The Realm of the Drells

by Kenneth Zeigler

  “Go ahead doctor,” bid Carlos.

  “Have you spent much time with Claudia West since her return?”

  “Yes, a lot,” said Carlos.

  “Does she seem any different to you?”

  Carlos nodded. “Yes, she does. She is very jumpy, very nervous. I know she has had bad dreams.” He paused. “I don’t know if she would want me to tell this to you but she cries very easily now. I wouldn’t want that to go into her personnel record.”

  “It won’t,” assured Wilson. “After all that she’s been through I’d say it’s completely understandable. But have you noticed anything else?”

  “Like what?” asked Carlos.

  “Like personality changes or new abilities,” said Wilson.

  “No,” said Carlos. “She is still Claudia, just a sadder and maybe wiser Claudia.”

  Wilson nodded. “Thank you, Carlos.”

  “I understand that you were having some sort of late meeting,” said Carlos. “The front doors close at ten. Did you want me to leave them open?”

  “No,” said Wilson. “Our guests will be entering by a different way.”

  “Drells,” gasped Carlos. “You’re meeting with the drells, aren’t you?”

  That observation caught Wilson by surprise. “Yes.”

  It was then that Sybil came running up. She quickly anointed Carlos with oil on his forehead. “Just in case,” she said.

  Carlos nodded and closed the door.

  Both Sybil and Dr. Wilson turned to see Keira watching them, a broad smile on her face.

  “My masters will be prompt I assure you,” said Keira. “Ten more minutes until show time.”

  “Why do you serve them?” David asked, looking straight at Keira. “Do you really know what they’re like?”

  That comment seemed to catch Keira off guard. “Yes, I know. Because of them I will never grow old. They are power, pure power, and they have given me a small portion of it, I will serve them.”

  David didn’t back off. “You know you’re backing the wrong horse, don’t you?”

  Keira seemed suddenly offended. “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “It means you are on the wrong side of this conflict,” said David. “The drells are using you, playing on your emotions, your fears. Don’t tell me that they don’t terrify you.”

  “Don’t speak to me about things you don’t know anything about,” replied Keira, anger in her voice.

  David looked at her with knowing eyes that seemed to see through her deception. “I know the drells better than you might imagine. I know what they are capable of. You’ve always felt used and helpless. The drells gave you the illusion of power, the chance to get back at the beautiful people, the chance to become somebody. I tell you that you are no better off than before, in fact you are in a far worse place. They are using you. Debbie was your friend, so was Leslie, and look what you did to them.”

  Ron moved to intervene but Sybil stopped him.

  “No, dear,” she whispered. “Let this run its course.”

  “Who are you to lecture me,” said Keira defensively.

  “No one,” said David. “Just consider the events of this night. This may be your last chance to save yourself. That’s all I have to say.”

  “Did you put him up to this?” whispered Ron, looking at his aunt.

  “No I didn’t,” assured Sybil. “I’m as surprised as you are. David is a remarkable young man.”

  The minutes passed. Keira made no further comments. Indeed, she seemed to be pouting. At exactly ten the lights faded slightly and two drells dressed totally in black materialized out of nothing just beyond the chalk circle. One took a step forward. He bowed slightly.

  “I am Kar Win,” he announced. “I bring greetings from our high lord and master, Dre Kon.” He motioned to the other dark figure. This is Lee Tor, he will be my associate in this day’s negotiations.”

  Sybil bowed as had the drells, and the rest of the team followed her lead. “I am Sybil Conners associate master of the Martin International Foundation, spiritual advisor to the FENS team.”

  The others present followed Sybil’s lead and introduced themselves one by one. The drells bowed politely after each introduction.

  Ron for one was surprised by this turn of events, by the calm courtesy the drells were apparently capable of. Perhaps they could strike a deal with them.

  “Shall we be seated?” Wilson announced, extending his hand to the far table.

  The drells sat down beside Keira. Ron couldn’t help but notice Keira’s body language. She shuttered at their presence. He was surprised when she rose to her feet and stepped away from them. He was certain that they would be offended, but they seemed unaffected.

