Okay this is were the story gets wierd(er) and some of you may not like the direction its going but I promise this what I had in mind from the very beginning. So I do hope you enjoy it and aren't dissapointed too much. Thanks so much to everyone who has commented on this story. They are really appreciated and I hope you will stay with this story till the end.
"You're right that sounds better than a zoo." Sarah said.
Chuck shrugged, "Those are the choices they are debating."
"What about these changes you told us about? Is there anything more you can tell us?" Casey asked.
"I don't know that information seems to come back to me slowly. As if I read the book years ago and I am just now starting to remember the plot. No Intersect information has ever been like that. I think its something the aliens did deliberatly." Chuck answered.
"Why?" Casey asked.
Chuck chrugged, "I don't know."
Food and water appeared in the cell and the three of them stopped the Q&A session to eat.
When the food was gone, Chuck explored the area outside of the cage. He looked at the other creatures in the other cages and flashed on them as he had the gro'to'oghs. The information he learned about each of the animal species was interesting but didn't help them in the least. Chuck mentioned the names of the some of the animals to Casey and Sarah and gave a bit of a description. They listened quietly not asking any questions. The two agents had silently agreed to allow Chuck to tell them what he knew at his own pace.
"All these creatures are destined for that zoo I mentioned earlier. They have several mated pairs already in hopes of keeping the species alive. They even have earth animals at the zoo, some that we thought were extinct." Chuck said. "That is so cool. They have mammoths! I would like to see those."
Sarah smiled at Chuck enthusiasm. She herself did not want to end up in the zoo, but if they did they would survive. At least they would have each other for company. She wondered if they would try and breed her. The thought made her shudder.
Chuck saw the shudder and was quick to ask, "Sarah are you alright?"
"Yes Chuck, I am fine I was just thinking..." She trailed off not wanting to voice her thoughts.
"About the zoo?" Casey asked.
"Yes." She sighed then elaborated, "I was thinking they might breed us like those other creatures."
Chuck opened his mouth, closed it then swallowed. After a few seconds he answered, "They couldn't even if they wanted to."
"What do you mean?" Sarah asked.
"We've been sterilized." Chuck answered.
Sarah gasped in shock. She had never really thought about having children, though she had wondered idly what it would be like, but to have the choice taken from her.
"I am sorry." Chuck said as he went over to her and hugged her. Surprisingly Sarah leaned into the hug trying not to cry.
Casey wisely said nothing.
Eventually Sarah got control of herself and they separated with Sarah wiping her eyes.
Time passed. The three captives moved restlessly about the cage. Casey and Sarah excercised in an attempt to keep in fighting condition but also to relieve some of the boredom. Chuck unable to keep quiet just talked about different subjects. He wondered what Morgan and Ellie were doing. He hoped that they were alright. Chuck told them about how Ellie had taken care of him when their mother left. He talked about how Morgan and he became friends.
Normally Chuck's inane chatter annoyed Casey, but the NSA agent let Chuck ramble on strangely content to hear Chuck's voice in the background. Sarah would smile with each of the stories as she and Casey practiced some Tai Chi mirroring each other's movements.
Eventually more food and water appeared. They ate and drank then settled down to sleep. Casey took the first watch. Sarah and Chuck settled on the ground a few feet from each other. Some minutes after Chuck and Sarah were asleep Casey's eyes and body began to feel heavy and he knew he was being drugged. He slumped into unconsciousness before he could call out a warning to his partner and their asset.
Chuck was the first to slowly awaken. He felt the hard body that he was snuggled up against and still heavy with sleep he hugged the body closer to him and nuzzled the warm skin against his cheek. Then awareness came to him and he opened his eyes seeing for the first time that he was snuggled up against Casey's back and that Casey was clothed. Chucj felt the clothes around his own body as well. Carefully he sat up and looked around.
He was shocked to see an equally clothed Sarah wrapped in Casey's arms. He was also shocked to see that they were no longer in a cage but what looked to Chuck like a cave.
"Sarah, Casey wake up!"
The two highly trained agents came awake with a start. Though startled by the position they were in, the two ignored that sitting up and taking in their surroundings and the clothing they wore.
"Where are we?" Sarah asked. "What are we wearing?"
The clothing they all wore seemed to made of a combination of leather, fur and wool. They each wore a long sleeved shirt made of what appeared to be wool, a jacket made with leather and lined with fur, pants made from leather and fur lined boots. They had under clothing as well layered to help keep them warm. Which was a good thing as Chuck could tell that the air around them was cold.
