Robin Cook - Abduction

“Excuse me,” Arak said. “I don’t mean to interrupt, but that’s not the same as our original continent. Pangaea formed de novo during the latter part of the Dark Period geological upheavals. Our continent suffered complete subduction into the asthenosphere prior to that.”

Suzanne nodded. “Very interesting,” she said. “And that must be the reason the fossil record of the first evolution is not available.”

Arak smiled contentedly again. “Your grasp of these basic fundamentals is heartening indeed, Dr. Newell. But we had anticipated as much even before your arrival.”

“Before I arrived?” Suzanne questioned. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing,” Arak added quickly. “Nothing at all. Perhaps we should remind your colleagues that it was the breakup of Pangaea that formed the present continental configuration.”

“That’s true,” Suzanne agreed while she eyed Arak searchingly. She had the uncomfortable sense that there was something Arak was not telling her. She looked over at Donald and Perry and wondered how much even they were taking in. Arak’s presentation was clearly beyond Richard and Michael. They looked like bored schoolkids.

“Well, then,” Arak said, marshaling some enthusiasm by rubbing his hands together. “I can only imagine how all this information affects you people. Having one’s preconceived and accepted notions dashed is a daunting experience. That’s why we have been insisting on going slowly with your introduction to our world. I’d venture to guess that you’ve already had enough talk, too much perhaps. At this point I think it would be better to show you some of the ways we live, firsthand.”

“You mean go out into the city?” Richard asked.

“If that will be agreeable to everyone?” Arak said.

“Count me in,” Richard said eagerly.

“Me, too,” Michael echoed.

“What about the rest of you?” Arak asked.

“I’ll go,” Suzanne said.

“Of course I’ll go,” Perry said when Arak looked at him.

When it was Donald’s turn he merely nodded.

“Wonderful,” Arak said. He stood. “Now if you’ll give Sufa and me a few minutes by remaining in your seats, we’ll make the arrangements.” He extended a hand toward Sufa, and she rose as well. Together they exited the small conference room.

Perry shook his head. “I feel shell-shocked. This whole situation keeps getting more and more unbelievable.”

“I’m not sure I believe anything,” Donald said.

“Ironically enough, it seems to me to be too fantastic not to be true,” Suzanne said. “And it all makes a certain amount of scientific sense.” She looked over at Ismael and Mary Black, who had been sitting patiently. “Please, folks, tell us your story. Is it true you are from the surface world?”

“Yes, it is,” Ismael said.

“From where?” Perry asked.

“From Gloucester, Massachusetts,” Mary said.

“No kidding,” Michael said. He sat up. “Hey, I’m from Massachusetts, too: Chelsea. Ever been there?”

“I’ve heard of it,” Ismael said. “But I’ve never been there.”

“Everybody from the North Shore has been to Chelsea,” Michael said with a snicker. “Because one end of the Tobin Bridge sits on it.”

“I’ve never heard of the Tobin Bridge,” Ismael said. Michael’s eyes narrowed in disbelief.

“How’d you two end up down here in Interterra?” Richard questioned.

“We were very lucky,” Mary said. “Very lucky indeed. Just like you people.”

“Were you diving?” Perry asked.

“No,” Ismael said. “We ran into a terrible storm en route from the Azores to America. We should have drowned like the others on our ship. But, as Mary said, we were lucky, and we were inadvertently rescued by an Interterran interplanetary vehicle. We literally got sucked into the same exit port you people did and were then revived by the Interterrans.”

“What was the name of your ship?” Donald asked.

“It was called the Tempest, ” Ismael said, “which turned out to be rather appropriate considering the fate. It was a schooner out of Gloucester.”

“A schooner?” Donald questioned suspiciously. “What year did this happen?”

“Let’s see,” Mary said, “I was sixteen. That makes it eighteen hundred and one.”

“Oh, for chrissake,” Donald muttered. He closed his eyes and ran a hand over his bald head. He’d shaved it that morning. “And you people wonder why I’m skeptical?”

“Mary, that’s about two hundred years ago,” Suzanne said.

“I know,” Mary said. “It’s hard to believe, but isn’t it wonderful? Look how young we look.”

“You expect us to believe that you are over two hundred years old?” Perry questioned.

“It’s going to take time for you to comprehend the world that you are now in,” Mary said. “All I can say is that you should try to avoid making any hardened opinions until you’ve seen and heard more. We can remember how we felt when we were being subjected to the same information. And remember, for us it was even more astounding since your technology has come a long way in the last two hundred years.”

“I second Mary’s advice,” Ismael said. “Try to keep in mind what Arak said at the beginning of the session. Time has a different meaning here in Interterra. In fact, Interterrans don’t die the way they do on the surface.”

“My ass they don’t die,” Michael whispered.

“Shut up,” Richard whispered back through clenched teeth.

To Perry and the others the air taxi looked the same as the one they’d been in the day before, but Arak said it was a newer model and far superior. Regardless, it whisked the group in a similarly effortless and silent fashion from the visitors’ palace grounds into the bustling city.

“Immigrants usually spend an entire week in the conference room before venturing out like this,” Sufa said. “It can be taxing to the intellect as well as the emotions. We hope we’re not pushing you too fast.”

“Do you have any thoughts about this?” Arak asked. “We’re certainly open to suggestions.”

The group eyed each other, each hoping another would respond. As Sufa intimated, the situation was stupefying, especially with the cloud of other air taxis zipping by in every conceivable direction. The fact that there were no collisions was astounding in and of itself.

“Doesn’t anybody have an opinion?” Arak persisted.

“Everything is overwhelming,” Perry admitted. “So it’s hard to have an opinion. But I believe from my perspective, the more I see, the better. Merely experiencing your technology like this air taxi makes everything you’ve said more credible.”

“What are you going to show us?” Suzanne asked.

“That was a difficult decision,” Arak said. “It’s why Sufa and I took so long arranging things. It was hard to decide where to start.”

Before Arak could finish, the hovercraft came to a sudden stop then rapidly descended. A moment later the exit port appeared where previously there had not even been a seam.

“How does the door open like that?” Perry asked.

“It’s a molecular transformation in the composite material,” Arak said. He gestured for everyone to disembark.

Perry leaned over to Suzanne as he got up. “As if that’s an explanation,” he complained.

The air taxi had deposited the group in front of a relatively low, windowless structure sheathed in the same black basalt as all the other buildings. Its sides were about a hundred feet long and twenty feet high, and they slanted in at sixty degrees to create a squat, truncated pyramid. There was little pedestrian traffic. Even so, the moment the secondary humans appeared, a crowd began to form.