“Or maybe they grew new ones. I’m not sure.”
“Can you get me off the frigging ceiling, at least, Kyle? I’m going to throw up if I’m left hanging up here much longer.”
“Oh yeah-sorry. Alamo, gently lower Sandra onto the wall area, please.”
Slowly, the ship and its whipping little arms obeyed. Within a minute, she was in a normal vertical position. I thought about giving her what little clothing I had. But a pair of sweaty men’s jockeys and a few shreds of shirt weren’t going to help her mood much. And besides, I couldn’t think of how I would get them on over those clutching little arms.
“You mentioned they, Kyle. What they were you talking about?” she asked me. “Have you met the aliens?”
“Not exactly. I think there is only the ship itself,” I explained quickly about the computer voice she had heard and how the Alamo operated.
“So, we are trapped inside some kind of flying robot?”
“Yes. But I’m not sure we are trapped. It thinks I’m its mother, now.”
“You’re looking at me, aren’t you?”
I cleared my throat.
“What’s wrong with my eyes, Kyle? I think I can see something now, but it’s very dim. I came awake in some room, and it was black inside, utterly dark. I felt my way around and found squirming little tentacles and-I think there are bodies in there, Kyle.”
I explained about the smaller black cable-arms and my kids on the tables.
She was quiet for a second or two when I told her that one. She was beginning to put things together.
“I was dead, wasn’t I, Kyle?”
“No more dead than someone pulled out of a swimming pool. Just think of it as an emergency room with better technology.”
She nodded. “Smart way to think about it. Less freaky that way. How long was I-? No, don’t tell me. I don’t want to know. Do you think they can fix your kids?”
“I’m hoping so.” I proceeded to explain to her what I knew of our new world. I included the things Captain Jack Crow the Aussie told me, and other things I’d figured out about the Alamo.
“So these crazy people are trying to call themselves an army of some kind?”
“A fleet, I suppose. Yes.”
“What, are they out of their minds?”
“I’m not sure yet. I don’t know everything they know. Since we can’t fully control the ships, and more of them are coming down, some sort of organization is needed.”
“Can’t the government do that?”
I explained about the requirement of the previous commander dying in order to pass control of the ship to a new commander.
“Oh,” she said, nodding. “I think I understand their motivation better now. The first thing any government will demand is to board these ships and see for themselves.”
“Yes, and as far as I can tell, as soon as they do they will be participating in the tests, which must end in death for everyone but the new commander.”
“Or getting strapped to the ceiling like a dead chicken.”
I chuckled.
“Kyle?”
“Yeah?”
“Can you do one more thing for me?”
“Sure.”
“I don’t want to sound ungrateful, or anything, but… can you turn around and stop staring at me? Because-I can see you now.”
“Oh! Ah-I’m sorry,” I said, turning away with a guilty start. My eyes met hers and I saw that the brass-like metallic gleam in her pupils had faded. They had turned black again.
“It’s cool,” she said, smiling at me. “You told the ship to come back and dig me out of the cold ocean, didn’t you? You saved my life.”
“Yes, exactly,” I said, feeling a little embarrassed, “and I’m glad you’ve got your vision back, Sandra.”
“Sure you are.”
7
I thought about what Jack Crow had said. About stealing what you needed. Maybe I could do it without stealing. I ordered the ship to return to my farm again.
When we shuddered to a stop, I told the Alamo to send its arm down and dig some clothing out of the closets. The ship was warm inside most of the time, unless it opened up the floor, but I thought both Sandra and I could use something to wear. I didn’t know how to describe which closet the ship should rummage in, so I just sent it down to find whatever it could. It came back up a minute or two later with a wadded bundle of fabric. The clothing was still on the plastic hangers, the hooks of which had been broken when the powerful arm ripped the clothes loose.
I looked at the random collection of shirts and jeans. They were clearly from Jake’s closet. Seeing my son’s clothes in my hands almost made me want to choke up, but I stayed focused on the here and now. Some of the stuff was torn by the journey up in the none-too-gentle metal hand. I put on some jeans that were too tight. I managed to wrap a shirt around Sandra’s waist and tie it like a loincloth. I pulled a football jersey over her head, and she thanked me, but the little black arms wouldn’t let go. In fact, they tightened to the point that they pained her when I was close. It was all I could do to slide the shirt down over her bare breasts.
“This is ridiculous,” I complained. “Alamo, what do I have to do to get you to let Sandra free in my presence?”
“Command personnel must be protected from indigenous life forms.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard that one.”
“Alamo is totally paranoid about protecting you, but not me?” asked Sandra.
“Yes. Unless you get here by passing all its tests and you kill the ex-commander, you are nothing. If you win, you get the ship and it dumps me out without a qualm. Crow said something about undergoing a nasty process for protection. Let me think for a second.”
“So why doesn’t it let me go to see if I can beat you or something?”
“Probably because you failed a test already. You are supposed to be dumped out and dead, from its point of view.”
“Lovely attitude this metal bitch has.”
I nodded. I’d worked with many annoying computer interfaces before. But this was the first that had been designed by unknown aliens. “Alamo? What steps could I take to improve my protection?”
“We can administer the-injections.”
“What kind of injections?”
“Reconstructive.”
I pursed my lips. I didn’t like the sound of that. What the hell would an alien ship like to inject into me? Something that would grow a hard shell over me like a crab?
“Don’t trust it, Kyle,” said Sandra, watching me. “I’d rather endure this than have you get some alien injection.”
“There is another option.”
“What?”
“I could have you dropped off. This is my farm. They… they probably cleaned it up by now. If my car is still down there, you could drive to town or call someone.”
She thought about it, frowning. “I’ll do that-eventually. But I would feel wrong, leaving you here alone, in
