Alpha Rising (37 page)

The two walked more than a hundred yards to
a suspended bridge that led from the island they were on to another
land mass about an eighth of a mile away. Star commented, “So much
water. We’re lucky the sky is clear. The logbook entry said
torrential rains come without warning.”

“
This land shortage must
present huge challenges,” Bach said.

As they neared the end of the bridge, a
large sign overhead read MEN ONLY and a security device mounted in
a turret continuously scanned the island.

Bach sighed. “A difficult start
already.”

Star sat on a concrete wall under the
turret. “I’ll wait here.”

Looking around, Bach muttered, “I’m
confused.” He stepped onto the island where rolling ripples of
water lapped at the eroded shoreline. “The journal said that the
residents are separated by gender. If men and women never share the
same area, do they live apart forever? How would there be
children?”

Star shrugged and shook her head.

Wondering where to begin
his search, Bach noticed a medical facility, command posts, and a
park-like recreation area. The park was the logical starting point.
An event of some kind was in progress and several hundred men
wearing yellow, hospital-like uniforms with numbers on the front
and back of the left shoulder, had gathered around tables where
others were seated in groups of six. Bach walked among the
spectators, but not one man spoke to him. A gaming tournament of
skill and intellect held their attention. Moving from table to
table he noticed identical circular game boards with playing pieces
of different shapes and colors. The boards, divided into four
pie-shaped sections, looked like the symbol.
Can’t be. There are hundreds of them
.
Face scrunched up in dismay, he walked on.

After he’d searched for more than an hour
and found nothing resembling a symbol other than the game boards,
Bach headed back to the bridge. Star was still sitting under the
turret where he’d left her. “The men are having some kind of
contest and nobody’s talking,” he reported. “But the odd thing is,
their game boards are round with a design that looks like the
symbol. But it can’t be—there are hundreds of them.”

She pointed to a connecting bridge running
from the bridge they were on to an adjacent island. “Let’s cross
over there and have a look.”

The second bridge hung just inches above the
water and as they walked across, their weight took it below the
surface. Wet to the ankles, they reached the next island’s sandy
shore. There, another security system scanned an area designated
WOMEN ONLY. In the distance were several office-like buildings and
a women’s medical center. But closer, in an area the size of a
soccer field, hundreds of female spectators rooted for participants
hovering over dozens of waist-high platforms. Several women
monitored the event from a large stage, and all were dressed alike
in numbered gray uniforms.

Bach sat at the foot of the bridge and
motioned Star on. “I’ll be here when you get back.”

Star headed toward the closest platform
where a group of twelve women, spaced two feet apart, awaited a
given signal. At the sound of a buzzer, each woman set a gyroscope
into motion within a marked-off area. The tops spun for minutes on
end and the contestants watched intently. A digital readout
suspended above the platform displayed elapsed time. As the
gyroscopes slowed and stopped one after another, Star moved closer,
noting a crossed-bar formation inside the spheres that looked like
the symbol. She pondered the discovery while moving farther through
the crowd and among the platforms, watching for anyone or anything
displaying the sacred icon. But after covering the entire event and
finding nothing among the spectators or participants, she returned
to Bach. “Something strange is going on,” she said. “They’re
competing with identical gyroscopes and each has inside what looks
like the symbol. But as you said about all the game boards on the
men’s island, all the participants couldn’t have a symbol.”

Bach ran his hand through his hair with a
sigh and looked out over the crowd. “Maybe the Rooks got here first
and foiled our search.”

“
But Rooks wouldn’t know
about the symbol.”

A cheer broke from one group and the winner
rushed to the stage holding her gyroscope above her head. The crowd
applauded her victory and readied for the next match.

“
What now?” Star
asked.

Bach shrugged. “Maybe we should separate and
check the housing areas. You check the women’s while we’re here,
and I’ll go back and check the men’s area.”

“
Separating is a bad
idea.”

“
But we can’t go together
here,” he complained as he looked back at the group of women.
“Maybe we’re supposed to take the game winners.” All of a sudden
his mouth dropped open and all the air shot from his lungs. “Oh,
oh, my God!” He started forward.

