Beyond the Stars (28 page)

“Come out. We only seek some supplies ourselves,” Hyril demanded in a non-threatening manner.

We stepped out from behind the rock. “Well then, we will be on our way,” Tyden said, turning as he started to leave.

“Do not hurry, Tyden.” The alien unclipped a long rod from a holster on his belt.
Great, he’s going to shoot us. Why couldn’t Gaelan have pulled out a gun or his handy laser cutter? What good was a bracelet going to do?
He held up the wandlike device to each of us and swished it up and down our bodies. I watched as Gaelan and Tyden stood perfectly still. They each had blank expressions on their faces. I immediately understood their reaction to the device when it was my turn. The tool emitted an invisible force that made it physically impossible to move. I struggled to shift my body again and again without being able to muster up so much as a twitch. My arms felt weighted and tingled, as if my molecular structure was made out of metal and stuck to a magnet, when I attempted to resist it. I stood there helplessly paralyzed as the creepy alien went up and down my body. It was hard to breath. I wanted desperately to run away but had no choice but to submit to the exam. Was he checking us for weapons? He didn’t explain what it was, but he must have been satisfied with its readings and hooked it back to his belt.

“Introduce me to your friends,” he seethed through his teeth as three more Dreons silently appeared out of nowhere. They stood quietly behind him, possibly awaiting orders.

“This is Gaelan and Samantha. They are part of my crew,” Tyden said in a nonchalant tone.

“Gaelan, I know your father. Is he well?” Hyril stated as if he were a friend of the family’s.

“Yes, he is fine,” Gaelan replied flatly.

“And you, Samantha?” inquired the alien.

“She’s with me,” interrupted Gaelan defensively.

“Oh, I can see that,” he sneered as he looked down at my wrist. The bracelet was a little loose, making it visible as it rested across the base of my hand. “Your name, Samantha … that is something you do not often hear on this side of the universe. It is almost as though you are from another planet,” he said, seething through his teeth. He moved his face very close to mine. His body was nearly touching me. Hasn’t he heard of invading someone’s personal space? My eyes met his gaze. He stared at me with his giant, glossy black eyes, waiting for my answer. Despite his somewhat human form, his eyes were definitely buglike. A chill ran down my spine. They scared the wits out of me.
Go to hell
, I thought.

“Oh, my dear, I did not mean it as an insult. I was merely curious,” he said darkly. Did he just read my mind?

“Yes, I did. Is there
anything
else you want to share? Perhaps you will tell me where you are from?” He slithered the words out of his mouth like a hissing snake and brought his face in closer to mine. I concentrated hard on spending time with Gaelan aboard the ship. “Interesting.” He gave a devious grin while he continued to stare me down.

Tyden and Gaelan stood in silence. I concentrated on preparing food in the café and exercising with Azil. I couldn’t believe how hard it was to monitor my thoughts. It took all my energy and more to stay in the present. My reaction must have upset him.

“You want to be difficult, do you?” he sneered. He deepened his gaze. This time it hurt. His mind functioned as a weapon. It felt like he was cutting through my brain with a drill. I tried to look away—to shut my eyes, but I couldn’t. He was holding them open somehow. The surrounding walls began to spin rapidly around me. I could hear a strange humming noise. The sound was unrecognizable. It sounded electronic. We were no longer in the cave.

We were
transported?
Was I dreaming? Tyden, Gaelan, and I were suddenly standing in the middle of a stark desert. The sky above us had a gloomy reddish hue, which reflected flatly against the blackened bark of some old, dried trees nearby. They looked as though they had been petrified for thousands of years. Brown dust whirred up in the hot air around us from the infertile ground. Everywhere you looked, there was nothing but brown, cracked dirt due to the droughtlike climate. Hyril suddenly appeared. He strode towards us, kicking up some sand with his feet, but did not speak.

Hyril stopped directly in front of me. “Samantha, what if I threatened to leave you on a planet such as this? Then, would you be willing to tell me where you came from?” he said harshly.

Gaelan stepped in front of Hyril and confronted him. “Stop this!” he demanded. Hyril glared but did not speak. Gaelan found his silence provoking and responded with a swift right hook that landed squarely on Hyril’s face. He followed it with several blows to his gut. Hyril swung back clumsily, hitting only the air around him. Then, Gaelan delivered one hard blow to his jaw, causing Hyril to stumble backwards. Gaelan grabbed Hyril by the throat and lifted his thin body a few inches off the ground.

