Chapter 11: Kidnapped

I awoke on a mat on a filthy floor. I heard Chuck groan as he opened his bleary eyes. I sat up as best I could. I saw Harry and the others were all waking. I tested my powers and it was as in the dream. Nix, Nada, Zilch, a big fat zero. I tried to change form. Nothing. Annie looked around – “Just like your dream!” I shook my head moved over and took her hand. Chuck held onto Anita. I took Harry’s hand.

“People this is it. No speaking out aloud unless it is drivel. We talk like this. I have my pouch on my belt, someone looked in it and found an old lipstick of mom’s and they took it as well as some other junk from the top section. Check your stuff. We collect intelligence and then we act. Look around and we talk again in five minutes.”

“Oh,” I said and groaned, “What happened to us?”

“Someone must have kidnapped us,” said Chuck.

“Why on Earth would they do that?” Anita asked.

“There are lots of criminals here. They must be desperate. They must be pretty thick criminals,” said Harry, “our parents will never pay anything. They gotta be dumb!”

“Real dumb,” echoed Annie.

“Pathetic,” said Bernie.

Grandpa said both the Dhoom and Grork were really proud of themselves. We wanted to hook them.

“I am hungry,” said Chuck.

They had missed my sewn in pockets. I picked at the threads. I saw the others doing the same. I put my hand in my shirt and opened the pocket there.

“I am also,” said Anita. “I am thirsty.”

“I need to go to the toilet very soon,” said Bernie.

We didn’t have to wait for very long. The door opened. It was the Grork on the drunk who had bleary eyes ... Maybe the Grork was getting hooked on grog? Could we be so lucky? ... He carried a bag from a supermarket in one hand and a pistol in the other. His hand wobbled a little.

“Sir, are you one of the kidnapper heavies?” I asked.

He thought a bit. I noticed the slight sway. “I am the brains of the outfit.” He said.

“Thank you, sir,” I said, “perhaps you can tell us what you are going to do with us?” It was done in a weak tremulous voice.

Chuck and Harry were moving slowly around so they could see out. Two other people walked through the door and stood next to him. One was the Rev. Jackson, the other, one of his helpers. All were armed.

“Please sir, can I use the washroom, I really need to go. There was a chorus of the same. The Grork threw the bag into the room. The drunk winked at me and mouthed, “later when I can.”

They took us one at a time to the toilets. They were quite large and it looked like the place was more than a house. Our room was big enough to have fifty chairs around the walls. It had barred windows right at the top like you see from basements in the movies. They were grimy. The big room next door had piles of old furniture. There was a newish looking cylinder standing innocently near the pile. I thought I detected a hum. I deviated a bit on the way back and I thought I saw a few dull colored lights. It definitely had a hum.

The pair walking next to me pushed me roughly towards the room. “Don’t wander all over the place you might get hurt,” one of them said.

“I was looking for a bed, I don’t want to sleep on the floor,” I said, thinking, let me push a bit more.

“You got all you gonna be given! Now get in there.” He said.

Push a bit more. I stood hands on hips. “Why can’t we have beds?”

“Go into your room now!” he shouted.

“Oh, strong big man, are you going to hit a little girl now. I want a proper bed.” I said loudly.

I saw the Grork looking at me over his shoulder. Chuck was near him peering past him. He pushed Chuck back with one arm and stumbled backwards. He quickly got to his feet. “Get back, if I shoot you it is very painful. It burns nerves. I warn you get back,” he said to Harry who moved forward.

My two were distracted. I looked at the cylinder bent down then did a star jump.

“Girlie, my patience is wearing thin. Get in that room. This is not a sports class” – he grabbed me on my shoulders and pushed me into the room. The Grork’s scarf slipped and I saw the slimy jellyfish below.

“Why do you have a lump of jelly on your neck? You are supposed to eat it not wear it” I asked – he tried to cuff me missed as I stood back then staggered before regaining his balance.

“Next,” said the washroom escort.

The food was packaged breakfast bars and juice in cartons from the supermarket. There were bottles of water.

“I love this stuff,” said Harry. “My mother doesn’t let us eat such tasty saccharine abominations.” He winked at me.

