The Seedlings - Alien Harvest: The Seedlings, #1

People can Hear you Scream in Space

We awoke, me first , in some kind of holding pen. At least, that's what I thought it was. It was a small box-like structure, maybe five feet by five feet, and slightly damp. The walls and floor were made of something that looked and felt soft and wet, almost like stucco in texture. I had just remodeled the baby's room, so that detail stood out. The air around us was moist and cool. There was no noticeable lighting, but it was far from dark.

Katy awoke about an hour after me. She jumped straight up and hit her head on the low ceiling. Fortunately for her, it was made from the same soft material as the floor. She dented it, and little specks rained down upon us. It was like getting hit with semi-dry spackle. Whatever it was, it had a sweet smell, kind of like marshmallows.

We spent time remembering how we got from the truck to wherever we were. I checked my watch and found it had died. I had just replaced the battery a couple of months ago. What time was it? Where were we? Where were the people that brought us here? After a bit of meaningless conjecture, we heard noises outside the pen, sometimes a loud groan, other times something like a bull's snort. Do you know the joke about not being in OZ anymore? Well, that was our silent punch line. We both knew, without sharing a word, what had happened. That was not a helicopter over the field we had watched. We had been abducted by something, not from Earth.

My thoughts turned to a story I had read years earlier about a man from Northern Arizona who claimed he was abducted and experimented on but eventually returned to his friends. He claimed the abductors were aliens and passed a lie-detector test to prove his story. The thought that he was placed back near his home after some experiments were conducted on him gave me hope we would get out of this situation. I thought about telling Katy about the story but realized that talk of experimentation on her and the baby would only upset her. The thought had bothered me already.

Katy and I both believed that intelligent life existed outside the planet. We frequently joked there certainly was none on Earth. On many evenings, while sitting on our porch, we saw lights move across the sky that did not appear to be traditional aircraft. Sometimes, we would talk about what we had seen with friends. They, too, had seen strange lights in the sky occasionally. We all had little green man jokes tucked away for summer bar-b-ques.

Gathering my wits, I reached for my phone and discovered it was gone, as was Katy's. Did we leave the phones with the truck? I imagined someone finding our vehicle with the phones near it, watching the videos and the subsequent mess that would cause. Few people would believe what happened in those videos, and those who did would be labeled crackpots. Would there be rumors of marital strife? Followed by lies of either Katy or me creating a fake video to cover up some horrible event? Conspiracy theories were a common way of life for some people on the internet. I did not expect us to be treated differently. More importantly, though, what would happen to my Family? Farm? The animals? I might have been a million miles from home, but I still cared about those left behind.

We always ate a big breakfast on the farm to prepare for the workday. My stomach told me it was time to eat, so I guessed it must be near 5 a.m. Some of the glop from the ceiling had stuck to Katy's hair, and as I pulled it off, I decided to taste it just to get an idea of what we were dealing with. It was the farmer in me that led me to do that. I discovered it was sweet, not a paste. It reminded me of cottage cheese and pineapple. Before we knew it, we ate the glop, hoping there were no ill effects, but we were hungry, and Katy was feeling very weak.

At one point, soon after eating, Katy needed to relieve herself. I closed my eyes, and as ladylike as she could, she did so near one of the corners. To our amazement, the liquid soaked up almost at once. The ground did not feel porous, but it must have been. What material could soak up liquid yet instantly feel dry?

We speculated more on what had happened to us. We had the same stories; the only difference was Katy thought she remembered being placed on something cold after leaving the truck. I looked myself over and saw no signs of bruising or needle marks. Then I examined Katy and did not find anything, which relieved us.

We both must have fallen asleep sometime later because when I awoke, Katy was gone. It was my worst fear. I pounded on the walls, screaming as loud as I could, to no avail. The thoughts of what could be happening to my wife were so awful I could barely stand them.

