Bermuda

by Karim Soliman

  "Your metaphor," Burke tried to collect his thoughts, "is not correct. You're not like a quantum of energy. You're a form of life that is only alive in the proper medium."

  "Exactly." For a second, Heather's excited reaction was frightening.

  "And if I get this right, this proper medium is a human body." Burke swallowed again.

  "Not necessarily." Heather shook her head, and then glanced at Akmenios with her scary smile. "It could be a Griseo's body." She turned again to Burke. "It could be an animal body as well. The question is: which is better for me? Live as a human or as a dog?"

  "It depends on what you're looking for. Do you seek an impervious shell to protect your life form? Then, you have many animals on this planet with a physically stronger body to protect you."

  "It's not just about physical strength. What's the point of spending my life barking or roaring in a jungle? Can you imagine a mind-reading elephant? That would be absurd. I need a brain, and not so many creatures on this planet have an advanced brain like yours." A smile played about her lips when she asked, "Now, do you think you really comprehend what I am?"

  "You're more or less like a virus." Burke dared to voice his thoughts.

  "A virus?" Heather echoed, a tone of disapproval in her voice. "Speaking of metaphors, this is so irrelevant."

  "How so? You need a host to be active."

  "I don't flow in the air in a dormant crystalline phase, looking for a host to invade and multiply inside its cells."

  "Then, what are you outside a host?"

  "Nothing. I don't exist."

  That took Burke aback. Her statement was brief and clear, no metaphors in it, but it didn't make any sense. Not existing meant dead. And if dead, how could she find a host in the first place?

  "Your knowledge about life forms is limited to the earthly ones you studied before. I'm not a separate species, Burke. I have already been living as a human for more than a hundred years. This is something a virus can't do."

  Burke was lost at this point. "This doesn't make any sense." He turned to Akmenios. "What about your war with the Shomrunks who depleted your planet resources? Or was this another one of your lies?"

  "I didn't lie." Akmenios stared at Heather. He would say more, Burke knew, but for some reason the humanoid didn't.

  "I tell you what he's afraid to say in front of me," Heather addressed Burke, giving Akmenios a scornful look. "We fought the Griseos indeed."

  "In their bodies," Burke concluded. "You took over their bodies to be able to fight them."

  "What's the meaning of force if there is nothing to impact?" Heather shrugged. "You, humans, devour other animals to survive. Griseos absorb your energy to survive. We have our own way to survive. C'est la vie."

  That awkward version of Heather didn't fail to impress.

  "I told you," she scoffed. "I have been a human more than you have."

  Burke leaned his back against his desk, his head down. It was the worst nightmare he had ever had. From Akmenios's previous conversations, Burke imagined the Shomrunk in many conceptions, but he had never gone that far with his imagination.

  "What are you doing here?" Burke lifted his head up. "I'm not your host, am I?"

  Her face was closer when she leaned forward, her warm breath brushing his cheeks. "You keep impressing me," she said in a seducing tone before looking over her shoulder at the gray humanoid. "Even he doesn't understand what's going on."

  As he was most of this encounter, Akmenios stood helpless and clueless like a mindless statue. Nothing smart to say, huh?

  When Heather turned to him with the seducing smile she wore, Burke wished she had been the real one. "How do you know you're not my host?" she asked playfully.

  "If I were so, I wouldn't know it in the first place, right?"

  "Absolutely. There will be no you. It will be me."

  There will be no me. Burke tried not to overthink it. "Then, what the hell are you doing here?"

  "Calm down. You haven't even seen me yet. This is just an extremely tiny part of me inside your mind."

  "Can you exist in more than one body simultaneously?" Burke was terrified when he pondered the consequent possibilities.

