Beyond the Stars: INEO (30 page)

We quickly went to it.

“How do you get in?” Urit mouthed the words.

“I don’t know,” I answered.

Noah quickly studied the metal. He pressed his full hand on the door to check for its sturdiness; to everyone’s surprise, the panel slid open. We jumped back to keep our bodies out of view while Gaelan took a cautious glance inside the room.

Gaelan took a step. “Let’s go,” he ordered.

The room was filled with glass cylinders holding dozens of growing Dreon fetuses floating in a clear pink liquid. A pounding feeling of dread came over me at the horrific sight. My eyes rapidly checked the room for the infant I had seen in my vision. She wasn’t anywhere.

“What is this place?” I asked, suddenly mortified at the sight before me.

“It’s their workshop of disgrace,” Urit said in a voice tainted with disgust.

I saw him reach inside his jacket pocket and pull out his exscrapulator and bury it in his palm. I didn’t know why he’d brought it. I waited for him to use it—instead he kept it hidden in his hand. I pretended not to notice and turned my eyes to look at the incubating fetuses. My fear of having a child that was half Dreon became a real possibility.

Gaelan touched my back and broke me from my trance. “Sami, are you okay?”

“I can’t believe they are doing this,” I said with exasperation.

I walked closer to the glass incubators and gazed at the growing hybrid fetuses inside. Some of the creatures were unrecognizably alien while others appeared to be completely human.

“I knew you would come,” said a slithering voice from the entrance behind us.

My heart stopped. I knew it was Hyril. We all spun around to defend ourselves. We discovered that he wasn’t alone. Two smaller Dreons accompanied him. In a way I was relieved that it was Hyril who had found us. He was different than the others—almost helpful and protective rather than callous and frightening. I almost felt sorry for him after I learned how the Dreons lived. Still, acting and looking somewhat human didn’t change the fact that he was one of them.

Gaelan and Noah stood in front of me to partly shield my body with theirs while Urit posed ready to attack. Hyril glided up to us with his large black eyes, pale white hair, and white floor length gown.

Hyril’s eyes met mine. “Finally. You came. I have been searching for
you
everywhere.” He sounded angry when he spoke.

Gaelan stepped up to Hyril in an intimidating stance. “We have been looking for you as well.”

“I thought you were near,” Hyril confessed, as though he had been forewarned. “I even left the others and returned to the ship early in case you would come here today.”

“Where’s Nia?” Urit shouted, bolting closer to Hyril like a charging bull. “Give her to us. You broke our treaty by taking her. I should kill you right now.”

Hyril sighed as though Urit’s threat meant nothing. “Yes, we meant to take Samantha. There is no breech of treaty in that,” he said in a chilling manner.

I gulped.

“Where‘s Nia?” Gaelan ignored him.

“You almost ruined our experiment,” said the Dreon standing behind Hyril.

“You have some nerve,” Urit shot back.

Hyril turned his head to briefly look at the two smaller Dreons. They lowered their eyes to the floor in unison as though they were being reprimanded. Perhaps he had asked them to be quiet. Then Hyril silently started to pace around the room. He walked by the four of us twice, making me jump when he unexpectedly stopped. He jetted his pale face and big black eyes inches away mine. Gaelan shifted his body into mine to push me backwards. I thought he was going to knock me on the floor to keep Hyril from getting too close.

“You are killing her,” Hyril seethed.

I looked into his shiny bug eyes and instantly knew he wasn’t talking about Nia. He was talking about the baby I saw him with.

“You have no right to have her to begin with,” I insisted.

“She is ours, and you have disrupted the advancement of her development when you removed our tracer. We needed
you.
We have tried to make due with your Katarian friend who possessed our tracer. She was punished for interfering.”

“What are you talking about?” Gaelan asked with a confused voice.

“Ellison,” Hyril and I answered in unison.

Gaelan’s body froze. He turned and gave me a torn expression. I could tell he was desperate to ask me why I knew her name, but this was not the time or place.

Hyril explained in a harsh tone, “The infant is in danger. Your people have weakened her by severing Samantha’s physical connection to her. The tracer was required for her development. It strengthened the bond needed for maturation. We have had to rely on the original sample we took from you. It will only work for so long. As Ellison grows, her cells will die off and be replaced with new ones … ones that do not match yours. Your link to her will disappear. We need another sample in order for her to live. It is a miracle she has survived for this long. You are different than any other human we have encountered. Your cells are hardier.”

I knew it. My connection with the infant was real. We
were
communicating with some sort of psychic link. For a moment, I felt somewhat relieved as to why I knew of Ellison’s existence. Then I felt terrible. I watched Gaelan’s face drain of blood after he heard the news of the creation of a Dreon baby that was half mine. I thought he was going to vomit.

“You bastards.” Gaelan charged Hyril. He grabbed him by the throat and lifted his thin body a few inches from the floor.

Hyril gasped for air and clasped his lanky fingers around Gaelan’s hands to try and loosen up his grip. The other Dreons got closer, but did not help. They appeared to need an order to act.

“Easy, Gaelan, we need him to get Nia,” Noah instructed him in a calm voice.

“I say kill him,” Urit huffed, as if he was ready to join in.

Gaelan groaned and released Hyril with a backwards shove. It made Hyril stumble and struggle to catch his footing.

“We came for Nia. Where is she?” Gaelan demanded.

Hyril did not answer.

“You better
not
have hurt her,” Urit threatened, while waving his fist in the air.

I could tell threats would get us nowhere, so I decided to offer him a deal.

“Look, I will help you, if you promise to release Nia and let us all go,” I told Hyril sincerely.

Gaelan’s mouth fell open with shock. He seemed utterly unhappy with my decision to cooperate without a fight.

