Sequence (8 page)

Topsy-Turvy

They followed Number Four down meandering corridors. Number Four stopped at a dead end and pointed upwards. “Do as I do.”

He put a foot on the wall and then his other foot. Then, like magic, he started to walk straight up the wall. As
Chris neared the spot Number Four had walked up, he felt a tug on his metallic abdomen, like a magnet.

Samda chuckled. “Wouldn’t it have been easier to install elevators?”

“Actually, no. This was more cost effective; it’s more economical to simply walk to another level.”

Chris
jumped and bent his body. His feet clung to the wall as his orientation shifted. He heard Samda do the same thing as he caught up with Number Four.

They approached the mouth at the end and Number Four said, “Just step over the edge.” He did so and disappeared from view.

Samda and Chris followed suit. They were now in an identical corridor, but a level up.

Chris
asked, “Couldn’t you guys have used anti-gravity or something to just shoot you up here?”

“Then how would you ever get back?”

“Just a thought. Sorry.” He imagined that if it could shoot you up, then its polarity or whatever could just be reversed to shoot you back, but he knew better than to ask. He was out of his element with this technology and the suit wasn’t supplying him with the answers.

Samda said, “I like it. All I had on my ship was a bunch of ladders to
get from level to level, and a single pneumatic lift to get me from the top deck to the very bottom one.”

Number Four chuckled. “It’s not a big deal. There are way cooler things on this ship. Now come on. It’s just around the corner.”

Dinner Time

Number Four led them into a circular room with a tangle of hoses dangling from the ceiling in the middle.

He said to Samda, “I’m going to run a scan on you to see which nutrients you’re short on. Then I’ll have them synthesized. It’s no gourmet meal
, but it’ll get you by for awhile.”

Chris
said, “You guys told me you didn’t have any food here.” He said it accusatorily but Number Four didn’t take offense.

“We do our best to avoid using the ship’s systems for anything but research. We would have fed you if it became absolutely necessary.”

Samda said, “Alright then. Hurry up. I’m starving.”

Number Four snatched a
black handheld device that was dangling among the hanging hoses. It was as big as a loaf of bread and had a strange monitor on its face with bright green symbols scrolling across it. He held it toward Samda and then swiped it up and down her body. Then he stood and watched the symbols that appeared. He swiped his tentacle across the face and tapped the screen three times.

He let the device go and it dangled among the hoses once again.

But now the hoses were moving around like hanging vipers. Several of them swung around and their openings pointed at a single spot between them, midair.

Chris
looked at Samda to see if any of this surprised her, but she seemed to be taking it all in stride.

Then the hoses started to spew out fine dust-like particles that hovered and coalesced into a sphere several feet above the floor. The sphere started to shrink
, and as it did it became more solid. It finally shrunk into a compact circular pill about two inches around. It looked like a light blue golf ball.

The hoses retracted
quickly and Number Four reached out and grabbed the ball out of the air as it hung there.

He handed it to Samda and told her to eat
the whole thing.

She didn’t even hesitate. She must’ve been famished to not ask any questions.

Number Four said, “Go take a seat on the floor. The nutrients may come as a shock to your system.”

“Why’s that?”

“It’s surprising how the machine identifies nutrients that a body would benefit from, even those not native to their world. I don’t know how your body might react, but trust me, it’s not dangerous. When your body adjusts, you’ll feel more alive than you ever have.”

Samda buckled over as if on cue and said, “Yeah, I think I feel it
working.” She shuffled over to the wall and sat down, still clutching her gut with both hands.

Number Four said to
Chris, “I brought you here so you can keep her company and make sure she doesn’t have any allergic reactions. If she starts to act funny, just call for me and I’ll come right back.”

“Where are you going?”

“I have a ship to fly and a mission to run.”

“When will I know if she’s in the clear?”

“When she can walk again. I’ll see you soon. You know your way back, right?”

“Yeah, we’ll find you.”

With that, Number Four left the room.

Suspicions

Chris
sat down beside Samda and watched her progress. She didn’t seem sick, maybe a little achy, but otherwise okay.

He looked around the room, trying to find anything interesting to occupy him, but the room was mostly bare.

Samda sat straighter and said, “I think it’s assimilated. I’m feeling much better.”

“Good. I’m glad. I don’t know how to resuscitate an alien.”

“You’re the alien, Earthman.”

Chris
smirked. More somberly he said, “Why do you think the Grays destroyed your planet?”

She sighed. “I wish I knew. I wish I could’ve done something to stop them. I was on a
research mission in orbit around our sun when the distress call came through. I was ordered to stay put because my ship wasn’t designed for full scale combat. That order saved my life, but it’s also caused me sleepless nights. I keep thinking I could have done something to help.”

“I don’t think you would’
ve made a difference. I’m not saying that to be mean, just that the Grays are some pretty severe bad asses and I doubt a single research vessel would have made them tuck tail and run.”

“I know that but it doesn’t alleviate my doubts.”

“I wonder why that escaped Gray didn’t kill me when it had the chance.”

“I don’t know
, but you should count your blessings.”

