It reached climax and she sighed. The next selection began and the peace she’d found shattered. The simple piano began and the words floated out. “…once human…” and she screamed, falling to her knees. Somehow she thought she’d removed that song. Yanking the player from her pocket she threw it with all her strength. It hung in the air then began to fall, as the music continued to weave through her head. It fell, but the music didn’t stop.
The Aleena built things to last. With a sob, she tried to dig the ear filters out of her head, but they were in too deep and she’d had them too long. Tears blinded her eyes and she stumbled off the path, into the jagged boulders that filled the crater. She had to find it. She had to stop it from playing.
The words danced in her head. “…nothing left…”
“…cruel wanting…”
Her foot slipped and with a sense of surrender, she let herself fall…
*****
Sam heard her scream and sprinted the last hundred feet to the summit. He scanned the rim, looking for her. A discarded pack caught his eye and he dashed to it.
No. Please, god, no.
The steep drop off caused his head to spin. If she’d taken that leap, she was gone. Kneeling at the edge, he peered down, looking for some sign. “Ria!” He called out, his heart breaking. He’d let her down, he’d failed so utterly. And she’d never know his regret, his grief at hurting the woman he loved…
The GPS! He pulled it out and studied it. Not here, she wasn’t here…she was over there? He stood up and searched the rim trail for a sign.
“Ria?” There was no sign. A sudden cold wind whipped his hair about and into his face. He brushed it away and began to follow the signal. He found her music player twenty minutes later. It lay in a tangle of rocks, scratched but still intact. And still on.
He fiddled with his palm device and the music she’d been listening to played across the screen. “Lost Paradise.” Oh, shit.
But that was a dozen songs ago. Where was she?
He tuned into the player and heard another group she was fond on. “Something to Live For.”
Let it be a sign.
“Ria! Ria! It’s Sam! Ria, please! Where are you? Honey, answer me! Ria, don’t leave me, please! Ria!” He called out as he scrambled around the chaos of stone and shattered glass, old lava and pumice cut his hands while the light grew fainter. He glanced overhead. It was going to rain. What a hellish place to be stuck in a storm…
“Sam…?”
Did he hear something?
*****
She hurt. Oh, God. She just hurt. She groaned and tried to push herself up, but the angle at which she’d fallen made it impossible. She’d wedged herself into a narrow passage where two great boulders met. Ten minutes of sweating and cursing saw her sitting up, leaning against the smaller of the two and gazing at her right thigh, a terribly gash staining the grit beneath her with blood.
Not the clean way she’d envisioned she’d go.
Her music player kept throwing songs at her, lost somewhere in the stone maze.
Why had she fought? Didn’t she want to die?
“…halfway back…”
Was she halfway back? A turning point? The urge to laugh filled her. Damn, she’d given up too quickly. Such irony.
She leaned her head back and looked up at the sky, growing darker by the minute. “Oh, Sam. I wish I could have seen you one more time.”
The last time she’d seen him, looking directly into her eyes, he’d been fighting through the pain of Hammer’s poison.
She thought she’d understood his apology. Sorry that she’d misunderstood. He thought he was dying, and he tried to make her feel better. A good man. It wasn’t his fault he couldn’t forget what she was. Unhuman.
“If only I had a chance to tell you, Sam. I…” She heard a shout through the music and listened closely. She was hallucinating. The blood loss must be weakening her faster than she thought.
A song about paintings on a sidewalk drew her attention. Lyrics taunted her with what lay ahead, and wanting to know.
Damn it. She wanted that. Grimacing, she pulled her a small knife from her left pants pocket and sliced her pants free from the wound. She pressed her hand into the blood, attempting to staunch the flow. If she concentrated, she might be able to trigger some aspect of the Aleena buried inside and save herself from bleeding to death. Maybe.
“Ria!”
“Sam?” She shouted into the void. Was he really here?
The music stopped and she heard him call out again.
A cascade of rocks to the side of her signaled someone was close. “Help!”
A moment later, his familiar face appeared and he dropped down into the opening. “God, Ria. What happened?”
“I fell…” She gazed into his eyes and smiled. “I didn’t jump. I fell.” It was important that she tell him. “I was going to jump, but I was wrong. I’m sorry.”
He smiled crookedly. “I’m relieved to hear you say it.”
“I wanted to die, so tired. But then I fell and I knew I wanted to see you again.”
He smiled crookedly at her, then glanced at her leg. “Oh, that is nasty.” He tilted his head to examine her leg, then pulled his pack to the front, tugged out a shirt and set it at the gash. “I don’t think it’s too bad. Ugly, but not too deep. Honey, you can move your hand.”
“I was trying to stop it. Sam, you’re really here?”
“The moment I woke, I asked for you.”
She stared at his face, blinking. “You are angry at the tendrices. I knew…”
He shook his head. “I’m not angry. I understand that I need them and without them I’d be dead.” He set her hand on the cloth and raised his bloody hand up to brush at strands of her hair, lifting in the nippy air. “Just like you needed yours.”
