***
Music…he heard music. To be accurate, it sounded like some God awful elevator music.
Mike opened his eyes and the pure white light felt like needles piercing his pupils. The lights dimmed automatically and changed to a soft amber hue, as though someone was watching his reaction and accorded him the courtesy of reducing the bright glare.
He closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again. The shock of it struck him hard. He was seeing out of both eyes. Who ever had captured him had seen to the repair of his sight. As far as he knew, that was impossible.
He looked around and saw that he was in a very small room with white walls and a very high ceiling. On the wall behind him were a few medical devices, the likes of which he had never seen. They were meant to monitor his progress, or so he assumed. The odd smell of the room was akin to pancakes and bleach. While that didn’t make him feel safe, it did seem to imply a sterile environment.
When he tried to move, he realized that he was still strapped down to a padded metal table. He must still be drugged, he thought, because he felt sluggish and heavy, as though gravity had increased.
The mechanical voice spoke to him again. “I will release the restraints now, Sergeant Hurst. For the next few days, the gravity will be kept at twice Earth normal. That will speed up your recovery, by stimulating the new elements of your body.
“You have nothing to fear from me. Just allow your body to heal and grow.”
The straps that held him down automatically released, providing him freedom of movement. He tried to sit up, but found it difficult, as the press of gravity fought his effort.
“Please, Sergeant Hurst, lay back and watch the wall to your left. I’m going to show you a video that will begin to explain what has happened to you and why it happened.”
The room darkened and the music changed to an orchestral piece he didn’t recognize. Almost the entire left wall became a video screen. On it, he saw himself fishing, and then walking back to the cabin.
A woman’s mechanical voice began to explain. “You have been watched for a few days, Sergeant Hurst and your military service record has been thoroughly researched. You have shown great courage, in the face of life threatening danger and demonstrated an ability to lead men in brutal combat. Also, and this is very important, you have shown that you can take life when it is necessary, but not to excess. That is a rare talent, in a universe where beings shoot first and ask questions later.
The voice added. “I believe that’s a term you were taught in boot camp, was it not?”
Mike tried again to sit up again and made it this time, parking his naked rump on the cold thin pad of the metal slab. He called out angrily, “Who the hell are you?”
The video froze, with a picture of him lying on the ground, in front of the cabin. A different mechanical voice came on and told him, “I understand that you have questions, Sergeant. Also, I know that it isn’t in your nature to be patient about getting answers. That’s another reason why I selected you first. If you will remain calm, I’ll continue the video, which will answer many of the questions you have, as you discover what has brought you to this crossroad in your life.”
Who ever was speaking sighed, as though frustrated, which Mike found odd coming from a mechanized voice.
“I’ve created this video, after giving the situation a great deal of thought, Sergeant. I’m certain that it is far from perfect and it is my hope that you can help me improve it, when we recover other men, such as yourself. Again, I ask you to be tolerant of my efforts and watch the video.”
The background music started up and he watched as an odd, four wheeled robot picked up his body and carried him to an oblong, boxy looking vehicle, behind the cabin.
The woman’s voice narrating the video told him, “Sergeant, you have been taken from your planet, by an alien being. I am not a monster and I don’t intend to eat you. You are on a spacecraft and are currently on the far side of the planet your people call Jupiter.
“You have been gone for three weeks, as your eye and legs have begun to regenerate. My people need your services and I can assure you that your people, in time, will need your services as well.
“I am carrying you, in a small craft, out to a large interstellar space Ship. I suppose humans would refer to it as the Mother ship. It is waiting for us, in the Kuiper belt. If you don’t know what that is, it can be explained to you later. Think of it as thousands of asteroids, orbiting beyond the planet Neptune.
“A few countries of your planet have developed mildly effective devices for detecting asteroids and meteors that are close in to your part of the solar system. To avoid disturbing any of those countries, I set our speed relatively low for the initial distance we needed to travel. Now that we have moved out far enough from your star, I feel we are nearly undetectable. So, we can go much faster, as our presence is unlikely to be discovered. In human terms, we’re traveling approximately four million miles per hour, or point zero zero six (.006) speed of light.
“If some country on Earth discovered us, word would spread around to the various militaries of your world and they would feel compelled to prepare for war. The sensors of my enemy might detect the increased military activity directed by your planet into space. That would trigger their concerns about your people and they would view humans as a threat. I’m sure you wouldn’t like the way they deal with threats.”
