by J. M. Hagan
“You catch on quick.” Jack watched her eyes shrink around him. Little wrinkles formed. “Yes, Mr Murphy, I would like…”
“Commander,” he corrected her, raising his hand and suddenly feeling like a megalomaniac. “Still got a ship. Just not on it right now.”
“Yes. I’m aware of that, Commander. Mark Anderson provided us with that information when he awoke earlier.”
“You talked to Anderson?”
“Yes. We are finished with him, for the moment.” She said that with such authority it made him swallow. “The ship we retrieved from your landing site was merely a small transport vessel. Where is, Europa, Mr Murphy?”
“You think I’m gonna give up info like that off the bat?” He offered the question while shaking his head. “You’ve got another thing coming.”
She sat back, reached into her pocket and grabbed some smokes. Jack offered a pleading look which she ignored. As he sulked, she was blowing smoke under his chin.
“Jack, how about we start from the beginning. We’ve got a lot of time here. As long as I want, actually.” You’re wrong about that. I’m gonna waste as much of that time as I can, too.
“Look, lady, tell me where I am? Tell me what I’m doing here? And what you want from me and my crew? I’m not saying a god damn word, until you give me that much! I mean, c’mon, it’s only fair!”
She stubbed her almost-full cigarette out. He stared at it longingly, feeling like it was such a waste.
“Mr Murphy, you are in a secret military base. I can’t divulge its location. But I will tell you that you are on Earth. We are an agency backed by the United States and the UN. We deal with extra-terrestrial threats. You are here for an interrogation, Mr Murphy.”
Her smile was unnerving. Those dark eyes, piercing him to his core.
“Okay,” he said, looking away, trying not to show how much he was freaking out. “How about I start at the beginning? Short version – we got abducted by an alien.”
“The long version might be preferable,” she said, encouraging him with an impatient frown.
Jack crossed his arms. “I’m not sure if I wanna tell ya…” She gave him a look like thunder. Jack grinned at her. “Okay, okay, I’ll start with the morning of the day I was taken.”
“When you were abducted by the alien named…” she glanced at her file, “Venec Omodo. From the planet…Plysar. The being who commanded Europa before you – the star-ship where you have lived ever since.”
“So, Anderson, gave you a lot of info?”
“In the beginning, yes. But then, Mark Anderson, became uncooperative.” Her pencil-thin brow rose in warning.
“So, you guys don’t mind getting your hands dirty, do ya?” guessed Jack, looking over both shoulders. The marines didn’t flinch. “Larry, Moe, say it ain’t so?”
“Mr Murphy, your humour is misplaced at present.”
He smirked. “Don’t worry, you won’t have to persuade me. I wanna talk. It’ll feel good to get some things off my chest. You’ve gotta remember, I’ve been out there a long time. I love getting the chance to talk to someone new.”
The Agent took a cigarette from her deck and tossed it to him. Then she tossed a lighter. A reward for his co-operation. A standard interrogation approach. Jack happily lit up. Then he slid the light back to her. Her grey eyes followed everything he did.
Something about smoking made him feel like an ordinary guy again, until he stubbed it out.
Jack blew smoke. “So, the day I was abducted. Don’t mean to sound cliché, but it was a morning like any other…"
He went on to give her some story after talking about his life for a while. That hadn’t lasted too long before she urged him to get to relevant parts. Then he told her he’d been gone since the late nineties, and that he had been born in 1983.
She bought it, he hoped.
“Mr Murphy, we detected other ships on Earth today. Three people are missing. Jack Murphy. Claudia Stewart. Mark Anderson.” Holy shit…how did she know that so quickly? “When Europa was on the surface, you were nowhere to be seen. You arrived after. How is it, Mr Murphy, that you managed to age so many years, in so short a time?”
Jack crossed his arms, tried not to do anything but look her in the eye. “What the heck are you talking about, lady?” He forced some laughter. “I dunno. To me, this sounds like a crazy coincidence.” She frowned more sternly. “I guess you’re not buying that?”