  She chuckled. "I wish I could. Unfortunately, I will be dissipated into nothingness. All I did was just embed an almost negligible part of me inside your mind; a very tiny part that wouldn't destroy me, yet sufficient to help me stay connected to your thoughts. I wouldn't be able to control your subconscious to affect your decision," she gazed at Akmenios, a gloating smile on her face, "until he brought that upgraded device, which gave much life to this tiny part of me." She slowly approached Akmenios, like a predator toying with its prey "And you know what the best part is? His mind is also connected."

  "You can't access my mind," said Akmenios, and Burke knew he was lying. "I added more power to my mind defenses—"

  "To prevent Burke from breaching it," Heather put in. "Like what happened in your last session, right? Do you realize that I'm seeing through your mind now?"

  "No way," Akmenios insisted.

  "The power you upgraded your device with made your mind immune against this human, but not against me, Akmenios. Not against me. Your stupid assistant has detected you're in trouble. Instead of waking you up, he is providing your device with more power."

  "You are just trying to manipulate my thoughts, but I won't let you do that." The humanoid was cornered, and Burke could only wonder what the Shomrunk might do with him. What will she do with me after she is done with him?

  "Let's make it more convincing." Heather grinned. Suddenly, she looked like a blurred image before she turned into a gray humanoid, a bit shorter than Akmenios. His assistant.

  That was no Shomrunk. That must be a demon. Demons did exist.

  The "assistant" spoke to Akmenios in his language for a couple of minutes, and Akmenios nodded without saying a word. For the gray humanoid, there was no escape, but that wasn't the case for Burke, who was closer to the door than the Shomrunk. A crazy thought crossed his mind.

  "Don't be silly." The assistant turned to Burke, speaking to him in English. "Spring to the door? Seriously? And then what? How far do you think you'll go? We're inside your mind, Burke. You can't run away from me."

  How could you lie to somebody who read your thoughts?

  "What have you done to him?" Burke cleared his throat, contemplating Akmenios who stood petrified.

  "I was just clearing your way." The Shomrunk's grin grew wide as it slowly walked toward Burke. His turn was coming now.

  "My way for what?" Burke's heart throbbed.

  Again, the assistant's form blurred like a reflection on the water surface and turned into Heather. The same playful look on her face muddled his feelings. He was both charmed and scared to the death.

  "To save us, Burke," she said softly. "You're our last hope."

  "How can I save you? I can't even save myself." Don't be a fool, Burke. She's manipulating your mind.

  "Send the coordinates of our location to the US Navy. Let them send the troops to sweep those aliens off the island and take us back home," she said warmly. The abrupt transition in her tone made him more confused. And what coordinates was she talking about? How would he send them? He had no clue if. . .

  "The screen, Burke," she interrupted his thoughts. "The one in Akmenios's room. I know you're a genius and you'll figure out how to use it."

  Burke took a while to make sure he understood what she meant by Akmenios's screen. From his metallic chair, he might have had a glance at that screen, but he didn't remember anything meaningful except Akmenios and his assistant tapping on symbols Burke had never seen before.

  "Don't worry about the symbols. I told you; you're a genius." She surrounded his neck with her arms, his heart pounding hard in fear and. . .

  It's not her, he reminded himself, unable to stand any more of this farce. "Stop it." He dared to push her hands away.

  "Much more resistance than I expected." Heather tilted her hea
d. "Let's make it more convincing, again," she hissed as she stepped back. She looked so creepy when her shape changed for the third time into a taller person.

  "No way." Burke gaped at this familiar face.

  "I'm sure you don't remember our first encounter," said the Shomrunk in his new form. "You won't remember this one as well."

  29. The Signal of Hope

  Burke opened his eyes.

  Surprisingly, he found himself alone in Akmenios's chamber. The last thing he recalled was Akmenios putting the mind device over his head to start another mind connecting session. He wondered why he hadn't started the session yet.

  And by the way, why was Burke alone in the chamber? Those humanoid bastards had left him tied to his damned metallic chair for. . .

  Wait a minute. He now realized that his hands and feet were free. What was going on?

