by T. R. Harris
Jym hurried out of the room, while Kaylor leaned against a crate and watched the creature, who stared back at him with a look of fierce defiance. Go ahead and glare at me you animal, Kaylor thought. I’m not about to let you get the best of me. Not again.
********
The thing was just standing there, staring at him. By this time, Adam had accepted the fact that he wasn’t dreaming, and that this was all too real. Even if it was a ruse, the makeup and special effects were far beyond anything the Taliban or Al Qaeda could do. Besides, why would they even bother? Terrorists weren’t known for their subtlety or sophistication.
So this was real … which meant this was a real alien standing in front of him.
The creature stood about his height, with pasty white skin that showed the pale purple traces of veins underneath. Its build was slight, yet proportional, even though it didn’t appear to be very muscular. Yet it was the face that was so—alien. The nose was extremely wide, with hardly a rise associated with it, and the eyes were very narrow and set wide apart. The mouth was small with thin lips, and when it spoke, Adam noticed upper and lower rows of very small, slightly rounded teeth. There was very little hair on the head, grayish in color and mainly at the sides, wrapping around two very small, almost nonexistent ears. And just below the ears dangled two, inch-long fingers of skin – for what purpose Adam was afraid to speculate.
The alien had two thin arms—one with what was clearly a cast on it – which ended with normal looking hands; four fingers and a thumb. Around the torso the creature wore a white wrap of some kind, fitted tightly over a light blue set of coveralls.
The overall effect was both alien and familiar at the same time. But whatever it was, this thing had him tied to a table, unable to move – and that made this alien his enemy.
The smaller, hairy creature came rushing back into the room carrying a small box about the size of a ring case. It moved up along the side of the table, opened the box and took out something. Adam struggled to move away as the alien reached toward his head; then he felt a warm sensation on the skin behind his ear. The warmth quickly turned to a burning, stinging pain that quickly subsided. The small creature backed away.
“Can you hear me now?” The phrase caught Adam by surprise, not so much for its content, but from the fact that the movement of the creature’s mouth did not match the words he heard.
Hesitantly, Adam responded. “Yeah, I can hear you. You speak English?”
“Your language is in the Library, that’s all,” the thing said. Again, the non-synchronized mouth and sounds reminded him of watching T.V. with the sound slightly out of synch. It was unnerving.
“What the hell am I doing here? And what … what are you?”
The two creatures looked at each other, and Adam noticed a mutual reaction from both. The big one stepped forward.
“Like I said, I am Kaylor, and this is Jym.” The voice came over as strong and confident, if slightly higher-pitched than Adam’s. “Who are you?”
Alarms went off in Adam’s mind, and again his training took over. “I’m Petty Officer 2nd Class Adam Cain, United States Navy. That’s all I have to tell you.”
The big one—Kaylor—gave a look of disgust. “That seems like a very long name. Do you prefer to be called Petty? Or Officer … or what?”
“No, petty officer is my rank. Petty Officer 2nd Class. My name is Adam Cain.”
“Greetings Adam Cain.”
“You can just call me Adam.” This was getting ridiculous.
Kaylor’s head bounced from left to right. “Very well, Adam, as for background, you are now aboard my ship … and you are safe.”
Adam jerked against the straps holding him to the table. “If I’m safe, then why am I tied down here?” Then not waiting for an answer, Adam went ahead and asked the most monumental question of his life: “Are you … aliens?”
The two creatures exchanged another look, and then the small one spoke. “If you refer to a being who is not from where you come from and is different from you, then I submit it is you who is the alien here, and not us.” The tone, even for an alien, was sarcastic and condescending.
Kaylor placed a hand on Jym’s arm. “To you, Adam, we would be aliens, yet the term does not have much meaning to us. There are so many other worlds and races that by your definition everyone is an alien. Where are you from?”
“I’m not tellin’ you shit! I saw what you did to those other … things.”
“I did not do that. I came aboard later—”
“He saved your life!” Jym blurted out.
If he had not already seen the tiny gray beings, Adam was sure he would have been in complete shock and awe with the fact that here he was talking with two very real-life aliens. But that moment had passed, replaced now with a seething, burning anger. He was being held prisoner, and that was all that mattered now.
He tried to calm down; he closed his eyes for a moment and took in a couple of deep breaths. He would have liked nothing more than to spend time trying to reason with these aliens in an effort to release him, but that wasn’t going to be possible … not now. When he regained his composure, Adam Cain had only one thing on his mind.
“Listen,” he said slowly, “if you don’t let me loose pretty soon and show me where the closest bathroom is, we’re going to have a real mess around here.”
“Bath … Room?” Again, the two aliens looked at each other.
“Yeah – bathroom, restroom, head, latrine … whatever you call it here. I have to relieve myself, and I mean right now!”
The two aliens appeared to panic, while Adam got the distinct impression that they hadn’t planned for this. Finally Kaylor spoke. “We can’t risk untying you; you nearly killed me before. Is there anything else we can do?”
“Like what, give me a bedpan? No, you’re going to have to let me loose, and I mean quickly.”