The implication was that these other aliens would go to war with Earth. Could it really be that easy to trigger a confrontation with perfect strangers? His knowledge of human history said yes.
The woman’s voice went silent, when the video stopped and the deeper toned mechanical voice asked, “Sergeant, would you like something to drink and perhaps some food. I took the liberty of seizing your supplies at the cabin, so you won’t have to be concerned about eating anything unusual.”
At the mention of food, he realized he was very thirsty and hungry.
“Yes, I’d appreciate it, especially some water. My mouth is dry.”
“Of course, Sergeant.”
A three-foot square section of the wall behind him opened and out rolled a tiny sink with a spigot. There was a metal cup sitting on the side. He placed it beneath the spigot and turned it on. What looked to be plain water came out.
“As you probably know, Sergeant, water is two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen. It is basic throughout the universe. In space, we produce it and recycle it as well. It is as pure as you will ever find.”
Mike took a sip to test it. Much to his relief, he found it cool and refreshing. A smaller hole opened, next to the sink and it contained the box of breakfast bars he had brought with him to the cabin.
All right, he thought, at least I’m not going to be starved to death.
As he chewed the oat and raisin bar, the video continued.
The woman explained, “Once we are on the Mother Ship, further improvements to your body can be made, which will allow us to communicate, without the aid of an interpretive device. My enemy created the one you have heard me speak through. They made little effort to have it sound like a human being.
“You would be unable to pronounce the name for them in my language or theirs. Your vocal cords are not adjustable enough to speak the full range of their language, much of which is in a lower frequency. However, with the addition of a biological interpreter to your brain stem, and some adjustments to your vocals cords, you will be able to speak within the range of several species.”
That was a frightening revelation and Mike called out loudly, “Hey just a fucking minute. You are not going to grow strange crap in my head.”
The video stopped and the odd voice told him, “Sergeant, nothing will be done to you that you have not approved in advance. There are several improvements to your body that will help you to survive out here. I can assure you that you will be very pleased with these additions to your capabilities. Again, no additional medical
alteration will be performed, unless you have indicated your acceptance. Please watch the rest of the video.”
The woman’s voice on the video continued. “I know you must be curious about my appearance. Here is a picture of a few members of my species.” The video continued, as the woman’s voice trailed off.
With those words, he watched intently, as a photograph of an alien slowly came into focus. It was a biped; slender, with well defined muscles beneath smooth, pale, grayish skin and a bald oval head, somewhat similar to what he had seen in movies. He, at least Mike thought of the creature as a he, was wearing a light blue set of overalls, with odd patches on the chest.
The facial features were human like, but no one would ever mistake him for a human being. Unlike the movie version of aliens, this fellow had fairly normal deep set eyes, with long lashes. The eyes seemed to be similar in size to a human’s, yet not humanoid. Due to the tilt of his eye sockets, he had an angry look about him. His high forehead protruded slightly, somewhat Neanderthal like, and there was a long thin nose, with large nostrils. The mouth was almost pretty, with thin lips and a slight indication of a smile. His hollow cheeks emphasized the prominent cheek bones, which extended to the side of his face and his jutting jaw gave the impression of stubborn determination.
On looks alone, Mike’s felt that the creature could be judged as looking good or evil. He would need to see it in motion and watch its facial movement to form an opinion either way. Even then, he knew he shouldn’t base his opinion of the being based on that alone. He had had men in his unit who looked evil as hell, yet they were gentle and kind, when not engaged in combat.
From what he saw, he had no idea of scale. The being could be shorter than him or taller. His thoughts had been anticipated. “Our race is generally taller than yours. I don’t have a picture of me to show you, but once we meet face to face, you will see that I am a full head taller than you.”
Mike was six foot three, so this guy was over seven feet tall.
More video showed these people walking and doing manual labor. Their movements were nearly identical to humans, although they seemed to have amazing strength. The creature doing the work did not look happy. None of them were smiling. If anything, they grimaced and seemed displeased at what they were doing. Perhaps they were incapable of smiling, despite the still photo he had first seen. He wondered what that said about them.
The old soldier in him tried to analyze their movements, looking for weaknesses that he could take advantage of if it came to direct combat against one of them. They were clearly stronger. In his youth, he had gone up against stronger men before and won. He wished he could see them perform in a competitive environment. That might provide him with some idea as to their capabilities.
