Mindlink (9 page)

Freddy raised an eyebrow, but everyone else ignored her. No one
appreciated her humor.

Natalie recrossed her arms and shivered. “I don’t understand.
You guys were all on the list. We weren’t.” She nodded at Ashley—a wasted
gesture since the men were still blind. “Why didn’t they want you either? And
where are the others?”

Sid shrugged. “I didn’t know what happened to anyone until now.
First the aliens are whisking people off and next thing I know, I’m being held
captive on a table with instruments coming at me. What did you mean ‘we’ weren’t
on the list? Dr. Jonsson is the second astronautics engineer they
requested.”

“Uh, no I’m not.” At least he’d given her a good lead in so she
didn’t have to say
Hey
,
by
the
way
... She’d never been so glad to shed a role and
be Ashley V again. “I paid Dr. Khan to let me take her place. I’m an actress. A
good one, until you get me around a mind reader.”

The joke fell flat, like the one about the Rosetta Stone. When
would she learn to keep her mouth shut unless she had a script in her hand?

Dr. Glasses gaped. “You’re just an actress? Not a
scientist?”

“I’m not
just
an actress. I’m
Ashley V.” Nothing. No flashes of awe or recognition. No nervous half smiles.
Did these people not even
glance
at the magazine
rack in the grocery store checkout line?

“Why did you replace Dr. Kahn if you’re not a real scientist?”
Sid asked, confusion knitting his thick brows into one straight line.

“Long story.” One nobody here would appreciate. “If it helps,
I’m sorry I did it.”

“So that’s what happened to your Swedish accent.” Freddy tsked.
“You starred in that movie where the animals talked.”

Figured he’d remember her from a film she’d done twelve years
ago. “Yeah. That was me. I’ve done quite a few more since then.”

“You were arrested recently, right?” Freddy, whose vision had
obviously returned, did a slow, assessing sweep from head to toe. Oh, so he was
one of those types, who went for bad girls in a big way. She smothered a sigh.
She wasn’t a bad girl, not really. Sometimes she made stupid decisions through
some compulsion she’d yet to figure out.

“An actress who was recently arrested? No wonder they threw you
in here.” Dr. Glasses flicked a derisive hand in Natalie’s direction. “I’m
surprised the aliens bothered with you.”

Natalie shriveled under the doctor’s spiteful tone and she was
already half-wasted away. They were all human here and bullying wasn’t going to
fly.

“Hey, we ended up in the same place,” Ashley reminded him,
miffed. “Why did they dump you in alien jail if you’re so smart, Doctor?”

He glared at her forehead, his blinded eyes unfocused. “I am a
prize-winning geneticist, to little positive reception. They wanted someone with
a background in a different discipline. I haven’t studied the human genome since
university. The list should have been more specific.”

Without a lot of fanfare, Sam inched closer to the opening of
his cell, interested in the conversation but not in contributing. Ashley watched
him surreptitiously. Should she warn the others one of the aliens was listening
to every word they said?

Clearing his throat, Sid asked, “What genome did you study,
then?”

“
Agalychnis
callidryas
. Red-eyed tree frog,” he declared and
glowered as if daring them to comment. “I’ve won countless awards for my work.
My research is groundbreaking but unappreciated here for some reason. What about
you? Russian rocket program not as good as Moscow would have us believe?”

“The program is world class. It’s not the reason I was
rejected,” Sid said with clenched hands, head jutting out from his corded
neck.

Ashley held up a hand to stem the flow of testosterone, then
dropped it since they couldn’t see her. “Guys, we’re on the same side. The
aliens are the enemy. It hardly matters why they dumped us in here. We’re
scheduled to die soon. Clock’s ticking. Let’s put all your considerable
intelligence to work on getting us out of here. Go!”

No one moved or looked like they were thinking hard. Real life
needed a script worse than a movie did. Then everyone would do what she imagined
they should instead of making fun of her... Or beating her up... Or waiting in
an unmarked police car at the corner of Hollywood and Vine for a celebrity to
drive by going a teeny bit over the speed limit.

Profiling, plain and simple. L.A. cops never bothered to pull
over people who looked like felons. No, they kept an eye out for something
profitable. A story in the making, complete with contraband pictures snapped by
camera phones and sold to rags before the celeb hit booking.

