Rajani Chronicles I

by Brian S. Converse

  James turned to go back inside and eat his beef briquette when he felt a sudden pricking sensation at his neck. He was suddenly surrounded by a bright, white light, though he was unsure whether the light was real or only in his mind. He thought at first he was having a stroke, though there was no pain. The light disappeared as he lost consciousness, and he never felt rough hands catch him as he fell.

  Chapter One

  James Dempsey woke to a brightly lit room, circular, with no distinguishing features to it. Everything—walls, floor, and ceiling—was white. The intensity of the light was aided by the brightness of the walls, and it took a moment for his eyes to adjust properly. There were no windows, and only a faint outline of what could have been a doorway, though it was taller and wider than a normal door, and there was no doorknob that he could see.

  The first thing he noticed was he wasn’t dead. His first fear of having a stroke was more than likely incorrect. The second thing was a clear plastic mask with a thin tube leading from it covered his nose and mouth. He reached his hand up to take it off, but then reconsidered. The mask was there for a reason, best to keep it on until he knew what it was. His mind was clearing now, but he was still confused. Had he been injured somehow and wound up in the hospital? The last thing he could remember was coming home from a long day at work and turning on the television news while cooking dinner; his normal routine.

  James slowly sat up on the bed. His head spun a moment as if he’d been lying there a while. He saw he shared the room with four other people, and all of them were dressed in black robes. The robes were somewhat large on the two other men, and totally engulfed the two women. James was wearing one of the large black robes, as well. This was not what he remembered having on the last time he was awake. He couldn’t remember ever owning a robe, in fact. Not his style.

  The others were still sleeping peacefully, from what he could tell. They had the same oxygen masks over their faces. The beds they were lying on were pointed toward the middle of the room, where a strange-looking machine sat like a brooding octopus with arms ending in various devices. He wasn’t sure what they were for, but a few of them looked like medical instruments and syringes. The tubes from the masks they wore led to this machine.

  The mattress he was sitting on felt like it was filled with some type of thick gel. It reminded him of a mouse pad he had at home with a gel-filled hand rest on it. The mattress moved under him as he sat up.

  His mind raced with various disaster scenarios. Was it some type of plague? Was he infected? Maybe a terrorist attack of some sort he’d survived, along with these people? Possibilities floated through his mind, but none of them added up adequately with the present situation.

  Puzzling was the fact there were no antiseptic smells in the room. There was no smell at all, actually, though the slight odor of the mask could have been covering it up. James felt like there should be some type of medicinal smell if he were in a hospital. It was damn peculiar, but his most pressing need was an incredible thirst. His throat felt dry and swollen, as if he had not taken a drink in days.

  A voice spoke from above James’s head. It was rough and mechanical sounding, and had a peculiar background noise accompanying it. To James, it almost sounded like two radio stations bleeding together, one in English and one in a language he didn’t recognize.

  “Officer Dempsey?” the voice said in stilted English. “Officer Dempsey, please do not be alarmed. You are in no danger. We are choosing to remain unseen as of now, until you are better oriented with your surroundings.”

  “Where the hell am I?” he asked, his voice harsh to his own ears. He coughed and swallowed before speaking again, trying to ease the dryness of his throat. “Who are these people?”

  Nothing strange about this situation, he thought sardonically. The robe he wore was at least comfortable, though he could tell he was naked beneath it. “What happened to my damn clothes?”

  “Do not worry, Officer Dempsey,” the voice assured him. “At the moment, we need you to calm down and know you are in no danger.”

  James jumped a little when the only door to the room suddenly whooshed open. It had been almost indistinguishable from the wall. What he’d thought was the door upon first waking must have led to a closet or another room.

  “Please, exit when you feel ready,” the voice told him.

  “Can I take this mask off?” he asked whoever it was on the other end of the intercom.

  “Feel free, Officer Dempsey,” the voice replied. “Your lungs should be acclimated to the environment by now.”

  James took off the mask and stepped down from the bed. His legs felt shaky, but he didn’t feel any pain in his body, so he most likely wasn’t hurt, as he’d first feared upon waking up. With the mask off, he could smell a slightly antiseptic odor in the room, after all. He wasn’t sure if it was a good thing or not.

  The door led to a corridor with the same low ceiling as the room he was in, and it went on for maybe a hundred feet to his left and ended about twenty feet to his right. He’d almost expected the sickly neutral green of a hospital hallway, but the walls were a soft gray, and the floor a darker carpet that felt comfortable on his bare feet. Small lights were spaced along the corridor, where the walls met the ceiling about every ten feet or so. There were doors on either side of the corridor, spaced at about twenty feet apart.

  He muttered a quiet curse as the door at the end of the corridor to his right opened. This wasn’t a building he recognized ever being in before. Again, scenarios swirled around in his mind, from being in a CDC building somewhere to some secret government installation in the middle of nowhere, yet he felt no sense of panic. He walked down the corridor slowly and stood in the doorway to the room at the end, his eyes wide when he saw what was waiting for him.

  Inside the room were three ... beings.

