Explorer X Alpha (23 page)

He looked over in the direction that Eirena had been earlier and didn't see her there. So, Aadi tried his helmet communication device and stomped in frustration because it still wasn't working. He figured he could just call her on the telenex. She wouldn't have to answer him, but he would know where she was. So he closed his eyes, blacked out his mind, and thought of her. He only saw darkness. He shook his head and gave up.

He continued around the large piece of metal that she had walked around and looked in every direction that she could have gone, but he still didn't see her. Now, his heart started to race. He began to run around the perimeter of the city where she had gone, but he didn't feel safe enough to yell her name. He thought of Eirena and tried to see her in his mind's eye by using the telenex, but he still only saw darkness, but then, he heard it - a very faint whisper from Eirena. It rose up in his head before he broke the connection and said, “Help.”

“No! No! No!” Aadi cried out as he fell to his knees in frustration. Someone had taken her, and she was unconscious. Otherwise, she would be fighting or talking to him. Aadi took his hands and punched his knees as anger filled his blood. He was tired of being helpless, of being a kid, and of seeing his world fall apart. He would save Eirena and make those who had taken her pay if it was the last thing he did. He took a deep breath, squinted at the last sinking sun on the horizon, and turned to run at top speed toward Jantik to get some answers.

 

 

Eirena saw darkness and not an inkling of light. Her eyes were closed, but she wasn't sleeping.
Think, Eirena, think,
she told herself. She remembered walking around the huge piece of metal. Then she started to pick up some of the small pieces. She thought it was safe because nothing and no one was around. Knowing she hadn't gone far from Aadi, she had walked and walked. Before she knew what happened, something in the hard-packed sand grabbed her leg and pulled her down. Down, down, down she went through the sand with her eyes closed. Then, she was in darkness. Something painful hit her from behind, and then she felt nothing.

Aadi got to Jantik and Ebu and was breathing heavily as he came upon them. He ran so fast that he couldn't seem to stop himself and had to slide to a stop just past them. He turned toward them and said, “Jantik, someone's taken Eirena, and there is no trace of her! Who would do this? I need your help to find her. Now!” He reached out and put his hand on Jantik's firm shoulder.

“What? She is taken? Was there any sign of a fight? Kicked up sand or body parts?” Jantik said.

“No, why? Tell me why?” Aadi asked, wanting to rip off his helmet in frustration. It and his suit were getting too hot, and he just wanted to break free. He burnt up with heat he was so angry and frustrated. He wanted to shake Jantik, but he knew he had to keep calm if he wanted to save Eirena.

“Well, when the Katek take someone, there is usually time to fight, and if not, it's messy. When the Femoh take, it's by surprise, and they leave no signs,” Jantik said, then looked down sadly.

“We have got to save her. I will not let them hurt her. Please help me, Jantik,” Aadi said, then slightly shook Jantik's shoulders.

“Of course I will help you, but it will take time. We have to plan. We can't just sneak up on them without finding the best way in. I will try to find it. I have a plan. Come with me. We need to go back to the cave and come up with a strategy. I also need to go home and get us some weapons. We will need them,” Jantik said. He started to run in the direction they came, and Aadi followed.

“Um… um…” Eirena slowly moved her head side-to-side and coughed. She saw Aadi in her thoughts, and she had asked for his help. Why would she call out to him? Where was she? She really didn't want to open her eyes because they were so heavy, but she had to see where she was. Her whole body felt like lead. Her soft, form-fitting helmet was still feeding her oxygen.
Well, there goes the idea that the space suits cannot be penetrated,
she thought. She moved her head from side to side, slowly opened her eyes, and saw darkness. Then a sharp hit to the left cheek knocked her back into complete darkness as she screamed again through her mind as Aadi's image started to fade. “Aadi!” she said when blackness engulfed her.

Aadi's head hurt. He kept forcing open the doorway to Eirena's mind and then broke through, only to hear a bloodcurdling scream. He had to get to her before they hurt her. He refused to lose her. She was the only human friend he had on this planet. He came with her, and he would fight to go home with her. They had just arrived at the mouth of the cave. Aadi went inside and kicked the cruiser.

