But Tex had always looked more human than Alecto. With her shiny, bulbous baldhead, black, baseball-sized eyes and grayish skin, it was clearly hard for the general not to stare.
While the general’s eyes were fixed on Alecto, her eyes were glued to Tex. He tried to probe her mind but she blocked him. Her powers have grown. Though he had become more adept at reading human emotion from their body language and facial expressions, Alecto was as much of an enigma to him as he had been to humans. Her eyes showed no emotion. Her face was a smooth mask. Tex had no way of knowing if she would be eager to help him or try to terminate him at the first opportunity.
As they took seats, General Hays finally managed to choke out some words. “Lilly—” He coughed. “I mean Commander Sturgis.” His face colored. “To what do we owe this pleasure—I mean, honor?”
For her part, Commander Sturgis had never looked more confident, cool and in control. She sat board straight, her face a cool mask of indifference to the general. Not a hair was out of place and her skin was smooth, pink and hydrated without a trace of her usual pale, lined pallor.
“It is good to see you again too, Ralph.” She brought forth then a fake smile, her lips parted in a nearly seductive way as she slowly batted her eyelids at the general.
If Erika had been there she would have sighed loudly and probably would have commented out loud on how fake it was. Even Tex nearly rolled his eyes. But the general seemed to eat up the attention like a toddler sucking down ice cream. His face turned two shades darker red until he looked as though his head would pop like a blood blister.
While Hays shifted nervously in his seat and pulled at the collar of his shirt, Commander Sturgis moved away from idle small talk and launched directly to the heart of things.
“I understand that my son has asked for use of your radio telescopes and has been denied access.” She spoke slowly and nearly purred the words. She indicated Tex with a slight wave of her hand.
“Now look, I’ve got no time for more games with the boy. He helped us come up with a good idea to plug up that hole that these bastards are flying out of. I grant him that. But we’ve got to move on that idea and I’ve got no time for experiments to slake his curiosity or anyone else’s.” General Hays looked at Dr. Lewis as he said the last of it.
Drs. Lewis and Randall tried to speak at once in protest but Commander Sturgis, while moving nothing else, simply raised her hand at them and they both stopped talking.
“General Hays, you know my credentials and that I am a loyal servant to this country and a patriot.”
The general nodded. “Of course. I have never questioned that.”
Sturgis nodded curtly. “You, more than most, also know that when I say I will do something, I mean it.”
The general swallowed hard as her eyes bore into him. Tex knew that stare of hers. It had made his bowels turn to water on more than one occasion.
She rose in one swift motion from her chair, her hands pressed firmly to the table and her body thrust toward the general. “I did not toil below ground for nearly thirty years in preparation for this war only to lose the last battle because a two-bit general made a grab for power.”
The general’s face turned another shade red and he was on his feet as well. “Who do you think you are, accusing me. I’ll have you know that—”
The general’s words were caught in his throat. He grabbed at the side of his head, his mouth contorted in pain. He fell back toward his chair, missed and was on the floor where he writhed in agony from Alecto’s virtual icepick to the brain.
Tex knew that feeling as well. He had endured it in his battle with Alecto in Apthartos just before he boarded the Conexus ship. He was made of different stuff than the general and was able to endure the pain better than most. He didn’t figure the general would tolerate it long before the pain was too great and his heart could take it no longer. He should have intervened but found himself lacking the will.
Dr. Lewis was on her feet.
Dr. Randall shifted in his seat. “Lilly.”
Commander Sturgis pulled the hem of her jacket down. “Stand down, Alecto.”
Alecto had sat quietly and not moved a muscle. There was no outward sign that she had even heard Sturgis but the man’s screams of pain ceased.
He gasped and spit. He reached for the back of his chair and pulled himself up.
The general’s hair was mussed and his face was still purply red. He nearly fell into his chair, pulled a handkerchief from his back pants pocket and wiped his wet forehead. He coughed and finally managed to get words out between rasping breaths. “If it’s so powerful, have it kill the murderous bastards.” He pointed at Alecto. “But don’t you come to my compound and use it to threaten me.”
