by Josi Russell
In the light from the chambers, Ethan could see that each creature was a different muted color: blue, maroon, orange, and purple.
His stomach turned as the creatures walked down the row of passengers, stopping to ogle them and tap on the glass. He dared not move enough to see Kaia’s reaction, but her ragged breathing beside him indicated that she was upset at the scene too.
“They appear to be healthy specimens,” said the largest of the creatures, whose armor shone dully blue. He ran a clinking claw along the fronts of the stasis chambers as he walked. “And young enough for breeding, certainly.”
“I think they’d make very interesting pets,” said another, a maroon creature with a hint of malice in his voice.
The dark blue creature chided him. “Their buyers will decide what they are to be used for. You are to make sure they arrive at the auction in exactly this condition. Understood?”
The maroon Aloran grunted.
They had reached the end of the row and now wandered along the center aisle. To Ethan’s horror, they were heading toward Aria’s chamber. He felt Kaia’s firm arm across his back and realized that he had started to rise. He pressed closer to the metal grating of the walkway, trembling with the effort of keeping still.
Just as the creatures reached Aria’s row, the ship gave a sudden slight jolt.
“Ahhh. We’ve landed,” said the dark blue creature. “We’ll have only a few minutes, then, to finish our observations. We’ll be needed at the arena to prepare.”
“Nakthre, look at this.” The maroon creature was standing with his claw on Aria’s stasis chamber. “This one is deformed.”
The blue creature, apparently Nakthre, approached and peered at her. “It has some sort of growth. Possibly still healthy. A minor removal procedure should—” The creature whirled, peering up into the darkness, directly toward where Ethan and Kaia were cowering. The big, sloped head inclined slightly, as if listening. “Hmmm.” It growled, turning deliberately back to the chamber. “It is a female, isn’t it? Perhaps . . . perhaps it has young.”
“Inside it? Wouldn’t the young devour the female?” the maroon creature was obviously disgusted.
“They are a . . .” Nakthre looked pointedly back toward the walkway. “. . . fascinating species. The plates on his face moved slightly, in a gruesome imitation of a smile. “I look forward to studying them more closely.”
The others glanced in the direction Nakthre was gazing. Finally, the smallest Aloran, the one with a deep purple shell, growled, “Should we be going, Nakthre? Before we’re summoned?”
Nakthre spoke slowly. “Yes, yes. We will go now.” His voice raised in volume until it rang through the hold, shaking the walls. “We will return soon enough.” He looked at his companions.
Ethan watched the plates over the creatures’ eyes slide closed. Then his own eyes widened as he saw them become transparent and disappear altogether. The hold was eerily silent.
He and Kaia lay still a long time before they dared slip back into the shafts and find their way back to the Tertiary Navigation Room. Once there, they collapsed onto the floor. The smooth, clean lines of the ship spun around Ethan as he lay looking up at the ceiling. The creatures would be impossible to beat, considering their obvious physical advantages alone. Their advanced technology added another layer of difficulty. He closed his eyes.
“What are we going to do, Kaia?” His voice was a whisper.
“I don’t know. They’re so powerful. So impenetrable. We’re on their home planet. I don’t see any way out.”
“Me neither. They’re completely armored. We don’t even have the most basic density vests. We don’t have any weapons—”
“Wait, Ethan. Wait.” Kaia sat up. “No, I do have a density vest. I wore one when I came on board. And we do have a weapon. My energy pistol is in the cargo hold.” Her eyes were sparkling. “Ethan, David had a vest, too! There should be two density vests onboard somewhere. We’ve got to find them.”
Ethan sat up, a thought coming to him. “I know where they are.” He looked at her. “The trunk in the Caretaker’s hold. McNeal must have wanted to keep them close.”
“Of course,” Kaia said softly. “He wanted something of mine. He had me infuse it with my violet perfume so that it would smell like me.”
“We’ve got to get to them.” Ethan was already pulling the panel open. “And get back here before they re-materialize onboard. We’ve got to have some protection. And we’ve got to get the energy pistol—we’ve got to arm ourselves as much as we can.”
