Sacred Trust (11 page)

“I should stay here and wait for the police.” I didn't want to disappoint Ruen's father.

“What do you mean?” asked my father. He looked alarmed at the mention of the police.

“I called Officer Kikess and told him what happened. He said he'd send a couple of police officers over to help with the search.”

“Okay. You stay here, and we'll go to the top floor. Join us as soon as the officers arrive.”

After my Dad and Ilandus took the elevator to the top floor, only a few moments passed before two Basilian police officers appeared. They approached me immediately—they obviously knew who I was.

“We are here to help you search for Tata. Officer Kikess has sent us a com photo to help us in our search. Where would you like us to start, Nara Scotia?”

They obviously knew everything about the situation as well. Their politeness pleased me, as I had been involved in too many uncomfortable encounters lately.

“Ambassadors Tata and Scotia are on the top floor; I'll join them. Perhaps you should start on the bottom floor and make your way up towards us. Here is my com number so you can call me if you find Eonus.”

We exchanged numbers, and I watched the officers leave to start their search.

For some reason, I hesitated to begin searching again for Eonus. Frankly, I was afraid of what I might find.
Nothing!

I journeyed up the escalator without looking at any of the marvels to be seen around me. I found Dad and Ilandus at the top.

“We've scoured this floor thoroughly, and Tata is nowhere. So, we need to go down one level and continue our search there,” said Dad.

“Police?” asked Ilandus.

“Yes, they've arrived and they're going to start from the bottom and make their way up to us. Between all of us, we should be able to find him.” I wanted to reassure Tata's mother. For the first time, since I'd known her, her posture had slumped. I reached up and put my hand on her shoulder. She gave me a small smile.

The three of us went down to the seventh floor. Dad and Ilandus went one way, and I went the other. Although, from the look on Dad's face, he wanted me to accompany them so I would be close by.

I traversed the outside wall, with an occasional glance towards the middle, looking for Tata. Where can he be?

Then someone whispered in my ear. Dad had crept up on me.

“We've had a glimpse of an albino. We're going to follow him. You stay here, in case we don't return, and then you can tell Officer Kikess what happened.”

I didn't want to stay behind, but Dad's suggestion happened to be a good one. “Okay, but call me with updates.”

After the completion of my tour of the seventh floor, Tata was still absent, and so were Dad and Ilandus. The sixth floor beckoned. I wonder where the police officers are.
They're doing their jobs; leave it be
, I told myself.

The sixth floor appeared deserted, quite unlike the previous two. Perhaps the topic of micro-biotic life didn't consume Basilians like it would some humans I knew. To me, the displays on this floor were a bit inadequate, but what did I know about Basilian science.

Fast approaching footsteps sounded behind me, and I turned to look, thinking Dad and Ilandus had returned. But I wasn't so lucky.

Two albinos were headed directly for me, and it definitely gave me a bad feeling.

I turned and ran.

“Nara, wake up,” someone said, shaking me gently.

I opened my eyes and saw Ruen and Eonus hovering over me.
Where did they come from? Am I dreaming?

“Where am I? Where have you guys been? We've looked everywhere for you,” I said. Not the most intelligent things to say. I knew I was babbling, but since my stomach was in protest mode—I had some queasiness—I gave myself some slack.

“Everyone will be looking for you too,” said Ruen. “You're now a member of the Abducted Investigators.” Ruen started laughing, although a little hysterically, it seemed to me. But, considering her age, understandable.

Laid out on a bed in the room, I sat up and looked around. We were in a small colorless room that contained three beds and not much else.

Eonus sat down beside me, and Ruen plunked herself down on the bed opposite us.

Taking a second glance around the room, I noticed light gray walls and a darker gray carpet beneath me. There were inset ceiling lights and a table and stools.
Stools—interesting—we must still be on Basili
.

Fortunately, my mind was starting to clear. “Ruen, how did you get here?” I asked.

