Our physical battle was only the façade of the struggle occurring between us. This being was no newborn. Nor was it a Vampire. It was much Juvenile to me but not so young I was able to take control of it without a fight. Its mind was filled with hatred. I have never touched anything so angry, so utterly hate filled, so close and intimately. I nearly recoiled in revulsion at this the closest I have ever been to the mind of one of the Others.
Its hate was unreasoning, unthinking, the result of the Others racial assurance of their superiority. It understood that I was Elder but it could not see me as its Elder. It did not see me as a Palag Elder!
Palag! The Palag! They were the Palag. This was what they called themselves. This was their name. They were the Palag. I delved deeper into its mind, forcing my way in. When it realized that it could not hold me out I felt the first panic I have ever felt come from one of the Others, the Palag, in any of our encounters. So sure of their superiority, of their Grand Purpose and the meaning of their lives that they were willing to give those lives for their Grand Purpose without reservation, but not this! Not this subversion of its mind! Not this dominance by a bastard creature they had created!
We hit the ground as I took full possession of his mind, his faculties, as I felt the last of his defenses give way before my assault. I had fully penetrated him now and like a vast panorama his mind unfolded before me. A tiny microcosm of the Universe but built to scale.
Unlike Humans he remained fully cognizant while I was present. He did not have a conscious and unconscious. His mind was one totality. My suppression was of all of it, but it remained absolutely aware. I had taken control but in no way suppressed his ability to comprehend consciously. He knew what was happening to him. He was in there with me. We were both in there, but I had control. Then we hit the ground.
I had forgotten we were falling. I had lost physical track of my surroundings as I fought to claw my way in. The Palag had been on top of me as we fell. We fell 20 feet and I crashed headfirst into the paved walkway that ribboned between the houses. Briefly I blacked out. The blow was a stunning one. Reality flickered.
The Palag was standing above me when reality flickered back into place. He had my Cumosachi Katana in his hands. The blade rose and then began to descend… then black blood rained on me as the Palag's head seemed to leap from its shoulders. Still groggy, I did not see the flickering blade which separated it, so quickly did it strike, so viciously was it swung. The head sprang free and jumped beyond me to land with a wet thud on the concrete walkway. My Cumosachi Katana slowly slipped from nerveless fingers as the Palag, now headless, began to crumple. I caught the Katana in two fingers before its point struck the concrete, and in hyper-acceleration rose and moved out from most of the blood and the falling body. Now in hyper-acceleration it all seemed to fall and land on the concrete in slow motion, and then I was left standing there, alone, staring at Sonafi and the bloodied long knife in her hand.
And at those who were standing behind her. There were dozens within view. All wearing their football helmet Field Generation units. Brid stood at their forefront.
The device he was wearing was the reason I had not been able to sense him. Or any of them. Why he had not heard nor answered my telepathic call. He was alive, after all!
“I see that we are not the only Vampires ready to come to your aid!” Sonafi said of the Vampires surrounding Brid.
“They are always near now.” Brid admitted with a smile. “For some reason they think I am incapable of defending myself.”
“The truth is we were expecting treachery from the Humans.” Drye said as he stepped forward. He carried in his hand a curved sword which I knew he had possessed his entire life, both his Human and Vampire lives, a weapon which he had inherited, in fact, from his own Human father. “That the Humans warned us came really as a surprise to me. I would never have guessed this day might come. It Never even occurred to me that something like this would be possible between us.”
“Yes.” I agreed. “The Humans are proving deceptively adaptable. I never anticipated that they would be able to set aside our differences so easily. I almost can't believe it now.”
“They are as scared as we are.” Volga said.
A car whipped around the North corner and accelerated our way. Another followed, then another and another and another. Eight altogether. We prepared to slip into the shadows, a number among the group of helm-clad Vampires reaching up into their units to deactivate the mechanisms, after all, the Palag would not be advancing in cars! I delayed them, by holding up a hand. I recognized the Humans.
“It's only the FBI.” I said. The cars screeched to a halt and then Agents began piling out, guns drawn and looking for targets, but there were no targets to be found. The Palag had fled. Dawn was less than an hour away and I thought I understood the Palag's tactic. There were always more than one way to defeat an enemy.
Agent Irving was in the vanguard as the Agents ran up to create a defensive perimeter. His eyes, all of their eyes, fell to the hissing mass between the houses, if only momentarily.
“They call themselves the Palag.” I told Irving. “I almost succeeded. I had its mind. Then I lost it.” I opened my mind to him a memory thread of what had happened, including what I had seen of the Palag's mind. I showed him mental images of their ships. Somewhat of the socialization that occurred between them, other small things, but I had not been in there long and I had not gotten much. What I did have were like snapshots or subliminal images. At nearly the same instant that I had gained access I had struck the ground and the contact had been severed. Still, it was more than we had ever had before.
“I agree. It's a lot more than we had.” Agent Irving said, while already within my mind reading my thoughts as easily as any Vampire. Of especial value to Irving, as a Human, I thought, were the images I had gotten of their visitations upon humanity. How they took Humans. How they were returned. The things that were done to them when the Palag had them. What I could only describe as a grotesquerie of horrors involving all manner of vile practices.
