We stepped together onto the down escalator, and I crossed my fingers hoping we wouldn’t run into a group of albinos. I didn’t hear voices coming from below, but still…
I released the breath I’d been holding as the escalator took us down into a small, deserted alcove with two doors. One door was slid back into the wall; the other was closed and locked, a lock pad on the wall beside it indicating one needed a code of some kind to get in. “It’s probably just cleaning stuff,” I said. “You know, sweepers, disinfectants and such. They wouldn’t want anyone stealing their supplies.”
“Amenities room,” Eonus said indicating the open door. “Unoccupied.”
“Good. We’re alone then.”
“Yes. Come,” he said, grasping my shoulders from behind. “Sit.” He steered me away from the door and into a nook where we could each sit back against a wall facing one another with our knees crossed and touching.”
I sighed heavily as I leaned my head back against the wall. “You’re right, I need a break. We’ve been going for a while. We should probably start back soon.”
“Nara, friend,” he said, and clasped my hands.
“Of course, we’re friends,” I said.
“Good friends.” He stared at my face.
‘Yes, Eonus.” I frowned. “I consider us very good friends.” Where was he going with this?
He rested his forehead against mine and kept my hands in his grasp. “Special friends. Mates. Spend lives together.” He took one of my hands and put it to his heart.
Taken aback, my eyes went wide, and a flutter started in my stomach. I didn’t know whether it was fear or an awakening of my own desires.
I lifted my head, so I could look him in the eye. “Is that what you want, Eonus?” I didn’t know what else to say.
“Yes.”
I didn’t care if he saw the tears collecting in my eyes. This was a very emotional moment for me. My thoughts and feelings were chaotic. Confusing. There was nothing else I could say, except, “I need time, Eonus. I care for you very much, but I don’t know if becoming a couple is what I really want.” I squeezed his hand, knowing my statement sounded harsh and unfeeling—even to me—but my shell-shocked system was numb. “Please be patient with me. I need time to think about this.”
He put both hands on my cheeks and wiped my tears away with his thumbs. “Yes. Patience. Go back now,” he said, giving me such a sweet smile it tugged at my heartstrings.
Eonus and I retraced our path back to our room. Neither of us spoke during our return journey, but I couldn’t help sliding surreptitious looks at Eonus, while I imagined what it would be like to make love with him.
Chapter 18
My emotions were still chaotic later that afternoon when Ruen finally woke from her nap. She took one look at Eonus and me and immediately knew something had happened.
“What is it?” she asked. “Something’s happened; I can tell.”
I looked fleetingly at Eonus and shook my head. I couldn’t discuss the situation yet; I still hadn’t fully absorbed Eonus’ declaration of….I didn’t know what to call it.
Yes, I did. I didn’t need to fool myself. In his own way, Eonus had told me he was in love with me. Were my feelings for him love as well…or merely those of a close friendship? Or did that describe what love really was?
Both Eonus and Ruen needed to wait until I understood my own emotions before I could talk about them—to even Eonus. And he seemed to understand.
What I needed to do right now was deflect Ruen from her concerns. “Let’s update your game,” I suggested to her. “Perhaps you’ve remembered more details.” Although Eonus and I hadn’t discovered much on our independent foray, I pointed to Eonus, me and then at the grate in the ceiling. Ruen got my message.
We added another sheet of paper to our previous layout. I had no idea how big our project would become, but I believed we had a lot still left to explore. Before we had a chance to try the game out, and perhaps add some new rules, our dinner arrived.
Our meals had gradually improved over the few days we’d been here, but I still wanted to be let loose. I tried to decide whether I should throw another fit. However, perhaps that was why Ruen had been taken away and interrogated. I didn’t want either Eonus or me to have that experience, so I held off on adding to my acting experience.
We tried out our updated game, while Tata and I whispered more new information to Ruen. She fidgeted, so I knew she wanted to go exploring the next time we went; her energy had obviously returned.
