by Kit Tunstall
When it came, it was unexpectedly the numbing agent she used first. The alien had crouched down on his hands and knees to clean up the vomit, and as he started to rise after finishing the unpleasant task, his eyes were level with the bed. Acting more on instinct than cool intellect or logic, she released her hold on the laser scalpel and brought up the numbing agent, spraying it all in his eyes. She doubted it would hurt, but hoped it would blind him.
He reeled back and said a word she didn’t recognize, so she assumed his translation system must not have anything even close to the word in English. It was probably an alien curse word.
Before he could get too far away, she dropped the numbing agent and lifted the laser scalpel instead, bringing it up and clicking the button as he had done. For a moment, the laser beam flickered before fading away. Her heart was racing in her ears, and the alien seemed to be less jerky in his motions, which meant he was probably rapidly recovering from any effects of the numbing agent. She pressed the button again, harder this time, and the short laser beam shot out.
As he reached for her, she slid off the table and ducked under his arm, moving around behind him to stab the scalpel through his back with a sweeping slice. The laser burned through his flesh easily, and that same unpleasant odor of charred flesh filled the air, once again making her want to vomit. Instead, she pulled out the scalpel and shoved it back in, this time a direct puncture wound into the back of his neck, where the brain stem would be on a human, at what she hoped was the base of his skull.
The alien fell to the floor without another sound, and there was no sign of movement. She didn’t know how to check his vital signs or determine if he was still alive, and she didn’t waste time trying to find out.
Jada paused long enough to examine the wound in her arm, not wanting to leave a blood trail that would be easy to follow. The laser had cauterized the edges, so there was no blood, though it was a disgusting sight.
Before fleeing the room, she bent over long enough to try to wrest the scalpel from the back of his neck, grimacing as she realized part of the handle had gotten stuck in the light-orange spongy flesh revealed by the incision through his neck. “Gross.” She wiped her hand on his slick black uniform, not wanting to think about the fact that she had alien brain matter all over her fingers.
She decided to abandon the scalpel and stood up straight, taking a moment to look through the instruments arranged on the tray, but finding nothing else that looked like the laser scalpel. She supposed she should take it out of his skull, but it wasn’t much of a weapon anyway. She’d have to be in close quarters to have any use for it, and she didn’t think she was going to end up catching someone else unaware again.
Before leaving the laboratory, she did pick up a metal bar out of a stack against one wall. She wasn’t certain what their purpose was, but they looked like rebar used in construction. She doubted that was the function for them in this room, but when she hefted one in her hand and gave a good swing, she was satisfied it would do serious damage to any alien she actually managed to hit with it. It was still a feeble weapon, especially since they probably had something like laser rifles, but it would have to do. The only other option was to stay in the room and hide, which would be useless, because someone would eventually come check on the alien assigned to experiment on her.
At the door, she found a matching button to the one that had been on the exterior and pressed it. She held her breath as the door opened, relieved that it had done so, while also frightened of what she was going to find on the other side. She hated feeling so helpless and fearful, but there was certainly an element of adrenaline to the whole ordeal that made her feel alive.
She could almost understand extreme sports, but still didn’t get how people could enjoy a career as a spy or something along those lines. That was how she felt at the moment, creeping down the corridor as she waited to run into the next alien. Unfortunately, she was no James Bond. Hell, she wasn’t even a Bond Girl, and she was in way over her head.
When she got to the end of the corridor, she took a right, because they had taken a left before. She slipped down the hallway when she heard footsteps coming from the other side of the corridor. Panicked, she looked around for somewhere to hide and darted to the closest door. She could only hope it was someplace safe, rather than leading her into Dr. Ha’s personal quarters, or an equally awful location.
Fortunately, the door opened when she pressed the button, and she was able to slip across the threshold and out of the way before it closed, crouching down against the wall as she waited for them to pass. She couldn’t actually hear activity in the hallway, which hindered her ability to determine when it was safe to leave the darkened room.
Finally, after several seconds, she started to rise and reach for the button to allow her to exit. A second later, arms enfolded her, and a hand clamped over her mouth, trapping the scream that came automatically to her lips. Her pipe clattered to the floor with a clanking sound.
“Hush, Jada.”
She froze in shock as the familiar voice whispered in her ear, turning in his arms a moment later when he loosened his hold and throwing herself into Ryland’s embrace. She clung tightly to him, and after a moment, she realized he was holding her just as securely. Tears she hadn’t been aware of wanting to cry suddenly filled her eyes. Jada sniffed and blinked them back while she looked up at him in the dimly lit room. The only illumination came from a device in his hand. “I was scared I’d never see you again.”
His expression betrayed his concern, and his normally golden complexion was more of a pasty yellow. “What are you doing here? I told you not to come.”
She stepped back from him as irritation swelled. Her hands found purchase on her hips as she glared up at her alien lover. “They came to my apartment and took me. And just what are you doing here? Your note said you were just going to poke around the outside for now and wait until dark to slip inside.”
