wasn't entirely correct. There were two dots blinking â Kenna and me.
The only two people on board who had been in a transporter-proof room during the time when the aliens had stolen everyone on board.
I didn't know whether to be grateful or embarrassed.
"Dar, come here."
Kenna was busy at another console.
"We've lost the audio and video feed, but Mana and Jared are still transmitting."
She tapped quickly.
"See? She set up her scanning devices to relay back the information."
We both watched as she pulled up the floor plan of the alien ship again. There were a bunch of green dots in two of the cells â the one that Mana and Jared had been in and the one next to it. There were two blue dots in a third cell.
"Have Mana and Jared returned yet?"
Kenna turned those big brown eyes on me, and I saw that they were full of regret. She licked her lips nervously before she spoke.
"They didn't come back, Dar," she said pointing to where it showed their names. "They're the blue dots. Why are they blue?"
"That means they're unconscious. Fuck." I put my hands to my head.
I would not let this happen. I was the king. I slammed my fist into the console.
"Come on, Kenna."
"Where are we going?" she said.
"To the shuttle bay. We're going to get them back."
"Dar, surely you can't be serious. How is this different from earlier when you said it was irresponsible for you to go?"
I paused to look her in the eyes. "Now, we are the only ones who can save them."
KENNA
We locked on to the alien vessel and remaining cloaked. We hoped that they wouldn't realize we were there.
It was a long shot but better than nothing.
The plan was simple. Enter the ship from a different spot. Grab Jared and Mana. And get out of there. We would figure out how to save everyone else, once our friends were safely back on board and able to help us plan our attack.
Dar attached the unidirectional explosive and we crouched on the other side of the ship. It was designed to explode in only one direction using concentrated force. This way, even people with a minimal amount of training didn't have to worry about accidentally blowing themselves up.
Once it had detonated, we pulled the pieces of the hull out of our way and peeked through.
We attached to the alien vessel at the exact location where Mana and Jared were being held. Dar gave me a boost, and I crawled through the hole into the cell. He pulled himself through, and we quickly made our way over to where Mana and Jared were lying.
They were still unconscious, but it didn't matter. We were going to drag them into the ship and get out of there.
I picked up Mana under the arms and began dragging her over to the hole. Dar did the same with Jared. But something was wrong.
"Dar," I whispered, stopping. "Something's wrong. She's not heavy enough."
"What are you talking about," he said. "Let's just get them out of here. We'll worry about how much weight they've lost later."
But I remained frozen, trying to figure out if we had overlooked something. That's my problem, thinking about things too much.
As I sat there thinking and doing nothing, the hole that we had made sealed itself in front of our eyes.
We watched in horror as the ship appeared to heal itself like skin. Then we were transported to another cell.
As my body winked out of existence in one location, and back in another, I felt like I had been repeatedly punched in the head.
In the brief moment before I lost consciousness, it occurred to me that their alien technology may not be compatible with human and Susohnnan biology.
----
As I drifted awake, I heard Jared's voice saying, "Oh, we're really fucked now." I sat up, my hand to my head. It was aching so badly that I thought I would cry.
"Kenna's coming around too. What are we going to do?" Mana's voice was way too loud, and I put my hands over my ears.
"After we give them shit for coming after us and getting caught too, you mean?" Jared said.
"Jared..."
The pain receded and I
Fred Hoyle, Geoffrey Hoyle