She offered him a cigarette. Jack’s mouth was dry as hell, though. “No, I’m good. How about some coffee? Maybe some food?”
"Where is your ship, Mr Murphy," she asked, ignoring him.
He crossed his arms. Gave a defiant look in reply. The Agent’s eyes darkened. The contest went on in silence for some moments before the Agent bored.
"Where is your ship, Mr Murphy?" she asked again, employing the same tone.
“It’s nowhere close,” he said. “That’s all I know. I haven’t had my ship for a while.”
“Why?”
“Gave her to a friend.”
“For safe keeping?”
“No. Gave her to him because I’m home now. I don’t need a ship anymore. I’m back on Earth – I wanna go home – I wanna pick up my life where I left off.”
“According to your tale, you have been living out in space for a very long time.”
“Yeah. So? I still miss my home. Consider my return as my retirement from that life. I just wanna be normal again.”
The Agent smirked. “How does it feel, then, Mr Murphy?”
“How does what feel?”
“Knowing that you’ll never make it back home,” she said, with a cold smugness he didn’t appreciate. “That you’ll never be normal. You are never going home, Mr Murphy.”
“Oh, yeah?” he rebuked, shrugging. “You can’t keep me here forever. There are rules.”
But the Agent was unflinching in her coldness. “I can do whatever I like with you, Mr Murphy. Perhaps, it’s time that I alluded you to that fact.”
Jack swallowed. Ah, shit…here we go. “Ya know what…maybe I do want another cigarette. How about I tell ya all about Federation space? Your boss is bound to wanna know about that.”
The Agent tilted her head. For a brief second, Jack thought he saw some dark creature flit across the whites of her eyes. He sat back in alarm.
“Where is your ship, Mr Murphy?”
He felt a sudden, sharp pain in his head that made him shut his eyes and winch. Jack let out a groan. Then a shudder, as he felt his body temperature plunge.
Where is your ship, Mr Murphy?
His eyes, burning. His hands, shaking. His ears, blaring. He wanted to yell for her to shut up, but couldn’t.
Where is your ship, Mr Murphy?
Jack opened his bleary eyes with a shudder. It was so cold. Everything around him was metal. The ceiling was moving. No. He was moving, being pulled along on some bed that he was strapped to.
They even had a strap across his forehead. Sweating all over, he let out a groan of pain when he realised his mouth was being pried open by metal clamps.
His eyes searched side to side and he could see no one. He tried wriggling, but his wrists and ankles were strapped tight. "Naa–ooo" he gargled out a cry of lament.
Then he saw a grey shape. His eyes lowered as breaths flared from his nose. Curved, obsidian eyes looked right through him. A short, expressionless being approached him. Its mouth a tiny slit.
The creature operated a panel at his bedside, going about the task with a nefarious wrinkle forming in a line beneath its eyes.
"Sta-op."
It didn't look his way, even as he wept and tried grabbing at it with his hand. A buzzing sounded from above. A white light switched on. A small cylindrical tube inched toward his open mouth. Four burning hot lasers shot into his teeth.
He howled...
"Where is your ship, Mr Murphy?"
He opened his eyes and he was in the interrogation room, snapped his head side to side in
terror. Sweat gushing, his hair was matted to his forehead. He wrapped arms around his body as a cold shiver surged throughout.
Where is your ship, Mr Murphy?
Where is your ship, Mr Murphy?
Where is your ship, Mr Murphy?
Six sets out soulless, black eyes leered down. Jack moaned and wept. They were cutting into his body with surgical lasers. He could smell his flesh cooking. They implanted pieces of thin metal into his thigh, his nostril, his bicep. Blood was getting in his eye, in his mouth. He spat and gurgled and blinked in distress.
"Where is your ship, Mr Murphy?"
"I don't know!" he screamed, flailing out his arms.
The woman came and sat on the table next to him, he recoiled, shaking all over, sweat dripping to the floor. He'd never been so cold.
