The Cartographer Collection

2. I Have A Dinosaur In My Closet-2

“Madoc assures me that your friend made it home safely.” Despite the good news, Satou looked grim.

“Is something wrong?” I asked gingerly.

“I apologize for his demeanor but we had a little bit of a…disagreement,” he responded with downcast eyes.

Once again, fear for my personal safety bubbled to the surface. “Oh yeah?”

“Madoc believes that we need to return you to the planet.” He paused and folded his hands in front of him.

“And you believe I need to stay?” I completed the sentence.

He inhaled deeply and let it out in one giant gust. “Make no mistake, I do not wish to keep you here against your will, but I fear the consequences of returning you to the planet.”

“And what would that be?” I asked, puzzled.

“For generations the Consortium visited your planet discreetly, nothing more than a shadow in the moonlight,” he explained. “I am afraid that our secret is one that you would not be able to keep.”

I disagreed and went to voice my opinion, but stopped when I realized that the words had a ring of truth. The more I thought about it, the more I believed he was right. I was abducted by aliens. How the heck could I keep that from my friends and family? I would be the coolest kid in town, rich and famous beyond my wildest dreams, maybe even the star of my own reality show. But the thought of staying with the aliens appealed to me and I found myself wondering what it would be like jetting around the universe with them, investigating strange, new worlds, going boldly where no human had gone before.

“I could be the next Captain Kirk,” I mumbled.

Satou c****d his head. “I do not understand.”

“Oh, nothing. I was just thinking out loud.”

His features softened. “I am sorry, I did not mean to air out our grievances and create undue stress. If you are up to it, I would like to conduct a tour around the Cirrus, getting you acclimated to your surroundings.”

I lifted an eyebrow. “Cirrus?”

Satou held out his hand and helped me off the bed. The cold, clammy feel of his hands did not surprise me, with him being a fish and all, but I was glad to see that I still wore my clothes and was not physically violated like some of the alien a*******n horror stories penned in most tabloid magazines.

“Cirrus is our ship,” Satou replied. “It is an Interplanetary Class starship used by the Explorer"s League during exploration missions, but more on that later. Let me show you around our facilities.”

He led me into the hallway where I stopped to admire the cavernous hallway. It ran almost thirty feet from floor to ceiling and about half of that in width. The rounded ceiling gave the impression that I stood inside of a train tunnel. I was dismayed to see the same dull gray color as the room I just exited. I was hoping for something a bit more vibrant—a bit more alien. My alien captors had no fashion sense I lamented, as I continued along the hallway. Many of the doors along the hall had no door handles but came equipped with small computer screens, no bigger than a cell phone, embedded in the wall next to them.

alienSatou studied my reaction as we traveled down the hall and smiled. “Not what you expected?”

I shook my head silently as we passed a door with a red cross etched into the wall next to it. I stopped and passed my hand over the symbol, which didn"t seem painted on the wall but rather fused into it, as if someone had punched it with a giant cross-shaped branding iron. I rubbed the symbol mindlessly, amazed at the similarities.

“Is something wrong?” Satou inquired.

My chuckle caused him to lift a scaly eyebrow.

I noticed his face and nervously cleared my throat. “No… Well, not really. It"s just that this symbol was used a lot on Earth. It was used to show people where hospitals were and stuff like that.”

“Well, you will be happy to know that it represents the same thing on Caelum as well.”

“Caelum?” I repeated.

Satou placed his hand on his chest. “Our planet.”

A man approached us from the far end of the hall and when he got closer, I couldn"t help but notice his flowing red hair. It was so bright it gave off an impression that his head was on fire. Its length extended beyond his shoulders and covered a portion of his angular facial features. He wasn"t much taller than me and wore a black business suit with a black button down dress shirt, accentuated with a red tie. Everything about him seemed human except his eyes, which were bright yellow pupils surrounded by blood-red irises.

He reached us and smiled, his teeth sparkling white in stark contrast to his onyx suit. It was like watching an alien mortician at work.

“Hello there! You must be our new passenger.” He extended his hand. “My name is Calypso, and I am the commander of the Explorer"s League.”

I placed my hand inside of his and shook it in disbelief. “Nathan Chambers,” I responded.

“Pleased to meet you, Nathan Chambers.”

I shook off my initial shock and let go of his hand. “I didn"t realize other humans were aboard.”

Calypso glanced at Satou and let out a hearty laugh. It was deep, throaty and reminded me of Santa Claus.

“Oh, Nathan Chambers, you have a wonderful sense of humor. I am not human, however.”

Things weren"t adding up in my new found reality. I always thought aliens were supposed to be a race of little green men who beamed us up to their spaceships, prodded us for information, drained our blood, stole our organs and ate our young, or whatever else tabloids usually reported? This didn"t seem to be the case aboard this vessel because I"d come across three aliens so far who differed from each other. My fear of being an organ donor was quickly replaced with curiosity.

“Why don"t any of you look alike?” I blurted out.

Calypso"s smile faded and Satou stiffened beside me. They exchanged glances and I got the feeling they silently debated whether or not to answer the question.

After stealing glances with Satou, Calypso"s smile returned. “Well, Nathan Chambers, that is because we are not from the same planet.” He ran a hand through his hair and I realized he wasn"t wearing a translator.

“First off, stop calling me by my full name. You can just call me Nathan. Second, I noticed you don"t have one of those translator thingies, which means you speak my language.”

Calypso pointed his finger at me. “You are correct, Nathan!”

“How can that be?”

Calypso"s smile widened. “Ah, there is a lot in the universe that you are unaware of, young man.” As if he read my mind, he added, “Not all aliens are little green men jetting across the galaxies in flying saucers.”

I went to ask another question but he interrupted me.

“How about I take you on a tour of the ship? I am positive that a lot of your questions will be answered.”

A beeping sound interrupted my response. Satou looked down at a bracelet strapped across his wrist. “Sorry, but I need to make my exit.” Calypso glanced at him and he shrugged. “It appears my work in engineering is never done.”

He lumbered his way down the hall, leaving me alone with Calypso. He rubbed his hands together and turned toward me. “Shall we go?”

I followed him down the hall until we came to a set of double doors. He opened a panel next to the door, revealing a small computer screen. He touched several strange symbols on the screen before I heard a metallic sliding sound, like a deadbolt sliding back.

“I will need you to keep an open mind,” he said over his shoulder. “Once we step through these doors, a lot of the preconceived notions you might have about the universe will change.”

I shrugged. “So, I guess I will discover that humans didn"t evolve from apes? Or perhaps God didn"t create man before taking a Sunday off?”

Calypso put his hand on the door and pushed it open. “Nathan, you will learn that humans are not even from Earth.”

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