Charged - Book One Read online

“So enlighten us,” I said, in an insolent way.

  “I’m sure I can answer a lot of questions,” Danel said, pouring Aaron more coffee.

  “How come the device started a count down when I plugged it in from the outside?” Aaron said.

  “It doesn’t matter where it’s activated. We tried to open the hatch when you arrived, but you plugged it in before we could. It’s a safety mechanism, to start departure from any receiving unit,” Danel answered.

  This meant there was more than one station.

  “Just visiting?” Aaron said, taking a sip of the coffee. And, as usual, he spoke like a sixty-seven-year-old professor was stuck in a twenty-seven-year-old body.

  “No.”

  CHAPTER 23

  “WE ARRIVED HERE about five thousand years ago. Your technology hadn’t evolved to the state it is now… neither had you. Only twenty thousand of us escaped the storms.” He paused slightly and his gold eyes pulsed for a second.

  “Back on our planet, there were billions of us.”

  He touched two squares in the corner of the table and a square lid silently slid open in the center. A hologram beamed out from the center of the table and two circles appeared, one white and orange and one brown. I leaned back instinctively due to the size of it. The image, which was better than any 3-D movie I’d ever seen, stretched across the entire table. Surrounding the two larger circles were fifteen smaller blue circles that radiated a soft blue light.

  He then placed two of his long fingers into the hologram itself for a moment and the two circles started rotating around each other, stuck in each other’s gravitational pull. The fifteen smaller circles were about one-tenth their size and rotated around them in a funnel-like motion. Every second rotation the smaller circles at the top would exchange positions with the circles at the bottom. They would slide up, rotate slowing then slide back down to their original positions. It reminded me of a tornado as they moved closer to the planets at the bottom and then farther away at the top.

  “This was Tanjenna, our home and also the name of this ship. It’s very similar to the binary stars close to your solar system: two planets with identical species and geological makeup. We knew the storm would hit Tanjenna about twenty-eight years in advance. So we built ships that would hopefully take us to another inhabitable planet. Most of the station’s space was for food storage, so out of billions, only a few thousand escaped.”

  “The storm?” I said.

  “The storm was a sun near our planet that had gone supernova. Not like your sun, which will become a red giant. This sun was much larger than yours and the shockwaves alone were enough to crush our entire solar system. If it weren’t for our technology, we would be extinct.”

  The planets didn’t look identical to me. The white circle was very detailed, with white sections marking the land and orange and yellow sections marked what I thought to be oceans. It was surrounded by a pink gas-like vapor, which I assumed was their atmosphere. But the other planet looked like desert rock, with little to no water at all.

  “When we got here, the atmosphere was somewhat similar to our own, bearable over time. And the inhabitants were frail, small, limited mentally and physically… and yet vicious enough for wars, genocide, cannibalism, suicide and of course the slow, inevitable destruction of the Earth.”

  “Disappointed?”

  “To say the least, Mr. Kagen. I’ve had the opportunity to watch your kind for thousands of years.”

  It wasn’t disgust in his voice. It actually sounded like sadness. I noticed Aaron’s excitement slowly fade as we watched this thing in front of us sink into its chair, its sighs full of defeat. I made no excuses for my ancestors. I felt no instinctive urge to defend my race. Everything he said was true enough. And my perception of him was altered by the unmistakable earnestness in his voice.

  “Over time we helped you evolve, taught you a language to replace your crude drawings that you can’t even decipher now. Gave you tools to heal your wounded using only what was provided in your own elementary surroundings.”

  “And what about the technology you have now?” It was apparent that I thought it should be shared.

  “It became clear a long time ago that we shouldn’t participate anymore with humans.”

  I couldn’t contain myself to call out a lie when I saw it, “really?” I said, looking at Kye. “Kye appears to be more human than alien and I’d say about twenty years old. So exactly how long have you not been participating?”

  Kye swallowed and her eyes wouldn’t meet mine from across the table. Danel closed the box in the center of the table by tapping the hologram once. He sat upright and looked me directly in the eyes in a possessive way.

  Gentle creature, my ass, I thought.

  “Hybrid.” I let the word hang in the air and waited for some kind of confirmation.

  “More like a genetically altered clone of myself. She is a part of me.”

  “Genetically altered with whose DNA?” Aaron said from across the table. “Did that person volunteer? Exactly how many genetically altered versions of your kind are wandering around?”

  “Besides you, Aaron?”

  This stung. Something I wasn’t expecting. Aaron’s expression was indifferent, unaffected by the statement entirely.

  Danel reached over to the counter behind him without leaving his chair, grabbed a very large file and slid it over to Aaron across the table. The creature’s fluid movement and speed was unnerving. Aaron paged through it and seemed to recognize some of the photos it contained. He seemed impressed by its contents.

  “Twenty percent of Earth’s population is a product of our research. And all of them volunteered. And Aaron’s great-great-grandfather was one of those volunteers.”

  “To make us intellectually acceptable?” Aaron wasn’t really asking; he was just more confirming what was obvious.

