Before Perfection
by The Great Red Dragon
Chapter 17
"...And there appeared a Great Red Dragon…"
-Jon's Revelation, Book of Revelation, chapter 12
Even as time passed, I couldn't get the image of the mysterious creature out of my mind. Not only that; I began seeing him again and again, and every time, he scared the Hell out of me. And I wasn't just hallucinating, but I was really seeing him!
He appeared not only in the night, but also in the bright of day, and only to me – on the street, in the garden, and on the beach!
Nobody else could catch even the slightest glimpse of the robed mystery-man, and that scared me even more. Soon, even spending the nights in Riley's bed couldn't comfort me. I began fearing not only for me, but for the others as well. The dark stalker could be threatening. How much I didn't know, but I couldn't afford anything happening.
And then, an idea dawned on me...
I didn't know of any human being who could evade me like this. If it wasn't a human being...what was it? Could I possibly be dealing with another alien?
As I thought through this, questions flooded my mind irritably.
Why was this guy even here? How had he found me? Why was I so damn interesting?
Well, I could answer that question myself: I was Experiment 541, and I was an escaped convict. Well, maybe not a convict, but just as well. Maybe that bastard Jumba had sent out a bounty for me!
Yes, that had to be it!
I began hating Jumba ever more, as I worried on how this could affect my friends. I began fretting about if he (the mystery man) would hurt them...and I knew that I would have to do something.
I had to get more information on this...but where on Earth (literally) would I find out about these things?
I mean, let's face it: you don't find much on interstellar alien species in the public library. Not even in the archives...Earthlings didn't even have 2% of their own galaxy charted!
The only place where it was at least possible to find information was at a place where I hadn't been for a long, long time.
And that place was at my ship.
I was pretty sure that my ship had not been found; I would've heard something over the news (yes, I did watch the news). Apparently, my little red wonder had remained undetected, and I was grateful for it. Now, the question was how I was supposed to get there myself, undetected as well.
Night was the answer. I would have to use the evening's cloak to sneak out of the bonds of the Kivana homestead. That seemed like the only way, yes...
But at the same time, I felt kind of guilty; it felt like I was betraying Riley's trust. I don't know if he would have minded, but it felt horrible to hear him dish out his daily compliments and courtesies to me while I sat plotting midnight-escapes.
Throughout the days, I was so in thought that I didn't even notice Lara making her sniped insults at me. And as the night dawned, my strange behavior became evident. Hey, I had been sitting almost motionless on the living room couch, and even Rebecca couldn't move me.
It was a weird thing for everybody.
Finally, Riley sat down at the opposite end, and faced me. It took a while for me to notice.
"Auron?", he asked, dividing my attention between him and the blank wall.
"What's wrong?"
It was almost a demand; he knew that something was wrong.
I tried to act dumb, and looked the other way.
"Auron, what's wrong?", he asked again, and brought himself to face me directly.
I wished dearly that I could speak freely. I couldn't look away. Riley's gaze held an integrity that bound me like hundreds of chains. He knew I would not verbally reply, but believed in the freedom of expression of our eyes. And now, as they were locked, the watery brimness of my pupils told a pretty accurate story of the stress and fright that I was going through.
Riley got up and sat down next to me. For the first time in a while, I felt emotional warmth as he put his arm around my shoulders. He pulled me against his side, and allowed me to rest my head against him.
Once again, I felt very warm and serene.
"I suppose", he began; looking down at me.
"That we all have our problems. I have mine, Rebecca has hers, Lara as well...and you have yours too."
Well-stated, Riley.
"And I don't know exactly what's going on in your...or anybody else's life, but I just want to let you know that I'm there for you."
I appreciated his words...beyond appreciation. Like I've said many times before, Riley was the only person in my life who respected and appreciated me for my own character. It didn't matter the way I looked. I was important to him, and he was important to me. I loved Riley more than a brother, and before I set out that night, I vowed that I would prevent the stalking bastard of hurting him, if it was necessary.
I promised him, and myself.
It was nearly one o'clock in the morning until I managed to escape from the house. It was a late night, and we all went to bed late. For once, Lara was home for the night, although she hid in her room most of the time.
