by Isla Monroe
“I don’t know what went wrong. I followed a strict guideline. It doesn’t make any sense. I should have easily been able to start her heart again. I was wrong to play god. The only good thing to come out of this is the creatures are dead. The scans confirm they are gone.” The scans were being fooled by a bastardized version of the same species inside her body.
“You did your best. She knows that you were only trying to help. Nobody can fault you for doing your job. You can’t carry this burden alone. We believed this was the only course of action. I didn’t want this to happen. I’m as much to blame for what happened as you are. I can’t see her like this.” Jackson tossed a sheet over her body and turned his back in disgust.
“There are no signs of the machines at work in her body. Not one survived. We have nothing to show for what we have done. There’s no reason to do an autopsy. I could do one, but there’s nothing remaining of the creatures to biopsy. I would rather not desecrate her body with an evasive procedure by cracking her open.” Melissa was distraught and showing the signs of stress around her eyes.
“That decision is way above my pay grade. We will keep her on ice. The delegate will decide what to do with her when he gets here. In the meantime, I have a few phone calls to make with my heartfelt condolences to her parents. This is the part of the job that sickens me.” He walked right past me without even giving me the courtesy of a reassuring tap on the shoulder.
It was an icy cold reception. His gut instinct had left him with a sour disposition when it came to me. I tried to reach out but was summarily dismissed. He knew he had to have me around, but he wasn’t very happy about it. He wasn’t going to have to worry about it for very much longer.
“The fire in her eyes has been extinguished. She lived by a standard set of rules. I admired her more than she knew. Melissa, I think you have done more than enough. I will take her down to cryogenics. I feel I owe her that.” She was looking right through me, but she did manage to give me a motion with her hand to accept my help.
I wheeled her down the hallway in time to see the sheet move with her breath. I bypassed the lift leading to the cryogenic chambers. I didn’t want any outside interference.
I found an empty room with crates standing on top of one another. I made sure to avoid the cameras. It was easy once I knew where they were. The space wasn’t very big. I had to practically stand up against the door.
It was nice while it lasted. I really had no interest in going back. I was doing this for Gemini.
This was the one part of my journey I wasn’t looking forward to. Leaving a host after I had bonded with it for many years was going to be difficult. I had done it three times in my life and each one was more painful than the last.
It wouldn’t take them long to discover my ruse. By the time that happened, I was going to be far away in a galaxy they didn’t even know existed. They could search forever and find no clues to her whereabouts. She was going to virtually disappear with no trace. I hoped it was a short sabbatical.
“I’ve gone over this several times. I hope that you can forgive me over time. This is going to take a major adjustment. I’ll help guide you as much as I can.” I shimmered in place with my body shaking with this vibrating force.
Streams of light began to pulsate through my orifices. I screamed inside of my head with a pain that didn’t seem possible. The lights of my life force exploded with my chest thrust out with every bone in the host body breaking.
I separated myself from my human host. He collapsed in a heap. I looked down at him and thought what a waste. His spirit had left leaving a husk behind five years ago. I jumped in seconds before it was too late. I could’ve been easily trapped inside a rotting corpse. It only took that one time to live screaming for eternity in a body of no use.
It was a painstaking process to prepare my natural form for transport. It was made even more harrowing by incorporating a human. The normal retina of a human being would have been blinded by my true form. It would have left behind black sockets burned beyond any recognition. The cameras would be blinded for the duration.
I surrounded her in the orange light of my essence. Transporting her from the station to my ship was instantaneous. My molecules had kept her safe from the effect of space. It wasn’t easy to hold that form for any length of time. I was discombobulated when I emerged from the white light.
I lowered her gently to the glass-like floor.
The human host masked my abilities. Without it, I was able to ascertain her life signs and prepare the procedure. I steadied what was considered my breathing. Tendrils of my life force began to float aimlessly around her.
Her body snapped forward at a 90° angle. Her eyes opened wide and she sat there motionless with her eyes completely white. It was time.
Chapter seven
Gemini
The white light wasn’t what I thought it was. The hand proffering greeting was none other than Lionel. My paradise had been exchanged for a face to face with Lionel in the buff. There wasn’t anything around us. It was devoid of everything except a vast white space. There was no shame standing there naked.
“I know this might feel like an invasion of your privacy. It can’t be helped. You don’t look especially surprised by my appearance.” His body was sculpted out of granite with every muscle emphasized to make me hunger for one taste.
“The creatures gave me new insight. I need to hear it from the horse’s mouth. Are you really from another planet? It sounds absurd when I hear myself saying it.” He was within my thoughts and I knew he wasn’t a figment of my imagination.
