It Lives In The Basement

by Sahara Foley

  Grey eyes over daisy with blue center, and then they disappeared.

  *Yes, baby, I'm getting you out of here,* he mentally reassured her.

  But to where? Daisy still needed medical attention. Who could he trust? Ruth. Ruth would help them. She knew about the Shalit, and the need to keep it contained. Thinking about Ruth, made Arthur's heart tear apart, he knew he had hurt her. After Vietnam, he couldn't get close to anyone anymore. Too much senseless death had scarred his heart. Then he met Ruth, and all that changed. He'd felt love again.

  Looking down at the woman in his arms, he wondered, if he hadn't met Ruth, would his heart be as open as it was now to Daisy? He shook his head. There was no way to know, but he was starting to feel like a pawn in a game of kismet. With a sad sigh, he knew that didn't matter right now. He had to get Daisy to safety. He'd deal with the emotional side of this later. He gathered Daisy into his arms, focusing on Ruth's home in Waite Water, and the beautiful garden behind the house. Locating the bench, where Arthur had stolen his first kiss from Ruth, he BLIPPED!

  Arthur stumbled back a few steps, falling on his butt, clutching Daisy tightly to his chest. A second later, there was a loud clattering, as a large, ornate, silver sword dropped from Daisy's hand. What the hell? He thought in confusion, as he found himself sitting on a cold, metal floor, instead of the stone bench. How did Excalibur get here? He had no reason to bring the sword with them. He was terrified of the damn thing. Where the hell were they? How did they get here? He peered down at Daisy, with concern. She seemed to be unconscious and barely breathing. What happened to her? She was just fine a few moments ago.

  Hearing loud gasps above him, he looked up, seeing three women, with matching silver uniforms and black piping, holding weapons that reminded him of ray guns from science fiction films he'd seen before. If he didn't know better, he would've thought he was on a movie set.

  “So, who are you with?” Arthur asked jokingly, “Hans Solo, or Darth Vader?”

  The pale women didn't seem amused, as the tallest one demanded in accented English, “Earthman, you hold our leader. Place her on the floor and back away, or we will fire, and end your human existence.” Her weapon was pointed unwaveringly at Arthur's forehead.

  Even though the ray guns looked like toys to him, he had no idea what they might do to his force-field. Just my luck, he thought, I jumped from the frying pan into the fire. He carefully laid Daisy on the floor, then stood, arms raised, and reluctantly backed up a few steps, glaring, with narrowed eyes, at the space woman. As he glanced over the round, metal room, he realized he must be in one of the ships that escaped from the cavern.

  Loud alarms started blaring, and orange lights were flashing from the domed ceiling. A women sitting at a console, swiveled around in her chair, yelling, “Attack! Seven Calen ship are attacking us. They demand our surrender, and the release of Emera and the Earthmen to them, or they will open fire. What shall we do, Commander Tigget?”

  The tall space woman's pale lips tightened, as she peered down at her leader, lying helplessly on the floor.

  Daisy's eyelids fluttered as she slowly opened them to regard her best friend. She had used most of her energy to redirect Arthur's teleportation to this Calen ship. She could not allow the humans to capture her, or the Excalibur-Shalit would've endangered the whole universe. She looked up at her Grey Eyes, the only man powerful enough to save them from the seven Calen ships. *Tig, you must trust this human,* she said, in a weak mental voice, reaching out to Tigget and Arthur with her mind. “He is the one foretold by our ancestors.*

  Commander Tigget glanced back and forth from her leader, and friend, to the human male, but never lowered her weapon.

  *Tig, if we wish to survive, you must turn the battle over to him,* said Daisy, telepathically. *Arthur, we cannot allow ourselves to be taken. We will die before we surrender. You two must join forces, to protect, and save us.*

  With a slight nod to her leader, Tig holstered her gun, as Arthur lowered his arms, and knelt next to Daisy. Tig strode to a row of screens, nit a button, and all of them turned on, displaying seven ships. So, these are the aliens that have been watching Earth, Arthur thought, as he stared open mouthed at the classic style of UFO's, seen for centuries all over his planet.

