Linkage: The Narrows of Time

by Jay Falconer

  “If we could get close enough, yes. But it’s obviously not going to work across dimensions. For now, we wait for the Krellians to contact us and arrange a swap.”

  That’s not much of a plan, Lucas thought. Kleezebee was supposed to be a master planner and this was the best he could come up with? He had hoped for a more direct response to the Krellian threat. “Can’t we just overpower them the next time the portal opens?”

  “And do what? Send in a handful of men? If they’re opening the portal from one of their hive ships, we’d be outnumbered a hundred thousand to one. All that’ll do is get Drew and our men killed. No, we’re going to wait to see what they want, and then formulate a rescue plan. Right now, the best course of action is to step back and think rationally. They may look like simple overgrown bugs, but they’re very cunning and formidable.”

  Bruno tapped Kleezebee on the shoulder. “Boss, we really need to start preparing for the exchange.”

  Kleezebee acknowledged Bruno’s request, then turned to Lucas. “Are we good?”

  Lucas nodded, though he didn’t want to.

  Chapter 28

  Reciprocity

  An hour later, Lucas was standing next to Trevor and Bruno in the video room, listening to Kleezebee give instructions to a gathering of armed guards. Three of the ten men were Bruno copies. “When the rift opens again, I want you to spread out and flank the opening just in case they decide to attack. It’ll be harder for them to select their targets if we’re not all grouped together. Did you bring the stunners?”

  “Yes, sir,” one of the men replied, opening a black duffle bag. He pulled out weapons and distributed them to his squad. He also gave one stunner to Trevor.

  “Can I get one of those?” Lucas asked, hoping to join the fight. Even though he didn’t have any formal training, he figured he could aim and shoot an energy-based weapon much easier than a regular handgun. How hard could it be?

  “Sure, why not?” Kleezebee said, taking a stunner from the guard and giving it to Lucas. “Bruno will show you how to use it.”

  Lucas looked at the Bruno copies and pretended to hand the stunner to each one of them, as if he didn’t know what Kleezebee really meant. A little humor might lighten the mood, he thought. His tomfoolery seemed to work—smiles flourished all around him.

  Kleezebee took another stunner from the guard and held it up chest high. He moved his finger to a switch along the top of the gun, and told everyone, “Set your weapon to stun level two. I doubt level one will be sufficient to incapacitate our guests.”

  When Kleezebee clicked the switch, Lucas could see the gun’s green power meter increasing from halfway to full. As it did, the weapon’s energy bank charged to maximum, giving off a short-lived hum that increased in pitch. Everyone else followed suit, filling the room with a symphony of harmonic sounds.

  Kleezebee told his techs. “I want all our sensors and recording equipment trained on the portal to see if we can trace it back to their location. We may not get another chance, so let’s get it right.”

  * * *

  Another hour crawled by before the Krellians finally made their appearance. The portal opened as a flicker of light, in the same manner and location as before, sending the security team into action. The guards fanned out and took position ten feet in front of the expanding rift with their backs only a few feet from the elevator doors.

  Kleezebee hobbled around on crutches behind the gauntlet of men. Lucas joined him. It was the most defensible position in case they needed to make a quick retreat into the elevator. Trevor and the original Bruno copy were standing to the left, just in front of the hidden entrance to the med-lab. Both of them were armed with stunner weapons.

  A single Krellian warrior stepped through the rift carrying a naked human female out in front like a protective shield. The redheaded young woman’s eyes were closed and her limp body was covered in blood and bruises. The lower section of her right leg was shredded as if it had been torn off at the ankle, eaten, then cauterized by an intense heat source.

  The creature swung her from side to side as it stepped forward, furnishing Lucas with a clear view of her back. He almost puked. The alien had impaled the center of her spine with one of its tentacles; wearing her like a ten-cent hand puppet. Blood was flowing from the insertion point.

  Her eyes opened halfway and focused on Lucas while she reached out slowly with one trembling hand. Instantly, he knew what she wanted—a quick and merciful death. He wanted to help her, but couldn’t. Drew’s life was at stake, and he knew taking the wrong action would probably kill him. He had to make a choice—a tough choice—one that would surely haunt him forever. He broke eye contact with her and looked away for a moment.