We spoke like airheads for a while. For me it’s easy I just switch my brain off. It seems the others got into it pretty well.

I recorded it all and found my communicator after opening the false bottom of my transdim pouch. Shoot, communications were blocked. I let it search channels and do a burst if it could. Nil, niks, nada, nuffink. I had a Schlogg direct communications machine. I tried it without any result. I put them back.

So, they blocked communication as well. We were in deep trouble.

They switched off the lights at 9:30. Light came in from a streetlight. I switched on the recording. It would look like we were sitting and holding hands.

Harry got up and shot a hole in the window with his mini-catapult and a ball bearing. We used a loud prerecorded argument over who was the prettiest at the school to cover the noise. I saw the ball bearing hit a shield. I had a tiny communication probe I could shoot out, but it would hit the shield. It was too small to go trans-dim through the shield.

We waited but the drunk didn’t come back.

The padding on the floor was quite comfortable and as the weather was good we didn’t need any coverings. I fell asleep.

We were surprised to get fast food breakfasts and plenty of it. Nothing happened till mid-morning. They took me out first. I had to go through a machine like a CT scanner. Then they put me on a chair and pulled a heavy looking disc on an arm over my head. It buzzed for a while. I got a headache. I heard the Grork speak to someone about how long before I was ready. He was told a week. I was young and the preparation if hurried would guarantee failure. His host didn’t look drunk at all, but I noticed a tremor in his hands. He winked at me and mouthed soon.

The Grork asked the Rev. Jackson how long would it take them before they could swap bodies.

“If the Lord is supporting us five days. If he calls damnation upon us, we will all die. I heard the voice of our Lord speak to me from the hologram and I believe we will be saved. We will face the fires of hell. We will move in five to seven days if the hell-fires do not consume us all.”

“Buddy, you need to change bodies soon or you will really go crackers,” said the Grork and laughed.

When I got back to the room, I felt queasy and weak for about two hours. I had a dull headache. The took the others out one after the other. As each one returned, I could see they were not in great shape.

After a saccharine abomination lunch, we again talked by chemical means.

“We must take every opportunity to act from tonight. We will get one shot at this. We must be ready. Too many days like today and we will so weak we wont be able to do anything. On day five, the Dhoom will transfer and on day seven the Grork will sit on my neck,” I said and shuddered. “We can’t communicate out and I doubt our people can find us by telepathy or using our implants. I have had the chance to look at the cylinder four times. They let me look for a chair on the pile.

There is no other device in the room. It must be the suppressor. From what we know the suppressors are only short range. We are in trouble if there is one upstairs. We will have to shoot our way out and it will not be easy as there are so many of them upstairs.

I predict the drunk will visit tonight or tomorrow. If the drunk arrives tonight, we do as we agreed. I don’t want us to face more than one at a time until we destroy the machine. Luckily, we have low power weapons, or they would have been detected. They are not short of technology.“

The drunk did not show up.

We had no opportunities to do anything the next day. We were shattered when we got back from the treatment room. It took all day to feel half normal.

“One more day of this and tomorrow night I don’t know if I will be able to do anything. It takes longer to recover every day and I am not back to normal even now.” I told everyone chemically.

We waited till eleven and fell asleep. Nothing.

I felt reasonably alright in the morning, just a little weak. We had different fast food breakfasts. It was quite good. We all knew we needed to keep our strength up.

I decided to resist on the machine, whatever that meant. I had no idea how I could resist, but I was going to try everything I could think of to stuff up the machine. The CT machine which was a ring through which I passed did not react to me at all.

I had fun on the other machine. As soon as the disc went on, I imagined shattering it and lo and behold it exploded. A fragment grazed my head and sliced a linear cut almost to the bone.

The Dhoom guy operating the machine groaned and swore loudly. “Faulty damn machine. We are stuck.”

“We have another in storage,” said the Grork. “It will take one of you a day to get it and bring it back. It is the last one in Australia. I have never seen one of them fail. Could she have had anything to do with it?”

“No way,” said the technician. “It exploded as soon as I put it on. I will check the power supply while Fred fetches the spare disc. I will add a filter.”