They carefully worked their way through the wires, pulling each panel closed behind them.
Kaia checked over the panels, making sure there were no signs of disturbance. “We can’t take the chance that they’ll find our hiding place.”
They ran down the hall, but the headlong rush of yesterday was gone, replaced by careful scuttling, running close to the wall, trying to stay as small as possible. They found their way to the boxes in the cargo hold and retrieved Kaia’s pistol. Ethan slipped it in his pocket as she replaced her box. Then they headed to the Caretaker’s hold.
Ethan turned away as Kaia put her vest on under her clothes, not wasting time going into the bathroom to change. Ethan put his own vest on, keeping his eyes focused on the couch. He secured the pistol in the holster inside his vest.
Glancing back at the couch, he swore. “My journal’s gone! I left it here on the couch with the data recorder!”
“They’ve been here, then.” Kaia was already headed toward the door.
“Don’t you see? They’ll know we’re on board. I wrote about it in that journal. They’ll know—”
Ethan’s panicked voice faded as he saw the air in the hold shimmering between them. Before he could blink, three of the four Alorans stood between them. Ethan felt an immediate weight come over him. It forced him to the ground. It felt like the time he’d shattered his knee and had to be anesthetized for the surgery. But this time, instead of just his legs, he felt the weight in his whole body. His thoughts moved quickly, but his body was immobilized. Beyond the aliens, he glimpsed Kaia falling as well.
Nakthre’s rumbling voice filled Ethan’s head. “Yes. We know.” He walked forward, eying Ethan as he did so. “You are the human male called E-than Bry-ant?” The stresses fell wrong on his name.
With great effort, Ethan nodded. It felt like he’d been buried beneath bags of sand.
“And you understand my words?”
Ethan wondered if he had given away something he shouldn’t have but nodded again.
“Fascinating. This is not the language of your home planet, though?”
Ethan shook his head, trembling with the effort. Nakthre tipped his head slightly, and the weight fell off Ethan’s shoulders. He still could not stand, but he could move his head and neck freely now.
“You can speak to me then? In my language? Please, do so now.”
Ethan heard a small cry from Kaia. She sounded as if she were being crushed.
Ethan put the sentence together in his mind, trying to copy their accents. “Take the weight from the girl,” he said in Xardn.
The other creatures made growls that seemed to show their amusement. It was a disturbing kind of laughter, and it grated on Ethan.
His eyes flashed. “You’re crushing her!”
Nakthre inclined his head slightly over his shoulder, in Kaia’s direction. Her strangled sounds stopped. Ethan could hear her catching her breath.
“You do know the Language of the Ancients, though you speak it poorly. How is it that you know this language?”
Nakthre had moved closer. Ethan weighed his odds of being able to pull the pistol out of his pocket and fire on the creature. Moving his frozen arm half that far would be like lifting a hovercar over his head. He’d never be able to do it quickly enough. He would probably make things much, much worse, and possibly lose the only advantage they had at this point.
Nakthre was still waiting for an answer.
&
nbsp; “It was my field of study on Earth. We learned it from ancient documents gathered from across the galaxy and traded to Earth several hundred years ago.”
“Fascinating. This will be of interest to the heads of state. We will take you to them.”
Chapter 20
Before he knew what was happening, Ethan felt himself growing lighter and lighter until he couldn’t feel his body around him at all. With a sickening feeling, he realized that the creatures were more powerful than he had guessed. They could control matter. He was being transported. Ethan was acutely aware of the presence of the creatures and of Kaia’s presence in a soft darkness through which they seemed to be moving. His mind seemed to be moving, anyway. In a few seconds, he felt himself growing heavier again until he found himself in the same crouched position, the strange weight on his body restored. He was looking down at a smoky, clear surface below, where other creatures walked. He blinked as the creatures below him seemed to overlap and merge as they moved. Squinting, he realized that he was looking down through a transparent gray building, the floors below visible as far as he could see.
