by Bryan Nyaude
“After you, Wet Pants,” he commented and opened the hatched door loudly.
I paused briefly in my steps; I had no idea what was inside that room. For all I knew, it could be a trap. There was also a possibility it was a party in my honor or sort. After all, Kristin had mentioned that I wasn’t her enemy. Oh well, as long as they didn’t call me wet pants. I really hated that name, the more I heard him say it. I stepped in, cautiously, and noticed that there were a few people sitting in high chairs, on what looked like a square table. The interior of the room was emerald green, covered with framed pictures of great battles. If my guess was right, it was their main conference room, based on how well the place was secured and built. I glared around and noticed all of their eyes turn towards me.
“Please sit down,” one of them said, in a nice, warm voice.
There was a faint smile on his face combined with an expression of kindness. How could I possibly say no? I sat down and politely looked around the room to see who these people were. One of them was the woman I met before, Kristin, sitting in the seat directly opposite of mine. There were projectile-like files on the desk being displayed on a highly advance com screen. I caught a glimpse of her eyes and noticed an unbound will, the type of passion only portrayed by a true leader and great warrior.
“Like I said before,” Kristin got up and walked across the room in a calm pace. “Now, I am going to show you what I meant by those words.”
What was she talking about? I thought to myself for a second and remembered what we had talked about before, in that dark room. It took me a second, but it was now clear what she meant and all I could do was listen.
“The earth is going to be annihilated.”
“No, Kristin, you mustn’t,” one of the men spoke out, trying to silence her. “We really don’t know anything about this boy, and for all we know, he could be a spy.”
Darn! There was that word again I hated so much. My anger swirled inside from at the mention of the word boy.
“I am not a boy, I am a man,” I screamed out at him and jumped out of my chair.
I probably shouldn’t have done that; nevertheless, it was necessary that they give me a bit of respect. I think it was the side effects of the truth serum still bearing down on me. The whole room fell silent as I could feel their eyes on me; their faces were plastered with surprise and fascination.
“See, like I said before,” the alien man rattled, pointing at me in a rude way. “This boy or man is an idiot. No one in their right mind lashes out at his enemy right in their base.”
He said boy again, I was a bit furious, but at the same time, he had also mentioned man which calmed me a bit. However, I wasn’t an idiot. It was true—I lashed out, but it was just to mark my territory, and get some respect.
“It doesn’t matter,” Kristin said and walked up to me without any hesitation.
She patted me on the shoulders and said, “this boy is all we got, there isn’t any other earthling we can find at the moment, so deal with it.”
Did she just call me boy? Oh well! How could I possibly stay mad at her? I was kind of insulted, and also honored at the thought of being part of something this big. The destruction of earth was something I had to prevent at all cost. If I could become a hero, then Rose would have no choice, but to come back falling into my arms. That was if I find her, of course. I giggled and smiled to myself at the thought of it, and imagined my life afterwards.
“Are you sure we can trust this idiot?” another man commented in a very intimidating voice. “I mean, look at him, he is laughing to himself and giggling at nothing like a rabid dog.”
I resented that remark from him. That being said, he was right—to others, I did look like a fool.
“So as I was saying,” Kristin continued and walked directly to the com screen. “Your planet is in danger of being completely destroyed. The terror beasts coming to your planet were not some sort of natural disaster that befell your planet; rather, it was a staged event, an invasion decades in the making.”
What! How could this be? I had imagined something like this to be the case, but I truly hoped I was wrong. I placed my hand on my face, unable to contemplate the new information I was receiving. The truth was definitely stranger than fiction. Part of me didn’t want to believe anything she was saying to me. I looked into her eyes and saw no signs of deception in them; it seemed everything she was telling me was probably true. I wanted to question her words of choice; however, I chose not to at the last minute. I wasn’t going to interrupt, since it appeared she was about to explain everything to me.
“There is a dark conspiracy that correlates the events happening on this planet to your planet, earth. Unless something is done, both this planet and earth are doomed for annihilation. We are part of the Resistance, sworn to free this planet from the hands of a maniac, who is responsible for all this.”
Great! Just great, whenever disaster struck, there was always a power hungry maniac grabbing onto power. Questions remaining was why earth? What did the maniac have to gain by invading or destroying earth?
“Why does he want to destroy earth?” I asked, a bit confused.
“Okay, as you didn’t know, the kingdom on this planet used to be called Ras. A great nation that fell into misfortune and was assumed destroyed centuries ago. Because of the advanced technology of our country, we were able to warp teleport the whole kingdom off earth and onto this planet. That was almost centuries ago, when we arrived here. We suffered terribly at the hands of the ruthless beasts inhabiting this planet; however, we overcame and found peace for almost 200 years. That all changed when one of the scientists went insane from tragedy and sadness, and took over the planet. Majority of the people on this planet fell under his control, and are in some kind of mind control hypnosis.”
“Okay, stop,” I cut her completely, pausing to process the information. “That was a little bit too much information for one day, I really need a drink.”
“Are you sure you are old enough to drink, wet pants?” an older gentleman said and the whole room burst out laughing.