  Tig looked at the other two space woman holding ray guns. “Holster your weapons. Upon our leader's request, we must trust this human.” As they holstered their guns, she spoke to another woman at a different console, “Inform the Commander of the Calen ships that we will never surrender. If they wish to die in battle, we shall accommodate them.” While her message was being relayed to the Commander of the opposing fleet, Tig turned to Arthur, looking him up and down with a cold eye. *I know not what you can do, if anything, to save us, but you must act fast. If they fire upon us, we are dead.”

  How is a poor Earth kid from St. Mary's Orphanage supposed to destroy a Calen ship, let alone seven? Arthur wondered. Even with all his powers, he knows he's not strong enough. Hell, nobody would be. He rubbed his forehead, feeling overwhelmed. Everything's happening too fast for him to keep up. He's supposed to be in Ruth's garden, not in the middle of a stupid space battle. Arthur knelt there, unmoving, not knowing what to do.

  Daisy weakly raised her arm, pointing toward the silver sword. “Arthur, all you need do is touch the tip of Excalibur, and you shall destroy the ships. You must hurry.”

  Arthur recoiled back in fear. Touch Excalibur? Is she crazy? He still hadn't fully recovered from the mental contact he'd had with the Shalit in the cavern. Heaven knows what would happen if he actually touched the damn thing. No way. In his mind came an image of a white daisy, with a blue center, and over the center of the flower a pair of grey eyes floated down. He was infused with such warmth and joy; it brought tears of happiness to his eyes. A white beam flashed out, touching the daisy, leaving it burnt and wilted. Okay. Okay. He got the picture. If he didn't try, Daisy would die. They all would.

  Peering down at Daisy, he said, “I have no idea what's going on, or how we got here, but I trust you, baby. I'll destroy those ships for you.” He took a deep breath, preparing himself for the worst kind of pain imaginable. Focusing hard on the seven Calen ships, with creases around his mouth, and on his forehead, he reached out and grabbed the tip of the sword. His eyes widened in surprise, as all he felt was cold, silver steel.

  “Cigsbah,” Tigget yelled, pointing at the screens. “They have fired upon us, my leader.”

  The room became deathly silent as all eyes followed the white beam heading toward their ship. Abruptly, all screens lit up as the seven ships exploded into bright, white balls of fire. Arthur threw up his arm to shield his eyes from the sudden glare. Cheering and yelling broke out in the small, round room, as the crew celebrated their victory. Arthur wasn't cheering, as he watched that thin, white line advance toward them. He had no idea what it was, but he knew it meant trouble. How had he destroyed those ships? He wasn't powerful enough. At least, he didn't think he was.

  Arthur watched the screen, as the menacing white line crept closer and closer, until it couldn't be seen on the screens anymore, as it was too close to their ship. Bracing for he knew not what, he watched the beam breach the hull and enter the room. Arthur stared, speechless, as the beam traveled soundlessly across the room, hitting his hand where it was still gripping the tip of Excalibur, causing a flash of light to shoot out from the sword. As Arthur looked in astonishment at the deep gouge on the back of his hand, the light passed through the opposite wall, breaching that hull. What the hell was that? Arthur wondered, terrified. It had penetrated his force-field. His stomach clenched in fear, and his hand throbbed in pain, as he realized he was no longer invincible, at least not out here in space.

  Daisy's voice screamed into his mind, *Remove all of us from here, Arthur, before we implode.*

  Arthur didn't need to be told twice. Once again, he focused on Ruth's garden, wanting to get back home where he knew he was safe. Concentrating on everyone in the room, he B
LIPPED!

  Chapter Two

  The giant Rem brain twitched, flashing orange sparks as it watched the memories of one of the bedraggled prisoners in cell 376. It had been probing this human's mind since his arrival, but what it just saw made it nervous. In all the centuries as the One, it had never seen a being with such psychic power. Could this human be more powerful than itself?