  Sybil opened the discussion. “Kar Win, I think it is only fitting that you open the negotiations. We would be interested in what it is that you have to say.”

  “Here are the words of Dre Kon,” said Kar Win. “He wishes to avoid further bloodshed. It is not in the best interests of your people or mine. We require certain things for our survival, specifically the blood of youth, the work they can do for us, and certain proteins and endorphins found within their bodies. Lastly, we need the cooperation and submission that is best achieved through a state of hopelessness. Your medical team and their device known as FENS threatens these four necessities. Therefore, here is what we propose. First of all, you will surrender up this FENS device to us to be destroyed. Second, one by one each of you will step out of the magical circle that protects you and submits yourselves to our will. We shall then extract your souls and take them to our realm. There you will live out the rest of your natural lives as our slaves, as shall all of those that you have rescued up to this point. All shall be as it was.”

  Wilson heaved a sigh. “I fear that these negotiations have a long way to go. We must reject those terms as unacceptable. We are aware of your problems and your needs. I believe that, together, we can find a solution to those problem that does not involve the abduction of our children. Give us a chance to help you.”

  “You obviously don’t understand,” replied Kar Win. “Those terms are not negotiable. Who will be the first to step forward?”

  “None of us,” said Wilson. “I fear you have made a long journey for nothing if that is your final offer.”

  “I believe you are mistaken, Dr. Wilson,” said Kar Win.

  Immediately, Keira drew a pistol from her purse. “Who shall be first? I think it should be you, Dr. Wilson. You can step out of the circle or I can kill you here and now, it is totally up to you.”

  Surprisingly, it was David who spoke next. “These are the same beings that would have killed your father and mother, the people that gave you your life, and who have loved you more than life itself. You wondered about your soul, whether you still had one. You still do but you do this and you truly will have sold your soul to the drells. This is your last chance to turn back.”

  “Kill him, Keira, it is our wish,” said Kar Win.

  Keira turned the gun to Wilson, but she hesitated.

  “Kill him!” commanded the drell.

  It was at that moment that Carlos lunged into the room. Keira looked toward the security guard.

  “Drop the weapon!” urged Carlos.

  Keira seemed confused, torn. Then she turned the weapon toward Carlos. Two shots rang out. Keira dropped the pistol and fell to the floor. Then Carlos turned his pistol on Kar Win. He fired five shots at the drell, five meaningless shots. Then came the sixth but it wasn’t from Carlos. The iridium bullet plowed through the brain of the drell. Green blood and some sort of purple tissue exploded from the enormous exit wound in the back of the drell’s head. The drell swung about wildly for a few seconds before a second iridium bullet found its mark in the drells neck, lodging in his spine. He swung around one last time and collapsed to the floor.

  The second drell, Lee Tor, hurled some sort of sphere at Carlos, striking him in the chest. It exploded on contact, immediately throwing the s
ecurity guard into the wall. He slumped to the floor. A second projectile was hurled at Ron, but it was detonated in flight by a burst of high voltage electricity from Sybil’s staff.

  Two more drells appeared on opposite sides of the room. David had been right; it had been a deception, a trap.

  Connie made a mad dash for the control room even as Sybil turned her staff toward the drell who now stood where Carlos had fallen. There was a loud explosion, like the blast of a shotgun as a hundred iridium coated lead pellets were directed toward the shadowy figure. A tremendous eruption of green blood emanated from the drell’s chest where he’d been hit.

  Connie reached the control panel, made a quick estimate and threw the FENS magnetic polarity into reverse. Lee Tor literally exploded leaving a gaping black rent in the fabric of space itself. The body of Kar Win was swept in immediately. The mortally wounded Keira turned to see the jagged rent in space that was even now pulling her toward it. She screamed a final time as she was pulled through. She tumbled end over end through the darkness beyond the rip in space, her form growing ever smaller, then she was no more. A heavy table fell through the rip along with three chairs as Dr. Wilson directed his pistol toward the wounded drell by the door. Yet he never got the opportunity to fire. The drell vanished before his eyes. Now he faced an even greater challenge, trying to avoid being sucked into the black void only a dozen feet away. This one was larger than the first and it wasn’t closing as fast, if it was closing at all. If it didn’t close how could they contain it?

