Page 23 of Resolution
The vehicle was definitely coming to a halt now and Melly braced. She stumbled to a position in the rear, at the side of the door and when it slid open she launched herself at the first man she saw, knocking him down. Rising to her feet, she turned to run but stopped with a scream. Five Watchers stood there in a line, with a group of mewling infected behind them. Melly retreated until her back hit the truck.
“Nice try, doc,” said the man she’d hit as he rose. “But you aren’t going anywhere.”
Before she knew what he was doing, he picked her up and carried her away from the truck. Two of his associates joined them and all three were wearing the alien bracelets. Her arm was bare. “You brought me all this way to give me to the infected?” she said in a rage. “What kind of assholes are you?”
The man carrying her laughed. “We’re transferring you to someone else’s control, you got that right, but not the infected.” He dumped her to the ground, bruising her tailbone. “You’re worth a lot to these people evidently. Now sit tight, don’t make too much noise or try to escape and you’ll be fine.”
“Flyer inbound,” announced the man to the left, touching a comlink in his ear.
“Good. Quantike wants extra for her, since we made a special trip and all. I hope they came with a full pallet.”
The man stepped back and Melly hunched into a ball as much as possible as the five Watchers moved in their lurching gait to surround her. She had an arms-length between herself and them on all sides and the odor of decay was overwhelming. She turned her head and dry heaved but there was nothing in her gut to lose. The other infected moved close to the Watchers but didn’t attempt to reach Melly. She rubbed her sore backside until the stinging faded and then cautiously sat up a bit, hugging her knees. Peering between the Watchers she watched a massive flyer touch down in a storm of dust that left her coughing. She tried to suppress the cough when she saw the closest Watcher twitching.
She’d never seen anything like the flyer now sitting on the ground. A ramp extended and a portal opened but to her surprise the infected in the area didn’t rush to attack. They stood as if stunned, arms at their sides, faces even more vacant than usual. Briefly she wondered if she could escape but she could see there was nowhere to run. The research facility, if that’s where she was, had been destroyed in an attack. There were a few badly decomposed bodies here and there and she shuddered.
Two aliens strutted out of the flyer and down the ramp. There was no other word for how the pair were walking and she stared in disbelief. Although humanoid enough, the newcomers had bright red hair, which one man wore in a dense braid down his back and the other had styled into waves on his head. They wore uniforms and had sidearms, although neither had drawn their weapon. A third person appeared at the top of the ramp as the pair went to meet with the men who’d driven her here. The new man had on a different uniform and his hair was more pink than red, except for one prominent stripe at his temple. He was clearly tasked with keeping an eye on the infected and his weapon was drawn. In his other hand there was a complicated device made from interlocking crystals, from which emanated a hum that hurt Melly’s ears. She guessed the sound had to do with controlling the infected.
The first two aliens were engaged in a spirited discussion in Basic with her original captors but she wasn’t close enough to catch more than a phrase or two. She was sure she was going to end up on the flyer and being taken elsewhere whenever the conversation ended. Struck by a wild idea and anxious to make any proactive move she could toward her eventual rescue, she fiddled with the pin on her jacket. If she could get it loose and drop it unnoticed, it would let Jeff know she’d been here. She had the utmost confidence that he was on his way to rescue her but he must be a day or so behind at least. He would have spent time at Glastine trying to find her and maybe the General had even taken steps to restrain him from following her. But the guys will break him out with the APC’s, she thought with satisfaction. Her husband and his team wouldn’t leave her out here on her own.
How he’d find her after the flyer whisked her away she had no idea but her job was to stay alive and try to find a way to escape. Death in the Randal Four wilderness would be preferable to whatever the aliens had planned.
Now the group was coming in her direction and the Watchers each took five steps away from her. Melly rose to her feet and squared her shoulders. “I demand you let me go.”
The first of the aliens laughed derisively and made a comment to his companion. “Not a chance in the galaxy, human,” he said to her. “You have quite a rare set of submarkers and will provide us with a fruitful new avenue of research. You’ve been on our sensors for quite a while actually but it was pure fate you placed yourself in our reach by going to Glastine.”
“The Watchers,” she said, glancing at the loose circle around her. “Anytime I’ve been near one in a swarm they’ve paid attention to me.”
“Watchers? Not a bad designation for them although the creatures have other duties for us as well.” Dismissing her, he gave the other alien a set of rapid orders and the man hustled to the flyer. He reappeared a few minutes later towing a large antigrav sled, on which were several crates.