Star grabbed his arm. “Bach, what’s
wrong?”

He didn’t explain, but tightened his arm
around hers and pulled her into the crowded park. Pushing and
shoving through the women and platforms, he lost his grip on her
arm the last few yards and sprinted red-faced and yelling, “Kaz!
Deni!” But the loud gaming buzzer for the upcoming round drowned
out his words. Bach reached his crewmates and pulled Kaz back from
a platform. Staring at her face, he said through gasps for breath,
“Kaz? I can’t believe it!”

Her expression was one of shock mixed with
fear. “Bach?”

Star caught up. “You know them?”

“
It’s Kaz, my fiancée, and
Deni, my crewmate.”

Deni stepped back from the platform, eyes
nervously flashing around the area before nodding
acknowledgment.

Without thinking, Kaz embraced Bach.

Deni grabbed her away. “Stop it! Do you want
the labor camp? Don’t touch him.”

“
Oh, Bach, it’s a
nightmare!” Kaz trembled, trying to hold back tears. “I can’t
believe you’re here. We’re prisoners, sent here as the Specter’s
revenge.”

Bach’s heart sank as he looked into those
familiar Hispanic eyes. He cupped his long-lost fiancée’s face in
his hands and whispered, “Have you been hurt?”

“
No, but it’s torture here.
We’re restricted and punished for everything.”

Deni pulled Kaz back. “Stay away from him,
Kaz!” She shook her head as she spoke. “Bach, your being here is
going to bring trouble.”

He inched backwards. “Are Lynch and G.R.
here too?”

“
No, just us. The male
Rooks were fascinated by Kaz and me—women from the blue planet. The
Specter feared we’d manipulate his men, influence them, maybe
escape, so he shipped us here.”

“
Did you ever see him?”
Bach asked.

“
Just his face—the
apparition.” Deni took a deep breath and tried to speak without
visibly mouthing the words. “He extracted samples: blood, small
bits of flesh, body fluids, DNA. He’s working on genetically
superior supersoldiers. Our diverse genes could either add to that
effort or spawn a peasant race to do the hard labor. Could be he’s
gone too far with experimentation and needs fresh DNA to correct
his mistakes.”

Sniffling, with voice shaking, Kaz
whispered, “Bach, we gotta get out of here; everything’s under
microscopic control.”

The sight of his fiancée in drab, gray,
prison-like clothing ripped at Bach’s emotions. He could barely
speak and wasn’t ready to leave. “I’ve missed you terribly.”

Kaz moved to within inches of his face,
tears spilling from her eyes. “Please, take us back to Dura.”

“
Kaz, I can’t, not now.
We’re on a special mission. But I’ll come back for you … and
Deni.”

She stopped crying and glared at him. “What
mission? What’s more important than rescuing us? You don’t
understand what we’ve been through.”

Star moved closer. “We have a critical time
limit—the enemy may bring harm to all. Please understand.”

Kaz looked at Star, then Bach, then dropped
to her knees, closed her eyes and whispered, “Please help us,
God.”

Deni latched onto the neckline of Kaz’s
jumpsuit and lifted her from her knees. “Get up!”

Kaz stepped back, straightening her clothes.
A necklace now hung outside her gray uniform.

Bach stared at the pendant. A crossed
circle—a symbol of hope. He moved as close to Kaz as he dared.
“Where did you get that pendant?”

“
G.R. made them for all of
us from scrap metal when we were confined together at Ulwor. It’s
the scientific symbol for planet Earth. We wear them to keep hope
and memories of home close to our hearts.”

Scientific symbol for
planet Earth?
Bach remembered the planetary
identifiers from an early science lesson.

Suddenly, a platoon of male guards plowed
through the crowd. The contestants and spectators scattered like
ants on a stirred mound, and as the women rushed across a bridge to
their living quarters, Bach knew that he, Deni, Kaz, and Star were
in trouble.

