Nick awoke with a start, his hands moving instinctively to his head. The intense pain was now gone and had been replaced with a dull ache that consumed his whole skull. Looking around he found that he was lying in a medical room and on his head was some type of medical monitor firmly affixed just above his brow, covering his entire forehead. There was a rustle to one side and he found that he was not alone; Zalath was in the room busying herself at a table with her back to him.
“How long have I been here?” he struggled to ask, his throat raw and sore, his voice croaky.
“It’s been two of your Earth days” She said over her shoulder in a soothing voice that he was learning to adore.
“What happened?”
Turning to face him Zalath explained “You experienced a telepathic induced hemorrhage. Basically your brain was having difficulty accepting what was happening and was fighting the connection you were sharing with Thralesh. As her thoughts were forming in your mind your brain was trying to deny them, in the end it couldn’t and forced you to shut down to stop experiencing them.”
Nick laid back, the effort of talking and thinking was almost too much for him.
“Am I going to be OK?” he said in a low, scared voice.
Zalath was beside him now and she leaned in a little closer, her dark eyes filled with concern “Yes you will be fine. This device here is helping to heal your brain” she said indicating the device attached to his forehead. “We just have to take it a bit slower in training.” She seemed on the verge of saying something else when the door opened and Thralesh came in and marched right up to Nick’s bed. “Ah Nick, your awake. You gave us quite a scare there, but Zalath has been here ensuring your speedy recovery”
Nick gave her a feeble smile and she moved off with Zalath and they both went silent, exchanging thoughts telepathically about his status.
Nick thought about trying to intercept their thoughts but the minimal effort he put forth trying to connect to their thoughts caused his head to hurt more so he abandoned the idea.
Thralesh returned to his bed and informed him “Zalath thinks that you should be able to return to your quarters tomorrow and maybe some light training. We don’t want to rush you but at the same time we are working on a timeline here”
“It’s OK” he replied. “I didn’t think this would be a walk in the park”
Thralesh regarded him with a critical eye for a moment and said “All right, until tomorrow then” and turned sharply and left the room.
Nick was returned to his room the following day, the dull ache in his skull had faded even more until it was almost completely gone. Zalath had removed the device from his head that morning and he was able to walk back to his room under his own power, with a guide of course.
The more Nick was around Zalath, the more his feelings for her were growing. It was easy to figure out why. She was nice to a fault, attractive was an understatement and she was genuinely concerned for his well-being. He wondered for a moment if she shared the same feelings for him. Almost as quickly he put those thoughts out of his mind as wishful thinking and hoped that he wasn’t falling under some Stockholm syndrome spell and that all his feelings were just because she was his master. He vowed to make sure she never found out how he was feeling.
For the next several days and weeks the training continued and so did the pain. Nick didn’t black out again but he was sure on several occasions that he had come perilously close. Most days he returned to his quarters with a huge, vice like headache, a gushing nosebleed or both caused by the effort he was putting forth in mastering this new skill. He was diligent every day to hide his feelings from Thralesh but more importantly, to look for a way to escape. Nothing presented itself however and he was starting to get discouraged. He hadn’t met anyone new and he was always escorted to and from his room to the training lab. There seemed to be a never-ending maze of hallways and corridors, even if he were to get away he would have no clue where to go.
There had been a few more infusions but even those had been stopped with the explanation that the nanobots work was done as far as activating the part of his brain that was necessary for this mission: which only made Nick wonder more about the extent of the human ability to use these powers and how much he was really being told.
Nick’s proficiency was increasing on a daily basis. He was now able to hold small conversations with Thralesh and Zalath without his head feeling like it was going to explode.
In the last few days they had introduced a new concept to him which was how to shield his life force or aura from their perception. Nick was excited about this as he thought that he might be able to use it to his advantage to engineer an escape plan.
This was where they seemed to focus their attention of late, and as it was explained to him, it was crucial to the mission.
