Jennifer went to talk to Michael next. She was stopped by several people along the way, as they asked questions or offered suggestions. John stopped paying attention. He tried to think of ways out of this mess, but his mind kept bringing him back to Rogalia and what she was going to do with or to him. He shook his head clean of thoughts and concentrated on coming up with questions to ask her.
It wasn't too much longer when his thoughts were interrupted by the door opening. Myra walked in and looked around. When she found what she was looking for, she ran to her mother and gave her a hug. John found it amusing how she had to fight her way through a crowd. It seems Jennifer was quite popular with everyone except Michael and a couple of others. They were on the other side of the room.
The guard that followed Myra into the room grabbed John and pulled him towards the door. John wasn't paying attention and he nearly fell, catching himself just in time. The guard continued to push him towards the door. John got the picture and got a bit ahead of the guard, just out of arms reach. When he reached the door, where the other guard stood, he indicated towards john to walk in front of him down the corridor.
The corridor itself was bland. It was metal with no decorations. It was almost completely square. There were steal beams running horizontally on the top. The ground was made of some kind of metal mesh. The walls were metal, some kind of steal. Every so often there were panels that looked like they could be opened. Occasionally John would run across a door with a sign written in a language he didn't recognize.
He reached the end of the corridor and stopped. He looked in both directions. Both had soldiers were guarding a latter at each end of the corridor. These soldiers had rifles, along with their side arms. I guess Michael was right after all. There is no way they could have gotten past these guards, at least not before even more showed up.
Not knowing which way to go, left or right, he waited for the guards to either point the way or take the lead. Instead they shoved him to the right. John fell, barely bracing himself against the hard floor. The guards laughed. John took his time getting up. The closest one picked him up and almost threw him forward. John fell again, but not quite as hard this time. John quickly rose to his feet this time, not wanting to be shoved again.
He then reached the latter, which only went up. Rather then wait to see if the guards behind him were strong enough to throw him up that high (they were rather big), he began to climb. The soldiers with the rifles didn't move or speak as he did passed between them. When he reached the top, he almost ran for it. He could possibly get away if the guards decided not to shoot him. He then noticed another set of guards near the end of the corridor. He decided now would not be the time to chance it. The guard shoved him forward again, but not hard enough to knock John over. The shove was in the direction of the other set of guards, so John started walking in that direction.
When he reached the new set of guards, he noticed they were guarding a door. The worst things shot through John's mind. Is there a torture chamber behind the door? Is it an air lock? Is it where they perform experiments? Oh, God are they going to dissect me? He tried to tell himself they were just going to ask him questions, but his mind kept going back to that poor kid they took. Nobody seen him sense, and this ship obviously isn't that big. Where did he go?
His hands began to shake with fear. His escorts seemed to take forever to open the door. The soldiers stationed at the door seemed to be enjoying his agony. John could have sworn they were smiling, and taunting him with their eyes. John was convinced he would never make it out of that room alive, and suddenly he didn’t want the door to open at all. He would have given them anything to continue taunting him instead of opening the door. As if the door could read his mind, it opened.
On the other side stood the most gorgeous woman he had ever seen. He stared at her dumbfounded. His fear didn’t go away, but morphed into something else. She smiled at him, but didn’t say anything.
He opened his mouth to say something, but one of the soldiers behind him shoved him through the door. The shove surprised him and he fell forward directly into the arms of the woman. She fell backward and he landed on top of her.
“I’m um, uh…” he started to say, but was interrupted by one of the soldiers throwing him aside. The soldier was dressed differently. His uniform was the same basic style, but colored yellow. He also had silver medals on his chest. It occurred to John that this man must be the captain.
The captain yelled at John in a language that made no sense to him. Rogalia said something to the captain, but he wasn’t paying attention. The captain kicked John in the stomach. The pain caused John to instinctively curl in the fetus position. Rogalia jumped between the captain and him. She again said something to the captain, obviously trying to calm him down. The captain relented and went to sit back in his chair.
The captain said something, this time to Rogalia. Rogalia then translated, “The captain is going ask you questions. He asks that you answer them truthfully, or you will be killed. He also wants you to know that the guards will be standing right outside the door, and are ordered to kill you if you try to escape.”
“If he tells me the best way to escape, I’ll be sure not to do that,” John said.
Rogalia turned to translate. “Wait!” John said. “Don’t really tell him that!”
Rogalia smiled. “Don’t worry. I won’t.” She said something to the captain. He didn’t seem upset at her words, to John’s relief. The captain then said something else, apparently a question.
“Your John, aren’t you?” Rogalia asked. “Jennifer spoke about you.”
John considered for a moment. It didn’t seem like a question the captain would ask. “Yes,” John replied. “What did he ask?”