Commander Sturgis’ fingers were steepled under her chin, her elbows resting on the table. “I do not make idle threats. You will cooperate and provide the tools and manpower that my son needs to complete his task.”
The general put his hanky back in his pocket. His face had returned to a nearly normal shade of pink. “How about I tell you to go to hell.”
Commander Sturgis rose. “By the way. Her name is Alecto. I will leave her with you as you ponder your choice general.”
Dr. Randall took Dr. Lewis by the elbow and steered her out of the room. Commander Sturgis followed on their heels.
General Hays attempted to get up to leave, but he was unable to move. Tex knew that feeling too. He had spent many days bound by the invisible restraints put on him by the Conexus. The man’s eyes flitted from side to side in panic. He even resorted to pleading with Tex. “Please. Call her off.” He squirmed and tried to twist himself up from the chair but it was no use.
Tex turned his gaze to Alecto and caught her eye. “Do you require assistance with this task?”
“I do not,” she replied. Her voice was calm and measured.
Tex rose then too and walked out of the building leaving Alecto to her work. If Erika had been there, she would have raised loud protest. Jack and Ian too would have been appalled and likely tried to stop it.
At times Tex wished he had the sense of morality that they had. But he had been trained to look at the big picture. To do difficult things sometimes—even horrible things—if it meant saving the lives of many. “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few,” Commander Sturgis had told him repeatedly.
He ignored the general’s screams of pain as he closed the door behind him.
In less than twenty minutes, General Hays relented under Alecto’s influence and relinquished control of the telescope array to Drs. Fisher and Lewis. They had already put their team to work calculating where to aim the radio telescopes and in what configuration to maximize amplification of signal to the Mocht Bogha galactic gateway.
While Alecto dealt with General Hays, Tex paid the captured alien a visit. He had come out of surgery and was recovering in a heavily guarded room in what used to be the visitor center of the VLA. General Hays had left orders that Tex be allowed access to the prisoner.
“You want one of us to go in with you? For protection,” one of the military guards asked.
Tex stifled an incredulous laugh. The man could be excused for his ignorance. He had no idea who—or what—Tex was.
“I think I’ll be okay,” Tex said and entered the room.
The M’Uktah prisoner lay on two single-sized beds pushed together to accommodate his large frame. Even at that, his legs hung over the end. He was naked but draped with a sheet over the lower half of his well-muscled body. Chains were wrapped around his chest, hips and ankles, each kept shut tightly with padlocks.
The man’s skin was smooth as molded plastic. There wasn’t a hair on his head or face. No eyebrows or even the hint of hair growth shadow on his chin or upper lip. It wasn’t that he had been shaved or waxed. There were no hair follicles at all.
He tilted his head up as Tex walked in. His orangey-yellow eyes were set wide on his large head and his ears were like small dog ears sitti
ng high, pointed and facing forward. His lips were wide and full. The alien uttered a low, guttural growl.
It was a sound that likely would frighten a human. But Tex was not afraid of the creature. He probably should have been but instead of fear, Tex felt sad. He had been in the same position, both at A.H.D.N.A. and when he was with the Conexus. Strapped to a bed, unable to move while he was poked, prodded and pieces of himself literally removed. He did not wish the ordeal on anyone, even a merciless killer who had attacked Erika.
Tex approached the bed. He knew the alien would not understand his language. Dr. Lewis said that linguists had tried to communicate with it in all languages of Earth. But Tex wanted the man to hear his voice. “I am known as Bodaway. I will not hurt you.”
The man’s eyes coolly regarded Tex. The furrow of his brow lessened but his lips were still pulled back in a tight grimace. He remained silent.
Tex reached his hand toward the alien’s chained arm. The man tried to jerk his arm away but he was pinned tightly to the bed.
Tex placed his relatively small hand on the man’s thick forearm. It would have taken at least three of Tex’s arms to make up one of this man’s.
