Starcrossed: Perigee - A paranormal romance trilogy (20 page)

Inside, it was just as starkly furnished as the original room, but this time a large, opaque window covered most of the wall to the left, a second heavy metal door to its right. A security camera jutted from a corner of the ceiling. The table was positioned against the wall under the window. It occurred to me I hadn't seen any windows since I'd arrived here, other than the occasional internal window which provided glimpses into the offices and rooms of the maze like complex. I figured if I'd gone down eight floors, and I'd never seen a glimpse of the outside through any windows, then perhaps this facility was underground. I felt as if I were in the middle of a huge termite's nest. I was glad I didn't get claustrophobic.

Clare instructed me to sit down at the table and wait. She left the room and I sat alone, uncomfortably aware of the intruding lens of the security camera above me. It was the first time I'd been left by myself, and I had a chance to collect my thoughts. My nerves were stretched thin; I'd never felt as vulnerable and alone as I did now. No one knew where I was. I wondered if Aric was even looking for me. Perhaps he'd thought I'd been so angry with him I'd taken off for good. I closed my eyes and a mental image of his tormented face filled my mind. I had really ripped into him. My words were harsh, but his own self-recrimination was what was really destroying him. I shivered at the thought of helpless humans eternally chained and farmed for their blood. I couldn't believe the Aric I knew - thought I knew, would assist in anything so... barbaric. He'd been nothing but gentle, patient and kind to me. How much had he known when he'd been 'performing his duties'?

Was he looking for me? Would there be any way he could find out where I was? My location was a mystery to me - as was the date. I could have been unconscious for days, or perhaps it was only this morning that the Tweedle brothers accosted me at the internet cafe. A big lump of dread welled in my stomach. I'd spent my life worrying about belonging and now I was well and truly on my own. With angry words I had run off the person who had taken me under his wing and had returned the affection I had finally learned to share. I wouldn't blame him if he'd given up on me, and had decided to move on and forget me.

The reflection of my miserable face gazed back at me from the milky glass of the window. I wondered if it was a one-way window - were Smith and Clare on the other side of it, studying me now? The glass was embedded with a tiny grid of wires. Strange - bullet proof glass wasn't enough? I thought of the armed soldiers in the corridor. Just what did they think I was capable of doing! I was seventeen, five feet seven, a light weight really. The whole situation was ridiculous. I could do nothing for them - so why were they so interested in me? Eyeing the security camera in the corner, I resisted giving it the finger, and slumped back against the chair. I was suddenly exhausted - emotionally and physically. This nightmare seemed unending.

I sat by myself for what seemed like hours. I had no idea what the time was - the lack of sunlight played havoc with my body clock. Finally, the door opened and Smith and Clare entered the room. Clare was carrying the folder again. I figured Smith considered himself too important to do that simple task. Smith sat down at the end of the table to my left, and Clare followed suit opposite him, sliding the folder towards him. Without saying a word, she produced a clean ashtray from her pocket, and slid it across the table. Smith inspected the folder's contents while extracting a cigarette from his packet. He lit the cigarette automatically, and took a big drag, deliberately taking his time, prolonging my wait. I squirmed in my seat and looked at him warily. I'd seen plenty of television shows and movies about aliens, and I noted Smith was the stereotypical mysterious guy in charge of the secret alien project who always smoked like a chimney. Perhaps it was a stressful job...

Finishing with the report, he looked up at me and studied me for a moment.

"You've been here three days. I'm betting you'd like to go home. Are you ready to cooperate yet?"

I threw up my hands in exasperation. "I have nothing to tell you!" We were going around in circles.

"You can read minds. We know about the hybrids, and yet your DNA is entirely human. How can this be?"

I shrugged, saying nothing. If he didn't know anyone could learn to do it, I wasn't about to tell him.

"Who was that man you were with? Where have you been staying since you left Craigsville?"

I pressed my lips together.

"I don't know why you're protecting them. The hybrids are just as manipulative and deceitful as the Innaki."

