Alcantaran 1: Alien Abduction (4 page)

Gus didn't know how long he continued to work because there was no way to tell time.
 
There were no clocks and the lights never varied.
 
Finally,
Sabah
collected all of the creatures in his control and they started walking single file back to the elevator that Gus had come down earlier.
 
Sabah
indicated that Gus should fall in at the tail of the line while the robed Challekan brought up the rear on its' disk.
 
The line entered the elevator and
Sabah
touched the elevator controls to make it move upward.
 
When it came to a stop, the line moved down the passageway to a large hall where the other creatures picked up trays that contained food.
 
When it came Gus' turn, he found a tray with food that he recognized but of such poor quality that ordinarily he wouldn't have eaten it.
 
Now he knew that he had to have nourishment to keep up his strength.
 
Gus looked around and saw several hundred assorted creatures eating in the hall.
 
He noticed that there was very little conversation between the different species.
 
If there were two of a kind sitting together, they might be talking but there was no conversation between different species.

As soon as the group was through eating,
Sabah
indicated that Gus should fall back in at the rear of the line.
 
The line left the dining hall and headed down the passage-way.
 
They walked for a little way and
Sabah
indicated that Gus and three other creatures should enter a room to the side.
 
Gus saw a room just like the one he had awakened in.
 
The other creatures headed to the bunks and lay down.
 
As soon as Gus was in the door, it shut behind him.
 
He turned and tried to open it but found it was locked.
 
Gus paced for awhile but the hard day of work and getting zapped was taking its toll.
 
He approached the open bunk and laid down.
 
One of the creatures got up and walked over to the depression in the floor.
 
Gus saw that the depression was the equivalent of a bathroom.
 
The creature touched a spot on the wall and a water nozzle came out.
 
The creature drank from it and returned to its bunk.
 
Shortly the lights dimmed and Gus drifted off to sleep.

A bell chimed and the lights brightened.
 
Gus awoke with a start and looked quickly around.
 
The other creatures were getting out of their bunks and shuffling toward the door.
 
Gus lay there for a little longer and suddenly the door opened.
 
The other creatures shuffled out and in just a few seconds,
Sabah
stepped into the door.

"When the bell chimes, you are to line up to go to work.
 
We don't have time to waste and this will be your only warning,"
Sabah
said.

Gus jumped lightly down from the bunk and quickly strode through the door.
 
The line of creatures wasn't far so he hurriedly caught up.
 
They went to the same dining hall as last night and had the same quality of food.
 
Gus ate but he didn't like it.
 
The creatures finished eating, shuffled to the elevator and then proceeded back to the hangar for the planetary flyers.
 
Sabah
set everyone to loading and unloading just as they had yesterday.
 
At the end of the day
Sabah
took everyone back to the dining hall and then to their cell.
 
This was the routine for the next month.

One day Gus stepped in the back of the flying machine to start unloading and he spotted what he guessed were fresh fruits and vegetables.
 
He was a little surprised because he had seen nothing like this during the previous month.
 
Some of the items looked similar to the fruits and vegetables on his planet.
 
They smelled delicious and he couldn't help himself.
 
He carried a load out and put it on the grav-sled.
 
On his next trip in, he snitched a small fruit and ate it.
 
It was wonderful!
 
Gus continued to snitch small fruits and vegetables until he knew he had to quit before he made himself sick.
 
He snitched a few more and hid them in his pouch on his belt.
 
Gus made sure no one saw him.
 
He needed these for himself.
 
There were four other creatures from his line that were helping.
 
One of them finally had a light come into its eyes as it recognized a vegetable similar to ones on its' home planet.
 
It stopped working and started eating the vegetables.
 
The other creatures didn't even pay any attention so Gus just kept carrying.
 
Sabah
noticed the creature wasn't working and came into the flying machine to check on it.
 
He screamed and pulled his stingerray and aimed it at the poor hapless creature eating the vegetables.
 
When the blue ray hit the creature, it screamed in agony and dropped to the floor like it was dead.
 
Gus would have helped the poor creature except he saw that
Sabah
was still agitated and waving the stingerray.
 
He guessed he would be next if he stepped over there and later he found out that he was right.
 
Sabah
waved at two of the other creatures and had them drag the disabled one out of the flying machine.
 
They dragged it over close to the wall and left it there.
 
All of the other creatures kept working so Gus did the same but he kept an eye out for
Sabah
.

A short time later another Challekan glided up on its disk and started talking to
Sabah
.
 
They were gesturing at the creature lying on the floor in a heap.
 
The laborers had almost 1/2 of the machine unloaded and just as Gus was ready to grab another load, a huge octopod creature leaped from the middle of the pile of fruits and vegetables.
 
The spider-like creature seemed to be covered in long fine hair all over its body and legs.
 
The head had large fangs that had a yellowish liquid ready to drip from them.
 
The creature was over three feet across and moved with incredible speed.
 
The Challekan talking to
Sabah
had its back to the space ship and didn't have a clue of its impending doom.
 
The octopod creature zipped down the ramp and leaped almost 15 feet right on the back of the robed Challekan.
 
It knocked the Challekan to the deck and rammed those fangs into its shoulder.
 
The Challekan let out an anguished shriek that could be heard all over the hangar.
 
