“I’m sure you were fine. Everyone…” Jennifer was saying, but then realizedsomething was different. It was no longer bright and sunny. Instead she found her self in a very small room dimly lit withartificial lighting. The walls were metal and 3 of them were justout of reach.
A look of utter puzzlement crossed herface, as she reached out to touch the closest wall. She felt thecold metal wall and felt relieved it was real and she wasn’tgoing insane. That feeling passed and was replaced by nervousnessabout who did this to her, and finally fear about what they weregoing to do next!
She shook her head to clear her mind. I can worry about the why after I learn the where. Shethought to herself. She forced herself to look around. He gazenaturally went up to were the sun was so bright it forced her tosquint just ten second ago. Now, it was just a plain metal ceiling.She gazed at it for a moment, wondering where the sun went whileher eyes adjusted to the sudden darkness.
She then looked down to see clumsilyfolded and thrown on the floor. They were dirty plain dark shirtand pants. The shirt looked like a baggy plain t-shirt. The armswere clearly too big for anyone capable of fitting in it. The pantslooked like sweat pants. They were also very baggy. Sandals laidon top, but there were no socks.
Jennifer thought about who thesebelong to for a moment, in order to procrastinate on turning aroundto find out. It was a small room. The owner was possibly in theroom staring at me laughing. He was probably enjoying watching mesquirm as I processed my surroundings. Well, he can join the club.
Jennifer knelt down and felt thecloth, more to delay turning around then actual curiosity. It feltlike cotton, but clearly wasn’t. With a closer look she couldtell the owner was small. At least a few inches shorter than her,maybe about Myra’s height. Yes, these would fit Myraperfectly.
With the possibility of it being Myrain her mind, she got up and turned around. What she found surprisedher even after imagining every possibility. The room was indeedsmall. It was only about 15 feet in length and a little over 5 feetwide. A few feet in front of her was a bed, or more like a mattressthat was just set on the floor. In the bed lay a woman, soundasleep.
The woman was indeed about Myra’ssize. Clearly the clothes belonged to her. She was very young,about Myra’s age (maybe slightly older?). She had light brownhair, lighter than Myra’s. It came down to just below hershoulders, or would if she wasn’t lying down. She had fairskin, much like Irish or English. Her features were not the samehowever. Jennifer couldn’t quite make out were she was from.
She was covered with a plain blacksheet, probably the same cloth as her clothes. Her shoulders arm andhead were the only things exposed. Her head was slightly turned toone side with that arm lying across her body. She looked peacefulwithout a care in the world. It was a lot like Myra looked when sheslept. Jennifer wondered if that look would change as drasticallyas Myra’s did when she woke up.
Not wanting to disturb the girl’speace, Jennifer decided to look around a bit more. She noticed thedim light on the ceiling. The light itself was covered, but wasclearly a low wattage bulb. She looked around for a light switch,but there wasn’t any. That must be why the light is on: thereis no way to turn it off.
Jennifer did notice a crack in thewall. On closer inspection, it wasn’t a crack. It was anindention. It must be the door. It was a sliding door. It slidesbehind the wall when opened. There wasn’t a door handle, norcould Jennifer find any switches for for an automatic door. Shestepped closer and ran her hand along the edge. It was tightlysealed. She tried to open it with her hands with no luck.
So, this girl is a prisoner it seems. What did she do to deserve this? Better yet, what did I do todeserve this? Jennifer thought to herself. Did she too justappear in this room? If so, were those really the clothes she waswearing? Well I suppose there is only one way to find out.
“Excuse me, “ Jennifersaid as she reached out to gently shake the woman awake. “Doyou really wear those clothes?” Jennifer grabbed or calf andshook her gently. The woman stirred then gently opened her eyes. Then she saw Jennifer. Her eyes got big and she jumped back and satup at the same time.
She said something in a languageJennifer had never heard before. Jennifer silently observed her asshe waited for the woman to speak. It seems the woman was doingthe same thing. After a moment the woman made a sound, hesitated,then began to speak. Again it was a language Jennifer had neverheard, but somehow it sounded different than the language she usedbefore.
Jennifer looked at her puzzled. Thewoman had an equally puzzled look on her face. After a moment,Jennifer spoke, “I’m sorry I woke you, but I need tofind out where I am and why I was brought here. Do you know whereit is we are?” The woman just stared at her with an evengreater look of puzzlement. Did she not understand me?
Jennifer repeated herself in Spanish. The woman didn’t look anything like a Latino, but it was theonly other language she knew. The woman continued to look puzzled. Clearly she didn’t speak Spanish.
“Wha…what are you doinghere?” the woman said, in English. Now Jennifer stared at herin puzzlement. It was broken English, and in an accent Jennifercouldn’t quite place, but it was still English. At least weare getting somewhere now.