Maybe someone heard me because my next memory was being naked in a damp room on a cold metal table. There was a bright light overhead but no other apparent illumination. My entire body was immobile, and I was frightened. There was a horrible smell of acids in the air, and there was no option other than to breathe the awful air.

Out of the periphery of my eyes, I saw bizarre creatures. Some were gray, blue, and off-white in color. Some had large dark frog-like eyes, while others had blue triangular slits for eyes. Several were dwarf-like in size, while others stood around five feet tall. All the creatures were as silent as the room. It appeared to me that one creature was silently giving orders. It moved without effort from my right to my left side, almost as if it was gliding. It stood above me the entire time, and I could see my reflection in its large eyes. Then the pain started.

I tried to scream but could not. I heard a drill start above me. Sometimes, knowing what will happen is much worse than not knowing. This was one of those times. I was the victim of drilling, probes, and cutting tools. The burning flesh I smelled was mine. The pain would start and stop. Just when I hoped they had finished with me, some new horror would begin. Why wasn't I put to sleep? I would have preferred it. Instead, I was kept awake through the entire ordeal.

Have you ever seen an eight needle emerge from the ceiling and slowly descend toward your eye? Have you ever felt like someone had put a coat hanger into your ear drums? These were only a few of the awful memories I retained.

At one point during the experimentation, I knew I had wet myself because I became warm for minutes. I do not know if I lay on that table for twenty minutes or if hours passed. There was never vocal communication between the creatures in that room, yet terrible things happened in an orderly fashion. I must have blacked out, maybe more than once, because the next thing I remember is waking up with Katy rubbing my head and crying. We were cold and nude; her earrings, our jewelry, and my watch were gone, too.

We signed for a while, assuring each other that we were OK but weren't. Nobody could be OK after that ordeal. We reviewed what had happened. It appeared we both shared similar awful experiences. Just as we started to feel better, a chute opened quietly and quickly, and Katy was gone again. I slammed my fists in anger into the wall. I yelled to no avail. I must have fallen asleep or been put asleep again because Katy was with me when I awoke. She was unconscious but thankfully alive. I snuggled up to her, never so glad to see her. I stroked her hair and examined her for bruises. Nothing obvious stood out. I hoped she was treated more humanely than I was and that the aliens had not hurt the baby.

It felt like three hours had passed before Katy awoke with a start. She looked around wide-eyed, scared, before falling back into my arms. I held her close and whispered to her that she was OK. Katy looked back at me and started to freak out. I faced her directly and signed, What's wrong, which increased her panic.

Jason, she said softly, I heard you. I heard you whisper! You said I was OK.

It was my turn to freak out. Can you hear me? Really? I asked incredulously.

I can. I can! Katy replied as we hugged, and both broke into sobs.

The aliens had done something in the operating room to correct her hearing problem. For the first time, Katy heard a human voice, my voice. All the terror we had experienced since arriving seemed to fade away as we enjoyed this miracle. It was unbelievable, like being in a dream. I wanted to call our folks and friends to share the fantastic news, but reality slapped me; there was no way. We hugged and spoke for what seemed like hours. Katy practiced using her vocal cords the entire time, sometimes talking low, high, or even humming.

I don't know how much time has passed, but we must have fallen asleep again because we noticed something new in our pen when we awoke. Not quite water, not quite a soda, but we drank heartedly. It gave us strength and seemed to fill us up.

I desperately wanted to believe what was happening was not real. At one point, I thought back to one of my favorite classes in College, Psychology. I remember the professor stating that to a person hallucinating, what they see is reality. Why would both of us be hallucinating? We brought our own water and food to the festival; there was no way we were doped. I was not crazy, and neither was my wife. Neither of us suffered from any form of mental illness. No, we had a firm grasp of reality; as strange as the facts were, what we were experiencing was very real. I resigned to accepting the impossible; we were in an alien spacecraft, probably somewhere in outer space. I started laughing uncontrollably because that crazy conclusion seemed the most logical to what happened to us.

