Charged - Book One (9 page)

“Light years…” Aaron mumbled in amazement. There was
fascination in his face as he stared at the creature.

“Aaron, you won’t find this amusing when twelve other
ships, much larger than this one, embedded in your glaciers and
mountains, blow twenty percent of the Earth’s crust off when we
leave. The device makes sure we all leave together,” it said.

The pleasantries were now over. It was walking
towards us with long swift strides. It was going to take the box
and possibly my arm with it. I didn’t want to shoot it; it was
unarmed. But if it touched me, I was going too.

Aaron quickly grabbed the box out of my hand and
tossed it at the creature, which caught it with ease. It then
turned around and left. Aaron and I just stood there. We exchanged
a glance, but said nothing. After what seemed like forever, the
vibrations stopped. Then the humming stopped altogether and we
could hear the metal doors opening beyond the garden. A loud thud
sounded with each door and grew fainter and fainter. I counted
thirteen possible doors.

“Put the gun away,” Aaron said. I looked at him in
disbelief that he was so calm. No one could be calm in this
situation. I lowered my arm, because there was nothing to aim at
for the moment, but I didn’t put the Magnum back in the holster. I
was going to chastise Aaron for his foolish idea that we were okay,
but a series of doors banged again somewhere in the distance. Then
the creature reappeared, moving slower and more gracefully towards
the center of the large dome, stopping ten feet from us.

“Thank you. Please follow me. You look tired and we
have living quarters here for your size,” it said.

The creature walked a few feet and then stopped. No,
we weren’t moving. We weren’t following anyone or anything.

“I don’t know how to make you feel more
comfortable.”

I still wasn’t moving. My feet had grown roots and I
wasn’t about to dig them up. I looked at Aaron and he shrugged his
shoulders at me and walked toward the creature.

“Damn,” I said, forcing my feet and legs to move. It
wasn’t like I could leave Aaron alone.

I followed Aaron, finding it impossible not to limp,
never taking my eyes off of the creature. He walked ahead of us
slowly. I gripped my gun tightly and nothing was going to take it
out of my hand.

First, we passed through a smaller garden with
several fountains. The walls were all encased in what appeared to
be a dark, shiny metal with overhead lighting. The low blue light
was identical to the light in the elevator and in the first large
garden. We followed him down three long hallways before he finally
stopped. He opened a door and led us into a room that reminded me
of a three-room hotel suite that I once stayed in.

“Lighting for humans,” he said, as he covered his
eyes.

But there wasn’t an actual light that turned on. It
was more like the entire ceiling emitted a bright yellow light.
Seeing him more clearly just made all of the muscles in my body
contract and I could feel the adrenaline pumping through me.

Behind the skin of his face and hands I could see the
spiral veins moving slowly. The circular things were moving in
various directions. It was almost as if its skin was only a thick
plastic mold holding a jelly-like being into a humanoid form. If it
weren’t for the eyes that were clearly attached to the skin, I
would have believed this to be true.

“You can get some rest here. It has everything you
need for the night,” it said, closing its eyes for a moment. “A
covert will get you in the morning. If you need anything, just
press the ‘call’ option on this screen and someone will come to
your suite and get you what you need,” he finished, pointing to the
wall next to the door.

I could’ve blown it away. I could’ve simply put the
revolver right up to its head and pulled the trigger, even though I
wasn’t sure if my gun would injure it. The only thing stopping me…
was that I couldn’t kill something that wasn’t trying to kill
me.

Then the creature started to slouch, as if the light
in the room was affecting him.

“This is a liquid anesthetic,” it said, retrieving a
small glass bottle out of its suit pocket. It wasn’t that the
bottle was small; it’s just that its hands were enormous and
would’ve miniaturized anything they touched. Its five fingers and
two thumbs gripped the bottle lightly.

“Apply it to your knee with a towel,” it said,
handing me the bottle with the clear liquid in it, “and it will
keep the pain away until Jessica can fix it in the morning.”

