Chapter XV: Mindgames Part III

Wilma became briefly aware of being on her bunk aboard the SPS Feist. Gernas was still sitting next to her, his cool hands pressed against her forehead. "I don't understand. What's supposed to happen? So far, everything's the same as I remembered them."

"Shhhh. Relax. We're coming to the block. I'll try to break it as the sequence unfolds. Just relax, and remember, whatever you see, it is in the past, and cannot, did not, hurt you." His voice was low and soothing, and Wilma relaxed and slipped back into the memory trance.

The first thing Wilma became aware of was a sharp pain in her back and neck. She moaned softly, and opened her eyes. She was surrounded by jungle foliage, staring up at the jungle roof. She moved slightly, and the stabbing pains lessened. She rolled to one side, and looked at the spot where she had been laying. There was a thorny vine on the ground that was the apparent source of her discomfort. She sat up and checked herself over. Except for a few bruises, she seemed to be fine.

She stood up carefully, using a tree for support. She was in the thick of the jungle. She looked around for Rick, and saw him strapped to a stainless steel table about fifteen feet away, behind the tree she was using for support. It took a couple seconds for her to deal with this. What was a stainless steel table doing in the jungle?

She felt a sharp pain behind her eyes, and she clasped her hands to either side of her head. Her vision blurred, and she heard a soft voice in her head. "Easy, Wilma. Don't fight it. Try to relax." Wilma was confused, not recognizing Gernas's voice while trapped in her memory recall trance. She squeezed her eyes shut, and tried to push the pain out of her head.

She opened her eyes again briefly, and was subjected to a confusing and kaleidoscopic view that appeared to consist of the jungle fighting for reality with a gray room of some sort. The pain increased, causing her to cry out, and she felt hands on her arms, and something hard behind her. Her arms were pulled away from her head and stretched out. She felt bands of some sort wrapping around her wrists, trapping her arms. Her legs were grabbed next, and they were pulled apart, and bands around her ankles appeared.

The pain suddenly vanished, and her eyes snapped open. She was strapped in a spread eagle position on some sort of X-shaped rack in a cave. Rick was strapped to a table, fifteen feet in front of her, still unconscious. The cave itself appeared to be about twenty feet wide, and was curved. She couldn't see much past thirty feet to each side of herself. There were racks of equipment against the walls, and to one side she caught a glimpse of a desk with a terminal set on top.

Both Rick and herself were still in their clothes, but there were stains and scratches on both, indicating that they had crashed on the gravsled, but left no indication as to why they were bound up in this strange cave. She heard a door behind her open, and she went limp, trying to pretend to be unconscious, in a hope to learn some information.

Wilma heard steps. They were soft, like padded feet slowly being dragged then lifted. There were a lot of them, and she couldn't tell if they were from one creature or several. There was some hissing noises, which she thought were breathing sounds. The footsteps came closer, and she thought they stopped right in front of her. Something touched her midsection, and she twitched involuntarily.

"Ah, it is conscious. I thought so." The voice was gravely, and heavy with an unidentifiable accent.

`Shit,' thought Wilma. `Fine spy I made.' She opened her eyes, and barely managed to hold back a scream. The creature in front of her looked as if it was out of her worst nightmares, after being recreated by Hollyworld. It was green and scaly, standing about seven feet tall on four legs. It had two arms coming out of each side of it's otherwise humanoid form, with a pair of tentacles emerging from the shoulder blades. One of the tentacles caressed her midsection before being drawn back.

The head of the creature was large, sitting on top of a thick scaly neck. The eyes were red, and the pupils were yellow horizontal slits that appeared to glow. The nose was just a fleshy slit in the center of the face, but the mouth was large, and huge curved fangs protruded beyond the lips, forcing them back, revealing the other teeth to be sharp. The creature was nude, and its maleness quite evident.

It laughed, making that odd hissing noise again. "So, you do not like me. That is all right. You will not remember." It turned its green scaly back to her, and moved over to the table where Rick was secured. It examined him briefly, then nodded. "All is well," it muttered. It moved over to the desk, and one of the arms reached out to the terminal. Wilma saw that the hand of the creature had three fingers, of which one appeared to be opposable.

It flipped a control on the terminal console. Wilma couldn't see the screen. The creature spoke what Wilma thought was gibberish into the terminal, and heard gibberish in response. The beast seemed satisfied with the response, and flipped off the terminal. It moved back over to the table where Rick was bound. It placed its tentacles to his temples, and stood motionless for a few minutes.

