Believer

The place he worked in was nothing like any hospital Victoria had ever seen. It was lit by a painfully florescent lighting, giving every a sickly pale glow and enhancing the white that was used to colour practically everything. They passed by what appeared to be some sort of ward but with all of the curtains drawn around every bed and not even a beep of a machine indicating some sort of ill being lingered behind any of them there was no telling for sure. It could have just as easily been a morgue. It was certainly quiet enough for one. And the staff they passed all had the humourless expressions that reminded her of undertakers. They did not look at her as she passed, they just stared straight ahead, neither blinking nor uttering a sound.

Revaz said nothing either. He strolled ahead of her like some sort of guide, leading her through the blank twisting hallways and past what seemed like ward after ward of silent and unseen patients. They stopped at last when they passed through a set of large heavy doors. The room behind them was easily the size of a high school gym. It appeared to be a hybrid of both a reception area and a storage room. The walls on one side were lined with supplies. On the other side were cold metallic looking desks. Andrea was waiting for her in there, seated behind one of them with her elbows propped up against a clutter of papers. She smiled when she looked up, delighted by Victoria's presence it seemed.

Standing almost directly beside her was the familiar looking Tariel, one of the two beings Victoria recalled greeting Revaz when they first arrived on the planet. He stood with his arms tucked behind his back and was dressed in a uniform almost identical to the one Revaz was wearing.They greeted each other with little more than an exchange of nods. Something about the passing expressions they seemed to share made her feel uneasy. What was going on inside the mind of these two aliens? Were they speaking to each other through their minds, or just unable to hold a conversation this morning?

“Eep!”Victoria gasped when felt the coolness of Revaz's hand pressed against her back and quickly found herself being nudged towards Andrea.He did not look at her as he passed by her but she knew something was wrong with him. From the moment they set foot inside the building a feeling of hostility had radiated from him, yet for reasons she could not explain she knew they were not related to her. Something else was troubling him. Something more crucial than their personal woes.

“I assume you will have no problem instructing her on what to do?” He spoke to the older woman, whom smiled and shrugged her shoulders in response. Out of the four of them she was perhaps the only one who was capable of joy at the moment.

“I'm sure I can show Victoria the ropes around here.” She assured Revaz while brushing her fingers through her hair.

“Good. We will see you when the day has been completed.” Tariel was chewing at the loose skin on his upper lip when both men walked away. She watched as they disappeared behind a set of heavy metal doors on one side of the room. It was adorned with a strange and unreadable language, but she assumed by the brightly painted red stripes adorning the frame of either door that whatever room lay behind them was not an area for anyone to go strolling through. In fact she almost believed she heard the faint click of lock at they closed softly and she was left standing next to Andrea like a complete fool. “So.” The other woman beamed whole spinning around in her chair until they were facing. “Welcome to the most boring and quite possibly the only job you will ever get while living on this planet. Shall we get started then?”

Andrea did not lie when she assured Victoria that by the end of her first day she would be dieing of boredom. The 'job' she had acquired was about as enthralling as watching paint dry. It mostly consisted of sorting out paperwork, stapling documents together, and helping Andrea carry the never ending masses of paper on trollies from one room to the other. After a few hours of her 'instructor' guiding her along like a very small child she started to get the hang of it. The only thing that kept it from being completely unbearable was Andrea's occasional commentary. None of the other staff members seemed to pay them any attention. They occasionally stepped out of the way for the trolley they pushed here and there but they never received a smile from the white-clad figures that crossed her and Andrea's path, not even a glance.

“I don't understand why we have to work here? Is there some policy on this planet that says you have to be in the same building as your 'spouse' at all hours of the day?” She grimaced as they returned to the room Revaz had left her in earlier. Andrea shrugged her shoulders as she reached under the desk for what appeared to be a large stack of unopened envelopes. Each was stamped with nothing other than a brightly coloured square to indicate where they belonged.

