Alien People

by John Coon

  Why did these aliens take me captive?

  What do they want from me?

  What do they intend to do to me?

  No doubt these soldiers wanted information. They went to the trouble of keeping him alive and patching him up. The possibility existed that these aliens mistook him for belonging to a rival clan or tribe and hoped to gain a strategic advantage through making him their prisoner.

  Jbali had no desire to stick around and uncover their designs for him. Nothing in this cell or the forest revealed if these were the probe builders who had become an obsession for Calandra. At this point, Jbali did not care. Whatever intentions drove these aliens, their actions were hostile. This much became clear even before they brought him to this place. These Earthians tracked the aerorover and promptly ambushed him and Atch on the mountain. No doubt, their next target would be the scout ship itself. Jbali needed to warn the surviving crew members before it grew too late.

  Concocting a workable escape plan became his top priority. Pulling it off without weapons or gear would not be a simple task. He needed to watch and listen carefully. Their defenses surely owned some innate weaknesses. Jbali needed to find those weak points and spring into action when the right moment appeared.

  A voice drew his attention to the door. He heard jangling metal. Two Earthians appeared in a corridor outside his cell and stopped in front of the barred wall. One stepped forward, inserted a key, and slid the barred door open. Jbali made a mental note of the key's appearance and how it turned in the lock. He squinted at his two visitors. The first one, a man with no hair covering his head, wore a thin white coat with pockets. He held a long needle in one hand and a vial holding unidentified liquid in the other. The second one, a pudgy man with tufts of wavy strawberry-blonde hair, stayed a couple of steps behind the other man. Both wore glasses.

  “Who are you?” Jbali folded his healthy arm over the sling. “Why did you bring me here?”

  They stopped in their tracks. Each Earthian responded with a puzzled stare. They turned and also exchanged confused glances with one another. Their reaction puzzled Jbali.

  “Why aren't you saying anything? What do you want from me? Why did you attack us?”

  The bald man turned away from him and peered at an upper corner of the wall. Jbali mimicked his action and discovered a gadget mounted in that same spot. It must be a surveillance device watching him. Both Earthians said a few unfamiliar words while staring at the wall-mounted object before returning their attention to Jbali.

  Communicating with these aliens should not be this difficult, Jbali thought. Atch programmed their language into our translators.

  The translators.

  Jbali froze. He raised his arm and traced his fingers across his right ear. His translator was missing. Jbali had no way of knowing if it fell out of his ear when the Earthians hauled him out of the forest or if they confiscated the device along with everything else they took from him. Either way, he found himself in a tough spot. Without the aid of a working translator, Jbali possessed scant hope of understanding their verbal communication.

  The pudgy man lifted his chin and said a few words to Jbali. He answered him with a blank stare. His visitor jabbed a finger at the table and chairs. Jbali glanced over at the middle of the room and back at the pudgy man. He repeated the same motion with added vigor and his voice grew more animated. Jbali concluded the Earthians wanted him to take a seat. He plodded over to the table and pulled out a chair. Maybe if he sat there and listened to the aliens for a while, he could crack their language without needing a translator.

  The bald man drew closer to the table. He stuck his needle into the vial. Their aim suddenly grew clear. They intended to inject the mysterious liquid into Jbali.

  Not if he could help it.

  Jbali pushed the chair away and shoved the table into his legs. Both needle and vial flew out of the bald Earthian's hand and clattered against the hard floor. The other chair toppled over and became partially pinned underneath the opposite side of the table. He burst from behind the table and charged toward the open door. The pudgy Earthian blocked his path and reached for his sling. Jbali swung his other arm around and shoved him to the floor.

  He reached the door and started to run. Two more Earthians appeared in the corridor. Both wore similar clothing as the ones who captured Jbali in the forest. Soldiers. The nearest one raised a small weapon and aimed right at him while shouting a string of words.

  Jbali did not need a translator to know this escape attempt had met an end. Their expressions and the one soldier's gruff tone told him they would not hesitate to end his life right now.

