Joni shook her head. "Sorry. Although, I don't think it really matters. We'll probably be dead by tomorrow."
The General cut in. "You are the leadership of your people here? Yes?"
Joni nodded.
The General smiled. "They will leave you alone. I don't know if they derive pleasure from watching your reactions or if they keep us as bargaining chips for later on, but I'm certain they have their reasons."
Joni crossed her arms. "How can you sit there and feast while your people are being slaughtered? That doesn't bother you at all?"
The General stood, walked around the table and leaned close to Joni. "Oleve, Relve! Can we have some music?"
The two Moddle officers pulled two others to their sides and began to sing loudly.
Joni turned to the General and scowled. "What is wrong with you?"
The General leaned in. "What is your name?"
Joni continued her angry stare. "Joni."
The General reached out, pulling my arm translator in close. "You both must realize that they are watching and listening to us right now. You mustn't say anything further that can be used against your people. My being joyous and seeming to not care is all an act."
The General smiled and laughed as he gently slapped Joni on the back. "Inside I am seething with hatred for what it is they are doing. Just once I would like to be in a room with their commanders while holding one of those dull knives they provide us with. They would each die a death of extreme pain. I won't give them the satisfaction of seeing me in anguish over my people!"
The General again leaned back and laughed. "Eat up! They really do treat us like kings!"
I picked up a roasted leg of Aldair, taking a bite. "Hmm. You are correct. This is delicious!"
Joni looked on in shock.
I leaned in close to Joni. "I believe it is in our best interest to act as the General has suggested. Have something to eat. If you show that you care, they may use that to see if they can break you by making you watch atrocities they conduct against the Adicans. As the General says, don't give them the satisfaction of seeing you in despair."
Joni offered a half frown. "If they want a test of wills, that's something I can deliver. I just don't know if I can sit idly by while I know they are killing the Adicans."
The General joined his Moddle comrades in song, and I said, "I know it may be difficult, but you must realize that the Adicans are lost. We cannot effect a change that will spare them. Giving our lives here and now will not bring them to safety. However, there are billions in the Triangulum, and trillions in the New Alliance that we could possibly save. How we do that I can't say, but staying alive is the first step. Those trillions by the way, include both your family and mine. Think of our behavior here as a step towards saving them."
The Moddle continued their song for several more verses before sitting around the table to feast. I could soon see that their smiles, their joy, was forced. I wondered if we would be able to do the same in the name of our own people. I wondered if Jack, Go, and Garrett, had managed to slip away.
Chapter 13
Joni looked out the window in dismay as the Adican soldiers walked out of building D41. As instructed, they had been told to offer no resistance.
Joni turned. "I can't believe this is happening. They are as good as dead now. Why did I let you talk me into giving them up?"
I replied, "If you had chosen to fight, half would already be dead. The other half would be dead a few minutes from now. Those dead would likely include us. As it is, we live to fight another day. I too have given up my Talisan fighters, although they will be fighting in space against those teardrop ships with orders to flee if they can, or else to self-destruct our ships so our enemies do not capture our technologies. I realize the Grumars have no doubt already captured ships from the Alliance, I just don't want them to have our Talisan ships as well.
"Any captured Talisans, and the Adicans, will no doubt face the General's people in some future arena battle. At least we have from now until then to try to save them. Certain death would not have been a wise choice."
Joni sat at the table. "I Know, but that doesn't make it any easier."
Dovit leaned in on the table. "It won't be any easier tomorrow or the day after if you allow the Grumars to conquer your thoughts. I have had to sit idly by as untold millions of my people have been forced to fight and die, even after being victorious. I've been told the side that wins a battle is given a day or a week or a month to celebrate, depending on how entertained or bloodthirsty the population is. They tend to be more lenient around harvest time, and intolerant during the hotter months."
Joni replied, "What happens after the celebration?"
Dovit sat back with an slightly disgruntled look. "The victors are divided into two groups that are forced to fight one another. Again, the victors are rewarded for a short time before another division is set. The battles will run until the last fighter is standing."
Joni continued, "And the last fighter? What do they do to him or her?"
Dovit sighed. "They are taken on a journey to many of the different cities where the population gets to meet with them. They are treated as kings up until the next arena games begin. At that time they are forced to watch the outcome of the initial games, then they are then vaporized and the bloodthirsty crowds breathe in their remains."
Joni frowned, "That's barbaric. So, the bigger question is, how do we get out of here?"
Dovit offered a long slow blink before turning to his men. "Gentlemen, perhaps we could cheer things up with more entertainment?"
The Moddle officers once again broke into song.
Dovit leaned in close to Joni. "Please, I deplore you. Do not outwardly speak of escape or assault. As I said before, our captors are always looking for signs of a fight. If you should offer them one, they will oblige. This building once housed both Human and Moddle captives. Your stubborn Human counterparts would not listen to reason. They have long since vanished into the arena. I understand that you are an emotional species, but you must learn to control those emotions if you want to live."
Joni replied, "So, what are we supposed to do? Sit here all day and eat?"
