In His Alien Hands (17 page)

“Whatever happens, stay put,” he said, and then dove over the side of the boat.

“Bane!”

She went down on her knees and reached out, scrambling to find him in the dark water, but he’d gone deep and there was no sign of him. She screamed his name over and over, until her voice grew hoarse.

“Why did you leave me?” she whispered. They’d come so far together, so why now? Exhausted, she slumped against the side of the boat and waited.

Remarkably, the boat remained where he’d left it despite the waves determined to push it back to shore. He hadn’t anchored it, Josie reflected; the only rope she saw lay coiled on the floor. The rain continued to pour down, and the world around her still erupted in chaos.

How could you leave me here?

How long she remained sitting numbly, hearing the frightened cries of Markley over the howl of the wind and the thunder, she had no idea. So when a light appeared beneath the surface and a wide, dark shape began to rise up, she stared at it in shock. “What the hell?”

Slowly, the object surfaced. She noted it was sleek and black, about eight or more feet high by about ten feet long, saucer-shaped, resembling a miniature version of the UFOs floating over the cities. A moment later she saw a hidden panel whisk upward revealing a doorway. Bane stood in the opening.

“Bane?” She stared at him in wonder.

The craft rested barely five feet from the boat. “Reach the oar out to me and I’ll pull you over,” he instructed.

She found herself mechanically obeying. The sight of him, knowing he was safe, overcame any reservations she harbored. He caught the oar and pulled her toward him.

“The cat,” he said.

“Oh, yeah.”
Did I actually forget Markley?

He put the carrier inside the craft and then took the other bags she passed to him. Then he reached for her hand.

She caught a glimpse over his shoulder of a high-tech panel with flashing lights. A domed, circular podium, about waist high, dominated the center of the space.

He pulled her up and moved aside, giving her room to enter. The door whisked shut, closing them inside. She looked around in wonder.

“How?” The first question that came to mind.

“There’s a lot to explain. First, we need to head someplace safe.”

He led her over to a pair of high-back chairs and she sat down. He took up a stance before the podium and peered down intently, as though searching for something. Sets of controls encircled the miniature dome. He pushed a few buttons and flipped a couple of switches, causing the dome to glow. Across from her she saw a section of the ship vibrate and then become transparent, allowing her to see outside.

Bane came over and sat down in the seat beside her. As the craft lifted up off the surface of the water he reached for her hand. Very soon the tops of the trees disappeared and all she could see was the starry night sky. She knew they were moving, but she’d yet to feel any motion.

She stared down at her hand clinging tightly to Bane’s. Lifting her gaze to his, she was dismayed at seeing the stranger she’d spent the last few days with, and not the man she’d fallen in love with. It dawned on her that he probably hadn’t taken her hand in comfort. More likely, it was to keep her from fleeing.

Chapter 4

This is it, Josie thought. Bane was taking her to one of the huge ships in the sky. He was the enemy, and she’d blindly followed him right to her own demise. The words
take me to your leader
echoed in her head. She stifled the urge to give in to crazed laughter. How could she have been so trusting? So stupid?

“Are you one of them?” she asked, her voice barely a whisper.

“No.” His chilly gaze suggested otherwise.

Carefully, she disentangled her fingers from his and tried to scoot over in her seat. His eyes narrowed.

“I’m not one of them,” he insisted.

She stared around the interior of the ship, vainly searching for a way out.

“Jose.” His voice was gentle, but she wasn’t fooled.

“I know what this is. It’s like
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
.” Josie got to her feet and glared at him accusingly. If she was going down, she’d go down fighting. And knowing the truth.

He actually laughed. “God, this is my fault for making you watch that damned movie a million times with me.”

Josie peered at him intently. Yes, he looked like Bane. And when he tried really hard, he could even act like Bane. But he wasn’t him. He couldn’t be him. She waved her hand. “You don’t fool me. Not anymore. I should have seen it earlier, all the signs were there. The coldness, the detachment, you don’t even like the cat.”

“I saved the damn cat,” he argued.

“Grudgingly, and only so you could get me to go with you. So what happens now, huh? You take me up to the ship and some alien asshole inhabits my body too?”

“Calm down.” He exhaled loudly and ran a hand over his head.