  Connie turned from the control panel to discover another drell standing right in front of her. It reached out with its bony hand and effortlessly lifted her off her feet by her neck.

  A few seconds later Ron plowed into him, yet Ron was thrown aside as if he weighed nothing. He slid across the control room floor and into the wall. He was dazed, in pain. The drell dropped Connie to the floor then reached for the FENS control panel. A second later he simply dematerialized.

  Ron shook his head, tried to get his bearings. What had just happened? He looked to Connie. She laid there upon the floor, motionless amidst a swirl of papers being swept from the control room into the instrument room by the intensifying pressure differential. Then he saw it, setting on the control panel; a small glowing crystal.

  “Oh crap!” he gasped. It was a bomb, it had to be.

  He stumbled to his feet and then around Connie to the main control panel and the three-inch-long crystal. It glowed and pulsed in hues of swirling red. He reached for it, then he hesitated. Would it explode if someone tried to remove it? No, he had no time, he’d have to risk it. It felt electric to the touch and seemed to be held to the panel as if magnetized. He pulled harder, it came loose. He had to get rid of this thing but where? Then his eyes settled upon the rift. It was the only place.

  He staggered into the instrument room. The crystal had to go into the rift. He couldn’t risk it getting hung up somewhere between here and there. He’d have to deliver it directly into that hole in the fabric of space-time. He stepped toward it.

  “No, what are you doing?” Sybil cried.

  The pure force of the wind was too much for Ron to withstand. He was immediately swept across the floor and into the rift head first. He gazed into a realm of absolute darkness as a gale force wind roared past him. He couldn’t breathe. He felt the crystal in his hand, he let it go. It immediately tumbled into the dark void becoming fainter and fainter. Wait a minute, that didn’t make any sense. If he and the crystal had been cast into the void together at the same speed shouldn’t they be traveling into the abyss together even after he released it? No, he wasn’t going anywhere, something was holding him back.

  A second later he was back in the instrument room, the rip in space collapsing before his eyes even as he beheld an almost blinding flash in the distance on the far side of the rift followed by a wave of intense heat. A second later the rift closed. He looked behind him to see Dr. Wilson with a firm grip around his right leg and Sybil with a grip around his left.

  “Damn, I thought we’d lost you, boy,” said Wilson, in a breathless voice.

  Ron quickly turned to the control room. There was a long crack in the safety glass. David had dropped to the floor and anchored himself in place during the otherworldly storm by wrapping his arm around the large conduit that contained the high voltage electrical cables that ran from the control room to the instrument room. He turned toward the door to see Carlos laying on the floor. He was shocked when he let out a groan of pain. How in the world had he survived? He drew closer to see the damaged bullet proof vest under his uniform. Even still he was bleeding pretty badly.

  “So that’s a drell,” gasped Carlos. “It looked just like Claudia said. I only started wearing this vest today. God, I’m glad I had it on.”

  “It probably is the reason we’re even having this conversation,” said Dr. Wilson, trying to identify the main source of the bleeding. “I don’t think you would have survived that blast without it.”

  “Check on Connie,” said Carlos looking into the control room. “I’ll be OK.”

  Ron turned to see Connie through the door of the control room still lying on the floor. He stumbled to reach her, fearing the worst. To his relief her heart beat was strong. She had a few lacerations but they didn’t appear deep.

  “Connie,” said Ron.

  There was no response. Ron looked out into the FENS lab even as a loud band rang out and the breaker popped. All but the emergency lights went out. Ron threw all of the switches on the main board to standby but it was too late. Smoke poured from the main panel. FENS was fried. Things had just gone from bad to worse.

  By now several of the staff were in the instrument room working on Carlos.