“As far as I know there aren't any policies for where you work. But you and I are considered to be 'test subjects' rather than citizens. Giving us this job is kind of like occupying our attention during the day. Like how scientists on earth coax mice through mazes with cheese.” The two of them huddled behind the desk together, carefully sorting out the envelopes into three piles: red, blue, and yellow. “These are coded to lets us know which area they are meant to go to by the way. Yellow is the hospital sector, Blue is the laboratories, Red is the upper floor where the staff rooms and private offices are located.”

“Oh...” Victoria murmured while numbly sorting through a small stack. The job was tedious but it allowed for her to listen without causing too much of a disaster. Anything more complex would of had her fighting to do the job right while paying attention to Andrea. “I thought that this entire building was just a hospital.”

“It kind of is. The laboratories are reserved for medical based research so it's not exactly a long stretch.” Andrea gave a weak smile as she reach for a pile of rubber bands in one of the desks drawers. Placing them in between her and Victoria she calmly began to use them to bundle the sorted stacks of mail together. “We don't do any of the actual 'deliveries'. We just drop the mail off at the main lobby for each section and then another person goes around and personally distributes them. When I first started they allowed me to do it on the occasional slow day but a few assholes in the upper ranks complained so they made me stop.”

“What is wrong with the people in this place anyways?” Victoria hissed, relieved that she had finally been given the opportunity to bring the subject up. It had been bothering her all morning long.

“Nothing. It's normal for them to be expressionless and bland.” Andrea shrugged her shoulders. Her smiled had begin to fade. “But if you're talking about the fact that they ignore us it's because of several things. First of all; we're not 'one of them' and so they don't know how to react. Second of all our job is the lowest you can get in this place and everyone looks down on you because of it.”

“How nice. So to add to being taken away from a perfectly ordinary life on earth, being kidnapped, and becoming the so called 'spouse' to some creepy alien I am now also stuck doing the grunt work at a place where people come to die!” Victoria fumed, snapping herself with one of the rubber bands mistakenly. “How did you stand living like this? Didn't it drive you insane being degraded like this?!”

Andrea shrugged her shoulders. “I was a hooker on earth honey. Sorting out paperwork was actually more of a promotion to me. Yea, it sucks being treated like crap by everyone but I'd rather have a job where I shift through paper than go back to blowing people for a living. Nobodies trying to arrest me in this job. And I don't have to work nights or climb into cars with strange men.”

“Sorry.” She sighed. Andrea had told her about her life back on earth the first day they met. It made Victoria flinch with guilt for not remembering. “I really need to learn to think before I say things.”

“Yea you do.” She agreed with a low snicker. “Don't sweat it too much. It's not like I want everyone to feel sorry for me or something. I just don't know what you're going through. I didn't leave much of a life behind on earth, and I had no family there either. I wouldn't know what it would be like to loose anything like that, though I imagine it royally sucks.”

“It really does.” Victoria mumbled. Together they began loading the sorted bundles of mail onto an empty cart. “Did you ever miss just being around other people when you first came here? I mean...being the only human must have been lonely.”

“It was more unnerving to be around males all the time actually. I didn't mind the whole 'only human' thing as much as feeling like I was the only girl in this entire city. In case you haven't already noticed there are no other females on staff in this building right now. Just men.”

“What exactly happened to all of them?” Victoria whispered, fearful of what the answer might be. “The females on this planet I mean.”

“Disease and war; the most deadly witches brew in the universe.” Andrea chided softly. “Once upon a time the planet Azrac went to war against the planet closest to them called 'Belderi'. They're very similar species as far as appearance; both are very human looking. But the Belderi don't posses the dotted markings on their skin or the ability to grow tentacles the way that the Azrac do and their teeth are pointed. They spent years and years waging long bloody battles, bombing each others cities and attacking female civilians out of spite. Then a group of medical researchers on this planet decided to use biological warfare against Belderi. They launched a virus without doing any proper research on it or it's effect and the damned thing backfired on them.”

