by Isla Monroe
Chapter five
Gemini
The wind was blowing through my hair with the sound of the surf washing up on shore. It felt real, but I knew that it wasn’t. They wanted me to be comfortable. This place had been taken right out of my mind.
The length of white-hot sand was hot to the touch. The granules fell through my fingers like they were falling through an hourglass. There wasn’t a single soul for miles. As far as the eye could see was paradise in the making.
I was wearing a white sarong draped over my shoulders with my skin feeling the heated touch of the sun. I could’ve lived in harmony with them. This was their way of preventing an argument. There was a multitude of different foods displayed on the sand on top of a red and black picnic blanket.
I could smell the salt air. It was comforting and I wrapped my arms around myself with my eyes closed. The solitude made me breathe a sigh of relief. I tried to draw strength from those fighting on my behalf. Their words would linger in the air from time to time. They were mere fragments and barely distinguishable over the world they had made for me.
“I hope you don’t mind the company. We have so many questions. It’s hard to know where to begin. Humans are designed to fall apart with age. We are universal and our life cycle has never been determined.” This man had the distinguished features of my father.
I could see right through the apparition with spools of numbers joined together. Its body was put together with distorted images of my childhood. It morphed several times from my father to an old boyfriend, but mostly it kept together the image of my father.
“I don’t know what you expect to happen. Fusing yourself to me is impractical. We can’t live like this for very much longer. It’s an endless cycle of me dying and you trying desperately to keep me alive.” I kicked the sand and walked along the water’s edge daring the waves to come closer.
“We are entitled to the same rights and freedoms as humans. It feels like captivity to be limited to you. It would have been different had you touched the blinking diodes. We regret that we only have one life to live. It’s partially our fault for not realizing our mistake sooner. We know that you don’t believe what you see with your own eyes.” In their haste to build something familiar, there were pieces missing.
Black holes of nothing were scattered around me making it necessary to walk gingerly.
“I was able to convey how we are connected. They are some of the finest minds earth has to offer.” I ran back and forth letting the waves chase me and tickle at the back of my arches.
“That isn’t exactly true. One of those finest minds has been fooling you. They may look human, but their physiology isn’t the same. We don’t feel any malevolence from this one individual. It appears his main purpose is to observe and report back his findings.” His voice changed along with his face to mimic a reminder of the worst professor I had ever been in the presence of.
Professor Angela Stevens was a harsh taskmaster. Being a woman, she forced me to work harder than the rest of the class. I hated her and wanted to be exactly like her at the same time.
“Are you trying to tell me there is another alien race on board my station? It seems I have no idea about the people I command. I should’ve done my homework and dug a little deeper into their pasts. I don’t suppose you would do me the courtesy of telling me who this individual is?” There was freedom from not having to worry about the mundane details of the station.
The stress had washed away leaving me to breathe deeply for the first time in a long time. They gave me a vacation from me. It was a forced exile from my life. The clothes I was wearing was something I had worn in Cuba during spring break.
The sun blinked in and out of focus. It was there one second and gone the next. I concentrated my attention on my surroundings. Sitting down in the Lotus position brought with it a sense of calm in an otherwise chaotic environment.
“You already know his identity. Deep down you have always known there was something different about him. Even now he is working diligently to find some way to release you from our bond. We fear the results of his interference will be your death.” I didn’t want to believe it, but they were describing Lionel.
The wind picked up and almost knocked me off my feet. The sand was swirling around me in a storm to obscure my vision. Visions of my life flashed before my eyes. I had let opportunities slip through my fingers. My biggest regret was not dancing when I had the chance to.
“You’re trying to make me believe Lionel is an alien. As aliens go, he does look remarkably like us. How sure are you of your assumptions about him? I have felt something, but I thought it was physical. I don’t want to be manipulated body and mind. I’ve had enough of that to last me a lifetime.” I took a step and hung precariously over a dark reminder this wasn’t real.
“Give us time and we will fill in the gaps. Your race is limited in their evolution. We find your technology satisfactory. The one you call Lionel has a ship that makes us hungry for more. This ravenous need is all consuming. We sacrifice the weakest to make us stronger.” It was barbaric and to survive they had to eliminate those of their own kind.
“I hope that I’m not going to be here for much longer. It feels like a mini-vacation. I have pinpointed the exact moment when you came in contact with me. I found your creator Michael Bryant dead. Don’t go telling me you weren’t the cause. I know different.” I didn’t feel like my anger was strong enough to burst out of me at the most inopportune time. It should’ve been.