“What part of not offering a deal did you
not
understand?” Gaelan said under his breath.

Hyril strolled across the room and lifted up a thin metal tool that was lying on a nearby table and swiftly returned to my side. “Good. Give me your arm.”

“No, Nia first,” I demanded.

Hyril paused and gazed at me intensely as he twirled the instrument in between his long fingers in a slow deliberate manner; he handled it with such deliberation, it showed his ill intent—giving me chills.

“Fine, I will take
you
to Nia,” Hyril said with emphasis. He hastily put the peculiar device in the pocket of his cloak.

“She’s not going anywhere without us,” Gaelan objected.

“Then come.” Hyril huffed and exited the room. The other Dreons did not follow. Perhaps he told them to stay telepathically. He appeared to move cautiously when we walked into a nearby room. It was as though he didn’t want anyone else to see us. We entered a small dim room that was almost completely empty. It looked like a holding cell. I saw a woman sitting on the floor against the back right corner with her head hung down. Her long hair was covering most of her face. It was Nia. She was in a trace-like state, rocking back and forth in a self-soothing motion. Her hands clasped together with her arms around her knees in a protective huddle.

“Nia,” I called out.

Urit and I ran over to her.

We kneeled down beside her. Urit’s face filled with anger or maybe it was sadness when he saw the condition that she was in. He almost appeared to be going into shock. I touched her shoulder, but she didn’t respond. She just continued to rock. Her eyes were open, holding a vacant stare at the wall opposite her. Her wavy auburn hair was disheveled as if she had been in a fight. I noticed a one inch red lighted disc on her temple beneath a fallen piece of hair.

“What have you done to her?” I asked.

I touched the device stuck to her head with my fingertips. My hand trembled from my circulating adrenaline.

Urit quietly studied the light but appeared nervous about removing it. “Nia, it’s me,” he whispered. “Wake up.”

“What is that thing? Are you torturing her?” I looked back and shouted at Hyril.

Hyril gave me a cold glare. “She would not comply, so she had to pay the consequences. She refused to help us find you,” he stated with a sneer.

“Take that thing off her!” I demanded.

Hyril came closer, leaned down, and pried the red disc from Nia’s head with his long fingernails. She collapsed like a corpse onto the floor.

Urit gasped. “Nia, I’m here,” he said as he scooped her head up in his arms.

I waited for her to wake, but she remained unconscious. Deep indentation marks and drops of blood remained on her skin from the device’s prongs. Her limpness made it appear as though she was dead.

“What did you do?” I asked, shaking.

“She will come around in a few hours,” he said callously as he stood above us.

Urit pulled a gadget from his pocket and scanned Nia. I stood, ready to leave. Hyril grabbed me by the shoulders with his lanky fingers and rotated my body to face him. “Now, Samantha, you must help me,” he said before I could pass by him.

Great, it was time to pay up.

“What do you want?” I asked, trying to remain calm.

I gave Gaelan a nervous look. He looked at me reassuringly and didn’t interfere. I knew he would step in if things got out of hand.

“Wait, first you must look at me,” Hyril demanded.

His black eyes became glossier. I felt as though I couldn’t breathe. Oh no, Hyril was going to read my mind. It never occurred to me until now that I would not only have the challenge of guarding my thoughts of Earth, but also be responsible for protecting the celestial entity taking refuge inside me. What if he learned about my new power, that I was harboring the Ineo? How could I be so careless?

* * *

I could feel his eyes begin to lock on mine with burrowing force. He was getting ready to do a mind sweep on me. I prepared myself for the mental assault. I remembered the searing pain I felt the last time he intruded my mind. The awful images he made me think were real; his persistence in trying to get information from me.
Hurry, forget everything and think about life on the ship,
I told myself. His eyes weighed heavily on mine, making it impossible to look away. My eyes started to throb from not blinking and my skull began to ache as if it was being squeezed in a vise. I felt my heart pounding loudly in my chest as I took shallow breaths. Paralyzed and unable to resist, his black Dreon eyes bore their way straight into my head, taking over my thoughts. I felt him thinking. In control of me. He was in.

“Samantha,”
Hyril spoke in my head.
“Ignore most of what I say in front of the others. Someone might be listening. I have no intention of keeping you here. I stayed aboard the ship to wait for you after Ellison told me you where coming. She wants me to protect you. I am sorry for causing you and Nia pain. I am only acting the way I am expected to act. I want you to know that I no longer consider my duties the sole purpose for my existence. You have made me desire more. I do not want to feel alone anymore. I seek the same companionship you have with your offspring. I am planning a new life for me and Ellison. We are planning to leave here. Consider me an ally. You may call upon me if you ever need me. I am indebted to you for showing me the way. All you have to do is let Ellison know. She is linked to your psyche as I am to hers.”

“How?”
I asked mentally.

I lost my balance and blinked before he could answer. I realized he had already let me go. My mind had become my own. I stood, somewhat stunned, and looked at Hyril with newly found compassion.

“Thanks,” I said in a barely audible tone, being grateful for the peaceful message. I wondered if I
had
changed him for the better. The last time he was in my mind, I couldn’t help sharing the love I had for my children with him. Maybe he had become desperate to experience the same kind of emotion.

Urit drew his eyebrows together tightly and gave me an annoyed glare for being courteous. “Can we go?” he asked Hyril, sounding shaken. He held Nia’s limp body in his arms and stood. Her head fell back, dangling over his arm.

“You and Nia can—take her and go,” Hyril said in a detached tone, which I knew was all for show.

“Go with them,” Gaelan said to Noah. “We’ll meet you back on the ship.”

Noah nodded. “Hurry,” he mouthed at me before the three of them left.

“Now, to answer my questions.” Hyril returned his attention to me. “Where are you from, Samantha?”