ESTRANGESTERS
Chapter 9
—o0o—

Daria awoke. She was wearing an ill-fitting sleeveless garment made of some stiff scratchy white fabric– and nothing else. It came down about halfway to her knees and looked like a very large pillowcase with armholes and a neck hole. Quinn lay beside her, unconscious, similarly clothed. Well, here we are, she thought. Now I'll find out how colossal a blunder I've made.

"You are awake. You will answer my question."

Turning her head toward the strange-sounding voice, Daria beheld a small, stocky anthropoid creature dressed as she was. He was not the same species as the crew of the small craft that had abducted them. Somewhat less than three feet tall, his arms and what she could see of his legs were massively muscled for his size. Lines in his face gave him a middle-aged look. A heavy brow ridge wrapped around the front of his head and disappeared behind his ears. Or maybe it was the way his skull was configured to serve as a natural helmet. A mat of grayish-brown hair like fine coil springs covered the top and sides of his head down to the brow. Daria got the impression that breaking a baseball bat over his head would just make him angry. He didn't look angry now, though. Daria thought he looked vaguely sad and sympathetic. He spoke again.

"When transported, your body contained a quantity of uranium compounds." He gestured behind him at an alcove very much like the one in the rear of the cabin of the Grays' craft, but larger. A transporter? "Do you require these compounds to live? You will answer."

"No, I would be better off without those compounds."

"What means 'better off'?"

Daria's gaze traveled along the wall behind the creature, over banks and panels of what were probably controls and readouts, to another similar creature seated on a small pedestal-mounted chair in front of them. "In better health," she answered.

"Understood. Will this other also be in better health without these compounds?"

"Yes."

"That is good. You are now without those compounds. The other is without those compounds since last day. For security, this transporter receiver is not stocked with fission elements. You will awaken the other now."

Daria felt a pulse of joy shoot through her. The uranium was gone! Slightly dazed, she reached over and gently shook Quinn's shoulder. Quinn jerked awake, looked around in a panic, and would have screamed when she saw the aliens had not Daria put a hand over her mouth.

The little alien began to speak again, as if reciting something he'd said many times before. "You are now slaves of the Slaver Mantoids, and you will remain so as long as you live. Resignation and acceptance are your best course. If you obey and please your masters, your treatment will not be unnecessarily harsh. If you disobey, you will receive pain. If you continue to disobey, you will be eaten, or made sport of and then eaten."

"Are... are you a Slaver Mantoid?" Quinn asked.

He seemed irritated. "No. Do I look mantoid to you? That is descriptive name coined by one of your race. The Slaver Mantoids are insect-like race, look like mantises. They live by enslaving and using other intelligent and semi-intelligent races. I am member of one of those other races. We call ourselves Remm Polyu, but you may call us gnomes for convenience. That name also is suggested by one of you."

"Uh, are there Slaver Mantoids on this ship?"

"Yes, are. Not many, but enough. They command by telepathy. If they are in physical contact with the slave, their control is absolute." His face assumed a cofiguration that seemed to be a smile. "I know what you are think. Organize, revolt, free ourselves. Not possible. Only a race with mental abilities similar to Mantoids', or a race able of resist their mental control can successfully revolt. I have been slave for... many years now, and seen several attempted revolts fail. I have seen them find and enslave two other races before we came this system, mine and the water creatures. Neither of us, nor any of the other races, were able to resist their enslaving mental ability, even though our intelligence is greater than the Mantoids', and my race is technologically much superior. If you hope for freedom someday, you must stay alive until the Slaver Mantoids try conquer a species with mental power to resist them. To stay alive you must obey and be useful enough that they do not eat you.

"You have one third of sleep period left. Then small time to nourish, excrete, and clean self. Then you get orders. Now, probably briefing and tests. Later, work. Obey and be useful. Come. You sleep now with other humans." He stepped around them and opened a door to a large holding area with a padded floor.

Daria touched his shoulder and said, "Wait. What is your name? How can I contact you?" As she did so, there was a flash of connection, as if his mind had winked on before her inner eye like a light bulb.

He didn't seem to have noticed it. "I watch you. Maybe I contact you. Go in now."