“Why can’t you freaky low-lifes mind your own business?” Gaelan huffed.

“You are our business,” Hyril sneered. Tyden interjected, “According to who?”

Hyril glared at him. “According to this.” Hyril had managed to grab hold of his paralyzing tool clipped to his belt. He aimed it at Gaelan. To my horror, it didn’t just freeze him in place. Instead, it sent him soaring fifteen feet in the air, causing his body to crash down to the ground below.

“Gaelan,” I screamed while trying run to him. Before I could reach him, Hyril fired the device at me and then Tyden. It stopped us instantly. We were unable to move anything but our eyes. Hyril looked at me with a sinister grin as he drew a long metal sword from his hip.
Oh no
, I thought in panic, he was planning
to kill us
. He approached Gaelan, who was stumbling to his feet. Without delay, he forcefully drove the sword through his gut. Gaelan winced in pain before sliding off the blade and dropping dead to the ground.
No!
I cried with anguish. Then, Hyril turned and drove the sword into Tyden to kill him as well. I watched whirls of dust blow over their lifeless bodies, sticking to their wounds. I stood beside them, unable to move or go to them as wide puddles of their blood traveled across the dry ground, seeping into the cracks and running into my feet.

“
Ahh
,” I gasped, despite my petrified state.

“It’s too late for them, but you can save yourself. You have a choice. You can go home. You will be safe there.
Tell me
where you are from,” he demanded. His face was hard. His cold, dark eyes emanated evil.

I attempted to scream but couldn’t make a sound. I was helplessly alone in the middle of nowhere with the murderer. I surveyed the landscape with my eyes, looking for an escape. There was nothing. It didn’t matter—I was unable to move. He looked at me before he lifted the same bloody sword with two hands and impaled it right into my stomach and straight out the other side. I gasped for air as the horrific pain tore through me and brought me to my knees. With all of my power, I managed to resist the paralysis and grabbed hold of the sword with both of my weakened hands. I attempted to pull it out. Its sharp edges jaggedly cut into my palms, but it wouldn’t budge. I felt my life force fading. Is this how it felt to die?
Oh no
,
I’m not ready
, I thought while I clung onto the embedded sword. I knew I shouldn’t give up, but the wound was too great. I looked at my hemorrhaging abdomen and felt the warm blood soaking through my shirt. It was no use. There was too much damage. I thought about leaving Leah and Jackson. “No,” I cried, “I can’t! They need me.
I love them!
” I sucked in wheezing gasps of air. I fought to cling onto my life.

“Tell me about your planet,” he persisted.

No
, I thought.
I would
never. Instead, I said a prayer asking for a miracle. It seemed to give me strength. Before I knew it, I found myself surrounded by a warm, golden light and an overwhelming feeling of love. A peaceful, protective force encompassed me. I knew I was safe. This
couldn’t
be real. I would be dead by now. It had to be the alien. He was putting the pictures in my mind to try to scare me, intimidate me. I took back control of my mind. I concentrated even harder on peaceful thoughts. I pictured the agility course aboard the ship. I thought about our walk across the frozen lake and climb up to the cave. “Please, make it stop,” I cried out in desperation. Suddenly, Hyril’s silhouette hovered above me, blocking out the red light from the sky above. He pulled out the sword, leaned down, and touched my abdomen with a glob of something wet and sticky. It closed the wound and caused the pain to instantly disappear. His hold on me seemed to lessen, my strength returned, and I regained movement in my whole body. I had won. Without warning, my body felt like it was floating and the desert scenery around me faded into the background.

“Well, I guess there is nothing more.” Hyril’s snarky voice echoed in my head as he backed away from me, sounding disappointed. I had mysteriously reappeared in the cave. How did I get here? Did I ever leave? I thought I was losing my mind. I shuddered at the revolting, deranged psychological torture he had planted in my head when he attempted to trick me into telling him where I lived. I felt him fully release his mental grip on me. I took a few steps backwards to maintain my balance when my body fell back as though I had been pulled off a giant suction cup. It was physically draining. My arms and legs felt numb and tingly while they regained their full strength. I immediately looked over at Gaelan and Tyden. To my relief, they were standing there as they were before, alive and completely unharmed.

“Peace to you.” Tyden stated to Hyril before he briskly turned to leave, ushering Gaelan and me ahead of him.

