Titan Encounter (12 page)

If I don’t get up
I’m going to freeze to death.
For several moments, he watched his breath
swirl the snow before him.
In a day or two we’ll all be dead.
His
thoughts drifted to Naomi and the kiss that almost happened just moments ago.
The snow swirled over him.
I should have kissed her.
An icy tear rolled
down his cheek, but not for him.
I’m sorry Naomi. I’m sorry Mara.  I’ve
failed you both.

Snowflakes knit a
shroud that nearly covered him when a feeble shaft of light pierced the
darkness.
The ship.
Like a lighthouse
beacon, he could follow it home.
Thank you, Naomi.
Painfully he stood
and, like a drunk, stumbled toward it. Eyes fixed on the beam he ignored the
pain that each step brought. An eternity later, he realized the guiding light
came not from Surfeit, but from a window. Two intact hangers stood before him
connected by a smaller building.
Whoever they are, I have a better chance
with them than out here.
Through the howling wind, he stumbled toward the
door. As he neared, it opened and a gust of warm air greeted him.

He stepped forward
as five large animals trotted out a doorway. Four legged creatures, covered in
black and brown hair, they had long jaws filled with huge carnivorous teeth.
Snarling, they moved slowly at the edge of the shadows. Their eyes, reflecting
the twilight, looked like red orbs as they moved cautiously into a semi-circle
about him.  He had seen images of such creatures from Earth.
Wolves
.

He stumbled backward
and fell into a snow bank. His eyes locked on the lead beast. One ear stood up
and forward, the other hung limp and tattered. A ragged scar ran from its
forehead across the face and down to the cheek. From the creature’s mind, a
single word burst upon Justin’s consciousness.

Stay
.

Justin wasn’t about
to stay. He rolled to his side, leapt to his feet,
then
stumbled several steps in retreat. Dark figures appeared at the edge of the light.
He stopped. 
More wolves?
No. These
moved on two feet.
“Help!”

A light flashed.
Electricity shot through his body. Justin convulsed and fell to his knees as
darkness engulfed him.

*              
*              
*

He was flat on his
back.  The tips of his fingers, ears, nose and toes tingled, but the rest
of him was comfortable and warm. He opened his eyes. Without a move he
determined he was on a bed under white sheets. Above him were lights on a white
ceiling. Moving just his eyes up and then to the right, he discovered a bare,
faded, pink wall.  With a slight movement of his head to the left he saw a
sink and cabinet in the corner and a small table with three chairs nearby. A
closed door stood three meters from his feet. Otherwise the room was bare.

Without a sound, he
pulled his arms from under the sheets and examined his carefully bandaged
fingers.
Who brought me here?
The thought resounded in his mind. All his
life he had a sense of people around him. At a distance, he might not be able
to sense their emotions or motives, but he knew they were there, in the next
room or down the hall, but now he felt like a man alone in a
lifepod
drifting in deep space. He glanced around the empty
room.
Someone saved my life. Who? 
In one quick motion, he threw
back the sheets and swung a leg to the floor.

A black wolf, or was
it a large dog, trotted around the foot of the bed and eyed him carefully. A
tattered ear hung limp and a ragged scar crossed the beast’s face.

Justin froze. It was
the same animal.

The beast turned and
looked at him.

An image flashed
through Justin’s mind. As if from the animal’s eyes, he saw himself sitting on
the edge of the bed in his underwear with one foot on the floor. As the image
faded from his mind he realized the colors were wrong. The pinkish walls were
cool blue and his skin grayish. Again, a single word came to his mind.
Stay.

The door opened and
the animal walked briskly out.

Wolves?
Could this be a
race of intelligent wolves?
The idea seemed unlikely. 
There were bipeds at
the edge of the shadow before….
What had they done?
He remembered a
flash of light followed by an electric shock. He looked down at his chest. A
red spot remained.
They stunned me.

Before Justin
decided on a course of action the wolf returned. Immediately behind the beast
three uniformed men burst into his room with guns drawn.

“Sit down.” One of
the soldiers scowled and gestured toward the chair with his gun.

“I want to get
dressed.”

Three red targeting
dots appeared on Justin’s chest.

The wolf turned and
growled at the guards.

Confused, Justin
raised his hands.  “Okay. Okay.” He moved to the chair.

The two silent
guards stood several meters to either side, while the one who spoke stationed
himself directly behind him.  Justin turned to look at those who guarded
him, but he could sense only the wolf with his mind, the humans he sensed only
with his eyes. It was as if they were holograms and he desperately wanted to
reach out and touch them to be reassured that they were real. Glancing from
side to side at the guns, he remained seated.

Three or four
minutes later two older men, one in a green uniform, the other in blue, entered
the room and the soldiers stiffened. Even the wolf stood as if to acknowledge
the rank of the pair. From the reaction of the guards and the bearing of the
older men, Justin guessed they were officers.
Where have I seen uniforms
like that?

They took seats
across from him. The man in blue spoke. “If you attack you will be stunned. Do
you understand?”

His accent was strange,
but Justin understood him. “Me? Attack you? You attacked me with wolves and
stun guns.” He pointed to the red mark on his chest.

“They’re dogs,”
Green said turning to look at the animal seated against the far wall. “His name
is Thor and none of his pack assaulted you.” Fixing his gaze on Justin, he
continued. “But one of your friends attacked our people like a berserker.”

“Naomi? Is she
okay?”

