“How do I designate you?”
The woman’s voice sounded formal, almost austere.
Eva shook the fog from her head.
She took in her surroundings. She didn’t know what she expected, something alien perhaps, but the hospital room she lay in didn’t look any different than Mark’s hospital room had back in Palmdale. Remembering that made her think about Mark and she hoped he was doing okay. Getting used to life with one arm must be challenging.
“What’s this?” she asked, holding her arm up. Tubes were attached to it. They led to an IV drip.
“You were malnourished and dehydrated. How do I designate you?”
How do I designate you, Eva wanted to mouth back at the severe woman. She could think of a few choice appellations.
The woman was black haired, tall and thin, and wore a white pantsuit. She held her tablet like a clipboard.
She wasn’t going to go away, so Eva decided to answer.
“Most people call me ‘Lady’.”
“You can’t be a Lady without a Lord. Do you have a Lord?”
Eva wasn’t sure how much she should be confessing to this stranger. She certainly didn’t want to say anything about the Lord Admiral. She didn’t know whom she could trust.
Saying her name would give her away completely. She spoke Est with an accent, so the woman must know she wasn’t a local. But she didn’t necessarily know Eva was an alien.
It felt strange to think of herself as an alien. She thought of everyone around her as the aliens, when she thought about it all, but she was the alien here. The stranger from another world. The ultimate foreigner.
A foreigner, an alien, with a mission.
She wasn’t getting very far very fast.
She debated telling the severe woman that Visitor had called her ‘Three’, but she was pretty sure numbers like that were reserved for criminals.
Then she remembered their plan before they’d gone sailing.
“The man I was with.” She couldn’t call him Visitor here, either. “He planned on designating me his Adjutant.”
The severe woman’s eyes narrowed.
“As if he didn’t have enough adjutants,” a familiar voice said from the doorway. Visitor’s First Sister stood there, holding clothes. She smiled, but the mocking tone in her voice disturbed Eva. Eva smiled back anyway.
First Sister came closer to the bed, moving around the severe woman, and gave Eva a hug.
“You survived,” she said, sounding a little surprised. “And you rescued my brother. Thank you.”
Something about her tone still bothered Eva. Almost as if the woman were acting.
Eva shook it off. Probably the Hrwang meds.
“You’re welcome,” she said, not sure about which formal reply to make. Est had more phrase and tone inflections than English and not even sleep conditioning could teach her all of them.
But First Sister smiled in response.
“It will be difficult for you to masquerade as an adjutant,” the severe woman stated. “You aren’t in any databases. Biometrics will detect you instantly.” She shook her head. “It won’t work.”
“That’s what I told him,” First Sister exclaimed. “But he wouldn’t listen.”
The severe woman nodded agreement.
“But it’s better than no designation.” She looked down, almost jealously, at Eva. “Even bald and scarred, you are very pretty,” she said. Eva estimated the woman to be in her early thirties, but her bearing was that of someone much older than her years. The woman consulted her tablet. “I will have you designated as his Twenty-seventh Adjutant, Special Attachment. The last phrase is important. It means that you won’t need confirmation by the Lord’s Chamber and there won’t be a full background check. We wouldn’t be able to cover up that you are from a different world. Also, you must avoid all biometric checks. You can never unlock a door or enter a government building before those you are with. The first person is always scanned. The same with public transportation.”
The woman already knew she was an alien.
“Who are you?” Eva asked.
“I am...” She hesitated, looking at Visitor’s First Sister. His sister shook her head. The severe woman looked back down at Eva. She stood straighter. “I am the Lord Protector’s Second Adjutant.”
Visitor’s First Sister frowned.
“That sounds important,” Eva commented. The Lord Protector’s Second Adjutant’s eyes narrowed again and she pulled her tablet closer to her, holding it in front of her almost defensively.
“And who’s Adjutant am I?” Eva asked. It was time to find out who Visitor really was.
The Second Adjutant looked at her quizzically, then turned to Visitor’s First Sister.
“Aliens don’t comprehend much, do they?” the Second Adjutant asked. “She’s like a Rostarium.”