There it was again, the mission. This mysterious mission that nobody had expanded upon, nobody would answer the many questions he had. He still didn’t know exactly how this mission was supposed to be carried out. Besides the obvious go to this planet and introduce some sort of toxin that will cause them to lose their telepathic abilities long enough for an invading force to land and seize control of the planet. The whole idea seemed ludicrous to him. He would have thought that Bill or Grolen would have been around to help him develop a plan of some sort but he hadn’t seen or heard from either of them which only deepened his sense of helplessness.
It was after a particularly strenuous training session that Nick found himself on his bed, his headache now subsiding when his door opened and in came a gray. The gray didn’t have anything that he could see. No food or other supplies that they routinely brought to him. He observed the gray for a moment, trying to figure out why he was there. Was it a mistake? Did he think that there was a training session? The gray stood obediently by the door and stared at him with those almond shaped, lifeless black eyes, which usually indicated that he was supposed to follow. Curious now, Nick got up off the bed and walked toward it and as he got close the gray went out the door. Nick frowned, but his curiosity got the better of him and he also exited through the door and followed as the gray wound his way through halls and corridors that Nick didn’t recognize. They walked on for many minutes in complete silence, anxiety building with every step. Nick knew for sure that they were not anywhere that he had been taken before and was left to follow obediently and wonder where the gray was taking him. Perhaps Bill or Grolen had arranged a meeting. No, if that was the case they surely would have sent a message with the gray No this was something entirely different, so he calmed himself and stayed in step behind the gray After some time the gray came to a halt and indicated for Nick to continue on down the hallway, which appeared to come to an end a hundred yards or so down with only one doorway very close to the end on the right hand side. With a sidelong glance at the gray Nick slowly continued on down the hall. He stopped right in front of the door and looked back at the gray. It was still standing where he left it, looking solemnly back down the hall at him, uncaring. Turning his attention back to the door in front of him, Nick waited and wondered. He hardly had time to gather his thoughts when the door opened to a pitch black room and a pair of hands came out of the gloom and dragged him into the room, the door sliding shut behind them.
His first instinct was to lash out at his assailant but he found that the hands, though soft, held his firmly in place and were directing him through the inky black. His mind racing as they came to a halt and a doorway opened beside him into a large elevator. The light from the elevator filled the room to reveal Zalath standing in front of him, still holding his hands in place. She let them go now and her thoughts entered his mind ‘Nick, this elevator will take you to the surface. You have to get out and spread the word about this place and what is happening here.’
He stood stock still as the shock of what was happening settled upon him. He had all but given up hope of escape and now here was his chance, falling right in his lap. Questions were going off i
n his head like fireworks. Zalath was pushing him onto the elevator now. He returned the thought to her ‘What is going on here? What am I supposed to tell? I have seen so little?’ A noise in the hallway cut short any response Zalath was formulating.
‘No time to explain.’ She said ‘Go!’
She was staring at him intently, her beautiful eyes and delicate features betraying her feelings for him. It seemed as if she was trying to send a thought to him but nothing was forming in his mind. What was the problem? She reached into her coat and pulled out a small package which she shoved into his hands and pressed a button beside the doorway and the door slid shut, the elevator starting its ascent. To where, Nick had no idea.
The elevator stopped and its doors opened onto a dimly lit passageway that extended ahead into the darkness. The passage was as cold as the rock it was carved from. Cautiously Nick stepped out of the elevator and looked around, half expecting to have walked into a trap, surrounded by security. Nothing moved so he assumed he was alone for the time being. His thoughts drifted to Zalath and hoped she was OK The look on her face as the elevator doors closed was still etched vividly in his mind and he felt ashamed that he had never confided in her how he felt about her. Zalath had risked herself to get him out and clearly felt the same about him. Now she was still down there and Nick vowed that he would find a way to return the favor and get her out of the facility.
Carefully Nick unwrapped the package that Zalath had given him; it contained a map of Dulce, some cash, a hat and sunglasses, a computer disk that glinted colorfully in the dim light, a large round magnet and most importantly his passport. He stowed the items back in their wrapping and made his way down the passage. The sides were smooth as glass and Nick couldn’t feel any cracks or fissures as he made his way down its length. It was as though the tunnel was shaped when the rock was still molten and it dried with the passage fully formed. It ended up being longer than he thought and made a few twists and turns along the way but there were never any tunnels or rooms branching off from it, just one long passageway. The tunnel ended abruptly at a wall, as though its makers became bored and stopped tunneling. Nick ran his hand along the surface that the tunnel ended at, searching for something that might open. He could find no hinges or doorknobs or locks of any kind. He pushed on it and it wouldn’t budge. Kicking it had no effect either he discovered.
