Alien Home Page 18

Joe gazed at him several moments. “I don’t need to give you permission to call, nor do I intend to attempt to forbid you or attempt to stop you. I doubt if it will do any good either. I will work on these while you call.”

  So Mike phoned the local sheriff’s office. He was connected to an officer who said, “You say you’re under attack. What are they using?”

  “I’m not sure.”

  “Then how do you know you’re under attack.”

  “Look we’re out on the very north end of Lake Elizabeth.”

  “You in Meganvilia’s cabin?”

  “You know him?”

  “Of course. He know you’re there?”

  “He gave us the key. I’d be pretty stupid to be calling you if I was here illegally. Will you help us?”

  “We’ve had a couple calls of a bright yellow light from up that way. It’ll take a while to get a car up there. We’ve had to help the local ambulance service. We’ve been worried about some old folks out around here with this cold. Course it’s a good thing we didn’t get as much snow like down in Chicago. Sure is cold though.”

  Mike wished he could reach through the wires, grab the guy by the throat, and throttle him. He made his voice very calm as he said, “Will you please try and get someone here as quick as you can?”

  The dispatcher said, “We’ll do what we can.” After he hung up he thought about calling the FBI then dropped the idea. He doubted anyone would get here in time to help them.

  Mike turned to Joe who held his communicator in his hand and was tapping on the face of it. He said, “Take yours and an extra one.”

  Mike grabbed them. To him the ones he and Joe had looked smaller than the others. The larger ones seemed to have more indentations around the sides.

  Mike glanced toward the windows. He closed his eyes and opened them again. He said, “The yellow field is now inside the cabin.”

  “They’re closing the grid. It’s how they capture violent criminals so no one gets hurt. The criminal can’t get out, can’t strike out at those on the outside. The energy field simply gets smaller and smaller until the victim is completely encased in the field. It takes a short while to do it to an unprotected criminal. Because of your energy field, it is taking far longer than normal.”

  “Can you do anything?”

  In response the two communicators Mike held and the ones Joe had flashed bright blue flares of snaky light between them. The flares solidified and grew until a far darker energy circle deepened to the darkest blue Mike had ever seen it make. Then it began to grow.

  “That’s working,” Joe said.

  “What?”

  “I’ve tapped into their energy source. I’m not near a primary level yet, but.” Suddenly blue flares erupted from the communicators. The light turned to deep purple. The yellow light slowly began to recede. Red sparks began to fly at the juncture of the purple and yellow. In seconds they were surrounded by swirling red sparks.

  Mike said, “I hope to see fireworks like this again in my lifetime.”

  There was a loud kaffoofy, followed by a titanic explosion. Mike opened his eyes a second later. They were standing exactly where they had been. The cabin and all its contents except for anything within three feet of them was gone. All snow and vegetation within a hundred feet of them had disappeared leaving a vast blank field of smoking dirt. Beyond it the yellow glow flared as bright as ever. Within the yellow, the red sparks swirled and flew faster than wind driven snow. The blue energy field held.

  “What happened?” Mike asked.

  “I tried to attack them.”

  “Meganvilia is going to be pissed that his cabin is gone.” Mike almost laughed. “I don’t think this is supposed to be funny.”

  Joe smiled. “I’d give anything to let the old drag queen have a crack at these guys.”

  “He can do amazing things,” Mike said, “but I’m not sure repelling an intergalactic attack is one of them.”

  “Perhaps not, but if anyone on Earth could besides yourself, it would be him.”

  Mike said, “It’s not cold.”

  “The ground around here may be warm for the next fifty years.”

  “Was it a radioactive explosion, like a nuclear bomb?”

  “You’re not going to die from radiation. Neither is any person or animal going to be harmed in the future because of this. Although if they’d been within the circle of that blast there wouldn’t be anything left of them.”

  The yellow light was once again advancing toward them at about a foot every two minutes.

  “We didn’t beat them,” Mike said.

  “We put up a hell of a fight.”

  Mike said, “I would give a great deal for a fleet of army helicopters advancing menacingly over the horizon. I wouldn’t mind a small army or a large one for that matter.”

  “All the king’s horses and all the king’s men,” Joe said.

  “Would it make any difference in their treatment of us if we agreed to go quietly?” Mike asked.

  “I doubt it.”

  “I want to go with you wherever you go.”

  “Let me work.” Joe’s fingers flew over the front of his communicator, sometimes working with one of the others. He got the blue energy field to intensify, but it only impeded the progress of the yellow shield. After a few minutes it resumed its steady advance.

  Five minutes later Joe announced, “It might be even more than two ships. Hell, it could be a battle cruiser from the home fleet up there. Plus they’ve got electronics I’ve never encountered before.”

  “Can you break through?”

  “I don’t know yet. Probably not in time.” He tapped some more. “I think they’re improvising somewhat as well, but they’ve got powers I’m not going to be able to hold off.”

