.Abducted.
.Chapter one.
It was quite a normal day for me; I mean I had woken up at seven and had gone to work at eight (work, actually, is at home seeing as I do a home based computer repair service). The day had flown by and I was just about to 'close up shop' (switch off the phone and lock the door that led into the office from the yard), when my parents walked in. They informed me that they were going to meet up with some of dad's work colleges for a barbecue and that my brother was going to a talk on falconry; they all wouldn't be home 'til late. I said that I didn't mind and walked out of the office to see them all off.
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After saying goodbye to them all, I walked back into the office and unplugged the phone. I had just picked up the keys to lock the door, when one of my dogs started to squeak to go out. I put the keys back down and went to the kitchen to see to the dog.
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After seeing to the dog, I returned to the office to lock the door. I was just about to reach for the keys when I heard something outside. I walked out to see what it was. I couldn't see anything from the steps so I closed the door tightly and walked out further. I heard the noise again; it was coming from around the corner of the house. I was just about to investigate when someone in a cloak grabbed me from behind. He put his left hand over my mouth to stop me calling for help and had pinned my arms with his right arm. I struggled a bit, but he just held on even tighter. His grip on me was getting so tight that I started to feel my lungs being crushed. I tried to use my leg to pull one of his legs out from under him, but he just pulled me up into his arms. He pinned my arms down to my sides with his left arm and he held my legs still with his right arm. I tried to call for help, seeing as he couldn't hold my arms down without letting go of my mouth, but another cloaked person gagged me before I could muster a sound. I noticed that my captor was wearing, what looked like, leather gloves, but they only had three fingers. I tried to look up at my captor's face, but his accomplice blindfolded me before I got a chance.
"Good work, Commander," said a very familiar voice.
"My pleasure, sir," replied another familiar voice.
"Now, let's go before anyone else sees us."
I felt the one who was carrying me start to run forward. So many questions were buzzing around inside my head, but I couldn't find any logical explanation for what was happening. I mean I knew these voices and if these guys were strangers to me I wouldn't recognise their voices. Also there was a strange smell wafting about them, which smelt a bit like sulphur so I kinda figured that they must have a jar or something with sulphur in it. After all sulphur can be used as an ingredient in explosives as well as in medicine. Suddenly I felt the one holding onto me vault himself over the six-foot concrete wall that separated the main yard from the smaller office yard and then I heard his accomplice scramble over the wall.
"Slow down, Commander!" ordered the accomplice.
"Sorry, sir," replied the 'Commander', as he stopped and waited for his accomplice to catch up. Soon I felt him jump over the five-foot brick wall at the back of my house and then heard the accomplice jump over with a bit more difficulty than the 'Commander'.
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After running for a while, without being stopped by anyone, they finally came to a stop. I could smell that typical plant and wet soil smell, but that was very quickly covered by the sulphur. I figured that we must have been in the wetlands or at least near them because of the smell of the vegetation. After coming to that conclusion I tried to figure out who this could be, but logical explanations were still lacking in my brain. One thing I did know was that the sulphur smell only seemed to waft my way when the 'Commander' breathed out, but this little bit of information didn't help me much. Suddenly I heard the sound of, I was guessing, an air piston and then a slight metal 'donk' as something hit the floor.
"Come, Commander, we must get this ship going before any Federation scum find us," said the accomplice, but after listening to him order the 'Commander' around, I was starting to think that he was actually the one in charge.
"Yes, sir. This planet seems to be full of them," replied the 'Commander'.
"Put her into a holding cell and then come help me re-wire the control panel." I heard the… uh… whatever he was to the 'Commander' start walking on something that sounded like metal.
"Yes, sir," replied the 'Commander', as he started to walk onto the metal as well. It felt like he was going up a ramp, but only a small one because it only took him two steps to reach flat ground again.
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I was put onto a bench and had my hands cuffed behind me, then I heard a 'zzzt' noise and then clanking and plunking from, I suppose, the bridge area of this ship. How they planned to sail out of the wetlands was a bit perplexing, but that was their problem not mine.
"Is the damage extensive, Commander?" asked the guy who was in charge.
"Not at all, sir. We should be able to leave soon," replied the 'Commander'. I kept trying to place their voices and, being the devoted Tmnt/Triceraton fan I happen to be, started thinking of every voice I had ever heard on Tmnt. I started at season one. I went through all the voices in particular the ones that were deep or deepish. Soon I was at the end of my list of characters in season one so I tried to concentrate on season two. I thought of the Fugitoid, General Blanque, various guards and miscellaneous characters from episode 27 'The Fugitoid', but still none of them fitted the voices of my captors. So I moved onto episode 28 'The trouble with Triceratons'. I started listing voices that I hadn't already mentioned. Mozar? Ding ding ding we have a match. I thought for a second. "How could that even be plausible?" I asked myself in my head. After pinning the 'Commander' as a 'Mozar voice type', I went onto the other one who had blindfolded me. I decided to stay with Triceraton voices, as it would narrow my search for the time being, which would help me concentrate better because two certain captors of mine where now making a huge ruckus in the bridge area. I started to think of all the Triceratons in season two; there was Raz and Zed, Traximus, Monza Ram, The Triceraton All-stars, various guards, the ensign, Zog, and Zanramon. I thought about the last voice for a while, but to no avail. I had kinda forgotten the sound of my other captor's voice in the time I was thinking about all the different characters. I kept Zanramon in mind while I listened for the sound of my captor's voice. I didn't have to wait long.