After several tense minutes of feeling around, he sank to the ground with his back on the passage wall in despair. What now? This couldn’t be what Zalath had intended. Perhaps he had to use his telepathic abilities to open the door. He stood up again and faced the wall and strained his thoughts with every fiber of his being, reaching out to the wall, willing it to break or crumble or move, but still nothing happened. He resigned himself to being trapped here and sank to the floor once more. As he did he felt the arm of the sunglasses jab into his side. He pulled the package out of from his jump suit and looked at the items inside with a fresh eye. The magnet seemed to capture his eye and he kept looking at it. Then he remembered what Bill had told him how most things around the base were run with magnetic energy. An idea was forming in his mind and he stood up and placed the magnet on the wall and for a moment nothing happened. Nick sighed heavily, his spirits sinking, body physically sagging. Then the lights in the passage went out and Nick was plunged into complete darkness. His hands shaking, he pocketed the magnet and reached out to where the wall was. His hands touched the cold rock face and he pushed.
Nothing.
He pushed harder and still the wall didn’t budge. Nothing happened as he pushed to the right either, but as he pushed to the left, the wall complied and slid slowly sideways without a sound. Not wanting to waste a single second, Nick didn’t wait for the door to open all the way. As soon as it was open enough for him to fit through, he scrambled out into a moonlight night. Taking a moment for his eyes to adjust, he looked at his surroundings. He had come out the side of a little hill, the surrounding countryside pockmarked here and there with similar hills but devoid of any visible life. Far off in the distance he could see lights twinkling against the dark backdrop of night. That must be Dulce he thought. Looking back into the passage he noticed the lights were coming on and then the door shut and disappeared into the hillside as if it had never been there at all. Taking a deep breath, Nick secured his items and started making his way toward the lights.
Bill was at his desk poring over some paperwork when Grolen entered. He walked with purpose across the floor as he approached. Sitting down in one of the chairs across the desk from Bill he stated flatly “He got out” forgoing an exchange of pleasantries.
Bill knew who he was talking about without even having to ask. With an incredulous look, Bill leaned back into his chair. “And how did he do that?”
“He had help from the assistant. She reprogrammed a gray to lead him to a defunct exit point and she sent him on his way.”
“She stayed behind though?”
“Yes. It would seem she was only interested in freeing him”
“Why didn’t security go after him?”
“They didn’t know what was happening. They only knew she was in an area that she shouldn’t be and escorted back to her quarters.”
“How did you find out Nick was gone?” Bill asked
“It was Thralesh. When she was told what happened she had a feeling there was more to the story and checked on Nick. Sure enough, he was gone.”
Bill sighed heavily and thought for a moment. Being as thorough as he liked to be, Bill had prepared for this type of contingency but didn’t like the extra work it was going to cause him. “Is she being dealt with?” he asked after a long silence.
“In the usual fashion” Grolen said with a wicked smile.
“So where is he now?”
“We know where he came out. Unfortunately he is applying the skills he learned and we are having a tough time tracking where he has gone from there. I am sure a sweep of the area would round him up. Shall I order it then?”
Bill sighed heavily and thought. “No, I think that this could work in our favor. I have a good idea where he is headed. We can get there before he does and reacquire him there. Did he see anything that he shouldn’t have?” he finished sharply.
“Thralesh followed your wishes to the letter and made sure that he was appropriately sequestered. Nobody in the hallways during transport to and from the lab, very tight protocols as you requested.” and he paused momentarily, surveying Bill.
“Where do you think he is headed?” he asked after a moment.
Bill grinned broadly “Grolen my friend, sometimes you need to think more like a human.” Noting Grolen’s confusion Bill expanded upon what he meant “Nick needs to go where he feels safe and can think things through and figure out what his next move is.”
Grolen sat, staring at him.
“It’s simple. He’s going home”
Chapter 8