  “Is it that bad? Has it really been a disadvantage? Tell me the truth, because if you’re not happy, I’m sure we can find a way to turn you all back into drooling Neanderthals.”

  “Five thousand years ago, we weren’t drooling Neanderthals,” Aaron said.

  Oh, Aaron had hit a nerve. And it was safe to say that Danel didn’t like humans at all.

  “We didn’t do anything that wasn’t asked of us, wasn’t begged for and what did we get in return? Hmm, well, when we first got here, there was a large tribe that thought they would live as long as we did if they just cut us open and ate our innards. We were more than happy to civilize you.”

  Danel’s voice was nearing something close to a snarl, so I changed the subject.

  “What about the agents in my apartment? Your guys?”

  “No, those were not ‘our guys.’ We have tried not to associate with them since the Truman years. We have a few mindful watchers in place. We assume the agents are working with Marie Stakes, but there are a number of small sects still trying to find us within the government, so we can’t be sure. There are some people that believe that we’re more dangerous than helpful. There’s only a handful really, mostly military officials that don’t know that much about us and haven’t been able to find us.”

  There was no hesitation in his answer — no nervous movements or altered breaths. But trying to read Danel was simply impossible. So far, the only human expressions he exhibited were a slight slump of his shoulders and a sigh here and there. And everything sounded just a little bit off to me.

  “How can they not find you? There are three giant satellite dishes up there basically marking an ‘X’ on the spot?”

  Danel seemed irritated now. “We don’t leave, Mr. Kagen. No one leaves the station, ever.”

  I was growing more impatient with every lie that came out of its mouth.

  “Really? Cuz I met Kye in Richie’s apartment.”

  Danel let out a long sigh and although I couldn’t read his expression, if I had to guess, it would’ve said something like, “stupid humans.”

  “Mr. Kagen, Kye can pass for human and her
exit and entrance to the station is strategically planned on every occasion. I’d divulge more, but frankly, this information doesn’t concern you.”

  Wow. That was a quick change that I was totally expecting. We just went from, “I’m happy to tell you everything,” to “frankly, this information doesn’t concern you.” So I changed the subject again.

  “So how does Marie Stakes come into this?”

  “She’s a pawn. She doesn’t even know what she’s gotten herself into. She actually manages an accounting firm in Vancouver. So when Richie got a hold of the box, she was pulled into the situation by the FBI.”

  “What about Richie?”

  Now there was a long disturbing moment of silence. There were no sighs now, which meant whatever he was going to say next, I wasn’t going to believe. Danel looked at Kye to respond for him and she did. This didn’t surprise me either.

  “Richie was not our doing, we can assure you of that,” was all she said. I read nothing in her facial expression that said she was lying, but she could’ve been kept from the truth.

  Danel then pushed the metal briefcase into the center of the table, “as we promised.”

  “You’re just gonna let us leave?”

  “Why not? It’s not like anyone would believe you. It’s not like you would be let back in.”

  Danel wanted us to leave, but I wasn’t interested in leaving or the money. And what did I have to go back to? I couldn’t even return the evidence and I was no closer to solving Richie’s murder.

  “I think we’ll stay,” I said.

  “Then stay as long as you like.” Danel stood up, staring me down and after a few seconds of what I think was supposed to be intimidation, he left the room.

  After a half a second, I realized I did plan to stay. And now I understood something. I was supposed to be grateful that they healed my knee. I was supposed be on their side, rooting for them because they helped us evolve, but I wasn’t. I had that sour feeling in my stomach and I looked up at Aaron, wondering where he stood in the matter. His expression was the same as mine, he wasn’t going anywhere.

  CHAPTER 24

  “LET’S TAKE YOU back to the suite for a day until I let everyone know you’ll be sticking around for a while. I’m sure Danel went to tell Ben,” Kye said.

  “Who’s Ben?” Aaron said.

  “He’s the oldest and a lot more patient than Danel.”

  “How old is he?”

  “Let’s just say he’s seen this ship fly,” she said, smiling.

  This meant he was over five thousand years old. We headed back to the suite and Kye left to grab us some sandwiches from the main hall. The suite door, surprisingly, remained unlocked, but for some reason we didn’t leave the room. Still in shock, I think. Normally, I wouldn’t have hesitated to investigate new surroundings, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to find anything else just yet. I could only imagine what was creeping around the corridors or in the other medical labs. I tried to clear my mind of the images that appeared and I thought half of Danel’s story was full of crap. Basically, he insinuated that his species civilized us, so we wouldn’t slaughter them anymore.

  When Kye returned with some freshly grilled Rueben’s on rye, I could tell she was happy we stayed.

  “When I heard you were on your way, I made sure that we had something to eat down here that you liked.” She laid the tray on the small table in the kitchen area.

  I hesitated, which made Aaron pause. We were both starving, but I wasn’t sure we should trust them. Yes, they had healed my knee, but I kept thinking we were in danger somehow and they had already drugged us once. Were they really just going to let us stick around? I looked at Kye and she pretty much read my mind.

  “It’s just food, I promise.”

