Alien Mine Ch. 16

The four of them turned and went down one flight of stairs, Rhys carrying Mika. Kiania kicked open the door, then a window. Mika clutched Rhys in panic as he jumped out the window holding her in his arms. Expecting to fall to her death, Mika instead found herself inside what looked like a corporate jet.

"Have a seat," Rhys said, setting her into a comfortable chair.

"Rhys, where are we? What's going on?" she shouted on the verge of hysteria.

"Relax, you're safe," he said, and amazingly she did relax, calm setting in immediately.

"We are clear," she heard Sandy say calmly. Then, another armored figure turned to her; "Here, let me help you with that," it said, taking off Mika's helmet and then removing her own. Mika looked up in shock as Amancia shook her head in a very feminine gesture, shaking her long hair out of her eyes. Rhys felt the interlace dissolve as Amancia resumed control of her body. "We are safe now," she said. "Rhys is busy for a moment, but he will explain everything in a few minutes."

"Where am I," she asked, still strangely calm, "what were those things? Why are they trying to kill me?"

"You are in our jet, on the way to a safe location, and those things are aliens, biomechanical machines known as the Om. They are trying to kill us," Amancia said in a calm voice, one you might use when trying to calm a child or a puppy.

Mika stared at her, trying to make sense of what had happened. "Who are you? You're not a corporation; I saw you fight; you are soldiers; what are you doing with me, and why am I here." Mika guessed she sounded a bit crazy, and Amancia glanced at Rhys, and calm set in again but only briefly. Then Mika's anxiety jumped to a dangerously high level, and she tried to move away when Sandy's hair seemed to extend toward her like a living thing. Amancia held her to keep Mika still as the hair wrapped around her and held her tightly. Mika wanted to scream hysterically, but something stopped her. The anxiety and fear suddenly melted away, and Mika felt strangely secure, not happy, but no longer on the verge of a complete meltdown.

"How much did we leave behind," Sandy asked aloud for Mika's benefit. No sense left in hiding anything now.

"Shattered buildings, and the one that the Om dissolved with that strange weapon. We haven't seen that since they took out Rhys' house. Also, the melted hole where you killed the large one, but the worst is the remains of two roaches in the stairwell. Unfortunately, there was no time to sanitize that; the police were there just seconds after we left," Leslie replied. What a fucking mess," she muttered, taking her own helmet off, her lengthy hair falling down her back. She knelt down by Mika, taking her hand. "I'm sorry, we should have realized when we rescued you from the terrorists the Om would notice."

Mika's mind flashed back to that moment, figures bursting through the window, sure she was dead, shots firing, blood everywhere, then someone catching her before she fell. "Rhys," she said, her eyes going wide. It was you who saved me, all of them, she said.

"Yes, we couldn't let you die; you are too valuable to Rhys and Sandy, to all of us," Leslie said gently.

"Why am I valuable to you? What makes me important enough that these things would want to kill me?"

Sandy stood up and walked over to her, kneeling on the other side, the hair extending from her head, still wrapped around Mika. "You are important because we love you, she said, looking into Mika's eyes, "and because you are one of us."

Mika didn't know whether to scream or cry. Instead, she felt the hair tighten even more about her, and the panic receded a bit, but only a little. Then, with her emotions on a screaming roller coaster, she focused on the last thing Sandy had said. "What do you mean I am one of you!"