Dont abduct me I'm Welsh!

Hearts and minds

“What’s going on?” Mr Barkley demanded as solders rushed past in the corridor.

“Two of the researchers are down.”

“How?” The director asked, but got no answer then men already rushing past. “Agent Baptiste, Boyd go find out what’s going on.”

Agent Boyd saluted. “Sir.”

Louis only rolled his eyes, and then jogged along to keep up with the Scots man. As they got closer Louis slowed, feeling distinctly uncomfortable. There was something alien and yet familiar about the sensation. He slowed his pace, trying to figure it out. A team of armed men were getting ready by the door to the MMR room. Glancing in the window Louis was surprised see the alien still laying immobile on the scanner bed. He had expected to see a snarling beast, not to see the alien still obviously unconscious. Confused as to what was going on he approached one of the frightened looking researchers.

“What’s happened?”

The researcher wrung their hands in agitation. “I don’t know. We all went in to get him out of the scanner, and then when Bob and Mike went to take hold of the alien’s shoulders to move him across on to a stretcher they suddenly went pale, cried out going ridged and then passed out. The rest of us panicked and got out of there as quickly as we could. It was supposed to be safe if the alien was unconscious.”

“We have to get them out of there.” Someone pleaded.

“Don’t you dare go back in there, you have no idea what that thing is capable of.”

Louis looked about with keen eyes. He had a nagging suspicion, and he had learned not to ignore his instincts. His grandmother had often said that was the psychic’s gift, or curse to know other’s trouble. The American turned once again to the researcher. “Why did you end the scan so early, he should have been in there for a hour?”

“It was the subject. He moved, and then he spoke.”

“What did he say?”

“He said, no more. But it’s the way he said it.” The researcher said quietly. Louis nodded in encouragement. “He said it like he was in pain. Begging us to stop.”

“He must have been waiting to attack us and then make his escape.”

Louis shook his head. “If he was going to escape surely he would have tried again by now?”

“Someone should put a bullet between his eyes, I would like to see him get up from that.” Agent Boyd blustered, cocking his hand gun.

Louis sighed, “Put it away.” He pushed past the Scots man. “The first real alien we are likely to see and you want to fill it full of holes and no doubt hang it over your mantle piece, and I thought us Americans were the trigger happy ones.”

“Stay out of this Baptiste.”

He ignored Boyd, and the solders heading for the door. “Agent that isn’t wise until we have ascertained what has happened in there.”

“We thought that he was unconscious, and he still got Mike and Bob.”

“Thanks for the concern.” Louis replied. “But I think that we might have been the ones attacking the alien.” On that note he left the very confused team behind. As he went through the door he felt a good deal less brave and cavalier then he had been putting on. Looking behind he saw the armed men with their guns raised. “Er if I should get in to any trouble, feel free to drag me out by whatever means.”

Slowly he approached the table, feeling more and more uncomfortable the closer he got. He felt suffering, waves of it radiating out. Keeping one eye out for any movement from the alien he knelt down placing his hand on one of the fallen men’s neck hoping to discover skin to skin what his last experiences where.

“Is he alive?” Someone hissed.

“Sush.” Louis turned his attention back to what he was doing. Reading someone’s unconscious mind was about a difficult enough task without distractions. He hissed at the memory of pain, jerking back as one burned. “He’s just fainted, he will be fine.” Louis informed the men behind him.

Breathing away the sensation the Cajun sat back on his heals and considered the information he was getting. The researcher had felt sudden pain when he touched the elf, it had been sudden and agonising but it hadn’t felt like an electric shock it was far more complex then that, what ever it had been had overwhelmed the man’s mind. There was a jumble of information there, it would have taken Louis weeks to unravel it all, but in that brief touch the alien’s thoughts had been imprinted on to the researchers mind. The greatest impression was fear for another, and pain, pain caused by…..

Louis looked up at the large machine still humming above him.

Standing feeling slightly dizzy he looked down at the massive and very naked form of the alien. Self preservation warned him not to touch him, but Louis took a closer look. He was stuck once again by how human he looked, he was a long way from the little grey Roswell men. Having spent many years poked and prodded himself he felt oddly sympathetic towards it’s plight. At a superficial glace the alien appeared completely unconscious. Laying peacefully there he looked younger, it seemed a travesty to be treating him like this, like seeing a swan caught in a trap. Louis spotted the lines of strain about the alien’s mouth, a faint frown, a clenched jaw, a faint tremor through all his muscles, rapid shallow breathing, the sweat beaded on the alien’s pale skin, even soaking his hair. Something was torturing the alien so badly that he could even feel it when he was unconscious.

“The scanner it’s still on, power it down.”

“But we you shouldn’t …”

“Just do it.” Louis demanded.