So they knew about the hybrids. My blood chilled, but I refused to respond.

"Perhaps you need to decide whose side you're really on." He nodded to Clare, and she flicked a switch on the wall beside her.

The milky white finish on the glass disappeared and the window became transparent. I peered through the glass, my eyes taking a moment to adjust to the gridded image before me. My heart leaped into my mouth and I jumped off the chair, sending it crashing across the floor. I backed up until I hit the wall and I could go no further, the nightmare as real as ever peering back at me through the window with big black eyes. I was staring at the face of an Innaki.

"Sit down Lucy," Smith ordered. "It can't hurt you."

I looked at him with wild eyes. "You don't understand - it can contact the others! They'll come and..."

"It's contained in a specially sealed room which prevents it from being able to communicate with them."

"If it weren't for the system we have in place," added Clare, "it would be able to walk right through the wall and escape."

I relaxed slightly, and moved cautiously towards the table. The creature was looking through the glass, studying me with its huge, shiny black eyes. I stared back. Knowing it was safely behind a shield, I was able to take some time to look at it properly. It resembled a tiny, deformed, hairless human. Its skin looked thin and fragile. A pale gray color with a slight tinge of pink, its smooth flesh stretched taut over a bulging forehead and pointed chin. The nose was almost indiscernible other than two small holes I took for nostrils. Its tiny mouth was barely a slit.

Something moved behind it, and I jumped, startled. "There's someone in there with it!" I exclaimed. I looked closer. It was a man dressed in a white safety suit. He was sitting on a chair, a notebook computer perched on his lap.

"He's trying to talk with it," said Clare.

Smith inhaled another dose of smoke, and tapped his cigarette on the ashtray. Both of them were observing the creature, their faces unreadable.

"A very brave man," said Smith. "That thing has cooked the brains of four soldiers already."

My eyes opened wide and I shuddered.

"Where... how... did you come to have it here?"

"We downed one of their vehicles. It was the only survivor." By vehicles I presumed he meant their spacecraft. I wondered what kind of weapons would be needed to shoot down one of those incredibly fast machines.

Smith leaned over and righted my overturned chair. "Sit down Lucy," he ordered.

Gesturing to the creature, he leaned back and blew a cloud of smoke above his head. "You're looking at an incredibly evolved creature. Physically, they're weak, but that big melon head contains amazing abilities to perform feats our scientists say should be impossible."

I remembered the way they'd made me float in the air across my bedroom, and shivered.

"They have no moral compass whatsoever, no emotions - totally driven by the instinct for their species to succeed and thrive. Deceitful little devils - you can't believe a word they tell you."

I continued to watch the creature through the glass. It had lost interest in me and was pacing back and forth in front of the man with the laptop.

"We want you to go in there and try and get inside its mind."

I looked at him sharply, alarm spreading throughout my body. "What?! No!" What had he said - the thing had 'fried four brains' already? The idea of entering that room was insane.

"I'm not going in there!" I said desperately. "For god's sake, this is not my... my..." I couldn't think of the right word. "Problem," I finished lamely.

Smith looked at me coldly through a haze of smoke. "You're part of the human race aren't you? I would think this is every person on earth's 'problem'."

I glanced frantically from Smith to Clare, but there was no sympathy from either of them.

"I'm not doing it," I said, defiantly.

"Then if you can't do it for humanity, perhaps you'll do it for your uncle. Apparently, you're very fond of him."

My head snapped up, and I looked at him in alarm.

"What do you mean - what..."

"If you don't cooperate, your uncle dies. It's your choice." Smith shrugged lightly, and stubbed out his cigarette.

My eyes filled with tears and I swallowed the big lump which rose to my throat. There was no choice. I nodded slowly.

"All right," I said, "I'll do it."

* * * * *

Chapter Nine

Smith moved to the door by the window, and keyed some numbers into a keypad on the wall. There was a loud click, and the door handle moved. He pushed the door open, revealing a small space with another door at the opposite end.

