Author's Note: Wow. This is weird to read after the story I just wrote.
Rest assured, there's a method to my madness.
Enjoy the next part.
An alert went off, on the control deck of the ship. A red, scaled finger flipped a switch, and a monitor flicked on. Showing an image of the emergency tractor-beam retrieval bay.
But the android wasn't there.
In its place, standing by the open hatch that led to the rest of the ship, was a single human girl. A young human girl — not as young as the others he'd taken, but young for her species. Tall, a face with sharply defined features, with brown hair tugged up into a ponytail.
An intruder. A clever intruder, if she'd somehow managed to see past his android's defenses, eliminate the android, then activate his tractor beam system to arrive here, all by herself.
The alien frowned.
Yes. She was far, far too clever.
The alien sat back in his seat, thinking through the possibilities. None of them seemed good. Then he pressed a few more buttons, activating the guard-droids.
Well, if she wanted to interfere, he'd let her be processed with all the others.
Easiest way to take care of the problem.
It wasn't just dark.
The moment they entered the room, they passed through some sort of… sound barrier. And heard the screaming, crying, frantic wail of young children, screaming and shouting for help, for mum and dad, for someone to get them out. They were confused, desperate, scared.
And, all along the room, stacked up high in rows, illuminated only at either end with a small blue light shining up from the floor, were cages. Heavy metal cages, one resting on top of another, with thick iron bars across the outside.
Alison gasped.
As she realized that… inside of every single cage… was a screaming, crying, desperate kid.
"That park must not have been the only one," Alison realized. She looked around herself, growing horror mounting in her chest. "He must be doing this all over the world."
Seo bent down, by one of the cages, shushing the little girl huddled up, whimpering, inside. She stuck her hand through the bars, taking the girl's hand in her own.
"Shhh," said Seo. "Shhh. I'm here. It's all right. You're going to be all right."
The child looked up at Seo, and seemed to be uplifted by the kind face. She tried to sit up, but banged her head against the top of the cage. And began to whimper, again.
"The monsters," she sobbed. "The monsters come. Hurt me."
Seo squeezed her eyes shut, a bitter pain spreading through her, as she took this in. Then, with a tremendous effort, she pasted a soft smile across her face, again, and leaned in closer to the little girl. "The monsters won't ever hurt you," she said. "Ever again. I promise."
The girl sniffled.
"You'll be safe, at home, in bed, with your mummy and daddy and toys," Seo promised. "Quick as I can manage it. You'll all be back where you belong."
The girl nodded. A new hope shining through her.
"Just go to sleep," Seo urged. "And when you wake up, it'll all be like a bad dream."
For a few moments, there was silence between them. Then, slowly, Seo withdrew her hand from the cage. When she turned to face Alison, all traces of that gentle, comforting smile were gone. All Alison could see left was a pure, unbridled fury.
"Alone," Seo said, her voice burning through the darkness. "Afraid. Children. Little children, stolen away from their lives." She bunched her hands into fists, her entire body trembling with hurt and anger. "This ends. Now."
Alison looked across the dark, scream filled room. Her brother was in there. Her little baby brother, brilliant little David, and he was just as scared and alone and desperate as all the others. Oh, God, what if she never found him? What if she never managed to get him out? What if…?
Her thoughts were cut off by the sudden chorus of horrified child-like shrieks echoing through the far end of the room. A chorus that crept closer and closer, as Alison heard a heavy thudding clang of metal against metal, coming nearer and nearer…
Alison backed up, as the enormous metal creatures emerged into sight. Four meters high. Their eyes pulsing with a steady green light, their hands outstretched towards Alison, their march steady and unwavering.
Seo grabbed her by the arm. "Run!"
Alison didn't have to be told twice. She spun on her heels, following Seo as they raced through the maze of different cages and terrified children. Seo skimming her eyes across the walls, clearly trying to figure out some way out of this.
Way out.
Hang about!
Alison glanced back over her shoulder. That last robot, down on the planet, it hadn't noticed Seo at all. Hadn't reacted to her. Hadn't even looked at her.
What if… these robots… were the same way?
Alison tugged her hand out of Seo's, and began to sprint in the opposite direction. Seo spun around, surprised, but Alison knew what she was doing. "Work out how to stop them!" she shouted, as she raced off. "Fast!"
If Seo was the one who could disable robots, then it was up to Alison to give her the chance. And Alison was really praying that Seo was half as clever as she seemed to be, because the way that these robots were chasing after her, she didn't think it'd be very long before they caught up with her.
"Go to the corner!" Seo shouted, from somewhere out of sight.
