Savage Genesis, part 12

"Shhh. It's okay," Adam said in the neutral calming voice that he perfected from working at Kids Vids! in what seemed like an entirely different lifetime. "We won't hurt you." The creature seemed to relax. Adam doubted it understood him but he was proud that his reassuring voice had done the trick. Adam, hoping to endear some trust from the creature, opened his hand and the creature slide out of his grip and scurried up Adam's arm. It perched on his shoulder and looked over at Lucas.

"Whit!" it said triumphantly. Adam smiled at his pint-sized traveler. He kneeled down and picked up his gun. Adam had suspected that the creature might fall off at his movement or that it might at the very least shift its weight. He was surprised that it did neither, it managed to hang on to him without digging in any fingers or claws.

"What do we do now?" Lucas asked. In all the excitement, Adam had forgotten that the two of them were currently fleeing for their lives. The past sixty seconds were the closest he'd come to normal in the past eight months. He hated having to give up that feeling so soon after having it. He had to switch modes, trying to figure out what to do next. It wasn't as if he'd ever done this before or even knew of anyone who'd ever gone through anything like this.

"Well, we got here so there's gotta be someway off. I don't know how, maybe there's a teleport chamber or something. So all we got to do is find the teleporter and force their O'Brien to get us out of here."

"Who's O'Brien?"

"O'Brien from Next Generation. Don't you watch Star Trek?"

"No."

"He's an Irish guy, he ran the teleporter. Actually when Deep Space Nine... Look, nevermind that. Let's just find the way out of here." Adam turned to walk out. Lucas grabbed his arm.

"How are we gonna force him?"

"What?"

"O'Brien. How are we gonna force him to get us out of here?"

Adam held up the gun. "With this."

"But we don't know how to use them," Lucas pointed out.

"True. But they don't know that." Adam started to leave when Lucas grabbed his arm again.

"But what if they don't speak English?"

Adam sighed. "Listen killjoy, if you got a better plan I would just love to hear it. If not, let's just go for it, huh? I mean, it's not like anywhere we end up could be worse than where we were."

With that, Lucas nodded. He agreed and with that he committed to Adam's plan. A crazy plan with no chance of success was better than no plan at all. Besides, there were times when Lucas had wished for death so despite his desire to stay alive at the moment, he could now remember a time when he didn't feel that way.

Adam walked over to the door, he tried to glance over his shoulder at Lucas but the alien lizard/monkey on his shoulder blocked his view. "Ready?" He asked, his finger poised over the button to open the door.

"Ready," Lucas replied.

"Whit," the lizard chimed in.

Adam pushed the button. The door shirmed and evaporated. Adam stepped through the newly opened doorway and again encountered that cold wet almost solid shadow of where the door used to be. He stepped into the hallway and looked around cautiously. He listend closely for the slightest sound of footfalls or any other audible evidence they'd been discovered. Glorious silence. Adam waved for Lucas to follow him through. Lucas stepped out of the room, the door solidified behind him.

"Which way?" Lucas asked. Adam looked at the doors, they were of course, not written in English but instead were in the native alien tongue. He looked down the hall, row after row of doors. None looked different from any other.

"This way," Adam said with a confidence he did not feel, before he headed off in a random direction. He heard Lucas pray under his breath and then run after him.

Adam was unaware of the alien's security system. It wasn't his fault, he was too busy focusing on what to do next, while staying alive and free. Even if he hadn't been so distracted, he'd probably not have even known what to look for. His eyes might've drifted casually upwards, to the corners where a video camera might have been nestled. That still wouldn't have helped him though, as there were no cameras on the ship. He would've had to direct his gaze downwards. The floor paneling was sensitized to movement, weight and body heat.

Now that their escape had been made known to everyone on board the ship, the guards were watching closely to see when they'd appear. If Adam or Lucas had known anything about the alien technology, then they would've climbed into the duct work that connects the rooms as they were completely unmonitored. A wrong step in the ducts, however, would've lead them to a great heating room where their flesh would've bubbled and melted off their skin. So maybe it was for the best that they didn't even risk it.

With the alien guards now knowing exactly where they were, they begin to form a line to cut them off and force them back into captivity or worse if they resisted. The two men were, of course, oblivious to all this. Very fortunate for them, their pint-sized companion was not. As they unknowingly approached a corrider and came within a hundred feet of the the planned ambush, their guest decided to speak up.

"Whit!" It cried as it dug its fingers (which Adam discovered had very sharp albeit very tiny talons on them) into Adam's shoulder. He winced in pain as Lucas stared at the creature.

"Shut it up," Lucas hissed. Lucas looked around, twitchy. Adam was surprised that he hadn't noticed the transformation in Lucas. He seemed to be more panicky, less together. It seemed that his fight-or-flight instinct was kicking in and he didn't quite know how to deal with it.

"I can't. It's not as if it's got an on-off switch." The space lizard seemed to be getting quite fidgety now, it couldn't stand still for longer than a second or two.

"Well, come on. Let's keep going," Lucas said, a hint of desperation in his voice.