The wurr of the machine suddenly stilled, and Louis watched as the alien seemed to sigh in relief. “Feirnurn.” His voice was barely more then a breath. Louis had no idea what that meant, but he suspected that it was thanks of some kind. It sounded grateful. Silver eyes fluttered open, the alien turning his head slightly to face Louis fighting to focus but failing. “Oh, Mary.” The alien sighed before his head flopped over to the side, the tight lines relaxing, and a brief flutter of eyelids as he lost consciousness.

“What are you prating around at Baptiste?” Boyd demanded from the doorway coming in with his gun trained on the alien.

“Why are you worried about me?” Louis smiled batting his eyes at the Scots man. Louis was knelt down by the other man, doing the same as he had to the first. “It’s safe to come get these guys. Situation diffused or whatever. Just don’t touch the alien without a covering, think of him as a hot potato or something ok?”

“I knew it he did shock them.” Boyd declared glaring at the alien.

Louis shook his curly head. “The men fainted from physic backlash.”

“What the devil is that when it’s at home?”

How do you explain the unexplainable to the impenetrable Louis wondered. “You read my file Boyd, you know why I came out of the interrogation work.”

“Ye didna have the stomach for it.”

“Just listen. If your psychic and touch someone you feel everything they are feeling as well as see their thoughts, hate, fear, and pain especially pain. You can’t go down the rabbit hole unchanged, imagine feeling everything someone being tortured is feeling as if it was you? That MMR was tormenting that creature, beyond what any of us could ever imagine even while unconscious, when the technicians went to move him they connected with him, felt it along with him for an instant. It was an accident.”

“Wait a second you said a psychic like yourself, those men weren’t physic. So what’s your theory on that Mr expert?”

“I never said that it was the men who where physic.” Louis explained. “We don’t know much about the alien or his capabilities. Is it that far fetched that he might be capable of psychic feats?” He hesitated or a moment at an unpleasant memory. “In theory if you can read thoughts, emotions, or sensations you should be able to send them.”

“In theory. You have seen this before haven’t you?” Boyd asked shrewdly. “To have pain inflicted at a distance.”

“It takes a very strong physic talent to do that.”

“Like you.”

“Not like me. I’m no where near strong enough.” Louis denied. “I only know one who can thank god.”

“But this thing did it as an accident? You said it needs to be a strong psychic right?” Boyd looked back at the alien wearily. “Then how strong is this bloody thing?!”

“I’m no alien expert.”

Boyd followed him out, rubbing his chin. “I can’t believe that we are listening to a half rate mystic meg!”

“I will remember to bring my tarot cards next time.”

Out of spite, or just being extra careful one of the solders shot the alien with a tranquiliser in the thigh. He didn’t even twitch. Louis shook his head in exasperation. “You would have thought that having watched E.T people might know better.”

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It was getting late and Rillian was surprised to come upon the human female still awake. From what he knew mortals were not a nocturnal race by nature. Jody was resting her arms on the large port hole staring out in to space, her hair a wild tangle cascading down her back. Something about the riotous curls made him want to run his fingers through it, to tame it. The elf wondered at the impulse, it was probably just his love of order, or so he told himself. His own platinum locks were always perfectly neat, two plats pulled the hair at his temples severely back from his face, and the rest fell in a heavy straight curtain down his back, it’s ends ruler straight.

He was about to step past the mortal without a word, when the stern lecture that Darrah and Nearwen had read to him earlier came to mind. They had reminded him that as Jody was mortal space travel was completely unfamiliar- probably terrifying for her, on top of that her friend was gravely ill, and the last thing that Jody needed was Rillian being an uncivil bore on top of that. He had tried to argue that he had not, but admittedly he hadn’t spoken to the mortal aside to order to not touch something, reprimand her, or command her out of his presence. If he was irritable around her, well the female insisted on getting in his way and she was a one human disaster area! She was a dammnable distraction at a time like this.

“Why should I waste my time on a mortal?” Rillian had demanded.

“She is my brothers beloved’s friend and is therefore is our guest upon this ship, the fact she is mortal is irrelevant.” Nearwen had scolded. Rillian had always prided himself on his civility, and to have his manners called in to question by his peers was a blow.

With a little sigh he paused, it wouldn’t kill him after all to spare a few words in the name of courtesy, though he was struggling to find something he wanted to say to say to the human.

She must have heard him hovering behind her as she stiffened, glancing over her shoulder. “What? I’m not doing anything. There is no way that I am in your way here, you can get by me easily.” Jody sighed in annoyance. “Prick.” She added under her breath.

Rillian bristled, but managed to keep his temper in check. He was trying to be nice and the mortal was throwing it in his teeth before he had a chance. What a vexing creature she was! “I was just wondering why you were not with Mary. I thought that you were sitting with her this evening?”

It was then that he heard Jody give a small sniff, his ears pricked up at the sound. He realised that she was wiping at her eyes trying to hide the fact that she had been crying, before she turned to face him.