“Sergeant, the people of your planet call themselves humans. As I said earlier, you won’t be able to pronounce what we call ourselves. However, for now, the closest in your voice capability would be Thorian.
“I’ve had a little time to study your race and we seem to have a few things in common. We went through many thousands of your years, killing each other, as various potentates strived for power, until we reached a point where most of our needs were being provided by the machines we built to make life easier. Finally, we settled into a pleasant, almost lazy, mindset. That lasted for eight hundred years.
“Then the enemy came. Initially, a friendly agreement was made for peace and to exchange knowledge. Shortly thereafter, they struck with ruthless abandoned, destroying our factories and all our leadership. It was done in less than one of your weeks. As a peaceful race, and never having come into contact with any other alien beings, we were totally unprepared.
“Our military was really nothing more than a modest police force. Our crime rate was very low and we had no need for a large armed presence on our planet or in our solar system.
“We are an intelligent people and we realized that these monsters meant to conquer us completely. We were willing to fight for our freedom and were determined to vanquish our new foe. So, we quickly attempted to establish a resistance. That merely provoked the enemy to perform the most horrible atrocities and led him to wage a merciless war of genocide against us.”
The woman’s voice began to expose its anger and frustration, as though she spoke through gritted teeth. They murdered billions of souls and destroyed the entire planet, making it uninhabitable. There are only a few million of us left now and we are all slaves, along side other races that have been overwhelmed by these cruel, heartless creatures.”
While the woman spoke, the video had frozen on a photo of a mutilated Thorian who was bleeding from the stubs of his severed arms. When she spoke again, there was an absence of vitriol and he suspected that when the video was being made, she had paused the recording to regain her composure before continuing.
“I’m going to show you a picture of the enemy. You can call them Saurans, or scaleheads or anything else you wish. They evolved from a reptilian species, which were carnivorous. Like many species in the universe, they are now omnivores. They don’t generally eat their prey, but they will if they are low on resources.
“My masters told me they can eat the flesh of my people and some of them even prefer it. From other comments I overheard, I believe they maintain thousands of my people as an exotic food source, for those who enjoy it. Apparently, the taste of human flesh is repugnant to most of them. So, while they probably won’t eat you, I assure you they will certainly kill you without compunction.”
She paused and a new photo appeared on the screen. It was a tall, heavily muscled creature and it stood near a Thorian, which allowed Mike to make a judgment as to their size. It was a full head taller, which would make it around eight feet. Its girth was formidable, probably two, or perhaps three times as heavy as a man. Clearly reptilian, it had brown scales with a few white ones scattered in between, similar to the belly of an alligator. The face was wide, with a strong jaw and jutting chin, somewhat akin to an iguana. The protuberant eyes were on each side of its head and probably functioned independent of one another. He realized it would be damned hard to sneak up on the thing, because its vision would probably cover 220 degrees, without turning its head.
Its arms were fairly short for such a large creature; yet thick and muscular. Each hand had three fingers and an opposable thumb, except the thumb looked shorter than a human’s, when compared to the scale of his own hand. The nails of the fingers were short, thick and pointed, yet not quite claws. The back of the beast seemed slightly humped or perhaps it was just the natural curve of its spine. He couldn’t tell if the creature had a tail or not. It wore a sleeveless shirt and long trousers, revealing thick scaly skin and heavily muscled arms and legs like a body builder. The boots suggested wide feet, which made sense considering the size and weight of the beast.
A belt looped over its shoulder and contained some sort of weapon, or so he imagined. Mike suspected the tiny object attached to the belt around its waist was some sort of communication device.
The creature certainly looked odd and reptilian, with perhaps a hint of prehistoric beast to him. He could see the intelligent evil in its eyes, which reminded him of the cold hard glare of a reptile. The Thorian standing next to it seemed to cower in the presence of its master.
He thought it would be a mistake to prejudge the creature based on looks alone. After all, it was the Thorian who had kidnapped him, not the evil looking animal on the video. He reminded himself that he had no way of knowing whether either of these creatures could be considered friend or foe. It would be best to remain silent about his true feelings and keep an open mind.
The woman went on, “The vessel you are in was made by a race that was conquered many generations ago. The Mother Ship is also of their manufacture, although it was built at the command of the Saurans. There is much history for you to learn and it will be easily absorbed, once you have the necessary adjustments made to your body.”