“Don’t worry about it. Nothing important,” she said. She then said something to the captain. He seemed satisfied with what ever she said, as if he expected the answer. He then asked another question.
“He wants to know where did you first appeared,” Rogalia said. She waited for an answer.
“On the bridge,” John replied. Rogalia translated for the captain. He immediately asked another question.
“He wants to know what you saw before you were captured,” she translated.
“Nothing. I mean I saw them perform some kind of engine burn, but I couldn’t read the console, so I don’t know any details,” John replied. Rogalia considered this for a minute. She then translated what he said, and the captain then asked another question.
“He wants to know where you were before you came on board,” Rogalia again translated. “Don’t worry, I think we are done with the questions I can’t answer myself,” she then added.
“I was in my apartment,” he said. “I was eating one minute and then aboard this ship the next.” He looked at the captain, and then back to Rogalia. “Tell him we mean him no harm. That we pose no threat to his world or his people.”
Rogalia gave him a quick smile. John knew that isn’t what she was going to say. She told the captain something that seemed to satisfy him. The captain stared at John, sizing him up. John almost quivered under his gaze. John looked to Rogalia, who was looking at the captain waiting for the next question.
The captain, deciding on what to ask next, said something to Rogalia.
“Jennifer said you could get us off this ship and to Earth,” she said. “Can you really do that?” Obviously it wasn’t a question from the captain.
“I don’t know,” he replied and looked down. He didn’t want to see the disappointment on her face. “The truth is anything we do will likely kill us.” He looked up. She was indeed disappointed. “I’m willing to try though, if you’re willing to help.” She smiled. John smiled back.
She told the captain something. John wondered how good of a liar she was. She seemed to have this captain under her thumb that is for sure. She must be very bright to be capable of fooling him this well. John wondered if she went to the equivalent of an Ivy League school on her planet.
“Jennifer told you about spending time in my room tonight right?” she asked, again ignoring the captain’s actual question.
“Yes,” John replied. He looked her in the eyes. “What is that about by the way? How did you talk them into letting me go to your room and be alone with you?”
She smiled, but couldn’t answer until she gave the captain his answer. The captain leaned back in his chair, and studied John carefully. John wished he knew what question he had asked, and, more importantly, how Rogalia answered it.
Finally, he asked another question, which gave Rogalia an excuse to talk. “Jennifer said it was best left a surprise. I think you will find it pleasurable though,” she said. John raised an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything. “You have to say something now,” she said.
“Oh, right. What should I say? Um, well, uh…you’re very beautiful,” he said. She gave him a big smile.
The captain continued the interrogations, but Rogalia didn’t translate any of his questions. Instead she asked her own, such as how did John plan on getting off the ship, and where were they going to go once they were on Earth. She also asked about Jennifer, who she was, and if he trusted her.
John didn’t ask too many questions. The conversation had to appear as though Rogalia was asking the questions and John was answering, which made questions for John awkward. He preferred to save is questions for later. He couldn’t find a way of asking the important questions without giving their secret conversation away.
As the interrogation went on, the captain began to get more and more violent. Obviously he was no longer pleased with the answers Rogalia was giving him. It was to be expected though. Nobody knew the real answers, least of all John. The fiction Rogalia was giving him was probably closer to the truth than John’s reality.
None of that made the conversation any more pleasant for John when the captain started yelling at him inches from his face and then hitting him repeatedly. At one point he took out his side arm and threatened to shoot him. Rogalia assured him it was a bluff, but the look of worry on her face didn’t instill confidence in John.
Finally the interrogation was over and he guards outside escorted John back to the cell with the rest of the prisoners. They shoved him through the door while one looked for the next person on his list, Michael. Finding his target he marched directly towards him.
Michael turned towards Gerald so his back was to the guard marching towards him. He acted like he didn’t see the guard, but he obviously did. The guard grabbed him and pulled him towards the door. Michael went without putting up a fight.
When the door closed, Jennifer rushed towards Gerald. John and many others joined her. Most everyone else beat him to it. When he arrived there everyone was staring at something Gerald had in his hand, presumably passed to him from Michael. John worked his way through the crowd so he could get a peak. It was one of their side arms.
“Maybe I should hold on to it. They already came for me. It not likely they will catch me with it,” Jennifer said. Gerald hesitated.
“She has a point. It might be best if she hold it for now just in case,” an older gentleman with gray hair and glasses said. “Go on give it to her. Michael can get it back when he returns. Isn’t that right miss?”
“Yes. I’ll give it to Michael before it comes time to use it,” she said holding out her hand. “He is after all the only trained military officer. Until then we have to keep it safe. It may be our only way out of here.”