  When he looked back, her wilted body quivered, then fully energized as she began to speak in a low-pitched, monotone voice that echoed as if two male voices were speaking in unison. “WE HAVE CRIPPLE. GIVE US SUBSTANCE OR CRIPPLE DIES. KLEEZEBEE RACE DIES. BLUE PLANET DIES. WE RETURN IN ONE REVOLUTION. GIVE US SUBSTANCE AND WE GIVE CRIPPLE.”

  With that, the creature walked backward to the rift. It managed to get one of its legs across the event horizon before Bruno did what Lucas couldn’t bring himself to do—take action. He fired his stunner, blasting the alien on the right side, which sent an energy discharge traveling across its body and down its tentacles. The female interpreter fell from the tentacle’s grip just as the alien disappeared through the rift. The portal closed, leaving her lying on the floor, crying.

  Everyone except Lucas rushed forward to help, kneeling down next to her. He stood alone, embarrassed by his earlier cowardice. How could he face her now? What would he say?

  “Kill me, please,” she cried in a feeble voice from the center of the huddle. The crowd of good Samaritans blocked Lucas’ view of her face.

  “Let’s get her to the infirmary,” Kleezebee commanded with his back to Lucas.

  Bruno stood up with the woman draped across his arms. Trevor removed his white tunic and lay it over her naked body, giving her some of her humanity back.

  Lucas stood aside as Bruno rushed her to the elevator. Her head and lone-remaining foot were hanging below his arms, flaccid and calm. Lucas could see her face, but mercifully, her eyes were closed. He prayed she couldn’t feel the pain. Bruno stepped into the elevator and so did Trevor. The doors closed.

  Kleezebee slid his crutches forward, bumping into Lucas’ left elbow. “We’ll take the next elevator.”

  “We?”

  “You and I need to debrief her. Maybe she knows where they’re holding Drew.”

  “Don’t you think we should let them treat her first? She didn’t look so good.”

  “That’s precisely why we must talk to her, now. What if she dies or lapses into a coma? If she can provide some intel, we’re going to need it. Twenty-four hours isn’t much time to mount a rescue plan.”

  * * *

  Two hours later, Lucas was standing in the infirmary along the back wall between Kleezebee and Bruno. They were still waiting to speak to the unconscious woman, who was being treated by a male physician and three nurses. Trevor had returned to the med-lab at Kleezebee’s behest.

  “I’ll be right back,” Lucas said to Kleezebee, before wandering over to the isolation ward’s viewing window. He couldn’t help himself; he had to check again. He wiped off the glass, using his right index finger as a squeegee to clear a patch of frost blocking his view. The body was right where it was supposed to be, lying on the table farthest from the window, and it wasn’t moving. He checked, but found nothing slithering down from the table or hiding in the corner of the room. He had seen it happen too many times in the movies where the alien’s body wasn’t actually dead, only to suddenly spring back to life and catch the unsuspecting heroes by surprise, usually while they were enjoying a premature victory celebration.

  Lucas returned to his colleagues, nodded once. “It’s all good.”

  “Boss, how long do we wait?” Bruno asked Kleezebee.

&n
bsp; Kleezebee looked at him, then at his watch, then at the medical team. He sighed and shook his head several times. “Screw this,” he said, hobbling closer to the medical team. “Doc, give her something to wake her up.” It was the third time Kleezebee had made the demand.

  “Look, I told you before, she’s not strong enough. Giving her a stimulant now might kill her.”

  “We can’t wait any longer,” Kleezebee replied with a sharp tongue.

  “No, I’m not going to take that risk.”

  Kleezebee grabbed the doc by the collar, pulling the man close to his face. “Give me the damn syringe and I’ll inject her myself.” Kleezebee let go of the doctor, shoving him back a step in the process.

  “Fine,” the doc replied, handing Kleezebee a syringe loaded with a stimulant. “But you’re responsible if she dies.”