He frowned. “What’s wrong?”

“Mary’s had another seizure, a bad one.” Jody sucked in her bottom lip, worrying it before she continued with tolerable composure. “And I think that there is something wrong with her heart. The monitor went all funny.” She gave him a small telling glance before letting out a small bitter laugh. “I thought that I might get in Perran’s way if I stayed, so I came out here for a bit.”

“That was probably best.” Uncertainly he rubbed her shoulder in what he hoped was a soothing gesture. Humans enjoyed being petted right? Perran had not let him know if Mary’s condition had indeed deteriorated, so he hoped that the human female was overacting. He couldn’t think of anything to say, why was he the one who always seemed to be called upon to reassure these emotional human females? Rillain dealt with facts, truth not the comforting white lies that females seemed so fond of, and the facts were that Mary was critically ill, Valdagerion was being held captive moreover they had so far been unable to locate him, and they were being hunted not only by mortal forces but by elvish.

In the glasses reflection, he noticed a smear on her cheek marking her otherwise unmarred skin. “What’s that?” He asked.

Her hand jerked up to cover the area. “Oh, that. It’s nothing.”

Unconvinced he took her chin and forced her to face him. “Let me look.” She let her hand fall away, and Rillian studied her face. A livid bruise was forming on her cheek. “By the void what have you done to yourself?”

Jody pulled away from him. “Hey, don’t laugh at me. It’s not like I fell over or walked in to something.”

“For once.”

“For once my ass. You’re such a prick.”

“You fell over that chair yesterday, before that you managed to run in to a control panel and almost opened a cargo hatch. The list goes on.” He pointed out. “And I am not laughing, the cargo hatch was not funny we could have been sucked in to the vacuum of space if Darrah had not activated the override.”

“You already read me that lecture Rillian. I get it, don’t touch anything or we could all die, right? It was dark, besides how was I supposed to know anyway!” She waved a reprimanding finger before his nose. “Your poker face isn’t fooling anyone I know your laughing at me; I can hear it in your voice.” Jody asserted. “And for your information I was helping Perran by restraining Mary when she was having the convulsions so that he could inject her with something. She just caught me with her elbow, its no big deal.”

But despite her brave protests, Jody was bothered. From that brief physical contact he sensed that Jody was worried about the bruise, a purely feminine preening that mildly amused him, along with guilt that she could worry about something so trivial compared with everyone else’s problems.

“It looks sore.” He consoled. “But it will fade in a week or so.”

“I know.” Jody rubbed at the bruise gingerly. “Mary’s much stronger then she looks.”

“You should get some salve from Perran to put on that to shorten the healing time, or perhaps a cold pack to take the swelling down” Unable to help himself he brushed his thumb gently over the bruise, and at her alarmed look his mouth curved in to a small grin. “Is that why you had your face pressed to the glass?”

“No.” Jody huffed, turning away from him to hide her blush. “I was just looking. I mean how many chances does a girl like me get to see my world from space?”

He smiled. “You look tired.”

“You’re so complementary Rillian.” Jody huffed. “Simply charming.”

“My intention was not to insult you, I was merely concerned for your welfare.”

“Oh, well I do feel tired.” She admitted, “Like I have been up all night.”

“Technically you have.” Rillian stated blandly. He looked at his wrist display. “From my approximation you have been up for twenty one earth hours.”

“What? How?”

“Sometimes your body gets disorientated without dusk and dawn. We often call being in space the nightless night.”

“The nightless night huh? You know you are weird lot you elf’s, all science and fact one moment, all poetic and lyrical the next.”

Rillian made a low noise of amusement. “I would suggest that you go get some rest.”

“I will in a minuet.” She turned to look out of the port hole again, laying her head along her arms. “Earth look’s so beautiful from up here. Pristine you know. From up here I can’t imagine the rubbish, and the mess that’s down there. I never imagined that it would be so……vast. It puts things in perspective when you see your planet, how insignificant we are. How futile everything is.”

It was a sombre thought. “Now who’s the poet?” Rillain stepped closer, allowing the back of his hand to brush her bare arm, unable to think of the human words he used telepathy. [We are not so insignificant, without us who would perceive the beauty in the universe?]

“I never would have thought of it like that.” Jody replied. “You could be right.”

“I know I am right.” He assured her placidly.

Jody shook her head at his arrogance, but smiled at him none the less.

“Go, Sleep.” Rillian urged.

“I don’t think I remember how to sleep, it’s been so long since I have had a good nights sleep.” Jody yawned, belying her words. “I wanted to go check on Mary before I hit the hay.”

“Hit the hay?” He repeated after her. [What an odd expression. I will check on Mary for you. I think that while you can you should get some sleep or I will have two sick mortals and not just one to deal with, and that would be an annoyance.]

