Manipulate (Book 1, Alien Cadets)

Chapter 19

Nat’s vision was reduced to a small triangle by the mask that Tishing strapped on her face. It would protect her from the deadly Mars environment, but it made it awfully hard to see anything. Tishing wore a mask also, as did Akemi. Technically, he was just as human as them…. which was extremely disturbing.

One of the seal-looking Rik pushed Akemi on a cot, and Nat followed on foot. Tishing pulled her arms behind her back and handcuffed her, moments before they exited the ship.

The ship was docked on a small circular air field, the surrounding rock was pale yellow. The ships were arranged around a central shaft that housed huge elevators.

Tishing directed them into one of these elevators quickly, which Nat guessed also served as an airlock.

Nat felt the descent in her stomach as the huge elevator began to drop into the ground. How long had this underground facility been here?

The doors opened and the little Rik wheeled Akemi out into a storage and loading bay. Huge pods were stacked on one side, where a human in  a forklift type machine was slowly shifting one down.

Not a human, Nat reminded herself. He must be Rik. The only distinctive in the giant warehouse was triangular lighting on the ceiling.

Nat followed Tishing and her sister down wide, low hallways, again with the triangular lighting motif, which seemed to be their only decoration. No one took any notice of them. The Rik didn’t seem at all discomposed to have three humans in their midst.

They passed an open door and Nat craned her head around to look in. The room looked like a shabby teacher’s lounge, and at least twenty men and women filled the chairs and stood along the wall, chatting.

Nat stopped walking and stared. So many of them. How many people had the Rik stolen?

Tishing came back and gently took her arm. “No time for gawking now, your sister isn’t doing well. They’re preparing the surgical room now.”

Nat gritted her teeth. “Already? She’s barely stable.”

Tishing didn’t speak.

“I want to be there,” Nat said. “Don’t do it without me.”

Tishing didn’t answer.

They locked Nat in a small, colorless room, without removing her handcuffs.

“We’ll come back when she’s ready,” Tishing said.

Akemi was still sedated, of course, when they brought her body into the operation room. Her head had been shaved, and her skull looked tiny and fragile. Blue lines crisscrossed her scalp, diagramming the coming surgery. Nat almost threw up at the sight. She clenched her eyes shut while breathing deeply and swallowing the extra saliva in her mouth.

They let Nat sit in the corner. She didn’t want to see what would happen, but she felt that not being there would betray Akemi. They had said their goodbyes on the ship, but Nat couldn’t think about that now.

The surgery didn’t take long.

“It’s a good thing we’re doing this today,” Tishing said. “She probably would have died in the next forty-eight hours.”

Nat hated him. If the Rik hadn’t stolen Akemi she would have been fine. But when the worst was over, and Akemi’s brain was put in a small opaque container, and her body covered with a plastic sheet, Nat didn’t feel the rage she expected. Mostly she felt numb. Detached.

“How long will it last?” Nat asked. “The Spo use the trouncer brains only once. One trip, one brain.”

“The Spo are overly cautious,” Tishing said. “Plus, the trouncers are intelligent, but not nearly as intelligent as humans. And if the Spo tests are right, your sister is quite a bit more intelligent than the average human.”