  He spread his free arm wide with his hand open, while his other arm remained stationary in the sling. Both Earthian soldiers ran forward and flanked Jbali. The one on his right cracked his weapon against the side of Jbali's head. Solid gray floor swam towards him and a soldier's boots filled his vision as Jbali lost consciousness again.

  ***

  Paige stared at assorted alien gadgets sitting on the table inside the conference room. Seeing these items drew an eerie parallel to her experiences in Travis. A distinct image wormed into her mind.

  She found herself back inside the boarded-up house, gathered around a coffee table with her friends. Alien gadgets were spread across that table like here in Utah. Paige recalled her sense of wonder at seeing this advanced technology for the first time.

  Rich plucked a beater weapon off the table. Paige never learned what the Rubrum aliens called the device. She coined the term because the weapon's design resembled a mishmash of a beater from a hand mixer and a revolver. It had a pistol-like handle that merged with four metallic cylinders. Laser bolts discharged through a hole at the spot where the cylinders joined like a beater.

  "Careful with that thing," her brother Todd's voice echoed in her mind. "It's too dangerous for amateurs to be handling it."

  A cascade of images followed. Crawling through an access tunnel. Shooting at some random aliens. Stray leading her and Heather down a corridor bathed in a dull red light.

  Paige gasped and straightened up in her chair. Her eyes refocused on Collin, who twisted his lips into a confused frown.

  "What's wrong?"

  Paige pressed her forehead into her palm and closed her eyes. She breathed deep and glanced at him again.

  "Nothing. I'm all right."

  Collin nodded. He plucked a square pad off the table and showed it to her.

  "Here's one that's the most fascinating gadget. I'm not sure what function it serves, but this thing does take your breath away."

  A brief scowl crossed Paige's lips after his subtle jab at her expense. But she said nothing and continued to watch his demonstration. Collin pressed a button near the bottom of the pad. At once, small lasers shot out from ports on either side of the device and created a small light field. A holographic screen appeared within the field. Paige's eyes grew big like saucers when she witnessed it.

  “It's some sort of handheld holographic device,” Collin said. He pressed another button to deactivate the square pad again. “Defense contractors and major corporations would line up around the block to get first crack at adapting this technology.”

  A flashing red light entered her peripheral vision. Paige sprang to her feet. Someone triggered a silent alarm. It meant only one thing. Something had gone wrong with the captive alien in the hangar.

  She bolted out of the conference room before Collin had a chance to ask what was happening. Paige sprinted to the hangar with the urgency of a runner charging out of the blocks, opened the door with her ID badge, and stormed inside the observation room.

  She found Sam hunched over a table and staring at a monitor connected to a closed-circuit camera in the alien's cell. Panic gripped his entire face. He seized a microphone right as she entered the room.

  “The alien is making a run for it. Stop it!”

  Her eyes darted to the monitor. Another camera showed two soldiers sprinting down the corridor. They bloc
ked the alien's escape route after it emerged from the open cell. Both soldiers subdued it with minimal effort and knocked the alien out cold.

  One soldier returned the alien to the cell. The other helped Ned and Dr. Harter to their feet. Paige concluded the alien must have knocked both men to the floor before escaping the cell. She whipped around and stared at Sam.

  “Who sent them in there? That wasn't the smartest thing to do.”

  “The alien needed medicine and already had one arm in a sling,” Sam said. “I didn't think they faced any real danger.”

  Paige answered him with an angry sigh.

  “There's always a real danger whenever aliens are involved. If you experienced even a part of what I've experienced with them, you’d grasp that fact and we’d avoid creating situations like this one.”

  Sam nodded without saying a word and averted his eyes from her gaze. Paige wheeled around and marched away from the monitor.

  “I want guards posted on this alien around the clock. We can't let it escape our custody.”

  She headed back to the conference room in the main bureau office. Collin was nowhere to be seen. One gadget sitting out on the table resembled another she had seen before. Paige frowned at this recognition. She scooped every gadget off the table into a medium-sized box sitting on the floor. It held every item they confiscated from the captured aliens.

