*****
Tomorrow came very soon, everybody felt tired while getting ready for work and the uragans were very punctual to take everybody to their workstations, together with their supervisors. It was Steven's second day on the animal farm.
"We will kill horses and cows today, so your task is to inject six animals. You will get the mercy guns inside. The venom kicks in after a minute, so count that in. I do not want any mistakes," Karussa pointed on them with his clawed fingers.
Jumping on their gliders, they were at the horses' paddock in a few minutes. They pointed their guns to the animals through the holes and shot. The horses were in panic and ran to the furthest corner. The ones who got shot soon collapsed and were lying on the ground unconsciously. Their reptilian supervisor opened the door and made a sign, that they could come in and examine those animals. They were lying on the ground close to each other and the other horses were walking around nervously. The victims included five adult horses and a young one. The colt seemed to be dead as the venom was too much for him. When Karussa saw this, he was shocked and started yelling loudly.
"We do not shoot on colts you monkeys! I told you this Roger!" he pushed the man away with anger.
"You both get the hell out of here! Go and collect dinosaur manure, that's an appropriate task for you useless bastards!"
"Well, we fucked it up!" Steven said, wagging his head sadly.
"We did my, friend, Roger replied with disappointment.
The rest of the day was rather unpleasant for them. They had to collect the extremely smelly and immense quantity of dinosaur manure and help the dorgs transport them. They were exhausted and stinky by the end of the day. The others were already at home when they got off the plane. They looked at the two men with surprise, who threw their clothes to the washing machine immediately.
It was not bigger than a human-made regular washing machine. It was made of transparent plexiglass and had no buttons. It began washing on verbal command and a few minutes later, their clothes were clean and fresh as new.
"What happened to you two?" Agnessa asked curiously.
"We had to mercy shoot the horses and it went wrong. We accidentally shot a colt and it died. So as a punishment, we had to collect dinosaur manure the whole day." Steven replied with a tired voice.
They heard a noise from outside as an aircraft landed and soon Pyrat entered the room. His big reptile eyes were obviously gloating. He turned to the two men and started talking mockingly.
"I received a complaint from your supervisor, who told me you were not doing your job adequately. Therefore, I have to punish you now!"
He got a gun-like weapon, with an oval barrel off his belt and pointed it on the two men. He flashed his sharp teeth as he burst into a smile. He seemed to be really enjoying what was about to happen.
Invisible waves were coming out from the gun in the direction of the two victims. Steven and Roger suddenly felt dizzy and really uncomfortable. They felt nausea and they both collapsed in incredible pain. Pyrat tortured them for a minute than stopped and put the gun away.
"Next time if you cause any trouble, you can expect something even worse!" he said mockingly.
"I will come again this week to see, if everything is ok," he turned around and left the tense company behind.
Agnessa rushed to them anxiously and helped Steven up while Bruno helped Roger. They were both white as snow and still felt very dizzy.
"Are you ok?" the woman asked.
"I've been better," Roger replied, slowly regaining consciousness.
"What the hell was this gun?" Steven asked the others.
"This weapon attacks the brain waves, it makes the victim confused and out of action," Bruno answered angrily.
"Come, sit down for a while and eat something to get better. We have to work tomorrow too," the Russian beauty seemed worried.
It took half an hour to recover from nausea.
"You've been living here like that for years?" Steven asked the others.
"Yes, unfortunately, we could not stand up against them, anything we do has serious consequences, they may even take our lives," the tall man replied.
"Well, I won't just sit and wait here, whatever it takes! I will get back to the surface and be with my beloved ones," - Steven said passionately.
"Pyrat will regret treating us like this!"
The next day came very early, although there were no days and nights, but they got used to this system and lifestyle soon.
The supervisors came again and took them to work. As Roger and Steven got on the plane, they noticed a female reptilian sitting next to Karussa.
She was young, in human years, she must have been about twenty years old. The outline of her small breasts could be seen through her light white dress. Her long, greenish-brown hair was braided and she was examining the humans with her big and curious eyes. She had big lips, like the other female reptilians. She must have been a very pretty girl among them.
"Hello people!" she greeted them with a smile.
"This is my daughter, Seiren. She will join you today and you will explain everything, she wants to know to her very nicely. She needs to examine the animal farm to her studies. I don't have time for that now, so it is your task. Be careful what you do, because if you make a mistake like you did yesterday, you will receive bigger punishment."
Steven had a strange feeling about the girl, this reptilian seemed completely different. He looked at her differently. He did not have too much time to contemplate, as they soon arrived at their workplace. Steven and Roger got on the gliders and Seiren joined Steven.
"So what exactly would you like to know about our work here?" the man asked.
"How do you execute the daily routine tasks? How many animals do we need a day to produce enough meat? Does artificial increment make up for the slaughtered animals? I'd like to know about these kinds of things."
"This is only my third day here, but my friend Roger can help you a lot more. He's been working here for two years."
Roger nodded as he was scratching his chin, thinking about good answers.