Casey had stood up and was searching through what appeared to be three large packs made of leather. Chuck noticed that they had not been sleeping on the ground but on what looked to be bedrolls made from fur and wool and a large blanket made of wool and fur had been thrown over them.
"They chose the planet." Chuck said recognizing the pack and blankets from his flash.
"So we aren't at the zoo." Sarah said as she stood up and helped Casey search through the packs.
There was food in the packs, not the kind they had been given on the ship. The food in the packs looked like travel food, meat jerky, dried fruits that they didn't recognize. There was also a few more changes of clothing in each bag. Sarah found a large knife in one of the bags and was glad to finally have a weapon again. Each of the bags contained a knife, Casey had taken one as well and hid it in his clothing.
"What do we do, Chuck." She asked knowing that Chuck was the only one with the information about the planet.
"Well uhm they appear to be following the same rules with us as they do with all those they put on this planet. There should be a pouch of coins in each of the packs. Its the money that they use on this planet. Its primitive like I said. The aliens that live here don't have any real technology beyond a windmill or a pulley. Its almost medieval except no catapults or bows. The only weapons are small knives, swords, axes and spears. We should probably find one of the towns. We can get supplies there and maybe find a job or something." Chuck explained as he began to roll up the blankets. Sarah helped him while Casey walked out of the cave to look at the surrounding landscape.
He stepped back inside quickly, "Its still dark outside even with two moons I don't think it would be safe to travel at night. They do have daylight?" He asked.
"Yeah. Only one sun but its smaller than ours." Chuck answered. "This planet stays cold alot of the time. The plants they have here are adapted to that as are the animals. If fact alot of the animals here are pretty dangerous but they mostly hunt at night." Chuck looked at the pile of wood that he had noticed earlier. "Maybe we should start a fire."
Casey looked at the wood as well and nodded. "I will start the fire. Might as well lay those blankets back out, put mine in a corner though I am getting tired of being everyone's teddy bear."
Chuck didn't bother to tell Casey that it wouldn't matter were he went to sleep at.
As Casey started the fire using the flint and steel he had found in the packs, Sarah and Chuck laid out the bedrolls. They then dug through the packs and found some canteens filled with water and some kind of pressed ration bar made from something similiar to oats and honey. Once Casey had the fire banked so that it would last through the rest of the night, he went and sat down on the bedrolls with Sarah and Chuck and gratefully took the proffered food Sarah handed him.
They ate the food silently then settled down into the bedrolls to sleep. Casey grumbled that Chuck hadn't place his bedroll far away from them, but Chuck just said that it was better they were close for warmth and protection.
Eventually they woke up again, this time with daylight coming through the mouth of the cave. The fire had died down and Casey covered the hot coals with dirt making sure the fire was completely out while Sarah and Chuck rolled up the bedding and placed them in their packs.
Each of them shouldered a pack and then stepped outside the cave. With the light of the sun they could see before them a wilderness of needle leafed trees some as big as sequios. There was deep snow in the shadows of the trees and the river that cut through the forest was frozen over.
"Its still winter. The land stays cold all year around like Alaska but only in winter is the river frozen over. There's a town over there." Chuck pointed to were smoke rose from a walled town some ten miles away. The cave they had been staying in was on a hill that overlooked the area allowing them to see the land for miles. "We should probably head there. We can maybe find work or something."
Casey and Sarah agreed and the three of them headed down the hill and into the surrounding forest. Casey used the sun and some other landmarks to keep them going in the correct direction.
Eventually they came upon the iced over river and Chuck realized they had no choice but to cross it.
"We need to be careful here." He started to say as Casey and Sarah began crossing the ice.
He didn't get to finish his sentence because with a huge roar a white creature tore up out of the ice beneath them reaching out with huge claws to grab Sarah and pull her under the ice.
The creature however was thwarted when suddenly an inhuman roar came from Casey's direction. Sarah and Chuck both watched in horror as Casey's body changed into a huge cat-like creature with white fur that attacked the ice animal.
The ice bear as Chuck would call it was a big animal with a thick horn on its head that it used to break through the ice and a coat much like a seals that protected it from the cold water and was a formidible animal on the planet but it was no match for the white tiger like animal that ripped it to shreds within seconds.
When the ice bear was dead its body falling back into the water, the huge tiger-like creature turned its head to look at Sarah and Chuck with familiar blue eyes. Then as suddenly as he had changed to the creature, he changed back into his human body, naked but for the alien metal collar around his neck. Casey collapsed to his knees and Sarah and Chuck were quick to rush to his side.
Chuck pulled a blanket from his pack and wrapped it around Casey's naked shoulders. Casey looked up at Chuck with horror in his eyes, "What am I?" He whispered.