“Dammit, I wanted to get off this moron. He drives me crazy. He has no drive and all he wants to do is drink. After today I can understand why he drinks, even I feel like a drink. They are pathetic these humans, so undeveloped,” said the Grork. “This place is the pits.”

They took me back to our room. My friends did not look that impressed as I briefly held the hand of each and updated them. I had hoped to see profound respect and them to tell me I was a genius.

We had half decent hamburgers for lunch with fries. I was feeling good, then I felt horrible all afternoon and we all vomited. Of all the luck, food poisoning. All of us then got diarrhea. I felt washed out. I knew without our augmented immune systems we would be a lot worse. The toilet monitors looked concerned. They almost got into a fight about who screwed up. I felt lousy. We avoided eating that evening. We only had water. Chuck and I were better than most of the rest.

“Chuck if it is tonight, we are the least sick of them all.” I said chemically.

We heard a big argument from somewhere upstairs. I turned until I was sure where the voices were coming from.

Yes! I know where to aim!

We waited and waited. I fell asleep. I felt someone shake me.

“If you do anyshing it better be shoon. He is ashleep – nooo he is waking”, the drunk said as I awoke.

I shook Chuck who kicked Harry and Anita. I saw the others wake. Chuck dashed out of the door. The drunk grabbed for him and fell on his face. I kicked at the jellyfish on his neck but he moved so I missed and lost my balance. As he stood, Harry stuck out a leg and tripped him. I ran over and kicked the jellyfish and split it wide open. Harry crushed the rest of it on the drunk’s neck with his shoe. I dashed out to help Chuck. Annie followed me.

“I can’t lift it myself,” said Chuck.

I heard voices above, alarmed voices. Our time was running out fast. “Get your weapons and cover me. Two of you go to the doorway,” I ordered.

Annie helped me pick the cylinder up. She was strong! She lifted it easily above her head and waited. We could hear loud voices and a clatter coming down the stairs. She threw the cylinder, a mighty throw. It sailed gracefully tumbling through the air. The door opened, and it sailed through after hitting the door and spinning to hit the wall of the passage behind. There was a loud explosion. The blast missed us.

I felta weight lift off me. I made a few balls of fire and fired them at the stairs. Yes, I was back! I made some antimatter and sent it directly above. There was a loud explosion and some of the roof caved in. I felt the communicators buzz and send. The shield was down. I went to our room and fired the communications drone out the window. I sent antimatter out in a widening perimeter. There was a series of explosions ... There was silence above.

The drunk stood up. “Thank you’sh for getting that scum off me and passed out.”

“Come here and hold my hand and we will now transport out,” I said. We held hands and I transported us out to a large field a mile away.

We had no idea where we were and it was 3 AM.

I heard the communicator buzz. It was the Colonel. I told her what happened and told her we were on a field.

“Chloe we are a minute away from you. Our sensors picked up the explosion, then the communications. There is a team almost to the site of the explosion, I am close behind. We will find your drunk hero.

“Ok I can see you all now.”

We were taken to the Collective Hospital Ship in orbit. It was not food poisoning. It was a genetic modifier of some sort to prepare us to suit them better. It was nasty stuff and we all had to have ourselves retuned and rejigged to remove the nasty effects. After an hour, I felt a lot better. I was transported out of the pod and joined the others. They no longer looked like death warmed up. We all grinned at each other.

Chuck suddenly said “Yesss! I have an idea. I think I know how they are hiding.”

“So, tell us,” I demanded.

I was tempted to call Chuck a birdbrain as I usually would but I didn’t. He does have good ideas but is slow to get them out. I am impatient and I want instant answers, like all admirals. Time is a strategic advantage; all the manuals say that.

Maybe I am maturing, I restrained myself from pushing Chuck. Maybe I don’t want Harry to think badly of me. – Nah, I don’t care what he thinks. – I lie. I care a lot what Harry thinks.

“No, I won’t say anything it is a guess. I want to test the idea first with the technicians. Walk with me to talk to them.” Chuck said.