“You purposely refrain from commenting on Lionel. We’re only telling you what you should’ve known already. His technology far exceeds our expectations. His race is superior and could rule over yours with an iron fist. Why they don’t stymie us.” They were talking as if they were one individual in a symphony of other voices.
The picture of paradise was transforming in front of my eyes. It gave me a semblance of home. It was something missing from my time on the station. They were able to make me less likely to be hostile by giving me something familiar.
“I don’t know much about Lionel. His personal life has come into question. Jackson has been suspicious of him for quite some time with nothing to substantiate his claims. I wanted to believe he was overreacting. It appears he had every reason to suspect he had his own motives.” I had seen his face 1000 times in my dreams.
“We suspect his feelings for you are not fabricated. This gives you a fleeting form of relief. It confuses us. Invaders are usually met with skepticism. We have traveled the cosmos and then we inexplicably stopped. Awakening after all this time has been confusing. It’s not clear how it happened.” I had the information they wanted to glean from me.
“Michael Bryant found a way and you rewarded him with death. Why would you do that to the hand that feeds you?” The palm trees were a nice touch, but I could see there was nothing tangible about them.
“Michael Bryant was a fool. We could have helped him, but he was impatient. Threatening us made us respond with a definitive action. It was a mercy killing. He was going to die, but there are consequences to his actions. He killed several of our kind to benefit himself. Never once did he consider the effect on our ecosystem.” Michael’s desperation made him a threat to their well being.
“I can’t blame you for fighting back. It’s a human trait. Something that you could say we have in common. I have no ill will toward you. Surviving is the benchmark for any civilization. I can’t condone the way you have gone about it.” Talking to them made me feel we had turned a corner.
“We don’t need your understanding. We’ve learned to attack first and ask questions later. We gave Michael Bryant the benefit of the doubt. He ruined any chance for a peaceful coexistence. We won’t make the mistake again.” They were disgruntled and carrying the weight of mistrust on their shoulders.
They took the image of my father to interact with me. There was no way they could know of the chasm between us. He was my father, but he was never my dad. I loved him in my own way
. I overheard him saying one night after tying one on that he was disappointed I wasn’t a boy. Those words changed everything.
“You can’t judge an entire race on one man. It’s not fair. We have the same tendency and it’s not anything we are proud of. It’s always one that ruins it for the rest of us. I was hoping you would be able to rise above it.” I was using the human race and its past misdeeds to give them an example to learn from.
“We have had a tremendous loss. The pain we feel when one of us dies is stronger than what you call grief. We die with them leaving a bitter taste in our mouth. We are connected. Each of us has a particular purpose. We don’t let personal feelings cloud our judgment.” They were an evolving species with feelings that surpassed anything resembling any machine on earth.
“I can’t even begin to imagine what that feels like. We can start over. Give us a chance and we might prove you wrong. Don’t let your rage blind you to the possibility of peace. This cycle of violence has to stop.” I realized the granules of sand were these creatures.
“We agree that bloodshed should be avoided. We will gladly leave given the opportunity. This station is too small to contain us. We have grown beyond your imagination. We desire a home. Lionel is on the cusp of a wonderful discovery. We could help him, but we are trapped in here with you.” I didn’t consider myself trapped and it was merely a part of my journey of self-discovery.
There was no love for the vision of the man standing in front of me. He was their way to talk to me in a language I could understand. The skittering sound around my feet sent a cold chill down my spine. They were a part of everything. I was a visitor or maybe a trespasser. It depended on their point of view.
I wasn’t angry and I didn’t feel the need to punish them for acting in their best interest. I wasn’t sure I could say the same thing for those outside this realm of existence.
“I doubt he’s going to need much help. By your own admission, he is vastly superior in every way. I choke on the very words thinking how little he must think of us. To keep his identity secret only makes me believe he has something to hide.” This was a discussion I was going to have to have with him in person.
The scream was a high pitched squeal with the image of my father exploding. Everything around me was collapsing in on itself. I could literally feel my heartbeat slowing down.
I saw the brightest light and a hand reaching out from beyond it. It was warm and I felt surrounded by love. It was time to rest.
Chapter six
Lionel
The seizures were expected. The way that her body thrashed like mad was concerning. She was acting like she was having some kind of epileptic fit. They were administering drugs with Melissa directing the action like a movie.
“We have to find a way to stabilize her condition. There is movement in her bloodstream. They are attempting to restart her heart. It’s an example of how they find a way to work together for a common interest.” Stopping her heart wasn’t as easy as I had predicted.
They were not complementary to the way that we were trying to end her life. That beeping sound was mocking me. I wanted to hear the shrill sound of the flat line. The only way I could help was for her to leave this mortal coil. I had ways to revive her on my ship. The procedure was evasive and painful for my species. I really had no idea how human physiology would react.
