ALIEN ABDUCTION (Captured by Aliens) (19 page)

“Fallon
is your
brother,
” Ebony hissed through her teeth.

Kore
coldly stared her down.  “You didn’t give me a chance to finish, Ebony, my
dear,” he said.  “There is more good news.  I’m going to contact Fallon on the
plasma radio so that I may tell him--and show him--that I have his women.  And
all four of those same women, briefly Fallon’s but now returned to me again,
will be watching and listening to what my brother and I say to each other.”

He turned
to the guards and snapped his fingers.  They pushed open one of the doors and
two other guards came in. 

Ebony got
to her feet and stayed very close to the other three women.  Between the two
guards floated a basketball-sized sphere with what looked like dials and lenses
all over it.  “Show them,” Kore said, and Ebony caught her breath as the image
of the mine entrance materialized in the air just above their heads.  It was
like a television picture, or a movie, but there was no set and no screen--just
the picture appearing in thin air.

Kore
grinned at them again.  “Watch,” he said.  “This is the image from their
camera, which has just been delivered to them.  They will be able to view the
image from this one, just as we are viewing theirs.  Smile prettily, girls--it
may be the last thing those men will ever see.”

***

Fallon
was on board the second flyer inside the cave, trying again and again to raise
contact with the first flyer, when he heard the sound of weapons fire from
somewhere outside. 

He leaped
down the steps from the flyer to the corridor floor and then dashed towards the
entrance.  The sky was just showing the first light of dawn and he could see
the silhouettes of several of his men with their weapons drawn and aimed out
over the valley below.  Fallon drew his small silver pistol as he skidded to a
stop, and then ducked down beside the cave wall as two more screaming shots
from his men tore through the air.

Fallon
looked up through the flaring dust left by the pistols and saw what they were
shooting at--it was a plasma radiocamera, floating in the air above the wooded
valley below.  It slowly moved left and right, and then up and back down, as
though looking for the best place to get a clear image. 

“Stop!”
came a thundering
voice.  An image appeared before them, projected right onto the air, of a
grinning King Kore.  “You might want to wait before destroying this camera,”
Kore said, “for I have something to show you.”

Fallon
stepped forward.  “Lower your weapons,” he whispered.

“But--”

“Lower
them!”

“Ah,
Fallon, my brother!  I cannot tell you how pleased I am that you are alive and
well.  Here--let me present you with a gift to celebrate your return.”

The image
changed.  Kore was gone but now, hovering in the air just outside the cave
entrance, was the clear picture of Ebony and the three other women whom he had
sent out on the flyer just a few short hours ago. 

Instantly
a torrent of raging emotions hit Fallon all at once.  He was furious at the
failure of the mission, terrified for what Ebony and the others were going
through, and coldly enraged that these women were once again held captive by
his cruel and twisted brother.  He almost feared to think of what Kore’s
soldiers would do to the men who had been on board the flyer.

Fallon
clenched his fists and willed himself to silence and stillness.  “Just tell me
what you want,” he whispered, looking straight at the camera.

Kore
smirked at him, and then laughed outright.  “Oh, no, it is not what
I
want that matters,” he said, chuckling.  “It is what
you
are willing to
give for these women--that’s what I want to know.  I want to hear what you are
willing to give not only for these women, but for your men, too--including the
one called Damon.”

Damon...
Fallon did not think
his anger could burn any hotter, but he was wrong.  “I will give you what you
want most, Kore,” he said.  “I will give you myself.  A simple trade.  Allow
everyone who was on that flyer to go free, and I will put myself into your
hands.”

Kore’s
smirking grin grew even wider.  “I am delighted by your offer, my brother!  I
will accept--but only if you come alone, unarmed, and wearing only your pants. 
No boots.  No shirt or coat.  And, of course, no weapons.”

“Of
course.” Fallon took a deep breath, and then threw his own pistol back inside
the cave entrance.  “Let them go and I will surrender to you.”

The
picture shifted to the four women, standing huddled together barefoot and
nearly naked.  Then it shifted again and showed Damon and the other men from
the flyer walking slowly through the forest, all with their hands tied and
their feet bare.

“You, my
brother, are in no position to bargain for anything,” he said.  “Here is what I
will do: I will send a Zhala rider to get you where you stand right now.  You
will walk the last mile of your journey to the gates of the City of Anetahr,
alone and unarmed, and then walk inside and give yourself up.

“That is
my only offer.  If you refuse, all of those captives will be made to suffer.  I
assure you that they will not die.  But they will suffer, in ways that even you
cannot imagine.”

Fallon
pulled off his long black leather coat and his white shirt, and threw them
aside.  He took off first one boot and then the other and threw them after the
coat and shirt.  “Send your Zhala,” Fallon said, standing up very tall and bare
chested and barefooted with his hands at his sides.  “Send it now.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Fallon
stood on the dirt path in the forest and shielded his eyes from the bright
sunlight, watching as the Zhala beat its rough feathered wings hard against the
air and lifted itself and its black-clad rider back up into the sky.  Looking
around, he saw nothing familiar.  There were only the tall pines of the forest
which surrounded the City of Anetahr and blocked it from his sight.  But he
knew the proper direction, and so he started out straight for the city--and for
Auresial Palace.