I blushed for a second and chuckled, trying not to show that I was furious at the moment. His joke didn’t sound funny at all, but I said nothing. This was not the time to make friends or enemies. It seemed my natural sense for curiosity had led me to the truth. Sad to say: I couldn’t handle it. This was way out of my pay rate. I scanned thoroughly across the room and noticed something interesting.
“I have been curious about one thing,” I stared her in the eye, while adjusting my posture a little bit. “How come all of the inhabitants of this plant have gray melanin? It strikes as odd, since you said you used to be earthlings.”
Kristin smirked lightly, “the planet’s sun is different from the one on earth—and over the centuries, our bodies adapted to the new harsh environment, which mutated and rewrote our DNA. Most of our organs shifted and evolved in order to meet the demands required for survival on this planet.”
“Oh ok.”
Amazing! This was natural selection at its best. I wouldn’t believe it unless I was seeing it right with my own eyes. I thought about all the limitless possibilities of research I could conduct on this planet. I was curious to see how different these former earthlings were from us, the current earthlings. For some unknown reason, they aged slower or were practically immortal. I looked around, carefully, and speculated my findings to be arguable. Just what was their secret to prolonged life? So many questions cramped up in my brain, as that was all I could think of.
“How are the terror beasts; I mean, creatures getting to our planet so easily,” I asked her, finally starting to get serious. “There has to be a way to stop them, right?”
“The dimensional gate we used to get here is the same gate the maniac is using, to get the creatures back to earth,” Kristin spoke with her hands folded. “It’s possible to stop the creatures from coming to earth, but I can’t guarantee it to work.”
Now it all made sense to me. This e
xplained why we never detected or saw the creatures appear until it was too late. No one could have guessed it was all due to a dimensional gate warp. We never assumed that to be a successful possibility. A decade ago, several scientists attempted to travel through dimensions and failed miserably. Their attempt caused a catastrophic disaster, which almost obliterated half a city. The laws that controlled dimensional travels were extremely risky and dangerous—one error in calculations could have dire consequences in nature and on the planetary axis. Due to that, the planetary government banned all research linked to this type of technology. The fact that this planet had that kind of technology was an extremely uncomfortable thought. In order to stop something like that, we needed extra man power, and a lot of firing power. Assuming there was a battalion of alien soldiers and horde of terror beasts between us and the gate. There was no other way; the gate had to be destroyed.
“How many times has this gate been used?” I sighed out of sheer anxiety.
“More than a dozen times, to be precise. As you can see, there are severe penalties to using this kind of technology. Our planet stopped rotating after the forth dimensional warp, which is why it is always day on this side of the planet.”
“I don’t want to point out the elephant in the room, but doesn’t this child remind you of someone we once knew?” one of the men, on my left, spoke out, completely changing the subject.
He looked at me with eyes full of utter fascination. I felt their eyes piercing deeply towards me like they were checking me out. I was uneasy as I shifted my body away from the center table. I heard them seconds later murmur in an inside language I couldn’t understand. It seemed, they had taken a sudden interest in me.
“Yes, he does,” Kristin replied and patted my back lightly. “This is why this plan of ours will work. He will never see it coming.”
“Brilliant, Kristin, you are definitely your father’s daughter,” another man commented and they all agreed with him.
I saw an opportunity and I seized it. Apparently, I held some sort of value to them. My life was no longer in danger—they were not my enemy, nevertheless, my allies. Meaning I could use them too and vice versa. If I was to destroy the gate, I had to get them to help me. But why did they come only to me? There was another motive to their agenda with me.
“You came to me personally and I want to know why.”
There was an awkward silence for a few minutes, as they chatted amongst themselves on what to say next. All I could hear were grunting noises and a few nods as they came to an agreement. My body shivered at the thought of this situation going badly. I was pushing my luck by asking them questions rudely. At this point, I had to be careful about what to say next.
“Coincidentally, you are the only earthling we were able to peacefully contact. Our plan is to talk to your superiors and form an alliance. The only way to get rid of the terror beast problem on your planet is for you to work with us.”
It was a tempting offer, but I felt like there was something more they were not telling me, something very important. I folded my arms for a minute and closed my eyes to think to myself on my next move. It was true, they had another use for me besides being the liaison. Their plan most likely involved me doing something vital and life-threatening. If I survived this, I was going to ask for a raise from the government. I opened my eyes again and noticed their heads turned towards the central hologram monitor.
“We don’t have all day, you know?” another impatient older man in room yelled at me, and banged the table with his fist.
I don’t know what his problem was; it really was not his choice to force me to join them. Carefully, I pondered to myself, rationalizing what my remaining options were. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any left at the moment. Every choice I could make all boiled up to the same thing. Realizing that, I looked up and took a risky gamble.
“What happens if I say no?” I spoke, tucking my arms. I needed to know how desperately they needed my help.
“Are you sure you want to say no?” Kristin said and looked me in the eye without blinking.
I gulped and thought to myself for a second. My words of choice didn’t seem to fool her at all. She knew what I was up to and wasn’t going to fall into my lure.
