Life & Death Awaits (8.1)

RIVI, KEEPING A WORRIED EYE ON DAN, plugged her computer into the systems of the ship she created from the cube. She formed it into an unfolded fourth-dimensional object. Before she folded the ship into the fourth dimension, Rivi got up from her chair in front of her computer. She went to sit beside Dan.

"Dan. Dan, I need you to listen for a minute."

"Mmm-hmm," Dan mumbled, turning his head to look at her.

"Dan, when we go into the fourth dimension, I'll need you to think only of planet Aun. I know your head bothers you, and because of that, your concentration may slip in and out, but this is very important. If you don't concentrate on Aun, who knows where we'll end up?"

"I understand, Riv. Maybe it'd be easier if I knew what Aun looked like," Dan replied, placing one of his free-floating hands on his aching head.

"Okay," Rivi agreed, as she went and retrieved her computer from its docking station.

Rivi went back and sat beside Dan. She placed her hand flat on top of the computer and through her comp amalgamatory link, she downloaded a memory of what Planet Aun looked like from space. After opening her computer and bringing the picture up onto the screen, Rivi handed the computer to Dan.

Dan took the palmtop and looked at the purple, red, and green planet spinning on its axis.

"This is Aun?" Dan asked.

"Yes, Dan. Can you concentrate on it?" Rivi asked.

"Yes."

"Okay," Rivi said as she closed her eyes.

Rivi folded the ship into the fourth dimension and made sure to think only of Aun as the ship was released into normal three-dimensional space. Rivi smiled at Dan and went back to her chair. After plugging her computer into its docking station, she opened it up and looked into the viewscreen.

"I see you pictured coming out near one of Aun's moons," Rivi commented, turning to look at Dan.

"Sorry," Dan said.

"No, that's okay," Rivi answered. "I just thought it was funny, that's all. Oh, no!"

"What is it?" Dan asked.

"It may not be so okay, after all. I wasn't aware that the Aruk had a base on Tritic," Rivi added with a moan.

"Where's Tritic?" Dan asked.

"On the moon, near where we just reentered the third dimension."

"That would've been my fault—"

"You couldn't have known. I didn't. Don't blame yourself."

"Have they seen us yet?" Dan asked.

"I don't think ... Ugh! Yes, they have!" Rivi exclaimed as an unseen force took control over her ship.

Rivi picked up her computer and went back to Dan. She released the latches on the belts that held Dan to the bench. His feet settled to the floor as he stood. The ship had landed on the moon.

"We'll get out of this somehow," Dan said to Rivi, as he saw her face blanch.

Someone tapped on the outside of her ship. Rivi smiled weakly at Dan, who then stepped through the wall first, followed closely by Rivi.

Quickly, she shrunk the ship into a tiny cube and put the cube into the sphere around her neck.

"Ah, I see we have PS3-36-9G11," a tall Aruk jeered at Rivi, who stared back with a blank look as if he wasn't there.

"And I see she brought along a friend—a new earth child, at that! We are going to have some fun!" the Aruk sneered, his words snapping Rivi back to the present.

Rivi and Dan stood in a tall, light brown, domed room. Various boxes and crates were stacked randomly on the floor. A row of orange storage lockers lined the large, circular room. A few multipurpose Aruk ships were parked off to one side. This domed room was obviously some sort of hangar, even though it had no doors.

Three Aruk stood in front of Rivi and Dan in black robes, dark as night, trimmed in red. On Aun, the tattoos around the head were typically a dark purple to contrast with the Aunantets' skin, but the Aruk had desecrated and disfigured their tattoos, overlaying them instead with red and black markings.

"If you harm him, Twelve ..." Rivi responded, turning to look at Twelve, who was looking Dan over.

"I don't see much you could do to stop us, PS3," Twelve answered with a smug, purple-lipped smile.

"Take them to holding cell A9. Turn on the high, irregular sound pulse containment system. This one's a comp amalgamator," Twelve ordered, giving Rivi a shove forward.

The Aruk guards took Rivi and Dan out of the domed room and down many winding halls. Rivi discreetly camouflaged her computer to match her skin and joined the molecules that made up the computer's base onto her arm. She pulled her sleeve back over the now-invisible computer.

The guards roughly shoved Dan and Rivi into the white, rectangular cell, which was empty except for two long benches along the back wall. Rivi slumped onto the one to her right. Dan turned around to look at the solid door.

"So that's what the Aunantet look like?" he asked.

"Yeah," Rivi started, her voice still empty.

She didn't get to finish. An Aruk guard opened the door and looked at Daniel, who froze.

"D28-2P-R151, you will come with me."

"Me? Hey wait, how did they get my personal ID from Earth?" Dan asked, turning hesitantly toward Rivi, whose eyes were as empty as a void.

The guard came in and roughly herded Dan out of the cell, slamming the door behind him.

Rivi closed her eyes and bowed her head. The bird was once again trapped inside the metal cage. It seemed as if her past was replaying itself.

#

Rivi didn't wear a watch, and the constant pulsing noise from the containment system was keeping her from consulting her computer to ask it what the time was. She had designed her computer to respond to keyed input only if she asked it to, which seemed wise at the time. This meant she could not tap a key to have the computer display the time. Rivi told herself she would have to rethink her decision to disable the display of the time on the computer's main screen.

The containment system's pulsing noise was too high for human ears to hear, but Rivi's body and mind could feel it. It gave her a splitting headache and interfered with her ability to amalgamate with anything. Rivi tried her best to keep track of the time, but soon the chore became too difficult, complicated even more by the ache in her head. Her mind was becoming overtaxed with trying to fight the incessant noise.

As Rivi began to ignore her urge to try to break through and communicate with her computer, she was able to effectively shut down her comp amalgamatory awareness. Now oblivious to all things technical, Rivi's mind began to relax a bit, and her headache dissipated. The time seemed to pass more slowly, and it seemed like forever before Dan was finally shoved back into the room.

"What do they possibly think they will accomplish?" Dan asked Rivi, as he sat, exhausted, on the floor. "First, they had me running on this treadmill-type thing as the room was getting hotter and hotter. The pain in my head pounded with every step I took. If I stopped to catch my breath, I was instantly in danger of falling over the side of a deep hole. Then, as if things couldn't get worse, the temperature dropped below freezing. Every part of my body was so cold. It was all I could do to keep running. I was sure my legs would either stiffen in the cold, or I would black out from the pain in my head."

"They can do much worse, and they will. This is just them trying to play with your brain," Rivi replied in a quiet voice, inspecting Daniel's haggard appearance. "You don't look well. You should get some sleep."

"You don't look well, either. Is something wrong?" Dan asked, frowning as he rubbed his head.

"I had to shut out my comp amalgamatory senses in order to stop a splitting headache. I wasn't able to access my computer through my link, anyway," Rivi replied, lying down on the bench.

"Rivi, I've seen you walk through doors before, like when the school was on fire. Why can't you do that here so we can escape?"

"The walls and doors of the cells are treated with a material that's atoms have been electromagnetically locked by a high-level transmorgrifiyer. If I tried to alter the walls the pain would be unbearable."

"Oh great," Dan mumbled with a hint of defeat. "Wait, a high level what?"

"Transmorgrifiyer. They can lock the atoms so I can't manipulate them. Among other things." Rivi tried to shift into a comfortable position and laid her head on her arm. "You really ought to get some sleep, Dan. I don't know when the Aruk will be back for us."

"Yeah, my head is starting to bother me again, anyway." Dan replied as he got up off the floor and went to lie down on the other bench.

#