Not really caring who or what Jessica was, with a
trembling hand I reached for the bottle. As I grabbed the base of
it, trying not to touch the creature, I noticed five of its fingers
had one more joint than the human hand. It then turned and left the
room. And the feeling of being miniaturized, dwarfed and
insignificant lingered.

After he left, Aaron and I just stood there for a
moment. Slowly, I limped over to a chair next to a table and
started to wonder if I was actually here, or if I was in some
mental hospital and it was just my brain creating some delusional
world from some traumatic injury.

Aaron paced a little in front of me, “denial, fear,
acceptance… where you at?”

“Denial.”

THIS WASN’T HAPPENING. This couldn’t be happening. I
placed the gun on the table next to me and wiped my sweaty palm on
my jeans.

“I knew it,” Aaron said, confidently.

“You knew what?” My tone indicated I wasn’t fully
present. All I could see in my head was that thing, that monstrous
thing with giant hands. There was no way that was an experiment and
I almost couldn’t say the word in my head. Its slit-like eyes
resembled every sci-fi book cover I read as a kid. Just say it! I
thought. I closed my eyes for a moment.
Alien
. My breathing
was shallow and I started to feel nauseous.

“I knew it was something else, something unusual and
I knew it was here. See, I had a theory about the box. How does
something glow without power? Well, it has to be alive. That was
the only logical explanation.”

Of course, he did not share this theory with me until
now.

“I hate to bust your balls, Aaron, but we’re dead
men.”

He totally ignored my comment and he actually looked
excited.

“This is too good to be true!” he said, snatching the
bottle from my hand and now I was disturbed by his excitement. This
wasn’t the Aaron I knew. Aaron was analytical. He wasn’t processing
the situation. It was almost like he was basking in it. I let a
scowl slide over my face. But then I realized this
was
what
he was expecting. This was what he was hoping to find.

“Are you kidding me!” I said, rubbing my forehead.
“There are only a few reasons why they would even be here! And they
are hiding underground from us. I don’t think they’re friendly, or
they wouldn’t be hiding from us! Why don’t they make themselves
known to the human race? They are sitting down here, watching us,
waiting for the right time. And in case you had forgotten, Richie
still has his head sliced open. Who do you think did that?” I was
shocked at Aaron, glaring at him as he paced back and forth.

“You’re a cop. It’s in your nature to be suspicious
of everything and go ahead and do that, but it’s not changing how I
feel about it.”

Now he was just pissing me off, but I was in too much
pain to argue. I needed him to be rational now, methodical. I
wasn’t anticipating this. I had no plan and it just made it worse
that Aaron was oblivious to our capture. I would have to be on
guard for the both of us for now. What was I thinking bringing a
kid down here with me? But it only took a second for me to remember
— he dragged me down here.

“Lew, think of it this way. Everything we saw in that
garden, if you want to call it a garden, is bioluminescent.”

I shook my head lightly while closing my eyes,
thinking I could just shake the image of the creature right out of
my head. To Aaron, this meant I didn’t understand and he
continued.

“It’s cold light. Everything in that garden creates
its own light. Just like the wires in the box, like the eyes of
that creature we just saw. Most of the species we have on Earth
that are like this are aquatic and live so deep in the ocean that
they had to create their own light via millions of years of
evolution. Like jellyfish, squids, certain clams, krill… but on
land, there’s fireflies, mushrooms, fungi and that’s about it.
Nothing like what we just saw, nothing like a whole garden of
bioluminescent plant life. Don’t have tunnel vision right now; open
your mind. Imagine the possibilities of new chemicals, new elements
and a non-carbon-based entity. There are ninety-eight chemical
elements that occur naturally on Earth; the rest are synthetic. So
the only thing that’s going to make that list expand is us bashing
them together in a particle accelerator praying they stick or
finding extraterrestrial life.”

Okay, now I wasn’t following him. I partially heard
what Aaron was saying, but I couldn’t think beyond our own
confinement. Even if this thing didn’t kill us, it wasn’t going to
let us leave. So apparently we were trapped and Aaron couldn’t be
happier. And I knew that nothing I said would change his mind. I
was exhausted and finally looked at Aaron.

