The Quantum Connection

Examining cage, perhaps? 

Yes, that is probably good, Steven. I understand your approach now. Perhaps 'test tube' would be a better interpretation. 

Test tube. We've been right all along about being lab rats! 

'Probatur claustrum.' I turned to Anson. 'Test tube or lab rat cage!' Anson understood it immediately and said that it paralleled Latin perfectly. I had Mike teach me Latin real quick.

'So, that is what the quarantined zones are, test tubes,' Jim said through clenched teeth.

'Enough of this. We have come to talk, not fight,' Prawmitoos interjected.

'Very well, runt,' Opolawn said. 'We can retire to my temple for refreshments and entertainment, and we will hear your requests. Then perhaps I will kill you all.' He laughed again.

Prawmitoos said nothing but he stared right through Opolawn with his huge black eyes. I caressed the golf ball in my pocket and was looking forward to wiping this temple right off the top of this goddamned alien mountain. And I was thinking that killing the emperor would be a good thing. I could tell that Anson had already made up his mind about killing Opolawn. I had only known Anson for a couple months or so, but I had yet to find him wrong on anything of importance.

CHAPTER 25

Opolawn lifted us with a warp field and flew us into his temple. We passed through a great hall that was larger than any stadium on Earth and then floated into a terrace about two hundred meters up on one of the giant columns. He set us down on the patio, which had one of the most amazing views that I had ever seen. The terrace overlooked the ocean many kilometers away at the base of the mountain chain. The sun was setting and shining in all sorts of reds, violets, and blues. It was magnificent, and Opolawn stood there for a moment taking it in.

'The universe can be quite beautiful at times,' he said. 'And sometimes it can be quite vile,' he commented as he turned to Prawmitoos. It was obvious that Opolawn and Prawmitoos had a history and that it was bad . . . very bad. None of us had the nerve to pry.

'Help yourselves to anything you desire, Earthlings.' He motioned and the room was filled with dancing naked aliens, both male and female, and there was a table in the middle of the room with nearly every type of food and beverage imaginable.

'No thanks,' I muttered.

'Let's get down to business,' Tabitha said.

'Very well, General. Why are you here?' Opolawn sat on a large fur-covered chaise lounge. Several naked aliens of both sexes doted over him, bringing him fruits and juices and fanning him.

'I want you to hand over the control device for the picophage that infects many of Earth's citizens,' she said.

'Aha! How do you know about this picophage, as you call it?' Opolawn boomed.

'Simple,' Anson answered. 'Us monkeys figured out how to detect it, Al!' Anson continued to display his anger and disgust for this alien and he purposefully dumbed up his retort even more with his extreme redneck drawl. I would have to find out what this Albert Einstein stuff was all about—but not now.

'Really? Is this true, Prawmitoos? They had no help from you?'

'I only told them that there was a picophage,' Prawmitoos said in a flat voice. 'They came to me knowing that they were infected with something. When my soldiers tried to stop them these monkeys overpowered them, rather easily I might add.'

'If that is so, Prawmitoos, then I should have attacked The Species ages ago. I find it hard to believe that mere monkeys could offer any sort of real fight. Really, Prawmitoos, you never cease to disappoint me,' Opolawn taunted the Gray.

'Enough,' Tabitha said. 'Will you give us the control device or not?'

'What do you think you will do with this so-called control device if I give it to you?'

'We will keep it until the last of the humans with the picophage die of old age, and then we will destroy it. If we have it, at least then we will know you are not controlling us. Even if you can enter our dreams, you still can't control us when we are awake without the picophage and its controller.' Tabitha stood strong and fast and seemed completely fearless.

'You think so, do you? It is your dreams that you are afraid of. It is your dreams that make you fear these miniscule Gray bugs,' he said.

That's it, Mike! I thought. He implanted the alien abduction memories in us!

That makes a lot of sense, Steven. 

I have no idea what to do with that information, but I know it's right, I thought.

'If I give you the controller, Prawmitoos and the rest of The Species will eat you alive.' Opolawn laughed.

'The Grays have agreed not to attack us and to leave us alone if we can prove that you are not controlling us,' I told him.

Opolawn laughed for several seconds. 'And you silly monkeys believed him, did you? I'm sure he argued with Feyibi on your behalf too, didn't he?'

'Yes, so?' Jim asked.

'You've been duped. You monkeys aren't as smart as you think you are. Not yet, at least. You are nothing but trained lab animals, as you have discovered. Prawmitoos didn't tell you about the other countless species that they have destroyed, and under false pretenses I am sure.'