The Alien's Rules

by Maggie Carpenter

  Pulling on her dress, she wandered around the exotic dungeon, glancing down at the innocent-looking ball with the black bag at its side as she passed. Some of the pieces she spied looked obvious, like the paddles and floggers, though she suspected they possessed unseen qualities. The furniture too, seemed innocuous, thought she had no doubt it held wicked secrets. It was all very titillating, but deciding to be brave and explore, she walked back to where they’d entered, touched the blue stone on her necklace, and walked into the passageway.

  As before, it was empty, and heading off to Valodar’s chambers, she was soon staring up at the Crest of Stature. Not wanting to confuse it with any other, she studied it, memorizing its shape and colors, then taking a breath for courage, she started down the wide, softly lit, lavender hallway.

  In short order she discovered a library. It was a somber room with glass-covered cabinets filled with books. Several people were seated in oversized chairs engrossed in their reading, though she assumed they weren’t people at all, but Xans, and like Valodar, they appeared remarkably human, except for their six fingers and remarkably smooth skin. She also noticed they were all very attractive, their features perfectly symmetrical. She found it curious they would read books, finding it incongruous to their advanced civilization.

  Not wanting to disturb them, she continued on her way, and little further down she found a place that offered snacks and drinks. It was similar to Valodar’s kitchen, gleaming chrome and steel, black tables and chairs, and glowing balls suspended in the air. Doing her best not to stare at the odd-looking biped who appeared to be in charge, she wandered across to study the beverages and foods placed on counters of varying heights throughout the room.

  “What may I fetch for you?” the creature asked.

  The alien’s voice was thick and low, and it was moving toward her with a strange, waddle-like gait.

  “I’m not sure what I’m able to eat,” she replied nervously, and even though she was aware of her translator, she was amazed that she could communicate with the strange life form.

  “You look almost human,” it remarked. “Where are you from?”

  “I am human, I’m from Earth.”

  “Earth? My stars, from Earth? It is rare to have a visitor from Earth. I should have known. At first glance you look like a Xan, but now that I’m closer to you, I see that you’re not like a Xan at all.”

  “I’m not? How am I different?”

  “Your skin, it’s quite rough, and you don’t have enough digits,” the creature replied, “and your eyes of course, the color doesn’t change. I’ve never met a human. Delighted. I’m from Spiros, but being human you probably haven’t heard of it. You can call me Ganjin, and I’m male, just in case you were wondering.”

  “My head is starting to spin,” she muttered. “Sorry, I thought I was done freaking out, but apparently I’m not.”

  “How long have you been on the station?”

  Ellie frowned. She had no sense of time. Had it been a day, two days, was it now nighttime, or the middle of the afternoon? Valodar had given her breakfast, or had he just used the term? How long had she’d been in the decadent den with him, and how long had she slept before that?

  “Ah, I see you have confusion,” the strange orange-colored alien nodded. “We don’t use time as you know it. We have different measures here, but you’ll adjust. Your body will tell you when you must eat or rest.”

  “I understand what you mean, well, sort of.”

  “Who is your host?”

  “My host? Oh, you mean, who brought me here? Valodar.”

  “Valodar? Then it is indeed an honor. He is a most important Xan. I must take extra good care of you. Nourishment is my most precious work. Please, may I see your palm?”

  Though apprehensive, Ellie offered it up. His hands were a strange shape, almost like a heart with fingers in odd places, and when he touched the center of her palm, he felt icy cold.

  “Yes, I know what you are able to eat safely,” he said confidently. “Do you prefer a sweet taste or a savory taste?”

  “Savory first, then a sweet.”

  “Please, take a table. I will bring you several items.”

  “How do I pay you?”

  “You mustn’t be concerned with that,” he replied. “Such exchanges are done differently here.”

  “Oh, thank you.”