>
He disliked the way the woman talked of physical changes to his body. Even though he had apparently been miraculously healed in eye and legs, he wasn’t about to fall prey to this Thorian, by accepting everything he was told. The old adage ‘Beware of Greeks bearing gifts’ came to mind.
In his Army days, he had been untrusting of a few of his own officers, and he certainly wasn’t about to buy what this alien was selling, without a great deal more information. At the very least, he would need a lot more provable info.
Also, he knew that none of this had been done for his benefit. This Thorian had an ulterior motive and until he could figure it out, he would play it very carefully. Although he held, what would seem to be an empty hand, he knew there was something this guy wanted from him, which meant Mike represented something of value. He was sure he wouldn’t like the price the creature would demand for the improvements to his body.
The portal that had delivered his food closed, and then reopened. Folded on a shelf was a light blue set of overalls, just like the Thorian had worn in the video.
The screen went blank, retuning to a white wall. The mechanical voice said, “Sergeant, for the moment, I’ve provided you with a uniform. Sewn into the shoulders are tiny speakers, which connect to the language converter. It will be awkward, but when we meet face to face, we can communicate more easily. Please put the uniform on.”
He decided to cast a small challenge to the alien. “How do I know there isn’t some chemical in the uniform that will alter my thinking.”
“Sergeant, I understand your concern. Certainly you must realize that if I wished to do that, you would already be under my control. I could have administered it to you at any time. There is a great deal more to cover, before we proceed, so please put on the uniform.
The voice explained, “I have to do a survey of the solar system, before I devote any more time to you. It’s vital that we function without being detected. I expect the Saurans to send a scout eventually. But that probably won’t happen for a year or two. Still, if we want to live, it’s wise to be absolutely certain.”
Mike asked, “And what if they are here? What would you do then?”
“A reasonable question. Depending on where they are, I would either remain hidden and silent, or go as quickly as possible to the Mother Ship. If we can beat them to it, we might be able to escape.”
Mike thought for a moment, before pressing the creature. “How do you think they would react if they thought you had left the area?”
“It is impossible to be sure. They’d probably leave to bring back more potent forces. In a year or so, I suspect they would return with a substantial number of warships. They would either conquer and subjugate your race, or destroy your entire planet.”
Mike blurted out, “Why would they do that? We’re obviously generations of development behind them. We’re no threat to them.”
“The mother ship was sent here alone to do research on humans. When they realize that their research ship has disappeared, they will assume that humans either destroyed it, or captured it. Capture would be much worse to their way of thinking, because it could provide substantial scientific knowledge to your people. I can’t be sure, but I suspect these reptilians have not had a ship captured for many hundreds of years. Therefore, in their minds, humans would pose a serious threat.”
After a long silence, the Thorian said, “They are creatures without conscious and they are ruthless, yet cautious. They won’t risk leaving your people alone, only to be confronted by humans a thousand years from now. It’s easier for them to kill off all of humanity now, rather than fight you later, when you may have developed adequate weapons to threaten them.”
He was stunned. Was any of this true? If it was, then the galaxy was a very dangerous place indeed. In kidnapping Mike and attempting to recruit his help, this crazy Thorian had possibly exposed the Earth to suspicion and jeopardized the entire human race.
Another question hit him. “Hey, if you’re a slave, how did you get hold of that Mother Ship?”
“All will be explained to you shortly. The sooner I finish my survey; the sooner we can meet.”
“How long is that going to take?”
There was no answer. When he repeated his question louder, he still received no response.
Mike lifted the blue uniform and held it against his torso. As he did, a pair of blue boxer shorts fell on the floor. How very fucking considerate, he thought angrily.
The uniform was similar to a flight suit and did look to be the right size for him. Just as he was about to put it on, he noticed the two small devices on each shoulder. Apparently those were the speakers. He wondered if this uniform had belonged to another human at one time. And if it had, what happened to him.
Then an entire range of questions began to flood his mind. What did the alien expect Mike to do for him? What propelled this spacecraft? How fast could it fly? Was it stealthed? Did it possess weapons to defend it? Was it shielded against radiation? If not, he was in deep shit. So many questions and the information that had been given to him, thus far, only served to generate many more.
Chapter 3