Alien Attachments

by Sabine Priestley

  Apology complete, she stepped over and eased into her favorite chair.

  Armond, who sat brooding across the room, broke the silence. “Anyone care to guess the odds of Torogs being in Bellagio by chance?”

  “Zero,” Ria said. “Question is, are they following us somehow, or did they stake out the portal? And if so, are they lurking around all the portals? Do they even know where they all are?”

  “Good questions,” Ian said. “I don’t see how they could know. But even if they do, why? Why are they pursuing us? All they’ve ever done is try to sneak in and out again. This will cost them their membership in the GTO for sure. What could possibly be worth that?”

  “Maybe they’ve decided to change the game,” Marco said. “Instead of hunting humans, they’re hunting EPs.”

  “Too high a price to pay for a little sport,” Armond said. “No, it must be something else.”

  Marco mimicked Armond in a high-pitched voice. “Must be something else.”

  “Easy, Marco,” Ian said in warning. He swirled the ice around his glass, brows drawn together. His hand stopped halfway to his mouth. “Hunting. That’s it. But not to kill. To capture.”

  Ian stared at Dani, which as usual caused an array of interesting sensations.

  “What?” she asked.

  “I’m not sure.” Ian pushed off the windowsill. “You thanked me for saving you, but did I?” He nodded his head, talking faster now. “Something was off about the alley situation. I couldn’t put my finger on it.”

  Dani snickered. “You mean besides me being covered in alien innards?”

  “Yeah, besides that.” Ian grinned. “When I rounded the corner, the Torog wasn’t trying to kill you. You’d have been dead long before I got there. No, it was dragging you up the alley. Alive. They’re after you, Dani.”

  Now everyone stared at her. “That’s crazy. What would they want with me?” she asked.

  Ian shook his head. “No idea, but we’ve got to get the off-world portal working again. Everyone have their bases shielded?”

  The EPs all nodded.

  “Good, keep them up,” Ian said. “If I’d had them up on Cat Island, we wouldn’t be here now.”

  Jared leaned forward on a plush chair. “You had no way to know, boss. They’ve never been to the island before.”

  “Like Marco said, it’s a new game. Just wish we knew what we were playing.” Ian finished his drink. “It’s been a long day. We’ll prep tonight and head out first thing tomorrow.”

  “Where to?” Marco asked.

  “Obviously,” Armond said, as though Marco was a child, “Cat Island. That’s where the main portal is. That’s where the problem is.”

  Marco glared at the albino.

  “He’s right,” Ian said. “We need to get the portal open.”

  Marco leaned back on the couch and took a long drink of his beer.

  Wanting to diffuse the mood, Dani asked, “How do they work exactly? The portals.”

  Marco livened up and sat his drink down. “Portal Masters make them. It’s pretty amazing stuff. They’re powered by psi. Anyone with psi can use the portals, but they can’t create them. There are limits too. Like the amount of mass that can be moved and the number of times in an hour they can be used.”

  “If they’re broken,” Dani said, “then why did the one in the tunnel work? You said that was a portal.”

  “It is, but the portals in the tunnels are terrestrial and independent. They stand alone and only go from one end to another. The off-world portals, however, are all tied together via the main one on Cat Island.”

  “How many tunnels are there?”

  “Enough,” Ian said, clearly not wanting to say more.

  Dani pushed a little further. “So, you can travel around the world, but you can’t leave?”

  “Pretty much,” Ian said.

  “What if the Torogs destroyed the main portal?” Dani asked.

  The EPs all shook their heads.

  “You could bomb the place, burn it to the ground. Only Portal Masters can remove a portal,” Ian said.

  Dani swung her feet around to drape over the arm of the chair so she faced the group. “If it’s so impervious, how did the Torogs break it?”

  Armond scowled at her, which was the most emotion she’d seen from the guy yet. “They can’t break it.”

  “But, you just said—”

  “Only psi-abled Sandarians are Portal Masters.” Armond stood abruptly. “I don’t know what they’ve done, or how. All we know is that the main portal is down.”