Chris
continued, “The other Gray said that he was surprised that humanity was chosen to be a part of this experiment. And humanity has yet to be destroyed by them. This is a stretch but I’ve been thinking about it. Maybe the Grays are only eliminating the creatures that this mission deems useful.”

“But why would they care?”

“Maybe because they don’t think we should be designing God, so they’re taking away the ingredients.”

“But why not just destroy this ship? That would solve the problem much more quickly
than picking out a species that
might
be included in the experiment, and destroying every single one of them.”

“They’ve tried
to destroy this ship and it didn’t work. Maybe they can’t. I don’t know.”

Samda sat up straighter and put her immense back against the wall.
“Why would they care if these people create God anyway?”

Chris
looked her in the eyes. “It affects all of us. They’re going to have their god alter the very fabric of reality. They’re going to try and get him to stop the heat-death of the universe.”

“That would be a good thing though
, Earthling. The end of the universe means the end of hope. If the universe is destined to fail, then what’s the point to life at all?”

I see what you’re saying, but what if we’re not supposed to interfere with the natural order of things? What if we’re supposed to let nature take its course?”

“Huh?”

“What if interfering causes an unintended side-effect?”

Samda nodded but she wasn’t convinced. “So you think the Grays are destroying entire planets because they have loftier principles? They’re slaughtering but that’s okay because they have altruistic intentions, huh? That’s preposterous, and a little offensive considering they just annihilated my race.”

Chris
had seen her angry before so he knew he’d accidentally hit a nerve. He shook his head and held his hands up defensively. He hadn’t meant to insult her. “It’s impossible to know their motives. I’m only speculating. Maybe it’s as simple as the Grays are just assholes who like to facilitate mass genocide across the universe for fun or glory.”

“That’s the way I regard them. And I can usually trust my first instinct.”

“I just have a feeling there’s more to this than our captors have let on.”

“Now, I agree with you there. The captain hasn’t told us everything.”

Just then the captain’s voice called over the loudspeaker. “That’s enough gossip from you two. Get back to the command station.”

“Ah shit,” whispered Samda.

Chris sighed. “Busted.”

Walkabout

Samda purposely took a wrong turn as they made their way back.
Chris was about to question her, but she smiled and said, “Those pricks aren’t spilling any info so let’s investigate for ourselves.”

“They’ll know we’re up to something.”

“All I want are answers. If they’re against that then that’s all the motivation I need to snoop around, and if they’re not, then they won’t care that we’re curious.”

Chris
imagined they could be punished for snooping, but he agreed with Samda. Not knowing was a worse punishment than anything the captain might do to them.

Samda stopped at a large glass door and stared inside. The room was full of stasis p
ods, but they were all full of liquid. It was impossible to see inside any of them from their vantage point behind the door.

Samda sniffed the air with her tiny nose and said, “Those are methane
-based life forms. I wonder how the crew plans to assimilate their DNA with ours.”

Chris
shook his head. He tried the door but it was locked.

Samda mused, “The scientists back home would have done anything to see alien life like this. The only aliens we ever came across were the Grays
, and that was right before they destroyed our world.”

Chris
said, “My people still debate whether alien life is even possible. If I ever get back home, I’ll sure have a story to tell.”

Samda asked, “If we escape
, would I be able to survive on your planet?”

“You want to come to Earth?”

“No, but I can’t go home the way it is and I don’t know of another habitable planet. If I had to go to Earth to survive, then I would.”

“The atmosphere is oxygen and carbon dioxide rich. The surface is covered in oceans of water with land masses splitting them. Food is plentiful if you live in the right parts of the world.”

“It sounds like paradise. Would I be able to fit in? I look different than you do.”

“You might be able to come up with a cover story.
You could say you have gigantism or a birth defect of some exotic variety. But if you got discovered, you would be imprisoned and experimented on.”

“That’s a risk I’m willing to take
for a chance at a life. Would you take me with you?”

“If we get through with the experiment and the crew agrees to take me home, I’ll ask them to drop you off on Earth too.”

Samda looked at the floor. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet. There are a lot of intangibles to get past before we can even consider what happens after the experiment.”

Samda nodded and said, “Thank you anyway.”

She walked away before
Chris could speak on it further. He followed her to the end of the corridor where she was standing at another glass door. Inside were more stasis pods ranging in size from very small, like a shoebox, to very large, bigger than a truck. Liquid filled each one in that room too. Samda sniffed the air again and said, “They must be marine creatures.”

Chris
tried the handle on that door but it wouldn’t open either. “If I didn’t know any better I’d say these things are prisoners with no chance at escape.”

“I have to agree.”

“The captain told me that many of the captives of heightened intelligence actually agreed that their experiment was important. I think they’d reconsider if they could see themselves locked inside a pod that’s locked inside a room.”

A booming voice came over the loudspeakers. It was the captain. “Get back here this instant. You’ve deviated enough.”

Chris whispered, “I’m getting sick of that bastard ordering me around.”

Samda whispered back, “You’re big enough to do something about that now.”

The thought frightened him, but it thrilled him too. He was no longer defenseless. But there was also a more rational part of him that knew Samda was trying to manipulate him.