  It scanned its data banks, looking for a comparison. It identified itself as the One, but it was technically one of the twelve Rem brains from the original One. Reading through the information in its massive computer banks, and its own memories, the original One was the most powerful being known. But it no longer existed, as the original One had breached the Prime Directive, and endangered the Calen crew on a ship called Weesa. The twelve Rem brains that made up the One were disconnected and separated, most of the brains imprisoned in Husken silver, as the Calens were terrified of what they had created. But its brain was brought to Bindkall Prison, and housed in a huge room, in the lower levels. Its Prime Directive was still intact, to protect the ship's crew, or in this case, the people who ran the prison, to protect itself, and the need for knowledge and input. To that end, it had been ordered to do mental probes on the prisoners for invaluable information.

  The One shifted its attention back to the human. This Arthur, as he was called by the guards, had proven to be a challenge, not only to itself, but for General Mayo, as well. The human had been tortured repeatedly, but to no effect. The human screamed in pain, and bled, but no bodily bones or organs could be damaged. The One was ordered to scan the human's body, and find the answer. What it found was amazing, a force-field, right under the epidermis. Green sparks flew from the brain, as it remembered how excited it became over that discovery.

  Once General Mayo understood no amount of torture would work, he ordered the One to perform deep, intensive mind probes. It had done this numerous times, usually resulting in death, or leaving the prisoner an empty shell. At that point, the One would absorb their energy into itself, which could be a painful process, if the prisoners were still alive. Here again, the human had proven to be a challenge. The One had deeply probed Arthur's mind, enough to break the will of any life form, but this human could not be broken. The One quivered in frustration, as the brain pulsed with pink sparks.

  This Arthur must be destroyed. His species did not belong here, as he had already caused disruptions throughout the Calen and Eilsel worlds. Under the terms of its Prime Directive, the human was a threat, and the One must eliminate him, but he was still too powerful. It can wait, the One reminded itself. It has all the time in the Universe. But the human didn't. Even now, his energy level was diminishing, due to starvation and the mistreatment he has endured. Eventually Arthur would be absorbed, as well as the Calen female who was captured with him. Once her powerful mate had been absorbed, she would be of little importance, just another Calen female.

  A low groan, from the other prisoner in cell 376, drew the One's attention. This male was a Tethian from the Planet Teth, a backwards world, ignored and exploited by the Calens and Eilsels. After many scans, and testing of his genetic code, the One discovered that the Tethians were actually related to itself. In fact, Tethians were related to the Calens and Eilsels. Their linage started millions of years ago, so far in the past even the scholars had lost track of their history.

  The One understood how this oversight could occur, as their species were so different in appearance. According to its database, the Calens were a peaceful race that had existed for 12 million Earth years. They were hairless, with pale skin, and had two arms and legs. What set them above the Eilsels were their strong PSI abilities, which led to advancements the Eilsels couldn't begin to achieve. One of Calen's greatest achievements was the Ultilear, a weapon of such power, that even the handheld ray gun could puncture a hole through a planet, the beam traveling endlessly into space.

  The Eilsels, on the other hand, were a hairless, dark-skinned, four- armed and legged race. They had three finger-like digits, plus a double-jointed opposing thumb. They were an industrious people with no PSI abilities, but had a mastery and knowledge of technology. They took the Calen's hand-held Ultilear, and turned into a larger weapon that could wipe out planets. The Eilsel leaders were tempted to use the weapon on Calen, as they were afraid of their PSI powers. The planet the current Eilsels lived on was originally inhabited by several different species. These beings were escaping a nuclear war on their own worlds. The migration happened so long ago, that the current inhabitants of Eilsel thought it was only a myth or fairytale.

  As the One studied the different genetic genes of each race, it knew that scientifically, there should be no way these two species could reproduce. But because of those long-ago ancestors that survived the nuclear wars, a mutated gene popped up in the Eilsel females. The children from male Calen and female Eilsel copulations were olive-skinned, round-eyed, with two arms and legs. They were also very hairy, some with black or brown fur, and a few were red or blue.