He waited until Daria and Quinn entered the enclosure, closed the door, then turned and spoke briefly to the gnome on duty at the control panel. The words were strange, but the meaning was: "You did well to call me. Anyone on board unknown to the Slavers could be useful to us. I return at shift change." He then left. Daria sorted through the impressions she'd picked up from his mind during their brief contact. He'd been high in the ship's chain of command before the Slavers had captured it, perhaps even the Captain. He still had great responsibility. He hated the Slavers and would die fighting them if he thought there was a realistic chance of winning and taking the ship back. She hoped she'd see him again soon.

Through the enclosure's metal mesh, she turned her attention to the gnome at the control panel and was pleased to find that she could now contact his mind also. Mind contact with the older gnome resulting from physical contact seemed to have given her a reference and enabled her to tune into the minds of other gnomes. This one seemed less experienced and more timid. He was unhappy about his situation, about all the comrades he'd lost to the Slavers, about the prospect of dying and being eaten himself sooner or later, and about how much more he had to work now because of attrition among his mates. There were vague thoughts of sympathy for the humans, tempered with relief that the Slavers had found a species they considered tastier than gnome. There were vague worries about the dwindling supplies of food and spare parts, and a wish that his watch would be over so that he could escape into sleep for a little while.

I wonder where they come from, Daria thought, and whether their whole species has been subjugated by the Slavers. Their home world probably has a higher gravity than Earth, judging by their short, stocky build, and the way their heads seem designed like helmets. The gravity in this ship seems set at about three-fourths Earth normal. I bet that's where the Slaver Mantoids want it. If so, maybe the Mantoids can't take the gravity on the gnomes' home world. It's probably asking too much to hope that they can't take Earth's gravity.

Daria looked around the dimly lit room and, after a minute, spotted Jane. Stepping around and over other sleepers, she knelt and put a hand on her friend's shoulder. Jane started and her eyes flew open.

"Hey, Jane, you okay?" she whispered.

"Daria! Oh, no, they got you too."

"Naah. I came to rescue you."

Jane smirked in the gloom. "Aren't you a little short to be an Imperial Stormtrooper?"

Getting the movie reference, Daria snickered. "God, I'm so glad to see you! When you went missing, I was so upset, the other students couldn't stand being in the same room with me. Li gave me the day off to get me off school grounds."

"You gotta teach me how to do that one. I don't suppose you could do it here, could you? Make the aliens not be able to stand being in the same spaceship with us?"

"Hmm, maybe. Tell me what's happened to you so far."

"Tests. Strange tests, stupid tests, gross, disgusting tests, painful tests, horrible tests. Some worse than the probing, if you can imagine that."

"'Fraid not. I haven't been probed."

"Yes, you have. That's the first thing they do to all of us, but most of us don't remember. Then they put us back and analyze the results, and some of us they pick up again, the next night or later. That's where we get these half-healed cuts," Jane said, pointing to the one on her neck.

"I didn't go through that. Quinn has, though. When they took her the second night, I grabbed onto her and we were both pulled out the window, and both transported up here." Daria showed both sides of her own neck, neither of which bore a mark.

"They were kidnapping Quinn? Not you? And you grabbed..." Jane almost wept, "Daria, you idiot! You didn't have to be here!"

"I told you. I came to rescue you."

Jane stared at Daria in amazement. "You did, didn't you? You actually did."

"Yes. And Quinn, and everybody else. Actually, it'll have to be a case of all of us rising up, taking over the ship, and saving the world. So that's the plan, for now anyway."

Jane shook her head. "You know, on the one hand, I'm thinking, 'This girl is obviously stark raving mad,' and on the other hand I'm thinking, 'if the only way for humans to board this ship is the way you did it, and if they can't bring any weapons, who'd be the best person to send?' And I can't think of anyone better than you. I just wish you'd had more time to develop those weird powers of yours. The Slaver Mantoids are a whole lot bigger than roaches."

"I haven't seen one yet."

"Just picture a burly seven-foot praying mantis and you're pretty close."

"Yikes. Well, my power curve turned up sharply yesterday, especially after I found out they'd gotten you, and I improved my control a lot, too. And I expect to continue to improve. What I need now is information."

"Like what?"

"I need to know their plans in much greater detail. I need to know what they've got in mind for us after the testing and training, and I need to know if they've got other groups of humans somewhere on board that they're doing other stuff with."

Quinn had been listening in. Now she said, "I don't get it, Daria. I thought you were gonna get us away from them or take over the little UFO or something. Why'd you let us be captured without a fight?"

"Just because I haven't done anything yet doesn't mean I'm not going to. I had to get aboard this ship. I couldn't do anything from the ground."