  Burke scanned the room as he felt that something was wrong. Akmenios was testing him, or worse, setting a trap for him. Pondering all possibilities behind leaving him on his own in the watch room, Burke couldn't find a rational explanation.

  A couple of minutes passed and nothing happened. They want to see what I'm going to do if I break free, Burke surmised. A futile idea in his opinion, but why not having some fun? He kept scrutinizing the chamber with his eyes, looking for a weapon, a gadget, or anything that might be useful, but the room was almost bare. All he found was the two metal chairs, the table with the head gadgets on it, and this huge screen with the incomprehensible symbols. . .

  Suddenly, he had a strange feeling. He could see a pattern in those symbols. With cautious steps, he walked toward the screen and gently swiped it. More symbols appeared on the screen with a language he never understood, and still, Burke's eyes could see the pattern of these symbols. The gray-faced humanoids must have messed with his head in his sleep; there was no other explanation. They are testing my intellectual capabilities. Well, he should prove them wrong to leave him on the loose to utilize his hacking skills.

  "I'm a genius and I know it," he muttered, excited by what he was doing on this screen. His fingers slid fluidly on its surface, more symbols and 3D shapes appearing and vanishing. Regardless of what those humanoids had done to his mind, he wouldn't miss such a chance.

  "Stop!" Akmenios's creaky scream came from behind him.

  Burke didn't think of even glancing over his shoulder. His message to the US Navy with his location coordinates was almost done. The last thing he needed at this crucial moment was a sort of distraction.

  "No!" The gray humanoid shoved Burke, who lost his balance and fell on his back.

  "Too late, Grayface." Burke grinned despite his back pain. "It's already sent."

  Burke watched Akmenios's assistant hurry into the chamber and join his superior, who was busy swiping and tapping the huge screen rapidly.

  "You were right." Burke rose, a smirk on his face. "I'm not that stupid when I use my mind."

  "I had enough of your ridiculousness." Akmenios pulled Burke by his shirt. "You must tell me how and why."

  "You can't be serious," Burke teased the humanoid. "Do you really need my answer? Come on! Read my mind, Grayface."

  Akmenios's eyes were fixed on Burke for a while. "You weren't lying about it."

  That confused Burke for real. "I beg your pardon. Lying about what?"

  "You really think you were trying to send a message to your headquarters," said Akmenios.

  Shit! Think? Trying? What the hell is he talking about?

  "You have no idea you were about to bring all the inhabitants of this planet to their doom," Akmenios continued. "Somehow, you managed to deal with our language and composed a message that includes our location, but why? Why were you sending it across the galaxies?"

  "Across the galaxies?" Burke's jaw dropped, astounded. He wanted to falsify the humanoid's claim, but after a second thought, he didn't find a logical reason for Akmenios to lie this time. All circumstances of this incident didn't make sense. "No way! You don't mean I—"

  "You weren't addressing your people, hominum," Akmenios interrupted. "You were exposing our location to the Shomrunks. You were sending a message to their planet."

  * * *

  Heather stood by the mountain edge, watching the gray Atlantic fields with sorrow. It would take decades for this terrain to restore its original green color. She felt she was looking at her miserable future with those ruins at her sight.

  "Heather," she heard Tolarus calling from behind her.

  "Tolarus." She turned to him. It was the only word she could say without that Atlantean head gadget.

  Grinning, Tolarus handed her a head device before he put his own on his head. "Why are you not staying inside with your friends? The air is still dusty here."

  "I just thought of changing the view." She could hear her voice tone in her mind. It was cold. "I have been locked in chambers most of the time in the last two days."

  "Hopefully, you slept well last night."

  "Not so well, but it was better than nothing."

  Both paused for a while.

  "I'm so sorry for your loss," said Tolarus.

  When they first met, she had blamed him for the loss of Kenji, Joshua, and Kenneth. Her grudge had even been worsened when she had known he was behind the tragic jet crash. Now, she sympathized with his loss, which was bigger than hers, she had to admit. However, he was the one trying to calm her.