  One of the nurses used an alcohol swab to sterilize the woman’s neck. While the alcohol dried, Kleezebee held up the syringe, removed the needle guard, then tapped the needle gently while squeezing the plunger until a drop of liquid appeared on the tip. It was as if he had done it a thousand times before. The professor aimed the needle at her neck, inserted it, then pressed the plunger to shoot the load of stimulant into her system. He handed the empty syringe to a nurse.

  “Should only take a few seconds,” the nurse said.

  The fingers on the woman’s left hand twitched, then her head turned toward the center. Moments later, she opened her eyes and looked directly at Kleezebee, who was leaning over her like a mother hawk ready to feed her young. He spoke softly to her, “What’s your name?”

  “Alicia,” the woman answered with barely more than a whisper. “Where am I?”

  “You’re in a hospital. My name’s Dr. Kleezebee.”

  “Dr. D.L. Kleezebee?” she replied; her words a little more coherent than before.

  “Yes. You’ve heard of me?”

  “My handler did. I could hear it thinking about you. They’ve been searching the galaxy for you.”

  Kleezebee lifted one eyebrow and tilted his head as if he were moderately surprised. Perhaps it was more of a look of pride, knowing that he was important enough for his enemy to dedicate years of their lives in the pursuit of him.

  “Was anyone else with you?” Lucas asked.

  The machinery monitoring her vital signs suddenly reacted like an angry child, throwing a barrage of chirps and beeps across the room.

  “Julie Ann!” she screamed, trying to sit up. She thrashed her arms at Kleezebee, hitting him several times in the face. Kleezebee wrestled with her, trying to deflect the attack. Two nurses grabbed her shoulders and pulled her back down to the bed.

  Kleezebee stepped back, almost falling from his crutches, when she started kicking her legs at everyone around the bed. Lucas gasped when her half-eaten stump whacked him in the thigh, narrowly missing his groin. The nurses struggled with her arms, but managed to restrain her long enough for Lucas and Kleezebee to lash her down, using the leather straps sewn around the bed frame.

  “Let me go,” she cried out, pulling at the arm straps that kept her subdued. “I have to find my sister.”

  “She’s not here,” Kleezebee answered, holding her right hand with both of his. “You’re the only one we rescued.” The doctor slid in next to Kleezebee, replacing one of the nurses.

  She turned her head toward the edge of the pillow, and started crying with anger. A minute later, she stopped suddenly as if something important just caught her attention. She opened her eyes, looked back at Kleezebee, and asked, “What planet am I on?”

  “Earth.”

  “No, no, no,” she said, looking around frantically.

  “Yes, Earth.”

  “How can that be? Its occupied territory,” she replied with panic in her voice.

  Kleezebee smiled softly at her like a bedside father trying to comfort a terminally ill child. He gently rubbed the back of her hand with his thumbs. “We’re on a different Earth, Alicia. You’re safe here.”

  She gazed into Kleezebee’s eyes for a few moments, then lay her head back on the pillow. She stared silently at the ceiling with a blank expression on her face.

  “Can you tell me what happened to you?” Kleezebee asked.

  “My sister and I were walking back to our village when these creatures appeared out of nowhere, and took us prisoner.”

  “The Krellians?”

  “Yeah, Ghost Force warriors armed with shredder hooks, but we didn’t know who they were at first. We had only heard stories about them.”

  “Then what happened?”

  “They took us up to their ship and delivered us to one of their sentinels who stripped off our clothes.” She lifted and twisted her torso, revealing a raised scar on her right shoulder. It was carved into her skin in two sections. The bottom was an infinity symbol and the top was a pair of broken lines, like wiggly sevens, only split at the midpoint. “The sentinel made one of the other humans do this to me with a hot knife. Thankfully, they only carved into me.”

  “How long ago did they abduct you?” Kleezebee asked.

  “I’m not sure, maybe a couple of months.”

  “Is that the last time you saw your sister?”

  Alicia nodded. “She and I were split up right after that. I haven’t seen her since.”

  “Why didn’t they brand your sister, too?”

  Lucas thought Alicia was going to start crying again. It was clear she was fighting her emotions.

  “She may have been traded to one of the other factions . . . or worse,” Alicia replied.

  “Other factions?”