  If she didn’t know better, she’d swear Armond looked spooked.

  “Is there anyway,” Ian asked, “for a non Portal Master to affect a portal?”

  “Nothing in my training would lead me to believe so,” Armond replied.

  Ian put his drink down. “Is anyone due back on Sandaria for any reason? Expecting or expected to make any calls?”

  Ria, Armond and Marco shook their heads.

  “Then it could be days,” Ian said, “before anyone realizes the portals are down. We’ll get into the villa through the caves.”

  “What about Dani?” Ria asked.

  “She comes with us. Everyone does. Until we know why they’re doing what they’re doing, we assume vulnerability across the board. Come on, we have some work to do tonight.” Ian walked behind the couch to a built-in cabinet on the far wall. He waived his palm near the surface. A large, floor-to-ceiling panel slid sideways into the wall. The others got up and gathered round.

  Dani peered in and whistled. Along the back hung row after row of what she assumed were weapons. She recognized the small gun that Jared had in the alley. “Very Men in Black, guys,” she said.

  Jared laughed. “Very. I call this one here the cricket,” he said, palming the small gun.

  Ian reached in and retrieved another one of the crickets. He handed it to Jared and nodded at Dani. “Take her to the sim room and teach her how to use this.” He turned to Gina. “You good?”

  “Si, Signor. I practice with Battista, many days.” The woman was all business now, and showed no sign of the easygoing grandmother figure from before.

  Dani followed Jared back to the tunnel. He moved to open the door when she put a hand on his arm.

  “Wait, you sure there aren’t any Torogs in there?” she asked.

  “They can’t use the tunnel portals,” Jared answered.

  “Why not?”

  “First, because the shield is active. Second, because they don’t know where the access points are. That’s part of the whole ‘no X to mark the spot’ thing. Like the door to our garage back at the bar. You have to know where it is.”

  “And they got into the tunnel on the Cat because they already knew where we were.”

  “That’s right.”

  “Okay, how did they get to Bellagio then?”

  “They have their own means of getting around Earth. They generally use small, cloaked vehicles. Slower than our tunnels, but faster than any Earth craft.”

  “Wow. Aliens among us. All those crackpots with crazy stories.”

  “Not all crazy.” Jared opened the tunnel and they made their way to another, smaller door. He pressed his palm to a pad on the left and an opening appeared.

  “The speed of these doors freaks me out,” Dani said.

  Jared chuckled. “I know what you mean.”

  Once they stepped inside, lights popped on, illuminating a massive room. It was entirely grey and completely empty. The space was fifty or more yards in each direction and at least thirty feet high.

  “This is cheery,” Dani said.

  Jared let go with a typically explosive sneeze that echoed around the space.

  “Bless you.”

  He mumbled something into a tissue and closed the door. On the wall adjacent, he fiddled with a console. Classic red, ringed targets appeared at different heights and distances, spread throughout the
room.

  Dani squinted at the closest one. “Is that real?” She walked up to the three dimensional target and reached out to touch it. Her hand went right through. “Holograms,” she said smiling.

  “It gets better. Check this out,” Jared said, turning a dial on the console. Colors on the orb intensified.

  “Touch it again,” Jared said.

  The target now had the consistency of a plastic ball. “Un. Believable.”

  “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Come on back, let’s get started.” He turned the dial back and the target returned to hologram form.

  Dani returned to Jared’s side. He reached into his pocket, pulled out the two crickets and handed one to her, demonstrating how to hold the weapon.

  “The safety is here, on the butt,” he said, pressing his finger on a small green patch.

  Dani did the same, but nothing happened.

  “Hold on, I have to key the laser to your DNA.” Jared placed his finger on the green patch on her gun then nodded for her to put her finger next to his. A low whirring sound emanated from the gun and it vibrated in her hand. Jared let go, and she held the gun in firing position.

  “Not bad,” Jared said. “Now let’s see how good a shot you are.” He aimed and fired at the nearest target. An almost imperceptible whine came from the gun and a red beam shot out the front. A black spot appeared to the left of center.

