Charged - Book One (16 page)

There was a light knock on the door and I quickly
shook the memories out of my head, or tried to. It was the only
wood door that I’d seen on the ship, supposed to make us humans
more comfortable, I guess. I opened the door and it was Kye. She
didn’t say anything. She was waiting for me to confirm or deny the
contents of the file, I thought.

I handed her the file. “You can burn this. It’s
accurate.” And it didn’t change anything except the fact that Kye
knew what sculpted my life, my career and my desire to be alone.
But somehow I was different when I was with her. I wondered why she
hadn’t just brought it up, since she appeared curious. I would’ve
been honest with her. It was probably the same reason Aaron didn’t
bring it up. I must somehow radiate the fact that I don’t want to
discuss it. I never did talk about my family, not to anyone. Why
would I? Nobody wants to hear that you have no family left.

Her eyes were both sad and understanding at the same
time. She grabbed the file and put it in a black duffel bag she’d
brought with her and then she pushed her way into my small
suite.

“Aaron is staying with Jessica tonight. How about we
watch a movie?”

I wasn’t wholly present just yet, still thinking of
the past. Before I could answer, she had a six-pack of beer on ice
and a selection of movies on the screen. She coaxed me into my
queen-size bed and before I knew it, we were laughing at a comedy
she had selected. For the rest of the night, everything was fine.
She was on her side and her back was lying against my chest and she
was stroking my hands with her fingers. I held her in my arms and
pushed my face into her hair, smelling her.

“Why did you give me that file?” Even I could hear
the grief in my voice.

She turned around and faced me, eyes full of
regret.

“I’m… I’m sorry. I just wanted to know if you were as
alone as… as I am.”

More honesty. Something I could get used to. Yes,
yes, I am, I thought. She turned back around and I pulled her close
to me and there was a slight sting at the thought that she was
really as alone as me. I didn’t answer her. The answer was
obvious.

WE’D SPENT THE NEXT three weeks like this. We shared
our breakfasts, lunches and part of our evenings together
discussing everything under the sun. I wanted to spend every waking
moment with her. She was real, refreshing, funny, brilliant, mature
and beautiful. Clearly, all that I was really missing in my life
was an older woman. She was different around me; that sadness faded
significantly until she came upon Danel. And I was somehow
different too. On a couple of occasions I even found myself talking
about my mother.

Sometimes I slept in her quarters, but rarely. She
didn’t want to upset Danel any more than she had. She told me to
just think of him as her overbearing, controlling boss. So I did
and I made it very clear she should quit her job. This made her
laugh, so whenever he ticked her off, I just kept saying, “there’s
plenty of jobs out there, Kye.” It became our private little joke
and it always got a smile from her.

Every third or fourth day, she had to work topside
and was gone for about twenty-four hours, which gave me my
alone-time. But I found myself thinking of her and wondering if she
was thinking of me. I didn’t understand why I couldn’t go with her.
I only got a vague impression that if I did go with her, it created
more risk of them being detected.

Aaron and Jessica were best friends now, as far as I
could tell… maybe growing into something more. She was the
youngest, so it made sense they got along better than he did with
the elders. He even let her modify his pupils so he could see
perfectly in their dim lights. She offered the same for me, but I
declined.

On one of the days that Kye was working, Aaron and I
let Jessica cleanse our bodies, ridding them of any ailments they
might have. It took two hours, but I felt ten years younger when
she was done. It seemed like a good idea, since Kye’s body was
fifteen years younger than mine physically. I could breathe better.
I could taste more. My back didn’t hurt in the mornings like it
always had. It was astonishing.

Aaron and Jessica were having a ball, really. She
made his hair and eyes glow blue and even fixed some of his teeth
that he had neglected. I almost didn’t recognize him anymore, but
he was happy, so I didn’t care. Jessica was alive and vibrant just
like Aaron, willing to try anything. I could even picture her
skydiving if Danel would allow it. And when we did spend time
together, all he talked about was Jessica and all I talked about
was Kye.

