  I drifted in and out of consciousness until my senses became crisp, and I felt great. In fact, better than I ever remembered feeling. Maybe I was one of those heightened people since everything seemed clearer. The droplets in my IV seemed to take on a multi-dimensional shape. I could see angles I somehow missed in the past. I sat up and pulled off all the sticky pads on my chest, sending the monitors shrieking. Talon and Jasper both ran into the room. Jasper smiled while Talon stared sternly.

  “She’s on the other side of this. She’ll be fine.” Jasper shined a light in my eyes and I grimaced. “Now if your gene has truly been activated, your ability should come and go. At times it may overwhelm you. If it gets too much or you feel out of control, Talon knows where to contact me.” Jasper left the room.

  I wondered if I was dreaming this entire thing, but that was impossible, everything was so clear. I could almost feel the shapes of sounds pulsing in my eardrums. The smoothness of the fabric ignited my fingers with the intensity of a new level of softness. I must be heightened, that had to be my ability. I told Talon what I thought.

  “No, everyone feels that way at first. If you remain like that after three days and nothing else shows up, you should be able to declare yourself that.”

  Talon brought me a grilled cheese. I had been fighting the gene activation for four days, and now I was ravenous. The cheese intertwined with my tongue and the collision with the butter ignited a euphoric reaction in my mouth. The crisp bread meeting my teeth gave the perfect crunchy texture. Talon made great grilled cheese, but these were even better than usual. I asked for more and finished off an additional three. Talon commented on how I must be making up for the four days I was under.

  I was given another day to recover before Lucius arrived to take me. He floated in as if he’d won a prize. Part of me wondered if Talon would fight him, but it seemed that Talon had relented his resolve to keep me out of all of this. Talon simply glared. I followed Lucius and three other soldiers out the door. At this point, I was unsure if they were his bodyguards or simple buffoon minions. He always had three with him. I sarcastically wondered how he survived so vulnerable on Earth. Maybe he needed that many men to protect himself from Talon.

  Lucius smirked. “Today you will begin your testing, and we will figure out exactly what gift you will bestow upon the Loctorian council.”

  Evidently, my new ability entailed forced generosity to an alien race I had never met. This time we went four floors up, and the door opened to a large room with various consoles with chairs and black helmets dangling from the ceiling. There were about fifty chairs lined up in five rows to the right, and all but four were filled with soldiers.

  One of Lucius’ lackeys motioned me to sit with the group. A woman came around a corner wearing a lab coat and holding a clipboard with a blue pen attached. She pushed her glasses higher on her nose. Her black curly hair was pulled neatly into a bun.

  “I am Mrs. Monroe. I am happy to see all of you have completed your capsulization process safely and are ready for the next phase. Some of you may already know what your ability is, and you will be given a chance to elaborate on it in a bit. I urge you to concentrate and do your best. These headsets will access your new abilities, and you will be placed in categories and tiers accordingly.”

  The first row was directed to the consoles, and they were assisted on how to connect the helmets properly. They looked similar to black bike helmets. Once on peoples’ heads, the helmets lit up with blue lights that moved randomly across the top. Wires were placed on their chests. I watched as the recruits began to move sporadically as if trying to avoid an incoming threat.

  Several more scientists arrived with their lab coats and clipboards. Each scientist was assigned to a soldier and wrote furiously what they were seeing on the monitors. After about twenty minutes, they were released from the headset, given a piece of paper and sent back to the elevator shaft.

/>   The third row was finishing up when a girl called out, “Nooo!”

  She had just been given her paper and was the first person I had seen to object. A glare from one of the scientists silenced her.

  “Must be a failed activation. That’s got to be the worst, but we all know it can happen when we sign up. But you know that. Name is Kais Jacobson.” The man next to me introduced himself.

  “Althea Cooper,” was all I got out before we were hushed by the guards.

  We were in the back row and therefore waited the longest to try the consoles out. I put the headset on and jumped a little as an electrical buzz pulsed through my body. A soothing voice wafted through the headphones, reminding me that relaxation was a needed priority. Instructions were then given. There would be a series of doors, and I was to walk through whichever one glowed.

  I began to walk on a path until I came to a cornfield. In the middle of the cornfield were seven doors, all blue except one in the middle was red. None of the doors glowed. My fingers ran across the bumpy smoothness of the corn. I looked up at the doors again.

  “You need help?” I looked down, and a crow was talking to me. Its voice was like a small boy’s, not at all squawks like I would have guessed. I paused, wondering if the game was really a test. The issue would be to determine what I was being tested on.

  Without knowing the end game, this would prove difficult, but that was probably the overall point. I glanced at the doors again and back at the crow. I scanned the field for additional clues. Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t follow the instructions.

  “I need to find the glowing door.” Now I was talking to a crow. Before I wrote myself off as a lunatic, I reminded myself this was like playing a video game.

  “Sometimes you see not what you see.” The crow began gnawing on a kernel that it had found on the ground.

  Riddles and games were all I could gather from any of this. I stepped to the red door, and my hand paused a little. It’s an illusion, I told myself as I reached for the gold handle. I heard sizzling and jumped back, realizing my hand had reacted from the intense heat that there was no indication of moments earlier.