His skin was firm, smooth and warm under Tex’s fingers. Tex wasn’t sure what to do. He had communicated telepathically with both the Conexus and the Elosians. But both of those species had initiated the contact and had far more advanced telepathic abilities than even Tex. He wasn’t sure he could be the one to begin the conversation.
Tex laid his other hand on the man’s arm, closed his eyes and concentrated deeply. He reached out with all his senses and tried to find the thread of this alien man’s mind in the quantum realm.
When he ‘eavesdropped’ on someone’s private thoughts, it was generally like picking up a channel on an old AM radio. It was like he’d hear a faint signal then as he honed in, he’d hear words, phrases, even whole conversations going on inside the person’s mind. At times he’d have visions or images flashed in his mind’s eyes.
He did not pick up this man’s ‘station.’ It was like the quantum airwaves were empty.
Tex didn’t know if that was because the man’s physiology was incompatible with telepathic communication, or if the man was blocking Tex. He decided to try a different tactic.
Instead of being a receiver, he decided to send information. He called to mind all that the Elosians had told him about this prisoner’s home planet, Uktah. Tex remembered the vision of the place that the Elosians had shared with him – of the man on the ornately carved wooden throne and the women in black robes with angry yellow eyes.
The man’s pulse quickened beneath Tex’s fingers. Tex opened his eyes and the man was staring at him intently. He spoke to Tex in his language of clicks, chirps and many consonant sounds.
Tex again sent a message telepathically. He envisioned himself saying his name and explaining to the man what he was. He then imagined himself asking the man what he was called on his own planet.
Whatever barrier the man had put up, he released it. At least partially. He used the same technique to tell Tex that he was U’Vol Vree’Kah, Captain of the Dra’Knar.
Tex had not expected the prisoner to be a captain. General Hays would be ecstatic if he knew they had captured the captain of the alien vessel.
U’Vol’s admission was followed quickly by a question. “How do you know of Uktah? Where did you get this information?” Even in telepathic communication, there was an alarm in U’Vol’s voice.
“I will answer your questions, but you must also answer mine. If you cooperate with me, I may be able to help you.”
Tex did his best to recall to his mind all that had transpired on Elosia, from landing there to his entire conversation with Cynothian. U’Vol showed no signs of discomfort from their telepathic communication as humans did. His facial muscles relaxed a bit as he took in the memories that Tex fed to him.
“I do not understand what the Elosians told me about your planet. Do you?”
U’Vol closed his eyes and breathed in deeply. When he opened his eyes again, they glistened. “I do not comprehend the full meaning. But one thing is clear. If I do not leave this planet, everyone that I love will perish.”
“If I let you go, everyone I love will perish.”
Their eyes were locked.
“I answered your questions. Now it is time for you to answer mine. What are the plans of your people for this planet?”
To Tex’s surprise, U’Vol answered. He showed Tex his memories of preparations for the voyage and mission; of readying the Dra’Knar and krindor armors; and of his meetings with the Council of U. “The hunt is merely the first phase you see. Cull the herd and subdue the population. The second phase will begin breeding for farm stock. In the final phase, the planet will be a M’Uktah outpost and the Sarhi that live here a domesticated food stock.”
U’Vol’s visions, imparted to Tex, chilled him to the marrow. He could practically see Erika in chains, confined like a breeding sow to deliver child after child only to be raised for consumption by the M’Uktah.
“This sickens you yet you Sarhi eat your own animal food stocks. How is it any different?”
Tex was close to emptying the contents of his stomach. He swallowed to force the bile down. “There is no time for a morality debate. You have shown me the plans of your people. Now let me show you what will in fact happen.”
Tex allowed the horrid memories of his time with the Conexus to flood his mind. He shared with U’Vol every minute of his torture and along with it, the vast store of unbroken knowledge from thousands upon thousands of years of human history and the evolution that led to the Conexus timeline.