  She sat down and watched him as he moved with extraordinary speed between counters, returning with bite-sized samplings of various dishes inside a shining metal bowl. Hanging from its side was a utensil, much like a spoon, but hexagon-shaped with a scalloped rim. As she began to eat, each tasty morsel was more delicious than the one before, except for a green and orange square; the smell was peculiar and she couldn’t bring herself to put it in her mouth. As he approached to remove the bowl, he smiled and nodded knowingly.

  “It’s not to everyone’s taste,” he said knowingly. “Would you care for anything more?”

  “Do you have anything hot to drink?”

  “I believe I have a beverage you will enjoy.”

  “Is it usually so quiet in here? Your food is delicious. I’m surprised you don’t have more customers.”

  “Clients come and go,” he replied, “and look, here’s a friendly face now, one I’ve not seen in much too long. Endolin. What brings you to the station?”

  “Ganjin, how are you?” Endolin asked, shooting a glance at the attractive female at the table.

  Was it possible she was Valodar’s human? It was rare to see an Earthling on the station. It had to be her, but Endolin needed to be sure.

  “I’m very well,” Ganjin replied. “I assume you want the usual?”

  “Yes, please,” Endolin chirped, moving closer.

  “Endolin, this is a visitor from Earth, a guest of Valodar’s. Her name is Ellie. Ellie, this is Endolin.”

  “Welcome,” Endolin said enthusiastically. Valodar’s guest! It was her! “May I join you? I’d love to hear about Earth!”

  “Of course, please do,” Ellie replied with a warm smile. “Do you work with the Xans?”

  “No, I’m from Quillian, and I work for the Quillian ambassador,” Endolin replied as Ganjin left. “I always visit this eatery when I’m here, but you are with Valodar? Really? It’s very unusual for a Xan to bring a human here. You must have known him a while.”

  “Um, what’s a while?” Ellie laughed. “I don’t understand how you keep track of time here.”

  “Time is a very complex concept,” Endolin remarked, “but I assume you met Valodar when he was on Earth helping to save the greys.”

  “Sorry?” Ellie frowned. “I’m not sure I understand. The greys?”

  “Isn’t that what you call them? You know, the short grey hairless creatures with the large heads and big eyes. Are you not familiar with this? I thought it was widely known on Earth.”

  As Endolin’s tiny red eyes bored into hers, Ellie felt an uncomfortable stirring inside her, and her pulse began to race.

  “Yes, I’ve, uh, heard about them, but can you tell me more?” Ellie managed, finding it impossible to pull herself away from Endolin’s unblinking gaze.

  “Their entire race was dying from a deadly bacteria, and it was believed humans carried a virus that could kill it. The Xans did hundreds of nocturnal visits to Earth to harvest cells, and Valodar was in charge. He led many missions, but Xans don’t generally visit Earth, especially a Xan as important as Valodar; that’s why I assumed his work there was how you met.”

  A horrible, forgotten memory began stirring to life, and as a cold chill shivered down her spine and leaked into her body, she felt a sudden, desperate need to race away from the chirpy creature with the frightening red eyes. She needed to find a dark corner in which to hide, and doing her best to control her rising panic, she unsteadily rose to her feet.

  “I’m sorry,” she stammered. “I’m afraid I have to go.”

  She was starting across the room when Ganjin reappeared. He was carrying a
tray with several bowls, but he immediately put it down and hurried to her side.

  “Are you all right?”

  “I have to, uh, do something,” Ellie muttered. “Your food was fabulous. I’m sure I’ll be back.”

  “You look unwell. Your face, it has turned an alarming red color. Perhaps you should sit. I can call Valodar for you.”

  “No, no,” she said hastily, thinking if she didn’t get out she’d throw up.

  “Let me help you,” he offered, moving toward the wall with his odd swiftness.

  The entrance to the hallway opened in front of her, and with a quick, mumbled thank you, she moved as fast as she could back to Valodar’s chambers. She didn’t want to be there, but where else could she go? By the time she was stumbling inside, she thought she was going to pass out, and staggering through to the bedroom, she collapsed on the bed and pulled her knees to her chest.

  The memory was now fully alive, a memory she had convinced herself had been nothing but a terrible nightmare.