Eva resisted the urge to lash out. She lay in a hospital bed, probably wearing nothing more than a hospital gown, and she was attached to an IV. She was helpless and defenseless. Again. Still. Had been the entire time she’d been on Hrwang.
She closed her eyes and breathed. She couldn’t retaliate. This woman was important. She had to be nice to her. She also didn’t want to offend Visitor’s First Sister.
And the woman seemed to want to help her.
But Hrwang could be insufferable.
“I apologize,” Eva said, using the most formal apology she knew. “Please explain, Lord Protector’s Second Adjutant.”
The woman softened a little at the use of her designation. Her arms relaxed and the tablet came away from her chest. Eva detected a hint of a smile on her face.
“Perhaps I should allow the Lord Protector himself to explain,” she replied.
“I must go, Second Adjutant,” Visitor’s First Sister said, interrupting. “These are here for you. Let me know if you need anything else.” She pointed at the clothes she’d brought for Eva. Eva recognized the orange blouse and black trousers. Great. “Please let me know if anything changes in my brother’s status,” First Sister requested.
Second Adjutant nodded and First Sister waved goodbye at Eva. Eva couldn’t help the feeling that the woman was putting on a show. Everything she did seemed and sounded sincere, but...
How was Visitor doing? She’d forgotten to ask.
“How is her brother doing?” Eva still didn’t know what to call him in front of this woman.
“He’ll be fine. He’ll have pneumonia-like symptoms for a few weeks, but he will recover. He is grateful to you. We all are.” She smiled now. “You’ll probably be able to go see him tomorrow.”
“Where is he?”
“Tomorrow.”
The Lord Protector’s Second Adjutant laid her hand on Eva’s arm gently and smiled again.
“You’ve had a harrowing experience. You should rest and let the medical staff help you recover.” She patted Eva’s arm. “You really are pretty. It’s a shame about that scar. But your hair will cover most of it when it grows back. Do you wear it long?”
“I...” Eva started. When she wasn’t looking in a mirror, it was easy to forget that she had no hair and a huge, square-shaped scar covering her head and part of her face. She wanted to cry. Her back was probably also scarred from the lashing. Ruined by torture. Her face was ruined as well. Her womb was ruined. Her brain was ruined.
She was ruined.
“Shoulder length, I suppose,” she replied, struggling to maintain a semblance of composure.
“I guess all the men are quite taken with you. Is that how you ended up with the former Lord Admiral?”
Eva didn’t know if there was danger in the question. Some of the most devilish, clever people come off innocent.
“I’m tired,” she said, avoiding the question. “I need that rest you suggested.”
Maybe that would help the Second Adjutant not feel offended if her question had indeed been innocent.
“Okay. We’ll talk more tomorrow.”
She patted Eva’s arm again and left, closing the door behind her.
Eva looked at the orange and black outfit and thought about getting dressed.
But she hadn’t been lying. She was tired.
She closed her eyes and laid her head back on her pillow. As she fell asleep, she wondered how a woman in what was clearly a man’s world became a Second Adjutant to the Lord Protector of whatever it was he protected.
A loud boom woke her up.
The room shook.
It was dark, the only visible light coming from the equipment monitoring Eva. Sitting up nauseated her. She lay back down.
There was a second explosion.
Knowing now that the first explosion hadn’t been her imagination, hadn’t been just the remnants of a nightmare about the meteor strike on Visitor’s island, made Eva instantly alert.
She sat up again. She had to get out of here. She had to do something.
Tubes tugged on her hand as she stood, and she reached down to inspect them. She didn’t want to rip them out in case Hrwang IVs were inserted differently than human ones. She pulled the tape up carefully and slowly extracted the needle from the back of her hand.
She had to go to the bathroom.
She shook her head in frustration. Probably all of the liquid they’d been rehydrating her with.
Free of the IV, she moved to the wall, out of the way of the door, and listened. She heard nothing at first, but then she heard running. Booted feet.
She crouched against the wall.
The boots passed.
Hrwang hospital gowns were more humane that human ones. They covered all of her, with velcro running down both sides so that doctors or nurses could open them up and have access to whatever part of her they needed.
But they were modest.