“Don’t tell me to calm down. You’ve kidnapped me, and now you’re taking me up there—”

“I’m not taking you to the alien ship,” he interrupted.

“Then where are you taking me?”

He reached out his hand and Josie took a step back. “Don’t touch me.”

“I haven’t been replaced by a pod person.”

“Yeah, well prove it,” she snapped.

He stared at her for several moments. A coy smile crossed his lips as though he recalled something amusing. “Do you remember how we got Markley?”

“Yes, of course. Do you?”

He chuckled then frowned as though annoyed with himself. “We weren’t looking for a pet. We’d talked about getting one once we saved up enough money to buy a house. But then, we wanted a dog.”

Josie nodded, but wasn’t taken in so easily.

“I was writing my fourth novel. You were at my old apartment making us dinner and I was working. I came out of the den and asked you to come listen to something.”

She didn’t say anything, only waited for him to continue.

“There was a scratching in the walls. You didn’t hear it, so I got you to kneel down behind my desk. Remember you told me the sound was in my head. That maybe I needed to take a break. But then you heard it too. You tapped on the drywall and we both heard a little cry. I dug a hole out with a knife, further down from the noise so I wouldn’t hurt whatever it was. You stood back by the door, afraid it was a rat, or a mouse, or something sinister. And then, out popped this tiny, black head meowing its face off. We named him Markley, after the alien in my story.”

Josie wiped a tear that came to her eye. When he held out his hand again, she went to him. He pulled her into his arms, and she rested her head on his chest.

The sky was so much darker, the stars so much brighter, since the blackout. Now that her initial shock had passed, Josie felt millions of questions brimming over inside of her. Whether her companion cared to answer them or not would be another matter.

Markley meowed loudly, and she asked Bane if she could let him out. He agreed and she knelt down to open the carrier. The cat appeared unfazed; after sniffing around a bit, he curled up and began washing his paws.

Bane moved around the small interior of the ship, opening and closing several hidden compartments. From each he extracted a palm-sized, metallic device that was high-tech in appearance. He put a couple of them into his jacket pockets, and the others into the bags they’d brought on board. Ignoring her sodden clothes, she retook her seat and gave her companion a quizzical gaze, hoping he’d take the hint.

Eventually Bane sat down and ran his hand over his shaved head. She waited patiently while he appeared to gather his thoughts. “Earth is under attack. We’ve known this day would come eventually.”

“We?” she asked.

“There are others like me. We’re here because of them.”

“You’re not like them—the ones in the ships?” Her tone sounded stilted. She rubbed her sweaty palms on her damp jeans.

“No. Well, yes. In some ways.” He exhaled a long breath. “How can I explain this in a way you’ll understand?”

“Start at the beginning,” she suggested. Absentmindedly, she trailed her fingers through her wet hair.

“I’m not human.”

“What? What do you mean?”
God, if he starts shedding his skin…

“I appear human, the others like me do as well, but we’re actually from another planet—”

“Wait a sec.” She gripped her hands together; that crazed laughter threatened to bubble up, and she had to force herself to get control. So he wasn’t a pod person, they’d established that. But this was worse. It took several deep breaths before she knew she could speak calmly. “Have you known this all along? Because you’re sure a damn convincing actor if you did.”

“No, I didn’t. Not until the invasion. It was like a switch turned on, awakening me, and suddenly I remembered everything. Remembered who I am.”

Josie looked at her hands and saw they were trembling. “And who is that?”

“We’re Acacians, from Planet Gannon. Those of us who are here, we’re what you would call Sentinels—guardians of Earth. Protectors of the human race.”

“Against what?”

“Extinction.”

She surged to her feet. This was all too much. “You mean those ships....they’re here to wipe us out—completely?” Deep down she’d feared exactly that. Yet, part of her had prayed she was wrong.

“Eventually, yes.” He didn’t bother to sugarcoat it.

“So that’s how you knew about the waves—the arrival, the electricity, the earthquakes. My God! How are they doing this? Why are they doing this?”
I can’t believe I’ve been having sex with an alien!