The ten sentries carried
heavy firearms and bayonets at their sides and wore menacing black
body armor, fashioned of micro-thin chain mail, emblazoned with
bold white
x
’s on
the chest and helmet. The tall lead guard stepped forward and
shoved his blade to Bach’s throat as the other nine surrounded the
helpless four. The lead’s booming voice rocked the air from behind
his face shield. “You ignored the segregation statute!” He pointed
his bayonet at Kaz. “And
you
dishonored our directives with your public display
of devotion.”

“
I didn’t display
anything,” she said in a snotty tone, eyes flashing. “I dropped
something and knelt to look for it.”

“
Start walkin’,” he
commanded.

“
Everybody move!” shouted
an impatient muscular guard.

The guard squad marched
Bach, Star, Deni, and Kaz to a third suspension bridge leading to
the labor camps on the next island. Desperate to avoid punishment,
Kaz stopped short, causing several guards to stumble into each
other. While the grumbling guards regrouped, she pled like a scared
child. “Don’t take us away. It’s not our fault a
man
is here. Let me and
Deni go back with the women.”

Bach joined in, “Star and I didn’t mean to
infringe. Let us return to our ship, and let the other two go
back.”

The tall guard’s voice boomed, “Labor camps
are the penalty for commingling.”

“
It was an accident,” Bach
said. “We just got here and we didn’t understand the rules. It
won’t happen again.”

The lead pushed him with his bayonet. “Shut
up and keep walkin’.”

The four prisoners reluctantly trudged along
the bridge, prodded by the guards when they moved too slowly. Bach
grew more defensive by the second at thinking of incarceration and
further delay. As the two labor camps came into view, the sight of
rigid steel buildings surrounded by a deep, wide moat and
surveillance structures like airport control towers only heightened
his determination to avoid punishment. While the gravity of the
situation sank in, something out of place offshore to the right
caught his eye. He looked again to be sure he’d really seen a
mermaid atop a rocky ledge protruding from the sea about ten yards
out. Three feet of silky golden hair cascaded down her half-human
body, and her iridescent blue-green fish tail dangled just far
enough to stir the seawater with a teasing swish. She looked to
shore from glowing green eyes.

“
Holy cow!” he said louder
than intended. “A mermaid! Look, a mermaid!”

“
Quiet!” roared the brawny,
broad-shouldered guard.

The mermaid, startled by the shout,
slithered into the lagoon’s midnight blue waters.

Star spoke to herself, “Half-fish and
half-woman?”

“
Do not speak!” commanded
the tall lead guard. “Stop here.” He shoved the hostages by the
shoulders and lined them up side by side. Then, like an executioner
walking with one hand behind his back, he examined them one by one
from behind his face shield. Arrogant and stiff, he stopped in
front of Bach, raised his bayonet to his captive’s neck, then
looked back at his platoon and announced, “They’re mine!” He
singled out the burly guard and a short guard as assistants and
said to the remaining seven, “We’ll take over. We’ll serve them
their proper punishment. You all are dismissed.”

As the surplus sentries marched away, the
tall lead motioned to his two assistants to corral Deni, Kaz, and
Star with their bayonets. Then he hovered over Bach from behind and
shoved him along, repeatedly pushing him as they walked.

Bach short-circuited. He
turned around and glared past the eye space of the tall guard’s
helmet. Beady blue eyes looked back. He thought about his earlier
discovery of his crewmates.
This is a
trick. Kaz and Deni said they were the only ones here. It can’t be
Lynch.
Before either made a move, the short
guard stepped forward and pushed Bach over with the
women.

The lead guard commanded
the prisoners to proceed. As they clipped off yardage and neared
the labor camps, Bach’s mind ran on overtime.
Those are Lynch’s beady eyes and his wiry frame. Is he one of
them or one of us?
He slowed for another
peek at the tall guard’s eyes, but the muscular guard pushed him
along.

Standing at the gate of a massive iron fence
enclosing the moat, the short guard separated the ladies from Bach
by poking him in the ribs with his bayonet. He said, “Here’s where
I separate the man from the women. Women, come with me.”