“This cannot be happening! We just got here, and everything is falling apart!” Aadi screamed in frustration. Ebu walked alongside him. Then, he went over to Jantik, who stood at the mouth of the cave, hesitating to leave.

“I will be back. You can count on it. I will come back tonight with everything we need,” Jantik said as he left into the night.

Aadi grabbed his backpack, which had some of the explosives that Dakota had shared the night before they left for the expedition. He didn't know how they would affect the beings of this world, but he had to try something. Aadi took a deep breath and decided that maybe it was time to practice his martial arts moves to relax and be prepared to defend himself and Eirena if he had to. He closed his mind and brought in the darkness and moved methodically and smoothly through his form. He had to keep a cool head. He had to pull strength from inside because he was so, so tired. He also wanted punch something.

Time slipped by as Aadi tried to focus on a plan to save Eirena. Ebu came over to Aadi and lightly tapped his leg. Aadi's eyes were closed as he moved through the rhythm of his form. He snapped out of fighting his imaginary opponent and looked down at Ebu in mid-form.

“What is it, Ebu?” Aadi asked, still a bit on edge.

“I think I know where they are hiding. Look at your locator device. I reprogrammed it to work more effectively here. I didn't speak too much because I had to enter Jantik's voice patterns into my system in order to communicate with you,” Ebu said.

Aadi took the device and looked at it as it showed various ways into a series of underground caverns. Just as he was memorizing the entrances and exits, he looked up to hear Jantik coming through the mouth of the cave. Jantik, who only reached Aadi's shoulder, was wearing a loose sash that was shimmering tan in color and covered his arms. He had on some loose pants and high boots. It was a very different look from the morning, when Jantik only had on short, baggy pants.

“Aadi! I have everything we need here in my bag. I had to sneak it from our guards because I wanted to get the best weapons for our rescue. Here, come take a look,” Jantik said before he took the bag off of his shoulder. Jantik took out several articles of clothing that Aadi picked up. He realized that the clothes fit rather snugly and were a bit heavy. They were black in color and had a hood that went over the wearer's head.

“What's this for? I don't need clothes,” Aadi said as he lifted the outfit up for Jantik to see.

“Oh, that is a warrior's alicka suit. It protects us from the Femoh sting touch,” Jantik said.

“Sting touch? What's that?” Aadi replied.

“They don't usually kill their victims in war. Instead, they stun them, putting them in a coma-like state until they get them to their holding lair. They take them and torture them to find their weaknesses and enjoy the sound of how that being expresses pain. The Femoh get a natural high from causing other species pain and find ways to inflict it before they end the being's life,” Jantik said casually, as if it was completely normal to talk about such a psychotic race of beings.

“Okay,” Aadi said, and he started to put on the suit over his space suit.

“No, no… you have to take that suit off. That garment has to be placed against the skin to work. It allows us to remain hidden by the Femoh by giving the illusion that we are not in the area, as long as we don't get too close to them,” Jantik said.

“This suit helps to keep me alive, Jantik. If I take it off, I am afraid of what will happen,” Aadi replied, pacing back and forth and trying to think of another way.

“Aadi, you will change to accommodate to this environment. That was what the immunization did to you. Take off the suit. It's the only way,” Ebu said, while looking through the bag that Jantik brought them.

 

 

“All right, since I don't really have a choice. Here goes nothing,” Aadi said while he pushed past the strong urge to hesitate. He then started disconnecting his form-fitting, flexible helmet from his suit. He took off the helmet while holding his breath. Immediately, the cold, frigid air hit his face. A thin layer of ice started to form on his face. He quickly removed the rest of the suit just to get this ordeal over with. He got so cold so fast that he didn't have time to feel the pain. He shivered uncontrollably. However, after he slowly put on the suit Jantik handed him, he could no longer hold his breath.

Aadi took his first breath of the air on Shrenas and felt excruciating pain. He felt as though his lungs were freezing to ice on impact. Aadi screamed out and fell to his knees.

“Uh, it burns! Oh, God, help!” Aadi said. He fell to the floor of the cave and then twisted in agony as his lungs felt like they were freezing with every breath. He tried to raise his hands to cocoon himself to warmth, but he couldn't move pass the prickling pain. His body was wrecked with crippling shivers.