He hesitantly handed it over. She tucked it under her shirt where it was unlikely to be noticed. She then peered around the room. Everyone looked at her as if she had all the answers, and they expected her to tell them the plan of escape.
“With a gun we can kidnap one of them and force them to take us back to Earth,” Joe said from the back. Murmurs of agreement rang through the crowd.
“That won’t work. We have no way of knowing who is trained as a pilot. They can’t all fly the shuttles can they? We also have no way of telling them that is what we want.” said a young Chinese man next to the older gentleman.
“How can you be sure? I say we try. It beats sitting around here and waiting for them to take us,” said someone from the crowd that John couldn’t see.
“Yea! Not everyone comes back with only a few bruises like him,” Joe said indicating towards John. “Where is the kid? Where is Jack?”
“Guys, we have to stay calm and think things through or we will never get out of here,” Jennifer said.
“Why should we listen to you? What have you done to get us out of here?” Joe screamed. “I say we take the gun and take our chances, or do you have a better plan?”
“I’m working on it,” she said.
“Working on it!?” Joe yelled again. There were murmurs of agreement in the crowd, along with “Ha!” from those that took Jennifer’s side.
“Shut up!” Myra yelled. “Turning on each other now is almost certain death. Look around you. All of us have something to offer, some piece of knowledge or skill. We have to trust each other. We need each other to get out of this. You have to listen to my mother. She knows what she is doing.” Myra’s words pacified the crowd fell silent, although Joe was still fuming.
“The shuttle is a dead end. Anyone who tried to pilot it without know how would almost certainly crash it and die. Our best bet is to some how take over this ship and try to land it. We are more likely to survive if it crashes,” the Chinese man said. John tried to remember his name, but couldn’t.
“It’s late. I think we all should try to get some sleep,” Jennifer said. Everyone seemed to agree as they began breaking up and trying to find room to lay down.
John walked up to the Chinese man, and said “Hey. I think your right about this ship. If it is capable of faster than light travel, then it must have an inertial dampener on it somewhere. We may just survive if we crash the ship.”
“That is what I figured,” he replied. “What is your name again?”
“John. What was your name again?” John asked.
“Yanfang, and this here is one of my professors, Charles,” he replied.
John shook Charles’ hand, and then turned back to Yanfang. “I’m sorry, your name is Yungfen?” he asked.
Yanfang gave a chuckle. “No, its Yang…fang” he said.
“YunFung?”
“No! Yang…fang,” he said irritably
“Yenfan?”
“No! Yanfang, Yanfang. Why is it so hard for you Americans to pronounce our names?” he screamed.
“YungFeng?”
“Just call me Ken,” he said defeated. He sighed and then asked, “Do you know of a way to de-orbit this ship?”
“No not really. I mean I saw them make a course correction. I think I can duplicate that, but that, of course is very different than a de-orbit,” he replied. “Still, if Rogalia can help me with the translations, then we may have a chance.”
“Rogalia?” Yanfang asked.
“Yes, she is some other alien. She apparently has agreed to help us,” John answered. “I’m suppose to meet with her tonight. She arranged it.”
Yanfang gave him a look of surprise. “Are you sure we can trust her? I mean is she one of them?”
“I don’t know,” John said. He considered the question. “I suppose we can either trust her and possibly escape, or not trust her and definitely not escape. Speaking of which, are you a science or engineering major or something?”
“Yes. I’m a grad student studying propulsion systems,” he said. “That is a good guess.”
“Good. We should get started on the math. We don’t want to be doing it during the heat of the moment. Lets see if anyone has any pen and paper,” John said.
“I believe Charles has some. He is a math professor. I’m sure he would be willing to help, and would probably be more useful than me,” Yanfang said.
The professor was more than willing to help. He started by producing a pen and a stack of papers. The trio sat down and started to work. Much of it was based on assumptions and guesswork, but that couldn’t be helped.
After a while Michael was returned to the room. He too had a few bruises, more than John in fact. He immediately sat next to Gerald. A few minutes later John caught them with their heads bowed and praying. He didn’t ask for the gun back, even though Gerald certainly told him who had it. I guess he agreed that it was safest in Jennifer’s hands for now.
The work John was doing was easier than he expected. The answers came to him much faster than they ever had before. It was peculiar, but John shrugged it off. The others were impressed how quickly John figured out the answer.
About half way through their work, the door opened again and a guard stepped through. This time though he was followed by Rogalia. Rogalia scanned the room and found John. She than looked around the room a second time. Sighing she pointed to John, and said something to the guard. The guard came over and led John out the door. He didn’t push as much as the last group of guards did, but then again John was much more willing to go than the last time.
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