I had received quite a number of varied of these images- that was what I was most interested in. They had jumped out at me as I sought them but what I had gotten was only a small accounting of what was being done to Humans.
The Humans, men, women and children who were brought back to the Palag ships were transported by a kind of tractor field or gravity field, something akin to that. It picked them up from the ground, or the roofs of their homes and then pulled them up weightless through an opening in the bottom of the ship. Once inside it was as if the gravity had been turned off for the Humans alone, and the Palag dragged them along helplessly to a hospital like room where they were strapped to a stainless steel laboratory table.
I did not bother to count the number of Humans who had been taken just within the few memories I possessed. Who this one Palag had escorted to the Examining Room, I impulsively named it. The things I saw perpetuated in those rooms were not worth mentioning. Suffice it to say that the Palag viewed Humanity as little more than lab animals. There was no empathy. An extinct species deserving of no concern.
“It's probably a good thing all Humans are not psychic!” Irving said. “Something like this could stampede the entire world.”
“With good reason.” Sonafi agreed, having eavesdropped on the entire exchange, and seeing it now for the first time herself, within my mind.
“We know that all of you are vulnerable during the day,” Agent Irving said suddenly, to sharp looks, but he went on undaunted. “We would like to set security perimeters around all of you, during the daylight hours, when you are vulnerable. That means you would have to trust us.”
“I trust you, Curt,” I said, “but even you may not be aware of what your Superiors may do. It's a lot to ask.”
“I know it may be difficult to trust us,” Irving said, “but I'm a hundred percent sure that while we have a mutual enemy no one in my government will raise a hand against you.” Then telepathically
he added; 'Once the Visitors are defeated, the Palag I mean, I do not think I would wish to make any such guarantees of their loyalty. I can only promise that I personally will help you in any way that I can. Strangely, I feel almost more kinship to you, and the Community, than I do to my own kind, though I will deny it hotly if I am asked it aloud. I would not be able to do you any good from a jail cell ten stories underground somewhere.'
'We expect no such loyalty!' Sonafi interjected. 'We expect there will be troubles. There have always been troubles. We have always adapted.'
“I see no reason not to trust them.” Brid said. “We have mutual needs now and there is no telling what the Palag may attempt next.”
“The Federal Building has a hardened bunker at the bottom of its seventeen stories. A little known fact.” Agent Irving said. “There are dozens of luxurious apartments there. It was designed as a fallout shelter for VIP's. Very Important Elected Officials, I should say. I'm sure you will be very comfortable there. You will not have to worry about the sun, or the Palag. They will not be able to get close enough to us to use their telepathy. We are prepared for them.”
I had my doubts. Had we not walked right in, but I did not voice them. I have little doubt that sojourn into their most sacrosanct environs had precipitated a change in their security protocols. In fact, I now knew it, as I looked into Agent Irving's open mind. A massive force of Federal Agents had descended on St. Louis, including technicians, computer experts, military personnel and every field of expertise. I met most of them in an unending parade of faces through Irving's mind. All those he had met, anyway.
“That's insane!” Samon Du Bon said, stepping forward. “We would be putting our heads in the lion's mouth. I refuse to do so!”
“No one is telling you that you must.” Brid said calmly. Samon scowled for only a moment however, then amazingly regained his equilibrium.
“Do not expect me to.” Samon replied. “I think you are all fools for doing so.” He included even Sonafi and I in this estimation, without the slightest bit of hesitation or fear of our anger. This frank openness with one another seemed to be catching on, but he probably supposed that if he had to take criticism from Brid, we wouldn't have any choice but to take the same from him.
Brid was mature early. In a very significant way that made me extremely proud of him, but other Vampires who had not been able to stand the test of Time had begun similarly. How would Brid stand the test of Time, I wondered? Or would he even be given that opportunity? There were certainly no guarantees in this life. Not for Humans, not for Vampires and not even for the Others.
“We have pronounced our trust!” Sonafi said. She was speaking to me, but her words were for everyone. “I think they have clearly made their case, and I trust them.” Then she added, just for me; 'For now!'
'I will do my best to warn you if and when that situation changes.' Curt Irving sent to us. Then; “We have only your best interests in mind. Your interests are our interests.” He said aloud.
For the first time in my life I would trust Humans who were not Caretakers or my personal friends, though I had begun to see Curt Irving as a personal friend. His was a morality I was sure I could count on to do the right thing, if it were at all possible and within his power, no matter what the situation. Having given his word, he would do his utmost to honor it, even be it given to a Vampire.
We were transported by car to the Federal Building, traveled by elevator seventeen stories into the bowels of the earth, and spent the day among luxuries we had not known since the days of yore when we had lived like rulers of the land. When once we’d had the audacity to do so.