Katy looked at me and just watched, not understanding why I was laughing and afraid that the shock of what had happened to us was getting to me. I saw the fear in her eyes, calmed down, and explained why I had lost my composure. She said that she understood and it was OK to be scared. She was. That acted like a cold slap in the face. I told myself I had to be stronger for both of us. My male pride kicked in when I should have been thankful someone cared about me.

We sat for hours, trying to pass the time. I wondered aloud whether we were in orbit. Or were we underwater or behind the moon? Did the ship have a cloaking device? I have watched a lot of sci-fi, and now, all those movies and shows have flooded my mind. There were many things to ponder, but the most crucial question, when we would be released, remained foremost in our minds.

All the time we were experiencing this trauma, our baby kicked inside Katy's stomach, seemingly oblivious and safe from the terrors. That was reassuring to both of us. I don't know if we passed out or were knocked out again, but when we awoke, we were in a different place, naked still, off the ship and under some strange shelter.

We rose slowly. Three high gray walls surrounded us, made of similar material to the pen that surrounded us on the ship. There was no floor, no door, only dirt and grass. It appeared that we were in a lush tropical jungle-like setting.

In the heart of the jungle, towering trees, their trunks wrapped in lush vines and creeping lianas, created a natural fortress that shielded the forest floor from the sun's harsh rays. The air was heavy with humidity, carrying the earthy scent of damp soil and the sweet fragrance of exotic flowers.

Shafts of light filter through the thick foliage, casting dappled patterns on the ground below. Venerable ferns and palm fronds reach towards these precious beams, their emerald hues accentuated by the play of light and shadow. Moss-covered rocks and fallen branches provide sanctuary and a backdrop for whatever lived here.

The canopy above was a mosaic of greenery, a tapestry woven by the hands of nature over centuries. Massive trees, their branches entwined in a complex web of life, formed a living roof that stretched as far as the eye could see. Small, brightly colored bird-like creatures flit between the branches, their melodious calls echoing through the forest like a symphony of nature.

Beneath the canopy, the forest floor was a bustling ecosystem in its own right. Thick undergrowth carpets the ground, concealing hidden streams and secret clearings where flowers unknown to us bloomed. Giant fern-like plants unfurled their fronds in the dim light, while delicate orchid-like plants clung to the gnarled roots of ancient trees.

Amidst this lush paradise, the sounds of the jungle were ever-present. The eerie calls of unknown creatures reverberate through the trees. As we explored occasionally, the distant roar of a hidden waterfall broke the tranquility, a gentle sign that an untamed power flowed through this primal wilderness similar to jungles back home.

We cautiously moved around the area, widening our search slowly. Walking gingerly without shoes, we were shocked at what we saw in the sky. Through the forest canopy, we could see two suns in the sky. Both were yellow, but one was brighter than the other. When we looked at the sky, it had a blue hue, similar to but not exactly like the Earth we had apparently left behind. I was baffled and now a bit unwilling to accept what I saw. Was this the Earth? It could not be, but why was the sky so similar? How could the sky of a different planet be like the Earth's? Then I remembered that blue light is scattered more than the other colors because it travels as shorter, smaller waves. I explained this to Katy, as she looked at me strangely.

How do you know this, Jason? she asked, puzzled.

It was one of the things I learned from my class when we were dating; remember the astronomy class? I got a B in the class, and you said if I had tried harder, I would have gotten an A. You were right, but studying more would have left less time for me to date you.

That caused her to smile for the first time in hours. As we looked around, we heard something unclear in the distance. First, there were sounds, and soon after, the voices were not too far away! I could hear spoken English, Spanish, German, and maybe Chinese. A large variety of languages, to be sure, bewildered us. Hope sprang inside us that somehow, we were back on Earth, or perhaps we never left it. That made no sense, but nothing that happened recently did. Now, the only thing we cared about was the sound of the human voices and finding the people the voices were coming from. We were so happy that we started yelling back. When we heard an intelligible response, Katy and I walked fast toward it. I pointed out to Katy that this was probably the first time she had ever screamed, and she laughed so hard that tears streamed down her face.