“Ok, thanks.” She patted his hand in agreement. Jody stepped away stretching. “I think I will try and find a room on the dark side of the ship tonight. Hopefully then I might get some sleep. Darrah said that he was willing to share but I don’t think I will get much sleep if I do bunk in with him.”

“Pardon?”

“He’s always asking questions.” Jody explained innocently enough.

“Oh, about human society.”

Jody nodded, grinning knowingly up at him. “Yeah. Why what did you think I meant?”

Rillian decided it was a good time to change the topic back to safer waters. “You could just close the blinds.”

“Blinds? How do I do that? I couldn’t find a switch anywhere in the room.”

“It’s the same as the door panel.”

Jody looked disgusted. “I tried that already.”

Humans! Rillian shook his head. “Come on I will show you.”

He followed Jody through the narrow corridor past the infirmary in to the living quarters where she had commandeered herself a room. At Rillian’s approach the door slid open, before Jody even made contact with the panel. Arm still reaching out, he watched her curl her outstretched fingers and glanced over her shoulder at him dubiously. “Did you…?”

Rillian cocked an eyebrow at her, smirking.

“Of course it was you. Smug bastard.” She muttered as she went before him in to the room.

Rillian leaned against the wall by the panel. “If you keep insulting me I will not be inclined to assist you.”

“Oh come on, as if you have feelings to hurt.” Jody quipped laughing back at him.

Rillian could only shrug. “Come here. I have to get back to work and stop wasting my time looking after disrespectful and troublesome humans.”

“There’s only one of me.”

“Mary is equally as disrespectful and troublesome as you. It must be a human trait. Hmm, perhaps she is not as bad as you. She doesn’t annoy me as much as you.” He turned to the panel as she came closer, laying his hand on it. “Touching it as I am sure you are aware closes the door. To shut the blinds, you have to simply think of them closing while in contact with the panel.” He closed the shutters in demonstration, plunging them in to total darkness for a moment before reopening them. “Now you try.”

“Ok, here goes nothing.” Jody firmly placed her splayed hand just where he had. After a moment she looked up at him. “Nothing’s happening.”

“Concentrate. Visualise the shutters falling closed. You should feel the cadence beneath your hand of the matrix, feel it’s awareness.”

Jody took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Rillian almost laughed at the way her features twisted in concentration, like a child. After a moment she huffed in frustration. “It’s not working.”

“You need to clear your mind of…”

Jody held up her hand. “I’m going to stop you right there. I’m not one of those people who can just clear their minds. I always have things going on, ticking over.”

“If you just try.”

“I’m too tired to concentrate on anything tonight.”

“I understand.” He nodded. “It might have been asking for too much, admittedly I have never known a mortal work our Bioelectric circuits aside from Mary. Rhi’ Valdagerion noted to me when he first took her that she had uncanny clarity of mind.”

“Yeah, Mary’s always been focused.” Jody agreed. “So it’s not just me being useless. I don’t feel so bad now.”

“I will shut them for you.”

“Thanks.”

At his brief touch the shutters slid closed again, shutting out the light completely.

“Now I can’t see to get in to bed.” Jody complained, falling in to Rillian. “Oof, sorry Rillian.”

Her soft body pressing up against his, he got a lungful of her scent lilac, iris, mandarins, raspberries, sweet ripe peach and an elfish fruit named lisyirve like a pomogramite but blue and with a sweeter honeyed taste. He could feel the warm curve of her breast squeezed up against his arm. Rillians mind was abruptly brought back from speculating which fruit the top of her breast would taste liked when she stood on his foot trying to regain her balance. It didn’t hurt but it made him catch the top of her arms, directing her. “The bed’s that way.”

He heard her shuffle off, even his eyes could not penetrate the darkness. But the elf heard her bump in to something, then the sound of her body hitting the floor before she uttered a mutter a curse.

Swiftly he turned on the lights to see Jody getting up from having tripped over a low chest. “I have a better idea, before you do yourself a harm you get ready for bed and when you are safely tucked in I will turn off the lights.”

“You could really do with a bedside lamp.”

“Elf’s can control the lights and shutters remotely directing the energy.” From where he was leaning, with the flicker of his eye lids Rillain lowered the lights.

“Show off.” Jody commented, turning her back on him and began to strip off without a care in the world. Her baggy jumper pulled up over her head, revealing the subtle curve’s of her back, before her hair fell back down again covering her shoulders, and elegant neck. He heard the sound of her zip next, the sound made his gut tighten. Jody’s thumbs looped in her waist band, tugging down to reveal a glimpse of - red lace.

“Don’t unrobe now! Undress in bed.” Rillian stuttered turning away.

Jody rolled her eyes. “Ok Mr Prude.”

“I am not…” He was unaccountably embarrassed.

“Mary told me that you elf’s back on your home world generally felt that clothing was optional anyway, so what’s the problem?”