“Not really sure. On the way home, after you and I left the Space Museum, I decided to take a different route than normal. I went down a side street because I thought I glimpsed an albino. Then I heard footsteps behind me, and someone grabbed me. The next thing I knew I woke up lying on one of these beds.” She shook her head, devoid of her usual bubbliness. “Food shows up regularly, but I have had nothing to do, and no com. Pretty boring. By the way, there is a amenities room over there,” she said, pointing to a door in the corner. “And that...” Ruen indicated a larger closed door on the opposite side of the room. “...is the entrance to our prison cell, but it is always locked.”

“Why do you say prison cell?” I asked, not liking the implications.

“What else can it be? I think this is a holding cell.”

Ruen had probably correctly deduced the situation, but I didn't like the concept or possible consequences.

Ruen sighed. “Then Tata showed up a while ago—he just materialized on a bed, unconscious as I had been. A couple of hours after Tata, you showed up—doing the same instant appearance.”

“Have you talked to anybody?” I asked. Who are our captors?

“No one has been in here. Not a single person. The meals come through that slot in the wall.” Ruen pointed to a ledge. I took a closer look and noticed the wall above the ledge had a slightly different coloration.
Okay, so we have food covered—we won't starve
.

“Ruen, you have a very worried father. He has the police out looking for you, of course. Tata and I were out looking for you in numerous places, too.” Ruen was so young; I knew she needed some reassurance we weren't going to rot here. At least, I hoped not. “Now it looks like that wasn't such a good idea, although I did find you.” I needed to find humor in the situation, or I'd start panicking. Then I suddenly had a thought. “Ruen, do you know where we are? Are we still on Basili?”

“I have no idea, but where else would we be? We didn't get on any aircraft or anything—at least, not that I know of.”

“Perhaps we're on a spaceship orbiting Basili. Or perhaps we're on a spaceship traveling somewhere,” I said. “Maybe we've been caught up in some sort of humanoid trafficking scheme.”

“No, we must be on Basili. How would we get on a spaceship? Although, I really do not remember how I got here. I do not remember what happened,” said Ruen.

“Have you heard of transporters?” I asked.

“Unknown,” said Eonus. Then his arm circled my shoulders, much to my surprise.

“What are transporters?” asked Ruen.

“Ah, ah, well, transporters are devices that can disassemble your molecules to transport them to another location, where your molecules are reassembled. Perhaps that's how we got here,” I said.

“That sounds incredible. And uncomfortable,” said Ruen. “Have you ever used a transporter?”

“No, it's actually a concept from an old Earth video series called
Star Trek.
Spock is my favorite,” I said dreamily. “He has the cutest pointed ears.”

Ruen gave me a disgusted look. For a young person, she acted quite grown up at times.

“Anyway, we need to find out where we are, and what's going on. Any ideas on how to do that?” I asked, but before anyone had a chance to speak, the food window opened, and a tray slid out.

Ruen ran over, snatched the tray, and went back to the bed she'd been sitting on. “The food has been pretty good,” she said.

“How do you know that tray's for you?” I asked. It had been a long time since breakfast.

“Well, it looks like ...” With a clunk, another food tray appeared.

Eonus and I went over to investigate. “This looks like your food,” I said. He nodded, and took the tray away. So I stood impatiently waiting for mine to appear, and shortly, it did.

I took the tray, and sat beside Eonus. “This is some of the Basilian food I can tolerate. Our captors must have quite a bit of information on us,” I said. Although unhappy with that concept, I started to eat. I was hungry.

“Loud. Too much,” said Eonus. “Whisper.”

With our mouths full, we both nodded, agreeing we should whisper. We all suspected we were being monitored, at least audibly. However, we all ate without uttering a lot of meaningful talk.

“Nara, there is a special tap in the amenities room for drinking water. Let me show you.” The two of us went into the well-equipped amenities room, complete with a shower stall. At least I could have a shower whenever I want one.

“I've been doing some experiments,” Ruen said. “I think our captors only listen to us in the main room, not in here. And I don't think there are any cameras anywhere.”

