The Captive (Chapter 3)

Tucker

“Whose there?” asked Matthew timidly. The sound of something falling was the only answer. “Don’t scare me like that,” said a scratchy voice. “I wasn’t expecting company; I haven’t seen hide or hair of anyone for days. When did you get here?
“Uh a couple hours ago.”
“Well welcome to the Martian prison mister…?”
“Matthew, Matthew Baker”
“Matthew, it’s nice to make your acquaintance. I’m Tucker.” Matthew stretched out his hand hesitantly into the darkness even though he still couldn’t see the mysterious Tucker. A hand came out of the darkness to clasp Matthew’s “ahh” shrieked Matthew pulling his hand away and falling hard against the wall. For Tucker’s hand was nearly invisible it was so clear.
“I’m sorry,” said Tucker stepping from the shadows, “I didn’t mean to frighten you” Matthew looked up terrified and his eyes met the pupiless eyes of his cell mate. The man in front of him was so transparent that Matthew had to focus hard in order to keep the alien in his sight. He tried hard not to blink afraid that if he did the creature would move and he would lose him. The alien looked at the frightened human in front of him and apologized again. “I’m sorry I’m just waking up it will take a couple minutes for me to come back into focus.” Matthew got up from the place he had fallen after seeing the ghostly hand and tried to move farther away which was hard to do in the tight cell “What are you?” he asked.
“I am a Saturian. He said.
“What’s a Saturian?”
“It’s an alien from the planet Saturn.” He said annoyed.
“Saturn? So there are aliens on Saturn too”
“Of course there is but never mind that what are you in for?”
“I don’t really know I was at my astronomy club…”
“Now what is astronomy?”
“You don’t know what astronomy is? Don’t you ever study the stars?”
“Well of course I do.” He paused and a sad look crossed his face “Well I used too what planet do you come from anyway?”
“Earth of course.”
“Earth?” the alien crossed his arms which were becoming clearer and clearer every minute. “Well it’s no wonder you don’t know anything, so how did you get here?” Matthew sighed and started again. “Like I said before I was at my astronomy club when I saw a ship land on Mars. I wasn’t sure then but now I know. Any way I was just going to find my friend, Linda to tell her what I’d found when she walked up. We left and on the way to my car we were attacked by these creepy aliens. They brought us here and we were separated. Then this morning I found out that she was one of them and that’s how I ended up here.” He swept his hand for emphasis
“Ah, so you’re the Earthling they’ve been talking about.” Tucker leaned back against the wall his arms still crossed in front of him. He had come into complete focus now and during the conversation Mathew had slowly been studying the features of this alien “They’ve been watching you for a long time. I heard them say that they were giving Trine the assignment. Trine is the Kong’s most skilled spy. She’s so dedicated to her job that she’s decided to get her gills removed.”
“Her gills removed?” Matthew was disgusted at this bit of news but his curiosity overcame his disgust and he leaned forward as Tucker continued.
“As you probably know by now Martian’s are shape shifters but the only problem is that they can not shift their gills so some of the more dedicated Martian’s are having them removed. The only problem is then they can’t breathe under water any more so very few have gone through with the surgery.”
As the days went Tucker poured all his knowledge about the universe into Matthew. And Matthew soaked it up until he was bursting with information with no place to pour it into. So he continued to repeat the information in his head day after day and night after night until they were a part of his very being. He learned so much about alien cultures that at night he had a hard time separating what he’d learned from what he’d actually experienced. But no matter what adventures he went through in his head day after day after day there was always one thing that was always the same, Linda. He would spend hours thinking about her. Sometimes in stories he would make up sometimes thinking about the past sometimes wondering what could have happened or what might happen if he ever got out of this jail cell but always wondering about her. Who was she really? And what was truth and what wasn’t?

