ALIEN ABDUCTION (Captured by Aliens)

by Fox, Jaide

  The men of the city cheered even louder and threw their rocks and mud and vegetables even harder, but Fallon gave the people no response. It would not help the men and women who had been taken from the downed flyer if he did. And the insults the crowd hurled at him were no different from the opinion he had long had of himself--that he was a criminal, a man who had chosen to do a great evil, a man who deserved all the filth and punishment that was being heaped on him right now.

  ***

  From the safety of the apartment she shared with Captain Dezec Zeta, high above the city square, Adrienne Raines Zeta lifted the hem of her dark blue silk gown and hurried to the window. From there, she looked down upon the noisy and violent drama unfolding just below her.

  She saw a man identified by the radiocamera as Fallon, said to be the most wanted criminal on Chalcydon, walking alone through the city streets. Several of Kore’s guards followed him. He was bare-chested and barefooted and wore only black leather pants, with his hands raised and his palms showing outward.

  It looked as though every last man in the city had joined the crowd lining the streets, and with every step Fallon took the men roared insults and threw dirt and rocks and what looked like old food at him. She could hardly see his face for the dirt and the blood. A plasma radiocamera followed him closely, hovering just a short distance above his head.

  By the time the man reached the center of the square, he was covered with dirt and splattered vegetables and with blood. His arms and chest were cut by the gravel and the rocks, and a trickle of blood ran down one side of his head. But he walked tall and proud and only looked straight ahead until, finally, he stood at the foot of the long wide balcony that ran along one side of the square just above its smooth stone surface.

  The men in the crowd began a thunderous chant. Adrienne leaned closer to the window, one hand on her very large pregnant belly, trying to hear what they were saying. Finally she made it out: “Criminal! Criminal! Criminal!” they shouted.

  After what seemed like several minutes, King Kore and a few of his advisors made their slow and deliberate way onto the balcony. The crowd fell silent, with none of the cheering that might be expected at the sight of the ruling monarch, but Kore began speaking anyway. He knew, of course, that the radiocamera would transmit his every word to every last person in the City of Anetahr.

  “Look here!” Kore shouted, stepping up to the balcony’s stone railing. “I have brought you the worst of all the criminals who ever walked this planet! I have brought you this wanted man--this vile beast, who, with his scientist friends, killed all the women on our world excerpt those elders that are useless to bring us new life!”

  The crowd began roaring again, but Kore held up both his hands and there was silence. “You see before you the one named Fallon, the coward, my own traitor brother. He has been in hiding all this time and allowing everyone to think he was dead. But he wasn’t dead. He’s been kidnapping women right out of the royal harem and keeping them as slaves for his own purposes, as though he were a king! But we all know that Fallon is not a king. His brother, Kore, is the king!”

  The crowd remained silent. Kore glanced over them, and then looked back at his advisors. One of them gave him a sharp nod and Kore turned back to the crowd.

  “I will show you the women that we have rescued!” he shouted. “Captain Zeta, my most trusted guard--bring out the women we saved from my evil brother, and show them to the people of the City of Anetahr!”

  Adrienne cried out as she saw her husband, Captain Dezec Zeta, lead four women out onto the balcony beside King Kore. Each of the women had one of Dezec’s armed, black-coated guards walking with her and holding a silver gun to her head. The four women cringed as they were forced to parade in front of the huge crowd of shouting men, crossing their arms over their breasts and trying to turn away. Adrienne was horrified to see that they only wore tiny silk bikinis--and especially horrified to see that one of those women was Ebony.

  “Ebony!” she cried, though she was too far away for her sister to hear her. “Ebony!” But it was plain that Ebony only had eyes for the man being held prisoner down below her. She called out his name and started toward him, and began to weep when the guards pushed her back.

  The other women looked up, and they all had the same reaction. In a moment all four of them were weeping and reaching out towards Fallon, but they were not permitted to get anywhere near him.

  Adrienne’s confusion and anger rose. This man had kidnapped Ebony and three other women right out of the harem--and there was only one reason why a man on a planet with almost no women would steal a few and take them away. “If you’ve hurt my sister--or any of them!” hissed Adrienne.

  But at the same time, she continued to watch Ebony. The three other women wept as well, but none more than she. Why would someone as strong and unbending as Ebony weep for her kidnapper? Surely they could not have been brainwashed in so short a time--the four of them could not have been turned so quickly…

  Then Fallon, the prisoner looked up at the balcony, and Adrienne saw the look that Ebony exchanged with him. She could see nothing there between them but love and pride, along with pure grief.

  They must be lovers, Adrienne thought. Nothing else looks like that.

  As Adrienne continued to watch, Ebony tore her gaze from Fallon and looked up at the radiocamera that floated just above his head.

  “They didn’t kidnap us!” Ebony cried. She pulled herself up as tall as she could and let the camera see every inch of her, even though she was barely covered by the two thin scraps of red silk that she had been forced to wear. “Fallon and his men--they rescued us! They want to take us to freedom! Adrienne, if you can hear me, it’s true! Adrienne, help him if you can! Help him! It’s true! I know you must be watching this somewhere! Adrienne!”