“There is a time and a place for that.”

She smiled saucily. “Oh?”

“Just get in to bed so I can go.”

“Fine, fine, fine.” She laughed at him, skipping over to the bed and slipping in under the covers.

“You will be alright now.” It was more a statement than a question.

“Sure. Night Rillian.” She said in a teasing tone that he seriously disliked. As he beat a hasty retreat the elf warrior wondered how a mortal female kept succeeding in putting him on the back foot.

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Rillain entered the infirmary, to see Perran chewing on the end of his scarlet braid, fixated on the hologram of the young woman. The healer’s gaze fell to the screen, slowly reading through the information there.

“Still up, it’s late?” Rillian hailed.

“I’m just going over the data again, to see if I missed anything.”

As meticulous as Perran was Rillain seriously doubted that the healer would have overlooked anything. “Mary seam’s stable.” Rillian commented.

Perran sighed wearily. “For now.”

Rillian rubbed his hands over his face. “Jody said that Mary had another seizure, I thought that she was exaggerating.”

“She wasn’t.” Perran confirmed grimly. “I think I have managed to get to the bottom of the seizures at least. At first I thought that it was just her fever, but it turns out that she had a severe electrolyte imbalance. Really it was no wonder that she was seizing, her body is going through this great change, and she has not been able to keep down food or any fluid for days. Her blood sugar was dangerously low, as were her blood calcium, sodium, potassium, magnesium and, well all of the important electrolyte levels. I think I have managed to stabilise them but with her unusual condition it is not an exact science and there have been other complications.….”

“Complications?” Rillian didn’t like the sound of that. “Jody said that she thought that she thought there was something wrong with Mary’s heart.”

“That was perceptive of her.” Perran complemented the human. He then pulled up the recording of Mary’s heart rate as she was having the seizure, drawing Rillian’s attention to an area of disturbance in the rhythm. “Arrhythmia.” He brought up a hologram of the young woman’s body, zooming in on her heart. “Her heart is enlarged, especially in that area. This is what’s causing the arrhythmia in her pulse. The nannites are trying to heal the damage which is the only thing from preventing Mary from having heart failure.”

“Then in time she should heal?” Rillian asked hopefully.

“If only it was that simple. The stress that the nanites are causing her body while trying to heal is one of the things contributing to her electrolyte imbalances. And with the changes her body is going through, along with the compromised kidney and liver function due to the heart’s decreased function the balance is somewhat delicate anyway. Upsetting it could cause Mary to seize again, and the bottom line is that I fear that her heart in it’s current state will not stand the strain should that occur.”

“Then what can be done?”

Perran rubbed his eyes wearily. “At the moment nothing. In all my research into the history of mortal and elvish medicine I have never read about anyone running into THIS particular problem before. I will continue to observe her closely, keep her on the relevant I.V fluids and let her get plenty of rest. I had wanted to keep her sedated, but with her heart as week as it is I do not want to risk putting unnecessary strain on her.”

Rillian groaned. “You just know that she is going to be difficult as soon as she is coherent.”


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Methodically Valdagerion removed each of the sickly electrodes that the human’s had placed on his body, thinking on his predicament. Initially he had been hopeful that Rillian would have found him swiftly. Then he remembered one critical point – to escape his mother and Imperial detection he had removed his sub –dermal trackers. Without the sub-dermal trackers in his body, there was no way Rillian was going to be able to find him. He was on his own. Valdagerion gave the heavy metal chain another tug. He already knew that in the condition he was in he could not brake the bonds. Obviously his best was not good enough to get him out of this.

“Stop that. We want to monitor your vitals.” A voice over the tanoy crackled in an attempt to stop him.

The elf looked up at the camera that was tracking his movements, raising a haughty brow before carrying on what he was doing. Who was going to dare stop him? As an after thought he sent an electro magnetic pulse out to ruin the new cameras, and microphones that they had put in place. He wondered how long they would take to replace it.

The elf could not fail to note that since his rising the mortal’s had been conspicuous in their absence. A few of the scientists had watched him from the other side of the one way glass. It was probably a wise decision on their behalf ; he was still furious that upon waking he had found himself secured to the wall by a heavy chain, that they would presume to tether him about the neck like a savage animal. As soon as he was free he would show them the meaning of savage, but for now he would wait. Over their tannoy they had bombarded him with questions. Where are you from? What do you want? Are there more of you? He had remained stoically silent. When they asked him what he wanted, his answer was always the same.

“I want my freedom.”

He knew they would never consider granting it, they intended to keep him like some kind of animal in a cage. Valdagerion sighed, at least animals got fresh air and access to day light. Valdagerion rested his head against his arms, his knees drawn up tired. His great strength drained sacrificed to heal, the lack of sunlight was taking its tole already. They never turned off the artificial lights that stung his eyes, but that was not as bad as the noise, constant microwave and radio signals were like a hive of bees in each ear. But worse was what the sedative medication they gave him was doing to his mental walls, it was an epic nightmare of unintelligible static, human emotions swamped him trying his very sanity. He hung on to himself, calling on his centuries of discipline, he had to get back to Mary his desire to see her again was the only thing keeping him from unchecked madness.

