CHAPTER 10
HAVING DR. BARNS FOR DINNER
Marriage is a noose.
- Cerventes
After Renson saw Bates tear out of the Base, he left his panel truck and entered the administration wing of the main building. In minutes he would have the safe on the truck, off the Base, and in the small space ship that formed most of Twig's house nearby. Then, after emptying the safe and feasting on Barns, the Ra would leave this immensely dull and backward planet forever.
The Ca'Ra moved silently and gracefully like a great cat, savoring the excess strength that he enjoyed on this low-gravity world. He didn't think that he would have any real trouble getting the safe. For one thing, most workers left the Base even earlier than Bates. That clown Bates probably never even noticed that many of his workers were leaving work earlier and earlier since he became boss, often going out for lunch and not returning, when they bothered to show up for work at all. When the Ra chose Bates to replace Barns they chose well. The man had the intelligence and constitution of an Earth-worm, as he and even Twig had been able to sense whenever they encountered him.
Renson was actually a bit disappointed to reach the lobby outside Bates' office without seeing anyone. Throughout most of this mission on Earth he had been under strict orders from the Na'Ra that greatly constrained his normal practices and duties as Ca'Ra. If Renson were challenged while on this particular mission however, he had been given Na'Ra permission to capture humans for later consumption, or to immediately kill them.
He enjoyed killing humans immensely; he was after all a Ca'Ra, bred and trained in all means of inflicting death. But he was trained also in all means of preparing victims for ritual consumption by the Ra, and would probably opt for that venue. After all, humans were so weak and helpless, that killing one of them was much too easy a task to test his Ra killing skills, even though the Ra psychic aspects of his murderous skills were mysteriously blunted here on Earth.
On the other hand, though pathetic as prey, humans responded well chemically and emotionally to torture, and were very tasty when properly prepared. Barns was to be consumed that very evening, but one human barely fed the Warren. Another human or two to add to the meal would be welcomed.
As a precautionary measure the Na’Ra Masters wanted only limited Ra consumption of humans to occur, and Ren’Ca had complied, even though he would have preferred more opportunities to personally kill and prepare the inferior creatures, and feast on them in the Old Way.
As a Ca'Ra, it was usually not his place to question commands of the Na'Ra, as long as the mission planned by the Na'Ra Master and Warren Leaders continued to meet Ca'Ra needs, and as long as the cultural norms defined by the Ca'Ra were followed. However, if reasons developed for him to interfere, or to even assert his leadership over Na'Ra authority, he would not hesitate to do so. He was Ca'Ra. He would overrule any Na’Ra if necessary, to secretly serve the Black One.
Of course, the Ra could have simply opened the safe and taken its contents, and saved quite a bit of effort, but that approach lacked drama. The Earthlings would be more humiliated by the robbery of the entire safe. After all, there were proper ways to conduct mayhem, and it was the art of creating mayhem that the Ra appreciated above all else.
Renson decided to recharge his cyborg body before he moved the safe. Besides the tasty humans, energy was the other thing he would miss about this odd planet. Controlled energy here was so incredibly plentiful! Earth wasted resources at such a rate that had the Ra not intervened to arrange their immediate destruction by diverting the asteroid, the humans probably would have become extinct within a few centuries anyway. That was part of the argument that the Na'Ra used among themselves to rationalize the genocide of the humans. The Ca’Ra needed no such rationalizations. Humans and all other non-Ra were prey, period. Soon all of them would be exterminated.
Personally, Renson certainly felt no remorse for being part of the mission that was ridding the Galaxy of humans, but being Ca'Ra, he felt no remorse about anything. All Ca'Ra followed a much higher calling than the Na’Ra could comprehend.
When Renson arrived in the lobby, he was surprised to find a power cord inserted into the high voltage wall outlet. For the past five years that he and Twig worked in the lobby, use of this outlet had been reserved for the two of them. He had spent many hours standing silently along this wall, drinking in power from this outlet. Now a heavy power cord led from the outlet into Bates' office. The Ca’Ra unplugged the cord and inserted instead the two sharpened nails of one of his hands into the outlet. Power surged through him. In a short time his internalized robotics had the energy boost that he wanted. He had his own internal, long-lasting nuclear power sources of course, but using the human’s own energy against them was much more satisfying.