  In front of them, on a small table, was a device that looked like a vintage microphone with a thin pole leading down to a wide base. As one of the beings spoke in their alien language, the mechanical voice came from this device in English. That explained the background noise he thought he’d heard when the voice first spoke to him over the intercom.

  The room was twenty-five feet wide and ten feet deep and slightly curved on the side opposite him. There were two large high-backed chairs set two or three feet apart, each with a control panel set in front of it, full of buttons and blinking lights. Along the curved wall was a larger control panel, with four smaller chairs set along it, spaced about two feet apart. One of the chairs was occupied by a small figure with its back turned to James. There was what looked like a steering yoke in front of this figure.

  In front of the smaller chairs, a large portion of the wall was either a window or some type of computer monitor, James couldn’t tell which, showing an area of outer space, with a reddish-brown planet taking up half of the screen.

  “Please,” one of the seated aliens—for that surely was what they were—told James. The alien was older-looking than the other of his species. His white hair was in an intricate ponytail resting over his shoulder and across his chest. His equally white beard was long and flowing. Like the other alien of his species who stood next to him, he had dark brown skin, which was a striking contrast with his white hair. Looking closer, James could see it wasn’t their skin that was brown. Their faces and hands were covered with hair. For all he knew, their entire bodies were covered in hair underneath their black robes.

  There was something almost canine in the shape of their faces, but not quite to the point that they looked like dogs, especially because their noses were more reminiscent of human than mongrel. Their ears came to a point, each topped with a tuft of white hair. They were bipedal, but much larger than most humans. The one standing must have been at least seven feet tall and as broad as a bodybuilder.

  “Be welcome,” the older alien said, motioning toward an open chair near the viewscreen. “Rest yourself.”

  “I take it I’m not on Earth anymore?” James asked rhe
torically, sounding calmer than he actually felt.

  #

  Rauphangelaa tuc Nebraani could see the Human male standing before him was taking things quite well, considering he’d woken up aboard a spacecraft from another part of the galaxy. Of course, their strength was one of the reasons he had brought the Humans aboard the ship in the first place. He pointed back toward the Tukuli’s viewscreen, which still displayed the red planet outside of the ship. “That’s an accurate assumption, Officer Dempsey,” he told the Human, unaware the question was not meant to be answered.

  “Lieutenant,” James said, automatically.

  “Sorry?” the alien responded.

  “Never mind, it’s not important,” James answered.

  “Do not be alarmed, please,” the alien continued. “We are still within your solar system. Mars, I believe you call the planet we are currently orbiting.” As he spoke, he wondered if the translating device was working properly. He knew the device was primitive when compared to some of the newer models available, but it was all they had on the ship at the moment. Unfortunately, the device would take a while to learn the Human’s language completely. The more the Human spoke, the quicker it would learn—much quicker than inputting the words manually, as Janan had done before the five Humans were brought aboard. His own translation implant would translate the Human’s speech, but he needed Officer Dempsey and the others to understand him completely if the plan was to work.

  Officer Dempsey stood before them, his arms crossed in front of him. “Uh-huh. You said all of my questions would be answered. So start talking. Why am I here?”

  Rauphangelaa’s Pledge, Bhakat tuc Rathaan, leaned toward Dempsey from where he stood next to Rauphangelaa’s chair. His teeth were bared menacingly. “You will show respect to Rauphangelaa, Human.”

  Rauph sighed. No matter how long his Pledge trained in the ways of the Kha, Rauph was afraid Bhakat would never master one of the most important tenets: composure. He had a difficult time controlling his emotions, and now was not the time to let them spin out of control. He motioned his Pledge back. “Please, Bhakat, he meant no disrespect to me, I’m sure. We cannot blame him for being ... tense in this situation. Calm yourself.”

  Rauph looked back over to the Human. “Both of you, please, calm yourselves. Let me first start with the reason we are here, Officer Dempsey. Bhakat and I are known as Rajani.” He bowed his head in greeting as he spoke, though his eyes were nowhere near downcast. He was an Elder; any bows of subservience were made to him, not by him. That was the way of things.

  “As Bhakat said, my name is Rauphangelaa, but you may call me Rauph, if it is too difficult for you to pronounce.” He motioned toward his ship’s pilot, who was seated at the large control panel. “Janan’kela here is a Sekani.”

  The small, bluish alien Rauph referred to turned from his control panel and smiled at Officer Dempsey, showing very sharp white teeth. The Sekani’s eyes were blood-red with black vertically slit pupils. “You may call me Janan,” the little alien said, still smiling.

  The Sekani looked like a cross between a cat and a monkey, and he would stand maybe four feet tall at most. Unlike the Rajani, he was not wearing a black robe, but was dressed in a tan coverall that fit his small, surprisingly muscular body tightly.

  Rauph sat with his hands in an almost prayerful pose. “Please sit and listen to our story.” He waited until the Human finally sat in the proffered chair before speaking again. “I will come right to it. We are here seeking allies,” he continued. “Alien invaders known as the Krahn Horde attacked our home world. We are a peaceful civilization and had no defenses to repel the Horde. As far as we know, only we three were lucky enough to escape in search of help.