Cowardly New World

We walked on the soft ground for about three minutes until we reached a clearing. During the walk, I believed that this was not Earth. I was sure of it. It wasn't just the different sky; something felt off when we walked like we were wearing weights on our ankles. However, the terrain looked like pictures of rainforests and jungles I had seen. Some trees looked identical to Palms, with large leaves and rough trunks. Others reminded us of bamboo, while many had a purely foreign look, all gnarly and twisted with thorny branches.

I knelt to examine the ground, which was soft and damp almost everywhere. It was similar to peat moss, and I could tell it had been disturbed recently. I did not say anything to Katy about fear, but I held her hand tighter as I scanned for danger on the horizon. Being nude and without any kind of protection got my adrenaline pumping. If we were unknowingly heading for trouble, we were out of luck. That was not a pleasant thought when your wife was carrying your baby. Cautiously, we moved closer to the sounds of voices. They grew in intensity as we continued walking down the trail, which appeared to have existed for a while. Perhaps others lived here for a while, maybe even years.

We reached a small overlook into a canyon and saw humans below us. Some saw us and waved back at us! Katy hugged me, and I planted a kiss on her forehead. I cannot tell you how happy we were to see people again. My logical self took a strange turn when I realized that maybe the aliens and this planet were part of a practical joke for some reality TV series and maybe were on a movie set. If so, I would find whoever was in charge and beat the daylights out of them.

We backtracked from the cliff and headed down a hill toward a small group approaching us. All were naked, just like us, but being naked was almost an afterthought at this point. When we were about 20 feet from the group, I yelled hello, and someone speaking English answered. Now, surrounded by people on all sides, we introduced ourselves, and they did the same. Some of the women patted Katy's stomach and hugged her. The men and I shook hands. We were back with humanity and happy about it.

Everyone had something to say about their recent experience. The group around us thought they had been released about an hour earlier than us. They knew everything we had been through was traumatic, so they gave us a few minutes to acclimate before asking questions. Then, it became a question and answer free for all. We knew the celestial body we were on had two suns, one brighter than the other. We only found out there were also two moons later that evening.

I asked why things felt differently here, and someone said there was probably more gravity here than on Earth. I kicked myself for not remembering that gravity is a measurable force and not the same everywhere. I remembered that gravity is one of four fundamental forces in nature, the others being strong and weak nuclear forces and electromagnetic forces. Gravity is the weakest of those forces but enormously influences how the universe is held together. Katy was right; if I had studied more, I would have gotten an A in the class.

Sadly, we agreed that we were not on Earth, and this was not a practical joke. Someone remarked we were being treated like animals dropped off at an unknown location. I immediately related to that description. I had done that to livestock previously, but until now, I never wondered if that bothered them. After all, I had always assumed they were animals with minimal intelligence, but as soon as I said that, the obvious comparison between our abductors and our situation hit home. Compared to them, we were probably viewed as dumb animals. The thought both sickened and frightened me.

Everyone we spoke with had a similar story. People saw lights in the sky; some investigated, others ran, but it made no difference. Since delivering us to the planet's surface, the aliens had remained unseen, which was good and evil. If we would get answers soon, they were the proper beings to get them from.

Over what must have been the next hour or two, we were joined by many other people of different races and nationalities. Most had banded together with people like themselves. One of the men took a census and determined close to three hundred and fifty-five people spoke English. Another two hundred and thirty people spoke various European dialects, one hundred seventy-one spoke Spanish, and a smattering of African and Asian dialects. That translated into approximately eight hundred and twenty-one people. Of those, three hundred and ninety-nine were female. There appeared to be no logic as to why more males were selected than females. I don't know why, but I remember thinking the ratio of males to females would be trouble at some point if we were forced to remain here.