"This is a kind of ante-room. You wait in here until the other door opens. This allows us to keep the room properly sealed at all times so the Innaki can't get out."

Gesturing to the door, he pointed at the keypad. "You don't need to use that - once I've shut this door, the other one will open automatically for you. I want you to try and talk to the E.T., and relay anything it says to Johnson in there. However, it will probably be all lies, so you need to be getting into its head at the same time and listening to what it's really thinking."

He made to exit the original door, but I stopped him.

"But, don't I need one of those... suits? Like... Johnson, in there?"

He shook his head. "You've been exposed to them before. If they were going to have any adverse affect on you, it would have happened by now." He turned and left, the door closing with an ominous thud.

I stood in the small space, trembling, my heart beating frantically. The door into the Innaki's room clicked, and I took a frightened step backwards. Johnson's muffled voice drifted through from the room.

I thought of Uncle Tom, and steeled myself. I would get this over and done with, and hopefully they would be satisfied and leave us alone. Somewhere, in the back of my mind, I knew this was a naive notion, but it was better to think silly thoughts than succumb to the despair that threatened to overwhelm me. The Innaki could read thoughts - I had to be careful to screen off everything about Aric and the other hybrids. I didn't want it to know any of that. I imagined my mind as a big circle, and divided it up like a pizza with white lines. Everything I wanted to keep to myself I shifted to one side, and left a small blank section free for me to use. God bless Marcus and Phil, I thought gratefully, for teaching me to do this properly.

Pushing the door open slowly, I stuck my head through and looked cautiously around. The Innaki was in the opposite corner, Johnson, sitting in the chair to the left. He looked at me in surprise.

"Who the hell are you?" he asked. The Innaki continued to watch me from its corner.

I moved into the room and walked towards Johnson, skirting the walls so I could keep as far away from the creature as possible. "Didn't they tell you?" I asked.

"Once we're in here, the room is sealed. They can only see what's happening through the window, or through those." He indicated a camera protruding from the ceiling - there were three of them in all. 'They can't hear us, or talk to us. Why are you in here?" he asked.

I moved closer and stood behind his chair, so that he was between me and the being. "They want me to talk to it."

Johnson looked confused and slightly irritated. "What the hell?! How old are you? They think a kid can do a better job at it than I can?" He paused for a moment, and eyed me thoughtfully. "There must be something special about you if they've sent you in here."

He sat back, and took a look at the laptop screen. "Well, by all means, go ahead. I'm recording everything on this, although I think the battery might be on its way out..." he said, giving the flickering screen a thump which had no effect on the computer. He shrugged and gestured towards the Innaki. "It'll talk to you in your head. Tell me what it says."

It seemed to understand what we were saying. Its voice rang out in my mind - but it wasn't a voice... it was its... thoughts, fully assembled so they just appeared in my head, like conversing in pictures without words.

Lucy Doyle, it said, you are very frightened.

It knew my name - but then, I hadn't shielded that. I kept the circle in my mind strong and intact.

"What is your name?" I asked out loud.

I do not have a name you can pronounce, but the humans call me MH.
MH'? I wondered what that stands for.

I believe it stands for Melon Head. It is an attempt at what humans refer to as 'humor'.
I forgot the Innaki could read my thoughts too. I'd have to be more careful - I needed to be in control of this conversation.

"Well, what's it saying?" asked Johnson impatiently. I threw him a surprised look. I'd already forgotten he was there.

"It says he knows they call him Melon Head."

Johnson chuckled to himself. "Well," he said, gesturing towards the creature, "keep going."

"How long have you been here?" I asked.

I am told, four of your Earth years.
It stared back at me with bulging eyes. A bump on its forehead pulsed as it 'spoke'. It was disconcerting, and my eyes were drawn to it when it talked as though this was its real 'mouth'.

I continued with my interrogation. "Why are you here?"

The humans destroyed my craft and captured me.

"No, I mean, why are the Innaki here, visiting Earth?"

Its eyes narrowed, and I sensed it was reluctant to answer.
We are improving the human gene code.