  “Silence!” shouted Kore. The women continued to sob and protest, and Kore nodded to the guard nearest Fallon. The guard pulled a small dagger from his belt and used it to slash Fallon’s upper arm, causing a small spray of blood to fall over the stone floor of the city square.

  The crowd shouted out at the sight of the blood. All four of the women fell silent in shock, clutching each other. Fallon continued to stand tall and straight and ignored the blood running down to his elbow and dripping to the stones below. But now Adrienne knew the whole story--and so did her husband, Dezec Zeta, the Captain of the King’s Guard.

  “I am ready to pass sentence on the criminal,” Kore said. He turned and raised up his hands to the crowd, and they quieted once more. “I am ready to pass sentence!”

  Kore made the most of the moment, and pointed straight down at Fallon. “My evil brother, the man who destroyed the women of Chalcydon, will die by firing squad tomorrow. The sentence will be carried out right here in this square, at first light.”

  The women cried out again, and held each other, sobbing. “You will be silent!” shouted Kore, and Fallon raised his chin and looked steadily at the women. They all kept their eyes fixed on him and managed to swallow their grief while Kore finished speaking.

  “All will gather here,” he ordered, “and all will witness the sentence--including these four women that we rescued from him and his men.” The king turned and went striding away, followed by his ever-present ministers and advisors. Three guards moved forward to take Fallon away, and Dezec and his men surrounded Ebony and the other women in order to escort them back to the harem.

  Adrienne covered her face with her hands. Her own sister would be forced back into the slavery of the harem, and would never again see the man she loved. He would be dead--dead by firing squad before the sun rose above the horizon tomorrow.

  She sat up straight again, and looked frantically around her. Think, Adrienne! You’ve got to do something! But what could she do? Something, something! She could not sit by and watch her sister dragged back into slavery and an innocent man executed. Her own inner strength and sense of outrage would not permit it.

  Ebony, sometimes you tell me I�
��m not as strong as you--but not this time!

  Adrienne put on her soft boots and threw a black cloak over her long blue silk gown. Dezec. Dezec would know what to do. She would find him and she would do whatever she had to do to get him to help Ebony and the man Ebony loved.

  Adrienne opened the door, hurried out into the corridor, and silently pulled the door shut again, determined to find her husband and avert even more tragedy here on this very strange world.

  ***

  Dezec Zeta, Captain of the King’s Guard and the man most trusted by King Kore, walked at the back of the small contingent he was escorting to the harem. In front of him were four of his black-clad guards, and each one of those guards walked right beside one of the four women who had been returned in the night to Auresial Palace.

  The women were sobbing, and angry, and almost entirely naked. Dezec did not like having to force them to go back. He had always known that none of the members of the harem had actually chosen such a life, but until now they had always gone along quietly enough whenever he’d had to escort them somewhere.

  This was very different.

  And it disturbed and embarrassed him to see the condition these particular women were in. The air was cold inside the palace, since the guards always wore thick black leather coats and boots and the king and his ministers went about in layers of heavy silks; but these women wore only slight scraps of fabric which barely covered them at all.

  Worst of all, one of these women--the one with the dark skin, the one who looked so much like his own wife, Adrienne--was Ebony, Adrienne’s sister, and therefore his sister, too. Ebony’s eyes were wet, but unlike the other three women she kept her head up and had a cold and defiant expression on her face.

  “Dezec. Dezec!”

  There was an urgent whisper behind him--and the voice was very familiar. Still walking, he turned his head just enough to see who was there.

  It was Adrienne. She had the hood of her black cloak pulled up over her head and the edges of the cloak wrapped around her hands so that they would not show. “Adrienne. Why are you here? And why do you hide yourself?”

  “Dezec, honey, my sister and I are the only black people on this planet. We can’t exactly hide who we are from anyone. And that’s my sister right there in front of you!”

  “Yes. I know she is there. But you should go back to our home immediately.” He turned and kept on walking, but did not try to stop Adrienne from continuing to hurry along beside him.

  “She’ll be a slave again if we don’t help them!” Adrienne said, breathless from the exertion of half-running while very pregnant. “And they’ll kill that man--she loves him, I can see that she does--she said he rescued her, and I believe her--I know her better than anyone. Dezec, you have to do something!”

  Just then Ebony turned around. “Adrienne!” she sobbed, and started to run towards her sister.

  “No!” snapped Zeta. He caught Adrienne by the arm and held up his hand, palm out, to stop Ebony. “Not here. Come with me. Guards--take the women by the arm and bring them straight to the harem. Now!”

  The four women found themselves hurried along the corridor towards the huge doors at the very end. Dezec walked steadily, watching them closely, and allowed his pregnant wife to hold onto his arm so she would not stumble.