A forlorn spark of hope flickered in Quinn's eyes. "Oh. Uh, so... what are you gonna do now?"

"First, I'm going to gather information. You do the same. Go where they tell you, do what they tell you. Watch and listen. We need more information to develop a plan."

"Oh, you're just trying to get me to believe there's hope when there isn't. We're unarmed, we're prisoners on an enemy Death Star or whatever, way the hell out in space, and they're going to make slaves out of us and then eat us! Where's the hope in that?"

"The hope is, Quinn, that a team of Earth's most cunning and powerful clandestine operatives have managed to get aboard this ship, and are even now preparing to capture it and wreck the aliens' invasion plans. Oh, and by the way, we are now uranium free, thanks to that transporter we came up on."

"For real?" Daria nodded. "Fantastic! And these guys, who are they? Where are they? How do you know about them?"

"Shhh! Keep it down! The aliens might be listening! Now, what I want you to do is find out all you can about how big this ship is, how many Slaver Mantoids are on it, how many slave aliens, how many humans in how many groups, and where they're kept. Also anything you can find out about the Mantoids' plans. And start working your popularity voodoo on all the humans you can, and start trying it out on the alien slaves, so you can get them all to act together when the time comes. Got it?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"You can start now. Those guys behind us have been trying to listen to us. Introduce yourself and be popular. Remember, not a word about the secret superheros, not yet."

Quinn nodded and scooted closer to a couple of boys and a girl who'd been covertly watching them. Daria laid down to try to get what rest she could. Jane moved her lips close to Daria's ear and murmured, "What happens when she realizes you two are the secret superheros?"

Daria sighed. "I don't know. I hope I can build up her confidence before then."

Jane sighed. "I almost wish I didn't know. It'd be nice to believe that there was a squad of Earth's finest commandos aboard this ship scoping things out, getting ready to make their move."

Daria gazed at the outline of Jane's head for a couple of seconds, then said, "Oh, that's right, I haven't told you about yesterday. Imagine that I'm an expert marksman and that I have an invisible, totally silent rifle and lots of ammo. That's in addition to my puppeteer power, which has improved, plus I now have the ability to project my thoughts and emotions, although I don't know how much good that's going to be. So the commandos are here, it's just a small squad."

Jane gaped for a few seconds, then "Daria, are you joshing me to try to make me feel better?"

"No. Yesterday I was attacked by a large pack of feral dogs down by the quarry, three dozen or more. I killed them all before they could reach me, some by making their heads explode. I could make your head explode too, but... tell you what. I'm cutting off blood circulation to your left foot."

Jane gave a little gasp. "Oh, man, I can feel it! My foot's going to sleep!"

"Okay, I'm releasing it. Just as I squeezed off that artery, I can squeeze off any other artery in your body or brain... or slash it open."

"Wow, that's telekinesis, right? So you can move things around with your mind? How much weight can you lift? Can you bend spoons?"

The question surprised Daria. She hadn't thought about it in those terms. She'd been thinking about it in relation to the roach's head exploding when she'd given it that forceful stop command. But Jane was right. It was telekinesis.

"I don't know," she said softly. "I just got it. I'll have to experiment with it."

—o0o—

Daria curled up on the padded floor and got as comfortable as she could without a pillow. Jane's words, spoken half in jest, came back to her. Was I really stark raving mad to have done this? Should I have just let Quinn go, try to forget about everyone who's been snatched, and hope the aliens didn't come back for me? No. I couldn't do that. The Slaver Mantoids intended to conquer Earth and enslave all humanity. Of course, I didn't know that when I grabbed onto Quinn and rode her out the window. Should I have just attempted to take over the two Grays and force them to land their small cone-shaped craft? The Slavers would probably make a special effort to capture me, to find out who this unexpected new opponent was and what her capabilities were.

But maybe with actual live captured aliens and an operational alien craft, the military would be able to mount an effective defense. Daria thought about that. Surely the US, with cooperation from nearly all other significant military powers, should be able to defend Earth from conquest by one alien craft, even a very big one. On the other hand many people, not all of whom were nuts like Artie, think the US government already has those things. If so, they aren't currently doing much to halt the abductions. Besides which, the Slavers aren't planning a Normandy-style invasion, something the military might be able to deal with.

So the question becomes, am I mad to think I can do anything useful? Maybe. That remains to be seen. Am I crazy to try? Daria opened an eye and glanced over at Jane. No.

—o0o—