"Whit!" The small lizard began pulling on Adam's ear.
Lucas started running. Adam reached up to take his tiny traveller off his shoulder. The creature ran down to his hand. He looked down at it and was amazed to see it shaking its head. It seemed to be demanding that they go no farther. Adam had no idea how he knew that that's what it meant but he was more sure than he'd ever been of anything in his life. It blinked its giant eyes at him and he was sold.
"Lucas, let's go the other way," Adam said. Lucas stopped at the bend of the hall. He turned around. He was unaware of the guards wating thirty-five feet away from where he stood. He stard at Adam with great frustation.
"You've got to be kidding me," Lucas groaned.
"No, I think this thing knows something."
"Like what? It's a rodent for Christ's sake."
"It's not a rodent and it doesn't feel good about this. And neither do I."
"That's fine," Lucas said in a tone that dripped with sarcarsm that told Adam that it was most defintely not fine. "Does your little pal have a better idea then? Maybe he knows the way out of here."
"Whit!" She chirped defensively. Adam looked down at the creature thoughtfully.
"I think it's a girl," Adam said.
"Do you think that I give a shit?" Lucas bellowed.
"Don't shout!" Adam shouted. The creature perked her head up and leapt out of Adam's hands. When she hit the ground, she took off running the opposite way. "Wait!" Adam called out after her. He took off in pursuit of her. Lucas just groaned.
"Fine. If you want to chase your little rat, go ahead. I'm getting out of here." With that Lucas rounded the corner and sealed his fate. Adam spun around when he heard the sound, like lighting in a bottle. When he got his first look at Lucas he could see what had made that sound. Blasts of energy were striking him with increased frequency. Lucas fell to his knees, raised his gun and hit a button on the side. Nothing happened. Lucas screamed as the blasts kept hitting him. Lucas began pounding wildly on the buttons on his weapon. The gun began making a high pitch whinning noise.
"Ditch the gun!" Adam shouted at Lucas. Up until now, Adam had been frozen, unable to move or help. He knew that he had a gun as well but he had no idea how to use it anymore than Lucas did. What he did know was that Lucas' gun was making a noise that you never want any electronic device to make: the meltdown sound.
Lucas looked over at Adam at the sound of his voice. His eyes were pleading. The two men were making eye contact when the gun exploded in Lucas' hand. Lucas cried a primal note of pain. He looked down where his hand used to be. His left arm now ended halfway between elbow and where his wrist used to be. Lucas collapsed to the ground in a heap. He was moving a bit, letting Adam know that he was still alive. Adam guessed that the same explosion that cost Lucas his hand also cauterized the wound.
"Lucas!" Adam shouted and ran towards him. Adam saw an alien guard approach Lucas' limp body and pick him up by his still fully intact arm. The guard tossed Lucas over his shoulder in a fireman's carry.
"Whit!" Adam spun around at the sound. Adam saw his little companion standing still further down the hall. He knew there was nothing he could do for Lucas. He didn't know how to work the gun, he was outnumbered and in alien territory. He had no chance of saving Lucas, but he still had a tiny chance he could save himself. He turned and ran away from Lucas and the guards, towards Whit. Whit, in turn, ran further down the hall.
Behind him, Adam heard guards chirping and then movement. Shots of energy began landing by him as he ran, in a zig-zag, down the hall. He began running full out, putting everything into this one burst of speed. He was following Whit blindly now. He didn't know where he was going and he didn't know how far behind him the guards were (nor could he afford the luxury of glancing behind him to find out). He was aware, however, that the guards were close enough behind him that he didn't have the time to think, only to react.
Adam began to worry that Whit (as he'd come to call his little friend in his mind) wasn't as sentient as he first thought. That perhaps she was just an animal who was running through the hall because she liked to run and lacked any plan or awareness of her surroundings at all. He realized of course that plan or no, following Whit was the best option that he had open to him. Besides, he felt she was leading him to something, to a place that could help or even save him. He didn't know what gave him this surety but he had it and was fairly confident about it.