She fought the urge to jerk away from his hand, trying to understand. “But…I made you sick! You were so repulsed you threw up!”
“No, it wasn’t like that.” He drew a deep breath and glanced up at the darkening sky. “We need to find some shelter. Or call for evacuation.”
“They won’t send a helicopter up here during a storm.” Closing her eyes, she leaned into his palm. He brushed at her lips with his thumb, then she felt his gentle kiss, before he pulled away.
“I saw an area with a natural cave, a tumble of boulders that should give us some shelter.” He examined how badly she was wedged and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I’m gonna lift you straight up. Hold tight while I maneuver your other leg free.”
The mission wasn’t without some pain. She bit her lip and clutched at him. Finally, she was free. He grimaced at the state of her other ankle. “These rocks sliced right through your shoe.”
“Obsidian is like glass,” she whispered.
“I don’t want to remove that shoe until we get to shelter. Ready?”
“My pack has the park tracker. They’ll know I’m still up here and are probably trying to contact me.”
“I didn’t grab one, you’re more practical.”
“I guess I wanted them to find my body…” Hanging her head, she cuddled into his arms. The welling inside of her, of grief and horror, swept upward and the sudden sob that escaped surprised her. Sam just pulled her closer as he dodged rocks and debris. He knelt and slid her into an opening between three huge boulders just as a crack of lightning lit the scene. The thunder followed swiftly. He stood and she gripped at his leg. “Don’t! There’s lightning and my pack is on the rim! It isn’t safe!”
“Yeah.” He knelt and took her foot in his hand. “Does this hurt?”
“No.”
He gingerly moved her ankle, watching her face. She didn’t flinch, just studied his expression, searching for anger, some sign of disgust as he touched her. The lines she’d noted before were fewer and the bruises were gone. Carefully, he loosened the elastic ties and slid the shoe off, the slice through the sole obvious as he set it down. His smile made her smile back, even as tears
ran down her face.
“Didn’t tear into your foot. Let’s bandage the thigh wound and wait it out. Think they’ll send someone after the storm?”
“Probably.” She swallowed, suddenly tongue tied.
He removed the shirt from her leg and began to tear it into strips. The gash oozed, having partially clotted. “Amazing how a bit of Aleena in the genetics assists in healing.”
Ria took a deep breath, trembling slightly as she gathered her courage. “You vomited. It wasn’t the alienness of me?”
“No. I admit, the initial shock threw me and I was angry, thinking I’d been deceived. But then…” He glanced up at her and sat back, done with the bandage. “…then you frantically stripped, looking for what repelled me and I realized… You didn’t know. They never told you.”
“Oh. But you wouldn’t touch me or talk to me. When you had to touch me, you were so angry…”
“Not at you. At them, at the situation.” He inhaled and reached for her hand. “Not at you.”
A thunderclap broke the quiet and a sudden deluge poured into the crater. The shelter kept it from pouring directly onto them, but it found every crack and crevice between the rocks until only a very small space remained dry. Sam urged her toward it and she shook her head, shouting above the storm that he take it, she’d sit in his lap.
With a grin, he quickly conceded and gathered her close.
The thunder and rain kept conversation to a minimum. Ria laid her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes. It hadn’t been her. No, it was at first, but he fought that and turned it away. He’d meant it when he’d apologized?
She put her lips close to his ear. “What were you sorry for?”
He followed suite and replied. “I know I hurt your feelings and rejected you and I am so sorry for that. I didn’t understand about the tendrices. Drum tried to explain to me. I wanted him to remove them, thinking they kept you from feeling…” he hesitated.
“Human?” she asked.
“Something like that. I am sorry. I didn’t know and I felt so cheated. For you and…for me.”
She sighed, and laid her head down again.
Had she been cheated? The Aleena gave her time, another forty some years before she returned to the body she’d once had. A second chance to learn. She’d never forgiven Phillip or herself. But now, with Sam…
“I forgive you, Samwise Montgomery. And I am sorry I misunderstood.”
The rain lessened as the storm blew over. He tilted his head down and lifted her chin in his hand. Their eyes met. “Ria, I want to spend the rest of my life learning about you, and teaching you and loving you.”
She blinked, surprised and overwhelmed. He wiped at the tears, still trickling down her cheeks and smiled crookedly. “Stunned you?”
“I was…going back to the ship.”
“We can do that, but there will be a lot of back and forth. I’d like to show you more of the world you left behind so long ago. Ria? Do you trust me? Do you care for me?”
Her mouth opened and she suddenly found it hard to breath. She pushed off his lap and knelt to his side. A shaft of light broke through the clouds to lite upon his face and she surprised herself by laughing. He watched her, brows knit.
Had his admission been too much? Sam’s heart beat fast, waiting for her to show him what to do. Her head bowed as she chuckled, arms locked to her side. The laughter died down and she took a great breath, and then fell toward him. Her lips took his, plump and moist. She spread herself around his lap, as snug to his torso as she’d been the morning he woke up to find her tucked tight against him on the ship. There’s been no thought in his reaction then.