  “Wasn’t this a lot louder in the alley?” Dani asked.

  “I had it set to kill then. We’re in training mode.”

  “Ah.” Taking aim, she pulled the trigger. “Bull’s-eye! Yes!” Dani dropped her arm to her side and smiled at Jared. The gun continued its whirring.

  “Aaahh!” Jared jumped back a good three feet and stared at his foot, a shocked expression on his face. The tip of his boot remained next to Dani.

  “Oh my god, Jared are you okay? Where are your toes? Please tell me you have your toes.” Dani frantically kicked at the piece of shoe left behind. No blood, no toes. She looked at Jared.

  “They’re fine,” he said, still looking at his now open-toed shoe. “Must’ve used the wrong setting. Can I see that?” He motioned for the gun.

  Dani handed it over gladly.

  “Well,” Jared said, changing a setting on the side. “That could have been worse. It wasn’t set to kill, but it wasn’t on train either.”

  “Thank, God. I am sooo sorry. I didn’t know it was still firing.” She looked again at Jared’s toeless boot. “Seriously though, where are your toes? You really are human, right?”

  Jared mumbled something under his breath.

  “What?” Dani said.

  “Bunions. All right?? I have bunions so I wear my shoes big. Now, do you want to tell me how someone who wins as many fights as you do, can be so clumsy?”

  Dani shrugged. “It’s a gift?”

  “Well, watch it, will you?” Jared stepped back another two feet. “Keep going till you get to the last target. The beam is active for two seconds. Got that? Two seconds.” He didn’t wait for an answer. “You’ll need to press the trigger again after that.”

  Dani aimed and fired. She had to adjust as the targets got further away, but managed to nail most of them with increasing accuracy.

  “This place is great,” Dani said, aiming at the last target.

  “Okay, now let’s try some moving targets.” Jared pushed another button on the wall, and the space came to life. Virtual Torogs and other creatures darted in all directions.

  “No way, this totally rocks!” She laughed and fired away, blasting body parts off anything in sight.

  Thirty minutes later Dani’s arms ached.

  “Okay Annie Oakley, you’re good to go. Put your finger back here.” He demonstrated. “Feel the nub?”

  Dani placed her finger on her own gun and found the little bump. “Yep.”

  “Now press it. It will cycle through the two levels.”

  Dani repeated his actions. “Got it.”

  “Remember, green is training mode. It’s useless if you’re in trouble. Now press and hold and the light will go off… Good, you’re locked and set.”

  “That was downright therapeutic. I feel so much better now,” she said, handing the weapon to Jared.

  “You hold on to it. And try not to kill anything that looks human.”

  “Ha, ha. Very funny.”

  Jared patted her on the back. “Well done. Come on, I need to scare me up some new shoes.”

  Chapter 6

  Dani and Jared found the others in the dining room. A vast array of weapons from the wall, and items she didn’t recognize, were laid out on the table. Large backpacks lay open and the EPs sorted through the devices, selecting what they wanted.

  “How’d it go?” Ria asked.

  “Great,” Jared replied. “Aside from a minor alteration to my footwear.”

  The group glanced down at Jared’s feet.

  “Nice,” Marco said.

  Dani ran a finger along the edge of the table. “That was amazing.”

  “The sim room is great, isn’t it?” Ria stuffed another mystery item into her pack. “I can spend hours in there. Did you show her the alien attack mode, Jared?”

  “Oh, yeah. She stayed alive for almost ten minutes on her first try.”

  Marco let out a whistle.

  “Wow,” Ria said. “Way to go girl.” She gave Dani a high five and a questioning look.

  Dani let out a nervous laugh. “I’m sure that’s nothing compared to what you guys do.”

  Ian held her gaze a moment. That pleasurable buzz rippled through her and she could have sworn his eyes flashed green. A not-so-subtle reminder, perhaps, that he wasn’t human.