"I will gladly answer your questions. We have to shoot about eight dozens of animals a day to cover the needs. The size of the stock can be efficiently maintained through artificial increment. There is a steady temperature in the hall, feeding is constant and the food comes from the nearby greenhouses. The animals eat different plants and vegetables. These plants were designed for this purpose, they grow very fast and they are very resistant. Our routine tasks, as you can see, include going around the giant paddocks, to check if the water supply system works well and whether the animals have enough food. Water comes from an artificial circuit system that is attached to the main networks. With a device, we check if the animals are fine, we examine their temperature, heartbeat and so on."
"This is interesting and useful information for my studies and although I've heard about most if it, it is completely different to see and experience it with my own eyes. How is your life among us, how do you feel?" the girl changed the subject.
"Look, we are forced to be here, so we do what we have to do, but if we could go home, we would leave immediately," Roger gave an honest answer.
"Same for me," Steven added.
"I've only been here for a couple of days and seen incredible things, developed technologies, but I miss my beloved ones. We are prisoners here, there's no better way to put it."
The reptilian girl was listening curiously. She seemed to sympathize with the men.
"This is understandable, but you know you can never ever leave this place."
"We are aware of that," the men replied.
Steven had some weird thoughts and he found it suspicious, that this girl was so interested in their well-being. No reptilian had shown any interest in them before.
"I will stay with you a little longer if I'm not bothering you, but then I'll leave you to your work," she smiled kindly.
She stayed for about an hour, watching them w
ork, then she said goodbye and left. Roger and Steven could not resist talking about the past events.
"There is something weird about this girl, isn't there, Roger?"
"She acts differently than the other reptilians I know."
"Exactly, it's like talking to a human, I had that feeling."
"Interesting that you're saying this, I had the same feeling. But now let's focus on work, we have to check a lot of animals and I don't want to make any more mistakes."
"Trust me, neither do I don't want that Scarface lizard to attack us again."
The rest of the day went by calmly for the two men. Everybody was resting after getting home. Steven was getting ready to sleep when he heard a voice in his head.
"Steven Cross, it's me, Seiren, do you remember me?"
"Sure," the man was very surprised.
"I have never been talked to telepathically," he replied confusedly.
"Then I'm the first, don't worry about it. I will pick you up tomorrow after work with an uragan. Wait for me at the square in front of your house and I will take you somewhere, because I need to talk to you in person."
"Fine, I will wait for you," he was very surprised.
"See you tomorrow then, bye," the telepathic connection was over.
"What does she want from me?" asked himself.
He could not stop thinking about this in the evening and he was tossing and tumbling in his soft bed the whole night.
The next day everybody went on doing their jobs. Agnessa headed to the greenhouse, Steven and Roger to the animal farm and Bruno to the lab. This day went by quickly. Steven had the usual routine tasks. The only interesting moment of the day was when he saw a long-necked little dinosaur hatching its egg. It was only two feet tall and it got on its feet very soon, as its parents were carefully watching its first attempts, sometimes even cheering for the baby.
When they got off the uragan, Steven did not head to the house. Roger turned back to him.
"Aren't you coming in?"
"No, I have a meeting with Seiren."
"Karusa's daughter?" the tall man was surprised.
"Yeah, she's coming for me, because she wants to talk to me."
"Fine, but be careful or she will make a complaint to his dad," he smiled, said goodbye and left his friend at the square.
Pyrat was watching a big holographic screen that showed every inch of the human house. The inhabitants were coming in, Bruno, Agnessa and then Roger too. His eyes narrowed.
Where is the fourth human? He was wondering. This is very suspicious, I have to look into this as soon as possible and if he's thinking about escaping, I will make him reconsider, he thought. Then he jumped out of the chair and rushed out to begin investigating.
A heart-shaped vehicle soon arrived at the square in front of the human house. Its door opened and the young reptilian girl stepped out from it.
"Hello, Steven. Can we go then?"
"Hi, sure we can."
They got on the vehicle and rose above the city. The airship was flying high and slow, circulating above the town.
"So why did you want to talk to me?"
"Because among the humans living here I'm interested in you the most," she smiled at the man.
"Please tell me a bit about yourself."
"Fine. I live in a small city in Colorado with my girlfriend Tamara, who must be very worried about me now. We live in a condo. I've been repairing cars for ten years now. I love motorbikes. I had one too before you kidnapped me."
"This is very sad, but you have to understand that we cannot let anyone reveal our identities. Please, go on."
"My other hobby is rock climbing. I had a normal life before. I love rock music and good dishes. Sometimes, I have a few glasses of beer, just like everybody else. I haven't known anything about aliens before. Sure, I heard UFO stories, but I never really believed them."
"We are not aliens. We are the native inhabitants of the planet," the girl interrupted him.
"Sure, I always forget that you are the natives here."
"We evolved from our dinosaur ancestors' way before your pre-human ancestors appeared on Earth. Were you satisfied with your life up there? Did you want to change anything?"
"I always dreamed about opening my own workshop, but I would have had to save up much more money for that."
"This sounds strange, we do not have any currencies, I could compare to your money."
"How do you pay for products and services then?" the man asked curiously.
