Displaced

Wicken - Twenty-Two

I know Patriarch said to not stare at the Achlivans, that was like telling a kid not to touch a hot stove. No matter how bad it was for me to do, I couldn't not look. The tall guy who had taken me from the mall had to have been one of these Achlivans because they were all big. I'm about six-foot-one, and I felt like a midget standing in front of them. Each had to be around eight feet tall, and all of them were skinny. Granted, all of them were muscular, but their frames were just so lean.

The thing that I noticed next was how large their eyes were. Even with the proportioning to compensate for their height, their eyes were large and wide. I would guess about the size of a baseball. From the six of them who stood before us, I could tell that purple was a common color for Achlivan irises, because over half of them had that color. One had orange eyes, and the last a vibrant, almost florescent teal. And their skin...the orange glow of the Deep made them appear fuchsia. I couldn't help but wonder what they looked like under normal lighting.

At least I made sure to not be blatant with my staring. I'd look at one alien, then take in the massive cavern-like room, then look at another. Other guys weren't being anywhere near as discrete. They stood with slack jaws and gaped. That ended quickly when Orange Eyes cracked a whip at one of the guys, hitting him square in the stomach. The guy fell to the ground, clutching his gut. His clothing didn't tear, so there wasn't any blood, but he'd have a nasty bruise soon enough.

One of the purple-eyed aliens gazed down at us, making sure to study each and every one of us humans in the line. I want to say there were about thirty guys with me. We were being evaluated just by how we stood. I made sure to keep my posture strong, but not arrogant. Because even though Patriarch was worried about me sassing off, I was not an idiot. When needed, I could be an obedient "yes" man. The aliens didn't have much concern over hurting us. Being hurt is not one of my lifelong goals. Good enough motivation to be obedient if there ever was one.

"I am Jupiter," the one with the orange eyes said. "'Sir Jupiter' to you. This is the Deep, the lowest place of the Pit and the very center of our ship, Salvation. As long as you remain in the Pit, you will be referred to as an Undesirable. Because of your actions, we have not proclaimed you worthy of the rewards of the obedient."

The one with the teal eyes took a step forward. "Do not fear. It is not impossible to redeem yourself. While you have missed out on the chance to return to your home again, you can still be a part of the thriving society on the surface if you so choose."

"Neptune is the optimistic one, as you can see," Jupiter said. "You will be divided amongst the six of us, and you shall work while we evaluate you. Do as you're told, and things will go much simpler for you. Disobey, and there will be many problems. That is the way of an Undesirable. You're here for a reason. We offered you a choice, comply or reject our kindness. You chose to reject it. Our pride is stung, and you must pay the price for that and repent."

So many things I could say to his little speech. There was nothing kind about them coming to our planet and telling us to join them or suffer the consequences. Yeah, I did choose to take the risk and run instead of give in, but that didn't mean I was a bad guy or worthless. I suppose they didn't know if they could trust me, and that was the point of all this. They would break each and every one of us until we didn't have any will left to argue. Standing against them kept me further away from finding out what happened to Chevelle. I didn't listen to these aliens once. I wasn't planning on making that mistake again anytime soon.

Silently, I prayed that I would get picked to work for Neptune. He seemed sympathetic enough. Perhaps I could show him with good work ethic that this whole thing was a mistake and I didn't belong with the rest of the Undesirables. I hated that term. Just thinking about it made my blood boil. Who were they to deem anybody as undesirable? They might as well have just shoved us out into space to explode in the vast nothingness of space.