“A bonus for Quantike,” Alien One said, waving a hand. “Including an allotment of the special feelgood he prefers.” Reaching into his tunic, he withdrew a data chit. “And a communication from his woman.”
The man who’d carried Melly to her present position accepted the chit, gave Melly a dismissive glance and walked with the antigrav sled to the truck. His two associates followed and Melly watched them loading whatever they’d been traded for her into the cargo compartment. Then the men from Glastine got in the truck and drove off in a cloud of dust, as if they couldn’t depart fast enough.
“We’ll be going now,” the alien said to Melly, walking between the Watchers and taking her by the arm. He dragged her in the direction of the flyer, following the antigrav sled. “Don’t think of trying anything foolish, I warn you.”
She observed the infected shivering and stretching as if waking from a cold sleep and realized whatever had been keeping them immobile had been switched off. “You want me alive,” she said, moving closer to the man involuntarily. The Watchers were pacing them, staying between her and the other infected.
“We do but we can take tissue and blood samples from you as you die if necessary. Our Watchers have seen a few other uninfected roaming who possess similar traits as yours.”
She knew her brother Mike might very well be one of those people if whatever mysterious elements that made her of interest happened to be genetic and inherited. The pin was clutched in her free hand and as she reached the ramp she pretended to stumble into the alien, dropping the pin and kicking a bit of dust over it in the process.
The man swore in his own language and yanked her upright, dragging her up the incline and into the flyer. Once inside she was shoved into a window seat and force cuffs were placed over her wrists. The aliens seemed content she was now neutralized and two of them disappeared into the cockpit while the third sat in the row opposite her. The flyer lifted off smoothly and shot into the sky at a steep angle, heading further north as far as Melly could tell. She was trembling with nerves but worked hard on her breathing and meditation techniques as the flight progressed. She noticed the man across from her had nodded off. Cautiously she rose to her feet and slid out of her seat to stand in the aisle. The cockpit door was closed and she had no illusions there was anything she could accomplish by trying to break in.
Now she inched toward the rear of the flyer, where the exit door was. The alien markings meant nothing to her but there was also a simple diagram under a panel of buttons and she put her bound hands on the button that appeared to be the right one. She paused, taking a deep breath. Did she really want to do this? She couldn’t survive a fall from this altitude. Glancing at the cockpit door again, she hardened her resolve.
These aliens had destroyed her planet by unleashing a terrifying and macabre virus on the unsuspecting and innocent population. Who knew what other horrific experiments they might be conducting? And her blood seemed to contain elements they were avid to get their hands on. She couldn’t be a part of assisting them to do more damage.
The sound of the cockpit door opening startled her and her hands slipped. There was an angry shout and one of the aliens rushed toward her. She hit the button and the exterior door began to slide open, allowing a huge buffeting wind to enter the cabin. The gap wasn’t big enough for her to throw herself out yet when the man reached her. She kicked at him and pounded his chest with her bound fists, screaming defiance. Trying to escape his grasp she stepped closer to the threshold. Terror and determination gave her extra strength and she wrenched herself free as the door moved enough for her to jump.
But the alien caught her wrists and hung on. He’d anchored himself inside the flyer somehow so they weren’t both sucked out by the greedy wind. Melly hung suspended in the air thousands of feet above the surface of the planet, the pressure on her wrists and arms immense. A second alien joined the first at the door and working together they hauled her back inside despite her struggles.
Exhausted and in pain, she collapsed on the deck of the flyer at their feet as the door closed again. One of the men rolled her onto her back with his foot and leaned over to shake his fist in her face. “Stupid human cow! Were you trying to kill all of us?”
“If I could,” she gasped out.
He clearly wanted to punish her for her escape attempt but the other man spoke to him rapidly in their language and pushed him aside. He dragged Melly to her feet none too gently and brought her to the first passenger seat close to the cockpit. Pulling out a stunner, he shot her at point blank range, which hurt and then bound her ankles. He secured her to the seat with a webbing of straps, studied his handiwork and then left her alone. The other man came to sit next to her and glowered at her ominously but didn’t touch her.
Melly’s head lolled against the hard cushions and she knew she was crying but there was nothing she could do to stop the sobs. So close. She’d actually tried to kill herself—the idea was unreal but she’d do it again if given the chance. The stakes here were too high.