In a few
moments Fallon walked out of the forest on the narrow dirt path and picked up
the wide road which led to the city gates.  Moving along above him was the same
sort of plasma radiocamera that Kore had sent to communicate with him at the
mine entrance.  Fallon was well aware that at this moment every denizen of the
City of Anetahr was watching his movements, and so he simply kept his head up
and walked along as though he had nothing troubling him at all.

The
radiocamera tracked him closely, and he could hear the whine of its tiny motors
and the low humming sound of its power source.  It stayed very close, just out
of reach above his head, and Fallon followed its shadow all the way to the
walls of the city.

He began
to approach the enormous gates.  They began to swing open.  But before he could
walk through them, some seven or eight guards in full black leather gear and
closed helmets stepped forward and kept their silver rifles aimed straight at
him.

Slowly,
Fallon raised his hands.  The guards looked him over and then the one nearest
him jerked his head towards the inside of the city.  The guards stepped forward
to surround him as Fallon began the long walk down the main avenue of the City
of Anetahr.

A wall of
noise rose up around him.  He glanced left and right and saw that the streets
and balconies were lined with jeering, shouting men, some of them throwing dirt
and rotten food and even stones.

The
radiocamera continued to follow him, and he could hear a voice coming through
its speakers. 
“King Kore has captured the most wanted criminal on our world--Fallon,
his own brother, who chose to do a great evil and has now forfeited his life in
doing so.  Fallon is the man who gave the order--the order to release that
hideous virus, that same virus that killed every last woman of childbearing age
and child on Chalcydon!”

The men
of the city cheered even louder and threw their rocks and mud and vegetables
even harder, but Fallon gave the people no response.  It would not help the men
and women who had been taken from the downed flyer if he did.  And the insults
the crowd hurled at him were no different from the opinion he had long had of
himself--that he was a criminal, a man who had chosen to do a great evil, a man
who deserved all the filth and punishment that was being heaped on him right
now.

***

From the
safety of the apartment she shared with Captain Dezec Zeta, high above the city
square, Adrienne Raines Zeta lifted the hem of her dark blue silk gown and
hurried to the window.  From there, she looked down upon the noisy and violent
drama unfolding just below her.

She saw a
man identified by the radiocamera as
Fallon,
said to be the most wanted
criminal on Chalcydon, walking alone through the city streets.  Several of
Kore’s guards followed him.  He was bare-chested and barefooted and wore only
black leather pants, with his hands raised and his palms showing outward. 

It looked
as though every last man in the city had joined the crowd lining the streets,
and with every step Fallon took the men roared insults and threw dirt and rocks
and what looked like old food at him.  She could hardly see his face for the
dirt and the blood.  A plasma radiocamera followed him closely, hovering just a
short distance above his head.

By the time
the man reached the center of the square, he was covered with dirt and
splattered vegetables and with blood.  His arms and chest were cut by the
gravel and the rocks, and a trickle of blood ran down one side of his head.  But
he walked tall and proud and only looked straight ahead until, finally, he
stood at the foot of the long wide balcony that ran along one side of the
square just above its smooth stone surface. 

The men
in the crowd began a thunderous chant.  Adrienne leaned closer to the window, one
hand on her very large pregnant belly, trying to hear what they were saying.  Finally
she made it out:
“Criminal!  Criminal!  Criminal!”
they shouted.

After
what seemed like several minutes, King Kore and a few of his advisors made
their slow and deliberate way onto the balcony.  The crowd fell silent, with
none of the cheering that might be expected at the sight of the ruling monarch,
but Kore began speaking anyway.  He knew, of course, that the radiocamera would
transmit his every word to every last person in the City of Anetahr.

“Look
here!” Kore shouted, stepping up to the balcony’s stone railing.  “I have
brought you the worst of all the criminals who ever walked this planet!  I have
brought you this wanted man--this vile beast, who, with his scientist friends,
killed
all the women on our world excerpt those elders that are useless to bring us
new life!
”

The crowd
began roaring again, but Kore held up both his hands and there was silence.  “You
see before you the one named
Fallon
, the coward, my own traitor brother. 
He has been in hiding all this time and allowing everyone to think he was dead. 
But he wasn’t dead.  He’s been kidnapping women right out of the royal harem
and keeping them as slaves for his own purposes, as though he were a king!  But
we all know that Fallon is not a king.  His brother, Kore, is the king!”

The crowd
remained silent.  Kore glanced over them, and then looked back at his advisors. 
One of them gave him a sharp nod and Kore turned back to the crowd.

“I will
show you the women that we have rescued!” he shouted.  “Captain Zeta, my most
trusted guard--bring out the women we saved from my evil brother, and show them
to the people of the City of Anetahr!”

