“Hello,” Henry said in greeting, his voice, as telepathic as it was, somehow tentative. The alien was right to be worried when Sarah looked to him nothing but anger and rage shone in her eyes.
“Get out,” Sarah said. She had been waiting for him to appear just so she could rebuke him. She knew it and thought it might be petty, but now that the chance for her to do so had come she was keen to take it. “I don’t want to see you. I don’t want to talk to you.”
“I was hoping that, with time, you would be able to speak with me. To ‘hear me out’ as they apparently say on your planet.”
Sarah shuddered. She knew the alien knew phrases from her planet solely because he could invade her mind. It made her feel sick to her stomach.
“Leave,” she said.
“You are our captive. I do not have to do any such thing,” Henry said into her mind, more definitively.
“Well, why don’t you just kill me and get it over with?” Sarah asked.
“I wish things had been different,” Henry said. “I thought we had made a connection.”
“We didn’t make a connection, you forced us to be connected.”
Henry shook his head; a move he had picked up from reading Sarah’s mind during their first encounter. “I did no such thing. What we had was real. Whatever that Zaytarian told you, he is trying to turn you against us. Against me.”
“You said you’re going to kill me!” Sarah yelled.
“I wish it was different, but you leave us no choice. I am trying, however, to keep that from happening.”
“You’ll help me get out of here?” Sarah asked.
“No,” Henry said. “I will try to keep them from killing you.”
“I can’t know what is real and what is just you influencing me,” Sarah said. “I’ll never be able to know for sure.”
“You must do as we ask,” Henry said. “You must not cause problems.”
Sarah sighed, and then glared at the alien. “Why are you here? I thought you had to work on the ship because your father was a coward.”
The words stung the alien, Sarah could see his face darken in color and his antennae weave about his head.
“They knew we had a good rapport, and I was tasked with overseeing you during this time.”
“We don’t have a good rapport,” Sarah argued.
“We…did,” the alien said, simply.
“What is it you want me to do? Before you kill me, I mean.”
“You are a vessel for the crystal,” Henry said, and Sarah reached down and touched the crystal hanging at the end of her necklace. “We cannot move the crystal ourselves and so you will need to do it.”
“And if I refuse?” Sarah replied defiantly.
“I wouldn’t recommend you do that,” the alien said inside her head, his psychic voice somewhat sad. Sarah didn’t know how to respond, so she stayed quiet, and Henry went on. “I see you will not make this easy on yourself. I am sorry for that.”
The door opened and Henry stepped back out silently, and before Sarah could even react, the door slid shut once more. Sarah was left with nothing to do but cry.
Chapter Six
Gar didn’t even take time to think. They were outnumbered but Gar was a fighter; as much as he wished he wasn’t. He swung the rifle from his shoulder and took aim as he dropped to the ground onto his belly. Two of the tall aliens fired their guns, red lasers slicing through the air right above Gar, where he had just been standing. He squeezed the trigger and the rifle jumped in his hands. A hot slug of metal slamming into the stomach of the tall alien, yelled out, showing off its mouth full of razor-sharp teeth, and dropped its gun as it fell backward.
Adam was not as quick to move, but finally, he was jumping into action, diving to the side as Gar fired again, taking out a second alien. That left just one, and Gar rolled over as the alien finally swung his weapon downward, the barrel scraping the ground since its arms were so long. Hot plasma scorched the ground around Gar, and he fired once more, his last shot catching the tall alien in the chest and killing him instantly.
“Let’s go,” Adam said, hurrying over to Gar and pulling him up. There were a number of ships in the hangar, and they ran towards the smallest one; a three seater which wouldn’t allow them to be very comfortable on a long trip, but it was the most manageable for two beings, who didn’t even speak the same language to operate it.
Adam worked a small panel next to the ship's door so that it opened with a hydraulic hiss. Gar stepped inside, turned and held the rifle to his shoulder, covering Adam as he stepped inside and slapped at another electronic panel so the door slid shut behind them.
“I don’t think they’ll be able to stop us once we get airborne,” Adam said, and Gar’s translator did its job perfectly. He nodded to the Earth man as they moved down a small passageway and into the cramped cockpit. There were two chairs side by side and Adam took the one on the right, away from the controls. “I guess I should have asked if you can fly,” he said with a grin.
“I can,” Gar said in his halting English, as he sat down behind the control sticks. He looked over the controls for a moment, there were panels with written words on them in a language he could not read, but he got the gist of it all and, as Adam watched, he reached out and began pressing buttons.
Soon the panel before him was lit up in greens and reds, and the engines thrummed to life. He pulled the ship up off the ground just as there came muffled booms.
“They’re shooting at us,” Adam said, pointing to a small monitor which showed the outside of the ship. Five of the tall aliens were in front of the ship, taking shots at it.
“It fine,” Gar said. He touched another button and they heard a loud whirring, and the ship tilted upward. They could see the wide roof of the hangar was opening; two sections sliding away from one another as Gar eased the ship up towards the sky.
As they streaked through space the booms fell away, the tall alien’s guns unable to fire so far. They left the atmosphere of the planet and found themselves surrounded by the cold black of space.