  “There are dozens of them. Some get along peacefully while others are at war over territory and feeding grounds. That’s why they brand us.”

  “Where was your village?”

  “On Colony Twelve.”

  Lucas looked at Kleezebee to see if the professor knew that colony. Kleezebee’s expression indicated that he didn’t.

  She added, “I found out later that they had already invaded Earth, which is why we weren’t warned they were coming.”

  Lucas realized that their E-121 experiment must have arrived on Kleezebee’s Earth as intended, but the creatures intercepted it instead of Kleezebee’s people. That would explain their sudden appearance and their having rift-opening technology.

  “Was anyone else on the ship with you?” the professor asked.

  “Yes, hundreds of women.”

  “What about the men?”

  She started crying again. “They eat them. We could hear their screams.”

  Lucas’ face went numb.

  “Some of the men killed themselves so they wouldn’t be eaten,” she said through more tears. “The Krellians prefer to eat their food alive.”

  Lucas looked at Kleezebee and said, “I thought you said he would be safe?”

  Kleezebee shook his head gently without saying anything. Lucas knew the professor’s gesture meant he wanted him to remain quiet. It wasn’t easy, but Lucas held his tongue.

  “Why only the men?” Kleezebee asked her.

  “They keep the women as breeders,” Alicia answered, tears streaming down her face.

  “Jesus Christ . . . breeders!” Lucas said, feeling a knot swelling in the pit of his stomach.

  Alicia’s voice cracked as she tried to catch her breath between the waves of emotions pouring out of her. “We’re kept pregnant so we can provide them with a constant supply of food. They prefer live children. It’s a delicacy for them.”

  Lucas’ clenched his jaw as he stared at the edge of the bed, wondering how God, if he existed, could allow such barbarians to exist in the universe. His mind raced with a vision of Drew lying on a table as the main course, while a swarm of Krellians pulled at his arms and legs, tearing them off at the joint as if they were eating a live chicken.

  “If there’re no men, how do they keep you pregnant?” Bruno asked from behind Kleezebee.

  “They farm semen from them before they’re—” she said, s
topping mid-sentence. “Those of us who can’t bear children are used as translators or nannies, or we’re thrown into the feeding pit with the men.”

  Lucas figured that must be what she meant earlier when she talked about her sister’s fate and said “or worse.” The fact that the bugs preferred their food alive might further explain the piles of human remains left behind by the domes. The humans sucked up in the dome were dead so the creatures returned the remaining body parts as a waste product.

  “Can I ask, what happened to your leg?” Kleezebee asked.

  “Sometimes they run low on food and have to ration. But that doesn’t always sit well with their Ghost Force warriors. One of them snuck into our cell and took me and another woman to a different room down the hall. We both tried to get away from it, but the creature kept hitting us with its claw . . . Then it started with her. Every time I close my eyes, I can still see that girl’s face, screaming for me to help her. She couldn’t have been more that fifteen. But I was so scared, I couldn’t move. I just sat there in the corner and covered my ears so I didn’t have to listen to the sound of her bones crunching,” she said, closing her eyes while drawing in a deep breath. “Oh my God—the blood—it was everywhere.”

  Lucas couldn’t imagine what this poor girl had been through—nor did he really want to. He convinced himself not to dwell on her plight. Pretend it was a dream, he convinced himself. Not because it was more than any human should ever have to endure, but rather that his brother was in the hands of these heinous creatures and he couldn’t afford to be preoccupied with empathy for her. It would cloud his judgment.

  She let out another round of tears before looking up at Kleezebee. “When it finished with her, it came after me. I wished I were already dead. I almost passed out when it started on my leg, but one of their sentinels showed up to stop it. The sentinel took me to another chamber where it burned my leg to stop the bleeding. Then I was moved to a room filled with equipment where my handler put its tentacle in my back.”

  Nobody in the room said anything, not for a good two minutes. Kleezebee unstrapped Alicia from his side of the bed. Lucas did the same on the other side. She used her hands to wipe the tears off her checks, then used her forearm as a Kleenex for the snot running out of her nose. Lucas found a box of tissues behind him and gave the box to her. She blew her nose and thanked him.