Still, she needed to change. She might get away with running around the hospital in a gown, but if she had to flee the building, she would stand out.
If she had to flee the building, where would she go? She’d seen nothing but the top of the hospital when they’d led her out of the rescue vehicle. And the tops of a lot of other tall buildings around her.
She didn’t know how to find food, how to pay for it, where to hide, whom to trust. She knew nothing.
Some special agent.
She felt the orange and black outfit on a bench by the wall. She decided to leave them. She wouldn’t be caught dead in those clothes.
Which was probably how this was all going to turn out.
“Quit being so fatalistic, Gilliam,” Mark told her.
“You can do it, Eva. You can do anything,” Juan added.
Okay, imaginary friends. Go away now.
But she felt a little better. She was alone, again, and in the dark, again, but she’d survived that a couple of times and she could survive this.
She heard shooting, but muffled, like it was on a different floor.
She suddenly wondered if they were coming for her.
Who would be coming for her? How would they know where she was? She didn’t even know where she was.
She wasn’t going to stick around to find out. She crept to the door, wished it had a peep window, opened it a crack, and looked out.
The hallway was empty.
“Left or right, Gilliam?” she whispered to herself.
She’d been too out of it to remember which way they’d brought her in, so she chose left.
Being in the wide hospital hallway made her feel exposed, more exposed than a human hospital gown would have, and she moved quickly.
Running on the tile in her bare feet reminded her of how much running she’d done barefooted lately, and she wasn’t happy. She needed running shoes, a good MP23, and some real food. A steak. Then all would be well.
She looked at the signs on the doors as she ran. She couldn’t read them.
She’d been studying the Hrwang alphabet on Earth, but although she could speak the language much more fluently now, thanks to the sleep conditioning, she still couldn’t read it any better.
She didn’t want to take the time to sound out the words, either.
She kept running.
The explosions had been below her, but if she went up, she had no way to get off the building.
Down was the only way out.
She had to find stairs.
Eva reached a corner and held up, creeping to the edge. She peered around. It was as empty as the corridor she was in, as if everyone had already evacuated. Or were cowering in rooms.
She saw a supply rack against the wall halfway down. Hoping it had scrubs on it, or the Hrwang equivalent, she decided to head for it.
It held something that looked like clothes; she couldn’t take the time to inspect too closely. The corridor remained brightly lit. No one had cut the power, and the light made Eva feel more vulnerable. She had to get out of the open, but she also had to find a way down.
She grabbed several sets, hoping she got something close to a size that would fit her. She also saw what looked like surgical caps TV doctors wore. She grabbed one of those.
Muffled gunfire continued in the distance.
Eva entered the next room on the right. She sorted through the clothing and found pants. She pulled them on under her gown and cinched them around her waist with the drawstring. She rolled the cuffs up. They’d do for now.
She pulled the gown off her head and found the smallest shirt. She put it on.
“Are you a nurse?”
Eva wheeled around, startled to see an old man hiding behind the hospital bed.
“There’s people shooting out there,” he said. “Are you here to rescue me? How come you changed your clothes? Not that I mind a young lady undressing, I mean, I shouldn’t say that. My daughter would yell at me.” He looked down at the floor, then back up at Eva. He looked to be in his seventies. “Are you here to rescue me? I’m afraid.” His eyes plead with Eva.
“How do I turn the lights off?” she asked.
He looked startled now. He frowned at Eva.
“Are you Rostarium?” he asked. “You don’t sound Drobnin and you clearly aren’t Malakshian. You’re not some lost islander, are you?”
“Do you want to live? How do I turn the lights off?”
“You must be Rostarium. I hear your things work differently than ours. That’s why they only let a few of you come to our world. No one wants you to learn how we do things.”
Eva could no longer hear gunfire. She tried to listen, but the old man wouldn’t shut up.
“We send lots of our people to your world. We learn all your things and buy your natural resources. That’s why we’re so rich. We don’t give you ours. I probably shouldn’t tell you that, but you’re a smart girl. You already know. You’re not a nurse, are you? You’re a patient like me. Why did you change your clothes?”