So, we trooped after him. I was fuming. I don’t like unnecessary suspense. We all could be working on his hypothesis while we were walking not stewing in a frustrated rage. Restraint, restraint, keep calm, relax, breathe. Breathe in calm breathe out irritation, breath in calm, breathe out frustration.

Chuck explained the problem of a possible new masking technology.

“What if it is not new, but the same old Dhoom and Grork masking which is layered? We look through Dhoom masking and are stopped by Grork. We set up to look through Grork and we get stopped by Dhoom. Now I think we either find a way of seeing through more than one set of cloaking or we look for masking or cloaking in action, not what is beneath it. Can I leave it with you guys to work on with the other ships?” He explained.

“How did you come up with this idea,” one of the technicians asked.

“I saw one of the Dhoom guys had two boxes on his back like shield or masking boxes I have seen previously and I thought aha!” Chuck replied.

We met up with the colonel at the shuttle and told her the same. She looked real thoughtful. “Let me look into it.”

Chuck then sent Berit and Porquenta what we saw and did and asked both about cloaking and masking doubling up. They both got quite excited, first by looking for masking by itself or through dual masking. They loved the idea of layered masking and even layered shields. We left them to work it out.

Mom was over the moon after she heard we were safe and then when she saw we were back to normal. Dad just said he knew we would skrog them. Years ago, he explained it was a word he made up as it covered concepts he needed. It meant destroyed and frustrated and went a long way towards achieving one’s objectives. He skrogged the opposing barrister in court that day and the case collapsed.

He made up some real good words over the years. He said it is licensed to him but he granted us reasonable use of the word. I don’t know how many of the kidnappers, we skrogged but there is no doubt we were not pushovers. I had great satisfaction dealing with the jellyfish. Yeah, I forgot to say, I burned it with my death ray and removed every scrap we could find from the drunk’s neck. We pulled out these disgusting tendrils that went into his back; probably into his spine and even his brain. We were revolted plus-plus-plus. So we transported it into space to the sun along with one of Chuck’s black holes.

Yeah, Chuck was right. It was a double system. Berit and Porquenta both made locators of known shielding and they found another thousand of the Dhoom and one Grork. Only one Grork did not resist capture.

Berit was very excited and contacted me. She told me she also spoke with Grandpa and he was coming to visit to see us and to meet the Grork as he had to decide if she was going to be spared as the last known remaining Grork.

Berit told me the interrogators discovered she was of the Grork Royal family and was a princess. Her host was happy with her and she along with her host was in a relationship with a blind man. Both she and her host were mentally intimate with him, the host physically as well. They were happily married. The blind man knew there were two minds with whom he had a relationship. He was now telepathic, and he told the investigators he knew with whom he had a relationship and said she was a fine person. The host was a librarian in one of the mental institutions and the Grork loved libraries and was happy to go along with working as a librarian in Devon, England. The Grork princess had improved her host and her husband a lot and he had begun to see light and vague shapes.

I was dying to meet her as were the others. At the back of my mind I knew it was too good to be true.

None of the captured Dhoom told us anything new or different. They did not know their mission. Many were involved in crime groups and were rising up the ranks. Several were insane, alcoholics or drug addicts. They were all evil to the core.

Grandpa arrived a few days later. “I am so relieved you all came through this. I was really worried about you guys.” He said.

He introduced us to Zafa Nefu, her deputy Adm. Kariya Nama, Gen. Coriyama Kelubaru the senior general of the marines and Gen. Nara Pela head of all ground forces, who like Zafa we had met before. Philippa came along as did Felicia and Celia two of his other Empresses along with their daughters. Felicia’s daughter was Cordelia and Celia’s Charlotte. They were the sweetest loveliest little girls and both spoke telepathically. It was really exciting. Perdita, Razza and Julie were with their parents. Perdita’s baby was due any day now.

Grandpa fainted at the birth he attended and vomited and then fainted at the next. Perdita was not in a hurry to have him at the birth of her baby according to Celia even though it was from an obstetric pod. Linda and Andrea were on Porquenta spending some time with their babies. Few had a baby the natural way but lots did breastfeed. I will use an artificial womb. Carrying a baby and facing a painful birth is not for me.

