Celeste looked up into the night sky. Three Rekvok ships flew over them and began hovering over the destroyed base. She felt Samantha let go of her hands and cover her ears. The young woman must have been hearing such noise for the first time in many years. Celeste didn’t know how Samantha had the strength to endure her captivity for so long. She also didn’t know when would be the right time to tell her the truth that Clark, her brother, was dead.
Celeste pulled out the scope. One of the ships had landed on the other side of the base. There were several Rekvok walking about. They were checking the base. A few of them walked into the building.
“Phog, where are you?” Celeste asked.
“A bit further behind your current position,” Phog replied.
She knew the Rekvok would know that the prisoners had escaped and begin searching the area around the base.
“Everyone, we are going to a ship,” Celeste announced and led the group to their ship.
Once they were safely inside the ship, Celeste breathed a sigh of relief. She, then turned, to Phog. “Get us out of here.”
The Rekvok wouldn’t take this setback so well. They would know it had to be humans who had attacked the base and they would want to retaliate. But the Rekvok would also determine that someone was helping the humans.
Tara and Harper had taken all of the humans to an empty compartment and given them some food and liquid. Celeste felt the ship take off as she stepped into the compartment, which was a bit crowded with so many people. Sylvia was seated in a chair while Samantha was peering out the viewport. The young man, and two older women were eating some food.
“Who are they?” Sylvia asked Harper.
“They are humans like us,” Harper explained. “They came from other parts of the galaxy.”
Sylvia’s eyes widened. “Are you saying there are more humans in the galaxy?”
“Not exactly,” Celeste smiled. “What did the Rekvok do to you?”
Sylvia paused for a moment. “Once they captured me, they brought me to that base on a ship like yours. I don’t remember how they caught me, but I remember talking to Clark one moment and then I was with the Rekvok.”
As Sylvia spoke, the others turned their attention to her. Celeste held her breath. She hadn’t expected Sylvia to mention Clark, but Samantha didn’t show any reaction to the mention of her older brother.
“Once I got to the base, they took me into the building where you found us and restrained me,” Sylvia continued. “I was shocked to find the rest of them already there. Then, after a few days, they dragged me into another building and ran some tests on me.”
“What kind of tests?” Harper asked.
Sylvia hesitated. “I am not sure. I was in a daze each time they took me there.”
It sounded like the Rekvok may have injected Sylvia with something before taking her for the tests.
“Do you mean they tested you many times?” Celeste asked.
Sylvia nodded. “Yes. I can’t remember how many times I was taken into the other building.”
Samantha spoke up. “We were all tested regularly. Each time, the aliens would insert white tubes into my ears, nose and mouth. It was so painful. The aliens didn’t care for my discomfort. The room had a bunch of monitors around me. The aliens kept twisting the tubes and looking at the monitor. I think they were searching my memories for something.”
Celeste was horrified to learn the kind of tests these humans had been subject to by the Rekvok, but it made sense. This was why the Rekvok had brought the humans to the prisoner base. Their intention was not to interrogate them. They must have known the humans wouldn’t be so cooperative with them. Instead, the Rekvok used a more advanced way of looking into their memories.
“How do you remember all this?” Tara asked.
Samantha began to tear. “They did the tests to me so many times that it became normal if you know what I mean. At the beginning, I tried my best to resist, but over time I just gave into the tests. I am sure Clark would have told you that they were looking for some kind of device. I knew there was no way I could ever get out of here unless Clark did what they asked him to do.”
Sylvia looked puzzled. “Clark? What does Clark have to do with it?”
Celeste realized that it was the first time Sylvia was actually talking to Samantha. The aliens had kept the mouth restraints over the humans and prevented them from talking with each other.
She decided to step in. “Clark and Samantha were kidnapped by the Rekvok a long time ago. That was before Clark came to the underground shelter. Clark was released with the agreement that he would bring humans to the Rekvok or else Samantha here would suffer greatly.”
Celeste paused waiting for Sylvia to burst out in anger, but the older woman didn’t. She opened her mouth in shock and then kept quiet.
Samantha broke the silence. “I am truly sorry to everyone who was abducted by Clark. I wished my older brother had never agreed to it.”
“Who is Clark?” the young man asked. “My name is Joe.”
Harper turned to Joe. “Are you part of our underground shelter and the Western Continental Alliance?”
“No,” Joe replied. “I was tending to the farm with my brother, when our home was attacked by the aliens. They just appeared out of nowhere. My brother tried to fight back, but he was killed.”
“Where is your farm?” Celeste asked.
“My farm is located in the Northern Plains,” Joe replied. “It is one of the northernmost points of the Western Continent. We emerged after the war and found ourselves alone on the farm. Our parents had died. But, then, we met other farmers like us.”
Joe pointed to the two older women. “The two of them belonged to others farms near ours.”
One of the older women stood up. “Joe is right. My name is Trudy and this is my sister Sheila. One day we also ran into the aliens and they abducted us.”
The Rekvok were not only abducting from the underground shelter, but from other regions of the Western Continent. It also meant that there were more human survivors out there than anyone had imagined.
Harper turned to Trudy. “How many of you are there?”
“Not many,” Trudy replied. “We were the only few that survived the aftermath of the war in our area. We were just fortunate to find each other over time. When no one else came looking for us, we decided to continue living our lives. It was the only thing left to do. I mean it was better than waiting to die.”
Phog entered the compartment. “I brought the ship back near to the underground shelter.”