  He was a nice guy after all.

  "Thanks. It's me who should offer her condolences to you," she said, afraid to ask about the numbers of dead and injured Atlanteans after yesterday's brutal attack.

  Tolarus nodded without saying a word. It seemed he didn't want to discuss the horrible topic either.

  "I thought of seeing you off before I leave," he said after a momentary silence.

  "Seeing me off?" Surprised by his approach, a smile slipped from her face. "Where are you going?"

  "It was quite a night yesterday." He sighed. "We decided to finish off those Griseos, once and for all."

  "Today?" Heather felt the decision a bit rushed. "I'm not a military expert, but don't you need more time to plan before making such a decision?"

  "This is the best chance we may have. We know they are low in energy. We must crush them before they restore their defenses."

  "And how are you so sure of their energy status?"

  "We have never been more vulnerable to their hunting raids than yesterday. With our devastated defenses, we were an easy prey. And yet, they didn't attack us."

  "This is not enough. Perhaps they had their reasons not to raid yesterday."

  His chest heaved as he took his breath. "Listen, Heather. For centuries, we have been struggling to defend ourselves against those monsters. A few decades ago, we directed our attention to developing offensive weapons, and in the last two years in particular, we succeeded in causing some damage to them, and that held them off a bit. Currently, their raids aren't as frequent as it used to be because now they need much more time to recharge their weapons.

  "We knew it would take some time to gain leverage in our war with the Griseos, but after yesterday's massacre, we couldn't take it anymore. We have been preparing ourselves for this day, the day we annihilate those aliens. But we didn't know it would come so soon."

  "Most probably, you're taking your men to another massacre," said Heather, "leaving the rest of your people helpless after losing their only hope to protect them."

  "Don't you get the message, Heather?" He leaned forward nervously. "They tell us they can destroy our little community whenever they will. And let's not fool ourselves; this valley is their cattle farm. They won't slaughter all their cattle at once, otherwise, they'll starve. But we won't live as cattle anymore. We will die like men."

  The Atlantean was raging with fury. She had been through the same feeling after losing her friends. "Both of us want to see those aliens dead. But if we let our emotions drive us, we won't be able to avenge our friends."

  "You think we've
made this decision only out of fury, but this is not true," he said. "It's last night's developments that urged us to do so."

  "What developments?"

  "We detected a signal coming from the woods near the western coast. An incomplete long-range signal that didn't pass the outer atmosphere."

  "An incomplete long range what?"

  Tolarus grinned. "It's a message that includes the coordinates of this island. It looks like someone is trying to communicate with the outer space."

  "Oh my God!" A terrifying thought came to her mind. "The Shomrunk."

  "What did you say?" The puzzled look on Tolarus's face surprised her.

  "Do you really have no idea about him?"

  "I never heard about that Shomrunk. What about him?"

  "Ah! Long story." Heather told Tolarus all she had heard from Akmenios about the Shomrunk, starting from the war between its race and the Griseos at their planet until the Griseos' search for the lone Shomrunk lurking on Earth.

  "So, this Shomrunk adds more trouble to the Griseos," Tolarus mused. "I'm not quite sure if this is good news for us. Anyway, it won't change our plans. Whoever this message sender and its receiver are; this message has given us a clue about the location of the Griseos' headquarters. We presumed it was underground, but we never knew where. Now, we have a point to start from."

  "What about the warehouses you said you raided before? Didn't they get you anywhere close to the headquarters location?"

  "No, they didn't. Those warehouses are usually scattered by the coast, to make it easier for Griseos to take your captured crafts from the ocean and keep them there." Tolarus paused for a while, then he continued, "And speaking of captured crafts, we have some interesting news for you and for us as well."

  The way he said it gave her hope.

  "Moments after sunrise, we sent our sliders to scout the area around the signal. One of them has visually spotted an abandoned orange vehicle near the shore. I guess it belongs to you." The Atlantean smiled.