Dovit smiled. "You make plans in your head. You discuss those plans only when you have cover for your actions. As an example, each of us has mapped out and memorized the exact number of steps and turns it takes to reach any point in this building. We can each navigate to wherever we need in complete darkness. Is that useful? We don't know. But if at some future point we find use for it, we will be prepared. I can make a similar statement about the streets and alleyways that surround this building, but only to the degree to which we can see from these windows."
I nudged into the conversation. "I have a recording of our approach from where we landed, including time stamps. If that would be of use, we can review it."
Dovit nodded. "We should do that as soon as possible. They will be removing your devices once they get settled. If you have anything on them that you wish to memorize, now would be a good time."
I leaned in closer. "We could learn to interpret their language. This application I'm using will translate for us."
Dovit set down a half eaten vegetable. "When the guards come into the room, we watch their every move and listen to their conversations. We believe we know the meaning of about a half dozen words, but it has taken us nearly two years to learn such. If your translator will work on their language as well as it does for ours, we should make immediate use of it. And by immediate, I mean now."
I replied, "Do you know the location of their cameras?"
Dovit nodded. "The obvious dome on the ceiling in each corner of every room. We have identified two dead spots in the building that we believe are unwatched. One is a double corner on a hallway with two meters of length that are out of view, and the other a small closet. I suspect that if we spend too much time in either, they will install more cameras. Why do you ask?"
I gestured towards my arm pad with my ey
es. "The arm device has a holo-display. We could view phonetic interpretations of their words and the translated spelling of ours. I ask because that is an effort we could do in silence. How good are you Moddles with memorization?"
The General smiled. "I have an officer with an eidetic memory. The Doomlighters allow us to have writing materials. Perhaps we spend our time with him walking the hall with your device. He can memorize a display and write it down when he returns. If you show him how to operate the arm pad I will have him begin the process."
I shook my head. "Unfortunately, either Joni or myself will have to go with him. These arm pads won't work on anyone else. When first connected, they bond with the person wearing it. Only one bond is allowed, after which it becomes useless to anyone else. We will have to take turns walking with him."
Dovit gestured for his officer. "Mr. Gurn, you will follow these individuals into the blind in the hallway where you will be shown a display. You will need to memorize what you see, before returning here to draw it out on a piece of paper. The display will be of a series of phonetical words, followed by their translations. Is that a task you feel comfortable with?"
Tobik Gurn nodded. "If we are talking character recognition, it is something I excel at."
Dovit pointed towards the hallway. "Begin immediately."
Joni rose from her chair. "I'll go first. I need to walk some before I go crazy."
As Joni and Tobik left the room, Dovit reached out for his half-eaten vegetable. "If I sound eager or anxious, Emperor, it's because I am. We have exhausted thinking about the tasks which we thought might one day aid in our escape. Your assault and capture gives hope where hope was fleeting. If we can learn their language, perhaps that will be the feat that wins us our freedom. Worst case, we will finally know what it is the guards are saying while they are in here."
In under a minute Joni and Tobik returned. Tobik sat with pen and paper, sketching out a near perfect replica of what he had seen, keeping the written page obscured from the prying cameras in the room. When complete, the page was quickly flipped over and shoved our way.
Joni stood. "Let's go, Mr. Gurn. Round two."
Dovit turned over the paper. Between the two of us we began to study its content.
"Oh, by the way, my name is Knog. No need to call me Emperor," I said.
Dovit smiled. "Very well, Knog. I believe this to be shown in the perfect format for us to learn from. We have the word utilizing your characters, the word with our pictographs, and the phonetic spelling for each of the equivalent Grumar words. I look forward to learning your language as well as the Grumar's."
I nodded. "Yes, when we lose these translators, we're going to have major problems with our own communications. Let's hope they give us enough time to at least get a basic understanding."
I sat back from the table for a moment, wondering if any of my ships had made it safely away. Had the Grumars managed to capture one or more? Were any technological advantages we currently had being made obsolete? Would future fleets fare far worse in a fight? With our comm channels blocked I had no way of knowing.
Then there was Garrett. If anyone were able to escape, it would be him. The Jess was fast and capable. Garrett had years of experience at making himself and the Jess unseen. Of course then there was the worst case scenario, Garrett captured or killed along with the Talisans. I wondered how long Joni and I would last as captives of the Grumar. Would they grow tired of us? Would we be moved into the arena to fight with the others?
The fact that the Moddle leadership had remained alive for so long didn't make sense. Why had the Grumar kept them alive? Were we being used for some other voyeur type of entertainment? Were the Grumar studying our every move to gain knowledge of how best to fight and defeat our species? We were being held captive in a foreign galaxy, on a foreign planet, by a foreign species.
Then there was the whole story about the fight in Andromeda. Nothing matched up with what we had been told. The planet we had attacked, Doomlight, was not now and had never been a member of the Alliance, new or old. How had the Grumar and the Doomlighters not been brought into the AMP or the new Alliance? The city of our capture on Doomlight was not new, not resettled in recent years by the Doomlighters. This was their planet, their home. Why had Harden Salton seen fit to attack it?