“They shouldn’t have said anything. I don’t want to scare you. I’m a friendly version of what you have labeled an alien invasion. I’m not supposed to interfere in the natural order of things. I had to reach you without the machines talking behind my back to undermine me.” I was a little distracted by the dangling part between his legs.
“Lionel isn’t even your real name. I don’t want any more lies between us.” I was waiting with bated breath to hear how he was going to respond to my comment.
The clinical white landscape was beginning to take shape. The water was an Emerald green with flecks of gold shimmering on the surface. The trees looked like weeping willows with low hanging purple fruit. I didn’t know if it was edible.
“My name is Leven and I come from the planet Zenith. This is what our home world looks like to the average bystander. We don’t procreate like humans. One touch is all that it takes. It has nothing to do with pleasure.” He looked like Lionel and I touched him to feel substance behind the man.
“This isn’t your natural form. I might regret this, but I would really like to see you the way that you are. This is the pretend version of you. We can’t move forward until we are completely honest with one another.” There were explosions of fireworks above us in a multilayer of colors.
“I want to show you, but I can’t do that here. I will show you who I am when we reach our final destination. Those explosions don’t come from me. The machines are trying to break through the barrier I put up. They’re constantly adapting. It’s an effort to keep up with the nano-bots.” I was feeling a little lightheaded with the bombardment of two separate entities trying to insert their control over me.
The sky was streaked with a rainbow of different colors. There was no visible blazing sun. I could smell this sickly odor assaulting my old factory senses.
“What you’re seeing is how we interact with one another on a daily basis. You can hear the slight hum of what is considered language in our world. I’m taking you there for your own good. They won’t have technology to feed on where we’re going. It will slow down their rate of growth inside of you. It might even stop it altogether.” He walked ahead of me.
The view from behind was almost as good as it was from the front.
“I don’t see any stars. I want to know more. Treat me like a sponge.” The pounding drum inside my head was getting louder with the voices of the machines bleeding t
hrough.
“One side of my planet is made up of technological advancement. The other side is taking a step back in time. I see the merit of both sides. I was never presented with a choice. My destiny revolved around working for the continued advancement of our species.” I saw the spires of shimmering silver. They were glimmering in an incandescent blue.
“Those things are important to you. There are many stretching 100 feet into the air.” I touched one and it vibrated underneath my fingertips sending intense pleasure through my lower extremities.
“We don’t live like humans. Those are what are built to house our life essence. There’s no real personality and nothing to differentiate one from the other. I toil many hours in two different labs. I have a foot in both worlds and neither side knows it. That benefits you.” I couldn’t bring myself to pull my hand away from the vibrating source.
“I shouldn’t understand your train of thought, but I do. You are under the mistaken belief you can help me. I hope you can, but I’m not holding my breath. The creatures deserve our respect. I was getting through to them until Melissa killed several of them. They made me feel a semblance of their pain.” I was on the bubble of my sanity.
“That wasn’t supposed to happen. I hold myself personally responsible. You had to die, but I could’ve gone about it a different way. I would like a chance to explain myself to them.” They weren’t going to listen to one word he said.
“They are vehement about getting their hands on you. I’m trying to mend those broken bridges, but it’s not easy. Their interest in us is superficial. They won’t listen to reason.” Tiny insects with several pairs of legs were climbing the trees and consuming the fruit.
“Those insects are everywhere. We live with them. I don’t know how they’re going to perceive you. Their main food source is the fruit. We don’t eat with our hands. Our planet is lined with a core of light in the center. It nourishes us from below.” I had to wonder how I was going to survive.
“Is your intention to experiment on me? I don’t want to be probed.” He laughed, but I didn’t see anything remotely funny about my comment.
“I’m not making fun of you. Many years ago we did learn by taking things apart. Those days are over as far as I’m concerned. Your scientists have this uneasy approach when it comes to feeding their knowledge. I didn’t tell them I had found a way to kill the creatures. They would have used my methods without researching the implications.” He appreciated life in every form on a different scale.
“There is always an equal and opposite reaction. I’m glad you didn’t kill them. They might be a little misunderstood, but their motives are pure. They want to continue to live and flourish as a society.” I hadn’t noticed before, but the spires continued to change color.
“What you are seeing is our emotions coming to the forefront. The colors represent a different emotion.” I was learning a lot about his race, but this was merely a ripple in the pond.
“There’s no medical reason for why I am still unconscious. I’m probably the cause of my own misfortune. I could wake up at any time, but I stay here to try to get through to them.” The colors dancing in the sky was marred by the creatures trying to forcefully inject their will.
The tops of the spires were glowing with a white-hot heat. I could see the waves of heat in the air. It was probably hot enough to fry an egg.