The wheels of the cart squeaked gently as Andrea shoved it forward. Instinctively Victoria followed after her. “Revaz fought in that war you know? When he was 17 he enlisted into the military and after he turned 18 they sent him to be a field medic at one of the bases that had been set up on Belderi. That's where he and Tariel first met. After the war ended they both came here and became medical engineers.” Andrea murmured as they stepped out into the hallway. “Apparently he hasn't been the same since the war stopped though.”

“I cannot imagine Tariel being a soldier.” Victoria smiled, desperate to brush aside the information her friend was pouring out to her. Her mental image of Revaz had been completely blurred already today. She could no longer decide what she wanted to imagine him as. One moment it was a villain, the next it was a hero. Throwing new information about his miserable past into the mix would only complicate the matter. “So where did this hair brained scheme of kidnapping women from earth come from? Couldn't they have found a closer planet to get females? Or why didn't they just ally with Belderi?”

“Couldn't. The virus they accidentally leaked onto themselves was also unleashed in all of the major cities of Belderi at the time, and since the customs of that planet requires every able bodied male to be relocated to military bases during times of war the only people 'home' were primarily female. Belderi lost a huge chunk of their population at the same time Azrac did. It was the only reason they called a truce with each other; neither of them could focus on a war and a population crisis at the same time. And even if it did not happen the leaders of Belderi would have never agreed to help Azrac. They are two opposing races. Azrac is all about science, intellect and strict laws. They're more ethical than the human race in many ways. Whereas the Belderi are all about war, self-gain, and obtaining things through force. They have less morals than even us 'wicked' human beings. The two species could never properly procreate with each other. Besides of which they both have such mammoth egos that half of them probably died a little on the inside just having to ally with each other.”

“So what they just both decided it was easier to resort to kidnapping human beings from earth instead?” Victoria questioned, struggling to keep from tripping over her own two feet in the midst of her so called 'assisting'.

“Yup. Luckily for us Azrac won the right to be the one to begin the process. From what I've gathered the Belderi aren't nearly as patient. They would be more than happy to just take a giant ship, appear in the skies over earth on day, and kidnap a few million people. Thamar; the one who was there when you and Revaz first got here, is a Belderi. He is part of a military fraction that opposes the research being done in this building.” Andrea grunted as they guided the cart down the hallway and towards a large set of metal elevator doors. “We're going to the upper floor by the way.”

“What kind of research is being done here?” Victoria blurted out as she reached forward, pressing the round button to open the elevator doors.

“Nothing serious really. They're just trying to prove that human beings can successfully breed with both the Belderi and the Azrac. They've already proven our DNA code is similar to their's but Thamar and most of his species will not buy into the evidence until an actual child is conceived. My best advice for you would be to stay the hell away from him. Belderi don't abide by any laws. There is no such thing as marriage or monogamy on their planet. They're all about 'destroy it if you hate it, take it if you want it'. He's tried going after me a few times but I make sure to always stay in areas where at least one other person is within earshot.”

“Geeze, it's nice to know that this job is not only tedious but also dangerous.” Victoria whispered as they stood inside the elevator together waiting for it to reach the top floor.

“Naw, Thamar's not much of a threat if you use some basic common sense when wandering around in this place. Just stick by me and everything will be just fine. Thamar might look like some kind of badass when he's pulling that bully routine with Revaz and Tariel but he won't do anything really vicious when he is around more than one person. The man hates an 'audience'.” As the doors clicked open, revealing nothing other than a long stretch of hallway, Andrea chuckled.

There were doors all along the corridor of course. For a change of pace they were wooden, and the walls had been painted a sea foam green rather than the bleached out white that seemed to coat every other part of the building. Each door had a number nearly printed onto it. Beneath each number was what she assumed to be the name of whomever the office belonged to. Andrea calmly guided her through the endless twists and turns but never truly explained the offices. She did however point out which doors lead to the washroom, and one that was supposedly a staff room. Of course every area was 'off limits' to them (naturally), except for the one lonesome looking storage room that had been tucked into one of the less used corridors. A plastic bin was left on a shelf inside, where they proceeded to place all of the envelopes that were meant to go on that floor. All the while Andrea grumbled, complaining that the bin had originally been placed in the staff room but kept being relocated further and further away from the elevator every passing month now.