Alison dodged to the left, circling around the edge of another set of cages, then raced for the corner of the ship. Oh, she really hoped that Seo knew what she was doing, or Alison was going to find herself dead meat.
She spun around, as she reached the far corner. The two robots now right on top of her. Reaching out for her. She closed her eyes, crossed her fingers, and held her breath.
Then, a pair of robotic screams, as something felt sort of odd and tingly in Alison's fingers. She peeked out, and saw the robots both jerk and spasm, then slump in place, the lights in their eyes cutting out.
Around them, the sounds of metal bulkheads sealing them inside rang through the air.
Alison breathed, heavily, as the tingling feeling stopped.
"Rubber soles," came Seo's voice, as she emerged into sight, sprinting towards Alison.
"What?"
"Your shoes," said Seo. "Rubber soles. The power grid for this area of the ship only works in little square shapes, so if a power cut occurs, only some of the kids will get out and not all of them. I just rerouted the power into this little square, so it didn't hit any cages or kids, and fried the robots' circuits." She jumped up onto the back of one of the slumped over robots, and tore off the casing. "Now, let's see if we can make you work for us."
Alison walked, carefully, around the slumped robot. "Are all these robots mass manufactured in China or something?" she asked.
"China?" asked Seo, leaning so far into the robot's back that her upper torso was almost completely engulfed by it.
"Yeah, you know, shoddy workmanship," said Alison. She went over to the torn-off casing, lying abandoned and bent out of shape on the floor. "I mean, you keep ripping these things apart like they're…" She tried to lift it, and balked at the weight.
"I'm stronger than I look," Seo replied, her voice muffled, as she went deeper into the robot's back.
Oh. Right. Half-alien.
"Your father, again?" Alison guessed.
"My mom, actually," Seo corrected. Then, "Ha! There it is!"
The robot she was leaning inside twitched and spasmed, and threw Seo to the floor as it stood upright. Its eyes glowing and green and emotionless.
It didn't move.
Alison helped Seo get up. Her eyes never leaving the robot. "Is it…?"
"On our side," Seo confirmed. "See, there was a little switch, inside, and I flipped it from the 'evil' setting to the 'nice' setting."
Alison looked down at Seo. "Wait, really?"
"No," Seo said, dusting herself off. "Do you have a mobile?"
Alison, a little dumbstruck, reached into her pocket, and handed Seo her mobile.
Seo took it, gratefully, then whipped out her own little device, which was very clearly labeled, 'property of Torchwood', and pressed a button on the side. The Torchwood device unfolded and assembled itself around the phone, spider-like, weaving an intricate pattern around the phone's edges and suspending it in place over an unfolding… well, it looked a bit like a computer keyboard.
"What is Torchwood, anyways?" asked Alison.
"Um…" said Seo, with a bit of a grimace, as she began typing frantically on the keyboard of the device. She gave Alison a quick glance that looked like a plea. "Don't tell Jack I'm taking his stuff."
"All right, then," said Alison. "So… who's Jack?"
"No one," Seo put in, hurriedly.
She continued typing, and Alison bent over, trying to squint at the display. She was expecting alien computer code. But what she found, instead, was…
"It's C," said Alison.
"Well, they're actually using software running a pretty average computer language that's based on the " Seo made a sound that was half way between a screech and a whistle, "language. Which is a language I don't happen to have a keyboard for. So I've written a subroutine to import C code, and am programming in that."
Alison knelt down, beside Seo. Her eyes fixed on the screen, as the coding scrolled by. A smile spreading up her face, as she realized what Seo was doing.
"You're making the robots send the kids back home," she said. "By having the robots scan the kids' DNA, do a global scan to find the parents' DNA, back on Earth, and then beam the kids back to where the police reports claim the parents live."
Seo paused. Glanced back at Alison. "You know how to program computers?"
Alison shrugged. "Well, as career paths go, it's not as exciting as something like sewage management," she said. "But it sure beats out Prime Minister of Great Britain." She took the keyboard out of Seo's hands, and began typing, herself. Now that she knew what Seo was up to, she understood exactly how to continue it. "You work on making the next robot not evil. I'll finish up here."
Seo's shock turned into a smile of her own. "You wouldn't consider being a full-time Scooby, would you?" she asked.
Alison didn't answer, as she felt herself getting into the code, typing and tapping and making it all fit together, like a beautiful little system she was creating, all by herself. The letters and numbers drifting across the screen of her mobile.
Seo, in the meantime, jumped onto the back of the next robot, and began rooting around in its insides.
A set of hidden speakers in the ceiling whined into life. Booming a deep, growly voice around them. A voice speaking to them in a series of words and a burst of language that Alison couldn't understand.