Tex felt U’Vol’s pulse quicken again beneath his fingertips. His eyes widened. “This cannot be.”
“It can be. It will be if things proceed as your people have planned. You weren’t supposed to live, were you?”
U’Vol’s eyes narrowed.
“Perhaps this woman in the black robes from my vision knew you would raise your voice against continuing the harvest here. Sounds like she wanted you out of the way.”
U’Vol remained silent but he did not disagree with Tex’s assessment.
“There are two critical differences between this timeline and the one that leads to the Conexus.”
U’Vol tilted his head quizzically.
“I did not exist in the Conexus history. And you –”
“Likely died on this forsaken planet.”
“Yes. But what if you don’t die? What if…”
Tex imagined a new history yet to be written. If he succeeded in closing the vortex of warped space that the M’Uktah used, it would close off their ability to send more ships. At least for three years, apparently, until the Mocht Bogha appeared again. That would buy the people of Earth valuable time to prepare.
But what if he failed? It was a fear that nagged at Tex. U’Vol would be a prisoner and many of his men would die. But more ships would enter Earth space. More M’Uktah Vree would engage in a mass slaughter of humans. And as General Hays had already made clear, the nuclear option would be deployed.
“There may be a way that we can help each other. It goes against orders that both of us have been given. And we may both fail. But if it works, we will both get what we most desire.”
“What is that?”
“Protection for our loved ones.”
He had U’Vol’s full attention.
____________________
Tex left his interrogation of U’Vol exhausted. General Hays found him when he was on his way to his bed chamber.
“What happened in there? Did you learn anything?”
Tex turned his weary face to the general. “No.” He rubbed his temples. “I did my best, but the beast is clearly unable to communicate on a telepathic level. I’m sorry.”
The general kicked the gravel. “Dammit.” He narrowed his eyes at Tex. “That girlfriend of yours said you could communicate with anyone—even aliens—using your mind power
s. Was she lying just to save your ass?”
Tex had never heard anyone refer to Erika as his girlfriend. He liked the idea of it but his cheeks colored.
“She did not lie.” But I lie to you now. “I can communicate with people telepathically. But this creature’s physiology is quite different from ours. And remember, the Conexus that I was able to talk to – they are simply our future selves.”
Hays put his fingers to his temples and took a deep breath. “This whole damned thing gives me a migraine.”
“As it does me,” Tex said. “General, you must excuse me. I am quite tired after trying to speak with the alien creature and I have to regain my strength by the morning.” He didn’t wait to hear the general start in on how his mission to close the Mocht Bogha was a waste of time and resources.
Tex spent the rest of his daylight hours in quiet meditation in his room. He skipped the evening meal. As the hour of his mission drew near, he sought solitude. Though he wanted more than anything to be with Erika, he knew that even the sight of her could crumble his resolve to do this thing that must be done.
He forced himself to release thoughts of her as he sank more deeply into meditation and removed himself from the world. I only hope she’ll forgive me some day.
43
ERIKA
Tex’s considerable and consistent effort to avoid Erika made it plain he did not want to be near her. She had risked her own life multiple times to save his. She’d slept on the ground, in the cold for Christ’s sake for two damned nights waiting for him when everyone else had given up on his sorry, skinny ass. And this was how he repaid her. Avoidance.
To add insult to injury, Jack had breezed in with Erika’s sworn enemy, Commander Sturgis and fawning all over her niece, this Anna chick. Erika disliked her from the minute she laid eyes on her. Of course, the minute she laid eyes on her was when Jack’s hand touched hers and he pulled her from the copter and oh, she practically fell into his arms all smiles.
Ian reminded her that she had put Jack in the friend zone. That she had fallen for Tex. And he was right, of course. Damn him, he was always right. But that didn’t mean that she it didn’t hurt to see him so happy. So effortlessly happy while she was trying to be in a relationship with someone who had never had a normal human relationship before. Trying to be with Tex was like carving a marble sculpture with a butter knife.
H.A.L.F.: ORIGINS Page 34