“You’re enjoying this a little too much.”

“It’s a mere difference of stress management. Why
don’t you use this? You look like you’re in a lot of pain,” he
said, handing me the glass bottle.

“Are you nuts? God only knows what that is!”

He grabbed the bottle and a towel from the tiny
bathroom, poured some of the liquid on it and then applied it to
his wrist.

“You are a moron,” I said, truly believing his hand
would shrivel up and fall off.

“If they wanted us dead, we would be,” he said.

“I’m not so worried about a quick death. I think I’m
more worried about mind control, probing and just basically being
dissected.”

“That’s not logical. If they wanted to dissect us,
they probably already did that thousands of years ago. The ancient
Pueblo people that lived in this canyon said they saw monstrous
spirits with glowing eyes that came up from out of nowhere in the
canyon.”

I was trying to listen to him, but the pain in my
knee shuddered through my body and I let out a low groan as I
rubbed my forehead.

“Just use this,” he said, handing me the towel after
he poured more of the liquid on it. “I hurt my wrist when we hit
the ground, trying not to land on you and now it doesn’t hurt at
all.”

All of my instincts said not to use it, but my leg
felt like it was partially blown off for the second time. They
could’ve taken the box from us any time if they really wanted.
Something told me that they, or it was trying to be civilized. So
anything was possible at this juncture and I wouldn’t let my fear
control my actions.

I rolled up my left pant leg and put the towel on my
swollen, purple knee. The knee looked bad, like something had
shifted out of place under the muscles.

“Damn! Why didn’t you say something earlier? That
looks pretty bad.”

“I did, but you were too excited about blowing up
Mars,” I grunted back at him.

It wasn’t more than a few seconds before the pain had
completely stopped. This was unbelievable. All of my contracted
muscles started to relax and I could feel my blood pressure slowly
dropping.

As I sat back, I started to take in my surroundings.
The room just looked wrong. It was a sad attempt really. The steel
walls and floors just didn’t blend with the furniture. It felt like
we were inside a tin can. The back wall was curved and there was a
blue beam of light that ran down it slowly from top to bottom. It
almost looked electrified and I could only guess at its
purpose.

But the small kitchen area did have a full-size
fridge and Aaron grabbed some ice cubes from the freezer section
and put a handful of cubes in a kitchen towel hanging from the
sink. After wetting it down a little, he handed it to me.
Carefully, I propped up my leg on the chair across from me and
balanced the towel on it.

“You will let Jessica treat you in the morning!”

For a moment, he almost seemed enraged at my actions.
This was a crazy thought. There was no way I was going to let some
alien mess with my knee, but what were my choices really? I could
always go back to Seattle and deal with the FBI and some felony
charges. Nope, not a lot of choices. I was too drained to argue
about it. He seemed too relaxed a little and that look of amazement
reappeared on his face.

“Did you see the way the light in this room affected
him?”

“Yeah, do you think this room is bugged?”

“Most definitely,” he said.

Aaron then checked the door. “It’s locked.”

“Of course, it’s locked. Like they’re just going to
let you roam around the place, take a few pictures, upload them on
YouTube.” My sarcasm was evident to him now. He checked his phone
and I could tell he was not getting any signal down here and then
he checked mine; same thing. This didn’t seem to alarm him.

“Lew, you didn’t really think we were the only ones
in the universe did you? Out of all the galaxies, star systems,
it’s really just us? This is a chance of a lifetime,” he said,
looking at me like he expected more of me.

That last time he said this, he shoved me out of a
plane. So calmly, I responded, “then why does it feel like it’s the
last
opportunity of my lifetime?”

“Like most, you fear the unknown,” he responded.

“And what happens when we find out that humans are
their food?” I put this question out there because it was a
possibility.

“Some of the bioluminescent creatures we have on
Earth don’t eat meat.”

It was kind of eerie the way he used the word,
“some,” instead of most.