Officer Blue leaned
slightly forward. “We need answers and we need them quickly,” 

“What about Mara?
She was wounded.”

Mr. Blue leaned back
and stared at him without a word.

“We’d like to answer
all your questions,” Green said with just the faintest hint of a smile, “but we
need answers first.”

Justin eyes shot
back and forth between them. “What do you want to know?”

“Are you
Nephilim
?” Green asked.

“
Nephilim
?
Me?” He shook his head. “No. Do I look like
some ancient warrior deity?”

“We could ask you
questions all day and perhaps, get honest and complete answers,” Blue said
coolly, “but what we want to do is search your mind.”

“You can do that?
Are you Titans?”

“We will ask the
questions,” Mr. Blue said sternly.

“If you can search
my mind why don’t you just do it?”

Blue started to
speak but Green interrupted. “It is a disturbing procedure, sometimes painful.
Some call it torture. Our rules do not permit it on civilians without their
permission.”

Justin recalled how,
just before they fled from the
microworld
, Liberty,
Naomi had searched his mind.  The process was weird, perhaps unsettling,
but not painful or torturous. His eyes drifted between the two men.
Who are
these guys and what do they really want to know? Are they Titans? What do I
have to hide? What can I hide if they are Titans? They say they want my
permission, but do I really have a choice? 
He sighed. “Do what you
need to do.”

“Relax,” Green said,
“and do not resist.”

Within moments, it
was as if he had fallen asleep, but he had not.  Three minds spun in a
whirlpool of thought, spiraling closer, but always deeper into the dark depths
of his mind. Fear welled up in him as the last threads of rational thought told
him,
this was not the technique Naomi had used.

Relax.

Like a light that
slowly grows brighter, revealing the surrounding terrain, he gradually became
aware of two,
very
disciplined minds searching his
memories.

Why were you on
Lepanto?

Lepanto?
  As he asked
the question, the knowledge came to him. The frozen world where they had landed
was Lepanto. In that instant the memories of his feeble, frigid, attempt to
find refuge flashed through his mind.

The two minds were
not interested in those thoughts.
Why were you on Lepanto?

Like a missile
honing in on a target the interrogators raced until Justin found himself
crouching at the edge of the docking bay watching his sister and Naomi fight.
Anger grew within as he relived the events of that night. Someone grabbed his
sister from behind. She head-butted him and Justin fired his gun, killing the
man. 
No, I didn’t kill them, it’s just a memory.
  

Relax.

On the far side of
the bay, Naomi performed her dance of death, pirouetting from one man and
slamming into another.  He saw
Ferren
moving
toward Naomi. He fired his weapon as anger flared red hot within him. He fired
repeatedly as he raced toward the man who attacked her.
You’re the cause of
this!

Memories that had
been lost in the rage now roared to the surface. He emptied his gun and threw
it aside. He ran toward
Ferren
, intending to choke
the life out of him. Coming near, Justin thrust his arm toward the pirate’s
throat.  The fat man struggled to breath and flailed at his neck. Justin
slowly, but effortlessly, moved his arm higher. The pirate kicked vainly as he
lifted into the air.  But, Justin never touched him, he had done it all
with his mind.

The memory of
Ferren
hanging in the air froze, reversed, raced forward
and back as the minds of Mr. Blue and Green lingered in the background like
fascinated mental voyeurs.

One of the minds
smiled with a thought.
Some of our vanguard did survive.

The other mind was
less impressed. 
The
Nephilim
have fooled us
before.
The mind refocused on him.
If you are Titan, what is your rank
and genome designation?

With laser-like
precision, his interrogators target the needed memories which came back vivid
and clear. Once again he stood on the bridge of the ancient Titan ship.

 The sentinel
announced, “There is another person on the bridge.  Come forward and be
identified.”

He placed his hand
in the outline. “Ouch.” The prick of the finger stung just as it did then. He
looked at his finger. Was it real or was this a memory? A single drop of blood
formed and his DNA sequence scrolled on the ancient ship’s screen.

The two minds fixed
on the last line of the display, genome designation: 133-37.  Specialty:
Naval Line Officer.

From his
interrogators Justin sensed a mixture of emotions: confusion, wonder, and from
one mind, a sense of awe.
Who are your parents?

No! Not there. Not
that memory. I won’t.
But he did and watched his mother die again.

Justin opened his
eyes. Canine teeth and warm breath greeted him. Mouth hanging open, Thor stood
beside him. Frightened and realizing he was on his floor, Justin flailed his
arms, striking the dog on the snout.

The beast yelped.

Heart racing, he
struggled to his feet as the dog silently stepped back.

A voice came from
one side. “Thor will not harm you.” A silver-haired man with a close-cropped
beard patted pressed, and folded, items on the table beside him. “Here are your
clothes.”

Justin stumbled and
fell against the wall as he rose. “Who are you?”

As the dog retreated
to the far side of the room, the man spoke. “My name is Leo. Are you hungry?
Get dressed and I’ll explain what I can over breakfast.”

Justin stared at the
old man in civilian clothes for a moment then walked to the basin and splashed
water on his face. “Where are the two who interrogated me? I…we have unfinished
business.” The emotions of the relived events remained vivid and raw in his
mind. He wanted to strangle the two, just as he had
Ferren
,
but thought better of actually saying it. 

“They will not
disturb you again.”

“What does that
mean?”

“They are recovering
from the ordeal of your interrogation.”

Justin shot the man
an angry glance. “Yeah, so am I.”