I spent half an hour lying awake in Riley's bed; snuggled up against his side like a dog. I actually had to will myself to arise into the darkness; it was so comfortable. I went through his window quietly and crawled down the side of the house to the ground. From there, I circled the house to the front and made way for the street.
Damn, it was so cold...for a place as warm as Hawaii, it can get pretty frigid at night. The wind that whipped across the ground and rattled palm trees made things so much worse. Oh, how I wished to be back under the nice, warm covers...
If I hadn't been aware of my tremendous physical strengths, I would've been scared senseless by things that could be hiding the shadows. The city was bad enough, but after I had passed the buildings (which carried a bit of much-appreciated light with them) there came the dreaded jungle, looming ahead like some great monster, ready to swallow me at any time.
As I stood upon its border, a loose piece of paper, driven by the wind, whipped around my leg like a dead man's hand.
For a moment, I thought I had died.
After the blood had returned to my body, I calmly (yeah, right) reached down, crumpled it in my hand, and kept it to dispose of in a wastebasket (everybody should do their part to conserve the rain forest).
Inside of the jungle, it took me forever to find the damn ship...well, of course; I more shuffled than walked, and jumped at every sound. The trees towering over me seemed to swipe at me with their branches. The small, bone-like twigs looked as though they were readying to snare me in their cold, cold grasp. The leaf-covered ground was incredibly wet and slimy, and mud clung to my feet.
Sheesh! Listen to me! A month ago, before the luxuries of the house, I wouldn't have minded nature's harshness in the least. Now, I was a wimp in comparison to my former self!
Finally, after much wandering, I came upon a recognizable crater in the Earth, almost a mile into the forest. The hole was hard to spot; plant life had just about covered it. I slid down a length of mudslide before banging my foot on the red, crusted hull of my ship; it had been camouflaged very effectively.
Dirt and grit had nested around it, and the broken hatch's shattered remains still decorated the area around it. On the torn cushion-seat, I found a dark stain that I soon recognized as my own blood, just as I remembered it. And as I did, I reached over to the part on my shoulder where it had been cleaved. I still felt the scar.
I sat down in the cockpit and tested all functions. Just about everything on the dashboard was trashed. Blessedly, the eye-light worked, and I wasn't forced to work in total darkness (I can see in the dark, but it's only and image of what real light can give me).
I crammed my memory and tried to remember where everything was. I flicked a few buttons and the holo-pad fuzzed a bit. I tried the same thing again, and this time I noticed an indirect message being displayed. I tried again, and the view went completely blank.
I kicked the dashboard, and it finally cooperated.
"BATTERY SHORTAGE - PLEASE RECCHARGE OR REPLACE", the message read fuzzily.
"Bastard machine", I thought angrily to myself.
There was a spare battery-pack kept in the ship's back that had to be inserted manually. Hopefully, the trunk's contents hadn't been trashed. Once I had pried it the lid open, I began rooting through the survival aids and managed to unearth my goal.
The battery was held in a plastic clip-suitcase and was wrapped in bubble-wrap. I tore the stuff off vigorously and held in my hands what seemed like an entire car-battery (by then, I was wondering where and how I was to insert this thing).
There were no instructions in the case; they were probably inputted on the power-drive (which was defective).
Well, manual-labor of vehicles was part of my training, so I decided that I might as well give it a try.
"Yeah", I thought after a while.
"What a Hell of a try."
I was lying upside down on the seat, with my head below the deck, screwing and unscrewing at the ejection port. When the old battery did finally come out, it fell right out of its holder unexpectedly and smashed down onto my face. I took a while to mop up my bleeding nose before replacing the damned thing.
When it was properly inserted, I had a fit because I then had to re-input and re-boot all systems in memory ("Dammit to Hell!").
I was at my last nerve when the screen finally re-lit (although it was still a bit fuzzy), and the welcome-message came into view;
"WELCOME TO THE VISUAL DATA INPUT OF STARCRUISER 66-457, LICENSED TO DR. J. JOOKIBA. PLEASE SELECT THE ARTICLE YOU WISH TO KNOW MORE ABOUT"
I clicked on the 'planetary information' caption.