  He smiled at her. Then, like a switch being flicked, the buzz disappeared. He looked away, and continued sorting and stuffing items into the pack.

  What is that buzz he gives me? Alien foreplay? The thought of what might come after the warm-up made her heart skip a beat. Would she do it? With an alien? If it’s anything like at the pool…hell yes.

  Gina interrupted her thoughts when she came out of the kitchen. “All right everyone. I have dinner ready in ten minutes. Signor Ian, can we move the toys from the table please? Or would you prefer to eat in the kitchen?”

  “Let’s keep it simple. Everyone can serve themselves in the kitchen.”

  “Si, Signor. I will get the plates ready.” Gina smiled at Dani. “You are hungry now, yes?”

  An image of blue stew with unidentifiable matter floating on the surface assaulted her senses. The smell of Torog was real enough to make her gag. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t possibly eat. I think I’ll just turn in.”

  Ria came to her side. “I had Battista put a backpack on your bed. Pack a few days worth of clothes in there, okay? No telling what we’re going to need.”

  “Sure.”

  Ria gave her a hug and returned to the table.

  “Ms. Dani, if you get hungry later, you will help yourself in the kitchen, yes?” Gina said walking over for a warm embrace.

  “I will. Thank you, Gina.” The older woman smelled of Italian herbs.

  Marco and Jared called goodnight, while Armond remained silent. Ian came around and pulled her aside. The warmth of his touch both soothed and aroused.

  “I’m really sorry you got sucked into all this. I don’t know why they’re after you, but don’t worry. We’ll keep you safe, I promise.”

  The buzz he gave her started up again only to evaporate just as quickly. Dani tilted her head and caught another flash of green in his emerald eyes.

  “Thank you,” she said, more convinced now that he controlled that delicious feeling. She left them to their work.

  When she reached her room, she did as instructed and packed her bag. In the drawer with underwear and socks, she found a soft white cotton shift and robe. The gown was quite short, with the robe falling a few inches above the knee. She gave Gina a mental thank you,
and put them on before getting ready for bed. She could never figure out how women slept in long nightgowns. She’d tried a few times, but always found herself tied in knots, and panicking. Her mother used to love long nightgowns and flowing robes. She crawled into bed and stifled tears as thoughts of a Christmas long ago drifted into her mind. She dozed off with the image of her mother twirling around in front of their Christmas tree, the red silk of her robe billowing out around her. That was their last Christmas together.

  * * * *

  The Torog wrapped putrid arms around Dani’s waist and squeezed. Her breath wouldn’t come and pain ripped through her stomach.

  Dani shot up, heart pounding. She glanced around and let out a sigh when she remembered where she was and realized she’d been dreaming. The pain was real however. Her stomach growled and reminded her she hadn’t eaten dinner. She slipped out of bed, threw on her robe, and headed for the door.

  I may never eat stew again, but more bread sounds good. Dani made her way downstairs, and padded silently across the foyer to the kitchen. The Papallo’s quarters were off the other end of the large room so she skipped the light. Moonlight filtered in through bay windows, surrounding a small dining area. It was enough. She retrieved a plate and pulled a loaf of bread from the bread box on the counter. She dug around the fridge and found some butter and some fizzy water. Not caring about calories for once, she slathered on the butter and closed her eyes as the freshly baked bread worked magic in her mouth. Each swallow easing her hunger and washing away the day’s fatigue. She finished the large piece of bread and stood contemplating another.

  “Still hungry?” Ian’s voice startled her.

  Or was it Ian? Something wasn’t right about his voice. She licked her fingers and finished the job with a napkin, tossing it on the counter.

  “Ian?” He sounded different, but she knew it was him. The strange tingling sensation he caused pulsed through her. She held her breath a beat and let it wash over. A small groan of pleasure escaped her lips. She searched the kitchen, her eyes settling on the dark space between two of the bay windows by the small dining table. “How long have you been there?”

  Ian leaned forward out of the shadows. The side of his face illuminated by moonlight gave him an unreal appearance. He picked up an empty plate and stood.