The evening snack eventually arrived, but I motioned sleepiness. I really did think our evening food contained drugs, so we quietly flushed our snacks and started our bedtime ablutions. Eventually, Eonus and I sat on our beds, across from each other. He took my hands in his, and I couldn’t seem to look away from the worshipful look in his eyes.
“Excuse me. If you don’t mind, I need my rest,” Ruen said and then pointed to the amenities room. Obviously, she’d correctly deduced the change in our relationship.
I could feel the heat of embarrassment rush into my cheeks as I quickly dropped Eonus’ hands. He grinned as he stood up and pointed to the amenities room as he held his other hand out to help me up. I couldn’t refuse him. He and I needed some face-to-face time, and the amenities room was the only place for privacy.
Once we were in the amenities room and Eonus had closed the door behind us, he turned and asked, “Happy?”
One word meant so many things, I thought. “If you mean, am I happy to be abducted? No, of course not. But if you mean am I happy to be here with you? Well, yes, I am.”
He took my shoulders, pulled me close, and then gently rubbed our foreheads together. “Together. Happy couple?” Eonus asked.
I understood his question now. “Yes, Eonus. I have thought about us a great deal today, and I do want to be more than a friend to you. I want us to be a couple, as you suggested.” I put my arms around his neck and raised my lips to his.
An initial hesitancy on his part made me speculate whether or not Arandi look upon kissing as we Earthers do. However, Eonus soon adjusted and kissed me back.
After I broke the kiss I looked up at him, worried. “Eonus, we’re from two different worlds. It’s going to be hard for us. We have vastly different backgrounds, cultures, and, in case you hadn’t noticed, there are physical differences. I don’t know if we can mate much less make our relationship work.”
“Easy peasy. Work fine.” Had Eonus just made a joke? Actually, how would he even know this expression? It didn’t take me long to realize I had used it more than once.
He pulled me toward him again.
“No, seriously. Our differences are huge. You don’t have a…” I could feel my face reddening. “…well, you know.”
He gripped my shoulders. “Smart. Adapt, if willing.”
“But can we reproduce? I would eventually like to have children.”
His expression drew tight. “Unsure. Perhaps. If not, adopt. Maybe medical methods create children. Whatever must do, will do.” He started to smile again, and his eyes softened. “Love most important.”
“Wow…I’ve never heard you speak so many words at one time before.”
“Learning.” He winked at me and tapped my nose.
I gazed into his sparkling eyes. “You’re right. We’ll adapt—no worries.”
“Easy peasy.”
We both laughed. Then Eonus pulled me tight to him and began to nuzzle my neck. A tingle started to spread throughout my body, and a warm one, at that. “Hmm, this is nice,” I murmured.
A smile flickered on his face as he looked down at me and pressed his lips to mine.
Then his hands found the skin beneath my top and, very shortly, the undersides of my breasts.
My breathing quickened.
The next morning, my private fears were realized—Eonus had disappeared.
“He will be fine,” said Ruen. “I survived the encounter so he should have no problem. Now, let us try my
game again.”
Such a sweetheart, Ruen wanted to keep my mind occupied so I wouldn’t worry as much about Eonus. I tried to go along with her ploy and started up a conversation as we played.
“Ruen, I have a question. It’s a personal question, if you don’t mind my asking.”
“I do not mind. Ask away.”
“I only hear you talk about your father. What about your mother? Where is she?” I asked. The Basilian family structure had proven to be similar to the Arandi and humans, although unlike the Arandi, most Basilians seemed to have siblings.
“My father and mother live apart,” she said. “They both have stressful lives, and needed a break. Mind you, the time apart stretched into cycles, and recently they severed their alliance. Currently, I live with my father, but I occasionally reside with my mother.”
Ruen looked down at the game board rather than at me. Should I pursue this conversation? I wonder when the breakup happened. It must be pretty hard on a teenager, and I know Ruen doesn’t have any siblings.
