[scifan] plantation 03 - shadow empire

by Stella Samiotou Fitzsimons

  “We’re here to help,” she says. “We’re not going to abandon you.”

  “Ella, you have no idea how savage the world can be. The level of brutality the aliens reduce us to is nothing I’d ever hope for you to see. At least stay here in the base. Only trained fighters should be there.”

  Ella puts the vials with the samples down on the counter. She takes off her plastic gloves. “Have I done something to upset you?” she says.

  “Of course not. I am being honest with you. You cannot help with what is going to unfold now. There’s no reason for you to be here.”

  “I might not have super powers but I know how to use a gun,” she says.

  I look at her. I study the mascara on her eyelashes, her pink fingernails, the silver rings on her fingers. I can only hope that somebody else, somebody she trusts and feels more connected to, will get through to her and convince her to stay behind.

  “Zoe said you were looking for me,” I say. “So, here I am. What’s up?”

  Her expression changes from confident to insecure within an instant.

  “Please, don’t take this the wrong way, but I need to ask you something. Do you have feelings for Finn?”

  I knew this was coming but I still don’t know how to respond. It seems like every answer would be some kind of lie.

  “It’s no secret I have loved him since I could remember,” I say dispassionately.

  “I know, of course you do. I mean something more than that,” she goes on. “Finn talks about you all the time. I can tell there’s a strong bond there.”

  “Ella, Finn and I are not dating. We never have,” I say with a half smile. “If you two want to date each other, knock yourselves out.”

  She nods obviously unsatisfied. “Is he in love with you, Freya?”

  I catch a sudden chill from her question. “It’s not my place to say what other people feel,” I say stubbornly.

  “Okay, let me put it another way, delicately if possible. Could you give us a little space, you know, to explore our feelings for each other? I don’t want to sound like a bitch, but you are a very powerful presence in his life.”

  I find it hard to believe what I’m hearing. Ella doesn’t feel that being close to Finn is enough. She also wants me out of his life. In all honesty, I can’t say that I blame her. But I can’t give her what she wants. Even on a day like this when our entire future is at stake, I still can’t make promises about keeping my distance from the one person that matters to me the most.

  I exhale and hang my head. Where’s a nice Sliman death blow when you need one? I could ask Kroll to please be a doll and kill me. “Absolutely,” I tell her, “I’ll try to avoid Finn after dark where you seem to do your best work.” I enjoy the shock on her face. “As for Finn, he will do whatever he wants.”

  Ella fights to stay composed. She puts her gloves on to get back to work. I guess that’s my cue to go. I linger a moment. She gives me a smile before I go but I have to wonder if I have made an enemy.

  15

  I wake up at dawn as planned. I get dressed slowly, almost as if performing a ritual. Those little morning steps, such as getting my pants and boots on or combing my hair, have accompanied me all my life. They help me to stay grounded and focused.

  Joshua was supposed to fly the space pod to the plantation but I have asked for Wade’s assistance instead. Nobody says no to me. I have quietly been put in charge of the mission and it’s up to me to organize every little detail.

  I check my backpack to make sure I have what I need. No guns, just my communication and tracking devices along with some food and water. Guns are of no use where I’m going. The receptor stays in my pocket within inches from my hand.

  There’s a knock on the door and a moment later Finn walks in.

  “Ready?” he says. He looks tired and concerned and it makes me wonder if he has slept at all.

  “I think so,” I say. “It’s not like I will need much anyway.”

  I smile at him not knowing where to take the conversation. I start going through the items in my backpack again. It’s better than to stare at him.

  It has crossed my mind more than once that I will lose him to Ella. That her influence on him will grow while mine diminishes. I know I have no right to feel like that. I also know that if something goes wrong today, I stand to lose a lot more than Finn.

  “Is there anything that you need?” he says as I pick up the backpack and put the straps around my shoulders.

  “Nope, got everything I need. All ready to go.”

  “Freya, wait,” he says as I’m heading for the door. “About the other night, I think maybe…”

  “It’s okay,” I cut him off. “You don’t owe me any explanations.” If he’s serious about Ella, I don’t want to know. Not right now.

  “That’s the thing, I kind of feel like I do owe you an explanation,” he says. “I have given you grief about not trusting me with the truth over and over and then I keep things from you.”

  I touch his right cheek softly and let my fingers linger there. “Well, maybe I deserve that.” My voice breaks. I don’t want him to feel guilty but I still do. Maybe now more than ever.

  I feel tears rolling down my cheeks and I have no idea where they’ve come from. They burn my skin and challenge my resolutions. “I’m so sorry, Finn.” I say. “Please don’t tell the others about this. They might lose confidence.”

  “I would never tell them, Freya,” he says with his soft voice that feels like home.

  “I’ve been dreadful to you. I could never apologize enough,” I say and I know he can see again how much I love him. “I want you to be happy. You owe me nothing at all. Be happy, Finn.”

  He remains silent for so long that I start to worry he will never speak. “I make you cry,” he says finally. “I don’t want to make you cry.”

  “It’s not you,” I say. “I cry all the time now. Tobias opened up my heart.”