Adrienne
cried out as she saw her husband, Captain Dezec Zeta, lead four women out onto
the balcony beside King Kore.  Each of the women had one of Dezec’s armed,
black-coated guards walking with her and holding a silver gun to her head.  The
four women cringed as they were forced to parade in front of the huge crowd of
shouting men, crossing their arms over their breasts and trying to turn away.  Adrienne
was horrified to see that they only wore tiny silk bikinis--and especially
horrified to see that one of those women was Ebony.

“Ebony!”
she cried, though she was too far away for her sister to hear her. 
“Ebony!”
 But it was plain that Ebony only had eyes for the man being held prisoner down
below her.  She called out his name and started toward him, and began to weep
when the guards pushed her back. 

The other
women looked up, and they all had the same reaction.  In a moment all four of
them were weeping and reaching out towards Fallon, but they were not permitted
to get anywhere near him.

Adrienne’s
confusion and anger rose.  This man had kidnapped Ebony and three other women
right out of the harem--and there was only one reason why a man on a planet
with almost no women would steal a few and take them away.  “If you’ve hurt my
sister--or any of them!” hissed Adrienne. 

But at
the same time, she continued to watch Ebony.  The three other women wept as
well, but none more than she.  Why would someone as strong and unbending as
Ebony weep for her kidnapper?  Surely they could not have been brainwashed in
so short a time--the four of them could not have been turned so quickly…

Then
Fallon, the prisoner looked up at the balcony, and Adrienne saw the look that
Ebony exchanged with him.  She could see nothing there between them but love
and pride, along with pure grief.

They
must be lovers,
Adrienne thought. 
Nothing else looks like that.

As
Adrienne continued to watch, Ebony tore her gaze from Fallon and looked up at
the radiocamera that floated just above his head. 

“They
didn’t kidnap us!” Ebony cried.  She pulled herself up as tall as she could and
let the camera see every inch of her, even though she was barely covered by the
two thin scraps of red silk that she had been forced to wear.  “Fallon and his
men--they rescued us!  They want to take us to freedom!  Adrienne, if you can
hear me, it’s true!  Adrienne, help him if you can!  Help him!  It’s true!  I
know you must be watching this somewhere!  
Adrienne!
”

“Silence!”
shouted
Kore.  The women continued to sob and protest, and Kore nodded to the guard
nearest Fallon.  The guard pulled a small dagger from his belt and used it to
slash Fallon’s upper arm, causing a small spray of blood to fall over the stone
floor of the city square.

The crowd
shouted out at the sight of the blood.  All four of the women fell silent in
shock, clutching each other.  Fallon continued to stand tall and straight and
ignored the blood running down to his elbow and dripping to the stones below.  But
now Adrienne knew the whole story--and so did her husband, Dezec Zeta, the
Captain of the King’s Guard. 

“I am
ready to pass sentence on the criminal,” Kore said.  He turned and raised up
his hands to the crowd, and they quieted once more.  “I am ready to pass
sentence!”

Kore made
the most of the moment, and pointed straight down at Fallon.  “My evil brother,
the man who destroyed the women of Chalcydon, will die by firing squad tomorrow. 
The sentence will be carried out right here in this square, at first light.”

The women
cried out again, and held each other, sobbing. 
“You will be silent!”
shouted Kore, and Fallon raised his chin and looked steadily at the women.  They
all kept their eyes fixed on him and managed to swallow their grief while Kore
finished speaking.

“All will
gather here,” he ordered, “and all will witness the sentence--including these
four women that we rescued from him and his men.” The king turned and went
striding away, followed by his ever-present ministers and advisors.  Three
guards moved forward to take Fallon away, and Dezec and his men surrounded
Ebony and the other women in order to escort them back to the harem.

Adrienne
covered her face with her hands.  Her own sister would be forced back into the
slavery of the harem, and would never again see the man she loved.  He would be
dead--dead by firing squad before the sun rose above the horizon tomorrow.

She sat
up straight again, and looked frantically around her. 
Think, Adrienne!  You’ve
got to do something!
 But what could she do?  
Something, something!
 She
could not sit by and watch her sister dragged back into slavery and an innocent
man executed.  Her own inner strength and sense of outrage would not permit it.

Ebony,
sometimes you tell me I’m not as strong as you--but not this time!

Adrienne
put on her soft boots and threw a black cloak over her long blue silk gown. 
Dezec. 
Dezec would know what to do.  She would find him and she would do whatever
she had to do to get him to help Ebony and the man Ebony loved.

Adrienne
opened the door, hurried out into the corridor, and silently pulled the door
shut again, determined to find her husband and avert even more tragedy here on
this very strange world.

***

Dezec
Zeta, Captain of the King’s Guard and the man most trusted by King Kore, walked
at the back of the small contingent he was escorting to the harem.  In front of
him were four of his black-clad guards, and each one of those guards walked
right beside one of the four women who had been returned in the night to
Auresial Palace. 

The women
were sobbing, and angry, and almost entirely naked.  Dezec did not like having
to force them to go back.  He had always known that none of the members of the
harem had actually chosen such a life, but until now they had always gone along
quietly enough whenever he’d had to escort them somewhere.