by S D Taylor
Doug instinctively hit the ground, but as he glanced up he again saw the hover vehicle above them, just as it had been that afternoon. It had put an end to the pirates both times. But what was next. He felt a sense of terror he had seldom experienced in his life. It was as if he was in the presence of a force beyond his capacity to deal with or even understand. And it seemed to be evil, despite the fact that the last two explosions took out some particularly nasty people that were a thorn in Doug’s side. He knew that he and his friends could be scheduled for the next fireball.
The burning foliage near the explosion provided a flickering and ghostlike illumination for the scene as the hover vehicle descended silently and landed between the camp and the machine gun manned by Peter and Gaby. As the door on the side opened, Doug began to run as fast as he could toward it.
What emerged from this flying saucer did nothing to dispel the impression of an alien invasion. It had roughly human form, but did not move like a human with its rapid and jerky motions. It had unusually long legs and arms gave it an otherworldly appearance that caused Doug to have a visceral fear of it. He thought “it” in his mind rather than “him” since it didn’t look quite human. It walked quickly towards Peter and Gaby, and was undeterred by a warning burst of machine gun fire. Erin was approaching from the camp as well, keeping her weapon trained on the alien-like stranger but not firing. They were all transfixed by the unreality of the situation.
The thing walked with rapid, insect-like motions. Pausing for a second, then making three or four very rapid steps. Turning its head rapidly in stop and go motions as it looked around. Doug thought it looked like a metallic bug and he felt fear at trying to fight it. It had to be seven feet tall and with the very long arms would have easily subdued any human it ran into.
The thing quickly reached out and grabbed Peter and Gaby by their arms. It had a vice-like metal grip that was firm without damaging their muscles or skin. Peter was fascinated by it, even as he was trying to decide how to kill it. The bullets they fired at it seemed to be deflected by some form of protective shielding. The insect-like man pulled him and Gaby up out of their trench and carried them to the hover vehicle. It tossed them into the open door and turned around to confront Erin, who had followed it all the way back to its craft. She started to fire her machine pistol, but the insect man knocked it out of her hands with its long metallic arm. It than grabbed her shoulder and turned back to its vehicle. By now, the raiding party was closing fast and Doug standing between the thing dragging Erin towards him and the hover vehicle door.
“Doug, run before it gets you too!” Erin screamed as it was dragging her forward.
Doug raised the AK-47 to fire, but he hesitated with Erin so close to his target. It was a big mistake since the insect man saw him as a threat and activated its defense capability. Holding Erin in its left hand, it held up its right hand, palm facing out and fired an orange pulse of energy that hit Doug in the face and neck, dropping him to the ground where he stood. As he hit the ground, violent spasms shook his body. Erin screamed at the sight as the insect-like monster pulled her right past Doug and into the open door of the craft. The door closed and the craft rose silently and rapidly above the trees, heading west at high speed. It was gone before they could blink twice. Running forward and seeing this, Tom yelled “No! No! No!” as loud as his voice would allow as he ran towards Doug, who lay there immobilized and seemingly near death from the stunpulse charge that passed through him. Erin, Peter and Gaby had been abducted and Tom had no idea where they had been taken or if he would ever see them again. He cradled Doug’s head in his lap as Flying Raven and Megan arrived on the scene. For the first time, Tom felt his faith in himself slipping away. For all their sakes, he would have to find it again soon.
Chapter 8
Peter, Erin and Gaby sat on the metal floor inside the hover vehicle, held gently in place by an unseen force they didn’t understand. They were not feeling any pressure but they could not lift their legs off the floor or move around in any way. A feeling that could be described as a mixture of claustrophobia, fear and awe gripped them as they looked around the inside of the small craft. The strange creature that had abducted them and injured or killed Doug was kneeling next to them and watching them carefully. The light inside the craft was subdued but they could now clearly see this was no alien. It was a man who had been enhanced with long metallic arms and legs that reminded them of the limbs you would find on a Praying Mantis. He stared at them each in turn but said nothing. He looked like the love child of a large metal insect and a human.
The craft was divided into sections on the inside and they were in a wedge-shaped room. There was light in the room but no obvious source that provided it. It was as if the walls were luminescent. The walls had an opaque silver-colored metal coating that went from floor to ceiling and there was a single closed door near the center of the craft. Erin assumed that whoever piloted the craft was in there. She decided to break the ice and try to get some information.
“What are you and why did you abduct us?” She stared at their strange jailer, not really expecting an answer.
He turned to face Erin and spoke calmly and clearly. “You should remain quiet until your interrogation.” He had an emotionless stare that sent a shiver of fear through Erin.