"PLEASE INPUT THE PLANETARY POSITION YOU WISH TO KNOW MORE ABOUT, USING THE PEN AT YOUR RIGHT"
A small stello-pen popped up from the dashboard, and I charted my position.
"ARE YOU SURE THAT THIS IS THE LOCATION YOU WISH TO EXPLORE?"
I nodded irritably as I confirmed my answer.
"LOADING DATA...PLEASE WAIT..."
This took about five minutes, but what could I have done?
Finally, I was given a message that read;
"LOAD COMPLETE!"
"Thank you", I said aloud in annoyance, and proceeded.
"NISCHA GALAXY; PLANET KIARR ('Kiarr' is the intergalactic name for Earth):
"ALTHOUGH MUCH OF THIS PLANET REMAINS UNEXPLORED, EXPERTS HAVE DETERMINED IT TO BE A FERTILE, LIFE-SUPPORTING PLANET OF GREAT GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES. THE TERRAIN INCLUDES ROLLING MOUNTAINS, ONGOING-PLAINS, DRYDESERTS, AND GREENFORESTS. HOWEVER, MOST OF THE PLANET IS COVERED IN CLEAR, BLUE WATER"
It went on for several paragraphs, but I didn't learn anything new. The summarizer (as well as 'foremost researcher'), 'Geologist Agent Pleakley', had completely ignored the fact of telling people if any interstellar settlements existed on this planet...but then again, maybe there weren't any at all here at all.
But the creature that had been stalking me surely wasn't human. So what the Hell was he doing here?
My thoughts trailed back to Jumba; perhaps, as I predicted, he had sent somebody after me.
Was it to bring me back, or to exterminate me?
I was so deep in thought that I didn't see the next problem coming. Or maybe it was the horrible howling of the wind muffled the footsteps. Or perhaps it was the interference of a sound-muffling device.
But whatever it was, it was able to mask the creeping of silent terror that slinked its way towards me.
Suddenly, I felt a prickling at my back.
Y'know that feeling that you get when you think that somebody close is watching you? That's what it felt like. Right then, all my senses seemed to turn back on.
I could hear the breathing by then. Something was standing right behind me, just inside the crater. Something tall, I could sense that. But it's most likely that I heard (rather than sensed) the cocking of a weapon.
BZZOW!
I sprang aside and wheeled around just as the shot shattered the last working part of the dashboard, and the holo-screen went blank in defeat, undoubtedly dead.
At once I knew that this was sophisticated weaponry being used against me; from the way it sounded, and by its means of impact.
And as I spun around, even though I only received a brief glance at my attacker, I knew that it had been the mystery stalker; that cloak was the undeniable giveaway.
Before I could think of a way to retaliate, a radar went off inside my head, so fast I couldn't even react to it, but I felt it. Something small, like a bullet, came speeding out from the darkness of the creature's robe (from a hidden firearm, probably), and I felt a horrible, painful sting throughout my entire body as it tore into my chest. The thing packed so much force that I was thrown backwards against the crater's wall with a thud.
I screamed horribly and tried to pull myself back up, but the impact had weakened me. I shut my eyes tightly, expecting to momentarily feel the final blow...
…But it never came.
I opened my eyes again, and found myself alone. The rain decorated my face with water, and mixed with the tears of my surprise and fright. For several minutes, I lay stunned in the mud, absorbing moisture like a sponge. I sat there, collecting water and mud; my perked ears keeping out for any other sign of the creature...but he never came back.
And then it began. The burning started from the wound in my chest, where the object had struck. Horrified at having forgotten I was still fish-hooked, I yanked at the object in my skin. It came out surprisingly easily, without much pain or blood.
I studied the object briefly. It was about half an inch long and gold in color. It had a sharp tip, like the end of a spear, and tiny, pin-prick sized opening near the top...
Suddenly, I threw it into the woods, immediately terrified.
I now realized what the increasing, burning pain throughout my body was. I realized that I had been hit by a poisoned dart.