“Ebu… uh uh,” Aadi said. He forced himself to focus and take his mind away. Closing his eyes against the pain, he pictured his mom, just as he felt a burning heat in the core of his stomach. He saw her crying and packing her bags as though she was going somewhere. Another burst of heat, pain, and the sensation of a million tiny needles stabbing his skin from the inside out hit him at once. He pushed the pain out of his mind and yelled, “Mom! Help! What did they do to me!” when he saw her fall to the floor and darkness filled his head. Then, unrelenting pain knocked him out as he fell to the ground.

Eirena awoke to a throbbing head. She was really starting to get angry now.
Okay, I have cried, and I have slept a lot,
she thought.
But Now I have to think of a way out of here, or I may not live to go home.
She was about to open her eyes, but then she felt something move her. She thought it was safer to pretend to still be asleep, and she concentrated on keeping her breathing pattern the same. In the darkness, she was being thrown over someone's shoulder. The shoulder was thin, but firm and strong. She wondered if this was the being that had punched her. She hoped so just so that when she woke up, she could hit him first.

She lay there like dead weight, making sure that she did nothing to give away that she was awake. She was a pro at pretending to be sleep because she did it all the time at home to get out of waking up for school. Since she had been awake for a short while, she didn't feel as heavy or groggy as she had when she was first captured. Finally, the thing stopped walking. Ever so slightly, she opened her eyes to see the floor of deep black with silver glittering pieces of rock embedded within. She realized that it was hard to tell the difference between the black and silver floor and the thing carrying her.

Quickly, she closed her eyes again. The being slid her from its shoulder and laid her on a bed-like platform. It secured her arms, and it took every fiber of her being not to fight. She just knew she wouldn't win because the being was rather tall and firmly packed with muscle. She was listening, wondering if it had left, but it began to talk.

“It is a female being. I believe it is the being from the spacecraft that we shot down. She was alone when captured,” it said.

“Well, we have to find out how it got here and how it is it that it still lives. So many species we brought here over the centuries could not survive. If this one survives, we can use it to our advantage. Now, call in Gitab. He will want to start the inspection,” another being with a voice that sounded masculine said.

Eirena continued to pretend to sleep while someone started to pull on her suit. She guessed they wanted to see the difference between the suit and her skin. They moved to inspect her helmet, which with its flexibility fit rather closely to her face.

“Oh, Gitab! Here is this being we captured. I know Triab, our assistant, briefed you,” said the being that brought her to this room.

“Finul, we will start today by putting the probe on it to start the inspection. I will do it first with this suit on. Then we can remove the suit and place this being in its holding chamber. We will complete the inspection in the morning,” Gitab said, and he moved her head from side to side.

“Sir, she seems to be starting to awaken. I see lots of circulatory activity. I believe some is in the suit, and the other is within the being,” Triab said.

Eirena figured now that her game was up, she may as well open her eyes and see what she was being held by. She slightly opened her eyes to the three beings that were surrounding her. They were strangely gorgeous and looked almost humanoid, with the exception of their coal black skin with thin white marble lines all over their bodies. They had thick gray hair and completely silver eyes with no pupils. Their fingers were quite human-like with the exception of the silver fingernails. They had tiny flat noses with smaller openings at the tip. They were solid muscle and moved with graceful, yet authoritative stances.

“Gitab, I believe the female being is awake,” the being named Triab stated with a wicked smile.

“Good. We can start now. Start the shocks. I want to see how it reacts to pain,” Gitab stated. Eirena took notice that he was a bit stockier and older than Triab.

“Certainly,” said Triab. Then, Finul put a hand on each of Eirena's forearms just before a piercing and excruciating pain went through her entire body. Bolts of what felt like electricity poured through her shaking body, and she fought with all her might not to cry out until she could fight it no longer. She thought of Aadi and called out to him in her mind. She yelled out and screamed. She refused to beg them to stop as tears ran down the sides of her face, landing in her soaked hair. It seemed to go on to the point where she felt no more pain - just numbness. She'd never seen the other side of pain, but now she knew for her it became nothingness. She pictured her brothers playing ball outside of their home and them feeling her distress. The darkness tried to come, but she pushed it back. She had to fight to stay awake. She wanted to remember what they did to her. She knew that one day she would make them pay.