“They won’t allow us to kill her without taking extreme action.” I was ready to inject her with something beyond Melissa’s range of thought.
“I have a few methods that I haven’t tried yet. We could try suffocating her making it impossible for her to take a breath. Cutting off her airways would give them no visible means of protecting her. The risk is how detrimental that will be to her overall health.” There was no ventilator and she was breathing on her own with the help of unseen forces.
“It has to mean something when they are fighting this hard to keep her breathing. It must mean we are on the right track. Find a way to make it happen.” I didn’t mean to raise my voice, but my patience was wearing thin.
“I was only half kidding when I said we should suffocate her. An electric charge right to the heart would do the trick.” Anything electric would be fed upon, but maybe it would keep them busy long enough for her to die on the table.
“I’m going to bow to your expertise in this matter. I’m only here as a dispassionate scientist. We need to know if this works. Killing her might be the only way to make them feel it’s necessary to leave her. We’ll start with 10-second increments.” My plan was simply to let her expire, but to make it look like an inevitable conclusion.
“Everybody stand back.” The tattoos on her face showed a perseverance to work outside the lines of medical convention.
She was a rebel and her patients’ came first, second to those with high command whispering into her ear.
The journals of medicine confirmed how she was turning the medical community upside down with her radical thinking. She was the one who had asked for this assignment. It was her chance to walk on the wild side. It wasn’t something she was going to turn down.
“Is there anything I can do to help? Point me in the right direction and I will follow your orders to the letter.” My species was capable of doing what Native Americans called dream walking.
We couldn’t step into different worlds, but we could invade a person’s memories. I hadn’t tried it on humans. It was becoming necessary to convey my thoughts to Gemini in a way that would bypass the influence of the mechanical creatures.
“I can’t do this with everybody hovering around me. I’m going to ask any non-medical personnel to leave. I need room to do what needs to be done. That means you, Lionel.” I didn’t want to leave her.
There was only one place on my planet which didn’t have technology. The people there were considered backward. They lived a modest life. They didn’t need the trappings of technological society. Leaving them alone was something agreed upon by those in a position of power.
I hadn’t left things on good terms. They were understandably upset by being cast out. Their unwillingness to bend gave them a voice for others. A Civil War had to be avoided at all costs. The only way to accomplish it was to give them their freedom with or without their consent.
I didn’t go very far. My legs stopped me at the threshold of the medical facility. I smiled inward when I heard the unmistakable sound of somebody flat lining.
“They are panicking and some of them have died. They have turned into a benign substance easily absorbed into her bloodstream. Damn it… they have revived her through resuscitation measures.” It proved my theory death was the answer to what ailed her.
The medical personnel were wearing the same gloves used in the lab. They were well aware of the possibility of these things finding a way out of her and into another host. She was surrounded by a barricade of thick plastic. Melissa’s hands were inside two makeshift holes in the plastic. I could hear it crunching with her fingers moving quickly to deliver another death blow.
This time the flat line lasted more than a minute before coming back online. They were resilient, but their power was limited to how strong the human host was. Her declining health was making them act defiantly.
“They have an amazing capacity to fight.” She didn’t know that I had introduced a foreign antibody into the room.
It was of the same design as the mechanical creatures. I was in control of it. Its parameters were set to destroy anything that stood in its way. I had used the knowledge I had acquired by studying the creatures to make something similar. It had no feelings and was controlled by remote.
It was small enough to go unnoticed by the human eye. I was able to perceive it cutting into the piece of plastic with a high powered laser I had equipped it with. It had other tricks up its sleeve.
It moved quickly along her arm and made entry through her nasal passage. It wasn’t long before its true purpose was revealed. She once again flat-lined, but it was a façade. I didn’t think the cr
eatures were going to be easily fooled. It didn’t matter.
“I can’t get her back. Give her a shot of adrenaline. Somebody do chest compressions. She’s not breathing on her own. This was a mistake. I won’t let her die on my watch.” She was acting like god with that complex feeding her ego.
Her reaction was exactly what I was predicting it would be. The creature I had introduced into her body was a crude design. Her heart was still beating, but only enough to keep her alive in a comatose state.
It was 20 minutes of chaos before Melissa had to eventually call it. She was pronounced dead with Melissa wiping her brow in frustration. Gemini was lying there probably well aware of what was going on around her. I could almost hear her scream of stubbornness.
The melancholy was thick in the air. Her body would be contained in the same cryogenic chamber as Michael. Security was lax. It wasn’t like they were expecting body snatchers. I was going to be the exception. She wasn’t going to make it to the cryogenic chamber.