  I find myself in the familiar space of his arms. I close my eyes when he pulls me in for a kiss. Now that he’s opening up to me, I realize how lonely I have been for the past year.

  He pulls the backpack straps off my shoulders so it drops to the floor. He kisses my face and neck. He wipes the tears off my cheeks and then he searches for my lips again. I kiss him back like it’s the only thing left in the world that matters. I feel his warmth and strength expand and contract at the tip of my fingers. I finally let go of the anxiety that has been holding me in its clutches since we returned to Earth. I relax into my own body. And then reality strikes back.

  “Finn,” I whisper when he gives me a moment to breathe. “What does this mean?”

  “Don’t you know?” he says.

  “I’m tired of mixed signals. I don’t want anyone to get hurt.”

  Seriousness and concern return on his face. He suddenly becomes aware of all the reasons that he shouldn’t be kissing me. I see it in his eyes and I feel it in the way he lets go of me. He has forgiven me but he cannot forget.

  “It can wait,” he says. “The things that we have to say to each other. You’re right. What I’m doing is not fair to you or Ella. She should not be lied to. She deserves better than that.”

  “You’re a good man, Finn.” I say. I’m afraid this offended him somehow or made him question my feelings for him.

  We’re both saved by buzzing touchpads. Theo’s letting us know it’s time.

  “You’re going to change the world, Tick,” Finn says and picks up my backpack from the floor.

  The distance between us is ever narrowing and widening. The only way I can keep him close forever is to love him completely. I know that now.

  The sweet fragrance of dawn blended with the sorrow of departure assaults my nostrils. Wade waits for me by the space pod with the engines on.

  “Go get them, Freya,” Nya says and hugs me. Zoe hugs us both and we stay like this for a few seconds.

  I sense a shadow moving within the trees. I find Shy Boy there. My faithful, brave Shy
Boy waiting to say goodbye to me one more time.

  “You stay put, you hear me?” I say. “Don’t you try to follow me. Pip would never forgive me if anything happened to you.”

  How many more times am I going to have to do this? I think to myself when Theo gives me a new chip for one of my touchpads. Always leaving, never knowing if I will come back. Is this how it’s going to be?

  I place the chip in the touchpad and hand it over to Finn. “You will communicate with the Dark Legion through this device,” I say. “Kroll will be waiting for your command. It will all go according to plan.”

  Finn nods and kisses my cheek. I can’t see his face but I feel something wet on it, the salty consistency of a single tear. “Remember your promise,” I whisper in his ear.

  When I start climbing onto the pod, Damian materializes out of nowhere in the dim light of early morning.

  “I’m going with you,” he says.

  “You can’t do that,” I say exasperated. “The instructions were clear. Only I can go.”

  “I won’t go all the way to the plantation with you. I’ll sneak in later. I’ll keep an eye on you.”

  “No, you’re more needed here.”

  “I know what I’m doing,” he starts saying but I cut him off.

  “I’m not going to put you in unnecessary danger. If they spot you, they will hunt you down. I understand your need to do something but you’ll have to do it under Finn’s command. You will both join the Dark Legion.”

  I can almost hear the rage inside his head but surprisingly the loyalty in him wins. He bows and promises to follow my orders. Maybe there is hope for Damian after all.

  “Wait a moment,” Doc says and pulls me by the arm.

  “What is it?” I say.

  “I managed to get DNA samples from Damian,” he says. “We might have answers soon.”

  “Good,” I say. “Maybe you can help him.”

  As the space pod plunges off into the violet sky, I immediately turn all emotion off. I’ve practiced enough hours. Today can be a new beginning or today can be the end. My mind must become a sensory super computer. I am like nothing the world has ever known. Rage flows freely from my fingertips. The impossible is my personal playground. I can flow seven streams of energy in a single instant of glorious destruction.

  I’m going home. Wait until they see what I’ve become.

  PART THREE

  You can never go home again

  16

  Three huge Sliman guards wait for me at the main gate of Plantation-8. They lead me through familiar paths and turns to the west wing of the construction. There’s not a single exchange of words with my guides. Their lips are sealed and the only sound coming from them is that of their shock bows as they swing from the straps over their shoulders.

  The silence comes to an end as we walk past the dorms. There’s a long line of children’s faces glued to the windows. Children’s faces that show recognition and respect instead of fear. Those are children that might die today because of me. They must know it in their hearts but they don’t hold it against me. They start tapping on the windows with their fingernails as I stride down the path to the west wing making it harder and harder for me to remain distant and emotionless.

  We reach the HQ building in the west wing. I take a look at the walls and windows and realize they have been armored and reinforced with material that will withstand any kind of blast wave no matter how forceful or expansive.

  One of the Sliman guards opens the door and leads me inside the HQ. I’ve never been here before so there is a certain amount of curiosity involved but what I see isn’t that much different than the HQ building at the abandoned facilities. A small hallway rigged with cameras and sensors. Two doors in the back of the hallway, one of them probably leading upstairs. The only difference that I can see is that there is a DNA scanner placed between the two doors. Maybe they put it there specifically for me. That would be too bad because I don’t plan to go through it.

