He heard the key’s being depressed on the numeric lock and
waited, finger on the trigger. The first light he had seen in days assaulted
his eyes. He had grown accustomed to the dark and he found it difficult to make
out the face of the person above him.
“Hans?” It was Alfie. His voice sent waves of joy through
Hans as he lowered the gun.
“It’s great to hear your voice.” Hans held up a hand and
felt Alfie grasp it and pull him out of the gel that he had been nestled in. Once
he was out, Alfie hugged him as if he was trying to squeeze Hans into two. “I’ve
missed you.”
Hans hugged Alfie back just as hard. “I’ve missed you too. I
can’t believe it’s been so long.”
“You stink though.” Alfie took a step back, his nose
wrinkling.
Hans just laughed. “Some things just never change do they? I
have two other people with me. I know they say three is a crowd, but I was
hoping you wouldn’t mind.”
“Sure, but perhaps you should be the one to open the crates.
If they’re anything like you I’m bound to lose a limb or maybe even something
really important.” Alfie lead the way to the next crate over.
“You mean like your handsome face?” Hans found the crate
that he had put Honora in first and punched in the key code to unlock it. He
opened it carefully. “Honora, it’s me, Hans. We made it safe and sound.”
A delicate arm stuck and waved. Hans grabbed it and helped
to pull Honora out of the gel. Little bits still clung to her hair still and
she started combing through it before she even noticed that there was a third
person with them. She stopped awkwardly and stared at Alfie.
“Honora, this is my good friend Alfonzo Ansanza. Alfie, this
is Honora. She’s technically my employee.” Hans spoke as though they were
meeting somewhere more civil instead of in an AFSF warehouse.
Honora stuck out
her hand, realized there was gel stuck to it and changed it to wave instead.
“Nice to meet you. Where’s Duke?”
“I’ll find him next and then we should probably get out of
here.” Hans glanced at Alfie who nodded. He glanced around and saw the serial
number for the crate that Duke had chosen. He repeated the process of letting
him out and made the introduction for Alfie. Duke didn’t bother to shake his
hand, but gave him a good hard stare instead.
“I really hope we can trust you as much as Hans seems to
think.” Was what he finally said.
Alfie returned his stare and said mildly. “He can trust me
more than even he thinks he can. Now, we better get out of here.”
Alfie led the way to the door. He popped his head out first
before waving them all through. He took a small device out of his pocket and
pressed a small button on it. Hans looked at him with a question in his eyes
and he smiled. “Temporarily cancels out the cameras. It’ll buy us a little bit
of time, but not much. We need to move fast and quiet.”
Hans nodded and followed Alfie as he jogged up the aisle. He
seemed to be leading them through a maze and it wasn’t long before Hans felt
entirely lost. Every now and again Alfie would produce the little gadget and
press the button. Finally they stepped on to a lift that started moving
upwards.
“We’re going to be moving through the occupied corridors
now. I won’t be able to shut the cameras off here without being noticed. Just
keep your heads down and hopefully you will not be recognized by any human or
machine.” Alfie led the way confidently and Hans longed to walk in the same
manner, but he kept his head down to set a good example for Honora and Duke.
It felt like they had been walking forever when Alfie
finally stopped in front of a set of doors. He passed a keycard through the
reader and followed it by leaning into a retinal scanner. After a few seconds,
the door opened to two large uniformed men with guns at the ready.
“At ease men, these are my guests.” Alfie waited for them to
step aside motioned everyone to come in. As soon as the door closed behind them
he breathed a sigh of relief. “It’s okay you can stand up straight now. No one
will be monitoring these circuits.”
Hans took the opportunity to stretch as tall as he could. He
caught Alfie watching and gave him a wink which brought forth a small grin. Hans
grinned as well and looked around for a place to sit down, but there was nowhere
nearby, it was just a small alcove with another door up ahead.
“I’m guessing we’re going through there?” Hans gestured
towards the door.
“Yeah, and you’ll have to excuse the accommodations. Only
place I could think of to put you that no one would work would be the holding
cells.” Alfie grinned. “Wouldn’t be the first time, eh Hans?”
“And once again you’ll be the reason behind it.” Hans
laughed and clapped Alfie on the back. “So what about setting up that meeting
with Admiral Falun?”
“I’m working on it. I think it might be better for him to
come to you than the other way around. I’ll leave the doors unlocked for you
guys so you don’t feel trapped. I’ve had all other detainees moved to another
area so that there will be no one around to bother any of you.” Alfie unlocked
the door and locked it into the open position. “If you need anything these are
my hand picked guards. Just ask and they will get it for you.”
"How about a hot bath so I can get this stink off of me?”
Honora plucked at her clothes and wrinkled her nose. “And something else to
wear?”
“Not a problem. This is where we keep the officers so they
have all amenities. Baths are at the end of the hall.” Alfie turned to one of
the sentries. “See to it that they all have some clean, nice clothes to put on
and I’m pretty sure some real food and drink is in order as well.”
The sentry gave a nod and headed out. Hans started to head
towards the cells with Duke and Honora when Alfie grabbed his arm. “Wait just a
sec. I need to talk to you.”
“Is this going to be a private conversation?” Hans asked.
“Yeah,” Alfie turned to the other sentry. “Can you just step
outside for a moment?”
Alfie waited till the door had closed fully before asking
what he needed to ask. “What is really going on?”
Hans knew this question was coming and had spent the four
days composing an answer to it. “I’ve made first contact with an alien species.
His name Ohaehim and he warns of another race that is heading this way to wage
war on the galaxy called the Afoixox. I’m convinced that the AFSF are already
aware of one, if not both, species and are keeping it secret. I don’t know why,
but I do know that it cannot be kept a secret for much longer. If war is
coming, then we need to be prepared.”
“You found an alien?” Alfie blinked a few times and tried to
get his thoughts in order. “A real alien, that’s amazing! What a break through.
Simply incredible.”
Hans grinned at the Alfie’s enthusiasm. “I have proof. More
than just my own words, I know you believe me, but I wasn’t expecting the
Admiral to take my word. We have video and something else…”
“Something else?” Alfie cocked his head to one side. “What
sort of something else?”
Hans removed his gloves and held up his left hand. He merged
and separated his adjustable tentacle hand for Alfie to see.
“Well, that wasn’t what I was expecting…” Alfie reached out
and touched Hans’ left hand. “It’s so smooth.”
“It took a little getting used to for me as well.” Hans slid
his gloves back on. “So now you know.”
“I know and I can only imagine how fun having an adjustable
tentacle hand could be.” Alfie leered at Hans who only laughed.
“You have someone now. So don’t go getting any ideas.” Hans
shook his head and laughed some more. Alfie hadn’t changed one bit since
academy. “I’m going to go get cleaned up now. You just get the Admiral here to
see me.”
“He’s going to be shocked you know. Might even give the old
man a heart attack, but I’ll make sure he understands just how important this
is.” Alfie smiled and saluted Hans. “Always knew you’d do something big one
day. Just hadn’t thought that this is what the something big would be.”
Hans turned his back on his old friend and headed towards
the bath. He knew he could definitely use one right about now – not to mention
a real bed. Four days in that putrid gel didn’t make for good resting
conditions.
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