“I thought you were afraid,” Eva said. “Tell me how to turn the lights off. Then stay behind your bed.”
“I’ll do it,” he replied. He stood up and shuffled toward Eva. She looked around the room.
“You would be prettier if you let your hair grow. Are all Rostarium women bald? I’ve never seen a Rostarium before. Are you here to marry the new Lord Protector of your world? I always thought they took the prettiest ones. You should eat more. Your back is bony. Men don’t find that attractive.”
“Just turn the lights off and hide and keep quiet.”
Nothing seemed helpful in the room, so she went into the bathroom and closed the door. She inspected the handle for a few seconds, then pushed a button. Hopefully it was the lock.
“Don’t be in there long. I’ll need it soon,” he yelled.
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Eva wanted to duct tape his mouth.
She looked in the mirror. She looked awful.
The shirt hung too low on her. If she hadn’t been malnourished, it would have been worse. She put the surgical cap on and realized that it made her look too much like herself. The baldness was as good as a disguise.
She took the cap off.
Looking up at the ceiling, she realized it looked false. Most public buildings on Earth had false ceilings to hide ductwork. Maybe she could hide up there.
Of course, she couldn’t hide anywhere near the old man. He’d give her away in a second.
She stood up on the toilet seat and put her hands up to the ceiling. She pushed. The panel moved. She rotated and tilted it, and pulled it out, setting it on the back of the toilet.
The false ceiling supports wouldn’t be strong enough to carry her weight, but if she could see something that would allow her to pull herself up, she could climb. She wished she had a flashlight.
The muffled noises grew louder. If she had to guess, someone was doing a room by room search.
“Time to find a new hidey-hole, Miss Gilliam,” she whispered.
She tugged on the panel frame and it felt stronger than she expected. On Earth, they would never hold her, but the Hrwang were aliens. They did things differently.
She pulled harder, picking her feet up off the seat while she hung from the frame. Surprised at its strength, she pulled herself up until she could get her elbows into the opening.
“Someone’s in my bathroom. Leave her alone. I’m sure she’ll be out in a minute. She’s alien, you know. Rostarium.”
The old man’s voice carried throughout the room and probably down the street and up a few blocks.
Idiot.
She squirmed up into the false ceiling and a panel gave way when she put her hand on it. As long as she kept her weight on the frame, she’d be okay.
Everything was dark.
Which way to go?
Someone pounded on the bathroom door.
She moved spider-like in a direction perpendicular to the corridor she’d entered the old man’s room from. If there were rooms on the other side of his, she could drop down into them and be in a completely different corridor than the one where people searched for her. They’d have to run all the way around to get to her, and if she could find stairs first and get a decent head start, she might have a chance.
The pounding grew more insistent.
It hurt to crawl along the frame, the metal digging into her bare hands and feet. She winced when she sliced her toe on a protruding screw.
A loud gunshot encouraged her to move more quickly.
The door burst open, men yelled, and Eva moved to the other side of a piece of equipment. She held still.
A light shone around the area between the false ceiling and the actual one, and a man cursed in Est.
“Yes. Of course she went into the bathroom,” the old man yelled.
“I don’t see her,” a man shouted back, the sound of his voice stifled like he called down to someone else.
Eva held her breath. Would they believe the old man and keep pursuing her?
The panel she’d had to leave on the toilet was a giveaway. She had to assume the worst.
She estimated the size of the old man’s room, looked at the panels in the light of the now unmoving flashlight, and decided she had to move at least three rows of panels before she could drop through to a different room.
She couldn’t stay there long; they’d find her right away if she tried to hide in that room.
She just had to make it to the stairs, and then down. She said the Est word for ‘stairs’ in her head and pictured the letters. Forming that image of the word, she tried to memorize it. All she could do was run along the corridor and hope she saw it on a sign above a door.
It was her only chance to escape.
“Yes, sir,” the man’s voice yelled and Eva knew her hiding was over. She moved slowly now along the frames, hoping to avoid making any noises that would give away the direction she was in.
She heard the person searching for her cursing again.
He wouldn’t be able to move much faster than she could once he figured out in which direction to follow her.