He turned his head and saw Kaia beside him, also crouched and immobilized. “Are you okay?” he asked her in English.
“I think so.” She seemed unable to move her head, staring down fixedly through the transparent floor. As he began to speak again to her, a deep rumbling filled the room, so loud that his ears began to buzz. Ethan raised his head to see a tarnished, dark yellow creature seated on a raised throne in front of them.
The creature began to speak in Xardn. “Well done, Nakthre!” it cried in a harsh, grating voice. “You have brought two excellent specimens to illustrate the stock at this day’s auction! The crowd will clamor for such appealing creatures.”
Ethan decided the creature thought that he couldn’t understand him rather than was trying to intimidate him.
The yellow creature stood and descended to where they were, walking around them, his plated eyes appraising them. “Yes,” he said, entangling the digits of the smaller claw in Kaia’s short hair. “Very appealing.” He ran the claw down her spine, and Ethan saw her flinch.
“Don’t touch her!” he shouted in English.
The creatures around them laughed. Ethan realized that there must be many of them in the room, many more than he could see from his position.
“Defensive behavior. Are they a pair, then?” the yellow one asked, amused. He continued to stroke Kaia’s hair and back.
“That is unclear. I’ve brought them to you because they were not in stasis. They were living, awake, in the ship.” He gestured with his smaller claw toward Ethan. “This one can speak the Language of the Ancients.”
The yellow creature paused, leaving a claw lingering on the small of Kaia’s back. “Is that so? How is this possible?”
Nakthre related what Ethan had told him.
“This is surprising.” The yellow creature left Kaia and walked over to Ethan. Speaking in Xardn, he said, “Welcome! You will soon see more of our magnificent planet! I am Traxoram, ruler of Beta Alora. I wish for you to demonstrate your ability to speak our language,” he commanded.
“Leave the girl alone,” Ethan growled in Xardn.
Traxoram’s face brightened. He clicked the digits of one claw together with pleasure, almost as if in applause. “A valiant attempt. Well done, for such an undeveloped tongue. You’ll bring a nice price, with such a unique quality. Tell me, human male, is this delicious creature your mate?” He nodded toward Kaia.
Ethan was silent. Saying that she was not might make them feel as if she were up for grabs. Saying that she was might bring on more torment for her if the Alorans wanted to see his “defensive behavior.”
“Ruler,” the small Aloran stepped forward from the crowd and into Ethan’s line of vision. “We found a record written by this human male. He is called E-than Bry-ant.” The creature handed Traxoram Ethan’s journal. Traxoram took it and opened to a page near the front. He gave it a cursory glance and then flipped through the pages until the symbols in the last few pages of writing stopped him. He opened the journal wide, tipping it toward Ethan.
“You wrote this?” he asked, indicating the page full of Xardn symbols.
“Yes,” Ethan said in Xardn.
Traxoram peered into the book, his smaller claw rising to hover over the page. Ethan’s mouth dropped open as he watched the delicate digits begin to trace the symbols. The digits rotated in their sockets in perfect circles, tracing over the complex shapes. Though Ethan was still stiff with fear, part of his brain lit up with excitement as he realized what a breakthrough this was in the study of Xardn. It had always been assumed that the Xardn civilization had written their documents with the use of equipment similar to the glyphtol. He had never heard it proposed that the Xardns had had these sorts of orbiting digits.
His mind was pulled from the discovery by the grotesque laughing of Traxoram.
“Oh, yes. It appears that the two are paired.” And amidst his laughter, Traxoram began to read:
It’s been so long since I felt anything but duty and despair. Her intelligence, her sweetness, the way she moves, makes me crazy. I want to be with her all the time. I would stay up talking to her and looking at her all night if I could. I find little opportunities to touch her—to brush her hand when we’re walking, to steady her arm as she steps over the doorjambs. Though I never thought I could love anyone again, I think I’m falling in love with Kaia.
Traxoram was still laughing. His laughter encouraged the others around him to join in. Soon the room reverberated with the grating sound.
