“You will become the Assistant Chief of Security Department of Makumba.,” said Clive.  “We’ll give you a welcome ceremony tomorrow.”

“I cannot do that.  I’m only 16…”  Whoops!  I’m supposed to not remember anything.  “I know nothing about this planet!”

“Oh yes, you can.  I will show you.  I am the Chief of Security Department.  Relax in the other room and wait for the next instruction.”  He left the room.

He ignored that I remembered how old I am!  Why?

…I thought about the ridiculous job offer from Clive.  On second thought, it was better than hostility.  Perhaps I might be able to use the high post for my plan to go back to Earth.  Home!  Earth!  I remembered a lot more as the moment passed.  After all, the memory-erasing machine didn’t work on me, or so I thought.

(–from THE SPACE HERMITS)

Someone was attaching the cords to me when I began to regain consciousness.  “Idiot, idiot!”  The voice sounded as if from a far distance.  “I warned you not to remove the cords, didn’t I?”

My heart started beating steadily.  Had he come a little later, I might had a heart attack!

“Next time,” said Clive, “I won’t be able to save you because I won’t be near you.  Got that?”   He glared at me before leaving the room.

“Condescending son of a bitch!”  I said.

The door flung open and Clive poked his head in the room.  “Watch it, fool! I read minds.”

That sounded like a trouble for my ultimate goal.            –From The SPACE HERMITS

“By tomorrow you will lose your memory completely.  Then you will be on the next step of the treatment.”  He left the room.

At the moment, my hope that I would return to Earth someday began to crumble.  I must remember who I am!  I tugged at the cord at my temple.  I felt fine.  I pulled another off and waited.  Still nothing happened.  I took a deep breath before pulling the last cord from my head.  I felt fine.  I sat up in the glass case.

The walls began to wobble, a little at first then more intensely.  I felt nauseous and weak, my heart racing.  I thought I was having a heart attack.  Then I blacked out.

–from the book, THE SPACE HERMITS.

 

…”We are ,” Clive said with a grin, “programing you and your friends to forget who you are and be our loyal servants.  We need your ability of seeing our invisible enemy from the planet, Rakutan.”

“Heck!  I don’t think I can see any invisible thing.”

“Yes, you all do.  We tested on you and your friends for that.”

I reached over the rim of the glass case, grabbed him by his coat front and pulled him close to my face.  “You crazy puppet of Makumban!  Let me out of here now!”

He jerked back and straightened himself.  “Don’t act like that for your life.”

“So, when do I get to leave this stupid coffin?”

–from the book, THE SPACE HERMITS

I woke to find myself lying in a glass case on a table.  A small machine-like thing was on the table near me from which several cords were extended to be attached to my head and arms.  I glanced around the room with nothing else but white walls.  What is this freaking place?  I tried to sit up but the cords kept me down.  As I began to pull them off from me, a young man in a purple gown came in the room.

“Good morning!” he said.

“Where am I?”  I asked, studying his pale, emotionless face.

“You are on our planet, Makumba.  Welcome.”

“Where are my friends?”

“They are in the other room.”

“I need to see them.”  I pulled the cords from my head and arm.

“Stop that!”  He grabbed my hand.  “It’ll kill you.”

Sudden dizziness knocked me down.  As he reconnected the cords to me the dizziness stopped.  “What the hell are you doing to me?”

–From THE SPACE HERMITS

We returned to our shelters that afternoon.  “I’m afraid it’ll take a long time for us to go home,” said Camilla, plopping down on the grass mattress.

“Uh, we may not even be able to go home!” Lyle said grimly.

“We must do whatever it takes to go home,” I said.

That same evening, we were eating supper in our shelter when we noticed two, dark figures standing at the door, staring at us.  “Aborigines!”  Camilla said in a low voice.  Just as we stood up to meet them in a civilized manner, they shot a foul-smelling mist into our shelter.  Immediately we lost consciousness.  –From Chapter One of THE SPACE HERMITS

These samples are from nine-page of the chapter.  Upon rereading the story, I feel I could write it better now, craft-wise.  Still, I love the  story itself.  (The post will be continued.)

A distant voice startled us.  We looked out the window.  Fifty yards away, walking in a line between the trees were humanlike beings!  Two short ones who were leading them were about five-foot tall, had gray skins and large droopy ears, like Basset hound dogs.  “They must be aborigines!”  I said.

When they got farther, we left the cabin and followed them, keeping safe a distance.  Ten minutes later, they stopped at a clearing.  Hiding in the tall grass, we watched some form a line.  A short one with the droopy ears began to throw dark bags over their heads.  Then he started shooting them with a rifle!  The dead ones fell into a pit behind them.  We sucked in our breaths, shocked.

The two short ones turned to go back in the way they came.  We remained in the tall grass until it was safe to pursue them.

–From Chapter One of THE SPACE HERMITS

I was more worried about my dad and brother’s grave than the food.  “I’ll run there now and check,” I said.

Arriving at the crash site, I gawked at the empty beach, stunned.  The remnants of the crashed spaceship and the dead people were gone!  I ran to the boulder where I had buried my dad and brother, and started digging.  They were gone too!  “What the hell…freaking thing happened?”I peeled my eyes to look for anything that had once belonged to the spaceship but could not find any.  There was no evidence of the crash as if the accident never happened.  Even the reek from the condemned ship was gone, and the air was ocean-smell-fresh.  The animals couldn’t have done it.  Excellent cleaning!

–From Chapter One of THE SPACE HERMITS