I decided I needed more information in order to understand Basilian society. “What does your mother work at that’s so stressful?” I knew what her father, Officer Kikess, did.
“She is a diplomat, like your parent.”
Surprised, I didn’t know quite what to say.
“Her name is Raen Title, and she lives in your building, on the eleventh floor,” said Ruen, lifting her shoulders. Her action reminded me of a shrug.
I’d never been to the eleventh floor of our building, but I thought I would’ve heard about her from my father, by this time. Although, with different last names, he may not have known about the relationship between Ruen and Raen.
“We’re practically related,” I said.
Ruen laughed. At least I’d lightened the moment a little. And my comment had also made me smile. However, I still worried about Eonus.
Last evening had been a revelation to me, in many ways. Despite our differences, and the number was not trivial, I knew we could make our relationship work if we worked at it—but now he was missing. Although Ruen had been returned, that didn’t mean he would be too.
We didn’t add much else to our game board—the map of our captivity—but Ruen and I played for a while anyway. Every time we added something, the rules needed some tweaking to make the game more interesting. So working on the rules gave us some much needed distraction.
Similar to Ruen’s disappearance, Eonus transported in just before our lunch break. When her eyes went wide as saucers—I knew she’d accept my transporter theory sooner or later—I squealed with delight, upending my stool as I jumped up and ran into Eonus’ embrace.
His arms felt comforting, even safe, but I was still concerned about his health as I drew back and peered up at him. “You look pretty good,” I said. And he did. His color remained normal and, physically, he seemed calm—not shaken up.
“Knew before be fine,” said Eonus.
Of course. He’d had Ruen’s experience to rely upon. “Difference?” Holy cow, I sounded like an Arandi!
“Same. Truth serum, questions.” Eonus sat down at our table.
“Same questions?” I asked, surprised by the truncated speech patterns I was developing.
“Possibly.”
He’s right; how could he possibly know since he wasn’t at the first interview. Interview, my ass. Interrogation seems like a better word. My blood pressure rose. Our situation was at times a bit much to handle.
The first food tray clunked onto the shelf. We retrieved our lunches and sat at the table, after we’d cleared off the game board and pieces.
We ate in silence. I had lots of questions, but our captors were listening. An idea popped into my mind, so I gathered up Ruen’s game board. Since it recorded what we knew so far from our excursions, I used it to point to an area I thought the three of us should visit this afternoon. I wanted to investigate farther in the direction the three of us had first explored and as quickly and far as we could go in our allotted time.
Ruen and Eonus seemed to understand my hand gestures since they both nodded and finished up their lunch in a timely manner.
We tried to be as quiet as possible as we climbed up into the tunnel and jumped on the walkway. Jogging on the path, we passed by the greenhouses, camels and hippos, along with the apartments we’d discovered. We didn’t get off the walkway until it suddenly ended.
“Look!” Ruen’s voice rang out so loudly she clapped her hand over her mouth. She had ventured ahead of us and now stood pointing at whatever was on the other side of another viewing window. But there was apparently something much different about the view from this one. Her eyes were practically bugged out of her head. “Ships,” she said.
I left Eonus and joined her at the window.
“Spaceships,” I corrected, staring down at two fighter-sized crafts nestled into sparkling clean work bays where white-suited technicians—again, all albinos—were busy working on the zippy little two-seater and something that reminded me of the space shuttles from Star Trek. Both craft certainly looked to me like something that could leave planetary orbit, but perhaps I was imbedding too much human background into my analysis.
“Maybe they are spacecraft,” said Ruen. “They do look somewhat familiar. I need to go back to the Space Museum. Because they look like some ancient designs I have previously encountered.”
“Perhaps we’re in a secret research facility,” I suggested. “This building—or whatever it is—seems to be self-contained, and self-supporting. But why are all the people we see albinos?”