He was disappointed, though not surprised, to find the heavy oak Head Office door ajar due to the cord. Human security was incredibly poor. He was able to simply walk into the Head Office of the Defense Department of what was still the most powerful country of the planet. He would have much more enjoyed breaking the door down; he had thought of doing that many times while that meddling fool Barns still occupied the office. The possibility of closing the door himself and then wrecking it anyway never even occurred to him; that would be neither rewarding nor a proper manipulation of the situation.
The safe was sitting right where he had placed it a week ago at the insistence of Barns. However, nearby was a peculiar apparatus of unknown purpose. Bates must have brought it here. It looked a little like a primitive disseminator, though he could not recall ever hearing that the humans had developed disseminators. Still, the humans were devilishly inventive; indeed, that was one of the characteristics that had made them a threat to the Ra. Thinking that the apparatus might be of interest to the Na'Ra, he recorded several optical images of the odd machine. Na’Ra scientists could determine later what the machine was. Perhaps, like the pirated knowledge already contained in the safe, such information would also have value on the Galaxy black market.
The Ca'Ra cared little about Na'Ra profit; he worked to much darker purposes. Profit did seem to improve Na'Ra morale and efficiency, however. It had motivated the Na'Ra to venture out into the Galaxy and infiltrate the League, something that the Ca'Ra made good use of.
Renson grasped the massive safe in his two long thin arms, and, augmented by cyborg robotics, lifted it up effortlessly, and walked out to the van with it. He didn't bother going back the way he had come; using the mass of the safe for momentum, he walked through the concrete and steel outside wall and directly out to the parking lot. A nice touch, he thought. He hoped that a tasty someone would notice and come running to investigate the noise, but he was again disappointed. The whole place seemed to be deserted.
As he carried the safe, he was puzzled to discover that it felt slightly warm, but he dismissed the observation as insignificant. In all likelihood, the safe had simply been located near a vent meant to heat the room. He loaded the safe into the van and drove to the gate. The gate was closed but unlocked. Even the old man usually at the guard gate was gone. Too bad; it looked like Barns would have to serve as appetizer, main course, and desert!
Arriving at Twig's home, he carried the safe straight in through the front door, the foyer, and through the hidden door in the false wall beyond it that led directly into the space ship that actually made up most of the structure. He found Twig, Melberg, and two additional newly arrived Warren members that had completed their Earth assignments. All were occupied with final preparations to leave Earth, and with tormenting Barns.
Twig stopped poking Barns with a red-hot metal poker and stepped aside to let Renson check on the victim. As Ca'Ra, food preparation of sentient prey was solely his responsibility; however, in this case he had agreed that Twig should participate, given her special relationship with Barns, and he even let Melberg help, since Melberg had been Barns' trusted second in command.
Barns lay whimpering on the table, naked except for his bloody fishing
hat, and still restrained by force fields, as he had been for nearly three days. Renson first checked the victims' vital signs shown on an instrument panel next to the preparation table. Good; they hadn't over taxed him; he wasn't quite in shock. A victim had to be in the proper physical and mental state at the kill, otherwise ancient traditions would be broken, and tastefulness as well as tastiness would be impaired.
Renson activated a control lever that caused ice-cold streams of salt water to wash away three days of accumulated urine, feces, blood, and vomit from Barns and the table. The whole mess, like the foul odors that it no doubt caused, remained safely contained by the force field surrounding the table, and was suctioned away in seconds, leaving a cleaner but hardly more comfortable Barns. The helpless human shivered uncontrollably from the cold salt-water drenching and convulsed and screamed in pain as the salt burned the dozens of wounds covering his body. A brief shower of brown Ca fluid was then administered. The odor of the fluid was noxious to Barns, and it brought burning pain to his skin far worse than the salt, pain that occurred everywhere!
"He is ready?'' asked Twig, in the Ra language.