“There!” She said when they were finished their task and the cart was completely empty. “We're finished. The less time I spend up here the better. This entire floor feels like one giant rat maze.” She clapped her hands together, ceremoniously 'dusting' them off as she looked around. “Way back when I first started to work here I got lost on this floor for hours. I would have never gotten out too, but Tariel came and found me. He has an office up here. “

“I thought that only the Doctors had offices.” Victoria mused while gazing down at the carpeted floor. “What would a medical engineer need an office for?”

“A medical engineer is very similar to a Doctor. They're both really high up the 'food chain' in this place so they both get offices. He's never really explained what he does in there but I would assume the engineers use it to file away all of their research notes and to have a quiet place to sort out paperwork. Among all the usual checking phone messages, eating, and passing the time of course. Really advanced huh?” The last part of Andrea's statement dripped with sarcasm as she pushed the now empty cart forward. “Lets go. This place always gives me the creeps. It's way too quiet up here.”

The rest of the day went by with very little effort. They had a brief lunch break together in which time Andrea showed her the hospitals cafeteria and explained that they were supposed to go there when they wanted something to eat. Victoria was more troubled by the absence of patients or other staff members when they went to grab lunch rather than the shame of actually having to eat in there. The room was so quiet you could have heard a pin drop. She had never been so eager to wolf down a meal before.

After lunch there was a fresh pile of mail and paperwork waiting for them to sort it out. It was then that Andrea jokingly proclaimed that she had never actually met whoever it was who dropped them off at the desk for her. For the next few hours Victoria was acquainted to the not so fantastic world of mundane work. After a few more hours of shuffling papers, sorting through mail, and helping Andrea with whatever other tasks that needed to be done Tariel and Revaz emerged from the large metal doors on the opposite side of the room.

“So how goes the research. Do anything to help save the world today?” Andrea beamed with humorous sarcasm when she caught sight of them. She had given up on sorting, and with her elbows propped up on the desk she had made it quite obvious that her work was done for the day. Victoria found herself somewhat awed by the woman's ability to make decisions without even announcing them. Even worse; she felt the slightest twinge of jealousy when Tariel greeted her with an amorous hug.

“Not yet. But now that Revaz has returned perhaps we shall.” They seemed to be genuinely happy to see one another. Their embrace lingered just a tad too long, their hands brushed just slightly when they were pulling away; everything they did had a subtle aura of intimacy to it. Watching them left her baffled, and just a tad jealous as she glanced over at Revaz whom was standing with his arms crossed over his chest. There was enough distant between them for at least five other people to fill the gap. For some reason it made Victoria feel like she was stuck on an sort of dried up, loveless little island when she watched Tariel and Andrea. They were much luckier than she was. They were with someone they actually cared about, and every little thing they did together seemed to make this more glaringly obvious to her.

There was an exchange of mild small talk amidst them. Andrea was remarkably comfortable in the presence of aliens. She was just as happy to talk to Revaz about his day as she was with Tariel. Standing quietly off to the side Victoria observed like a fly on the wall, saying nothing and almost completely isolating herself from the conversation by doing so. More than once Andrea turned and smiled in her direction, but the attempt to somehow include her was difficult. Victoria knew absolutely nothing about the topics that were brought up (most of which related to the goings on within the hospital) and had no interest in learning about them.

By the time she snapped out of her trance Andrea and Tariel were saying their 'Goodbyes'. Lingering side by side they wandered out of the room together. The sound of the door swinging shut behind them made her stomach flutter. Revaz reacted to the noise with indifference, shifting to face her with his arms still firmly crossed over his chest. “So what is the deal with the creepy looking doors?” Victoria sighed, nodding in the direction of the particular set she had seen him enter and step out of today. “Is your lab hidden behind them or something?”

“Yes, the laboratory that I and the other medical engineers in this facility conduct our research is located behind those doors.” His voice was certainly bland at the moment but she could sense no hostile undertones to it. Even while straining, and listening more carefully than she would ever usually do she sensed no malice. He sounded bored. But at least he wasn't going to kill her. Somewhere in the midst of his response and her careful observation he had taken a few steps towards her.

