Charged - Book One (21 page)

I couldn’t tell what was real anymore. I was fading
in and out of reality. One second, I could see I was still in the
main hall. I could see all the vapors moving around my face and my
chest, but the next second, I’m in a great temple, speaking an
archaic language to an Egyptian queen. Then, I heard a familiar
voice. It was Kye.

“No, no! Danel, separate them!” Then there were
footsteps running toward me in the main hall. I could feel hands on
my hand, pulling me free from Ben. And everything went black. I
could hear muffled sounds of gunfire in the back of the ship. It
seemed so far away. It had to be Station Ten. Then a bright orange
light seemed to penetrate my eyelids and I forced them to open.

“Lewis, can you hear me?” Kye hovered over my face
and her hands were on my head, but I couldn’t respond.

I was fighting to stay conscious, struggling to stay
in the present.

“I didn’t think Ben would do this. He knows it kills
them. He knows their bodies can’t take it.” Danel now peered into
my eyes. There was almost compassion in Danel’s voice.

“Maybe he only touched him for a second?” Kye
said.

“He’d be responsive by now.”

I stared into Kye’s eyes. I wanted to touch her
beautiful face, her full lips. And as if she was reading my mind,
she stroked the side of my face with her fingers. Danel got up and
started checking if anyone else was alive.

A fierce pain swept through my entire body and I
closed my eyes and my mind fell into blackness.

A DEEP AGONIZING PAIN WOKE ME. I tried to open my
eyes but couldn’t. There was another moan and a stabbing pain in my
bones and muscles. I could feel myself again. I could feel my body
shudder with each new wave of pain as my body tried to stretch and
push itself out to compensate for something that shouldn’t be
there. I must be dying.

I could hear people talking around me. I could hear
voices, but the pain was so intense I couldn’t understand their
words. The images came again, forcing me to see, forcing me to
remember memories that were not mine.

I saw their arrival as they landed on Earth. I saw
the relief in their eyes to find a planet with an atmosphere
similar to their own and their curiosity at their foreign
surroundings. And then the blinding sun came up over the horizon. I
saw Ben later discover us; the frail ones, he would call us. We
were barbarians speaking a crude language and we were violent and
dirty. Then, pictures of aliens swept through my mind. I knew their
names. Alma was his life mate and she was pregnant with Aeyan. And
others were beside me, I mean Ben, on our arrival. Darius was the
oldest still alive, an ancient one. They watched humans for many
years. They watched as we became more and more organized,
civilized. Then, the aliens slowly emerged topside in the darkness
and introduced themselves in a perfect tongue native to the
humans.

Another wave of pain raced across my body. I could
feel myself shudder under it and more images roared through my
mind. As time passed, a large group of Tanjennians were captured
and restrained and some were dissected. The group included Danel
and Ben. They were tortured by the same humans that they trusted.
Several humans rebelled and set them free and when they did, Danel
and Ben killed every human in that village — even the children. I
could feel Ben’s pain for the loss of his brothers, his son Makias,
who had made the trip to Earth with him. I could feel his rage and
his sorrow as he killed the humans.

Then, they stayed underground for years upon years. I
tried to stop the images, to only think of Kye or Aaron, but they
just kept coming, roaring through my mind. There were images of
genetic experiments for reproductive purposes. I only saw a human
every hundred years or so. There was a dark skinned man in tribal
clothes and then there was a pale woman in white Roman robes
exchanging information with them. Then I saw sickness plague the
female aliens and I watched them die, one after another and then
all experiments stopped for a while. 

I wanted all of this to stop. I needed it to stop
before I completely lost my mind. I needed to close my mind’s eye.
But nothing halted it, just more images and more voices from the
past, from Ben’s past. It felt like it had been days, or even
weeks, that had passed and I thought I would die from sheer
insanity. I knew I could open my eyes, but I saw nothing beyond the
images. I still couldn’t move and I felt each labored breath I drew
in. Each one felt draining and each moment in between them seemed
more uneven. After what seemed like an eternity, it finally
stopped. The images just stopped altogether and finally there was
darkness.