"Yes Na'Ra, at your command we feast.” Usually emotionless and silent, the Ca'Ra's voice was deep and cruel. He turned off the table force fields and grasped Barns around the neck with one long, thin, clawed hand. The smell of the brown Ca fluid now flooded the chamber, and all the Ra breathed in the fumes deeply and grinned, growling and displaying their razor-sharp fangs.
Freed for the first time in days from the force field, Barns began to struggle, but it was like wrestling with an iron statue. Renson held him effortlessly, with an arm and fingers that didn’t yield a single millimeter. Even in his current debilitated state, Barns clearly understood he was soon to die horribly, as he had been told this many times during the last three days and nights of horror.
The Ca fluid was a narcotic for the Ra; already the fumes caused them to begin to lose control. They all pranced around Barns laughing and snarling, showing razor sharp teeth and snake-like tongues. Once they started eating the Ca, all control would be lost to primal Ra killer instincts and emotions, and they would rip Barns to bloody bits!
How these creatures had ever passed for human was a question Barns could no longer formulate properly in his mind; he knew only pain and fear. His terror was delicious to the empathic Ra, who could psychically sense his mental anguish as clearly as they could see and hear it, even though the effect was mysteriously muted here on Earth. It was a combination of Ca and terror of the prey that they fed on today, as in the Old Times.
At a nod from Twig, Renson lifted Barns up by the neck and held him before the Na'Ra. It was accomplished with Ca'Ra skill, to avoid an inadvertent kill or unconsciousness. Twig's snarling face was only inches from that of Barns. "Well my husband, did you enjoy our honeymoon?”
Renson made his captive's head nod affirmatively in puppet fashion.
"Good! But unfortunately, Lamby Pie, I'm afraid that the honeymoon is over!” She stood with her face only inches from his, with a smile that again displayed rows of razor-sharp fangs. "In a few minutes, you see, we'll start to kill you. But we’ll do it nice and slow. We will rip you to shreds slowly as we eat you alive, human!” She slashed his arms and body with her sharp clawed hands as he squirmed and moaned.
The Ra all laughed and snarled. Barns could only manage a choking sob when Twig had finished. She held up a clawed hand dripping with his blood to silence the other Ra.
"But first, I will explain to you the full extent of your betrayal and failure, human!” In front of Barns she displayed several data cubes. "Here is all that will be left of your puny civilization and planet. Data from your pitiful culture is recorded on these data cubes. Art, science, literature, data on biological life forms, and so on. We have been recording it for years, right under your very noses! And we gathered some of the most valuable data of all right under your nose, Barns!” She smacked his nose to emphasize her point. "With your own approval, we denied this information from your own people, by using your stupid rules on 'national security' and so-on. Me, and Renson, and your buddy Melberg; we put all the results in here.” She moved aside a few inches, so that he could view the big safe from his office.
Suddenly it dawned on Barns what she was talking about. She was talking about decades of secret Government projects. Many of the best minds in the USA, dedicated to producing secrets; secrets all distilled to one remaining DOD Base. Secrets that his deputy Melberg managed, with Barn's own approval! So that space aliens could have them? Good God! They weren't Americans! They weren’t even humans!
Barns recognized that safe. How did it get here? It was the 'problem safe' that Melberg had told him was 'jammed' shut. The one that Norma Carbuncle warned him about. The one that Melberg had assured him was empty. Melberg had casually suggested it be taken off-base to be disposed of. But Barns had known that would break basic security regulations. Also, he had never heard of one 'jamming shut'; those things were built to last forever. So, with Norma's suspicions in mind, he insisted that Melberg and Renson put the safe in his office until they could get it opened. But this had upset Melberg, and oddly, Twig also! That made Barns even more suspicious and curious.
After that his recollection of events got fuzzy, and his weird dreams began. The dreams, he realized, included dim memories of being here, on this table, several times in the previous week. But they weren't dreams, where they? All this crazy stuff was all too real! Barns stared at the safe. What exactly was in that safe, anyway?
As if she was clairvoyant, Twig began to answer his silent question. "Yes Barns, it's the safe from the Base. In that safe is the collected knowledge from all of your most secret DOD projects: thousands of projects executed over many decades. Your race is very creative, you know. Many very amusing toys are described; many, many things that will be of interest on the Galaxy black market! But first, we have to make all this information more valuable."