Reaching a decision, Kaylor stepped away from the table and drew his weapon. “This is set for a level-one max bolt – this time it will kill you. Do not attempt to attack either of us.” His head shook back and forth again, this time in the direction of Jym. The tiny bear-like creature stepped forward and began to loosen the straps.
Soon Adam was free, and when he jumped off the table, he found he was lightheaded but could still function reasonably well. “Follow Jym,” Kaylor commanded. “I’ll be behind you at a safe distance.”
Obeying, Adam was led out of the warehouse and into a narrow, dimly-lit hallway. About ten meters down, Jym slid open a door and Adam stepped into what was a restroom of strange familiarity. There was a bank of sinks and even some dirty mirrors on the wall above them. Against another wall were two seats rising up from the floor with holes placed in them. What do you know, aliens use toilets!
Adam quickly slipped past Jym and plopped down on the nearest seat, separating the filthy sheet he still wore as he did so. Then looking over at the two aliens, he said, “Do you mind; how about a little privacy?”
“While relieving yourself? Why?” Kaylor asked.
“It’s just how we do it. Please.”
Reluctantly, the two aliens backed out of the room and slid the door shut, at which point Adam should have been thinking about looking for a way out. But first things first—he really had to go.
Once he was done, he looked around for toilet paper and a flush handle, but found neither. All he spotted was a blue button on the wall to his right; he pushed it and immediately felt a warm sensation on his butt, followed by a small puff of smoke that was immediately sucked into a vent at the toilet bowl lining.
And that was that; he felt clean and there was no residue in the bowl. Pretty neat, he thought. Advanced alien shitter technology….
Now it was time to get down to business. Standing up, Adam quickly began to survey the room for another door or a window, any avenue of escape. Then his gaze fell upon an image in one of the dirty mirrors; it was of a gaunt man with a short, straggly beard and a twisted crop of longish, oily bl
ond hair. Was it him?
He moved closer to the mirror. What had happened? This was indeed a reflection of him in the mirror, but now his formerly clean-shaven face easily displayed a two-to three-week growth of beard, accompanied by two to three inches of hair on his normally crew-cut head. Being a sailor—and especially with his rating—he had kept the hair on his head down to a bare minimum. Now look at him. He must have been unconscious for a lot longer than he thought.
Yet the scariest part of it all was that it seemed like only a few hours had passed since he was on patrol in the Kush, with Zack and Peanut and the rest of the men from his Team. And he’d lost weight, too—a lot of it in fact. So he must have been under for a good two to three weeks … probably more.
Then as he stood staring at the stranger in the mirror, another thought came crashing down on him: Maria and Cassie!
He broke out in a cold sweat and began to tremble violently. If he had been unconscious for what could be weeks – either in the warehouse room or in that canister – then what was happening with his wife and two-year-old daughter? If he had been captured—wait, abducted—then he would have been reported as missing-in-action, along with all that implied. His knees suddenly grew weak and he nearly collapsed. He steadied himself on the sink. What are they going through? he thought. My God, they must think I’m dead!
Just then, the door to the restroom slid open and the tall alien with the gun entered. “That’s long enough. Let’s get back—”
Adam suddenly spun around facing the alien, his eyes wide, his bottom lip trembling. “My family—they think I’m dead!”
Kaylor gripped the weapon tighter, preparing for something that never came. Instead, Adam dropped to his knees and held his head in his hands. Then looking up at Kaylor through tear-filled eyes, he said, “You have to get me home. They can’t go on believing I was killed – or even worse – captured by those savages.”
Kaylor began to say something, but then stopped. Slowly he lowered his weapon; Jym moved up next to him. “What are you doing?”
“Let us all go down to the common room,” Kaylor said. “I believe we have much to discuss.”
Chapter 6
A few minutes later, Adam had regained his composure – to a point – and was seated at a table in the center of the common room, an area that resembled a combination dining hall and lounge. He felt as if he was losing his mind, as the events of the past few hours all came crashing down on him. A strange numbness filled his body and he appeared to be just going through the motions as he was led down a series of ladders and then into the room where he now found himself. Even looking at the strangeness of the other two occupants of the room didn’t seem to faze him.
“Would you like something to drink?” the tall alien asked.
Adam simply nodded, but was surprised when the creature—Kaylor was his name—placed a small box on the table in front of him. Adam just looked up at him.
After a moment Kaylor reacted. “You truly are primitive,” he said with disgust. “It’s a sampling box. It is used to test your blood to see what food and drink you can tolerate. Do you not have anything like this where you come from?”
“Nah, we just eat whatever don’t make us sick,” was Adam’s feeble reply. Kaylor told him to stick his finger in the box; there was a slight prick of pain and then the alien took the box away. He placed it in a slot above a table that jutted from the wall and almost instantly a panel slid open revealing a glass of brownish liquid. Kaylor brought the drink over to the table and sat down opposite Adam. The smaller one—Jym was his name—was seated on a couch, and about as far away from Adam as he could get.
Still in a daze, Adam took the glass and sampled its contents. Not bad, kind of like Coke, even with some carbonation. It was then that he noticed how dry his throat was, as the liquid burned a painful path down to his stomach. And then it hit there, setting off an explosion of gurgles and rumbling like he’d never experienced before.