But a bullet wouldn’t care. He could shoot her from almost anywhere.
Her heart pounding now, the futility of her presence on Hrwang stronger in her thoughts than ever before, she reached the target row of panels.
She put her ear down to one to listen.
The piece of equipment she’d hidden behind still blocked her from the searcher’s flashlight, and any potential bullets, so she continued to move quietly.
She pushed her fingers into the side of the panel next to the frame, and tried to lift it. It had been easier to push it up from the bottom.
Fingers finally gained a purchase, and she picked the panel up and looked down. The room below was the mirror image of the old man’s room. She’d reached the other side of his wall.
The man following her moved clumsily along the framework, cursing as he did so. He’d soon reach the equipment that blocked his view of her. Eva had to move quickly.
She set the panel carefully to the side, hoping she could reach back up and pull it over in time. She was over the bed.
Grabbing both sides of the frame, she lowered herself down on the bed.
“Hey!” a young voice cried out. Eva looked down to see a girl lying on the bed. She moved her feet to the side, letting go of the metal framework and dropping a few inches to the mattress. She lost her balance and leaned to land on the bed and not the floor, trying not to land on the girl.
“Hey!” the girl cried again.
“Shush,” Eva said, realizing it was an English word, and not an Est one. She hoped the girl got the idea.
She reached up to put the panel back in place, but she’d fallen just far enough that it was out of reach. It wouldn’t take her pursuer long to catch up. Time to leave.
She felt a tiny hand slap her leg.
“Get off my bed!”
She looked down at the child.
“I apologize,” she said, then hopped down off the bed and sprinted for the door. She never heard the girl’s reply.
Eva could hear shouting in the distance from the new corridor she occupied. She ran away from the sound, watching the signs over the doors she passed, hoping she’d mentally constructed the word for ‘stairs’ correctly.
Halfway down the corridor, she saw a sign that started with the first two letters of the word for stairs, and she decided that was close enough. She heard boots and yelling behind her, so she didn’t stop to look first.
She crashed into the door and hoped for the best.
She was stunned to see Visitor in front of her, heading down the stairs, just three stairs below the landing. His arms were pinned behind his back and three battered-looking soldiers escorted him, two to his side and one in front of him.
Eva rushed the two soldiers, catching them off guard and shoving them down the stairs. Visitor followed her lead, pushing against the soldier in front. The soldier caught the railing and Eva lashed out with a devastating kick to his jaw. He fell backwards.
“Go!” Eva screamed and grabbed Visitor’s arm, pulling him back up the stairs. He yelled against tape on his mouth.
“What?” she cried. She didn’t have much time before one of the soldiers at the bottom of the stairs recovered and began shooting. Visitor began running up the stairs.
Eva followed.
Up a flight of stairs, temporarily out of weapon’s range, he stopped. Eva ripped the tape off his mouth.
“We have to go all the way to the top,” he cried and started running again, moving awkwardly up the stairs with his arms still cuffed behind him.
“What’s happening?” she cried
after him.
“They’re trying to kidnap me.” He panted as he ran, stumbling on a stair. Eva caught him, linking one arm through his and steadying him.
“Thank you,” he huffed.
“Why are soldiers trying to kidnap you?” Eva asked at the next landing.
“It’s complicated,” he replied and continued upward.
Eva needed to focus on running with him. Answers could come later.
Going up the stairs was more difficult than she would have thought. She was out of shape. Too much abuse. Too much mistreatment. Not enough exercise.
The stairs continued endlessly, but she couldn’t hear a pursuit. If only they could get a long enough lead.
Visitor stumbled and Eva caught him.
“Is there any way to get these cuffs off?” she asked.
“A sonic knife. Or convincing the soldier with the key to unlock me.” He spoke hoarsely, out of breath. “Or an industrial cutter. Someone will be able to get them off me once we are safe.”
“How much higher?” Eva asked, looking up. There was no gap between the stairs that let her see how many more flights they might have to climb. Good thing, she thought. Their pursuers wouldn’t know where they were either.
“I don’t know,” he replied.
They heard a door slam open.
Respite over.