He was in pain all over. It felt like there should be blood running down his leg, his arm, his face, but when he checked with his hands, all he got was sweaty skin, and drenched clothing.
"You are the Commander," she said. "You ought to know where your own ship is."
Jack opened his eyes and a grey was reaching its prodding, bulbous fingers toward his face. He shut his eyes, screaming. He twisted his head in pain – its touch burned him. Every fear he'd ever had raced back into his heart like a dark army.
"I don't know!" he screamed at the woman. Snot and saliva were running down his face in a sticky mess. He felt like he'd just visited the dentist and received way too much anaesthetic.
Jack's exhausted head fell to the side. He battled to keep his eyes open.
She smirked at him. "Like I said, Mr Murphy, we have all the time in the world. Let's continue this in a few hours."
15
Jack’s eyes shot open. He was in his cell again. But outside looked different than before. Everything was made from metal, and the room was in darkness save for the light of a few computer screens.
His head thumped. A hand went over his eyes and he thanked Christ that he was alone. That Agent – those things – put him through hell. If they had their way, it would be happening all over again, any time soon.
His body was in bits. Around his mouth ached from the clamps, and he felt the cold air seep into the holes they burned in his teeth. Jack checked his face and body for wounds. They must’ve patched him up – all that remained of the surgical cuts they made was faint scars.
They implanted him with rare metal chips designed to heighten the effects of telepathy. But it was all part of the plan. Little did they know, but those implants were about to help him a great deal. Okay. He told me to relax. Breathe through my nose. Call out to him when I felt like I was ready.
Jack tried to forget his discomfort and fear. He pushed it all to the back of his mind, after a few moments of taking clean breaths with his eyes closed. Soon after that, he felt himself drift, like he was in infinity.
“Jack…”
Suddenly, he was somewhere else entirely.
His eyes were shut, but in his head he was laying down on a blue nebula. The lush, psychedelic colours came across vividly. A feeling of warmth nestled at the front of his head.
“Cane?”
“…thank God.”
His friend was nowhere to be seen. This was Jack’s mind. Cane was drifting on a different nebula in his own head. But they were connected. His voice came through clear.
“Cane…I’m okay.”
“What about, Claudia, and Mark?”
“Not sure. I haven’t seen them. I assume they haven’t contacted you yet?”
“No,” said Cane. “Not yet. But I can still feel them.”
“Cane, I don’t know if this plan is gonna work. They’re even worse than we thought. One day – and I’m already close to losing it.”
“I know you’re hurting,” Cane said, caring. “That’s why you’ve got to act now, before they hurt you even more.”
“Grey bastards. I can’t wait to blow this place to hell. I hope we get every last one of them.”
“As do I,” said Cane. “Are you thinking clearly, Jack?”
“Yeah. I think so.”
“Tell me the plan.”
Jack took a breath. “Okay. I activate the nanites in my arm – they open the door to my cell. I sneak out and find a weapon.”
The best thing about these greys was that they didn’t carry arms. They relied on their telepathic and telekinetic abilities. Now that he was linked with Cane, they couldn’t subdue him with their minds, or pull him into another fantasy world like before.
“Then what?” urged Cane.
“I find Anderson and Claudia. They’re bound to be nearby. We find our way to the ship’s shields and use the nanites again to destroy the circuitry.” No way it’s gonna go off without a hitch! “Then we book it to an escape pod. You pick us up. We all live happily ever after.”
Cane chuckled. “Indeed, my friend.”
“Say, Cane?”
“Yes, Commander?”
“Thanks for doing this, man. I don’t wanna get all sentimental, but I…”
“Relax, Jack.”
“Yeah…but, you know, I mean it – thanks, man.”
“You know why I came along, Jack. You know my home is in danger, too.”
Without Cane, there would’ve been no hope. They would never have been able to resist their mind control. Telepathy was a very rare gift. Cane was the only person they knew with abilities like that. A part of Jack believed that God had been the one to grant him his abilities.
This was it, the last mothership of a once great fleet. When this place goes boom, Earth will be safe from them forever.