Sabah
's disk immediately jumped 15 feet into the air.
 
The octopod creature jumped at
Sabah
but missed by just a fraction of an inch.
 
The hairy creature leaped to the wall and started rapidly climbing right up it.
 
Sabah
pulled his stingerray and fired at the hairy creature but the creature was moving too fast and he missed.
 
The creature went clear to the ceiling and ran upside down across the ceiling.
 
All of the other Challekans had flown their disks midway between the floor and ceiling.
 
There was a cluster of about 10 Challekans in the middle of the hangar and the octopod creature sprinted in their direction.
 
It shot a silky looking strand to the ceiling beyond the cluster and then swung down like Tarzan swinging through the jungle.
 
Several in the cluster pulled stingerrays and fired at the octopod creature.
 
Some hit it but they didn't even seem to phase it.
 
Other shots missed and were ricocheting around the hangar making creatures of all sizes duck for cover.
 
Gus stayed under cover in the planetary flyer as he continued to watch.
 
The octopod creature swung past the cluster and then swung back on the other side.
 
As it went by the cluster of Challekans, it shot out another silky strand.
 
The strand made a loop and went over the entire cluster.
 
On the return swing, the creature shot another strand that looped the cluster of Challekans again.
 
The octopod creature seemed to tighten the loops and jerked all the Challekans off their disks.
 
The strands were sticky and held the Bugs in place twenty five feet off the hangar deck.
 
The creature proceeded to add more loops quickly and then climbed down to the cluster to start biting with its fangs.
 
The Challekans were shrieking in terror and struggling to no avail as the creature bit them all.
 
Alarms started sounding and some armored Challekans armed with blasters flew through the big doors on their disks.
 
They formed a box under the creature and fired the blasters.
 
They hit the creature and Gus could hear the sizzle as the blasters did their damage.
 
Shortly he could smell the burnt flesh and the creature slowly relaxed its grip on the strand and fell to the floor dead.
 
The Challekans blasted it again for good measure and then flew to the back of the flying machine Gus was standing in.
 
They lined up so they could blast anything that came out of the back.
 
Sabah
brought the whole line over and ordered everyone to rush with the unloading.
 
The guards stood there at the ready until the last item was unloaded.
 
Once all of the creatures in Gus' line were out, two of the guards went in and searched the flying machine.
 
Sabah
ordered Gus and one of the other creatures to drag the octopod creature to the disposal and throw it in.
 
Gus saw that the first Challekan that had been bitten was dead and he figured the ones hanging from the ceiling were also.
 
Sabah
and the other Challekans lined everyone up and marched them out of the hangar.
 
They put them back in their cells early that day.
 
The next day when they arrived at the hangar, the bodies of the dead Challekans were gone.

Gus settled back into the monotonous routine again.
 
Whenever he unloaded fresh fruits and vegetables he snitched all he could eat and then loaded his pouch.
 
As long as the Bugs didn't see him and he kept moving, they didn't even seem to notice.

Gus had been captive about seven months when he started to notice that he didn't have the stamina he normally did.
 
This worried him but he didn't know what it was.
 
He did notice that when he carried some sacks and boxes that were dusty, he felt better the next day.
 
He tried to get all of the dusty things he could but it just wasn't enough.
 
His strength started to wane in the ninth month and he had trouble just putting one foot in front of the other.
 
Eventually, he was too sick and weak to even get out of his bunk.
 
Sabah
came in and blasted him with the stingerray but he was too sick to even care.
 
The next day two of his bunk mates hauled him to a waiting grav-sled.
 
The sled took him to another part of the mother ship and a robot unloaded him into a bunk in a new cell.
 
A Challekan came in and used a healer unit to check him out.
 
The Bug left and came back shortly with a device that he put next to Gus' arm.
 
There was a poof and Gus felt a sting in his arm.
 
Later that day he felt a little better and the next day a Bug returned and gave him another shot in the arm.
 
After three days of treatment, Gus almost felt like he would live.
 
The next morning a Bug came and ordered Gus to follow.
 
They wound through the mother ship and ascended several levels until finally they arrived at the repair hangar.

The repair hangar was a huge room containing damaged planetary flyers, robots and other space ships the Bugs had traded for, bought or found in space.
 
They repaired what they could and if they didn't need it, they sold or traded it.
 
The space ships and robots that were too damaged were salvaged.
 
Each part that could be useful in another repair or trade was stored in an adjacent room.
 
That room was a giant storage area with shelving covering the entire floor and reaching to the ceiling.
 
Each shelving unit had a special code embedded so a robot could be directed quickly to a specific location.
 
Each part was carefully tagged with a precise description, entered into the computer by a special technician and then stored in a designated spot.
 
This system made it very easy to fill orders or to find parts needed to keep the planetary flyers in service.
 
One of the most important parts of the salvage was to drain all of the usable energy material out of the damaged space ship or robot.
 
This material was measured by the computer technician and then added to the mother ship stock pile until it was needed.
 
Gus was assigned the task of emptying the energy material and putting it in the mother ship stock pile.
 
The Bug directed Gus to a rack containing protective gear.
 
The Bug told Gus to find a suit that fit and get into it.
 
There was a communication device in the helmet and the Bug would teach Gus what to do.