  Aaron took the first bite and then another and another. After a few more minutes, nothing bad happened to Aaron, so I believed her and we proceeded to consume the food, muttering a couple of thank-yous.

  “You don’t eat human food?” Aaron said, in between bites.

  “I can eat it and I love most of it, but my body doesn’t absorb any nutrients from it.”

  I noticed she was smiling more often now. She seemed relieved by our presence. I tried not to, but in my head, I kept comparing her to a human woman. She was in her twenties, early thirties at most, but seemed so much older than her body appeared. I found myself wondering if she was as old as Ben.

  There were no immature expressions from her. Just a simple pleased look. There were no lines on her face or hands; I looked at my own hands, engraved in age beyond their years from smoking and drinking. My face had plenty of wrinkles and slightly dark circles around my eyes. I was attractive in my youth, but not like Kye. She was stunning, even with the slightly transparent skin and glowing gold eyes. She was unusually reserved and I could tell that if she wanted you to know something, she would just say it. I was fairly good at reading people’s expressions, but Kye wasn’t really people.

  “Danel mentioned there were no coverts to meet us. Those are hybrids, too?” I said.

  “No, they are humans. There are many that are willing to keep our secret and help us. Just between us, he didn’t want to bring any humans down here to greet you, so he waited for me to return. The humans do not stay for more than a few hours and almost all of them are only allowed to speak to me or Danel.” She waited patiently for additional questions as I finished my last bite.

  She took off her black heels and sat down in the Queen Anne chair across the room. It was only a few feet from the table. She pulled her long legs under her in the chair, making her skirt ride up a little.

  “Then how do you communicate with them?”

  “The same way you do, satellites, Skype, cell phones.” Her wit was dry, but I got the point, as her full lips grew into a smile.

  “Right, but we are pretty deep. How far below the crust are we?”

  “About twenty stories. We have technology that can go through the crust, but I do go topside frequently to communicate with them and the others.”

  “So you’re the only one like… like yourself down here?”

  She nodded and the smile slowly faded. This explained the loneliness I saw in her.

  “So you’re the only hybrid? Is that what they call you?”

  “I’m a companion. And no, there were hundreds of us created. They were developed, taught and shipped to those who ordered them on the other stations.”

  The word “companion” bothered me. This meant she was Danel’s companion.

  I looked at Aaron who caught the same words I did: ordered, shipped.

  “So you’re the only companion on this ship?”

  “Well, yes. I’m the only companion left.” She looked down, hesitant of what she was about to say next. “The companions… did get a prolonged life, but not nearly as long as the elders. The elders live thousands of years and so do their children.” She seemed very careful in her words and was not looking me in the eye when she said them.

  “So why create companions at all?”

  She hesitated even longer than before, contemplating her answer and a grief swept over her face that I hadn’t seen before.

  “The elders can’t reproduce like humans can. Maybe one in a handful of the females can have children at all and most can’t have more than one every few hundred years or so.”

  “So why not call you children?” Aaron finally chimed in.

  “We were called their children in the beginning, but from what I’ve been told, they found it illogical, considering how different we really were from them. We experience human emotions.”

  “So does Danel. I’ve seen it,” Aaron said.

  “No, I don’t mean like that. Humans experience them individually. The elders are all connected to each other emotionally. They can feel each other; their pains, sorrows, happiness, everything.”

  Now this was interesting, like a hive soul.

  “And you can’t feel them?”

  “Very little. It’s sm
all in comparison to what they can feel, but you would probably find it significant.”

  “Can they feel humans?”

  “Not at all, but they’ve learned how to read them really well,” and there was that smile again, brimming behind a serious face.

  “Can you feel humans?”

  A smile spread across her face. “No.”

  “They must find us juvenile.” This was rhetorical, but she answered anyway.

  “Pretty much,” she said, her smile growing even wider.

  I liked her dry wit.

  “And what do you think of humans?”

  “I’m not an elder. I haven’t been alive for thousands of years. I don’t see you the same way.”

  She looked at me for a long moment, long enough for me to see her desire to be human.

  Aaron chimed in again. “So could the companions reproduce?”

  “No, none of us could, no matter what they tried.”

  “So they just stopped making your kind?” I said, knowing she heard the confusion in my voice. Because to me, it seemed like if the companions didn’t serve a purpose, then they’d just let them all die off. I couldn’t image a hybrid, I mean companion, wanting that.

  “That’s correct. They went back to focusing on cloning themselves, with memories and everything. It was ten times easier to splice human DNA with theirs, but eventually they got it right. Or at least we think so. We’ve just started the cloning process and haven’t successfully completed one yet. But we are very close.”

  The cloning comment bothered me. What if that was what they were waiting for? And they are just now able to clone themselves. What if they had been silent all this time because they were perfecting this cloning until they were able to make hundreds of thousands of themselves, or millions? The idea bothered me. What would happen if they did emerge topside and had a couple million clones to disperse? I would discuss this with Aaron later and just ask the easy questions for now.

  “So you are the last one made?” This was a really sad thought, that she watched all her brothers and sisters die.