Dark Matter by Rob Riddell

Vikena stretches. This is the first time that she looks sexy. The guards look at her. Chundra stands and looks even more enticing. The large guard walks in and sees how his squad is staring at the women. He barks at his men. They all stand down. Vikena sits down. Chundra however leans against the wall. Some how she looks stunning. She and the large guard play cat and mouse for a few moments and the large guard drops his guard for a moment. A wrench hits him in the side of the head. Most of the guards watch him hit the floor. The smallest watches the prisoners. Aron moves towards the console, as does Vikena. The smallest guard shoots a blast at Aron's knees. He crumples to the ground. While the smallest guard is watching Aron, Vikena picksd up a wooden weapon and hits a couple of them upside the head. Suddenly, the four of them are in control of this little substation. Three of the captives move for the door. Vikena sits immediately at the console. She lets out a cry of frustration. The keyboard console has indents for hands, not the set of keys that she expected.

Claude turns and asks her what? Vikena shakes her head in frustration. She tells him she can not bypass security becuase she does not even know how to type in this alien language. Aron says try! Chundra walks over and leans in Vikena's face to say very calmly, no wonder you got caught.

Vikena snarls and stands but Chundra says, get us out of here! Vikena sets down and puts her hands in the indents. The screen in front of her has box like symbols on it. Claude hammers away at the password enter box by the hatch. Vikena zones in on the screen. Her fingers move as she experiments on the machine. She mutters that all computers still have to work on ones and zeroes. Chundra starts baning on the other side of the box in unison with Claude. She says one word finally. Oh! She smiles.

She gets zapped suddenly by a blue electrical like charge. A voice comes over an intercom. If you would like to leave this station, we would be glad to accomodate you. Lay down you weapons.

Claude shouts no. The voice says, you do not understand yet. They hear chanting outside their hatch, and they become sleepy and everything goes black.

Eventually they awake in the same room with cords around their wrists and ankles. Vikena looks at them and sees no knot on them. She strains against them and sees no way out.

The small guard watches them and speaks to a smooth crystal ball. A hatch opens and a middle sized orc enters. He is dressed well and has decorations on his chest. He nods and smiles at the small guard who is proud.

I am Uurog, your captor. Chief of the mob Mellenclez Hires. I do understand your confusion, you are not the first humans we have had to deal with. All I can say to start explaining is that there was a change in your world a while ago.

Vikena asks quickly, how long? Uurog does not asnwer. He continues. In the conquest of your world, which was once our home, by the way, we had to put aside long term projects like this one. Our logicians were overly pessimistic, and we have had to wait anxiously for you to wake up. There are more in stasis, or what ever you call the hibernation that you were subjected to. More help for you is coming. I ask your help without threat. Will you give it?

How long were we in suspension?, Vikena insists.

Uurog ignores her question. I studied your personel files when we transferred your databases into our language. I have one question. Were the four of you really in a conspiracy together?

Vikena says no. Aron says no. Claude looks away and says it was an accident. Chundra points at Vikena and says I do not even like her. Vikena says she did not know the others existed until their trial.

Uurog shrugs. - The government and laws that made you crinimals has ceased to exist. There is no point in coercing you. Your world is gone and we have replaced it.

Chundra shakes her head. - Another fanatic in a jihad.

Uurog tilts his head to one side. - What is a jihad?

Chundra replies. - A holy war.

Uurog shakes his head. - It is not a holy war, it is the Great Pacification.

Aron asks. - What does that means?

Uurog looks at the cieling. - There is no more war on your Earth.

Vikena shakes her head. -"You obviously do not know humans.

Uurog smiles. - All humans are now peaceful. And we are curing all your diseases.

Aron says. - We were already doing that.

Uurog arches his eyebrows. - Oh really?

Aron shuts up.

Vikena challenges Uurog. - You are just like any other government.

Uurog. - How?

Vikena's voice rises until it ends in a scream. - You won't answer the question. It is a simple question. We were in suspension while the world went about its changes, but just tell me HOW LONG!

Uurog takes a step forward and says to her. - We have what you are worried about. All I ask of you is that you wait for a week while I show you what the new world is like. Peace and freedom. Health.

Vikena screams - Take me to my children!

Chundra steps forward. - Take us down to the planet so we can find her kids.

Claude. - Me too.

Aron asks. - Uurog, what are you undertaking?

Uurog smiles. - A kind of science similar in some ways to what you have done before. Only now your curiosity was not in banned by law.

Aron - How do you know all this about us?

Uurog - I have had some time to go through the data that is stored on these computers.

Vikena sags when he says that. Claude looks at a corner in the room.

Aron points at the weapons. - How do those work? They seem like a joke.

Uurog - But they are not, are they? No one answers Uurog.

Aron considers and looks at his three companions. - Are there any other people working with him?

Uurog - You mean humans?

Aron is impatient - Yes, yes whatever. He waves his hands in dismissal at the semantics.

Chundra - What are you doing Aron?

Aron truns to the other three. - I want to stay and find out what Uurog has to offer. If the world really changed, then where else will I have access to alien technology?

Vikena looks at him and shakes her head. one word, quisling.

Uurog says to Aron, I am not an alien.

Aron laughs and says maybe I am the alien.

Uurog shrugs and says maybe everyone is. Aron says he wants to stay and learn the new sciences.

Uurog tells him that thestation is actually more of a storage area than a scientific research center. The best science is on the planet. Aron is a little disappointed.

Vikena says that Aron could stay if he wants to, she would not miss him. Aron says that he would miss Vikena, but not unhappily so.

Uurog tells them all to go. Aron heads down a hatchway, turns to say good bye but the other three walk away without waving good bye.

The hatch closes behind them. Only the small guard is left behind. She fiddles a knob and a monitor shows a girl, 14, and a young boy, 9, in hyber-suspension, just like the four adults were. The small guard looks down the hatchway at the three humans receding into the shadows. She scratches her head. She looks around furtively and follows them.