June 2nd 2023
Sem
I take a sip of the bitter-tasting ceremonial wine offered to me. It’s familiar and laced with salt from blood, my blood. This is the taste of Alliance purification. I bow my head to the traveling priest.
“Sem, what do you ask of the goddesses?”
“For longevity so that I may protect the Lost People.”
“And what will you give them in return?”
“My blood. My words. My heart. My life. For this, I would only ask they guide my soul and keep me in the light.”
The priest hands me a ritual dagger with the High Priestess’s emblem on the handle. “For the goddesses make it deep and sincere.”
I take the ceremonial dagger and cut my palm. I watch as my blood drips wildly onto the stone floor and finds its way into the grooves that have been carved out in religious symbols. It’s a replica of the floor of the Grand City Temple in the Capital City where I took my original oath to protect Earth and serve the High Priestess.
“The goddesses grant you their protection as long as you do not choose to walk in the darkness.”
My eyes dare to look up and meet the priest’s. “Have you seen a vision?”
His green eyes condescend to meet mine, and he looks like he’s going to say something, but then decides against it. He only motions for me to rise.
I get to my feet and bow slowly and deeply. The traveling priest touches my head. “Walk in the goddesses’ light. Protect the Lost People, and the goddesses will protect you. Stray, and you will be alone in the darkness beyond redemption.”
I should just walk away, but I must ask again, “Tell me what you’ve seen.”
The priest looks conflicted, but in the end, he leans over and quietly tells me. “On Gala Station, you will have to make a choice: one is light, and the other is darkness. One is passion and the other is devotion. You will recognize the choice when it is laid before you.”
“Gala Station?” I ask, surprised. I hardly ever go there. I despise riddles and the way these priests convey information. I open my mind to his as my mother was a telepath and I carry some of her skills although I rarely use them. It’s a crime to read someone’s mind without consent, but rarely enforced.
The priest cuts off our mental connection with a sharp skill I rarely feel. “You ask too much of your future. Knowing will poison your mind. Go. Walk in the goddesses’ light,” he reiterates, ushering me away.
I slowly turn and leave as I hear the next officer begin his purification ceremony.
I head down the single men’s corridor of the base, and my door opens as I approach. I enter head directly for my small shrine. I fall to my knees, feeling the familiar ache of pain with prayer. Then with my own small ceremonial knife I cut the wound on my hand again, wincing with the renewed pain. I watch the blood drip onto my small shrine and quietly pray to the goddesses “Allow me to find my true other half.” I know she’s human and she’s somewhere on Earth, but she eludes me.
I’m forbidden to ask for this in the purification ceremony for the next three years because of what happened to my mother. But, those are the High Council’s punishments, not the goddesses wishes. What happened to my mother was a matter of politics not religion. But, the traveling priest must follow the High Council’s edicts no matter how far away we are from the Capital Planet.
“Please allow me to be guided by your light and to find my true other half,” I ask again while the blood still drips onto my shrine. Then as almost an afterthought but sounding more like a promise, I add, “And allow me my justice.” I’ve lately had the feeling that these two events in my life are linked. Seeking justice for my mother and finding my true other half.
Internal comms sound. I give my tiny shrine one last look before rising.
“Sem,” I hear the comms officer. “We need you now. There’s a Dulu ship that’s managed to get past us. I don’t know how. Take your team, pull them out of the purification, the traveling priest can wait. You’re on duty early today.”
“Understood.” I don’t even bother to jump in the shower before putting on my black uniform and letting my team know we are going right now. Once I leave my quarters, I begin running for the docking bay. My squire meets me halfway and falls into pace with me.
“May I come?” Vin asks. “I’m more than ready.”
“No,” I say firmly. He’s only still a boy at seventeen years old and he’s my responsibility to train for his position and to be a man. I have sympathy for him because I remember being his age and eager for action too. “Stay here and be ready for when we return. The humans will have to be processed and then returned to Earth. They’ve only been gone a few days at most.”
Vin reigns in his disappointment. “I’ll prepare for your return. Remain in the light.”
Ivy
How did I get here? I rub my head as if that will jog my memory.
I don’t remember much, only flashes of scenes. Scarlett and I leaving the movie theatre. There was some lightning. Some pushing. I remember feeling like I was being squeezed so tightly that I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to breathe. Then we woke up here in this big silver cage. When I first opened my eyes, maybe yesterday or a few days ago. I don’t know; there’s no way to count the hours or days. But when I woke up, the room was spinning. No doubt, we had been drugged and trafficked. But I had not expected by whom.
Then I saw them. My heart is racing at the memory. That clear memory. Aliens. I thought I was hallucinating. But the smell, the fear, the cold cage, it’s all too real to be only in my head.
The aliens look exactly like the aliens that abduction survivors talk about. They’re small, green and have big black eyes. So big I can see my reflection and my background in them. They don’t speak to us. And aside from the noises and sound of talking those of us in the cages make, the ship, if we are on a ship, is deathly silent.
We are with a lot of other humans, all abducted about the same time and all almost naked. We are all covered with a certain amount of filth too. We’ve not done much since we have been here except sit in cages. There’s the constant sound of someone crying. It seems like we all take turns. I’ve had my turns. Thankfully, no one has freaked out and tried to hurt anyone else. Scarlett thinks this is because our food or water must be drugged to keep us calm. She keeps asking, “Why am I not freaking out?” And maybe she’s right, but I feel pretty scared. I’d think that if I was drugged, I wouldn’t be so petrified. My hands won’t stop shaking.
Over the last days, the aliens have taken us one by one to do medical experiments. I can hear everyone screaming in terror when it’s their turn. Their cries break up the silence. Every time a group of aliens come to the cage door, we know they’re going to take one of us and a quiet fear passes through the metal cage like an electric shock.
Today, the green aliens point to me. I try to resist. I grab ahold of the cage and refuse to let go. I scream, “No!” But it’s futile. I’m pulled out by robot hands and delivered to the waiting aliens with metal string all around me so that I can’t move. I don’t stop screaming as I’m effortlessly led away.
I’m floating between a group of aliens, and no one is talking. Every corner we turn, I’m frightened of what I’m going to see or what’s going to happen next. Finally, we enter a room full of transparent computer screens and what looks like instruments of torture. I can’t remember if I was already screaming, but I found a new strength to my screams when I entered this room.
The wires surrounding my body disappear and then my clothing. Now, I’m just floating naked and unable to move. The aliens surround me. Looking down at me with their big black eyes. Stupidly all I can think as I see myself in their reflection is that I thought I’d look worse before I was killed.
They’re touching my whole body now. Small green hands with bubbled fingers touch me where my stomach and my ovaries are. Their fingers feel like ping pong balls caressing me. I want to thrash, kick, and escape, but I can’t move. I begin hysterically crying. “No. No. Stop.” I’m frantic. Then there’s a bright light accompanied by the most severe pain I’ve ever felt in my life. I feel like a knife went up my vagina and was slowly turned multiple times all the while the ping pong finger kept touching my abdomen.
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