“Good question,” Ruen said.
Ruen pointed again. “I think on the far wall there, that big sliding door must be how they get the spaceships in and out.”
We peered across the room. It looked to me like Ruen was right in her assumption.
“I really wonder where we are and why they have kidnapped us,” I said, “What do we know that needs to be kept a secret?”
Obviously overwhelmed, she shook my head. “I don’t know.”
“And why is it here instead of your main facilities?”
“Look. Walls join,” Eonus said.
I turned around and my eyes went to where he was pointing. In the distance, the outside walls narrowed to a point—like the bow of a sailing vessel. Or a spaceship. One enormous spaceship! Where the walls joined at the bow was a vertical circular tube with a sliding door with what looked like an elevator control panel.
I went to Eonus and entwined my fingers with his. Moments later, Ruen’s cold fingers grasped my other hand. We looked silently at one another. Ruen’s color had faded. I didn’t know her thoughts, but obviously our latest discoveries and what they likely meant frightened her. Still, none of us voiced our suspicions of where we really were. I didn’t even want to admit to myself that we were likely on an alien spaceship traveling to who knew where.
“Where do you think that elevator leads?” I asked Eonus.
“More levels.”
Secretly, I wondered if it would take us to a bridge. I bolstered my courage and said, “Let’s see where it takes us,” I said.
“We can’t. Not now anyway,” said Ruen. “We are running late and need to get back before they discover we are gone from our cell.”
Reluctantly agreeing with her, we jogged as quickly as we could back to our room. And not with much time to spare, either, as our meals arrived a few moments later.
I didn’t have much to say as we ate. My thoughts were fixated on our abduction. I figured tonight would be the night I disappeared. The pattern had been set.
I felt so helpless. There was nothing I could do to stop my eventual disappearance. Thankfully, Ruen took my mind off my worries.
“I have remembered other parts of my game I want to add to it,” said Ruen, “and then we can play a game or two before bed.”
What we added to Ruen’s board seemed out of proportion but I let it go. The areas we’d seen were so vast perhaps my perception was off. Aft
er the additions, we played a couple of games. Ruen’s rules made each game last a couple of hours but, at least, we had something to do.
After the second game, Ruen pointed to the amenities room. Tata and I followed her.
“What I think we should do tonight,” said Ruen, “is push our beds together and sleep close to each other. Then our captors will not be able to take Nara away.”
“Good idea,” said Eonus, taking my hand in his and pulling me close to his side. “Allergic serum.”
Concern radiated from him, warming my heart. I smiled up at him and squeezed his hand.
Back in the main room, we pushed our beds together with mine in the middle. I went to sleep nestled in Eonus’ arms, with Ruen snuggled up to my back.
Chapter 19
I woke up with my cheek pressed to a cold tiled floor. Yuck! I shook uncontrollably and was so nauseous it was all I could do to keep my dinner down.
I rolled over and there was Eonus and Ruen, lying beside me, either still asleep or unconscious…but alive. And crouched over us was Iseen, the concierge of my apartment building. I couldn’t believe it! All three of us lay on the floor of the foyer. We were home!
Iseen laid her hand on my arm. “Nara, how do you feel?” she asked.
“Awful. But wonderful.” I said, smiling up at her. I tried to sit up but I got so dizzy I had to lie back down. I shook my head to clear the cobwebs, but turned out to be a bad idea. It didn’t help my nausea one little bit.
“Wait here,” Iseen said and jumped up. Running to the front desk, she started making calls, undoubtedly to our parents. I waited with one arm braced on the lobby floor, which wasn’t as clean as I’d previously thought it to be. Someone needs to have a chat with the cleaning staff. I thought, wishing I had enough energy to pick myself up off this grimy floor.
I heard Eonus moan and then Ruen began to show signs of movement as she too awoke. The next thing I knew, Kevin, our medic, was by my side, poking and prodding at me the way doctors do.
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