He looked sheepish. “I saw an opportunity to sneak inside, so I seized it. I’ve been slowly exploring the facility, and both my hearts nearly exploded when I saw you slip into this room. You aren’t supposed to be here.” He sounded aggravated, but she knew it wasn’t at her. “You were supposed to be safe.”
She bit her lip before allowing her hands to fall back to her sides and taking a step toward him again. She rested her head on his chest and one hand on his shoulder. “You’re supposed to be safe too. What are we going to do?”
His arms came around her again, still holding her tightly, but perhaps without the same hint of desperation as before. “I managed to contact my supervisor, and he’s agreed to send a team to apprehend Ha and his cohorts.”
She shuddered in his arms. “How long will that take? Aren’t you like a gazillion light-years away from here?”
“I’m in the same room, Jada,” he said with perfect logic, though his lips twitched to suggest he was teasing her. “However, Dazonia Major is quite a far journey from here. Fortunately, it doesn’t take long to fold.”
She shook her head. “Fold? What are you folding? I don’t understand.”
“Essentially, we’re folding space to shorten the distance between one point and another point. Reinforcements will be here within the hour.”
Relief filled her, and she sagged against him. “So we just have to stay hidden until then?”
He stiffened, and there was a significant pause before his arm spasmed around her in a tight hug for a moment. After that, he took a step back, looking slightly ill. “We could do that, but I have a better idea. I don’t wish to endanger you, but nor can I leave you here hiding alone. Neither option is safe.”
She shook her head. “What options? Tell me what they are, and I’ll decide what to do for myself.”
Ryland inclined his head. “We can stay here and hide together, moving if necessary, or we can return to the holding area to free your friends and heal as many of them as time allows.”
“The second idea, of course.” She hesitated,
tipping her head to the side as she considered. “Why do you want to heal them right this minute? I’m not ungrateful at all, but it seems like bad timing.”
Ryland shrugged. “Two reasons, I suppose. The first is, healthy patients might have a greater chance of being able to escape than women who are bedbound or wheelchair-bound. The second is complicated.”
She nodded to encourage him to continue.
“I’m not entirely confident my government will release the treatment for Kaiser’s Syndrome without demanding the women cooperate with breeding experiments in return. I’d like to heal as many as possible before I lose the opportunity, and perhaps your scientists will find a way to reverse engineer our technology if my home world is being difficult.”
She blinked at him. “But if you take away their negotiating tool, it could mean your species will go extinct.”
He hesitated, his expression dark and clearly revealing his confliction. “Yes, but do we deserve to persevere and endure at the expense of your species, and the human women’s right to choose whether or not to help us? That’s a question I’ve wrestled with, and my conclusion is this has to be a consensual arrangement between Dazon men and human women, or it’s completely unethical.”
She nodded her satisfaction, agreeing completely with his conclusion, but still touched that he could think about it in such a way when his race’s existence was at stake. “Let’s go free my friends.”
Chapter Five
When they slipped into the corridor, it was empty, and they cleared three hallways before they ran across an alien. At first, the assistant paid them little attention, probably having seen Earth women moving around the corridors before, but he stiffened as he started to pass them. He turned face Ryland, hand clamped over his upper arm. “Who are you, and what is your authorization to be in this area?”
Ryland gave him an impassive expression. “I’m Inquisitor Breese, and my authorization comes from Dazonia Major.” Before the other alien could respond or react, the device in Ryland’s hand crackled with green sparks, and the alien’s body jolted at the impact. He convulsed and slumped to the floor a second later, either unconscious or dead.
“You tased him.”
Ryland look down at her, a question in his eyes. “I did what?”
She waved a hand, deciding not to initiate a discussion on human weapons at the moment. “Never mind. Is he dead?”
Ryland nodded. “I couldn’t take chances, so the pulser is discharging at maximum capacity.” He took a moment to lift the body over his shoulder and nodded for her to open the nearest door. She did so cautiously, relieved to see it was another darkened room. It could be minutes or hours before someone entered, but it appeared to be empty at the moment at least. Ryland dropped the body inside, closing the door behind him with his elbow, before taking her hand and leading her down the corridor again.
That was the only alien they ran across on their trek to the area he had called the holding area, and when he opened the door to take her inside, she realized why he’d called it that.
It had an open floor plan, and the area was crammed with hospital beds. She didn’t have time for an exact count, but certainly at least four hundred, and probably more. There was no doubt a bed in this facility for every woman Dr. Ha’s group had kidnapped. Somewhere in the collection, there was probably a bed for her too.
“Oh, no,” called out a familiar voice, thick with tears. “Not you too, Jada.”
Her gaze unerringly sought the source of the voice, and tears filled her eyes when she saw her friend Jessminda a dozen beds away. She rushed to her friend, dropping down onto the bed to hug her as Ryland stood behind her.
Jess glared up at him, tightening her arms around Jada in a protective fashion. “You stay away from her.”
Jada patted her shoulder and wriggled free of the tight hug, since it was currently reducing her ability to inflate her lungs. “No, it’s okay, Jess. This is Ryland, and he’s here to help rescue and heal you guys.” She didn’t bother to explain that it wasn’t completely healing, but rather a process of restoring optimal homeostasis. The scientific talk and explanation could wait until later.