  Paige tucked the box under her arm and dashed to the holding cell. She flashed her ID badge at the guards, and they opened the door. Once inside, she slammed the box down on the table. The alien lay on a cot-sized bed with eyes closed. Dr. Harter put the syringe back in his lab coat front pocket and greeted her. Ned also briefly acknowledged Paige's presence, but otherwise kept his eyes fixed on the alien. He stood farther away from it than the others, clasping his hands behind his head.

  Paige cast a wary glance at Ned.

  "The alien is out cold. I don't think you're in immediate danger."

  Ned's eyes darted between the alien and her. His worried frown told Paige he remained unconvinced by her statement.

  “That's easy for you to say. You weren't down here to see him attack me.”

  Paige rolled her eyes.

  “He knocked you to the ground. I survived much worse alien attacks than you can imagine. Toughen up, buttercup.”

  Ned's worried frown morphed into an angry scowl. He lowered his head and stared at the floor. Paige smirked. She found his childish sulking amusing. Dr. Harter approached the table and peeked in the box at the assorted gadgets. He furrowed his brow and looked over at her again.

  “Why did you bring this box down here? What do you intend to do with these things?”

  Paige reached inside the box and drew out a weapon resembling a futuristic pistol. It featured a handle constructed from a molded plastic that wrapped around the fingers. The handle connected to a thick hollowed out metallic rod matching the length of a ballpoint pen. A clip with four blue slots latched to the underside of the rod at the midway point. A trigger hung suspended between the clip and the handle.

  She had seen this weapon before.

  In Texas. On a Rubrum spaceship.

  “This alien and I are gonna have a long chat about what it's doing here on Earth.” Paige's blue eyes flashed a cold determination. “I will not relive my worst nightmare a second time.”

  24

  Sam found Paige sitting at the table when he entered the cell. The alien remained unconscious, but Paige still directed two Earth Defense Bureau agents to move him from the bed to a chair across from her. They took extra precautions to prevent another escape attempt. The agents shackled both legs and handcuffed his uninjured arm to the chair. Paige refused to look away from the alien until she felt satisfied that he could not move, even though he remained stationary in the chair with his head slumping to his chest.

  Sam handed her a pair of dark sunglasses.

  "Here you go. These should come in handy later."

  "Thanks. I forgot all about grabbing a pair in my rush to get down here."

  She hung the shades from her blouse collar. Sam hunched over and tilted his head to get a better look at the alien's face. His lower lip jutted out and his eyes darted about beneath closed lids. The alien seemed to be caught up in a vivid dream.

  "I wonder what aliens dream about." Sam cocked his head at Paige. "Knowing could open a window into learning what makes them tick. Their thoughts. Their hopes. Their fears.”

  Paige cast a sideways glance back at him.

  “You are humanizing them.”

  “Is there something wrong with that? We all want to relate what we cannot understand to ourselves. It's human nature.”

  “It is human nature.” She pointed to the alien seated at the table. “That thing is not human. You start examining aliens through a human lens and it stirs up some major life-and-death problems.”

  “How can you not examine an intelligent being through a human lens?”

  “My experiences have taught me to keep a detached viewpoint. They don't think like us. And, with only one exception, they don't possess the same moral or ethical compass we do.”

  Sam straightened up again. He rubbed his chin and gazed at the unconscious alien. His train of thought did not match what ran on the tracks for Paige. Certainly, she survived an encounter with hostile aliens in Texas. Evidence after the fact proved as much. Still, it did not automatically mean every alien race harbored hostile intentions toward Earth.

  “It isn’t a wise idea to judge every alien species on the actions of a solitary group of aliens,” Sam said. “It would be like judging humanity as a whole on the actions of a few terrorist cells.”

  Paige sighed and frowned. If she agreed with anything Sam said, she disguised her feelings well.

  “We'll find out soon enough.”