Aaron, through Kye, had made arrangements for someone
to run the shop without him. And I’d moved everything out of my
apartment and into storage, via Kye again. I planned on staying
forever, we both did.

Ben and I played chess while Kye was working and he
always won. Always. Eventually, he gave me a job cleaning out their
version of a ventilation system, which didn’t actually vent
anything. It was more like an atmosphere purifier for the station,
which they preferred since humans were putting more and more toxins
into Earth’s atmosphere. This job was not my first pick. He started
me with all twenty stories of it. I found myself one day hanging
from a harness five stories up in a shaft that was no wider than a
closet, asking myself, “how did I get this job?” I had to laugh at
the craziness of it, because I hated heights. Yet, I had to admit
everything was less scary because Jessica could heal whatever I
broke. Almost everything.

Ben started to remind me of my father, who died when
I was young. He was funny and too old to be too serious, but a very
good listener. I asked him if it would be okay for me and Kye to be
really together. He raised his brows at me. I wasn’t sure if she
had the human version of anatomy that I was hoping for. I’d spent
the night in her quarters, but it was always to sleep. He laughed
at me hard and then laughed some more and told me I could just ask
her. Even though he made me wait a few minutes, he eventually
disclosed that her genetic makeup was actually seventy-two percent
human. He seemed interested when I talked about Kye. It was like
he’d never seen her the way I saw her.

Everything was perfect for exactly two more months.
Everything was fine until I was in L corridor when Kye had already
gone topside for work 10 hours earlier. And I saw her leaving
Danel’s quarters. It just didn’t seem right, because she was always
gone for twenty-four hours or more. I quickly turned around and
headed the other direction, saying nothing and I didn’t think she
saw me at all. There was a part of me that didn’t want to know.

THE NEXT MORNING, I thought about everything over a
cup of coffee and decided I was just being ridiculous.

After I cleaned out ventilation sections 12 thru 10,
I would just find Kye and talk to her and hopefully she would talk
to me. If this was unsuccessful, I would find Danel and confront
him.

When I was done working, I searched for Kye. After
twenty minutes, I found her, Aaron and Danel in the same large
conference room where we had originally discussed the box.

“Was I not invited?” I tried to ask in a comedic way,
as I walked in.

“You were working when Kye got me,” Aaron said.

“Well, why the long faces?”

I noticed three files on the large table. They were
labeled; Brian, Lolita and Marie. The look on Aaron’s face was
disturbing. I think he was in shock.

“Wasn’t Brian taking care of your shop?”

“Yes, an old friend and now he’s dead,” Aaron said
sadly.

I looked at Kye, but she looked upset as well.

“Lolita?”

Kye looked at me with sad eyes, which meant Marie was
dead too. Kye shook her head and she got up quickly.

“We did manage to save this.” She pulled out a small
kennel from behind her and placed it on the table opening the gate.
I was shocked as Zero came running out and leapt into my arms.

“Z… oh, I missed you, buddy.”

I knew this was no time to be happy, but I loved that
dog. He licked my face and Kye smiled that she had saved something
that was obviously very precious to me.

I cradled Zero in my left arm, “thank you,” I
said.

Danel let out an irritated sigh the minute he saw the
dog.

“How did this happen?”

“They were all killed the same way Richie was,” Kye
said.

Not like Richie. I slumped down into one of the
oversized chairs and hung my head, closing my eyes. I wasn’t
expecting this.

“It’s because of me — because I found the box and
brought it to his shop and the killer probably followed me to
Lolita’s and probably waited for me to return.”

“Lew, you didn’t even know what the box was,” Aaron
said, trying to reassure me.

“We have to make some calls,” Danel said, as he got
up to leave.

Danel didn’t get more than two steps out into the
hall when Ben approached him.

“What?” Danel said, impatiently.

“They’re coming.”

“That’s not possible.”

“I know that, but they’re in flight in this direction
now.”

Kye looked at me, then Aaron.