"Commander, is everything ready for departure?" asked my unplaced captor.
"Yes, Prime Leader, everything is ready for departure," replied the 'Commander'.
"Good, then let's get going." I couldn't believe that this guy, who by the way sounded just like Zanramon, was also a Prime Leader like Zanramon. I also started to think about what else they had said. I remembered that they had mentioned a group called the Federation, which, apparently, was their enemies and that earth was full of them. My imagination started to act up on me. The Federation was the Triceraton Republic's sworn enemy. I shook my head to try to clear it of imagination and Tmnt fan-ness, but without success. The Federation was composed of humanoids like us here on earth and, if Triceratons were real, a Triceraton could easily mistake us earthlings as 'Federation scum'. I was disrupted from my thoughts by the movement of the ship.
"We're airborne, sir," announced the 'Commander'.
"Excellent! Now let's get off of this planet quickly, Commander," instructed the 'Prime Leader'.
"Yes, sir. Engaging the ion-burn." I knew what ion-burn was, it was a Triceraton term; but, logically speaking, abduction by Triceratons was like a never-in-a-million-years event. Suddenly the ship launched upwards and I was pushed into a wall by the force at which we were going.
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Soon after the initial launch we slowed down a bit and seemed to level out.
"How much longer until we reach the Triceraton home world, Commander Mozar?" asked the 'Prime Leader'. My eyes widened under my blindfold and my mouth dropped open at hearing this.
"Not long now, sir. If we keep up this speed we should be back in about one and a half helates," replied Commander Mozar. There was no two ways about it; aliens had abducted me. I thought about this and came to the conclusion that it wasn't too bad. After all I did know a bit about Triceratons, so long as what I had seen on Tmnt had been accurate.
"Excellent! It'll be good to get home," said the 'Prime Leader'.
"Yes, it will be," replied Mozar. I could hear in their voices that they were smiling.
"The atmosphere in here will be safe within two trigons, Prime Leader Zanramon," stated Mozar. I was speechless and not just because I had a gag in my mouth. I was actually with two of my favourite Triceratons of all time. Suddenly I remembered something from episode 29 'The Big House'. Triceratons breathe a hardy mixture of nitrogen and sulphur, to quote the ensign who was talking to the turtles, so that explained the sulphur, but it also meant that my breathing was going to become pretty difficult in the next two trigons (which is about six earth minutes).
"About time; this helmet is starting to get on my nerves," said Zanramon.
"Yes; I guess I'm just a bit more used to it than you are, sir," replied Mozar.
"I suppose so."
I could smell the air around me was starting to fill up with sulphur and nitrogen. I started to slow my breathing, hoping that that would help keep me from coughing, but, unfortunately, I could feel my lungs starting to get a bit irritated with the sulphur and nitrogen. I started to clear my throat.
"Three," said Mozar and Zanramon together.
My small throat clearing coughs started to get a bit more frequent.
"Two," they said together.
My coughs were now every three seconds or so.
"One," they said together.
My lungs wouldn't allow me to keep the coughs small any more and I started coughing quite hard.
"Right on time," said Zanramon.
"Humans are so predictable," said Mozar. I could hear someone coming towards me, but I wasn't able to tell if it was Zanramon or Mozar. I heard the 'zzzt' sound again and figured that it must be a force field or laser fence that had been shut down to allow the Triceraton to enter the cell. Shortly after the 'zzzt' sound I felt the lower right hand side of the gag being pulled up a bit by a claw and a tube was placed into my mouth. My coughing slowed down to just clearing my throat and then stopped altogether. Shortly after he had seen that I was breathing normally he put the atmosphere converter onto my belt.
"Can't have our hostage dying on us, now can we?" said Zanramon.
So Zanramon had been the one to put the atmosphere converter into my mouth and onto my belt; it was kinda sweet of him. I felt him pat my head and then he walked away. I heard the 'zzzt' sound again, this time for the force field or laser fence to be put up again. I made a mental note to stay where I was just in case it was a laser fence; I really didn't feel like being fried by it.
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The rest of the trip was quite uneventful, besides the fact that I had remembered that I hadn't locked the door. The one thing I didn't ever want to do was worry my family, but when they came home and found the door unlocked and me gone they might fear the worst. Unfortunately there was nothing I could do to change that; I was on my way to the Triceraton home world now.