  Finally they were all back inside the harem. The doors slammed shut behind them and the guards released their hold on the women. Instantly Adrienne ran to her sister and collapsed in her arms. All Dezec could hear was the sounds of their weeping and of how glad they were to be back together again.

  He nodded to the guards. “Go and wait just in front of the doors. Do not leave me in here alone. I am merely allowing my wife to visit her newly returned sister.”

  As ordered, the guards moved across the very large room and stood near the door. Adrienne lifted her head from Ebony’s shoulder and looked up at him, and then glanced over at the guards. “Do they have to stay?”

  Dezec looked closely at her. “I am King Kore’s most trusted guard--that is why he allowed me to marry you and keep you all to myself--but even I would not push that trust so far as to stay in the harem alone.”

  He looked up. “Ebony. I am glad to see you again, though I am sorry you must return to this place. And I am sorry that…” He stopped and lifted the long black cloak from Adrienne’s shoulders and draped it around Ebony, who pulled it close around her.

  “Thank you,” she whispered, and then she looked over at Cassie, Famke, and Jane. They still stood shivering and nearly naked. “Go into the wardrobe, or the sleeping rooms, and get something to cover up with. They’re not going to take the sheets away and if you have to wear sheets, then wear them. I will.” The three women nodded and then hurried away, leaving Dezec alone with Adrienne and Ebony and the four distant guards standing by the doors.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Ebony looked up at Dezec, and caught hold of her sister’s arm. “What I said was true,” Ebony told them, in a strong voice. “Fallon and his men did sneak in and take me and seven other women, but they were taking us to a new life--to freedom. They were rescuing us from slavery, not taking us to it. Fallon is building a new world and I want to be part of it. I want you and Adrienne and your baby to be part of it! You cannot let him die! There must be something you can do!”

  “Ebony,” Dezec began, “if I were to interfere with this in any way, it would be certain death not only for me but for Adrienne and our child--and for Adrienne’s sister as well.”

  “But, Dezec!” cried Adrienne. “If you, if we, do nothing, then our child is condemned to live in this same terrible world!”

  “It is not so terrible.”

  “Have you thought of what will happen if our child is a girl?”

  Dezec’s eyes flicked from his wife to his sister. Ebony put her hands on her hips, allowing the black cloak to fall back and reveal once again the scant red silk coverings she had been forced to wear.

  “I do my duty,” Dezec said quietly, looking away. “I have no love for Kore. I know his cruel selfishness better than anyone else. There was a time when I thought things would change, but the power has gone to his head and destroyed what honor he may have once possessed.”

  Ebony snorted and drew the cloak around her again. “With all due respect, my brother, you do not have the first clue about how cruel and how selfish Kore really is.”

  Dezec looked up again and gave her a slight bow. “I will agree with you there, Ebony. But it is true that my opinion about Kore has changed since my marriage to your sister. It has brought me greater knowledge of what the lives of the harem women are really like and how they are truly affected.” He sighed. “I have never had a better lesson on women’s lives than what I have seen here today.”

  Dezec turned away and paced a little, looking down at the floor. The two women remained silent. Finally he looked up at them again.

  “For so long, the only women I ever saw were those here in this harem. As both of you well know, the women here are painted and polished and wrapped and adorned until they look like artificial ornaments, because that is how Kore likes them.

  “But for these many months, I have seen the natural beauty of my dear wife. She needs no paint or polish to attract me to her. I am far happier seeing her warm and comfortable in her fine gowns and soft boots, knowing that her modesty is set aside only for me.

  “And now...today...I see Ebony and these other three women, and I am ashamed at the contempt that Kore shows them by forcing them to parade naked before thousands of men. Their bare faces are beautiful as they are, yet I can see the despair in their eyes at the thought of having to go back to this harem.

  “You no longer look like shiny toys. You look like people. Your faces resemble the images I have seen of my mother and my sisters.”

  He smiled just a little. “I will see what might be done to help you and to help the man who is now held prisoner for trying to rescue you.” Ebony and Adrienne closed their eyes and hugged each other
again, this time weeping from joy and hope.

  Dezec bowed again, and then turned and started towards the doors. “My wife, stay here and visit your sister. I will be back for you in good time.”

  ***

  Zeta slept little that night, even when he lay on his side with his wife cuddled close in front of him. She was restless, too, and even gentle lovemaking did not help.

  He did not enjoy firing squad duty in any case--and tomorrow he was to preside over the execution of his wife’s sister’s beloved. So far, he did not know what he was going to do about it, and he spent a long time staring into the darkness of the room and thinking.

  Eventually, as Adrienne finally slept, Zeta got up and dressed himself in his full uniform and long black leather coat. He slipped out of the apartment and walked through the palace until he reached the armory.

  He had decided that, as was usually done, the firing squad would consist of himself and two of his men. As captain of the guard, Zeta was responsible for making all arrangements for the weapons to be used and the men to pull the triggers. His men would ask no questions of him, but he would have to act fast.