CHAPTER 15

Tara

I was on the flat surface of a glowing circular platform just large enough for me to lie on, if I curled up.I had to assume that whatever it was that grabbed hold of me had brought me here—wherever "here" was.The platform was on the floor of a room full of things that looked like monoliths of a strange, metallic stone.There was a table, angled like a draftsman's table, with ring-like objects on it, some of them like large coins, others about as wide as a dinner plate.Carved or etched onto these "ring" objects and onto the strange monoliths were patterns that reminded me of electronic circuits.These patterns were familiar, but my concern about where I was and what would happen to me distracted me so that I couldn't place them.I'd seen patterns like that before, and where I had seen them was on the tip of my mind, but I just wasn't getting it.

Whatever this platform was, I wouldn't get any answers about my situation by just sitting on it.But when I stepped forward to the edge of the circle to step down onto the floor, I was startled and shocked when I ran rather painfully into…nothing.It was as if I'd walked into the surface of a thick glass door or window without knowing it was there.My forehead hit something, and the impact made me jolt back with a little ache right above my eyebrows.I stood, blinking and baffled and slightly hurting, staring at where I had just tried to walk, where something that wasn't there had stopped me hard.

A force field, I realized.I looked up at a halo-like, glowing ring in the ceiling above me.Okay…this platform and that ring project a cylindrical force field between them and I'm in the middle of it.That's what will keep me right where I am until whoever took me is ready for whatever they've planned for me.

At the far side of the room, from around a corner, came a little whooshing sound, and I saw the shadows of figures appear on the wall over there.I got up, my frightened heart pumping hot blood.I knew I was about to come face to face with the Soorns, and I would be on my feet when I met them and learned whatever they had planned for me.Clenching and unclenching my fists and watching those shadows shifting across the room, I prepared myself for beings like the one that Kris had dumped on the floor of the entrance hall at the Manor to come and inspect their captive.

To my shock, bewilderment, and growing fear, the beings who came around the corner were not Soorns.

Being the daughter of the Prime Regent, I had been brought up with basic knowledge of interstellar diplomacy since Daddy was a member of the House of Nobles.I knew all the non-human sentient species with whom Earth and its Colonies had friendly relations, and how to behave around them.But these beings I had never seen.There were two of them, dressed in an oddly pearlescent-looking fabric.One of them looked older than the other.The one that seemed older, if I were any judge, was a bit bigger and moved perhaps a bit more slowly.They had blue skin, eyes with horizontal and rectangular pupils like some species of cephalopods, and hands with tentacle-like digits instead of fingers.Seeing them made me flash on the serpentine tendrils that had come up from the Manor sub-basement floor.Their limbs were odd, not seeming to have joints, reminding me of roots or stalks more than arms and legs.The Soorns had shown they could morph to look like humans, but this was a very different form for them to take.Why would they change into creatures like these?What I was dealing with now, I knew, was not the beings who were now attacking the colony.

They stopped about a human body length away from where I was enclosed and stared at me for a moment.I stared back.Not content with just this mutual scrutiny, I spoke up, hoping they had some kind of translation technology and that we could at least communicate."My name is Tara Landon.Who are you?Why am I here?Please talk to me."

In response, the one that struck me as older said, "I am called Neegan."He gestured to the younger-looking one."This is Catrot.We are Caloxi."

Well, that was something.Now I had names to work with."All right then…Neegan.Who are you and Catrot?Where are you from?What brings you here to this planet?"

"To us," said Neegan, "this is the planet Calox.It is our adopted home planet.We once inhabited this world.Some of us have never departed."

This startled me so much; I almost fell back against the invisible arc of the force field behind me.Former inhabitants of this planet—and some of them had been here all along?How did we not know?

For want of anything else to say, I replied, "I don't understand.How could you have been here all these years without us knowing?And why did your people leave this…?"I stopped myself mid-sentence, remembering again what happened before I found myself here."We're under the surface of the planet, aren't we?"

"Yes," said Neegan.

"And the reason your people left, and what's happening up on the surface:that isn't a coincidence, is it?"

"All but a few of our species, who once colonized Calox, departed generations ago—because of the dark ones," said Catrot."The ones called…"

I said the dreaded name with him."…Soorns."

And then another realization hit me.I glanced around and looked again at the objects in the room, and the shapes etched into them, with a sudden new understanding.The circuit-like patterns were like those artifacts that the archaeological survey found, some of which I had in my own bedchamber.Kris had been looking at them right before we sat down to dinner, and I took him to bed.Those unidentified objects belonged to the Caloxi!These two were telling the truth.Their people had been on this planet before us and before the Soorns!

The most important thing in the world now was for me to know more, to learn as much about these people as I possibly could.I asked again, "Have you been here as long as my people have been?"

"We were here before you arrived," Neegan replied.

"But how?We would have known if there were any alien…excuse me, any other sentient activity on this planet besides ours.How have my people not detected you before?"

"Long ago," Neegan explained, "the Soorns defeated our people in a battle for possession of the planet.Most of our people, who had colonized this world generations before, fled into space.But they fled vowing that one day the Caloxi would retake our world.To that end, they left sleepers deep underground; sleepers who would one day awake and begin the secret work of paving the way for the return of the Caloxi—and the ultimate defeat of the Soorns."