“You do speak English? Can youtell me where I am, and why I’m here?” Jennifer said. She leaned forward and listened intently.
“Who are you? Are you a queen? Why are you speaking in their language?” the woman said. Shesat upright, crossing her legs for balance, and backed awayslightly.
“A queen? No. Why would youask that? I’m from the US,” Jennifer replied, and stoodupright so she was further away from the woman. She clearly wantedher personal space.
The woman considered this for a fewmoments. Then in puzzlement she asked, “Your human? Why didthey bring you to me?”
Jennifer didn’t get much of thelast question. All of her concentration was on the first. Human? Is that really in question? “You…You aren’t?”
“No. Wait you don’t know?How can you not know? Didn’t they bring you here?” thewoman asked. She leaned forward. She was clearly more comfortablearound humans than…than what exactly? Now that is a goodquestion.
Jennifer sat down on the bed in deepcontemplation. After a moment, she decided to tell her story first.“I was talking to my daughter on Earth, and then I appearedin this room with you. That is all that I know.”
“Is that common for humans? Experiencing things that aren’t true?” the woman asked. Jennifer turned to face her, so that they were both sitting a fewfeet from each other.
“No not really. Can you tell mewho you are? I think we might start with your race,” Jennifersaid. She carefully looked her over for anything that would tellher that this person sitting in front of her wasn’t human. She couldn’t find anything.
“I’m not sure how to speakit in your language. Velarian, I think is the best I can do,”she said. “You really don’t know how you got here?”
“No.” Jennifer said. Shestudied the girl’s expressions. “I take it you or yourpeople didn’t bring me here?”
“I’m the only one of mypeople on board that I know of,” she said.
“Then who…?”
“The Biaz, at least that is howyou would speak it. They brought me here to help them learn yourlanguage and culture. We Velarians are better at that than theyare,” she said.
“Is that why you brought mehere? To study me?” Jennifer asked. She sat up straight andleaned away slightly.
“Yes, I suppose. That is whythey generally bring people here, but as far as I know they have noway of making you just appear here and no reason to make you appearin my room,” the woman said. She stared gently at Jenniferwith a slight smile. “I would be surprised if it was them. They generally don’t take women.”
“What do you mean? There areothers? How many?” Jennifer asked.
“Yes, there are others. About30 aboard this ship and there are other ships,” she replied.
Jennifer contemplated this for amoment. What are they going to do to us all? “For whatpurpose? No wait, you should start at the beginning. Let’sstart with your name.”
“Rogalia,” she said andgave Jennifer a smile. “And yours?”
“Jennifer”
“Well let me think,” shesaid. She stared down for a few moments. “You haven’tever heard of us or the Biaz before?”
“No. We have never encounteredany alien species before,” Jennifer replied. Jennifer waitedpatiently as Rogalia organized her thoughts.
“Well I guess it all startedwhen we invented a drive that allowed us to cross the stars. Wefound the Biaz, and shared our technology with them. For a coupleof decades we set up trade routes and learned about each otherspeoples and cultures. When I was younger I found it allfascinating. I wanted so badly to live on Biaz so I couldexperience it all first hand.
“But then Ziazi rose to power. She ordered her highest General, Aiusiz to invade our world andenslave our people. It wasn’t long until a third race wasdiscovered, the Kults. Ziazi ordered a scout force to study themand determine if they are or would become a threat. The reportindicated that, while they don’t posses to technology to evenreach another planet in their own solar system, they may somedaybecome a great threat. Also, it indicated they would be better offruled by the Biaz. The Ziazi ordered an invasion of the Kult’sas well. The Kult’s however fought back, and are now nearlycompletely wipped out.
“Not to long ago, your planetwas discovered. Ziazi again ordered a scout force to study thepotential threat. I had just graduated with a degree in aliencultures. I asked if I could help the study. I was hoping to provethat all of you are not a threat, even though I’m sure what wefind here will have no effect on what the report actually says.”
“So you expect this Ziazi personto order an invasion of Earth soon?” Jennifer asked. Thiscould be very bad. How would Earth ever defend against an invasionlike that? Her thoughts drifted toward Myra and what kind of futureshe would have.
“I would expect that, yes. I’msorry, I really don’t think there is anything I can do. Theymostly just make me do translations. It was really difficultlearning English by the way. Why did you guys make it so hard?”Rogalia replied. Jennifer, completely lost in her own thoughts,ignored her question.
“Is there any way off thisship?” Jennifer asked at last.
“No. I mean there are shuttles,but neither of us would have access. It would be more likely toescape by jumping out of a door,” Rogalia replied. “Can’tyou get out the same way you got in?” Jennifer ignored herquestion again. Rogalia waited patiently for Jennifer to speakagain.