“Where are we going?” Adam asked, looking to his alien friend.
“Aeon,” Gar said grimly.
Chapter Seven
Sarah had known Henry would come back, and she knew she had to be ready. But she also knew that he, or any of the other Aeon’s, would read her mind, so she had to be careful about plotting out what she would do. She took to singing old children’s songs from her childhood in her head, over and over, hoping the aliens would have too much ‘Baa Baa Black Sheep’ and ‘Row, Row, Row Your Boat’ in their heads to listen to her come up with a plan.
Once she had a plan, and it was a simple one, she pushed it from her mind and concentrated on the mental singing.
Then, Henry came back. She was up in a flash as soon as the door was open, having perched on the edge of her cot. She held the crystal in her hand and extended it outwards as the alien entered her room, his eyes going wide when he saw her. The small rolling robot was at his feet, holding a tray of food.
Henry stepped back, his heel catching on the robot, sending the food spilling to the ground. Henry pitched backward, falling to the ground, the door that had already been sliding open landing on his chest with a satisfying, for Sarah, at least, thud and then shooting back up into the ceiling. Sarah was running past the fallen alien, jerking her ankle from his grasp as he reached for her.
The hall was empty, stretching off in both directions. Sarah wasn't sure she wanted to go left, which was back the way she had first come when being led to the room. There had been a lot of aliens that way, but she didn’t know that turning right would be a safe choice, as the hall could simply be a dead end. Still, she had her secret weapon, the crystal clutched in her hand, one end poking out between her fingers so it could catch the light in the hall and glint menacingly, at least she hoped menacingly to any Aeon she came across.
She turned right after just a moment’s hesitation and ran to the end of the hall. Here she ha
d to make another choice, for the hall split to the left and right. The left hall was shorter, ending in a steel door. The right hall stretched on, though there were no doors she could see.
She turned left, vaguely aware that behind her trouble was coming. She could hear feet pounding down the hall after her, and she felt a strange sensation in her brain; a perverse idea that she should just give up and stop. But when she realized that was Henry or one of his fellow aliens trying to influence her, it broke the hold on her mind and she ran to the door.
There was a handle on the door, a strange relic compared to the sliding doors she had seen so far. She pulled at it and the door creaked open. There was a room inside, and just what she was looking for; windows. She pulled the door shut behind her and was relieved to see a lock. She turned it just as an alien reached the door and began pulling on the handle.
The room looked as though it was used for storage, with boxes and old furniture sitting inside, all covered in dust. The windows were large, looking out onto the street at the same level the small one in her cell had been. She went to the window and tried to open it, but it wouldn’t budge. She turned to a nearby box, found what looked like a small desk lamp and lifted it. It was made of metal and heavy in her hand. She took it to the window and slammed it down on the glass, which cracked but did not break. She took aim at the center of the window once more and slammed the lamp down, this time shattering the window, the glass falling onto the sidewalk below.
The street was busy and many Aeon’s stopped to watch as she hauled herself through the window and stood up on the sidewalk. She could feel a buzz of energy around her, shock and fear coming from the aliens. She turned and picked a direction at random and began running.
She didn’t know where she was going to go. She ran for a few minutes, taking corners at random, trying to get away from the busy streets, she needed to find a place to hide, she needed to get away from everyone.
Soon she had to slow down, she was wheezing, her head feeling light due to the low oxygen on the planet. She was glad to have had the presence of mind to bring the silver tube Henry had given her. She pulled it from her pocket and pressed the rubbery spout over her mouth and nose. Oxygen pumped out and she breathed in deeply.
Sarah didn’t know how but she found herself in a section of the city that was more run down than the rest. The buildings were cracked, gray and faded, and there weren’t many beings out on the streets. She saw one building with bright red tape over the entrance, almost like what you would see on Earth with a condemned home. It was three stories and a section of the roof appeared to be caved in. Sarah went towards it with no hesitation, bending under the red tape and pushing the flimsy door open.
The building appeared to indeed be empty, and Sarah breathed a sigh of relief. From somewhere nearby sirens pierced the air and she hurried in all the way, shutting the door behind her.
She explored the building a bit, keeping away from the section of caved in earth, not wanting to be seen by any of the flying ships she kept hearing pass overhead. The building was void of furniture, consisting of big open rooms and a staircase which ran along the right side of the building, connecting the three floors.
One room had a pile of wooden refuse, pieces of the wall pulled away, and the flooring. Sarah spent some time stacking this up, so she could slide in behind it, nestled in a corner. No one would be able to see her unless they came looking for her. It wasn’t a great hiding spot, but it was better than nothing.
Chapter Eight
Gar and Adam sat in silence in the ship, floating in orbit around Aeon. The planet was a mostly brown ball below them, vast stretches of desert broken up by small pools of blue water. The cities could be seen from this distance, especially in the half of the planet turned from the nearby sun and bathed in darkness, great cities full of light.