  She had been half-asleep, completely paralyzed, and floating through the air on a beam of light, had somehow moved through the solid wall of her apartment. Things went blank, then opening her eyes, she’d found herself surrendered by strange grey creatures who were poking and probing her, but there had also been a man, blond and tall. He had been kind to her… reassuring… comforting… but she couldn’t understand why he was allowing the horrible grey entities to do the awful things they were doing. She had been filled with abject terror, but unable to move, and he had done nothing to stop them.

  Flooded by the horrendous recall, Ellie was utterly mortified by what she had just learned. Valodar had been that man!

  “No, not a man,” she mumbled. “He’s not a man, he’s an alien. Is that why he’s brought me? Has he put me under some kind of sexual spell? Is he running one of his hideous experiments? How could I have been so stupid?”

  Letting out an anguished cry, she dropped her head into the pillow.

  “I should have realized it was all too good to be true,” she sobbed. “Will I ever see my parents again? My friends? Will I ever be home?”

  Suddenly her mundane life, her struggles, the annoying London traffic, her small flat that was insufferably hot in the summer and impossible to keep warm in the winter, was where she wanted to be. She wanted it more than anything else in the world. She was so wrapped up in her misery and mounting fear, she didn’t see the yellow stone on her collar pulsing, nor did she hear the soft sound it emitted. A short time later, when Valodar came hurrying into the room, she was still curled into a ball and hysterically crying.

  “Ellie? What’s the matter?” he asked urgently, striding toward the bed. “I’ve been so worried. You didn’t answer my call. What happened?”

  “Don’t you dare touch me,” she wailed, shuffling across the bed away from him as he reached for her. “Don’t you dare come near me. I know you have all kinds of powers, and I know you have me trapped here, but—”

  “What are you talking about? Why do you think I’m going to hurt you? The center of my being, my heart, adores you. I only wish—”

  “Wish what? To experiment on me? To harvest my fucking cells? What? What am I really doing here?”

  Rarely did Valodar feel at a loss, but as it dawned on him that Ellie had somehow uncovered his secret, a secret he had been loath to tell her, he didn’t know what to do, or what to say, or how to convince her he wished only to love and to cherish her.

  “Ellie, you must tell me what has happened,” he said, trying to keep his voice calm though panic was racing through him. “I promise you, I wish only to make you happy. Surely you must know that. Have I not shown you? Please, Ellie, please talk to me.”

  “You were in charge,” she hissed. “Did you choose me, or was it one of those horrible grey creatures? Thanks to some hideous birdlike alien, now I remember. I may not remember everything, but I remember enough. I remember the humiliation, being on the table, the poking, the absolute freaking terror,” she wailed, her voice rising as she relived the horrific experience. “I’ve always thought it was a terrible nightmare, but it wasn’t,” she shrilled, tears cascading down her face. “It was real, and it was you! Tell me, Valodar, and tell me the truth. What the hell am I doing here?”

  Chapter Twelve

  When Endolin had been focusing her tiny eyes on Ellie, using her subtle but effective powers of communication to stir Ellie’s memories, Valodar had been embroiled in a deep and disturbing conversation. Commander Tavlon had told him the Sparian craft was ignoring all communications, and was drawing closer to Earth and to them.

  “If they won’t respond, how do we proceed?” Valodar had asked. “Am I to approach them with passive signals?”

  “No, I wouldn’t trust them, not for a moment. They could vaporize you, or take on you on board, execute you, and exploit your death throughout the galaxy.”

  “Is there any word from the board of elders?”

  “The seven members are not in agreement, and they’re waiting for my recommendations… Valodar, I confess,” he’d said heavily, “I haven’t yet told them that we only have half our fighters. I don’t want to alarm them, and I don’t want to bring it up for discussion until I have a concrete plan in place.”

  “This is very troubling. I had no idea our fleet was at half its strength. How did this happen?”