“How long was I out for?” he asked once his stomach settled down.
“Not more than a couple of hours.”
“How about in that canister, where the other people were?”
“That I do not know. Like I said, we came upon that ship later on, after the pirates had already attacked it.”
Pirates? Ships? What was this … a Disney ride? But wait—
“You’re not talking about ships at sea are you? We’re in space?”
Adam was beginning to recognize the look of confusion on the faces of the aliens, and here it was again. “Of course we’re in space,” Kaylor answered.
“And this is another spaceship, a different one than I was on before?”
“Correct. This is my ship. Mine and Jym’s.”
So he was in outer space, aboard a starship and with a couple of real aliens. Damn!
This was all fascinating, and in a different circumstance he might have felt more excited. But now was not the time. Instead, he cut to the chase. “I have to get back home. Can you take me there?”
“Where are you from?”
“Cali—I mean I’m from Earth.”
Jym appeared to burst into laughter, or what Adam took as alien laughter. “You’re from the planet Dirt? That is not a very creative name for a planet.”
Adam had already decided he didn’t like this particular alien very much. “No, Earth … not dirt.”
Kaylor stepped into the conversation: “The translation we’re hearing has it as dirt, soil, ground—things like that, but we can amend the translator to give your planet the designation of Earth.”
“Thank you. And speaking of that, how can I understand what you’re saying now?”
“It’s the translator bug—device—Jym placed behind your ear. Everyone has one, everyone except you. Your planet appears to be very primitive.”
Even through his stupor, Adaqm felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise from the backhanded insult. But he said nothing. Instead, he watched as Jym crossed the room and sat down at a small desk. He punched a few keys on an in-laid keyboard and began to read. Adam could see the writing on the screen, but he couldn’t read any of it. It was all Greek to him.
“Earth, the home planet of the Human race,” Jym began, “including the Afghanis, Americans, Armenians … whoa! There’s a whole list of races that come from your planet.”
“Those aren’t races, they’re countries, or people from those countries.”
“You mean your planet is divided into all these different groups? But you’re all of the same species, correct?” Jym’s voice was again laced with a condescending tone.
“Yeah, that’s right.” Adam took the last gulp of his drink. “Can you take me there or not?”
Jym turned back to the screen. After a moment of scanning the readout, he turned back toward Adam. “Not feasible. Earth is rumored to be located in the Far Arm, actual location: unknown.”
The words hit Adam like a punch in the face. “What does that mean … the Far Arm? Don’t you guys have charts or maps you can follow? And how can it be unknown if you know my language?” He could feel the panic growing in his chest. “Hey, I didn’t sign up for this. I’ve got to get back home!”
Kaylor took a deep breath. “Languages are assimilated into the Library without reference or source. This simply means that your planet has been visited before—as your presence here also testifies. But being in the Far Arm – which is a wilderness to us – means that the location of your world has never been accurately ascertained. And if this is the case, then there is nothing we can do to get you back—”
“And even if we knew where it was, it would cost a fortune to take you there.” Jym interrupted.
“This is bullshit!” Adam yelled.
That look of confusion crossed Kaylor’s face once again. “I do not understand the connotation between some sort of animal excrement and your situation,” he said.
“Bullshit. BULLSHIT! It means this is unbelievable. Like I said, I didn’t ask to be here, and
I demand that you take me back.”
Kaylor stood up and began to draw his weapon, yet before his hand reached the grip, Adam grabbed the alien’s wrist. Kaylor winched in pain.
“Don’t even think about it.” Adam spat out between gritted teeth. “I don’t want to hurt you guys; I actually believe this isn’t your fault. But I’m pretty pissed off right about now and I’m in a terrible mood.”
Kaylor fell back in the chair and placed his hands on the table in front of him, while Jym sat at the little desk, stunned, his mouth agape.
“You don’t seem to understand me, pal,” said Adam, leaning in closer and staring straight into Kaylor’s eyes. “I have a wife and a kid back home, and they’re probably going through hell right now thinking that I’m dead, and that’s something I can’t live with. Someone, somewhere is going to take me back to …” he found it so hard to say, “… back to Earth.”
Kaylor began to bob his head back and forth again, a movement Adam now recognized as a nod of agreement. “We will do everything we can to help you, Adam Cain, but you must realize, we do not know where your planet is located and our ship is not capable of finding it. The Far Arm is a mostly unexplored region of space for us.”
“What about that other ship, the one you said I was on? They should know where Earth is. After all, that’s where they kidnapped me from!”
“All the occupants of the other ship are dead.”
“What about any records, logs, computer disks, or anything like that?”
Kaylor tensed. “The computer core was stolen by the pirates. I’m afraid there are no other records.”
“Who are these god-damn pirates?” Adam slammed his fist down hard on the table, denting it and sending a loud report throughout the room.
“We don’t know who they are. They are a menace here in The Void and throughout the Fringe. No one knows who they are or where they come from.”
“Bullshit! Somebody knows.”
Kaylor hesitated, and then said, “No…no bullshit. All I can promise you is that when we get to Nimor, we will turn you over to the Ministry and maybe they can help you.”