“As advanced as you think Earth is, in comparison to them you’re nothing. Humans have no idea what they’re up against, and can’t possibly hope to compete. These invaders—I’m certain they’re Cadeyrns, from Planet Centeris—can cause earthquakes and manipulate the weather, but it’s just the beginning. They’re capable of much more. This is like a game to them. They’ll sit up there in the ships and wreak havoc until they tire of it. Then they’ll come down here and pick off whoever’s left.”

“Why Earth? What do they want?”

“Water, resources, whatever they can use. Planets like yours are few and far between. And Earth is an easy conquest.”

“They could ask for help. I’m sure humans would rather share all we have than have it taken from us.”

“They don’t ask. They take. Humans are merely an obstacle they need to eliminate. They’ve done it before.”

“But you said you’re here to help. You can stop this, right? Tell me you can stop them.”

He shrugged. “We’ll do what we can.”

“
What you can
? That doesn’t sound reassuring.”

He gave her a cold look, causing her to take a step back. “For approximately every two hundred and fifty thousand humans there is one of us. We’re scattered all over the planet. Judging by the number of ships out there, I’d say the invaders outnumber my kind at least six to one.”

“If your kind knew this day was coming, why aren’t there more of you? Are more coming?”

“I don’t know. Even if they could get here in time, they might be too late. And as to your other question...it’s no easy thing leaving your world behind to safeguard another. Those of us who are here are descendants from those who have walked the Earth alongside humans since the beginning. Originally, a large number of us volunteered to remain and keep humans and the Earth safe. I was born here. My father was an Acacian, as was his father and his father before him, and so on. Though they never knew their true identity, there was no need. We hoped we would be enough.”

Josie couldn’t believe they’d been here all along. “So what’s the plan? Is there one?”

“Their ships are superior to ours—these small crafts we have on Earth. We cannot engage them until they descend.”

“So we have to take whatever they dish out until they come down?” The frustration she felt was evident in her tone.

“Yes.”

* * * *

Josie slumped down in her seat. “I can’t believe this is happening.”

Bane didn’t feel the need to give her reassurance, not when he couldn’t be certain of the outcome. His objective was to keep as many humans alive as possible. If total annihilation seemed imminent, then he was to take his mate and leave Earth. But he wasn’t about to relay that part of the plan unless it became necessary. Other Acacians had the same objective. They, too, would remain with their mate, secure a small town, and hope to save as many as possible. If their town fell, they would take their mate and leave.

The point that he’d failed to mention, in order to spare Josie some fear, was that the Cadeyrns would take more than food and resources. They’d take slaves as well, as many as they could fit aboard their ships. Men to mine the miniscule resources left deep beneath the surface of Centeris, and women to use in depraved sexual acts. Cadeyrn women, being the more dominant sex, only allowed mating when a child was to be conceived. Other than that, the men were forced to leave them alone. The men also outnumbered the women about a hundred to one, making copulation a far-reaching fantasy to the sexually frustrated males.

The knowledge of the enemy that Bane possessed was current down to minute details, downloaded into his head along with all pertinent information. Somehow or another, his brain must have connected to a collective knowledge bank, frequently updated by Gannon over the years. Bane wished he were able to tap into a collective mind and communicate with other Sentinels and those on Gannon, but he couldn’t. He could only hope that the awakening Sentinels would perhaps activate a warning alarm, alerting Acacians to the danger Earth faced.

He looked over at Josie and saw her eyes close. Everything about her screamed exhaustion. Despite the journey they’d endured, he felt far from exhausted. Exhilarated was more like it. Purpose pumped through his veins.

Earth was under attack, but he was not overly distressed about it. Not when it meant freedom from his inferior self. Though he now knew his true identity, there were still underlying traces of the man he’d thought himself to be.

That man had been the one to reassure Josie he was still the same person she knew and loved. Reliving the memory about Markley had been a trial, yet also a necessity considering the circumstance. The Sentinel in him had allowed it, if only to avoid having a hysterical female on his hands. A flicker of that man had also emerged when Josie fell at the lake. For the briefest of seconds, he’d let down his guard and felt emotions that should have remained buried. Sentiment he acquainted with weakness, and it had no place in the here and now. In order to carry out his mission he must hold a tight rein. He was resolved to do so no matter the cost.