It took about thirty minutes before the door to the room began to open. When it did, we had another surprise. The two beings that opened it were like none I'd ever seen before. They were humanoid, but much smaller than Pugs. They were about four feet tall and covered with a smooth pelt of fine fur. They somehow reminded me of an otter in their sleekness. Their hands weren't webbed, though. They had well-defined fingers. There were other differences also. They had a rounded head that was larger, in proportion to their body, than that of an adult human. It gave them somewhat the look of a human baby. Their mouths were small and so were their noses. They also had two large, dark-black eyes. Altogether, they were about as attractive a creature as I could imagine an alien to be.
Judging from their fur and overall look, they seemed to be a very close analog to mammals. In this I was wrong. They turned out to be egg layers. However, they did have some of the attributes of Earth's monotremes. They carried their young with them for months after hatching until they were able to get around on their own. They didn't have a fleshy pouch but simply carried the babies in their arms. They also turned out to be quite intelligent.
Frank and Ted had been standing flat against the wall on either side of the door and as the two furry creatures came into the room, the large men jumped at them. The creatures responded by leaping straight forward, directly towards me. They belatedly saw Erin and me standing right in front of them and both of them made a loud chirping noise in fright. One was so overcome that it fell on its back as it tried to stop from running into Erin. As it did, it dropped a small, rectangular, metal box that clattered across the floor. The other collided with me and I caught it as gently as I could. It felt warm and soft, but it was shivering in fright.
As I restrained it, I probed with my mind and made contact. “We're not going to harm you,” I sent.
It froze and looked up at me, and then I received a weak thought back, “They're from the third planet in this solar system.” It recognized my species, then.
I thought back, “Where are the – <Large, fierce, clawed things>?” Not knowing their name for the Pug-bears, I improvised and visualized one of the large aliens.
What came back was confused. The creatures worked for the Pug-bears as some kind of slaves. You'd have thought that they would resent their slavery, but they couldn't take any actions that would go against the Pug-bears' interests. I probed deeper. The small creature was still frightened, but its mind was open. I could tell that the Pug-bears had systematically destroyed its natural mental defenses. It was completely vulnerable to mental contact.
“What do you call your kind?” I asked.
The answer carried an overtone of pride, “We like the light of the Sun, our own, beautiful yellow Sun, not like the other two-legged slaves (I presumed it meant the Pugs by this). We thrive in the light and we call ourselves – – – .”
The concept came through, but not the sound. The best I could come up with was the word 'Sunny' as in sunshine. I spoke out loud to the others, “They call themselves something that translates as 'Sunnys' because they love sunshine. They have a mental aura that is non-aggressive and I'm sure they won't attack us.”
No one spoke for a moment. Suddenly, the Sunny I'd been restraining, stopped shivering and placed its hand on my arm, trustingly. It chirped and the other one climbed slowly off the floor and stood up. Their mental energy was now calm and all overtones of fright had gone. It was a change like night and day. One minute they were frightened, the next, everything was just fine.
It turned out that they were incredibly optimistic and joyful by nature and, as long as they weren't being physically abused or assaulted, they were able to remain happy. I renewed my attempt to connect mentally and found that their thoughts were still puzzled. They were wondering how we'd gotten into the room and what our intentions were.
“We're not going to harm you,” I sent. “We came through the transporter from the third planet. It powered up unexpectedly while we were inside and we came here.”
They chirped back and forth about that for a moment and then the one that I'd caught drew a deep breath through its mouth and then actually spoke to us in stilted English.
“I ken dat you're humans, but you're in dire danger in this place at this time.”
Our mouths dropped open in astonishment. Its voice wasn't very loud and didn't carry far, but we could understand it.
“Do you understand our language?” Erin gasped.
“Yes, dat we do, but not well.”
His mispronouncing “that” was a mistake that set Frank and Ted off into a joint fit of semi-hysterical laughter.
The Sunnys started at the sound and clung to each other for a moment. When it became apparent that the huge men weren't going to attack, the little creatures relaxed.