This time he thought. And relished. She pulled back after the longest and sweetest kiss he could ever remember. Her head bowed then she began to unbutton her shirt, fingers trembling. She paused. “Sam? I’ve only been with one man. I’m not sure what…”
He took over helping her undress. As he rose above her, in the bare bit of dry ground, he smiled. “I have so much to show you.”
“Please.”
He bent to kiss her and both heard the music program begin a new track. Ria caught her breath as she recognized the song, began months ago at Jarveski’s studio.
“Welcome to the planet…”
*****
Maureen O. Betita is a maniacal writer with a talent for binding unlikely elements into a book full of adventure.
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*****
The Alien Library
Another Novel of an Alien Encounter
Preview of The Alien Library
1
Waking up in a room full of naked people, recently abducted by aliens, wasn’t on her list of life accomplishments. The titles she’d been shelving the night of the abduction flew through her memory: 100 Places to See Before You Die, The Ultimate Bucket List, 100 Things to Do Before You Die… Cam shook her head, leaning on the back of the man behind her. He’d woken up about the same time she had, but appeared stoned. His erection drew the interest of a nearby woman who slid nearer to join him. Even now, she could feel them rocking. She held to his partner’s heels, trying to not be noticed. All around her, people woke up and started touching.
“Where am I? Who are you people?” a voice shouted into the vast room.
Another voice rose in protest. Cameron looked up and spied something odd. No, someone odd, pulling the shouting man to his feet to be led away by three others. Cam opened her mouth, then quickly shut it, dropping her eyes. Her former husband always said she had a talent for disappearing. Right now, that ability came in handy. After realizing those doing the leading away weren’t human, she definitely didn’t want to be noticed.
In the next hour, some ten people were led away. Most complained, several tried striking at the odd figures pulling them away. If they shouted or screamed, gags were used. She didn’t see any violence, it was all done gently. That tended to bother her even more. What the hell was going on?
No one did anything. The rest of the people in the room didn’t seem to care. They sat, or lay on the floor. Some slept, a great many touched and caressed.
It was the most frightening thing Cameron had ever seen. She curled up on the floor and tried to figure out why she was there. Where she was…even who she was. And most especially, who were the odd-looking beings watching over them.
They were tall, very tall, and pale. Where the humans in the room were predominantly white with a few blacks and Mexicans, these things were tinted green. Their joints bent backward and forward. The proportions differed from human. She saw three fingers, took note of how long and thin their torsos were and who knew how many toes. Working in a bookstore gave her some advantage. She’d begun her career managing the science fiction section, which merged into the speculative non-fiction shelves. She’d seen enough illustrations of what non-humans might look like to realize these were aliens.
Of some sort.
Cameron didn’t consider herself stupid. Fear at this point was a perfectly rational reaction. The ones taken away had tried to fight or run. She did neither. She didn’t know why they were removing people, but she felt safer in the crowd. She would stay with the the rest. One of the aliens walked close by and she inhaled. She remembered the same scent in the fog. Her kidnapper was one of these aliens.
I can deal with this. I’ll figure it out. I’ll survive. I’ll blend.
For nearly three months, she outmaneuvered the Kharmon. She listened to the talks, given by one of them. She smiled with the rest, giggled and acted like the remaining humans. She pretended to be stoned, the only way she could define how the rest behaved. They didn’t co
nverse, none of them. They made obvious observations, took pleasure from small praise and did as they were told. At night, they clung together, happily moving from partner to partner. She slid around the periphery, touching when one of the Kharmon came close, but easing the attentions of the men and woman away once no one watched.
She didn’t know if they called themselves Kharmon; she heard that word most often, so she used it. They spoke English, for the most part, though not always. She assumed the strange conversations she occasionally heard were in Kharmonese, for lack of a better word. She couldn’t come close to sounding it out. Every four weeks or so, up to thirty-six humans were taken away. Each time, she managed to avoid the selection process.
Until the third sorting. They’d numbered nearly a hundred in the beginning. Now there were only thirty. She lingered near the feeding troughs, knowing her options were disappearing. She didn’t like to call them troughs, but it fit. Long indented tables filled periodically with food. It was plain fare: bread, cheeses, raw vegetables and fruit. The Kharmon didn't watch them while they ate.
As the last group heard the summoning bell and rose without worry to line up in the other room, Cameron made her move, slipping out a side door and into a maze of hallways, small rooms and closets. For three days, she wandered the empty halls, eavesdropped on the aliens, stole food from unattended meals and caught quick naps in dark corners.
She found a door to the outside on the third day. She wandered along a path, surrounded by growing shrubs and long stretches of what looked like grass. A garden? The plants weren’t familiar. It depressed her to realize how much she missed what she’d once taken for granted. No one else wandered in the greenery, it might prove a good place to hide.
“How beautiful,” she softly murmured. “Oh!” She cupped a golden yellow blossom, and sighed. It made her think of poppies.
“It is beautiful,” a kind voice spoke from behind her. “Don’t…!”
Essentially Human Page 24