Ethan’s cheeks burned with humiliation.
“He’s written it in the Language of the Ancients.” Traxoram held the journal up for the room to see. “Only such a primitive creature would use a language older than time to describe the most fleeting and ridiculous of emotions.”
Ethan’s head snapped up. He spoke angrily in Xardn. “Your species doesn’t know this emotion? This ‘ridiculous’ emotion?”
Traxoram looked down at his captive. “My brothers and I,” he waved his large, clawed hand at the crowd in the room, “have evolved beyond such trivialities. We know what brings progress. This ‘love’ you speak of brings only distraction and weakness. Many a civilization has fallen to the lusts of the body, my young friend. Many a creature has died on a battlefield sown by false affections.”
“Then let us go!” Ethan cried, looking the creature in his flinty eyes. “What use have you for such primitive, weak creatures? You, in all your might and power?”
“What use, indeed?” Traxoram said, almost as if he were purring. “Shall we show them, my brothers?”
A deafening roar went up.
Suddenly, Ethan felt the weight fall off his body. Freed, he shot up, seeing Kaia doing the same.
Finally able to turn his head, he whirled around to see that hundreds of the creatures surrounded them, roaring and jeering.
“Come, my pets, now that you are freed of your fetters. Walk with me.”
Ethan and Kaia followed cautiously, holding onto one another. Ethan felt light. Each step had extra bounce. He wondered if there was some kind of difference in gravity, or whether it was simply due to the absence of the extra weight.
The transparent walls made travel through the huge building disorienting. Rooms layered upon rooms, doorways stretched to infinity. The huge crowd jostled behind them.
Ethan felt a blast of cool, clear air and realized that they had walked directly out onto a balcony of sorts. A pale red cityscape stretched around them, and Ethan felt dizzy looking down at the vast distance to the ground below them. The dizziness suddenly merged with the peculiar feeling of lightness that told Ethan they were transporting again. Again he was surrounded with the darkness. Again the presence of Kaia and the others was obvious to him. This time, with so many intelligences sharing the darkness, their overwhelming presence was almost painful, like being in an overcrowded elevator. It was a relief to feel his
body again around him.
As he came to consciousness, a cold awareness dawned on him. Kaia gasped beside him as she, too, realized what they were looking at.
Chapter 21
A vast suburban landscape stretched before them, perfect in every detail except for one. All of the houses, like every other building they’d seen so far, were made of smoky, transparent glass. The town was an exact replica of the settlement on Minea except for that detail.
Traxoram turned to them. “You see? We have created for you a very hospitable habitat.”
“So you just plan to keep us here and watch us live out our lives? Like pets?” Ethan asked.
Traxoram’s voice was menacing when he spoke again. “I grow weary of your demanding. I grow tired of your hostility. You have no idea how easy it would be for me to completely do away with you. If you had any idea, you would cower at my feet. If you weren’t so valuable, I would show you how insignificant you and your entire species are. You are not pets to us. Oh, no . . . pets are kept for pleasure only. They amuse, delight, entertain. We have thousands of species kept for that purpose. We have a rather more . . . lucrative interest in humans.” His features contorted into a mask of concentration. “I would use the word . . . livestock. Kept not for pleasure, but for profit.”
Traxoram walked down a small slope leading to the nearest street between the houses. Ethan and Kaia were compelled to follow by the press of the crowd behind them. The swarm moved down the street, stopping in front of one of the little houses.
Traxoram gestured to Ethan and Kaia. “Enter. Enter the domicile. See how carefully it has been constructed for your pleasure.”
Ethan and Kaia walked carefully toward the front door, holding hands. He tried the clear knob and the door swung inward. Walking in, he was overwhelmed with a sense of surrealism. The walls were right, the distances gauged correctly, but the transparency made him feel disoriented and vulnerable. When the door closed behind them, the sounds of the crowd died and he and Kaia were left in silence. She pulled him by the hand down the hallway that stretched in front of them. They entered a bedroom, where the familiar furniture had the same transparent quality as the walls.