“I think you should explain thisship a bit better. What do you know about the layout, about thepeople in charge, and anything else you might think is important,”Jennifer said.
“I don’t think it’spossible to escape, even if they let you roam freely,” Rogaliareplied.
“Well that is only one way ofgetting back to Earth. The other way is to convince them to take usthere,” Jennifer said.
“Again I have to refer you tojumping out of the door and holding your breath on the way downplan,” Rogalia said.
“I’ll keep that one inmind. In the mean time, tell me more about this ship starting withwho is in charge,” Jennifer said. It seems Jennifer appearedin the middle of the night (ship time), meaning they had hoursbefore anyone would even check on Rogalia and find Jennifer.
The two girls used the time to go overevery personal Rogalia knew about, and every piece of the ship. Thecaptain it seems, like most of the scout ships, wasn’t thebest the Biaz had to offer. There were not any high rankingofficers within range of the fleet, leaving no real authorityfigure. There was a commander for sure, but again, not the bestcommander out there. It seems nobody cared about any level ofcompetence in this mission.
The ship itself was quite small. There were about 50 crew, all male. There was one large roomholding the other prisoners. Rogalia knew were the crew quarterswere, along with the engine room, bridge, shuttle bay, and messhall. She didn’t know where the armory was though, nor didshe know anything about the mechanics of how the ship worked. Shedid mention that much of the equipment didn’t work well,including the surveillance cameras. It is one of the many virtuesof having your ships built by essentially Velarian slaves.
The weapons the Biaz carried were verysimilar to Earth’s weapons. The Velarian’s are passiveby nature and therefore most of the weapons were of Biaz origin andnot as advanced. They were mostly projectile weapons. The shipitself carried some impressive laser based weapon systems, but thosewere just out of the experimental stage. Rogalia did speak of muchmore powerful ships that would be used, assuming an attack wasordered.
As the night went on, Jennifer beganto feel comfortable with Rogalia. She had a gentle nature. Shewondered if all Velarians were like Rogalia. Jennifer found herselfthinking it would have been nice if the Velarian’s had foundEarth instead of Biaz. However, the uncertainty of the morning whenthey would come for her was always on the back of her mind.
The night seemed to creep along. Thecloser it got the more nervous Jennifer got. Of course the morenervous she got the longer the morning seemed to take getting here. All in all it all worked out well.
After many hours the door opened. Both girls turned and stared at it, while holding their breath. Asoldier stood at the doorway. At first he didn’t seeJennifer. He started to say something in a strange tongue, butnoticed Jennifer half way through. The pair stared at each otherfor a full minute without saying a word.
The man was tall, a bit taller thanJennifer and much taller than Rogalia. He had a dark complexion, asif he was from Africa. He was very well built, with bigger musclesthan most body builders. Like Rogalia he looked very much human,except his eyes. He had yellow eyes (Rogalia’s eyes werebrown).
He wore a uniform. It was made fromthe same cloth as Rogalia’s clothes, but was white. The shirtwas pull over, but much more dressy than a t-shirt. The pants werealso white and barely covered white utility boots. At his side wasa gun of some sort. It almost looked like a normal pistol, exceptthe barrel and the handle were both round.
He spoke in his own language. Jennifer didn’t understand of course, but he seemed to berespectful. She just waited to see how he would react. She knew hewould understand who she was eventually.
“He wants to know if you are aqueen,” Rogalia said. “What should I tell him?”
Jennifer looked directly at the guardand said, “I’m not one of you.” He obviouslydidn’t understand, but did recognize the language. He pulledout his side arm and pointed it directly at her. For a moment shethought he was going to fire, and was slightly disappointed when hedidn’t. An end to this one way or another would be a relief.
He spoke again, but this time toRogalia. She answered back. The man stared at Jennifer again, asshe slowly lifted her arms. He and Rogalia conversed several moretimes. Presumably Rogalia was telling him how she just showed up inher room. He didn’t seem to believe her. I wouldn’teither thought Jennifer.
He stared at Jennifer again, clearlythinking what he should do. He motioned for her to get up, and tocome to him. He led her through the passages on the ship.
John stood by Michael pretending tolisten to a man explaining how he was abducted. Normally this wouldbe interesting stuff, but it was the same story as the last 10people he and Michael had asked. So far just him and Michaelsuddenly appeared on the ship. Everyone else were abducted on Earthand brought on board via a shuttle.
The man they were speaking too now wasdoubly boring. He was a preacher and kept interjecting praises forGod and condemnation for the Devil every couple of sentences. Hewas somewhat tall, about 6 feet or just a hair under. He had anoversized belly (he obviously liked his food). He was mostly baldwith hair growth just around his head, which was cut very short. Hewas clean-shaven and wore glasses.