Valdagerion groaned, even week and riddled with pain his whole body ached for Mary. She haunted his sleep, erotic dreams memories of what they had done and everything that he wanted to do. When he woke he would find himself hard and wanting, his engorged length on fire with no hope of sating his desires. But he couldn’t even think of Mary for any length of time as solace, very time he did his mind would immediately try to form an empathetic link. Their bond was strong, stronger then he had even anticipated. Mary would feel his pain as if she was in his skin. And he was not about to let her suffer like that for him.

The elf felt the disturbance of people approaching his cage, and he stood up, waiting for them motionlessly in the centre of his cell. He lifted his head as they passed through the security door, his pale eyes cold as ice. His face a death mask, the human’s were afraid of him, he wanted them afraid of him.

A scientist in his white suit came in to the adjoining room, three armed solders behind him. It amused the elf that the mortals studying him would not come unguarded, even though the two rooms were now heavily insulated with thick rubber matting. Valdagerion scented a tray of food, low in energy he was always starving. From a race of alpha predators he was seriously considering eating the next mortal who got close.

From the nervous way that the researcher put the tray on the hatch something of his thoughts must have been reflected in his expression. Valdagerion wondered over to look at the tray, despairing at the unappetising and mostly sloppy looking items upon it. What he really wanted was some raw fish, meat or fruit. Actually what he really wanted for Mary to feed him ripe pieces of fruit by hand, licking the ruby juice from her fingers, and chasing the drops down her arm before suckling on her breasts.

His attention was drawn from this pleasant reverie by an odd scent. The elf sniffed at the food dubiously, scowling. More sedatives. Unable to control his sudden rage he threw the tray across the room at the window. “Stop ruining the only thing left for me to find any enjoyment in.” He growled. “If you want me tranquilised just shot me with the dammed stuff!”

As he suspected this caused chaos with armed solders bursting in, the scientists looking panicked. Laughing to himself Valdagerion turned back and sat on the bed.

“That was rude.” An amused voice from the other room stated.

Valdagerion opened one eye to see a familiar male mortal. “Being chained like a dog, and having my food drugged is hardly is going to encourage me to be polite.” Valdagerion sat up, looking at the mortal. “You I know you, you helped me for that I thank you. You also tried to court my female, for that I want to rip out your lungs.”

“I suppose that is fair enough.” Louis acknowledged. He held up a board. “Here, a games I thought you might like to try your hand at.”

Valdagerion was going to ignore the mortal, but his ears perked up at the word game, his curiosity getting the better of him. His kind adored games of all kinds. Approaching the glass he saw that the mortal had two boxes under his arm. “I’m interested.” He said coolly.

“Ok, we have battleships, and chess. I don’t suppose that you know any of them, but I always found games were a good way of keeping the voices at bay.” The mortal pointed at his head. Valdagerion had suspected that this human was more developed then most, the elf had wondered if human’s in general had been developing due to Mary’s unusual amplitude but aside from her and this male he had not noticed any other mortal with similar abilities. He was right, playing games did help aid concentration, it would provide a brief reprieve from the static.

“I have played chess before.”

“Ok, chess it is.” Valdagerion was somewhat surprised to see the human entering his cell without all the usual precautions, save the special white suits they all wore around him as if he was somehow contagious. He deposited himself on the fixed bench opposite from Valdagerion.

“Why are you staring at me like that?” The mortal asked after a moment.

“I am trying to decided whether to eat you or not.” Valdagerion admitted.

The human licked his lips nervously but retained his humour. “It’s hard to play a board game by yourself.”

The smiled, sitting back a lazy role of muscle. “That is true.”

“How long since you last played?”

“Four hundred years ago or so.” Valdagerion replied watching as the human set out the pieces.

Louis gave a low whistle, looking up surprised. “Jesus, that is a long time ago. You visit earth a few times before then no?”

Valdagerion just raised his brows.

“I’m sorry I don’t mean to pry.” Louis said. “Your just the first alien that I have ever spoken to before. You can’t blame a man for being curious.”

The elf considered the mortal. “I suppose not. I’m fed up of hearing myself being referred to as an alien. My kind are Elf’s. As the most dominate species in the universe you should probably learn that.”

The mortal slapped his thigh laughing. “Elf’s no shit! Shoda guessed from the pointed ears no?” He held out his hand. “It’s Louis by the way.”

Valdagerion looked at the hand suspiciously. “You are more gifted then most, you were set here to read me.”