Jack pulled a specific hair out of his arm that had been dyed red. The lock pick he’d purchased from Dex came burrowing out of his flesh with a tiny bulb of blood as its trail. It was a black dot to his eyes, then he lost it when it jumped.
In mere moments, the microscopic machine had found its way into the door circuitry and self-destructed in a vital place, sounding a tiny bang. The door lock unleashed. Jack pushed it open and left his cell.
Then he heard someone coming. He made himself a shadow behind the bed he had been laying on when they tortured him, as a little grey entered the room. He heard those bulbous fingers pressing keys as it worked a console, having not noticed his absence from the cell.
From the corner of his eye, he spied a wrench on the floor. Jack picked it up and found its weight agreeable.
The creature was roughly five feet tall. Frail, grey as a mouse, its skin glinted sweat-gleam all over. Those big, black eyes were on task. Jack squeezed the wrench in his hand as he came up behind it with careful steps, his heart jumping at every slight sound he made.
The alien turned sharply upon feeling his presence. Its black eyes beheld him without reaction. It didn’t make a sound. It just stared at him. He knew what it was doing. It was trying to enter his mind. He could feel Cane warding it off with his telepathic power.
Before it could figure out that his mind was closed off to it, Jack whacked it across the cheek. Its little body fell in a heap, and it let out a squeak when it crashed down. He beat it until he was certain it wasn’t going to get back up again. Then he stood back, sweat dripping, and regained his breath.
Well done, Commander.
“One down,” he whispered. “Nine hundred and ninety-nine to go.”
Proceed to the next room. You are bound to find one of our crewmates nearby.
Jack shut his eyes, took a deep breath, then wiped sweat off his face.
The next room he arrived at had a cell, just like the one he woke up in. He ran over. On the bed lay Anderson. He was pale and sleeping, with his mouth hanging open. My God. Is he alive?
Jack pressed the door release and it clicked. He pushed his way in, then put the wrench in the way so it couldn’t shut behind him. When he shook Anderson, he heard a groan that made him instantly at ease.
“Anderson, wake up.” He slapped his cheek a few times. “Yo! Anderson! Up and at ‘em.”
H
is eyes opened as slits. He saw Jack, then looked around in a daze. “Where the…?” He sat up groggily. “Jack…I feel like shit.”
“Buddy, you look like it. Do you remember where we are?”
Anderson shut his eyes like he had a migraine. He nodded.
“Good. Establish a link with, Cane, just like he taught us.”
“You connected with him?” he grumbled.
“Yes.”
After a few tense minutes of keeping watch, while Anderson allowed Cane to enter his mind, Jack worried about Claudia a great deal. For all he knew, they were hurting her right that very second.
“Jack, I’m done,” said Anderson. He got up.
“Good. We need to find, Claudia, ASAP.”
“Wait…where are my glasses?”
Jack shrugged. “They took everything.”
“Shit. How could this possibly of been the best we could come up with?” Anderson complained. “We’re supposed to be Starmen! The best idea we had was – hey, let’s get captured...”
Jack raised a finger at him. “Shut up,” he warned him, in no mood for another one of his tantrums. “They don’t suspect a thing. Got it? We just sneak our way to the shield generator. The nanites will power it down the second we launch in one of the escape pods. Job done.”
“You sure nobody knows we’re here yet?”
“Of course. I was careful, like always.”
When they stepped out into the dark corridor, a laser blast came swishing in front of his face – so close he could feel the heat off of it – and Jack stumbled back inside, almost falling.
Another blast hit the doorframe, and it burned into the metal.
“Shit.”
Anderson pointed at another door at the back of the room. “This way!”
They sprinted away, and red lights began flashing around them. “There’s no way that can be good,” moaned Jack, running fast as he could to keep up to Anderson.
“So much for the element of surprise!”
The door led into another dark corridor. They followed it for a while until they found another room. Jack checked inside quickly. It was one of the rooms where they performed their weird surgeries. Not a being in sight. They went to the next room further down the corridor.