Eva grabbed his arm and they began back up the stairs as quickly as they could, Visitor with his arms cuffed behind him, Eva in bare feet. They’d never stay ahead.
She thought bitterly that her pursuers could just take an elevator up and get in front of them. Maybe she and Visitor could find an empty floor and move to a different set of stairs to throw them off. Maybe she could find an elevator; Visitor would know how to use it. Unless the elevators were out.
It was hard to assess a strategy while trying to keep him moving. She lost focus for an instant and kicked the bottom stair of a new flight.
Hard.
She fell to the stair.
“Are you okay?”
“Keep moving. I’ll catch up.”
They looked at each other a moment.
“Go!” she ordered. She looked away from him down the stairs. She didn’t know how far below pursuers were, but it couldn’t be too far.
She heard Visitor continue up the stairs.
She stood and put weight on her foot and had to bite back a cry of pain. She’d broken her toe.
She was never going to run barefoot again. She’d just have to wear shoes everywhere from now on.
Eva moved around the corner of the stairs, on the lower steps, just out of sight of anyone coming up from below. If she was going to die on this planet, it might as well be now. She could surprise the following men and give Visitor a little more time to escape.
She didn’t know why she wanted to sacrifice herself for him, but it somehow felt like the right thing to do. Since he’d freed her from prison, he and his family and servants had helped her. Others had been appreciative that she’d saved his life; he was important to them.
She waited, hoping Visitor had kept going, not stopping to wait for her. She couldn’t hear him. She tensed when she heard boots on the steps below. Everything was happening too quickly. She didn’t have time to think.
Just react.
The lead soldier came around the landing and never expected her. She exploded into him, shoving him backwards into the soldiers behind him, and several fell backwards. She ducked back into cover and a hail of bullets burst into the wall at the top of the landing. Grenades would be next, and it would be all over.
See you later, Juan, she thought. I coulda used you today.
“Halt!” an authoritative voice shouted and the gunfire stopped. “She’s bald!”
Hrwang don’t shoot bald women?
Eva almost laughed.
“Come out! You won’t be harmed.”
Eva looked back up the stairs. If she could buy a little more time for Visitor...
“How do I know that?” she yelled back.
The voice yelled in English now.
“Are you woman hails from California from New Israel world planet?”
Eva grinned as she parsed his bad English. She thought that meant her. How many Hrwang knew anything about California. Had she even said anything about it to Visitor? Of course, he’d said his world knew a lot about her, even caricaturing her in their press. Perhaps they’d tortured the Lord Admiral for the information.
That thought made her feel a little better.
“That’s me,” she yelled back in English.
“Do you understand my language?” the voice called out in Est. He was clearly uncomfortable with his English.
“Moron! Wasn’t I yelling at you in Est earlier?” She shouted in English. Then she yelled simply, “Yes,” in Est. Hopefully he didn’t know what ‘moron’ meant.
“Come out! You won’t be harmed.”
Eva stood, favoring her foot with the broken toe, and lifted her hands above her head. She hobbled slowly out from her cover to see a group of soldiers at the bottom of the stairs holding weapons on her. One’s face was covered in blood from a broken nose. Their commander stood just behind the first row of crouching men.
“You are New Israeli?”
Visitor had told her that the Lord Admiral had renamed her world ‘New Israel’. Not every world could be called Earth, he’d said, and Hrwang was simply the word for ‘Earth’ in Est. The victors of every conflict named their new possessions, if they so chose. Why should the Hrwang be different?
“Yes,” she finally answered.
He breathed a sigh of relief. She wondered why he thought she wasn’t lying.
“Weapons down. Lady, we are to escort you, if you will come with us. You are not a prisoner.”
A few soldiers looked at her murderously and she wondered about the commander’s assertion, but she decided going with them was her best option for now. It would give Visitor more time to escape. Plus, she wasn’t going to get far on a broken toe. She might as well request treatment from them. And proper clothes.
And shoes.
Eva wanted shoes.
She couldn’t remember wearing shoes for more than a few minutes since she’d landed on this forsaken world. If she found a good pair of running shoes, she’d never take them off again.
“Okay. I’ll go with you.” She nodded to the commander. He returned her nod.
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