“You said your name was Geraldright?” Michael said. He replied in the affirmative. “Doyou remember your way here from were the shuttle landed?”
“No not really,” hereplied.
“Can you tell me what you doremember?” Michael said. John drowned out the ramblings. John figured it didn’t matter. He and Michael appeared to betransported on board. If they can find out how, than they could allgo back home the same way. Nobody could really remember thedirections from the shuttle to this room anyways.
The room itself was a large openspace. There were no windows, cell bars, guards, or any color. Itwas just 4 metal walls a ceiling about 8 feet above them and onedoor that could not be opened from the inside. There was whatappeared to be a bathroom in one of the corners.
John himself appeared in theengineering room. He was captured shortly after, but managed tolook around a bit. Everything was in a strange language, that hedidn’t know, but he did manage to pick up some usefulinformation. For one he was aboard a space ship, which is inhabited by aliens. How cool is that? If he survives that is.
He also learned some things from theview screens. He couldn’t read the words, but he did see andunderstand some of the images. They were in low earth orbit at theequator. He saw other images he kind of recognized, but theydidn’t make any sense without knowing the text that were onthem. He didn’t, however, see anything that would explain howhe got there. Maybe someone beamed him to the wrong place byaccident?
He tried to talk it through withMichael, but he was more interested in getting back to the shuttleand flying it back to earth. It was a stupid plan. Certainly itwas locked down. You probably need a code to start it, which was atall order when you couldn’t speak the same language as thepeople that have the code. Even if it were a key card that could bestolen, the controls would certainly be in an undecipherablelanguage.
Michael didn’t say anythingabout where he appeared, which amazed John considering how much hedid talk. John only knew he wasn’t part of the rest of thisgroup because he began asking people if they just appeared on boardthe ship out of nowhere.
“We should talk to her next,”Michael said. John was startled a bit. When his attention waspulled from his own thoughts back into the room, he looked at whereMichael was indicating.
“Why? She is just a girl. Idoubt she could us much,” he replied. Michael looked at himas if he were the child.
“Have you been listening at all?She is the only woman here. From what everyone here said, theydidn’t take any women,” Michael said.
John considered this for a minute. “Maybe it is a coincidence. Maybe they didn’t avoidtaking any women, it just happened that way,” he replied.
Michael continued to stare at himdumbfounded. Finally he said, “Don’t be stupid. Letstalk to her,” and walked off. John followed him.
Myra sat with her legs to her face. As he approached, John could see she had been crying. Concernedwith their own fate, most of the people left her alone. When shesaw the two men approaching, she quickly tried to dry her eyes.
“Hello,” she said firstand did her best to force a smile.
“Hello,” Michael said. “My name’s Michael and this is John. Do you mind if Iask for your name?” He tried to force a smile too.
“Myra,” she replied. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.” She looked us bothin the eye.
“Do you mind telling us how yougot here? Where were you taken from?” Michael asked. It wasthe same set of questions, and John began to tune them out again.
“I just appeared here?”she replied. “I was talking to my mother one moment, and poofhere I am. Didn’t you come here the same way?” Thispeaked John’s interests. So there was another that justappeared here.
“Well most everyone else wereabducted and brought here by a shuttle of some kind,” Michaelreplied. John thought for a moment of what us 3 particular peoplehave in common, but came up blank. He was going to ask if anyoneelse could think of anything, but Michael spoke first, “Whereexactly did you appear?”
“In this room. What do you meaneveryone else was abducted? Why did a just appear here then?”she said.
Michael shifted his stance and lookedaway for a brief moment. “We don’t know. We don’tknow why anyone is here, or what they want with us,” he said.
“You said you were talking toyour mother. Do you know where she is now?” Michael asked.
“I don’t know,” Myrareplied. A look of worry crossed her face. “I think she isstill back home. You don’t think they took her someplace elsetoo do you?”
“I don’t know really,”Michael said. Myra looked down as if she was going to cry again.
“I don’t think so,”John said. “It’s possible she was taken aboard anothership, but since you were together when you were brought here, itmakes more sense she was either left behind or on board this ship. Or she is dead of course.”
“John!” Michael yelled outof shock.
“What? Oh, I’m sorry. I’m sure she is ok,” John said and tried to looksympathetic.
“What do we do now?” Myraasked.
“We find a way to the shuttleand get back home,” Michael said. “You can go back toyour mother. I’m sure she is very worried about you.” He forced a smile. John, of course, knew it was false hope, andwondered if he should say anything.
“Is that what you think too?”she asked directly to John. Startled, John took a moment to answer.
“No,” he said. “Evenif it is possible to start the shuttle, all the controls would be intheir language. It would be impossible to calculate the correcttrajectory.” He regretted dashing her hopes so quickly afterspeaking.
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