“Am I going to be working here permanently now?” She dared to question as the memory of everything Andrea had told her that afternoon came flooding back. “It seems kind of pointless. The job is so tedious and mundane. Andrea seems to be able to do it all by herself as it is.” Licking her lips she gazed down at her feet. Her shoes were noticeably scuffed from stumbling against the polished floor at least a dozen times today. Her clumsiness had always done it's damage to her clothing. “I've never actually had a job like this you know? The only work I ever got on earth was at a restaurant and they fired me after a month. I was a lousy waitress. But this job, it's so; boring!” When she looked back up again he was standing directly in front of her. Their bodies were close once again. So close that she was afraid to even breath properly for fear they might touch.

“You shall grow accustom to it over time. Andrea had a similar reaction when she first started her work here.”

“It's not just 'being used to it'; If we...Andrea and I-” Victoria stammered. He was inside her personal bubble like he always seemed to be. It muddled her up, testing both her nerves and her patience. “If we're supposed to be oh-so important to the survival of your race why are we being treated like crap and being given the worst job you could possibly give us?”

“The collective decision of the entire staff within this facility was the one who decided that. A majority of which are either Belderi or aligned with the Belderi.” His voice sounded like a mixture of anger and frustration. He had closed his eyes momentarily, rubbing both of his temples as though attempting to ease some kind of headache. “It is an unfortunate circumstance but there is nothing I can do. My authority does not extend beyond my research team. They are very untrusting of the Gaian species. Until you or Andrea prove to be a successful specimen I do not think this concept will change.”

“Specimen?” She frowned. The last time she had even heard that word before coming to this planet was when she was in Grade 10 and her science class had to make mice run through mazes. “So we're not going to be treated better until after you run tests on us like lab rats? Are you going to make us run through a maze, and study us or something?”

“No.” He replied while opening his eyes again. “This entire facility is based around the survival of the Azrac and Belderi species. The only way for the research to obtain any solid recognition either you or Andrea will have to conceive.”

“Conceive as in you want us to get pregnant? As in have a baby?! You want ME to have a baby!” Victoria felt the blood drain from her face suddenly. Her hands twitched uncomfortably and though she clenched them as hard as she could she was unable to make them stop.

Revaz seemed unphased by her horror. And though she was certain her face was stricken with panic and fear he did not seem to react to it. “Andrea has been here for a long period of time but has failed to conceive. Theory suggests that her former profession and lifestyle on Gaia has damaged her fertility. She is not a stable research subject. Thus I was summoned to find a second specimen who was still capable of conceiving.”

“And so you picked me.” Victoria found herself hissing every word as the truth of her 'position' on this planet settled in. “So basically I'm just an walking factory for you to pop out more of your oh-so important 'species' and Andrea is broken so you brought me in to replace her.”

“That is not what I am indicating, it is what you are assuming.” Revaz said while shifting his weight from one foot to the other. He did not sound very surprised by her angry outburst. In fact he behaved as though he had been expecting it. She would not have been surprised if he had scheduled this event somewhere in a day planner. “Do not pretend that you are so naive. You knew from the first moment you set foot on this planet that your role was going to involve reproduction. It is why I brought you here.”

His dull expression made her want to reach over and slap him. Instead she reached for the stapler that had been left on the desk that she and Andrea had shared that day. It whirled past his head, missing him by only a few inches. She grimaced as she searched frantically for something else. The jar that held a collection of pens? It crashed to the floor near his feet, breaking into a million pieces but inflicting no harm. His expression changed from monotonous to annoyed and she felt her stomach churn when he moved towards her.

“You bastard! You selfish bastard! I was just a baby factory to you. That's all you wanted from me isn't it!!?” She shouted while quickly lifting up one of the chairs behind the desk and holding it in front of her like a shield. Her eyes were glistening for some reason and she cursed him mentally for almost making her cry. A part her was pained by the discovery. A dull gnawing pain in her stomach and the sensation that someone had shoved her head underwater completely disoriented her. “You can just forget about it.” She whispered, unable to get parts of the words out as her lips began to tremble. “I'm not having a child. Not with you. Not with anyone.”