  She snapped her head toward a bureau agent standing near the table.

  “Wake the alien up.”

  The agent nodded and hurried from the room. He returned carrying a bucket brimming with water. A cold wave smacked the alien in the face. He jerked his head up with a start. Heavy breaths escaped the alien's lips and his eyes darted around the cell. Paige rested her arms on the table and leaned forward.

  “Welcome back. I've got a few questions. I want you to provide answers.”

  Fear gripped the alien's widened eyes. His breathing did not slow. Efforts to move his uninjured arm caused his handcuffs to clank against the armrest. The alien glanced down at the restraint and then back at Paige.

  “You forced us to do that. We can't have you attacking our people and trying to escape.”

  The alien stared at her and scrunched up his face into a confused expression. Finally, he tilted his head down toward his restrained arm and tapped his ear.

  “Do you understand anything I'm saying?”

  Paige's new question earned her nothing more than a blank stare in return.

  “We're not going to get very far if they can't speak our language,” Sam said.

  Paige glanced up at him and shrugged. She focused on the alien again and pointed to her face.

  “Paige.”

  She extended her arm and pointed at the alien's face this time.

  “What is your name?”

  The alien refused to make eye contact with her. His eyes wandered over to Sam. They burned with an unsettling mix of fear and anger. Sam averted his eyes and looked down at the floor.

  “Jbali,” the alien finally said.

  “Good,” Paige replied. “We're finally making some progress.”

  She held up a weapon that soldiers confiscated from the alien earlier. Jbali grew more animated and said a few words in his native language. Paige cracked a small smile.

  “What can you tell me about this weapon? Where did you get it?”

  Jbali shook his head and lifted his hand as high as his handcuffs allowed. He pointed at his ear again. Then he pointed at his lips and, finally, at her.

  “Maybe we should just bite the bullet and enroll hi
m in an ESL class.”

  Sam covered his lips with his hand, so Paige could not see the grin now enveloping his face. Her glare told him she did not find his joke funny.

  “Are you allied with Rubrum?” she asked, turning to face the alien again.

  Jbali stiffened in his chair when the last word in Paige's question escaped her lips. His eyes darted from her to Sam and back again. He jerked at his handcuffs in a vain attempt to free himself.

  “Rubrum,” Jbali repeated. He shook his head with vigor. “Rubrum.”

  His reaction intrigued Sam. Jbali owned some degree of knowledge concerning the same alien race Paige once battled. His body language showed complete fear at a simple mention of Rubrum. Perhaps the galaxy was a much smaller place than Sam imagined. Rubrum inspired terror far beyond the boundaries of Earth.

  Paige did not draw the same conclusion.

  “He's lying.” She cast a sideways glance up at Sam. “His people must be in league with those monsters. There's no other explanation.”

  “How will we find out? Becoming conversational in his native language could take months or years.”

  Paige set down the alien pistol and dug back into the box. She extracted a small device that fell out of the alien's ear when rangers first brought him on base. It reminded Sam of a wireless earbud, except it had an opening on both ends instead of a single opening. A tiny red crystal was embedded inside that small opening.

  Jbali pointed at the device and then at his ear a third time. Paige held it out to him.

  “Do you want this?”

  Jbali repeated the same action.

  “First, tell me about the aliens from Rubrum. Are you helping them plan another invasion?”

  Jbali stared at her with visible frustration written in his eyes and on his face. Paige sighed and slapped the device on the table out of his reach.

  “Run the first test,” she called out.

  Paige and Sam both donned pairs of dark sunglasses. Dim cell lights grew brighter. Each light stepped up a degree in brightness every few seconds. Sam kept his focus on Jbali as he pinched his eyes shut and clenched his teeth. Other than looking extremely uncomfortable, nothing else happened to him. After a few minutes passed, Paige gave a signal to cut the lights back to normal levels of luminosity. She removed her sunglasses and rose from her seat. Paige crouched down next to the chair and examined the flesh on the alien’s arm and face.