  “When the Krahn attacked,” Rauph continued, “they attacked all of the known Elders, like me, first. I was not at my residence or I would have been captured or killed as well. We boarded this ship and hoped we could make it through the blockade of Krahn ships, and past their large colony ship.”

  “We escaped, but our ship was badly damaged,” Bhakat added. “The damage was not enough to stop us completely, but we have had to stop here to allow the ship time to repair itself.”

  Rauph leaned back in his chair. “That is when our ship’s central computer first detected the radio and communication signals coming from your solar system. It took only moments for it to home in on your planet once it pinpointed the signals it was receiving and detected the artificial light coming from the planet’s surface. We studied your society as much as we could in the short time we had, praying you were the help we so desperately need.”

  Rauph took a sip of water from a glass sitting on a small table near his chair before continuing on. “We found your species had certain ... talents in the art of warfare, but also that contacting your leaders at this present time in your progress toward a civilized society would be detrimental to your overall development. It was decided we would contact only a few select individuals. The computer picked the five of you using the parameters we set.”

  The Human sat, one ankle crossed over the other knee as he leaned back in the chair. Rauph wasn’t sure what the expression on his face meant; it was somewhere between a smile and a frown. “What parameters?” Officer Dempsey asked.

  Rauph folded his hands on the control panel before him. “We wanted Humans that were in good physical condition, had no discernible diseases, and were within an age group young enough to withstand the rigors of space travel.”

  “That’s it?” the Human asked him, incredulously. “That’s all you did? Fed that into your computer and out popped five candidates?”

  “Well, more than five, of course, but yes,” Rauph said. “You would be surprised at the information available in certain databases kept by your government and various consumer and medical agencies. It was easy enough for our ship’s central computer to discover. You five turned out to be the best candidates from the list produced.”

  “So who are those other people?” Officer Dempsey asked, gesturing with his thumb back the way he had come in.

  “They are people from your city,” Rauph told him. “They were the closest to you at the time we had you brought to our ship. They live in your building. We thought you would be more comfortable with Humans you already knew in some fashion; those whom you lived with, in a common setting.”

  Officer Dempsey sat with his eyes closed, his right index finger and thumb squeezing the bridge of his nose. “Shit. You have got to be kidding me.”

  “There is something wrong with our logic?” Rauph asked the Human. He could feel his own muscles tightening from the stress of the conversation. He’d known it would be difficult to speak with an entirely new species. He hadn’t counted on Officer Dempsey being so defensive.

  “Oh, I would say so, yes.” The Human looked Rauph directly in the eye. “Now, tell me why you brought us way the hell out here. How long have we been here?”

  Rauph held up his hand, one finger raised to emphasize his point. “Please understand, all of us have lost so much. Our wounds are still ... fresh. We wish to wake up the others before we explain any further. It is a long story, and I do not wish to repeat it.”

  The Human leaned forward in his chair. “Then why wake me first? I’m no one special.”

  “Oh, but you are,” Rauph told him. “You see, we learned about you from the transmissions from your planet. You are a protector of your species. You help those who are in need. Because of this, I,”—he looked at the others before continuing—“we wish you to be the group’s leader. Please consider this an honor, as you would be second-in-command on this ship.”

  Bhakat made a small noise in his throat, and Rauph gave him a baleful look before turning back to the Human.

  Officer Dempsey sighed. “I think we should wake the others now,” he said after a moment. “There’s so much you obviously don’t understand. I think it would be better if all of us tried to explain it to you, together.”

  Rauph motioned toward the door
and pushed a button on his control panel. The door opened again. “As you wish. You may help them to become more ... comfortable in their new surroundings. Bhakat will prepare them for waking from the suspension sleep we have placed them in.”

  #

  “C’mon, wake up now,” a deep voice said. “All of you need to wake up as quickly as possible.”

  Gianni Moretti placed an arm over his eyes to block out the bright light. “If I’m in Heaven, why do I have such a headache?” he asked hoarsely. He moved his arm out of the way and opened his eyes, finally. The first thing he saw was the face of a tough-looking black guy looking down at him. The man was not smiling. “Nope. Must be the other place,” he said. He felt disoriented, but he guessed he must be all right if he could still make jokes at a time like this. What the hell happened? he thought.

  He looked over again and saw the black guy was big; he looked like he could play football for the Giants. He also looked to Gianni like a cop, or maybe even a Fed. Gianni knew enough of them to recognize one when he saw him. He looked down at himself and noticed he was dressed in a large black robe, which was confusing in itself. Nothing was making sense.

  The man was standing beside the beds with his arms crossed. Gianni saw there were other people in the room as well, some sitting up, rubbing their eyes and necks, presumably feeling as crappy as he did. “Now that I’ve got your attention,” the man began, “let me explain our situation here in the simplest terms possible.”

  Great, Gianni thought. I’ve been arrested, and I don’t even remember it. He sat up and felt a wave of nausea pass through his body. Jesus, he thought. Did I get tasered or something?