“Victoria, you do not have a choice in the matter.” He had taken hold of the legs of the chair and in one swift jerking motion he pulled it out her grasp. “This planet is dying. In order to save it we have to prove that homo-sapiens are capable of reproducing with us. It is the only way to prevent my species from going extinct!”

“I'm not a guinea pig!”

“I never said that you were.”

They were shouting at each other now. Their voices seemed to make the walls of the room itself tremble. Victoria wept loudly when he grasped her by the wrists. She tried to scream but the only thing that came out was a feeble squealing noise. “You're a liar. You don't care about me-”

“Yes I do! I do care. I care more about you than you can even comprehend right now.” She could feel his fingertips digging into her flesh. It did not hurt but it made her squirm. “But this is my duty to my species. I do not want to see this planet reduced to a barren wasteland.”

“Well then find another lab rat because I'm not doing it!” She wriggled and she squirmed, twisting and moving her arms until they broke free from Revaz's grasp. Stumbling backwards she narrowly avoided tripping over another chair. Her vision was blurred with tears by then. Eventually she gave up and slumped onto the floor with her back pressed up against the desk. “I won't do it. You cannot make me. And I won't let you touch me anymore if that's what it takes.”

“Victoria, I have tolerated you and your pathetic behaviour for months now.” A chill swept down her spine when she heard him gruffly speak. He was kneeling down, slowly, onto the cold linoleum floor. “I have deal with the sulking, the childish tantrums, and all of your obsessive grudges against me. But I cannot and will not tolerate you defiance any longer. You do not have to 'touch' me anymore if that is what you want.” Like a cat stalking it's prey he crawled towards her. The sight of his long fingers stretching across the white flooring made Victoria's heart flutter. “But you are having a child. And if I have to artificially inseminate you like an animal then so be it!”

He was about to grab hold of her ankle at that moment. Time stopped and all Victoria imagined was herself being hooked up to dozens of machines and being forced to give birth over and over again. Like a cow. Deranged by her own wild imagination and the uncertain threats Revaz had uttered to her she reached around her for something to grab hold of. Her fingertips made contact with one of the pen's that had fallen onto the floor when she threw the jar holding them. Seizing in she growled with anger, lunging forward without thinking and driving the blunted end directly into the center of his hand.

Blood seeped onto the floor and there was a moment she was stricken with horror at the sight of the wound. Having turned Revaz into a real-life voodoo she had jabbed the pen at the way through his palm. When he lifted it up she could see the end of the pen sticking through the other side and thought she might actually be sick. Seizing the chair she had almost tripped over she screamed angrily, swinging it at him wildly until she heard the loud pang of it striking against the side of his head. Revaz dropped to the floor like a ball of lead, writhing silently in pain as he cradled one bloodied hand.

Somehow she managed to gather the courage to stand up, throwing the chair aside as she jumped over the fallen alien and bounded for the door. He pulse raced like a jackrabbit in her chest. She found herself bounding down a painfully long stretch of hallway without certainty of whether or not she was being followed. She zipped past random figures, some of which tensed in reaction to her racing past them. She thought she heard Andrea calling out from behind her but didn't dare look back. Instead she ran. And she kept running until she reached another set of doors that she recognized as the entrance to the hospital. Thrusting them open she bounded out into the street, embracing her newly found freedom and struggling to wash away the sight of all the blood she had just seen.

Victoria did not stop running until she had raced past at least a dozen other buildings and the hospital itself was no longer in her sight. Then pausing, she caught her breath and gazed all around her at the cold metallic structures that had swallowed her whole. It was then, through all the tears that stung her eyes and the beads of sweat gathering across her forehead that she let out a pitiful cry and wished for death. For she realized right then, on that lonesome street that she was lost. In a city she knew nothing about. And on a planet that she could not leave.