  “We need help in here,” hollered Ron. “Connie is down.”

  Dr. Wilson moved to Ron’s side. It was only then that Ron noticed that he too seemed to be in difficulty.

  “Doctor, you OK?” asked Ron.

  “For the moment,” said Wilson, obviously in pain. “My heart wasn’t ready for this.”

  “We need to get you looked at,” cautioned Ron.

  “Triage,” said Wilson. “I learned hard lessons about it back when I was a young doctor in Korea. You’ve got to prioritize. Right now I’m more concerned about Connie. I can wait. My heart has done this before. It should settle down in a bit.” Wilson paused. “Before that rift, or whatever you want to call it closed I saw a flash.”

  “A bomb, or the drell equivalent of one,” said Ron. “One of them placed it on the instrument panel before he beamed out. I had to get rid of it.”

  “So that’s why you did that damn fool thing,” said Wilson, still examining Connie.

  “I couldn’t think of anywhere else to get rid of it,” admitted Ron. Wilson nodded. “That was quick thinking. I think we all owe you our lives.”

  “And I owe mine to you and my aunt,” said Ron. “Thanks for grabbing me. I’d rather not have been hanging on to that bomb when it exploded. Then again that might have been a more merciful death than dying in that void like Keira. No one should have to die like that.”

  Wilson nodded but seemed more focused now on Connie. It was only then that David reached them, crawling across the floor.

  “You OK David?” asked Ron.

  “Yeah, OK,” said David. He placed his hand on Connie’s head. “They’ve got her,” he said in a grim tone.

  “You don’t know that for sure,” objected Ron.

  David made no further comment.

  It was several minutes before they were able to get Carlos and Connie moved out into the hallway. With a little help David managed to get into a wheelchair and wheel himself back to his room where his mother was waiting. Already the ambulance to take Carlos to Memorial Hospital had arrived. Dr. Wilson determined that it would be best to treat Connie here. Ron was shocked to discover that the front glass door and windows had been blown in and shattered. It was no doubt a result of the pressure change when that rip in space h
ad formed.

  Dr. Wilson took a deep breath as he noticed the police officers milling about in the lobby. Among them he saw Detective Hicks. How exactly was he going to explain this? Two people had been injured, one had died, though there was no body.

  Seeing Dr. Wilson, Hicks made a beeline to him. Their trouble had just gotten a lot worse.

  “Trouble seems to follow you and your team,” noted Hicks. “First there was word of an intruder here last Friday, then the death of you associate Karl Lund on Saturday. Then there was the rumor of a gunshot here at this facility on Monday. Talk of an explosion on Wednesday. And now this. Have I left anything out?”

  “No, that’s about it,” said Wilson.

  “Doctor, you know more than you’re telling,” continued Hicks. “Look, I’m a reasonable man and I suspect that you are too. Level with me, what’s going on?”

  “That might take a while,” noted Wilson. “It will also be rather hard to believe.”

  “I have as long as it takes, replied Hicks, “I’m on the night shift this week, and I have an open mind.”

  Wilson took a deep breath. “I think we need to adjourn to the conference room.”

  Wilson, Hicks, and Ron made their way to the conference room. They were met there a minute later by Sybil who, thankfully had changed into some clothes that were a bit more conservative. Following a general introduction Wilson began the story, and he began it from the very beginning, an overview of their research and the nature of the disease they sought to defeat. Through it all Hicks was very patient, even polite, asking few questions. He listened to the tape of Debbie’s ordeal, as well as excerpts from David’s and Claudia’s. He listened to the tale of their strange encounters with the drells. Then they came to the most difficult encounter, the one that had transpired tonight. They left nothing out. They even took him to the FENS lab to behold the mass of drell blood spattered on the floor and walls in two places.

  “We have high magnification photographs of the blood samples, even electron micrographs,” noted Wilson. “We have chemical results that show that this blood is totally alien, like nothing on Earth.” Wilson looked down at the strangely colored tissue on the floor. “We should have gotten a sample of that nearly two hours ago.”