“There is a faction and they have transformed themselves into your human counterparts in a different way. Their pigment is similar to your own. They have six fingers on each hand and the ability to fly with invisible wings. I sometimes envy them the tangible quality of their lives.” His sentiment was exactly how I felt about earth.
“It sounds to me like you are split down the middle with your loyalties. I know from personal experience that people don’t become complacent. They hide in the shadows waiting for the right time to strike. Don’t be surprised if they have been planning behind your back.” I could tell I wasn’t telling him anything he didn’t already know.
“I warned them, but my concerns fell on deaf ears. They monitor the situation from afar. I insinuated myself into their culture for scientific observation. They became my friends until they learned the truth.” He wasn’t living and merely going through the motions trying to find acceptance.
“Nobody enjoys being made to look like a fool. It’s a lesson my species have learned too many times to count. I don’t like the idea of them believing I’m dead. My parents will be distraught. They will also be relieved when they find out I’m not dead.” Pockets of steam began to open up around me sending plumes of white smoke into the air.
“I don’t know what the effect of those pockets will do to a human. The host standing in front of you is no more. I do have replacement parts. They are living on borrowed time barely with any brain function. They live in a make-believe world together. Unplugging one will give them the peace to move on from this world.” I thought it was cruel and unusual to keep them like some kind of body farm of spare parts.
“Don’t you see how wrong that is? Humans are not there for your amusement. We love and hate like any other species. You walked among us. Don’t tell me you didn’t learn a thing or two about respect.” There were exceptions to every rule.
Dictators stood over their people with a firm thumb on the back of the little guy. Democracy was frowned upon by those who didn’t know any better. We had made great strides in delivering freedom by force.
“I learned more than I’m willing to admit. The one thing painfully clear is my feelings for you. I can’t even begin to explain them to you. I believe in my heart you have the same affliction. I have to go, but I want you to come with me. Take my hand and leave this behind.” I did trust him, but I had no idea why.
It was going to be interesting to see his world. The brief peek he had given me was only enough to wet my appetite for more. There was no way to know what their idea of love was.
“It’s against my better judgment. I hope I’m not going to regret this. I’m depending on you to find a permanent solution. I won’t believe the only way to handle this is by killing them. Life is precious. We can’t forget that.” He was about to introduce two foreign species into his ecosystem.
It was a bold and reckless thing to do. I admired his tenacity to do what was right. I could only hope it wasn’t going to come back and bite us.
I reached out and took his hand with the screams of anguish from the machines in my head. They didn’t want me to go. They still had a firm grasp on my conscious thought. Something was keeping them from taking over. I didn’t have to ask to know that this was primarily due to his influence.
I woke up to see a human life form bathed in light. The planet coming into focus was surrounded by rings of light. There had to be six of them continually moving around one another. One side of the planet was illuminated brightly. The other was a picturesque postcard of lush vegetation. That was where we were going.
Chapter eight
Lionel/Leven
I didn’t look anything like Lionel. The package I had chosen was of Nordic descent. His long blond hair made me feel like a Greek god. His physique rivaled those that were gym rats. I could feel the body bonding to the light source of my essence inside of it. It was the perfect specimen.
“I’m not even going to ask if this appeals to you. The connection we have goes beyond the physical. It’s something deeper which is almost primal. I can hear your heartbeat. I see the way that your pupils dilate.” The elements on my planet could change at a moment’s notice.
“My feelings are not up for debate. This place is almost nostalgic. It’s somewhat similar to earth. I can breathe the atmosphere even though my breath shows frost coming out of my mouth. It’s not even cold. My body is at a comfortable room temperature.” It was interesting to see things through her eyes.
The blades of blue grass crunched under our feet. The elevation began to climb. It was arduous, but this body was up to the task at hand. I found her stubbornness to
keep up without taking a break an ugly trait. Her beauty and sense of whimsy superseded everything else.
“I took the liberty of bringing along some provisions. There’s no telling how your body is going to react to the food we consume. I should correct myself. Those of light have a simple means of nourishment. Those who have elected to be of corporeal substance no longer are bound by our laws.” The green water flowing with flecks of gold dancing along its surface had me remembering those days I had frolicked splashing with not a care in the world.
“I am willing to try anything on the menu. I’m not very picky when it comes to food. I do have to express my admiration for your sacrifice. I sense in your body language coming back is the last thing you wanted to do. Why is that?” That question was bound to be a lengthy discussion.
“My planet is a political hot spot. One hand rarely knows what the other one is doing. I recently found out I’m not the first of my race to visit earth. I was under the impression that I was on a fact-finding mission. I don’t like secrets.” I knew the vessel orbiting the rings around the planet wasn’t going to remain unnoticed for long.