Homeward

Prologue

Hi! This is my first story on Wattpad. If you like what you read, I'd be grateful if you commented and voted! Thanks and I hope you enjoy the story. -Gabriel

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There I was, handcuffed and sitting between two jellied enforcers. Lucky me. My mission to liaise with the Shared Mind of Stevtak III had obviously taken a turn for the worse, and what little hope that The Agency would come through for me, well, that was about to give out on me, too.

"Now fellas, I've been waiting here an awfully long time. This is getting ridiculous!" I held up my electro-cuffs to emphasize the point.

One of the enforcers borbled and bubbled, but I don't think it was in response to my commentary. Green muck dripped in a big blob from his... nose? It was no hope. I had been here for nearly two interstellar months and hadn't been able to make contact with the people—person?—of the Shared Mind. Well, that isn't entirely true. There had been plenty of contact between us when they'd found me snooping around their orbital science facility. These two big ones had slapped me around with their snotty tentacles until I'd given up and let them bind me like this. My best coat, ruined! My only coat.

There was a slow hiss and steam began to seep out of an opening crack in a doorway just ahead. Both of the enforcers grabbed my shoulders and made me stand, ignoring any protest from me."Now, wait a minute! There's interplanetary precedent for this sort of thing, I'm here by right of a treaty signed on this planet over three administrations ago!" No response.

The door opened fully, revealing a chamber that resembled the small shower unit in a not-too-fancy-but-fancy-enough-to-have-a-shower sort of motel back on the outer planets. An upright, plastic coffin with nozzles running up the sides in four columns, the sort meant more for instant disinfection than for cleaning ones-self or—ha!— relaxation. Steam, or something I hoped was steam, dripped from each of the nozzles.

Without so much as a spit bubble the two enforcers shoved me inside. I heard the high-pitched squeegee zip of the air-tight seal vacuuming itself shut. The place smelled like chlorine and like something else I couldn't identify, but at least it didn't smell like Stevtak III, I thought while trying to convince myself to grin.

"So this is how you show your hospitality, eh?"

I wasn't asking anyone in particular. I slipped my back down the wall until I sat with my thighs against my belly. More steam bubbled and poured out of the nozzles all around me, filling up the capsule with heavy, smelly fog.

"You know you could have got a lotta good information out of me! I'm no hero! One 'lectro-prod to the temple and zzzt! You could have all the pass codes you want!" I hit the plastic wall with a weak fist, putting about as much effort into that act of anger as when you knock on the door of someone you don't actually want to talk to.

"I'm no hero!"

The gas continued to fill up the little tube with me inside. It was possible that they were poisoning me, but the stench of cleaning fluid made me think that they were probably liquifying me instead. Maybe they could eat me that way? Or maybe they'd simply slather on my bio-goop, adding it to their own gelatinous forms. It didn't matter. My eyes began to sting and I closed them. I tried to take long, steady breaths. Nothing burned, nothing stung. It was quite pleasant, actually, after having been on the move for so long. I realized that I couldn't feel my toes or my fingers. After a while I couldn't will my limbs to move, and my neck and scalp were numb.

The last thing I remember before blacking out was a feeling of weightlessness. I suppose I was floating, but at the time it felt like I was dying. Then, just as I lost consciousness, I heard the tttttttttthwumpf of the pod ejection.

I don't know how long I was in space.