  “I received notice of a weapons upgrade. Normally the maintenance dock only has room for about ten percent of a fleet at any given time, but they were able to take just over half of them. To have so many upgraded simultaneously was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up. I knew it was a risk, but there was no present threat, not even the slightest suggestion of one.”

  “You don’t think it was planned, do you? Is it possible the situation was contrived to leave us vulnerable?”

  “I highly doubt it. It was a closely guarded secret. Even you didn’t know about it, and the chief at the maintenance dock, Clarion, is a close friend. He would never put us in harm’s way; in fact, he urged me to only send a few at a time as I usually do. I’m most sorry to say he was right. It was a mistake.”

  “I wasn’t thinking it would be Clarion, though anything is possible. I was thinking some other kind of manipulation, though I’m just not sure what. Could the Sparians have intercepted your communications with him? Is it possible they know our defenses are depleted?”

  “Obviously I would very much like to know the answer to that question. It’s certainly possible. If they are aware of our compromised defenses it would explain their provocative behavior, but even if they don’t know half our fighter pods are gone, they soon will. When they get close enough their scanners will detect our half-empty Terminus, and then, Valodar, we will be toast.”

  “And we can’t have another station send us support. It would leave them as vulnerable as we are.”

  “Correct. There may be Sparian ships in the other quadrants. None have been seen, but that doesn’t mean they’re not there. If they are, they would see the pods leave. It’s an impossible situation.”

  “I shall ponder this,” Valodar had said grimly. “Perhaps I’ll have an inspired thought.”

  “You often do, but in the meantime you cannot leave. I need you here, and you’d be a sitting duck if they saw you. I’m afraid your Earth friend Ellie will have to stay with us until this is resolved. I’m canceling all flights, including pods outside the station. I know it will worry everyone, but I’m not taking any chances. I’m issuing the order immediately.”

  As Valodar had left the commander’s quarters, he’d touched the yellow stone on his necklace to signal Ellie, but she hadn’t responded. He’d tried again, to no avail. Quickening his step, he’d continued pressing the bright yellow gem, and by the time he’d reached his chambers he was extremely concerned. If she’d removed the necklace for some reason, she’d be in for a serious reprimand, but when he’d entered the bedroom and found her so utterly distraught, his annoyance had fallen away. H
e couldn’t imagine what could have upset her so much.

  As her accusations had spilled out of her, the six fingers on each of his hands had balled into clenched fists. Someone had told her his secret, or stirred her memory. Now she knew he’d been involved in her abduction on Earth several years before.

  He had planned to tell her himself, but it was something that needed to be broached slowly, and with great care. Who could have been so cruel? As she glowered her angry, sad eyes at him, he could see her pain and feelings of betrayal. She now believed he was not who he’d claimed to be—a caring, loving alien who cherished her.

  “Why don’t you answer me?” she demanded, snapping him from his thoughts. “Am I here for some hideous experiment?”

  “You are here because I care deeply for you, and I want you with me,” he said softly, sitting on the edge of the bed. “You know that.”

  “I don’t know anything,” she sobbed, “except that you’re a liar.”

  “How am I a liar?”

  “You’re deceitful. You watched me suffer back then and did nothing, and now I’m supposed to say, oh well, never mind, these things happen? Good fucking luck with that! I want to go home. Take me home right now, do you hear? Take me home!”

  Her voice had risen in pitch, she was hysterical, and he didn’t blame her, not one bit. It must have been a terrible shock to have remembered lying paralyzed on a table in a dimly lit room, surrounded by strange grey creatures with huge heads and large, almond-shaped eyes.

  Then to have recalled his presence, the alien with whom she had just shared such intimacy and pleasure, it must have crushed her. He’d find the culprit, uncover their motivation, and they would be severely punished, but that could wait. The pressing need was to help her, to reassure her, to settle her down so he could explain.

  “Ellie,” he began, his voice measured, “you need to listen to me very carefully.”

  “Why?” she demanded. “Why should I listen to anything you have to say?”

  “Ellie, I swear to you, I promise you, that I am more sorry than you can ever know.”