Seo stuck her head out of the robot's back, looking up at the ceiling. Processing all of this with a mildly puzzled look on her face. Alison decided, well, if Seo couldn't understand it, either, no point in her trying to. Seo was the half-alien expert around here, anyways.
"That's interesting," Seo muttered. "This isn't his ship."
"Huh?" asked Alison.
"The computer code language I mentioned, earlier," Seo explained. "That the robots and the ship are based on. It's not based on the same language he's using, now. He must have stolen this ship from someone else."
"So… you can understand him?" asked Alison. "You know what he's saying? You know where he's from?"
"I understand him," Seo confirmed. "I have no idea where he's from." She turned back to the robot, crawling into his back and rooting around inside. "I went through this phase, for about a decade when I was fifty, trying to pick up every alien language I could come across in the Axis archives. I know lots of languages. I just don't know where they're from or what aliens tend to speak them."
All right, then.
"Here!" said Seo, jumping off the robot, a little device in her hand. "This is what the robots are using to translate that language into their own. Should work for you, too." She raced over, and stuck the device behind Alison's ear. "There you go!"
From the speakers, Alison heard the voice suddenly clarify into, "—will regret it."
Then the speakers clicked off.
Alison nodded, slowly. Absorbing this all. Then focused back on her own work. She had it almost all coded in… just a little bit more, and…
There!
The robot nearby turned its head, stomping off with a mechanical rhythm, walking up to the first cage, releasing the child — who screamed and struggled in its grip — scanning him, then standing still, as if thinking a moment, and then… in a flash… the child was gone.
Then it went to the next cage.
"How many are there?" Alison asked, stepping forward, examining the rows upon rows of snatched children.
"Fifty, maybe a hundred," Seo said, typing on the keyboard, herself, programming the second robot the same way. "We'll get them all, don't worry. That's why I sealed off this area, so whoever's running this ship can't stop us before we're done."
A trace of that hard, dark anger crept into her voice at the end.
Alison nodded, slowly, her eyes just fixed on those poor, desperate kids, all caged and sealed away like they were animals, all wanting their mummies and daddies and…
"Alison!"
Alison snapped her neck around, and… there! Just there! That was…!
"David!" Alison cried. She raced towards him, yanking at the bars sealing him into his cage, but they wouldn't budge. Damn. She leaned down, so he could see her. "It's all right, David. I'm here. I'll get you home. You don't need to—"
But David didn't look terrified. He looked delighted. "Alison!" he shouted at her, again. "We're in space!"
Alison stopped. Staring at him.
Brilliant little David.
"Outer space!" shouted David. "We're like Honk and Tonk and Captain DJ!"
"Yes," said Alison with a grin and a desperate, relieved laugh. "Yes. Just like in 'Space Pirates'." Thank God for BBC kids' shows that desensitized kids to the horrors of evil alien kidnapping plots.
The second robot whirred into life, and began stomping around, sending kids back home, as well. Alison just tried her hardest not to cry, as she sat there, squatting down on the floor of an alien space ship, orbiting earth, in front of an alien cage that held her little brother. Her brother. Whom she'd thought she might never see again.
"That's… David?" came Seo's voice.
Alison glanced over. Seeing the small, petite blond girl standing, hands clasped behind her back, only a short ways away. Alison swallowed, hard, and nodded.
"Who's that?" asked David, trying to see past his cage. "Is she an alien?"
"I… don't know," Alison confessed. "But she's a friend. One of the good guys."
Seo stepped in, gently moving Alison away from the front of the cage. Then, in one fierce yank, she ripped the front of the cage off, and threw it on the floor, gathering up the young child in her arms. The young, enthusiastic little boy, looking at Seo with eagerness racing through him.
"Are you an alien?" David asked. "Are you? Are you? Are you?"
"No," said Seo. "I'm an American. But I do have two hearts."
Alison started. "Wait, you have what?"
David seemed positively delighted at the news, as he squirmed in Seo's hands. She laughed, and released him onto the ground, where he bounded over to Alison, enthusing at a thousand words a minute about how they were in space and they were going to have fantastic space adventures, and look, they'd already met a two-hearted alien, and wasn't it brilliant, Alison? Wasn't that just brilliant?
"Yes," said Alison, with a deep sincerity she hadn't realized she'd felt. Despite the horror, despite the terror, despite the sheer miserableness of whatever space-scum had done this… Alison had been in space. Real, genuine outer space. She'd seen the Earth. Seen space ships. Fought robots. Saved her little brother. And met a half-alien. "It… really, sort of is."