As they reached the base of the pyramid and approached Jensik, William surveyed the people gathered around them. “Jensik, there were a number of men taken that I had expected to be here-Etznab, Salmac, and many others from the royal guard. Are they here somewhere?”
“Come,” Jensik said, seeming to ignore the question. He stepped into the brightly lit room inside the triangular monument. “This transport will take us to another level within our craft.”
They followed him inside the triangular pillar, and the opening to the outside dissolved, enclosing them. A humming sound resonated.
“Feels sort of like an elevator,” Betty whispered.
William glared at Jensik, having a hard time trusting him through his weird helmet. He wondered what Jensik really looked like.
Jensik turned to William, noticing his disturbed look. “To answer your question about your missing friends, Balam… not all the people of this land are required. Only those with… desired qualities… will join us. Some will be transplanted back to your world. We are evaluating those we have collected.”
“Collected?” William asked, not liking the way he put that.
The elevator’s humming sound faded and an opening materialized. A silver chamber could be seen from beyond. Jensik stepped into the shimmering oval room, and they followed him in.
Jensik moved to a white table in the middle of the room, grabbed a handful of metallic-looking collars on the table, and handed them out. “Place it around your neck. It will enable you to breathe in the next room.”
The collars were decorated with colorful little stones. When William stretched open the collar and put it around his neck, the stones began blinking beneath his chin. He tried to remove it, but it seemed to be locked in place. William began to feel like a circus animal being prepped for captivity.
“The atmosphere in the next room contains the molecular properties of your world and ours. This device attracts the elements that you require to breathe,” Jensik said, pressing another button on the wall, dimming the light to half its brightness. He placed his hands at the base of his helmet and twisted a knob; it made a popping sound, like opening a bottle of soda. He slowly lifted the helmet off his head. They all stared at him with anticipation, wondering what they would see behind his strange mask.
Teshna gasped when Jensik’s long grey face and big bug-like eyes came into view. She grabbed William’s arm with a nervous grip. Jensik looked sort of like an alien from the X-Files, William thought.
“I thought you said you looked like us,” Betty said in a somewhat rude tone.
Jensik pulled a lever on the wall, and mist entered the room, pumping up from vents along the floor. He appeared to hold his breath while waiting for the mist to fill the room. Opening his thin slit of a mouth, he took in a deep breath; it sounded like he was sucking through a straw. “What you see before you is not the original appearance of our people,” he spoke in their minds, not moving his mouth. “In the beginning, our bodies were similar to yours. The color of our skin and the elongation of our features are the result of living here for generations, where our reproduction methods have evolved us into what we are today.”
“What are your reproductive methods?” William asked.
Betty jabbed William with her elbow, and he realized it wasn’t an appropriate question to ask.
Jensik gave William a blank stare as he removed his gloves, exposing his grey rubbery hands that seemed to have only four fingers. He grasped a knob protruding from the wall and slid it to the left, causing a mechanical sounding clatter to reverberate through the chamber-like the noise of an automatic garage door opener. The ceiling parted down the middle, and the walls sank into the floor, leaving the group standing in the center of a dark misty chamber; the visibility was limited to a few feet in any direction.
“Where are we?” William asked, holding Teshna’s hand firm so he wouldn’t lose her in the fog.
“We are in the control center… with the others,” Jensik said.
Dark forms began to take shape amidst the fog. They approached the group, gathering around them in a semicircle. Dozens of beings with the same greyish appearance as Jensik studied them with blank creepy looks. It became apparent that the bulk of their attention was focused on William. He felt uncomfortable with their collective stare, hearing the word “bloodstone” repeated softly in his mind.
The tallest of the aliens-in a bright red uniform-stepped out of the crowd. He glided gracefully forward, while taking a moment to study them.
Jensik gestured to the tall alien, extending his gangly arm toward him. “I present our leader, Master Seblinov.”
“You are welcome here,” Seblinov greeted, and then turned to his men who continued to gawk at them. He waved them off; they faded away back into the fog. Seblinov turned back with a gentle gaze, blinking his big eyelids several times. William noticed that they had two sets of eyelids; a transparent inner eyelid blinked just before the outer one did. Seblinov reached out with his hand and extended a long finger, motioning for them to follow.
As the group followed Seblinov through the foggy room, they passed by several of the grey aliens who stood beside tall metallic posts with light covered panels that they poked at with their slender fingers, casually rolling their black eyes toward them when they neared. A bright light filtered through the mist ahead. They proceeded forward until they reached a huge tinted window that slanted up from the floor. The light was from the setting sun, visible beyond the dark glass.
“Beyond and below are the lands where you have lived,” Seblinov said, pointing his gangly arm to the darkening sky outside the window. He motioned to the padded seats nearby. “Sit. Let us commune together.” He studied William and Betty carefully. “You two are not like the others here, yet you possess the bloodstone.” Seblinov waved a grey finger at William. “Tell me how this can be.”
Priest Quisac cleared his throat. “They have come to us from our future, through a portal known as the Serpent Passage. It is activated by the sun on the solstice days. We believe the passage has been used by other advanced beings-the feathered serpents-a race that assists in the growth of civilizations on this world.”
Seblinov clasped his hands together and cocked his head curiously. “Yes, we know of the beings that you speak-those that live in the underworld of this planet, who are unable to ascend for long. These creatures indeed seek the growth of the surface dwellers… but for their own purposes.” He paused for a moment, almost seeming disturbed about the creatures in question, making a wheezing sound as his breath accelerated. Seblinov shut his eyes for a moment. When his eyes opened, they were focused on William. “Why is the bloodstone possessed by this one?” he asked again.
“Balam saved our city from the invaders of Calakmul,” Yax said. “I awarded him the bloodstone and named him as our royal protector.”
“Why is it damaged?” Seblinov asked with concern. “The bloodstone was used by Calakmul to set a curse on our lands,” Priest Quisac said. “It killed our crops and the surrounding jungle.”
Seblinov and Jensik exchanged a knowing glance. “Yes, we are aware of this,” Jensik said. “It is why our vessel is unable to penetrate the area over your kingdom; the negative ions disrupt our controls. It is also why we could not gather you all until now, after you had moved your people further from the city center. The people in this region must either join us or relocate.”
“Where is your home world?” Betty asked with a raised eyebrow.
Seblinov stood, looking into the sky outside the window. “There was a time, long ago, when our world became unlivable. Many of our people left in search of new worlds, to begin again. But many of us remained behind, living in the protection of our vessels, attempting to correct the damage to our world.”