Whit stopped in front of a door. Either she wanted him to go inside this particular room or she was just tired of running. Either way, Adam was going in. He stopped in front of the door and hit the button beside it. Nothing happened. Whit ran up his leg, then torso and resumed her perch on his shoulder. He glanced down the hall, the guards were fast approaching, another thirty or forty-five seconds and they'd be upon him.
He hit the button again. He tapped it repeatidly, furiously. He sighed and rested his head against the door. The sound of the incoming guards grew louder now, seeming to echo in Adam's head.
"I give up," Adam said and raised his hands.
He felt the door that he was resting his head on disappear. It caused him to fall face forward through the doorway. He heard Whit squeak and scramble so as not to be squished by Adam's falling body. He looked up into the harsh stare of one of the aliens. The alien leaned in close and grabbed a hold of Adam's arm.
Adam pulled the barrel of his gun up and shoved it in the face of the alien. The alien calmly put a hand on the gun and pushed it away.
"Ruhe!" Adam shouted as the recognition set in. He hadn't seen Ruhe in several months since Adam saw him in the operation room. As he was the only alien whose name he had ever heard and who had ever spoken to him in English (even if it was a garbled bizarre attempt at speaking English). Ruhe reached out with his free hand and touched the panel by the door. The door resolidfied. Ruhe looked over at Adam.
"Do not be afraid," Ruhe said. His voice no longer sounded strung together. He was speaking the words now, not replaying them. He released Adam's arm. He seemed to be eyeing Adam, trying to see what he was going to do. Adam looked around to find Whit but she seemed to have run off. "I've locked the door. They cannot get in here."
"You can talk," Adam said. He was unsure if he was safer locked in here with Ruhe or if he'd have been better off running down the hall by himself.
"Yes. I listened to you and starson talk. I picked up how to speak Earthican."
"English," Adam corrected. Ruhe made a face of confusion. "We were speaking English not Earthican. There is no such thing as Earthican."
"English," Ruhe repeated. "Yes. English."
"You said that you had listened to me and 'starson.' Do you mean Lucas?"
"Lucas?" Ruhe repeated. Adam sensed that he was repeating the name in an attempt to put a face to the name. "The one in your room, is that the one that you call 'Lucas'? I know him only by his true name, his people's name: starson."
"But his name is Lucas."
"No, starson," Ruhe said quite strongly.
"No," Adam said firmly. He had reverted once again to his 'adult voice.' "His name is Lucas just like mine is Adam." Here Adam put his hands on his chest. "Adam," he said again. Then pointed at Ruhe, "Ruhe." If it was good enough to work for Tarzan and Jane, then Adam was hoping that it was good enough for the two of them. Ruhe's eyes widened and his gaze softened.
"You have a name?"
"Yes, I have a name," Adam said defensively.
"When?"
"I was born with one."
"Born with it. So you haven't had a child?"
"Good God, no."
"Ah, I see. On England, you are born with your name."
"First off, I'm from America, not England--"
"But you said you speak English," Ruhe said questioningly. Adam could tell that Ruhe was asking an innocent question and was not trying to be difficult, but he felt as if he were stuck in a poor man's version of 'Who's on First.' Adam thought teaching Ruhe subtlties and intracices of American history might be a bit much for the moment and decided to just let it go.
"Forget it. Just tell me what the hell you people are doing? And who the hell are you?"
"My name is Ruhe. I am your father."
Adam's world came crashing down with those last four words. He had never really known his father. He has been raised to think of James Savage as his dad; James had been his mother's husband and he had no reason to think that anyone else would be his father. Since James died very shortly before Adam's birth, he had grown up with only the idea of a father. It would've been shocking enough to discover his father was still alive or not who he thought it had been but to discover both as well as that his dad was an alien who abducted and experimented on him was bit much to take in.
Adam didn't believe Ruhe; he couldn't believe him. His mother would've told him. He'd have figured it out. He'd have had some sign, some clue. Then he realized that it did explain Ruhe's behavior. He reeled back to his childhood and remembered how his mother used to talk about his father. She had rarely talked about him at all and Adam had just assumed it was just too painful for her to remember. When he had pressed her on the rare occasion when his desire to know overpowered his care for his mother's privacy, she had described him in vague words such as tall, handsome, elegant, smart. She never went by what he did or even who he really was.
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