The spiders were back. Spiders. That’s what Shaneen heard the white-robed
men call the small creatures that crawled into the corners above her head
and sometimes, when no one else was there, scuttled across the wall.
“
Damn window screen’s broken,” she heard the leader of the
white-robed men say as he pointed to the little dots hanging on the ceiling. “Get
someone in here to fix it and get rid of those damn spiders.”
The leader spoke these words on several of his visits. Each time, more
men, these ones wearing blue uniforms, came carrying a square object.
They worked away on some part of the wall behind her bed. Then they sprayed
an acrid-smelling mist in the corners of the room. The spiders fell from
view. And all the corners of Shaneen’s universe went back to being
white.
No black dots moved across the walls. There was no noise, but the humming
machine beside the bed, the machine that seemed to be connected to her
somehow. She heard the white-robed men speak about it when they came.
They fiddled with it out of her view and talked so low she could not hear
them.
Shaneen could not see the machine or the “window screen” the
leader spoke about. She could only see the corners of the room up by the
ceiling and the walls around her bed. She hadn’t moved in a very
long time, couldn’t even remember how she came here or if she even
knew how she had ended up in this room.
The spiders gave her pleasure and kept her company when the white-robed
men were gone. She could hear them chattering about their families, the
men and herself. She had tried to channel a message to them, but no answer
ever came back.
It was the same with the white-robed men. The men made soft noises when
they came to see her. They would touch her in places she knew they had
no right to touch. It was taboo, but these people didn’t seem to
understand that. She would channel the message, reach out to place it
in their brains. But she only met a solid wall of interference, a jammed
signal or pure silence. No answer ever came back.
Time was a straight line of unbroken light and silence.
“
How long have I been here?” was no longer a thought Shaneen cared
about. Once she had tried to remember, but there was nothing when she
reached backwards in time. Nothing but fire and pain and a roaring sound — then
the darkness.
The thought Shaneen focused on was “When will they come to take
me home?” At first, she channeled her message to her people constantly.
But no answer ever came back. Now she broadcast only when the spiders
were not around. It gave her mind something to do until the little creatures
reappeared and she could go back to following their lives.
She knew the spiders feared the white-robed men and, having seen the ritual
cleansing of the room several times now, she understood why. These men
were evil. But why they continued to touch her, she did not know.
Then came a time when she hardly saw the white-robed men. They rarely
came any more and when they did turn up, they did not stay long and they
no longer touched her in forbidden places. They had stopped fiddling with
the machine which continued to hum beside her. One man came from time
to time to look at it and would leave right away.
The spiders multiplied and their colonies became towns. Shaneen listened
carefully to the spider talk and tried to find out if they knew much more
about the white-robed men. But they did not. She became so busy listening
to the spiders and their lives that she forgot trying to channel her message
home and time flowed.
Then came a time when a rattling sound that was coming from the wall behind
her head— where the white-robed men said the “window” was—intruded
on the noise of the spider talk. Shaneen began to focus on the new noise.
Now there was a howling and a banging noise behind the wall as well. The
noise went on and on. Then the howl became a shriek and suddenly the square
object the men had placed on the wall flew past Shaneen’s eyes closely
followed by sharp translucent daggers of light. The spiders were running,
urgently telling each other, “Life or death, life or death. Hide,
hide.”
Shaneen wanted to help the spiders, but she had no way to protect them.
The howling got even louder and went on and on until Shaneen began to
think the howling was all that was left of the universe. Just as she thought
her head would split open from the noise, it stopped.
It was quiet. Very quiet. Even the machine beside her no longer hummed.
The quiet was frightening. Shaneen realized how much she had counted on
the machine’s hum and the spider talk for company. Now she was truly
alone, but alone where?
She lay still for a long time. Slowly the spiders began to creep out of
hiding. They were quiet too. They did not talk, but just crawled up the
walls and settled in their little web colonies.
Then one spider, larger than the rest, rappelled down a thick web and
swung in front of Shaneen’s eyes. It had large yellow spots on its
fat body and was so close Shaneen could see little fine hairs on its legs.
“
Please,” Shaneen channeled. “Please help. Tell them to come
and get me. I want to go home.”
The spider mumbled to itself and was quiet. No answer ever came back.
Shaneen and the spider stared at each other and the silence continued
so long that Shaneen thought she would lose the last shreds of sanity
left to her.
Suddenly the door crashed open. Strange white figures with no faces surrounded
her. The spider was pushed aside and disappeared.
“
Kill it,” Shaneen heard one figure say. She recognized the voice
of the leader.
“
No.” She channeled her scream. “No, don’t.”
All she heard was a slapping sound as if a heavy object had struck a hard
surface.
“
Goodbye, spider,” thought Shaneen. She remembered his beautiful
body and his little hairy legs. Now he was gone. She began to be afraid.
She felt herself being touched again. The cover on her body had been stripped
away and she felt chilled.
“
The support system has been off too long,” the leader said. “There’s
no vital signs. You know what to do.”
Shaneen felt weight shift. She was being lifted and placed on somewhere,
something else – a something else that moved.
Walls flew by. The ceiling went on forever broken only by the glass light
holders. Shaneen looked for the spiders, but they weren’t to be
seen.
Finally she stopped moving. The white figures stared down at her.
“
Please,” she channeled. “Let me go home.”
No answer came back. The figures continued to stare down at her.
“
Too bad,” the leader said. “Oh well, the research specimens
will come in handy.”
A white cover floated down over Shaneen’s eyes.
“
Take it off,” she screamed, channeling with all her mind. “Take
it off. I want to see where I am. I want to see the spiders.”
Shaneen lay under the cover, shut off from what remained of her universe.
She channeled with every ounce of strength left to her. Her messages only
echoed off the cover. No answer ever came back.
There was movement again and then the cover was removed. More white figures,
more light surrounded her.
“
Help me,” Shaneen channeled.
“
I’ll make the first cut,” the leader said.
“
You’re making history, you know,” another voice said.
“
I know. Record,” the leader said. “Autopsy on alien female.
Pronounced dead after storm damage cut off life support for more than
24 hours.” A blade flashed above Shaneen’s eyes. “I’m
making the first incision.”
“
No,” Shaneen screamed. She channeled wildly. “No.”
Then came the pain. Shaneen channeled her scream for as long as she could.
But no answer ever came back. |