  Suddenly the communicator he was using turned crimson red, flashed white, and then disappeared in a smoky foof. Seconds later the communicators he’d taken from the other aliens, including the one he’d handed to Mike, did the same. Mike’s original one turned a dull shade of red. It was hot to the touch. He wrapped the sleeve of his flannel shirt around his hand so he could still hold it. He watched the display terminal waver for a moment, then it solidified. He gave it to Joe who tapped at the face for a few seconds. He shook his head and handed it back to Mike. “It’s not responding to me. You try.”

  Mike took the communicator back and placed it in the palm of his cloth-covered hand. He looked at the forest beyond the clearing and up at the sky beyond the encircling yellow. A small bird flitted between branches of a tree. He heard the hoot of an owl. Mike said, “I wish I could predict the future.” He turned to Joe and pulled him into his arms. They kissed as the yellow light came within inches of them.

  Four very grim and solemn-looking aliens converged on them. With their arms around each other, Mike and Joe waited. Mike recognized Frab.

  When the new aliens got within five feet of the edge of the yellow aura, Frab said, “If you come quietly we will not kill you. If you fight anymore, we have permission to destroy the both of you. This is not an idle threat. You have three seconds to decide.”

  “Resistance is futile,” Joe said.

  Mike almost smiled.

  “I’ll go quietly. You don’t have to take the Earthling.”

  “Yes, we do. Both of you, now, today. Kiss the Earth goodbye.”

  “Okay,” Joe said.

  Frab pointed at Joe, “You first. You know what happens if you try to escape the cage?”

  “Yes.” Joe turned to Mike. “If you try to escape the aura, it most likely will hurt you a very great deal and then kill you.”

  “Okay,” Mike said.

  “Can’t you take us together?” Joe asked.

  “That is not going to happen,” Frab said. Two of the aliens moved within two feet of Joe. The yellow aura began to move forward, Joe walked into it.

  From twenty feet away Joe looked back over his shoulder and called, “Always remember that I will love you forever. We will be together
again.”

  “I love you,” Mike called after him. He watched Joe until he was out of sight. He looked at Frab and the other alien.

  Suddenly the encompassing aura began to glow to a yellow as bright as the sun. “Are you going to kill me here?” Mike asked.

  “No,” Frab said.

  Once more Mike’s blue aura flashed forward. Frab was driven back. Joe’s yellow aura remained, but the area around Mike for ten feet remained clear. “You son of a useless Earthling.” Frab said a few words in the language of Hrrrm, which Mike recognized from living with Joe were imprecations of frustration. Mike tapped at his communicator for a few seconds, but the yellow began to resume its march on Mike. Then again the blue glow flared. Mike wished he knew what was going on. Even more, he wished he could control it.

  “Mumph,” Frab said. He motioned to one of the other aliens. Mike didn’t know if Mumph was a name or a command or a snort of frustration. The other alien was older and heavier-set than Frab. Frab took his communicator. This time the glows did not interact. Instead Mike felt his breath growing short. He began to gasp. The last thing he remembered as he fell to the ground and lost consciousness was a tremendous blue flash.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Mike Carlson opened his eyes. Dim light reflected off what looked like a stainless steel ceiling. He moved his torso, arms, and legs. Nothing felt injured. He turned his head. Same polished metal look on the walls. He swung his legs over the side of the slab he was lying on. It seemed to be made of the same materials as everything else he’d seen. His feet touched the floor. He was in his jeans, white long-sleeve T-shirt, flannel shirt, socks, shoes, hooded sweatshirt, and the winter coat that he remembered wearing.

  He was alone in a room with no doors or windows, no visible openings of any kind. His first thoughts were of Joe, Jack, his family, people he loved.

  “Where am I?” he asked the emptiness.

  He got no answer.

  His memory of his last few days crashed back. The mad chasing, saving Jack’s life by stopping his father from killing him, the last titanic battle in the woods. The only thing he knew for sure was real at this moment was himself in this room.

  The temperature seemed cool but not uncomfortable.

  He shivered, fear triumphing over temperature. He felt his pockets and took out the contents: wallet, cell phone, communicator, handkerchief, spare change, car keys all intact. The cell phone claimed to be out of service. Mike didn’t think he’d get the thing charged soon, if ever. His watch said 8:47. He didn’t know if it was A.M. or P.M.

  Mike was worried about where he was and very concerned about where Joe was. He wished someone would enter the room. He held out little hope that Joe had found a way to save them at the last instant.

  He couldn’t tell if he was on a space ship whizzing through the galaxy or in a polished chrome dungeon a thousand miles under the Earth’s surface. He had little doubt the aliens were capable of effecting either possibility. He didn’t think he was on Joe’s ship because, if he was, he assumed his husband would not have wanted Mike to waken to uncertainty. Coupled with the fact that there was no obvious way out, Mike was hesitant to presume this was a positive environment.