“Fine, but . . .” Erin could not finish the sentence because a sudden pain shot through her entire body, causing her to have violent spasms as she sat tied to the floor by the unseen force. The pain only lasted 3 seconds but it felt like a lifetime to Erin. Her heart was racing and she could feel the slowly receding agony in every part of her body. She had an overwhelming sense that she nearly died from the shock, but she wondered if that was part of the experience. These people had very advanced technology, especially for killing and causing pain. She stared intently at the hybrid monster before her but said nothing more.
“You were told to remain quiet until your interrogation. Do you understand now?” The metal insect man turned his head to one side and pointed one metallic claw-like finger at Erin as he said it.
She nodded once, not interested in seeing if he would shock her again for answering a direct question. Even as she was feeling the shock, she noticed that Gaby and Peter were unaffected. Somehow, this monster was able to direct his pain inducer to an individual without any noticeable movement or specific attachments to the person receiving the pain. She had seen the pulse of electricity he used against Doug but what hit her was more subtle. Targeted at her alone and clearly calibrated to cause severe pain without causing death or injury.
It was clear to Erin that this had to be future technology, just as Doug had speculated. The temporal rifts caused by the vortex weapon on the Rasputin must have allowed this vehicle and these people to come from the future to the reality they were all sharing now. Unless these people knew how to create their own temporal rifts. It occurred to Erin, as she fought through the pain and humiliation of lying there, that these people may have worked out a way to control the vortex technology. Then everything went dark.
When she opened her eyes, Erin was in a cell with Peter and Gaby. They had bunk beds on either side and there was a small porthole where she could see the blue ocean and sky. The door was a clear, thick plastic with small air holes along the bottom and top. The front wall on either side of the door was also made of the same clear plastic. The other walls were gray metal like you might expect onboard a boat.
“What happened? We were sitting on that flying saucer and suddenly we wake up here.” Peter stopped talking and glanced nervously around. “Will they let us talk now? I don’t know what exactly they did to you, Erin, but I am not anxious to try it.”
Erin sat on the edge of the bunk and took stock of her body. She did not feel any residual pain from the shock she had received from the hybrid metallic man. “I guess if they aren’t here to listen to us, we might be safe to chat a bit.”
“Are you ok, Erin?” Gaby looked concerned. “I thought he killed you when
you were writhing on the ground. Who are these people? Do you think they came here from the future?”
“It is the only explanation I can offer. There is nothing in our world like this. I know Doug thought so as well. We talked about it after the saucer destroyed the helicopter. The way it could maneuver seemed like something out of some alien abduction story.”
Peter studied the door and how it was hinged and locked. “I don’t understand how this door works. Even something this simple seems very advanced. If they aren’t from the future, I would be hard pressed to explain any of this.”
A slender young woman with shoulder-length blond hair and a loose fitting white garment that resembled a pilot’s flight suit walked into the hall outside their cell. She was slightly shorter than Erin and walked with an athletic military posture. “Fortunately, we do not have to explain anything regarding this boat or our hover vehicle. It would be far beyond your limited mental ability to understand and we have no interest in trying to educate you. But to answer your question, you are free to speak about anything you want now that you are on the boat. I am sorry if my mechanized assistant harmed you in his zeal to strictly follow my orders to retrieve you.” Her skin was very pale and she had dark brown eyes. By any standard, she was beautiful. But in a porcelain doll way that hardly seemed real. Coupled with the passive, slightly amused look on her face and obvious military bearing, this woman presented a pretty mysterious package.
Erin walked slowly over to the transparent wall to take a closer look at this new visitor. “May we know your name and why you are holding us captive?”
The blond woman turned toward Erin and looked her up and down, as if she was looking at a horse she planned to buy. She left the silence hang in the air for about thirty seconds past the comfortable point. “You are here because we plan to do some experiments and we needed subjects who had transited a temporal rift. Each of you meets our criteria. You will be going home with us and having a very interesting time. While it lasts, anyway. How long it lasts will depend on you.”
Erin pressed for her original question. “And what may we call you?”
The woman stared at Erin without emotion or irritation. “Perhaps you should call me God. Given the level of knowledge and technology difference between our worlds, that would be the most appropriate thing for you to call me.”
“If we refuse to feed your ego and want to call you by the name you are called in your world, would you allow us to?” Erin prepared for another shock, but it didn’t happen.
The woman in white laughed. “You are trying to provoke me in hopes of defining your boundaries. We are not so easily manipulated. But I have no ego to protect. My name is Dara. I do not mind if you call me that. It will neither irritate me nor endear you to me. But if it helps you to feel more comfortable, you have my approval.”
“Thank you, Dara. Do you want to know our names?” Erin glanced at Peter and Gaby, both of whom were watching Erin intently, half expecting her to be shocked any second.
“I appreciate your offer, but I would ask you a question in return. Would you name laboratory rats if you were using them for experiments?” Dara had a slight smile as she asked that ominous question.
