The Only

CH 28

As Solktech spoke, I could see the pain in Timmy's eyes.

"What?" He asked, his voice barely a squeak.

"Your parents are your real parents. The day we invaded, I myself entered your home. Your mother was the only one home, and she was in bed asleep. I took advantage of the moment."

He smiled, trying to make Timmy even more angry. "And that's how she acquired the truth about the Tchakta species. She fought away and tried to shoot me. So I put a laser beam through her head."

Timmy struggled against his chair, trying to pull away from the magnetic force holding him down. His face was redder than a Miami sunburn, the veins on his forehead throbbing with every pulse. Jesse and I remained silent.

Timmy let out a scream of helplessness. I felt a furious rage force it's way from my chest and had I been able, I would have killed Tcheena and Solktech right there.

"Enough!" Tcheena said, dropping his half-eaten apple. "General Solktech, you are dismissed."

Solktech bowed and left the room, leaving us in silence after he left.

Finally Tcheena spoke.

"Thirty years ago my people were exposed to a terrible plague. Slowly their bodies died but still they lived. They became bloodthirsty and began eating one another. They lost their civility and became savages, killing everything in sight. The few of us who survived were forced to take a prototype starship across the galaxy, searching desperately for another hospitable world. We came to earth, and we would have been civil, but through General Solktech's carelessness, and your people's advanced phsycological abilities, the 'zombies' as you would say, found us."

"Phsycological abilities?" I asked. "We have, like, no abilities."

"My mother was an advanced phycologist." Timmy said, his face blank. "She knew more about the human mind than Steven Hawking. Maybe she was able to tell me how to bring the feasters here, how to call them."

"That would be a logical assumption," Tcheena stated.

I laughed, the sound echoing off the metal walls. "Who are you, Spock?" I shouted, my voice a little angrier than Tcheena wanted to hear. He winced, my voice hurting his sensitive ears. "I don't think you've been meaning to help us. I feel like I'm in kindergarten, sitting here listening to 'story time'. Forgive me if I'm not feeling very emotional over your version of The Iliad. Now I'd like a straight answer. Can you help Jesse or not?"

He let go of the metal ball, leaving it hovering in the air where he was holding it. "Yes, I can. The three of you will be given quarters and will be treated as guests until our doctors are ready for him." He pressed a button on the arm of his chair and said, "General Solktech, please show our guests to their quarters."

We stood up and the stools beneath us retracted into the floor. Solktech stood in the open doorway and gestured at six pawns who rushed through the door to grab us.

"Wait!" I shouted as two pawns grabbed me by the elbow and pulled me to the door. "We need to know the procedure! What are you going to do to him?"

My only response was the doors being slid shut behind me as I was drug down the corridor.