No ships had come up to meet them, and both men considered that a good sign. The ship was small and it was possible they had so far escaped detection. Most space-faring species had systems which would pick up large ships, possible armies coming to attack, but if the system picked up every small craft coming in and out of the planet’s atmosphere it would go haywire; there were simply too many.
“Where do you think she is?” Adam asked.
Gar searched his mind for the right English word and couldn’t come up with it. Instead, he tried something else. “Center city,” he said.
It took Adam a moment to realize what he was saying. “The capital?”
Gar nodded. The capital on Aeon was called Hayson and it was where the military was centered. They surely wanted Sarah for her necklace, the crystal which could destroy their planet. Gar knew they were trying to harness that power for themselves, to turn it into a weapon they could use against his own species. As long as they were still working on that weapon they would keep Sarah alive. The Aeon’s were too scared to try to handle the crystal themselves.
“Then we go there? It will be full of Aeon’s. And it’s a big city. Finding Sarah will be like finding a needle in a haystack.”
Gar frowned, confused by the turn of phrase. He looked at Adam, who grinned despite himself. “It will be hard,” he said, clarifying what he meant.
“Then it hard,” Gar said in his horrible English, with a shrug of his shoulders. Adam nodded.
“Take us down then,” he said.
“Wait,” Gar said, sliding from his seat. He went to the cabin then, cramped and stooped, pulling out things they no longer needed, wires and metal, pulling panels free from various instruments.
“Uh Gar, you’re pulling our ship apart.”
“We take another,” Gar said simply and went to work. When he was done he had two metal rings, one of which he slid onto his own head. The rings had bundles of wires around them and buzzed in an electric hum, powered by batteries found in the navigation system. He would have liked to make three, but he just didn’t have enough equipment. He held the other ring out to Adam.
“What is this?” Adam asked.
“Mind,” Gar said, tapping his head with his finger. “Them out.”
Adam thought he understood. Gar had managed to explain that the Aeon’s were psychic on their long trip to the planet. Apparently, these contraptions would keep them out of their heads. That much was true. Gar knew that electronic waves could disrupt the Aeon’s psychic abilities, and his head rings did just that, blasted electronic white noise right about their brains so they couldn’t be read by the dastardly villains.
Adam took his ring and slid it on. Gar sat back down behind the flight sticks of the ship. Gar tapped some commands into the screen in front of him, having picked up a bit of navigating and piloting as he went from planet to planet as a child. There were things he could do as a co-pilot to make Gar’s job a little easier, including setting the anti-thrust power and the atmospheric shields.
“Here we go,” Adam said, taking a deep breath as Gar pushed forward on the ship, sending it streaking towards the brown planet below. As they came closer, Adam was amazed. The planet seemed so barren and harsh, rust brown sand that stretched for hundreds of miles, but then they would pass a city, grand and gleaming in the sun and he couldn’t help but be impressed, because he had never seen a city as grand as any one of them, even as a boy back on Earth.
They neared the capital city and came in lower. Gar stopped the ship before reaching the edge of the city, setting it down on a rocky outcrop nearby. He killed the engines and spent a tense ten minutes waiting to see if anyone would come out from the city to meet them. When no one did, they finally left the ship.
There had been some tools and weapons in the ship they had taken with them, and took what they would need, then dropped to their stomachs and crawled to the edge of the rocky rise they had landed on. Adam held a pair of electronic binoculars to his face, using a switch on the side to zoom in. There had been a rifle with a scope in the ship and Gar had taken it, keeping his own but regulating it to his back. He held the new gun in front of him and studied
the city through the scope. It was bustling and busy, and as they watched they saw a large number of what appeared to be law enforcement move through the streets; red and white vehicles with lights flashing on top.
“They knew we were coming?” Adam asked, but Gar wasn’t so sure. He was pretty sure they hadn’t noticed the small ship at all. It was almost as if their attention was elsewhere, and with a sudden rise in his spirits, he realized that Sarah may have managed to escape. That was great news of course, if true, but it would also make finding her that much difficult. Or impossible.
“Sarah,” Gar said. “Gone?”
Adam considered it for a moment, knowing exactly what the gray-skinned alien was getting at.
“Maybe,” he said finally. “She seemed resourceful. If anyone could escape from the damned bastards before we even get there to save her, I guess it would be her. I don’t know her well, but she really left a mark on me.”
Gar nodded. She was certainly capable of that. Gar felt bad for Adam just then. He knew Sarah loved him, he had no worries about that, but he wondered if Adam had set his sights on Sarah. It had been so long since the man had seen someone of his own species, and Gar figured that anyone would fall for someone easily if they were put in the same situation.
Gar and Adam watched the edge of the city for some time, both of them trying to figure out just what they were going to do. Gar supposed they should head to the detention center first, there was always the chance that Sarah was locked up no matter how much he felt that she had somehow escaped her captors.
“Let’s go,” Adam said, and Gar nodded. They picked their way slowly down the rocky outcrop and hurried across a few hundred yards of desert to the edge of the city, where everything was chrome and silver.
“What now?” Adam asked, as they crouched at the end of a street, looking down the long avenue with all of the vehicles and Aeon’s.
Aeon Fugitive Page 3