Wilma heard the door behind her open again, and heard the footsteps of another one of these creatures. As it came into sight, she saw that it was identical to the first one. It gave her a quick glance, and approached its fellow. They apparently consulted for a few minutes, but Wilma didn't hear anything. Then the second creature took the place of the first, and held its tentacles to Rick's head. The first creature backed away, and waited, watching its companion.

She watched too, and then it happened. The second creature looked as if it was melting. Its shape started shrinking and changing, its greenish exterior becoming pinker. Wilma stared in amazement as the creature started turning into a humanoid, and her jaw opened as she realized that not only was it turning into a human, it was turning into an exact duplicate of Rick.

The first creature glanced over at Wilma, and its toothy mouth curled up in a smile. "Ah, you see, then. Therisix there becomes your boyfriend, no? He even get all of boyfriend's memories. Be exact copy." The creature shook its head. "Too bad Therisix not like females like you. He will leave you alone. You find new boyfriend, perhaps?" It hissed again, laughing at her.

The creature moved closer to her, and Wilma felt its tentacles starting to move over her body, exploring, touching sensitive places. She squirmed, helpless in her bonds. "However, I like females like you. Too bad you won't remember. Perhaps we'll get to meet again, and you will remember."

It placed its hands on her temples, and she felt a numbness start to pervade her body as she started to feel its tentacles slip under her clothes. She felt herself go limp, then she slipped in the darkness of unconsciousness.

Wilma slowly floated back to consciousness. Her limbs were free, and she started flailing around, fighting off the memory. Her eyes snapped open, revealing that she was in her small cabin on the SPS Feist. Gernas was standing by the door to the cabin, out of reach of her thrashing arms. Wilma jumped off her bunk and dashed to the small head, and head over the vacuum toilet, proceeded to vomit the contents of her stomach, sick from the memories of what the creature did to her.

Gernas waited for her retching to slow down before approaching. He crouched down next to her, and rubbed her back as she slowly got herself under control. She clung to him, shivering. "It's okay now, Wilma. It's over. It can't hurt you now."

Wilma finally got herself under control, and shakily stood up, and slowly moved over to her bunk and sat down. "Ugh. I think I would have preferred not remembering that."

"I'm sorry, Wilma. I didn't know what had happened either." Gernas sat down beside her, one arm draped over her shoulders in support.

"What were those creatures, anyway?"

Gernas shook her head. "We believe that those were Ferlonians. We just discovered their activities. As you saw, they have tremendous mental powers in addition to being shapeshifters."

Wilma shivered. "And to think that I had one of them for a roommate for the last three years." She resisted the urge to run for the head again. "So, Rick really is dead, isn't he?"

Gernas nodded. "I'm afraid so. I'm sorry. You really cared for him, didn't you?"

Wilma nodded in response. "I loved him. But he never seemed interested in exploring that part of our relationship. And it's my people's custom that the woman never bring it up. Just as well. If we did. . ., you know, it wouldn't have been the real Rick. It would have been that. . ." This time, Wilma couldn't hold back, and ran for the toilet again.

Gernas waited for her to recover and clean up. She finally re-emerged from the head, pale as a ghost. She sat back down on the bunk and looked at Gernas. "So now what? You have the information. What are you going to do next?"

Gernas smiled. "It's not, what am I going to do, it what your going to do. You lived with one for three years. You have had the most, uhm, exposure to them than anyone else we know of. I can give you a mental block which would prevent them from controlling your mind again, then, would you like the opportunity to go after them yourself?"

Wilma just looked at him for a minute, wide-eyed. "I'm not quite sure what you mean. There's not much I can do assigned to the Feist."

"I mean, Wilma, that we assign you a special ship, and let you hunt them down. Locate the planet Ferlon for us. Communicate that information back to us, then we can nuke them into the stone age. These Ferlonians are set upon galaxy-wide domination, and you are very valuable to our side. Find the creature that pretended to be Rick Raygunn, and follow him to their lair. Will you do it?" asked Gernas.

Wilma's expression hardened, and its appearance unnerved Gernas. She looked him in the eye, her eyes hard and gray like the hull of the warship. "I'll go after them, sir. And I'll find him. And when I do. . ." Her voice trailed off, and she stood up and looked out the small porthole in the cabin. "I'll find them, sir. I promise."

To Be Continued...