I received a nudge from Dovit. "You appear to be in deep thought. If either of us or our associates are going to survive, we need to focus on learning these languages."
I nodded. "I'm sorry, Dovit. I still need time to digest what it is we are involved in. You have had the length of your stay to evaluate and contemplate the meaning of why you are here. I have only been here for a day. I need time to process the information. If I appear to be lost in a fog on occasion, it's because I require time to think things through."
Joni and Boret returned from the hallway. A second page of words was scribbled out. As Boret rose for another trip, Joni was looking out the window down the street from which we had originally come.
Joni yelled as she turned and rushed for the doorway. "It's Raptor!"
I stood in time to see the Rottweiler sprinting in our direction with three Doomlight vehicles in pursuit. Joni met the dog in the building entranceway while the Doomlight guards watched in fascination.
As I entered the building foyer, the muscle-bound rotty was lying on its back wiggling its nub as Joni clutched his drooling, panting mug. I looked up to see four additional guards standing in the doorway with their weapons drawn. After only a few seconds at the ready, they lowered their weapons when a call came over their comms. Whoever was watching us had called them off.
I squatted to my knees and slapped my open palms on the floor. Raptor looked in my direction. After a wild gyration, he rose to his paws and burst forward to my location. Joni had tears in her eyes as her best friend had once again found his way to her side.
I stood to observe the two remaining guards at the doorway as the others walked away. They had no gestures, no emotion, no reaction to the heartwarming reunion taking place before them. I gathered Joni and headed back up to the room we shared with the Moddle.
As we stepped inside the room, Dovit rose and backed away from the table, along with the other four officers of his once mighty army. Looks of suspicion and fear filled their faces.
I held up my hand. "So long as you are no threat to us, he will be your friend. Walk over here slowly and wait for his approach. If he leans heavily against your leg, pet him. If he likes you he will submit to you, rolling over on his back. He loves a good belly rub."
Dovit shook his head. "And if he doesn't like us?"
I replied, "If you are friendly to us, he will be your best friend. Show hostility towards us or suspicious behavior, and he will be your enemy. However, even if he determines that you are a risk, he will not attack you unless he sees one of us is being directly threatened. Do the Moddle have pets?"
Dovit offered a pensive nod. "Reptiles. I hope you do not take offense to that."
I laughed. "While my outward appearance might suggest a close relationship to reptiles of some form, I can assure you I am as different from them as they are from you. No offense taken."
Dovit took several steps forward and stood at an uneasy wait as Raptor approached. As I had said, the Rottweiler leaned hard into the Moddle general, nearly knocking him off balance until a gentle hand began to massage the fur on the back of his neck. After a slow sit and roll, the dog had his tender belly exposed in anticipation of his favorite pastime, a good belly rub. I soon had to chuckle at the sight of the five Moddles smiling while the dog wiggled its nub in acceptance of their friendship.
Joni shook her head. There he is, Raptor, bringer of peace, conqueror of worlds."
I gestured towards the table as I looked at Dovit. "Perhaps it's time we returned our focus to learning their language."
Dovit rose to join me at the table as Joni, Tobik and Raptor walked back out into the hall. The remaining Moddle officers then broke into song as Dov
it and I talked.
"Here's a word we should give emphasis to: escape," I said.
Dovit nodded. "And here is another: arena. If we hear that word, our time is likely running short."
I stopped my study." I wonder if we are going about this the hard way. Perhaps we should first attempt to string words together to form sentences. The context might help with the memorization. The more cues we have for our memories to latch on to, the higher chance we have of recalling what we are attempting to learn."
Dovit agreed. The next several trips to the hallway brought back words in full sentences. Days on Doomlight averaged twenty-seven hours. We quickly fell into a pattern of sixteen hours for learning and three hours for breaks, with the remaining time for sleep. A rested mind was a much better instrument for learning.
After three weeks of study, I found myself turning off my translator when in general conversation with Dovit. The Moddle language was simple, albeit less efficient than our AMP standard English. The Grumar language was both elegant and refined. Sentences were brief, conveying a maximum amount of information in a short timespan. In addition, Grumar effortlessly rolled off the tongue, making conversation seemingly more enjoyable.
Two months into our captivity, I posed a question to Dovit. "So, we go down the stairs to the lobby and we walk towards the door. Do the guards make some sort of gesture that tells you us we cannot go beyond that point?"
Dovit closed his eyes for a moment while in thought. "I don't recall ever making such a motion. With armed guards standing sentry at the door, I believe the inherent message would be that you cannot pass."
I stood and signaled for Raptor to come to my side. "Joni, I'm borrowing your dog for a few minutes."
Joni looked up and laughed. "Yeah, like I have a say in what he decides to do. Sure, go ahead. Just try to stay away from the bend in the hallway. We've been taking a bit of extra time in there, looking for more time with the holo-display up. Anyone who is watching would almost have to get suspicious."
OMEGA Allegiance Page 13