She looked down at her friend, who wasn’t confined to the bed with straps, other than one across her waist. She touched it and arched a brow. “Have they labeled you a flight risk?”
Jess chuckled darkly. “They got sick of me pulling myself out of bed and trying to crawl across the floor.”
“Never give up, right?” She grinned at her friend before turning her head to look up at Ryland. “Can you heal Jess now?”
He nodded, pulling out the same device she recognized from when he had injected her with the nanobots. “I have approximately twenty units in here, Jada, so I can’t heal everyone. I wish I could.”
She nodded her understanding, suddenly aware of the eyes on them, and hating the fact they couldn’t help everyone or save everyone that day.
When Ryland brought the device closer to Jess, her friend shook her head, straight brown hair flying everywhere. “Get that away from me, alien boy.”
“It’s okay, Jess. He gave me the same thing, and I was up walking around a few minutes later.”
Jess turned distrusting eyes on her, which hurt. “How am I supposed to believe that? How do I even know you’re you? These are fucking aliens, Jada.”
She inclined her head. “Fair enough, but have you seen any human-like aliens walking around? Or have they all been of the Mr. Bland or the golden-skin variety?”
Jess hesitated for a moment before answering, looking almost reluctant to admit, “Just the golden boys like this one.”
Jada nodded again. “They want our eggs, not us. It’s the Kaiser’s Syndrome that makes us genetically compatible with them. I promise you that I am your friend, and not some weird alien clone thing.”
“Our eggs?”
Ryland interjected, “I found the research area, and Dr. Ha’s team has harvested several hundred human eggs, but has not yet initiated the process of creating blastocysts for implantation.”
Jess blinked at him before turning her attention back to Jada. There was still faint suspicion in her gaze. “I still don’t know if it’s you.”
Jada sighed. “Do you remember when we had Mexican food six months ago? We shared half a bottle of tequila between us, and we had to wait there half the night before we were sober enough to call for a taxi to take us home?”
The mistrust in Jess’s eyes faded slightly. “Yeah, okay, but tell me something only you would know.”
“When you were six years old, you put slugs in Pradheep’s shoes because he had pulled your hair and laughed at you in front of his friends.”
Jess relaxed abruptly, looking at Ryland and holding out her arm. ““Okay, get on with it then.”
Ryland didn’t say anything, but his lips appeared to be twitching, and he was clearly having a difficult time holding in his amusement at her about-face and bossy tone. He injected her with the nanobots and moved on to the next woman less than ten seconds later.
Jada sat with Jess as the nanobots did their magic, watching as the women nearest them were offered the option of being treated. A surprising number of them declined, but she understood their fear. She just hoped they weren’t rejecting their last chance, and she hoped Ryland wasn’t the only Dazon who thought it had to be a consensual arrangement for it to work.
He was administering the seventeenth dose when the door suddenly opened, admitting Ha and a group of his assistants, who stormed into the room. They formed a semicircle between the women and the exit. A few of the women were already regaining the ability to stand, Jess included, and she climbed from the bed with moderate assistance from Jada. It would take the nanotechnology a bit of time to repair her atrophied muscles, but at least she could stand.
Jorvak looked appalled at the sight before him, and his gaze homed in on his half-brother. “Inquisitor Breese?”
The coldly impersonal way he addressed his brother boggled her min
d, and she reminded herself they were aliens with a completely different culture, as Ryland had told her.
Ryland slipped the device that administered the nanotechnology back into his suit, where it seemed to disappear. She’d have to remember to ask him about their storage or pockets at some point in the future. He strode back to them, his arm going around Jada’s waist in a sign of support. “Jorvak Ha, you and your assistants are under arrest for sedition. You will be extradited back to the home world, where you’ll face charges of unauthorized experimentation on a non-compliant sentient race.”
Ha crossed his arms over his black jumpsuit and made a production of looking around. “You’ve come to arrest me, Inquisitor? And who will be providing the assistance for that task? Will it be these humans, who would be no match for us even in perfect physical condition?”
His gaze moved to Jada, and he frowned at her. “Perhaps it will be the human you must have restored to health a few days ago, one who was formidable enough to kill one of my assistants, but not before her genetic material was entered into the computer. As soon as it detected the presence of nanotechnology, the system alerted me.”
“Actually, it will be the armada currently orbiting Earth. I received notification from Commander Darvig approximately ten minutes ago that they have arrived, and a landing party will be here shortly.”
Jorvak’s haughty expression faded, replaced by one of anger and fear. “Have you fools no vision? These women hold the key to our future. All Earth women can easily be modified with a full laboratory and all Dazon technology at my disposal. It won’t take much to figure out how to reprogram the genetic code so that they all carry the extra fragment.
“There are approximately four billion women on this planet, which is more than enough to revitalize not only our population, but our culture and society. Our men need wives as much as we need offspring. We’ve forgotten how to be a cohesive society, and women can teach us that again.”