WHEN I WOKE UP, I thought we were still under attack
for a moment. There was a blinding light over me and I strained
trying to hear Kye’s voice, Danel’s voice, anything familiar. I
knew I was alive because of the pain radiating through my body. I
tried to lift my hand over my eyes to shade them from the light,
but I was so weak that I could only hold it up for a moment and a
panic rose in me. Then I heard the soft murmur of Kye’s voice, then
Aaron’s and there was the sound of footsteps drawing closer to
me.

“Lewis, try to stay conscious,” Kye said, “I’ll dim
the lights.”

Kye was here with me. Just this thought calmed me.
Her voice was mesmerizing and my head swam with memories of her.
Quickly, I realized that these were not my thoughts. I didn’t know
Kye fifty years ago. I tried to push them aside and focus on her
presence. When the lights dimmed, I could finally see my
surroundings. Kye was on my right side, Aaron was on my left and
Danel and Collin were at the foot of the bed. I could feel the warm
blanket over me and I knew I was completely naked under it and I
didn’t know why and I didn’t care. I felt weak and it was hard to
focus and my emotions were so intense I thought I would start
screaming.

I looked at Danel and Collin at the foot of the bed
and I felt something for both of them. I felt a fatherly love for
Collin, almost a relief in seeing him again. And for Danel, I
should have felt anger, but I didn’t. I felt concern for my
brother. I understood their expressions perfectly, as if I’d looked
into their eyes a million times.

Yet Aaron looked different from the others. Staring
at me nervously, he was scared and concerned, not excited.

“I knew you’d be fine,” Kye whispered, leaning over
me, her long hair brushing the side of my face as she stared into
my eyes.

I pushed the emotions down and was now engulfed in
the smell of her hair. There were light hints of lavender and
lilac. She seemed very pleased, as if she knew something that I
didn’t.

“How do you feel?” Aaron said, his eyes now growing
wider, still not smiling.

“I don’t understand. Was I injured? I’m in a lot of
pain.”

There was a slight pause from everyone.

“Oh, bro, you’ve been through a lot more than you
know,” his face still lacking that sign of relief I was looking
for.

Now I was getting worried.

“What do you remember?” Kye asked.

So many things ran through my head that all I could
do was answer with questions.

“Did Station Ten arrive? How many did we lose in the
main hall? Are we still on Earth? Is Ben dead? Why did you say they
wanted the ship?” I pointed the last question to Danel.

I was starting to remember Ben’s memories and all the
lies I was told by Danel. I noticed their expressions had changed.
Not only did I succeed in confusing Kye and Aaron, but Collin too.
And Danel only sighed.

Danel slowly moved toward the side of the bed where
Kye was. He was no longer intimidating, even in my weakened state.
There was a long pause. All eyes were on Danel now instead of me.
He looked completely different to me. Not so alien, not so
terrifying. The ever-so-slight slump of his shoulders I wouldn’t
have noticed before. The small rise in his forehead as he closed
his eyes was non-threatening. He didn’t look sad; he looked
humbled. And I felt for him. He was my friend; my dearest, closest
friend. I knew these were not my emotions, they were Ben’s, but I
couldn’t stop myself from feeling them. Finally, he spoke.

“Yes, we are still on Earth. Station Ten arrived a
little later than we hoped. Ben is dead; we lost ten in the main
hall and the rest can be answered by your own memories in
time.”

Everything he said was honest and I believed the
memories would answer the rest, but they weren’t mine. My head
started swimming again and I physically trembled. They were so
real, for a brief second I wasn’t in the room anymore. I was
escaping the humans with Danel, running as fast as I could, knowing
he was running right beside me as I carried my dead son in my arms.
I shook my head again and I was back in the room. Kye was there.
Everyone was still there.

“Just rest for now. Collin will give you something
for the pain.”

But I couldn’t relax. Aaron’s expression hid nothing
and something was clearly wrong with me. Suddenly the pain
overwhelmed me and shot through my bones as if they were broken. It
was as if all of them were broken and all my muscles torn and I
yelled through my gritted teeth and focused on Aaron.