I pondered that word—sleepers."You mean you've been in hibernation all this time?Hibernation, like cryogenic sleep?"

"Yes," said Neegan."Our hibernation pods were fashioned from materials that would scan on sensors as inert rock.In that way we lay undetected.We were meant to awake, to survey the Soorn occupation in secret, to seek out and exploit their weaknesses, to undermine their power—and to summon our people who waited out among the stars for the moment when the time was ripe."

Now it was becoming clearer."But when you came out of hibernation, you didn't find the Soorns on the surface.You found us—my people.And since then, you've been watching us."

"It is true," said Neegan."Now the wrath of the Caloxi is not only upon the accursed Soorns—but upon the present interlopers as well.You who have one shape and your allies who have two, we shall take back our planet from both of your invading species.These years of waiting, the Caloxi have planned, and learned, and refined our methods of combating you.It does not matter that two species of interlopers now occupy this planet.We shall repel you all."

"We began before the dark ones returned in force," said Catrot."When the lurking agents of the Soorns, morphed into members of your species, made their foul presence known, we have used our skills to ferret them out where you and your animal shape-changers could not.We took them prisoner without any of you knowing what befell them.And now they are no more.We executed them."

"Oh…," I reacted.I wanted to say something, but my mind was too busy with the idea of Soorns secretly posing as humans, snatched right out from under everyone's noses and put to death.These Caloxi meant business.And that explained why there hadn't been any other terrorist mutation incidents since the attack of the mantis vipers.Before the next such attack could be triggered, those who would have triggered it were captured and disposed of without even the Canis Guard knowing about it!There had to have been missing persons reports since then; what the Caloxi were telling me would probably account for them.

It was very possible that the only thing that now stood between this planet and a catastrophe that I couldn't even guess at…was me.

"Please listen to me," I said."This can't go on.Don't you see, what you're starting here is a three-sided war.My planet will send more forces.My people will end up fighting you and the Soorns.There will be destruction, terrible destruction all over the planet.If three worlds go to war over one world, there may be nothing left worth living in.You've got to understand that.There must be another way.Let my people know that you're here without any more violence between us.Let us help you.If you love this planet and want to make it your home again, then let's find a way to stop the Soorns together."

"Our people have been homeless long enough," Neegan argued."While we agents slept beneath the ground, the remainder of us have wandered space, estranged from the planet that we meant to make our new heritage.Our defeat by the Soorns humbled us.We shall be humble no more.Whosoever stands between us and what we have thus claimed as our own shall be wiped from existence.Our history will be avenged, our future reclaimed."

My heart sank.Few things are as hard to overcome as racial pride and traumatized racial memory; I knew that from the history of Earth.I was utterly failing to get through to these people, and countless others—including my father, and Kris and Lon and Nick—might suffer for it.

"What do you plan to do with me, then?" I asked, fearing the answer.

"You are to be a study specimen," said Catrot."From you we shall learn the exact nature of the new threat we face.From you we shall learn everything about your species—the better to destroy you."

I wanted to drop to my knees at the sound of that.But I refused.However, they were going to "study" me, I planned to show my defiance in any way I possibly could, even if for the moment that meant just standing my ground.

I warned my captors, "Someone will come looking for me."

"We will be prepared," Neegan said."And we will root out all of your weaknesses as we make ourselves ready to strike at the Soorns.Our retribution and our return to supremacy upon this planet are upon you."

"But we're not your enemies!" I shouted, wanting to pound my fists on the force field holding me prisoner."I'm the only human who even knows you exist!You have no reason to hate us; we're not the ones who took this planet from you!Neegan, I promise you; you have nothing to fear from us!My people know nothing about you!We don't mean you any harm!"

Neegan and Catrot turned and left the room, no doubt to confer with some of their other former hibernators about what they would do next.Feeling utterly helpless, I sank to my knees in my confined space and watched them go.

My thoughts turned to Kris and Nick and Lon.I wondered what happened to them.Had they been hurt, trying to protect me up above from a danger that they never could have guessed?Would they come down here looking for me now, and what would happen to them if they did?I thought about them coming after me, having no idea what they were heading into.I had no way to warn my three brave, beautiful, handsome wolf guards.I tried to fight it but couldn't stop the fear from wrapping around my heart.

I thought about my father, who had to be up there now, commanding our people in the defense of Lycia—and no doubt trying to push his own fears and worries about me to the back of his mind.Not knowing what had happened to me must be killing him, I knew.And I was just as powerless to get any word out to Daddy as I was to the guys.

And what was happening to Melanie?The last time I saw her, she was recovering from being stressed-out from panic.When we last spoke, I actually objected to her insinuation that I was too naive and sheltered to take care of myself without Canis Guards to watch over me.Well, now I had the opportunity to prove that I wasn't so na?ve, and I wasn't so sheltered and clueless—and I had no idea what to do next.

How ironic was it that as a prisoner I was probably safer than all the people that I cared about?