And thanks to that bad luck, she’d landed in alien jail.

Natalie pursed her split lips and grimaced as the wounds
cracked open. “What do you think we should do, Ashley?”

“I don’t know. Overpower the guards maybe when they come to get
us? There are five of us and usually four or less guards. We weren’t handcuffed.
All we have to do is get all their tappy things so they can’t zap us.” She
filtered the plot through her internal editor and warmed to it. “Sam said the
doors are operated by reading the octopus and—”

“Who’s Sam?” Sid interrupted.

“
He
is.” Ashley pointed to the
opposite cell and met Sam’s eyes. They trapped her, holding her gaze. A foreign
and unexplainable heat flushed her cheeks. Flustered, she added, “There’s an
alien across the hall from us.”

Chapter Five

Dr. Glasses turned and then grunted. “I can’t see. Has
he been listening to us this entire time? How do we know he’s not a spy?”

Ashley snorted. “Because he’s in jail? Why would anyone be here
on purpose if they had a choice? So, as I was saying, we’ll have to knock one of
the guards unconscious when they come to take us to recycling and bring him with
us. We let the scanner read his octopus and when the doors open, make a run for
it.”

Freddy whistled. “Wow.”

She almost preened—the idea was pretty good—until he
continued.

“You’ve watched too many cop shows. Nothing is that easy. What
if the scanner doesn’t work if the guard’s not awake? Plus, they blinded us. Why
would they hesitate to do so again? Even if your plan works, what chance will we
have of surviving on an alien planet none of us know anything about?”

She’d adapted the idea from a science-fiction movie, not a cop
show, but she wasn’t about to correct him. Deflated, she laced her fingers
together so she wouldn’t punch him right in his not-so-handsome-anymore face.
“Look, I’m trying. You come up with something if you don’t like my
suggestion.”

“It’s useless,” Dr. Glasses cut in. “Accept the inevitable,
talk to your god and make your peace. That’s the best use of your time now.”

His studious and exalted manner had disappeared, and without
his glasses, he was nothing more than a pudgy middle-aged man who liked frogs
better than people and had some vendetta against her. He was sorely mistaken if
he thought he could tell Ashley V what to do.

Quiet weeping echoed in the cell. “I want to go home,” Natalie
said between sobs. “I miss my animals.”

Ashley crawled to her and drew the shaking woman against her
shoulder. Natalie topped her by at least six inches, making the gesture of
comfort awkward, but the other woman didn’t seem to mind. Ashley gritted her
teeth as Natalie pressed against her bruised arm, wedging it between her back
and the wall.

“Oh, I think my sight is returning,” Sid piped up after several
long minutes of silence. He blinked and widened his eyes. “I see shapes and
light.”

“One hurdle down,” Ashley commented. After Dr. Glasses vomited
gloom and doom all over her ideas, she’d prove him wrong or die trying. Natalie
had reached the sniffling stage, so Ashley sat her up and cradled her own aching
arm. “I was worried they’d come while the three of you still couldn’t see. That
would make escape harder.”

“One hurdle out of how many?” Freddy frowned. “You’re just an
actress and you lied to everyone. Just be quiet.”

Ashley leaped to her feet, suddenly furious. The motion jarred
her headache into a fierce pounding. “What is wrong with all of you? You’re
scaring Natalie. You may be the top people in your field but oh my gosh, what a
bunch of whiners. The good guys always win at the end. Not the aliens.”

“At the end of what? The movie? This is not Hollywood, Miss
Movie Star,” Freddy said, with a sniff. “Natalie should be scared. We all should
be. Bad guys win all the time in real life.”

“Not in my real life. I’m going to figure out a way to be
rescued. You can stay here.” With that, she flounced to the corner and threw
herself into it for a good long sulk. She was scared too but she’d eat paint
before allowing it to influence her performance.

Sam watched her from his own corner across the hall. She’d
developed a strange, barbed awareness of him and couldn’t shake it. Hopefully,
he’d ignored their arguing. It hadn’t been her finest act by any stretch.

A cacophony echoed outside the cell. Alien guards stomped down
the hall, dragging a small boy between them.

“It’s a child,” Natalie murmured. “Why are they putting him in
here? What could he have possibly done?”

