In The Beginning...
Part II
©Mimi Wolske, March-April
2014
All Rights Reserved
Morgan - INALSEAD Agent
I know INALSEAD hired me because of my mixed blood. Hey, I
know I have this albino look...at least I have blue eyes. I look like my mom
and her people—not like that thing Ren dragged back to base.
Any hopes he has of adopting it are killed when two
international police come into Cap's office and take it away. Besides, it
totally does not look like me. It is
dark with dark hair and dark, bug-like eyes...and it's fat. But humans don't
look at differences. We're aliens—we all look alike. That's laughable, but I
don't laugh while Cap scrutinizes me.
INALSEAD still believes I'm going to lead them to where my
mother and her people are hiding. Cap hopes I will, but he knows I won't.
"Look, Cap, Mom's people are not imperialistic. That's one
of those common characteristics forced on them by the UPs, ya know?"
"All I know is I'm under pressure by the Universal
Police to find them and send them to the detention camp for identification and
processing."
Cap's okay, but he's one of those bald, middle-age bosses
who doesn't know how to lead, he likes us all too much...all of us. That's why
I stay. He's on the line, I know it. But, hey, I love my mom. I can get another
job and another boss. I've got just one mom.
"I don't know where they are," I lie.
Cap's office door opens and Ren steps in and closes it behind
him. He looks at me and says, "They're here for you, Morg."
Cap stands and his chair rolls back and hits the wall.
"What the hell did you do now? Dammit, Morgan, I can't keep covering for
you."
Suddenly, the door opens again and two officials and two UPs
barge in. For me, it was like going through a revolving door and nothing making
sense once you make it to the next exit. Here we go again and again and again
and...
"What the—"
"We're here for Detention Hunter Morgan," one of
the officials says.
She says it with a smirk in my direction. Linda Appleton.
She'd been after me since the time she'd been forced to release me so the INALSEAD
could use me to round up law-breaking aliens. I smelled her alien blood the
first time we met. She was a hider, a deceiver, a half-alien, half-human just
like me; except she didn't have a single tell-tale sign. She was even a carded
human. I'll never know how she deceived the blood test because her kind don't
have "blood".
"That's AGENT Morgan, and where's your warrant?" Cap asks, and holds out
his hand.
The other official slaps it into his palm while one of the UPs
pulls my hands behind my back.
"Not that plastic cuff," Applestone gnarls.
"She can slip from those. Here, use these."
I watch as she hands them six woven cylinders. What the hell
are those?
"What the hell are those?" Ren asks.
"Something similar to what the Chinese used hundreds of
years ago and that aliens are unfamiliar with," Linda says. "This is
a variant on their finger trap; this, however, uses even pressure to the digits
and at the same time immobilizes the joints. It serves a similar purpose as the
Chinese's ancient cuffs except not even her strength will be able to break
them."
I feel the UP slide my index fingers into opposite ends of a
cylindrically woven braid, then one each onto each of my remaining four fingers and
finally my opposing thumbs. When he's finished, I react like any captured
animal...I pull and try to break free. They tighten up on each digit and it
feels like they're constricting so tightly they might be cutting off my life juices. I stop.
I hiss at Linda as the UPs pull me pass her. She grins. I
hate this alien-human.
"I'll have you out shortly," Ren says. I appreciate his promises
and loving encouragement.
So what happens when you meet the love of your life and
you're not totally human? I blink both lids and smile. "Sure, Ren. I'll
wait for you down at..." Where was I going?
"Where are you taking her?" Cap demands authoritatively.
God, I love my boss. I think he can read my mind sometimes. I give him a look of acknowledgement.
"The Einstein-Hawking's Brain Probe Institute,"
the other official said.
I look over my shoulder just in time to see that official
point at the warrant he slapped on Cap's hand. Cap opens it and is reading as
they yank me out the door.
I hate that probe. It turns the world into a bizarre
carnival of the absurd for more than seventy-two hours after they're done
probing. It also causes temporary Akinetopsia. That's a neurological reaction
that causes motion blindness in aliens, and for the first day afterwards, it's
impossible to perceive motion. Weird but true and the last time they probed my
brain, I didn't get out of bed or open my eyes for two days.
"Cappppp!" I yell, and struggle against the UPs'
grasp of my arms. I'm strong enough to shake them loose, but they react quickly
and one punches me in the gut while the other holds me.
"Don't try that again or you'll get worse."
"Now, now men. We must be nice to the alien or she
could report us for police brutality." Applestone laughs as if that
statement is a joke.
"As if anyone would listen. Or care," I add the
last statement as a self-pity, negative attention getter.
When Applestone slinks up to my side, I get a whiff of something
foul. She's recently come of age and any alien within a few hundred miles and astute
enough to recognize she is in season will be heading to this encampment. Reptile
aliens, like her, are highly areeusocial and I'm willing to bet my last
Universal dollar she is the single fertile queen here. She's going to be
breeding a caste of warriors soon.
"I should warn the humans about you," I hiss.
"In which of this planet's caves are you going to be having your first
season of sex? It's going to be an extra large and deep one is my guess."
She raises one five-digit hand and strikes my cheek.
"Awww, I think that's going to leave a scar on your pale skin."
My tongue goes to my cheek. I can feel the rise of where one
of her claws dug into my thin skin. I stretch my tongue up to look at it.
There's no blood.
She leans in with a warning look in those unappealing reptilian
eyes and speaks so only I can hear. "Open your mouth to caution anyone,
and you'll be in that cave with me."
Universe Official Linda Appleton
My six-digit hands try to break free of those cylindrical digit
cuffs to no avail. "Keep your forked-tongue threats in your mouth,
Appleton," I sibilate.
There hasn't been an alien-against-alien war since the Great
Universal War of 2315, but if she is, in fact, the queen and is ready to reproduce,
there will be an uprising that will make GUW 15 look like human play. Am I
willing to die in some cave with reptile aliens who want their shot with their
queen?
"Are you ready to die for these low-life humans?"
Part I of In The Beginning... is also posted on this site
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