“What manner of feeling be dis?” the speaking one asked.
“Amusement coming from relief of stress,” I sent, thinking it would be easier for them to understand my thoughts than a verbal description.
“Oh, I make a mistake in my 'peech.” His mouth didn't seem like it was structured correctly to properly enunciate our words.
“You're speaking very well. How did you learn our language?”
“We been in contact with you long, long ago,” was the surprising answer. “You called us 'Wraiths,' then.”
I knew that name had originally referred to water spirits in the Scottish highlands.
“Do you live in the water?” I asked.
“We live near water if we can. We swim good. De Great Ones don't like it. Dey don't swim at all. We have no good water here. Dis not a happy place.”
I read a sense of regret in its mind at the thought. Taking the moment, I probed deeper and found a surprising structure embedded in the creature's thought pattern. It was reminiscent of the control that the Ancient-One had tried to use on me. I explored in the not-here, not-there, dimensionless, mental space.
The Pug-bears had implanted some kind of control mechanism composed entirely of emotions and thoughts in the small creature's mind. I tried to trace the winding pathway of energy. It took a moment, but it suddenly resolved into the distinct sense of a knot and I pulled on one of the loose ends in a way I can't properly describe. The knot first tightened and then fell apart as the compulsion disintegrated. The small creature staggered and then rushed over and embraced me.
“You freed me! Freed hims, too,” it cried, pointing at its compatriot.
It was easier the second time. In just a few seconds the two Sunnys were hugging each other and spinning around in a kind of wild dance of joy. We watched them with amazement.
Erin looked at me and slowly said, “I could tell you were somehow talking to them. What did you do?”
“I just broke a compulsion that they had in their minds, that's all,” I answered, in a kind of distracted fashion.
“What did it compel them to do?”
“They were under the control of the Pug-bears, uh, aliens.” I tried to smoothly correct myself. She probably hadn't heard my name for the large creatures.
“You mean the Masters?” she asked in a hostile tone of voice.
“Look, Erin. You've got to get control of your attitude about those creatures. Just because you think the one in Denver is good, doesn't mean they all are. As far as I know, all of the rest of them just want humanity dead.”
“Maybe they've got a good reason,” she snapped.
I started to speak but then paused to think. There must be some reason she was so distrustful of me and so aggressive. I was tired of her attitude, so I rather rudely read her thoughts.
There it was, buried in the background, but still accessible! She'd been treated horribly as a young girl. She'd been abused; not sexually, but beaten repeatedly.
I carefully sent a reassuring message into her mind, “Not every man is evil; not everyone enjoys violence. But, the Masters want to dominate Earth.”
She shuddered as the thought took hold, “I – I don't...” her voice trailed off for a moment. “I have to think about that,” she finally said.
Leaving the question of what motivated her, I turned to the now quiet Sunnys. They were standing close together and I saw that the one that had fallen had retrieved his box. Looking closer, I saw with astonishment that it was a metal lunchbox of obviously human make. It had a cartoon drawing of a large, floppy-eared Great Dane standing beside a long-haired teenager. I recognized the characters and was mildly amused. The Sunny was clutching the box as if it were quite valuable.
I pointed at it, “Where did you get that box?”
“Oh. We found it in the other dome, the one where the Great Ones live. It for adjusters holding.” He opened it to show me some odd-shaped, hand tools.
The answer wasn't exactly to the point, but it did set my mind off on a tangent.
“Are there any 'Great Ones' in this dome? Or, are they somewhere else?”
“Dey off in the other one. Der none of them here. I see dat you don't like them.”
“They want to control our planet and kill all of us.”
“No, not all of you. Dey keep some to do their works. And, to eats.”
“We don't want to work for them or be food, either. I want to stop their invasion,” I answered.
“Now dat you freed us, we want other Sunnys free too. We can helps yous. Will you help us?”
“I'll helps yous uh, I mean help you.” Listening to their speech had gotten me feeling confused. Much more of it and I was going to start talking just like them.