Ashley scuttled over to the side wall and pressed her ear
against it. Faint pings and muted shushing ricocheted inside the wall. Either
the guards had thrown the boy into an adjacent cell or they’d joined cocktail
hour next door.

Sam said something to one of the guards as they passed and they
conversed in their freaky alien language. The guards marched back the way they’d
come without glancing in the humans’ cell.

She tapped on the wall. “Hello?”

No response. Maybe he was still unconscious. She fretted,
totally at a loss. How much worse could this get? That little boy would wake up,
scared out of his mind. There had to be a way to let him know he wasn’t
alone.

“Hello? Are you there?” she repeated and shifted her ear to a
higher spot on the wall.

Dr. Glasses laughed. “You look like a spider monkey with your
arms stretched out like that. What are you going to say if he answers you? We’re
here to rescue you?”

“No,” she snapped and switched to her other ear. “I’ll tell him
not to worry because we have the leading expert in tree frogs over here.”

The doctor sputtered and mumbled something she didn’t
catch.

Still nothing. The alien boy probably didn’t speak English, and
Dr. Glasses talked too much to hear anything anyway. She gave up and plunked to
the ground by Natalie.

Natalie wrapped both arms around her bare torso. “I’m really
uncomfortable being naked. I don’t know how the rest of you are taking it in
stride.”

“No one’s taking it in stride, Miss Donaldson. If it makes you
feel better, I’m not looking at you. You don’t have a lot to look at, as it
happens,” Dr. Glasses sneered and Ashley balled her fist when Natalie’s face
crumpled.

“That’s only because you need your glasses,” Ashley told him.
“Natalie’s better-looking than all three of you put together.”

If he so much as glanced at Natalie wrong, she’d deck him.

“I’m farsighted, for your information—” Dr. Glasses shut up as
a noise came from the hall.

A guard skulked to Sam’s cell and tapped off the force field.
With an impatient gesture, the guard motioned for Sam to follow. Sam strode out
of his cell—off to meet his fate with squared shoulders, and she’d never see him
again. But he halted at the entrance to her cell and swiveled his head to look
at her. They locked gazes.

He flinched from the invisible current flowing from her cell’s
opening and the low lights glanced off his definitely hazel eyes. A prickle
walked down her spine and something welled up inside. Recognition. Maybe she’d
known him in a previous life... She shook her head, but the indistinct feeling
wouldn’t fade.

It broke when Sam jolted and followed the guard. Ridiculous. He
was an alien and therefore impossible to know in any life, least of all this one
since he’d be dead soon.

She’d never see him again or hear him talk with that accent
which should grate but didn’t.

Good.

All the aliens deserved to die. Aliens were hideous. Not
classically hideous, in the eight-arms-and-slime-covered sort of way, but in the
oppressive-and-terrifying way.

Sam just...wasn’t.

She jumped up and caught sight of his lean back disappearing
around the corner.

The aliens weren’t picky about whom they locked up, yet against
all odds, she’d found an ally on this frightening and baffling world. One who
had been wrongfully accused, like her. Well, she didn’t know for sure he’d been
framed, but it wouldn’t surprise her to learn the aliens threw people in jail
for fun. Regardless, he’d listened and seemed willing to try changing their
fate. Sad, really, to have more respect for the alien than her fellow
Earthlings.

And now he marched to his death. Melancholy settled in the back
of her throat and she swallowed. She wasn’t upset about Sam dying. She wasn’t,
even though she kind of liked him. It was grief over losing her only chance. Sam
represented a possible means of rescue, nothing more.

She retreated from the cell opening before the headache bloomed
into something unmanageable.

* * *

One
practiced the speech
he’d prepared for his audience with the king as the lift ascended to Kir Barsha.
In contrast to the first time, four guards surrounded him and he had no
illusions about his precarious situation. When the Security workers had brought
the child,
One
requested a message be conveyed to
the king regarding an audience and thankfully, the king had agreed to see him
first this morning.

One
looked forward to imparting
valuable information about the issues in the Penal system. The Ancestors would
favor him this time.

He barely noticed the lavish surroundings as he approached the
king’s throne. As before, the room buzzed with the court’s conversations. The
rest of the Telhada seemed to do little else but talk, while citizens performed
meaningful work in the city below.