"We don't, it comes on a universal basis. Everyone contributes to the right functioning of our society somehow and receives goods in return. The increment is artificially controlled so the size of the population is basically constant."
"How many of you are living in underground cities?"
"About ten million, including colonies."
"I've heard about these colonies from your father. Where are those?"
"In the Solar System, we have bases on planets and moons."
Steven's eyes were curiously examining the girl's tiny breasts, which were partly revealed from her light white dress.
"Excuse me for asking, but I cannot get over it, why do you have breasts when you are a reptile?"
The girl was smiling and set her dress.
"A few thousand years ago there was a genetic modification, so we can breastfeed our babies too, just like you mammals, because it seemed useful for feeding our children.
"That sounds interesting. I've heard several times down here that we, the humans were created by the Annunakis."
"The people currently living on the face of Earth have been created by them through genetic surgery. Your creators were reptilians just like us."
"And what was their goal when creating us?" the man inquired.
"As far as we know, they were mining gold in great quantities and they needed an intelligent workforce. So you were created to do hard physical work."
"This is unbelievable, can it be true?"
"It is. There are many intelligent life forms out there. We've met many. There are human-like creatures, who you could talk to without realizing that they are aliens. There are reptilian-like species too. There are insect-like creatures, small, three feet tall and bigger, ten to fifteen feet tall ones.
"Where are those Annunakis now?"
"According to our information they left the Earth about five thousand years ago. Those who stayed are hybrids, half human and half reptilians. They control your society on the surface. Your creators have returned a few times in the past so it is possible that, they will come back in the future.
"How do you travel in space? What kind of spaceships do you have?"
"Our mother ships are similar to this we are sitting in but much bigger. They have a light metallic color and they have five red lights on their side. Imagine your aircrafts, they are about five times bigger. It has an anti-gravity engine. We have small UFO-like scout planes too."
"Interesting, do you have other cities like Sipapuni?"
"Yes, we have a dozen underground cities on different continents. They are smaller or much bigger than this settlement."
"Do you reach them with the super-fast train?"
"We do, but they do not work like your trains. With a special magnetic technology, we can reach enormous speed in vacuum and travel to distant underground cities within a few minutes."
"What do you mean by enormous speed?"
"It would translate to two thousand miles per hour."
"Wow, enormous indeed! I have told you a few things about me. Now please tell me something about you and your underground civilization."
"Fine. I'm in the middle of my studies, I've only started college. My father is Karussa, you know him well, the animal farm means everything to him. My mother passed away. I have two brothers, Rouk and Tornan. They are both guardians, which means soldiers in your language. Our society is stratified. Children are in the lowest category, then come the youngsters like me, who do not belong to any castes, as w
e only decide later, what we want to become. Then come the blue collar workers, the teachers like my dad. Then the guardians, the builders, the scientists and the doctors. And finally there are the counsellors, who are the leaders of our society. I have not decided what I'd like to become, but I still have time. In human years, I'm just 22."
"How long have you been living underground? Why don't you live on the surface anyway?" Steven was very curious.
"We've been living underground for more than ten thousand years. We've been in war with several human races, the Lemurians, the people of Atlantis, who lived on Earth. We lost the war and made an agreement to stay underground."
"Lemuria? Atlantis? Isn't it just a fairy tale?"
"No, they did exist, but they destroyed themselves."
"How did you regard us, humans after that?"
"We saw you as a simple, primitive race that is very young and still has a lot to learn. We are not exactly hostile towards you, nor friendly."
"How long do you live? I mean we humans live for 100 years at best."
"We don't live much longer either, for about 150 -200 years, but let's head back, it's late."
"Alright Seiren," replied the man.
She commanded the vehicle to turn around and head back to the human house. Steven said goodbye to the young reptilian girl and entered the flat.
Besides Bruno, Roger and Agnessa there was a fourth person there, who was Pyrat. He was turning towards the man suspiciously and started interrogating him.
"Where were you, newbie? You know you cannot walk around in the city alone," his words sounded impetuous.
"I was just getting some air, clearing my thoughts, is that a problem?"
"Don't be so insolent with me human, because you will be punished more than the last time!" he flashed his tiny and sharp teeth.
"He was just taking a walk, he didn't do anything wrong," Agnessa was trying to protect the man on her tenuous voice.
"I won't be so forgiving next time! You cannot walk around in the city alone, it is strictly forbidden. If it happens again, you will be very sorry I can tell you!" he pointed to the gun on his belt.
He turned around angrily and left through the automatic door, mumbling something under his nose.
"You got away this time," Roger sighed.
Agnessa leaned closer and whispered in his ears.
"Did you really meet Seiren? What did she want from you?" the Russian girl asked with excitement.
"I did meet met her, she contacted my yesterday through telepathy and I agreed to talk. I've learned a lot about her, her family, the humanity and the reptilians," whispered the man.
"She is strange, isn't she?" Agnessa asked.
"That's for sure, there is something special about her."
They all went to bed soon, not even suspecting the unexpected events that were about to happen soon, that will change not only there but the whole humanity's future.