Out of eight hundred and twenty-one people, we had about fifty with medical training in various fields. About ten people had farming backgrounds. There were scientists and teachers of all grade levels. They had experience in multiple subjects, including geology, biology, physics, math, history, and chemistry. The most significant number of people, about five hundred, were not surprisingly those with customer service or computer skills.

That got a big laugh since the nearest computer was probably hundreds of thousands of miles away, if not more. Forty people called themselves students; the rest held various jobs such as being in the armed forces or ex-military, minister, law enforcement, artist, engineer, lawyer, survivalist, and retail workers. Some wondered if the aliens were somehow aware of the skill set or if people were chosen randomly. I doubted there was any thought put into selecting this group. I felt that we were just randomly picked up and transported.

From the first meeting forward, we relied on scientists, teachers, and survivalists to help guide what would become the colony. The survivalists would benefit the settlement most from all the groups, helping us understand and survive the wild. Without them, we would have suffered more than we did and achieved less.

The Americans we met here were from twenty-one different states, including Texas. One of the people from Texas lived in a town close to ours. He might have been on the same ship as ours or even in the next pen. When I quizzed him about his abduction, it seemed to happen at a time similar to ours. When I spoke with him, he did not look too good. I later found out he was an addict and went through withdrawals for days in this new world before being forced to kick his habit. Then I knew the aliens had no concerns about whom they abducted.

Most people in the encampment settled near glop pens like the ones we emerged from. There were at least twenty-four open-air pens larger than what was on the ship spread out over half a mile. Glop was something we were now regularly accustomed to eating, so there was no hunger and nothing to be concerned about for regular food intake in the short term. The area around the camp had been carefully cultivated. Some tall vegetation spread throughout, but much of the room was open. A woman from Kentucky said the smell of the air reminded her of home.

I later found rainforest vegetation adapted to the climate fascinating. One of the biologists explained that the plants around us with waxy or oil-like leaves were like that, so water could drip off them more easily. The trees' extensive root system added support because the ground was shallow and wet. The bark was thin and smooth, making it easier for water to be dripped off them. Vines adapted to the environment by getting light from crawling up trees.

After hours of additional people exploring and talking, Katy was tired, so we moved to one of the nearby shelters. I removed some leaves from a sizeable palm-like tree for her to lie upon. I had a hard time getting to sleep, which kept Katy up. She asked me what was wrong. I hemmed and hawed for a bit, but finally, I had to clear my conscience. I told her I had spent some time since landing here thinking about what the aliens had done to us and how we had treated our farm animals. That caused her to sit up.

I hung my head and said that it had never occurred to me that our animals had intelligence or feelings. That we were no different and maybe worse than the aliens. She asked me how we could be worse, and I asked her if she thought the aliens would eat us. She gasped but immediately understood what I was going through. We treated our animals fairly, fed them, watered them, and kept them from getting sick for just one reason, to eat them. I had never felt a moment of regret in my entire life being a farmer. Now that I was one of the dumb animals, I could not help feeling awful. I sympathized with my farm animals.

Katy said that many animals on Earth were there primarily for food. What would be their purpose if we didn't consume them and use their byproducts for various industries? I agreed that there were a lot of uses for them besides food, but that didn't ease my concerns. I asked her if the aliens were raising us as livestock and if she would be OK. She said of course not; we are intelligent beings, and cattle, pigs, and cows have no similarities to us, appearing not to grasp my point. We talked a bit more until Katy finally fell asleep. She rested for hours while I tossed and turned. Finally, I gave up trying to sleep and joined others standing near the center of the camp talking. I constantly looked at my naked wrist for the time; living without a watch seemed abnormal, yet wearing no clothes was starting to grow on me.

While talking to people, I heard an odd story from a man from Michigan. He had severe diabetes for years when abducted; thus, he required regular insulin shots. Since the abduction, he had no way to give himself shots, yet he felt healthier than he had in years. Another person wondered aloud if her asthma was gone. She was petrified because she no longer had