One day Matthew was sitting in the corner nearest to the door a place he had come to enjoy sitting he was chewing on a piece of stale bread and thinking about Linda tucker had fallen asleep in his bunk and no matter how much Matthew tried he could never make out his friend while he slept. Matthew heard Tucker roll over and glanced in his direction out of mere habit even though he knew there would be nothing to see. He looked down at the stale bread in his hands he had grown used to the foreign bread in the days he had been there but oh what he would give for a nice juicy burger with everything on it and some nice steamy fries and you know he didn’t even care if the fries were super salty or the burger a little pink and lathered in too much ketchup and mustard he didn’t care if soda was a little bit flat it would taste like heaven all the same.
He felt something brush against his hand and jumped. He looked to see the pesky rat-like shukan run into the shadows. Matthew shuddered. The shukan was constantly stealing their food and getting in their beds and sometimes crept Matthew out so bad he couldn’t sleep at night.
Matthew looked at the chunk of bread left in his hand and tossed it in the direction of the shukan. After a couple seconds the little pot-bellied creature hobbled out of the shadows in which he had been hiding and grabbed the chunk of bread and downed it in a single gulp. Matthew watched the creature fascinated. The creature looked at him with an almost human like intensity that startled Matthew and he couldn’t help but think that the creature somehow understood the utter loneliness of Matthew’s currant life. The shukan seemed to nod his thanks and then disappeared into the blackness.
Matthew sat and pondered this for sometime until he heard a stirring coming from the bunk and a little while later Tucker joined him on the floor. “I had the most amazing dream about Saturn.” His voice sounded far away as he spoke but he didn’t continue and Matthew decided not to push. He glanced at the PRD around his friend’s neck and reached up to finger the brace around his own neck. His friend had explained to him that the PRD’s or Power Restraining Device’s kept the captive aliens from using certain skills to escape. “I usually can phase through walls.” Tucker had explained but as long as this thing is around my neck I can’t”
“What about me? Why did they put one around my neck?”
“Earthlings are skilled with plants and on other planets can cause plants to grow up nearly anywhere.”
The memory faded and Matthew turned toward his friend “so what did you dream about?”
“I dreamt about my wedding.”
“You’re married?”
“No, I was engaged.”
“What happened?’
“Well as I’ve told you before Saturnian’s are considered the universes scientists and are one of the only aliens who risk going to learn about other planets firsthand including earth in which we have been labeled ghosts. We are a peaceful folk for the most part we only attack when attacked. Other aliens don’t mind us visiting because they know we come just to get things to write in documents we gather all sorts of information from legends to normal life you see Saturians love to learn and we have the biggest library in the universe people come from far and wide from Mercury to Pluto and beyond all come to see it and they can learn anything they want from our library. Of course Martians are all about war yes they come to read but never in their true forms we never know when we have a Martian in our midst mostly if they need information they attack and take what they want.” He paused and sighed obviously remembering a specific time when this happened. “Anyway I grew up in a small town where the Loy or king and his wonderful palace were as far away as the next galaxy at least to me as a young boy. I loved school and when I got older I wanted to work in the king’s court as a philosopher as you call them. I soon got my wish when I met the king’s daughter Chaka she helped me get a place in her father’s court and helped me make my way to the top.” Tucker stopped for a moment remembering and then continued. “I was gone a lot getting information about other planets and things. I have to say I liked earth the best I always found your kind interesting and I spent a lot of time there especially at night. Whenever I came back Chaka had always prepared a feast for me and over time we found we loved each other and so we decided marry but it didn’t last long.
“Mars isn’t that smart and as I said before they are thieves but great fighters and they attack their betters to get new technologies and medicines. It just so happened that the very eve of our wedding Mars wanted more books and information that only we could get so they attacked. We would have given it to them had they asked we are reasonable with our knowledge. But no, asking for anything is against Mars policy they never ask for anything they just take it.” He sighed and Matthew had a feeling that this story didn’t have a good ending. He looked over and noticed the pesky shukan watching them from the shadows but the strange thing was the creature sat staring at Tucker with that intensely human stare as if listening.
Tucker began up again slowly telling of the fight and then he got to the part that he dreaded. “I was told to fight in the war we may not be fighters but out here in the universe everyone can fight even if you aren’t known for your fighting skills all can fight if they have too. So I fought eventually the cursed Martians got what they wanted and left. I went back to the castle to find it destroyed and the entire royal family, including my love, gone the cursed Martians had captured them.” He spat on the ground near the shukan it scampered over to another corner and sat and stared once again at Tucker as he started up again. “I was devastated. The people told me that I was to be their Loy for I had after all been engaged to the Lera. I did become Loy but I was a revengeful Loy I had no desire to rebuild and no more desire to learn all I wanted to do was avenge my Chaka and destroy the Martians forever. About a year later I decided it was time to take action and so I attacked. It was the stupidest thing I’ve ever done for now I’m here completely forgotten by everyone. I was blinded by my revenge all I saw was the captain of the fleet that had stolen Chaka.” He stopped once to wipe the tears from his eyes “I don’t even know what hit me all I know is I woke up here with a bump on my head and this collar around my neck.” As Tucker finished his story Matthew wiped his eyes it was a very touching story. Matthew glanced over toward the shukan it still sat there and Matthew was surprised to discover that it almost looked like it had been crying as well. Then it turned and scurried off

A couple days later as Matthew sat thinking about Tucker’s sad tale and the rat’s strange behavior, two soldiers walked by. It wasn’t all that strange for a soldier to walk past the cells it was how he got most of his information it was how he had discovered that the crown Konce, Hamol had returned and was apparently back to his old self but refused to tell anyone where he had been. But all though he was better he went out every morning by himself and no one knew where he went.
But that day as the soldiers walked by they weren’t talking about the Konce as usual but instead about something much more interesting.
“There’s a war on the horizon.” Said the first “I just heard that Su Kutcha himself is on the way.”
“Yes and the king is offering double the reward that Venus wants.” Said the second
“I sure hope we catch him.” the first responded “I sure hate him being all out there and in the way.”
“If anyone would catch him it would be us. When will he be here?”
“Probably tomorrow I hear he has a monster and can get out of any prison he’s a great fighter which is amazing for a Voy they aren’t fighters.”
“Maybe he’s albino, Albino’s are always the ones that are soldiers and stuff.”
“I don’t think he’s albino. I wonder why he’s even coming Voy don’t usually initiate an attack.” That was all Matthew heard as they continued on their way out of earshot.
When Matthew asked Tucker about it Tucker looked startled “to tell you the truth I don’t know much about Su Kutcha I know it means The Impossible one in your language. And that he lives on Imaginess and is a hero there but that’s about it.”
“Haven’t you ever been to Imaginess?” “Oh yes but Su Kutcha wasn’t around when I went there he just appeared out of no where no one knows where he came from.”
“He just appeared one day?”
“Yes as weird as it sounds yes.”
That was the end of the conversation as Matthew sat back and thought of the strange mysterious person known as Su Kutcha.
The next morning Matthew woke to the sounds of fighting and shouting coming from above. Apparently Su Kutcha had arrived and the war had begun