Barns desperately closed his eyes against the terrible information that Twig was providing him, and Twig slapped Barns sharply across the face. "Stay awake Lamby Pie; we’re coming to the best part. Now, how do you suppose that any of this drivel from your miserable backward little planet will suddenly become valuable to beings with civilizations far more advanced than yours?”
Barns had no response.
Twig drew closer to Barns. "What happens to the value of art when a painter or author dies, Barns? When there is no chance of another thing like it being created ever again?"
A suspicion began to form in his tired mind; a thought so hideous to Barns that a new level of dread was reached.
The understanding and terror must have shown on his face, because Twig now smiled in triumph. "Yes Barns! You know what must happen, don't you? You poor Earthlings are about to be wiped out by a rogue asteroid! One that we nudged just a little bit a few years ago, just enough so that it will pulverize your planet only a week from now. On Christmas Eve next week every one of you humans will die, Barns! Every single man, woman, and child, Barns, not to mention just about every other living thing on planet Earth! But don't worry; it won't go to waste. After things have settled down in a few decades, we Ra will colonize it.”
Tears that Barns didn't know he had left streamed down his face.
"And you helped us, Barns! You TRAITOR!”
The combination of Ca and the terror and horror of their victim was almost over-powering now to the Ra, Twig and the others were gasping and foaming at the mouth. Only with great self-control did Twig restrain herself from immediately attacking Barns. She turned away from him and walked around to the front of the safe. "Let me tell you what's going to happen now, Barns. I'm going to open this safe and get your last and best secrets for Ra use, human. And, when that safe opens, Renson is going to rip off your right arm. But don’t worry; we’ll cauterize your bloody stump quickly so that you won’t bleed to death just yet. We're going to eat you piece by piece as you watch!”
Barns felt Renson's second steel clawed hand grasp his right arm at the wrist and squeeze it with near bone-crushing force.
"And that's just the beginning Barns! We are going to rip you up and eat you as you die! And you'll be pleasantly surprised at how long you live, dear husband. You'll have the Ca to thank for that. Your body won't go into shock, Barns, the Ca will prevent it! You'll be able to fully experience exquisite pain with wonderful clarity until you are completely dead!"
Despite the pain, Barns struggled weakly in Renson's unbreakable grasp. Renson was pleased. The victim was nicely terrified. All the Ra could easily sense his delicious terror. This, combined with the effects of the Ca, would reduce the other Ra to raging, hungry animals the moment Renson began to rip Barns to bits. Renson could feel the effects of the Ca and the terror himself, much stronger than did the other Ra, but he could easily maintain control of himself, for he was Ca'Ra. He hoped that Twig could also maintain control of herself.
Warren leader Twi'Na proceeded to unlock the safe. Only she and Melberg knew the combination. It took all of her self-control and concentration to apply that combination while under the influence of the Ca and the intoxicating fear exuded by Barns. After entering the combination, she was puzzled that the safe's latch was so hard to undo. Few humans could have unlatched that safe, but it was not too hard for her; her augmented strength was second only to that of Renson's, and she was impatient. She wanted blood! Fresh warm blood, raw living flesh, and Ca!
Renson was about to wrench off Barns' arm when the door of the safe shot open with an explosive bang that knocked all the Ra off their feet. A thick, choking cloud of black sooty smoke immediately filled the room.
Barns was dropped to the floor as Renson and the other Ra roared, coughed, crawled, and stumbled around in the pitch black smoke. As the human recovered, the Ra began barfing up ugly lunches and dropping unconscious to the floor.
On the floor in front of Barns' face were several data cubes; apparently the ones that Twig had shown him. Barns grabbed them, and then somehow found the strength and presence of mind to crawl, as luck would have it, to the doorway, which had been opened by Renson just prior to his collapse to the floor.
In moments, Dr. Barns, esteemed scientist and ex-US Senator, was stumbling through suburban Washington DC December night, cold, bruised, and bleeding, wearing only a fishing hat and a layer of skin-burning alien barbecue sauce. His one lucid thought was the imperative to simply put distance between himself and the terror of the Ra. Despite numbing cold and weakness, he ran and ran.
****