Erin fought the wave of nausea that passed through her at that question and pressed on. “Yes. I named my lab rats in biology class. Even the ones that were dead and used for dissections.” Erin had not ever had lab rats or done dissections, but she liked the bravura spirit of the comment.
“Did you ask the rats what they called each other, or did you just assign them names that you chose?”
“I asked them their names. Back then we still had the ability to speak with rats.” Erin stared hard at Dara as she said that. She almost winked, but thought better of it.
“Fine. What do you rats call yourselves?” Dara was ready to go and was showing signs of impatience.
“I am Erin. This is Peter. And this is Gaby.” Erin touched each of them on the shoulder as she said their names.
Dara turned to go. “I am glad you were able to take care of that. I know how important it was to you. It turns out you are not the first woman named Erin that we have found on this island. But the other one was quite a bit older.”
Chapter 9
Doug lay on a cot in one of the tents that made up the improvised field hospital. He was unconscious and his breathing was shallow. But he was breathing. Ying and Megan sat nearby, watching him and wishing they could do something to help him. At least he was still breathing.
Tom was outside talking to Flying Raven. “You should not stay here any longer than necessary. I am worried those people will return and kill or kidnap more of us. If you and your people are off this island you will likely be safe from them.”
“Why do you say that? They can go anywhere with the flying disk.”
“Yes, you are correct, but the events that may have drawn them here have all been centered on this island. They must be from the future and I am guessing that they are here to either study what happened or clean it up. Either way, they are a threat to both of us and our people.”
The tall man who was the leader of his people looked out to sea as the sun was just beginning to appear over the far mountains to the east. “Perhaps you are right. I hate to leave a fight that is not finished, but my people are powerless against these new demons. We must think of the good of our tribe and not waste our lives on a fight with no possibility of victory.”
“Will your canoe be seaworthy after the repairs?” Tom saw that several men had been working non-stop on the bullet holes.
“Yes. They can fashion wooden plugs and secure them with tree sap. We will have extras in case they leak. We will get home just fine. My people and I will leave by midday. Thank you for all your help and for saving as many of my people as possible. You will always have friends on Haida Gwaii if you are ever in need of them.”
“Thank you. You and your people helped us greatly as well. Hopefully, we can destroy this new evil and free this island of it so you can return here in the future.”
Tom turned and walked to the last tent and entered through the flap. Ying was wiping Doug’s head with a damp cloth while Megan was dozing nearby.
“How is he doing?” Tom was worried that they could not possibly deal with the potential damage that Doug had suffered from the burst of energy that dropped him in his tracks.
“He has been very quiet, Tom. He is breathing normally now, but he has not been awake. I am not sure there is anything we can do for him except to keep checking to see if he is still alive.”
Megan sat up at the sound of talking and Tom hugged her. The close contact between them was like a drug that calmed their fear for just a few seconds. “Come outside with me, Megan. You need a little fresh air. We will be right back, Ying. Then you can take a break.”
“I am ok, Tom. Thank you. You and Megan take a walk. I’ll be here.” Ying had become a solid member of the team, putting her fear away and doing her job with no complaints and little thought of her own safety or comfort. Megan smiled at her and nodded.
Tom opened the tent flap and they went outside. He and Megan walked towards Peter’s machine gun nest and sat on the on the nearby grass.
“It all seemed simpler when we were just fighting the pirates and trying to get the vortex weapon. Now we are up against an enemy that we can’t understand, let alone hope to defeat. These guys from the future seem so advanced that we could end up as their slaves or worse.”
Megan hadn’t seen Tom so down, even when he was blind. Seeing Doug wiped out by the big metal insect man seemed to have taken a chunk out of Tom’s soul. “Tom, we have to keep from sinking into doubt or self-pity at this point. Sure, it seems like an impossible challenge, but we have survived against outrageous odds every day for the past week. Don’t give up now. We will find something to give us an edge to destroy these guys.”
“On some level, I know you are right, Megan, but seeing Doug lying over there, maybe dying, does something to me. And I
can’t help feeling that we are in danger staying here. We have a choice of being killed by pirates with rifles or blasted to hell with rayguns by the future people. More than anything, I want to find a place where you and I can get away from all this and hide.
“That might sound good, but who wants to live in hiding. We need to get moving once Doug is better. Staying here is probably the only mistake we could make. If we are on the move, it is less likely that saucer vehicle and the insect man can find us.” Megan was trying to find a scenario that felt better than giving up. She could tell that at the very least she had Tom considering other alternatives.
“If Doug is well enough, we could find where Peter and John were hiding out. It was pretty comfortable from what John and Doug told us. But until Doug is conscious, I won’t know how to find it. At least it’s a plan. Sorry, Megan. I don’t mean to be so negative. I am thankful that you are ok and didn’t get shot or kidnapped. So please don’t think I am ungrateful. Things could be worse.”