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I was starting to get slightly bored of just sitting there blindfolded and gagged when I heard the main thrusters start to die down and the ship began to descend. I felt the ship touch down. There was an air piston noise and then a voice that I didn't recognise as any particular Triceraton, but it was a Triceraton voice none the less.
"Welcome back, Prime Leader Zanramon and Commander Mozar; we were starting to wonder if we were to send out a rescue party to find you," said the voice. I'm guessing that he had saluted to them and was now standing at attention while he spoke to them.
"Good thing we returned before you sent our troops out on a wild goose chase, Ensign," said Zanramon.
"Where were you, sirs?"
"On a little back water planet a few galaxies from here," replied Mozar.
"Oh," replied the Ensign.
I'm guessing he had noticed me sitting in the holding cell.
"Is she from there?" he asked.
"Yes, she is. Take her through to the prison compound, Ensign," said Zanramon. I could hear him and Mozar starting to walk away.
"What?!" I tried to exclaim, but it came out as a muffled squeak.
"The prison compound, sir?" asked the Ensign, obviously ignoring my squeak.
"Yes, why?" asked Zanramon, as he and Mozar stop walking.
"It's just that our prison compound is mainly full of convicts and she doesn't look like she could do too much harm."
"Well then what else am I supposed to do with her, Ensign?" Zanramon started to sound annoyed.
The Ensign was quiet; I guess he didn't have an answer for that one.
"Take her through to the prison compound, Ensign; she's a hostage so make sure she stays alive, understood?" asked Zanramon in a commanding tone.
"Y-yes, sir," replied the Ensign. I heard Zanramon and Mozar start walking again and the 'zzzt' noise of the force field or laser fence. Within ten seconds I felt a large hand on my shoulder, then my blindfold was removed as well as my gag. I blinked a few times to get my eyes used to the light again. Once my eyes were in focus I looked up and saw a tall Triceraton in front of me. He was the typical orange colour of most Triceratons, on Tmnt anyway, and had two lines across his left eye. I estimated that he was about 6'2" or 6'3".
"Come on you," he said gruffly, as he grabbed me by my right arm and pulled me up.
I stood a little shakily, but soon regained my legs.
"Walk!" he ordered, as he turned me to face the door and pushed me forward. I started to walk out of the cell, then out the door of the ship, then down the ramp and then onto the docking bay floor.
"What you got there, Garzu?" asked a Triceraton that was just in front of us.
"An off-worlder," replied the Ensign, who was apparently named Garzu. Suddenly he spotted a transport shuttle and steered me towards it.
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Within a few seconds he walked me into the transport shuttle and told the pilot to take us through to the prison compound. The pilot nodded and we started the journey through to the prison compound.
"Sit, off-worlder," commanded Garzu. I complied with him and sat down on a bench-like seat that was behind us. Garzu sat down next to me.
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Halfway there I looked up at Garzu with a questioning look on my face. He noticed my look and sighed.
"You'll be okay, little one," he said gently and quietly as not to allow the pilot to hear us, "I'll make sure you're put into a cell that has a trusted convict in it."
"Trusted convict?" I asked in a bit of a whisper.
"So you can speak," he smiled at me, but still kept his voice down.
"Yes, I can speak,"
He nodded and turned his attention back to where it was before he had spoken to me.
"Garzu," I said quietly.
He looked at me from the corner of his eye.
"Could you do me a favour?" I asked.
"What is it?" he asked quietly; he kept his head forward.
"Could you contact my family on earth and tell them that I'm okay?"
He thought for a moment.
"Your family's name?" he asked, still keeping his head forward.
"Swift."
He nodded and was silent for a minute or so.
"I'll try," He said, still not looking at me.
"Thanks," I smiled.
We were silent for the rest of the trip.
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Eventually we arrived at the prison compound.
"Let's go, off-worlder," commanded Garzu, as he stood up.
I stood up beside him and walked off of the transport shuttle and onto the moving sidewalk peaceably.
"Is there something wrong with her?" asked a prison guard who was waiting at the entrance to the prison compound.
"No, she's just very co-operative," replied Garzu, as he and I stepped off of the sidewalk.
"Will be a nice change."
"I'm sure it will be. I have a request as to whom she's celled with."
"Oh, and whom might that be?"
"Sleeg."
I recognised the name instantly; Sleeg had helped the turtles out in that one episode. Boy, Mr. Laird and 4kids were really getting a lot right.
"Right, I'll see to it. Come on, off-worlder."
The guard grabbed my shoulder and shoved me onto the moving sidewalk again. I looked back at Garzu one more time before he left to return to his usual sector. Now I had to be registered as an inmate and if it was anything like what happened in 'The Big House' it was going to be painful.