“Are you sure?”

“Not absolutely, but I have been asking for various things in a loud voice—like food items, an extra blanket, items like that. My requests in the main room are mostly answered, but anything I say in here is ignored.”

“Then you're probably right. They wouldn't have any reason to monitor an amenities room. And if they don't have any cameras, they won't know when we go into the amenities room to talk. We need Tata in here,” I said, poking my nose out the door to wave him into the amenities room. “Ruen has figured out they don't monitor us in here,” I told him, “and that there are no cameras in the main room. So we can use this area to have our discussions. What do you think?”

“Possibly true.” He looked skeptical. Or perhaps it was his scientific mind mulling over the possibilities.

“Ruen, since you've been here the longest, do you have any ideas on what we should do to get out of here or, at the very least, see what's on the other side of these walls?” I felt so confined, and I had only been here for a short time. I could only imagine how Ruen felt. “Tata, what about you?” I asked.

“Yes, outside. Help escape,” he said, giving me a hurt look.

Oops
. I'd called him Tata instead of Eonus. I wondered why it bothered him so much, but it obviously did. I'd have to watch that.

We exited the amenities room as quietly as possible. We didn't want our captors to figure out where we'd all been and that we'd been plotting in there.

The three of us sat down on the beds and started studying the room. I wasn't much of a detective—I didn't know what to look for.

Suddenly, a droning sound that seemed to get louder by the second drew my attention to the ceiling. Ruen seemed unfazed by the noise as she'd obviously heard it before, but it was new to me. And to Eonus.

A ceiling grate attracted my attention. It covered a square opening large enough any one of us could fit through. I gestured the others into the amenities room for another pow-wow.

“That grate looks like an air duct.” I glanced at Eonus and asked, “Do you still have your multi-purpose tool in your day bag?”

He nodded the affirmative.

I turned my attention to Ruen. “If you're up to it, Eonus can stand on the bed and lift you up. Then you can remove the bolts on the grate and hand it down to me. If all goes well, we can see what's up there. What do you think?”

“Yes, I can do that,” said Ruen.

It took her a few tension-filled minutes as she balanced on Eonus' broad shoulders to figure out how to loosen and remove the bolts. Thank goodness our captors apparently hadn't searched Eonus' day bag or we'd still be looking for something we could make into a tool to remove the grate.

When Ruen finally passed the ceiling grate down to me, Eonus boosted her up into the opening. Ruen was small, so hopefully she could crawl a short ways and get us some intelligence to work with.

Sounds like a spy novel
, I thought. But then I realized that was exactly the kind of thing we were involved in.

Shortly, Eonus helped Ruen back down and we put the grate back—but with the bolts only finger tightened. I could tell something was up with the excitable Ruen. She had obviously found something of note.

We tiptoed into the amenities room, where Eonus silenced us with a finger to his lips until he turned the water on in the sink to provide additional background noise.

“What did you find?” I asked Ruen, unable to contain my curiosity any longer.

“So many strange things I do not understand,” she replied, a huge grin on her face.

“Describe,” said Eonus. A man of few words, he still wanted all the details. And, of interest to me, I realized I had begun to look at Eonus as an adult, no longer a teenager.

“Certainly, Tata. I am known for being observant—a scientist, you understand. I fathomed at least three distinct purposes for the tunnel area above us. It's quite large. The outside third of the area has what looks like tram rails imbedded in the floor and the rails go as far as I could see in both ways. The center area accommodates what are probably power cables, electronic conduits and plumbing pipes, that sort of thing.

"On this side of the area, there are two slow-moving walkways, one going in each direction. There are dim lights embedded in a very high ceiling and I could see what looks like daylight shining in through the inside wall at intervals further along. This access point...” Ruen pointed upwards. “...brings us out into a small area in the middle of the conduits and piping. I had to crawl through the twisting pipes and tubes to see both sides."

"Anything else?" I asked.