“And to you, my Katarian friends,” replied the alien sarcastically in a slithery voice.

“Let’s get out of here.” Gaelan motioned with his hand.

“I’m way ahead of you,” I said with urgency as I threw my backpack on my back. We walked swiftly towards the mouth of the cave. I led the way. Under pressure, I mastered the rocky terrain with ease. I stepped boldly across the stone beams and undeveloped landscape. My desire to distance myself from the Dreons took precedence over prudence. To my surprise, the Dreons were nowhere in sight. They seemed to have vanished into thin air. I didn’t know how they were exiting the cave. They must have found another way in.

“Are you okay?” Gaelan called out wistfully from behind me. I continued rushing towards the exit.

“I’m fine,” I answered in a faint voice. All my energy was focused on getting far away from the wicked Dreons. It was hard to forget the terrifying image Hyril had injected into my mind. It seemed so real.

We reached the snowy entrance in record time. Everyone was waiting for us outside. They had all managed to slip past the Dreons and get out.

“Sami, come here,” exclaimed Noah when he saw me. He pulled me directly into his arms and squeezed me in a death grip. “Oh, thank goodness!” He sighed.

“You can say that again.” The words could barely express my elation. “I’m not sure what the Dreons would have done to me if they knew I wasn’t a Katarian.”

“I was sure they would have taken you. Of course, then I would have to kick some major Dreon butt!” Noah threatened in a harsh voice.

Pascal joined in, “I hear you,” sounding up for the fight. His voice rang with animosity.

“Take it easy now,” warned Zaric in an authoritative tone. “Please don’t start a war today.”

I surveyed the white, barren landscape. “Where are they now? Did they come in another way?” I asked.

Noah shook his head. “They’re not here. They use teleporters to return to their ship.”

I looked up at the hazy sky, searching for a glimpse of their ship. I didn’t see anything.

“You guys are masters at hiding,” complimented Karis in a sweet voice as she glided up beside us. She seemed desperate for Noah’s attention. I released myself from Noah’s grip to ease her discomfort.

“We had a brief encounter,” Tyden said grudgingly. My eyes quickly jumped over to his face. To my surprise, I found him looking back at me with a gaze much softer than usual.

Pascal’s jaw dropped open. “
What
? They found you? How did you
all
get away?” he asked, sounding perplexed as he nodded his head towards me. “Did they perform a mind-sweep on you, Samantha?” he asked urgently.

“Yes, I think … if that’s what you call it,” I answered, unsure.

Enos rolled his eyes. “Fantastic, that’s all we need. This is great news for them,” he snapped sarcastically. “The Dreons will be ecstatic. The Katarians are harboring a girl from Earth. They will call us hypocrites. They will start taking liberties, all because of Sami. She’ll put us all in danger,” Enos complained angrily. I was starting to dislike him more and more. He could really get on my nerves. He was so cynical for such a young man. He had moaned about every little thing today. I liked him better when he didn’t open his mouth.

“Don’t overreact. They don’t know anything, Enos,” Gaelan reassured. “There is nothing to be concerned about.” Gaelan’s eyes tried to hold my gaze, making the comment seem as though it were meant for me.

“We took care of it,” Tyden spoke calmly, trying to diffuse the tension. “Let us return to the ship and be on our way,” he commanded, leaving no room for discussion.

I could see why Tyden, Gaelan, and Zaric held a high rank. All of them possessed incredible maturity. Tyden’s order wasn’t challenged. No one even asked how we handled the encounter once he spoke. Tyden’s words clearly had authority. I could see that he was greatly respected by all members of the crew. One night, I had discussed my fear of Tyden with Gaelan. I told him how I found him incredibly intimidating. I remembered Gaelan laughing at me. He said that I would feel differently if I knew him better. He said he just had a serious demeanor. He explained that Tyden was the oldest crew member and that he had more experience than anyone aboard. Gaelan told me that Tyden could probably run the whole ship by himself if he had to. He spoke about him with such admiration. I was starting to understand why. Tyden held himself remarkably well under pressure. Maybe I was reading him all wrong. If it wasn’t for him helping Gaelan, I wouldn’t have been able to wear the Katarian bracelet and disguise myself in front of the Dreons. If he really didn’t like me, he would have just let them take me. I would be a kidnapped lab rat right now. I was indebted to him.