Life In Light Years

Life In Light Years- Chapter Six

“Look, I really didn’t want to do it. I didn’t want to be here! This is my first time out of the office- normally I just handle the admin side of things!” Gerald’s eyes had pooled with tears. “You seem just like normal people!”

“But you don’t think we are, do you,” Kate stated, one eyebrow raised.

“They don’t think you are. And with all that’s been going on, I don’t think you are either. Not now,” Gerald stuttered.

“You haven’t answered his question,” I said gently, sitting on the foot of Gerald’s bed and placing my hand gently on his left calf. “Tell us who ‘they’ are. Who do you work for?”

“I work for the G-A-I-A. The ‘Government Alien Intelligence Agency’- sort of like MI6, but dealing with aliens. Nobody knows we exist. Well, nobody knew,” Gerald said in a rush. His eyes kept flashing nervously in the direction of the gun.

“Thank you, Gerald,” Kate said softly but her face was contorted with worry.

Ethan looked around to the rest of us in the room, his mouth turned down in a comical looking frown. I looked to Ben who was looking anxious and back to Ethan who had now sat down in the chair I had just vacated and was running his hands over his face. 

“Shit. Have there been others watching us? Is that who’s been watching the house?” Ethan asked in a quiet voice. Gerald nodded miserably, his wide tearful eyes making their way to my face. I wanted to smile at him; something that would make him feel less worried but I couldn’t muster one up.

“I don’t understand- you thought it was the government before, right? Why do seem so... scared?” I asked as Ethan lent back in his chair looking totally defeated.

“GAIA is a big fucking deal, Alice,” Ethan said.

“This is a specialist agency,” Kate added, nodding in a agreement with Ethan.

“Surely you must have suspected this. The government has departments dedicated to everything,” I said, confused. Clearly, they knew something I didn’t.

“This is... different,” Ben said quietly.

“Nothing we can’t handle right? I mean come on, I’ve been here for less than a day and we’ve already kidnapped- sorry Gerald- one of their agents! Oh... oh no, wait a minute...” I trailed off looking over to where Gerald was still sitting. His terrified eyes flitted around the room and I felt a particularly severe pang of guilt in my stomach. My insides were in knots. What were we going to do with Gerald? How could we keep him here without GAIA realising? How could we set him loose without him giving us away?

“We have to get rid of him,” Ethan said in a low voice. Time seemed to freeze for a minute.

And then the whole room was in chaos. Gerald jumped from his place on the bed making a beeline for the door. Ben moved, faster than I could blink, to block the doorway and Ethan was raising the gun and pushed me roughly out of the way. I fell down onto the bed and scooted backwards away from the three men. Kate jumped to her feet and rushed to try and get Ethan away from Gerald but he reached one hand behind him and pushed her so she staggered back and fell down beside me. She made to get up again but I placed a hand on her forearm and held on tight.

“Don’t you point that thing in my face! LET ME GO! LET ME GO!” Gerald was screaming at the top of his lungs and Lu was no standing with wide eyes in the hallway as her brother held the gun with a steady hand to Gerald’s forehead.

“Stop,” I said, trying to make my voice heard over the men’s yelling but it came out all breathy and quiet. I cleared my throat. “EVERYONE JUST CALM THE FUCK DOWN.”

Gerald stopped thrashing in Ben’s tight grip and Ben’s eyes flickered over my face. Kate finally stood and made her way towards her father. Ethan remained still as a statue.

“Do you not think we could use this to your advantage?” I said quickly and Ben raised an eyebrow. “I mean, we don’t have to kill him. Right? He could be useful...” I said. As irritating as I found the guy, I would not condone his murder.  Also, as much as I hated Ethan, I did want him to become a murderer.

Ethan slowly lowered the gun.

“Keep talking.”

Kate nodded encouragingly and motioned with her hand to continue.

“Well, we have Gerald who clearly knows some of what they know and what raised suspicions and... and what GAIA’s intentions are,” I smiled nervously at the aliens around me. Lu grinned back happily over her dad’s shoulder. There was a small smile on Kate’s face and Ben was looking mildly interested.

“If we keep him,” I continued, “we can get information out of him. He can help us figure all this mess out.” And the sooner we do, the sooner I can go home, I added silently.

“If we keep him...he’s not a fucking dog. It’s not going to be so easy to keep this dick in the house. Someone’s going to notice he’s missing. He’ll try to escape. We’d be better off if we just... got rid of him,” Ethan said but he pointedly looked away from Gerald as he spoke.

“Please, don’t kill me. I won’t... I swear I’ll stay, I won’t try to get away.  I’ll do anything please, just don’t-”

“Relax, we aren’t going to kill you sweetie,” Kate said and soothing smoothed the hair back that had fallen into his eyes. He flinched at her touch.

“Ethan, you don’t want to do that,” I said and he took a sharp breath and looked away from me, his neck flushing pink.

“I don’t really see your plan as an option, Alice,” he said quietly.

“God, Ethan, he’s already sworn to co-operate,” Lu pitched in from the hall.

“I’ll co-operate, I swear I’ll co-operate,” Gerald nodded frantically.

“That’s it then. You can stay in here, Gerald. We need to go and have a family discussion. Alice, you come too,” Ben said. I nodded and made my way to the hall as Ben directed Gerald to sit down on the bed. We all left the room except Ethan who put the safety catch back on the gun and shoved it in his belt.

“You try one fucking thing and I swear I’ll end you,” he hissed and followed us out of the room, slamming and locking the door behind him.