  A fourth Sliman comes through the door on the right. He keeps a safe distance but his gaze is fixated on me. He looks me up and down for a good minute before he decides to open his mouth.

  “I have instructions to take the sensory receptor from you,” he says.

  “That is not going to happen,” I say. Someone must think I’m really stupid.

  “The instructions were clear,” he insists.

  “As is my answer.”

  He doesn’t like this one bit. He talks into his communication clip in a language I don’t understand. When he’s done, he turns his attention back to me.

  “You can keep the receptor for now,” he says, “but you have to give me your backpack and everything else that you have on you.”

  I take the straps off my shoulders and hand him the backpack. He opens the door through which he came and extends his arm to show me the way. I walk through the door that closes behind me. The Sliman don’t follow me.

  The corridor is narrow and dimly lit. As I walk at a slow pace, a bright green light is turned on above a door in the back. It’s an elevator door and when I get inside, I notice that the only way is up. I rise in the elevator trying to keep my heart and mind empty.

  When the elevator door opens, I step into a circular room with windows all around, much like an observatory tower. A console in the center of the room displays images of different parts of the plantation on transparent glass screens.

  Suddenly, I realize how vulnerable I am standing in this room, how I could potentially already be a prisoner in this tower. They are probably watching me right now, scanning my expressions, x-raying my brain for information. Maybe they are deactivating my receptor. I have been foolish to agree to coming here on my own, but that’s not a new conclusion. Foolishness is one of my key traits. Maybe the one trait that has kept me going.

  I still have the receptor, though, and it’s no small comfort to know that. I put my fingers in my pocket to touch it and I turn it on manually. To my great relief, it responds immediately humming and buzzing like a plump, happy bee.

  I take a few steps around the room looking through the windows down at the plantation grounds. Nothing has changed since my escape four years ago. The same ugly gray walls dominate the landscape.

  “We are pleased to see you.” The voice comes from behind me. By the time I turn, the alien has materialized next to the console.

  I shake away my initial disorientation at his startling appearance and reorganize my thoughts. So, they are not going to try to shoot me, zap me, poison me or sedate me from afar. Not yet anyway.

  “I’m sorry I can’t say the same,” I reply with my hand on the eager receptor.

  The alien snaps his fingers and the screens on the console go black. He is about my height and his face is hidden behind a black mask. His eyes are clear and brown, something very unusual for an alien. Most of them have blurry, reddish eyes that have no life left in them.

  “I’ve been wanting to talk to you for a long time,” the alien goes on. I realize that it’s not just the eyes but the voice as well that possesses a rare clear quality. Maybe this is a young specimen, although according to Wudak there have been no alien births in many decades, maybe centuries.

  “May I?” he says as he walks to me extending a grayish, dried-up hand.

  He doesn’t wait for my response. He touches my hair curiously, then the skin on my cheeks. I tolerate this intrusion for a few seconds before I take two steps to the left and away from his prying fingers.

  “I should say I am surprised to see you here today. I thought you’d put up more of a fight. Bring in your fellow Saviors maybe.”

  So they know what we call ourselves and they probably have figured out exactly what we call each other as well. If they thought that this little discovery on their part would throw me in some state of confusion or fear, they are sorely mistaken. There’s nothing that could shock me right now. I have accepted that everything is possible.

  “I am glad you didn’t involve them,”
the alien goes on. “It would be such a waste to have all those talented young human children exterminated. I am sure you will help them see the honesty of our intentions. We do not wish to fight you anymore. We want to invite you to be part of our empire. All of you.”

  I grab the opportunity to stall him. That’s the initial part of my mission after all.

  “You have an empire?” I say.

  “Of course we do. You didn’t think Earth was all that special, did you? This is just one of many planets in the interplanetary empire.”

  “Aren’t most of those planets dead?” I say. “Including yours?” I realize this offensive tactic might backfire but it’s too late to take the words back.

  The alien looks at me with a new interest. “How do you know that?” he says.

  “I can read your mind,” I say. Sarcasm isn’t going to help me out of this one though. I have to give something up to keep the secret of the rebel Sliman safe. “One of the Saviors. She had great psychic powers. She is dead now.”

  This seems to please the alien for now. “One more successful mutation,” he says. “We’ve tried it several times but it’s one of the hardest mutations to realize. Most of the subjects die or go mad.”

  “Why does it make you so happy to have successful mutations? What do you need them for?”

  “Happy is not a word I would use,” he says. “Happiness is a human word and it stems from the most primitive parts of your brain. We don’t need happiness. We need fulfillment. If I try to make something and I succeed, then I am fulfilled. You humans always need a little bit more. You go after happiness in the most painful ways. It’s a puzzling thing to watch.”

  “At least we don’t destroy civilizations on different planets.”

  “You would have if you could,” he says. “Because your kind will always need more.”

  “Is this why you chose Earth? Because you hated us?”

  “We did not know who you were when we traveled through the wormholes and space portals looking for the right environment and temperatures. The selection was based on compatibility. It helped that there was no sustained resistance.”