“Yeah I was sent here to do that. But I’m not stupid enough to try. Your walls are stronger then anything I have ever seen before.”

“I should probably not touch you. If I see anything about Mary in there I won’t hold my self responsible for my actions.” Valdagerion explained.

Louis held up both hand’s. “Fair enough.”

“You may call me Valdagerion.” The elf offered. “Why are you doing this, if you have no interest in studding me like the others.”

Louis met his arctic gaze with his own green stair, he shrugged. “I know how it feels to be locked up and studied. I suppose you can say that I sympathise with your plight. How come you wont corporate with those doctors. They say you speak to no one.”

“There’s no point. What is the point in speaking to people who won’t believe any answer that you give them? They listen to nothing I say.” He saw that the human understood what he meant. “Now, your first move.”


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“What on Ahrn is going on?” Rillian demanded as he stepped on to the bridge. Waking up cold always left him in a foul mood, the whole ship was powered down and it was freezing. It was just what he needed after everything for something to have broken and they end up dead in the water. The bridge like the rest of the ship was dark. Nearwen looked up calmly from idly watching the hologram of the surrounding space projected around her. Angrily he wondered why she was not working on finding the problem. His eyes moved swiftly over the consoles for the fault, but couldn’t see any warning lights.

“Even the shields are down!” Rillian exclaimed, which meant that someone had entered the codes to override the safeguards switching everything off apart from the life support, and he suspected he knew who. “Nearwen what the void are you playing at switching the shields off!” He stormed at the female elf.

“Calm down I have it under control. I’m keeping us hidden.”

“What?”

She pointed to the holograph, zooming in on a specific area above them. “The Interceptor we ran from before is patrolling around earth, just out of orbit. It’s right above us.”

“And you never thought to tell any of us.” Rillian ground out.

“With the shields down, and our engines off the interceptor can’t find us. They will think that we are just a bit of the mortal’s flotsam. In theory.” She added calmly.

“In theory.” He repeated pushing his hair back with both hands utterly frustrated. “If they decide to attack us we are utterly defenceless!”

“Look it should work. They will be looking for the energy signature of a ship. I mean we are lucky that the mortals have so many satellites to camouflage us. We can power up when we are out of range. I’m not saying that it’s not risky…”

“Not risky, this is insane!”

“Well do you have a better idea?” Nearwen demanded. “We couldn’t outrun it, and it’s not safe to go any lower and risk the mortal’s setting nuclear missiles on us.”

Much to his frustration, he didn’t have a better idea. He wasn’t a pilot and as little as he liked it he was going to have to differ to Nearwen. “You could have warned me you were going to do this, rather then leaving me to think that our engines had blown.”

“I didn’t tell you because I knew that you would react like this.”

He mumbled angrily to himself before leaving the bridge. Since the only place that would be warm was the medi bay he made his way there to carry on with some work. A weary looking Perran looked up, his scarlet braid a frayed mess. “Still working on Mary.”

The healer stretched. “Yes. I feel that I am close, it is a deficiency of some kind I am sure, but what? It’s almost impossible to tell what the levels should be. I just have to keep testing.”

Rillian knew that on some level the healer was enjoying this, elves loved nothing more then a challenge and this had really got Perran going. Rillian did not have the heart to get exited over his task, Darrah and he had been looking for anything that they could get by hacking in to the human information systems, but though they knew he had been taken by an agency named MI7, they could find nothing that would help them pin Valdagerion down to a specific location. There were a number of resources that the organisation owned, and Darrah had pointed out a number who’s addresses they did not have written only coded names for them, like Rosegarth, or Byways. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

There was a faint tap on the door. No elf would knock on a door, so it had to be Jody. She stood shivering in her night attire which consisted of a strappy top and her underwear; it left very little to the imagination. Sighing Rillian let her in. “I know it’s cold, Nearwen’s killed the power. It will be back on in a few hours.”

Jody brushed past him. “Oh, I already knew about that, Nearwen warned me earlier, something about hiding from a ship right? I actually came here to speak with Perran.”

A muscle twitched in Rillain’s jaw in irritation. Nearwen had told the mortal but not him.

“You wanted to see me?” Perran asked looking up from his work with puzzlement.

“Yes.” Jody said, holding up a metal cylinder. “It’s about Mary, I don’t know if this is important, but it could be.” She looked between the elf’s uncertainly. “I, I don’t want to waste your time.”

“Oh just say what you wanted to say mortal! I will translate it for you.” Rillian huffed.

Jody glared at him, and then moved around to Perran. “You know that Mary lost her sight, and a few other things. I know that you said that her blood sugar was really low. I gave her an energy drink, I was just wondering if perhaps it made things worse as it has all kinds of odd things in it. I have been worrying about it all night.”

After Rillian had conveyed this to the healer, Perran smiled reassuringly. “I’m certain that nothing that you could have given her would have done any harm. Quite the opposite in fact.” He held out his hand. “Is that the drink?”