  He got up and walked around the room. His joints felt a trifle stiff, and he was a little wobbly. After several minutes his legs began to feel normal. He touched various parts of his anatomy. All seemed normal.

  “Hello,” he called.

  No answer. He realized there was a complete absence of sound. Not a clock ticking, not the throb of a distant motor, nothing.

  The room was maybe ten feet by twelve with a low ceiling. The slab he’d been lying on covered about a fifth of the space in the center of the room.

  Mike was warm enough so he took off his heavy outer coat and his hooded sweatshirt and placed them on the center block. He wondered if he was being observed. Using his hands and eyes, he examined every inch of his enclosure. He neither felt nor saw anything that broke the plain surfaces of the room. He saw nothing that indicated an opening. No hinge was visible. The light source seemed to be emanating from the walls themselves. He pounded his fist on each wall, stamped on the floor, and stood on the central slab to jump and bang on the ceiling. They felt solid.

  Mike sat on a corner of the slab and worried and waited. He tried several combinations on his communicator. The aura appeared as it always did. He found little comfort in the cold blue. Nothing he did with it gave him a clue as to where he was in the universe or how to find an opening in this room to let him out.

  He realized he was hungry and thirsty, and he needed to take a piss. He couldn’t smell anything. He checked his armpits. He couldn’t have been asleep long. He didn’t feel like he needed a shower. Rubbing his chin told him he would need a shave soon so he couldn’t have been out more than half a day or so. He paced in circles around the center slab long enough that his legs began to get tired.

  Finally, he sat in a corner of the room, his back against one wall, his left arm and leg against the perpendicular wall. He leaned his head back until it touched the solid surface. Whatever the stainless steel looking material was, it felt cool but not metallic.

  Mike wasn’t given to mad blind panics, but he thought if he was ever justified in having one, now was it.

  As he sat, he thought about his life, his parents, his nephew, and Joe, the man he loved. At the moment he would give a great deal to have even a little of that life become evident. He took his coat and sweatshirt and used them as a pillow to cushion his head and shoulders as best he could. Despite his gnawing hunger and growing thirst, in a short while he slept. He awoke to find himself facing the wall and lying on the floor. He had a crick in his neck. He rubbed it.

  He sensed someone else in the room. He sat up, rotated on his butt. A being sat on the stainless steel center piece. He looked to be a male human in his late twenties. He was clean shaven with brown hair hanging below the level of the collar of a brown tunic, which hung to mid-calf, pants legs visible under it. His shoes were nondescript black ovals.

  “My name is Lerg. How are you?”

  “You speak English.”

  “I know more languages than almost anyone in the universe, thousands of them, which I need with my job. Yours I had to make a special study of. None of the translator implants had any Earth language. The real question has to be why are you so important? I’m the most efficient retriever in the galaxy. What is it about you that got me sent here?”

  “Beats me,” Mike said. “What’s a retriever? You don’t look like a hunting dog.”

  “I find people who are lost.” The alien’s voice was mellow and flat, a computer tone set to soothing - suave, professional, calm, a hint of chatty at the fringes.

  Mike asked, “Where am I?”

  “On a ship traveling to Hrrrm, both my home planet and the name of a star system that encompasses thousands of inhabitable planets. We’re already quite far beyond the reaches of your solar system.”

  “Figures. How long have I been asleep?”

  “About ten of your hours.”

  “Where is Joe?”

  “I am not authorized to deal with that information. I am allowed to answer your questions to some degree. You’ve got a three-month trip ahead of you.”

  “I didn’t bring my Proust.”

  “What is that?”

  “Something the very pretentious claim to have read.”

  “How does that energy shield of yours work?” Lerg asked. “You should never have been able to resist. And you certainly shouldn’t have been able to beat our weapons.”

  “I didn’t. They won. Look, see, I’m your prisoner. I passed out. How did you capture me? Why hasn’t my communicator been taken away? Where’s Joe?”

  “We couldn’t beat you, but we could deprive you of oxygen.” Lerg took out a communicator and tapped its surface. A yellow glow filled the room. Mike’s blue glow responded immediately. Mike took out his communicator.

  “You’ve got the god
damn oxygen thing, why are we playing who can beat up who?”

  “I shouldn’t tell you this, but whatever the hell you’ve got is a more powerful weapon than anything I’ve ever seen anywhere, and I’ve been a whole lot of places. This oxygen thing is only good at very close proximity; half the time it malfunctions. Techno crap. And then the user of the thing is often affected as much as the one being denied oxygen. We couldn’t even pick you up. We had to dig up the earth under you, insert planks and board under all that earth, all terribly primitive. We sort of boxed you up, earth and all. You are quite the pain in the ass. Before we figured out how dangerous you are and how to get you on board, a couple of my men got badly burned, and several of their implants got fried. It took us a while to realize the nature of the problem and then several hours to come up with a solution.”