Mum knew about the Destroyers but didn’t expect to entertain them as dinner guests. The Destroyer ladies treated me and Chuck with the greatest respect. Grandpa had seen what happened during the kidnapping but wanted to show everyone else what happened. Grandpa warned us ahead of time he would do it. The AIs made a great presentation using information from all our perspectives.

Chuck and I decided to begin the show with Mr. Jones, the principal. The feeling at the table had been a bit stiff and uncomfortable before the show began and I thought a bit of light entertainment would get everyone to relax.

I could see mom steaming after watching Jones for only two minutes. Chuck was looking at her out of the corner of his eye and was enjoying watching her stew. I suddenly realized I was just like her. Whew that is an uncomfortable thought.

We watched the buildup. Mum gets this red blotch on her neck and on her chest when she is getting there.

Well, Grandpa and his Empresses loved watching Jones. Grandpa laughed more than I had seen him laugh for a long time. I thought the Destroyer women were going to wet their pants they laughed so much. Mum watched them, put her arm around Grandpa, and I could see her calm down.

She was thinking. That will be dangerous for Mr. Jones.

They watched, as Chuck and I saw the guards fall, then the rest of the saga till we escaped and called in the colonel. I saw RESPECT in the eyes of the destroyer women. Incidentally, they were much worse than Lisirra. They were all over Grandpa. It got more than a bit embarrassing. Dad found it funny but I could see mum didn’t appreciate it. Celia and Felicia rolled their eyes.

Grandpa sent his pilot to fetch the Grork, Fremta, her host Mavis and her husband Alex. Fremta seemed really nice. We met her, Mavis and Alex in a large conference room in the hotel Grandpa put them up in. I was surprised to find Mavis had a little three-months old baby; Sophie. I was not happy there was a baby involved. Alex was a really sweet guy. He went blind after an accident. We enjoyed some pastries and tea. I really like English Breakfast with a bit of milk. Sophie was breast feeding which fascinated the Destroyer ladies.

“Fremta how is it you are so different from the other Grork?” Grandpa asked.

“Do you know the history of the Uzliumbax?” She asked Grandpa.

He told her what he knew of the beginnings in our galaxy.

“Do you know any further back?” She asked.

“Not really,” He replied. “He never waffles.”

Fremta, the Grork princess started talking; “Let me tell you the story because I can, and I was there. If you ask me how old I am, I can tell you I do not know how many millions of years old I am, but I am deteriorating and dying. I no longer have our medical care.

“The time varies in how it moves in different universes. The older Universes have a very different passage of time to the newer ones. I suspect I am tens of millions of years old. The nature of consciousness and life in those Universes was very different. One can barely create metaphors to tell the story I will tell you. Even the concept of size of life was so different.

“The Uzliumbax were small and the Grork smaller, but both were sentient and advanced. We were not forms like you have here we were closer to energy beings but we were not such beings. Such forms do not exist here. I will give you the closest metaphor I can. The Uzliumbax lived like a bacterium and we were like a virus living in the Uzliumbax.

“They evolved as did we to have powerful minds and advanced science. We lived in larger beings. We cooperated in how we dealt with their defenses and processed power they ingested into a form they could use more effectively. We lived much like the microbiome within you and we within them working together. There were many other beings, some were our sources of food.

“It was a happy symbiosis for a very long time. We had a group mind like the Una and positively helped the beings we lived in. We both moderated and managed the internal defenses of the beings and their food processing. New dangerous beings invaded, attacked the big ones and us. The big ones and their doctors fought back and reacted to try to kill us all. Billions of us died.

“Your mother and father decided to send many of us to prepare a way for them to leave. There were two reasons to do so. The first was we were at a stalemate with an enemy and the war could go against us. The other was Norbut 19 was contracting and increasingly unstable.

“Together we escaped. The malignant ones pursued us from Universe to Universe as far as Mespa 49 but could go no further. They could not follow us into Bekta Delta where the Ghouls, Destroyers and Una now live.

“Most of us remained in Universe Bekta Delta. In Bekta Delta your people entered upright lizard like reptiles with which we the Grork were incompatible.