“Fine, but I want you to give me back my armor and weapons,” I said and got up to leave. “I will cooperate with you, just this one time.”
As I left, I didn’t look back. The door opened and closed behind me, automatically. The hallway was completely vacant and silent; everything seemed unfamiliar to me. I had no idea which direction I had come from. Great, I left trying to act cool, and now I was outside, not knowing where to go. Darn! If I went back inside, they would think I was an idiot. “Oh well!”
I decided to walk and figure out the place on my own. Eventually, I would stumble upon someone who would guide me back. I could smell an aroma in the air of food. It seemed I was going back in the right direction, towards the kitchen. My stomach rumbled with each step I took. I walked for a few minutes without seeing a single trace of alien people in the floor tunnels. It was strange and quite odd. Much was to be said about my new allies, they weren’t much on trust; however, they were very powerful. A few questions still remained on my mind and I couldn’t figure them out. What kind of alliance did they want to forge with my superiors? Why did they choose me? Was this a trap? As far as I was concerned, the mission was over. It was time to buckle up and prepare for a great storm. Stopping another terror beast invasion and destroying the dimensional warp gate was the most important thing to me. Suddenly, I smelled the sweet aroma of food again, and I dashed towards it without hesitation. I skidded past the corner and threw myself at the metal hatch between me and the food. My mind had turned completely blank as food was all I could think of. I opened the hatch door without knocking and went inside. There was a bright glare of light, as I found myself at the center of a big room full of alien people. They stopped eating and turned all of their attention towards me completely. It felt like I was some stranger from another planet. Oh wait, I was a stranger from another planet to these guys, so this reaction was to be expected. Everyone went silent, without a warning. This much attention was too much for me. I was a bit shy, so I looked down and made my way to the source of all the food. Whoa! Even on this planet, I was surprised to see that they also had service drones that prepared food.
“What would you like to eat?” the drone asked and showed me a list of everything on the menu. As expected, there wasn’t anything I was accustomed to on earth, which sort of upset me. However, I was hungry and I needed to eat something. I scanned through the menu and didn’t find anything exactly appetizing. The sensation I felt from their alien eyes was rather maddening. Quickly, I ordered randomly and waited while my food was being prepared. I heard them start to whisper silently amongst themselves about me. It was so uncomfortable and yet annoying that I just wanted to lash out and tell them to stop it. The robot made a beeping noise, alerting that my food was ready. I picked up the food and walked towards the vacant table, at the left corner. As I sat down to eat, I could still hear them talk and laugh at my expense.
“How unusual it is to find a true earthling, in here,” a voice said and I noticed a man sitting beside me. “What are you doing here, so far from home?”
I chewed my food hard. “Good question. If I knew, you would be the first to know.”
The food was a bit unusual, to say the least, and almost tasted like vomit mixed with sugar. It left an after crunch feeling in my mouth that made my taste buds all wobbly.
“Ah! Havoc beast vomit is a good choice, it is a delicacy in this part of the planet,” he said and ate his food.
Wait, I stopped chewing and looked at him. He looked serious and rather captivated with me. Did he say havoc beast vomit? No wonder it tasted terrible. I felt like throwing up at the moment.
“What is this?” I spat out the food completely. “Is this some sort of joke?”
He looked at me strange and laughed, �
��Oh, so you didn’t know? What you are eating was taken from the vomit of havoc beasts. It’s quite good, just takes a lot of getting used to, that’s all. By the way, I wouldn’t vomit if I was you; on this planet, we consider that to be rude.”
Really, I wouldn’t have guessed that at all from first glance. There was so much about this planet I really hated. I felt like throwing up, although, I held it in and puked a lit bit in my mouth. It was so hard to act natural with all the eyes in the room, staring directly at me, with no breaks in between.
“Do you always give your guests this much attention?” I chuckled, feeling annoyed by the unwanted stares.
The alien stranger, next to me, sighed and took out a device that looked like sync locker machine, “no, just to those we have never seen before, especially earthlings. It’s been a while since I last saw earth. I would like to ask you how things have been, but there is no time. Kristin already told you what is happening right now, so I will cut right to the chase. We are going to the kingdom of Ras soon—go grab your gear and be ready to move out.”
“Wait, what!”
Was he for real? He quickly stood up and left in a hurry, leaving me clueless at to what we were exactly doing. I slowly rinsed my mouth with what appeared to be water and sighed completely. And so it begins. My future was going to be determined within the next few hours. Honestly, not exactly how I expected things to play out. I wanted to learn the truth, but not like this. I was no longer sure if I still wanted my questions answered. What am I thinking? Time was of the essence. Courageously, I closed my eyes and ate the remaining terror beast vomit, in order to restore my energy. It was a terrible choice, but necessary, nonetheless. I got up and jolted out of the compartment without the slightest moment of delay. I stopped again, completely confused—I had no idea where I was. The floors all looked the same; this underground fortress was almost similar to a labyrinth. Left or right! Which way? I didn’t want to get lost, but time was not on my side—and I had to go retrieve my armor.