Jody handed it over. “Yes, that’s it. It might seem silly but I just have this feeling that it’s important.”

“I will run it through the lab and see what I can come up with.” Perran said, turning the can in his hands. He looked up at the young mortal. “If your having trouble sleeping through anxiety I could give you something for that, just to help you sleep.”

Jody shook her brown curls. Briefly running her thumb over her lower lip. “No, its ok. I find that sex is the best way of dealing with anxiety. Of course I will just have to get myself off, but it’s a close second.”

Apparently Perren’s English had come along as his mouth fell open at this blithe pronouncement. Completely unaware of the effect she had produced Jody shimmied from the room. “Goodnight.”

Rillian groaned to himself, that female was trouble. He shifted, his armour uncomfortably tight over his sudden arousal. He set his mind back to working, his body slowly coming back under control. Both elf’s studiously ignoring each other’s predicament.

After half an hour he got up to leave, there had been nothing of use that he had seen. But he hesitated at the door way. “Perran, I don’t suppose you have any Nar s’ sorn tablets?”

Perran looked up from his work. “The libido suppressant? Sure.” He got up and went to the cabinets, selecting them from the range of drugs stored there. “It’s not like you to need these.”

“I didn’t make good use of our last time off, not with everything going on with Rhi’Valdagerion. I can’t afford to be distracted.”

Perran handed them over with a little laugh. “Distracted you? Its not like there is even any females worth being distracted over. I mean Nearwen is a fine female but we have known her since childhood, she will always be Valdagerion’s baby sister to me.”

“Quite.” Rillian nodded with feeling.

The healer looked thoughtful, picking up the can that Jody had given him. “You know Jody might have something here.” He said mysteriously. “I had the chemical read out on it, and I think that I might have cracked Mary’s problem.”

If only my problems could be so easily solved Rillian thought, as he trudged back to his chamber. It was going to be miserably cold, until the tablet worked he was going to be aching with unspent desire, and unlike the human his lust could not be so easily slaked by his own hand. A little voice whispered that two of the problems would be solved by sharing a bed with Jody, she was both warm and female. He stamped down on that traitorous voice, and hastily swallowed down two of the libido represents rather then just one – the sooner they worked the better.


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“Dam you Valdagerion.” Mary cursed to herself unable to find any kind of rest. “Who are you to make me feel like this?”

Mary dashed away the tears that she had spilt sitting up. This was even worse then the last time they had been separated. She had wondered what life would be like without Val, well now she knew. It wasn’t worth knowing. Mary had never known such desperation, such gaping loneliness. Every time she thought about him captured and alone it was like being ripped apart. Confined to her bed there was nothing that she could do about it.

When she was lucid once again Perran had informed her that with Jody’s help he had discovered that she had a dangerous Taurine deficiency. Apparently unlike human’s and many other animals elfs were more like cats in that they could not internally synthesise the compound which lead to optical damage (blindness), and more worryingly an weakening of the heart tissues leading to heart failure. Admittedly Mary had been very upset over this, as heart failure generally meant death, that was until Perran told her that taurine was easily replaceable and that her heart was being steadily repaired by the nanites in her blood but would take a week or so for her to completely healed. Mary discovered that taurine was to be found in its highest quantities not only in energy drinks but also within animals intestines, which probably explained the high number of elvish foods that involved some form of animal innards.

Throwing off the covers she made her way through the ship. At least with the lower gravity walking was not impossible on her unsteady legs. With unerring instinct she found her way to the control room, where Rillain, Darrah and Perran were in conference, she stayed still listening to the conversation.

“Without the sub-dermal trackers we have no way to find him. I wish we had never removed them now.” Darrah complained.

“And had the Imperium down upon us?” Rillian replied. He banged his hand on the table. “He has to be in one of these places.”

It was Nearwen who spoke now. “Then we should search them.”

“No, no. Security on these resources are very tight according to Darrah’s research. We can get round it but they will know someone has been, and if it’s the wrong place they might move him and then we have to start all over. They might even kill him if they think he is going to be rescued.” Rillian responded.

Mary decided that she had heard enough, stepping in to the room. Rillian was leaning over the computer desk, dark shadows haunting his eyes. He looked up at her approach. “Mary, shouldn’t you be in bed?”

“You should be resting.” Perran reprimanded as well.

Mary shook her head. “You need me.” She stated. “I can find Val, you know I can. I can feel where he is. And besides that I have a plan to find out exactly where he is.”

Rillian shook his head. “These females are defiantly going to be the death of me.”


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A/N:

Thank you for the reviews, hope this chapter lives up to expectation i know i was slow getting it up. Mild case of writers block due to work :( But all better now.

Also new short story if anyone is intrested.
http://original.adult-fanfiction.org/story.php?no=600103217