“Do I want to know?” I grunted through the pain. I
was too afraid to look at my body and find something crushed or
missing.

“You’ll be okay” was what he said, but nothing in his
face backed the statement. There was no underlying belief in his
words. This only made not knowing even worse.

“You need to rest. You have… absorbed Ben.” Kye’s
voice faded out as my body violently shuddered with more pain.

“I thought he was dead?” I managed to mutter.

“We have the ability to leave behind our knowledge
and feelings. It will pass.”

“Collin is going to give you something now. We just
needed to know that your neural pathways were still intact.”

Her voice faded out again as a new wave of memories
and feelings flashed through my mind. I closed my eyes and tried to
shake them out, making my mind a blank slate. After a few seconds,
I could see again, but Collin was already injecting my IV with
something. I knew it was a painkiller. I started to feel sleepy as
the pain subsided. So I lifted my hand and stared at it, because
somehow I knew it would answer my questions. My veins were glowing
purple and my skin was translucent and then all went black.

WHEN I WOKE AGAIN, I hoped and prayed it was all a
dream. But you can’t convince yourself of that when an alien is
looking you in the face.

Collin was there, smiling at me and the severe pain
was gone. I noticed my feet were hanging off the bed by at least
twenty inches. I pulled down the sheet over my abdomen and noticed
all of my body was a translucent grey color. My veins had spun
themselves into light-purple distorted circles, moving and glowing
under my skin. I pressed on them and they faded for a second then
slowly reappeared at the surface of my skin continuing to rotate. I
wasn’t human anymore.

“Try to move slowly. It will take some getting used
to.”

I said nothing as I slowly swung my legs over the bed
and sat up. Every part of my body was sore and ached intensely with
every movement. There were no memories from Ben. I tried to stand,
but found it a little difficult, as my balance seemed off. When I
got some control over my very sore muscles, I stood up and I was
certain I would vomit. I felt sick and disoriented.

“We’ve never seen this before,” Collin said.

It was just him and me in the room. I felt a great
desire to hug him, to tell him how proud I was of him. I quickly
shoved this feeling down, knowing it was not my own. Ben was still
with me.

Something was different besides the obvious. I was
looking Collin in the eyes, instead of up at him. I looked down at
my body and it seemed to still be human-like, just larger. I
wondered if my eyes were alien now. I no longer had any IVs
attached to me and was dressed only in a pair of large surgical
scrubs. I noticed a mirror in the back of the room above a sink and
walked towards it, feeling every throbbing muscle with every step.
Collin watched my clumsy movements. I had to duck under two
overhead lights and my head was very near the ceiling. When I got
to the mirror, I realized I was larger and taller than Collin was
and had to bend down a little to look at my face.

When I saw myself, I now understood the last
expression I saw from Aaron. My eyes, thank god, hadn’t changed
into glowing slits and it was like twenty years had been removed.
There were no lines, no age spots and my eyes glowed blue, with no
pupils to be found. I looked at my hands, but I hadn’t grown any
extra digits like the others. My hair was now thicker and softer,
glowing blue like my eyes — almost like very thin fiber optics —but
it still felt like my hair. I looked at the rest of my body. My
muscles seemed larger and my belly button was gone, but what about
the rest of me? A new panic rushed through me as I stripped off my
pants to make sure I still had all of my parts. With every moment
came another twinge of pain in my muscles. With a huge rush of
relief, I was still male and everything was accounted for, just
larger. I would’ve smiled, but I became acutely aware that Collin
was staring at me. I quickly put the scrub pants back on, almost
falling over in the process and turned and faced Collin.

“Never seen what before?”

“No human has ever survived a merge with a dying
elder before… no one,” Collin replied.

I contemplated his statement carefully, checking to
see if all of Ben’s memories were still there. They were and it
felt like an enormous amount of information, like my brain had
become a database. I could access them, but they no longer raced
over me. They were all muddled together, hundreds of scattered
images and I couldn’t make sense of them. I would need to take time
to review them again now that I wasn’t in great pain. It was a
little easier than I thought it would be to just not think of Ben
and all his stuff in my head.