“What is the nature of your request for an audience,
ZXQ
-
One
?” The king smiled
jovially. The Festival of the Ancestors the king had attended the previous
evening must have been a holy and stirring event if he was in such good spirits.
One
intended to capitalize on the fortunate
timing.

“Your highness.”
One
bowed. “The
Security Division has issues of which you must be aware.”

High Priest
UBA
moved to the edge
of the dais with a swirl of his robes. “Do you dare come before the king with
accusations against the High Chairman of Security?”

The High Priest stared down at
One
.
Today, he wore the headdress of the Afterlife, with intertwined metal serpents
whose jeweled eyes glittered.
One
had not
contemplated conversing with him instead of the king, though in hindsight, he
should have. The king’s agenda he understood.
UBA’s
,
he did not. Especially since
UBA
had been
instrumental in sending
One
to recycling.
Uncertainty made his position all the more precarious.

He laced his fingers together behind his back to hide sudden
trembling and spoke to the king. “Your highness, while incarcerated, I witnessed
two workers behaving inappropriately with the Mora Tuwa prisoners. You will want
to look into this matter.”

The king’s face betrayed nothing.
One’s
teeth scraped together as he bit down to keep from babbling.
He read shadows, not expressions. In fact, he’d spent hours outside his comfort
zone, enduring atrocious treatment and being quartered unnervingly close to The
Redhead. Instead of giving up, he’d gathered critical information—all for the
benefit of the Telhada. The king must reward this effort by exonerating him.

“The new High Chairman is capable of handling his division. The
behavior of the workers is not an issue.” The king fixed his steely glare on
One
and it bored into him. He resisted an urge
to turn away. “The Security Division is not your concern. The acquisition of
Mora Tuwa was, at which you failed.”

One’s
gut spasmed. The king had
skipped right over his report and returned to failure of the list. Didn’t he
appreciate this first hand report from the Penal System? “Your Majesty. I beg
your pardon. I do not bring these accusations to your attention lightly. The new
High Chairman is my former superior and I have the utmost respect for his
results. However, he is newly installed in his position and perhaps unaware of
the seriousness of the situation. Behavioral problems cannot be left unchecked.”
One
inclined his head respectfully to lessen the
impact of his words.

High Priest
UBA
sniffed. “The king
is not the weak ruler you insinuate. His eye is everywhere and the High Chairman
has been appropriately briefed regarding his new responsibilities, according to
the king’s wishes.”

UBA
, speaking for the king once
again. It was as if the Telhada had grown another member, but a far more
dangerous one if the king readily accepted a citizen’s counsel on State
business. It was so far outside the custom,
One
had
no clue how to navigate this political uncertainty.

The king tapped a terse finger against his chin. “This is the
subject of your request for an audience? I am gravely disappointed you do not
bring me more relevant information.”

Once again, the king had ignored the real issue at hand. He had
to focus his argument. Persuade the king to see reason.

The Redhead’s bruised face swam into his mind’s eye, and he
recalled her impassioned speech to the other humans, urging them not to give up,
to continue the fight until the last moment. Her voice echoed eerily in his head
and her fearless optimism steeled him.

One
kept his head inclined and
spoke clearly. “I mention the problems because I believe in the Telhada and the
sovereignty of your rule. A society without civility is a society on the brink
of ruin.”

“Do not quote His Royal Highness King Menet to me,
ZXQ
-
One
,” the king
countered, displeasure lacing his command. Everyone in court, including the
king, bowed to the giant gold statue of the Ancestor at the head of the throne
room. “I rule daily with his principles as my guide and my sole oath to the
citizens of Alhedis is to protect their welfare. You dare question my commitment
to this?”

This conversation wasn’t producing results and
One
grasped for a way to revive the original intent.
“No, Your Highness. I am a citizen of the Telhada, a recipient of your
benevolence. My sole oath is to serve you. I’ve spent the last few hours
dedicated to this. What I have seen is evidence of a society with a potential to
crumble unless swift action is taken. Your Highness,” he concluded with a nod
and took a step backward in respect.

The king launched out of his throne and motioned to the
Security workers ringing the room. “What I see is a lowlife raised to an
elevated position among citizens who does not appreciate the opportunities given
him. Go quietly and may the Ancestors redeem your ungrateful soul.”