“Can we get them out of here?” she said.

“How long?” Danel asked Ben.

“An hour, maybe less.”

By Kye’s expression, this was not enough time.

Now I was concerned. Who was coming? Military?
FBI?

“FBI?” I said.

“I wish it were; we have people there,” Danel
mumbled, rubbing his eyes with his large hand.

I now thought about how Richie died. Instinctively, I
felt for my revolver in the shoulder holster, which I wore today,
but who were
they
?

“I thought you had coverts all over. FBI, military,
cops?”

“We do,” Danel said.

“Then who’s coming?”

Ben’s and Danel’s eyes were locked. Even in the dim
blue light, I could see their bodies stiffen, their muscles
contracting with tension. This sent a wave of urgency through my
body, so I stood up and took two steps closer to the hall. Aaron
now stood up, following my lead. The silence was unbearable and
images of Richie flashed through my mind: his mutilated skull, his
lifeless body. And now more people were dead.

“Who’s coming?” I said again, now trying to control
my anger. I wondered what could be worse than aliens. What could be
worse than aliens doing genetic experiments with humans, splicing
human DNA with alien DNA? What in this world would make even Danel
speechless?

“Just show them,” Kye said.

“They nearly passed out when they saw me,” Danel
said.

This made me feel worse. What did she mean,
show
them
?

“We don’t have time, just show them.” Kye’s voice was
now demanding.

This was bad. This sounded very bad.

“Contact station ten; they are the closest. Tell them
to get here as soon as they can and call Rigdon with the FBI. Maybe
he can get here faster,” I never saw Ben move so quickly — in an
instant, he was gone.

Quickly, I put Zero back in the kennel.

“Gentlemen, follow me.”

WE WERE SPRINTING down another long corridor that
I’d only been in once. I remembered it; it was corridor G where the
clones were. We were not moving as fast as I would’ve liked, but
with Danel’s long strides, Aaron and I were almost running to keep
up. After a hundred yards, we reached another medical lab that had
a number of computers and more machines that I couldn’t identify.
Collin was standing in the center of the room writing something on
a clipboard in his hands. I was getting better at recognizing
them.

When Collin looked up, I couldn’t read his
expression, but if I had to guess, I would say he looked confused
by our presence.

“Show them the creature.”

Collin nodded his head and his glowing eyes dimmed
for just a second. Then he led us into another section of the lab
through a very large metal door with a keypad lock. As we entered,
the dim blue lights came on. It was a small room and all I saw was
a dark mass in the center of it.

“Bright,” Collin said and the light increased
significantly.

“Oh my God!” Fell out of my mouth and I walked back
three feet, almost dropping the kennel. Zero whimpered and then
started growling.

There it was, laid out in the center of the room.
Sick terror filled my stomach. My throat thickened and I almost
couldn’t breathe.

“It’s dead,” Kye said, trying to calm me.

I couldn’t take my eyes off of it. This was coming?
This thing? I was frozen: my mouth agape, my eyes locked open. And
it wasn’t just one coming; he said “they” were coming.

Danel was right; it was so much worse than his kind.
The species on this station were at least humanoid. The dark shiny
mass in the center of this room was not. My heart was hammering
against my chest. Danel at least had hands I could shake, eyes and
even some semblance of a nose and feet.

“Several of our coverts were attacked by this and
they managed to kill it and bring it back,” Danel said.

I tried to compose myself and swallowed hard. My
heart was still racing and I couldn’t unlock my eyes from this
thing in front of us.

Aaron, being his usually too-calm, too-curious self,
moved around me to get a better look at the creature in the center
of the room.

“It can’t harm you,” Collin said to me.

“You mean it can’t harm us yet.”

Collin looked at Danel.

“They’ll be here in less than an hour,” he said.

Collin looked at me and now I could actually see a
distinct nervousness in him, something about his eyes becoming
wider around the centers.

“Do you really think they’ll show up in the middle of
the day?” Collin said.