These were the quarters of Humans of state and country. Presidents, Senators, Congressmen, Governors and Mayors, all at taxpayer expense and many times as luxurious as anything we had ever previously possessed. Sonafi and I were shown into a suite of rooms that contained enough electronics and communications gear to direct a global war. In fact that was probably what it was designed for. Sonafi made herself immediately at home while I found the library. I could not believe what I found. At least a hundred books I wanted to read all at once. After a long struggle I chose one, found a luxurious recliner to lower myself into, and soon fell into the words of a long dead philosopher genius. One I had known personally and well.
CHAPTER 25
We were served, incredibly, a bag-blood breakfast secured directly from a local blood bank. Agent Irving was there in the evening and he gave me a queer look as he handed us the bagged-blood.
“Um… they feel this is more appropriate.” He said. “At least while you are here with us. Uh… you don't have to take it.”
Sonafi took the bags of blood and carried them off into the kitchen, then returned with two large milk glasses, brimming full. She handed one to me and we toasted one another, bumping the edges of the glasses together in salute.
“To a profitable union with the Humans!” She said then we drained our glasses.
“There's more where that came from. All you may require.” Agent Irving said with a small, uncertain smile, thinking at the same time that he wouldn't like to know firsthand what it would feel like to have that much blood taken from his own body all at once. I smiled back, with no uncertainty.
“Wonderful!” I said. “So where does that leave us? Hide here in your building until the Palag finish taking over the entire world?” I could not help the sarcasm which rose into my voice. I have never been mollycoddled before. I have never had anyone try to protect me. It makes me feel just the slightest bit… impotent. I did not mind the free meal, but I would not hide here in this building waiting for what, I did not know.
“Only until our technicians can tool up the designs Brid made us.” Irving said. “Then we'll be able to make a joint attack. We don't want you to risk yourselves needlessly until we can give you the full backup of our entire Agency. That's not so much to ask, is it?”
“It's not really so much.” Sonafi agreed. I knew what she was thinking. She was thinking about all the electronics and gear this suite boasted. How enjoyable whatever amount of time we spent here would be for her. I readily admitted that the library here was superb. There were copies of books, and even several originals, that I had not seen in long, long centuries, in some cases. I could happily sit here for the next several years without complaint, but it rubbed me the wrong way to hide here and cower from my enemy.
“But it is a lot to ask.” I contradicted, drawing an angry look from Sonafi, but I went on anyway; “I can't remain cooped up in here doing nothing. Not now!”
“Now you are being ridiculous!” Sonafi snapped, really angry I saw, so I did pause to think about it.
“Maybe I should go.” Agent Irving said, taking a step backward from what was a very possibly perceptible heat rising between us.
“You started this!” I turned on Irving. “Why should you get to leave?” He seemed a helpless patsy and I used him remorselessly, but Sonafi was not having it.
“Leave Agent Irving out of it!” Sonafi said. “This is about your bullheadedness!”
“I think maybe I had best…“ Irving began.
“You stay right where you are!” Sonafi turned now to snap at Irving, and his mouth snapped closed on whatever else he had been about to say. I gave him a mirthless smile as Sonafi turned back on me
“You are right.” I agreed before she could get started again. “It would be ridiculous to take unnecessary risks. We can wait here until the Humans are ready to assist us.”
“Thanks for permission!” Sonafi said with a certain cynical lack of humor. She turned back to Irving. “Sorry. Didn't mean to snap at you.”
“May I go now?” Agent Irving asked, and both Sonafi and I had to laugh.
“I would make sure those Juveniles are all fed promptly at sunset.” Sonafi told Irving before he could leave. “Otherwise, it could get nasty.”
“They've all been fed!” Agent Irving assured us, a little bug-eyed at the meaning of the thought we were convey
ing.” I just brought yours down personally and I’ll have all the suites stocked fully. Plus there are more of you arriving this evening. I'll be sure there is plenty on hand. The last thing we'll want to do now is a run out of blood!”
……….
Those were, in fact, some of the most pleasurable days of my entire life, I would have to admit. We had nothing to fear from the Humans and very little fear of the Others here. There were the books and electronics. I would bring my reading materials to the main sitting-room where I would relax into a book while Sonafi worked at whatever she worked at on her computer console, each lost in their own activity yet in companionable nearness. We might sometimes pass hours without speaking, or suddenly in a spate of words burst into a great discussion of one topic or another, while very nearly ignoring all that occurred without, within the outside world.
The FBI were once again requisitioned to move our belongings, this time bringing them all here. The only antiquity I would not be able to bear to lose I carried with me everywhere I went. I had given the sword I had taken from Rostov to Brid, with the hope that it would serve him better than it had served Rostov.
Then the day came, nine days later, that Agent Irving returned with news of the progress they were making reproducing their own version of the Field Generation units Brid had designed. We did not know he was there until he knocked on our door. In the sitting room, our heads came up simultaneously. We looked at one another, not liking the vast emptiness we perceived beyond the door, when it was obvious it was not empty at all. Someone was certainly there.
“They've tooled up their version of Brid's design.” I speculated, knowing that it could be nothing else. The units that Brid and the Community had fabricated allowed the very slightest leaks. Once knowing someone was there, we should have been able to detect that slight leak of mental signature, but here there was nothing at all. An absolute void.
The Vampire-Alien Chronicles Page 19