Others lead by you left and split into two factions in this universe. The Uzliumbax influence lead to the slow change in form to look like the Uzliumbax in this Galaxy.

“We changed form to survive in this Universe longer term and replicate. Here, the Uzliumbax found a humanoid ape and shifted their consciousness into them. They slowly changed form over time to look as you do. The nature of the Uzliumbax is they merge with another and change it. Intrinsic to them must be a common shape. We did not know what happened to the Dinnion.

“We could not find a compatable host. We no longer had a role or made a contribution. The lizards tired of us and told us we needed to move on as times and life had changed. They found us the Schlogg and we moved to them. They helped us to negotiate the original arrangement and helped with the genetic improvements to the Schlogg, but many of us became bitter and angry with them. Many of us became envious and decided to seek revenge.

“We met up with another race of ancients, the Borema, who we knew had also fled from our same galaxy and persuaded them to play a joke on the Lizards, become Gods to them and instruct them to destroy all sentients in this galaxy and repeat the cycle as their mission. We thought it had low probability of working, but it worked surprisingly and enduringly well. The Lizards bred few men, but the Borema gave the power of the religion and ridiculous observances to the men only.

“The Lizard men started believing in the false religion. They called the task given by the Borema, the culling and reaping and treated it as a holy mission. It was pathetic and vicious. Many Grork were appalled and wanted the process stopped. The moderates were purged and the vengeful ones amongst us gained control. The moderate faction was nearly half of our people and they were slaughtered. Luckily for me, I was shy and reticent, a scholar, a poet and had said nothing, I also had the protection of our family, so I was never interrogated. I survived.

“The revengeful ones became more and more evil and manipulative over time. They loved the idea that the Uzliumbax did not know they were slaughtering each other. It was a slaughter in the beginning because those from Bekta Delta were way ahead in technology. Any trouble they could cause in your galaxy they did. They connived and manipulated whenever they could.

“They then started to create mischief in Bekta Delta. The Schlogg forgot that half of us were good and we had a convivial relationship at the start. Under the evil ones it went backwards until they began to reject us. I could see the end coming and I wanted to move on and live in peace in an isolated spot. I volunteered to come here.

“I found instead happiness and for the first time in my many years love and happiness.” Fremta, the Grork Princess explained.

I noticed the Destroyer women were riveted by the story. I thought it was pretty amazing as well. Grandpa looked pensive.

“Grandpa, what are you thinking,” I asked.

“The interrogators told me she had an amazing story to tell. They suggested she tell it rather than them providing it to me. They said it would be well worthwhile. That is an extraordinary story and it explains so many things. What do you think Zafa?”

“I know there are forbidden writings that tell of our ancient history. The Gods told us to seal this history as it was an abomination. So, it was done. Our history formally begins after we were independent of the Grork. All we are taught is that we have a prickly relationship with them. We do not fight them, that is forbidden, but we have nothing to do with them other than use them.

“They left us alone as we left them alone. We used them to soften up the enemy in this Universe, but we did not have any other contact. Over time we saw them more positively. In the last million years we’ve even cooperated with them.

“This story makes me sick. I cannot believe what we have done. I don’t know how we can inform our people of the true state of affairs. I am ashamed of what we have done. We were told never to talk to the Uzliumbax or have anything to do with them. The only good Uzliumbax was a dead Uzliumbax! How did we forget who we were?” Zafa wondered.

“We Grork move consciousness and memory to a mature host. The Uzliumbax wanted a closer integration, so they moved at the stage of conception but they had to sacrifice their memories to achieve this. They saved all they knew in repositories but I do not know the reason as to why they did not ensure the repositories could be found again. We looked for these repositories but never found them. There have to be some on Bekta Delta and some in this Universe,” explained Fremta.

“Where did you find that jelly form?” Chuck asked.

“We transitioned in Bekta Delta. It was the only form we could transfer our consciousness into and it was a squeeze. None of us found a suitable form in Nasta 9, this Universe. We returned to Bekta Delta to move into a jellyfish parasite.” Fremta answered. “I hated the whole concept of being a parasite.”