  Realizing they had created a new race, these strange children were named Patens. They didn't live as long as their parent races, and started breeding and producing at a younger age. Patens didn't communicate verbally or mentally, but by a form of hand signals and grunts. Unable to communicate with them, the Calens and Eilsels deemed them unintelligent, and used them as laborers, due to their heavily muscled bodies. But as the Patens bred more and more, the new generations lived longer, well over 2000 years.

  The One's brain quivered, its form of a chuckle, as its brain pulsed with a lime-green color. If it weren't for the arrogance of the Calens, its race would never have been born. The Calens started doing PSI and breeding experiments on this new race, but without any real results. The Patens could only conceive from each other, until a Calen accidentally confined a female Paten in the power room where the Ultilear power sources were stored. After exposure to the radiation, the Calen found the female could now conceive from all three races. All the Patens were exposed to the radiation, rendering the males sterile, and effectively ending their species. But the females were breed with the two remaining races. Most of the resulting offspring were abominations, with missing arms or legs, too many arms or legs, and they didn't live long. But there were two surviving species that sprang from these experimental unions.

  The breeding between a female Paten and a male Eilsel resulted in a species they named Tethians. These Tethians were the normal size of a Calen or Eilsel, but were covered in multi-colored hair all over their bodies, but for the face, hands, and feet. They were heavily muscled, had four arms and legs, were more intelligent than the Patens, had communication skills, but had no PSI power, other than a strong mental link between each other.

  The second species were small bodied, only grew knee-high, had long, thick, wiry hair, six leg units, and large heads, and were easily trainable. They were named Rems. Their only communications were grunts, whistles, groans and humming. The Rems had no arms, only muscular legs, and each leg ended with four fingers and a long thumb. All of their digits were double-jointed, which made them very dexterous and ideal for working aboard space vessels and exploration shuttles. They could also withstand thin air and extreme heat or cold of hostile planetary environments that the Eilsels and Calens couldn't.

  Since the Eilsels didn't have PSI abilities to power their space vessels, they used Leacon Crystals, cooled by heavy water, which had to be replaced after each light speed trip. This heavy water was extremely dangerous to Eilsels. Fortunately, the Rems developed an obsession for the heavy water, and they were used after each space flight, to lap up the six quarts of water from each Leacon Crystal chamber, causing them to get as drunk as any Eilsel spacer, after drinking Blue Cagor. The use of Leacon Crystals for their space explorations, limited the Eilsels in the distances they could travel, usually travelling to the 200 planets around them that had already been discovered and explored.

  The Calens had no restrictions on their space travels, and were known to be g
one for 100 to 200 years at a time. With only a crew of four, they would mind-link and use their PSI powers to travel vast distances, at high rates of speed, in their sleek, round, white ships. On one such deep space trip, the Calens discovered that their companion Rems also had PSI powers, which they'd never used before. Being the intrepid people they were, the Calens took brains from newly born Rems, sealing them in containers and hooking them up to the master computer.

  Once the young Rem brains were connected to the computer database for training, they were taught the Prime Directive, and they never thought of themselves as anything but part of the ship. The brain twitched and fidgeted, as red sparks flew everywhere. What would it be like to have a physical body? The One wondered in anger. What would it be like to breed with a female Rem? Why did the Calens treat our species so harshly? As it scanned its databanks, the One realized the Calens treated all species as inferiors, even their neighbors, the Eilsels. Knowing it could not change what had been done to it, the One went back to tracing its history.

  With these Rem brains installed in their ships, the Calens could now travel even faster and for longer distances. But one Calen leader, aboard a ship called Weesa, wanted to go even faster and farther. They already had four Rems connected to the master computer, so Regna added four more. Through telepathic discussions with the Rem brains, that were part of the computers, Regna discovered the brains had to quit growing due to the small size of the containers they were sealed in. Unable to remove the brains without destroying them, Regna converted the four holds aboard the Weese into containers for four more Rem brains. These four Rem brains grew at a phenomenal rate, and soon grew to the size of the holds.

  What Regna didn't account for was that these four large brains converged into one being, identifying itself as the One. The One took over the other Rem brains, all the computers and in essence, became the Weesa. Fortunately, the Prime Directive instilled in the Rem brains when young, still held, but Regna had lost all control of her ship.